Google News & Press Archives

BT.com, a major UK portal, was powered by Yahoo Search, but is now being powered by Google Search. Why is this a big deal? Well, the portal is a partnership of some sort between Yahoo and BT, i.e. it is hosted at bt.yahoo.com.

Now we all know that Yahoo and Microsoft have made a big deal, where Microsoft will hopefully take control of all of Yahoo's search technology and power that side of their business.

So why did Yahoo partner up with Google on this portal and not Microsoft Bing?

This is not recent news, I reported this back in August based on a ConnectedInternet tip. Here is a screen capture:

Eventually, Yahoo said all their properties will be "powered by Bing Search."

A WebmasterWorld thread said that BT members just received emails from BT saying:

Your BT Yahoo! Search is now powered by Google, the UK’s most popular search engine.

This shouldn't confuse anyone down the road.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

If you look at Google News a year ago, you will notice they said they had "4,500 news" sources. Now, if you visit Google News today, you will see they have 25,000 news sources.

I do not know when Google changed that number, but I believe it was some time in the recent past.

I know publishers are constantly being added as sources to Google News but to explode from 4,500 sources to 25,000 sources in a year? Wow, that is pretty impressive. Does quality suffer? I am not sure.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google has faced a lot of criticism in the press lately as a result of some decisions and the slow decline of their product offerings.

In one New York Times article, Google is criticized for raising the price of day care for Google employees' children up to 75%. Even Sergey Brin is quoted to not have a heart:

At a T.G.I.F. in June, the Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he had no sympathy for the parents, and that he was tired of “Googlers” who felt entitled to perks like “bottled water and M&Ms,” according to several people in the meeting.

(Well, sorry, Sergey, but you did offer these perks to begin with!)

In another CNN Money article, Google is criticized as having sub-par search -- though if Microsoft and Yahoo step in together, that may change:

It's a chicken and egg argument - only with scale can Microsoft compete with Google, but Microsoft cannot get scale without successfully competing with Google. Unless, that is, it combines with Yahoo. It doesn't want or need Yahoo's people or its search technology, though it would probably take them on happily. What it wants is the search volume, and the Yahoo brand that would seem to be required to continue attracting it.

In a third article, Google has been attacked for serving irrelevant ads on MySpace and having poor algorithms for social networking.

So, is Google starting to lose its innocence? It's possible. As many forum members suggest, the media is turning against Google -- but perhaps that's because that turn is warranted (especially as it relates to day care). "Do no evil" is starting to not sound like Google anymore. Google is starting to deserve the bad publicity.

On the other hand, forum members argue that Google isn't changing at all, but mainstream media is getting sick and tired of Google's long-standing innocence. After all, Google has its own problems that people have been letting them get away with -- such as privacy concerns -- and many people have had it.

The discussion continues and Google is getting a beat of the whip. But in many ways, the timing may seem right.

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums and Search Engine Watch Forums.

CNet News reports that Google is the best brand -- once again -- for the third year in a row, according to a market research firm. Google's brand, according to the data (which is calculated based on interviews and financial information), topped the charts at $86.1 billion. (Compare this to the second place holder which was GE with a value of $71.4 billion and Microsoft which hit third place with $70.9 billion.)

Surprised? Probably not. After all, this is the third year that Google has struck gold with these guys. And forum members don't seem to be fazed at all either.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Udi Manber, VP of search quality for Google, sat down with Popular Mechanics for a rare interview and issued some insights into the state of Google search today.

The article deserves a read in itself, but some WebmasterWorld members particularly liked some of the statements about Manber's emphasis on keyword density and how Google rolls out tests (at least with regards to algorithm analysis):

I wish people would put more effort into thinking about how other people will find them and putting the right keywords onto their pages.

I’ll give you an example of something that came last week. We were evaluating a certain algorithm that adds diversity to the result. We did live experiments, which means we launched the algorithm to a very small percentage of users and then see how that compares to the result without the algorithm.

The results we show you are based not only on what we know of the Web, but also what other people have searched for.

Furthermore, forum members were happy to see that the algorithm changes have no relationship to Google AdWords.

All in all, very informative and useful, and forum members welcome the insights.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Good news, analytics folks: Google Urchin 6.0 is now in beta. It looks a lot like the free version of Google Analytics but the cost is pretty high: $2995 after the beta period ends.

As one member puts it, "who is the target audience for that price?"

Clearly, there is one:

Larger business and corporations who are nervous about using Analytics because they don't want to share their data.

In the meantime, it's great that Urchin 6 is finally out and I look forward to reading more about the beta.

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums and Webmasterworld.

Dozens of reports are coming from DigitalPoint Forums that when they tried to go to any Google property on the Google.com domain, they are unsuccessful. It seems like it was an issue limited to many users in India.

Some reports say this was related to a 2005 issue Google had when Google had a DNS glitch, which redirected some users to SoGoSearch. The same issue apparently sprung up last night for many Indian Google users. When they tried going to Google.com, they were shown this page from SoGoSearch.

It is weird that an issue from 2005 can come up again, but it seems to be true. The number of reports seem way to high for this to be a lie.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Since Google can, Google will. With their interest in Facebook (as Marissa Meyer said at a recent keynote at SES San Jose), Google has taken advantage of installing the Google News app on Facebook (account required).

One forum member believes that "two of the greatest internet sites working together" could be a great thing. I think so too... if using Facebook apps is your thing. ;)

Here is how Google News is being used on two different profiles:

By the way, Vanessa Fox wrote about the Google News Facebook application on Search Engine Land too.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google has announced its Q3 results and they're doing just fine.

Google reported revenues of $4.23 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, an increase of 57% compared to the third quarter of 2006 and an increase of 9% compared to the second quarter of 2007.

Their stock as of this writing is over $639.

Will they hit $700? Some people say yes. Others are not so sure.

Coverage continues at Search Engine Land and Techmeme.

Maybe this is why AdSense publishers are doing so well. But then again, a forum member suspects that the financial gains have something to do with higher PPC costs. Supply and demand, my friends.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday, Google announced that it had acquired Jaiku, a microblogging platform similar to my favorite Twitter.

According to Google's announcement, current Jaiku members are still able to use the service but Google is now focused on expanding the technology behind Jaiku to make it more useful and compelling. The focus is probably going to be on mobile technology.

Interestingly enough, that's exactly what DigitalPoint Forums members think will be the case -- since Google has just announced AdSense for mobile, this is a natural progression. Jaiku will likely have a heavy mobile presence and Google will capitalize upon it.

By the way, Google stock is at $615 as of this writing. ;)

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google is getting richer and richer. Two weeks ago, shares of stock cost $564 which was up from $519 in June. Yesterday, it broke $600. It now sits at $609. In 2004, when Google reached IPO, the price was $85. Oh, how I wish I bought millions. ;)

Is this the target? Will Google exceed expectations? In 2006, it was predicted that Google would reach a $600 share, according to DigitalPoint Forums members. Some analysts think that Google will reach $700 by the end of next year. Possible? Anything's possible.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

DigitalPoint Forums members report that Google (GOOG) stock has reached new heights: at $564, it's higher than it's ever been and is $45 more than our June reporting of $519.

Well, last week it was at $560. It already went up since then.

Forum members attribute this to Google's popularity (as "top dog") and mobile ads. But as one forum member reports, "it keeps growing in a market it basically created a need for. "

What next?

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

The Google Blog announced yesterday that Google Presentations have now been integrated fully into Google Docs. And it's true! I played around with it. Some screenshots below:

Look at the highlighted menu item. That's new, my friends. Huzzah!

Here are slide layout options:

You can also upload images, change fonts, change text colors, use background themes, and more.

Search Engine Land reports that Google Docs & Spreadsheets has now been renamed to Google Docs. And forum members are obviously pleased.

So what else is offered? I created a presentation using the new Google Docs and it's available for the entire world to see. Comments welcome. :)

By the way, Nathan Weinberg notes that you can also embed PowerPoint presentations on your website. One thing to note, however, is that there could be security concerns with this in the future. That's why I'm not embedding my slideshow, but I encourage you to watch it. I promise that it's worth it. ;)

Forum discussion continued at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

According to an Australian newspaper, a watchdog group feels Google is selling the top result in its search engine to commercial partners rather than sorting the results organically. In other words, consumers are clicking on the top result assuming it is organically relevant when the reality is that the top result is really a sponsored listing.

GOOGLE has been selling off the top rankings on its search engine results to commercial partners, rather than sorting them by relevance as it claims to, a Sydney court has heard.

The consumer watchdog alleges Google does not do enough to differentiate "organic" search results - those ranked by relevance - from sponsored links which appear at the top of the results page.

I personally don't think these concerns have any validity to them. After all, the top sponsored listing is paid, after all. If you click on it, the advertiser is responsible for paying Google for that click. If you don't like the top listings, click on them all you want scroll down to see the other results.

DigitalPoint Forums members feel the same way. In fact, one has been kind enough to share the Google Terms of Service with us, where it specifically says that Google is entitled to display advertisements.

17. Advertisements

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

Others are just peeved that Google is being held accountable for people's inability to differentiate between sponsored listings and organic ones. And why should they? Google is not owned by the residents of Australia but exists rather to serve them to find information.

Google hasn't done anything wrong. They're basically being sued because [people] can't read the writing that says "Sponsored Links".

I totally understand that frustration. There are many folks around here who don't find any fault with the display of listings.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Yesterday, Google announced on its blog that it acquired Zenter, a company that provides software for creating online slide presentations. The goal would be for "more sharing" and information collaboration, as the blog title suggests. Google has been planning to expand their family to presentations for quite some time when they announced their acquisition of Tonic Systems which allows for document conversion and presentation creation as well.

Discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint express similar sentiments. For one, this is a competitor to Microsoft Office, or as one calls it, this is the new "Google Office." After all, Google presentations was pretty much all that was left to complete their office suite.

Forum dscussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint.

Google has reached its all-time stock high at $519, closing today at $518.84.

DigitalPoint Forums members wonder "when Google will run out of fuel."

As it continues to buy out companies, it will be hard to say when and if there will be a downfall. However, some members suspect that it cannot sustain this growth for very long.

Discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

A New York Times article says that Google will be investigated for its $3.1 billion dollar acquisition of DoubleClick to see if the company has violated any antitrust laws.

Last month, Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and was challenged by rivals, particularly Microsoft. However, a month later, Microsoft acquired aQuantive for a value of $6 billion.

According to the New York Times article, "Google said it was confident that the deal would withstand scrutiny." I think given recent events and in response to the latest acquisition by Microsoft, this will indeed be the case.

Techmeme has more coverage, as does Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

According to a DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld posts, Google and Salesforce.com are in potential talks for a partnership. A Yahoo News article expounds on this possible relationship:

The paper said one outcome could be a Web-based offering that integrates some of Google's online services such as e-mail and instant-messaging with those of Salesforce.com, whose customer-relationship management tools help salespeople track their accounts.

So, why this acquisition? For the betterment of the Google Apps platform, it seems. Digital Point Forum members feel this way.

Salesforce is a pretty powerful software far superior to MS CRM. I have used both and can see why google wants to go after it.

If it was integrated with other Google apps it would be the daddy of all business focused web applications.

I have no experience with this CRM software, but if that's true, this is a naturally strategic move on Google's part. And maybe another DigitalPoint Forum member is right, "Google wants to spread their business to every market!"

Or maybe it's just competition at its finest. As a WebmasterWorld member says:

Man, they're really in an all-out war now, aren't they, GOOG v. MSN. G fired the first shot with the DoubleClick buy, and since then it's been wild.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Additional coverage is at Techmeme and in the Washington Post article.

According to a DigitalPoint Forums thread, Sergey Brin has married Anne Wojcici in the Bahamas last weekend. The scoop has been covered at ValleyWag.

In similar news, Barry attended the wedding of Gary Price and Lisa Cohen last weekend as well. The Ask.com blog has more.

From the writers at Search Engine Roundtable, Mazel Tov to Sergey and Anne and to Gary and Lisa!

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint.

A DigitalPoint Forums calls to attention Ziff Davis Media's Top 100 Most Influential People in IT, where Sergey Brin and Larry Page have scored the #1 spot as "World Conquerors." Eric Schmidt is in position #23. Brin and Page are said to not be slowing down, and with net worths apiece of over $14 billion, they shouldn't have to.

...they realized that "the area we were in, search, was too important to the world for a small company to really succeed in it. To fulfill that mission, we had to grow. Now we really are accomplishing a lot by making information more accessible."

Is this undeserved? Hardly. Forum members are happy for them.

Congrats to them! they had a good idea and turned it into a billion dollar company, their success is well deserved.

Not a single person thinks otherwise.

Discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

For a ten-year-old company, this isn't half bad. Barry reported it on Search Engine Land, and it was picked up on DigitalPoint as well. According to Gary Price, Google has placed #1 in Millward Brown Optimor's Brandz Top 100.

Here's the chart of the top 10:

Yahoo was ranked #42 with $13.2 billion.

What do you think? Are these results accurate? According to the folks at DigitalPoint, they may not be completely accurate, but Google is still way above the rest.

A WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums thread mentions that the Google (GOOG) is performing very well in the stock market, with a net profit of 69%.

What is the secret to Google's financial success? Advertisements. From the DigitalPoint forums discussion:

yup, making profit on both advertisers and publishers. smart price the publishers and decrease the quality score of the advertisers, thus charging more and more for keywords. it's a no lose situation for them as long as they control both ends of the equation. no wonder they are making money hand over fist...

On Search Engine Land, Barry refers to additional articles related to Google's Q1 earnings, including the financial tables.

Meanwhile, Yahoo (YHOO) has performed dismally in Q1 with a 11% decrease in earnings, despite its release of Panama. A WebmasterWorld thread has more:

The drumbeat over Panama raised expectations

Barry weighs in on the financials of Yahoo as well in Search Engine Land. One of the articles he references is that Yahoo is evaluating whether Terry Semel, Yahoo's current CEO, is truly the man for the job.

Discussion about Google's earnings continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld. Discussion about Yahoo's earnings continues at WebmasterWorld.

According to a WebmasterWorld Forums discussion, Google will be trialing out television advertisements in a move intended to "improve user experience and bring value to advertisers."

At Google, we are constantly looking for ways to improve user experience and bring value to advertisers, publishers and partners. Users spend a lot of time watching TV so improving the relevance of advertising information on that medium is important. That's why today we are excited to announce our trial to deliver Google TV ads. Working closely with our partners, EchoStar and Astound Cable, we are currently running a trial to deliver better ads to viewers and help advertisers, operators and programmers more efficiently buy, schedule, deliver and measure ads on television.

A number of comments in Google's official press release raised eyebrows and piqued interest.

With regards to Google's claim that the "entire process is automated," a member said:

hmm, a turnkey solution for getting video ads on television - could open the market for the little guy. Am I right to assume that the major networks have proprietary solutions to semi-automate this process currently? It could be as simple as the content producers tagging their videos with keywords, demographic or otherwise, which when dumped into a system with other variables would let media buyers construct a campaign. or is this level of automation an actual shift forwards in the industry?

Another took interest in mention that the press release states that "Google TV ads are bought using an auction model" and feels that this may end up excluding smaller advertisers:

So it's going to go from $2 a click to $2,000 a view. Just how much that will open things for the "little guy"?

Others were interested in Google's success online and are hoping that Google will provide more relevant ads:

If it helps make TV ads more relevant, varied and interesting it will be just what the doctor ordered for the cable/dish companies IMO.

In all, this is an interesting move, though I expected it. Will Google introduce something new and unprecedented in their television advertising model? I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld member points out that Viacom is being directly sued in a "reverse" lawsuit that claims that Viacom removed a parody of The Colbert Report on YouTube.

However, he's quick to say that:

Note - neither Google nor YouTube were mentioned in this "reverse" lawsuit. It goes directly to Viacom.

According to the lawsuit, the video which was removed was protected under "fair use" copyright provisions and should not have been taken down.

But it was. Viacom claims this is a complete waste of judicial resources. Do you agree? Should Viacom have sued Google in the first place? Wouldn't people say that Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against Google is a waste of judicial resources too? (I think it is.)

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

"KinderStart had failed to explain how Google caused injury to it by a provably false statement ... as distinguished from an unfavorable opinion about KinderStart.com's importance," the judge's ruling states.

Is Google relieved? It seems so.

"We always felt these claims were unjustified, because courts have consistently rejected complaints over search engine rankings, so we're pleased that [the judge] promptly dismissed this case," Google litigation counsel Hilary Ware said in a company statement.

Matt Cutts has also updated his blog about the ruling.

With Google indexing tens of millions of sites, it would be incredibly ridiculous for a company to call suit against the search engine under the assumption that the site is being purposely ranked low and it was Google's malicious intent to to do because KinderStart is a competitor. This sets an interesting premise for any other company who wishes to do the same.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google has once again been ordered to not index and display the content from a group of Belgian publishers. It started back in September 2006 with Google Cache & Google News Not Allowed in Belgium and then in late November Google & Belgium: Google Goes to Court Over News Inclusion. It appears that Google lost the case and will try to appeal once again.

Danny Sullivan has the ultimate write up named Google Loses In Belgium Newspaper Case:

A Belgium court has found that Google did violate copyright when including material from several Belgian newspapers in its search index. Google may have to pay a fine, but the ruling is far more positive for the company. Google can continue to index content without explicit permission, while content owners in Belgium must now ask for removal via email rather than using the long established mechanisms of robots.txt and meta robots tags.

Google lost, but won. From now on content owners in Belgium have to ask for removal of their content via email (not via robots.txt or meta tags).

Danny has spoken with Google on the ruling and has more insight on the details of the case, if interested.

This whole thing is still funny to many SEMs. A publisher is asking to be kicked out of the Google index. They are asking for less exposure.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Over the weekend there was a lot of news on Google and Orange working together to create a new mobile phone. An article named The future for Orange could soon be Google in your pocket has a nice amount of details on this possibility.

Executives from Orange flew to Silicon Valley in California for a meeting at Google's headquarters, or 'Googleplex', to hold preliminary discussions about a joint deal. The companies believe that they have an affinity as brands that are perceived as both 'positive' and 'innovative'.

Now, Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt recently said publicly that cell phones should be free. So maybe, just maybe, they are pushing towards that.

Their plans centre on a branded Google phone, which would probably also carry Orange's logo... But it would have built-in Google software which would dramatically improve on the slow and cumbersome experience of surfing the web from a mobile handset.

Phone calls monetized by Google AdWords? I doubt that. But I see no reason why the web experience can't be monetized with Google AdWords...

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

The Google Blog informed us about a new program they are offering employees to offer more "competitive compensation packages" and keep good employees around. They are enabling employees with stock options in GOOG to "transfer (sell) their options to a financial institution through a competitive bidding process." Meaning, they can trade their options, almost like they would a normal stock, which is commonly not done with stock options.

With the TSO program, employees will also be able to sell vested options to the highest-bidding financial institution, which may be willing to pay a premium above the difference between the exercise price and the market price for Google stock (even when the exercise price is higher than the market price).

More details on this Google TOS program at the following PDF documents:

• The Market for TSOs
  
• Google Employees Tom and Sally
  
• Accounting for TSOs
  
• TOS FAQ
  

Very creative, indeed.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I have been covering the Google & Belgium legal issues at Search Engine Watch for a while now and I thought it would be a good time to give a short summary for you here. Belgium publishers sued Google for including their news sources in the Google News index. They found that it was a violation of their copyright rights. Yea, shocking that a news source would ask to be delisted for the Google New index. But it is true. After a long to do, as Danny reported, Google Settles With Some Belgian Publishers Over Belgium News Inclusion. Danny has an excellent roundup of the past coverage and where it as lead to. Google is not done with Belgium...

The Belgium Court is to rule on the legality of Google including their content in the index. The ruling won't come before the end of this year, so time will tell.

You can see some of the reaction at WebmasterWorld.

I'm endlessly amazed by the number of people who insist that search engine's practice of copying data and then displaying snippets is wrong/should be made illegal/is illegal. The internet as we know it would not exist if search engines didn't do this. That, at least, is one thing upon which there can be no reasonable debate.

This is not just going in in Belgium. It is also taking place in Norway and France to some extent.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

GOOG (stock), Google's stock, has surpassed the landmark price of $500 per share. The stock closed last night at $509.65, making many stock holders and Google employees very happy.

I am shocked it is so high, but I thought the price it was set at for the IPO was way too high also. I guess that is why I am not a day trader or investment banker.

Many folks in the forums agree with me about the price, but still, the price is the price and some figure it will hit over $600 by the end of the year.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

As rumored a while back, Google has launched their flavor of a Rollyo, or Eurekster or Yahoo Search Builder named Google Custom Search Engine. So why is this different? Well, it is built into the Google Co-Op, which allows you to add search refinements and annotations via topics. Also, you can easily integrate your AdSense account so that you can make money. Here is Google's check list:

(1) Specify the sites you want to include in searches.
(2) Place a search box and search results on your website.
(3) Customize the look and feel to match your website.
(4) Invite your community to contribute to the search engine.
(5) Make money from relevant ads in your search results.
(5) Learn more: FAQ and featured examples.

Here is my quick Google Custom Engine that should search only this site.

I do have the option to host a search box and search results on your own site or use the AJAX search APIs to display results but in this case I selected to host the results at Google.

How did I integrate AdSense?

I clicked on the Make Money section, added my email address associated with my AdSense account, the zip code and the last 5 digits of my phone number. Then AdSense sent me an email saying;

You are receiving this email because you recently requested access to use AdSense through www.google.com/coop. In order to use AdSense features through www.google.com/coop, you'll need to give the site access to the ad code and performance information in your AdSense account. To do so, please follow this link:

I clicked on the link and was presented with:

I said yes and then success!

With this release comes a new product to allow you to easily add other sites to your search engine. It is called Google Marker; "Google Marker allows you to add and label sites in your Custom Search Engine (CSE) or in a Google topic."

There is advanced documentation here on this feature. It explains how you can collaborate with me or others to build a social search engine.

Collaboration is an optional feature for Custom Search Engines. It allows you to let other people whose expertise you trust contribute to your Custom Search Engine. You can either invite people explicitly, or allow anyone to volunteer to collaborate, with your approval. Your Custom Search Engine (CSE) can benefit not only from your hard work, but also from that of others who collaborate with you.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google released its third quarter results today, showing financial strength across the board. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google stated in the official press release:

Our third quarter results are a testament to the strength of our network of advertisers and partners, as well as our continuing focus on users. We were particularly pleased with the contributions of our international business in a seasonally weaker quarter. In addition, we continued to forge significant partnerships with companies such as eBay, Fox Interactive
Media, and Intuit that will be of great value to all involved.

During the three months until the end of September, its net income was $733m ($390m), a 92% increase on the $381m it made in the same time last year.

Google surpassed market expectations and the GOOG share price continues to rise as traders sit eagerly awaiting further advertising initiatives after the company's acquisition of YouTube.

Forum Discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Yup, Google announced the merging of Writely and Spreadsheets to form Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Danny has the lowdown on this here.

You can access it at http://docs.google.com/.

But wouldn't it be cool to have this integrated directly with one's AdWords or AdSense or even Sitemaps accounts?

Have your reports exportable to Google Docs so you can easily manipulate them and easily share them with clients.

That is a request asked for at DigitalPoint Forums.

You all heard the news already, Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock;

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.

There are just tons of forum threads out there, here are a some of the many thread;

• Cre8asite Forums
• WebmasterWorld
• Search Engine Watch Forums
• DigitalPoint Forums
• Jim World
• High Rankings Forum
• V7N Forums
• Phil Craven's Forum
• SEO Chat Forums
• WebProWorld
• SitePoint Forums
• I Help You Forums

Is it like Google did a huge dance, but they didn't, instead they just forked over a ton of money to two young guys for 1.5 years of work.

Now, why are SEOs buzzing so much about this? Where is the money? How can they use this to benefit their rankings? :-)

Google to buy YouTube? That is the rumor Techcrunch started and then the Wall Street Journal backed.

Web-search giant Google is in talks to acquire YouTube for roughly $1.6 billion, a person familiar with the matter says. An acquisition of the closely held company would catapult Google to the lead spot in online video at a moment when consumers are rapidly increasing the amount of time they spend viewing video clips online, and Internet video advertising is booming.

So what does the search community think?

Brett Tabke answers peoples concerns about Google having to worry about copyright woes perfectly by just linking to an article found in the Google cache related to this topic. Brilliant. :) I reported some of that at my SEW blog post named A Look At Google's Copyright Battles last week, so this is no big deal.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

This article was written the night before, and scheduled to go live the following morning.

Confirmed: Google has posted a press release on the acquisition.

On Saturday a post went up on the Google Blog at 05:07:34 PM (PST) with the title, "Google Click-to-Call project cancelled." The post read;

After concientiously considering, Google has decided not to continue with Google Click-to-call project. The project has been in the media on last days because of the notice of Google agreement with e-Bay. We finally consider click-to-call agreement with e-Bay a monopolistic aproach that would damage small companies in the CRM area.

All in all, as Loren reported it was a hoax, a hack. Google responded later about that fake post saying;

A bug in Blogger enabled an unauthorized user to make a fake post on the Google Blog last night, claiming that we've discontinued our AdWords click-to-call test. The bug was fixed quickly and the post removed. As for the click-to-call test, it is progressing on schedule, and we're pleased with the results thus far.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

This article was written the night before, and scheduled to go live the following morning.

Can you imagine, Google, along with other web sites, went black, for many Comcast users in the north east portion of the United States. A DNS server went offline for a "few hours" due to a hardware failure. A PC Advisor article writes;

The failure of a DNS (domain name system) server at Comcast caused problems for some web surfers in the north east section of the US yesterday, making several websites, including Google, inaccessible.

Google did help Comcast trouble shoot the issue, probably running traceroutes or something :).

WebmasterWorld forum asks Is Google down?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread shows that a Belgian court has ruled that the Google Cache and Google News is in violation of "particular the laws on copyright and ancillary rights (1994) and the law on data bases (1998)." Google has to remove "the articles, photographs and graphic representations of Belgian publishers of the French - and German-speaking daily press" or pay a daily fine of 1,000,000.- €.

The full details are at Chilling Effects.org.

So Belgium will require an opt in for caching, should the rest of the world?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I am honestly not sure why this is not getting more play in the forums. Google has a huge reach with small businesses, but guess who has a larger reach with small businesses? Yup, I believe it is Intuit. Intuit has huge market share, in terms of small businesses using their accounting software. Many of QuickBooks, the accounting software for small businesses, users may not be a Google AdWords customer. Well, with the partnership between Google and Intuit, that may change.

Intuit may have the most detailed press release on this announcement. By scrolling down, you can see the screen captures of the new QuickBooks, to be released within a month. Guess what, right on the dashboard is a button for "Google Marketing Tools." Huge real estate there, I personally may find it annoying, but it will be there.

Not only do we see that button but if you have inventory and products, there will be a method to export your data directly from QuickBooks to Google Base / Froogle. Wow! Plus integrated with AdWords and Local business ads, since QuickBooks has your information - they can make this as seamless as possible for the new (possibly) non-tech savvy user.

Finally, Google Desktop integration will enable QB users to search QB data with Google Desktop. Honestly, that kind of scares me.

In any event, I feel this is a huge deal for Google. Very smart move, IMO.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Brett Tabke posted a thread at WebmasterWorld linking to a Village Voice article named Google: The New Port Authority. In short, Google won't comment now, but it appears Google is looking to occupy 111 Eighth Avenue (link to Google Maps & Birds Eye view at Live Local, a building built in 1932 to house the Port Authority - it is huge.

Eustace left out the part about the 300,000 square feet of space that Google plans to occupy in the heart of the city. It's a poorly kept secret that the company will soon open a huge new office and networking facility at 111 Eighth Avenue. Google's new base in the city will dump a sizable influx of Google employees into the social and professional environment of Chelsea and the West Village.

Honestly, I have walked and driven by that building a bunch of times, I didn't even notice it.

But folks at WebmasterWorld are impressed with the building and the rumors that Google will move their NY offices their, in order to expand.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Two of my most favorite companies, Apple and Google are now a bit more intimate. Apple and Google announced that Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, has agreed to join Apple's Board of Directors.

“Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple’s board of directors,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead.”

“Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire,” said Eric Schmidt. “I'm really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple’s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing.”

People in the forums are both joking around and discussing the move from a futuristic perspective.

Maybe we'll get iAdsense accounts that run out of their CPC value and can't be restored without sending it back to GoogleApple HQ for a disablement of ismartpricing.

Maybe they'll add Google to Sherlock now

so what if Google buys Apple? that would turn microsoft upside down I think.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

Yesterday, I wrote about the news that eBay Signs International Paid Search Deal With Google at the SEW Blog. Since then, WebmasterWorld started discussing this.

eBay, the company that launched a competing contextual ad product named AdContext. eBay, the company that banned Google Checkout from use on eBay auctions and eBay store fronts.

That eBay has formed a partnership with Google to show Google ads on eBay international. Plus a click-to-call deal that is discussed here.

One WebmasterWorld member describes this deal as "It seems like they are playing on both sides of the fence."

But all in all, this relationship should be interesting. Yea, search on anything at Google and get an eBay ad. Go to eBay and now find a Google contextual ad. Oh, and yes, Yahoo also has an ad deal with eBay for the main US site. Fences.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Honestly, all this is, is a combination of products they have been testing for a while. The press release, Google Launches Hosted Communications Services with the Gmail for your domain product not just applied to gmail, but also Talk, Calendar, and Page Creator.

Google Apps for Your Domain, an expansion of the Gmail for Your Domain service that launched in February 2006, currently includes Gmail web email, the Google Talk instant messaging and voice calling service, collaborative calendaring through Google Calendar, and web page design, publishing and hosting via Google Page Creator. Domain administrators use a simple web-based control panel to manage their user account list, set up aliases and distribution lists, and enable the services they want for their domain. End users with accounts that have been set up by their administrator simply browse to customized login pages on any web-connected computer. The service scales easily to accommodate growing user bases and storage needs while drastically reducing maintenance costs.

Yea, it is cool to host these apps on your own domain, that is for sure - and it is free, for now. But there are signs that Google will be offering paid, permium services tied to this program.

Is there a premium version of this service?
Not at this time. However, if your organization has advanced needs not met by this free service, let us know and we'll get in touch when a premium service is available for your organization.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Last week, I reported over at SEW blog that Googlers Only Have Sold GOOG Stock - Cause Of Drop In Stock Price? I wrote;

"Google's top executives have offloaded about $7.4 billion of stock, equal to about a third of the company's starting market value when it sold shares at $85 each in the August 2004 IPO," says Bloomberg columnist, Mark Gilbert. Not only that, he reports "not a single Google insider has bought a single share of the company in the 18 months since the IPO lock-ups expired." Can you believe that!

Danny adds to my coverage saying he is not surprised "that over the past 18 months that neither founders Larry Page or Sergey Brin have been selling. That's because they already said in 2004 that they'd spend the next 18 months diversifying their portfolios through planned sales."

The forums began talking about it recently and they are mostly with Danny on this. Heck, if it was them, they would keep selling...

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Last night I posted at the SEW blog that Brazil To Close Google Brazil's Offices Over Orkut Issues? You see, Google and Brazil don't have such a great recent history. Orkut, Google's social networking platform, has received headlines that include;

- Aug. 16, 2006 :: Orkut Causing Trouble In Brazil Again
- Jul. 21, 2005 :: Drug Pushers Using Orkut Arrested In Brazil
- May. 25, 2006 :: Google Works With Brazil To Shut Down Orkut Communities
- May. 18, 2006 :: Google Faces Criminal Charges For Child Porn & Racial Material
- May. 3, 2006 :: Google & Brazil Fight Over Orkut User Data Rights
- Mar. 10, 2006 :: Brazil Asks Google To Help Orkut To Stop Organizing Organized Crime
- Mar. 9, 2006 :: Al-Qaeda Likes Orkut

Ouch! Well, I think Google has pushed Brazil far enough. The news is now everywhere; Reuters reports that Brazilian prosecutors seek lawsuit against Google.

Brazilian prosecutors asked a federal judge on Tuesday for permission to file a civil lawsuit against Google Inc., alleging it was withholding user information required for a separate criminal investigation.

The prosecutors want Google to pay a $61 million fine and asked that if it refuses to comply with its information request, its Brazilian unit be dissolved.

Should be interesting...

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Brett Tabke posted a story at WebmasterWorld named Google's Share of US Internet Search Market Drops In July.

"We think (the) loss in domestic market share could signal a topping point" for Google, he wrote. "We do not expect Google's aggressive market share gains to continue in perpetuity."

According to comScore, 43.7% of all search queries conducted in the U.S. in July used a Google search engine, down from the 44.7% attributed to Google the month before.

Meanwhile, Google's loss was its competitors' gain.

Brett backs Google explaining that "a 1% difference is well within a margin of error." Moderator, skibum, also takes a gab at ComScore's metrics, "how reliable is Comscore data anyway?"

However, moderator, receptional says;

I think their indication will be proved right. I think other indicators will start to reinforce this. The quality of the competition's products - especially search - are developing apace and I think Googke is trying to diversify in so many different ways at once that they might start to lose the hearts and minds battle.

So what do you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Sitemaps has been renamed to Webmaster Central. Basically, it will be the place for Webmasters to check the health of their sites in Google. Danny has more details here and so does the Google Blog here. Main difference right now that I see is the way to define your "Preferred domain," i.e. with or without the www. Other improvements and features there also.

Visit it at http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums & WebmasterWorld.

FYI - conference coverage of SES San Jose today. So normal blog schedule will be slow. Expect a ton of conference real time posts.

File this in "weird things people do because of Google". While we are used to webmasters getting search ranking headaches because of Google, never before has there been someone that has almost died because of loosing over $68,000 trading in Google stock. There is a thread on Digitalpoint talking about an article in the New York Sun where a man almost had a real heart attack when he saw Google's stock (GOOG) drop $350 in less than 10 minutes. The error was not heavily covered in the major media, and thankfully probably a good thing for many people. Regardless, there were those that did observe and believe it was for real. The error was quickly corrected but not after it had been trading at $38 for sometime.

Continued discussion at Digitalpoint - Man Almost Dies From Google Error

Yesterday at the SEW Blog I reported that Google and XM Radio formed a deal for Google to distribute radio ads on XM Radio's behalf. Check out the quote;

Google Inc. on Wednesday said it struck a deal with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. to allow the search engine's advertisers to automatically insert ads on the radio company's nonmusic channels.

Google's AdWords customers would be able to place terrestrial and satellite radio spots when Google integrates the dMarc platform into AdWords. The company said it plans to do that in the fourth quarter of this year.

• Ads on Non Music Channels
• AdWords customers would be able to do this with the integrated dMarc platform.
• ETA: Q4 of this year

Pretty exciting if you ask me. But you don't have to ask me.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Last week Google launched Google Code Project Hosting a place developers can go to share and host new software they have developed. I guess it is suitable for the king of "beta" to release a repository for others to release beta applications. Ed Burnette has step by step screen captures of how this environment works. Of course, we already have SourceForge for years - which is basically the same thing, I believe.

Folks at DigitalPoint Forums are discussing the long term viability of this Google product. One member said, "I doubt I'd use it. Source forge is way better, and is already established in that area." An other said, "if google can take up just 25% of current SF's share..it would be great."

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

A Cre8asite Forums thread discusses how Google's PR team sent out a box of Google goodies to a upset Google Checkout shopper. Kirb, at his blog, complained about his difficulties trying to buy something from Buy.com with Google's new Google Checkout. Well, soon after, that unhappy user was showered with an apology letter from Libby Neville at Google and tons of Google shwag.

Cre8asite Forums discusses the press benefits for Google and this act. All I know, is that this made the press and spread pretty quickly.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Next time your late to an event or to work, you won't be able to blame Google or wild animals getting out of the zoo. Thanks to Google, they have enabled Google Maps for Mobile with traffic information reports. Get the situation on the interstate highway before you head off to work, or even if your sitting in traffic find the best route to get out. The unique feature provides an overlay of traffic problem areas on the current Google Maps application for your compatable phone. To enable your phone for this functionality, point your web browser on your phone to: www.google.com/gmm

According to Google:

The latest version of Google Maps for mobile will enable users in the U.S. to view comprehensive information on traffic conditions in more than 30 major metropolitan areas–and partial information in many others–right from their mobile devices. To get information on traffic conditions in a particular area — including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and New York City — users simply move to the desired location within the application and select “show traffic” in the menu. The most up-to-date traffic information will be sent directly to the users’ mobile device, and will highlight the conditions on the covered commuter routes using red, yellow, and green overlays.

In addition, when mobile phone users search for driving directions, they will now see the expected drive time as well as any unexpected traffic delays, making travel planning much easier and more effective.

I downloaded the Google Maps for my blackberry this morning, and just now tried to monitor the traffic in Austin, Texas. While I was delighted to get the traffic information, I found it hard to decipher the yellow (moderately slow) areas from the rest of the map (as all roads are already yellow). Despite that, its a cool utility for the super geek.

Discussion at SER Forums - Google Maps for Mobile with Traffic Information

Google did well last quarter, more than doubling their profit. I blogged about it last night at SEW Blog. I wonder what will happen next quarter, with all the AdWords advertisers being so upset with the new quality score and their CPC.

Google reported revenues of $2.46 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, an increase of 77% compared to the second quarter of 2005 and an increase of 9% compared to the first quarter of 2006. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs, or TAC. In the second quarter of 2006, TAC totaled $785 million, or 32% of advertising revenues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & DigitalPoint Forums.

I covered that Google To Set Up Offices In Michigan yesterday. Basically one-thousand Google employees will be housed there, primarily as a "call center." It appears that this will be a call center for AdWords support. It is also of importance to note that the two Google founders graduated from University of Michigan undergrad.

You can see the local coverage of this news at FreeP.com. The article shows that the "average salary for new hires is expected to be $47,000 a year." You will see that the Michigan - Ann Arbor job openings at Google include two for Operations and IT and three for Online Operations, expect 995 more. :)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

I reported at Search Engine Watch blog on Monday that the Kinderstart.com case, where the site owners are suing Google for penalizing the site, may go to court. The case is that Google is a competitor, and Google banned KinderStart.com, for Google's own benefit. :) Yea, yea, I know. The forums are chuckling about it as well.

It is important to note, that although the judge wants to hear more specifics, that the case has yet to fully proceed and that KinderStart.com has a long way to go to win such a case.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

As WebmasterWorld & Search Engine Watch Forums member, glengara, points out in a thread named "Spam is an Arms Race" - Douglas Merrill/Google, the BBC News featured an article on link spam today.

The article is named Google to stay focused on search but it has a number of mentions of search spam. Here are some quotes;

"Spam is an arms race," said Mr Merrill, adding it was a multi-million dollar industry which was trying to fool search engines.

Unlike spam e-mail, web spam tries to trick search engines into featuring websites selling products such as drugs high up on a list of search results.

The spammers exploit the way search engines work by bombarding blogs and comments pages with links to their websites.

Google prioritises websites in their search results if a particular page is linked to by other sites.

Mr Merrill said: "Spammers are highly motivated. There is a lot of money at stake."

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums & WebmasterWorld also at DigitalPoint Forums.

The most ridiculous case I have seen in that past week, was brought to my attention via a DigitalPoint Forum thread. They link to articles at JournalNow and at The Inquirer that is named, "Google "hacked our website"."

The schools claim that Google's search engine spider grabbed information they shouldn’t have and posted it on the Interweb.

The data included the names, Social Security numbers and test scores of 619 students which are still available online when the page was removed by the schools.

There is no way Google can type in a username or password into a form box. Someone at the school must of left something open, some how. Either a URL was posted that contained a direct link to the information, via some sort of password embedded in the URL to enable access.

I agree, the judge is right, Google should remove this data from the index ASAP. "The temporary injunction, granted by the Honorable Richard D. Boner, calls for Google to remove any information pertaining to Catawba County Schools Board of Education from its server and index..." But "and alleges conversion and trespass against the corporation," is out right crazy.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

I know there was news that Google.com was being blocked by China for many users. But also, news came out that the blockage was removed on the 12th.

China has lifted its online blockade of Google.com after a two-week crackdown that had prevented direct access to the site and temporarily thwarted popular workarounds, a media watchdog group reported. The Paris-based journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said that tests revealed the uncensored version of the search site was accessible again to internet users in Beijing and Shanghai.

However, there are new recent reports over at WebmasterWorld after the 12th that Google.com is still unaccessible in China.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Danny Sullivan has the detailed write up on French Lawsuit Over Google Book Search. Basically, a French publishing group is to sue Google for publishing book excerpts online without permission. But is it without permission? :)

The group's web site, it should be noted, has 919 pages listed in Google, all of which are protected by copyright, all of which Google and other search engines index without explicit permission -- and all of which the group apparently doesn't object to, since it doesn't seem to have banned indexing using a robots.txt file (the site is down, so I can't verify this first hand -- but the pages really are unlikely to be listed if this were the case). But do the same thing with a print book -- copy for indexing purposes rather than reprinting -- and suddenly, that's infringement. Well, the courts will sort it out.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

A featured Search Engine Watch Forum thread links to an AP article at Yahoo! News that is titled; Brin says Google compromised principles.

Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.

"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference," Brin said.

I am impressed that he said it. I am.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forum.

Thought this was a bit refreshing topic that some webmasters have been wondering about. A thread at Digitalpoint explores the process of submitting your blog/website to Google News to be spidered. Its not an easy process at all, but a few people with experience have chimed in to give a few pointers that might enable you to get added quicker. I know this year after a long time of trying Barry was able to get Search Engine Roundtable submitted sucessfully to Google News. Its something that we have been trying to do for sometime and despite the obstacles was successful. Shoemoney makes a few good pointers if you are considering adding your site such as in order to get accepted you need "url structure has 5 digits, you have 5 authors with profiles, and you have 3 editors with profiles".

Continued discussion at Digitalpoint

I posted news about Google & Dell Partner: Google Software To Be Installed On Dell PCs at SEW Blog yesterday. Here is the scoop...

The Wall Street Journal reports that Dell will be installing Google software on "millions of Dell personal computers." That means software like Google Desktop search, the Google Toolbar, and the default search engine will be set to Google on these Dell PCs. Google is paying Dell an undisclosed amount for this partnership.

Quick rundown on forum threads:

• Search Engine Watch Forums
• WebmasterWorld
• DigitalPoint Forums

Channel 4 News posted a video of Larry Page and Eric Schmidt answering questions and answers from the press. You can view the video here. They talk about how artificial intelligence will change the future of search. They also discuss the "do no evil" but yet Google does evil in China, which Google responded to that the US government also does the same thing, which was replied to that it wasn't a good response. They also talk about privacy, specifically with gmail and discuss how the tradeoff of convenience and privacy must be the right balance.

Yesterday, I also posted a video interview at SEW Blog named Google's Eric Schmidt Interviewed on CNBC.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & DigtialPoint Forums.

A touch question at hand, does one join the class action settlement against Google on PPC fraud or not. Google is giving back $90M, $30M which will be going to the lawyers, the rest to the advertisers. How much will the average advertiser get back? That is the discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums, DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

The details for the settlement can be found at http://www.clicksettlement.com/.

Honestly, it is about you - do you want to just take it easy and join the settlement or do you want more from Google. Many want more and think the settlement is unfair.

Join the discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums, DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Matt Cutts of Google announced that Google has hired a side kick to help him manage Webmaster communication. The new face to share the spotlight at Google is Adam Lasnik. You can read Adam's thoughts on joining Google and his role here. The deal is, Adam was an SEM & Affiliate marketer - one of the folks from the SEO community. That is why he was hired, to "advocate" for the Webmaster at Google.

Welcome Adam! We wish you much success at Google and can't wait to meet you at SES San Jose. And thank you, Matt and the whole search quality team for the wedding gift.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Nathan Weinberg reports that Googlers Advised To Limit Choice by professor Barry Schwartz, not me - the other one who has his fame from teaching and publishing on psychology, and wrote the very popular Paradox of Choice.

Nathan posted his presentation, where he urges Google to limit the choices available to the Google searchers. I did not have time to watch the hour long presentation, but I imagine this is kind of like the "invisible tabs" approach. So limit the options, and you can give the user more by doing so - "more is less."

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

On Friday at SEW Blog I reported that Google was being sued by Nassau County Legislator, Jeffrey Toback for profiting on the sale of child pornography. We have some discussion on Google AdWords showing Child Prostitution Ads from the past. So is Google really profiting with a smile? I doubt not, and I doubt Jeffrey Toback believe so also. He clearly said that this suit is a "is a proactive step to keep children safe." It will basically make Google more proactive, instead of reactive with these sort of ads.

The folks at WebmasterWorld forums are exploring a few sites.

(1) Google technical glitches with the AdWords system to allow these sort of ads to be shown.
(2) A great political move by an electoral candidate (i.e. fight porn against Google).
(3) The whole suit is ridiculous and dumb.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Danny has a detailed write up on the rumors spreading from Wall Stree Journal article and also at CNN.

Microsoft has been in talks with Yahoo! about potentially acquiring a major portion of the company, according to a report published Wednesday. Members of the company's top management are considering a deal despite Microsoft's history of winning over major technology markets - think Web browsers - on its own, The Wall Street Journal said.

What if? Could it be? What is Google thinking? No way! Or maybe?

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums, WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Monday, some of the big news was Amazon A9 & Alexa Dropping Google for Microsoft's Windows Live Search product. It is always nice to let that type of news settle a bit and see what the forums have to say about it. We have three active threads, that I am aware of;

• WebmasterWorld
• Search Engine Watch Forums
• DigitalPoint Forums

Many are happy to see more competition come Google's way. In this case, Google is the leader and Microsoft is the underdog, and who doesn't love an underdog? Some speculate that AOL may switch to Microsoft also, but that was shot down before.

DaveN mentioned on WebmasterRadio.FM yesterday that he thinks this is an incredibly smart move for Amazon. Amazon has generated so much buzz about A9 and Alexa with the announcement, it is huge. If they would of just resigned with Google, no one would have paid any attention. If they would have dropped Google for Yahoo, there would have been a splash. But partnering with Microsoft, now that makes a huge statement and generates a ton of buzz.

Forum discussion at:

• WebmasterWorld
  
• Search Engine Watch Forums
  
• DigitalPoint Forums

If you haven't seen it yet, go read the NY Times article named New Microsoft Browser Raises Google's Hackles. In short, Google is upset with Microsoft that IE7 comes with MSN Search predefined in the toolbar search box. Google is so upset about this that they have complained to the Department of Justice & the European Union.

Google is raising objections to the way that it says Microsoft, the incumbent powerhouse of computing, is wielding control over Internet searching in its new Web browser.

Google, which only recently began beefing up its lobbying efforts in Washington, says it expressed concerns about competition in the Web search business in recent talks with the Justice Department and the European Commission, both of which have brought previous antitrust actions against Microsoft.

The new browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft's MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in a position to unfairly grab Web traffic and advertising dollars from its competitors.

There is a huge forum thread on this topic at WebmasterWorld. The thread sums up the argument and as you can see, people are taking both sides. Here are some snippets from the thread;

Well done Microsoft. Hopefully MSN and Yahoo Search can increase their search engine market share and reduce Google monopoly power over us.

Google and other search providers have to pay for a place on the desktop or in the default Windows browser, while Microsoft doesn't.

Google is complaining and at the same time they have paid Dell a small fortune to install the google toolbar on all their pcs?

Microsoft and Google fighting it out can only be good for the webmaster.

Microsoft use their browser to promote MSN Search, Google uses Firefox and Opera to do exactly the same thing.

My thoughts? Well, I kind of posted them at Search Engine Watch Blog and I am glad Danny post-scripted with his own thoughts on the matter.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & DigitalPoint Forums.

Google recently had a bit of a public relations problem due to their decision to censor content in their Chinese version, discussed here. On Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt followed up on that topic, continuing in defense of the decision, and also announced a new name for Google China.

A Webmasterworld Forums member started a thread yesterday about the announcement, and a subsequent poster linked to a SiliconValley.com (San Jose Mercury News) article describing the announcement, which included:

Schmidt was speaking at a ceremony to announce Google's Chinese-language brand name -- ``Gu Ge,'' or ``Valley Song,'' which the company says draws on Chinese rural traditions to describe a fruitful and rewarding experience.

I now have a happy feeling and know that Google is back to its "Do No Evil" philosophy. Funny thing is, many people still aren't buying this, if you read the thread at WMW, which has veered slightly off topic and turned into a slight pro/anti-Google discussion. Add your thoughts/experiences at Webmasterworld Forums.

Say goodbye to Outlook, welcome Google Calendar! Looks like Google wants to help keep us organized and in sync with our daily tasks and appointments. Google released Google Calendar today offering an impressive set of features to allow us to create schedules and share those with others. I am quite impressed myself with the online application and the ease of use. Chris Sherman wrote an excellent write up about Google Calendar for SearchDay.

According to the Google folks, Calendar can help you:

Simplify. Organize. (And relax.) Organizing your schedule shouldn't be a burden. That's why we've created Google Calendar – our free online shareable calendar service. With Google Calendar, it's easy to keep track of all your life's important events – birthdays, reunions, little league games, doctor's appointments – all in one place.

After testing out some of the features this morning, I am quite impressed myself with the online application and the ease of use. After trying multiple PDA's, calendar software, finally one seems to easy enough to use that I just might make the switch from my old fashion way of paper calendars to actually keeping stuff virtual.

Got Outlook? One of the neat features of Google Calendar allows you to upload your CSV files from another calendar into the application. Still a little rough around the edges on this part, but they do provide good support. Another nifty thing is you are allowed to create multiple calendars and share them with friends, family, or business associates. Also included is ample searching features to find those old or future appointments if need be.

Matt Cutts also has a nice witty review of the Google Calendar application. There is forum discussion on SEW and WMW.

If they can get it right then searching by voice would be quite a step for the search engine. According to a newly published patent which points to further evidence that Google is developing a voice-activated search engine. Patent number 7027987, of which Google is the assignee, concerns "a voice interface for search engines". The patent is dated and filed back in 2001, so they have been working on such techniques for some time. Will it come to reality though?

There is forum discussion on WMW and SEW. Some of the members at WMW, comment that while this patent is revealing it really doesn't mean much for the present. It implies that Google sees the technology as possible in the next 20 years. The rest of the members are actually pretty critical of the patent and Google vague description of the patent.

One member on WMW john_k, says

"If their patent is on better voice recognition, then they should say so. If the patent is on a better search algorithm, then say so. If it is on localizing the search based upon the physical location of the caller, then say so. If the patent is on the transport process, then say so. But the patent is not for any of these things. The process (It is a process that is being patented) covered by this patent application is widely employed and has in fact been in use for quite a while. "

If it does come into full use, the only obstacle I see, is the relaying of information back to the searcher. Can you imagine have some phone-bot tell you the top ten listings of a search result. What if they get it all wrong? You try to search for "local" pizza in your zip code, and all you get is commerical pizza jots and some directory listing which are of no-use over the phone (i.e. citysearch, switchboard, superpages) and a spam result. Yeah...I am don't see a huge future for this, but I guess we will have to see.

Talk about it at SEW and WMW.

Haaretz reports that Google has purchased Orion, "an advanced text search algorithm invented by Ori Alon, an Israeli student." The search forums are buzzing on this right now. Ori Alon worked on Orion while at University of New South Wales in Australia.

"For example, if you search information on the War of Independence, you'll receive a list of related words, like Etzel, Palmach, Ben-Gurion," he explained. The text will only appear on the results page if enough words relevant to the search and the link between them is reasonable. Orion also rates the texts by quality of the site in which they appear.

Search Engine Watch Forum moderator Orion (I know), posted about this technology at SEW Forums back in September 2005. The forums are now all buzzing on this news, including at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

http://www.google.com/romance/

Google Romance is a place where you can post all types of romantic information and, using our Soulmate Search™, get back search results that could, in theory, include the love of your life. Then we'll send you both on a Contextual DateTM, which we'll pay for while delivering to you relevant ads that we and our advertising partners think will help produce the dating results you're looking for.

With Google Romance, you can:

* Upload your profile – tell the world who you are, or, more to the point, who you’d like to think you are, or, even more to the point, who you want others to think you are.
* Search for love in all (or at least a statistically significant majority of) the right places with Soulmate Search, our eerily effective psychographic matchmaking software.
* Endure, via our Contextual Dating option, thematically appropriate multimedia advertising throughout the entirety of your free date.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Sorry for slow start, feeling very very under the weather.

I started a thread over at our forums named Don't Enable GoogleBot To Delete All Your Pages. In that thread I link to an other forum thread that shows how a Webmaster left open the delete button for GoogleBot to click on. This is what happened in short...

Webmaster rebuilt the site months ago, repopulating all the content into a database driven solution. When the Webmaster published the new site, he/she left the "edit" link open somewhere on the frontend, where GoogleBot can get to it. I assume it was not password protected, and GoogleBot got in and looked around. Since GoogleBot just clicks on links, it clicked on the delete link on every single page of the site, until the whole site was deleted from the database and no other pages or content was available to delete.

Pretty crazy, huh? Yea. But GoogleBot is not to blame for this one.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

John Battelle reports on comScore report that shows Ask.com gaining in market share from Q4 '04 to '05 by 32.8% and Google growing over the same time span by 24.7%. Yahoo dropped in market share by 0.3% and MSN dropped by 2.7%. Still the overall leaders in market share as of Q4 2005 are; Google with 39.8%, Yahoo with 29.3%m MSN with 14.3% and Ask.com with 6.6% of search market share.

With Ask.com's TV recent TV Blitz it will be interesting to see the impact it has in Q1 of 2006.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Jennifer Slegg over at the Search Engine Watch blog reports that the Official Google Blog Deleted. In short, yes, Google had accidently deleted their own blog. They have confirmed the mistake;

We've determined the cause of tonight's outage. The blog was mistakenly deleted by us (d'oh!) which allowed the blog address to be temporarily claimed by another user. This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our password. Our bad.

Oopppss...

Jennifer takes you through the story as it happens. She accounts that this blogger snagged the googleblog.blogpsot.com address, and posted a message saying;

Google, fix your blog pleeasssee! <3 (P.S. Just to clear things up, I'm not associated with Google at all. I just wanted to take advantage of this before someone else with less worthy intentions did. The username was giving a 404, so I tried registering a new blog with it. Surprisingly, it worked. Oh, and no posting URLs in the comments or else they'll be deleted.)

Want to see what it looked like prior to Google getting the blog back? Jennifer posted a picture here.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

This week Google introduced Google Finance, which has been getting a lot of attention. They also added a feature named global trends to AdWords keyword tool. I have not seen anyone discuss the fact that Google Finance has added the ability to search and filter news volume over time, just like keyword data over time with global trends.

I was doing some playing with a client of mine, Jennifer Convertibles, Inc. (Public, AMEX:JEN) at Google Finance. I then clicked over to the more news items and found news items put into folders by month. So then I tried the same thing for a company that is more in the news, Yahoo and notice the graph on the top left of the page. It says, "News Volume (90 days)," plus links to articles by month. You can click on the graph columns to sort news by that time period.

This, I would imagine, can be used for search term research, much like the global trends tool can be used for financial research - if you get what I mean. Anyway, I thought this was a nice little feature of Google Finance and I wanted to bring it to light.

I added this detail to our thread on the topic at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Late Friday news came down that Google has been sued by KinderStart.com, a parental advice site, for being demoted in the search rankings. KinderStart is trying to create a class action lawsuit for all Web site owners who have been blacklisted by Google since January 2001. "The complaint accuses Google, as the dominant provider of Web searches, of violating KinderStart's constitutional right to free speech by blocking search engine results showing Web site content and other communications." In addition, the lawsuit wants Google to turn over its secret search ranking algorithms. Plus, the complaint says that KinderStart has served its "its probation inside the "Sandbox" before release by the Defendant Google." For full news write ups, read Silicon Valley or Reuters or News.com. Also, if you like, you can read the whole filing at here, I wanted to capture a screen shot of the second paragraph of the introduction for you here, it is worth a quick scan.

Some information that may be important for this case.

1. Google has posted its Webmaster guidelines for over three years now, clearly on its Web site.
2. Google has recently been sending out warning emails to Webmasters who have been crossing over that line.
3. Google has once officially confirmed a penalty in the past.
4. KinderStart.com clearly has Google AdSense ads on their site.
5. KinderStart has not been all that careful with managing its comments.
6. KinderStart seems to have ~29,800 pages in the Google index. Although there seems to be huge supplemental issues.

Now for the forum roundup;

• Search Engine Watch Forums
  
• WebmasterWorld
  
• DigitalPoint Forums
  
• Search Engine Roundtable Forums
  
• HighRankings Forums

Yesterday at the SEW Blog I covered the news that Google Desktop 3 Leaves Beta, Gains Quick Search Feature. What I find very interesting about all of this is that there is virtually zero to very little forum discussion on this topic. The only forum thread I found about this was not at WebmasterWorld or Search Engine Watch, like you would think - but at our forum. The thread title in our forum is wrong, it is out of beta, if you would like to discuss, you can visit Search Engine Roundtable Forums. The new quick search feature looks like a cool "widget" that may be helpful for PC users, on a Mac, I just hit the "apple" key and the space bar to bring up spotlight.

A story at The Economist named Dancing with Google's spiders (subscription required) talks about how SEOs work to achieve top rankings for their clients on Google. Here is the free abstract;

The industrious spider bots that crawl around the web on behalf of Google, the world's biggest search engine, evoke both fear and reverence. Late last year the bots swept through the world's web servers to scrutinise some 8 billion web pages and determine their new rankings in Google's search results. As Google tweaks its mighty ranking algorithms, and applies them to the constantly changing pages of the web, different sites shuffle up and down wildly in its search rankings, repeatedly gaining and losing ground.…

Both Search Engine Watch Forums and WebmasterWorld have threads on this topic. Here are some quotes pulled from the article and placed in the forums;

Like hurricanes, Google Dances are given names, such as Bourbon, Gilligan, and Florida, often by commentators at a website called webmasterworld.com.

Matt Cutts, a senior engineer at Google who is assailed with algorithm questions at industry conferences, says his firm like its competitors, carefully controls access to its secrets. ‘A lot of our best ideas don’t get filed as patents because patents eventually become public.

The most powerful determinant of a webpage’s importance is the number of incoming referral links, which is regarded as a gauge of the site’s popularity.

Unethical methods, known as ‘black-hat SEO’, including renting links from popular or long established sites (their links carry more weight). Some unscrupulous SEO outfits even exploit loopholes in website-managements tools to place hidden links on prestigious sites, such as those maintained by universities.

Is SEO becoming a household name? It is just amazing watching this industry grow.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Last night I was scanning Digg.com and noticed Google hires 15-year old kid. Now the article is under review, after almost 1,000 diggs. The, what seems to be, real looking press release is a fraud. A thread at Cre8asite Forums notes how the information on the press release is wrong. First thing is that Larry Page isn't Google's CEO anymore, Eric Schimidt is and has been since 2001. The kids blog seems to be down now, but reportedly, it has a post saying the release is not true.

Press release spam is a major issue these days and so is control of social networking scams.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Yesterday there were tons of morning rumors that Google would by Writely, a "Web Word Processor" application. Well, last night they made it official and bought them. What does this mean? Well, hello Microsoft. GDrive integration? Etc.

Of course the forums are buzzing about this buy and here is a run down:

• Search Engine Roundtable Forums
• WebmasterWorld
• Search Engine Watch Forums

Either people in the forums think Google is stupid or way too smart. I think that search has to go beyond the Web. And Google is looking for ways to go beyond the Web in a more efficient manner. We have desktop search, but why not own the desktop? GDrive, why not own the data storage? Gmail, etc.

I just reported over at the SEW blog that Google to Switch from Intel to AMD Chips. That is huge from AMD, the news sprung the stock up by $1.40 to $40.07 that day. But more importantly, 200,000 lonely Opteron processors have found a new home at the Google server farm.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Over at the SEW Blog I wrote about a recent ruling where Perfect 10 Photo Site Wins Injunction Against Google Image Search. I wrote;

Perfect 10, an adult photo site, has proven to the court that Google's image search thumbnail copies are a violation of U.S. copyright law. This past Friday, U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz, ruled that Google has violated the law "by creating and displaying thumbnail copies of its photographs."

Google plans to appeal the case, but the main reason documented as to why Google lost the case is two fold. First, Google monetizes image search with AdSense of those sites that have pirated the images of Perfect 10. Second, Google has image mobile search, which enables users to save a downsized version of the image to the phone, that image is "similar to what Perfect 10 offers as a subscription service through U.K.-based Fonestarz" and could hurt Perfect 10's revenue and earnings.

This can be major for image search as we know it. The distinction was about saving and monetizing other people's images.

We have three forums already buzzing on the topic, they include;

• Search Engine Roundtable Forums
• Search Engine Watch Forums
• WebmasterWorld

Both SEW and WMW bring up the point about having Photo 10 use the robots.txt file to exclude Google from indexing the images. Why bother suing, if you can tell Google not to index them. But I am sure that was discussed, the question is why didn't the court summaries write about it. For that, someone needs to read through the 48 page PDF ruling file that Gary Price posted.

Ian, our resident legal search guy, at SEW Forums writes;

Here is the crux of the decision. There are two major ways to display someone else's content on your site: 1) copying it from their server and displaying it from your server, and 2) displaying it directly from their server using frames or some from of an include or scraper.

Google argues that the test should be server based. What server is the information coming from? In the case of framed content, the content is coming from the original server.

P10 argues that the test should be the incorporation test, whereby the test is "what website does this information appear to be from to the user?"

The court acknowledges that both tests can be abused, but prefers the server test, since it's easier for webmasters to understand and preserves the interconnectedness of the web.

Ian then explains; "Finally, the court basically held that Google was likely to lose due to the thumbnail issue, but would probably win it's argument that they were not responsible for *other* peoples copyright infringments that image search dug up."

Very interesting and controversial court injunction, and this can play a major role in the future of image search.

A DigitalPoint Forum thread named GooglePlex Photographs from Time Magazine has links to two different sources. The first is the well known recent photo essay of Life in the Googleplex by Time and the second is an ABC video An Insider's Look at the Google Campus (7 minutes). No wonder so many people want to work for or at the Googleplex.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

WebmasterWorld featured a brand new thread named Google has no license for China service says newspaper which links to a Reuters article that says;

The Beijing News reported on Tuesday that Google.cn, the company's recently launched service that accommodates the China's censorship demands, "has not obtained the ICP (Internet content provider) license needed to operate Internet content services in China".

So does Google have to leave? Do they have to pay fines? What happens now?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I normally do not report stock related search topics here, but this is pretty major. Google's Google Shares to Drop an Additional Fifty-Percent, as I reported at SEW Blog yesterday. According to Barron's it can drop an additional 50%. In after hours trading, the stock is already down 15 points to $346. Such news, makes the forum folks chatter and here are some threads.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

I reported over at Search Engine Watch blog yesterday that Time Interviews Google's Brin, Page and Schmidt and featured them on the cover of this coming issue.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

The news is wide spread; here are some of the headlines;

• Amazon.com Unit Exec Takes Post at Google (AP)
• Google hires Amazon's search chief (seattlepi)
• Udi Manber Leaves A9 to Join Google (SEW Blog)

I found only one forum thread on the topic, and that is at WebmasterWorld.

Honestly, I felt this whole story was not a big deal. But I was wrong. Philipp Lenssen is always digging up interesting things on Google, including BMW's Doorway Pages but even when I first saw it at a forum post in our forum named Google, Spam and Big Companies I thought to myself, big deal!

But then Danny wrote it upand then Matt Cutts ripped the site right out of the index, and showed the whole world what he has done.

Then it got slashdotted and Digged, so now every Webmaster in the world should know what cloaking is and why they shouldn't do it.

Forum discussions at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Update: David Naylor reports this also at www.bmw.fr.

Not much to say here; http://www.google.com/search?q=goog

Real-Time ECN: 387.29 -45.37 (-10.49%) 1 Feb at 8:24AM ET

Google reported revenues of $1.919 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, an increase of 86% compared to the fourth quarter of 2004 and an increase of 22% compared to the third quarter of 2005. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs, or TAC. In the fourth quarter, TAC totaled $629 million, or 33% percent of advertising revenues.

Time to buy? I don't know. :)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld on Google's reports 4Q results and on Google in After Hours Massive Selloff, DigitalPoint forums on Google Stock price - I don't get it and at Search Engine Watch on Google responds to 16% share drop.

Danny Sullivan just posted an SEW blog entry named A Picture Says 1000 Words About Google's Censorship In China which is show true. He shows a screen capture, side by side (Google China versus Google US) of a search on "tiananmen" at Google Images China versus Google Images. Here it is.

SEW has a long thread on the topic since its inception named Google Agrees To Chinese Censorship and I started a forum thread just on this Google Images comparison, since I feel that alone is shocking enough.

Forum discussion at Google China: Story Told in Google Images.

With this whole Google Censoring Google China fact, Google had to make a change to its "Does Google censor search results?" page. Gary covers the before and after;

Before:

Google does not censor results for any search term. The order and content of our results are completely automated; we do not manipulate our search results by hand. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the web to determine the inclusion and ranking of sites in our search results. To learn more about Google’s search technology, please visit http://www.google.com/technology/index.html

After:

It is Google's policy not to censor search results. However, in response to local laws, regulations, or policies, we may do so. When we remove search results for these reasons, we display a notice on our search results pages. Please note: For some older removals (before March 2005), we may not show a notice at this time.

John Battelle is notifying the media front with this news, I love it when he picks this stuff up.

And of course we got the forum coverage at WebmasterWorld.

Talk about a major news story that has caused the two major SEM forums to debate. We got two large threads, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at Search Engine Watch Forums. The WebmasterWorld thread started by the founder of WebmasterWorld, Brett Tabke and the Search Engine Watch thread started by the founder of Search Engine Watch, Danny Sullivan.

Danny does an excellent job explaining the two different sides of the story, in his thread. He explains that it makes sense that the court ruled in favor of Google to allow them to cache pages be default, since they do allow a opt out protocol (i.e. <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE">). He explains, since spidering a site requires an opt out, not to be included in the index, the same should apply to the caching of those pages. Danny also give other logical and reasonable explanations as to why caching should be allowed by default.

Brett explains that "the court did not understand what real caching is and what Google calls caching." Explaining that what Google called caching "does not meet the crieteria for caching." He continues to warn that this will "effectively neuters all copyright laws on the internet today. It is the wild-wild west again. It legalizes content theft."

There are two sides to the story, the court ruled in favor of Google.

After Danny spoke with DaveN on his Search Cast morning show and read Brett's thread on the topic, he has changed his mind.

But not that we have a court that seems to not understand some real copyright issues, I'm flipflopped. I'm with Dave and Brett -- make it opt in. And we don't need a court decision for that to happen. The search engines themselves could do it. The problem is, with this ruling in their pocket, they have less reason to do so.

It makes you think if that was one of the reasons why the other day the Google Cache Currently Offline (if you do not know what the Google cache is, click on that story, it will show you). The Google cache is currently back online and running properly.

Join the debate, maybe the search engines will listen, forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Again, Gary with the early scoop yesterday on Web Authoring Statistics. This is a break down of "popular class names, elements, attributes, and related metadata" of "slightly over a billion documents" in December 2005.

Note: You will need a browser with SVG and CSS support to view the result graphs correctly. We recommend Firefox 1.5.

There are some really cool figures represented in the study.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Huge write up by Danny at the SEW blog on Google Now Censoring In China. He writes;

Oh, the irony. Less than a week after we hear that Google is ready to fight the US government in part to defend its users, now comes news that Google will cave into the Chinese government's demands for its new Google China web site.

But he continues to explain and provide historical information to show some more irony in Google's actions. Well rounded article...

My thoughts? :) Sorry.

Take it to the forum, currently forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

It looks like ABC's World News Tonight will be featuring a story on Google tonight.

In the coming up section of the site it says;

Bob Woodruff reports from Google headquarters

If you can catch the show, I am sure it will touch on the US government wanting Google's data.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I can not say I am totally shocked, but I am a bit shocked it happened now. Tons of news on Google Buying a Radio Ad company, Google Agrees to Buy dMarc Extending Its Reach Into Radio (WSJ).

We got AdWords (PPC), we got AdSense (Publisher ads), we got AdPrint (Paper ads) and now we got AdVoice (radio ads). Mike Grehan believes TV is on the way, and I see no reason to argue with that. We also have Danny & Gary at SEW on the topic and Andy Beal where I found the news first.

GuyFromChicago said;

I'm looking forward to the day when I can control multiple advertising channels through my AdWords interface Exciting stuff!

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and WebmasterWorld.

If you guys missed it, Engadget is running crazy conference coverage of CES. You need to check out the Live coverage of Google Keynote with Robin Williams. The folks are discussing this at the forums, and here is the round-up:

• Search Engine Watch Forums
• WebmasterWorld
• Search Engine Roundtable Forums

Andy does a nice job updating his blog entry on the status of a page found at http://www.google.by/ that shows Google Ads on the homepage. Folks were freaking out, how can Google do this! These ads are not targeted, yada yada.

Few things noted at some of the threads out there.
(1) The copyright at the bottom still says 2005.
(2) The site looks unprofessional.
(3) The domain name is not owned by Google (at least not yet)

For a screen capture of the site in its state of writing this entry, click here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Via /. an LA Times article that says;

Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars.

Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called "Google Cubes" — a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google came out with its annual Google Zeitgeist 2005. It basically shows the top keyword phrases for 2005 by category. Most search engines come out with this list, and the Search Engine Watch Blog has been posting them all. However, this one made it to the forums, hence the reporting of the Google Zeitgeist to you here.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

More news with Google Boosting AOL's Content in SERPs from a WebmasterWorld thread named Google Will Start Using Graphical Ads in SERPS! Moderator, martinibuster links to a NY Times article and quotes one piece;

at AOL's request, Google would begin to test various forms of graphical ads, and that it would make the same formats available to other advertisers... One format being discussed is a box, which may include a photograph and a logo...

An other article at Hendersonville Times;

One format being discussed is a box, which may include a photograph and a logo, that would appear on the main search results pages toward the bottom of the advertisements in the right-hand column. Traditional banner ads may appear on Google Image Search and the Froogle shopping site, which already include many photographs, an executive involved said. No advertising is contemplated for the Google home page.

Shame, Shame, Shame.

Update: Danny has a wonderful write up on this topic.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Well I sure hope not, but the possibly is there and Google reps have not dismissed it completely when asked. Imagine what type of monetization potential this untapped resource has currently. According to some offical sources News is the second fastest growing segment for Google and Yahoo this year. 41% of Google users are looking for news. Not natural search, but news search. So it seems logical to eventually harness the potential and milk it for profit.

When will we see ads in our Google News section? No one know for sure, but my guess is potentially sometime in late 2006 or 2007. They are also testing various ad placements internally. Taking a look at the Google News homepage, I am not sure where they would place ads as anything inserted would seem out of place. Guess we will see. If you know anything about this speculation, please comment here?

A Reuters article named Google shares drop, biggest fall in year says;

Shares in Web-search leader Google Inc. slid 4.7 percent on Tuesday, their biggest decline in a year, on concern that the outlook for holiday sales may not be as strong as investors had hoped.

Expectations that U.S. retail sales activity following the Thanksgiving holiday may not be as strong as some analysts had predicted knocked Google down $19.94 to $403.54 in brisk turnover of 21.4 million.

Aren't people less likely these days to buy the day after Thanksgiving due to the ease of shopping online? I am no expert, so I will leave it at that.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

An article at the Register named Alleged techie killer Googled 'neck snap break' writes;

A Mac specialist on trial for the murder of his wife allegedly carried out a Google search for "neck snap break" and "hold" before her death, prosecutors in Durham, North Carolina, claimed last week.

He noted that the Google search information had just come to light after two years' investigation. Prosecutors are expected to present further computer forensic evidence before the trial concludes next week.

More information at WRAL.com.

Forum discussion at SEO Chat Forums.

The t-shirts on the staff at the new Google Internet Cafe in Heathrow Airport say "Google Space" on them. ZDnet reports that Google turns Heathrow into testing lab and has pictures of the Google Space and the London GooglePlex launch. This news even got SlashDotted!

Google has taken its first foray into the physical world with the launch of an Internet cafe-style computing booth in London's Heathrow Airport.

The temporary installation, termed Google Space, consists of ten Samsung laptops in the public lounge of Terminal One at London's main airport.

The stand, launched on Tueday morning, will be staffed by at least two Google employees from 0700 to 1900 every day for the duration of the trial, which will run until 19 December. Google staff will be flown in from around the world to man the station.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Last night Google publishes a press release named Froogle Local saying;

Today Google announced the addition of local merchants' content to Froogle http://froogle.google.com. By entering the item you're looking for and your location information, Froogle will show locations nearby that offer the product and pinpoint the stores on a map. So, whether a user wants to order it online or run out and grab it for a holiday party the same evening, Froogle can help.

I tested it out in my area, by doing a search in Froogle Local on DVD Players, pretty neat.

Hey, what if you want to get listed on Froogle Local, well just go to the Froogle Merchant Center at www.google.com/sellonfroogle/ and follow the instructions.

Currently, I have only found forum discussion on this topic at WebmasterWorld and I would like to pull out a quote from one of the replies for you;

This is the first step towards the nirvana of mobile consumer comparison shopping:
1. Point camera phone at product in store.
2. Phone scans UPC or takes pic and OCR's make & model number.
3. Phone finds nearby stores with lower price on identical product.
4. You pick store, your phone gives you driving directions to that store.
-OR-
4. You still buy at the store you are in because the price difference isn't that great (or they provide added value).

Chris Sherman has the Search Engine Watch editorial write up on Google Launches Local for Mobile. There is a good short write up at Yahoo! News;

For instance, users won't have to type in their location before getting directions to a specific location, as long as their phone has Global Positioning System, or GPS, capabilities, said Deep Nishar, a director of Google's mobile products.

More information at http://www.google.com/glm.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday, Yahoo! improved its Maps product. Matt Cutts, the face behind Google's spam fight discovered and posted an entry named More Yahoo strangeness, where he notes that if you type in Google headquarters address, up comes The Dude's Fish Store, weird - yes. Steve is the first to comment at Matt's blog saying, "Something fishy going on here!!" cute. :)

There is a DigitalPoint Forum thread on the topic.

So Google Print now has what is called "Public Domain Books" in its index. The Google blog calls this Preserving public domain books but many authors are really steaming about this. Try it out at http://print.google.com/.

Every page of these books is fully available online, so you can study, for instance, an illustrated version of Henry James' Daisy Miller (see page one, above) from Harvard's Henry James collection, or read how Private Joseph Taylor got his medal of honor in style, in The Seventh Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers in the Civil War, 1862-1865, from the University of Michigan.

And since every word is searchable, as you are browsing The Wealth and Biography of the Wealthy Citizens of the City of New York -- from the New York Public Library's collection -- you can find that there were more grocers than bankers listed in 1855.

This is a great asset for everyone, in my opinion.

At WebmasterWorld, they are discussing this and one member said that he searched on a book that was not in the "public domain." To his surprise he was asked to login to read more, the message read;

Why do I have to log in to see certain pages? Because many of the books in Google Print are still under copyright, you'll see a limited amount of these books. To help us enforce these limits, some pages are available only after you log in to an existing Google Account (such as a Gmail account) or create a new one. Other pages in each book are available without login. If you prefer not to log in but still want to see a few pages, click on the 'view an unrestricted page' link. Keep in mind that Google Print is about finding and discovering books, so you may not be able to see every page you want to.

So it searches parts of books outside of the public domain, also. Ben had me do a search on the world was so recent and up came the correct result One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Forum discussion currently at WebmasterWorld.

Again, Loren Baker posts a thread at Search Engine Watch Forums named Google to Manipulate Organic Rankings with User Profile. In that thread, he summarizes a patent application named Personalization of placed content ordering in search results.

A system and method for using a user profile to order placed content in search results returned by a search engine. The user profile is based on search queries submitted by a user, the user's specific interaction with the documents identified by the search engine and personal information provided by the user. Placed content is ranked by a score based at least in part on a similarity of a particular placed content to the user's profile. User profiles can be created and/or stored on the client side or server side of a client-server network environment.

Loren explains that this is different then a Google AdWords patent, because this affects the core organic results. He expands; Such profiles are created by Google and gathered from previous queries, web navigation behavior via tracked links and possibly sites visited which serve Google ads, computers with Google Applications installed such as Desktop Search, Google Wi-fi Connection or Sidebar, and personal information which Google identifies which may be “implicitly or explicitly provided by the user.” Loren wrote a Search Engine Journal article on it named Google Patent : Organic Results Ranked by User Profiling with more information.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

The other day one of the ZDNet bloggers wrote on the topic of Google: Thinking about the future of TV ads. Most would agree that Google has their eyes on TV Media, I believe John Battelle has been saying this for a while now. At DigitalPoint Forums a member posts this news and comments;

Imagine GoogleTV with ads served up depending on what your watching, your past search history, your email, pretty much anything that Google can track.

Imagine that. :) Would consumers welcome it? Will privacy folks freak over it? Applying the same marketing tactics on the Web, to the TV or radio...

Just featured at WebmasterWorld this morning, Google Restarts Controversial Book Digitizing Plan.

Google is resuming its controversial project to digitise millions of books and make them searchable on the net.

Google is pumping $200m (£110m) into creating a digital archive of millions of books from four top US libraries - the libraries of Stanford, Michigan and Harvard universities, and of the New York Public Library - by 2015.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Looking for smart, talented and creative people at all times. They just keep hiring and finding ways to find the best out there. A cre8asite forum thread named Yahoo! hunting employees discusses how Yahoo! "have increased their global head count by 40% this year." But don't forget the PPC ad for I am scary smart at Google, which coincides a NY Times ad.

That would be nice, says investors. Came across a good article that was just released talking about the potential for Google to reach $450/share. Is it possible? Some are thinking so, "Google is going to make it. Google will be a more important company five years from now than it is today." However some words of caution mentioned from the author, "Google helped monetize the Web for many of the Internet's popular fringe sites, but it's a victim of its own success. The competitive crowds are circling around."

Read more on Fool.com

There has been some talk this morning onto what will actually be included into Google Base, there are some nice screenshots that have come live this morning. Giving us a little glimpse of how Google thinks the world's information should be organized. Here is a shot where you can post your items to Google Base and another shot where you need enter in some information about a house.

According to Google:

This new tool will be introduced during the 'Google Zeitgeist'05 Partner Forum' to be held today at Google HQ in California.

We expect that 'Google Purchases' --the new micropayments service among users-- will be also introduced as a complement to 'Google Base'.

Now according to Philip Lenssen and SEL Google is getting into the real estate listing game, possibly taking a jab at craigslist for some terriority. This has been discussed before in detail and I think people expected Google to do this and many other things eventually. In my title I say "better late than never" in response to the real estate listing services they could potentially offer because it seems befitting to the situation. One because they better make it good. Two, its never to late to do something Google even though they never thought of it first. Three, it never hurts to try even if it stinks, people will try to use it because its from Google.

Forum discussion on SEW Forums

Last week news came way of someone naming their kid, Google. Yea it is true. C|Net reports;

A Swedish couple have named their newborn after their favorite technology company--Google. Walid Elias Kai, who has a doctorate in search engine marketing, and his wife Carol of Kalmar, Sweden, have named their son Oliver Google Kai, Google blogger Karen Wickre wrote in an official blog on the subject.

Confirmed by the Google Blog;

Walid Elias Kai, a Ph.D. in search engine marketing, is, it must be said, an avid fan of our company. Dr. Kai, who is Lebanese, and his Swedish wife Carol live in Kalmar, Sweden, where their son was born on September 12. His name? Oliver Google Kai.

And I thought I was creative with my engagement. Let's not forget the man who revolutionized link buying just had a beautiful baby girl last week named Grace, congrats Patrick!

Google baby naming discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Do you think Arizona a nice place to put a GooglePlex? Do you care? :) Gary's detailed blog entry on the topic.

Join the forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums

Sorry for short post, need to run to a meeting...

Back on August 20, 2005 many were trying to figure out What is Google Planing For Google.org? Well the mystery of Google.org is no longer.

Last night Google blogged About Google.org, describing;

We established the Google Foundation, funded it with $90 million and have made a few initial commitments. We've contributed $5 million to support Acumen Fund, a non-profit venture fund that invests in market-based solutions to global poverty. Acumen Fund supports entrepreneurial approaches to delivering affordable goods and services for the 4 billion people in the world who live on less than $4 a day.

We’re also working with TechnoServe to build small businesses that create jobs and promote economic growth in the developing world. With TechnoServe, we are funding an entrepreneurship development program in Ghana that includes a business plan competition and seed capital for the winners to build their businesses.

In addition, we are working with Alix Zwane and Edward Miguel of UC Berkeley and Michael Kremer of Harvard University to support research in western Kenya to identify ways to prevent child deaths caused by poor water quality.

Google.org also includes projects we manage on our own, using Google talent, technology and other resources. An example is the Google Grants program, which gives free advertising to selected nonprofits. To date, Google Grants has donated $33 million in advertising to more than 850 nonprofit organizations in 10 countries.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Two cartoons taking nice shots at Google sprung up at a Search Engine Watch thread named Cartoon Editorial Jabs at Google Becoming Popular.

The first was posted by moderator, AussieWebmaster, where he linked to a NY Times Editorial Cartoon (archived) which shows not only tabs, but very thought provoking tabs. :) Some tabs include; "satellite photos of people you want to spy on," "medical records," and "your future."

The next cartoon was posted by Gary Price in the thread and at SEW blog under the title Unofficial South Park Characters Take Aim At Google. It is a must see, so check it out at http://www.googlebastards.com/.

Gary blogged on the Sergey Brin: The Video Lecture the other day. Basically, Professor Marti Hearst at UC Berkeley had a class featuring presentations by some of the top people in search, including Battelle, Pedersen, Norvig, Dumais, Horowitz and MANY others. Sergey was up next and his 40 minute presentation is archived in RealVideo.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google announced today Google Merges Local and Maps Products. Google explains that "users can visit http://local.google.com to find local search and mapping information in one place." Chris Sherman clarifies that (1) Google Maps North America is out of beta and (2) that http://maps.google.com/ still works. On WebmasterRadio.FM this morning, during the SearchCast, Danny Sullivan said he thinks this is an easier way for Google to monetize Google Local and Maps but he doesn't like the merger.

Forum discussion currently at WebmasterWorld.

Two big news items while I was away. First is a DigitalPoint thread named Google Geeks Going for Gazillions which notes that Larry Page 33, and Sergey Brin 32 are moving up that Forbes Richest person list to the number 16 spot. They also note that they are the two youngest people in the list.

At WebmasterWorld, there is a featured thread named Google and Sun in Collaborative Effort which discusses the news;

Sun Microsystems and Google plan to announce a collaborative effort that some analysts speculate could elevate the profile of the OpenOffice.org and Java software packages.

Discuss it at WebmasterWorld.

Google was sued last night over the library book scanning project by the Authors Guild. They basically want to stop Google Print from existing, whereas the Authors Guild wants to protect written documents as much as possible. What is shocking (a bit) is that Google actually wrote a blog entry on the topic last night, named Google Print and the Authors Guild, PR move?

For more detailed information, as always, I recommend checking out the Search Engine Watch Blog. Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Found by way of WebmasterWorld, a little Google directory that looks like http://www.google.com/university/.

The URL takes you to a splash page with a selection of Google products that can be helpful to the typical college student. These products include; Gmail, Google Talk, SMS, Maps, Toolbar, Scholar and Picasa.

Since Google Talk is fairly new, one must assume the page is fairly new. I did a search at Google for "college life by Google" and came up with zero results, an other sign this page is fairly new.

You spend your life dealing with information. A lot of it is academic, a lot more is personal, it all matters, and you can probably use better tools for handling it effectively. On this page, we’d like to introduce you to a few of them.

Update: As a note, I featured the thread here before WMW featured it on their homepage. I know this one was just a coincidence, it had to be.

As Chris Sherman at SEW puts it, Google Launches Industrial Strength Blog Search but Danny doesn't think its completely industrial strength, in his SEW Blog post Thoughts On & Poking At Google Blog Search, where he says;

Top line thoughts? It's not spam free.

You can access Google Blog Search at http://www.google.com/blogsearch or at http://search.blogger.com/.

Cool thing is that you can subscribe via RSS to searches, like I often do with other blog search engines and news sites. In Danny's post about, he describes lots of the new operators that can be utilized at the blog search engine. And Google's official Google Blog Search Help is live.

Forum Round Up:
- WebmasterWorld
- Search Engine Watch Forums
- DigitalPoint Forums
- Cre8asite Forums

Bright-eyed Google just got a bit brighter, with a court ruling allowing Kai-Fu Lee, former Microsoft executive, to work for Google. Under the condition that he does not recruit other Microsoft employees to work over at Google. The Wall Street Journal says;

Kai-Fu Lee remains barred from working on products, services or projects he worked on at Microsoft, including computer search technology. But while the judge said that a noncompete agreement Mr. Lee signed with Microsoft is valid, he said recruiting and staffing a Google center in China would not violate that agreement.

Mr. Lee cannot set budget or compensation levels or define the research that Google will do in China, but he can hire people to work there, the judge said.

Gary Price has a link to the full 13 pages; PDF ruling.

Forum discussion currently at WebmasterWorld

The other day, Google's founders purchase a Boeing 767 airliner. So instead of asking why and speculating the reason for it, lets have some clean fun with it at a new thread at Search Engine Watch Forums named Name The Google Jet.

You can name it GoogleAir, AirGoogle, Google Force, etc. Who knows, maybe they will look at the thread and name it what we voted on?

Oh, Gary Price predicted this back on April 1st. :)

Very big news but of not much interest in the SEM forums. There are at least 376 Yahoo! News Items on this topic, currently the most recent article by Eric Auchard of Reuters.

Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) said on Thursday it hired Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf to become its "chief Internet evangelist," the latest high-powered engineer to sign up at the Web search leader.

Cerf, 62, is widely known as the "father of the Internet" for his role in developing the TCP/IP standards that form the structure of the Internet.

He was hired away from telecoms company MCI Inc. (Nasdaq:MCIP - news) and tasked with helping to develop new Internet applications for Google. MCI is in the process of merging into Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - news).

Very few forums are talking about it, but when they are, the discussion is not like when Google does an algorithm update or something. Forums who have some discussion on it, include:
- Cre8asite Forums
- WebmasterWorld & Supporters Forum

If we didn't have enough fun yet with Google taking one guy from Microsoft then maybe this will be fun as well. Google just opened its Israeli offices and for its first employee they hired Meir Brand as Israel country manager. According to Globes Online, "Brand has extensive business and marketing experience." SearchMarketing.co.il reports that Brand "worked for AOL , ICQ, Excite, and recently, since 2002 – at Microsoft."

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Yesterday, DigitalPoint forums started a thread named Googles Birthday Tomorrow, well today is tomorrow. Happy Birthday Google! As NickW notes, Google's official birth date is September 7, 1998, making Google the big seven years old. Google hasn't put up a special logo yet, but they did in the past, the one I like the best is from 2002.

Other forum discussion at SEO Chat Forums.

I am not kidding with you. Google is actually experimenting with being some sort of brokerage house for advertisers to put ads in magazines. A C|Net article released this morning named Google takes ad sales to print describes this in detail.

Google recently began buying ad pages in technology magazines, including PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and reselling those pages--cut into quarters or fifths--to small advertisers that already belong to its online ad network, dubbed AdWords.

I knew about this for days, when Elinor Mills asked me for my thoughts on it, here is the small portion she used to quote me.

"All the big talk today is how the inventory available for PPC (pay per click) ads is shrinking each day," Barry Schwartz, editor of Search Engine Roundtable, wrote in an e-mail. "So it does make sense for Google to look for ways to increase that inventory."

Some revealing URL; http://www.adsbygoogle.com/pcmag and http://www.adsbygoogle.com/maxpc/.

Some other tidbits I looked into while verifying this are. I did look to make sure Google owns adsbygoogle.com and as you can see by the Whois Record http://whois.sc/adsbygoogle.com Google does own it. But it seems its brand new... No links to it (according to Yahoo). Google finds no mention of the site anywhere else or links to it as well. That is pre-release of this article. Some screen captures of the adsbygoogle pages, here and here.

I posted a thread at Search Engine Watch Forums (which is a tad slow right now).

Jamie from Channel9 posted a funny cartoon named at a thread titled GooglePark: "Scoble goes to google" ;) Its worth a look.

SEO Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

In the WebmasterWorld supports forum (to click on the link you need to pay) there is a thread named Radio Advertisement: (Just Google "keywords") where Shak (very nice guy) tells us about a radio commercial he heard.

Basically, you know when you hear a radio commercial and they say; call us at 800-###-#### or visit our web site at www.domain.com? Well, this time, Shak reports that the commercial ended with the phrase; "Just Google us for: "Keyword Keyword"."

This is very similar to visit us by "AOL Keyword _____" which we all heard before, but the big difference is that AOL Keyword was/is guaranteed, but not necessarily the Google keyword (paid or not paid). Bold move, nevertheless, and I wonder if this will continue (I bet it will).

We have joked about an Instant Messaging by Google in the past, and even heard rumors about it as well, but now, we have an LA Times article which says "the service may start as early as Wednesday."

Basically, talk.google.com was found to be "waiting for IM connections using the Jabber protocol."

Forum Coverage at Search Engine Watch Forums & DigitalPoint Forums. Update; nowWebmasterWorld & Cre8asite Forums & SEO Chat Forums.

Last night Google announced a new version of its Google Desktop Search at http://desktop.google.com/. Of course Gary Price blogged the ultimate write up on this GDS 2.0. In short, a new feature called "Google Sidebar" has several tabs within it; E-Mail, News, Web Clips, Scratch Pad, Photos, Quick View, What's Hot, Stocks, Weather, and of course, Search. And guess what? Google is opening up an API for developers to program tools into the sidebar (Danny hints to Yahoo!'s acquisition of Konfabulator). The BBC has an interesting spin on the news; Google tool watches as you work.

Forum coverage currently at Search Engine Watch Forums and WebmasterWorld & DigitalPoint Forums & Cre8asite Forums.

Free download at http://desktop.google.com/.

The folks at DigitalPoint forum are still trying to figure out if GoogleGuy is real or not. Anyway, a funny post discloses GoogleGuy's real face...

One member is trying to prove there is no GoogleGuy by posting a picture of someone from Google standing next to the "Dunk GoogleGuy" sign at the from the GoogleDance Party.

GoogleGuy is the real deal. :)

As Google's, GOOG, shares continue to drop in value, reports come this morning that Google plans to sell $4 billion of stock.

Internet search company Google Inc. on Thursday filed with regulators to sell up to 14.16 million shares of class A common stock, which would be worth $4.04 billion based on last night's closing prices.

Its shares fell as much as 4 percent in preopening trade on Inet after it announced the news.

There is a forum thread on this topic at WebmasterWorld.

Word came via TheSteet.com that Apple and Google might team up to offer iTunes dashboard.

According to market chatter, Apple is set to announce a deal with Google calling for Google to offer Apple's iTunes music store through its own site. The rumored deal would pair the nation's leading online music store with its leading search engine.

That rumor, supposedly, made Apple's stock surge up last Friday. And AAPL keeps growing. If you take a look at the Google SERPs for AAPL it will show you the chart. Also, notice the first result is finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AAPL with those Google Web Categories listed below the result.

Forum discussion about the Apple and Google rumors at DigitalPoint Forums.

The news hit that Google loses AdWords trade mark case in the US but it was not clear to me or WebmasterWorld and SEW Forum members as to what the exact ruling was. Basically, The Register summarizes that "The judge found that there was infringement where the terms were used in the text of sponsored ads." Also, "there had been a breach of the insurance firm�s trade mark rights �solely with regard to those sponsored links that use GEICO's trade marks in their headings or text.""

But based on my past research on legal issues in search, Google stopped allowing the use of trademarks within the headline or description. So I, as well as others, were scratching our heads about what is new with this ruling. Good thing Gary Price blogged about this case and linked to Judge Brinkema's opinion, which on page three says (my understanding) that its

(1) There is not sufficient evidence to prove "confusion" by someone bidding on a trademarked keyword alone.
(2) There is not sufficient evidence to prove "confusion" by someone placing a trademark in the ad copy (heading or description) alone.
(3) But if both are done, bidding on a trademark and placing the trademark in the ad copy, then there is sufficient evidence to prove that Google "violate the Lanham Act."

I hope I got that right. :)

Last week the news spread about Google Snubs Tech News Outlet CNET. Basically, Google was fed up with the style of C|Net's reporters, specifically, the article named Google balances privacy, reach was the straw that broke the camel's back.

In her story, Mills included a link to Schmidt's home address, his net worth of $1.5 billion and noted that he has attended the Burning Man art festival and is an amateur pilot. Mills said she spent 30 minutes on Google to obtain the information.

But it was repeated issues that lead Google to make this decision. Over the week, I have met with many many PR people in the industry. Most of them feel this is a bold move by Google, some in fact wish they have the courage to do the same. Bottom-line is that the PR folks at the other search engines have all felt that C|Net has gone way too far, over and over again. But I am told by others that C|Net specifically has a statement that they will not hold to embargoes. Meaning, if a company gives them a pre-news release with the intent they hold it until a specific date, C|Net will not hold by it. But from my understanding, most of the PR people at the search engines are unaware of that - or neglected to mention it.

In my opinion, no one really agrees with me, this whole snub tactic on Google's part is a clever PR stunt. It is bold, it is courageous and it says that Google doesn't need them. To me, that makes a statement.

Of course the forums are chatting about this, both WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums have some Webmaster related discussion going on.

Does this strike anyone else as strangely ironic? It looks like the Google folks are applying a similar algorithm to media relations, as they do to developing search indexes.

Expect a patent application to follow soon ;)

Don't you love how SEO's think?

The news about Google adding more options to to its personalized search page brings us back to the question, Google Homepage Personalized or Portal?

But in light of that, forums are discussing and liking the new feature allowed at http://www.google.com/ig of adding RSS feeds and bookmarks (amongst other things) to your Google homepage.

Will Google use RSS feeds the same way Yahoo! does? I dont think they will at this point, but its possible. Will it get you more visibility? Will it get you indexed faster? Good questions, my thoughts are no to both. But time will tell.

Forum discussion at:
- Search Engine Watch Forums
- WebmasterWorld
- DigitalPoint Forums

Remember Orkut? I wrote about it several times here. Well, it looks like it is useful for something... C|Net reports yesterday Police: Orkut used as Brazilian drug network.

Forum chatter at DigitalPoint Forums.

If you haven't heard, Google to Open Research and Development Center in China, where Google "Hires Dr. Kai-Fu Lee as Vice President, Engineering and President of Google China." The issue is, where he is coming from and his non-compete...

Dr. Lee, who is widely known for his pioneering work in the areas of speech recognition and artificial intelligence, joins Google from Microsoft, where he most recently held the position of corporate vice president, after founding Microsoft Research China in the late 1990s. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Lee was a vice president and general manager at Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), responsible for Internet and multimedia software. Lee also spent six years at Apple, serving as vice president of the company's interactive media group, and before that was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

So hence, Microsoft tells Google to Stop Poaching:

Microsoft:

"Creating intellectual property is the essence of what we do at Microsoft, and we have a responsibility to our employees and our shareholders to protect our intellectual property," Microsoft's statement continued. "As a senior executive, Dr. Lee has direct knowledge of Microsoft's trade secrets concerning search technologies and China business strategies. He has accepted a position focused on the same set of technologies and strategies for a direct competitor in egregious violation of his explicit contractual obligations."

Googe:

Google's own statement read, ""We have reviewed Microsoft's claims and they are completely without merit. Google is focused on building the best place in the world for great innovators to work. We're thrilled to have Dr. Lee on board at Google. We will defend vigorously against these meritless claims and will fully support Dr. Lee."

Forums:
- WebmasterWorld
- Search Engine Watch Forums
- SEO Chat Forums

Surf the Moon Google Style. This is too cool! Have become a map fanatic lately with all the free tools like Google Earth and the Maps interface on Google and several other search engines, so this just adds to the fun. Google has annouced today "In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we�ve added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor." The images are courtesy of NASA according to Google, and the particular area covers the exact spots astronauts made their landings in 1969. The area covered on Google Moon is not exactly large but their are zoom capabilities and all points of the Apollo missions are uniquely highlighted so you can trace the exact spots. Google has indicated that they are only displaying what NASA has given them. No driving direction yet either as I can tell. :-)

According to more information from Google the Google Moon project is a result of the Google Copernicus Center. Since I last heard they have been on a forever long hiring streak. The moon office and Google has indicated the following release:

"We usually don�t announce future products in advance, but in this case, yes, we can confirm that on July 20th, 2069, in honor of the 100th anniversary of mankind�s first manned lunar landing, Google will fully integrate Google Local search capabilities into Google Moon, which will allow our users to quickly find lunar business addresses, numbers and hours of operation, among other valuable forms of Moon-oriented local information."

If you wondering whether you can zoom into the surface of the moon, Google has stated you will have to find out what happens when you do. :-)

For your viewing pleasure visit - Google Moon - Google Moon FAQ

Google recently added Currency Conversion to its list of Google Web Search Features. Gary notes that Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves both had these feature already.

Forum discussion over at WebmasterWorld.

As they promised, Google has just released for download, Google Toolbar BETA for Firefox. I wasn't even sure if it was important to write on this topic, I know many of you love Firefox, so I decided to anyway.

Forum coverage:
- Search Engine Watch Forums
- SEO Chat Forums
- WebmasterWorld

Lots of news today from Google, they also are now allowing people to downlo