SES New York 2010, March 22-26
Subscribe to SearchDay, our free daily e-mail summarizing the day's Search Marketing News.
Recent Comments

Back to Main

August 13, 2006 - August 19, 2006


Search Headlines & Links: August 18, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Daily SearchCast, August 18, 2006: Google Execs Selling Stock; Washington Post Selling Text Links; Honestly, It's Go Ogle Checkout Not Google Checkout & More!
    Today's search podcast covers Googler execs selling stock but not buying; is the Washington Post's new text links ad program for bloggers heading for problems with search engines?; goodbye to some old-school blog search engines; another click fraud lawsuit filed against Google; Google gains googlecheckout.com from someone who was planning the so-called "Go Ogle Checkout" dating site and more!
  • Washington Post Selling Text Links?
    Steve Rubel reported that the Washington Post launched a sponsored blogroll product that allows people to pay to be listed in the blogroll. You can see it live on the right hand bottom portion of the WashingtonPost.com web site. I dug into the source code to discover the blogroll is not using the search engine suggested nofollow attribute, which Google in particular pushes to be used for paid links. However, it is using some sort of JavaScript tracking code, that may or may not limit the PageRank and link popularity to flow to those sites advertised....
  • Third Click Fraud Lawsuit Filed Against Google, But Does It Even Have A Chance?
    Third Time's a Charm? Google Sued for Click Fraud (Again) from eWeek covers Google being sued for click fraud again. This follows on the recent settlement in the Lane's Gifts class action click fraud case, a settlement that makes it questionable whether this new case will even succeed....
  • Fighting For GoogleCheckout.com & More Google Complaints Against Others Who Registered Google-Like Domain Names
    ResourceShelf has compiled sources of historical complaints Google has issued to those who have registered Google-like domain names....
  • Levi.com Quietly Drops Google Checkout Due To A "Particular Issue"
    MarketWatch reports that Levi Strauss & Co.'s has dropped the Google Checkout option from Levi.com, their main web site. Steve Davis, from the firm that Levi used to integrated Checkout, said they dropped it from Levi.com due to a "particular issue," which was not disclosed (as far as I can tell). What is important to note is that Levi Strauss left Google Checkout on the dockers.com web site, so that issue couldn't of been a huge one or even a global issue (I suspect). I personally have yet to implement Google Checkout on any site, so I cannot speak from...
  • More On Google's Warp Speed Run Into The Star Trek Convention
    I wrote earlier about how Google was going to be hunting for engineers at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention this week in Las Vegas. Now more news about that and more....
  • Googlers Only Have Sold GOOG Stock - Cause Of Drop In Stock Price?
    Bloomberg has a very interesting report on why they believe Google's stock has been falling this year, down about 7 percent this year. They say that Google's executives have sold off a boatload of stock since the IPO....
  • Google Data Refresh: More Supplemental Results?
    Wednesday night, Thursday morning, forum threads starting popping up about a Google "data refresh" taking place. A data refresh is like a small Google update, and many webmasters have noticed a change in the search results at Google. Google has not yet confirmed that there has been an update, nor has there been a ton of discussion on the topic, as of yet. That is why I believe this is a "data refresh" and not a full fledge algorithmic change. Part of the data refresh seems to have put many pages into the supplemental index, an index that no webmaster...
  • Aug. 18, 2006 Search News Forecast: Sunny!
    After reviewing Techmeme, scanning over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry Schwartz on search forums activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog forecast for search news today is sunny.
  • Search Forums Roundup: August 18, 2006
    Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web:Google Buys Neven Vision to Boost Photo Management - Biggest Misconceptions People Have About SEO - Importance of Fresh Links - Kanoodle & Moniker: What unique strengths and assets do they bring together? and more....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 18, 2006, 4:47 PM | Permalink


Daily SearchCast, August 18, 2006: Google Execs Selling Stock; Washington Post Selling Text Links; Honestly, It's Go Ogle Checkout Not Google Checkout & More!

Today's search podcast covers Googler execs selling stock but not buying; is the Washington Post's new text links ad program for bloggers heading for problems with search engines?; goodbye to some old-school blog search engines; another click fraud lawsuit filed against Google; Google gains googlecheckout.com from someone who was planning the so-called "Go Ogle Checkout" dating site and more!

Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ.

  • Aug. 18, 2006 Search News Forecast: Sunny!
    After reviewing Techmeme, scanning over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry Schwartz on search forums activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog forecast for search news today is sunny.
  • Googlers Only Have Sold GOOG Stock - Cause Of Drop In Stock Price?
    Bloomberg has a very interesting report on why they believe Google's stock has been falling this year, down about 7 percent this year. They say that Google's executives have sold off a boatload of stock since the IPO....
  • Google Data Refresh: More Supplemental Results?
    Wednesday night, Thursday morning, forum threads starting popping up about a Google "data refresh" taking place. A data refresh is like a small Google update, and many webmasters have noticed a change in the search results at Google. Google has not yet confirmed that there has been an update, nor has there been a ton of discussion on the topic, as of yet. That is why I believe this is a "data refresh" and not a full fledge algorithmic change. Part of the data refresh seems to have put many pages into the supplemental index, an index that no webmaster...
  • Washington Post Selling Text Links?
    Steve Rubel reported that the Washington Post launched a sponsored blogroll product that allows people to pay to be listed in the blogroll. You can see it live on the right hand bottom portion of the WashingtonPost.com web site. I dug into the source code to discover the blogroll is not using the search engine suggested nofollow attribute, which Google in particular pushes to be used for paid links. However, it is using some sort of JavaScript tracking code, that may or may not limit the PageRank and link popularity to flow to those sites advertised....
  • Seevast: It's Kanoodle & More
    Catching up on some industry news earlier this month, Kanoodle has done some restructuring. Previously, Kanoodle offered both search and contextual ads. Now, Kanoodle only offers search ads. Contextual ads are being sold through a sister business unit, Pulse 360. Meanwhile, the Moniker domain traffic service has been acquired and will run as a third sister business. Above all of these is a new operating company, Seevast. For more, see this ClickZ story: Kanoodle Makes Acquisition, Becomes Seevast....
  • So Long Daypop & Blogdex
    Back in 2003, I wrote about a number of blog search engines emerging at that time. Feedster was brand new and Technorati still pretty young. Both were babies compared to Daypop and Blogdex. Sadly, Gary Price over at ResourceShelf notes in A Brief Tribute to Dan Chan, Daypop, and MIT's Blogdex that neither of these pioneering services has made it to 2006....
  • Third Click Fraud Lawsuit Filed Against Google, But Does It Even Have A Chance?
    Third Time's a Charm? Google Sued for Click Fraud (Again) from eWeek covers Google being sued for click fraud again. This follows on the recent settlement in the Lane's Gifts class action click fraud case, a settlement that makes it questionable whether this new case will even succeed....
  • Levi.com Quietly Drops Google Checkout Due To A "Particular Issue"
    MarketWatch reports that Levi Strauss & Co.'s has dropped the Google Checkout option from Levi.com, their main web site. Steve Davis, from the firm that Levi used to integrated Checkout, said they dropped it from Levi.com due to a "particular issue," which was not disclosed (as far as I can tell). What is important to note is that Levi Strauss left Google Checkout on the dockers.com web site, so that issue couldn't of been a huge one or even a global issue (I suspect). I personally have yet to implement Google Checkout on any site, so I cannot speak from...
  • Fighting For GoogleCheckout.com & More Google Complaints Against Others Who Registered Google-Like Domain Names
    ResourceShelf has compiled sources of historical complaints Google has issued to those who have registered Google-like domain names...
  • More On Google's Warp Speed Run Into The Star Trek Convention
    I wrote earlier about how Google was going to be hunting for engineers at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention this week in Las Vegas. Now more news about that and more....

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 18, 2006, 4:07 PM | Permalink


Washington Post Selling Text Links?

Steve Rubel reported that the Washington Post launched a sponsored blogroll product that allows people to pay to be listed in the blogroll. You can see it live on the right hand bottom portion of the WashingtonPost.com web site. I dug into the source code to discover the blogroll is not using the search engine suggested nofollow attribute, which Google in particular pushes to be used for paid links. However, it is using some sort of JavaScript tracking code, that may or may not limit the PageRank and link popularity to flow to those sites advertised.

The code for a link that I pulled out looks like this:

<p style="padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 2px 0px"><a href="http://www.VivaLasVegasBlog.com" target="_blank" onclick="sa_onclick( 'http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/tracking/textlink/blogroll/' );" style="color:#0C4790; font-size:11px">Las Vegas Travel</a></p>

I started a thread on this at our forums named Do Washington Post Blogroll Links Pass Link Pop?

I personally think that this link may in fact pass PR but I am not 100 percent sure. I am hoping Matt Cutts or someone else at Google chimes in on this.

It is also important to note that these links also rotate, which also can impact those hoping to get a search engine gain.

Postscript From Danny: And would someone please, please tell the Washingon Post that the stupid "Zap The Mosquito" ad that won't shut up unless you hover over it is incredibly annoying.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 18, 2006, 9:31 AM | Permalink


Third Click Fraud Lawsuit Filed Against Google, But Does It Even Have A Chance?

Third Time's a Charm? Google Sued for Click Fraud (Again) from eWeek covers Google being sued for click fraud again. This follows on the recent settlement in the Lane's Gifts class action click fraud case, a settlement that makes it questionable whether this new case will even succeed.

The Lane's Gifts settlement resolved all click fraud claims against Google in the United States excepted for parties that specifically opted out, which was all of 556 advertisers. I assume some of those parties are those taking part in a second unresolved click fraud case against Google, based out of Northern California. This third case, to my understanding, will only be able to cover those who were not parties to either the first resolved case or the second case already going -- which is going to be a small number, indeed.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 18, 2006, 8:35 AM | Permalink


Fighting For GoogleCheckout.com & More Google Complaints Against Others Who Registered Google-Like Domain Names

ResourceShelf has compiled sources of historical complaints Google has issued to those who have registered Google-like domain names. To do so, ResourceShelf searched through the "World Intellectual Property Organization's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) database and the National Arbitration Forum Domain Name Dispute Proceedings and Decisions database for the information. The most recent domains to be transferred to Google's ownership include; googlecheckout.com, googlematching.com, googleoutdoors.com. More details on how to find more of these names at ResourceShelf.

Postscript From Danny: Be sure to read the complaint resolution about Google Checkout. Some highlights:

+ Respondent states that her intended business name is not "GOOGLE Checkout," which ostensibly is identical to the disputed domain name , but rather the term "Go Ogle Checkout," which Respondent contends is not. She intends to use this term in conjunction with an online dating service....

+ Further, just some six days after Respondent registered the name, the media widely reported that Complainant planned on launching its online payment service -- as indicated by the articles, a copy of which appear in Exhibit A to Complainant's Additional Submission, that appeared in, e.g., The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press.

With respect to bad faith, Complainant points to the $ 1.25 Million price at which Respondent offered the names for sale as evidencing bad faith. Complainant contends that Respondent's reply, in and of itself, to Complainant's cease and desist letter is not bad faith, rather Respondent's unsolicited offer, in response, to sell the names is. Further, once Complainant rejected this offer, Respondent then reduced her offer to $ 375,000 which again shows Respondent's bad faith....

+ 'Google' is now a verb in the dictionary. 'Go' and 'Ogle' are also generic terms in the dictionary, as is 'checkout', 'matching,' and 'outdoors.' I took three common names out of the dictionary and put them together and coincidentally they happen to spell GOOGLE in them, which is also a common word in the dictionary. Therefore, my domain names do provide a basis for distinguishing them from Complainant's mark....

+ On May 22, 2006, Complainant received a reply email (a copy of which appears in Exhibit 13 to the Complaint) from Respondent through which Respondent stated:

Hi there. I have received your email and do not actively have these domain names in use. ... I am the proud owner of these domain names and others. I am wiling to do a transfer of these domain names to the google property rights at a cost of my expenses and time and future loss of business. I would possibly be willing to accept an offer of $ 1,250,000.00 as a package deal for all three domain names....

+ Later, through an email dated May 23, 2006 (a copy of which appears in Exhibit 15), Respondent offered to sell the names to Complainant as a package deal for $375,000, and in so doing specifically stated:

I have done enough research to notice many other domain names with google's name (not owned by google) and they have active websites, making incomes off of these sites. ...

I am willing to transfer these names over without any further discussion for $ 375,000....

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 18, 2006, 8:29 AM | Permalink


Levi.com Quietly Drops Google Checkout Due To A "Particular Issue"

MarketWatch reports that Levi Strauss & Co.'s has dropped the Google Checkout option from Levi.com, their main web site. Steve Davis, from the firm that Levi used to integrated Checkout, said they dropped it from Levi.com due to a "particular issue," which was not disclosed (as far as I can tell). What is important to note is that Levi Strauss left Google Checkout on the dockers.com web site, so that issue couldn't of been a huge one or even a global issue (I suspect). I personally have yet to implement Google Checkout on any site, so I cannot speak from experience here. The article does say that Levi.com will most likely add Google Checkout back after Google releases an updated version of feature, probably within a few weeks.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 18, 2006, 8:18 AM | Permalink


More On Google's Warp Speed Run Into The Star Trek Convention

I wrote earlier about how Google was going to be hunting for engineers at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention this week in Las Vegas. Now more news about that and more.

The company's put out a press release about taking part in the show and set up a special site for Star Trek fans. Don't get too excited. The site has little to do with Star Trek and a lot more to do with promoting how developers can now put geo-location files (KML) on mobile phones. Way down at the bottom of the page are links to plot sci-fi related locations on Google Maps (see them here) or Google Earth.

Much cooler is an AFP article, Google builds bridge at Star Trek cult convention, about how Google's booth will feature a mockup of the Enterprise bridge (TOS, probably, rather than TNG or STE. Don't know the acronyms? Then you don't care which bridge it is). The main viewer will access Google Earth, which sounds pretty cool.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 18, 2006, 8:12 AM | Permalink


Googlers Only Have Sold GOOG Stock - Cause Of Drop In Stock Price?

Bloomberg has a very interesting report on why they believe Google's stock has been falling this year, down about 7 percent this year. They say that Google's executives have sold off a boatload of stock since the IPO.

"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!

Postscript From Danny: It's worth noting that at least to me, the idea that the insiders are selling their stock and not buying is unsurprising. They've got a lot of stock. A lot of stock!

Buying some shares would probably be a good PR move, and after an article like this one, I can imagine some of the execs might start doing it. But the point of selling, as the article itself notes, is to diversify portfolios that, for these execs, are ironically unhealthily skewed toward Google.

For the curious, there are various places to see insider sales over times. Yahoo has a nice list here. Note how entries for Eric Schmidt and many others are tagged "automatic." That because, to my knowledge, they have preplanned to diversify their portfolios by selling shares automatically over time. That protects them against accusations of insider sales.

Also interesting are entries like exec Omid Kordestani acquiring 76,459 shares on June 12, 2006. Didn't the Bloomberg article say no big Googlers were buying? Yes -- so what's this? I assume that Googlers might still be gaining shares in other ways, which adds further understanding as to why they might not be buying on the open market.

Finally, it's no surprise that 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.

Overall, insider trades are definitely interesting to watch, and I'm sure Google will take a PR black eye over the apparent lack of purchases. But I think there are factors that don't make it as bad as it seems.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 18, 2006, 8:12 AM | Permalink


Google Data Refresh: More Supplemental Results?

Wednesday night, Thursday morning, forum threads starting popping up about a Google "data refresh" taking place. A data refresh is like a small Google update, and many webmasters have noticed a change in the search results at Google. Google has not yet confirmed that there has been an update, nor has there been a ton of discussion on the topic, as of yet. That is why I believe this is a "data refresh" and not a full fledge algorithmic change. Part of the data refresh seems to have put many pages into the supplemental index, an index that no webmaster wants to have their active pages included in. With any update, there are those who feel the index/results has improved and there are those who feel the index/results have suffered. I have more specific details at the Search Engine Roundtable, for those that are interested.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 18, 2006, 8:02 AM | Permalink


Aug. 18, 2006 Search News Forecast: Sunny!

sunny.gif

After reviewing Techmeme, scanning over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry Schwartz on search forums activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog forecast for search news today is sunny.

Sunny means things are about as calm in the search world as you can hope for. Go ahead, take the day off. You'll need it. After yesterday's mostly sunny forecast, you can expect heavy search rain to start falling sometime next week. The good weather has to break sometime.

Remember, predicting search news is never perfectly accurate, and search weather can change unexpectedly. Stay tuned to the Search Engine Watch Blog, and we'll keep you updated on weather changes throughout the day. Icon borrowed from Yahoo Weather, until we finally get our own going.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 18, 2006, 7:38 AM | Permalink


Search Forums Roundup: August 18, 2006

Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web:Google Buys Neven Vision to Boost Photo Management - Biggest Misconceptions People Have About SEO - Importance of Fresh Links - Kanoodle & Moniker: What unique strengths and assets do they bring together? and more.

Posted by Chris Sherman on August 17, 2006, 9:31 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 17, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • So Long Daypop & Blogdex
    Back in 2003, I wrote about a number of blog search engines emerging at that time. Feedster was brand new and Technorati still pretty young. Both were babies compared to Daypop and Blogdex. Sadly, Gary Price over at ResourceShelf notes in A Brief Tribute to Dan Chan, Daypop, and MIT's Blogdex that neither of these pioneering services has made it to 2006....
  • Seevast: It's Kanoodle & More
    Catching up on some industry news earlier this month, Kanoodle has done some restructuring. Previously, Kanoodle offered both search and contextual ads. Now, Kanoodle only offers search ads. Contextual ads are being sold through a sister business unit, Pulse 360. Meanwhile, the Moniker domain traffic service has been acquired and will run as a third sister business. Above all of these is a new operating company, Seevast. For more, see this ClickZ story: Kanoodle Makes Acquisition, Becomes Seevast....
  • Daily SearchCast, August 17, 2006: Hot Search Blogs; GoogleTalk Gets New Features; Filing Time For Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement; Beaming Up Google Engineers & More!
    Today's search podcast covers finding search news via top search blogs; Google launches free WiFi; GoogleTalk gets new features; Google Analytics opens to all; time to file in Yahoo's class action settlement on click fraud; Star Trekkin' for Google Engineers and more!
  • Google AdSense Prompts Ad Viewers to Download Third Party Applications
    When you visit a site with Google AdSense ads, you would hardly expect the ads to trigger an auto-install prompt window to download various third party applications such as Flash, Quicktime and Adobe Acrobat. But that is just what the AdSense javascript was trying to make Internet Explorer users do when they viewed a page with AdSense ads on it....
  • Human Rights Group & UK House of Commons Demand Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft To Stop Censorship
    Earlier this week, GameShout.com published an article reporting that Human Rights Watch group in New York told Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to be upfront with their users about the censorship and stand up to the political pressure China places on them. The quote says it all pretty strongly, "It was ironic that companies whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression have taken on the role of censor, even in cases where the Chinese government makes no specific demands for them to do so." The Inquirer soon after reported that the committee in the UK House of Commons has...
  • Ask.com Adds DVD & TV Data To Movie Smart Answers
    The Ask.com Blog announced an upgrade to their movie Smart Answer feature that adds DVD purchase information and TV data. Here is a brief summary of the blog entry....
  • Former Yahoo China Head Sues Yahoo For Defamation
    Reuters reports that Zhou Hongyi, the former head of Yahoo China, has sued Yahoo for defamation. Yahoo said they were about to sue Zhou Hongyi for "unethical business practices." Hongyi has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba.com, which was bought by Yahoo for $1 billion last year. To me, it seems like from the article, that Yahoo finds Hongyi to be a shady character, and Hongyi doesn't like Yahoo telling the public how they feel about him....
  • Aug. 17, 2006 Search News Forecast: Mostly Sunny
    Today, a new feature, our daily search news forecast. I can't say we'll do this everyday, but we thought it might be fun. After reviewing Techmeme, scanning my over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry Schwartz on search forums activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog forecast for search news today is mostly sunny. Mostly sunny means that you can expect some news, but probably nothing major and a downpour of items is unlikely. In other words, it's a good day to go outside or get actual work done, rather than reading about search. Remember, predicting search news is...
  • Google Talk Gains Voicemail, Music Status, Photo & File Sharing Features
    Google has announced that its Google Talk instant messaging platform now allows you to share files with other Google Talk users by dropping files or entire folders into the client. Photo files get special treatment, showing up in your client so you can talk about them with someone else, as covered more here. Listening to music? Another new feature, music status, allows other Google Talkers to see what hip (or embarrassing) song you're listening to, if you use one of these supported players. Along with music status comes a new Google Music Trends feature we mentioned earlier, which allows you...
  • The Inside Scoop from Search Bloggers
    The major search engines all have unofficial bloggers talking about what's going on in their respective companies. At a recent SES session, search-blog stars Jeremy Zawodny, Gary Price, Matt Cutts and Niall Kennedy all revealed their modus operandi, and guest writer Sara Holoubek was there to capture their insights for today's SearchDay article, Expose: Search Engine Bloggers Tell All....
  • Google Released Trends For Google Music
    Garett Rogers spotted the release of Google Music Trends. The Google Labs has it listed and described as "See what music is popular among Google Talk users," it is basically, "Google Trends" for music. You can currently filter by music genre, and there is a country filter, but I only see the United States as an option. I am a classic rock fan, so it is cool to see the trends for that genre. As Garett notes, the participate link at the top right, currently does not go anywhere....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 17, 2006, 2:20 PM | Permalink


So Long Daypop & Blogdex

Back in 2003, I wrote about a number of blog search engines emerging at that time. Feedster was brand new and Technorati still pretty young. Both were babies compared to Daypop and Blogdex. Sadly, Gary Price over at ResourceShelf notes in A Brief Tribute to Dan Chan, Daypop, and MIT's Blogdex that neither of these pioneering services has made it to 2006.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 17, 2006, 2:14 PM | Permalink


Seevast: It's Kanoodle & More

Catching up on some industry news earlier this month, Kanoodle has done some restructuring. Previously, Kanoodle offered both search and contextual ads. Now, Kanoodle only offers search ads. Contextual ads are being sold through a sister business unit, Pulse 360. Meanwhile, the Moniker domain traffic service has been acquired and will run as a third sister business. Above all of these is a new operating company, Seevast. For more, see this ClickZ story: Kanoodle Makes Acquisition, Becomes Seevast.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 17, 2006, 1:36 PM | Permalink


Daily SearchCast, August 17, 2006: Hot Search Blogs; GoogleTalk Gets New Features; Filing Time For Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement; Beaming Up Google Engineers & More!

Today's search podcast covers finding search news via top search blogs; Google launches free WiFi; GoogleTalk gets new features; Google Analytics opens to all; time to file in Yahoo's class action settlement on click fraud; Star Trekkin' for Google Engineers and more!

Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ.

  • Renewing Our US Passports At The US Embassy In London
  • Remembering Nice Things About London, Such As The London Eye
  • Aug. 17, 2006 Search News Forecast: Mostly Sunny
    Today, a new feature, our daily search news forecast. I can't say we'll do this everyday, but we thought it might be fun. After reviewing Techmeme, scanning my over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry Schwartz on search forums activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog forecast for search news today is mostly sunny. Mostly sunny means that you can expect some news, but probably nothing major and a downpour of items is unlikely. In other words, it's a good day to go outside or get actual work done, rather than reading about search. Remember, predicting search news is...
  • Rand & I Rank The Best Search Blogs
    Rand at SEOMoz posted his Ranking 50 Top Blogs in the Search Space, which encouraged me to finally post my list of the Search Blogs Am I Most Likely To Read In More Detail at my personal blog. Rand ranks this blog as number one on his list and then ranks my blog, the Search Engine Roundtable as number two on his list. I also ranked this blog as number one of my most 'click-through blog' on my list, followed by Google Blogoscoped, which I often cite here. These two lists, I believe make up a great portion of the...
  • The Inside Scoop from Search Bloggers
    The major search engines all have unofficial bloggers talking about what's going on in their respective companies. At a recent SES session, search-blog stars Jeremy Zawodny, Gary Price, Matt Cutts and Niall Kennedy all revealed their modus operandi, and guest writer Sara Holoubek was there to capture their insights for today's SearchDay article, Expose: Search Engine Bloggers Tell All....
  • SES San Jose 2006 Recap
    Couldn't make it to last week's monster Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose? Well, maybe next time! In the meantime, I've compiled a list of coverage from across the web, even somewhat organized into topic areas. Our San Jose show is always tough for me, as I arrive a week earlier to visit with the various major search engines out there. That means two weeks of news and email to dig out from, since you can never get it all done on the road. All that digging out means I know I don't have everything listed below. But you'll...
  • 101 Ways To Build Links & Popularity
    Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall have compiled a list of 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006. I will not attempt to summarize all 101 tactics here, check out the list at SEO Book....
  • What's the Big Deal With Social Search?, SearchDay
  • A Guide to Social Search Players
    In yesterday's SearchDay article, What's the Big Deal With Social Search?, I looked at some of the pros and cons of adding human influences to algorithmic search results. In today's SearchDay article, Who's Who in Social Search, I map out the various approaches to social search and offer links to some of the key players in human-mediated search....
  • Google WiFi Hits Mountain View For Free
    Google is providing a free WiFi network under "GoogleWifi" (802.11b/g) in Mountain View, CA. Anyone can use it, including business, visitors and the 72,000+ residents. You must sign into the network with your Google Account, it is not fully public in that sense, but anyone can register for access. Ready to get started using GoogleWifi? There are more details on the "how to" at http://wifi.google.com/support and at the Google Blog. I believe this is the first of many cities that Google will be providing free Wifi access to....
  • Google Talk Gains Voicemail, Music Status, Photo & File Sharing Features
    Google has announced that its Google Talk instant messaging platform now allows you to share files with other Google Talk users by dropping files or entire folders into the client. Photo files get special treatment, showing up in your client so you can talk about them with someone else, as covered more here. Listening to music? Another new feature, music status, allows other Google Talkers to see what hip (or embarrassing) song you're listening to, if you use one of these supported players. Along with music status comes a new Google Music Trends feature we mentioned earlier, which allows you...
  • Google Released Trends For Google Music
    Garett Rogers spotted the release of Google Music Trends. The Google Labs has it listed and described as "See what music is popular among Google Talk users," it is basically, "Google Trends" for music. You can currently filter by music genre, and there is a country filter, but I only see the United States as an option. I am a classic rock fan, so it is cool to see the trends for that genre. As Garett notes, the participate link at the top right, currently does not go anywhere....
  • Shawn Hogan, Hero, Wired
  • Google Analytics Opens to Everyone - No Invitation Required
    Google announced today that the popular Google Analytics is now instantly available to the public. No more waiting for invitation codes. Anyone with a website can now install the website tracking tool by directly signing up at the Google Analytics homepage, or by clicking through the "Analytics" tab in any Google AdWords account.
  • More than Organizing Photos? Google Acquires Neven Vision
    Adrian Graham, Picasa's Product Manager, made a post Tuesday morning on the Official Google Blog titled A better way to organize photos? in which he announced that the team at Neven Vision has now joined Google. His post tells us that Neven Vision's software will make it easier for people to find and organize their photos. But, is there more to the purchase? Looking around some blogs that discussed the acquisition holds hints to possibily more....
  • Google AdSense Prompts Ad Viewers to Download Third Party Applications
    When you visit a site with Google AdSense ads, you would hardly expect the ads to trigger an auto-install prompt window to download various third party applications such as Flash, Quicktime and Adobe Acrobat. But that is just what the AdSense javascript was trying to make Internet Explorer users do when they viewed a page with AdSense ads on it....
  • Orkut Causing Trouble In Brazil Again
    Komfie Manalo reports that Brazil has threatened to bring Google to court over their social networking application, Orkut, again. Yesterday, the Federal Prosecution Service of Brazil, said Google refused "to cooperate with authorities about user information" on Orkut. Google said in the past that they would work with Brazilian officials to shut down Orkut communities that were participating and helping criminals traffic drugs and distribute pedophilia. Google says they have cooperated with Brazilian authorities, stating, they have "provided information to eight investigations, and kept secret information regarding 60 other cases since June."...
  • Human Rights Group & UK House of Commons Demand Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft To Stop Censorship
    Earlier this week, GameShout.com published an article reporting that Human Rights Watch group in New York told Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to be upfront with their users about the censorship and stand up to the political pressure China places on them. The quote says it all pretty strongly, "It was ironic that companies whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression have taken on the role of censor, even in cases where the Chinese government makes no specific demands for them to do so." The Inquirer soon after reported that the committee in the UK House of Commons has...
  • Former Yahoo China Head Sues Yahoo For Defamation
    Reuters reports that Zhou Hongyi, the former head of Yahoo China, has sued Yahoo for defamation. Yahoo said they were about to sue Zhou Hongyi for "unethical business practices." Hongyi has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba.com, which was bought by Yahoo for $1 billion last year. To me, it seems like from the article, that Yahoo finds Hongyi to be a shady character, and Hongyi doesn't like Yahoo telling the public how they feel about him....
  • Yahoo Class Action Settlement Information Released
    Details of the Yahoo class action settlement have been posted at checkmatesettlement.com. What you need to know right now is: (1) You have until October 14, 2006 to submit a written statement requesting exclusion from the Class (specific guidelines are enclosed in the notice), if you want to be excluded from the class. (2) You have until November 20, 2006 to download the "Assertion of Right to Participate in Additional Claims Review Process Form" from this site and submit it by registered or certified mail, if you want to participate in the class and participate in the claims review process....
  • Yahoo Releases Yahoo Answers API
    The Yahoo Search Blog announced the release of the Yahoo Answers API. The API will allow developers to pull questions from the Yahoo Answers database by search, category, and user. You can even get the answers for those questions. More details at http://developer.yahoo.com/answers/....
  • Yahoo Partners With Go2 For Mobile Search Ads
    Forbes reports that Yahoo has signed an agreement with Go2, a mobile Yellow Page directory service, to offer Yahoo sponsored search listings on the search results displayed on the mobile Go2 results. The Wall Street Journal has a bigger write up on cell phones and ads, stating, "some of the largest wireless companies in the U.S. are starting to allow advertising on their cell phone networks." But don't worry, "no major carrier is talking about displaying ads on home pages or while customers are making calls." You will most likely see ad integration in the form of the Yahoo &...
  • Ask.com Adds DVD & TV Data To Movie Smart Answers
    The Ask.com Blog announced an upgrade to their movie Smart Answer feature that adds DVD purchase information and TV data. Here is a brief summary of the blog entry....
  • Beam Them Engineers Up, Google
    Google's boldly going where no one has gone before....in search of engineers at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention next week in Las Vegas. Google's going to have a booth and presence at the event, I'm told by a friend who knows. Apparently, many of Google's engineers already attend Trek conventions, so it's fertile recruiting ground. So far, I see nothing about Google on the convention site. But Google Operating System noted yesterday how Google SketchUp is already doing a cross-promotion. Have fun at the con, anyone who's going. Wish it were me! Of course, going to WorldCon in...

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 17, 2006, 1:10 PM | Permalink


Google AdSense Prompts Ad Viewers to Download Third Party Applications

When you visit a site with Google AdSense ads, you would hardly expect the ads to trigger an auto-install prompt window to download various third party applications such as Flash, Quicktime and Adobe Acrobat. But that is just what the AdSense javascript was trying to make Internet Explorer users do when they viewed a page with AdSense ads on it.

The problem was with a change made to the show_ads.js file that is downloaded for every AdSense ad unit view. The problem was first reported on August 11th, but it took until August 15th for the problem to be resolved. More details on the specifics of the problem at JenSense.

Posted by Jennifer Slegg on August 17, 2006, 10:32 AM | Permalink


Human Rights Group & UK House of Commons Demand Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft To Stop Censorship

Earlier this week, GameShout.com published an article reporting that Human Rights Watch group in New York told Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to be upfront with their users about the censorship and stand up to the political pressure China places on them. The quote says it all pretty strongly, "It was ironic that companies whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression have taken on the role of censor, even in cases where the Chinese government makes no specific demands for them to do so." The Inquirer soon after reported that the committee in the UK House of Commons has slammed Google, Yahoo and Microsoft for "collaborating with Chinese authorities to censor and police the Internet."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 17, 2006, 9:44 AM | Permalink


Ask.com Adds DVD & TV Data To Movie Smart Answers

The Ask.com Blog announced an upgrade to their movie Smart Answer feature that adds DVD purchase information and TV data. Here is a brief summary of the blog entry.

(1) A query on movies brings up a form for you to locate movies.

(2) A search on a movie title brings up the movie description, reviews (if available), the official site, the trailer and a zip code box. Try a search on Snakes on a Plane.

(3) Searching for a specific movie and zip code gives you a quicker answer, try Snakes on a Plane 10010.

(4) Searching on a movie title of a movie out of the theater will give you movie details, reviews and a link to buy the DVD. For example search on The Matrix Reloaded.

(5) TV junky? Searching on the name of the TV show will bring up the shows description, the official site, TV and episode schedule, plus links to past episodes on DVD if available. Try it out on the King of Queens (love that show).

More details at The Ask Blog.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 17, 2006, 9:30 AM | Permalink


Former Yahoo China Head Sues Yahoo For Defamation

Reuters reports that Zhou Hongyi, the former head of Yahoo China, has sued Yahoo for defamation. Yahoo said they were about to sue Zhou Hongyi for "unethical business practices." Hongyi has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba.com, which was bought by Yahoo for $1 billion last year. To me, it seems like from the article, that Yahoo finds Hongyi to be a shady character, and Hongyi doesn't like Yahoo telling the public how they feel about him.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 17, 2006, 9:20 AM | Permalink


Aug. 17, 2006 Search News Forecast: Mostly Sunny

Today, a new feature, our daily search news forecast. I can't say we'll do this everyday, but we thought it might be fun. After reviewing Techmeme, scanning my over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry Schwartz on search forums activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog forecast for search news today is mostly sunny.

Mostly sunny means that you can expect some news, but probably nothing major and a downpour of items is unlikely. In other words, it's a good day to go outside or get actual work done, rather than reading about search.

Remember, predicting search news is never perfectly accurate, and search weather can change unexpectedly. Stay tuned to the Search Engine Watch Blog, and we'll keep you updated on weather changes throughout the day. Icon borrowed from Yahoo Weather, with hopes a link to them will make them happy.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 17, 2006, 7:43 AM | Permalink


Google Talk Gains Voicemail, Music Status, Photo & File Sharing Features

Google has announced that its Google Talk instant messaging platform now allows you to share files with other Google Talk users by dropping files or entire folders into the client. Photo files get special treatment, showing up in your client so you can talk about them with someone else, as covered more here. Listening to music? Another new feature, music status, allows other Google Talkers to see what hip (or embarrassing) song you're listening to, if you use one of these supported players. Along with music status comes a new Google Music Trends feature we mentioned earlier, which allows you to see what music is most popular across the entire Google Talk network of users. Finally, want to talk by voice using Google Talk but your contact isn't around? Now you can leave them up to 10 minutes of voicemail, through that new feature. Note that some Google Talk users already got these new features a few weeks ago. Now they are rolling out to everyone.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 17, 2006, 6:05 AM | Permalink


The Inside Scoop from Search Bloggers

The major search engines all have unofficial bloggers talking about what's going on in their respective companies. At a recent SES session, search-blog stars Jeremy Zawodny, Gary Price, Matt Cutts and Niall Kennedy all revealed their modus operandi, and guest writer Sara Holoubek was there to capture their insights for today's SearchDay article, Expose: Search Engine Bloggers Tell All.

Posted by Chris Sherman on August 16, 2006, 7:44 PM | Permalink


Google Music Trends: See What Google Talkers Are Listening To

Garett Rogers spotted the release of Google Music Trends. The Google Labs has it listed and described as "See what music is popular among Google Talk users." It is basically Google Trends for music, though based on the activity of Google Talkers rather than Google searchers. You can currently filter by music genre, and there is a country filter, but I only see the United States as an option. I am a classic rock fan, so it is cool to see the trends for that genre. As Garett notes, the participate link at the top right, currently does not go anywhere.

Postscript: More on the new music status feature that powers Google Music Trends is covered here: Google Talk Gains Voicemail, Music Status, Photo & File Sharing Features.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 5:09 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 16, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Orkut Causing Trouble In Brazil Again
    Komfie Manalo reports that Brazil has threatened to bring Google to court over their social networking application, Orkut, again. Yesterday, the Federal Prosecution Service of Brazil, said Google refused "to cooperate with authorities about user information" on Orkut. Google said in the past that they would work with Brazilian officials to shut down Orkut communities that were participating and helping criminals traffic drugs and distribute pedophilia. Google says they have cooperated with Brazilian authorities, stating, they have "provided information to eight investigations, and kept secret information regarding 60 other cases since June."...
  • Yahoo Partners With Go2 For Mobile Search Ads
    Forbes reports that Yahoo has signed an agreement with Go2, a mobile Yellow Page directory service, to offer Yahoo sponsored search listings on the search results displayed on the mobile Go2 results. The Wall Street Journal has a bigger write up on cell phones and ads, stating, "some of the largest wireless companies in the U.S. are starting to allow advertising on their cell phone networks." But don't worry, "no major carrier is talking about displaying ads on home pages or while customers are making calls." You will most likely see ad integration in the form of the Yahoo &...
  • Google WiFi Hits Mountain View For Free
    Google is providing a free WiFi network under "GoogleWifi" (802.11b/g) in Mountain View, CA. Anyone can use it, including business, visitors and the 72,000+ residents. You must sign into the network with your Google Account, it is not fully public in that sense, but anyone can register for access. Ready to get started using GoogleWifi? There are more details on the "how to" at http://wifi.google.com/support and at the Google Blog. I believe this is the first of many cities that Google will be providing free Wifi access to....
  • 101 Ways To Build Links & Popularity
    Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall have compiled a list of 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006. I will not attempt to summarize all 101 tactics here, check out the list at SEO Book....
  • Yahoo Releases Yahoo Answers API
    The Yahoo Search Blog announced the release of the Yahoo Answers API. The API will allow developers to pull questions from the Yahoo Answers database by search, category, and user. You can even get the answers for those questions. More details at http://developer.yahoo.com/answers/....
  • Yahoo Class Action Settlement Information Released
    Details of the Yahoo class action settlement have been posted at checkmatesettlement.com. What you need to know right now is: (1) You have until October 14, 2006 to submit a written statement requesting exclusion from the Class (specific guidelines are enclosed in the notice), if you want to be excluded from the class. (2) You have until November 20, 2006 to download the "Assertion of Right to Participate in Additional Claims Review Process Form" from this site and submit it by registered or certified mail, if you want to participate in the class and participate in the claims review process....
  • More than Organizing Photos? Google Acquires Neven Vision
    Adrian Graham, Picasa's Product Manager, made a post Tuesday morning on the Official Google Blog titled A better way to organize photos? in which he announced that the team at Neven Vision has now joined Google. His post tells us that Neven Vision's software will make it easier for people to find and organize their photos. But, is there more to the purchase? Looking around some blogs that discussed the acquisition holds hints to possibily more....
  • A Guide to Social Search Players
    In yesterday's SearchDay article, What's the Big Deal With Social Search?, I looked at some of the pros and cons of adding human influences to algorithmic search results. In today's SearchDay article, Who's Who in Social Search, I map out the various approaches to social search and offer links to some of the key players in human-mediated search....
  • Beam Them Engineers Up, Google
    Google's boldly going where no one has gone before....in search of engineers at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention next week in Las Vegas. Google's going to have a booth and presence at the event, I'm told by a friend who knows. Apparently, many of Google's engineers already attend Trek conventions, so it's fertile recruiting ground. So far, I see nothing about Google on the convention site. But Google Operating System noted yesterday how Google SketchUp is already doing a cross-promotion. Have fun at the con, anyone who's going. Wish it were me! Of course, going to WorldCon in...
  • Google Analytics Opens to Everyone - No Invitation Required
    Google announced today that the popular Google Analytics is now instantly available to the public. No more waiting for invitation codes. Anyone with a website can now install the website tracking tool by directly signing up at the Google Analytics homepage, or by clicking through the "Analytics" tab in any Google AdWords account.

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 3:54 PM | Permalink


Orkut Causing Trouble In Brazil Again

Komfie Manalo reports that Brazil has threatened to bring Google to court over their social networking application, Orkut, again. Yesterday, the Federal Prosecution Service of Brazil, said Google refused "to cooperate with authorities about user information" on Orkut. Google said in the past that they would work with Brazilian officials to shut down Orkut communities that were participating and helping criminals traffic drugs and distribute pedophilia. Google says they have cooperated with Brazilian authorities, stating, they have "provided information to eight investigations, and kept secret information regarding 60 other cases since June."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 2:33 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Partners With Go2 For Mobile Search Ads

Forbes reports that Yahoo has signed an agreement with Go2, a mobile Yellow Pages directory service, to offer Yahoo sponsored search listings on the search results displayed on the mobile Go2 results. The Wall Street Journal has a bigger write up on cell phones and ads, stating, "some of the largest wireless companies in the U.S. are starting to allow advertising on their cell phone networks." But don't worry, "no major carrier is talking about displaying ads on home pages or while customers are making calls." You will most likely see ad integration in the form of the Yahoo & Go2 partnership, i.e. ads tied to content, be it text alerts, mobile searches, mobile browsing and more.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 9:34 AM | Permalink


Google WiFi Hits Mountain View For Free

Google is providing a free WiFi network under "GoogleWifi" (802.11b/g) in Mountain View, CA. Anyone can use it, including business, visitors and the 72,000+ residents. You must sign into the network with your Google Account, it is not fully public in that sense, but anyone can register for access. Ready to get started using GoogleWifi? There are more details on the "how to" at http://wifi.google.com/support and at the Google Blog.

I believe this is the first of many cities that Google will be providing free Wifi access to.

Postscript: The New York Times reports that "Google Says It Has No Plans for National Wi-Fi Service," I still believe they will continue to expand their network. Heck, cell phone coverage isn't completely nationwide, so how would we expect WiFi coverage (especially free coverage) to span the nation completely?

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 9:09 AM | Permalink


101 Ways To Build Links & Popularity

Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall have compiled a list of 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006. I will not attempt to summarize all 101 tactics here, check out the list at SEO Book.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 9:00 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Releases Yahoo Answers API

The Yahoo Search Blog announced the release of the Yahoo Answers API. The API will allow developers to pull questions from the Yahoo Answers database by search, category, and user. You can even get the answers for those questions. More details at http://developer.yahoo.com/answers/.

Postscript: Jeremy Zawodny suggests to me that the Yahoo Answers API will soon allow writing to the Yahoo Answers database, and not just read only access. Niche answer social networks, here we come?

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 8:46 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Class Action Settlement Information Released

Details of the Yahoo class action settlement have been posted at checkmatesettlement.com. What you need to know right now is:

(1) You have until October 14, 2006 to submit a written statement requesting exclusion from the Class (specific guidelines are enclosed in the notice), if you want to be excluded from the class.

(2) You have until November 20, 2006 to download the "Assertion of Right to Participate in Additional Claims Review Process Form" from this site and submit it by registered or certified mail, if you want to participate in the class and participate in the claims review process.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 16, 2006, 8:37 AM | Permalink


More than Organizing Photos? Google Acquires Neven Vision

Adrian Graham, Picasa's Product Manager, made a post Tuesday morning on the Official Google Blog titled A better way to organize photos? in which he announced that the team at Neven Vision has now joined Google. His post tells us that Neven Vision's software will make it easier for people to find and organize their photos. But, is there more to the purchase? Looking around some blogs that discussed the acquisition holds hints to possibily more.

I first read about this acquisition over on the Google Operating System Blog, in Object Recognition Is The Future Of Google, where I learned that the facial recognition software developed by Neven Vision will run on the types of microprocessors found in mobile phones.

It sounded like more might be happening than just putting pictures in order, so I tried to see if I could find any clues involving the intellectual property behind the company, with a trademark search and a patent search on their name. I came up with nothing. No patents assigned to Neven Vision, and no trademark in that name. At the time, their site was still working. A visit now yields the following message:

Thank you for your interest. Neven Vision was recently acquired by Google Inc. and Neven Vision product information is no longer available on this site. Click here to learn more.

But the site was up most of the day, and it did provide some helpful information. A search at the patent office on Hartmut Neven, one of the board members of Neven Vision, showed patents assigned to Nevengineering, Inc. A page on their site also listed a number of patents that they had been granted, and the numbers from those matched others that I found from the patent office. The oldest was originally filed back in 1996, and was followed by a number of others. The company it was originally assigned to was Eyematic Interfaces, Inc., but the patent had been reassigned to Nevenengineering in March of 2004. It seems that at some point in 2003, Eyematic Interfaces, Inc., transformed into Nevenengineering, Inc., with a focus that may have been more aimed at mobile technology.

I made a list of the patents I could find and some of the details about them in Google Acquires Neven Vision: Adding Object and Facial Recognition Mobile Technology.

While I was digging through the patents, a discussion started up at Google Blogoscoped on the
purchase, and the news spread to GigaOm in Google Buys Photo Recognition Company, which both mention previous attempts by Google to purchase Riya, another recognition software company.

My friend Loren, over at Search Engine Journal, draws some other conclusions from other pages found on the Neven Vision site in Google, Neven Vision & Image Recognition. Loren ties together information from my patent post, what Liz Gannes at wrote at GigaOM, and from a number of other sources into a thoughtful analysis of what the acquisition may mean for Google in the future. And it's more than just organizing photos in Picassa.

Robin Good wrote a post on his blog at the end of July which shows an approach one image recognition company is taking in Visual Similarity Search Engine Finds Images According To Your Specs. What might we see from Google?

There are a lot of possibilities that become available with software that can recognize faces and objects. It will be interesting to see how Google might use some of the intellectual property and the expertise that they acquired with the folks from Neven Vision joining them. One of the newest patent applications published from Neven Vision, Image-based search engine for mobile phones with camera, lists some possibilities:

  • Image Based Searches
  • Optical Character Recognition with Language Translation
  • Mobile Advertising
  • Print-to-Internet
  • Payment System (using barcodes and labels)
  • Learning Tool for Children
  • Treasure Hunt Games
  • Virtual Annotation

Another, Image base inquiry system for search engines for mobile telephones with integrated camera, adds even more:

  • City and Museum Guides
  • Providing Product Information
  • Face Recognition
  • Product Part Replacement
Adding the ability to sort and search photos in Picassa is probably just the start of what we will see from this union.

Posted by Bill Slawski on August 16, 2006, 2:57 AM | Permalink


A Guide to Social Search Players

In yesterday's SearchDay article, What's the Big Deal With Social Search?, I looked at some of the pros and cons of adding human influences to algorithmic search results. In today's SearchDay article, Who's Who in Social Search, I map out the various approaches to social search and offer links to some of the key players in human-mediated search.

Posted by Chris Sherman on August 15, 2006, 10:27 PM | Permalink


Beam Them Engineers Up, Google

Google's boldly going where no one has gone before....in search of engineers at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention next week in Las Vegas. Google's going to have a booth and presence at the event, I'm told by a friend who knows. Apparently, many of Google's engineers already attend Trek conventions, so it's fertile recruiting ground. So far, I see nothing about Google on the convention site. But Google Operating System noted yesterday how Google SketchUp is already doing a cross-promotion.

Have fun at the con, anyone who's going. Wish it were me! Of course, going to WorldCon in LA (ahem, actually Anaheim in beautiful Orange County) later this month would be nice. My first and only one was in Anaheim back in 1984. Too long, too long. Hey, how about Battlestar Galactica Con? Heck, I'd be happy with Xena Con (though Gabrielle Con would be better).

Postscript: Google's got a post up now about the recruitment drive there

.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 9:17 PM | Permalink


Google Analytics Opens to Everyone - No Invitation Required

Google announced today that the popular Google Analytics is now instantly available to the public. No more waiting for invitation codes. Anyone with a website can now install the website tracking tool by directly signing up at the Google Analytics homepage, or by clicking through the "Analytics" tab in any Google AdWords account. It is not required to have a Google Adwords account to run Google Analytics.

More information can be found on the official Google Analytics blog. Additional educational and support materials are also available at Conversion University.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on August 15, 2006, 7:47 PM | Permalink


Daily SearchCast, August 16, 2006: Cut Coupons Via Google Maps; Google Trademark Usage Letters Show Old News Is New News; MattGuy Is GoogleCutts; Why's A Farmer Dating Site Mad At Google & More!

Through the miracle of modern technology (or perhaps Danny's close-guarded and heavily disputed secret of time traveling), you are getting tomorrow's Daily SearchCast today. Actually, Danny's off on Wednesday, August 16 -- so we did an extra long show on Tuesday, August 15 and cut it into two parts. If you get our podcast feed, you already got part one.

In part two, "today's" search podcast, we cover Google Maps getting coupons for local merchants; Google's trademark protection letters spark new controversy despite being three years old; customer satisfaction with search engines; Matt Cutts AKA GoogleGuy; a farmer dating site takes on Google and more!

Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ.

  • Google Maps Gets Coupons
    Hmm? How do you prove to local merchants who lack tracking software or even web sites that search converts? Coupons! That's right, the conversion tracking tool that requires no internet connection, cookies or software has come to Google Maps....
  • Three Years On, Google's Trademark Usage Letters Become News Again
    How long does it take the wheel to spin full circle on the internet? Apparently three years, judging from the outcry over Google's "new" move to send out trademark protection letters asking people to be careful about how they use the word Google....
  • Yahoo, MSN, & Google Fall In Customer Satisfaction Survey
    The American Customer Satisfaction Index has been released and Yahoo, MSN and Google all fell in points from last year's results. If you look at the 2nd quarter scores and scroll down to the portals and search engines section you will see the ratings. Yahoo was hit the hardest, with a drop of five-percentage points from last year. Ask.com followed with a fall of 1.4%, then MSN falling 1.3%, and then Google falling 1.2% year over year. The only gainer is AOL with a 4.2 percentage point increase year-over-year. There is more coverage on this at DMNews, Bloomberg, News.com and...
  • Matt Cutts Confesses To Being GoogleGuy
    In Monday Morning Roundup, Rand Fishkin writes: Did anyone blog about Matt outing himself as GoogleGuy during SES? I believe his exact words were "I backed into that position." Nope, Rand -- I was surprised about the lack of reaction and blogging to that myself. I'm still doing post-show catch-up, but it hardly seemed to catch any buzz. Perhaps one of the industry's oldest secrets -- Matt Cutts being GoogleGuy -- was no longer a secret to most any longer....
  • Naylor & Amanda Finally Meet: Universe Fails To Be Destroyed
  • More SEO Video 'Cutts' By Matt
    Matt Cutts at Google has posted a few more videos with Google SEO tips for us. Here they are: + Session 11: Reinclusion requests + Session 12: Tips for Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2006 + Session 13: Google Webmaster Tools...
  • Google Supplemental Results Get Fresher
    I reported this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable that GoogleGuy announced Google has updated those pesky supplemental results. Supplemental results are those pages in a secondary index at Google. The pages in the supplemental results tend to be staler and rank worse then the normal documents in the main Google index. In any event, the supplemental results have been updated and should be somewhat more fresh....
  • Yahoo Launches Search Builder
    During the Social Search Overview session, Tim Mayer of Yahoo announced the launch of Yahoo Search Builder. I haven't had much time to play with it yet, and probably won't until next week. But the Yahoo Search blog has a nice overview of the new product. Keep in mind, this seems very similar to Eurekster, based on my quick quick quick read of it. More on this later....
  • Rollyo Adds More Functionality
    The roll your own search resource Rollyo adds more functionality to its services. If Rollyo has slipped under your radar it's a resource that allows you to create your own personalized search engine (hence 'roll your own') that will search up to 25 sites that you specify. They've improved layout, added blog search, added the ability to take an existing Searchroll and edit it to your own taste and added a 'Rollbar'. The latter allows searchers to incorporate Rollyo into the browser to search any site, add sites to existing Searchrolls on the fly and create new ones based on...
  • University of California Joins Google's Book Scan Project
    As expected the University of California is partnering with Google on the Google library scanning project. Reuters reports that Google will be funding "the scanning of "several million" of the 34 million titles in the University of California's libraries." Postscript From Danny: The partnership means that UC becomes the first organization to my knowledge to partner with both major scanning programs from search engines. UC partnered with Microsoft on its project in June. UC is also part of the broader Open Content Alliance backed by both Microsoft and Yahoo...
  • Google To Allow Pornographic Movies In Google Video?
    TechCrunch wrote that Google has recently removed the term "pornographic" from the restrictions on uploading videos. It is now just a restriction on “obscene” material, with an added categorization for "mature and adult" content. TechCrunch also believes Google removed a checkbox confirmation that said, "video is not pornographic or obscene material." Philipp Lenssen also notes this, and added commentary by Donna Bogatin at News.com....
  • Google Video Replaces Froogle & Expandable More Link Added To Google Home Page
    Philipp Lenssen spotted that on Google.com, they have removed Froogle, added Video and added a "more" link that opens up some more options, including "books," "froogle," "groups," and "even more." We have seen the expandable more link tested in the past, looks like it has made it to the front page....
  • Beware: Is Your Hosting Provider Cloaking Paid Links On Your Site For Their Benefit?
    I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable on thread in our forums that shows how some hosts are inserting links on sites they host, without notifying the web site owner, and doing it via cloaking. Matt Cutts from Google looked deeper into the reported issue in the thread and said that "it looks like this webhost is cloaking." The web hosting company is placing paid links within the content using cloaking techniques. If you are worried about this for your site, then check the Google index for you site. You can use a Google site command "with a porn phrase...
  • Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel, Answers Tough Questions
    Search Engine Journal pulled out some serious quotes from a Fortune Magazine interview with Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel. I'll pull out quotes, like Loren did;...
  • Yahoo Hires Away comScore Executive
    ClickZ reports that Yahoo has hired Peter Daboll, the president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix, to be the chief of insights and head of global market research at Yahoo. Daboll explains that his position was created at Yahoo to "bring together the external world of market research and the wealth of internal data that Yahoo collects." Peter Daboll will be reporting to Cammie Dunaway, Yahoo's chief marketing officer, in Sunnyvale, California....
  • Google Hires Linux Coder, Andrew Morton
    Andrew Morton, well known in the Linux world for coding under Linus Torvalds, has been hired to work at Google, reports News.com. Linus commented about the job in a message board posting on Aug 6th. Andrew will continue working on Linux, but Google will be paying him to do so....
  • Microsoft adCenter Now Live In The UK
    The adCenter blog announced that Microsoft adCenter is now live, Tuesday, August 15th, in the UK. 100% of the ads served on Microsoft's properties will run adCenter ads, including MSN Search and Windows Live. Be prepared to see search volume and budget change requirements in your ad campaigns. Want to discuss with others? Join our forum thread named Microsoft adCenter Launches in the UK....
  • Farmer Dating Web Site Sues Google Over Porn Ads
    INQ7 Network reports that the owners of Farm Data, "a respectable meeting website for farmers," is suing Google for the ads that show up for the query [farm date]. Basically, pornographic sites and sex sites come up for the term and Farm Date says that those ads are "very damaging for Farmdate's reputation." We should know the court ruling on August 24, I will keep you posted on it....
  • Danny & Daron Sumo Wrestle (what, no video? Yeah, YouTube is STILL down. But I also put one of them on Google Video here).

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 6:43 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 15, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Rand & I Rank The Best Search Blogs
    Rand at SEOMoz posted his Ranking 50 Top Blogs in the Search Space, which encouraged me to finally post my list of the Search Blogs Am I Most Likely To Read In More Detail at my personal blog.
  • SES San Jose 2006 Recap
    Couldn't make it to last week's monster Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose? Well, maybe next time! In the meantime, I've compiled a list of coverage from across the web, even somewhat organized into topic areas.
  • Daily SearchCast, August 15, 2006: AOL Sets Off Search Privacy Crisis; Google Webmaster Central Offers Cool Tools & Support; Yahoo Expands Site Explorer; 1,000 Pizzas For Google & More!
    Today's search podcast covers AOL's release of search records and the ensuing privacy crisis that followed; Google's support for site owners enlarging into Google Webmaster Central; Yahoo's expanded Site Explorer tools; Google pushes back against click fraud estimates from third parties; 1,000 pizzas descend on Google and more!
  • EFF Asks FTC To Limit How Long AOL Can Store Search Records
    The Electronic Frontier Foundation has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate AOL's release of search records last week and prevent the company from storing search data for longer than two weeks....
  • Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel, Answers Tough Questions
    Search Engine Journal pulled out some serious quotes from a Fortune Magazine interview with Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel. I'll pull out quotes, like Loren did;...
  • Farmer Dating Web Site Sues Google Over Porn Ads
    INQ7 Network reports that the owners of Farm Data, "a respectable meeting website for farmers," is suing Google for the ads that show up for the query [farm date]. Basically, pornographic sites and sex sites come up for the term and Farm Date says that those ads are "very damaging for Farmdate's reputation." We should know the court ruling on August 24, I will keep you posted on it....
  • Google Hires Linux Coder, Andrew Morton
    Andrew Morton, well known in the Linux world for coding under Linus Torvalds, has been hired to work at Google, reports News.com. Linus commented about the job in a message board posting on Aug 6th. Andrew will continue working on Linux, but Google will be paying him to do so....
  • Microsoft adCenter Now Live In The UK
    The adCenter blog announced that Microsoft adCenter is now live, Tuesday, August 15th, in the UK. 100% of the ads served on Microsoft's properties will run adCenter ads, including MSN Search and Windows Live. Be prepared to see search volume and budget change requirements in your ad campaigns. Want to discuss with others? Join our forum thread named Microsoft adCenter Launches in the UK....
  • Yahoo, MSN, & Google Fall In Customer Satisfaction Survey
    The American Customer Satisfaction Index has been released and Yahoo, MSN and Google all fell in points from last year's results.
    Targeting Ads Based On Search Behavior & Privacy Issues Post-AOL
    Back in 2005, I wrote about AlmondNet moving forward with showing ads to surfers across the web based on their search profiles at major search engines. The move raised big search privacy issues. Since then, AlmondNet's kept going -- along with others such as Yahoo, in mining search behavior to deliver ads beyond search results pages. Advertisers Trace Paths Users Leave on Internet from the New York Times today takes a look how Yahoo, MSN and AOL are all trying to push into the post-search ad delivery space....
  • Three Years On, Google's Trademark Usage Letters Become News Again
    How long does it take the wheel to spin full circle on the internet? Apparently three years, judging from the outcry over Google's "new" move to send out trademark protection letters asking people to be careful about how they use the word Google....
  • Google Maps Gets Coupons
    Hmm? How do you prove to local merchants who lack tracking software or even web sites that search converts? Coupons! That's right, the conversion tracking tool that requires no internet connection, cookies or software has come to Google Maps....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 6:08 PM | Permalink


Rand & I Rank The Best Search Blogs

Rand at SEOMoz posted his Ranking 50 Top Blogs in the Search Space, which encouraged me to finally post my list of the Search Blogs Am I Most Likely To Read In More Detail at my personal blog. Rand ranks this blog as number one on his list and then ranks my blog, the Search Engine Roundtable as number two on his list. I also ranked this blog as number one of my most 'click-through blog' on my list, followed by Google Blogoscoped, which I often cite here. These two lists, I believe make up a great portion of the most important search blogs you should read. Of course, it is possible Rand and I missed some - who knows, maybe Danny will come out with his ranked list?

Since I do not like to often express controversial or personal opinion on these blogs, I posted how I would change Rand's ranking order over here. When ranking my own list, I did not reference Rand's list, instead, I referenced my list of 76 search blogs I subscribe to. In addition, you can find a nice blogroll of search related blogs that Danny compiled, on the left hand side of this site, after clicking here.

So in short, you can find some excellent blogs in rank order at:
(1) SEOMoz
(2) Cartoon Barry

And a nice listing of blogs that Danny complied but did not rank on the left hand side of this blog's home page, here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 15, 2006, 4:58 PM | Permalink


103 Links About SES San Jose 2006 (AKA The Big Recap)

Couldn't make it to last week's monster Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose? Well, maybe next time! In the meantime, I've compiled a list of coverage from across the web, even somewhat organized into topic areas.

Our San Jose show is always tough for me, as I arrive a week earlier to visit with the various major search engines out there. That means two weeks of news and email to dig out from, since you can never get it all done on the road. All that digging out means I know I don't have everything listed below. But you'll find plenty to keep you entertained.

General Recaps

Eric Schmidt Appearance

Eric Schmidt & Search Privacy

Click Fraud Panel & Related Coverage

Yahoo's Panama Ad Platform Preview

Social Search & Related Topics

Organic Listings Sessions

Search Advertising Sessions

Issues Sessions

News, Blogs & Public Relations

Big Sites/Budget Sessions

Small Sites/Budget Sessions

Conversion & Metrics

Other Sessions

Google Dance & Parties & Pictures

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 4:50 PM | Permalink


Daily SearchCast, August 15, 2006: AOL Sets Off Search Privacy Crisis; Google Webmaster Central Offers Cool Tools & Support; Yahoo Expands Site Explorer; 1,000 Pizzas For Google & More!

Today's search podcast covers AOL's release of search records and the ensuing privacy crisis that followed; Google's support for site owners enlarging into Google Webmaster Central; Yahoo's expanded Site Explorer tools; Google pushes back against click fraud estimates from third parties; 1,000 pizzas descend on Google and more!

Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ.

Below are links to items discussed:

  • Normality At SFO Despite Usual Conflicting Security Bull
  • Arriving At Heathrow Madness
  • AOL Releases Search Data & Raises Privacy Concerns
    Techmeme is reporting a huge amount of concern over AOL releasing, then pulling, search logs done by 500,000 users over three months. The purpose of the release was to help search researchers better understand user behavior in conjunction with an industry event for search researchers happening in Seattle, SIGIR. The data was posted on the AOL research site, but has since been pulled....
  • Search Privacy Concerns Humanized As The New York Times Tracks Down Anonymous AOL Searcher
    A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749 is an excellent read from the New York Times, where you can meet the person who is about to become the most famous searcher ever: Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old from Georgia. Using the released AOL search records, the New York Times figured out who she was and interviewed her and her searching habits for the story. No more discussing whether anonymous search records might contain enough information to identify people. In some cases, they do (or at least enough to make an extremely good guess and get confirmation from the...
  • More On AOL's Search Release & Ways To Search The Records
    I've got some follow-up items about yesterday's story where AOL released user query records, including how anyone can now easily look at the data. First, after Barry did a recap of the news, I added a postscript to the story with more of my thoughts. In case you missed it, here are the key parts below:...
  • New Keyword Suggestion Tool Uses AOL Data
    SEO Scoop spotted a new keyword suggestion tool that estimates the volume of traffic you can expect for a given query based on the AOL data slip up. Basically, the tool has data from March to May of this year, it then takes the market share figures of Google, Yahoo and MSN and multiples that by the AOL search volumes for those queries. Of course, you have the issue of people searching differently at different engines. AOL users are typically less tech savvy, when compared to Google users. So I wonder how accurate the estimates are? The tool is at...
  • Another Tool Uses AOL Data For Search Term Research
    SEO Blackhat released a tool that uses AOL data, Hitwise figures and Overture's suggestion tool to figure out the search volume and click-through rate you can expect from a search phrase at the various search engines. Last week we reported on a more basic tool that did something similar but this new tool gives you an "estimate with some certainty how many clicks to expect for ranking anywhere in any search engine for any term." Basically, you go to this tool and enter in the number of searches you expect to be performed for a keyword phrase. Then after you...
  • Targeting Ads Based On Search Behavior & Privacy Issues Post-AOL
    Back in 2005, I wrote about AlmondNet moving forward with showing ads to surfers across the web based on their search profiles at major search engines. The move raised big search privacy issues. Since then, AlmondNet's kept going -- along with others such as Yahoo, in mining search behavior to deliver ads beyond search results pages. Advertisers Trace Paths Users Leave on Internet from the New York Times today takes a look how Yahoo, MSN and AOL are all trying to push into the post-search ad delivery space....
  • EFF Asks FTC To Limit How Long AOL Can Store Search Records
    The Electronic Frontier Foundation has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate AOL's release of search records last week and prevent the company from storing search data for longer than two weeks....
  • Daily SearchCast, August 9, 2006: Special Edition, A Conversation With Google CEO Eric Schmidt
    Today's search podcast covers Search Engine Watch editor-in-chief Danny Sullivan talking with Google CEO Eric Schmidt live before an audience at Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 on topics ranging from search privacy to Google's expansion into all aspects of daily life. Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel....
  • Google Sitemaps Becomes Google Webmaster Central; Preferred Domain Tool Launched
    Google Sitemaps has gained a new name along with new features. Google Webmaster Central is the new name of the former Google Sitemaps service, which now has evolved into a central place for Google to provide help information, statistics, reports and tools to help webmasters....
  • Which Queries On Yahoo Search Get Redirected To Site Explorer?
    The Yahoo Search Blog defines which queries will be redirected from Yahoo Search to Yahoo Site Explorer. Remember on July 11th when we reported that Yahoo Tests Redirecting Some Searches To Site Explorer? So which queries exactly do this? Queries in the format of site:ysearchblog.com or link:http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000341.html or linkdomain:ysearchblog.com but not ysearchblog.com or ysearchblog or site:ysearchblog.com webmasters (looking for ysearchblog posts mentioning webmasters) or link:http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000341.html Danny Sullivan (looking for links to the article mentioning Danny Sullivan) or or linkdomain:ysearchblog.com site:yahoo.com (looking for links to ysearchblog from within yahoo.com). More details at the Yahoo Search Blog....
  • The Bot Obedience Course - New Yahoo! Site Explorer Tool Announced
  • Google Fights Claims Of Some Third Party Click Fraud Studies
    The Google Blog just posted a report on how they feel some of the independent third party click fraud reports published are exaggerating the clickfraud numbers. Google says they have seen some reports that show "1.5 times the number of clicks in our logs," the reason? Well, Google summarized the "two main points" of the larger paper they published on the issue as being; (1) "mischaracterizing events," i.e. clicking the back button and it being characterized as a click and (2) "conflation across advertisers and ad networks," where cookie issues confuse Yahoo clicks with Google clicks. For the full, 17-page...
  • Yahoo & Google Commit To An Other Independent Click Fraud Audit At SES
    Donna Bogatin snagged both John Slade, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google Trust & Safety into agreeing to an other clickfraud audit. This commitment is for an IAB "independent auditing against the complete guidelines." Donna grilled Yahoo & Google during the Q&A session of the Auditing Paid Listings and Click Fraud Issues, which I hear was pretty heated....
  • Auditing Paid Listings and Click Fraud Issues
  • Google & MySpace In $900 Million Deal On Search & Contextual Ads
    Just in, an announcement that Google and MySpace have reached a deal for Google to provide search and contextual ads to MySpace, in return for giving MySpace (well, the entire Fox  Interactive Media network) $900 million in guaranteed payments through 2010. From the press release:...
  • Google & Viacom Partner In Video Ad Test
    Via the NY Times, Google and Viacom have partnered to place Viacom video clips (MTV and other clips) on web site owner pages. The video clips will contain ads from Viacom, which Google and site owns will share the revenues from. These tests are to begin towards the end of the month. This is the first step, I bet, to AdWords on TV. Last week we reported that Google Radio is coming to XM Satellite Radio, so TV isn't so far fetched. FYI - sorry for short posts, SES San Jose is today and coverage will be slow. Towards the...
  • Google Jet Lawsuit Has Been Settled
    Google Founders Silence Designer Of ‘Party Plane' fromthe New York Sun covers a dispute over the Google founders' private jet being settled. Danny has been poking fun about this Oklahoma designer who spoke out about some of the requests made by Sergey Brin and Larry Page about the the interior design of the jet they bought. I mean, Google went far to try to silence this man from talking. But after enough persistence and encouragement, the designer, Leslie Jennings, has notified the NY Sun, "The case was settled to the satisfaction of both parties."...
  • Googlers Go For Pizza Stunt
    Via InsideGoogle, Feeding Google - Better than Pirates of the Caribbean is a video over at YouTube where start-up CambrianHouse decides to attract attention by delivering 1,000 pizzas to the Googleplex in Mountain View. Will the Googlers go for it? Yes, they do....

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 3:46 PM | Permalink


EFF Asks FTC To Limit How Long AOL Can Store Search Records

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate AOL's release of search records last week and prevent the company from storing search data for longer than two weeks.

The formal complaint (PDF) asks for the FTC to:

order AOL to refrain from collecting or storing logs of its users' search activity except where necessary incident to the rendition of AOL's services or the protection of AOL rights and property, and to refrain in any case from storing logs of its users' search activity in personally identifiable form or for more than fourteen (14) days;

The EFF also wants all those whose searches were revealed through the data to be notified by AOL, which sounds like a good idea and something you'd think AOL would already want to do. Other things are requested, such as one year's worth of credit monitoring to protect against identity theft. That seems far-fetched, but I suppose you never know.

Coinciding with the complaint, the Wall Street Journal has a debate between the EFF and an internet lobbying group NetCoalition that apparently represents Yahoo and Google, among others.

The debate, Should Web Search Data Be Stored?, is free to anyone to view. It's well worth a read, if only to read that the US Department Of Justice is apparently arguing that access to search records might not require a search warrant, as the EFF says the Electronic Communication Privacy Act requires.

Overall, I'm much more on the side of the EFF in the debate. Some highlights from it and my remarks about them.

NetCoalition: Search queries are stored and used by Internet companies for internal purposes.

Me: Search queries have been shared by various companies in different ways with third parties over the years. More important, even if these are stored for internal purposes, there's no guarantee that they'll be perfectly protected. Leaks, accidental or intentional, do happen.

NetCoalition: There are good, legitimate reasons why an Internet company would use historical search queries for internal uses. For example, search query information can be used in research and development to make improvements to search technology, to better tailor and make more efficient users' online requests. Companies also analyze historical query information to detect and protect against click fraud -- an activity that involves faking clicks on Web advertisements to drive up costs.

Me: Excellent points, but the major search engines are going to have to step up now with better proof that there's no way data can be tied back with an individual, even when made "anonymous" in the way AOL has shown doesn't work. Click fraud refunds typically aren't given for activity longer than 60 days, so that provides a time horizon for how long data might be associated with actual users/IP activity.

NetCoalition: Search queries are essentially "directory assistance" requests from users to companies that help them find locations on the Internet. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act is meant to protect communications between and among users -- not to protect requests from customers for directions on the Internet.

Me: Wow, I think the search engines need a new lobbying group that understands search better. Searches can be directory assistance and much more than that. Search engines are confidents, trusted friends that we effectively tell secrets to in order to get advice. They aren't about getting location. They are about getting information.

NetCoalition: The Video Privacy Protection Act is a bad analogy. Internet companies do not match up the user's personal information (e.g., name, address and phone number) with search queries the way a video rental record would.

Me: Except they do. If you're logged in to a search engine, then any personal information you've provided is associated with your search query in some way.

EFF: The public needs to know the facts about how their data is being stored and used before they can make informed decisions as consumers as to whether and how to use a particular search engine, and to make informed decisions as citizens as to whether and how Congress needs to update the law. I think the best route would be hearings in Congress to get to the bottom of the issue.

Me: I think the best route would be for the search engines themselves to act in conjunction with privacy groups right now to get protections and standards in place. But if they can't act, then hopefully laws covering the entire search spectrum -- from ISP to search engine -- will be enacted.

NetCoalition: Search queries are not being linked to users' personal information and shared for marketing purposes.

Me: Except they are. Showing ads in response to a query, while long-standing and generally accepted, is a marketing purpose. Showing ads based on search profiles, such as the New York Times wrote about today, is a more extreme example.

EFF: My organization also strongly opposes proposals by the DOJ and Congresswoman DeGette that would force companies to store this kind of sensitive data for government use. That's like asking the post office to keep copies of our mail, or phone companies to keep recordings of our phone calls, just in case investigators might find it useful. The bottom line is that Americans deserve the same privacy protections online that they've always had offline, and that includes the ability to be able to speak and consume speech freely and privately, without fear that their deepest secrets might be shared with the government or published to the world. Yet when search engines accumulate this kind of data, such disclosures are bound to happen, as this week's news has demonstrated.

Me: Well said!

Postscript: I'd sent some questions over to the EFF and just got answers back from EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston. Here they are:

Q. Why just AOL? Why aren't you asking for all search engines to be limited? I did see that you want federal laws to expand to cover them, but what happened with AOL could happen with the others as well.

A. Why aren't we asking the FTC to investigate and take action against other search engines? Because we can't, just like we can't go to court and demand that Google pay for AOL's mistake. The FTC isn't a suggestion box. We had a specific complaint about AOL--we think this disclosure violated their policy and therefore constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice--and we filed that complaint with the FTC. If other companies engaged in similar disclosures, we'd file similar complaints.

If you are familiar with our work, you know that we've been complaining about the logging practices of search engines as a category for a long while. In fact, I'm usually the one trying to explain to Google-hungry journalists that your Yahoos and AOLs and MSNs and other multi-service portals pose most if not all of the same privacy threats, so it's funny to be accused of singling out one of them for some sort of special mistreatment. We're merely reacting to a specific incident that happened to involve AOL rather than Google or Yahoo or MSN.

We want strong, clear legal rules that cover all the search engines; we want all the search engines to limit retention.

Q. Why just the search engines? Many ISPs are recording the same data but aren't being limited on data retention. It's actually more worrisome to me in that many ISPs are happily selling this data to third parties.

Again, if you are familiar with our work, you know that we are generally concerned about data retention by all stripes of online service providers (see, e.g., our white paper on best practices for online service providers, http://www.eff.org/osp/). So, in short, we share your worry. But again, we are reacting to a specific incident concerning a search engine, so our discussion right now is focused on search engines.

BTW, if you are specifically aware of any ISP that routinely collects the searches its users submit to other search engines, we'd love to hear more about it. I think that without very clear consent from the customer, that would be an unauthorized interception of your communications, and therefore a felony.

Q. How long does the EFF retain search data? You've got a search box. People do sensitive searches on your sites. I want to ensure AOL isn't being held to a higher standard than the EFF itself meets.

We don't retain search terms. Of course, since we use Google, Google does undoubtedly retain them. But we proxy everyone's requests so that their IP addresses and cookies are not transmitted to Google, therefore individual search terms are only identifiable to EFF visitors as a population and not personally or uniquely. In fact, we call this out on our site: if you click on the link next to our search box that says "about EFF's search," you'll see a pop-up that says "EFF uses Google for search functionality on www.eff.org. To protect your privacy, EFF proxies search requests to Google with a special CGI script on our server, thus hiding your IP address and your Google cookie (if any) from Google's servers."

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 11:02 AM | Permalink


Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel, Answers Tough Questions

Search Engine Journal pulled out some serious quotes from a Fortune Magazine interview with Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel. I'll pull out quotes, like Loren did;

How could you say in May the search-advertising platform was ready, only to delay it two months later?
In May we began to test the platform and show it to advertisers. We decided we wanted more time to do additional tests, and advertisers told us they wanted more time to adapt their systems. We decided to do it properly rather than rush.
Isn't Apple's iTunes far bigger than Yahoo Music by revenue?
We're not in that business. We sell ads. Having a dedicated audience that spends a lot of time doing whatever they do leads to very good advertising prospects.
Google's motto is "Don't be evil." What's Yahoo's?
[Long pause.] I don't know that we have a motto. Well, the mission of the company is, Deliver great value to our consumers and, basically, value them.

There are some more surprising quotes in the interview.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 15, 2006, 10:55 AM | Permalink


Farmer Dating Web Site Sues Google Over Porn Ads

INQ7 Network reports that the owners of Farm Data, "a respectable meeting website for farmers," is suing Google for the ads that show up for the query [farm date]. Basically, pornographic sites and sex sites come up for the term and Farm Date says that those ads are "very damaging for Farmdate's reputation." We should know the court ruling on August 24, I will keep you posted on it.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 15, 2006, 10:34 AM | Permalink


Google Hires Linux Coder, Andrew Morton

Andrew Morton, well known in the Linux world for coding under Linus Torvalds, has been hired to work at Google, reports News.com. Linus commented about the job in a message board posting on Aug 6th. Andrew will continue working on Linux, but Google will be paying him to do so.

"In my position as kernel maintainer I feel that I should not be employed by a company which has a direct interest in the kernel.org kernel because this would put me in a position of making decisions which are commercially significant to my employer's competitors," Morton explained. "As Google maintains their own kernel variant for internal use, their interests are largely decoupled from what happens in the kernel.org kernel."

Google's active use of Linux and participation in open source development was another big draw. "It is beneficial to me (and to Linux) that I be in day-to-day contact with people who use Linux for real things. Hence Google is a good all-round fit," Morton added.

More details at Linux Today.

Does this mean a Google OS is coming soon? Well, that may be far fetched. Google is known to write their own kernels for their servers, to best tweak the performance out of them.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 15, 2006, 10:07 AM | Permalink


Microsoft adCenter Now Live In The UK

The adCenter blog announced that Microsoft adCenter is now live, Tuesday, August 15th, in the UK. 100% of the ads served on Microsoft's properties will run adCenter ads, including MSN Search and Windows Live. Be prepared to see search volume and budget change requirements in your ad campaigns.

Want to discuss with others? Join our forum thread named Microsoft adCenter Launches in the UK.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 15, 2006, 10:01 AM | Permalink


Yahoo, MSN, & Google Fall In Customer Satisfaction Survey

The American Customer Satisfaction Index has been released and Yahoo, MSN and Google all fell in points from last year's results. If you look at the 2nd quarter scores and scroll down to the portals and search engines section you will see the ratings. Yahoo was hit the hardest, with a drop of five-percentage points from last year. Ask.com followed with a fall of 1.4%, then MSN falling 1.3%, and then Google falling 1.2% year over year. The only gainer is AOL with a 4.2 percentage point increase year-over-year. There is more coverage on this at DMNews, Bloomberg, News.com and SeattlePI.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 15, 2006, 9:47 AM | Permalink


Targeting Ads Based On Search Behavior & Privacy Issues Post-AOL

Back in 2005, I wrote about AlmondNet moving forward with showing ads to surfers across the web based on their search profiles at major search engines. The move raised big search privacy issues. Since then, AlmondNet's kept going -- along with others such as Yahoo, in mining search behavior to deliver ads beyond search results pages. Advertisers Trace Paths Users Leave on Internet from the New York Times today takes a look how Yahoo, MSN and AOL are all trying to push into the post-search ad delivery space.

I've always felt these programs would eventually raise greater concerns over search privacy, since it would make it even more readily apparent to people that they were having search profiles assembled for them. If you go back to the AOL search privacy poster child of Thelma Arnold, tracked down through her search requests, her comment was one I'm sure many searchers would have:

I had no idea somebody was looking over my shoulder.

Until the AOL search records release, many people still have had no idea they were being profiled. But I've felt post-search ads would help raise that concern. Why were you continuing to see ads based on things you recently searched for? Perhaps that would help raise awareness of search profiles.

The AOL release has changed all that. To me, post-search ads -- while promising -- are a non-starter until the search privacy issues are resolved. We've been told that data would be protected, yet it got out in one way via AOL. Though the intent was innocent, it might slip out in the future in other ways. Even Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when I asked him about search privacy and data destruction last week, said you could "never say never" about things not going wrong.

For these types of programs to move forward, I think consumers will need more faith and control over how long search data is kept for them, plus the ability to opt-out or delete histories with a push of a button, perhaps the type of privacy/data control panel John Battelle has wished for. And as I've written, that has to include ISPs, many of which merrily sell search data that they monitor to third party companies.

I'm working on a longer look back at the fallout from the AOL release and ways forward. But a quick shout-out to Daniel Brandt of Google Watch is in order. Seth Finkelstein just gave him one, and I'll add to it. I've felt Brandt's often twisted things or focused on stuff that didn't matter much (Google's 30 year cookie that most people won't really have last for more than a year or two, if that). But his long-standing call for regular data destruction -- something other privacy advocates have also pushed for -- seems the most secure solution going forward.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 7:28 AM | Permalink


Three Years On, Google's Trademark Usage Letters Become News Again

How long does it take the wheel to spin full circle on the internet? Apparently three years, judging from the outcry over Google's "new" move to send out trademark protection letters asking people to be careful about how they use the word Google.

We mentioned briefly about the Washington Post getting one of these letters last week. Since then, the Independent came out with its To google or not to google? It's a legal question article, stating:

But the California-based company is becoming concerned about trademark violation. A spokesman confirmed that it had sent the letters. "We think it's important to make the distinction between using the word Google to describe using Google to search the internet, and using the word Google to describe searching the internet. It has some serious trademark issues."

Is becoming? Change that to "has long been concerned," and it's accurate. Let's flashback to March 2003, and my Google Acts To Protect Trademark from that time:

Now Google's first publicized action to protect its trademark from being transformed into a generic word has occurred. The company sent what's now become a well-cited letter to Word Spy editor Paul McFedries asking him to identify Google as a trademark, after McFedries featured Google as a word of the day on his web site.

That letter to WordSpy produced the same type of discussion you now see breaking out in the blogosphere. Big bad Google, beating up on the little guy. Says Steve Rubel, for one:

Beyond the sheer legal issues, one of the places where this of course gets fuzzy is in the definition of "media." How in the world do they expect to enforce this when every blogger under the sun uses the phrase on his/her own sites? It's part of the pop culture.

This has to go down as one of the worst PR moves in history. They're getting all this free publicity and it's right on message. Google sounds like a big arrogant company that has forgotten its roots. That's too bad.

Reality check. Google's doing what it has to do as a trademark holder. The letters aren't legal threats. They are advice, requests, guidance -- which authors can generally ignore. Google's not expecting to "enforce" anything. It's acting to prove it has tried to protect its trademark from becoming a generic term.

As for the letters being one of the "worst PR moves in history," wow. If that's the case, then it's been a three-year long bad PR move that doesn't seem to have slowed down Google's popularity (Doug Edwards over at Xooglers talks about how the earlier furor on the letters passed back in 2003). Somehow, I think things like heavily censoring Chinese search results pose a larger PR problem than these letters for Google.

To underscore how long this has been going on, let's return to the famed WordSpy incident of 2003. WordSpy was sent this letter:

I am trademark counsel for Google. I have recently become aware of a definition of "google" on your website, www.wordspy.com. This definition implies that "google" is a verb synonymous with "search." Please note that Google is a trademark of Google Technology Inc. Our brand is very important to us, and as I'm sure you'll understand, we want to make sure that when people use "Google," they are referring to the services our company provides and not to Internet searching in general. I attach a copy of a short, informative piece regarding the proper use of "Google" for your reference.

We ask that you help us to protect our brand by deleting the definition of "google" found at wordspy.com or revising it to take into account the trademark status of Google.

WordSpy made note of Google as a trademark, and the situation was resolved. What if they hadn't have done that? Probably nothing. Since WordSpy wasn't using the word Google in a trademark sense (IE, trying to pass off a product or service as if it was from Google), trademark issues didn't apply to it.

The Washington Post mentioned it received not just a letter but usage guidance including the eyebrow raising (for some) use of the word "hottie:"

Appropriate: He ego-surfs on the Google search engine to see if he's listed in the results.

Inappropriate: He googles himself.

Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party.

Inappropriate: I googled that hottie.

WordSpy back in 2003 appears to have received this same guide. A comment at Google Morning Silicon Valley guided me to a New York Times article written in July of this year, where it cites Paul McFedries of WordSpy:

In his book "Word Spy," Paul McFedries writes that Google's attorneys send journalists who use google as a verb a stern letter that cites examples of appropriate ("I used Google to check out that guy I met at the party") and inappropriate ("I googled that hottie") uses.

So enough, please. Google hasn't gone on some new rampage. In fact, they reconfirmed for me they've been sending the same note since 2003. It's also something a large corporation has to do to protect their trademark, as Out-Law describes here.

Advising about usage is a completely different thing than launching lawsuits or sending actual cease-and-desist letters for making use of the word "pod" in a name (as Apple is currently doing) or putting "Mc" in front of things, as McDonalds has done. In fact, it's worth noting that in the three years since Google has sent such letters, it has never to my knowledge actually sued anyone for saying that something was googled.

What about the fact that Google was recently added as a verb to two more dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary (in June) and Merriam-Webster (in July). Shouldn't Google be upset with them?

Google's not, because neither definition defines Google as a generic term. Here's the Oxford one:

To use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet. trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using the Google search engine.

Here's Merriam-Webster:

To use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

In both cases, the definitions are specifically about using Google itself to do a search. That keeps Google happy, as Google told me:

When we were asked our view about being included, we said that because both dictionaries were defining 'Google' as using the Google search engine, not just searching generally on the internet, both were appropriate. We believe that the note is consistent with the dictionary definitions.

I disagree with the last part, however. The "note" of advice isn't consistent with the definitions. Let's go back to some of those inappropriate remarks:

Inappropriate: He googles himself.

Inappropriate: I googled that hottie.

They're appropriate if you inherently understand or mean these were done on Google -- and I think many people would indeed assume that to be the case. So maybe the guidance sheet needs some updating.

Overall, I think everyone knows that Google's trademark police face an uphill battle in having to send these types of letters out. But sadly, that's what the laws seems to require. I guess every three years, we can all get worked up into a state over them, despite the fact that people will keep on saying google as they please.

In the end, the letters will go out and the authors will continue to ignore them and write whatever they want to, as is their right.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 6:54 AM | Permalink


Google Maps Gets Coupons

Hmm? How do you prove to local merchants who lack tracking software or even web sites that search converts? Coupons! That's right, the conversion tracking tool that requires no internet connection, cookies or software has come to Google Maps.

Google provides more information on how merchants can get going with coupons at its local business center here (for those logged in with a Google Account). They're available for free to anyone with a local business listing on Google Maps.

How do you get those free local listing? Easy. If you're logged into Google, provide your real-world location information here (for the US, UK, Canada, China & Japan). Then a letter will get sent to that location with a PIN to verify your listing. Once that's added, you can assign coupons to your locations.

To kick things off, Google's already seeded the maps with coupons through a partnership with Valpak, as described more in the press release below. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any live and in the wild. It would have been nice if there was a feature added to Google Maps to search and indicate you want to see only businesses offering coupons. Heck, I don't even see consumer-facing help information about coupons offered yet at Google Maps.

Here are some details from press stories:

And here's the Google press release:

Print and Save – Coupons on Google Maps

Today, Google announced printable online coupons on Google Maps. When searching for local information, discount coupons from businesses are now displayed on Google Maps search results and business listing pages. These coupons can be printed out directly from a computer and redeemed at a physical store location of a neighborhood or local business. For users of Google Maps, coupons provide additional relevant business information and ultimately contribute to a better local search experience. For businesses, coupons provide another way to reach customers online.

Google has partnered with Valpak, one of the leading direct marketing companies in North America, to provide coupons from current Valpak advertisers on Google Maps. These coupons include savings from local businesses throughout the United States including dry cleaners, dentists, vets, pizza places, car washes, oil changes, handymen and home remodelers. New coupons from Valpak advertisers are added on a nightly basis to ensure the most recent offers are available immediately to consumers.

Coupons are available in Google Maps at no cost to businesses and consumers. Businesses simply need to log into the Local Business Center at Google Maps to enter in coupon information www.google.com/local/add. In addition, businesses can easily add or update their local business listings on Google Maps from the Local Business Center. Once coupon information is entered, the coupon is displayed on Google Maps within hours. Businesses do not need a web site to participate.

"We're very pleased to be the launch partner with Google to offer Valpak's print-at-home online coupons to more consumers and to give Valpak merchants valuable enhanced distribution tied to their existing listing on Google Maps." said Todd Leiser, Vice President and General Manager for Valpak.com, Valpak's online coupon portal. "Valpak's blue envelope has been a North American institution for nearly 40 years and has the type of real consumer value that is perfect to support Google's mission statement of organizing the world's information".

In addition, Google AdWords advertisers can use coupons through the Local Business Center. In the coming months, AdWords advertisers will be able to drive traffic to their coupons on Google Maps. By driving additional traffic to their coupons the advertiser can reach more customers.

To find a coupon for a business in your neighborhood please visit www.maps.google.com. For businesses who want to try coupons on Google Maps please visit www.google.com/local/add.

Postscript: Mike Buckley's gotten one of the ads going and describes the process over here. The coupons don't actually appear in the pop-up box on the map, as I thought. Instead, try this search. Look to the left-hand side, at the textual listings. See the word "Coupons >>" under each listing. Click on one like this, and you'll see how coupons are listed for display.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 15, 2006, 5:36 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 14, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today and over the weekend to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Microsoft Attacks Click Spam by Looking at Noisy Behavior
    Sites in search results that rank highly while serving visitors only ads are the target of a number of papers by Microsoft, submitted to the SIGIR 2006 conference held last week. Michael Hickins wrote about them in Microsoft: Noise Improves Search Results, and Jeremy Reimer adds more details in Microsoft Research Peers into Search. Both offer nice overviews of the papers presented by Microsoft at the conference, which cover topics such as query analysis, user behavior, and personalization. Eight of the thirteen papers are available at the Microsoft Research pages. If you are interested in how Microsoft might be ranking,...
  • Googlers Go For Pizza Stunt
    Via InsideGoogle, Feeding Google - Better than Pirates of the Caribbean is a video over at YouTube where start-up CambrianHouse decides to attract attention by delivering 1,000 pizzas to the Googleplex in Mountain View. Will the Googlers go for it? Yes, they do....
  • Beware: Is Your Hosting Provider Cloaking Paid Links On Your Site For Their Benefit?
    I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable on thread in our forums that shows how some hosts are inserting links on sites they host, without notifying the web site owner, and doing it via cloaking. Matt Cutts from Google looked deeper into the reported issue in the thread and said that "it looks like this webhost is cloaking." The web hosting company is placing paid links within the content using cloaking techniques. If you are worried about this for your site, then check the Google index for you site. You can use a Google site command "with a porn phrase...
  • Matt Cutts Confesses To Being GoogleGuy
    In Monday Morning Roundup, Rand Fishkin writes: Did anyone blog about Matt outing himself as GoogleGuy during SES? I believe his exact words were "I backed into that position." Nope, Rand -- I was surprised about the lack of reaction and blogging to that myself. I'm still doing post-show catch-up, but it hardly seemed to catch any buzz. Perhaps one of the industry's oldest secrets -- Matt Cutts being GoogleGuy -- was no longer a secret to most any longer....
  • Google To Build Data Center In India
    The Money Times reports that Google is continuing their efforts to build a data center in India. The data center will house e-mails, blogs, photos, documents and chat records and most likely be based in Andhra Pradesh state. Google has other offices in India, more on that here....
  • Another Tool Uses AOL Data For Search Term Research
    SEO Blackhat released a tool that uses AOL data, Hitwise figures and Overture's suggestion tool to figure out the search volume and click-through rate you can expect from a search phrase at the various search engines. Last week we reported on a more basic tool that did something similar but this new tool gives you an "estimate with some certainty how many clicks to expect for ranking anywhere in any search engine for any term." Basically, you go to this tool and enter in the number of searches you expect to be performed for a keyword phrase. Then after you...
  • Google To Allow Pornographic Movies In Google Video?
    TechCrunch wrote that Google has recently removed the term "pornographic" from the restrictions on uploading videos. It is now just a restriction on “obscene” material, with an added categorization for "mature and adult" content. TechCrunch also believes Google removed a checkbox confirmation that said, "video is not pornographic or obscene material." Philipp Lenssen also notes this, and added commentary by Donna Bogatin at News.com....
  • Yahoo Hires Away comScore Executive
    ClickZ reports that Yahoo has hired Peter Daboll, the president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix, to be the chief of insights and head of global market research at Yahoo. Daboll explains that his position was created at Yahoo to "bring together the external world of market research and the wealth of internal data that Yahoo collects." Peter Daboll will be reporting to Cammie Dunaway, Yahoo's chief marketing officer, in Sunnyvale, California....
  • New Keyword Suggestion Tool Uses AOL Data
    SEO Scoop spotted a new keyword suggestion tool that estimates the volume of traffic you can expect for a given query based on the AOL data slip up. Basically, the tool has data from March to May of this year, it then takes the market share figures of Google, Yahoo and MSN and multiples that by the AOL search volumes for those queries. Of course, you have the issue of people searching differently at different engines. AOL users are typically less tech savvy, when compared to Google users. So I wonder how accurate the estimates are?...
  • Chinese Government Opens Up Blogger Again
    CIO reports that after three years, the Chinese government has opened up access to Google's Blogger. Why did they reopen access? Well, no one really knows. Maybe it is because restricting access to Blogger won't stop people from starting blogs with other software?...
  • Google Looking For Canadian R&D Office
    Globe and Mail reports that Google is looking for office space in the southern part of Ontario, Canada. The new office will house as many as 200 employees, and be focused around research and development....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

NOTE: Headlines are extra long today because I'm doing some catch-up from last week.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 14, 2006, 4:48 PM | Permalink


Microsoft Attacks Click Spam by Looking at Noisy Behavior

Sites in search results that rank highly while serving visitors only ads are the target of a number of papers by Microsoft, submitted to the SIGIR 2006 conference held last week. Michael Hickins wrote about them in Microsoft: Noise Improves Search Results, and Jeremy Reimer adds more details in Microsoft Research Peers into Search.

Both offer nice overviews of the papers presented by Microsoft at the conference, which cover topics such as query analysis, user behavior, and personalization. Eight of the thirteen papers are available at the Microsoft Research pages. If you are interested in how Microsoft might be ranking, and reranking, pages based upon measurements of human behavior, you may want to dive into some of these papers. A good starting point might be Learning User Interaction Models for Predicting Web Search Result Preferences (pdf), which details their approach to seeing how users' clicks and other activities might help them predict preferences for web search results.

Posted by Bill Slawski on August 14, 2006, 3:27 PM | Permalink


Googlers Go For Pizza Stunt

Via InsideGoogle, Feeding Google - Better than Pirates of the Caribbean is a video over at YouTube where start-up CambrianHouse decides to attract attention by delivering 1,000 pizzas to the Googleplex in Mountain View. Will the Googlers go for it? Yes, they do.

Will security stop the feeding frenzy? Eventually, but only after the Google chefs come out of the cafeteria to call them in. To be fair to security, from what I can tell, CambrianHouse seems to have set up in a side parking lot rather than in the middle of the Googleplex. I think that would have got security out faster.

Anyway, got better things to do than watch the video? Sure. But it's still kind of funny. More from CambrianHouse here. Can't be bothered to click on the link above to see the video? Fine -- watch it embedded below:

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 14, 2006, 1:33 PM | Permalink


Beware: Is Your Hosting Provider Cloaking Paid Links On Your Site For Their Benefit?

I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable on thread in our forums that shows how some hosts are inserting links on sites they host, without notifying the web site owner, and doing it via cloaking. Matt Cutts from Google looked deeper into the reported issue in the thread and said that "it looks like this webhost is cloaking." The web hosting company is placing paid links within the content using cloaking techniques.

If you are worried about this for your site, then check the Google index for you site. You can use a Google site command "with a porn phrase such as [site:www.mydomainc.com porn] or [site:www.mydomainc.com sex] and see what comes up."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 14, 2006, 12:06 PM | Permalink


Matt Cutts Confesses To Being GoogleGuy

In Monday Morning Roundup, Rand Fishkin writes:

Did anyone blog about Matt outing himself as GoogleGuy during SES? I believe his exact words were "I backed into that position."

Nope, Rand -- I was surprised about the lack of reaction and blogging to that myself. I'm still doing post-show catch-up, but it hardly seemed to catch any buzz. Perhaps one of the industry's oldest secrets -- Matt Cutts being GoogleGuy -- was no longer a secret to most any longer.

I moderated the panel, and the confession came out when a member of the audience flat out asked Matt if he was GoogleGuy. Matt hesitated just a moment, and I could swear I could almost hear the internal debate of "should I finally confess or not." And then he did, saying as Rand notes that he sort of backed into being the GoogleGuy who posts on forums and blogs. Matt then added that today, GoogleGuy might be one of many different people from Google commenting in public areas.

Matt's been blogging for just over a year now, and it's been great to have him out under his own name. Personally, while I love the Google Guy name, I sort of hope it gets retired. I'd rather have Googlers taking part in conversations under their own names than through anonymous handles. Plus, it would help avoid things where the named person might comment on something they've also posted under an anonymous handle. As I wrote last year:

Matt Cutts, posting over Threadwatch and sounding pretty in sync with GoogleGuy, explains that msn.com is a PR8 site and points to the Future PageRank checker at SEO Tools as a way to see this.

(At this point, you're asking "Isn't Matt Cutts GoogleGuy?" For the record, Matt's never publicly laid claim to being GoogleGuy. But since Matt's more active on commenting with things these days, I think it's well time that GoogleGuy step forward with a real name, so that if they are one and the same, there's isn't confusion that two different people are talking.

Honestly, at some point we'll have someone citing GoogleGuy, then someone citing Matt against GoogleGuy, which is absurd if they are the same. I and many others do know the real identity of GoogleGuy. I think it's well time everyone knows and hope GoogleGuy will step forward).

By the way, if you missed the panel, Blogging for the search engines from Melanie Colburn at Searchblog is a very nice summary of it. Matt also made many new friends at the last conference and today blogs on how to tell who the real ones are :)  That includes these two founding members of his fan club, complete with T-shirts. He also gets search god status on the new Men Of SEO blog.

Postscript: WebmasterWorld's Brett Tabke pinged me to say that Matt's been wearing a "Google Guy" name badge at PubCon for the past two years now, and Thomas Bindl notes this was the case last November at the show, as well. So I guess Matt's been out as GoogleGuy long before this. Then again, despite wearing that name badge in front of plenty of people, he still wasn't fessing up to it when I or others would ask him about going public. And over at Rand's blog in the comments, Matt's suggesting that he was answering a different question.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 14, 2006, 11:54 AM | Permalink


Google To Build Data Center In India

The Money Times reports that Google is continuing their efforts to build a data center in India. The data center will house e-mails, blogs, photos, documents and chat records and most likely be based in Andhra Pradesh state. Google has other offices in India, more on that here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 14, 2006, 9:14 AM | Permalink


Another Tool Uses AOL Data For Search Term Research

SEO Blackhat released a tool that uses AOL data, Hitwise figures and Overture's suggestion tool to figure out the search volume and click-through rate you can expect from a search phrase at the various search engines. Last week we reported on a more basic tool that did something similar but this new tool gives you an "estimate with some certainty how many clicks to expect for ranking anywhere in any search engine for any term." Basically, you go to this tool and enter in the number of searches you expect to be performed for a keyword phrase. Then after you hit update, the page shows you what your expected click through rate would be for that search term at the various engines by position.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 14, 2006, 9:07 AM | Permalink


Google To Allow Pornographic Movies In Google Video?

TechCrunch wrote that Google has recently removed the term "pornographic" from the restrictions on uploading videos. It is now just a restriction on “obscene” material, with an added categorization for "mature and adult" content. TechCrunch also believes Google removed a checkbox confirmation that said, "video is not pornographic or obscene material." Philipp Lenssen also notes this, and added commentary by Donna Bogatin at News.com.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 14, 2006, 9:01 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Hires Away comScore Executive

ClickZ reports that Yahoo has hired Peter Daboll, the president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix, to be the chief of insights and head of global market research at Yahoo. Daboll explains that his position was created at Yahoo to "bring together the external world of market research and the wealth of internal data that Yahoo collects." Peter Daboll will be reporting to Cammie Dunaway, Yahoo's chief marketing officer, in Sunnyvale, California.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 14, 2006, 8:50 AM | Permalink

See More Posts From:

This Week | This Month