January 31, 2006
More on Google's Guy in D.C.
Back in October we pointed out that Google was opening a lobbying office in D.C. Today, Matt Marshall in Silicon Beat points to an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscribers only) about Google and other tech company lobbying efforts in D.C. The post is titled: Google's one employee in Washington. The WSJ article itself includes comments from Alan Davidson, Google's D.C. employee, who says the company will soon grow its DC operation and who has already hired an outside lobbying firm to handle tax issues.
"Carrier control over Internet activity is bad for consumers," counters Alan Davidson, a telecom lawyer hired by Google last summer to build the company's Washington office. The proposal would stifle innovation of Internet services, he says. It also might add to Google's operating costs. "We're not worried consumers won't be able to reach Google. The real threat is to the next Google and to the services that are important for consumers," he says.
The hiring of Mr. Davidson, who served as associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit civil-liberties group, underscores Google's recognition that it can no longer ignore Washington. Recently, Mr. Davidson hired an outside lobbying firm to handle tax issues. He says he plans on "bulking up the operation" soon, characterizing a Google fight against the Bells as "a David-versus-Goliath story."
Postscript: If you're interested in tracking lobbying efforts by Google and other companies and organizations, a service such as PoliticalMoneyLine can be a big help. Most services are fee-based but others are free.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 31, 2006 |
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A Possible Clue into Google's P2P Future?
The Searchblog post, "Google Going P2P?" points out what might be about a possible clue into what Google's plans in P2P arena. The post mentions that Sharelive was a file sharing service that shutdown in 2005 and documents some other clues. Of course, as a couple of comments on this post note that it could also be a dead end lead. Why? Here's some quick sleuthing that I was able to do. 1) Sharelive.com has pointed to Google.com for some time. I used the WHOIS.sc Historical Database to check this out.
2) As noted in a Searchblog comment, lots of sites web forward/re-direct to Google after they go offline or just because they want to point their IP to Google. Here are two examples: SouthWalesAutoSalvage.com and Support-Reverse-Smileys.com
3) The current domain name registration info been in place since approximately May, 2004 and is registered to WhoisGuard. Interesting, this might be something but it's out of the norm for Google. Why? Google often "holds" domains (before something new is launcehd) with a service named Data Docket and registers the domain through MarkMonitor. This domain was registered by enmom.
Stay tuned.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 31, 2006 |
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Google Releases Q4 2005 Earnings
Google has released their Q4 2005 earnings as covered in this news release.
From the news release:
"We are very pleased with our results for the fourth quarter as we achieved excellent performance across our businesses," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. "We generated significant revenue growth in our core search and advertising business, driven by continued strength in traffic and monetization. We will continue to invest significantly as we develop innovative new products and as we extend our core technologies to new user access points and to different channels." From CNNMoney.com:
Google reported fourth-quarter sales, excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC), the revenue that Google shares with advertising partners, of $1.29 billion. That was in line with expectations. But John Aiken, an analyst with Majestic Research, an independent research firm, said earlier Tuesday that Google would probably need to report sales of $1.37 billion to impress Wall Street. And more alarming to investors, the company posted earnings per share, excluding the effect of stock options costs and research and development-related charges, of $1.54 a share, well below analysts' consensus estimates of $1.76 a share.
From the Google Q4 Earnings News Release (also includes 2005 financial highlights):
+ GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $372 million as compared to $381 million in the third quarter. Non-GAAP net income was $469 million, compared to $437 million in the third quarter.
+ GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter was $1.22 on 304 million diluted shares outstanding, compared to $1.32 for the third quarter, on 290 million diluted shares outstanding. Non-GAAP EPS was $1.54, compared to $1.51 in the third quarter.
+ Google reported revenues of $1.919 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, an increase of 86% compared to the fourth quarter of 2004 and an increase of 22% compared to the third quarter of 2005. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs, or TAC. In the fourth quarter, TAC totaled $629 million, or 33% percent of advertising revenues.
Revenues:
+ Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $1.098 billion, or 57% of total revenues. This represents a 24% increase over the third quarter revenues of $885 million.
+ Google Network Revenues - Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $799 million, or 42% of total revenues. This is an 18% increase over network revenues of $675 million generated in the third quarter.
+ International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States contributed 38% of total revenues, compared to 39% in the third quarter of 2005 and 35% in the fourth quarter of 2004. International revenues reflected the unfavorable impact caused by the appreciation of the U.S. dollar and stronger seasonal trends in the U.S. relative to the international business.
+ TAC - Traffic Acquisition Costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google's partners, increased to $629 million in the fourth quarter. This compares to TAC of $530 million in the third quarter. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues decreased to 33.2% in the fourth quarter from 34.0% in the third quarter, reflecting primarily the continued shift in our revenue mix from Google network revenue to Google-owned site revenue.
Cash
+ As of December 31, 2005, Google had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $8.0 billion.
Employees
+ Google employed 5,680 full time employees as of December 31, 2005, up from 4,989 as of September 30, 2005 and 3,021 as of December 31, 2004.
From CNNMoney:
During a conference call with analysts, Google chief financial officer George Reyes said that earnings took a hit largely due to a larger than expected tax rate that Google had to pay...Reyes added that Google's sales were hit by unfavorable currency comparisons. Revenue would have been better if not for a strengthening dollar, he said...[Eric] Schmidt also stressed that Google would continue to spend heavily on research and development in order to remain an innovative company. "We invest with a long-term view of the business. We are going to make some really big bets," he said.
From Dow Jones:
"To me, it was a very solid quarter," agreed Google bull Safa Rashtchy, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. "I'm not disappointed at all. We knew the point would come when operations would match expectations."
From News.com:
The company is focused on the continued growth opportunities in Internet advertising and in international sales, said Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. "Most important, we believe the rate of innovation will increase in 2006 as we continue to bring the most talented minds into Google and our unique innovative model delivers amazing new products," he told analysts in the conference call...Almost all of Google's revenue comes from advertisements that appear on search result pages and on partner Web sites. Advertising on Google-owned sites generated 57 percent of total revenue, while partner sites generated 42 percent.
From AP:
Substantially higher expenses also weighed on Google's earnings. For instance, the company spent $155 million on sales and marketing during the fourth quarter, more than doubling the $76 million spent last year. The company also hired nearly 700 more workers during the fourth quarter, expanding its payroll to 5,680 employees.
From Bloomberg:
"I was somewhat astonished'' at Google's stock decline, Chief Financial Officer George Reyes said in an interview. "We're here to build a business for the long term. We'll take this quarter in stride."
Postscript: From Business 2.0 and Om Malik
"Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Northern California and elsewhere are shrugging off the fourth-quarter earnings miss that drove shares down 12 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday. For a company that has grown at breakneck speed, single-handedly revived the online advertising industry, and touched off a new wave of entrepreneurial activity in the Valley, it's just growing pains, they say.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 31, 2006 |
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Heavy.com Launches "Super-Banned Bowl"
This outta attract some eyeballs.
Heavy.com has just announced a line-up of banned Super Bowl ads. Highlights include the GoDaddy "director's cut" and two PETA spots, "Milk Gone Wild" and "Sausage."
Heavy.com's David Carson quipped, "The Super-Banned Bowl is for those companies and organizations who were denied their inalienable right to spend millions of dollars for 30 seconds of glory during the Super Bowl."
Daily SearchCast, Jan. 31, 2006: Google Toolbar 4 With Bookmarking Out; How Google Censors In China; Google's EvilRank Scale; Keyword Searching Through Broadcast News & More!
Today's search podcast covers a new version of the Google Toolbar with
bookmarking features being released; how Google does censorship in China; how
Google did an evil scale to decide on the China issue; keyword search broadcast
news with new TVEyes service 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. Below are links with more information about the stories that were
discussed.
Google Working On Goobuntu Linux Project, Fuels New OS Rumors
The Register is reporting in
Google at work on desktop Linux that Google has confirmed it is working on a
desktop Linux project called "Goobuntu." What exactly is the project? No further
details have been released. Since Ubuntu is
a Linux operating system release, speculation is that this might be a Google
play for releasing its own computer operating system. Or, it could be something
used by engineers internally, The Register suggests. For related coverage, see
this thread at
Memeorandum.
Postscript:
Google denies
plans to distribute OS based on Ubuntu from Ars Technica covers more on how
this is an internal Linux OS used by Google and which the company says it has no
plans to distribute to the public.
Google, Microsoft Say No To US Congressional Briefing On Chinese Censorship
Google won't talk to Congress about China from the San Francisco Chronicle
covers Google declining an invitation to appear before the US Congressional
Rights Caucus to discuss Chinese censorship. Microsoft's not going either;
Yahoo's still debating. A different hearing in congress also scheduled for later
this month. So far, Yahoo is the only company that's agreed to attend that one.
Hilton Journeys Branding Site in Holding Pattern
How much time would you spend waiting to immersing yourself in a brand? The new Hilton Journeys Flash-heavy site bears the tagline, "Travel should take you places."
Unfortunatly, the pleasing to look at site doesnt' take you anyplace quickly at all. Sections entitled Pamper, Empower and Entertain contain some nice features (create a dance move, send a photo to a friend), but are so slow to load, many are going to complete the voyage.
Nice shot at appealing to Hilton's carefully identified target audience segments. What they need -- and what the site doesn't deliver -- is a reason to stick around.
HighBeam Launches New Contextual Ad Program
HighBeam Research announced HighBeam Advertiser Directb today. The new program offers CPC programs for advertisers on the company's research results pages. Ads appear in sponsored link sections at above and belowof search results, and also near the text of contextually relevant articles.
Burger Queen
 CP+B continues its Burger King/Brooke Burke paparazzi parody, begun here and furthered here.
The two are now engaged, so the next logical step in the viral ploy is either baby or break-up. And since you know a baby would be nixed by both client and supermodel, my money's on skidsville next month for the King and Queen.
You're welcome Burger King. This blog's new motto: putty in CP+B's hairless, tanning oil-greased hands.
Posted by Zachary Rodgers on Jan. 31, 2006 |
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Bloggers have options, but where's the money?
Google's looking to improve it's standing with bloggers by offering up some AdSense tips for bloggers. The Inside AdSense blog shares tips for choosing ad size and placement, targeting and customizing ads. In addition to competing for publishers with the "old-school" blog ad networks (did I just call blog ad networks old-school?) like BlogAds and Pheedo, Google is also running up against Yahoo!, with its growing and soon-to-leave-beta Yahoo! Publishers Network, and MSN, at least on its MSN Spaces sites for now, but likely in a broader implementation in the spring when AdCenter launches.
In addition, there are the smaller competitors like Kanoodle, Miva and ValueClick, and even more competition coming from behavioral targeting providers like Tacoda, Revenue Science, and 24/7 Real Media.
So you'd think, with all of these options, that bloggers are all making money. Only they're not.
Anyone care to share their thoughts about what's missing in the equation?
Spoken-Word TV Content Search
TVEyes has launched a "Spoken Word Index" that "crawls" every word in an audio or video file. So now, you can search Web TV for content -- well, at present only news content, but you can imagine the possibilities.
The TV search engine currently searches foxnews.com, cnn.com, msnbc.com, cbsnews.com, reuters.com and news.bbc.co.uk. Once you find clips containing your keyword, you can play video clips containing that keyword for verification before moving on to the news site to view or download the entire file.
TVEyes is encouraging content owners to make their sites available for indexing.
Good Book Pre-loaded on USB Thumb Drives
If Google can cut a deal to pre-load its products on USB drives, then why can't God? (via MIT Advertising Lab)
Posted by Zachary Rodgers on Jan. 31, 2006 |
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January 30, 2006
Mazda vs. Pontiac
Many bloggers had noted Pontiac's regional TV ads which ended by asking people to "Google Pontiac." Now, Danny notes how Mazda has been taking advantage by running paid search ads that show up for the query. Very nice, Mazda.
Posted by Pamela Parker on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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But does it sell cars?
 Land Rover North America is out with a new marketing effort that aims to show off what the vehicle can do. The centerpiece of the campaign, a TV spot, was filmed in a network of aqueducts underneath the city of Tokyo. The director was Jordan Scott, daughter of the famed Ridley. Sounds pretty cool.
So what do they do online? They are taking viewers "behind the scenes" of the commercial shoot, including documentary footage, still photos and interviews with the crew. (Though I wasn't able to verify this because landroverusa.com, where the content is supposed to be housed, isn't showcasing it at the moment.)
"In today's world of technologically-advanced TV production, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to determine what's real and what's computer-generated in advertising, so we're providing behind-the-scenes information and footage on our website. Here the viewers will come to understand that what they are seeing is completely real and not a dramatization," said Sally Eastwood, vice president, marketing, Land Rover North America.
Fine, if you're looking to sell a movie or looking to attract advertising geeks. But will it sell Land Rovers?
Posted by Pamela Parker on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Patent Watch: Yahoo Awarded Patent, Microsoft Has Patent Application Published
Here's info about a one patent recently awarded to Yahoo on determing similarity between documents along with recently published patent application by Microsoft dealing with browsing info on the mobile web.
U.S. Patent Awarded to Yahoo
Title: Method and apparatus for measuring similarity among electronic documents
Awarded: Jan 24, 2006
Filed: June 14, 1999 Abstract:
A method and apparatus are provided for determining when electronic documents stored in a large collection of documents are similar to one another. A plurality of similarity information is derived from the documents. The similarity information may be based on a variety of factors, including hyperlinks in the documents, text similarity, user click-through information, similarity in the titles of the documents or their location identifiers, and patterns of user viewing. The similarity information is fed to a combination function that synthesizes the various measures of similarity information into combined similarity information. Using the combined similarity information, an objective function is iteratively maximized in order to yield a generalized similarity value that expresses the similarity of particular pairs of documents. In an embodiment, the generalized similarity value is used to determine the proper category, among a taxonomy of categories in an index, cache or search system, into which certain documents belong.
Microsoft Patent Application
Title: Mobile information services
Filed: September 15, 2005
Abstract:
Mobile communications devices display contextually relevant information based on the presence, status, and identification of a user. Lens templates control how the information is displayed and can be customized and designed for specific usage profiles. The lenses that are used can be updated at any time to accommodate changes in a user's presence. The granularity of the lenses and corresponding information can also vary to accommodate different needs and preferences. Lenses can also be specialized for different events or venues. The lenses allow a user to access contextually relevant information from a mobile communications device having limited display and/or browse capabilities without requiring a user to navigate through undesired information, wasting valuable resources in the process.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Sharing and Sending Web Content and More Via SMS
I'm constantly sending reminders to myself and others via SMS (text messaging). In today's SearchDay overview of the new Google Toolbar 4 for IE (beta), Chris points out that a new feature built into the toolbar allows the user to send web content via SMS (or via Gmail or Blogger) to any other SMS user in the U.S. Very cool! Google also offers a "Send to Phone" (U.S. numbers only) extension for Firefox.
Another service that you might want to check out (also free) is called Vazu. This service requires a small app (free) and allows the user to cut and paste text from web pages, send files, images, and more via SMS to anyone with access to SMS in the U.S. or Canada. Sending content is free with Vazu but of course, make sure you know how much your wireless plan charges to receive messages. With non-text material you'll need to also have a mobile web browser to view an image or download a file.
More about the phone providers that Vazu is compatible with here. You can even integrate with Outlook. The Vazu client app is available for Windows (2000 or XP) and a widget is available for Mac OS X. The service is compatible with IE and Firefox. Btw, IE users will also want to check out the often useful "Contact Detector" feature.
Also, Yahoo Local and Yahoo Maps, and Yahoo Shopping also provide a send-to-phone features that let the user to receive driving directions, merchant info, and pricing data via SMS. Look for the "Send to Phone" link. More info here.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Google Has Plans to Open R&D Office in Israel
In June, we blogged that Google planned to open a business office in Israel. Today, news that Google is in the process of also opening an R&D center there. A story in The Marker Online (an Israeli business newspapers) says that's what Sergey Brin told the paper at the World Economic Development Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Israel has a very active IT seen.
For example, well-known vertical search company that's based Israel is Answers.com. Thank you (Todah robah, as they say in Hebrew) to Uri at the ICT blog for the tip.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Mazda Taps Into Pontiac TV & Search Ads Again
Remember the
post earlier about Pontiac telling people to search for them on Google? What
I loved especially about that was it reminded me of Gregory Markel over at
Infuse Creative telling me how he
helped Pontiac-competitor Mazda drive a benefit off a similar campaign that
Pontiac did with Yahoo last year. Now history repeats once again. Last year on The Apprentice, Pontiac used a programming tie-in to tell people
to look them up on Yahoo, where Yahoo had inserted some type of Yahoo
Shortcut-style link.
Gregory noticed this link came below the sponsored search results -- and if I
recall correctly, Pontiac hadn't bought any of those. So he got Mazda into that
space. For a few thousand dollars, he tapped into traffic from a product
placement set-up that cost over a million, if I recall. He's actually got an
awesome little video I want him to show publicly that explains it all very well
with voiceovers, music and images.
Today, John Battelle
notes that Mazda has bought a sponsored link on Google to come up for those
Pontiac-driven searches.
Miata vs Pontiac Solstice
Exclusive test-drive invitation for
a New MX-5 Miata. Sign up now!
MX5NoComparison.com
Mazda's bought Yahoo, as well
Compare MX-5 Miata to Solstice
www.mx5nocomparison.com Sign up to receive an exclusive invitation to
test-drive a new 2006 MX-5 Miata.
Andrew Goodman breaks down the comparative advertising campaign more
here. Meanwhile, self-confessed data geek Bill Tancer over at Hitwise
couldn't resist looking at traffic to the Pontiac site over time. You can see
how the TV mentions to check Yahoo last year and Google this year drove traffic
to Pontiac. He also shows how the site that received the most "pontiac" searches
on search engines after Pontiac was -- yep, Mazda.
All this brings me back to something that came up at our
Future Of Search
Engine Marketing panel at SES Chicago last month. While several of the
search marketers said that they were getting money formerly devoted to TV, none
of them wanted TV spending to be cut entirely. TV drives search traffic, which
in turn helps them.
That got me to wonder/observe to the audience if we'll see a change coming
over the next year or so. Instead of people wondering how search can tie into
other campaigns, maybe we'll see search become the primary target of a campaign.
In other words, Pontiac someday might plan to do a big search buy and want to
ensure they drive traffic to support that -- so television, radio, outdoors will
all be purchases to push search.
Google Created EvilRank Scale To Decide On Chinese Censorship
Via
Good Morning Silicon Valley, "Google
CEO on censoring: 'We did an evil scale'" from InfoWorld has Google CEO Eric
Schmidt explaining at the Davos World Economic Forum that Google spent over a
year debating what to do on China, including creating an "evil scale" to help
with the decision.
Apparently, not being in China at all would have been a 10 on the EvilRank
scale while bending to Chinese censorship demands was somewhat less evil than
that (ER2? ER7?).
OK, so no actual number range on the scale was outlined by Schmidt, who
explained:
"We concluded that although we weren't wild about the restrictions, it was
even worse to not try to serve those users at all," Schmidt said. "We actually
did an evil scale and decided not to serve at all was worse evil."
So there you have it. Official confirmation that the motto can now be changed
from "Don't Be Evil" to "Try Not To Be Evil" or perhaps "Choose The Least Evil."
I'm also getting tired of the entire spin that this was a choice between
Google serving users in China or not, some binary decision, some off-on choice
Google was faced with. It wasn't. Google has not once suggested that failure to
bend to Chinese censorship demands meant that Google would not have been
available in China at all.
Yes, China had blocked searches at Google. The Google Blog recently
explained
this happened to those in China about 10 percent of the time. But that's a far
different situation than the suggestion Google was somehow completely
inaccessible, and so censorship was the only course that could be followed. In
fact, China still allows Google to continue offering an uncensored version at
sites other than Google China, such as Google.com. So it clearly wasn't a case
that Google couldn't be in China at all.
I've done some more deconstruction of the Google Blog's explanation for the
censorship moves at the SEW Forums starting
here. Feel free to comment yourself in that thread.
New Study Reports that Search Sites Provides Twice the Conversion Rate When Compared With Other Acquisition Sources
The Dow Jones story: Search Sites Better At Getting Shoppers To Buy: Study, reports on new research from WebSideStory that shows search engines (both paid and organic listings) provide more than twice the conversion rates than other forms of Internet advertising and marketing. However, direct navigation offered the highest conversion rate. The sites used in the study cover five product categories.
From the article:
The study defines conversion rate as the percentage of visitors to a site who view an ad or clicking on a search result and purchase a product or service.
Numbers
Search
Search Sites had a conversion rate of 2.3%, meaning that for every 100 consumers clicking on a search result or advertisement, 2.3 people made a purchase.
Other Forms of Internet Marketing
Banner ads, affiliate marketing links, comparison shopping search sites* and other online marketing efforts had a conversion rate of 0.96%.
* Note, that shopping engines are not considered in the main search category.
Search Bypass: Direct Navigation/Bookmarks
Direct to a company's web site (including via a bookmark) offered a
conversion rate of 4.23%.
Where did the data come from:
The study collected data from Web sites that sell apparel, toys, electronics, sporting goods and leisure products. Among the most successful were toy sites. When reached through a search engine, they had a conversion rate of 4.85% while Web sites selling computers and electronics had a conversion rate of 1.35%, the study found.
The sites used in the study generate more than $3 billion in annual sales online in five categories listed above.
This news release from WebSideStory has more including precise definitions for each category.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Vaseline Takes On Groundhog Day
When you hear Groundhog Day, is Vaseline the first thing you think about? Me either. But Vaseline sees the connection: if winter is longer, everyone needs more moisturizer. Hence the brand's "Moisture Obsessive" groundhog game where you get to throw snowballs at Punxsutawney's favorite pet Phil, and some of the locals. Parent company Unilever promises to give every American a free bottle of lotion if Phil sees his shadow on Thursday.
Posted by Enid Burns on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Everyone Wants to be Match.com
In the fall nutrition site eDiets.com hired Donat/Wald, Match.com's ad agency of record, to create a new campaign that was not unlike the popular dating site. This week, executive recruiting firm TheLadders.com launched a redesign of its Web site. The pitch? It's "very similar to Match.com."
There's nothing wrong with finding a model and emulating it, and it's commendable that these firms are public about revealing where they got inspiration for their new creatives. The dating site clearly has done something enviably right.
Posted by Enid Burns on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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New "Bird's Eye" Imagery for Detroit Added to MSN Live Local Database
On Friday, I posted about a new blog where users share interesting locations and things people have found while the MSN's Live Local Bird's Eye imagery. I'm still awaiting an answer from MSN about any new cities and/or regions that have been added to the service since it launched in December. However, we've learned via this MSN Virtual Earth Team Blog post that imagery is now available for the Detroit are, home of the Super Bowl this Sunday, Motown music, and the city where I earned my MLIS degree at Wayne St. University. A list of the cities and areas where offer Bird's Eye imagery is also available can be found in our first post about Windows Live Local.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Too Violent for Microsoft's Xbox 360
The Raw Feed pointed to an ad for the Microsoft Xbox 360 that didn't pass Microsoft's approval, reportedly due to its potential to encourage mass violence.
It features people in a busy train station playing shooter with hilarious affect. While gamers likely won't see the potential violence factor as a problem, it's possible the rest of the population might not see the humor in the suggestion this ad presents. It's been turned down by Microsoft and now is destined to live a full life on the Web.
Posted by Enid Burns on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Microsoft Sees the Future in IM
Microsoft enlisted Fallon to create a microsite to promote MSN Messenger 7.5. Dubbed ESPBilly, the site is billed as "An MSN Messenger Films Production. The episodic series features actor Ricky Jay (Deadwood) as a cynical but dead-on fortune teller who advises a college student on his life's questions via MSN Messenger.
The pilot plays out on its own, but the three episodes play like a "choose-your-own webisode" video. I watched the first one. But when I clicked to see the alternate outcome, my newly updated MSN Messenger crashed.
It's a well put-together site, but possibly missing a few key elements. Visitors can sign up for MSN Alerts, e-mail updates and even RSS, but there's no way to send an e-mail -- or given the platform, an IM -- to a friend.
Posted by Enid Burns on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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About/NBC Blog
Another sign the pace of change in digital media has hit ludicrous speed: a "we’re blogging" announcement seems quaint.
Under a cross-promotional deal, NBCOlympics.com will link to About pages, and About will promote the NBC site to its users. Both parties will publish a blog written by About’s James Martin.
In other news, my mother has started a blog, and she’ll be linking to a few of my posts here. We’re getting approval on the press release now.
Posted by Zachary Rodgers on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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Kanoodle Gets MSN Spaces Contextual Deal
Kanoodle has
announced
it will be providing contextual ads to the MSN
Spaces service. What's odd about this is that MSN has their own contextual
ads program apparently in the works (see
here
and here
at JenSense). Then again, it could be that Kanoodle will serve as a stop-gap for
MSN until it has its own program online, when Kanoodle might then shift to being
backfill.
A Picture Says 1000 Words About Google's Censorship In China
Plenty are writing and writing about Google's agreement to censor results for
China. But pictures perhaps better illustrate the differences that Google now
endorses.
Google
Images Censors Too in China from Google Blogoscoped shows you how a search
for [tiananmen square] on Google Images China provides happy scenes while over
at uncensored Google Images, there are tanks rolling in.
I took a look for just [tiananmen] at
Google Images China versus
Google Images. Here's a
side-by-side:
No, that little bit of text above the images at Google Images China is not a
disclosure. That does appear but at the bottom of the page.
By the way, spell
tianamen wrong, and you'll get uncensored results on Google China. Be
forewarned, one of these images will be of a dead person in Tiananmen Square
after the protest there was crushed.
How Google
Censors Itself For China & Paid Exclusion As Being Evil explains more about
how a misspelling might cause a failure in the automatic censorship filters that
Google itself has created to please China.
Want to comment or discuss? Visit the
Google Agrees To Chinese Censorship at our Search Engine Watch Forums.
Google Toolbar Version 4 Now Available
Google has upgraded its toolbar for Internet Explorer, adding new search features, online bookmarks, custom buttons that can be configured for a number of tasks, and some sharing tools. More on the new toolbar in today's SearchDay article, Google Releases Upgraded Toolbar.
Posted by Chris Sherman on Jan. 30, 2006 |
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January 29, 2006
Google's Help Center Page About Censorship Back Online With New Text
Last week I blogged that the Google Help Center page dealing with censorship was unavailable when I went looking for it after reading this post on Google Blogoscoped. Then, GB picked up on my post with additional info and commentary.
As of this moment (3pm) the Google Help Center page titled, "Does Google censor search results?" is back online with new text that says Google's policy is not to censor but it some cases due to, "local laws, regulations, or policies" they may censor. The text also points out that when results are removed a notice is displayed (exceptions might exist, based on date). The full text of the page now reads:
It is Google's policy not to censor search results. However, in response to local laws, regulations, or policies, we may do so. When we remove search results for these reasons, we display a notice on our search results pages. Please note: For some older removals (before March 2005), we may not show a notice at this time.
Previously, the page read:
“Google does not censor results for any search term. The order and content of our results are completely automated; we do not manipulate our search results by hand. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the web to determine the inclusion and ranking of sites in our search results. To learn more about Google’s search technology, please visit http://www.google.com/technology/index.html”
Screen caps of the Help Center page with the "old" text are available here or here.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 29, 2006 |
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AOL's "(Quick) Answer" Feature On Web Results Pages
Although we've blogged many times about search engines becoming answer engines for some types of queries with a variety of tools and services including Google "Q&A", MSN "Instant Answers", Ask Jeeves "Smart Answers", and Yahoo Wikipedia shortcuts, we haven't mentioned AOL's (quick) answer feature found at the top of some web results pages. An AOL (quick) answer should not be confused with AOL "Snapshot" that provides facts, stats, links, etc. to related content from other web sites (including Time Warner properties) that have been assembled by human editors. Here's an example of an AOL Snapshot.
A (quick) answer comes from material autonomously mined from open web sources like Wikipedia, CIA World Factbook, IMDB, and other sites delivered at the very top of a web results page.
Examples:
+ President of Harvard University
+ Capital of France
+ Director of Spiderman
(quick) answer is powered by technology from Teragram based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their website offers info on the specific technology that AOL users to power (quick) answer (called Direct Answer) along info about other categorization and taxonomy technology they market.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 29, 2006 |
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Related Phrases Now Part of Google's Define: Feature
Philipp asks if a feature from Google that provides links to "related phrases" when you search for web-based definitions using "define:[foo]" is new. Nice catch P.L., not sure if it's new or a test (I'm checking) but it's something I haven't spotted before. Clicking a related phrase link runs another define: search for that specific phrase. Danny recently posted about a UI test that offers refinement keywords on web results pages.
Examples:
+ Define:Google
+ Define:search engine
+ define:san francisco
+ Define:olympics
In this case the related phrases seemed random. For example, why "1956 Olympics" but not "1976 Olympics"? Why "canada at the 2004 olympics" but not "Canada at the 2000 Olympics?
I also tried searching with personal names to see if the service would return other people who are/were related in one way or another.
Examples:
+ Define:"Danny Sullivan" or Define:Danny Sullivan
Other search experts? Other race car drivers? Nothing.
+ Define:"Thomas Jefferson"
Places and things relating to TJ are listed but individuals who are linked in some way (Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, etc.) are not.
+ Define:Peter Jackson
An entry for the director of King Kong and The Lord of the Rings trilogy is provided but others like stars of the films, producers, writers, etc. are not listed.
Similar Services
Yahoo
I've noticed that for some time that Yahoo provides "Also try" links at the top of web results pages for some searches.
Examples:
+ Chicago Bulls
Clicking the more link provides this page of NUMEROUS suggestions.
+ Thomas Jefferson
Ask Jeeves
The AJ Zoom feature launched last year (similar to what Teoma has offered for many years) offers the ability to narrow or broaden your search and in some cases also pulls out related names.
+ Chicago Bulls
+ Thomas Jefferson
+ MSN Search
I tried searches for Chicago Bulls and Thomas Jefferson and did not spot any type of related search suggestions or search focus choices.
+ Gigblast offers Gigabits
+ Exalead offers related terms in the left hand column. This example shows related terms for the phrase "search engine marketing."
+ Clusty's dynamically generated clusters are available to help narrow and focus a result set and like the services from the other companies can also provide info discovery.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 29, 2006 |
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Amazon.com Considering Video Download Service to Compete With Google Video Store and Others
Both Variety and Red Herring report that Google Video Store, iTunes, and other video download services might have some new competition coming from Amazon.com sometime this Spring. From Red Herring:
Amazon is in talks with various studios, such as Image Entertainment, Ardustry Home Entertainment, and First Look Entertainment, to get digital content for the service, the report said. It will launch the service with at least two major names as partners. “They’re moving towards digital downloadable merchandise,” said Patti Freeman Evans, an analyst with JupiterResearch, who’s heard talk about the service. “This seems like a natural extension.”
From Variety
One supplier explained that an Amazon customer could stream a digital copy of a film for a fee and apply that charge as a credit toward the eventual purchase of the DVD. Another plan is for a customer to buy a DVD; while waiting for it to arrive, he could stream the content over his computer.
Amazon.com already offers some music downloads and recently a Bear Stearns analyst said that a Google Music service might be coming. I've also speculated on music as being a service that Google might offer. Yahoo already offers music downloads via Yahoo Music. Red Herring also has a story on a Google music download service.
Amazon.com has also said that they plan to offer a e-book download service partnering with Random House and other publishers. They already offer some e-books and documents for purchase and downloading.
Earlier this month we blogged about Google considering an e-book store
Finally, Amazon.com also offers their "Search Inside the Book" (SITB) program, now available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Canada and Japan that gives consumers the opportunity to keyword search book content and then view a pre-determined amount of that book online along with, in some cases, interesting stats. This post has some quotes from Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, on Search Inside the Book.
SITB is similar in many ways to what Google offers in partnership with publishers via Google Book Search (GBS).
Google's Library Project (to digitize materials founnd in five large libraries and then offer snippets from that material) is a part of the complete GBS program.
Posted by Gary Price on Jan. 29, 2006 |
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Work To Begin Next Month on | 
