June 2006
June 30, 2006
Daily SearchCast, June 30, 2006
Friday's search podcast covering the day's news
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:
- Google
AdWords Adds Statistics Tabs
Google has updated their AdWords interface to include "account statistics tabs." The new tabs are named "Summary," "Keywords," and "Ad Variations," they can be found if you click into Adgroup levels. - GooglePlex
Irvine To Revolutionize Radio Advertising
Zachary Applegate posted his visit to the GooglePlex Irvine at SEOMoz, where he describes the demonstration given to him by Google. The demo, Zach coined, "Google AdSense Audio," a method of "dynamically generate and change commercial content according to demographic and what is currently going on in the geographic area of radio stations." Zach explains that Google is entering this market to enable those with "$200 budgets to break into radio advertising." - Changes for
the Yahoo Publisher Network
The Yahoo Publisher Network has made a series of changes to their interface and support documents which seem to be appealing to the new publishers. They have added a new "RPC" column to reporting, meaning publishers can see their average earning per click. Jennifer interviewed Cody Simms, the YPN product manager behind all the updates on her radio show Click This! You can download the MP3 from a link off the blog to listen to Cody explain the changes and information about the decisions behind them. - MSN Search
To Officially Not Use Yahoo Search Marketing For Sponsored Search July 1
MSN's U.S. search distribution agreement with Yahoo! Search Marketing ends this month, and Yahoo! Sponsored Search listings will no longer appear in MSN's U.S. search results." MSN has been displaying mostly Microsoft adCenter ads on their search results pages for a couple months now. So the transition has been pretty gradual for advertisers and searchers. - Yahoo Gains
Market Share In China, Google Loses Share
TMCnet.com reports that Google has slipped back to third place with 13.2% share in China. Yahoo is in second place with 21.1% market share and Baidu with 43.9%. TMCnet sources this information from the Beijing Modern Business Daily on page 1 from the Tuesday, June 27, 2006 edition. - Google
Video Adds New Features
Google Video is letting now letting users add comments, labels and ratings to any video on the site. Yes, tagging by any other name. - Vertical
Images From AdSense Include Images in Ad Units
Vertical Images is the latest beta test being run by Google AdSense. Usually Google beta tests in the US, then rolls out products across the world wide Web. This beta is different in that it is immediately available across the world. Vertical images displays a related generic image within the ad unit, which then links to a results page similar to the results page seen when clicking on an Ad Links keyword. - Myanmar
Government Blocks Google & GMail?
The Times of India reports that Myanmar government has blocked Internet users from reaching Google.com and Gmail. They claim users trying to reach Google and Gmail for the past week have been received "Access Denied" responses. Myanmar's largest ISP, Bagan Cybertech, confirmed the issue that the sites were "inaccessible but declined to comment further." - Ask.com
Removes "Legacy Filters" To Enable Pedophilia Keyword Search
we covered a story that Ask.com was blocking search terms such as laws against pedophilia and preventing child pornography, amongst others. Philipp notes that Ask.com has removed the "legacy filters" to enable those types of searches. In fact, for the search on preventing child pornography, you get a special "smart answer" for "Child Abuse Resources." - Specialty Search Roundup
- eBay's
PayPal Mocks Google Checkout
Philipp Lenssen cracked me up with just the title of his post named EBay Guy Trashes Google Checkout, Then Deletes Post. Here, read the post; I find it amusing how the general media is claiming GBuy [aka Google Checkout] will be a significant competitor to Paypal based on GBuy having near zero buyers actually using the service vs over 100MM using Paypal. Let’s recall something here folks. In its current form, GBuy is a glorified merchant account. The post was then deleted, but you can read it all here
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:06 PM | Permalink
Daily SearchCast, June 29, 2006
Thursday's search podcast covering the day's news
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.
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:04 PM | Permalink
Search Headlines & Links: June 30, 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...
- Specialty Search Roundup #5
Another week has passed which means it's time for a look at a few new or updated specialty search tools that they have posted about on ResourceShelf. Btw, ResourceShelf has a new RSS feed URL. They are now at: http://www.resourceshelf.com/feed In a post about Vivisimo clustering technology now being made available for mobile searchers in Japan, we include links to a few other tools (all free) powered by Vivisimo including: + BiometaCluster (Life Sciences Meta Search and Clustering) + ClusterMed (Dynamic Clustering of PubMed) and a few others.... - eBay's PayPal Mocks Google Checkout
Philipp Lenssen cracked me up with just the title of his post named EBay Guy Trashes Google Checkout, Then Deletes Post. Here, read the post; I find it amusing how the general media is claiming GBuy [aka Google Checkout] will be a significant competitor to Paypal based on GBuy having near zero buyers actually using the service vs over 100MM using Paypal. Let?s recall something here folks. In its current form, GBuy is a glorified merchant account. The post was then deleted, but you can read it all here.... - GooglePlex Irvine To Revolutionize Radio Advertising
Zachary Applegate posted his visit to the GooglePlex Irvine at SEOMoz, where he describes the demonstration given to him by Google. The demo, Zach coined, "Google AdSense Audio," a method of "dynamically generate and change commercial content according to demographic and what is currently going on in the geographic area of radio stations." Zach explains that Google is entering this market to enable those with "$200 budgets to break into radio advertising." We first reported that Google was potentially entering this area, back when Google bought dMarc Broadcasting, the SEOMoz blog has screen captures of the technology and the... - Myanmar Government Blocks Google & GMail?
The Times of India reports that Myanmar government has blocked Internet users from reaching Google.com and Gmail. They claim users trying to reach Google and Gmail for the past week have been received "Access Denied" responses. Myanmar's largest ISP, Bagan Cybertech, confirmed the issue that the sites were "inaccessible but declined to comment further."... - MSN Search To Officially Not Use Yahoo Search Marketing For Sponsored Search July 1
I reported over the Search Engine Roundtable that Yahoo's and MSN's relationship is coming to an official end this month. The official Yahoo announcement can be seen here and it states, "MSN's U.S. search distribution agreement with Yahoo! Search Marketing ends this month, and Yahoo! Sponsored Search listings will no longer appear in MSN's U.S. search results." MSN has been displaying mostly Microsoft adCenter ads on their search results pages for a couple months now. So the transition has been pretty gradual for advertisers and searchers.... - Yahoo Beta Tests Searchable Yahoo Mobile E-Mail
Gary Price reports that Yahoo is beta testing a new Yahoo Mail interface here. Gary says the most notable difference between the current version and the beta version is that in the beta, you can search your mail on your mobile device.... - Ask.com Removes "Legacy Filters" To Enable Pedophilia Keyword Search
About a week ago we covered a story that Ask.com was blocking search terms such as laws against pedophilia and preventing child pornography, amongst others. Philipp notes that Ask.com has removed the "legacy filters" to enable those types of searches. In fact, for the search on preventing child pornography, you get a special "smart answer" for "Child Abuse Resources."... - Search Forums Roundup: June 30, 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 Checkout Launches - Strikes At Heart of Yahoo Stores - Persuasion Architecture and the Art of Agreement for Website Success - Guaranteed Google Listings - Link Building for Local Businesses, and more.... - Vertical Images From AdSense Include Images in Ad Units
Vertical Images is the latest international beta test being run by Google AdSense. Vertical images displays a related generic image within the ad unit, which then links to a results page similar to the results page seen when clicking on an Ad Links keyword.... - Changes for the Yahoo Publisher Network
The Yahoo Publisher Network has made a series of changes to their interface and support documents which seem to be appealing to the new publishers. They have also added a new "RPC" column to reporting, meaning publishers can see their average earning per click....
Other Things We Read, Didn't Blog But You Might Want To Read...
- Inside Google's New-Product Process: Business Week
- E-Commerce Thrives in Canada: eMarketer
- DM News' Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing: When It Comes to Search Result Listings, Less Is More: DMNews
- Amazon's Google Problem: The Street
- Setback for Google in fight over faster web access: Times Online
- A new chapter for authors: Inside Google Book Search
- Sunny in Seattle: MSN Search Blog (yawn)
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 5:00 PM | Permalink
ClickZ Takes a Holiday
You may find ClickZ to be a bit quiet the next few days. We will be taking Monday and Tuesday off to observe the holiday, and back to reporting on Wednesday July 5. The ClickZ staff would like to wish our U.S. readers a happy and safe Fourth of July.
I won't be completely unheard over the long weekend, I will be speaking on The American Entrepreneur radio show. The show airs from Pittsburgh's AM station Newstalk 1360 from 9AM until noon (Eastern), and I expect to be on somewhere in the 11:00 hour. You can listen on the Web if you click the "Listen Live Online Here" button on the site. The topic is teens, now called everything from superconnectors to millennials.
Posted by Enid Burns at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
USA Today Airs Talking Tech
USA Today is taking its Personal Technology section to video. Tech columnists Ed Baig and Jefferson Graham will host "Talking Tech" with weekly segments becoming available on Thursdays. Video will be available at tech.usatoday.com or on iTunes.
The initial sponsor is AT&T with its branding campaign launched earlier this year. However preroll and synchronized banner units for Frontier Airlines, VisitFlorida and Microsoft's "The Greatest Asset" spot played before the video during repeated refreshes. Prior to running the preroll unit, the screen says, "Video is always free thanks to support from our sponsor." But at this point AT&T is not clearly visible as the advertiser.
Posted by Enid Burns at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Specialty Search Roundup #5
Another week has passed which means it's time for a look at a few new or updated specialty search tools that they have posted about on ResourceShelf. Btw, ResourceShelf has a new RSS feed URL. They are now at: http://www.resourceshelf.com/feed
- In a post about Vivisimo clustering technology now being made available for mobile searchers in Japan, we include links to a few other tools (all free) powered by Vivisimo including: + BiometaCluster (Life Sciences Meta Search and Clustering) + ClusterMed (Dynamic Clustering of PubMed) and a few others.
- Although these presentations and materials are aimed at librarians, these presentations about metadata might be of interest to some of you. We also include a link to the book (full text) Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information (Version 2.1) from Getty.
- The business researcher will want to review this extensive compilation of the many databases (almost all free) made available by the International Labor Organization
- It's not a database (in the searching sense) but Gliffy is a new 2.0 app that offers web-based diagram building. Neat.
- A new exhibit looking at the last 100 years of UK newspapers is now open at the British Library in London. The web version of the exhibit includes access to a database with a complete digitised archive of the Penny Illustrated Paper from 1861 to 1913.
- We posted earlier this week that Scirus has partnered with the The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
In January, NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), with the help of the IA, released the ì2004 Presidential Term Web Harvestî containing over 75 million archived pages. In March 2006, this archive became keyword searchable using Nutch technology.
+ New Archive: National Government Statistical Websites
+ Latin American Governments Document Archive
+ Archive of Venezuelan Political Discourse
+ North Carolina State Government Web Site Archive
+ Canadian Political Parties And Political Interest Groups
+ Canadian Labour Unions
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:16 AM | Permalink
Sheraton Make Room for CGM
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is adding CGM to their Web site. The chain is patting themselves on the back for being "the first hotel industry website as to embrace social media and feature user generated content."
Not unlike sites like TripAdvisor, user posts will contain travel tips and user recommendations for local sightseeing, attractions, eateries, and the like. Stories and photos are accessible through an interface that's more than a little reminiscent of Google Maps.
Sheraton has launched a sweepstakes to encourage posting to the site.
Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
eBay's PayPal Mocks Google Checkout
Philipp Lenssen cracked me up with just the title of his post named EBay Guy Trashes Google Checkout, Then Deletes Post. Here, read the post;
I find it amusing how the general media is claiming GBuy [aka Google Checkout] will be a significant competitor to Paypal based on GBuy having near zero buyers actually using the service vs over 100MM using Paypal. Let’s recall something here folks. In its current form, GBuy is a glorified merchant account.
The post was then deleted, but you can read it all here.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:13 AM | Permalink
Googleplex Irvine & "AdSense Audio" For Radio Ads
Zachary Applegate posted his visit to the Googleplex Irvine at SEOMoz, where he describes the demonstration given to him by Google. The demo, Zach coined, "Google AdSense Audio," a method of "dynamically generate and change commercial content according to demographic and what is currently going on in the geographic area of radio stations." Zach explains that Google is entering this market to enable those with "$200 budgets to break into radio advertising." We first reported that Google was potentially entering this area, back when Google bought dMarc Broadcasting, the SEOMoz blog has screen captures of the technology and the Google Irvine offices.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:04 AM | Permalink
Myanmar Government Blocks Google & GMail?
The Times of India reports that Myanmar government has blocked Internet users from reaching Google.com and Gmail. They claim users trying to reach Google and Gmail for the past week have been received "Access Denied" responses. Myanmar's largest ISP, Bagan Cybertech, confirmed the issue that the sites were "inaccessible but declined to comment further."
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:58 AM | Permalink
MSN Search To Officially Not Use Yahoo Search Marketing For Sponsored Search July 1
I reported over the Search Engine Roundtable that Yahoo's and MSN's relationship is coming to an official end this month. The official Yahoo announcement can be seen here and it states, "MSN's U.S. search distribution agreement with Yahoo! Search Marketing ends this month, and Yahoo! Sponsored Search listings will no longer appear in MSN's U.S. search results." MSN has been displaying mostly Microsoft adCenter ads on their search results pages for a couple months now. So the transition has been pretty gradual for advertisers and searchers.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:42 AM | Permalink
Yahoo Beta Tests Searchable Yahoo Mobile E-Mail
Gary Price reports that Yahoo is beta testing a new Yahoo Mail interface here. Gary says the most notable difference between the current version and the beta version is that in the beta, you can search your mail on your mobile device.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:31 AM | Permalink
Ask.com Removes "Legacy Filters" To Enable Pedophilia Keyword Search
About a week ago we covered a story that Ask.com was blocking search terms such as laws against pedophilia and preventing child pornography, amongst others. Philipp notes that Ask.com has removed the "legacy filters" to enable those types of searches. In fact, for the search on preventing child pornography, you get a special "smart answer" for "Child Abuse Resources."
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:19 AM | Permalink
Search Forums Roundup: June 30, 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 Checkout Launches - Strikes At Heart of Yahoo Stores - Persuasion Architecture and the Art of Agreement for Website Success - Guaranteed Google Listings - Link Building for Local Businesses, and more.
Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:56 AM | Permalink
June 29, 2006
Vertical Images From AdSense Include Images in Ad Units
Vertical Images is the latest international beta test being run by Google AdSense. Vertical images displays a related generic image within the ad unit, which then links to a results page similar to the results page seen when clicking on an Ad Links keyword.
This test could potentially be seen on all publisher sites utilizing specific ad units. While the test initially launched earlier this week in only skyscrapers, they are now being seen in leaderboards, meaning the initial testing is likely successful. However, they are still only being displayed on a limited number of page views.
I have more details, including a screenshot of an example ad unit, at JenSense.
Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 8:45 PM | Permalink
Changes for the Yahoo Publisher Network
The Yahoo Publisher Network has made a series of changes to their interface and support documents which seem to be appealing to the new publishers. They have also added a new "RPC" column to reporting, meaning publishers can see their average earning per click.
Lastly, they have increased the payment time from 25 days to 27 days, although it is unclear if it is a permanent change or if it is only to accomodate the weekend.
I also was fortunate to interview Cody Simms, the YPN product manager behind all the updates on my radio show Click This! You can download the MP3 here if you would like to listen Cody detail the changes and the decisions behind making them.
Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 8:34 PM | Permalink
Praise for the Print Version
When does a complaint about non-user-initiated (or not-intentionally-user-initiated) audio get interesting enough to make the virtual pages of Gawker? When the ad in question is for a certain Pfizer product much in the news of late, and the first few seconds of audio describe the problem the drug solves.
Posted by Pamela Parker at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Search Headlines & Links: June 29, 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...
- Google AdWords Adds Statistics Tabs
I just discovered that Google has updated their AdWords campaigns interface to include "account statistics tabs." The new tabs are named "Summary," "Keywords," and "Ad Variations," they can be found if you click deeper into a campaign. AdWords posted a help page that describes each tab. I have also posted a screen capture at the Search Engine Roundtable.... - Google Video Adds New Features
Google Video is letting now letting users add comments, labels and ratings to any video on the site. Yes, tagging by any other name. From the press release:... - Google Now A Verb In The Oxford English Dictionary
Gary Price reports that "Google" is now officially a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary. Google already is a verb in some other dictionaries, but the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is considered the most authoritative dictionary of the English language. You can see the OED's latest editions for June 2006 here, do a control F (find) for the word "Google."... - Google Knocks Off Apple On The Wired 40
The Wired 40 was just released and Google has secured the top spot, at number one this year. They have bumped off Apple, who last year ranked number one. Wired commented on Google with the following; Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade. Wired is a huge Apple fan and supporter, as far as I know. For them to hand over the spot to Google,... - Yahoo Gains Market Share In China, Google Loses Share
TMCnet.com reports that Google has slipped back to third place with 13.2% share in China. Yahoo is in second place with 21.1% market share and Baidu with 43.9%. TMCnet sources this information from the Beijing Modern Business Daily on page 1 from the Tuesday, June 27, 2006 edition. I do not have the previous market share figures for search share in China.... - New Look For The Google Accounts Page
I reported that Google Revamps Google Accounts Page. The most noticeable difference is the listing of Google Services, from Gmail to the Google Coop, on the My Account page. There are also links to update your personal information, you credit card information (see Google Checkout), your payment history (checkout again), your ship to information (checkout again) and some other links. So it is all coming together, on this single Google Account page. If it hasn't hit you yet, just login to your Google Account and you will see. Google knows what we like, what we search for, our interests, our... - MSN Search Requires Unique Robots.txt Files In HTTPS Vs. HTTP Cases
A quick note from the MSN Search Blog on secure content that https and http are considered separate "from a robots.txt perspective and requires its own robots.txt file." Nothing more to add here, but thought some of you would like to know this bit of information.... - Another Microsoft Executive Leaves To Join Google
CNN Money reports that another Microsoft executive has left the company this month. A 15 year veteran, general manager for platform evangelism at Microsoft, Vic Gundotra, has left Microsoft to join Google. This news comes after shocking news that Microsoft VP Martin Taylor has departed from Microsoft. Vic Gundotra has a non-compete that will not allow him to work for Google for at least one year. During that time Gundotra will be working on his "charitable endeavors."... - Not GBuy: Google Launches Checkout
The wait is over for Google's long-awaited payment service that's been the subject of so much speculation. Google Checkout is a new system that makes it easy for online merchants to process credit-card payments, and also streamlines the checkout process for consumers. The service also raises some thorny issues for AdWords advertisers, who may be reluctant to let Google capture customer transactions, and yet advertisers that use the system may benefit from improved rankings in search results. More on the new service and the issues it raises for search marketers in today's SearchDay article, Google Launches Checkout, not the Rumored... - Yahoo Settles Clickfraud Lawsuit
A California judge has approved Yahoo's proposed settlement of a class action click fraud case brought against the company by Checkmate Strategic Group in June 2005. Yahoo believes the settlement will cover all click fraud claims that have been filed against Yahoo, including a suit filed by Lane's Gifts and Collectibles in Arkansas last year against both Yahoo and Google. The terms of the settlement include a cash payment of $4.95 million to plaintiffs' counsel and a provision that will allow advertisers to file a claim for Yahoo to investigate potentially fraudulent clicks back through January 2004. Yahoo will pay...
Other Things We Read, Didn't Blog But You Might Want To Read...
- Flaky Google Removes Account Authentication for Web Apps: Philipp Lenssen
- Google wants your credit card number: Guardian Unlimited
- Digitizing Books: A Hand, a Finger and Other Stuff: Resource Shelf
- Message from Google: Googling Google
- Google Adds Channels to Referrals for Better Tracking: Search Engine Roundtable
- Do you see video ads in your future?: Inside AdSense
- Update on wi-fi in San Francisco: Official Google Blog
- A Cristal budget, courtesy of Google: San Francisco Journal
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 5:00 PM | Permalink
Google AdWords Adds Statistics Tabs
I just discovered that Google has updated their AdWords campaigns interface to include "account statistics tabs." The new tabs are named "Summary," "Keywords," and "Ad Variations," they can be found if you click deeper into a campaign. AdWords posted a help page that describes each tab. I have also posted a screen capture at the Search Engine Roundtable.
From the help page:
+ Summary displays the performance totals for your Ad Group.
+ Keywords shows you how individual keywords are performing, and allows you to add new keywords or edit existing ones. This tab appears only in campaigns with keyword-targeted ads.
+ Sites shows you how your ad is performing on individual sites you have selected. You can add new sites or change your bid for existing ones. This tab appears only in campaigns with site-targeted ads.
+ Ad Variations displays all the ads you have created for this campaign. You can add, edit or delete ads here.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 1:45 PM | Permalink
Google Video Adds New Features
Google Video is letting now letting users add comments, labels and ratings to any video on the site. Yes, tagging by any other name.
From the press release:
Now users can associate three different types of content for each video: comments, ratings, and labels.
- Comments: Users can share ideas about a video through topic-based discussions.
- Ratings: A quick evaluation of a video based on a five-star scale. A user can quickly view which videos have the highest ratings, and can just as easily rate a video.
- Labels: Users can associate a video with a particular word or phrase that will help them and others find it at a later time.
Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:31 PM | Permalink
Google Now A Verb In The Oxford English Dictionary
Gary Price reports that "Google" is now officially a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary. Google already is a verb in some other dictionaries, but the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is considered the most authoritative dictionary of the English language. You can see the OED's latest editions for June 2006 here, do a control F (find) for the word "Google."
Google as a verb is defined in the dictionary as;
intr. 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.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:54 AM | Permalink
Google Knocks Off Apple On The Wired 40
The Wired 40 was just released and Google has secured the top spot, at number one this year. They have bumped off Apple, who last year ranked number one. Wired commented on Google with the following;
Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.
Wired is a huge Apple fan and supporter, as far as I know. For them to hand over the spot to Google, says something. Note that Yahoo is on the list at a respectable number 5.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:03 AM | Permalink
Google Checkout: Check Out of Commercial E-Mail
"Control commercial spam" is a Google Checkout value proposition. "You can keep your email address confidential, and easily turn off unwanted emails from stores where you use Google Checkout," reads my account page.
Didn't work at Starbucks, where I couldn't even find a Google Checkout option. But check out the new Buy.com checkout page (left). Bypassing all that merchant registration tedium really will be advantageous for e-commerce players. I've seen this functionality on some, but only a very few, Yahoo Shopping merchants.
This is a concept we'll be seeing more of in the future. How will e-mail marketing programs adapt? Under CAN-SPAM, businesses can e-mail existing customers. What happens when businesses no longer have their customers' e-mail addresses? (Google is, after all, calling this "commercial spam").
Merchants are going to have to get very creative at developing incentives if they expect to build their e-mail lists in the future.
Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yahoo Second In Market Share In China
TMCnet.com reports that Google is in third place in China, with 13.2% share. Yahoo is in second place with 21.1% market share and Baidu leads with 43.9%. TMCnet sources this information from the Beijing Modern Business Daily on page 1 from the Tuesday, June 27, 2006 edition.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:28 AM | Permalink
New Look For The Google Accounts Page
I reported that Google Revamps Google Accounts Page. The most noticeable difference is the listing of Google Services, from Gmail to the Google Coop, on the My Account page. There are also links to update your personal information, you credit card information (see Google Checkout), your payment history (checkout again), your ship to information (checkout again) and some other links.
So it is all coming together, on this single Google Account page. If it hasn't hit you yet, just login to your Google Account and you will see. Google knows what we like, what we search for, our interests, our personal information, our shipping information, our purchase behavior and now our credit card information. Convenience over privacy...
This is probably also related to Garett's discovery of Google Account Authentication Proxy. Probably more related towards sellers integrating Google Checkout into their shopping carts. Maybe?
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:17 AM | Permalink
MSN Search Requires Unique Robots.txt Files In HTTPS Vs. HTTP Cases
A quick note from the MSN Search Blog on secure content that https and http are considered separate "from a robots.txt perspective and requires its own robots.txt file." Nothing more to add here, but thought some of you would like to know this bit of information.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:10 AM | Permalink
Another Microsoft Executive Leaves To Join Google
Business 2.0 in Microsoft exec jumps to Google reports that another Microsoft executive has left the company this month. A 15 year veteran, general manager for platform evangelism at Microsoft, Vic Gundotra, has left Microsoft to join Google. This news comes after shocking news that Microsoft VP Martin Taylor has departed from Microsoft. Vic Gundotra has a non-compete that will not allow him to work for Google for at least one year. During that time Gundotra will be working on his "charitable endeavors."
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:02 AM | Permalink
Not GBuy: Google Launches Checkout
The wait is over for Google's long-awaited payment service that's been the subject of so much speculation. Google Checkout is a new system that makes it easy for online merchants to process credit-card payments, and also streamlines the checkout process for consumers. The service also raises some thorny issues for AdWords advertisers, who may be reluctant to let Google capture customer transactions, and yet advertisers that use the system may benefit from improved rankings in search results. More on the new service and the issues it raises for search marketers in today's SearchDay article, Google Launches Checkout, not the Rumored GBuy.
Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:01 AM | Permalink
June 28, 2006
Yahoo Settles Clickfraud Lawsuit
A California judge has approved Yahoo's proposed settlement of a class action click fraud case brought against the company by Checkmate Strategic Group in June 2005.
Yahoo believes the settlement will cover all click fraud claims that have been filed against Yahoo, including a suit filed by Lane's Gifts and Collectibles in Arkansas last year against both Yahoo and Google.
The terms of the settlement include a cash payment of $4.95 million to plaintiffs' counsel and a provision that will allow advertisers to file a claim for Yahoo to investigate potentially fraudulent clicks back through January 2004. Yahoo will pay refunds to advertisers who file claims if it discovers evidence of fraudulent clicks.
"We're very pleased with the terms of the settlement," said Reggie Davis, associate general counsel for Yahoo. "We believe it's a reasonable and fair settlement."
What does it mean for Yahoo advertisers?
The cash payment is far less than the $90 million settlement Google agreed to last March to resolve the Lane's Gifts class action click fraud case. In that case, up to $60 million was allocated for credit to advertisers, while plaintiffs' council received $30 million.
The Yahoo settlement differs from the Google settlement in other ways, as well. Google is offering credit to advertisers, rather than cash refunds, with a cap of $60 million. Yahoo, by contrast, is offering cash refunds, and there is no ceiling on the amount it will refund if it finds evidence of click fraud, though the company is optimistic that the refund amounts won't be onerous due to the safeguards it has had in place.
Yahoo says it believes the favorable terms are due to the strong position it took maintaining that its proprietary system does a good job at protecting advertisers from click fraud. To bolster its position, Yahoo invited the plaintiffs' attorneys and their experts to meet with Yahoo's clickthrough protection team, examine its systems, ask questions and attend presentations to better understand the controls the company has in place to filter out questionable or fraudulent clicks.
Yahoo says that its clickthrough protection system has identified and not billed advertisers for billions of clicks during the past eight years, all the way back to the early days before Yahoo purchased Overture and its sponsored listing technologies. Clicks not billed for included obvious click fraud, but also other clicks that the company believed shouldn't be billed to advertisers (for example, blocked IP addresses, double-clicks, back browser clicks and so on).
Yahoo said that as part of the settlement it is taking five specific steps to combat click fraud:
1. The company is extending the claims period for advertisers suspecting fraudulent activity from sixty days to two and a half years, or back through January 2004. Yahoo will investigate all claims filed under this one-time extension and offer cash refunds to advertisers if it finds questionable activity.
Judge Taylor, a retired federal judge, will be overseeing the extended claims process. His role will be to ensure that Yahoo sticks to the agreed-upon process, and he will also be available to review advertiser appeals if they are not satisfied with the results of Yahoo's investigation.
2. The company plans to appoint a dedicated traffic quality advocate to act as ombudsman for advertisers.
3. Once a year Yahoo plans to host a panel of individual advertisers to tour the company's clickthrough protection headquarters, allowing them to ask questions and provide feedback. The company will also seek advice from this panel.
4. Yahoo plans to work with reputable third parties to develop an industry wide definition of click fraud, a list of recognized click bots, and take other measures to garner awareness of the issue and what's being done to combat the problem.
5. Yahoo plans to build a "traffic quality resource center" for advertisers, providing much more information about traffic quality, including extensive FAQs about the company's click-through protection methodology.
In addition, Yahoo said it is taking steps beyond the terms of the settlement to respond to advertiser needs.
"Advertisers are interested in understanding more about click through protection and click fraud," said John Slade, senior director, Yahoo! clickthrough protection. He said the company plans to provide advertisers with better visibility in turnaround time on complaints on click fraud, responding within a specified time frame.
He said Yahoo will also offer more clarity around refunds on click fraud, including additional detail describing more specifically what the company has found in refunds or credit notices—especially in better documenting the differences between click fraud and other traffic variances that might be misinterpreted as click fraud.
More information on the settlement in Yahoo's official press release, Yahoo! and Click Fraud: Our Commitment to Protecting Advertisers.
Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:24 PM | Permalink
Search Headlines & Links: June 28, 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...
- Google
Book Search Wins Victory In German Challenge
I wrote earlier this month of a French lawsuit becoming the third one I knew about filed against Google over its book scanning project. Turns out, there was a fourth one -- based out of Germany. But now we're back to three, as Google has just announced that the German one has been withdrawn.... - Daily
SearchCast, June 28, 2006: Digg Goes Beyond Tech; Google Earth & Real-Time
Tracking; funny Yahoo-related videos; Google Water & More!
Today's search podcast covers Digg's relaunch taking it beyond technology news, FeedBurner's ad plans; Google's challenge in enterprise search; Google Earth and real-time tracking, funny Yahoo videos, Google water and more! -
KinderStart.com To Be Heard In Court Friday On Google Penalizing Site
Webuser reports that the KinderStart.com lawsuit against Google for penalizing their site will be heard in court this Friday. It is not clear if there will be a ruling on Friday, the article does state that the judge "will rule at 9am in California (5pm BST) on nine counts, including whether or not Google should warn sites about changes in their ranking as well as on financial damages KinderStart is seeking." Can you imagine the buzz and controversy in the SEO community if Google loses the case?... - Google
Loses French Lawsuit Over Vuitton Trademark
I just got word that Google lost the French lawsuit we reported on Monday involving the Louis Vuitton trademark. I do not have any more details at the moment, only that they lost. I will try to update this entry when I have more information. Postscript: I was just sent this information from Bloomberg news. "Google Inc. must pay LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA 300,000 euros ($375,800) for breaching copyright rules with its advertising service, a French Appellate court ruled."... - Google
Book Search Scans Books By Hand?
Philipp Lenssen reports on how Google actually scans in books for the Google Book Search service. Yes, it seems like Google does it all by hand! Take a look at page three of The Trial and Death of Socrates. Now that is funny.... - Google
and Yahoo Come to the Aid of Craigslist
As many people already know, Craigslist is being sued under federal housing discrimination law for allowing the posting of allegedly discriminatory ads seeking certain types or classes of roommates and tenants (e.g., based on religious affiliation or sexual preference). Legally you can't post those kinds of ads in the newspaper and the newspaper that runs them is liable for housing discrimination. For those interested, here's a copy of the complaint (pdf format) against Craigslist.... - 'Point
and Search' on Japanese Cellphones
The NY Times covers "Point and Click" mobile local search in Japan on GPS-enabled mobile phones using technology from American firm GeoVector. I wrote about GeoVector's technology and the very different user paradigm it represents earlier this year. Beyond the intriguing possibilities of tying together the mobile and physical worlds, there are two things that are quite interesting about the technology and use case: 1) it accommodates the current limitations of cellphones and 2) it's more "passive" than other forms of mobile local search. In other words, the input mechanism is more like taking a picture than "triple tapping."... -
FeedBurner CEO, Dick Costolo, Interviewed By Business 2.0 Magazine
CNN Money has an Business 2.0 interview with Dick Costolo, FeedBurner's CEO. The article discusses the challenge FeedBurner had raising capital for such a new technology, RSS. It also discusses their recent success and future challenges (RSS ads, Google, etc.). Read the article named Redefining the RSS feed.... - Google
Not The Leader In Enterprise Search
Google is synonymous with "search," everyone knows that, some people hate it and some people love it. An Investors Business Daily article reviews enterprise search and Google's role in that niche. The article explains "enterprise search is a different animal from Web search," that linkage data is not "aren't ideal for helping people find specific data on large private networks." So who are the other players the article mentions? Autonomy, Fast Search & Transfer, IBM's OmniFind, Endeca, and upcoming rival Oracle's Secure Enterprise Search 10g.... - Some
Funny & Crazy Yahoo Videos On YouTube
Loren Baker posted some of the funniest and craziest videos he found on YouTube related to Yahoo. If you have time to only watch one video, I recommend watching the first one. Pretty funny stuff. Other videos include, Tom Cruise's Yahoo visit, David Filo and Jerry Yang commercial, "Yahoo Cubicle Craziness," and some others. Check them out at Search Engine Journal.... - Marine
Selling "Google Water" For Military Families Charity
Boing Boing links to a Marine who just got back from Iraq. The Marine posted on his blog that he began selling "Google Water" on auction to raise money for The Fisher House, an organization that helps military families in need. Google and eBay shut down his auction, "due to copyright violations," but he still has some left over Google Water. He is looking to sell them for a bottle for $500 and give that money to the Fisher House.... - Dell To
Use Google Earth To Provide Enhanced Tech Support
The Detroit News reports that Dell is going to use Google Earth as a tool to enhanced their technical support services. The new tech support service, to be released today, is named "Platinum Plus." Platinum Plus subscribers will be given access to "Google Earth Pro to see in real-time how the Round Rock company is responding to technical support issues around the globe." Dell and Google have some recent past positive relationships this just adds to that list.... - David
Beach Leaves Yahoo For Start Up Wink
Brian Smith notes that the senior product manager of Yahoo Shopping Search, David Beach, has decided to leave Yahoo after five years. Beach confirmed his departure from Yahoo on his blog, stating that Yahoo could not provide "the kind of opportunity that Wink is providing." Wink, a social search engine, "analyzes tags and submissions from Digg, Furl, Slashdot, Yahoo MyWeb, and other services, plus user-imported tags from del.icio.us, and favorites marked at Wink, and figure out which pages are most relevant through our TagRank (tm) algorithms." Should be a fun move for Beach.... - Social
News Site Digg Adds New Categories, Features
Sites that rely on user generated content are all the rage these days, from online encyclopedia Wikipedia to social bookmark sites like Del.ico.us. Digg relies on its 300,000 users to suggest important news stories from sites all over the web, and promotes those that get the most "diggs" (votes) to its front pages, providing a collective view of what web users think are the most important stories of the moment. Earlier this week the site rolled out new subject areas and tools that make it easier to drill down on the types of news that interests you personally and ignore... - New
Search Patent Applications: June 27, 2006 - Searching Amongst Malicious Web
Sites
Microsoft's patent applications from the end of last week include ways for search engines to scan malicious web sites, clustering queries for more relevant searches, and extracting feature and formatting information from pages. IBM introduces a new query dependent page ranking algorithm, and a way to preload the URLs of a site into your history file before you've ever visited. Xerox searches for more meaningful snippets, Alcatel takes the PC out of search, and replaces it with TV, and British Telecommunications describes a way to make user profiles more helpful in returning search results....
Other Things We Read, Didn't Blog But You Might Want To Read...
- Google Video Rating System Coming?, Google Blogoscoped
- New AdSense "Vertical Images" within ad units, JenSense
- Ixquick Makes Privacy Promises, ResearchBuzz
- Google Base, Froogle, and Google OneBox, ComparisonEngines.com
- Fandango Teams With IAC Search & Media to Offer Users Direct Access to Movie Tickets, SYS-CON Media
- Microsoft Flickr's Up, Blogging Stocks
- Google opens up the secrets of search, The Times
- Social Networking for Bookworms, Wall Street Journal
- YouTube NBC Deal - Video Sharing and Online Marketing, Hitwise
- Open your wallet to Google, News.com
- Arthur O. Suzlberger, Jr: The New York Times Company has the 'dough' online, ZD Net
- MSN AdCenter Upgrade Pushed back over a Month, Search Marketing And ROI Technology
- Careful where you step! We're moving the furniture in Google Reader, Official Google Reader Blog
- New report added: AdWords Keyword Positions, Google Analytics Blog
- Google opens up the secrets of search, The Times
- Social Networking for Bookworms, Wall Street Journal
- YouTube NBC Deal - Video Sharing and Online Marketing, Hitwise
- Open your wallet to Google, News.com
- Arthur O. Suzlberger, Jr: The New York Times Company has the 'dough' online, ZD Net
- ShopWiki to spend $25,000 on user submitted videos, TechCrunch
- Ignoring the "Great Firewall of China" Light Blue Paper
- PPC Network Unveils 'Site Stickiness' Tool, ClickZ
- His Space, Wired
- A look inside PeopleAggregator, TechCrunch
- NBC-YouTube Hook-up Is Official, PaidContent.org
- Is Google Objective? Manual Edits in Search Results, Google Blogoscoped
- Four petabytes in memory, Geeking With Greg
- T.Italia Bids for AOL’s French, German Units; Also Permira, PaidContent.org
- Careful where you step! We're moving the furniture in Google Reader, Official Google Reader Blog
- Search: The Newspaper Slayer?, MediaPost
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:34 PM | Permalink
Google Book Search Wins Victory In German Challenge
I wrote earlier this month of a French lawsuit becoming the third one I knew about filed against Google over its book scanning project. Turns out, there was a fourth one -- based out of Germany. But now we're back to three, as Google has just announced that the German one has been withdrawn.
It looks to be Google's first legal victory in the battles over the project. From Google, via its Inside Google Book Search blog (and also on its main blog):
WBG, a German publisher, today decided to drop its petition for preliminary injunction against the Google Books Library Project. WBG (whose legal action was supported by the German Publishers Association as an industry model) made the decision after being told by the Copyright Chamber of the Regional Court of Hamburg that its petition was unlikely to succeed.
It's our belief that the display of short snippets from in-copyright books does not infringe German copyright law. Today the Court indicated that it agreed, drawing a comparison with the snippets used in Google web search. And the Court also rejected the WBG's argument that the scanning of its books in the U.S. infringed German copyright law.
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:29 PM | Permalink
Data Feed Submission To Google Base
I spent 3.5 hours Saturday night creating and lightly optimizing a completely new data feed (or bulk upload) to get PersonalProtectionStore's home security products up and running on Google Base. PersonalProtectionStore uses Yahoo! Merchant Solutions which allows me to download a catalog and associated information, but it's not in a format compatible with Google Base (superfluous fields in the catalog, non-uniform field names) and the dowload brings with it special characters and HTML code which cause listing errors. Additionally, there are many fields Google Base makes optional which my catalog did not include. These additional fields help with data feed optimization (DFO).
Froogle feed submission used to take a couple days (and a couple iterations) to process correctly, so I was pleasantly surprised to see my feed accepted in less than an hour. More importantly, by the time I checked back early the next morning, my products (and images - this used to be a major issue with Froogle) were up and running. My feed of 153 products consisted of 30 errors which weren't explained very well, but overall it was a smooth process. [It's important to note that I've submitted hundreds of feeds to multiple engines. There are plenty of people on the Google Base Help Discussion Group having problems.]
Submitting to Google Base gets you listed on Froogle. Being in Google Base or Froogle potentially gets you in the Google Onebox product search results in a regular Google search (just under the Sponsored Links and just above the organic results).
Here's one example:
-Google Base result for ademco 20pi
-Froogle result for ademco 20pi
-Google OneBox result for ademco 20pi
While I've been critical of Froogle's Spam problem, and I'm not sure what to make of Froogle's recent update (more info soon), I did say in early April that it's time for merchants to submit their feed to Froogle (Google Base dashboard has now completely replaced the Froogle Merchant Center). My 3.5 hour experience only strengthens that argument.
For good or bad, many merchants are completely reliant on Google for sales, obsessing about optimizing their sites for better orgranic listings and feverishly spending on Google Adwords. Just don't forget about submitting your data feed to Google Base.
If you're having trouble with the your Google Base data feed, there are many companies which can help you out with feed management: ChannelAdvisor, ChannelIntelligence, Performics, Mercent, Vendio/Andale, Marketworks, RedZoneGlobal, MerchantAdvantage, etc.
Posted by Brian Smith at 3:12 PM | Permalink
Daily SearchCast, June 28, 2006: Digg Goes Beyond Tech; Google Earth & Real-Time Tracking; funny Yahoo-related videos; Google Water & More!
Today's search podcast covers Digg's relaunch taking it beyond technology news, FeedBurner's ad plans; Google's challenge in enterprise search; Google Earth and real-time tracking, funny Yahoo videos, Google water 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:
- Social
News Site Digg Adds New Categories, Features
Sites that rely on user generated content are all the rage these days, from online encyclopedia Wikipedia to social bookmark sites like Del.ico.us. Digg relies on its 300,000 users to suggest important news stories from sites all over the web, and promotes those that get the most "diggs" (votes) to its front pages, providing a collective view of what web users think are the most important stories of the moment. Earlier this week the site rolled out new subject areas and tools that make it easier to drill down on the types of news that interests you personally and ignore... -
FeedBurner CEO, Dick Costolo, Interviewed By Business 2.0 Magazine
CNN Money has an Business 2.0 interview with Dick Costolo, FeedBurner's CEO. The article discusses the challenge FeedBurner had raising capital for such a new technology, RSS. It also discusses their recent success and future challenges (RSS ads, Google, etc.). Read the article named Redefining the RSS feed.... - 'Point
and Search' on Japanese Cellphones
The NY Times covers "Point and Click" mobile local search in Japan on GPS-enabled mobile phones using technology from American firm GeoVector. I wrote about GeoVector's technology and the very different user paradigm it represents earlier this year. Beyond the intriguing possibilities of tying together the mobile and physical worlds, there are two things that are quite interesting about the technology and use case: 1) it accommodates the current limitations of cellphones and 2) it's more "passive" than other forms of mobile local search. In other words, the input mechanism is more like taking a picture than "triple tapping."... - Google
Not The Leader In Enterprise Search
Google is synonymous with "search," everyone knows that, some people hate it and some people love it. An Investors Business Daily article reviews enterprise search and Google's role in that niche. The article explains "enterprise search is a different animal from Web search," that linkage data is not "aren't ideal for helping people find specific data on large private networks." So who are the other players the article mentions? Autonomy, Fast Search & Transfer, IBM's OmniFind, Endeca, and upcoming rival Oracle's Secure Enterprise Search 10g.... - Dell To
Use Google Earth To Provide Enhanced Tech Support
The Detroit News reports that Dell is going to use Google Earth as a tool to enhanced their technical support services. The new tech support service, to be released today, is named "Platinum Plus." Platinum Plus subscribers will be given access to "Google Earth Pro to see in real-time how the Round Rock company is responding to technical support issues around the globe." Dell and Google have some recent past positive relationships this just adds to that list.... - Switching To The Nintendo DS Lite For Me & The Kids
- David
Beach Leaves Yahoo For Start Up Wink
Brian Smith notes that the senior product manager of Yahoo Shopping Search, David Beach, has decided to leave Yahoo after five years. Beach confirmed his departure from Yahoo on his blog, stating that Yahoo could not provide "the kind of opportunity that Wink is providing." Wink, a social search engine, "analyzes tags and submissions from Digg, Furl, Slashdot, Yahoo MyWeb, and other services, plus user-imported tags from del.icio.us, and favorites marked at Wink, and figure out which pages are most relevant through our TagRank (tm) algorithms." Should be a fun move for Beach.... - New
Search Patent Applications: June 27, 2006 - Searching Amongst Malicious Web
Sites
Microsoft's patent applications from the end of last week include ways for search engines to scan malicious web sites, clustering queries for more relevant searches, and extracting feature and formatting information from pages. IBM introduces a new query dependent page ranking algorithm, and a way to preload the URLs of a site into your history file before you've ever visited. Xerox searches for more meaningful snippets, Alcatel takes the PC out of search, and replaces it with TV, and British Telecommunications describes a way to make user profiles more helpful in returning search results.... -
Microsoft Demographics Prediction Tool Interactive Review
We posted about Microsoft Center Labs once again, but this time I wanted to show you, my eight-minute review of the demographics prediction tool at the lab. I created a movie of my running through the tool and uploaded it to YouTube. Now, before you watch the video, keep in mind that the percentages I discussed in the video may be determined as a "confidence" ratio and not a simple flat percentage -- you will see what I mean. In any case, there is no way that google.com has predominantly a female audience, with a confidence ratio of 1.00 and... - Some
Funny & Crazy Yahoo Videos On YouTube
Loren Baker posted some of the funniest and craziest videos he found on YouTube related to Yahoo. If you have time to only watch one video, I recommend watching the first one. Pretty funny stuff. Other videos include, Tom Cruise's Yahoo visit, David Filo and Jerry Yang commercial, "Yahoo Cubicle Craziness," and some others. Check them out at Search Engine Journal.... - Marine
Selling "Google Water" For Military Families Charity
Boing Boing links to a Marine who just got back from Iraq. The Marine posted on his blog that he began selling "Google Water" on auction to raise money for The Fisher House, an organization that helps military families in need. Google and eBay shut down his auction, "due to copyright violations," but he still has some left over Google Water. He is looking to sell them for a bottle for $500 and give that money to the Fisher House....
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:09 PM | Permalink
KinderStart.com To Be Heard In Court Friday On Google Penalizing Site
Webuser reports that the KinderStart.com lawsuit against Google for penalizing their site will be heard in court this Friday. It is not clear if there will be a ruling on Friday, the article does state that the judge "will rule at 9am in California (5pm BST) on nine counts, including whether or not Google should warn sites about changes in their ranking as well as on financial damages KinderStart is seeking." Can you imagine the buzz and controversy in the SEO community if Google loses the case?
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:32 PM | Permalink
Google Loses French Lawsuit Over Vuitton Trademark
I just got word that Google lost the French lawsuit we reported on Monday involving the Louis Vuitton trademark. I do not have any more details at the moment, only that they lost. I will try to update this entry when I have more information.
Postscript: I was just sent this information from Bloomberg news. "Google Inc. must pay LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA 300,000 euros ($375,800) for breaching copyright rules with its advertising service, a French Appellate court ruled."
Postscript 2: News stories are finally now appearing:
- Vuitton tops Google in Paris court, International Herald Tribune
- Louis Vuitton says court upholds Google ruling, Reuters
- The Paris Court of Appeals Confirms Sanctions against Google for Trademark Counterfeiting, Unfair Competition and Misleading Advertising, Louis Vuitton Press Release
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:20 PM | Permalink
Google Book Search Scans Books By Hand?
Philipp Lenssen reports on how Google actually scans in books for the Google Book Search service. Yes, it seems like Google does it all by hand! Take a look at page three of The Trial and Death of Socrates. Now that is funny.
Postscript: Gary Price reminds me of his post on Learn About Open Content Alliance Book Scanning at the University of Toronto, with a link to Internet Archive's Book Scanning Robot. So that is how it works.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:55 AM | Permalink
Google and Yahoo Come to the Aid of Craigslist
As many people already know, Craigslist is being sued under federal housing discrimination law for allowing the posting of allegedly discriminatory ads seeking certain types or classes of roommates and tenants (e.g., based on religious affiliation or sexual preference). Legally you can't post those kinds of ads in the newspaper and the newspaper that runs them is liable for housing discrimination. For those interested, here's a copy of the complaint (pdf format) against Craigslist.
Google, AOL, Yahoo, Amazon and other online firms recently filed what's called a "friend of the court" brief in support of Craigslist in the matter. As Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster points out in this Law.com news item, "Most of these companies/organizations have as much (or more) at stake in this matter than we do."
At stake is whether online sites should be compelled to actively police the postings of their users to ensure compliance with federal and state laws. The trademark policing issue in paid search is a cousin of this suit and raises some of the same general questions about the duties of online publishers.
Eric Goldman's
That different treatment and outcome doesn't really make sense logically and will probably be changed eventually. But for now, if Goldman's analysis is correct, it looks the plaintiffs will fail and Craigslist will prevail.
Posted by Greg Sterling at 11:22 AM | Permalink
'Point and Search' on Japanese Cellphones
The NY Times covers "Point and Click" mobile local search in Japan on GPS-enabled mobile phones using technology from American firm GeoVector. I wrote about GeoVector's technology and the very different user paradigm it represents earlier this year.
Beyond the intriguing possibilities of tying together the mobile and physical worlds, there are two things that are quite interesting about the technology and use case: 1) it accommodates the current limitations of cellphones and 2) it's more "passive" than other forms of mobile local search. In other words, the input mechanism is more like taking a picture than "triple tapping."
There's a natural advertising model here too that marries the user location with a "search mentality." When a user is searching online, he or she is seeking information about a product or service. As they say in the yellow pages industry, there's a "ready to buy" mindset – or at least potentially ready to buy. (As we know, search engine users typically don't buy in the same session.) But mobile users looking for a place to eat are probably "ready to eat."
Indeed, mobile phone users looking for a local restaurant or retailer can receive offers/coupons from a location nearby or immediately in front of them using this technology. One might argue that's no different from relevant paid search ads on mobile devices (which Google is testing in Japan) when I've searched for a local restaurant or other local business category. But the "point and search" simplicity makes it different.
Whatever creates the best user experience and thus drive broad adoption of mobile data services will also determine the ad model. User experience precedes monetization: let that be the mantra for the mobile local search industry. Once the user experience is right (and there may be a few that "work"), effective mobile advertising can follow.
It's incorrect to assume that whatever's happening in Asia in mobile will necessarily make its way to the US "a couple of years from now." But GeoVector is an American company and in this case we can probably expect some version of "point and search" technology to roll out in the US (although GPS isn't widely enabled yet, though there is cell tower triangulation) as competitive carriers seek to differentiate their services.
Until then we'll just have to read about it.
Posted by Greg Sterling at 10:30 AM | Permalink
FeedBurner CEO, Dick Costolo, Interviewed By Business 2.0 Magazine
CNN Money has an Business 2.0 interview with Dick Costolo, FeedBurner's CEO. The article discusses the challenge FeedBurner had raising capital for such a new technology, RSS. It also discusses their recent success and future challenges (RSS ads, Google, etc.). Read the article named Redefining the RSS feed.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:01 AM | Permalink
Google Not The Leader In Enterprise Search
Google is synonymous with "search," everyone knows that, some people hate it and some people love it. An Investors Business Daily article reviews enterprise search and Google's role in that niche. The article explains "enterprise search is a different animal from Web search," that linkage data is not "aren't ideal for helping people find specific data on large private networks." So who are the other players the article mentions? Autonomy, Fast Search & Transfer, IBM's OmniFind, Endeca, and upcoming rival Oracle's Secure Enterprise Search 10g.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:46 AM | Permalink
Some Funny & Crazy Yahoo Videos On YouTube
Loren Baker posted some of the funniest and craziest videos he found on YouTube related to Yahoo. If you have time to only watch one video, I recommend watching the first one. Pretty funny stuff. Other videos include, Tom Cruise's Yahoo visit, David Filo and Jerry Yang commercial, "Yahoo Cubicle Craziness," and some others. Check them out at Search Engine Journal.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:37 AM | Permalink
Marine Selling "Google Water" For Military Families Charity
Boing Boing links to a US Marine who just got back from Iraq. The marine posted on his blog that he began selling "Google Water" on auction to raise money for The Fisher House, an organization that helps military families in need. Google and eBay shut down his auction, "due to copyright violations," but he still has some left over Google Water. He is looking to sell them for a bottle for $500 and give that money to the Fisher House.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:11 AM | Permalink
Dell To Use Google Earth To Provide Enhanced Tech Support
The Detroit News reports that Dell is going to use Google Earth as a tool to enhanced their technical support services. The new tech support service, to be released today, is named "Platinum Plus." Platinum Plus subscribers will be given access to "Google Earth Pro to see in real-time how the Round Rock company is responding to technical support issues around the globe." Dell and Google have some recent past positive relationships this just adds to that list.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:54 AM | Permalink
David Beach Leaves Yahoo For Start Up Wink
Brian Smith notes that the senior product manager of Yahoo Shopping Search, David Beach, has decided to leave Yahoo after five years. Beach confirmed his departure from Yahoo on his blog, stating that Yahoo could not provide "the kind of opportunity that Wink is providing." Wink, a social search engine, "analyzes tags and submissions from Digg, Furl, Slashdot, Yahoo MyWeb, and other services, plus user-imported tags from del.icio.us, and favorites marked at Wink, and figure out which pages are most relevant through our TagRank (tm) algorithms." Should be a fun move for Beach.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:44 AM | Permalink
Social News Site Digg Adds New Categories, Features
Sites that rely on user generated content are all the rage these days, from online encyclopedia Wikipedia to social bookmark sites like Del.ico.us. Digg relies on its 300,000 users to suggest important news stories from sites all over the web, and promotes those that get the most "diggs" (votes) to its front pages, providing a collective view of what web users think are the most important stories of the moment. Earlier this week the site rolled out new subject areas and tools that make it easier to drill down on the types of news that interests you personally and ignore topics that you don't find useful. More on Digg and this populist approach to "editing" the news in today's SearchDay article, Digging into the News.
Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:12 AM | Permalink
June 27, 2006
New Search Patent Applications: June 27, 2006 - Searching Amongst Malicious Web Sites
Microsoft's patent applications from the end of last week include ways for search engines to scan malicious web sites, clustering queries for more relevant searches, and extracting feature and formatting information from pages. IBM introduces a new query dependent page ranking algorithm, and a way to preload the URLs of a site into your history file before you've ever visited. Xerox searches for more meaningful snippets, Alcatel takes the PC out of search, and replaces it with TV, and British Telecommunications describes a way to make user profiles more helpful in returning search results.
Microsoft
This patent filing looks at user logs for web queries, and user feedback associated with those queries in an attempt to try to cluster the queries, and serve more relevant results in response to those queries.
Clustering Web Queries
Invented by Ji-Rong Wen, Jian-Yun Nie, Ming-Jing Li, and Hong-Jiang Zhang
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060136455
Published on June 22, 2006
Filed on February 23, 2006
Abstract
Systems and methods for clustering Web queries are described. In one aspect, one or more of a same document and a plurality of similar documents selected by a user in response to a plurality of queries is identified. Responsive to this identification, a query cluster is generated. The cleric the query cluster indicates that the queries are similar independent of whether individual ones of the queries comprise similar composition with respect to other ones of the queries.
In this next document, Microsoft looks at how data on a web page can be extracted from the page, and parsed into information about the content on the page with its associated formatting, frequency of appearance, associated meta data, titles, and more. Statistics can be used to help understand the relevance of a query to the information extracted from a page.
Ranking search results using feature extraction
Invented by Dmitriy Meyerzon and Hang Li
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060136411
Published on June 22, 2006
Filed on December 21, 2004
Abstract
Methods and computer-readable media are provided for ranking search results using feature extraction data. Each of the results of a search engine query is parsed to obtain data, such as text, formatting information, metadata, and the like. The text, the formatting information and the metadata are passed through a feature extraction application to extract data that may be used to improve a ranking of the search results based on relevance of the search results to the search engine query. The feature extraction application extracts features, such as titles, found in any of the text based on formatting information applied to or associated with the text. The extracted titles, the text, the formatting information and the metadata for any given search results item are processed according to a field weighting application for determining a ranking of the given search results item. Ranked search results items may then be displayed according to ranking.
The following patent application looks at ways of detecting malicious content on pages, during a crawl of the web, and in real time as a query is performed. I was reminded of Scandoo and a recent paper from Ben Edelman and SiteAdvisor, The Safety of Internet Search Engines, when reading it.
System and method for utilizing a search engine to prevent contamination
Invented by Art Shelest and Eytan D. Seidman
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060136374
Published on June 22, 2006
Filed on December 17, 2004
Abstract
A system and method are incorporated within a search engine for preventing proliferation of malicious searchable content. The system includes a detection mechanism for detecting malicious searchable content within searchable content traversed by a web crawler. The system additionally includes a presentation mechanism for handling the detected malicious searchable content upon determination that the malicious searchable content is included in search results provided by the search engine. The presentation mechanism handles the detected malicious searchable content in order to prevent proliferation of the malicious searchable content to a receiver of the search results.
IBM
When you visit a site that you have previously been to before, your browser address bar will often show you pages on that site that you've seen, in a dropdown. This can help you return to a page that you may have been trying to return to. It might be helpful if this kind of feature was available on sites that you haven't visited before. Imagine arriving at a site you haven't seen previously, and being able to download a list of the URLs on the site.
The method in this filing involves a plugin to help a visitor find URLs of pages by providing an autocomplete, and a dropdown selection of URLs for pages on the site. URLs from the site could be added in the browser to its history files, an auto-complete file, and a site-map file.
Method and system for advanced downloading of URLS for WEB navigation
Invented by Derek Kwan
Assigned to IBM
US Patent Application 20060136453
Published June 22, 2006
Filed on September 8, 2005
Abstract
A method, computer program product, and system for providing advanced downloading of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for a WEB browser running on a computer. The system is capable of providing a WEB browser with Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). The system comprises a client computer and a server. The client computer includes the WEB browser for use by a user and includes a URL component. The server provides WEB data to the client computer. The server includes a URL downloader, which is responsive to the URL component for downloading the URLs to the client computer.
A method for ranking pages in relation to a query; unlike pagerank, this method is query dependent and ranks pages associated with specific queries.
Dynamically ranking nodes and labels in a hyperlinked database
Invented by Krishna Prasad Chitrapura and Srinivas Raaghav Kashyap
Assigned to IBM
US Patent Application 20060136098
Published on June 22, 2006
Filed on December 17, 2004
Abstract
The World Wide Web (WWW) can be modelle