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August 13, 2006 - August 19, 2006

August 18, 2006

Search Headlines & Links: August 18, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog...

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

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:47 PM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:07 PM | Permalink

Washington Post Selling Text Links?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:31 AM | Permalink

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

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

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:35 AM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:29 AM | Permalink

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:18 AM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:12 AM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally, it's no surprise that that over the past 18 months that neither founders Larry Page or Sergey Brin have been selling. That's because they already said in 2004 that they'd spend the next 18 months diversifying their portfolios through planned sales.

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:12 AM | Permalink

Google Data Refresh: More Supplemental Results?

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:02 AM | Permalink

Aug. 18, 2006 Search News Forecast: Sunny!

sunny.gif

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

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

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:38 AM | Permalink

August 17, 2006

Search Forums Roundup: August 18, 2006

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

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:31 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: August 17, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog...

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

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:20 PM | Permalink

So Long Daypop & Blogdex

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:14 PM | Permalink

Seevast: It's Kanoodle & More

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:36 PM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:10 PM | Permalink

Google AdSense Prompts Ad Viewers to Download Third Party Applications

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

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

Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 10:32 AM | Permalink

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:44 AM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More details at The Ask Blog.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:30 AM | Permalink

Former Yahoo China Head Sues Yahoo For Defamation

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:20 AM | Permalink

Aug. 17, 2006 Search News Forecast: Mostly Sunny

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

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

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:43 AM | Permalink

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

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

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:05 AM | Permalink

August 16, 2006

The Inside Scoop from Search Bloggers

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

Posted by Chris Sherman at 7:44 PM | Permalink

Google Music Trends: See What Google Talkers Are Listening To

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 5:09 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: August 16, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog...

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

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 3:54 PM | Permalink

Orkut Causing Trouble In Brazil Again

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 2:33 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Partners With Go2 For Mobile Search Ads

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:34 AM | Permalink

Google WiFi Hits Mountain View For Free

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

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:09 AM | Permalink

101 Ways To Build Links & Popularity

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Releases Yahoo Answers API

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:46 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Class Action Settlement Information Released

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

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:37 AM | Permalink

More than Organizing Photos? Google Acquires Neven Vision

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by Bill Slawski at 2:57 AM | Permalink

August 15, 2006

A Guide to Social Search Players

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

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:27 PM | Permalink

Beam Them Engineers Up, Google

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

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

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

.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:17 PM | Permalink

Google Analytics Opens to Everyone - No Invitation Required

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

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

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 7:47 PM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

  • Google Maps Gets Coupons
    Hmm? How do you prove to local merchants who lack tracking software or even web sites that search converts? Coupons! That's right, the conversion tracking tool that requires no internet connection, cookies or software has come to Google Maps....
  • Three Years On, Google's Trademark Usage Letters Become News Again
    How long does it take the wheel to spin full circle on the internet? Apparently three years, judging from the outcry over Google's "new" move to send out trademark protection letters asking people to be careful about how they use the word Google....
  • Yahoo, MSN, & Google Fall In Customer Satisfaction Survey
    The American Customer Satisfaction Index has been released and Yahoo, MSN and Google all fell in points from last year's results. If you look at the 2nd quarter scores and scroll down to the portals and search engines section you will see the ratings. Yahoo was hit the hardest, with a drop of five-percentage points from last year. Ask.com followed with a fall of 1.4%, then MSN falling 1.3%, and then Google falling 1.2% year over year. The only gainer is AOL with a 4.2 percentage point increase year-over-year. There is more coverage on this at DMNews, Bloomberg, News.com and...
  • Matt Cutts Confesses To Being GoogleGuy
    In Monday Morning Roundup, Rand Fishkin writes: Did anyone blog about Matt outing himself as GoogleGuy during SES? I believe his exact words were "I backed into that position." Nope, Rand -- I was surprised about the lack of reaction and blogging to that myself. I'm still doing post-show catch-up, but it hardly seemed to catch any buzz. Perhaps one of the industry's oldest secrets -- Matt Cutts being GoogleGuy -- was no longer a secret to most any longer....
  • Naylor & Amanda Finally Meet: Universe Fails To Be Destroyed
  • More SEO Video 'Cutts' By Matt
    Matt Cutts at Google has posted a few more videos with Google SEO tips for us. Here they are: + Session 11: Reinclusion requests + Session 12: Tips for Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2006 + Session 13: Google Webmaster Tools...
  • Google Supplemental Results Get Fresher
    I reported this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable that GoogleGuy announced Google has updated those pesky supplemental results. Supplemental results are those pages in a secondary index at Google. The pages in the supplemental results tend to be staler and rank worse then the normal documents in the main Google index. In any event, the supplemental results have been updated and should be somewhat more fresh....
  • Yahoo Launches Search Builder
    During the Social Search Overview session, Tim Mayer of Yahoo announced the launch of Yahoo Search Builder. I haven't had much time to play with it yet, and probably won't until next week. But the Yahoo Search blog has a nice overview of the new product. Keep in mind, this seems very similar to Eurekster, based on my quick quick quick read of it. More on this later....
  • Rollyo Adds More Functionality
    The roll your own search resource Rollyo adds more functionality to its services. If Rollyo has slipped under your radar it's a resource that allows you to create your own personalized search engine (hence 'roll your own') that will search up to 25 sites that you specify. They've improved layout, added blog search, added the ability to take an existing Searchroll and edit it to your own taste and added a 'Rollbar'. The latter allows searchers to incorporate Rollyo into the browser to search any site, add sites to existing Searchrolls on the fly and create new ones based on...
  • University of California Joins Google's Book Scan Project
    As expected the University of California is partnering with Google on the Google library scanning project. Reuters reports that Google will be funding "the scanning of "several million" of the 34 million titles in the University of California's libraries." Postscript From Danny: The partnership means that UC becomes the first organization to my knowledge to partner with both major scanning programs from search engines. UC partnered with Microsoft on its project in June. UC is also part of the broader Open Content Alliance backed by both Microsoft and Yahoo...
  • Google To Allow Pornographic Movies In Google Video?
    TechCrunch wrote that Google has recently removed the term "pornographic" from the restrictions on uploading videos. It is now just a restriction on “obscene” material, with an added categorization for "mature and adult" content. TechCrunch also believes Google removed a checkbox confirmation that said, "video is not pornographic or obscene material." Philipp Lenssen also notes this, and added commentary by Donna Bogatin at News.com....
  • Google Video Replaces Froogle & Expandable More Link Added To Google Home Page
    Philipp Lenssen spotted that on Google.com, they have removed Froogle, added Video and added a "more" link that opens up some more options, including "books," "froogle," "groups," and "even more." We have seen the expandable more link tested in the past, looks like it has made it to the front page....