May 8, 2008
May 8, 2008
Pro Intellectual Property Act Passes House
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act.despite opposition from the Department of Justice.
The act, sponsored by Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), would allow for forfeiture of property such as computers and other equipment used by convicted copyright infringers.
While this is mainly aimed at music and movie piracy and is backed by the entertainment industry, it will be interesting if it could be applied to website content theft. If so, this could create all sorts of interesting developments for the future of the web.
Scrappers and other copyright material thieves could be risking a lot more than dropped Google listings.
Posted by Frank Watson at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
FBI Hot For 'Wikipedophilia'
The FBI is investigating Wikipedia's inclusion of a photograph of an underage girl on one of their information pages, WorldNetDaily reported. The company has defended their inclusion of adult content despites its ease of access for children, WND noted.
The offending photo is of an old Scorpion album cover that "depicts a naked pre-pubescent girl (appearing about 10 years of age) in a provocative pose. Her chest is completely exposed and a small crack is placed over her vagina."
There have been some complaints about the inclusion of images of graphic sexual acts - heterosexual and homosexual.
ValleyWag mentions these problems in a profile of Wikipedia's Erik Moeller, their number two who oversees content and was instrumental in the development of WikiYouth. Problem is guys you have no restrictions to the adult content on your main site. Even the porn industry requires checking age or having anyone logging in to commit to an age.
A warning before this content displays could be a good start.
Posted by Frank Watson at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google: Our Brain is Just Fine, Thank You
Recently, Google has been losing executives and staff to social sites and startups. This has led many to speculate that Google is losing the brainpower that built the mega company.
But the so-called brain drain is not occurring. At least, that's what Google spokesman Matt Furman told BBC news. Furman said that Google's management pool is deep. Plus, they're not want for talent with 1,300 resumes arriving at their doorstep every day.
Many Googlers have hopped over to Facebook, where they're more likely to find the startup culture that was so endearing about the Google of years past. Now Google, despite its free lunches, is a bonafide corporation, with structure and chains of command to boot. Still, those Googlers may have had a harder time landing their Facebook gigs had it not been for the presence of Google on their resumes.
Of course, Googlers-turned-Facebookers may question that move if Microsoft should really, truly buy Facebook.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Yahoo Tests 'Glue Pages' in India
Yahoo is testing a new home page design for its search engine in India. Dubbed 'Glue Pages,' the design has a 3-newspaper look with modules reminiscent of iGoogle or some RSS newsreaders like Netvibes. However, while iGoogle widgets are all over the place design-wise, Glue Pages modules have a clean, uniform look. On the other hand, you can't drag and drop the modules or choose from a catalog of modules to customize your page. Instead, Glue Pages changes up the modules and the placement of those modules according to the keyword that is being searched.
The organic search results are in the left column. Because we're so used to paid search listings being in a sidebar, these organic listings look like sponsored results. (Don't worry, there are still 10 organic results per page.)
On a search for "cell phones," a Google blog search module (of all things!) was the top center module. But on a search for "tea," a MyRecipes.com module took center stage (and that Iced Mint tea recipe looks delicious!). Other modules include Yahoo! Answers, Flickr images, and How Stuff Works.
Glue Pages facilitates both discovery and answers, something that searchers and Web 2.0 users love. On both of my searches, however, the Yahoo! Answers module was placed at the bottom. And with the success of Answer sites over the past year (with Yahoo! Answers leading the pack), perhaps the module should be tested above the fold. But perhaps that will be part of the test in the future.
Check out the screenshots below or go and test Glue Pages for yourself.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Giving Links Away
There are a few ways of controlling what pages of your site share their link love. In today's Link Building column, "Giving Links Away," Sage Lewis explains the concepts of PageRank "sculpting" and siloing: two methods that use the "nofollow" attribute to control which links are counted in search engine ranking algorithms.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
