Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Google Universal Search Patent Granted


Google was granted a patent today from the USPTO on Universal Search, which provides searchers with a mix of search results from different categories, such as news, images, advertisements, web pages, and kinds of results when they type in a search query

The original patent application was filed on December 31, 2003, and Google announced the introduction of Universal Search in May of 2007. The patent describes some different kinds of document categories that may be shown in search results, such as:

  • Sponsored links,
  • News documents,
  • Product documents,
  • Documents summarizing discussion groups,
  • Images,
  • General web documents, and;
  • Other document classifications

The Official Google Blog described a few more categories that could be shown to searchers in their announcement, Universal search: The best answer is still the best answer, including Maps, Books, Video, as well as additional contextual links to other categories of documents such as “blogs,” “books,” “groups,” and “code.”

Improving User Experience with Universal Search

The primary goal behind Universal Search, as noted in the patent, is to improve a user’s search experience without requiring them to have to choose a amongst different categories, such as images or news or web, before they send their query terms to the search engine.

Search engines have tried to provide access to different kinds of searches in the past, through the use of tabs or links above a search box that can lead to different kinds of results, such as news or images or products, but the patent’s authors tell us that “a large majority of users tend to ignore the category tabs, resulting in their search query being directed to the default category.”

Interface for a universal search engine
Invented by Bret Taylor, Marissa Mayer, and Orkut Buyukkokten
Assigned to Google
US Patent 7,447,678
Granted November 4, 2008
Filed: December 31, 2003

Choosing which Categories of Results to Show

Each of the different kinds of documents may be kept in separate databases, so that for instance, there’s a separate news category database, a separate product category data base, a separate image category database, and so on.

When someone performs a search, each of the databases may be searched to find the most relevant results in that database for the query terms that were entered by a searcher, and the results from each of those may be ranked.

The ranked results from each of the different data bases may then be compared to each other to see which provides the closest results to the search query.

For example, on a search for “buy running shoes, the results in the “products” category may be the most relevant to that search, and the ranking component may also look for terms like “buy” that indicate that a particular category may be related to a category like a “products” shopping category.

The patent also tells us that most searchers expect to see web page results when performing a search at a search engine, so a web page category will usually be the most prominent category for most searches.

Universal Search Interface

The interface shown for Universal Search in this patent is one where different groups of categories are shown in different segments of a page.

A more recent patent filing from Google has shown that the search engine has moved away from trying to group search results so strictly by category, blending different types of results together. I’ve written about that in How Google Universal Search and Blended Results May Work

Conclusion

The days of a search engine just providing a list of links in their search results are drawing further away as more kinds of content appear on the Web, and search engines are finding better ways of indexing that content.

News stories can present freshness in results, blog posts can provide unique perspectives, video can enable an alternative experience to reading, images can describe and tell a tale with one glance, and book results can lead to material that isn’t available online. Displaying results in these alternative categories of documents and others enables a richer experience for a searcher.

The pages of Google have remained very simple since the search engine was first introduced, and part of the reason for that was to make the site very fast, and easy to use even if you had a slow connection to the Web. As broadband access to the internet becomes more widespread, and as images and audio and video resources become more common, more colorful and complex results pages at search engines are more reasonable.

One of the challenges that site owners face is in presenting their audio and video and images and other non-text resources so that they can be found easily by people searching for what those site owners present on their pages. Universal and Blended search from the search engines provide ways for that material to be found by searchers.

This patent on Universal Search doesn’t tell us a lot that we haven’t already learned from using Universal Search for the last year and a half, but it does provide a few insights, such as a likelihood that most sets of seach results will always include Web pages because most searchers expect to see them, and that choice of different categories of results to present is tied most closely to how well the most relevant results in that category fit with the intent evidenced by a searcher’s query terms used during a search.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Google's approach to email

What's new in Gmail?


15 new Labs features to try out

From the useful to the playful, there's a whole lot more to play with in Gmail Labs, our testing ground for experimental features. Here's a taste of what's new since Labs first launched:

  • Google Calendar and Docs gadgets
  • A forgotten attachment detector
  • Advanced IMAP controls
  • Canned responses to save and send common replies automatically

Turn on these and more from the Labs tab under Settings, and don't forget to let us know what you think. Learn more

Gmail on Android

Gmail is now available on the world's first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1. All of the features you love about Gmail on your computer, plus real time push email so you never need to refresh your inbox. Learn more

Emoticons – they're not just for chat anymore

Express yourself with emoticons from to or even . Click the button when composing a message in "Rich formatting" mode, or choose the new emoticons tab in chat, and express yourself to your 's desire. Learn more

Gmail for mobile 2.0

Save multiple mobile drafts, compose and read recent email offline, use new shortcut keys and more. Download Gmail for mobile 2.0 for your BlackBerry or J2ME phone by going to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser.




What's been keeping us busy...

Gmail Labs: A testing ground for experimental new features
Try out features in development and let us know what you think. To get started with Labs, click the Labs tab under Settings. Learn more

Gmail has a new look on the iPhone browser
Now with auto-complete when composing, automatic refreshing, and faster load times when viewing email. Learn more

More friends are more fun. Gmail welcomes your AIM® friends.
Now you can talk to your AIM® friends using an integrated chat list right inside Gmail. Learn more

AOL and AIM are trademarks of AOL LLC

Colored labels
Better organize your email with new colored labels. Just click the color swatch next to each label to assign a color. Learn more

Group chat
Chat with multiple people without multiple windows. Invite your friends to a group discussion. To start a group chat, click 'Group chat' from the 'Options' menu when chatting. Learn more

New emoticons
Start sending richer expressions to your friends. Learn more

Free IMAP
Sync your inbox across devices instantly and automatically. Whether you read or write your email on your phone or on your desktop, changes you make to Gmail will be seen from anywhere you access your inbox. Another way to use Gmail on your iPhone is through the browser. By going to m.gmail.com you get the full Gmail experience including conversation view, search, and more. Learn how to set up IMAP on other devices.

Set up IMAP on your iPhone. Watch the video

  • View as slideshow
    Now you can open PowerPoint attachments as slideshows, without having to download anything. Just click "View as slideshow" next to the .ppt attachment you want to preview. Since you can open .doc and .xls attachments with Google Docs and Spreadsheets too, there's no need to leave your web browser to check out your Gmail attachments. Learn more

  • Increased attachment limit-- 20 MB!
    Now you can start sharing more of those home videos, large presentations and files you just can't seem to get smaller. We have doubled the allowable attachment size to 20 MB to make your Gmail space even more useful. Learn more

  • It's a Gmail party and everyone is invited!
    You can still invite your friends to enjoy Gmail's spam protection, 5GB free storage and other great features, but now you can also just tell them to visit www.gmail.com and sign up without an invitation.

  • Get mail from other accounts
    Now Gmail can check for the mail you receive at your other email accounts. You can retrieve your mail (new and old) from up to five other email accounts and have them all in Gmail. Then you can even create a customized 'From:' address, which lets you send messages from Gmail, but have them look like they were sent from another one of your email accounts. Please note that you can only retrieve mail from accounts that have POP3 access enabled. Learn more

  • Embarrassment-reducing new message notifications
    Ever replied to a message only to find out that someone sent a better, smarter reply right before you? Now, if someone sends a reply while you're in the middle of reading a conversation (or replying to it), you'll get a notification that a new message has arrived. Click "update conversation" to see what you’ve missed.

  • Forward all
    When viewing a conversation, use the new “Forward all” link on the right if you want to forward the entire conversation instead of just one message.

  • Chat even when your friends are offline
    Chatting in Gmail just keeps getting better. Now, if you're chatting with a friend who goes offline, your friend will be able to see whatever you were typing the next time he or she goes online.

  • Get Gmail on your mobile phone
    Download it once, and start accessing Gmail on your phone with just a click or two. To try it for yourself, point your phone to gmail.com/app. Learn more

  • Voicemail
    Your friends can leave you a voicemail using Google Talk. The voice message is sent to your Gmail account as an audio file that you can download or play right from your inbox. Learn more

  • Reply by chat
    When you're about to (or in the middle of a) reply to someone, and you see that person online, you can just send your reply as a chat message. And if you've chosen to save your chat histories, then your chat even gets threaded with that original email conversation. Learn more

  • A picture's worth a thousand words
    With contact pictures in Gmail, you can pick ones for yourself, see which ones your friends have chosen, and set certain pictures to show up for specific people in your Gmail account. Best of all, you can even send picture suggestions to your friends. Learn more

  • Gmail Chat
    Get in touch with your friends instantly, from right inside Gmail! It's the biggest thing to happen to Gmail, since well, Gmail. Learn more

  • Vacation auto-responder
    Set an auto-response so that if you're lying on a beach or taking a train across Siberia, your friends will know you won't be checking your email. Learn more

  • Contact groups
    One of our most-requested features is finally here! Now you can send messages to a group instead of having to pick out the individual addresses every time.Learn more

  • View as HTML
    Now you can view Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or .pdf attachments as web pages by clicking the "View as HTML" link instead of downloading. For when you want to see it faster, you're on a mobile device, or you don't want to install software just to view a document. Learn more

  • Shortcuts on the right
    Now Gmail automatically detects addresses and tracking numbers, and displays useful information such as directions and package tracking alongside your messages.

  • Virus scanning is here!
    For your protection, Gmail now automatically scans for viruses every time you open or send a message with an attachment. We even try our best to remove all the viruses we find. Learn more

  • Export contacts
    Export your Gmail Contacts and save them in a file for back-up or to use in another account or service–great if you're using Gmail's free POP access. Learn more

  • Auto-save
    Saves to ‘Drafts' as you're composing. Never lose a half-written email again.

  • Get to Gmail from any web page
    Download the new Gmail-enabled Google Toolbar. Search your mail or instantly go to your Inbox from any web page with just one click. Learn more

  • Gmail on Google.com
    See your new messages directly from your personalized Google.com homepage.

  • Google Talk
    IM and make free calls through your computer with Google Talk. Your Gmail contacts are even pre-loaded. Learn more

  • Customized 'From:' addresses
    Customize the address on your outgoing messages to display another one of your addresses instead. Learn more

  • An application for Macs
    The Gmail Notifier for Mac OS X even supports plug-in development.

  • Free POP access and automatic forwarding
    Access your mail the way you want to. Download your messages. Read them offline. Use your Blackberry or Outlook or any POP-enabled device. Or forward new messages to an email account you specify. You can even switch to other email services without having to worry about losing access to your messages. Think of it as email portability Learn more

  • Import Contacts
    Move all your contacts from Yahoo! Mail, Outlook, and others to Gmail in just a few clicks. Learn more

  • Signature options
    From the settings page, create a signature that's automatically added to the end of all your outgoing messages. Learn more

Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Evolution of Online Advertising Technology

Please bear with me as I go through a brief history of basic online advertising. The evolution of targeted online advertising is interesting, because I believe the perceived harmlessness of early advertising technology and targeting tactics lulled many people into a sense of complacency or perhaps even false security.

In the beginning of targeted online advertising, there were banner ads. As many people recall, these were supposed to drive the Internet marketing industry in its infancy. Scads of publishers paid scads of money based on a CPI (cost per impression) model or simply paid huge dollars for banner ads and other targeted online advertising on well-trafficked sites.

Then something crazy happened - nothing. It turns out that the banner advertising technology on the Internet was not the magic bullet it was purported to be. The old way of making money based on providing content (the way magazines and newspapers ran advertising) just didn't seem to work in this context.

This new advertising technology was part of the reason for the collapse of the dot-bomb era. All the talk was about "eyeballs," "stickiness," "bleeding edge," "cradle to grave," and several other terms that, in retrospect, would have sounded more at home in a Wes Craven movie than in an emerging industry. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of business models depended on a traditional marketing strategy working more or less the same as it always had when introduced into a non-traditional setting.

All the while, one company, originally called GoTo, then Overture, and finally bought by Yahoo!, actually formulated a targeted online advertising system that worked - keyword advertising. Companies could bid on a per-click basis for certain key terms, which sent valuable traffic to its website.

Obviously, the improvement in advertising technology had to do with the model itself, which was perpetuated on relevance. By only bidding on keyphrases that you wanted, you could only pay for visitors who had already shown an interest in your products or services. This targeted online advertising model was soon copied by Google, who tweaked it and made it better.

There were not many raised eyebrows at this time, in terms of privacy. After all, the user was the one entering the query, and nobody suspected at the time that search engines might one day actually create individual profiles on users. We were all just really enjoying "having the information at our fingertips" without the potential hazards of ink stains and paper cuts that traditional research required.

Google then took a similar idea a step further. Instead of just serving up targeted online advertising on its home page, the company created a content distribution network called AdSense. In this program, owners of websites could sign up to have the ads placed on their sites. Google would then use a "contextual" logic to determine which ads to place where. In other words, Google would "read" the content on a page and then serve up targeted online advertising in the area provided by the site owner that was relevant to the content.

There were a few missteps with this new advertising technology (one classic example was when the online version of the NY Post ran a story in 2004 about a murder victim whose body parts had been packed into a suitcase. Running alongside the story was an ad that Google served up for Samsonite Luggage). Yet this targeted online advertising service also caught on, with nary a cry from privacy people. After all, you don't have to visit the sites. And the site owners don't have to sign you up for the service, right?

Suddenly, Gmail was offered and that raised some eyebrows. Gmail, of course, is Google's free email-based platform. Gmail gave people an (at that time) unprecedented 1 gigabyte of email space (Yahoo!, if memory serves, offered 4 megs for free email accounts and charged people for more memory). The only caveat – Gmail would use a similar advertising technology platform as AdSense, but it would decide which ads to serve up by reading through your emails.

Well, this new approach to advertising technology creeped some people out, and privacy advocates were a bit more vocal about using targeted online advertising by parsing through people's emails. A California lawmaker tried to introduce some legislation preventing the practice. International privacy groups chimed in with their own concerns. In the end, however, the fact remained that one had to sign up for a Gmail account and everyone that did was (presumably) aware of how the service worked before they did sign up. So it was an opt-ín system – If you didn't want Google parsing through your email and serving up relevant, targeted online advertising, you didn't have to use the service.

So there we all were, happily surfing away, not a care in the world. What most of us didn't realize was that enough free cookies were being distributed to each of us to turn the otherwise docile Keebler elves into tree-dwelling Mafioso erroneously plotting a turf war.

These cookies, of course, are the ones that websites place on your computer when you visit – little packets of information that record your visit, and sometimes, your activity there. Certainly, there's a legitimate reason for this. When you return to a website, it can help if it remembers your last visit and you can pick up where you left off. Assume, for example, that you were making multiple purchases from an e-commerce site and had a bunch of stuff in your shopping cart but were forced to abandon the site before completion. It's nice to go back and pick up where you left off without having to do it all over again.

Digital advertisers, however, saw another opportuníty for targeted online advertising. They invented advertising technology that would scour through the cookies on your personal machine, figure out what you liked and disliked by looking at the types of sites you went to, and then feed up highly targeted online advertising based upon your browsing history. These companies included aQuantive, DoubleClick, ValueClick, and others. Of the companies I mentioned, only ValueClick is still independent. Google snapped up DoubleClick, while Microsoft snapped up aQuantive. Clearly, these companies believe in the future of Internet advertising technology and also believe in the long-term legality of this technology.

Now some real red flags were raised. I've written about this advertising technology before, so I'm not going to go over it all again here. Suffice to say that some government regulators were pretty skeptical about this new form of advertising technology and there have been numerous suggestions for regulation. The lack of uproar from the public, however, has not really created any backlash for the companies in question. It could be because there is widespread ignorance about Internet advertising technology (and I believe there is, based on conversations with people of average Internet experience). Perhaps a part of it is also that privacy has been eroding on the Internet one incremental step at a time.

-searchspiderz

Hi-Res Google Maps Images On the Way

First Image from GeoEye Satellite Released

You may recall about a month and a half ago, it was announced that GeoEye would be launching a satellite with the highest resolution available on the market and would be lending its technology to Google Maps. Today, the first image was released from the GeoEye-1.

"We are pleased to release the first GeoEye-1 image, bringing us even closer to the start of the satellite's commercial operations and sales to our customers," says GeoEye CEO Matthew O'Connell.

The first image is of the Kutztown University campus in Pennsylvania, and was taken at noon on October 7th while the GeoEye-1 was moving north to south in a 423-mile-high orbit over the eastern seaboard of the U.S. at a speed of four-and-one-half miles per second. ReadWrite Web put together a side-by-side look at the GeoEye imagery compared to current Google Maps imagery:

Read Write Web's Side-by-side comparison

That's nothing though. The satellite is capable of achieving .41 meters resolution in black and white and 1.65 meters in color, but government regulations will only allow half-meter images to the public, so those concerned about privacy can breathe a little easiser.

Financially, GeoEye is apparently right where it needs to be. "We are bringing GeoEye-1 into service within four years of our contract award with no contract cost overruns," says GeoEye COO Bill Schuster. "The entire program which includes the satellite, launch, insurance, financing and four ground stations was less than $502 million. That's the amount established and agreed to four years ago." He further noted, "GeoEye-1 is an excellent fit to meet the U.S. Government's important requirements for mapping and broad area space-based imagery collection over the next decade."

GeoEye will be selling imagery products from the GeoEye-1 later this fall.


Yahoo Web Analytics Comes To Light

It's time for data hounds to start drooling. Jerry Yang still isn't ready to toss a Google Analytics competitor to every person who asks, but this afternoon, his company did announce that some people are being given access to the new Yahoo Web Analytics.

Yahoo's work on the product dates back to its acquisition of IndexTools. About 13,000 small business customers, along with an unknown number of advertisers and developers, will be the first to see the fruits of its labor. Then, a rollout is planned to continue through next year.

As for what's on the table, a fresh homepage says that Yahoo Web Analytics "provides real-time insight into visitor behavior on your website. With powerful and flexible tools and dashboards, Yahoo! Web Analytics helps online marketers and website designers enhance the visitor experience, increase sales and reduce marketing costs."

A success here could go a ways towards bridging the gap between Yahoo and Google. On the other hand, Yahoo's investors have to be running out of patience, and every tiny screw-up further endangers the company's independence and Jerry Yang's job. The timing of this development could go take us in either direction; think "great work under pressure" versus "last gasp."

Anyway, Yahoo Web Analytics at least represents something for data-hungry sorts to anticipate, and an official FAQ and some screenshots are available in the meantime.


Google Getting Aggressive with Advertising

It's Not Just About Adwords Anymore

Google is trying to get advertising agencies to warm up to it after years of not being their favorite entity. After all, think of all the marketing dollars spent on search engine advertising (and SEO campaigns for that matter) that agencies missed out on because of a certain search giant.

Google Shows Off

Stephanie Clifford at the New York Times writes about Google invading the offices of advertising agency Leo Burnett back in July, setting up some kind of mini-carnival of sorts to show off their advertising technology. It seems that the company wants to recruit agencies to use its tools, but some of these agencies believe Google has ulterior motives.

"As Google begins trying to sell television, radio and print advertising and creates tools for buying and planning media campaigns, some advertising executives and academics say that the company is working with the agencies in order to eventually displace them," writes Clifford.

Aggressive Advertising

It's not unreasonable to suspect that Google has its own best interests in mind. Why wouldn't it? The company does seem to be working its way further into the advertising world more aggressively than ever. For example, they're talking about not even waiting for Federal approval before going forward with their ad deal with Yahoo.

That's being investigated as a possible antitrust issue. Imagine if Google was able to phase out ad agencies. I don't anticipate that happening anytime soon, however. Google is big, and it has a lot of pull, but it's not everything. It's a notion that even Google itself dismisses.

"I don’t see how we would be able to actually provide a better customer experience to an individual client than an agency can today," says Google Vice President for North American ad sales, Penry Price. "There’s no way we could actually line up behind one customer and offer the services and information that an agency can today."

A Lot of Ads in Google's Future

Don't mark the extinction of agencies yet, but there is no question that Google is getting a lot bigger in its advertising britches these days. You got YouTube ads starting to come out, RSS ads in Feedburner, and don't forget that DoubleClick aquisition. If that Yahoo! deal goes through unscathed, that's going to be one big chunk of the advertising market that's going to get even bigger.

Text Ads Get More Clicks Than Video Ads

Young favor video ads

Online video ads are not as popular as perceived with only 11 percent of consumers saying they were likely to click on video ads, according to a new study from iPerceptions.

Simple text ads were found to be the most likely to receive clicks with 25 percent of consumers doing so, followed by display ads at 20 percent and banner ads at 12 percent.

The only people who seem to be engaged by video ads are young people under the age of 25, a group that accounts for nearly one-third of the video-ad viewing audience.

"Retail groups are predicting the toughest holiday season since 1991, so marketers need to make sure every dollar spent on advertising delivers an end result," said Jonathan Levitt, vice president of marketing at iPerceptions.

"Our research shows that inexpensive banner and text ads are still preferred among web consumers. By having a direct dialog with consumers, we are able to know - with certainty - what consumers want and expect from their online experience."

The study also found that the likelihood that a person will click on an ad goes down as their income increases. On average, 40 percent of consumers are likely to click on any ad make less than $50K a year- and only 15 percent make over $150K.

The income gap is the most significant with video ads, with 49 percent of consumers likely to click video ads making less than $50K a year- and only 13 percent making over $150K.

Overall, 65 percent of consumers are likely to click on online ads and they are weekly or daily browsers, while only 15 percent are first time visitors and 6 percent are sporadic visitors.

"Our research clearly shows that media sites that offer consumers compelling content and features - encouraging repeat visits - generate much better ad clickthrough rates than less engaging sites," said Levitt.

"Marketers that want to reach high quality audiences should focus ad placement on sites that deliver the highest customer loyalty and repeat visitor traffic."

Ads Appear On Google Maps

Let the hotel hawking begin

Want to buy property in Bangalore, India? Or stay in a Dublin hotel? Google hopes so, because the search giant's latest effort in terms of monetization is tied to Google Maps, and when you search for certain cities, you'll see ads for things like these placed at the bottom of the page.

There's not much to the ads; they consist of a link, a line of text, and the words "Sponsored Link" against a blue background. There are also a couple of arrows that seem like they should lead to other ads, but we haven't yet found an instance in which they work.

As another example of things possibly going wrong, no ads appeared following Google Maps searches for major cities like Moscow and London.

This may be a test, then, but quite a few people, including Amit Agarwal in India and Dave Shaw in the UK, are starting to see the ads. So it looks like Google is going full speed ahead with the effort, and the potential problems are just due to not a lot of advertisers having been clued in.

The idea of monetizing Google Maps is clever, anyway, and if Google's third quarter report doesn't go well, the company will have at least ensured that investors have one less missed opportunity to complain about.


GM CEO Takes Message To YouTube

Let’s annoy you by understating it and call these “uncertain” economic times. While it’s unclear what a tumultuous economy means for online business—after all, there was Internet in the Great Depression—old standby General Motors saw its stock drop the lowest it’s been in half a century.

What will also be historic to watch is how twenty-something cub Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg handles what appears to be economic Armageddon (as Jim Cramer prognosticated a year ago in his famous meltdown—the same guy telling you take your money out of the market now). Even more historic and interesting will be to compare how Zuckerberg handles it to how GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner does.

Early developments are pretty telling. Wagoner has taken his case to YouTube. In a two minute video, he spoke of innovation and new, more economically friendly cars down the pipe. He talked about gas prices and fuel economy and asked the YouTube audience for thoughtful commentary.

After 8,000 or so views there has been no commentary, but that’s beside the point. Wagoner’s video is kinda Iacocca-ish, which is probably what he was going for.

What sort of guidance can we expect from his quarter-life dotcom hotshot counterpoint? You might call it a cautious approach. Zuckerberg is set on nailing down a business model within the next three years.

Maybe that’s when his student loans come due?

In an interview for a German news site, Zuckerberg explains revenue for Facebook isn’t as important as growth at the moment:

“I don't think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did. But on both sites people find information valuable. I'm pretty sure that we will find an analogous business model. But we are experimenting already. One group is very focused on targeting; another part is focused on social recommendation from your friends. In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today.”

Maybe Microsoft would like to take that quarter-billion it plunked down and put it toward buying up a failing bank. That seems to be a pretty popular move right now.

It’s still hard to believe Zuckerberg once blew off billion-dollar negotiations with Yahoo—pre-Microsoft bid and pre-tanking-stock Yahoo. Honestly, offer me a billion dollars for something. Anything. I’ll take it.

Google Devaluing DMOZ and Yahoo! Links?

Removes Webmaster Guidelines

Google is no longer suggesting that you should be listed in relevant directories. In fact, they've even removed the suggestion from their webmaster guidelines, as Brian Ussery noticed. The page used to have bullet points for:

- Have other relevant sites link to yours.

- Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

Those points are now gone in what would appear to be a slap in the face of directories, but SEO folks are the ones really irritated. Google doesn't appear to see it as a slap in the face so much, but more of simply a non-needed guideline.

Barry Schwartz points to a quote from Google's John Mueller in a Google Groups thread:

"I wouldn't necessarily assume that we're devaluing Yahoo's links, I just think it's not one of the things we really need to recommend," said Mueller. "If people think that a directory is going to bring them lots of visitors (I had a visitor from the DMOZ once), then it's obviously fine to get listed there. It's not something that people have to do though :-)."

Mueller also asks for feedback, "What do you think - does it make sense? :-) What else should we change / add / remove?"

Regardless of what guidelines are on the page, a relevant link is a relevant link. There are still directories like our own eBusiness Directory that don't offer paid links, and keep the listings quality without getting flooded by spammy and irrelevant ones by using a strict human-edited approval process (call it a shameless plug if you want, but it's the truth).

The eBusiness Directory from WebProNews

There is going to be a lot of outrage over this, but is it really necessary? Perhaps too much focus has been put on directories like DMOZ anyway.


-searchspiderz

Google Calls the Internet a - "Cesspool"

Google CEO Eric Schmidt called the Internet a "Cesspool" Wednesday in reference to the quality of content and the amount of false information residing on it. This according to AdAge is a subject he spoke about with an audience of magazine executives at Google's campus, where an annual industry conference was taking place.

Schmidt stressed that "Brands are the solution, not the problem...Brands are how you sort out the Cesspool."

I couldn't agree more.

In response to an inquiry for advice about appearing more popular on Google, Schmidt told the magazine publishers, "We don't actually want you to be successful...the fundamental way to increase your rank is to increase your relevance."

Branding and relevance. Hmm. Could it be that proving your content to be relevant could increase the credibility of your brand, or "the authority" perhaps? Would it be safe to say that reader engagement is a reflection of relevancy as well? If more people become involved in a discussion, is that not a sign that it is more relevant? This sounds familiar.

OK, I'll come right out and say it (yes, I'm going to bring up Bankaholic yet again). Take Bankaholic, the financial blog that was just sold to Bankrate for $15 million. Part of the reason Bankrate bought it was because it ranked well in search engines for hot key words the company was going after.

Johns Wu, the guy that sold the blog has acknowledged that user engagement was a huge factor in its success. It's obviously relevant if it's creating a good amount of discussion. And it's ranking well. The name Bankaholic works as a pretty solid brand as well (some have speculated that this was also another factor of the purchase).


Schmidt is absolutely right. The Internet is a Cesspool of garbage, and relevancy and brands are the way to filter out what's good. It's no different than it's ever been. Think about classic print publications. You've got trusted magazines and sleazy tabloids. You were always taught not to believe everything you read. The same principle applies online, it's just that the amount of content is much greater (on both sides of the spectrum).

When discussion is taking place, relevancy is easier to pick out, and brands represent authority. Authority and engagement. Those are the keys to success, and that is the reason why new media is still a legitimate source of information despite people gaming the system to try and take advantage of it in unethical ways.

It Doesn't Stop with Content Sites

Let's look at the concept from a broader business standpoint, because these principles don't only apply to content sites. They also apply to eCommerce businesses or even the web portion of traditional brick and mortar businesses. I don't care if your site leads to selling products on eBay or Amazon. You need to have ways of showing your authority, which establishes trust. A blog or even expert articles that give tips and advice can be a good way to do this. The more a customer sees the people running a site know what they're talking about, the more likely they are to purchase products from that site.

When it comes to getting users involved, blogs are again an obvious choice, but you can also integrate web 2.0-type apps. Look at what Best Buy is doing now. They're launching an "enterprise-Twitter"-style application called Mix. While presently, this is more intended for employees, it still represents an authoritative way of conducting business, and you could just as well open up a similar tool to customers. Anything that can help you develop a dialogue with your potential customers is going to help inspire trust. At that point, customers can see that there are real people behind your business, and when they can humanize who they're buying from, they'll feel a lot more comfortable in trusting you with they're money.

A recent survey found that 81% of consumers don't trust small online businesses. Authority and engagement are ways to overcome this. For more on earning customer trust online, see my seven steps for small businesses. How do you earn trust from your customers? What methods do employ to engage users? How do you show your authority in your niche? Share your ideas with the rest of us. Engage.

-searchspiderz

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

What does Google Chrome offer developers?

My first reaction to Google’s introduction of a beta version of its Chrome browser was: Do we really need another browser? So I decided to take Chrome for a test drive.

First impressions of Chrome

Google touts Chrome as an open source browser project, which means its main competitor seems to be Firefox and not Internet Explorer. The browser rendering engine was developed with the help of WebKit. Chrome is up and running after a painless download and install.

The first thing I noticed is the minimalist interface and its quick loading. The interface uses tabs (which most every browser does these days), but the tabs are located at the top of the window above the address bar. There is no bulky menu bar at the top and no status bar at the bottom, so it took a while to get accustomed to it. (This TechRepublic screenshot gallery offers a first look at Chrome.)

The following list outlines other Chrome features:

  • As there should be, there is a big emphasis on security in Chrome. This new browser maintains phishing and malware lists and warns users when they attempt to visit known harmful sites.
  • Google created a separate team to optimize the JavaScript engine used in Chrome. The result is the V8 JavaScript engine, which does show some improvements over its counterparts. (The various caveats of JavaScript performance are beyond this article, but there is a good discussion available online.)
  • Each tab within the browser runs in its own process — a sort of sandbox within the browser. However, browser plug-ins are not covered in this security model. One interesting aspect of Chrome is its ActiveX support. I read many articles touting its lack of support for ActiveX, but it there is an ActiveX plug-in available.
  • An interesting feature is the ability to browse in so-called incognito mode, which means the browser maintains no history or cookies of sites visited in this mode.
  • Gears is a standard component. This is more a feature for developers, as it provides a platform for creating Web applications that can run offline.

Given the beta status of Chrome, it is no surprise to find a few bugs. The browser crashed quite a few times while browsing various sites. Maybe Google is taking a page from Microsoft in releasing software to the general public before it is ready.

What Chrome offers to developers

With Internet Explorer and Firefox capturing most users these days, why should a Web developer concern themselves with a new offering? First, given Google’s footprint on the Web, it is hard to ignore anything new from the company. Of course, Google Apps is supposed to take market share from Microsoft Office but that remains to be seen. Other offerings like Google Talk have failed to dominate its space, so the Google name doesn’t guarantee anything.

I like to use Firefox since it offers so many development tool plug-ins, but I still have to make sure my applications perform properly in Internet Explorer. From a developer viewpoint, Chrome provides a few tools for working with Web pages. The list includes Gears, as well as the following:

  • Web Inspector: This allows you to take a closer look at any element on the currently open page. It is available by right-clicking on an element. It allows you to browse page elements and view object properties and style. This is a feature from the WebKit base.
  • JavaScript console: This allows you to enter command-line JavaScript code that can access page elements. It opens within the Web Inspector window — located in the bottom portion.
  • JavaScript debugger: A rudimentary command line JavaScript debugger. There is nothing intuitive about using this feature. (I did find a good tutorial online.)
  • Task Manager: This allows you to view the current processes running within Chrome; it is analogous to the Task Manager available in Windows. It shows the system resources by a process. This includes memory, network, and CPU usage. A button is provided to end a process along with link to a report that breaks down memory usage for individual processes.

All in all, this is a less than impressive list of tools for the Web developer. It remains to be seen whether more tools will become available to rival what is available with Firefox or Internet Explorer 8. At this time, I will stick with Firefox while keeping an eye on Chrome.

Don’t ditch your current browser just yet

For developers, the current beta version of Chrome provides no reason to switch from Firefox or even the latest Internet Explorer version. As for everyday end users, they will stick with whatever comes with their machine (Internet Explorer) with no reason to switch. Maybe Chrome can carve out a small slice of the browser market.

But what if Google makes it necessary? The company has an overwhelming Web presence, so it would be easy to serve up pages that provide Chrome-specific features. This sounds far-fetched, but it is something to consider.

Have you used the current version of Chrome? If so, what are your impressions of Chrome? Share your thoughts in the Web Developer forum.

Additional TechRepublic resources about Chrome


If Google was Iran

 Some days you think that Google is taking the piss on such as large scale that its primary goal is an entry for humor in the Guiness Book of Records. Then other days, the scope and might of Google is scary.

The latest Google everywhere news is plans to establish a Google Navy, floating data centers sitting offshore, harnessing wave power as they menace US cities. Earlier this month, it was Google in space with a Google labeled rocket (I’m not making this up) and exclusive commercial rights to all pictures from the latest GeoEye satellite. There’s talk that Google may acquire GeoEye, so Google would have the ability to make its own space hardware. Google already has an exclusive agreement with Digital Globe, GeoEye’s main competitor, so Google has high grade US commercial satellite imagery services nearly entirely to itself. Google is a partner in a move to bring Internet access to remote places from space, and has been named a partner on a number of undersea cable projects.

Google on your mobile phone isn’t just an Android handset or Apple distribution deal away either. Google is considering teaming up with Space Data to create a barrage of hot air balloons that will offer cell phone access and data from 20 miles up. A Google airforce.

Where do we start on the desktop? Google Chrome delivers a great browsing experience and is taking market share from established competitors. A near monopoly in search and search advertising sees the World Association of Newspapers among others calling for a stop to the Google/ Yahoo deal. The rest doesn’t need repeating, because chances are nearly every person reading this post would have used Google products or services this week, today, or even in the last hour.

Google is everywhere. Google knows everything. The humor of a Google Navy, Google Airforce, and Google in Space aside, what if Google decided to be evil?

Imagine if Google was Iran. Lets see: access to intercontinental ballistic missiles (aka rockets) and technology to develop space weapons: check. Considering putting ships off major American cities: check. Considering a constant presence in the sky above the United States: check. Ability to disrupt world communications and destroy stock markets: check (see what happened with United Airlines for a quick taste of what’s possible). Brilliant use of propaganda: check. Wouldn’t we be scared?

Anti-trust issues will be the main focus on Google in the coming years as Google’s dominance crawls to 100%, but the other things are worthy of watching as well. There has never been another company like Google in the history of mankind, and its ambition knows no bounds. One day we may just well wake up to find Google running the world, although some may argue now that they already do :-)

Google Nominated for 2008 Best Software Award

CompanionLink for Google Nominated for 2008 Best Software Award by Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine

CompanionLink for Google Allows Two-Way Synchronization Between Google and Productivity Software Like Microsoft Outlook, Palm Desktop and Handheld Devices


PORTLAND, OR, Sep 16, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- CompanionLink for Google, a software package developed by leading mobile synchronization solutions provider CompanionLink Software, is nominated for the 2008 Best Software Award by Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine. CompanionLink for Google was nominated by a team of 94 Windows Mobile experts from a pool of 5,292 applications.
CompanionLink for Google synchronizes contacts, calendar events, recurring appointments, notes, and tasks from software like Microsoft Outlook, Palm Desktop, and ACT! by Sage to Google and Google Apps accounts. The software can also synchronize Google data with handheld devices based on the Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Apple iPhone and Palm OS platforms.
"We're extremely thrilled to be nominated by an industry-leading publication like Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine," said Rushang Shah, Director of Marketing at CompanionLink Software. "We were the first and most robust synchronization solution for Google calendar and contacts. Our nomination affirms the great productivity and value Google users achieve by using our software."
CompanionLink for Google is available on the company's website for $29.95. For more information about synchronizing Google with Microsoft Outlook and the latest handheld devices, please visit: http://www.companionlink.com/google.
About CompanionLink Software
CompanionLink Software is a pioneering developer of data synchronization solutions for mobile phones, PDAs and CRM software. They are also a leading OEM synchronization and solutions provider for companies like Sage Software(R), NVIDIA(R), Google(R), and Royal Consumer Electronic Products(R). For over 15 years, CompanionLink has helped mobilize information across multiple devices, computers, and applications. For more information, please visit www.companionlink.com or call (503) 243-3400.

Newspapers The latest Attacking Yahoo-Google Ad Deal

Google and Yahoo's advertising partnership is under scrutiny by the Department of Justice, and it's been attacked by the Associatin of National Avertisers.

At least 11 states are conducting their own investigations, and the European Comission is examining whether the ad agreement beteween the two Internet giants is violating E.U. laws regarding restrictive business paractices.

Now joining the fray, the World Association of Newspapers is raising concerns about the agreement, saying it "will have a significant and adverse effect on all newspaper publishers worldwide." (And as I've been reporting for years now, the newspaper publishing industry has plenty of problems...) This Paris-based organization represents 77 national newspaper associaitons and 18,000 newspapers around the world.

The association argues that the deal would siginficantly impact European newspaper publishers even though Google [GOOG  440.00    6.14  (+1.42%)   ]says the deal "is limited to Yahoo's U.S. and Canadian websites, and it will not have any significant effect on Europe." The association points out that many European publishers have a presence in North America, and more importantly, could unofficially impact the European market.

These newspaper publishers are concerned that the deal would disincentivizeYahoo[YHOO  18.95    0.10  (+0.53%)   ] to compete against Google in Europe, and that the two companies control nearly all of the market in Europe, so if they chose to set terms together, it could have a particularly detrimental impact.

The bottom line is that these newspapers absolutely rely on both Yahoo and Google, and they like having them operate as two separate entitites because it guarantees that prices are kept in check and that they each deliver on their promises. That said, Yahoo-Google's deal does specify that it's only referring to the U.S. and Canadian market. So we'll see what the U.S. and European justice departments decide.

                                                                                                                                                                                               -searchspiderz

Google offers cutting-edge Chrome, first update

 The Google Chrome Channel Chooser lets people get the latest updates to Google's Web browser.

The Google Chrome Channel Chooser lets people get the latest updates to Google's Web browser.

(Credit: CNET News)

Through a new developer program, Google is letting people try the latest versions of its Chrome Web browser, and the first update is available.

Those who want the newest Chrome versions can install the Google Chrome Channel Chooser software from Google's Chrome Dev Channel site. The switcher lets people choose whether they want the latest cutting-edge Chrome builds or the less frequent but more stable beta versions.

"Google Chrome now provides a way for people to get early-access releases automatically: the Dev channel," said Chrome Program Manager Mark Larson in a Chrome mailing list posting late Monday night. "The Dev channel lets you test the latest fixes and get access to new features as they're being developed. We will release new builds to the Dev channel about every week so that you can preview--and provide feedback on--what's coming in Google Chrome."

The 'About Google Chrome' dialog box lets people update to the latest version.

The 'About Google Chrome' dialog box lets people update to the latest version.

(Credit: CNET News)

The first update available through the program, build 1251, is geared more for programmers and willing guinea pigs than for those who merely are curious.

Build 1251 fixes bugs with areas including Microsoft's Silverlight software, tab behavior, video playback with YouTube and other Flash players, and scalable vector graphics, and it suppresses full-text indexing of sites accessed with encrypted Web connections, according to therelease notes. It also enables two switches that can be set when the software boots that let users activate two developmental features, new technology for networking and for managing Chrome windows.

How to update
After running the Google Chrome Channel Chooser software, users can find if there's a new version by clicking the wrench icon in the upper-right corner of the Chrome screen, then selecting "About Google Chrome." If a new version is available, users can update there, then reboot to enable the changes.

The newest Chrome version is 0.2.152.1.

The newest Chrome version is 0.2.152.1.

(Credit: CNET News)

My update to version 0.2.152.1 went smoothly--but afterward, the browser couldn't figure out whether another version was available. Instead, it said "checking for updates..." for a few minutes until I closed the dialog box.

Chrome is an open-source project, meaning that Google may draw on other work from Firefox, WebKit, and Microsoft, and that others may help Google. Judging by a couple of "thank yous" in the release notes, outsiders are in fact starting to submit patches.

Such submissions require programmers to extend copyright to Google, which means Google can have its way with the Chrome code, for example changing the open-source license under which it's offered.

Also, either Google is still hiding details of security-related Chrome fixes in the release notes, or some of the links are missing in the release notes.

Originally posted at News - Business Tech 
                                                                                                                                                                                           -searchspiderz