Forbes.com: Update 2: Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship

Forbes.com: Update 2: Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship: "Associated Press
Update 2: Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship 09.24.2004, 09:43 PM

Google Inc.'s recently launched news service in China doesn't display results from Web sites blocked by that country's authorities, raising prickly questions for an online search engine that has famously promised to 'do no evil.'"

Netimperative - Google planning a browser?

Netimperative - Google planning a browser?: "Google may be investing some of the money generated from its recent IPO in a new Internet browser to challenge Microsoft, according to a report in the New York Post."

Where Will PageRank be at the end of 2004?

Rusty Brick enters the PageRank debate...Where Will PageRank be at the end of 2004?

Google Gets Local in Canada

Google Gets Local in Canada: "Google Gets Local in Canada" Launch the integration of local search results into Google.ca
Sukhinder Singh, general manager of Google Local.

"Keyword-based search brings you results from both the Web and structured data sources that may be more precise than results you'd be able to get from category-based search of only yellow page data," she said. "Something you wouldn't think of as a category-based search, but a keyword-based search, showcases the unique data set we've been able to bring together."

So a user searching for a coffee shop with wi-fi access would be able to find it with Google Local Canada, while they may not be able to do so with regular Web searches, Singh said. Clicking on a link in local search results brings the user to a detail page with driving directions, map information, and related Web pages.

A local search can also be triggered by using Canada-specific geographical keywords or locations in a search on Google.ca or Google.com. When a user types in a search query along with a postal code or name of a Canadian town, city or province on Google.com, the top results points to Google Local Canada, and are marked by a small compass icon linking users to a Google Local Canada search results page.

Changes to PageRAnk algo reported.. alt.internet.search-engines ::

alt.internet.search-engines :: View Forum - alt.internet.search-engines: "New Google PR checksum algorithm cracked 0Will.Spencer4Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:36 pm Will.Spencer
New Googlebot"

WebmasterWorld Google Knowledgebase V2

WebmasterWorld Google Knowledgebase V2

WebProWorld :: Google Instantly Sees Some Links

WebProWorld :: Google Instantly Sees Some Links: "the constantly repeated question, when will Google update again, is moot"

GEO Over-ride

From: "Traffick1" Joe,

As many now know, there is a way to do a geographic override by
country. (If you're in Canada and want to see US or UK or AU ads, you
would type the query into Google, briefly glance at the ads you're
seeing for your own geographic locale, and then go up to the address
bar and add &gl=us, or &gl=uk, or &gl=au, etc... this is great for
consultants and savvier advertisers who want to see who's advertising
in different parts of the world) When geographic targeting came out,
somebody had figured that you could do the same thing for it by
referring to the DMA "metropolitan area codes," but I forget the exact
sequence or whether you need to include multiple parameters. There
doesn't seem to be any info on it out there in public. I'm not sure if
Google really wants to spread the word on it. :) ... you can see how
this thing might get overused.
DMA Codes

Executive Protection Specialist for G

Reported by Internet Search Engine Database Weekly Update
Google's Latest Recruiting Effort: Secret Service Experience Preferred
Google would want to recruit what the listing calls an "executive-protection specialist." The company's Web posting says the job involves "the protection of Google assets," without giving further details. It lists the Secret Service and Diplomatic Security Service among the possible work experiences of the ideal candidate. Other key skills Google is looking for include " knowledge of surveillance, counter surveillance and technical surveillance countermeasures." This could be a sign of change that often comes with the company growing up. This type of position is a standard post at many large, established companies.

Executive Protection Specialist
This position is based in Mountain View, CA.

Reporting to the Manager of Corporate Security & Safety, the Executive Protection Specialist will work with Google's executives, assistants and event planners to ensure the protection of Google assets. Travel of up to 50% will include security/logistics advances, protective details, and special event coverage. Ideal candidates will have full-time experience with executive protection such as private sector assignments, Secret Service, Marshals Service, Diplomatic Security Service or other relevant history. Other key skills and abilities:

delta.com Launches Web Site Specifically for Customers in the United Kingdom

delta.com Launches Web Site Specifically for Customers in the United Kingdom: "delta.com Launches Web Site Specifically for Customers in the United Kingdom"

Google Special Searchs and Article re one way linking...

Google Search Example:

Shows indexing of all pages listed in website
site:www.websitedomainname.com
Shows indexing of a specific web page in website
info:www.websitedomainname.com/pagename.html

No PR update...WebProWorld :: GOOGLE Files for Divorce from Webmasters?

WebProWorld :: GOOGLE Files for Divorce from Webmasters?

The discussion opens with the observation that "It has been 80-90 days since GOOGLE had an overall PR update. The previous record was about 50-60 days." And currently concludes with: "PR will be a dead story soon, lets come together and forget PR and move on with quality sites."

In between update to Google Directory is mentioned... AU are now at 13, down from 5 then 8 Google Directory - Regional > Oceania > Australia > Travel and Tourism > Travel Guides

Google shares $$$ up...

Google shares ended higher Thursday on the first day on which company employees were able to sell their stock in the Internet search engine.

A total of 4.7 million shares are available for sale today, with a further 39 million available in November and another 177 million in February.

Google shares (GOOG: news, chart, profile) closed up $1.26, or 1.3 percent, at $101.51 in volume of 7.51 million. Since Google stock started trading on August 19, volume has averaged 4.1 million shares per day.

On August 27, Yahoo sold 2.3 million shares of Google for $82.62 each, generating proceeds of $191 million. The shares were part of Google's IPO on Aug. 19, according to a Yahoo spokesman. See full story.

The Internet search engine priced its initial public offering at $85 a share. On its first day of trading, the company's stock soared 18 percent to close above $100.

Google offered a total of 19.6 million shares, down from an initial offering of $25.7 million after a cool reception from investors, regulatory problems and a poor market for Internet stocks.

IPO: Forbes.com: Google Poised to Lift Selling Restrictions

Forbes.com: Google Poised to Lift Selling Restrictions: "Google Inc.'s employees and other insiders will be free to sell an additional 4.67 million shares of the company's stock Thursday, providing another test of the online search engine's popularity with investors. "

E-Commerce News: Personal Tech: On the Web, Branding Is Back

E-Commerce News: Personal Tech: On the Web, Branding Is Back: "Brand advertising is an altogether different animal than paid search and other types of online pitches. It's back in vogue primarily because of the Internet's endless expansion. At the same time that the Web audience is getting bigger and broader, the TV audience is becoming more fragmented even as the costs of TV spots are going up. Add in the speedy adoption of broadband , which makes viewing TV-like ads online a better experience than on slo-mo dialups, and brand-building has a new mass audience to target.
Companies such as Unicast Communications are making this easier. The New York-based outfit launched a product in the first quarter of 2004 that allows video ads to load quickly and run smoothly, regardless of the end user's connection. It also permits interactive features to be included with the pitch. In Honda's ads, for instance, viewers can look up different car colors. The technology is being used in some 90 campaigns on sites including ESPN.com, Reuters.com, Weather.com, and E! Online, says Allie Favarino, senior vice-president at Unicast.
Branding's comeback is also due to the overall surge in online advertising. Year-over-year, it was up nearly 40 percent in the first quarter of 2004, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2003, online ad revenues reached $7.3 billion, up from $6 billion in 2002. In fact, 2003 represented the first four quarters of consecutive revenue increases since 1999...

Perhaps the biggest indicator of growing demand for brand ads is an increase in prices. The cost of brand ads on portals has jumped 68 percent year-over-year, while entertainment sites have seen spikes as high as 90 percent, according to Jeff Lanctot, vice-president for media at Avenue A, an online advertising agency. Lanctot notes that many of the spaces being offered at higher prices are larger and more media-rich, so advertisers are getting more bang-for-the-buck for those increased dollars.
The big question is whether this will boost the fortunes of Web sites beyond Yahoo, MSN, and the other big portals. In its second quarter, CNET Networks, which operates tech news and product-review sites, cited branding as a potential growth area -- but not one that's moving the needle yet, according to Jupiter's Stein. Yahoo is fond of pointing out that 14 percent of all media consumption in the U.S. is over the Internet, but it's getting only 3 percent of all advertising dollars. Yahoo and its competitors hope that number can climb to around 8 percent to 12 percent pretty fast.

But not all inequities are so easily ironed out. Such sites might do well to consider that while more mature mediums like cable TV and satellite represent more than half of viewing hours, they still get only about 28 percent of TV ad dollars. If rich-media ads don't grow as expected, Yahoo, MSN, and others may need to find a fresh growth engine to take over where paid search is leaving off."

The Google Backlink Dance Resumes..or does it?

The Google Backlink Dance Resumes: "The Google Backlink Dance Resumes"

What's Google's Growth Strategy?

Motley Fool Ultimately, one has to argue what business is Google in? It's not search, exactly. Last year, selling advertising accounted for 97% of the company's revenues, and that figure has edged up to 98% so far this year.

So if the bulk of your intake comes from selling ads -- whether it's on paid search results, email pages, or my rent-ready forehead -- isn't Google's goal to grow the number of pages that it serves up?

Google has the traffic. It's a gift that shouldn't be squandered. Does that mean that Google should roll out online services like personals or job ads like Yahoo! has or enter the auction game to face a formidable eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)? Should it branch out into proprietary content? I don't think that Google needs to diversify its revenue base. Paid search is a growing field. However, now that Google is a public company, it is all but mandated to forge ahead and grow. That means serving up more pages to satisfy the sponsored demand. Be the portal, Google!

Forum discussion:

Google IPO reviewed

It's a case where the company took control of the process and dictated to the investment bankers, and they're not used to that situation," said Jay Ritter, professor of finance at the University of Florida and an initial adviser to Google on the Dutch auction system. "A lot of the underwriters did not go out of their way to tout the stock." Furthermore, the company made a number of mistakes, magnified under an intense media spotlight. _ Google failed to account for 23 million stock options granted to employees and was forced to offer to buy them back; _ Company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page gave an interview published in Playboy magazine a week before the IPO was to have hit the market, a violation of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. _ The company went ahead with the IPO in a very oversold market, with technology shares particularly battered in recent months. _ The Dutch auction system was designed to garner as much money for Google as possible while limiting the usual jump in price on the first day of open trading. While the auction priced Google at $85 per share, the stock quickly soared to $100 in the first hour of trading, and closed Friday up $7.98 at $108.31. With better pricing, Google itself could have gotten that extra $23 a share - or more than $30 million. However, with Google so popular with both investors and the public, most Wall Street firms felt they could not afford to sit out. Only Merrill Lynch publicly dropped out of the auction, reportedly unhappy with the cost-benefit equation. Google may not have met Wall Street's definition of success, since the Dutch auction system poses a threat to major underwriters' business models. But it nonetheless raised $1.6 billion, and its investors saw strong gains in the first two days of trading. "It's certainly a success in that Google went public, and they did it the way they wanted to," said Matt Rhodes-Kropf, associate professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School. "But it was a failure in the sense that they didn't get the price they could've gotten if they had gone through the traditional method. And they did not eliminate the first-day jump."

No matter where they stood on the success or failure of Google's IPO, most experts and insiders agreed that other companies would attempt IPO auctions in the future, and would try to involve the public to one degree or another. And Wall Street would continue to be, at best, ambivalent about the concept. "Certainly, the lead underwriters did not want to use an auction. In that regard, a lot of them have not been anxious to paint this as a success, since it's a threat to their business model," Ritter said. "But outside of the top 10 or 15 underwriters out there, there are plenty of smaller underwriters who would be happy to pick up the crumbs and try to make inroads using the auction system. There aren't that many IPOs around, after all."

Google's spats with venture capitalists

Very interesting history of Googles relationships with named venture capitalists... Tensions between entrepreneurs who start a company and venture capitalists who finance them are as common as spats between husband and wife...the rows between Google's two strong-willed founders and their venture capitalists are legendary up and down Sand Hill Road.

Are you sick of Google yet...some astute comments

cbs.marketwatch.com
"The founders of Google are waltzed from one blunder to another by experts who appear to be setting them up for failure. The experts are doing a great job but not for Google"