Had to post this just because it references my favourite author/ book/ short story for a philosophical (fictional) angle on knowledge..... although the reporter does not mention the librarian...many of whose real life counterparts seem obsessed also with Borges.
Forbes.com: "In The Library Of Babel Argentinean erudite Jorge Luis Borges proposed the idea of a boundless athenaeum, where man could find any book at will. Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) announced a library-indexing project last year (see: 'Book 'em, Google'), but the search giant's Borgesian aspirations seem to have got a few backs up in Europe, which is rallying to an alternative. France's decision to create its online Babel of European literature received critical backing from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain this week. "
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Search Engine News :: Optimise Web Sites for Organic Search
SEO Blog looks like blogs have had a PageRank update....
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Guardian on Google local with Yell
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Google to go local with Yell: "Any company can access BT's directory of UK business numbers. But Google decided to make a deal with Yell rather than formatting BT's information itself."
Why Google Is Like Wal-Mart
Wired News: "By Adam L. Penenberg: On one hand, you have a company that rose up from modest beginnings to become one of the richest businesses in America (indeed, the world), and in the process revolutionized the use of technology to create a new way to do business -- helping people find what they want.
And then you have Google..."
And then you have Google..."
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Google Local UK Beta Launched
Google Local
Google Search: taxis near northallerton: "Business listings provided by Yell.com"
Google Local Help: "Frequently Asked Questions: Google Local takes a new approach to helping users find geographic information online. We analyse the content in our index of more than 8 billion web pages and combine that information with Yellow Pages data to provide the most comprehensive local search experience available.
When you enter a search query on Google Local, your search results page will list all the relevant businesses we found. If you click the title of a business, you can view a map of the business's location. These maps are highly interactive—you can zoom in, zoom out, or drag them to view adjacent areas.
At the bottom half of the page, you will see a "References" section that shows general search results for the business you are researching."
Google Search: taxis near northallerton: "Business listings provided by Yell.com"
Google Local Help: "Frequently Asked Questions: Google Local takes a new approach to helping users find geographic information online. We analyse the content in our index of more than 8 billion web pages and combine that information with Yellow Pages data to provide the most comprehensive local search experience available.
When you enter a search query on Google Local, your search results page will list all the relevant businesses we found. If you click the title of a business, you can view a map of the business's location. These maps are highly interactive—you can zoom in, zoom out, or drag them to view adjacent areas.
At the bottom half of the page, you will see a "References" section that shows general search results for the business you are researching."
Friday, April 15, 2005
Results change at Google:?
The SEO Blog: The Web We Weave, Linking for Google: April 2005: "Over the past week, SEOs and SEMs have noted some significant changes in the search engine results delivered by Google. Google appears to be actively cleaning its listings by targeting sites using suspicious link-building techniques. A couple of well-known search engine marketing sites have vanished from Google results under keyword phrases they dominated just last week....
If you or someone you know has been engaged in a link-building plan that relies on link trading between multiple sites that don't actually relate to or do business with each other, you might want to take a few hours to examine your link-building strategies."
If you or someone you know has been engaged in a link-building plan that relies on link trading between multiple sites that don't actually relate to or do business with each other, you might want to take a few hours to examine your link-building strategies."
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Google adds local services and driving directions to mobile search
CNET News.com: "Google is doubling down on mobile search, and is set to offer new features for finding local services and calling up driving directions via wireless devices. On Tuesday, the search company plans to introduce two new search options for mobile phones. One feature lets people with browser-enabled cell phones use Google Local, a Web directory of local businesses and sights, by typing in a name and ZIP code. Using the second feature, people can text message Google SMS (Short Message Service) with the short code '46645' to receive driving directions to most locations. "
Monday, April 11, 2005
New factor in Google Algo? Aging Delay for New Sites
SiteProNews Scottie Claiborne writes : "I haven't seen any brand new sites with new domains appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP) since early in 2004. There seems to be a delay of about 6-8 months. I've checked with many site owners and SEOs and I haven't found anyone who's gotten a brand new domain ranked well in Google. If there's a magic bullet, no one's spilling the beans.
What happens is new sites get indexed, they appear for some obscure queries and they may appear at the top for a week or so, but then they drop to the bottom of the SERP for several months. The page shows a PageRank in the Google toolbar, as well as backlinks. Everything else works fine but it just doesn't rank well for any terms in Google. Many times, not even the company name."
Claiborne's "theory is that the age factor for new sites is Google's answer to mini-networks and other multi-site strategies intended to artificially inflate link popularity. Many people divide what should be a single site into multiple sites in order to capitalize on the links that are exchanged between them. Others build a series of small sites that are only designed to add link popularity to the main site.
By delaying the ranking of brand new sites, the mini-network strategy becomes more of a long-term strategy than a quick jump to the top. Site owners who might have started new sites are going to be more inclined to build new pages on existing sites in order to avoid that delay."
Claiborne's advice "if you are launching new sites for clients, make sure you set the expectation that it is likely to be 7-8 months before the site achieves any real results in Google.
We used to keep a site under wraps and launch it once it was "perfect." Now it makes sense to get a few pages up for your new site as soon as you complete them...When launching a new site, if traffic from Google is critical to your plan for success you need to plan ahead. Get the site out there and linked to as early as possible and plan to run an AdWords and/or Overture campaign for a few months until the site can be established in the editorial results. Yahoo and MSN do not have this delay built-in, so focus your early efforts on these engines.
Don't worry, Google will eventually give your new site the respect it deserves -- just give it time."
What happens is new sites get indexed, they appear for some obscure queries and they may appear at the top for a week or so, but then they drop to the bottom of the SERP for several months. The page shows a PageRank in the Google toolbar, as well as backlinks. Everything else works fine but it just doesn't rank well for any terms in Google. Many times, not even the company name."
Claiborne's "theory is that the age factor for new sites is Google's answer to mini-networks and other multi-site strategies intended to artificially inflate link popularity. Many people divide what should be a single site into multiple sites in order to capitalize on the links that are exchanged between them. Others build a series of small sites that are only designed to add link popularity to the main site.
By delaying the ranking of brand new sites, the mini-network strategy becomes more of a long-term strategy than a quick jump to the top. Site owners who might have started new sites are going to be more inclined to build new pages on existing sites in order to avoid that delay."
Claiborne's advice "if you are launching new sites for clients, make sure you set the expectation that it is likely to be 7-8 months before the site achieves any real results in Google.
We used to keep a site under wraps and launch it once it was "perfect." Now it makes sense to get a few pages up for your new site as soon as you complete them...When launching a new site, if traffic from Google is critical to your plan for success you need to plan ahead. Get the site out there and linked to as early as possible and plan to run an AdWords and/or Overture campaign for a few months until the site can be established in the editorial results. Yahoo and MSN do not have this delay built-in, so focus your early efforts on these engines.
Don't worry, Google will eventually give your new site the respect it deserves -- just give it time."
Google Q&A
Google SMS: "To get answers to questions that cover a broad assortment of topics, including authors, inventors, populations and more, just send your fact-based question or query as a text message to Google SMS. Google will scour the web to find answers to your question and include our information source so that you can learn more.
To get facts:
Enter the fact-based question or query
Sample queries:
india population
Mark Twain's real name
who wrote hamlet "
Discussed at webmasterworld.com: "Google News...New Google Answering Facts"
To get facts:
Enter the fact-based question or query
Sample queries:
india population
Mark Twain's real name
who wrote hamlet "
Discussed at webmasterworld.com: "Google News...New Google Answering Facts"
The Power of Google
Fool.com: Motley Fool Take Interesting: "opinion, Google's not really the innovator that many claim it to be. But it does things right. Every time. And figures out a way to make money off this advantage. Online Search. Online email. Desktop search. Newsgroups. News portal. Click-through ads. Blogging. Image browsers. These are all examples of computerized 'stuff' that had been around for a long time before Google invented a better way to do it, or simply bought another company that had already figured it out.
There's incredible opportunity in simplicity, and Google seems to be harvesting it better than anyone else."
There's incredible opportunity in simplicity, and Google seems to be harvesting it better than anyone else."
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Slashdot discusses | Google Founders Cut Salaries to $1
Slashdot : "GeneralCern writes "MSNBC Reports that Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt all [0]slashed their salaries to $1 last year. Since you do not have to pay FICA, Medicare, or income taxes
on the capital gains associated with stock sales, they stand to substantially decrease their tax burden. Is this a breech of the company's "do no evil" mission statement, or just an example of people who love their jobs so much they don't need to be paid to go to work?"
"
on the capital gains associated with stock sales, they stand to substantially decrease their tax burden. Is this a breech of the company's "do no evil" mission statement, or just an example of people who love their jobs so much they don't need to be paid to go to work?"
"
Friday, April 08, 2005
Google Budget Optimizer for Adwords
MediaPost: "GOOGLE THIS WEEK BEGAN OFFERING AdWords users a tool that adjusts their bids automatically, aiming to get the highest number of clicks for a given advertising budget. The feature, called Google Budget Optimizer, is aimed at consumers who want more automation, promising the maximum number of clicks for a given spend. Google cautions, however, that the Optimizer is not intended to gain a particular placement, but to achieve the maximum volume of clicks. --Shankar Gupta "
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Why Google is Syndication Shy
Micro Persuasion Steve Rubel ponders his question leading to:
"an "aha" moment. Google views syndication drastically differently than its competitors. On the Web Google is all about driving people away from their sites. Once they've shown them an Adwords ad they had their opportunity to collect a dollar, so why not give the users what they need and send them on their way. However, when it comes to syndicated feeds they use it as a tool to drive users to their services and that’s why they are syndication shy. Remember Autolinking? I rest my case.
Feeds may be Google's greatest enemy. If Google did offer feeds that connected users with the information they are looking for from the Web they would miss the opportunity to advertise to them. What will remedy this? Google will incorporate contextual Adwords ads into these kinds of feeds, much like Overture has done. What’s taking so long? Beats me."
"an "aha" moment. Google views syndication drastically differently than its competitors. On the Web Google is all about driving people away from their sites. Once they've shown them an Adwords ad they had their opportunity to collect a dollar, so why not give the users what they need and send them on their way. However, when it comes to syndicated feeds they use it as a tool to drive users to their services and that’s why they are syndication shy. Remember Autolinking? I rest my case.
Feeds may be Google's greatest enemy. If Google did offer feeds that connected users with the information they are looking for from the Web they would miss the opportunity to advertise to them. What will remedy this? Google will incorporate contextual Adwords ads into these kinds of feeds, much like Overture has done. What’s taking so long? Beats me."
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Google Integrates Keyhole Into Maps, Local
MediaPost report by Shankar Gupta...
"The idea, Keyhole General Manager John Hanke wrote on the Google Blog, is to let consumers see photos of what they're searching for--the beach in beachfront when looking for a hotel, or what the freeway exit on the way there looks like. When getting directions from Google Maps, Keyhole can overlay the path to the destination over the satellite photo...." snip
..."Google is not the first major search engine to incorporate images into its local search results. Amazon's A9 Yellow Pages local search incorporates block-by-block photos of businesses and residences. If a user searches for a coffee shop recommended by a friend, they can not only get the address, but also a photo of the storefront. Amazon accomplished this by equipping a truck with a digital camera and driving around thousands of miles of streets in several major American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago. Both AOL and Yahoo! have maps features--the former powered by MapQuest, the latter by a proprietary engine. Neither has incorporated digital mapping into their offering yet."
"The idea, Keyhole General Manager John Hanke wrote on the Google Blog, is to let consumers see photos of what they're searching for--the beach in beachfront when looking for a hotel, or what the freeway exit on the way there looks like. When getting directions from Google Maps, Keyhole can overlay the path to the destination over the satellite photo...." snip
..."Google is not the first major search engine to incorporate images into its local search results. Amazon's A9 Yellow Pages local search incorporates block-by-block photos of businesses and residences. If a user searches for a coffee shop recommended by a friend, they can not only get the address, but also a photo of the storefront. Amazon accomplished this by equipping a truck with a digital camera and driving around thousands of miles of streets in several major American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago. Both AOL and Yahoo! have maps features--the former powered by MapQuest, the latter by a proprietary engine. Neither has incorporated digital mapping into their offering yet."
Monday, April 04, 2005
Webcast: Google: A Behind-the-Scenes Look
UWTV Program: "Google: A Behind-the-Scenes Look
Search is one of the most important applications used on the internet and poses some of the most interesting challenges in computer science. Providing high-quality search requires understanding across a wide range of computer science disciplines. In this program, Jeff Dean of Google describes some of these challenges, discusses applications Google has developed, and highlights systems they've built, including GFS, a large-scale distributed file system, and MapReduce, a library for automatic parallelization and distribution of large-scale computation. He also shares some interesting observations derived from Google's web data. "
Search is one of the most important applications used on the internet and poses some of the most interesting challenges in computer science. Providing high-quality search requires understanding across a wide range of computer science disciplines. In this program, Jeff Dean of Google describes some of these challenges, discusses applications Google has developed, and highlights systems they've built, including GFS, a large-scale distributed file system, and MapReduce, a library for automatic parallelization and distribution of large-scale computation. He also shares some interesting observations derived from Google's web data. "
Google .com.au site down
CNET News.com: "Google's indexing service dropped all Web sites with a .com.au extension for a few hours on Friday, effectively leaving millions of sites unattainable from the Net's most popular search engine. Australia's major second-level domains, such as .gov.au, .net.au and .edu.au seemed unaffected. However, Google's paid-for advertisements, which appear on the right of regular search results, displayed .com.au domains as normal.
The company confirmed the problem in a statement. 'For a few hours today, Google experienced temporary problems showing .com.au domains. The cause was quickly identified and is now fixed,' it said. "
The company confirmed the problem in a statement. 'For a few hours today, Google experienced temporary problems showing .com.au domains. The cause was quickly identified and is now fixed,' it said. "
Google Labs: Ride Finder taxi locator
Google Ride Finder
Google Blog: "If you're like me, you use a mix of recommendations from friends, the phone book, or standing on the corner with your hand in the air (and hoping it isn't raining) when you need to find a taxi, limousine or shuttle service. With Google Ride Finder, you can tell us where you want to find a ride and we'll show you the actual positions of participating vehicles in that area, along with a phone number you can use to contact the fleet operator (e.g., Chicago)."
Google Blog: "If you're like me, you use a mix of recommendations from friends, the phone book, or standing on the corner with your hand in the air (and hoping it isn't raining) when you need to find a taxi, limousine or shuttle service. With Google Ride Finder, you can tell us where you want to find a ride and we'll show you the actual positions of participating vehicles in that area, along with a phone number you can use to contact the fleet operator (e.g., Chicago)."
United States Patent Application: 0050071741
United States Patent Application: 0050071741 New Google : "United States Patent Application20050071741
Kind Code A1 Acharya, Anurag ; et al. March 31, 2005
Information retrieval based on historical data
Abstract
A system identifies a document and obtains one or more types of history data associated with the document. The system may generate a score for the document based, at least in part, on the one or more types of history data.
Inventors:Acharya, Anurag; (Campbell, CA) ; Cutts, Matt; (Mountain View, CA) ; Dean, Jeffrey; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Haahr, Paul; (San Francisco, CA) ; Henzinger, Monika; (Lausanne, CH) ; Hoelzle, Urs; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Lawrence, Steve; (Mountain View, CA) ; Pfleger, Karl; (Mountain View, CA) ; Sercinoglu, Olcan; (Mountain View, CA) ; Tong, Simon; (Mountain View, CA) "
webmasterworld.com Check out the forum for discussion of possible implications...17 pages and growing....
Kind Code A1 Acharya, Anurag ; et al. March 31, 2005
Information retrieval based on historical data
Abstract
A system identifies a document and obtains one or more types of history data associated with the document. The system may generate a score for the document based, at least in part, on the one or more types of history data.
Inventors:Acharya, Anurag; (Campbell, CA) ; Cutts, Matt; (Mountain View, CA) ; Dean, Jeffrey; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Haahr, Paul; (San Francisco, CA) ; Henzinger, Monika; (Lausanne, CH) ; Hoelzle, Urs; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Lawrence, Steve; (Mountain View, CA) ; Pfleger, Karl; (Mountain View, CA) ; Sercinoglu, Olcan; (Mountain View, CA) ; Tong, Simon; (Mountain View, CA) "
webmasterworld.com Check out the forum for discussion of possible implications...17 pages and growing....
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Google Acquire Urchin (web site analytics)
businesswire.com: "Google Inc. today announced it has agreed to acquire Urchin Software Corporation, a San Diego, California based web analytics company.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Urchin is a web site analytics solution used by web site owners and marketers to better understand their users' experiences, optimize content and track marketing performance. Urchin tools are available as a hosted service, a software product and through large web hosting providers.
Google plans to make these tools available to web site owners and marketers to better enable them to increase their advertising return on investment and make their web sites more effective. "
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Urchin is a web site analytics solution used by web site owners and marketers to better understand their users' experiences, optimize content and track marketing performance. Urchin tools are available as a hosted service, a software product and through large web hosting providers.
Google plans to make these tools available to web site owners and marketers to better enable them to increase their advertising return on investment and make their web sites more effective. "
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