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. "
Friday, March 25, 2005
All the news robots pick
CNET News.com It has been "a difficult week for Google's automated news service, which aims to best traditional newspapers with mathematical algorithms and robots crawling the Web. "
The lack of a business model is said to have left Google open to criticism on every aspect of it's news service and for me exposes the central internal contradictions of algfo based objectivity - itself a human concept after all.....
The lack of a business model is said to have left Google open to criticism on every aspect of it's news service and for me exposes the central internal contradictions of algfo based objectivity - itself a human concept after all.....
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Google co-founders left out of bonuses
CNET News.com: "Google is awarding bonuses to four executives for their work last year, but will not give bonuses to its CEO or to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin."
Millions of Pages Google Hijacked using ODP Feed
Slashdot: "The Real Nick W writes 'Threadwatch reports that millions of pages are being Google Hijacked using the 302 redirect exploit and the ODP's RDF dump. The problem has been around for a couple of years and is just recently starting to make major headlines." Googleguys refutation gets ripped to shreds....
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Google Loses French Trademark Appeal Case
Forbes.com: Google Loses French Trademark Appeal: " French appeals court upheld a ruling against Google's advertising policy in a decision published Wednesday, ordering the Internet search engine to pay euro75,000 (US$100,300) in damages to two companies whose trademarks it infringed.
The court in Versailles, west of Paris, found that Google Inc. was guilty of 'trademark counterfeiting' and ordered it to pay the damages originally awarded to French travel companies Luteciel and Viaticum, as well as costs.
The companies' founder, Fabrice Dariot, filed the suit because Google users carrying out searches on the names of their registered trademarks including 'Bourse des Vols' - which means 'Flights Marketplace' - were offered ads for rival companies such as low-cost airline easyJet. "
The court in Versailles, west of Paris, found that Google Inc. was guilty of 'trademark counterfeiting' and ordered it to pay the damages originally awarded to French travel companies Luteciel and Viaticum, as well as costs.
The companies' founder, Fabrice Dariot, filed the suit because Google users carrying out searches on the names of their registered trademarks including 'Bourse des Vols' - which means 'Flights Marketplace' - were offered ads for rival companies such as low-cost airline easyJet. "
Friday, March 11, 2005
Google Responds to Cloaking Accusations
eweek.com
Report summarises this issue which has been rumbling around all week: "Google has taken the unusual step of removing some of its own Web pages from its Web index after reports that the pages used a search-optimization method frowned upon by the search engine.
Search-engine watchers this week widely noted the appearance of so-called 'cloaking' on a set of user support pages on Google's AdWords advertising program. The pages were displaying different title information to Google's Web crawler than to regular visitors to the pages."
Report summarises this issue which has been rumbling around all week: "Google has taken the unusual step of removing some of its own Web pages from its Web index after reports that the pages used a search-optimization method frowned upon by the search engine.
Search-engine watchers this week widely noted the appearance of so-called 'cloaking' on a set of user support pages on Google's AdWords advertising program. The pages were displaying different title information to Google's Web crawler than to regular visitors to the pages."
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Google personalises news site
This feature emphasises Google's user centric focus and is a move to let users organise search results according to their own criteria rather than by algorithmic determined ranking (or date in the case of news.)
This raises the question of when and how they will launch personalisation of the main index search results and how this will impact on search engine optimisation?
CNET News.com reports that: "Google began testing new customization features on its news aggregation site Wednesday in a salvo against competition from Microsoft...
Google's News: FAQ: "What is customized news?""We've made a number of improvements to Google News that allow you to customize your News front page by creating sections that focus on topics you care about, for instance, your favorite sports team, technology, or celebrity... "You can also design your custom front page by mixing and matching existing standard sections from the 22 regional editions of Google News from around the globe."
This raises the question of when and how they will launch personalisation of the main index search results and how this will impact on search engine optimisation?
CNET News.com reports that: "Google began testing new customization features on its news aggregation site Wednesday in a salvo against competition from Microsoft...
Google's News: FAQ: "What is customized news?""We've made a number of improvements to Google News that allow you to customize your News front page by creating sections that focus on topics you care about, for instance, your favorite sports team, technology, or celebrity... "You can also design your custom front page by mixing and matching existing standard sections from the 22 regional editions of Google News from around the globe."
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Google Search: adds weather feature
Google Search: weather palo alto, ca: "2 results stored on your computer - Hide - About
Google adds Weather feature - en q=weather palo alto%2C ca btnG - 10:56am
Google Web Search Features - 165 University Ave Palo Alto CA) in the - Nov 29"
Google adds Weather feature - en q=weather palo alto%2C ca btnG - 10:56am
Google Web Search Features - 165 University Ave Palo Alto CA) in the - Nov 29"
Monday, March 07, 2005
Google desktop search out of beta
CNET News.com: "Google has introduced a full version of its desktop-search software, with a developer's kit and support for the Firefox and Netscape browsers."
LSI - latent semantic indexing according to Google
Google Groups : SEM 2.0: "Google says...
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a novel, patented information
retrieval method developed at Telcordia Technologies, Inc. By using
statistical algorithms, LSI can retrieve relevant documents even when
they do not share any words with a query. LSI uses these statistically
derived 'concepts' to improve search performance by up to 30%.
http://lsi.research.telcordia.�com/ "
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a novel, patented information
retrieval method developed at Telcordia Technologies, Inc. By using
statistical algorithms, LSI can retrieve relevant documents even when
they do not share any words with a query. LSI uses these statistically
derived 'concepts' to improve search performance by up to 30%.
http://lsi.research.telcordia.�com/ "
Friday, March 04, 2005
Reviews of listed businesses added to Google local search results
MediaPost
Google has added reviews of listed businesses to local search results, in addition to the recently integrated interactive maps.
Shankar Gupta writes:
"The reviews are pulled from other sites, such as CitySearch.com, Gayot.com, and Amazon.com. They include both editorial critiques and user opinions culled from those sites. But, unlike AOL and Yahoo!, Google does not offer users the chance to post their own reviews directly to the search site. In addition to reviews and maps, Google offers other information gleaned from sites it has indexed, such as business hours, payment types accepted, WiFi availability, restaurant menus, amenities, and even inspection data from the Department of Health's Web site. This most recent set of upgrades to Google's search offering is representative of the high-speed development of the local search area,
Google has added reviews of listed businesses to local search results, in addition to the recently integrated interactive maps.
Shankar Gupta writes:
"The reviews are pulled from other sites, such as CitySearch.com, Gayot.com, and Amazon.com. They include both editorial critiques and user opinions culled from those sites. But, unlike AOL and Yahoo!, Google does not offer users the chance to post their own reviews directly to the search site. In addition to reviews and maps, Google offers other information gleaned from sites it has indexed, such as business hours, payment types accepted, WiFi availability, restaurant menus, amenities, and even inspection data from the Department of Health's Web site. This most recent set of upgrades to Google's search offering is representative of the high-speed development of the local search area,
Google tech deals with hardware failure
CNET News.com
Article covers hardware and programming used by Google... "Google's secret of success? Dealing with failure...The technical wizardry behind Google's successful search engine may come down to a blindingly obvious insight: PCs crash"
Article covers hardware and programming used by Google... "Google's secret of success? Dealing with failure...The technical wizardry behind Google's successful search engine may come down to a blindingly obvious insight: PCs crash"
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