Google isn't always No. 1

Google isn't always No. 1 - May. 3, 2005: "A new study of national advertisers and interviews with a handful of marketing agencies indicate that the Internet giant could have a customer service problem.

"Google has always been bad -- worse than bad even," said Dana Todd, the president of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)...

Independent media analyst Jack Myers, in his fourth annual 'customer satisfaction' survey of online sales groups, also found that advertisers aren't entirely happy with Google's service... as Google looks to broaden its services beyond paid search, Myers suggests the company first has some work to do with advertisers.

Google finished a solid No. 5 overall, better than its seventh-place finish in 2004. Yahoo! was No. 2. Of the nine categories measured, Google's sales team edged out Yahoo!'s crew in one category: product knowledge. Google finished third. Yahoo! ranked fourth.

What caught Myers's attention was Google's ranking in one of the most important categories: "responsiveness and accessibility." Google was No. 18, down from 11th place the year before...

Todd, the SEMPO president, attributes Google's poor image to the fact that the company has viewed itself as and acted like a technology company. Google has tried to automate as many processes as possible and that, according to Todd, doesn't work in the advertising world."

Thomson Directories ito sell Google AdWords to SMEs

Revolution Web Site: "By Daniel Farey-Jones - Revolution - Thomson Directories is to sell Google's AdWords targeted pay-per-click text ads service to UK small and medium-sized businesses. The alliance means that Thomson's 500-strong sales force will offer Google AdWords as an integral part of its ThomsonLocal.com online directory and WebFinder.com search engine marketing offerings...

Laurence O'Toole, business information and new media director of Thomson Directories, said: 'This partnership will allow our customers to take advantage of the extensive reach of the Google network, which will aid them in attracting more targeted leads.'"

Europe Uniting Against Schmidt's Google Print Project

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. "

Search Engine News :: Optimise Web Sites for Organic Search

SEO Blog looks like blogs have had a PageRank update....

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..."

Google Local Test Searches: hornsbury mill near Chard, Somerset, TA20

Google Search: taxis near northallerton

Google Search: hornsbury mill near Chard, Somerset, TA20

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."

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."

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. "

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."

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"

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."

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?"
"

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 "

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."

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."

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. "

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. "

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)."