I was hanging fire to blog this to see if anything came of the rumours....not yet it would appear....google travel - Google News: "Travel looks like Google's next target Times Online, UK - Apr 17, 2006
... has kept the subject of the press briefing tightly under wraps, and it is by no means necessarily the case that the London briefing will involve Google Travel. ...
Google Travel Coming Soon?
Search Engine Watch - Apr 17, 2006
... Google: Senior Account Executive, Travel Vertical.' Russell explains that the job posting details 'sounds' that 'Google is building a Google Travel brand.' I ...
Google to launch travel portal?
Monsters and Critics.com, UK - Apr 18, 2006
... account executive for a travel vertical, was posted before the Easter weekend and analysts are speculating that the travel vertical will be Google Travel. ...
Is Google going to launch a travel portal? Eye For Travel
Google Travel Rumor On The Road WebProNews"
Yahoo flexes its muscles in travel search business - Technology - International Herald Tribune: " Yahoo flexes its muscles in travel search business By Bob Tedeschi The New York Times THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2006
Yahoo announced last week that it had integrated its FareChase technology into its main search engine, so that it could scan multiple sites for airlines, hotels and car rentals and show the lowest-price offers directly in results whenever someone typed in, say, 'lowest fares to Las Vegas.' Previously, users had to click around Yahoo's site to gain access to FareChase, or turn to one of the handful of competing so-called meta- search sites like SideStep, Kayak or Mobissimo for a similar specialized search. The move is perhaps the most aggressive countermeasure a major search engine has taken against the growing number of sites that specialize in searching specific categories, like jobs, medical information, shopping or travel.
Indeed, the competition between Yahoo and its travel-specific counterparts appears to be moving to a new level. Yahoo initially responded to the threat in 2004 by buying FareChase, then SideStep's chief competitor, for an undisclosed sum. FareChase became an obscure corner on Yahoo's site, while speculation mounted as to how the company would ultimately use the technology.
Google last year began offering some travel-specific search results where users who typed in a travel route and dates were given a search box with some information already filled in, along with links to online travel agencies to find prices and book the flights. But analysts say Google's offering is far less sophisticated than Yahoo's or that of meta-search competitors. (Google declined to comment on such comparisons.)
Other analysts say they believe that Google and MSN may simply follow Yahoo's lead and buy the niche search players. "If someone wants to play catch-up fast, that's the way to go," said Dougherty, of Nielsen/NetRatings.
Life just got easier for travelers looking for bargains on the Web, while for some of Yahoo's competitors, things just got a bit more complicated.
Yahoo announced last week that it had integrated its FareChase technology into its main search engine, so that it could scan multiple sites for airlines, hotels and car rentals and show the lowest-price offers directly in results whenever someone typed in, say, "lowest fares to Las Vegas."
Previously, users had to click around Yahoo's site to gain access to FareChase, or turn to one of the handful of competing so-called meta- search sites like SideStep, Kayak or Mobissimo for a similar specialized search.
The move is perhaps the most aggressive countermeasure a major search engine has taken against the growing number of sites that specialize in searching specific categories, like jobs, medical information, shopping or travel.
Indeed, the competition between Yahoo and its travel-specific counterparts appears to be moving to a new level. Yahoo initially responded to the threat in 2004 by buying FareChase, then SideStep's chief competitor, for an undisclosed sum. FareChase became an obscure corner on Yahoo's site, while speculation mounted as to how the company would ultimately use the technology.
It also comes on the threshold of a major media campaign by a rival travel search engine, Kayak.com.
"This is a very smart move for Yahoo," said Heather Dougherty, an analyst with Nielsen/NetRatings, an Internet measurement company. "It's the first time any of the big search engines have tried to integrate this type of searching into their results. And FareChase finally isn't going to be off sitting on its own."
Rather, it is central to a Yahoo user's experience, or at least close to it. Last week, for instance, typing in a search for "flights New York to San Francisco" returned the lowest price for that flight over the next few months - $279 for a trip from May 5 to May 9 - and a box offering the chance to search other dates. If a user's location has been indicated in previous Yahoo searches - on the site's Local or Maps sections, for instance - simply typing in "flights to San Francisco" will produce the same result.
"This is definitely a step for Yahoo, and a step for the industry," Jasper Malcolmson, director of Yahoo travel services, said about the integration of meta-search with general search results. The integration of FareChase highlights a series of upgrades to Yahoo's travel offering, including introduction of a satellite map service showing hotel locations.
Yahoo's new functionality could significantly increase user exposure to this type of service, which has until now struggled to attract attention. Just 12 percent of Internet travel shoppers now visit such meta-search sites, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research, a technology consulting firm. But that figure is twice what it was just a year ago, despite the fact that none of these services has done much advertising at all.
Roughly 4.4 million people visited such sites in March, according to Nielsen/NetRatings - a tiny number compared with the number of visits to Expedia, the leading travel commerce site, which attracted 16.4 million.
But FareChase and its two biggest competitors, Kayak.com and SideStep.com, offer a significantly different experience from other travel sites. SideStep, for instance, scans the inventories of 100 airline sites, as well as that of the online travel agency Orbitz.com, and lists the best fares on a single page.
In terms of revenue, travel search sites have much ground to make up to challenge the general travel sites. SideStep and Kayak are privately held, and Yahoo does not break out revenue figures for its FareChase division, but analysts said these sites earned only a small fraction of what the big travel agencies did, because they handle far fewer bookings and have fewer sources of revenue....
Kayak and SideStep earn undisclosed commissions for customers they refer to suppliers, but as Rob Solomon, SideStep's chief executive, said, "The challenge for all of us is scale - how to go from three to five million users to seven to 10 million."
Google last year began offering some travel-specific search results where users who typed in a travel route and dates were given a search box with some information already filled in, along with links to online travel agencies to find prices and book the flights. But analysts say Google's offering is far less sophisticated than Yahoo's or that of meta-search competitors. (Google declined to comment on such comparisons.)
Other analysts say they believe that Google and MSN may simply follow Yahoo's lead and buy the niche search players. "If someone wants to play catch-up fast, that's the way to go," said Dougherty, of Nielsen/NetRatings"
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Google & Gambling Ads
Not new news but I know for a fact that Google adwords for gambling relating sites including casinos many on gambling sites are still making money... so unless Google is assiduaosly handing over all that revenue it is still profiting from illegal gambling proceeds....Search Engine Journal � Yahoo and Google Sued Over Gambling Advertisements
Two years on from the above judgement and Google are still displaying gambling related adwords - many times on gambling related sites so are still raking in a fair portion of dollars from this multi billion pound industry in direct contradiction of their own T&Cs..Evil? Or a failing of their technology? Why not just ban gambling ads for the whole of America and let the rest of the world operate according to their local legislation?
Two years on from the above judgement and Google are still displaying gambling related adwords - many times on gambling related sites so are still raking in a fair portion of dollars from this multi billion pound industry in direct contradiction of their own T&Cs..Evil? Or a failing of their technology? Why not just ban gambling ads for the whole of America and let the rest of the world operate according to their local legislation?
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Google wins rights to Aussie algorithm - Breaking - Technology - smh.com.au
Google wins rights to Aussie algorithm - Breaking - Technology - smh.com.au "The algorithm, or search engine tool, is called Orion and was developed by UNSW PhD student Ori Allon at the university's School of Computer Science.
Orion works as an add-on to existing search engines to improve the relevance of searches and won praise from Microsoft founder Bill Gates last year.
The algorithm is a problem-solving computational procedure and is the building block for all search engines such as those operated by Google and Yahoo!
Orion finds pages where the content is about a topic strongly related to the key word. It then returns a section of the page, and lists other topics related to the key word so the user can pick the most relevant.
The results of the query are displayed immediately in the form of expanded text extracts, giving the searcher the relevant information without having to go to the website - although there is still that option."
SMH previously interviewed Allon "The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: MashUp / Google buys Aussie invention Archives: "Contrast the difference between September when the University of NSW unveiled the project to today, when all they can say is that Ori is now working with Google."
Orion works as an add-on to existing search engines to improve the relevance of searches and won praise from Microsoft founder Bill Gates last year.
The algorithm is a problem-solving computational procedure and is the building block for all search engines such as those operated by Google and Yahoo!
Orion finds pages where the content is about a topic strongly related to the key word. It then returns a section of the page, and lists other topics related to the key word so the user can pick the most relevant.
The results of the query are displayed immediately in the form of expanded text extracts, giving the searcher the relevant information without having to go to the website - although there is still that option."
SMH previously interviewed Allon "The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: MashUp / Google buys Aussie invention Archives: "Contrast the difference between September when the University of NSW unveiled the project to today, when all they can say is that Ori is now working with Google."
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Google employees' wireless patents published | CNET News.com
Three new patents from Google signal their move into advertising in the wireless market..
Google employees' wireless patents published | CNET News.com: "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published three wireless-related patents filed by Google employees as the search giant seeks to delve deeper into the wireless market.
The patent applications, filed by Google employees Wesley Chan, Shioupyn Shen and former Google product management director Georges Harik, propose lowering the cost of wireless access by offsetting the costs via advertisements on the service....
Patent application No. 20060058019 seeks to develop a system for dynamically modifying the appearance of browser screens on a client device when connecting to a wireless access point. Under the patent, the browser's appearance would be modified to reflect the brand associated with the wireless access-point provider...
No. 20060059044 and No. 20060059043, cover ads based on wireless access points and wireless access at a reduced rate, respectively."
Google employees' wireless patents published | CNET News.com: "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published three wireless-related patents filed by Google employees as the search giant seeks to delve deeper into the wireless market.
The patent applications, filed by Google employees Wesley Chan, Shioupyn Shen and former Google product management director Georges Harik, propose lowering the cost of wireless access by offsetting the costs via advertisements on the service....
Patent application No. 20060058019 seeks to develop a system for dynamically modifying the appearance of browser screens on a client device when connecting to a wireless access point. Under the patent, the browser's appearance would be modified to reflect the brand associated with the wireless access-point provider...
No. 20060059044 and No. 20060059043, cover ads based on wireless access points and wireless access at a reduced rate, respectively."
In another privacy flap, Google email riles spam fighters - MarketWatch
If your gmail is not being delivered this could explain why.....In another privacy flap, Google email riles spam fighters - MarketWatch:
"The problems experienced by Schwingel and possibly thousands of other Gmail users are a consequence of Google's sometimes-hawkish policy on privacy. In an unusual practice, Google makes Gmail users virtually anonymous. That's led some spam blockers to occasionally blacklist entire Gmail servers, the massive Google computers that hold many Gmail accounts, because they can't separate the spammers from the legitimate emailers.
Some publicly available black lists, including the widely used Spamhaus list, have a hands-off approach to Gmail to avoid blocking legitimate email. Others, most notably IronPort Systems Inc.'s SpamCop, aren't willing to give Gmail a free pass.
"Gmail has taken an extreme position on privacy that inhibits the antispam community from doing their job, and it's ticking people off," says Tom Gilles, co-founder of IronPort...
....assessing reputation, which requires knowing a senders' identity, is now at the cutting edge of antispam technology. Black lists, which are rosters of spammer IP addresses, are used by many organizations as a first line of defense, though experts stress they should be used with care to avoid blocking legitimate email.
Google's strategy seems to be to attain both reliability and privacy for its email service through the sheer force of its engineering prowess, rather than by hewing to the informal protocols of the Internet community...
Gilles of IronPort says Gmail servers only land on the SpamCop list "every few months," and that Google is good at keeping spammers out of its system and at fixing any problems so its servers are delisted."
"The problems experienced by Schwingel and possibly thousands of other Gmail users are a consequence of Google's sometimes-hawkish policy on privacy. In an unusual practice, Google makes Gmail users virtually anonymous. That's led some spam blockers to occasionally blacklist entire Gmail servers, the massive Google computers that hold many Gmail accounts, because they can't separate the spammers from the legitimate emailers.
Some publicly available black lists, including the widely used Spamhaus list, have a hands-off approach to Gmail to avoid blocking legitimate email. Others, most notably IronPort Systems Inc.'s SpamCop, aren't willing to give Gmail a free pass.
"Gmail has taken an extreme position on privacy that inhibits the antispam community from doing their job, and it's ticking people off," says Tom Gilles, co-founder of IronPort...
....assessing reputation, which requires knowing a senders' identity, is now at the cutting edge of antispam technology. Black lists, which are rosters of spammer IP addresses, are used by many organizations as a first line of defense, though experts stress they should be used with care to avoid blocking legitimate email.
Google's strategy seems to be to attain both reliability and privacy for its email service through the sheer force of its engineering prowess, rather than by hewing to the informal protocols of the Internet community...
Gilles of IronPort says Gmail servers only land on the SpamCop list "every few months," and that Google is good at keeping spammers out of its system and at fixing any problems so its servers are delisted."
Monday, March 27, 2006
Google specific robots.txt
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO � 2006 � March: "one more way to block Googlebot by using wildcards in robots.txt (Google supports wildcards like �*� in robots.txt). Here�s how:
1. Add the parameter like �http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/some-random-post.html?googlebot=nocrawl� to pages that you don�t want fetched by Googlebot.
2. Add the following to your robots.txt:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: *googlebot=nocrawl
That�s it. We may see links to the pages with the nocrawl parameter, but we won�t crawl them. At most, we would show the url reference (the uncrawled link), but we wouldn�t ever fetch the page."
1. Add the parameter like �http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/some-random-post.html?googlebot=nocrawl� to pages that you don�t want fetched by Googlebot.
2. Add the following to your robots.txt:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: *googlebot=nocrawl
That�s it. We may see links to the pages with the nocrawl parameter, but we won�t crawl them. At most, we would show the url reference (the uncrawled link), but we wouldn�t ever fetch the page."
Matt Cutts: Big Daddy Update
I Must monitor the search results to see how my site is doing...Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO � 2006 � March: "We�re down to just 1-2 data centers left in the switchover to Bigdaddy. It�s possible that the Bigdaddy switchover will be complete in the next week or two. Just as a reminder, Bigdaddy is a software upgrade to Google�s infrastructure that provides the framework for a lot of improvements to core search quality in the coming months (smarter redirect handling, improved canonicalization, etc.)."
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
KinderStart v Google Page Rank Suit Unlikely To Get Far
...but can you blame them for trying?
MediaPost Publications - News Analysis: Page Rank Suit Unlikely To Get Far - 03/21/2006: "The Norwalk, Calif.-based KinderStart late last week filed a lawsuit against the search giant, charging it with unfairly degrading the site's placement in the organic search results. KinderStart is also seeking to represent other Web publishers--at least 100, by KinderStart's estimation--that have seen their sites drop in Google's organic results pages.
Google said in a statement that the suit is without merit, and it intends to fight the case...
..industry experts say the company's chances of prevailing appear to be slim-to-none--especially since Google previously won a similar suit brought by another company several years ago. What's more, they say, if companies could sue Google whenever their placement in organic listings dropped, Google--and other search companies--would no longer be able to function."
The searchking v google case is cited but there seem to be only superficial similarities...more to follow
MediaPost Publications - News Analysis: Page Rank Suit Unlikely To Get Far - 03/21/2006: "The Norwalk, Calif.-based KinderStart late last week filed a lawsuit against the search giant, charging it with unfairly degrading the site's placement in the organic search results. KinderStart is also seeking to represent other Web publishers--at least 100, by KinderStart's estimation--that have seen their sites drop in Google's organic results pages.
Google said in a statement that the suit is without merit, and it intends to fight the case...
..industry experts say the company's chances of prevailing appear to be slim-to-none--especially since Google previously won a similar suit brought by another company several years ago. What's more, they say, if companies could sue Google whenever their placement in organic listings dropped, Google--and other search companies--would no longer be able to function."
The searchking v google case is cited but there seem to be only superficial similarities...more to follow
Google To Unveil Finance Site - 03/21/2006
Not what I expected Google's foray into finance to be.....MediaPost Publications - Google To Unveil Finance Site - 03/21/2006: "GOOGLE IS EXPECTED TODAY TO launch a new financial site that will include stock market figures, links to business stories, and links to blogs." All sounds pretty run of the mill especially when I envisaged a challenge to paypal...
Matt Cutts on Does the sandbox exist?
Same old, same old....nothing conclusive but then again if I found something claiming to have the definitive explanation of the sandbox and a tech solution I would probably be just as sceptical as M Cutts in the article cited in my previos post re seo software...
Coffee Talk with Senior Google Engineer : Matt Cutts: "Q: Does the sandbox exist?
A: Matt said here comes the audience part? How many feel there is a sandbox? How many feel there is no such thing as a sandbox? SEOs normally split down the line. There are some things in the algorithm that may be perceived as a sandbox that doesn't apply to all industries. He knows it works to keep some spam out.
Q: Do you guys ever do hand tweaks of the results?
A: For the most part, we let the algorithm do all the work. However, Google News uses editor trust. PageRank uses hyperlinks by humans. Google does not have the ability to hand boost any site, or hand boost any pagerank. They can penalize sites if they are spam, manually. Legal reasons and spam reasons for penalizing sites (also viruses). They try not to differentiate large sites versus small sites, they remove both. Our goal is to return the most relevant results."
Coffee Talk with Senior Google Engineer : Matt Cutts: "Q: Does the sandbox exist?
A: Matt said here comes the audience part? How many feel there is a sandbox? How many feel there is no such thing as a sandbox? SEOs normally split down the line. There are some things in the algorithm that may be perceived as a sandbox that doesn't apply to all industries. He knows it works to keep some spam out.
Q: Do you guys ever do hand tweaks of the results?
A: For the most part, we let the algorithm do all the work. However, Google News uses editor trust. PageRank uses hyperlinks by humans. Google does not have the ability to hand boost any site, or hand boost any pagerank. They can penalize sites if they are spam, manually. Legal reasons and spam reasons for penalizing sites (also viruses). They try not to differentiate large sites versus small sites, they remove both. Our goal is to return the most relevant results."
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Google Avoids Surrendering Search Requests
ALBERTO R. GONZALES, in his officialcapacity as Attorney General of the United
States,Plaintiff,v. GOOGLE, INC.,Defendant.
The full 21-page order PDF "this case raises three vital interests:
(1) the national interest in a judicial system to reach informed decisions through the power of a subpoena to compel a third party to produce relevant information;
(2) the third-party's interest in not being compelled by a subpoena to reveal confidential business information and devote resources to a distant litigation; and
(3) the interest of individuals in freedom from general surveillance by the Government of their use of the Internet or othercommunications media.In aid of the Government’s position
Google Avoids Surrendering Search Requests - Forbes.com: "A federal judge on Friday ordered Google Inc. to give the Bush administration a peek inside its search engine, but rebuffed the government's demand for a list of people's search requests - potentially sensitive information that the company had fought to protect...
... District Judge James Ware told Google to provide the U.S. Justice Department with the addresses of 50,000 randomly selected Web sites indexed by its search engine by April 3...." The judge " though, decided Google won't have to disclose what people have been looking for on its widely used search engine, handing a significant victory to the company and privacy rights advocates."
States,Plaintiff,v. GOOGLE, INC.,Defendant.
The full 21-page order PDF "this case raises three vital interests:
(1) the national interest in a judicial system to reach informed decisions through the power of a subpoena to compel a third party to produce relevant information;
(2) the third-party's interest in not being compelled by a subpoena to reveal confidential business information and devote resources to a distant litigation; and
(3) the interest of individuals in freedom from general surveillance by the Government of their use of the Internet or othercommunications media.In aid of the Government’s position
Google Avoids Surrendering Search Requests - Forbes.com: "A federal judge on Friday ordered Google Inc. to give the Bush administration a peek inside its search engine, but rebuffed the government's demand for a list of people's search requests - potentially sensitive information that the company had fought to protect...
... District Judge James Ware told Google to provide the U.S. Justice Department with the addresses of 50,000 randomly selected Web sites indexed by its search engine by April 3...." The judge " though, decided Google won't have to disclose what people have been looking for on its widely used search engine, handing a significant victory to the company and privacy rights advocates."
Click Fraud: Review of Google case
Click Fraud: An Industry Crisis? Kevin Lee explains the Google settlement and click fraud. He explains which advertisers may be eligible to collect from the settlement and " whether you should opt in to the proposed settlement and whether you need help managing the click fraud problem going forward"
Three adwords campaign features increase the likelihood of click fraud:
Participation in Google's broader networks.
High CPC (define) keywords in popular markets
Monthly budgets under $20,000 in a competitive marketplace with privately held players
Lee concludes:
"click fraud caught by the engines' filters and clicks that escape detection are quite different across segments, keywords, and bid prices. For some marketers, the occasional fraudulent click can be regarded as a cost of doing business; for others, it may be a major issue."
Three adwords campaign features increase the likelihood of click fraud:
Participation in Google's broader networks.
High CPC (define) keywords in popular markets
Monthly budgets under $20,000 in a competitive marketplace with privately held players
Lee concludes:
"click fraud caught by the engines' filters and clicks that escape detection are quite different across segments, keywords, and bid prices. For some marketers, the occasional fraudulent click can be regarded as a cost of doing business; for others, it may be a major issue."
Want to Work for Google ?
Only in the States,and only if you are "fit", shame.
Google hiring AdWords Seminar Leaders - JenSense.com "Google is apparently sending out invites to its pool of Google Advertising Professionals for AdWords. Those that receive an invite are encouraged to submit a resume, a video and an application form in order to secure one of the paid spots. Those that are selected as speakers will apparently also be given access to contacts within the AdWords teams and to inside information about coming AdWords features.
Google hiring AdWords Seminar Leaders - JenSense.com "Google is apparently sending out invites to its pool of Google Advertising Professionals for AdWords. Those that receive an invite are encouraged to submit a resume, a video and an application form in order to secure one of the paid spots. Those that are selected as speakers will apparently also be given access to contacts within the AdWords teams and to inside information about coming AdWords features.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Supplemental club: Big Daddy update debate
Many sites have seen a noticeable drop in traffic & sales numbers primarily from Google traffic over the past couple of weeks from the end of feb into march.
Webmaster world hosts a long discussion with all the usual "moral panic" symptoms..
Quote "around FEB 21st where 1000s and 1000s of legitimate sites lost all their pages except their homepage."
Pretty hysterical until Google guy steps up to soothe all those fevered brows...Supplemental club: Big Daddy coming - Part 1 Google Guy writes: "It's like old times. :) ... Based on the specifics everyone has sent (thank you, by the way), I'm pretty sure what the issue is. I'll check with the crawl/indexing team to be sure though. Folks don't need to send any more emails unless they really want to. It may take a week or so to sort this out and be sure, but I do expect these pages to come back to the main index."
Webmaster world hosts a long discussion with all the usual "moral panic" symptoms..
Quote "around FEB 21st where 1000s and 1000s of legitimate sites lost all their pages except their homepage."
Pretty hysterical until Google guy steps up to soothe all those fevered brows...Supplemental club: Big Daddy coming - Part 1 Google Guy writes: "It's like old times. :) ... Based on the specifics everyone has sent (thank you, by the way), I'm pretty sure what the issue is. I'll check with the crawl/indexing team to be sure though. Folks don't need to send any more emails unless they really want to. It may take a week or so to sort this out and be sure, but I do expect these pages to come back to the main index."
Monday, March 06, 2006
Google Advertising How Google determines ranks and rates of its sponsored links
Plain English article detailing main features of Google Advertising..
Behind the Curtain / How Google determines ranks and rates of its sponsored links: "Scott Kessler, a Standard & Poor's analyst, worries about what he calls Google's ABCs of risk: the absence of other means for making money; building competition; and click fraud, a practice in which competitors or scammers click on ads repeatedly, potentially costing Google and its advertisers thousands of dollars.
'It's one of the great questions people have to ponder with Google,' Kessler said about click fraud.
But before laying odds on Google's future, it helps to have a better understanding of the firm's deceptively simple business model. So, how does Google make all that money?
Google's advertising business appears simple. It takes just a few minutes and $5 to start posting sponsored links.
The tricky part comes as businesses battle for the top position on the first page of Google's results. Naturally, that's the sweet spot: An ad at the top of the page receives roughly double the clicks of others, said Michael Schwarz, a researcher at UC Berkeley.
But there is no way to guarantee that crucial spot. Where an advertisement appears depends on a combination of how much a business is willing to pay, and how much the ad has to do with the search.
That means that no matter how much an advertiser is willing to pay, the ad will not get top billing if the user is looking for something completely different...
In January, U.S. consumers used Google for 2.8 billion searches, or nearly 50 percent all of online queries, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. That helped produce 41.1 billion sponsored links in January on Google and its partner sites. And the experience with click fraud hasn't stopped E-magine Networks and other businesses from continuing to use Google.
"I'm not trying to be angry with Google. I want to work with Google," said Dupell of E-magine Networks.
"It is not an evil corporation," he continued. "It may be a place where fraud does occur, but Google does refund the money back if it can be proven. ... They have made us a fortune and they've made our clients a fortune and they continue to every day."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to do it
Placing an advertisement on Google can cost as little as $5 and take just a few minutes.
1. Draw up a three-line advertisement, no more than 100 characters total.
2. Enter the keywords that will activate your sponsored link, such as "cheap airfare" for an ad about discount travel.
3. Bid in an auction for those keywords, determining how much you're willing to pay. The minimum bid is 1 cent per click. The maximum is $100 per click. You can't spend more than $250,000 a day.
4. Give Google your billing information and wait for your ad to appear."
Behind the Curtain / How Google determines ranks and rates of its sponsored links: "Scott Kessler, a Standard & Poor's analyst, worries about what he calls Google's ABCs of risk: the absence of other means for making money; building competition; and click fraud, a practice in which competitors or scammers click on ads repeatedly, potentially costing Google and its advertisers thousands of dollars.
'It's one of the great questions people have to ponder with Google,' Kessler said about click fraud.
But before laying odds on Google's future, it helps to have a better understanding of the firm's deceptively simple business model. So, how does Google make all that money?
Google's advertising business appears simple. It takes just a few minutes and $5 to start posting sponsored links.
The tricky part comes as businesses battle for the top position on the first page of Google's results. Naturally, that's the sweet spot: An ad at the top of the page receives roughly double the clicks of others, said Michael Schwarz, a researcher at UC Berkeley.
But there is no way to guarantee that crucial spot. Where an advertisement appears depends on a combination of how much a business is willing to pay, and how much the ad has to do with the search.
That means that no matter how much an advertiser is willing to pay, the ad will not get top billing if the user is looking for something completely different...
In January, U.S. consumers used Google for 2.8 billion searches, or nearly 50 percent all of online queries, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. That helped produce 41.1 billion sponsored links in January on Google and its partner sites. And the experience with click fraud hasn't stopped E-magine Networks and other businesses from continuing to use Google.
"I'm not trying to be angry with Google. I want to work with Google," said Dupell of E-magine Networks.
"It is not an evil corporation," he continued. "It may be a place where fraud does occur, but Google does refund the money back if it can be proven. ... They have made us a fortune and they've made our clients a fortune and they continue to every day."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to do it
Placing an advertisement on Google can cost as little as $5 and take just a few minutes.
1. Draw up a three-line advertisement, no more than 100 characters total.
2. Enter the keywords that will activate your sponsored link, such as "cheap airfare" for an ad about discount travel.
3. Bid in an auction for those keywords, determining how much you're willing to pay. The minimum bid is 1 cent per click. The maximum is $100 per click. You can't spend more than $250,000 a day.
4. Give Google your billing information and wait for your ad to appear."
Friday, March 03, 2006
Google Execs Paint Bright Picture - Forbes.com
Update 5: Google Execs Paint Bright Picture - Forbes.com: "Google Inc. provided stock market analysts with more color about its secretive operations Thursday, painting a bright picture that appeared aimed at defusing growth concerns raised by the search engine leader's chief financial officer earlier this week....
In his opening remarks, Google CEO Eric Schmidt assured the roomful of analysts that he sees "tremendous headroom" to develop an even more effective advertising approach.
Schmidt underscored his optimism at one point by saying Google someday might generate $100 billion in annual revenue as it expands into a variety of new advertising channels, including television, radio and publishing. The 7-year-old company's revenue totaled $6.1 billion last year.
"Our assessment is we are in the strongest position that we have ever been," Schmidt said later in the day...The upbeat remarks contrasted with Reyes' cautious commentary during a question-and-answer session at a Tuesday investor conference in New York. At that time, Reyes cited the difficulty that Google would have improving its advertising formula and advised the company's growth rate was bound to slow down - a prospect that set off alarms among investors and caused Google's stock price to drop precipitously
Reyes told analysts that Google's capital spending this year will be substantially higher than last year's $838 million investment. He indicated most of the money will be spent increasing Google's already formidable computing power so it can deliver more products and servers to Web surfers.
Google also plans to continue a hiring spree that expanded the company's payroll by an average of 7 new employees per day last year. Reyes said much of the hiring will be concentrated outside the United States as Google continues to expand internationally.
In another development, Schmidt identified Microsoft Corp. as the rival that most worries Google because of the way the world's largest software maker has aggressively attacked other technology upstarts in the past.
Microsoft currently runs the Internet's third most popular search engine, ranking behind both Google and Yahoo Inc., but it has vowed to close the gap by improving its technology and luring new users by giving away free merchandise and services.
"
In his opening remarks, Google CEO Eric Schmidt assured the roomful of analysts that he sees "tremendous headroom" to develop an even more effective advertising approach.
Schmidt underscored his optimism at one point by saying Google someday might generate $100 billion in annual revenue as it expands into a variety of new advertising channels, including television, radio and publishing. The 7-year-old company's revenue totaled $6.1 billion last year.
"Our assessment is we are in the strongest position that we have ever been," Schmidt said later in the day...The upbeat remarks contrasted with Reyes' cautious commentary during a question-and-answer session at a Tuesday investor conference in New York. At that time, Reyes cited the difficulty that Google would have improving its advertising formula and advised the company's growth rate was bound to slow down - a prospect that set off alarms among investors and caused Google's stock price to drop precipitously
Reyes told analysts that Google's capital spending this year will be substantially higher than last year's $838 million investment. He indicated most of the money will be spent increasing Google's already formidable computing power so it can deliver more products and servers to Web surfers.
Google also plans to continue a hiring spree that expanded the company's payroll by an average of 7 new employees per day last year. Reyes said much of the hiring will be concentrated outside the United States as Google continues to expand internationally.
In another development, Schmidt identified Microsoft Corp. as the rival that most worries Google because of the way the world's largest software maker has aggressively attacked other technology upstarts in the past.
Microsoft currently runs the Internet's third most popular search engine, ranking behind both Google and Yahoo Inc., but it has vowed to close the gap by improving its technology and luring new users by giving away free merchandise and services.
"
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Pagerank update update
Great result for a little bit of effort on the linking aspect, my humble litttle gambling blog now has a pagerank of 4! Better work on some links for the main site which now shows PR2, not bad though....Gambling Housewife Free Horse Racing Tips may be not as impressive as my January tipping
Monday, February 20, 2006
SiteProNews: Google.cn: The Internet As Beijing Sees It
SiteProNews: Google.cn: The Internet As Beijing Sees It: "the last two or three years have shown us the inherent strength of the search engine - and none more than
Google. And I believe that an unintended consequence of Google's controversial stance in China has an awareness increase of just how influential search results can be. Comparisons of 'Tiananm en' searches are illustrating this. Several blogs are showing split screen stills of keyword results using 'Tiananmen'on Google Images. Google.cn shows picture after picture of a lovely park, while Google.com shows a screen full of those infamous images of a lone protestor in front of menacing tanks.
Just one example of real time censorship is being beamed live over the internet, brought to you by Google. It makes for
unintentional and terrible publicity for Google. Oddly timed,too, considering Google's righteous defense here in the United States against government intrusion into their own affairs.
From a business perspective Google's position is sound and totally understandable....
Could anyone actually believe that Google will protect Chinese Internet users if the powers in Beijing started making demands for private search information on Chinese searches? Google has entered China on Beijing's terms, compromised. When issues of ethics arise Google won't have much to say because they are clearly in China for the dough. The power of search, that we see in China, can - and let's be frank, will be used against the people someday. This would make Google, of "Do No Evil" fame - somewhat complicit.
Until some big changes occur in Beijing I foresee much awkwardness for the "Do No Evil" bunch's operation in China.
Simply put, the Party Leaders in Beijing have Google over a barrel - I suppose that means selling out. If they cared only
about profits, this article might not have even been written. But this is Google. And their product is a powerful tool and they've already yielded it to some very powerful folks in Beijing. This time it was to prevent the Chinese people from accessing certain information. As this tool of search continues to refine and become powerful, it's tough to say what Google will be asked for. Perhaps Google will be coerced into giving up the identities of their own users in China. It is anything but a farfetched scenario.
Is hypocrisy in big business expected? Sure, to some degree. But this is dangerous hypocrisy."
Google. And I believe that an unintended consequence of Google's controversial stance in China has an awareness increase of just how influential search results can be. Comparisons of 'Tiananm en' searches are illustrating this. Several blogs are showing split screen stills of keyword results using 'Tiananmen'on Google Images. Google.cn shows picture after picture of a lovely park, while Google.com shows a screen full of those infamous images of a lone protestor in front of menacing tanks.
Just one example of real time censorship is being beamed live over the internet, brought to you by Google. It makes for
unintentional and terrible publicity for Google. Oddly timed,too, considering Google's righteous defense here in the United States against government intrusion into their own affairs.
From a business perspective Google's position is sound and totally understandable....
Could anyone actually believe that Google will protect Chinese Internet users if the powers in Beijing started making demands for private search information on Chinese searches? Google has entered China on Beijing's terms, compromised. When issues of ethics arise Google won't have much to say because they are clearly in China for the dough. The power of search, that we see in China, can - and let's be frank, will be used against the people someday. This would make Google, of "Do No Evil" fame - somewhat complicit.
Until some big changes occur in Beijing I foresee much awkwardness for the "Do No Evil" bunch's operation in China.
Simply put, the Party Leaders in Beijing have Google over a barrel - I suppose that means selling out. If they cared only
about profits, this article might not have even been written. But this is Google. And their product is a powerful tool and they've already yielded it to some very powerful folks in Beijing. This time it was to prevent the Chinese people from accessing certain information. As this tool of search continues to refine and become powerful, it's tough to say what Google will be asked for. Perhaps Google will be coerced into giving up the identities of their own users in China. It is anything but a farfetched scenario.
Is hypocrisy in big business expected? Sure, to some degree. But this is dangerous hypocrisy."
Google Takes the Road More Traveled
Google Takes the Road More Traveled: "Search Engine News > Google Takes the Road More Traveled...
A little more than a year after their attempt to shake up the IPO world by selling shares through a Dutch auction designed to give the "little guy" just as much chance at buying in as the big investors have, Google seems to be giving in to traditional Wall Street tactics and shifting their attention toward the big money buyers."
A little more than a year after their attempt to shake up the IPO world by selling shares through a Dutch auction designed to give the "little guy" just as much chance at buying in as the big investors have, Google seems to be giving in to traditional Wall Street tactics and shifting their attention toward the big money buyers."
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