Archive for Search

Google Strikes Ad Deal With XM

Google Strikes Ad Deal With XM

“This partnership with XM Satellite Radio will provide a powerful marketing and distribution tool for Google advertisers,” said Ryan Steelberg, the Internet company’s head of radio operations. “By providing access to XM’s premier satellite audience, Google advertisers will have an easy way to target, schedule, deliver and measure satellite radio campaigns in a timely and efficient manner.”

This is an interesting development as Google spreads its wings beyond the web.

2 August, 2006 | No comments

Tiny search engines look for a niche

CNN.com - Tiny search engines look for a niche - Jul 11, 2006

Traditional search results are largely based on objective criteria such as counting the number of links other sites have placed to a given Web page. Social search gives people subjective answers — the best sushi restaurant in Chicago or the best Web site for information about French impressionism — not necessarily the site visited the most.

Social search engines, very cool and great concepts. Chances are my peers have a better idea of what I am looking for over some computer algorithm. Should be interesting to see if they gain more traction.

11 July, 2006 | No comments

Google Spreadsheets turns up heat on Excel

Google Spreadsheets turns up heat on Excel | CNET News.com

Google is set to launch on Tuesday a Web-based spreadsheet program that will allow people to view and simultaneously edit data while conducting “in-document” chat, a company product manager said Monday.

Humm…so with the acquisition of Writely it seems Google is well on its way to creating an entire office type suite, online….for free? Or will we see Adwords there soon? This is one worth watching.

15 June, 2006 | No comments

GoodSearch: Search To Benefit Charity

GoodSearch: Search To Benefit Charity : Somewhat Frank ~ Blog by Frank Gruber

Just imagine what you could accomplish in the name of charity simply by using GoodSearch during your workday alone.

Just read about this search tool over at Somewhat Frank and thought it was a great idea. I know I will bookmark it! Definitely worth checking out. Especially if it provides great results (should if it is associated with Yahoo!) and raises money for good causes.

14 June, 2006 | No comments

Google Sued over Ranking

RED HERRING | Google Sued over Ranking

KinderStart.com has sued Google, accusing the search giant of unfair trade practices and a lack of objectivity in search results after the information portal for parents said its site stopped being listed in the results as prominently as it had been in the past.In its filing in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California on Friday, the company said the search engine had blocked its site, contributing to a sudden decline in page views, and in turn, revenue. The company alleges that Google violated the “free flow of speech, traffic, and commerce” to the site.

Very interesting. This is not the first time Google has been accused of this practice. But we all need to realize, Google knows the right thing to do and they always do the right things Seriously, I had a similar thing happen to me. I started a site called Success in Balance in hopes of creating a community where people could gather and talk about how they could be successful and still keep their priorties in line. I started off great and listed it with Google. Typing in the works “Success in Balance” always yielded results where the site was in the top 5. But then I posted something negative, but 100% accurate about one of their adsense adverstisers. Next thing I know it I can type in successinbalance.com and still could not find the site! The only way to find the site was to follow listings from other sites. Was this a coincidence? Who knows. Google reveals nothing as everything is a “trade secret.” The bottom line is Google has Microsoft syndrome. They can do no wrong and they think they know what’s best. This should be a fun one to follow.

22 March, 2006 | No comments

Yahoo! Braces For Google - Forbes.com

Yahoo! Braces For Google - Forbes.com

But there might be another finance site drawing traffic soon: Google (nasdaq: GOOG) is reportedly creating its own version of a finance destination to tap into the endless fascination that people have with money.

Interesting article about how Google might challenge Yahoo! in some content areas. In addition the possibility of blogs at Yahoo! is discussed.

20 March, 2006 | No comments

Judge to force Google’s hand

CNN.com - Judge to force Google’s hand - Mar 14, 2006

“The erosion of privacy tends to happen incrementally,” Berman said. “While no one intrusion may seem that big, over the course of the next decade or two, you might end up in a place as a society where you never thought you would be.”Google seized on the case to underscore its commitment to privacy rights and differentiate itself from the Internet’s other major search engines — Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s MSN and Time Warner Inc.’s America Online. All three say they complied with the Justice Department’s request without revealing their users’ personal information.

Cooperating with the government “is a slippery slope and it’s a path we shouldn’t go down,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin told industry analysts earlier this month.

Did I just read that right? Cooperating with the government is a slippery slope? Do they not realize that this very government is the one that protects the patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc. that have made them billionaires? I agree 100% that these are sticky questions and we need to move cautiously. But now apparently Google thinks they are better than the US government as well. Pretty amazing.

But no matter what Google thinks, this is an important ruling and if we are not careful we might find ourselves at a point where every move on the web is tracked.

14 March, 2006 | No comments

Google, Government Set to Face Off Over Search Subpoena

FOXNews.com - Business News - Google, Government Set to Face Off Over Search Subpoena

“The rights we enjoy in our home are not the rights we enjoy with our computers,” said Michael Parekh, an investor and pioneering Internet analyst formerly with Goldman Sachs.

We have looked at this case a couple of times and this article shows that there are many sides to the arguments. Personally, it seems like the government is not really invading anyones privacy. They want aggregate data, no IP addresses or names. So it would be sort of like taking an annoymous survey. But will this set a dangerous precidence? That is so hard to tell. Personally I do not think it will, but each time you give an inch eventually they end up with a foot. But Google never wants to reveal anything to anyone. I mean they are Google and they know what’s best, right

14 March, 2006 | No comments

Writely Blog - Acquired by Google

Writely Blog

Yes, we’ve been acquired by Google, and we’re really excited about this for many, many reasons. But I can hear you saying, “I don’t care why YOU’RE excited - I want to know how this change will impact ME!”

I just saw this and thought, wow, this will have a profound impact on how we compute. With wiki-based spreadsheets and now web-enabled word processing why will the average person need a software package? For the average user these technologies might just do the trick. It will be interesting to watch these technologies emerge and to see how they change digistal stakeholder relations.

13 March, 2006 | No comments

Google Copies Your Hard Drive - Government Smiles in Anticipation

EFF: Breaking News

San Francisco - Google today announced a new “feature” of its Google Desktop software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy. If a consumer chooses to use it, the new “Search Across Computers” feature will store copies of the user’s Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google’s own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user’s computers. EFF urges consumers not to use this feature, because it will make their personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who’ve obtained a user’s Google password.

Wow, as if Google wasn’t scary enough already!

13 February, 2006 | No comments

Amazon.com wants its share of search dollars - Feb. 6, 2006

Amazon.com wants its share of search dollars - Feb. 6, 2006

Jeff Bezos wants some of Google’s lucrative ad dollars. Amazon.com has been signing up websites to carry contextual advertisements that will work very similarly to Google’s (Research) search-related ads. The online retailer is testing the program with members of its Associates program, who currently get paid commissions for driving traffic to Amazon’s website. The new advertising program would pay website owners for driving traffic to third-party advertisers…

More competition for Google Nonesense, I mean Adsense, this can be a good thing. With Yahoo! and Amazon taking on this area, will Google remain king? I suspect so with their MS type tactics, but we can only hope.

7 February, 2006 | No comments

The Great Wall of Google

The Great Wall of Google

Corporations gained legal status as individuals under the precedent set by the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery. Bizarrely, the logic was if slaves are 5/5ths of a person, instead of 3/5ths, then so too should be a corporation. They gained legal rights as individuals, but not the responsibility of citizens with obligations to society. All they do is pay taxes, mostly. Their obligation is to their shareholders and the profit motive.

Very interesting commentary on Googles moves in China. The author makes some great observations about why and how corporations are more difficult to understand. I read a great book over the summer by a Canadian Professor called the “The Corporation” and in the book he explains exactly the same things. If the leaders of Google did not make this move to get into China they would not be fulfilling their obligation to the corporation. They only need to concern themselves with one thing, profit. Other than that everything else is secondary. If the corporation can do something illegal and the consequences of the illegal activity are less than the profit they make make the corporation should do that….not that I agree with this philosophy, but that is the way the corporation is designed. The author of the book actual argues for some changes in the way corporations opperate.

Hum…I think I might need to look at that book again.

31 January, 2006 | No comments

Bush Administration Subpoenas Google in Porn Probe

FOXNews.com - Politics News - Bush Administration Subpoenas Google in Porn Probe
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

Can we say “we told you so”? Here at Digital Stakeholders we have written several times about our concerns about the amount of information that Google holds on to. Now the government is subpoening to get to some of that information. Now while it may make sense why they want the information, what is to say that at some point the decide they want to get access to information on people who are looking for negative information on public figures? Watch this one very closely!

19 January, 2006 | No comments

Jews for Jesus Sues Google over Blog

Jews for Jesus Sues Google over Blog

SAN FRANCISCO—Christian evangelical group Jews for Jesus is suing Google Inc., saying a Weblog hosted through the Internet search leader’s Blogspot service infringes its trademark.

Interesting, I have read where Google has responded to violations of copyright etc. quickly in the past, why so slow this time? On the other side, will other blogs which are critical of other organizations be forced to close their doors? This has bigger implications than it seems on the surface. Digital Stakeholder relations will be impacted one way or another.

23 December, 2005 | No comments

Once-brotherly image turns Big Brotherly

USATODAY.com - Once-brotherly image turns Big Brotherly

In just seven years, Google has emerged as one of the most influential companies of the 21st century, a multinational whose recent forays into classified ads, book publishing, video, Wi-Fi and telecom make its data empire ever more powerful. That’s pushing it into a growing buzz saw of competitors, such as Microsoft, and lawmakers worried about data privacy and protection.

“Google could easily become the poster child for a national public movement to regulate data collection,” says Jeff Chester, head of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocate.

And Google, like MS, wants us to believe that we can trust them. The don’t do evil idea is a good one. But when asked early on about the Patriot act the founders of Google said that it did not impact them at all. The vast amount of information that Google collects and retains is a concern in the first place. They can quickly do evil without any intent. Continue watching carefully.

Best quote in the article, IMHO:

Competitors, including Yahoo, cite similar risks. “There’s an arms race between companies collecting data and companies compromising it,” Drummond says.

8 December, 2005 | No comments

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