Talk on your Personalized Homepage

from google's Blog:

"We created the Personalized Homepage to help you gather all the things you care about on Google and across the web in one place. And since one of the things we all care about is communicating with friends, today we're excited to unveil a new version of Google Talk for your Personalized Homepage. The Google Talk Gadget lets you see your contacts and chat with your friends right on your homepage, and you don't have to download anything to start chatting. We've also added a few new features to make your chats a bit more colorful, like the ability to view YouTube videos and Picasa Web Albums photos in your chats. And just like many other gadgets, you can also add the Google Talk Gadget to your own webpage or blog.

To see the Google Talk Gadget in action on the Google Personalized Homepage, check out this short video. You can also read more about it on the Google Talk Blog. Then go ahead and add it to your homepage."

Viacom vs. Google: Test of key online law

The copyright lawsuit filed Tuesday by Viacom against Google and its YouTube subsidiary could end up rewriting one of the key laws of the Internet age: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Viacom, which owns MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, is alleging that Google and YouTube infringed copyrights ``on a massive scale'' by streaming more than 1.5 billion clips of shows like ``SpongeBob SquarePants,'' ``The Colbert Report'' and ``MTV Unplugged.'' It is seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

Google and YouTube have frequently cited the millennium copyright law -- also known as the DMCA -- in defense of repeated charges that they are illegally making money off of other people's creative work. But legal experts say it has yet to be determined whether key sections of the law apply to new media companies like Google and YouTube and scores of others.

``Any ruling in the YouTube case is certain to have implications for companies like Yahoo and eBay, as well as smaller companies like Facebook and imeem,'' said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ``All of these companies rely on the exact same principles that YouTube does.''

Executives at Google and YouTube have argued that they comply with the DMCA because they remove copyrighted material as soon as they are asked by the copyright owner. This includes clips of TV shows like ``The Daily Show'' as well as videos created by users that contain copyrighted material, such as a home movie that has a Rolling Stones song as a soundtrack.

Viacom says this practice places the cost of enforcing copyrights on the ``victims of infringement'' who don't have the tools to effectively police the site. Last month, Viacom requested that YouTube take down more than 100,000 videos. YouTube complied, but a number of users reposted the videos almost immediately.

Viacom argues that the DMCA's ``safe harbor'' provision, which basically exempts hosting companies from liability if they take down copyrighted material once notified, does not apply to YouTube because copyrighted works are ``the cornerstone'' of its business model.

Google says that's not the case. ``YouTube has become even more popular since we took down Viacom's material,'' Google General Counsel Kent Walker said in a statement. ``We think that's a testament to the draw of the user-generated content on YouTube.''

Still, even Google quietly acknowledges that copyright law is being tested and new interpretations are possible. ``Any court ruling that imposes liability on providers of online services for activities of their users and other third parties could harm our business,'' Google noted in a yearly report it recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Google's shares fell $11.72, or 2.58 percent, to $443.03 in trading Tuesday.

Though it's not frequently acknowledged, any created work, such as a home video posted to YouTube, is copyrighted, but individuals generally have no power to enforce their rights unless they are affiliated with a major publisher or entertainment company.

For that reason, Ron Cass, chairman of the Center for the Rule of Law, believes a ruling in Viacom's favor would be good for ordinary people who post creative work on the Internet and who are increasingly having everything from pictures to blog posts plagiarized by other sites.

Mark Cuban, owner of Magnolia Pictures, said Google and YouTube's blatant disregard for copyrights has encouraged others to violate them. The distributor of films like ``Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room'' sent subpoenas to YouTube and Google Video last week requesting the names of users who uploaded its movies.

``Remember, it's not about how they treat Viacom,'' Cuban wrote in a post on his blog (www.blogmaverick.com). ``Viacom is big enough to take care of itself. It is about hiding behind a law, the DMCA, at the expense of copyright owners, to dominate the online video space.''

While other entertainment giants, including NBC Universal and News Corp., have asked YouTube to take down copyrighted material, Viacom is the first to sue.

James Nguyen, an attorney with Foley & Lardner in Los Angeles, said that's because some of them, like News Corp., own properties like MySpace that could be hurt by a new interpretation of the law.

``If Viacom wins, it really casts doubt on a number of businesses that rely on hosting information for users,'' Von Lohmann said. Yahoo's user-generated properties, such as Flickr, Yahoo 360 and Geocities, could also be affected.

Conversely, a ruling in Google's favor would allow the already numerous sites that are built around user-generated content to operate without having to enter into licensing agreements.

``Google has basically been following the advice of the best lawyers in Silicon Valley,'' Von Lohmann said. ``If Viacom wins, that would call into doubt all of the business models that relied on the same kinds of legal advice.''

Google phone pictures (probably fake)

In a thread at the Mobile Burn forums MaDnEzZ has posted a screenshot taken while completing a survey online.

I'm signed up to a paid-survey website and well i received this the other day as part of the survey that i was participating in basically it was a survey about a google phone, which was designed by samsung, but running what seemed to be a google interface, i totally forgot to take a screen shot of the specs but they seemed decent, not mind blowing had the usual in par of 3g/wifi etc, had a camera 2megapixal from what i recall, feel really stupid for now taking a screenshot of the specs not lol

This is what the screenshot says about the Google Phone:

Google makes relevant information and communication tools easily available wherever you are.

The Google Phone brings the power of the internet in your pocket, in a simple and intuitive device. It combines the traditional voice and SMS capabilities of phones with all the exciting Google services from the PC such as Search, Gmail, Maps, Blogger…

The Google Phone, designed by Samsung, is a very thin and stylish handset with a large screen and a QWERTY keypad so that it provides a real internet experience.

All these internet services will be available under a simple Internet monthly flat fee, comparable to PC Broadband products, giving you transparency and control over your mobile bill. Thanks to simple relevant advertising, Google will even give you a 3 month discount on your mobile Internet monthly flat fee.

Mad4mobilephones opinion: its a fake

Google India announces Cricket World Cup Campaign, joins hands with K. Srikkanth

With the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 kicking off in just a few hours, all eyes around the world will be glued onto their television sets. But here’s one reason why you could perhaps head to your PC instead.

Google India has announced its Cricket World Cup Campaign that offers cricket enthusiasts an interactive experience via the web.

With this exciting initiative, users can write, share, debate about and enjoy the Cricket World Cup through an integrated platform of Google products like Google Desktop, personalized homepage, Blogger and Orkut through a special landing page, www.google.co.in/cricket. The platform aims to be a one-stop shop for all information related to the World Cup, enabling visitors to access regular updates, post individual comments and analysis of the game.

Speaking about this, Sundaraman K, Head of Sales, Google India said, “Google aims to constantly improve its users experience by designing products that make things easier and deliver better results than what was available before. Cricket is one of the key passions of users in India and this campaign is designed to bring people across communities together, offering them a unique cricket experience across different Google platforms.”

What’s more, cricketer and commentator, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, will host an expert blog ‘Cricket Zone’ with Krish Srikkanth’ at www.worldcupwithkrish.blogspot.com. Through this blog, users will be able to interact with cricket experts as well as other bloggers on the performance of the various teams and engage in match analysis among other interactive sessions. Krish will also bring expert content to an interactive social networking experience through Orkut, on Krishcricket community.

As a part of this initiative, Google is also hosting a blogging cricket contest, entries for which can be submitted at www.google.co.in/cricket/contest. This will include posts on anything from on-the-ground reporting from West Indies to viewers’ opinions on the progress of the various teams at the World Cup. Both existing and new users will get a chance to participate in the contest.

In addition, Google will also have a fully equipped Blogger vehicle that will visit Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, educating people on the use of Internet and blogging for self-expression. This educational road show will take off on March 19, 2007 from Chandigarh.

Well, cricket is a religion in India. Several big companies have even designed games and various cricket-related products and services to further induce the spirit if the game in the country, such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ‘Good Luck India’ Campaign and the ‘Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007’ - Xbox 360 Game, to name a few.

Google testing targeted TV ads

Google Inc. has established a toehold in pursuing one of its next big ambitions: controlling which television ads viewers see and tailoring them to consumers' interests.

The Mountain View company honed the highly profitable Internet model of search advertising -- that is, selling ads targeted directly at consumers based on the terms they enter into Web search engines. Last year, the eight-year-old company racked up more than $10 billion of revenue by brokering online ads for itself and its partners.

Now, Google has begun a test run serving up TV commercials to cable subscribers in Concord, people familiar with the matter say. Google's pilot project to bring its approach to cable boxes represents a foray into the $54 billion U.S. market for TV advertising -- much bigger game than its online turf.

Although the effort is in its early stages, the progress underscores how Google could bring changes to how TV commercials are sold and delivered to viewers. Other Internet companies are also pursuing an entry into TV advertising, and any major Google success could eventually challenge the traditional TV and advertising powers.

In the Concord test, Google has been steering TV commercials to subscribers of cable provider Astound Broadband, a unit of WaveDivision Holdings LLC, since last year, according to four people familiar with the matter. When those consumers watch TV, some of the commercials they see have been sold to advertisers by Google and delivered to the cable company so that they appear in the normal breaks in TV programming as other ads do.

If the system is successful, Google could eventually try to establish itself as a middleman for purchasing TV spots, furthering its stated goal of offering advertisers one-stop-shopping for ads across virtually all media.

There is no assurance, though, that Google can repeat its success in online-search advertising -- a field in which it had little serious competition -- in the crowded, highly competitive arena of conventional media.

The previously undisclosed Concord effort, being conducted with a small group of advertisers, is aimed at testing the computer and network infrastructure needed for Google to broker and deliver commercials to cable systems more widely.

In the test, advertisers are buying commercial placements through an auction system, people familiar with the matter say. But it is at an early enough stage that the buys are being handled manually by Google salespeople, rather than through a full-fledged automated auction system like the one Google uses to sell ads online, one of the people says.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in January told analysts the company was experimenting with TV advertising, without offering specifics. But he said the company intends to use its technology to better target TV commercials to users.

Rather than every household seeing the same commercial, Google in theory might tap databases with information about the demographics of an individual's neighborhood and examine the content of the program being watched at a given moment to better select which ads to beam through the TV. So, for example, a household in an area with lots of children might be more likely to see commercials for minivans than for sports cars.

Although federal privacy law restricts what cable companies can do with "personally identifiable information," the theory is that consumers will be better served seeing ads more relevant to them and will perhaps agree to share information about their habits and interests with Google.

Such data eventually might allow Google or others to more specifically tailor ads to individual households -- such as beaming ads for dog foods to viewers who own dogs.

"Advertisers in particular will pay much higher rates for ads that are targeted than ones that are untargeted," Mr. Schmidt noted.

At this stage, the commercials aren't targeted to specific households in Concord, which isn't far from Google's Mountain View headquarters, people familiar with the matter say. And the company likely won't on its own tap information about a specific household's buying patterns or other behaviors in order to choose the commercials because of the privacy concerns, one of the people says.

A spokeswoman for WaveDivision couldn't be reached for comment, but an executive with Astound, which has more than 25,000 subscribers, confirmed the test with Google is taking place.

Google's interest in TV commercials comes as the cable industry itself is turning to advertising as a promising source of revenue. One reason: Technology developments are starting to make it possible to target ads to specific households, as Google envisions. The Internet and cable players all want to play a role.

Several of the largest cable operators have also had discussions with Google about teaming up to do some form of TV advertising.

Google has broached the subject with Comcast Corp., a Bay Area cable operator and the nation's largest, with more than 23 million subscribers, as part of broader negotiations focusing on whether Google will continue as the search engine on Comcast's broadband portal, Comcast.net. Their current deal expires at the end of this year.

Some cable-industry executives are wary about giving a behemoth like Google too much power over their advertising. But many also recognize that Google will likely be a major force in the business. "We all believe as advertising moves from one-way to two-way, the winners are the Googles of the world and others that can provide truly two-way addressable advertising," said Steve Burke, Comcast's chief operating officer, during a recent earnings call.

Google's attempts to extend its ad brokering to traditional media aren't expected any time soon to contribute significantly to its revenue, 99 percent of which came from Internet ads last year.

Its traditional media-advertising efforts have also been bumpy to date. Google's executives admit to problems with the company's first tests of print-ad sales; they have given the system a major overhaul. Analysts say Google hasn't yet lined up enough radio-ad inventory to make its efforts there significant.

Although some advertisers are pushing for an Internet-based system for TV-commercial sales such as Google might provide, a group of them chose to team up with online auctioneer eBay Inc. instead. Even then, the TV networks and some advertisers and media buyers have proven resistant to such efforts to overhaul how TV ads are sold.

Some cable operators make as much as 6 percent of their revenue by selling mostly local ads in the time slots they get as part of their deals with the cable networks they carry. But cable companies feel they could greatly increase ad revenue by introducing a wide range of interactive features.

They see as the holy grail of advertising the ability to target different viewers with different commercials suited to their interests, much as Google imagines. "We're talking about delivering to advertisers things they increasingly like about the Internet," says Glenn Britt, Time Warner Cable Inc.'s chief executive.

Time Warner Cable had "preliminary conversations" with Google but the talks didn't advance because Time Warner executives didn't feel Google had much to add to its advertising effort, according to Britt. "We have the technological capabilities to do those things," he said. "We don't really need them."

Comcast is separately planning targeted ad-serving tests this year with three vendors that have been working close with cable operators on new forms of advertising, including OpenTV Corp., Visible World and Invidi Technologies, according to people familiar with the matter.

But Comcast executives caution that next year would be the earliest the company would launch this type of advertising. "In 2007, it's going to be baby steps," said Charlie Thurston, president of Comcast Spotlight, the operator's advertising arm.

Cable operators have to be careful about what they disclose to advertisers and others on customer viewing habits. Federal privacy law restricts what cable companies can do with "personally identifiable information."

Windows Vista Launch Hurts Yahoo, But Not Google

 

The launch of Windows Vista has lifted Microsoft's Live Search share of the U.S. search market, but Microsoft's gain has come at the expense of Yahoo and Ask rather than Google.

"We saw a pretty substantial lift for the first time this year for Live Search," says Jeremy Crane, director of client services at Compete, an online market research firm. "And it happened to coincide with the consumer launch of Vista."

Live Search is the default search engine in Vista, a home-field advantage that Google has sought to counter with distribution deals for its search software.

In a blog post published today, Compete reported that Windows Live had received almost 590 million Web search queries in the United States in February, a 10% increase from 534 million in January.

During this period, Microsoft also saw a 10% increase in search query volume, which translates to a market share gain of 1 percentage point, moving Live Search from 8% to 9%.

Google also saw a market share gain of 1 percentage point during the same time frame as a result of a 3% gain in overall search volume, which reached almost 4 billion queries. Google's share of the U.S. search market in February rose to 63% from 62% the previous month.

Yahoo and Ask lost market share during this period, dropping from 23% to 21% and from 4% to 3% respectively. Yahoo's market share loss of 2 percentage points was the result of a 7% drop in search volume. Ask's market share loss followed from a 5% decline in search volume.

Last month, comScore Networks reported that Google had captured 47.5% of the U.S. search market in January, a significantly lower percentage than Compete counted. comScore also noted that Yahoo's U.S. search share dropped to 28%, Microsoft's rose slightly to reach 10.6%, and Ask's declined to 5.2%.

Crane attributes the difference in statistics to different methodologies. comScore, he says, includes a variety of online properties such as video search in its search numbers, whereas Compete only counts Web search.

Google arrogant? Google CEO Eric Schmidt responds

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been making the rounds this week, the Wall Street rounds: Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco on Monday and Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach yesterday.

I listened attentively to his every keynote words (read my first-hand report in “Google CEO extols $800 billion advertising opportunity”).

I welcome any opportunity to hear Schmidt speak in order to glean further insights into Google’s strategies and tactics, and I did, as I report and analyze in “YouTube: What Google CEO Eric Schmidt really thinks.” 

Schmidt not only leads Google, he is the number one search engine’s top cheerleader. Listening to the Google CEO’s Googley take on the world’s content and its advertising sometimes brings to mind how remarks of President George Bush provide prime fodder for Jay Leno and David Letterman monologues, or Bill Maher declaring “Mocking Bush is my patriotic duty”:

MAHER: Making fun of the president keeps this country safe. The proof? I've been doing it nonstop for years, and there hasn't been another attack. Maybe the reason they haven't attacked us again is they figured we're already suffering enough.If I could explain one thing about George W. Bush to the rest of the world it's this: We don't know what the hell he's saying either! Trust me, foreigners, there's nothing lost in translation, it's just as incoherent in the original English. Yes, we voted for him — twice — but that's because we're stupid, not because we're bad.

Bush is just one of those things that are really popular for a few years and then almost overnight become completely embarrassing. You know, like leg warmers, or Hootie and the Blowfish, or white people going, "Oh no you di-int."

While I have been reporting and analyzing Schmidt’s business case for Google, others have been keenly interested in his take on Google’s “arrogance,” or not.

For example, I headlined the Schmidt hour long philosophical expose on Google’s “new paradigm,” that he presented to Morgan Stanley, by underscoring “Google CEO extols $800 billion advertising opportunity.”

The SFGate, on the other hand, headlined “Google’s arrogance confirmed.”

How so? Featuring a photo of the Google CEO captioned, “Google’s arrogant ways,” Verne Kopytoff says of Schmidt’s hour long address:

All of you who think that Google is arrogant got a big affirmation today from none other than Eric Schmidt, the Internet leviathan's chief executive. He accepted responsibility for some of the negative perception about the Mountain View search engine, which instills fear across large swaths of the technology industry because of its large size and grand ambitions. By being more open, Google has overcome some of its earlier image troubles, Schmidt suggested. "We didn't tell the story, and we didn't have people inside the company to talk to our partners," Schmidt said.

In Associated Press reports of the Schmidt Q & A to Bear Sterns, Google’s arrogance, or not, is again a key focus:

Asked by a member of the audience whether Google is "arrogant," as charged by some in traditional media, Schmidt said, "I'm sure we're arrogant." But he chalked up those complaints to a negotiating tactic and groused that one of the ways traditional media negotiate "is it's leaked, and you're sued to death." Expressing dismay, Schmidt said, "It's not normal in the technology industry, I can assure you."

Asking Eric Schmidt point blank if Google is “arrogant” may provide attention getting headlines and provocative copy, but it is not productive.

Eric Schmidt Google’s “new paradigm” assertions themselves, put forth at Morgan Stanley and Bear Sterns, innately reflect the arrogant philosophy and operating principles of Google, and I shed sunlight on them.

In my “Google CEO extols $800 billion advertising opportunity”:

Schmidt on Google Cloud computing:

Why would a rational person put personal information anywhere else but the cloud, given risks of losing and/or damaging a mobile device or PC?

Schmidt on Google stance to video content owners:

It is a difficult business model transition for them. We tell them we will work to help them get to the new Google iconic model, (convincing) usually works after the initial conversation.

In my “YouTube: What Google CEO Eric Schmidt really thinks”:

Schmidt on YouTube ultimatum:

Users are going to make copies of your copyright content, so you may as well get used to it and embrace it.

Schmidt on what copyright holders really get from YouTube: 

Compensation is still “unclear” and Google is not worried about that right now because the millions of YouTubers represent “potential monetizable targets.”

Or, in the words of Pat Schroeder, CEO, Association of American Publishers:

Google has ‘a hell of a business model – they’re going to take everything you create, for free, and sell advertising around it.’

Google Bookmarks FAQ

A small guide for people that continue to ask how to use Google's low-profile bookmarking service.

What is Google Bookmarks?
Google Bookmarks is an online service that lets you save your favorite sites and attach labels and annotations. Unlike the bookmark feature from your browser, bookmarks are stored securely online, so they are accessible even if you're using other computers.

There are many sites that do that. What's so different about it?
The most important features that set Google Bookmark apart from other services is that all your bookmarks are private (nobody else can see them) and fully searchable. You are no longer restricted to the title of the page, the description and the URL - you can search the entire page. A similar service is the new version of Yahoo Bookmarks, currently in beta.

Can I import my bookmarks?
For Firefox and Internet Explorer, you can download Google Toolbar, and use the "Import bookmarks" option that appears on the drop-down menu next to the Bookmarks icon. For other browsers, you should import your bookmarks to Firefox and use Google Toolbar as explained before.

If you use other online bookmarking tools, you should find an option to export your bookmarks in their support center. For example, in del.icio.us go to Settings and select Export/backup to save your bookmarks in a HTML file that can be imported into your browser.

How can I add bookmarks?
If you've already installed Google Toolbar, you can use it to add or remove bookmarks. Just click on the blue star to add the current site as a bookmark. Click again on the star to choose one or more labels.

For Firefox, there is a very good extension called GMark that shows your bookmarks in the sidebar and another extension that mimics Google Toolbar and adds drag-and-drop.

But to add bookmarks there's a very simple bookmarklet that should work on almost any browser. Just drag this to the links toolbar: Google Bookmark. You'll also find it at the bottom of Google Bookmarks homepage.

How can I search my bookmarks?
Googe Toolbar adds a new option for bookmarks in the list of search engines. If you type the first letters from the title of a bookmark, Google Toolbar gives you the option to load that site.

You can also use Gmarks that searches as you type or you can just go to the web interface at google.com/bookmarks. Search the same as you'd do at Google.com. To restrict your search to a label, add label:name to your query (note that labels are case sensitive).

Is there an option to see my bookmarks in Google's personalized homepage?
There's a gadget that lists all your bookmarks by label and lets you edit them. You can add it multiple times to see bookmarks from different categories.

Will these bookmarks affect Google's search results?
You'll see the labels selected for a bookmark next to its corresponding snippet in the search results. Bookmarks affect Google's search results only for you. Google improves the relevancy of the search results by tailoring to your interests, so the order of the search results could change in some cases. A bookmark in the search results:


Will I be able to access my bookmarks from any computer?
The bookmarks are stored on Google's servers, so you can just log in and have instant access to your bookmarks from your personalized homepage (if you added the gadget I mentioned before) or at google.com/bookmarks.

How can I export my bookmarks from Google?
You can export the bookmarks as a feed, but it won't be very useful unless you're a developer. A better thing to do is to use the GMarks extension for Firefox, that creates a file called bookmarks.html, which is easy to import in your browser.

Is there a way to store the full content of my bookmarks on Google's servers?
No, but you can try Google Notebook, that lets you select the content of a page and save it as a note.

I want to bookmark my favorite posts from Google Reader.
Install Greasemonkey in Firefox, restart the browser and add this script. You'll see a new "Add bookmark" option at the bottom of each post.

What would you like to see in Google Bookmarks?
Some ideas: Google Bookmarks should make it easy to add bookmarks from the toolbar by adding the functionality available in the bookmarklet, a tag cloud should be a nice way to explore the bookmarks, you should be able to search the entire site if you bookmark the homepage, to save copies of the pages and to get recommendations for labels and related pages.

Google Click Tricks Fix: Fraud Is Only 0.02 Percent

Google has posted an in-depth look at their click fraud detection scheme on their Inside AdWords blog, which says undetected click fraud constitutes only 0.02 percent of overall fraud in the AdSense network.

Danny Sullivan wonders why Google waited until now to release the extra data. Could it be because Yahoo's Panama is suctioning off 3 to 5 percent of advertisers' budgets from Google? Avenue A clients, too, say Yahoo's new ad system is working just dandy.

Don Dodge provides a good recap of Google's cat-and-mouse game with click fraudsters.

At any rate, Google's basic message here is "trust us, we have it under control." It's doubtless that click fraud concerns have come up not only with publishers but also in meetings with concerned parties in new markets. Even though click fraud can't exist in the same manner in TV and radio markets, Google still has to prove the company is worthy of trust.

I would imagine that, as Google expands, these types of "trust us" posts will appear more often.

Google Partners with LabPixies to Show Gadget Ads

Google started to test a new kind of ads, that are basically Google gadgets. In this example, Google included 4 YouTube videos that promote Gmail and 5 tips, that combine text with images. So the ad is more flexible than other Google ads and gives the user more options and even power tips.

The ad was created by LabPixies, a company that uses gadgets to create ads centered on content. "Our novel approach for marketing ensures that rather than just forcing your content on uninterested users, you can reach an ever-growing users community who are actively searching for content. (...) LabPixies builds campaigns based on your content and tools, which provide the user with a real taste of your product and brand."

It will be interesting to see if Google's collaboration with LabPixies will go beyond this Gmail ad and if Google will start to use gadget-ads to monetize the personalized homepage.

Note that the gadget above is detached from its AdSense context, so I'm not getting paid if you click on the links or play the videos. If you like it so much, you can even add it to your personalized homepage.

Google China Grows Very Fast

In the last month, Google China launched many services. They added a simple version of Google Maps, Google Suggest was enabled by default for web search, a Chinese version of Google Zeitgeist called ReBang ("hot ranking") was launched, but it's not accessible outside of China.

Google Translate added the traditional Chinese (spoken in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau) and also an option to suggest a better translation if you see phrases that look weird (like in the screenshot below). You can make suggestions only for Arabic, Chinese and Russian, the languages for which Google uses machine translation.


Google Books has just been launched in Chinese, with a very limited amount of books (a search for "China" returns 2325 results).

"China Network Communications Corporation (CNC), the country's second largest fixed-line operator, will use search engine giant Google to provide Internet search services for its 16 million broadband users," reports People Daily Online.

Google made a lot of sacrifices to try to become an important presence in China, where Baidu dominates in search and advertising. Google launched last year Google.cn, that delivers censored results to comply with local regulations and to offer a more reliable service to its users: "Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. Google.com appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach it, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that when clicked on, stall out the user's browser. (...) Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely."

Philipp Lenssen quotes some interesting counter-arguments, like this one from Danny Sullivan: "Ultimately, I want Google to pull out and fight back. I can see the argument for being engaged in a country, for trying to help promote change over time. But I feel like Google should be big enough and principled enough to be engaged by not being engaged. That might do far more good now than years down the line."

But maybe Google is not powerful enough to make a difference in China's internal regulations or maybe they try to build something solid there, so they can have more authority. It will be interesting to watch the months to come, when Google will try to add more services to Google China, to build custom ones only for the Chinese audience, and hopefully even to be brave.

Google Toolbars Voting Buttons

In December 2001, when there was no Digg or StumbleUpon, Google Toolbar launched a beta version:

A new version of the Google toolbar now in beta testing sports a new look -- happy and sad faces that let toolbar users rate web pages. (...)

Google says that excessive clicks are watched for. Google also assures that it has mechanisms in place to ensure good sites don't get penalized by competitors voting against them.

Here's how Google describes the feature: "Use these buttons to vote for or against a page or search result. Click the happy or unhappy face to tell Google that you like or dislike a particular page. You can also use these buttons to report especially good or bad results after you do a search with Google."

Matt Cutts explained at that time: "Right now it's just an experiment. Worst case, it's an easy way for people to report spam that we can handle automatically. We might see if we can improve our search with this data."

In 2003, when Google Toolbar 2 was launched, Google was still undecided: "This feature is currently in test mode, so you will not notice any immediate effects based on your action, other than experiencing a warm sense of satisfaction from having shared your feelings with people who really do care."

The tests must have been positive since the feature was included in the next version too. It's interesting to note that the mysterious feature continous to be available in the Internet Explorer version of Google Toolbar (Settings > Options > More > Voting), but it hasn't been included in the Firefox extension.


This small feature may have been responsible for detecting spam sites or for changing page rankings, but Google could resurrect it and make it a part of Google Personalized Search. They already show interesting pages related to your interests, these voting buttons could refine Google's data and improve the personalized search results.

Find Facts Using Advanced Search Queries

If you're trying to obtain simple facts from Google, but you don't get direct answers (like for Japan population), use another strategy. Try to think how would you formulate a statement that contains the answer to your question.

Instead of asking "When did Yahoo buy Flickr?", think that a page that contains a statement that starts with "Yahoo bought Flickr in" should answer your question.

Step 1 - use quotes
Search for "Yahoo bought Flickr in" and you'll actually get the answer in the snippets. Not all the statements will give the same answer, so try to find the most popular opinion or the most reputable source.

That's great, but what if you want to find more complex information, like Yahoo's acquisitions from 2005 and their dates? The template for statements should be "Yahoo bought [company name] in [month] 2005". Replace the words in brackets with an wildcard.

Step 2 - use wildcards
Search for "Yahoo bought * in * 2005". A wildcard replaces one or more keywords, but you'll get pretty accurate data, like "Yahoo bought Konfabulator in July 2005" or "Yahoo bought the social bookmarking site Delicious in December 2005").

But how do you know that your template is good enough? To improve the performance, let Google match the synonyms of important keywords. Use OR between the synonyms of a word.

Step 3 - use OR
Search for "Yahoo bought OR acquired * in * 2005". You'll get the results for these two queries combined: "Yahoo bought * in * 2005" and "Yahoo acquired * in * 2005".

If you want to find some Yahoo acquisitions over the years, try the special syntax for intervals. To match all the integers between 1997 and 2007, add this to a query 1997..2007. This also works with currencies and measurement units.

Step 4 - use intervals
Search for "Yahoo bought OR acquired * in * 1997..2007". Although Yahoo was launched in 1994, they started to acquire other companies in 1997, after the IPO.

Of course, you'll say that a Wikipedia article about Yahoo contains all these acquisitions, but this was just an example. It works with almost any kinds of facts, as long as you use good templates and it has the major advantage that you'll see the answers in the snippets and you don't have to visit each search result. I found this extremely useful on a mobile phone, where it's difficult to read web pages and to find something inside them.

Microsoft says Googles success a wake-up call

Microsoft cheif technical executive Ray Ozzie.

Watching Google rake in advertising revenue "was a wake-up call within Microsoft," the company's

Watching Google rake in advertising revenue "was a wake-up call within Microsoft," the company's top technical executive, Ray Ozzie, said.

But he said Microsoft plans to do more than simply mimic Google by rolling out web-based versions of desktop programs or following its particular search and advertising model.

Ozzie, who has only made a handful of appearances since his promotion last June to replace Bill Gates as chief software architect, told analysts and investors on Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas that he has been laying the groundwork for programmers across the company to build Internet-based software.

"There is a sea change going on in the industry," Ozzie said. In a question-and-answer session broadcast over the Internet, he likened the current shift to the way the PC era that took off in the 1980s marked a move away from centralised mainframe computing.

But Microsoft has yet to offer a cohesive package of programs that run over the internet instead of from a PC.

Ozzie gave little indication of what might be coming, or when. Meanwhile, Google has expanded beyond searches to offer free, web-based programs similar to Microsoft's mainstays, Word and Excel.

Ozzie said Word, Excel and other parts of Microsoft's "Office" suite have weathered threats from both desktop and web-based programs in part because competitors always compromised functionality.

For example, he said, users always have to be connected to the internet to use a web-based word processor.

Instead of jumping belatedly into the fray with web-only programs, he said Microsoft will pursue a mix of software loaded on PCs and internet services that also work with the growing array of mobile devices, a strategy he called "software-plus-service."

He said he sees free, web-based, ad-supported software as a way to extend Microsoft Office's reach, but gave no specifics. He noted that this solution was not likely to appeal to the company's big business customers.

Sid Parakh, an analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle, said that "what he's trying to say is that even though we are behind, we are not going to necessarily copy a model that's out there."

In the U.S. search market, Microsoft is stuck firmly in third place behind Google and Yahoo, according to January data from research group Comscore Networks Inc.

Right now, Ozzie said, people rely on general web search engines for all types of queries.

Under his leadership, Microsoft is betting that internet users will want search capabilities built into all the different places they spend time, from video game community sites to the Outlook email and calendar program.

He pointed to the software maker's acquisition on Monday of Medstory, a health search engine, as an example of Microsoft's plan to offer targeted groups of web surfers to advertisers.

Parakh said the Medstory acquisition was solid. "Advertisers do want a targeted audience," he said. If Microsoft can deliver it, "I don't see a reason why advertisers won't move."

Google to Offer Click Fraud Protection

Google Inc. has announced that it will provide more tools and data to help its advertisers assess and combat click fraud. Click fraud is a controversial practice that is the biggest enemy of the highly popular and profitable online advertising method known as pay-per-click.

Google disclosed data showing that while its pay per click advertising is under regular attack from fraudsters, almost all fraud tricks are automatically detected. This rebuffs critics of Google's pay-per-click advertising who say it's a magnet for fraud.

Click fraud is when web site publishers try to trick Google's ad system into counting ads that are never seen by actual users, or when competitors use automated programs to create false clicks, which drives up charges per click and their rivals' ad rates.

Some click fraud-fighting companies think that the practice of click fraud is rampant and forces advertisers to pay an extra $16 billion per year. They also believe that up to half of all ad clicks are fraudulent.

According to Google, however, an average of 10 percent of all ad clicks are invalid and claim that is a worst case scenario. Google claims the amount is usually in the single digits.

Google also claims that the amount of click fraud that Google does not catch represents less than 0.02 percent of the times an ad is clicked.

Google also announced that it is introducing a number of new click fraud-fighting measures in the upcoming weeks and months. This will include allowing advertisers to notify Google about specific internet addresses from where they suspect click fraud attacks originate.

Other tools include providing advertisers with a resource center to address questions and Google will make available a standard way for advertisers to report click fraud.

"We're trying to provide advertisers as much transparency, understanding and control around this issue as we can," said Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's business product manager for trust and safety.

So starting in March, Google plans to allow its advertisers to blacklist certain IP addresses for reasons such as suspicion of click fraud or even because their clicks don't lead to sales.

"IP filtering is going to allow advertisers to say: 'If I believe a given IP address isn't producing productive traffic for me, then I don't want to ever show my ads to that IP address,'" Ghosemajumder said.

Google reached a settlement of a click fraud class action lawsuit last year which has been described as a big victory for the company. A loss may have likely cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Google managed to settle the case for $90 million.