Today’s search podcast covers finding search news via top search blogs;
Google launches free WiFi; GoogleTalk gets new features; Google Analytics opens
to all; time to file in Yahoo’s class action settlement on click fraud; Star
Trekkin’ for Google Engineers and more!
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Renewing Our US Passports At The US Embassy In London
Remembering Nice Things About London, Such As The London Eye- Aug. 17,
2006 Search News Forecast: Mostly Sunny
Today, a new feature, our daily search news forecast. I can’t say we’ll do
this everyday, but we thought it might be fun. After reviewing Techmeme,
scanning my over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry Schwartz on search forums
activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog forecast for search news today
is mostly sunny. Mostly sunny means that you can expect some news, but
probably nothing major and a downpour of items is unlikely. In other words,
it’s a good day to go outside or get actual work done, rather than reading
about search. Remember, predicting search news is…
- Rand & I
Rank The Best Search Blogs
Rand at SEOMoz posted his Ranking 50 Top Blogs in the Search Space, which
encouraged me to finally post my list of the Search Blogs Am I Most Likely To
Read In More Detail at my personal blog. Rand ranks this blog as number one on
his list and then ranks my blog, the Search Engine Roundtable as number two on
his list. I also ranked this blog as number one of my most ‘click-through
blog’ on my list, followed by Google Blogoscoped, which I often cite here.
These two lists, I believe make up a great portion of the…
- The
Inside Scoop from Search Bloggers
The major search engines all have unofficial bloggers talking about what’s
going on in their respective companies. At a recent SES session, search-blog
stars Jeremy Zawodny, Gary Price, Matt Cutts and Niall Kennedy all revealed
their modus operandi, and guest writer Sara Holoubek was there to capture
their insights for today’s SearchDay article, Expose: Search Engine Bloggers
Tell All….
- SES San Jose
2006 Recap
Couldn’t make it to last week’s monster Search Engine Strategies show in
San Jose? Well, maybe next time! In the meantime, I’ve compiled a list of
coverage from across the web, even somewhat organized into topic areas. Our
San Jose show is always tough for me, as I arrive a week earlier to visit with
the various major search engines out there. That means two weeks of news and
email to dig out from, since you can never get it all done on the road. All
that digging out means I know I don’t have everything listed below. But
you’ll…
- 101 Ways To
Build Links & Popularity
Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall have compiled a list of 101 Ways to Build Link
Popularity in 2006. I will not attempt to summarize all 101 tactics here,
check out the list at SEO Book….
What’s the Big Deal With Social Search?, SearchDay- A Guide to
Social Search Players
In yesterday’s SearchDay article, What’s the Big Deal With Social Search?,
I looked at some of the pros and cons of adding human influences to
algorithmic search results. In today’s SearchDay article, Who’s Who in Social
Search, I map out the various approaches to social search and offer links to
some of the key players in human-mediated search….
- Google WiFi
Hits Mountain View For Free
Google is providing a free WiFi network under “GoogleWifi” (802.11b/g) in
Mountain View, CA. Anyone can use it, including business, visitors and the
72,000+ residents. You must sign into the network with your Google Account, it
is not fully public in that sense, but anyone can register for access. Ready
to get started using GoogleWifi? There are more details on the “how to” at
http://wifi.google.com/support and at the Google Blog. I believe this is the
first of many cities that Google will be providing free Wifi access to….
- Google
Talk Gains Voicemail, Music Status, Photo & File Sharing Features
Google has announced that its Google Talk instant messaging platform now
allows you to share files with other Google Talk users by dropping files or
entire folders into the client. Photo files get special treatment, showing up
in your client so you can talk about them with someone else, as covered more
here. Listening to music? Another new feature, music status, allows other
Google Talkers to see what hip (or embarrassing) song you’re listening to, if
you use one of these supported players. Along with music status comes a new
Google Music Trends feature we mentioned earlier, which allows you…
- Google
Released Trends For Google Music
Garett Rogers spotted the release of Google Music Trends. The Google Labs
has it listed and described as “See what music is popular among Google Talk
users,” it is basically, “Google Trends” for music. You can currently filter
by music genre, and there is a country filter, but I only see the United
States as an option. I am a classic rock fan, so it is cool to see the trends
for that genre. As Garett notes, the participate link at the top right,
currently does not go anywhere….
Shawn Hogan, Hero, Wired- Google
Analytics Opens to Everyone – No Invitation Required
Google announced today that the popular Google Analytics is now instantly
available to the public. No more waiting for invitation codes. Anyone with a
website can now install the website tracking tool by directly signing up at
the Google Analytics homepage,
or by clicking through the “Analytics” tab in any Google AdWords account.
- More than
Organizing Photos? Google Acquires Neven Vision
Adrian Graham, Picasa’s Product Manager, made a post Tuesday morning on the
Official Google Blog titled A better way to organize photos? in which he
announced that the team at Neven Vision has now joined Google. His post tells
us that Neven Vision’s software will make it easier for people to find and
organize their photos. But, is there more to the purchase? Looking around some
blogs that discussed the acquisition holds hints to possibily more….
- Google
AdSense Prompts Ad Viewers to Download Third Party Applications
When you visit a site with Google AdSense ads, you would hardly expect the ads
to trigger an auto-install prompt window to download various third party
applications such as Flash, Quicktime and Adobe Acrobat. But that is just what
the AdSense javascript was trying to make Internet Explorer users do when they
viewed a page with AdSense ads on it….
- Orkut
Causing Trouble In Brazil Again
Komfie Manalo reports that Brazil has threatened to bring Google to court
over their social networking application, Orkut, again. Yesterday, the Federal
Prosecution Service of Brazil, said Google refused “to cooperate with
authorities about user information” on Orkut. Google said in the past that
they would work with Brazilian officials to shut down Orkut communities that
were participating and helping criminals traffic drugs and distribute
pedophilia. Google says they have cooperated with Brazilian authorities,
stating, they have “provided information to eight investigations, and kept
secret information regarding 60 other cases since June.”…
- Human
Rights Group & UK House of Commons Demand Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft To Stop
Censorship
Earlier this week, GameShout.com published an article reporting that Human
Rights Watch group in New York told Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to be upfront
with their users about the censorship and stand up to the political pressure
China places on them. The quote says it all pretty strongly, “It was ironic
that companies whose existence depends on freedom of information and
expression have taken on the role of censor, even in cases where the Chinese
government makes no specific demands for them to do so.” The Inquirer soon
after reported that the committee in the UK House of Commons has…
- Former
Yahoo China Head Sues Yahoo For Defamation
Reuters reports that Zhou Hongyi, the former head of Yahoo China, has sued
Yahoo for defamation. Yahoo said they were about to sue Zhou Hongyi for
“unethical business practices.” Hongyi has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba.com,
which was bought by Yahoo for $1 billion last year. To me, it seems like from
the article, that Yahoo finds Hongyi to be a shady character, and Hongyi
doesn’t like Yahoo telling the public how they feel about him….
- Yahoo Class
Action Settlement Information Released
Details of the Yahoo class action settlement have been posted at
checkmatesettlement.com. What you need to know right now is: (1) You have
until October 14, 2006 to submit a written statement requesting exclusion from
the Class (specific guidelines are enclosed in the notice), if you want to be
excluded from the class. (2) You have until November 20, 2006 to download the
“Assertion of Right to Participate in Additional Claims Review Process Form”
from this site and submit it by registered or certified mail, if you want to
participate in the class and participate in the claims review process….
- Yahoo
Releases Yahoo Answers API
The Yahoo Search Blog announced the release of the Yahoo Answers API. The
API will allow developers to pull questions from the Yahoo Answers database by
search, category, and user. You can even get the answers for those questions.
More details at http://developer.yahoo.com/answers/….
- Yahoo
Partners With Go2 For Mobile Search Ads
Forbes reports that Yahoo has signed an agreement with Go2, a mobile Yellow
Page directory service, to offer Yahoo sponsored search listings on the search
results displayed on the mobile Go2 results. The Wall Street Journal has a
bigger write up on cell phones and ads, stating, “some of the largest wireless
companies in the U.S. are starting to allow advertising on their cell phone
networks.” But don’t worry, “no major carrier is talking about displaying ads
on home pages or while customers are making calls.” You will most likely see
ad integration in the form of the Yahoo &…
- Ask.com
Adds DVD & TV Data To Movie Smart Answers
The Ask.com Blog announced an upgrade to their movie Smart Answer feature that
adds DVD purchase information and TV data. Here is a brief summary of the blog
entry….
- Beam Them
Engineers Up, Google
Google’s boldly going where no one has gone before….in search of
engineers at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention next week in Las
Vegas. Google’s going to have a booth and presence at the event, I’m told by a
friend who knows. Apparently, many of Google’s engineers already attend Trek
conventions, so it’s fertile recruiting ground. So far, I see nothing about
Google on the convention site. But Google Operating System noted yesterday how
Google SketchUp is already doing a cross-promotion. Have fun at the con,
anyone who’s going. Wish it were me! Of course, going to WorldCon in…