In a move that could be only described as a dis, T-Mobile told Yahoo, the previous default server for the wireless network, “thanks but no thanks”. T-Mobile has instead signed with Google to serve as the network’s primary search engine as well as the default server as reported on Monday. Yahoo will continue to server in messenger and mail capacity for the phone company while Google will be doing the majority more…
It’s been another exciting week in the world of all things Google. The little search engine with the unassuming primary colored logo has generated more headlines recently than American Idol and Obama combined. Let’s take a look at what the world’s most popular website has been up to.
Just yesterday, Google threw their hat back into the social media arena with the launch of Buzz. Google promises that Buzz will be the faster and easier way to share pictures and videos with friends and family who already belong to Gmail. Naturally Buzz is instantly compatible with smart phones and employs the latest in GPS location to gather information from neighboring businesses and hot spots. Its a gutsy move considering that Google has failed to nab the social marketing scene like Facebook has. From a marketing standpoint, Buzz could provide some much needed oomph to the social media marketing game. Buzz’s new features and Google-like accessability are appealing and send the mind reeling into more…
Nov 25, 2009 | Posted by Brandsplat under Search Engine
Rupert Murdoch has been the talk of the Internet lately. If you’d like to see why, check out this video in which he says that he plans to start de-indexing his websites from Google and charging people to read news stories on those sites.
If you are wondering what’s so fascinating about Rupert Murdoch saying this then you probably aren’t aware of all the facets of search engine optimization and the history of how search engines came into being – particularly Google. If Murdoch does strike a deal with Microsoft to allow Bing to be the exclusive indexer of his content then that would ultimately change how search engines operate in a big way. It would be even bigger than Google’s big debut in 1998.
Until now, the search engines have all been like the prom queen two months before the prom. If you want to even be considered for a date then you’ve got to chase the crown. The prom queen doesn’t chase; she sits. Everyone else sniffs and begs for a position in the line up.
Rupert Murdoch is threatening to change that. He wants the search engines to beg him to be indexed. And Microsoft is playing along. Evidently, some other news organizations are considering the same move. So the big question is, Can these news organizations change the way search engines operate?
Maybe they can. At least, Rupert Murdoch is banking on it. And Microsoft, eager to challenge Google’s place on the throne, just might be the search engine to let it happen.
But I can’t help but wonder what would happen to the rest of us if Rupert Murdoch succeeds and gets his paycheck from Microsoft. Would that be the way search engines operate in the future? Will they pay us all to be indexed exclusively in their search indexes or do you think this will just all blow over? My bet is Rupert Murdoch is gearing up for a huge fight. But is anyone else betting on him?
Nov 17, 2009 | Posted by Brandsplat under Search Engine
Google is no stranger to controversy. One of the most controversial subjects the search engine has been involved with in the last couple of years has been the struggle over orphan works and the rights to them. You can read more about this controversy here.
It’s easy to see why Google’s approach to digital rights, particularly with regard to orphan works, is so controversial. There are a lot of questions it raises about who has a right to profit from such works in the future. Specifically, some of the best questions about Google’s proposal are:
What room will there be for future competition?
Who will own the rights to orphan works if the authors don’t show up?
Who will own the rights to orphan works if the authors do show up?
Who should be allowed to profit from orphan works?
Should orphan works be treated differently than works where the author is known and can be found?
What about international or foreign rights? How are those affected?
An orphan work, if you’re not familiar with the term, is a creative work whose author cannot be located and for which the copyright may not otherwise be expired. In other words, a work of creative imagination created in the last 20 years where the author is not known and/or cannot be found could be considered “orphaned”. Should it become a part of the public domain?
These are not easy questions, but they are questions that will likely be answered by the courts some time in the near future. Meanwhile, Google is attempting to get a handle on the creation of a new digital library that will make such works more accessible to more people. Is that a good idea?
What if you could help a sick child make a wish come true? Now you can. In a recent PR Newswire release, real-time search-engine LeapFish just partnered with the Make-a-wish foundation to announce “Tweet-a-cause,” a twitter-based campaign that will help a child with a life-threatening disease realize his dream… to go to Disneyland. Here’s how it works. LeapFish will donate 5 cents for every Tweet you to the Make-A-Wish Foundation until $10,000 has been raised to cover the cost of sending Jacob, age 4, and his family to the magic kingdom
“We are privileged to be able to make a difference in young Jacob’s life by helping his dream come true,” said Ben Behrouzi, CEO of LeapFish. “What better tool than Twitter to get the community involved and allow everyone to share in making a difference for someone.”
As of this writing, already over 500 tweets. Why not do your part. For more details on the campaign and how to help, visit LeapFish.com/MakeAWish
Want to learn more about LeapFish? Check out the LeapFish promo video below.
Microsoft ups their video search offering by launching an all-new Bing video search engine which replaces the MSN video search. According to a recent release by cynopsis: digital via contributor Wayne Karrfalt,
“the new Bing Video site provides a straightforward interface that points users to videos that are gaining steam or are new to the web. Partnerships with Hulu, ABC and YouTube give Bing access to over 900 TV shows in all. The new Bing also now includes results from its recent licensing deal with next generation search system Wolfram Alpha
I checked out the new Bing Video section, and was impressed by the clean Hulu-like design. Here’s a link from CNET if you want to read more or just click on the video, which weirdly features the MSN video logo and not the Bing logo. What’s up with that?
You gotta love a guy who follows up on a bet by posting a video of himself (below) getting a new hairdo by his fellow office mates on YouTube. It’s even more impressive when you are Google’s SEO guru. Here’s the bet; Matt Cutts wagered with his team that they couldn’t keep up with an undisclosed turnaround time for a full quarter. Needless to say, Matt lost the bet.
The coiffure began as a chrome logo delicately chiseled into the back of Mr. Cutts’ head, but soon gave way to a full-fledged Telly Savalas … viola! It was an entertaining way to celebrate a milestone in a company; one million video views on the official Google webmaster video channel. Again, nice work. Now maybe Matt would consider a future bet with the eyebrows included? Just a thought.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could harness the power of search technology, mix it with all the top social media outlets and access it when you’re away from your clunky laptop? Well if you own an iPhone, your prayers have just been answered. Digital marketing powerhouse iCrossing just announced the release of a crazy cool iPhone app called “Say What?. According to iCrossing, “Say What?” is
“a free iPhone social media monitoring application that enables integrated search of Twitter, Digg, and thousands of forums and blogs. Say What? can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.
This is the perfect solution for power users on the go who want real-time search data across multiple social media platforms right in the palm of their hands. According to a recent iCrossing press release, here’s how it works:
“Users enter a search term on a simple interface, and the latest conversations from each of the social media sites are returned in an easy-to-read format. Say What? displays the most recent conversations in aggregate, unlike searching social networks or blogs via a mobile browser.
Users have the option to dig deeper into the responses on a particular source, and a search history is saved so users can get easy updates for their regularly-searched terms.”
Between my Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and CNN apps, I may never have to take my face far away from the warm glow of my iPhone ever again.
Oct 7, 2009 | Posted by Brandsplat under Search Engine
You may have noticed that Google has replaced its logo with a barcode. Why? Well, according to The Christian Science Monitor explains that it is to celebrate the 57th anniversary of the first bar code patent. According to the site,
“On October 7, 1952, inventors Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver were granted the first patent for their invention. The only difference between the bar code we know today and the one Woodland and Silver invented was that it was comprised of a series of concentric circles, not the 59 black-and-white vertical lines synonymous with the current design.”
“The barcode on the Google homepage is Code 128 encoded, which is a standard way of encoding ASCII character strings (ie. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, etc.) into a barcode. It would be safe to assume that Google used their own open source barcode project, Zxing to generate the barcode. The same library is used in Android for barcode recognition.”
I’ve used barcodes ported to my iPhone to claim coupons in the real world. One merchant giggled as she scanned my phone and it actually worked. Ah, the joys of the Interwebs.
It’s no secret that companies make slight changes to their products to get you to use more of their products. The most powerful example of this came to me via an old time ad executive who was telling me about an incident in his younger days on Madison Avenue when he was in the office of a very large toothpaste maker. As a young copywriter, he was brought along to the high-powered meeting with the senior account executives and creative team. The ad agency and the toothpaste executives were trying to figure out a way to create more demand for their toothpaste. Ideas were thrown up on the wall one at a time: increase the media budget, hire a famous spokesperson, testimonials, dentist recommendations, new flavors, etc., All of the ideas had been tried before and were instantly canned. The solution came from the young buck, who blurted out, “why don’t you just make the hole bigger?” Bingo. That was it. Making the hole where the toothpaste came out bigger meant that people would use up more toothpaste faster, thus running out sooner, thus needing to run down to the store and pick up another tube. In other words, creating more demand. The technique was tried and sales increased. Crafty? Maybe. Evil? It’s a dog eat dog world out there. The truth is, companies will stop at nothing if they are trying to increase demand. So when I came across a recent article on Google‘s official blog titled “Now S-U-P-E-R-sized“. I was not surprised to find out that Google was making a slight change to the design of their homepage. The main design change is the size of the search box. After taking a gander at the old vs the new Google search box It seemed like a tiny change. The reason given for the change is,
“it symbolizes our focus on search and because it makes our clean, minimalist homepage even easier and more fun to use.”
But really? Is that the reason? I did a little digging and found others that had a differing opinion for the change. On Tech.Blorge they suggest that
by making the search box more prominent, users are ever-so-slightly more likely to try a new query rather than thumbing through page after page of results. The post goes on to suggest that they are trying to compete against Bing’s search page. This brought up an interesting question. Who had the bigger search engine box? Who had the bigger hole for the toothpaste to flow through? I took screen shots (from a Firefox browser on a Mac) and compared the two sites side by side. The result is that Bing had a much bigger search box, even after Google increased their size? Does this mean more people will be apt to search more on Bing because the search “hole” is bigger? Makes you wonder. Just like it makes you wonder why you can’t get that darned toothpaste back into the tube.
