Month: September 2006

Ning. I Likey The Idea

Om has the scoop on the first look at Ning's new services, backed by Marc Andreessen and run by CEO Gina Bianchini. I was there today getting a demo of the service, which will be showing itself off at Web 2 later this Fall. In short, they are launching…

Ning

Om has the scoop on the first look at Ning’s new services, backed by Marc Andreessen and run by CEO Gina Bianchini. I was there today getting a demo of the service, which will be showing itself off at Web 2 later this Fall. In short, they are launching open, free, customizable versions of YouTube, MySpace, and Flickr. At once. And that’s just the start….it does not lack for ambition.

I really liked the philosophy behind this company and its platform. It has the potential to change the game that major first wave Web 2 companies (like MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube) defined. In short, it’s not about one company owning a space – video, or social networking, or photo sharing. It’s about letting anyone have these kinds of services. That’s biting off a hell of a lot, and there is much to prove, but if the planets align, I have to say, it’s an impressive play. More as soon as I can….

From Om’s post:

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Google Clarifies Philosophy Re: Content

Last night I had a chance to speak to a rep at Google about this post: Google is clarifying and stating, for the record, it's approach to that big, wild world known as Content. From it: The Internet has broken down many of the barriers that exist between people…

Last night I had a chance to speak to a rep at Google about this post: Google is clarifying and stating, for the record, it’s approach to that big, wild world known as Content. From it:

The Internet has broken down many of the barriers that exist between people and information –- effectively democratizing access to human knowledge. By typing just a few keywords into a computer you can learn about almost any subject. Google is one of many organizations that work to make this possible.

But today only a fraction of the world’s information is available online. Our aim to help organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful means working with a lot of information – newspaper articles (many written over a century ago), books (of which there are millions), images, videos (including all of the new footage users are creating), websites, important financial information and much, much more.

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Google Plugs In

Google is pushing for more efficient power cords for PCs. Totally random, seemingly, but a fine idea. From the Times: The Google white paper argues that the opportunity for power savings is immense — by deploying the new power supplies in 100 million desktop PC’s running eight hours a…

Powercord

Google is pushing for more efficient power cords for PCs. Totally random, seemingly, but a fine idea.

From the Times:

The Google white paper argues that the opportunity for power savings is immense — by deploying the new power supplies in 100 million desktop PC’s running eight hours a day, it will be possible to save 40 billion kilowatt-hours over three years, or more than $5 billion at California’s energy rates.

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Reader John Writes…

Reader John (of the New Scientist) writes: We constantly play with where our subscription barrier falls and use site analytics to measure the effect of these tests. While deep linking is your preferred model we are also interested in sponsored-access to content, releasing articles based on their age, releasing articles…

< ![CDATA[Reader John (of the New Scientist) writes: We constantly play with where our subscription barrier falls and use site analytics to measure the effect of these tests. While deep linking is your preferred model we are also interested in sponsored-access to content, releasing articles based on their age, releasing articles if there is exceptional interest in them, barrier access holidays, one-click free, and so on and so forth…. Oh, and because of the high interest in the Bruce Sterling article we decided to extend the free access – enjoy.]]>

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A Brief Interview with Google’s Matt Cutts

Matt is the man who the SEO/SEM world looks to for answers around most things Google related. Over the past month Melanie and I have been having a wide-ranging email exchange with him on spam, the role of humans at Google, and other things. Here's the result: Let's say…

Matt-Cutts-Logo

Matt is the man who the SEO/SEM world looks to for answers around most things Google related. Over the past month Melanie and I have been having a wide-ranging email exchange with him on spam, the role of humans at Google, and other things. Here’s the result:

Let’s say you decide to leave Google and are asked to write an exact job description for a replacement to do exactly what you do now. What does it say? (We told Matt to be honest, or his options will not vest!)

My official job is to direct the webspam team at Google. Webspam is essentially when someone tries to trick a search engine into ranking higher than they should. A few people will try almost anything, up to and including the mythical GooglePray meta tag, to rank higher. Our team attempts to help high-quality sites while preventing deceptive techniques from working.

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Class Action Against AOL Search History

TechCrunch has the scoop, I have to say, this ain't just AOL, folks. I'm sure counsel at Google, Yahoo, et al are watching this one closely….

TechCrunch has the scoop, I have to say, this ain’t just AOL, folks. I’m sure counsel at Google, Yahoo, et al are watching this one closely.

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The Internet Ad Market Is, Well, Healthy to Be Sure

The IAB reports: Today, during the MIXX Conference and Expo, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released Internet Advertising Revenues covering Q2 and the first six months of 2006. Internet advertising revenues (U.S.) for the first six months of 2006 were approximately $7.9 billion, a new record…

The IAB reports:

Today, during the MIXX Conference and Expo, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released Internet Advertising Revenues covering Q2 and the first six months of 2006. Internet advertising revenues (U.S.) for the first six months of 2006 were approximately $7.9 billion, a new record and a 37% increase over the first half of 2005. Internet advertising revenue totaled nearly $4.1billion for the second quarter of 2006, exceeding the $4 billion mark, representing a 36% increase over same period 2005. Q2 2006 revenues represent a 5.5% increase over Q1 2006.

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News: Froogle Ain’t Dead, Google Says

Over the past few days, blogs and the news media has been buzzing with reports (started by Robert Peck at Bear Stearns) that Froogle is being de-emphasized as Google begins to implement shopping listings into its main index. I read the coverage with interest – it's rare that Google…

Froogle 110Tall

Over the past few days, blogs and the news media has been buzzing with reports (started by Robert Peck at Bear Stearns) that Froogle is being de-emphasized as Google begins to implement shopping listings into its main index. I read the coverage with interest – it’s rare that Google actually admits defeat in any category, preferring instead to let the pasta drip off the wall on its own, so to speak. So I sent an email to folks in corporate communications, and here’s what I got back:

Me: Over the past few days, a Marketwatch story and coverage of recent news about integration of shopping features into the main index has stirred up speculation that Froogle’s days are numbered. Are they?

G: Froogle is alive and well. We are continuing to integrate shopping and product search features into Google.com to make it as easy as possible for users to find product information through Google. We don’t have any more specifics to share publicly on how this will look down the line but we will make sure to let you know about any developments.

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Reader Salman Writes…

Reader Salman writes: To be truly disruptive in a market…you need to start at the low end…that’s how Google’s advertising engine / network became so powerful. But Google seems to be acting in a non-disruptive way in two important high growth markets, by concentrating on ‘big corporate deals’ with ‘big…

< ![CDATA[Reader Salman writes: To be truly disruptive in a market…you need to start at the low end…that’s how Google’s advertising engine / network became so powerful. But Google seems to be acting in a non-disruptive way in two important high growth markets, by concentrating on ‘big corporate deals’ with ‘big corporate customers’ – those markets are: Video, where it is striking deals with the likes of MTV, and online (non-text) advertising, where it is wooing big customers like GM.]]>

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