Yahoo Bows New Video Search

Take that, YouTube, Google, MySpace, AOL, and everyone else!

From the release:

Yahoo! Inc..... today introduced Yahoo! Video (http://video.yahoo.com), an online video destination that combines the power of Yahoo! Search with new upload, browse and community ...
Yahoo! Video allows users to access the most popular and relevant videos on the Internet including The Glomp, Lazy Ramadi and the latest Shakira music video. It brings together content in more ways than any other video Web site by crawling the Web, accepting uploads, receiving direct feeds from partners, and leveraging the Yahoo! Media Group’s unique content and industry relationships. As a leader in online video, Yahoo! already hosts and serves hundreds of millions of music, news, sports, movies, and television videos per month. Now, Yahoo! Video combines these assets with content from across the Web and directly from publishers, enabling users to determine what videos are most important to them:
- Featured, Popular, Category and Tag sections enable users to easily browse for videos.
- Users can subscribe to and watch channels, groups of videos related by source or topic, to stay current on content from their favorite publishers.
- Users can access the largest database of videos on the Web through Yahoo! Search
Additionally, Yahoo! Video enables users and video enthusiasts to participate in an active social community by rating, reviewing and sharing videos.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:12 PM
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Melanie's Round Up

48m contribute user-content
A PEW study finds that nearly 50 million American adults, or about 35 percent of internet users, have contributed user-generated content (or UGC) on the internet. The news bit that is driving headlines, however, is that there is an up-tick in broadband home users---including 73 percent of those bloggers and online media self-publishers. "Adoption of high-speed internet at home grew twice as fast in the year prior to March 2006 than in the same time frame from 2004 to 2005," primarily in middle-income homes. The Pew Internet & American Life Project report also notes that 51 percent of home broadband users are under 30 and only 36 percent were over 30 years old.

Fo.rtuito.us
Sometimes people prefer to "StumbleUpon" rather than search. Premised on the same inclination, Fo.ruito.us helps people meet each other randomly, then decide if they like what they've found. One begins with an open email line to a stranger, with no knowledge about them---not their gender, race , age, nationality or otherwise. Users have four days to communicate and determine if they want to be friends. If you don't make contact at least once, then you do not receive a new potential friend. Just released in beta, Fo.rtuito.us was founded by Chris Stegner.

The Fo.rtuito.us websites says it "allows people to meet others who live completely different lives. We want people to be able to form some of the best friendships of their lives and in many cases from the least likely of candidates. We want this web-site to open their eyes to the world they're missing by not learning about others."

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington likes the idea. And WebProNews points out a bug: "a photo is required for signup, which takes away from the anonymity and the beauty-is-on-the-inside concept"---just don't upload a portrait as your icon.

Stalkerati
And once you've made new friends, you can start stalking them with Stalkerati. This friendly little mash-up of web 2.0 sites provides a one-site search on the individual of your choosing simultaneously in MySpace, FaceBook, Friendster, Google, Technorati, and for images (in Yahoo, Flickr).

Says the creator, Jared, who starts college in California this fall: "This site is basically a little hack I put together in 2 hours on May 1st, 2006 when a friend was heading out for a blind date and my sis was asked out (via email) by a guy that googled her. I hope to eliminate the hassle of going to 4-5 sites to find information/check out/cyberstalk/[insert excuse for cyberstalking here] on someone."
The site, launched early this month, just finished a push that brought with it a digg traffic jam, so you may have to check back if you want to test it out.

An Interview with Google Enterprise VP
Dan Farber at ZNet interviewed VP/GM of GoogleEnterprise Dave Girouard last week. Here's part one and part two of the interview, in case you missed it on your way out for the weekend. They discuss "elusive Google Web Office," the Enterprise portfolio, disinterest in the software game, and product strategy in coordination with Microsoft's Office Live. "The company is experimenting with a hosted service that includes domain hosting, email, calendar, instant messaging, desktop search and administrative services."

OurStory beta
The startup OurStory publically launches in beta its interactive, web-based scrapbook. OurStory's various tagging and uploading features let users create a timeline of events they can share and search through. Silicon Beat gives a full review of its many neat features, like automatically searching the web for pictures of events you mention and pinging relatives to fill-in unanswered questions about pictures. And CBS has an audio interview from when OurStory launched in mid-May. Most of OurStory is free, but the upgrade comes with the ability to store multiple timelines, control several privacy circles, and eventually burn your story to DVD or print it into a book.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:57 PM
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Four Billion Last Quarter

That's how much Internet advertising accounts for, the IAB reports. As with every other one of these reports, I predict this figure will be revised, upward. A lot. For the second year in a row, the first quarter beat the last year's fourth quarter, which is very unusual in advertising markets (the fourth quarter is very heavy on the holiday marketing spend...and February sucks, usually).

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:01 PM
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Update: AdSense Beta API Is Official

From the Google AdSense Blog:

What can I do with the AdSense API?

Using the AdSense API, you can enable users to perform a variety of AdSense functions without leaving your website, including the following:

- Create an AdSense account
- Manage an AdSense account
- Create and modify AdSense for content ad units and link units, AdSense for search boxes, and Referrals
- View detailed reports to monitor performance and earnings

How does the AdSense API benefit your site and users?

By making it easy for publishers to sign up for AdSense and generate revenue, the API offers another compelling reason for publishers to choose your service over a competitor's--and remain loyal to you. The AdSense API is great for publishers who don't want the hassle of setting up their own accounts or dealing with cutting and pasting HTML snippets.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:55 AM
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D Conference: I'm Not There...

I am usually at D this time of year, soaking in the big names and big interviews. But this year, work and other parts of life intervened. But Eric Savitz, of Barrons (current) and Industry Standard (past) fame, is blogging it, and I recommend his work. He covers Bill Gates' interview, and it sounds good. Gates said MSFT will be doing "petabytes in the sky," for example, when asked about the Google Grid.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:32 PM
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Melanie's Round Up

"Googlearchy or Googlocracy?"
An article by several researchers refutes the notion that the Google search engine reinforces the popularity of high PageRank sites. The IEEE Spectrum article "Googlearchy or Googlocracy?" is by five academics at the University of Indiana, Filippo Menczer, Santo Fortunato, Alessandro Flammini, and Alessandro Vespignani--who discuss the surprising results of their original paper:
While search engines do not make for a level playing field, their use partially mitigates the rich-get-richer nature of the Web, giving new sites an increased chance of being discovered.

Google AdsBot
Google has a new search spider called AdsBot that will visit the landing pages of ads to asses the quality of an ad campaign for AdWords. It can be blocked, like other search engine spiders, but AdRank scores will be penalized as non-participatory. SEW explains: That quality score, along with the amount you are willing to pay, is then used to determine an ad's AdRank, the position where an ad will appear in the results. A high quality score means you can rank higher even if you pay less than others.

First mentioned last December, the AdsBot will begin operation soon. Here's a comment by Page (in a recent, peripheral but relevant, interview) that gives some insight into the overall reasoning at play:
The reason people look at the ads spaces and eventually click on ads is because they're really high quality---they're comparable to the search results. If the ads are of substantially worse [quality] than the search results then---guess what, people are smart and they actually learn not to look at that area of the screen. If you test this: in places where there are normally banner ads, people's eyes go around that area.

The Invasion of MS Messenger
Microsoft is hosting a contest called "Invasion of Robots" to design accessory robots for its Live Messenger (beta). Developers are equipped with three software developer kits, challenged to create bots that enhance user experience in Messenger (e.g. adding features like picture sharing or search capability), for a total of $40K in prize money. There are three bots up for public voting so far---one provides Encarta answers to questions, another feeds quotes from "our fearless leader - W". (Via TechTree)

WikiMapia
Wikipedia + Google Maps = WikiMapia.

BlockRocker the beta "Geoaggregator"
BlockRocker pulls geotags loaded in external sites, like Flickr, Technorati, and Webview360. Users can also submit their own geotags through Flickr, blog posts through Technorati, or any webpage with Blockrocker geotagging bookmarklet (modeled on del.icio.us). It's creator, Rod Edwards, says eventually he hopes to integrate Block Rocker into any location-aware device. So "if you're in downtown SF with nothing to do, I'd like you to be able to open BR.mobi on your phone and find out what's going on that night within a three block radius of wherever you are. One step at a time, though."

Looking for a few good (print reading) geniuses
Google is recruiting with a full-page print ad in Wired magazine. Danny Sullivan at SEW advises, "If you didn't skip three grades and failed to learn Lisp by age 10 like Niniane, there's no need to apply."

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:58 PM
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Web 2 Conference TM Issue: Tim Responds

Tim's back from vacation, and his thoughtful post is here. For anyone who was quick to judge this whole thing, I'd encourage you to read it.

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:58 PM
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New Google AdSense API: User Gen Monetization Ho!

User generated content is hot - HOT! But if you're a UGC (yup, I'm using the acronym) site, like RateItAll, Facebook, YouTube, or MySpace, how do you incent your members to post more great stuff, so you can make more money? Well, Google is only too happy to help you out there. Word has leaked recently (Eric was first) that Google is (reportedly) working on a new API that will allow content sites to distribute AdSense earnings to individual members. RateItAll apparently blew the embargo by posting a release discussing this too early. From it:

Pioneering online community and social network RateItAll.com today announced that it had integrated Google AdSense into its service via an API in order to share advertising inventory with RateItAll members.

By leveraging the Google AdSense API, RateItAll has enabled its members to create Google AdSense accounts, earn cash for their content contributions, and track their earnings without ever leaving the RateItAll.com Web site.

As SEOLowdown notes, this could be huge for sites like YouTube. Emphasis on could be. But coupled with Video Adsense, once might imagine a pretty interesting mash up here.

To toss a bit of cold water here, however, I've never seen UGC sites as the least bit driven by money. They are driven by pride, the desire to be first, reputation, whuffie. But dollars? That often screws it all up. I guess we'll get to see soon enough...

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:12 AM
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When You're Worth More Than Ten Billion...

...next quarter's numbers don't really get you going. What might? Well, I've been on about this a lot in the past, but how about solving the Turing test? This Channel 4 piece (UK) covers Google's European Zeitgeist conference. In the piece, Page is asked about what his ideal search engine would be: His answers: "The ultimate search engine would understand everything in the world," Page says. "In computer science we call that Artificial Intelligence."

More detail (much) here at the Memepunks blog.

Page and Schmidt are also asked about China, and privacy, and give the same answers they've given elsewhere. Save Page's quote on waiting to go into China: "We took a principled stand for a long time....and all we did was lose marketshare." Thanks KK.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:17 AM
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Google Checkout

Is this finally Google Payments? It'd be about time...

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:27 AM
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Jason Spanks The Hand That Feeds Him

He don't like AOL search much....

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:42 PM
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Filing

Now, you know you're old and, well, not very hip when you LOOK FORWARD to a long weekend because it will let you GET YOUR FILING DONE. And you spend Saturday night .... filing paper. But that's exactly my situation.

Regardless of our digital lives, I have a bi-annual ritual going where I file all the paper that comes across my desk at home - all the insurance forms, the household bills, the little league rules....

Tonight I stared down a full box of paper that needed to be filed, and...I am stoked: I conquered the mess. I've now got neatly ordered file folders, which I'm sure I'll ignore for the next seven or so years of my life, then toss out.

The thickest files I've created in the first half of 2006? My "Medical Expenses" file (do the insurance companies do anything but create paper?) and my "School Board" file (I'm on my kids school board). Health and education - it kind of makes sense.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:20 PM
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Memo To Murdoch: Buy Bebo

If Myspace is so last year, then buy what's hot this year while it's still not too pricey. This is fashion, baby. You have to keep up with the times...

• Posted by John Battelle at 11:10 AM
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Web 2 Trademark Issue

There's a tempest out there in blog land about my partners' use of the "bigfoot letter" tactic in defending their Web 2.0 trademark as it relates to conferences. Many of my readers are asking about it. I'm going to wait to comment on this in detail till I talk to Tim, who is on vacation and out of touch this week, but in short, I think this response from O'Reilly is pretty good. They screwed up by not first having a conversation with the folks in Ireland, and they relented on forcing the trademark issue right away. I'm sure Tim will have more to say about it, as it happened while he was gone, and I want to talk to him before I dive too deep. Meanwhile, this is not some evil plot to "own" Web 2.0. It's narrowly limited to its use as a trademark for conferences. Remember, Web 2.0 is also about having a business that works. And not protecting your trademarks is simply bad business practice.

Update: Lots of comments, and also, remember that Tim is really offline, and has no idea this has happened. I want to hear from him, but meanwhile, Cory at BB has weighed in, and I like what he has to say.

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:48 AM
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Brilliant Video On The Difference Between Apple and MSFT

This is the difference between Apple and Microsoft, in a nutshell.

Thanks, JH.

OK, I KNOW this is old, but I did NOT KNOW this was an internal Microsoft video. That makes this so much funnier.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:51 AM
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Score One For Net Neutrality...

But don't relax yet. From Wired News:

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved legislation aimed at preventing broadband providers from discriminating against unaffiliated services, content and applications.

Content providers like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have expressed concerns that they would be forced to pay ISPs extra to ensure consumers can access their content.

The measure, approved by a vote of 20-13, would amend U.S. antitrust law. It would also counter a rival bill from another House committee that wants to encourage network providers to preserve consumers' ability to freely surf the internet instead of adopting stricter rules.

Yes, but....there's too much at stake to think this is anything but a temporary victory in a long, drawn out war.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:36 PM
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Dell: Paid Inclusion, Of A Stripe

When I read this in the Journal today, I thought, "isn't this deal already done?" Then I remembered that, no, it was simply discussed, but not inked. So now it's official - Google is playing the distribution game, just like Microsoft does. From the (paid reg required) article:

Google Inc. and Dell Inc. have reached an agreement to install Google software on millions of Dell personal computers before they are shipped to users, said Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.

Under a roughly three-year pact, Google, of Mountain View, Calif., would pay Dell to have its desktop software for searching the content of a user's hard drive and emails, and a Web browser search toolbar installed on the computers, according to people in the industry familiar with the matter. Dell would also set the default search engine for users to Google's offering, one of the sources said. Financial terms are not expected to be disclosed. Talks between Google and Dell were first reported in The Wall Street Journal in February.

My take on this: I'm not entirely sure how to think about this, beyond the obvious. Sure, this makes sense from a business standpoint, but Google did not get to become Google by cutting exclusive distribution deals. It got there by having the best product, a product that folks literally climbed over walls to get to. These kind of deals are, well, pretty pedestrian - they are pay for play: paid inclusion, of a sort. And I thought that was not a very Googley thing to do.

On the other hand, it's not 1998 anymore. Times have changed, and if Google is going to keep abreast of its competition, it needs to act like any other company.

Now ain't that something!

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:08 PM
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EBay, Yahoo: Now It's Interesting

I'm reeling from a 12 hour (yes, 12 hour) trip from Chicago to SF last night but this morning's news must be at least noted, for now: Yahoo and eBay are hooking up, clearly a move against Google - eBay accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars in Google's revenue. From what I can make out, however, this deal does not change eBay's relationship with Google, rather, it marks Yahoo's first major syndication win in years. From USA Today:

Under the deal, Yahoo will be exclusive third-party provider of all graphic ads throughout eBay's auction site. Yahoo has also chosen EBay's online payment system, PayPal, to allow its customers to pay for Yahoo Web services.

It's tempting to say Google loses here, and while I am sure the company would love to have eBay's site amongst its syndicated partners (like AOL and Ask), I am not surprised in the least that Yahoo won this round. The market tends to balance itself, and this is a major proof point.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:42 AM
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Memo to Chicago O'Hare: Heal Thyself

I know this is totally off topic, but I've had the truly life changing experience of routing through Chicago's O Hare airport three times in the past week. As much as I'd like to report that things have changed at the proudly self proclaimed "world's busiest airport", alas, this report is quite the opposite. I lost more than two days of my life to that hell hole. In short, Chicago O'Hare sucks, and I, for one, would rather spend three extra hours in the air simply to avoid landing there, and I'd heartily recommend anyone who might be considering O'Hare as a destination to, well, reconsider before the place sucks you into the seventh circle of hell, a place from which I am only now emerging. I think.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:46 PM
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Melanie's Round Up

Amazon gets book smart
Amazon adds an Online Reader for search inside books. John says, "If this is what I think it is, this signals that Amazon is getting into all forms of readable content online, a shift in biz model strategy."

Resource Shelf summarizes the features:
- Search for words or phrases in the book (you can also search the entire Amazon.com database or A9).
- View single pages or continuous pages by scrolling
- Zoom in or Zoom out (very useful)...
...and notes that this is all part of Amazon's step further into the "upgrade program where you can read purchased books online, print pages, add notes, bookmark pages, etc." which "is similar to what you can already do with books accessible (for free)."

Technorati & AP team-up
Technorati and the Associated Press begin sharing a dynamic feed of the most blogged about AP articles at its +400 member sites. The Technorati announcement: Increasingly, what the blogosphere says about a news story becomes part of a more complete story, lending diverse perspectives and often expert commentary...When readers visit an AP member Web site that uses AP Hosted Custom News, they will see a module featuring the "Top Five Most Blogged About" AP articles right next to the article text, dynamically powered by Technorati. Additionally, when readers click on an AP article, Technorati will deliver "Who’s Blogging About" that article.
This follows similar service partnerships Technorati shares with the WashPost and other publications. Bloggers cheer.

Free eBook fair
Celebrate the 35th anniversary of free eBooks and the Project Gutenberg. For its birthday month of July, Gutenberg plans to offer free, permanent download access to over 1/3 million books. The PDF-file books are available with support from The World eBook Library, which Resource Shelf says normally charges $8.95 a pop for a permanent download. (SearchBlog recently looked forward to scanning through a good eBook at the neighborhood universal library.)

Data mining the blogosphere
A new paper maps out what the blogosphere offers in research potential and challenges. Written by Gilad Mishne at the Intelligent Systems Lab, University of Amsterdam, "Information Access Challenges in the Blogspace" is available in PDF.

First, Mishne describes the blogosphere: in time, as highly dynamic and tied to current events; in structure, as primarily a network of individuals in one-to-one relationships; in language, by informality and subjectivity. Mishne foresees a huge development in the still-infant specialized blog-search services and tools --such as Technorati and Blogpulse. According to the paper, the blogosphere grows at a rate of 750,000 new posts per day, with a steady readership of 20% of internet users. A couple speed bumps in both data analysis and retrieval: frequent misspellings that skew keyword tracking and spam. Mishne concludes the blogspace ultimately lends itself to future research in sentiment analysis, tapping the vox populi for the genesis and evolution of trends, profiling individual bloggers and communities, and enhancing search quality.

Instant, dynamic, spelling-flexible search
A series of search engines, developed by the German company Exorbyte, provide instant, dynamic, orthographically-adaptive suggestions and results. Co-founder, Franz Guenthner, a Professor of Computational Linguistics at the University of Munich (previously at AltaVista, All The Web), says that "contrary to the Google type of suggest in use elsewhere e.g. Snap.com - [Exorbyte] finds all the records in the index even when the query is orthographically defective" (spelled wrong).

Here are a few demos applying their search engines:
- A tri-lingual (French, German, English) engine that supplies Wikipedia entries: Exorbyte -Wiki
- A German job search engine, launched last week: Job a Nova
- A German shopping site: Billinger
Guenthner says Exorbyte engines can "search tens of millions of records in an "approximate mode" at under 10 milliseconds."

CQ Web is relased in beta
Today, Q-Phase releases its contextual web search tool CQ Web in beta. CQ Web breaks down a search query into an index of keywords, 'keypairs', and keyphrases, each with corresponding focused results. Q-Phrase says CQ Web identifies relationships not only between the original search terms, but also among keywords extracted from the results pages.

Aside from the obvious search giants, CQ Web accesses several Web 2.0 content sites including MySpace and del.icio.us, bringing the number of search engine options to eleven. One note, their press release says CQ WEB automatically visits "the most relevant search results" of the major search engines "to discover significant keywords and topics relating top the original search query"---that sort of sounds like CQ Web only analyzes the first few pages (or however many) of results from whichever search engine you select for it to piggyback.

After playing with the beta (downloadable for PC and Mac OS X) with a search on "Searchblog" using Google, a mini review of CQ Web. I'm not so sure the "interface circumvents the 'hit or miss' nature and trial-and-error link clicking" as promised, but then that's a big promise. CQ Web can help an initial search query be more robust by delivering more contextualized results, but it looks like the beta still needs refining. (The query on Searchblog produced "online poker" as a 'keypair' and delivered at least one spam page.) Though it delves deeper, it does so at the tip of the proverbial iceberg, so users should be careful to target their keywords--- because instead of the desired url displaying on the n-th page of results, in CQ it might not display at all without proper initial focus. How focused? A search for "Searchblog" produced only 111 main topics and 65 total results. The keyword index is an added benefit, even if not always complete or "the most meaningful" keywords.

(Hopefully you can click on these images to view the screenshots up-close. Again, this was for a search on "Searchblog" using Google---from initial selection, to results, to focused results.)

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:02 PM
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Again, On the Road

This time I'm in Madison, WI. I've never been here before, it's a nice place. I'll be back at it Thursday. Melanie will post a roundup today...

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:11 AM
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Melanie's Round Up

Google Enterprise Professional Program

Enterprise gains a host of professional partners contributing additional services, including data recovery, archival search, intranet development, SAP integration and security. Included among the new partners is MetaCarta. Its addition to Enterprise, for example, will allow users in government, energy and enterprises to retrieve from Earth ‘unstructured content’---such as HTML, Word docs, and emails. For $10,000 a pop, professional subscribers gain access to installation, customization and training for enhanced features in Google Search Appliance and Mini.

Y! Finance better looking, bloggier

Released in an exclusive beta last week and expected for public tests in June, Yahoo is offering a syndicated stock feed with quotes, news and charts for up to 10 companies to blogs and other websites (MicroPersuasion). Paid Content notes that quotes are delayed 15-20 minutes; and Yahoo is still analyzing how to monetize the tool.
Also, the main Y! finance site also gets a little sleeker.

Grilling Eric Schmidt
Resource Shelf and SEW point out an WSJ/CNBC interview with Eric Schmidt in London (in town for the forward-looking Zeitgeist Conference), asking "whether Google is becoming the next Microsoft." Apart from remaining queasy with identification as a media portal, the Google CEO answers questions on the future reach of Google (Asia), its ability to keep its widening grasp together (media), and keep its books in order (click fraud). The two part video and audio copies are available from the WSJ: Part one, Part two.

Moving.com launches
Today Move, Inc. launches its online search platform, Move.com. Move.com says it has the largest, most comprehensive search engine for home and rental listings, and scouting reports (on local schools, maps, photos, affordability calculator, etc.). Together with Realtor.com, Move is the exclusive real estate feeder for AOL and MSN, and the preferred referral for Yahoo. Citing research with thousands of users, the press release says, "Consumers said they wanted everything related to their move in one place, including more photos, virtual tours, maps, and information about neighborhoods." Move hopes to accomplish that by gathering real estate information from sites all over the web.

MySpace choosing its friends carefully
The news from the Financial Times is that MySpace is in talks on integrating search with Google and MSN--- "not Yahoo"---"in a move that would confirm the emergence of Rupert Murdoch’s internet site as a significant new power online" (via Garrett French at SE Lowdown). The FT writes that the search titans themselves are beginning to gravitate towards the ballooning social sites (like MySpace, Facebook) in the market.

These networking hubs have "threatened to tip the balance of power on the internet away from traditional portals and search engines. Their potential to become the places where many young people spend most of their internet time could make them the “gatekeepers”, or the entry point for online activity. The rise of the social networking sites has already forced the established internet powers to revise their views of how new audiences will emerge on the internet."

Rough Type predicts that the Google-MSN shoot-out will play like that for AOL last year, where dominant the search engine won the upper hand. With MySpace so far failing to gain PPC ad profits in proportion to its astounding popularity, and Rough Type thinks its hunting for a search engine that can better monetize with keyword-targeted ads.

+Screenshots of Windows Vista
Can't get enough? Here are some more peaks at PCMag, which is also running a feature on it.

• Posted by John Battelle at 2:33 PM
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The Future Is Here, Just Unevenly Distributed

Google's starting its march into video advertising. For a preview, read my Tivo/Peg Perego scenario...

In the coming days, we will be adding click-to-play video ads to the line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats currently supported by the Google content network.

Now, this is the start of something important. It's not on Google.com, yet, but it's going to be all over AdSense, and I bet in Google image search and other content sites (Finance) quite soon.

PS - With Google wooing MySpace, I'm guessing video ads are a big part of the equation...I think, however, Rupert needs to think hard about whether supporting Google is a good idea. I think Yahoo might sell that space better, and, honestly, MySpace is big enough to go it alone as well...

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:30 AM
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Wired News: Will the US Sue?

Two items of very related interest today:

1. Wired News Releases Full Text of AT&T NSA Document (Slashdot).

2. Gonzales Says Publishing Leaks Is A Crime (Also Slashdot)

Thank God for outlets like Wired. And best of luck.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:05 PM
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Veterans Database of Intentions

Yow! From CNN:

Personal information on 26.5 million veterans was stolen from the home of a data analyst in what appears to have been a random burglary, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Monday.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:03 PM
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I Forgot My Password

File this under "really f'ing irritating." I have probably 50 or so accounts I use on the web - from Wordpress to MT, Wells Fargo to AdSense to AdWords, to lord knows what. And I tend to mix up my passwords a bit. No, well, a lot. And I am forever screwing up and forgetting my passwords. Sometimes I also forget which email address I used as well, so even getting my damn password back is impossible, given that I have like six working emails.

All of this is made worse by Firefox and its ilk, which remembers passwords for you, so you can forget them entirely until, of course, your browser is borked or you're on a different machine.

Anyway, all this came rushing back to me when I read this post by Xavier at Sun. Seems Meebo users are a lot like me:

Two releases ago, we considered eliminating the “New user?” and “Forgot your password?” links on the front meebo login page. Before doing so, we decided to track how many users clicked on the links. Good thing we didn’t eliminate them - turns out that 11,000+ meebo users depend upon these links daily!

There has got to be a better way.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:40 AM
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Who Knows a Great SEO/SEM Consultant?

I get mail from folks from time to time asking me for help finding just the right SEO/SEM consultant. Often they don't want to hire an agency, yet, they're instead looking for an individual who has business experience and marketing smarts, someone whose brain they can pick to help them with very specific goals. I've usually sent these folks to one place or another, hoping it worked out. But now, since I'm also starting down the path of being an AdWords advertiser, I also might be looking for someone like this. So I thought, why not ask my readers, who are the smartest folks out there on these issues, who they think might fit the bill. Here's a typical email, which I got this weekend, from a very senior designer (brand name is taken out...)

As you may know I direct a group of brands, one of which is (very cool, well known brand). We have had considerable success over the last few years on all fronts, yet as you know well, the marketing of brands is constantly shifting with the growing importance of the web.

(Very cool, well known brand) is now embarking on a complete review and plan for its internet strategy, and one component that is needed urgently is great consultancy on its search engine optimization and key word search marketing plans.


Could you recommend who I am our team could work with to develop these plans? I don't think this is an agency but a person/consultant for whom this work would be a day or so of consultancy, then leading to a more regular (one day a month) consultancy. If this person then leads us to an agency (we have a media agency at present doing regular media) for this piece then that is fine, or even to the hiring inside the company of a person or people around the constant need to be first and best in class in this category.

So, if you have ideas for who might fit this bill, email me, or post in the comments. Thanks!

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:19 PM
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Melanie Rounds It Up

Microsoft Live (Search) Desktop
Microsoft announced its version of an integrated-search desktop that can scour the desktop, corporate network and internet. It's now available to download. "Windows Live Search" is the tentative title, but the product is apparently separate from the other beta by the same name, which is internet-only search. As Geeking with Greg points out, it sounds very similar to Google’s Desktop Search, a imitation Googler VPs told the AP they long expected.
Google Notebook Live
Google Notebook went live in the labs earlier this week. Downloading the Notebook extension places a shortcut tool (displayed in the bottom right of the browser) with which to scrapbook pages, links, and notes. (One can also login and begin playing with the capture and note-taking tools without the extension, but it remains a bit awkward.)
A Faster, Even Viral Google Video
After an inauspicious start (trumped by YouTube), Google Video is changing gears. Users can now feed their videos directly online, eschewing the desktop upload program and editorial submission time-lag. That's exactly why YouTube ran ahead, and that's why Google is responding.
And amid the popularity of the promotional DaVinci Code game (but the movie is getting hammered), Google is trying a viral video marketing venture with the new movie The Break-up. In addition to offering previews, Google is hosting a page where users can share digital shorts of their own humorous trips to splitsville. (John here - does this feel...well...dumb to anyone else?)
Java-to-AJAX Toolkit (for Programmers, with Love from Google)
Google releases the Web Toolkit (Beta) free to the public. The toolkit aims to assist in coding dynamic web applications (like Gmail) by allowing programmers to develop AJAX tools in Java. Helping to navigate a myriad of browser eccentricities, the toolkit features include retaining full Java debugging support for ultimately AJAX apps.
Notebook Snooping
ZDnet goes snooping about the Google Notebook source code and finds some tantalizing bits, or rather hanging questions: Integration with Gmail? Third-party add-ons? Options like in Google Page Creator? (Via Lenssen who also points to a Achewood Cartoon on Google.)
StumbleUpon new sites
StumbleUpon, launched new features early last week, lets users wander through new websites recommended from like-minded users. Still in trial mode, Stumble just added photo, video and Wikipedia stumbling to its Firefox extension. Recently moved to San Francisco from Canada, the start-up just completed an angel round of funding with big tech names. Investor Mitch Kapor remarked in the press release, "Search when you know just what you're looking for, stumble when you don't."
Job Trends at Yahoo, Google
Tracked by the Swiss research group UBS: Google job growth is still explosive--new positions composing 27% of its current headcount, compared with 23% last year--while Yahoo's has flat-lined (from 12% to 8%). More at GigaOm.
A little innovation at the business school
On the online business journal Knowledge@Wharton, Wharton is internally converting search terms into article labels. Terms that result in an article selection automatically become tags in the related articles box and link to all similar articles. (tip from Kurt Oeler)
List of New Search Patents
...Including eight from Microsoft, two from Yahoo, and two from IBM. From Resource Shelf
Small Biz Bloggers Wanted
Jan Jantsesh is looking for bloggers to join the growing channel network at Duct Tape Marketing. See his post for details.

• Posted by John Battelle at 6:15 PM
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Using The Database For Murder

Reader JG notes this disturbing incident, an echo of my privacy scenario post.

Michael Michalski worked for Allegheny County, Pa., as an emergency dispatcher. He began running searches on the internal computer network and databases to locate his former girlfriend...A supervisor... became aware of Michalski's misuse of government databases and placed him on a deferred suspension....Because he still had access to the databases before his suspension began, Michalski continued to gain unauthorized access to personal information about Phillips....Then, while on suspension, Michalski phoned his co-workers at the call center, who allegedly helped him continue the database lookups even though they were aware it was for an illicit purpose.

On Oct. 29... the supervisor met with Michalski and confronted him...Later that day, Michalski shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, Ferderbar, and her new boyfriend, Phillips, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:53 PM
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Web 2 Conference, Version 3.0 Is Open For Registration

Searchblog readers pretty much made Web 2.0 what it is, at least for me....you came and supported the ideas, speakers, and companies, and you joined a conversation that I find one of most stimulating in the industry.

This year promises to be our best yet, and I know that sounds, well, predictable. But so many forces are coming together, and there's so much to talk about, it can't help but be one hell of a dialog.

Today the site is open for registration. If you've been before, or were on the original invite list from last year, you've already gotten your invite. If you didn't get one, or have changed your email, or just want to come for the first time, head here and request an invite, and tell them you came from Searchblog when you do (there's a place to do that).

In the next few months I'll be asking all of you for input on speakers, topics, and Launchpad companies (submit yours here!), just as I did last year. So far, we've signed up a pretty good group of initial speakers, including Jeff Bezos, Eric Kleptone, Jon Miller, Mark Zuckerberg, Arthur Sulzberger, and many more.

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:02 PM
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Yahoo Analyst Day Roundup

I'm interviewing Jeff Weiner, who runs Yahoo Search & Marketplace, tomorrow in Detroit. So Yahoo's analyst day this week is of keen interest. Here are some thoughts from across the web:

Cnet: Focuses on the new ad system, covered here earlier. "Yahoo's new ad system is designed to let marketers target prospective consumers not only by the search terms the people use, but also by their demographics, location and what they do on other areas of the Yahoo network, executives said.

The system, scheduled to launch in the U.S. in the third quarter, offers enhanced ease of use, advanced testing features, geo-targeting and automated analytics, Tim Cadogan, vice president of search, said during the company's analyst day in San Francisco on Wednesday. "

Paid Content: A round up as well, starting with Llyod Braun's pushing user generated content.

SEW rounded it all up, here's their coverage of Jeff's talk. Jeff's all about social search, Answers, etc. Innaresting.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:26 AM
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On The Road

I'm traveling for the balance of the week. We'll try to keep the updates coming...

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:59 AM
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Qwest: Capitalizing on NSA Backlash

This news, from TechDirt, reminds me of the positive brand burnish Google got by standing up to the DOJ. Well done, Qwest.

One of the interesting items to emerge from the growing NSA data-monitoring scandal is that the telecoms weren't compelled to go along with the government and that one company, Qwest, refused to participate. Now the company, which had been a laggard and on the receiving end of many customer complaints, is experiencing a surge in customer appreciation from those opposed to the NSA program.

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:46 PM
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