Month: December 2005

Year End Clearance

Hope your holidays are going well, mine are keeping me away from posting, but here are a few tidbits worth hanging out there before the year closes: – As we end 2005, recall the leaked document which put the number of Google AdWords customers at near 400,000, for what…

Hope your holidays are going well, mine are keeping me away from posting, but here are a few tidbits worth hanging out there before the year closes:

– As we end 2005, recall the leaked document which put the number of Google AdWords customers at near 400,000, for what it’s worth.

– Yahoo released Travel APIs last week.

– Google foe Carl Icahn invested in HowStuffWorks.com.

– I continue to enjoy reading Xooglers. This post is fun, and poignant.

– Buzzingo mashes up Google and Yahoo’s Buzz index. Clearly, we like pretty, well endowed girls.

– Soonr connects your mobile phone to your desktop. Cool. But I can’t even make my f’ing Treo send mail, so it’ll be a while before I try this.

– Gravee launched. The idea: Pay the folks who are in the index. I like the philosophy, not sure if it’ll fly….. But at least they are learning from all the input!

– SEW rounds up all the year end search lists, and the blogosphere as well.

4 Comments on Year End Clearance

SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER

Stay up to date on the latest from BattelleMedia.com

And I Was Overreacting?

In the book I warned about abuses under the Patriot Act, but this is far worse. And here I thought maybe I was overreacting. From the Times: WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 – The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and…

In the book I warned about abuses under the Patriot Act, but this is far worse. And here I thought maybe I was overreacting. From the Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 – The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials.

The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system’s main arteries, they said.

Read More
24 Comments on And I Was Overreacting?

Google Clarifies

On the AOL announcement. I want to take this at face value. But that's not my inclination. Talking to Google in the next few days, and as usual, I am sure there will be clarity there. But for now, why am I skeptical? Because, well, I've negotiated with AOL….

On the AOL announcement.

I want to take this at face value. But that’s not my inclination. Talking to Google in the next few days, and as usual, I am sure there will be clarity there. But for now, why am I skeptical? Because, well, I’ve negotiated with AOL. And talked to a lot of folks who have. And Microsoft pushed hard to win this, very hard. I find it difficult to believe Parsons and Miller settled for “help us get smarter about how to be indexed by you, Google. Thanks very much.”

Watch the language on the Onebox, and also, the organic crawl. When Google says: “Indexing more of AOL’s content. Our goal is to organize all of the world’s information. When we say “all the world’s information,” this includes AOL’s. We’re going to work with the webmasters at AOL — just as we work with webmasters all over the world — to help them understand how the Google crawler works (with regard to robots.txt, how to use redirects, non-html content, etc.) so we don’t inadvertently overlook their content.”



I think to myself: Er, you’ve been an AOL partner – in a very major way – for more than five years. And you’re NOW just getting around to this? AOL has never talked to Google about redirects? Indexing non HTML content? Robots.txt? I find that, well, hard to believe. Something is not quite adding up.

Read More
20 Comments on Google Clarifies

MSFT, Google Settle Dr. Lee Suit

This is all I got, and email from Google PR: As you know, a trial date had been set for Jan. 9 in the litigation between Google, Dr. Kai-Fu Lee and Microsoft regarding a one-year non-compete period. The parties have settled and have the following statements: "Microsoft, Dr. Lee…

This is all I got, and email from Google PR:

As you know, a trial date had been set for Jan. 9 in the litigation between

Google, Dr. Kai-Fu Lee and Microsoft regarding a one-year non-compete

period. The parties have settled and have the following statements:

“Microsoft, Dr. Lee and Google have reached an agreement that settles their

pending litigation. The Parties have entered into a private agreement that

resolves all issues to their mutual satisfaction. The terms of the

agreement are confidential and all parties have agreed to make no other

statements to the media regarding it. We are pleased with the terms of the

settlement agreement.”

– David Drummond, Google vice president corporate development and general

counsel

Read More
Leave a comment on MSFT, Google Settle Dr. Lee Suit

Hacked? Hijacked? Nah, just a Glitch

Many noticed this morning that my site was oddly…Chinese. Well, it was a glitch as we were moving to a new server, nothing more. Got some index files mixed up, but all is well now. Sorry about that!…

Many noticed this morning that my site was oddly…Chinese. Well, it was a glitch as we were moving to a new server, nothing more. Got some index files mixed up, but all is well now. Sorry about that!

5 Comments on Hacked? Hijacked? Nah, just a Glitch

Wink Launches

I'm taking time off this week, I swear, but much is afoot. Wink launched, for instance. It's people powered search…much to say about it, will do so soon…Om has a write up here. Congrats, Michael and the Wink team!…

Wink2I’m taking time off this week, I swear, but much is afoot. Wink launched, for instance. It’s people powered search…much to say about it, will do so soon…Om has a write up here. Congrats, Michael and the Wink team!

Leave a comment on Wink Launches

Graphics In AdSense

It's cute, it's holiday-y, but…it's graphics in AdSense just the same. These images expire Dec 26th. But I'm guessing the idea will not….Will folks notice this over plain text? Of course they will! (Opt in, natch.)…

Adsense Themed Ad2-795000.Gif-1It’s cute, it’s holiday-y, but…it’s graphics in AdSense just the same. These images expire Dec 26th. But I’m guessing the idea will not….Will folks notice this over plain text? Of course they will! (Opt in, natch.)

3 Comments on Graphics In AdSense

Predictions 2006

This post marks my third year of making predictions for the coming year. I'm emboldened by not failing utterly in the past two years (well, for the most part), but I am sure this will only ensure that these prognostications will prove immeasurably off the mark. But what the…

Nostrad-Tm-3This post marks my third year of making predictions for the coming year. I’m emboldened by not failing utterly in the past two years (well, for the most part), but I am sure this will only ensure that these prognostications will prove immeasurably off the mark. But what the hell, here we go:

1. Someone, and I do not know who, will make a big pile of Big Media video assets freely available on the web – and not via Google Video. This will be a major studio, or television company, which will realize that once you free content, content will come back to you in mashed up and remixed glory that has – holy smokes! – real business models like advertising and retail attached. The deal will be simple: anyone can download, rip, and mix this video, but if you plan to make money from it – even selling ads next to it – you have to cut a deal with the mother ship. The company that does this will be heralded as either visionary, lunatic, or both.

2. Google will stumble, some might say badly, but it will be significant. How? My money is on its second or third major deal – something on the order of the recent AOL deal. It may well be a loss (perceived or otherwise) in the Google Book Search case. Or it might be the privacy issue. This is not to say the company is going to fail, or the stock, for that matter. Just that it will face a major test in 2006 that it won’t pass with flying colors.

Read More
145 Comments on Predictions 2006