Month: September 2006

Cal Lectures with Google

While UC Berkeley has been sharing a limited stream of its lectures as public videos since 2001, it is stepping up the effort with a dedicated Cal page in Google Video. In fact, sharing the valuable access is part of its curriculum strategy, part of the wave of 'coursecasting'…

While UC Berkeley has been sharing a limited stream of its lectures as public videos since 2001, it is stepping up the effort with a dedicated Cal page in Google Video. In fact, sharing the valuable access is part of its curriculum strategy, part of the wave of ‘coursecasting’ as Reuters notes. Currently more than a dozen college courses and symposia are available, with more to be added in the coming months.

(Very much in the spirit of public education, I might add. w00t, alma mater!)

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The Search In Paperback, With New Chapter

Well, I'm stuck in Atlanta, waiting for a delayed flight. My wife and I hit the bookstore and what does she find but the paperback edition of The Search, the one with the new chapter. I'm mildly surprised, as it's not supposed to be out till Monday, but there…

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=johnbattelles-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1591841410&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr

Well, I’m stuck in Atlanta, waiting for a delayed flight. My wife and I hit the bookstore and what does she find but the paperback edition of The Search, the one with the new chapter. I’m mildly surprised, as it’s not supposed to be out till Monday, but there it was. I’ve been meaning to post some teasers from the new chapter. Thanks to Delta’s utter hopelessness, here is the first of a number of installations I’ll post over the next few weeks.

——-

Barely a year has passed since I finished final edits on The Search, which was originally published in September of 2005. I sent the final manuscript to my editor in April of 2005 (yep, it takes nearly six months to get a book out once the manuscript is finished; books, like democracies, are deliberate and plodding beasts). Since then, an awful lot has stayed constant. Google remains the undisputed king of search, Wall Street, and the Internet, and a host of Google’s competitors continue to wring their hands over what do to about it.

But an awful lot has changed, and the pace is quickening. Put mildly, it’s been a busy year in the world that search impacts. Which is to say, pretty much the entire world, from the executive suites at Amazon and Microsoft to the governments of France, Germany, China and the United States.

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Google Reverses on Releasing Orkut to Brazil

Despite spelling out compliance to Brazil's standing demands for Orkut user data earlier this year, Google today appeals. The timing of the appeal coincides with the deadline for complying with the demand of the Brazilian authorities, placing Google in a spot that risks fines of up to $23,000 a…

Despite spelling out compliance to Brazil’s standing demands for Orkut user data earlier this year, Google today appeals. The timing of the appeal coincides with the deadline for complying with the demand of the Brazilian authorities, placing Google in a spot that risks fines of up to $23,000 a day.

Google indicated it had and would continue to comply with requests to the full extent allowed under US law and which “are issued within the country in which the information is stored,” But a Brazilian federal judge earlier disagreed, saying “all the photographs and messages being investigated were published by Brazilians, through Internet connection in national territory. (sic)” From the AP story, “The Sao Paulo federal prosecutor’s office said Google was in clear defiance of the judge’s order and could be fined at any moment.

Also this week, Business Week notes that Google took down eight Orkut communities at the request of the Brazilian government, in a case it says is unrelated. “The company says those communities, which advocated drunk driving by minors, the pirating of cable television, and illegal drug use, did not comply with Orkut’s terms of service, which state it is prohibited to “promote or encourage illegal activity.”

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comScore Revvs Local Search Data

comScore released new, in depth data on local search. A summary of highlights from the full release: Among comScore respondents, 41% of searches were directed near the home, rather than as research for travel. And among those local-to-residence searches, 59% were related to media and entertainment, and 52% focused…

comScore released new, in depth data on local search.

A summary of highlights from the full release:

Among comScore respondents, 41% of searches were directed near the home, rather than as research for travel. And among those local-to-residence searches, 59% were related to media and entertainment, and 52% focused on a specific businesses. “Two out of five local searchers (41 percent) were looking for information on a local service in their home area, including car rental office, dry cleaner or lawyer.”

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Searchmob Roundup

Matt Cutts' Evil Twin Revealed AdWords Optimizer Review: Use With Caution NY Post Online Joins Web 2.0 How to Steal Your Competitor's Google Traffic Is Push Back? Again? Real Networks and Feedster Launch…

Searchmob-3Matt Cutts’ Evil Twin Revealed

AdWords Optimizer Review: Use With Caution

NY Post Online Joins Web 2.0

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Searchmob Roundup

Yahoo Acquires Online Video Editor, JumpCut Have Blogs Replaced Newspapers, and Should We Care? Using a Blog to Track Down a Missing Retainer Dynamic, Realtime Travel Planning Info Behind the Scenes in the Search Engine Labs Australia via Google Earth…

Searchmob-6-TmYahoo Acquires Online Video Editor, JumpCut

Have Blogs Replaced Newspapers, and Should We Care?

Using a Blog to Track Down a Missing Retainer

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Shit Howdy.

Ten years ago, if a Martian from the future visited me at the offices of Wired, and told me that Microsoft would be announcing this, I'd have run him out of the building. No, wait, I would have interviewed him and put him on the cover, come to think…

Bill Gates3

Ten years ago, if a Martian from the future visited me at the offices of Wired, and told me that Microsoft would be announcing this, I’d have run him out of the building. No, wait, I would have interviewed him and put him on the cover, come to think of it.

Sure, not surprising to us at the moment, but really, think about what Microsoft was back in the 90s, and what this means now. From the LiveSide post:

At Advertising Week 2006 in New York, Microsoft is set to unveil a new unified global advertising initiative. Under Digital Advertising Solutions, advertisers will be able to more easily reach customers by packaging Microsoft’s products, including Xbox, MSN, Windows Live, Office, Windows Mobile, and Microsoft TV under one advertising solution….Clearly Microsoft is not only targeting Google and Yahoo with this advertisement push, but also TV and print media as well.

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Merchant Full Circle

Earlier today an odd thing started to happen – new comments started pouring in on a months old post I wrote on MerchantCircle, a local business search play. Apparently today the company started automatically calling merchants in its listings database, and what MerchantCircle had to say really upset any…

Earlier today an odd thing started to happen – new comments started pouring in on a months old post I wrote on MerchantCircle, a local business search play. Apparently today the company started automatically calling merchants in its listings database, and what MerchantCircle had to say really upset any number of business owners. Apparently in the call MerchantCircle informed the business owners of their relative rankings and reputation in the system, regardless of whether or not the news was good. As one might expect, if your entire livelihood is in your small business, and an automated system leaves you a voicemail telling you that there is an “unfavorable review” of your livelihood, why, you take that personally.

So what do you do? Well, you fire up Google and do a search for “Merchantcircle,” of course. After all, you want to know what is up with this company, which you’ve never heard of, and Google is always your first stop. And who has the third link on Google, and the first non MerchantCircle related link? Yup, Searchblog. You read my (not very deep) thoughts on the company, and then notice there is a comments section. AHA! A chance to take action is born, and action is taken.

As more and more comments pile on, the site author (that’d be me) takes notice, and I sent an email to Ben Smith, the CEO, alerting him to the issue. Ben has responded that he’s on it.

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