How Might Google Use That Desktop Search and Toolbar Info?

Andrew Goodman points to this patent, which is filed by folks who work at Google (though Google is nowhere in the filing…hmmmm.) From Andrew's post: Google sees its algorithmic thinking increasingly as applying to all "placed content." This can mean organic search results, ads near organic search results, ads…

PatentAndrew Goodman points to this patent, which is filed by folks who work at Google (though Google is nowhere in the filing…hmmmm.) From Andrew’s post:

Google sees its algorithmic thinking increasingly as applying to all “placed content.” This can mean organic search results, ads near organic search results, ads or related headlines near email, or ads on content pages.

Personalization potentially creeps into the way that ads are displayed, then. That’ll eventually have a dramatic impact on the opportunities available to advertisers, and the price they may pay to gain visibility.

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Page and Brin’s 767

The Wall St. Journal – which loves this kind of stuff – has a "their's is bigger than yours" piece (reg required) about the pair's new 767 jet – which they bought for personal use. On the road, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have owned environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles…

767The Wall St. Journal – which loves this kind of stuff – has a “their’s is bigger than yours” piece (reg required) about the pair’s new 767 jet – which they bought for personal use.

On the road, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have owned environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius. In the air, they apparently prefer something roomier.

Google Inc.’s two billionaire founders, both 32 years old, will soon be cruising the skies in a Boeing 767 wide-body airliner. They bought the used plane earlier this year, Mr. Page says….

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Google And the Mars Rover

Here's fun with photos: Meetup's Scott Heiferman was passing by the HQ of Honeybee Robotics – the folks who are helping NASA build the Mars Rover – and he noticed this welcome message (full photo here): A passing curiosity, I am sure….

Here’s fun with photos: Meetup’s Scott Heiferman was passing by the HQ of Honeybee Robotics – the folks who are helping NASA build the Mars Rover – and he noticed this welcome message (full photo here):

Honeybee

A passing curiosity, I am sure.

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WSJ: Amazon Launches Publisher Friendly Online Book Access

Jeff Bezos made a lot of money from his investment in Google (he was an early investor), and Amazon's A9 builds on Google's search service, but today Amazon announced it is "introducing two new programs that allow consumers to buy online access to portions of a book or to…

Amazon

Jeff Bezos made a lot of money from his investment in Google (he was an early investor), and Amazon’s A9 builds on Google’s search service, but today Amazon announced it is “introducing two new programs that allow consumers to buy online access to portions of a book or to the entire book, giving publishers and authors another way to generate revenue from their content” (quote from the Journal piece, which is behind a paid wall).

Another tidbit from the story:

While Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos wouldn’t comment specifically on the Google Print controversy, he said, “It’s really important to do this cooperatively with the copyright holders, with the publishing community, with the authors. We’re going to keep working in that cooperative vein.”

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New Yahoo Maps, APIs

Yahoo late last night announced a new set of APIs for its mapping application, and a new beta of its Maps application. Yahoo is aggressively looking to expand its participation in the mashup world with these new hooks. Notably, you can hook into local search as well…and, presumably, the…

Yahoo late last night announced a new set of APIs for its mapping application, and a new beta of its Maps application. Yahoo is aggressively looking to expand its participation in the mashup world with these new hooks. Notably, you can hook into local search as well…and, presumably, the biz model for same as well.

Update: Thanks to SEW, here’s a good overview of Yahoo’s new offering. I’m heads down on a few things today…

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Google Print Keeps Up Drumbeat

Today announcing scads of out of copyright books are now available for full reading…….

Today announcing scads of out of copyright books are now available for full reading….

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Searchblog Survey Results

A whileback I asked you all to take a survey so I – and my new company FM – could get to know you better. The results are in, and I wanted to share them with you. Here they are. If you are like the typical Searchblog reader, you…

A whileback I asked you all to take a survey so I – and my new company FM – could get to know you better. The results are in, and I wanted to share them with you. Here they are. If you are like the typical Searchblog reader, you are in your early 30s, male, live in the US (on the West or East Coast), make more than 100K (wow!), have a really good job, don’t have any kids, and use the web a hell of a lot.

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I’m Bored With Zeitgeist

Those of you who've read my book will recall that the whole story started when someone sent me a link to Google's original Zeitgeist – the top gaining and declining queries for the year 2001. Since then, ol' ZG has been hitting the lists every week, and I check…

Those of you who’ve read my book will recall that the whole story started when someone sent me a link to Google’s original Zeitgeist – the top gaining and declining queries for the year 2001. Since then, ol’ ZG has been hitting the lists every week, and I check it regularly. And I have to say, it’s beyond predictable – now it’s simply deadly dull. Here’s this week’s top five gainers:

1. rosa parks

2. halloween

3. daylight savings

4. jack-o-lantern

5. costume ideas

Come on Google, you know so much more in your own version of the Database of Intentions than you are letting on. Think what you might be able to surface with a bit of imagination? How about some of you Googlers start futzing around in that fabled 20% time, and come up with something interesting again?

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Do You Hard Code?

Googler Matt Cutts, whose site I recommend if you want to stay current on that which Google allows him to talk about (usually Adwords) has an interesting post on the practice of hard coding a response for a particular query, in this case, "Google." Loren points out Yahoo has…

Googler Matt Cutts, whose site I recommend if you want to stay current on that which Google allows him to talk about (usually Adwords) has an interesting post on the practice of hard coding a response for a particular query, in this case, “Google.”

Loren points out Yahoo has hard-coded some special behavior for the query [google]. Searching for [Google] at the Australia/NZ version of Yahoo returns “Try the new Yahoo! Search:” with a prominent search box right above the listing for Google. Interesting..

This reminds me of similar incidents from other search engines in the past. Remember when Inktomi hand-coded the result for [dumb motherfucker] so that the #1 result was a Google page about its executives? Boy, I do. That was motivating.

But let’s be honest here. Everyone does this. Google might do it through targeted AdWords, but it’s hard coding by another name…

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Russell: MSFT = Monopoly 4.0

Some choice words for Microsoft from Russell (who you may recall now works at Yahoo). Though it doesn’t seem to make sense for Live to have the Windows or Office names right now – live.com is just another web dashboard at the moment – there are far more ambitious…

Some choice words for Microsoft from Russell (who you may recall now works at Yahoo).

Though it doesn’t seem to make sense for Live to have the Windows or Office names right now – live.com is just another web dashboard at the moment – there are far more ambitious plans to come. The Windows and Office monikers are there because Microsoft will, of course, be up to it’s old tricks by heavily integrating Live services into the desktop sucking the air supply out of any online competitors. It doesn’t seem that they should be allowed to do this sort of thing, but the success of iTunes seems to have given them a new excuse to start tying products again. And hell, the DOJ agreement only lasts until 2007, no? ….Yep, for Microsoft, Live isn’t about Web 2.0 at all, it’s all about Monopoly 4.0.

Update: Om adds a graphic here.

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