This is the question that the US FCC will need to answer according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, which describes how the agency is grappling with new phone services such as Google Voice. Strictly speaking Google probably shouldn’t be considered a carrier because you can’t use it to make calls in the absence of another service; it’s really a “call management” and voice mail platform. However, you can use the Google Voice number as your primary telephone “identity,” something that was previously in the exclusive realm of telecom carriers.

Google Talk in one sense more like a carrier than Voice, although unlike Skype, you can’t use it outside the network of other IM users.

There are a range of issues raised by Google Voice and other new phone services that the FCC and similar regulatory bodies in other countries will need to figure out. Traditional telecom and wireless carriers are heavily regulated and will start putting pressure on the FCC if these newer services, which often circumvent them, are not subject to similar rules and guidelines. For example, according to the WSJ article:

One issue for the FCC: Google reserves the right to restrict calls to certain telephone numbers, such as adult chat lines or free conference-call centers, that have steep access charges.

Traditional phone companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. aren’t allowed to block those kinds of calls. Those companies could cry foul if newer phone services like Google Voice aren’t given the same treatment.

Several years ago, AT&T and others tried blocking calls to lines with inflated access charges. They were rebuked by the FCC, which said common-carrier phone companies can’t pick and choose the numbers they will patch through and those they will block.

Voice calls are data and more companies will get in on the business of transmitting and managing the delivery of that data across networks. The traditional carriers, who’ve invested billions in building the networks, won’t sit by and watch their fees evaporate and watch their business go third parties who piggyback on top of those networks without some sort of a fight. This is, in one sense, a version of the “net neutrality” debate applied to phone communication.

One of the toughest challenges facing pay-per-click marketers is keyword expansion. Marketers need to be adept at selecting keywords that will not only drive traffic, but more importantly, will drive conversions in a cost-effective manner. As competition intensifies, identifying unique, high quality keywords becomes increasingly important-and difficult. While basic keyword research remains important, search marketers need to look to other tools to gain an edge.

Basic keyword research

Keyword research generally begins with one of the popular keyword-research tools. These include-but are not limited to-Google’s keyword tool, Wordtracker and Keyworddiscovery. These tools allow marketers to research topics, identify search-volume data, and find additional permutations of their “seed keyword.” To illustrate my point, a search in the free version of Wordtracker for “dog training” produces the following:

This list is a great starting point for anyone promoting a dog training service. It includes several highly searched keywords relating to “dog training” as well as a vast number of less searched terms as you move down the “tail.”

While basic keyword tools help marketers generate keyword ideas for their pay-per-click campaigns, they also create a huge problem. As most keyword tools are readily available to the public, there is nothing prohibiting your competitors from including the same highly trafficked keywords in their campaigns. Naturally, as more and more competitors enter your niche, the costs-per-click begin to rise. Following this keyword research methodology will undoubtedly leave you with a long-but thin-list of keywords, not to mention that you will be paying too much for “overbought” keywords.

So what is a PPC marketer to do?

As competition increases, intelligent PPC marketers realize that it is imperative to not only build out long keyword lists, but to also “widen” those same keyword lists. What do I mean by “widen?” Let’s revisit the dog training example from above:

Traditional keyword tools suggest that you include terms like:

• dog training
• dog training tips
• dog obedience training

In general, these potentially useful keywords speak directly to your target audience’s needs. But these are also keywords that are most likely to be bid on by your competitors.

What if we dissected this keyword list and expanded on the term “dog?” Think about how many breeds of dog exist: Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, Beagles etc. Now, lets replace the word “dog” with specific breeds:

“dog training” and “training a dog” become “Golden Retriever training” or “training a Golden Retriever.”

By incorporating breeds and replacing the term “dog,” we were able to exponentially increase the size of our keyword list.

Some simple math to consider

If you choose to focus on 10 dog breeds and combine those with 50 seed dog-training keywords, the result would be 550 unique keywords! 10 unique dog breeds * 50 seed keywords = 500 + 50 original seed keywords, for a total of 550 keywords. Additionally, the new breed keywords probably have less competition and are much more likely to convert with a targeted landing page (a topic for another time).

New tools from Google can help

Google Sets and Google Squared are amazing free tools that will allow you to quickly identify elements of a set.

Here are examples of both in action:

To summarize, basic keyword tools are excellent for exploring generic topics and developing a set of keyword permutations. However, in order to differentiate your keyword list, and to avoid complete reliance on highly competitive keywords, I encourage all PPC marketers take steps to widen their keyword lists by utilizing Google Sets and Google Squared. This approach will increase the likelihood that you will find less competitive, and more targeted keywords that ultimately produce conversions at more cost-effective rates.

Late yesterday Google announced (or finally admitted) that it had developed an operating system, called Chrome OS, not to be confused, exactly, with the related Chrome browser. Everyone and their grandmother seems to have an opinion about it. Here’s a sampling of the reaction, positive, negative and in-between:

The fans, boosters and generally positive takes:

TechCrunch, BetaNews, Computerworld, Mashable, BuzzMachine, Ars Technica, Bloomberg, ArsTechnica, Google Watch, MediaMemo, Linux-Watch.com, Google Operating System, The Register, TheNextWeb.com, Black Web 2.0, BloggingStocks, Gadget Lab, Computerworld Blogs, ContentBlogger, Lockergnome Blog Network, About Mobility . . .

The critics and skeptics:

PC World, CNET News, Search Engine Watch,  AllThingsD, ZDNet, InformationWeek, Techdirt, Traffick, SlashGear, MacDailyNews, SmoothSpan Blog . . .

The “wait and see” or “he said/she said” pieces:

BBC, TheStreet.com, eWeek,  GigaOM, Venture Capital Dispatch, The Microsoft Blog, IntoMobile, Between the Lines, Mercury News, Seattle Times, ReadWriteWeb, TG Daily, Googling Google, New York Times . . .

And now for some verbatims:

This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, “However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.” Yeah, who do you think they mean by that? And it’s a genius play.

–TechCrunch

If Google wants to succeed in its boldest product launch to date, the Chrome OS, the company needs to focus on its success with the same intensity it once dedicated to search.  If it doesn’t, Chrome OS will end up just like Chrome: yet another irrelevant skunkworks project used by a handful of digerati and Microsoft-haters and ignored by everyone else.

–Silicon Alley Insider

The privacy implications are, of course, horrendous. And while Google will inevitably dismiss such concerns as paranoid and argue that any data the company might collect at the OS level will be used only to improve its services and benefit users, it should still give us all pause. Because when it is finally launched, Chrome OS will be yet one more deep well of consumer data to which Google will have access

– Digital Daily

[T]his time the networks are more reliable and users are happier than ever to use networked storage and backup systems, so perhaps Chrome OS has come at just the right time. If so, then Microsoft should be worried. The network computer has been a long time coming, but with Google’s backing it could yet be the platform that finally challenges Redmond.

–The Register

It appears the top three hardware vendors have little or no relationship with the search and online advertising giant. But if Google plans to make inroads into Netbooks and eventually notebooks, that will have to change very soon. Every consumer desktop and notebook, and most Netbooks today (excluding computers from Apple) is designed to run Windows. Microsoft has deep hooks in the manufacturers’ design and engineering processes, and the hardware companies’ marketing and product launch cycles always take Microsoft’s plans into account.

–CNET

Microsoft has a number of projects in the works that I’d say are more likely to be competitors to Chrome OS than is Windows 7. The Gazelle OS-in-a-browser project from Microsoft Research is still just a research project and not in incubation or test-release form. But if Microsoft decides it has legs, they could put it on a fast track.

–All About Microsoft

If you want to read Danny’s initial take, here it is.

Postscript: Google has identified some of the companies that it’s working with on the Chrome OS initiative:

The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include: Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments.

(emphasis added)

Ars Technica posted earlier that Google is to unveil its long rumored computer operating system, and now Google confirms this is true in a blog post: Introducing the Google Chrome OS.

The company says that the OS will be released later this year (likely in the fall, I’m told) to developers, designed primarily for netbooks but not limited to them. Then in 2010, it expects it will be available to consumers (though no doubt, many enthusiasts will try it on their own machines). From the company’s post:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Is this Android for computers? No, Google’s post says — explaining that though Android was designed for multiple devices, the Google Chrome OS is meant specifically for computers. We have had rumors that Google Android was coming for netbooks, such as from Acer and Dell. Google’s post says it has been talking to partners about the OS, so it seems likely some of the “Android” talk on netbooks is more about the new OS. But then again, Android IS an operating system; Chrome is not, and it seems likely Android will be morphed into a computer system. But then yet again, the post talks about using a Linux kernel that focuses with Chrome running on it. Google could be tweaking any number of Linux systems using Chrome as the primary interface.

And the Chrome name? How’s that connected with the Google Chrome browser? Google calls the OS a “natural extension” of Google Chrome. And not more than that. But Chrome is a browser; an OS is something completely different. I wouldn’t expect that this is Chrome the browser souped up but instead something entirely different.

No doubt, the announcement will put some crimp into the rollout of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system later this year. Some consumers, perhaps only a few, may decide to wait on upgrading. It definitely puts Google now going directly against Microsoft against its other major area of revenue (operating systems). Google’s already been attacking on the application front. In terms of search, Microsoft has been trying to fight against Google’s dominance with a renewed push from the Bing.com rollout.

The announcement also puts Google in further conflict with Apple. Google competes by pushing its own browser against Apple, its own phone OS against the iPhone and now an operating system. The move may also push renewed attention on the oddity of Google CEO Eric Schmidt being also on Apple’s board. The Federal Trade Commission has been already investigating whether the overlap is anti-competitive. Schmidt’s been recusing himself on discussions involving the iPhone. Will he now have to recuse himself on discussions of Mac computers in general? And if so, what use does he really play on the board?

Google, already under scrutiny for being too dominant in online advertising, might also find itself in the odd position of Microsoft by jumping into the OS space. Will regulators decide that Google cannot make its search service the default within its own OS? Will Google be forced to randomly select a search engine for searchers among major providers or force them to make a decision?

More news as it comes. See also related discussion on Techmeme.

Postscript: Google has added a FAQ page about the OS now, though at the moment, it has only two questions answered on it. Also see our round-up post, Google OS Reactions: The Positive, Negative & The Paranoid.

Network World is reporting that Google has put in a claim for one million phone numbers with Level 3 Communications. The claim is presumably for the upcoming rollout of Google Voice, which is currently only available to a limited number of users.

Google Voice offers users a variety of features: one phone number for all incoming calls, free calls in the U.S., voicemail transcripts and more.

Google isn’t saying when Voice will open to the public, but a help page says, “We expect to have the service ready for new users in a matter of weeks, and are focused on opening it as soon as possible.”

Google Voice launched in March of this year.

Postscript by Barry Schwartz: Google has began mass inviting people to Google Voice on June 25, 2009.

Acer to Produce Netbook Using Google Operating System from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s Android operating system, used on Google Phones, will be shipped on Acer’s Netbooks.

The new low-cost computers will ship in the third quarter of this year. This does not mean Acer will stop shipping computers with Windows, it just gives Acer an alternative low-cost option for their Netbooks.

We knew this was coming when Greg wrote, Report: Android OS Coming To Netbooks. There are also rumors that Dell’s netbooks will run Android in the future.

Mike Arrington thinks that Google engaged in “a little stealth black ops mission” and blunted the full impact of the Ballmer Bing announcement yesterday by announcing Wave. Whether Wave represents a huge new development in digital communications remains to be seen, but almost every major news outlet had to cover it and divide its attention between Bing and Wave. Indeed, many journalists and bloggers were physically divided between the AllThingsD conference near San Diego and Google’s developer event I/O in San Francisco.

Arrington also cites the lack of access to Bing/Kumo as a PR mistake. But that’s less a function of a PR miscalculation in my understanding than the fact that Ballmer had agreed to appear at the D event and knew that he was going to be probed about Kumo; so Microsoft decided to effectively pre-announce the engine before its public release next week at SMX Advanced. As a practical matter, however, Arrington may be correct: more stories and deeper coverage would have been driven if everybody was able to do what I did and compare Kumo/Bing to Google side by side.

At the press event following the Wave keynote the panel was asked who Google saw as its competition for the product (impliedly Outlook and others). Vic Gundotra, Google Engineering VP, feel back on the position that Google developed the product without any thought to the existing or potential competition. After the close of the session, I was talking to a reporter about Google’s awareness of competitors and its thinking about its competitive positioning. I said I agreed that Google often develops products without thinking about competitors directly.

But I also agree with Arrington that on the PR front Google is more directly engaged in competitive maneuvers. In the same way that before the ill-fated Cuil launch, Google coincidentally announced that its search index had massively increased, undermining one of Cuil’s central PR points and claims against the search incumbent, Google was certainly aware that Bing was going to be announced this week. While the timing of the Google I/O event itself was not scheduled to undermine Bing I’m sure, the Wave announcement was likely calculated to steal some thunder — which it appears to have done.

Arrington discusses in his post the fact that the developer audience cheered throughout the Wave demo yesterday. I was kind of amazed by that myself. There was enthusiastic applause multiple times throughout, much like a political speech is often broken up by cheers or applause. And the decision to give away the HTC Magic/G2 phone to attendees was both a shrewd and practical move that has already paid dividends in Android coverage.

Next week will see the public launch of Bing and a wave of “hands on” stories will be written. As the marketing campaign for Bing rolls out more stories will be written about the campaign itself and whether it’s having an impact and so on. Microsoft will get a good deal more PR and news coverage accordingly. Beyond the so-called search wars there are the “meta-level” PR strategies and wars that mirror the underlying products they’re exposing.

From that standpoint, if the PR goal of Wave was to diminish the focus on the Bing announcement Google appears to have succeeded.

Android was intended from the outset to be an OS that could support devices beyond smartphones. And the fast-growing netbook market is one in which Android may see considerable adoption. The Wall Street Journal reports that Dell is considering building netbooks using the Android OS instead of Linux or Windows.

The first netbook to use Android is from a Chinese company called SkyTone. HP and other PC makers are looking at Android for netbooks as well. One of the chief attractions of Android for netbook makers is the fact that it’s open source and so it helps them with margins that are much thinner for the min-PCs.

On Google’s Q1 earnings call April 16, CEO Eric Schmidt said the following about Android:

“Android is going to have a very strong year. There are announcements happening between now and the end of the year that are quite significant with operators and hardware manufacturers.”

He added that he saw netbooks and other similar devices as a very promising area for future Android development.

If these netbook rumors prove to be true, Google is potentially going to give Microsoft a run for its money — literally — in two critical areas of Microsoft’s business: PC and mobile OS. Netbooks are the one growth area of the PC market and the softness in PC sales more generally has been felt by Redmond in its recent earnings — though the company now claims Windows is the leading OS on netbooks.

Several years ago there were persistent rumors of a “Google PC.” With netbooks, in a slightly different way, those rumors may start to come true.

For all the uber-geeks and electrical engineers, CNET offers an interesting story about Google’s approach to servers. From the very early days Google was thinking carefully about scale, efficiency but perhaps mostabout cost savings. Rather than buy servers, Google has built them from the beginning. Google finally revealed one of its home-made servers before an audience on Wednesday. According to the article:

Google’s big surprise: each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there’s a problem with the main source of electricity. The company also revealed for the first time that since 2005, its data centers have been composed of standard shipping containers–each with 1,160 servers and a power consumption that can reach 250 kilowatts . . .

Overall, Google’s choices have been driven by a broad analysis on cost that encompasses software, hardware, and facilities.

“Early on, there was an emphasis on the dollar per (search) query,” [Google's vice president of operations, Urs] Hoelzle said. “We were forced to focus. Revenue per query is very low.”

Mainstream servers with x86 processors were the only option, he added. “Ten years ago…it was clear the only way to make (search) work as free product was to run on relatively cheap hardware. You can’t run it on a mainframe. The margins just don’t work out,” he said.

The article goes into more details of the history and strategy behind Google’s infrastructure as well as additional technical information. Google’s hardware infrastructure has long been considered one of its competitive advantages. The extent to which this novel approach to server development and deployment was created by the pressure of little or no revenue shows how innovation often emerges from circumstances of limited resources.

Google has announced the launch of its new venture capital fund, appropriately named Google Ventures.

“At its core, Google Ventures is charged with finding and helping to develop exceptional start-ups,” Google says of its new for-profit effort.

The New York Times reports that the group is expected to invest up to $100 million in the next year. The paper also says some of Google Ventures’ investments will be in areas that Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, has previously funded.

Google says Ventures will focus on a broad range of industries, “including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven’t thought of yet.”

David Drummond, Google Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, will oversee Google Ventures. Managing Partners are Bill Maris and Rich Miner.

Perhaps anticipating questions about the timing, Miner’s and Maris’ announcement says the current economic downturn is an “ideal time” to launch Google Ventures: “Economically, times are tough, but great ideas come when they will.”

There’s more discussion on Techmeme.