September 2008: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories

Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from September 2008: 1) Searching With Google Chrome & Omnibox – Now that Google Chrome is live, I spent some time looking at the search features within it, especially to see — as I did recently with Internet Explorer 8 — whether Google was going to […]

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Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from September 2008:

1) Searching With Google Chrome & Omnibox – Now that Google Chrome is live, I spent some time looking at the search features within it, especially to see — as I did recently with Internet Explorer 8 — whether Google was going to try to stack the deck in its own favor. Like Microsoft, Google’s playing it straight. As for search features, I’m mixed on whether I like the new “Omnibox” feature that combines a browser’s address bar and search box into one single area.

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2) On Android Eve, Co-Founder Andy Rubin Predicts The Future Of Mobile – Tomorrow is widely anticipated to be the day when T-Mobile announces availability of the first Android phone. The phone is reportedly an HTC “Dream,” which will apparently sell for $199 with a two year contract. Many believe the handset will resemble a Sidekick. It’s fitting in a way that a Sidekick-like device should be the first Android phone. Android co-founder Andy Rubin was the one-time CEO of Danger, which made the Sidekick for T-Mobile. On the eve of the announcement, it’s also fitting that Rubin, now director of mobile platforms at Google, broadly weighs in on the future of mobile.

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3) VideoSurf: New, Genuinely Radical Video Search – I’m generally not given to hyperbole or breathless enthusiasm when writing about a new search service. Quite the opposite, in fact—over the decade I’ve covered search I’ve seen so many so-called “radically new” approaches that are simply updates or spins on existing technologies that I’ve grown a bit jaded. But not after seeing a demo of VideoSurf. I’ll echo the headline for this post: VideoSurf is one of the most innovative, radically different approaches to video search (or any kind of search for that matter) that I’ve ever seen. Even better: It delivers highly relevant search results—something most video search services fall sadly short on for many types of searches. What’s different about VideoSurf, and why am I so excited by it? Read on.

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4) 10 Key Features That Differentiate Google’s Chrome From Firefox & IE – Google’s has released its own open-source browser, Chrome, in direct competition to Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Yesterday, Danny described his test-drive of Chrome in Searching With Google Chrome & Omnibox and Greg speculated on its future in How Bright Is The Outlook For Chrome?. Both compared Google’s new browser to the incumbents, Firefox and Internet Explorer. But Chrome is actually very different from those two browsers, and significantly different from nearly everything else on the market. Here are the 10 major features that truly differentiate Google Chrome from the competition.

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5) The Google Hive Mind – As Google turns 10 years old, that important birthday sees the company more powerful than ever before. With its competitors in disarray, the Big G seems likely to grow even further. The secret to its success? For me, it’s what I’ve been calling the “Google Hive Mind.” Rather than follow a rigid top-down master plan, the company’s direction and success has been shaped by decisions often taken independently of how they’ll benefit the company as a whole. But collectively, those decisions DO form a master plan, a hive mind that dictates what the company will do. The hive mind has been hugely successful in growing Google’s business through a symbiotic relationship with its customers. But that’s also a weakness: Google may seem too threatening to those same customers, as it grows. As it expands and expands, some of those outside the hive begin wondering if it needs to be constrained. Part of this is due to the fact that individually, I think Googlers themselves don’t understand how the hive mind appears to outsiders. Thus at 10, stronger than ever, Google also faces its biggest challenge: whether an outside force in the form of government intervention will be brought in to halt the hive.

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6) Google Says, Don’t Rewrite Dynamic URLs To Static URLs – Almost two years ago, Google updated their guidelines to say that they can now properly handle crawling dynamic URLs. But last night, Google posted a blog entry now telling webmasters not to use rewrite rules for dynamic URLs, at least in most cases. Google say, in bold, “avoid reformatting a dynamic URL to make it look static.” But Google also admitted that “static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates.” However, Google said “dynamic URLs should be favored over hiding parameters to make them look static.”

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7) Information Architecture Is Crucial To Good SEO – You have probably heard the phrase “information architecture” but may not have given it much thought. That’s a mistake! In today’s article I am going to talk about why SEOs should care about the concept. The Information Architecture Institute defines “information architecture as the art and science of organizing and labeling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability.” For most people, it is pretty intuitive to say that designing a web site that is easy for end users to navigate so they can find what they want will be good for business. What may be less intuitive is how this affects SEO.

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8) Google News Error Aids In United Airlines Stock Drop – The Google News Blog explains an error that occurred yesterday, which hurt the stock price of United Airlines. Google News picked up a story on the Florida Sun-Sentinel website about United filing for bankruptcy. It was an old story, but it did not contain the original date. Instead, Google found September 7, 2008 listed on the page somewhere. Due to that, Google indexed the article and listed it in Google News. It was not listed as a headline story on the home page of Google News. Nevertheless, United Airlines stock fell over 11% yesterday.

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9) Waiting For Google Chrome To Launch – Obviously the big story of yesterday and today in the technology world is the impending launch of Google’s open-source browser Chrome. It will likely be available for download here later today. (TechCrunch and Google Blogoscoped have a few screenshots.) There are dozens and dozens of stories on Techmeme.

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10) Google Chrome – Google’s Finally Launching Its Own Browser – So much for a quiet Labor Day off. Google Blogoscoped has news of Google Chrome, a new browser that Google plans to release. More coverage can also be found on Techmeme. No — it’s not just a rumor. Google tells me that it is indeed a real browser it plans to release. Expect more news to come when we’re back at things on a normal schedule tomorrow.

To see all of our most popular stories over time, visit our Most Popular Stories page.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Danny Sullivan
Contributor
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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