Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Google Knowledge Graph Gets More Stats and 4 New Languages At Google I/O today, Amit Singhal, Google VP of Search, announced that statistics and four new languages are being added to […]
At Google I/O today, Amit Singhal, Google VP of Search, announced that statistics and four new languages are being added to the Google Knowledge Graph. Knowledge Graph is already supported English and eight other languages: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Korean. Now, Polish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese are the latest […]
In a surprising turn of events, Germany’s top civil court overturned two lower court rulings on a case involving Google’s autocomplete function. According to the ruling, it is Google’s responsibility to block libelous words that appear next to a name via the autocomplete function if Google has been alerted to the defamatory words. The plaintiff […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Google Maps To Get A Major Design Overhaul Alex Chitu reports Google is testing a new Google Maps interface, possibly to be launched next week at Google I/O. The new interface […]
In a German case that could have broader antitrust implications in Europe, Google defeated a petition for an injunction brought by a German online weather trade group, Verband Deutscher Wetterdienstleister. The case is interesting because it involves a private antitrust action against Google and directly addresses the “search bias” argument made by Google critics. The […]
With Google Now coming to iOS, a whole new audience using iPhones and iPads are about to meet Google’s predictive search service. It’s a feature that’s gone from interesting novelty to being downright amazing, in less than a year. Here’s a look at how the “predictive search” service has evolved and where it may head […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Adwords Adds Social Annotations, Targeting For In-App Ads To Enhanced Campaigns Starting today Google is adding functionality for social annotations and in-app ad targeting to enhanced campaigns. Social annotations, really Google+ […]
A fine of 145,000 EUR (roughly $189,000) is trivial for Google. But that’s close to the maximum fine allowed by German law ($150,000 EUR). The fine is being imposed on Google for violations of German privacy and data protection laws stemming from the so-called “WiSpy” episode in 2008 – 2009 in which Google collected private […]
Google Maps may be banned in Germany as the result of a patent infringement lawsuit underway at a regional court in Germany. As FOSS Patents reports, Judge Matthias Zigann told Google today that he’s inclined to hold the company liable for infringing a Microsoft patent that describes a “computer system for identifying local resources and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: WATCH: Google Now Shows Live Examples Of Spam Removed From Its Search Results In Google’s new How Search Works, Google is showing real live examples of spam that was recently removed […]
In August of last year, a number of German lawmakers were pressing proposed “ancillary copyright” legislation that would have required Google and others that indexed or aggregated news to pay for links or excerpts from those news items. The proposed law was championed by German magazine and newspaper publishers who, like their counterparts in the US, are seeing […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Maps Adds Variety Of Hi-Res Image Improvements Bing Maps has announced a series of updates to its high-resolution imagery, including expanded coverage, better mapping of ocean floors, cloud filtering and […]
Majestic SEO announced that their SEO toolset is now supported in 9 different languages. The languages they currently support include English, Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian. Who helped translate the popular SEO tool? The Majestic SEO ambassadors including Branko Rihtman, Dixon Jones, Alberto André, Francois Goube, Miguel Lopez, Sante J. […]
According to a report in Computerworld, Google has violated German data protection and privacy rules with its new Google Maps app for the iPhone. When users install the app and agree to the terms and conditions there’s a check box that authorizes Google to collect “anonymous” user location data. The fact that this box is […]
Google dodged a bullet in Germany this week as prosecutors in Hamburg decided, after a lengthy investigation, not to pursue criminal charges against the company over Street View WiFi data collection. Essentially prosecutors found that Google lacked the requisite “criminal intent” to justify prosecution. Google faces another, arguably more daunting legal challenge in Germany however. […]
A report from GigaOm this morning discusses a ridiculous proposed “ancillary copyright” law in Germany that would compel Google — and others online — to pay to link to and excerpt any content from German publishers’ websites (e.g., newspapers). The law currently is in draft form and being debated by stakeholders and legislators. The “fair […]
Google Translate announced they added in integration with Google Goggles, to help with your translation needs. So when you are in a restaurant and the menu looks foreign to you, you can pull out your Google Translate app and have it search for the translation. You take a picture of the words, highlight the words […]
Sometimes it feels like a one-man crusade. Now in my 15th year of search marketing (yes, I started young) I have been trying to explain to Global SEOs for much of that time that translation is not a perfect process. But it appears I have been talking to the wrong people. I should have been […]
Alan Turing’s 100th birthday is today and to honor his life, Google has one of the geekiest and mathematical logos, aka Doodles, I’ve ever seen. The logo is a representation of the look and functionality of the Turing machine, a machine that was the stepping stone for modern computing. This Doodle asks you to solve […]
Apple at their World Wide Developer Conference today announced iOS6 with some really nice features to Siri, their voice search engine. You can see a preview of some of these features at Apple.com but here is a snapshot showing enhancements including: Sports Search Restaurants with Reservation Booking Movie Search & Ticketing Search For Apps On […]
Google has announced that it is releasing a new search algorithm that it hopes will better catch people who spam its search results or purposely do things to rank better that are against Google’s publishers guidelines. Going live today, Google says the “Penguin Update” will impact about 3% of search queries. From the company’s posts […]
The popular Firefox browser is on track to use a secure method of searching Google by default, a change that will help prevent potential “eavesdropping” of what people are searching for. It will also further reduce the ability for publishers to know how people find their sites in Google — except for Google advertisers. A […]
Nearly two years ago, I wrote about creating a Global Search Center of Excellence and since have had the opportunity to keynote a number of company search summits, conference panels and then last week at the International Search Summit at SMX, I spoke for an entire session on how and why you should use your […]
As the first of the International Search Summits of 2012 looms large (at SMX West next week) I felt it was time to review what seem to be the most significant 10 issues for search marketers at this time. What’s interesting to note is that just one year ago, this list was very different. 1. […]
Last Monday, Google announced that they had released “new markup for multilingual content”, see the webmaster tools blog post here. Even for those of us that work in the field of looking after global websites, this produced relatively unexciting headlines along the lines of “Google Launches New Multilingual Markup — Wow”. Big yawn. In fact, digging […]
In January, Google Translate for Android gained “Conversation Mode,” a way to speak into your phone and have it speak back in a different language. Today, Google’s expanded the number of languages supported. Originally, the tool only supported English-to-Spanish translation (or vice versa). Now, Google says 14 languages in all are covered: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, […]
Microsoft’s Streetside photo service will be taking photos across Europe before the end of the year. The expansion comes on the heels of its launch in Germany earlier this year — a move that’s generated far less resistance than Google’s Street View service. According to German news reports today, Bing’s Streetside service has received about […]
Google has again slapped a comparison shopping site owned by its primary search competitor, Bing, as part of its most recent expansion of the “Panda” algorithm update. It’s only been a few days since Google pushed out Panda around the world in all languages except Chinese, Japanese and Korean. But Searchmetrics has already published its […]
We’re another step closer to the US Federal Trade Commission launching an expected antitrust investigation of Google. If it does, the FTC will join the EU and Texas in doing broad investigations. But Google’s been examined for antitrust issues many times before this and mostly come through OK. Here’s our comprehensive guide to Google and […]
As we expected, Google officially announced the launch of their new flight onebox. The new travel onebox will show up when you search for flight related keywords with destinations. For example, [flights from new york to san francisco] or [flights from new york or [flights to new york]. They all work to five you an […]
SEOGadget noticed Google testing a new travel search OneBox interface. I suspect this is an early sign of the Google ITA integration, where Google purchased ITA, a travel software company. A typical Google travel search OneBox looks like this: The new travel OneBox offers a more detailed box of information with departing cities, airlines and […]
In most locations, Google sends its Street View cars out on a repeated basis “to make sure the information is accurate and kept up to date,” as the Street View website explains. But that’s not happening in Germany. Despite the recent German court ruling that declared photography from streets legal in Germany, Google has stopped […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing’s Streetside Already Facing Objections In Germany Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after announcing plans to operate its Streetside map/photo service in Germany, Microsoft is already dealing with its […]
Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after announcing plans to operate its Streetside map/photo service in Germany, Microsoft is already dealing with its first governmental objection. Thomas Kranig, head of the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection, has issued a statement (in German; here’s a Google translation to English) giving objections to Bing’s plans […]
Hoping to avoid the problems that have plagued Google’s Street View service, Microsoft says it will launch its version — Streetside — in Germany next month. Microsoft Germany tells Deutsche Welle that Streetside vehicles will begin driving in four cities (Nuremberg, Furth, Erlangen and Augsburg) on May 9th. The images should be online sometime this […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: German Court OKs Google Street View Imagery In “Landmark Decision” German publication Deutsche Welle is reporting that a Berlin court has vindicated Google Street View operation in Germany. In late 2010 […]
German publication Deutsche Welle is reporting that a Berlin court has vindicated Google Street View operation in Germany. In late 2010 Street View went live in Oberstaufen, a small town in Bavaria. Subsequently it was rolled out in 20 major cities throughout Germany. Around the same time a German woman sued Google claiming that Street […]
Google has announced that a new way to block certain sites from appearing in Google’s search results, though a special Google-made Chrome browser extension named Personal Blocklist.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: A Personal Preview Of SMX West – And Why You Should Go! Our annual Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West is less than two months away on March 8-10, and it’s shaping […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s New China Plan: Target Display Advertisers, Report Says Despite its ongoing struggles in China, Google reportedly has a new plan for its business there: targeting display advertising, particularly amongst the […]