Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s “Farmer” Algorithm Change? On Thursday, Google announced a major change to its search algorithm, designed to weed out shallow and low-quality content from its top […]
The Xooglers Blog has been posting videos of the old GooglePlex, old Google office from back in November 1999. I believe these videos are from the office Google had at 2400 Bayshore, Mountain View. As Alex said, Google started off in Susan Wojcicki’s garage, then moved to 165 University Ave in Palo Alto, then to […]
Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this. As a result of the apparent monitoring, Bing’s relevancy is potentially improving (or getting […]
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 Huge Earnings Overshadowed By Leadership Change Google just announced Q4 and full year 2010 earnings. They also dropped the bombshell that Larry Page would be taking over as CEO, with […]
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 Plea To Make Your Links More User Friendly Have you noticed that it’s harder to find critical contact information these days? If you have a question about an online order, […]
In the event you were “off planet” yesterday you still might not know that Verizon is getting its own version of the iPhone on February 10. There are some differences between the Verizon and AT&T versions of the iPhone beyond their underlying technology (CDMA vs. GSM). Among them Verizon is offering an unlimited data plan […]
Against the backdrop of continuing gains in market share and revenue growth, which could see Google make $30 billion this year, the company is adding employees and physical space at a perhaps unprecedented rate. Reuters reports that Google has more than 2,000 open positions around the world. The world’s largest Internet search engine, whose finance […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How The New Facebook Messages & Email System Works At one end of the spectrum, Facebook says it’s “simple” and “fun.” On the other end, some are saying it’s Facebook’s version […]
Google is correcting how it displays a small island in the Strait of Gibraltar after erring twice and putting Google Maps in the midst of a years-old dispute between Spain and Morocco. At question is a tiny island that’s only about one-third of a mile in each direction. Spain calls it Perejil and Morocco calls […]
It seems not a week goes by without news of a new investigation into Google’s Street View service, or into Google’s collection of personal data via unencrypted WiFi networks that occurred over three years as Street View vehicles drove the world’s streets. It seems like one country opens an investigation just as another country ends […]
The first game of the World Series is underway, as I write this. Curious about how it’s going, I turned to the search engines to see if they’d knock it out of the ballpark with some instant answers. Yep, if you’re a San Francisco Giants fan. Not so much, if you’re a Texas Rangers fan. […]
Over the coming weeks, UK-style phone booths will pop-up around the US in airports and at universities, allowing anyone to make free calls to anywhere in the world. The promotion is designed to spread awareness of the Google Voice service. Below, a look inside the booth, including a video of it in action. Google’s actually […]
The iPhone may have been outsold last quarter by Android, but Apple’s phone remains at least for the time being the “it device” in the smartphone market. Google and Microsoft are both, let’s say, “ambivalent” about the iPhone. And, in some ways, Google and Microsoft/Bing have changed places vis-a-vis the handset. Of the three major […]
Google lost a procedural ruling to prevent an age discrimination lawsuit from going to trial yesterday when the California Supreme Court upheld an appellate court ruling that the facts of Reid vs. Google justified a trial on the merits. The outcome was reported in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. As part of the case, […]
With lots of mapping news today, we’re combining it all into a single round up, which focuses largely on Google. The company decided, after suspending, examining and “scrubbing” its Street View equipment in Europe and elsewhere, to resume collecting imagery and related data in several countries: Having spoken to the relevant regulators, we have decided […]
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 Launches Encrypted Web Search Want to keep your searches from being seen when using open WiFi or other networks? Google’s introduced a new “secure” encrypted version of its search. Anyone […]
The champagne is flowing in Mountain View; the FTC has declined to sue to block Google’s $750 million acquisition of mobile ad network AdMob. It appears that the public-facing rationale for the decision is the entry of Apple into the mobile ad market. The FTC put out the following statement: In a statement issued today, […]
Brian Clifton (PhD) is an independent author, consultant and trainer who specializes in performance optimization using Google Analytics. Brian has been involved in web design and SEO since as far back as 1997, when he built his first website and started defining best practise to advise clients. From 2005-8 he was Head of Web Analytics […]
Beyond the iPhone one could convincingly argue that the best thing to happen to mobile advertising in the past year was Google’s announced acquisition of AdMob. It got everyone’s attention — especially the $750 million (stock) price tag. It also single-handedly boosted the profile of all of AdMob’s competitors. As an almost direct response Apple, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Geo-Targeting For Local Placement: Just How Narrow Is OK? Advertising exists to help merchants sell products and services to people who need those same products and services. Bringing the merchant together […]
TechCrunch reports Google sent a letter to the zoning board in the City of Mountain View, trying to encourage the city to change the zoning laws near the Google headquarters. Currently, the areas around the Googleplex are zoned only for commercial use. Google wants to enable their employees to be closer to the Googleplex, which […]
Google continues to flirt with being an ISP or carrier. Several years ago the company was part of the aborted municipal WiFi bid for San Francisco with Earthlink. Google is also one of the major forces behind the White Spaces initiative (“WiFi on steroids“) that seeks unused TV spectrum for broadband purposes. In addition, Google […]
The worst kept secret (non-secret) in technology is that the Google-HTC Nexus One is going to be formally introduced tomorrow at a press event at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. Danny will be there to live blog it. But we already know the Nexus One very well and it has been written about — even informally […]
We just received a press invitation from Google to an “Android Press Gathering” for January 5. That coincides a report that T-Mobile has advised employees that Google will be selling its own phone with T-Mobile “support” on January 5. So, the rumor of a new Google phone called “Nexus One” is moving closer to reality. […]
Google will probably be fighting legal battles in European courts and appearing before EU regulators for some time to come. For the time being Google has lost (at least for now) a copyright case in France arising from book scanning. According to Reuters: The court found against Google after the La Martiniere group, which controls […]
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 Goggles Search By Images Google Goggles, which I wrote about this morning, is actually now live at google.com/mobile/goggles. The Google Mobile Blog announced it, saying: In a nutshell, Goggles lets […]
Live from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, I’ll be liveblogging what Google has dubbed “an inside look at the evolution of Google search.” As it turns out, it’s the unveiling of Google’s new Real Time Search, shown above, as well as search by voice and search by picture improvements for mobile. Real time […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Offensive Michelle Obama Image Returns, Google Buys Ad To Explain Google is buying ads to explain why an offensive image of the First Lady is back in its index and ranking […]
Google hosted something of a formal “status update” on Chrome the operating system in Mountain View on Thursday. There we discovered the company is open-sourcing the code. We also found out it’s intended as a netbook OS (for now) and that Google is working with several hardware partners to create a better netbook experience (full-sized […]
Just as the introduction of the iPhone changed everything in the consumer world of mobile and helped usher in the era of the mobile internet, the pending Google acquisition of mobile display ad network AdMob is an almost equally significant event for mobile advertising. Over the past few years mobile advertising and marketing have been […]
I hate the word “disruptive,” as it’s often used in the internet world, because it’s something of a cliche. But I use it here because the new Navigation for Google Maps for Mobile will in fact be — disruptive. On Monday we covered Google Navigation, the then rumor, asking “Will A Free Google GPS Sink […]
The NY Times offers an interesting article this morning, profiling Google’s efforts around mobile AdSense and display advertising on smartphones. It’s equally a profile of some of the people who work on the teams behind those efforts. The article is as much about process and Google’s culture as it is about mobile advertising: On Tuesday, […]
Brad Garlinghouse, who was previously an SVP at Yahoo, and the author of the now famous “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” is joining AOL as president of Internet and Mobile communications. What this means is that he’ll be responsibile for email, IM and other communications tools, which implicates a range of properties including Bebo. According to the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Live Search Adds Sports Stats & Scores I’m a little surprised that Microsoft is rolling out newish functionality on Live Search given that the Kumo launch is immanent. But the Live […]
Google StreetView images are pretty cool, in how you can virtually spin around and see what’s on a street in all directions. But far cooler is a Google StreetView “Holodeck” simulator that Google has at its Mountain View campus. Climb into this, and you get StreetView scenes animated, projected on screens all around you, as […]
Google is almost uniquely situated among tech companies in that it can reveal very little about an event or announcement and be all but guaranteed that most of the journalists and bloggers on the tech beat in Northern California will show up to cover it. That’s what happened today. Google brought bloggers and journalists into […]
I had the privilege of meeting with the Google Israel team in their Tel Aviv office. Eyal Miller, the manager of the technology sector of Google Israel was kind enough to give me the office tour and introduce me to the people. As some of you know, Google has two offices in Israel. One in […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The Google Blog wrote that Google may have to cut up to 70 engineering jobs. Google implied the cuts would be due to the engineers based in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden not being willing or able to relocate to Google’s Mountain view headquarters. Google explicitly made a point to say that their […]
Just in — and brief because it’s the end of the day — Google and NBC Universal have reached an agreement that will see the TV ads that Google sells coming to NBCU cable channels including SciFi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and others. The full release is below: