Online Privacy Hearings See Conflicting Testimony And Recommendations (Search Engine Land)

No discussion of Congressional hearings on privacy would be compete without reference to the recently "updated" Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), versions of which were passed last week by both the US House and Senate. According to the AP, the bill "would allow the government to obtain broad, yearlong intercept orders from the FISA court that target foreign groups and people, raising the prospect that communications with innocent Americans would be swept up."

Under FISA virtually all communications, including all online activity and email, would be covertly accessible by the government with few checks and balances against abuse. So even as the government is critically examining the privacy policies and practices of search engines, portals and ad networks, it's granting the executive branch largely unchecked discretionary power to track and spy on Americans.

No discussion of Congressional hearings on privacy would be compete without reference to the recently "updated" Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), versions of which were passed last week by both the US House and Senate. According to the AP, the bill "would allow the government to obtain broad, yearlong intercept orders from the FISA court that target foreign groups and people, raising the prospect that communications with innocent Americans would be swept up."

Under FISA virtually all communications, including all online activity and email, would be covertly accessible by the government with few checks and balances against abuse. So even as the government is critically examining the privacy policies and practices of search engines, portals and ad networks, it's granting the executive branch largely unchecked discretionary power to track and spy on Americans.

.
Is Google Flouting Privacy Law? (RedmontMag)

A California assemblyman and a number of consumer and privacy advocacy groups have demanded that Google adhere to a California law that requires Web sites to include a link to the privacy policy on their home pages.

Google has thus far refused to do so, citing the clean appearance of its home page.

According to the company, users can simply type "Google privacy policy" into the search field and bring up both the privacy policy and further information on Google and privacy. Google says that this conforms to the spirit of the law.

California lawmaker puts Google on notice about missing link to privacy policy (Computer World)

Under the California privacy act, Web sites that collect personal information are required to include a prominent link to their privacy policies on their home pages. In addition, the links must provide one-click access to the policies.

Google didn't immediately return a call seeking comment about Anderson's letter. The company has maintained that although it considers privacy protections to be important, it doesn't think a link to its policy is needed on its home page.

"If Google continues to hide behind legal loopholes, then I will take matters into my own hands and close the loophole," Anderson [State Assemblyman Joel Anderson] said in the statement. "New legislation is one way I can close that loophole."
.

Google Translate Adds 10 Languages (Digital Trends)

Google has added 10 new languages to its Google Translate tool for a total of 23, and now has a detect language feature so users can discover the identity of the language being translated.

Teams from 17 countries vie in multimedia search technology contest (The Earth Times Online Newspaper)

Singapore - Fifty-six teams from 17 countries will compete in a next-generation multimedia search technology contest starting on Sunday, organizers said.

The team with the best designed search engine for trawling through multimedia data will take home 100,000 US dollars and intellectual property rights to its search engine, said the Agency for Science, Technology and Research on Tuesday.

The participants will work on creating new technology that can search audio and video files online, instead of just text files.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Is the Best Browser for Web — For Now (Walt Mossberg - AllThingsD)

When Firefox first came out, it was the fastest browser, but it lost that title over the years. However, in my tests, this new third version of Firefox regained the speed crown. It beat IE 7 handily on my test Windows computers and edged Safari slightly on my test Macs.

Security is also improved. The old version of Firefox would warn you when a site you were visiting appeared to be a fake, designed to steal your identity. (IE has a similar feature, though Safari doesn’t.) But Firefox 3.0 now warns you about sites that are known for trying to plant viruses, spyware and other malicious software on your computer, a warning the other big browsers don’t yet provide.

My verdict is that Firefox 3.0 is the best Web browser out there right now, and that it tops the current versions of both IE and Safari in features, speed and security. It is easy to install and easy to use, even for a mainstream, non-technical user.

The Future of SEO (ClickZ)

I'm back in the U.K. this week to see if my wife still remembers me and to speak at the London eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. My presentation takes a closer look at balancing organic and paid search -- and the impact they can have on each other.

Free business news search engine from Northern Light (Pandia, Norway)

Northern Light has been around since the beginning of web search. For the last six years, however, Northern Light’s services have been reserved for enterprise customers. Recently, they launched a free business news search engine. Pandia has talked to CEO of Northern Light, David Seuss, to find out more about this and other Northern Light products.

The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines
(ReadWriteWeb)

If hackers don’t get you, maybe Google will
(Storage Bits - ZDNet.com)

Two weeks ago my personal blog (StorageMojo) was hacked. Turns out that Google can be a bigger problem than the hackers. Here’s how it works and tips on protecting yourself.

Congress Questions Google on Privacy Practices
(InternetNews)

Lawmakers investigate collection of information since acquisition of DoubleClick.

Twenty Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Google Search (About.com – Web Search)

Google is the most popular search engine on the Web, but many people don't realize the full extent of what they can do with it. Find out more about the wide variety of Google search options that you have, and learn twenty things you didn't know you could with the seemingly limitless power of Google search available to you.

Project Playlist search engine in RIAA's legal crosshairs
(Ars Technica)

One of The Pirate Bay's key claims to legality is that it's only a search engine and doesn't host any infringing files.

Project Playlist, based in California, makes the same claim, but that hasn't prevented nine RIAA member labels from filing a federal lawsuit against the service.

"Theft is not innovation," says the complaint, a copy of which was seen by Ars Technica, "and the Internet does not grant a license to steal." And because Project Playlist does appear to exert control over the music it finds, it may have trouble mounting the "we just point to files" defense.

Andreessen Knocks Would-Be Google Competitors
(Internet News)

The Web visionary talks Google, social networks and the lack of innovation in corporate computing.

Not-So-Natural-Born Google Killers
(Media Post – Search Insider)

It’s become quite fashionable to speculate about companies that could unseat Google. As I write this, there are nearly 100,000 matches on Google for the query “Google Killer.” Not one to miss a fashion trend, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon here.

More Not-So-Natural-Born Google Killers
(Media Post – Search Insider)

Even More Not-So-Natural-Born Google Killers
(Media Post – Search Insider)

How to Effectively Use a Search Engine
(Wendy's Web Search Blog, About.com)

According to the latest statistics, more people then ever before in history use a search engine on a regular basis - but how effectively are they using these search engines?

Unfortunately, most searchers don't take advantage of the bare minimum of search resources that search engines have to offer. Learn how to effectively use a search engine.

Wait - don't I just need to know about Google? Google is a strong contender, but it's certainly not the only game in town! Here are 100 search engines to choose from, anything from torrent search to USA.gov.

Google optimistic regulators won't bar Yahoo: source (Reuters)

Google Inc believes regulators would not bar a potential business deal with Yahoo Inc because it would be "non-exclusive" and falls short of an outright merger, a person familiar with Google's thinking said on Friday.

Google believes such a partnership would not be anti-competitive because it would be an arrangement in which Yahoo would use Google's more profitable search advertising platform to make more money for itself, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A Pit Opens for Incautious Online Marketers, Warns XSEO (PRWeb)

The news that major corporations are putting search engines such as Google and Yahoo! at the forefront of their marketing strategies could herald huge problems for incautious optimisers, XSEO reveals

Microsoft Releases "Renaissance" Version of Live Search QnA (Search Engine Land)

The Live Search QnA Blog announced a new release of Live Search QnA. Live Search QnA is Microsoft's question and answer engine, similar to Yahoo Answers.


Search Engine Wars : Google & Yahoo
(The Times – Money Online, South Africa)
[Google cache]

According to Hitwise, over the past 2 years visitor’s to question and answer websites such as Yahoo Answers, have increased by more than 889%.


Google Answers (Google)

We're sorry, but Google Answers has been retired, and is no longer accepting new questions.
.

The Real Threat to Google
(Yahoo! Singapore - Finance)

Google's biggest threat may not be Microsoft (MSFT) or Yahoo! (YHOO).

No, one of the most formidable challenges facing Google (GOOG) is likely sitting in your pocket or purse. It's your cell phone, and it will put added pressure on Google and other Internet companies to revamp the way they handle online marketing.

As more people use cell phones and their tiny glass screens to gain access to the Internet, Google and its fellow online advertisers will have less space, or what's called ad inventory, to place marketing messages for customers. Google makes money selling ad inventory. And its ad inventory is diminished on a cell phone.

Google's Schmidt: "We're not creative. We're sort of boring." (Business Week)

Now, that’s an accurate statement!

In Search of Desktop Search (REDMOND magazine)

Finding a data needle in the haystack that is your hard disk requires more than just a magnifying glass and a huge dose of patience.

All-in-One Security Suites: Tried and Tested
(PC World)

We check out eight products, from the popular to the relatively unknown. They can't protect you from everything, but some come close.

Check out our ranked chart of all eight security suites tested for this article.

Hacker Safe' Seal Under Attack Following Site Breach
(PC World Canada)

More than 80,000 Web sites worldwide display a small green logo that proclaims them to be "Hacker Safe."

But the company behind this security seal, ScanAlert, found itself on the defensive recently after technology retailer Geeks.com, which carries the seal, warned some customers that their personal and credit card data may have been compromised by hackers.

"[The] seals are completely ludicrous," says David Kennedy of Secure-State. Upon a request for testing from the owners of ten Hacker Safe sites, his company was able to break into and easily access financial and customer data from nine of the ten sites.

Search Engine Wars : Google & Yahoo
(The Times – Money Online, South Africa)

According to the February 2008 ComScore search report, Google holds 59% of the search market, Yahoo and its affiliated search portals hold 22.6% and Microsoft/ MSN hold up the third position at 9.6% According to Hitwise, based on search volume Google leads at 66% followed by Yahoo at just over 20% and MSN trailing at a little over 5%.

Fine and well that the search engine are vying for users, but have search engines really improved over the past few years? That is an interesting train of thought looking at a report released in January 2008. According to Hitwise, over the past 2 years visitor’s to question and answer websites such as Yahoo Answers, have increased by more than 889%.

If search engines had been that good, clearly people would not be looking through question and answer websites now would they?

Google Answers (Google)

We're sorry, but Google Answers has been retired, and is no longer accepting new questions.

20 FUN GOOGLES ABOUT GOOGLE
(Daily Star, United Kingdom)

Internet search engine Google has been named the most powerful brand on the planet – but how much do you know about the computer giant

Yahoo! Reportedly Getting Closer to Google Deal (Silverlight)

The Google strategy, which could potentially be worth a billion dollars a year to Yahoo! but is sure to catch antitrust flak, is part of a tripartite deal that would have Yahoo! merge with AOL and AOL’s owner Time Warner take a 20% stake in the combined company for some cash to fend off Yahoo!’s unwanted acquisition by Microsoft.

Then the idea would be for Yahoo! to use Time Warner’s money to buy back a few billion dollars worth of stock for somewhere between $30 and $40 a share to pacify investors watching Microsoft and its money walk out the door, which could crush Yahoo’s stock.

Anyway, the Journal now says Google and Yahoo! are trying to figure out how to avoid being blocked by regulators and could limit their ties to specific kinds of search queries or regions.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has other ideas and has hired a Washington lobbyist, Bryan Cave Strategies, to ensure that its acquisition of Yahoo! passes the regulatory gauntlet.

Case Sensitive Google Search Results Being Found
(Search Engine Watch Blog)

Chris Silver Smith over at NetConcepts found case sensitive results in Google SERPs. Let's hope this is just some error and not a change that will see many people scrambling to make wholesale changes to their SEO efforts.

Talk about ways to further pollute the results.... rewritten copy saying the same thing but geared towards upper and lower case search results... does anyone win here?

We May Not Need Standards But FTC, FCC Want To Gives Us Regulations (Search Engine Watch Blog)

While the standards debate rages on, our industry is fast coming under the influence of government regulations. This week has seen discussions about behavioral marketing at the FTC and the FCC weighing in on ISPs filtering sites.

The behavioral regulations being looked at by the FTC had Google, Yahoo and Microsoft commenting from different angles.

Google wanting to make sure their method of selecting ads was not rolled into the mix stated "our AdWords program allows us to provide ads on Google.com in response to search queries… . We believe this type of advertising should not be considered behavioral advertising, even if such analysis takes into consideration previous search queries." (from Alan Davidson, Senior Policy Counsel and Head of U.S. Policy, Google, Inc.).

Alternatives to Google Desktop Search
(Guardian Unlimited, United Kingdom)

Richard Hartley could try Copernic or Microsoft Windows Search for XP.

Google crawls The Invisible Web
(The Register, United Kingdom)

As part of an ongoing effort to index the so-called Invisible Web, Google's automated crawlers are now toying with HTML forms. But only on certain "high-quality sites."

Microsoft counsel warns against Yahoo-Google deal (ZDNet Asia)

Microsoft's top lawyer on Thursday warned that any deal between Yahoo and Google would hurt competition.

"Any definitive agreement between Yahoo and Google would consolidate over 90 percent of the search-advertising market in Google's hands. This would make the market far less competitive, in contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said in a statement.

The statement follows reports that Yahoo is considering a limited test of using Google to deliver some search advertising.

Microsoft proposed on February 1 to buy Yahoo for US$31 a share, but it has thus far been rebuffed by Yahoo, though the two sides have had a couple preliminary meetings. On Saturday, Microsoft set a three-week deadline for Yahoo to come to the negotiating table, or it would nominate its own slate of directors.

"Our proposal remains the only alternative that offers the shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers," Smith said.

Marissa Mayer: Totally Kidding About That 'Don't Be Evil' Stuff (Epicenter from Wired.com)

Marissa Mayer says Google was like, not serious about that 'Don't be evil,' mission statement.

"It really wasn't like an elected, ordained motto," Mayer told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I think that 'Don't Be Evil' is a very easy thing to point at when you see Google doing something that you personally don't like; it's a very easy thing to point out so it does get targeted a lot."

Well, it may not have been ordained, but it sure looks official. The company's "Ten Things" philosophy includes the point "You can make money without doing evil," (thing No. 6); an employee code of conduct is topped off with the famous phrase; and the do no evil mantra also plays a prominent role in the prospectus Google sent to bankers and investors before the company went public.

But then again, when Google first wrote up its corporate philosophy, it said that the company "does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat."

Study: Google extends search lead over rivals
(Tech news blog - CNET News.com)

Google gained market share in the United States over search rivals in March, rising 0.53 percentage points to an all-time high of 59.8 percent, according to new ComScore results released Tuesday.

"We were somewhat surprised at the March uptick, especially since the company had previously alluded that the unusual Easter timing could impact search activity," said Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney in a report Tuesday that quoted the ComScore numbers.

Yahoo, meanwhile, slipped 0.3 percentage points to 21.3 percent, and Microsoft dropped 0.2 percentage points to 9.4 percent--both figures are record lows for the companies, Mahaney said.

Lower in the rankings, AOL dropped 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 percent, while Ask.com rose 0.1 percentage points to 4.7 percent for March, according to the report.

EU Says Search Engines Threaten Privacy
(Business Week)

A report by the Commission's data protection watchdog calls for stricter rules on user consent and data retention. Google defends its present system…

Google Hate Website is Back in Business (Adrants)

Ahhh. Nothing spells success like the obsessive, well-indexed and unquenchable hatred of an anti-corporate website.

Rejoining Starbucked, I Hate Microsoft, Untied and Comcast Must Die is Fucked Google, which was shafted in 2006.

Looking forward to our daily dose of GOOG rage.`

See also:

Google Watch (Daniel Brandt)

Google-Watch-Watch (Chris Beasley)

Yahoo, Google flirt with possible partnership
(Cay Compass)

Yahoo Inc. is surrendering some of its advertising space to Internet search leader Google Inc. in an unusual test that appears designed to frustrate Yahoo’s unsolicited suitor, Microsoft Corp.

The two–week experiment announced Wednesday will allow Google to show ads tied to about 3 percent of the queries made in the United States through Yahoo’s search engine – the Internet’s second largest after Google’s.

Together, Google and Yahoo control more than 80 percent of the U.S. search market, making it highly unlikely that antitrust regulators would allow the Silicon Valley rivals to form a long–term advertising alliance, analysts said.

Google searchers could end up with a new type of bug
(USA Today)

Cybercrooks are manipulating the computer code used to put the pizazz in millions of websites in hopes of taking over unsuspecting consumers' PCs.

The vulnerability occurs when someone does a Google search, then clicks on a result that has been secretly tainted by hackers. They will usually be taken to the Web page they expect. But at the same time, they are invisibly redirected to a computer server that installs a hidden program.

This program enables hackers to use the PC to spread spam and carry out scams. Typically, it also lets the attacker embed a keystroke logger, which collects and transmits your passwords and any other sensitive data you type online.

Google's Street View Is All Up In Your Driveway Looking At Your Basketball Hoop (Consumerist)

A Pittsburgh couple has sued Google seeking the removal of photographs that were a little to up close and personal for their tastes.

The home of Janet and George McKee is the only property on Goldenbrook Lane, a narrow, gravel path off Oakleaf Lane, a two-way street. The McKee residence is at the end of Goldenbrook Lane, which the family was able to name at the time their home was built in 1993.

As the "Street View" images show, a Google vehicle—outfitted with a roof-mounted camera taking 360-degree images—drove down the gravel path and onto the paved driveway leading to the McKee home.

The Google car continued past the steps leading to the McKees's front door and came to a stop outside the house's three-car garage (and next to the family's trampoline and portable basketball rim).

Taking photos all the time, the Google vehicle was squarely on private property, a fact that presumably should have been apparent when the gravel path became paved.

Another View of Google's Dominance
(eMarketer)

Looks like DoubleClick was a very savvy buy.

Online ad networks offer site publishers a big revenue opportunity, according to a January 2008 study conducted jointly by Attributor and Compete.

The companies looked at content monetization and user information across 68 million domains. DoubleClick and Google dominated overall market share capturing 35% and 34% of unique users, respectively.

"DoubleClick owns the head and Google owns the tail," said Attributor on its blog.

The company noted that Doubleclick had nearly half of the total market for ads on sites with more than a million monthly unique users. Google had more than 70% of the market for sites with less than 100,000 monthly unique users.

New Article 29 Working Party EU Rules on Search Engines: Protecting Privacy and Freedom (Center for Digital Democracy)

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has apparently released [pdf] its “Opinion on data protection issues related to search engines.

”It’s a very important decision and governs how search engines collect, process, use, and retain individual consumer information. It expands the discussion on why IP addresses and cookies are to be considered personal information as they relate to search.

Search engine companies engaged in business in the EU will have to comply with this directive, which will include Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.

Recent Google Updates Have SEOs Scrambling
(Search Engine Watch blog)

Like a celebrity sitting down with Barbara Walters, Google News has decided to clear up rumors surrounding how articles are included and ranked. In a post on the official Google News blog, software engineer Andy Golding addressed some assumptions floating around about how articles are indexed.

Here are the Myths:
* Having an image next to your article improves your ranking
* Timing the publication of your article improves your article ranking
* There's no way to see why my articles weren't included in Google News
* Publishing a sitemap helps my rankings
* If I put AdSense on my site, my article rankings will improve

And now the Truths:
* Redesigning my site may affect my coverage in Google News
* Articles that are just images or video won't be included
* Updating an article after posting it will create problems with Google News

US Homes Filled With Screens (eMarketer)

Nine out of 10 US households surveyed have a television in the living room, and nearly two-thirds of those living rooms also have PCs, according to JupiterResearch's recent "Digital Home: Moving Beyond the Concept of the Three Screens to Uncover New Revenue Opportunities" report.

JupiterResearch also found that 22% of homes have three or more PCs.

Google to Lay Off About 300 at DoubleClick
(The New York Times)

In the first sizable layoffs in its history, Google is cutting about 300 jobs from the American operations of DoubleClick, the advertising technology company that it acquired recently, according to a person with direct knowledge of Google’s plans.

The cuts represent about a quarter of DoubleClick’s American work force of about 1,200. The company has about 1,500 employees worldwide, and the chief executive of Google, Eric E. Schmidt, has suggested that job cuts would also affect DoubleClick’s overseas operations at a later date.

Google declined to confirm the number of layoffs.

Google said it also planned to sell a DoubleClick unit, Performics Search Marketing, that helps marketers place ads on search engines, including those owned by Google and its main rivals, Yahoo and Microsoft.

The Google In The Basement (Strategy Page)

April 2, 2008: Google (the company) has a contract with the U.S. government to supply computer servers (hard drives) equipped with the software Google uses to run its popular Google search engine.

The CIA, NSA and Department of Defense use these servers in closed (cut off from the Internet) systems that hold classified information, and allow espionage and intelligence personnel to more quickly find, and share, information.

Major Web sites hit with growing Web attack (InfoWorld)

USAToday.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com among those affected by hackers using Web programming errors to inject malicious code into sites' search results pages

Google + DoubleClick = 69% of Online Advertising Market (Search Engine Watch)

When Google raised concerns over a possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger, it may have just been the pot calling the kettle black. According to new stats released by Attributor, Google's acquisition of DoubleClick gives them a whopping 69% of the online advertising market share. This comes in the wake of news that Google saw 59.2 percent of all US searches in February.

Furthermore, DoubleClick has 48% share of sites with 1 million unique visitors per month, while Google enjoys a whopping 71.38% share of sites with less than 100,000 unique visitors per month.

MSN has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch Google, as Steve Ballmer has declared in recent months. Currently, they only have 9.86% of the total market share. Even adding Yahoo, with an 11.54% market share, they will only come in at 21.4%.

Phishers Enlist Google 'Dorks' (Dark Reading)

Researcher finds most phishing sites use Google search terms to locate vulnerable sites

Life Beyond Google: Some of the Best of the Rest
(FUMSI, United Kingdom)

Google is still the behemoth of search engines, but there is a plethora of alternative search engines that provide features not readily available on Google. They may not have Google's range of products and services but, after all, how many free unlimited-storage email services do you need?

This article cannot cover all the alternatives to Google. For that, check out http://AltSearchEngines.com, a web site devoted to monitoring the world of alternative search engines, complete with reviews of all those other search tools, hosted discussions between search engine representatives, interviews with search engine CEOs and jobs for search engine IT pros.

Is Google Not So Portal-Like After All?
(Search Engine Watch)

During the Orion Panel on universal search at last week's Search Engine Strategies conference, James Lamberti, SVP of search and media at comScore, presented new data that raised a series of new questions.

As Kevin Ryan reported in "Uncovering the Real Universal Search," comScore found that in only one week in January, of 1.2 billion search queries in the U.S., there were 220 million universal search results. That means 17 percent of all searches on Google showed at least one result with video, news, images, maps, weather, or stocks.

The data also showed that 57 percent of the 87 million people who searched during that week in January saw some type of universal search result. Of those, 38 percent saw a video result, 34 percent saw news, 19 percent saw images, and 15 percent saw multiple types of results.

Google is now sending 78 percent more downstream referrals to YouTube, 40 percent more to Google Maps, and 18 percent to Google Image Search than it was before universal search debuted last year on May 16. However, the data showed no growth in downstream referrals from Google to Google News.

Google's 'paid clicks' disappoint again
(MarketWatch)

Data from comScore indicate that Google's paid clicks in February rose only 3% compared with the same month a year earlier, a note by Bank of America analyst Brian Pitz said.

Paid clicks are the number of times Google search users click on a sponsored-search result, generating revenue from the company's advertising customers.

Google reported 25% growth in paid clicks in its fiscal fourth quarter ended in December. But comScore data released last month showed flat growth in Google's paid clicks in January, triggering concerns about its health amid the U.S. economic slowdown.

Google shares fell more than 3% lower in after-hours trading Wednesday, to $443.50.

Why SEO Doesn't Get the Respect It Deserves (ClickZ)

Marketing professionals who specialize in legitimate SEO (define) don't get a heck of a lot respect.

Why? I posed that question to search engine marketers attending Search Engine Strategies New York this week. […]

Google denies tax evasion charge
(People's Daily Online, China)

Google yesterday refuted the accusation of tax evasion but admitted failure to meet the tax deadline as it tried to "consult local authorities".

The company made the statement as Lee Kaifu, president of its China operation, was reported to have evaded personal income tax of at least 5 million yuan over the past two years.

According to the Shanghai Securities News, the Beijing taxation bureau was investigating the search engine's tax records and found Lee defaulted on income tax payment for two years. The newspaper also said Lee had paid the outstanding tax after an inspection.

Google was reported to be under tax investigation as some analysts said it might have evaded millions of yuan in taxes over the years.

Google started to offer Adwords services to Chinese citizens between 2000 and 2005 but it was reported that the transactions did no go via the local subsidiary, leaving no local records from which authorities could check for tax purpose.

Web creator rejects net tracking (BBC News)

The creator of the web [Sir Tim Berners-Lee] has said consumers need to be protected against systems which can track their activity on the internet.

Plans by leading internet providers to use Phorm, a company which tracks web activity to create personalised adverts, have sparked controversy.

Sir Tim said he did not want his ISP to track which websites he visited.

"I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that's not going to get to my insurance company and I'm going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5% because they've figured I'm looking at those books," he said.

Sir Tim said his data and web history belonged to him.

He said: "It's mine - you can't have it. If you want to use it for something, then you have to negotiate with me. I have to agree, I have to understand what I'm getting in return."

NSA shifts to e-mail, Web, data-mining dragnet (The Iconoclast - politics, law, and technology - CNET News.com)

Recent evidence suggests that the NSA has been focusing on widespread monitoring of e-mail messages and text messages, recording of Web browsing, and other forms of electronic data-mining, all done without court supervision.

Taken together, those activities raise unique privacy and oversight concerns greater than those posed by large-scale monitoring of voice communications.

How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips) (calacanis.com)

I've got a bunch of tips on how to do this for business.

Among them:…

With Europe's OK, Google closes DoubleClick acquisition
(Tech news blog - CNET News.com)

European antitrust regulators on Tuesday approved Google's $3.1 billion merger with DoubleClick, paving the way for a blockbuster deal in Internet search and publisher-based advertising tools.

The Commission also analyzed the potential effects of nonhorizontal relationships between Google and DoubleClick, following concerns raised by third parties in the course of the market investigation.

These relationships concern DoubleClick's market position in ad serving, where Google, by controlling DoubleClick's tools, could allegedly raise the cost of ad serving for rival intermediaries, and Google's market position in search advertising and/or online ad intermediation services, where Google could allegedly have required purchasers of search ad space or intermediation to also purchase DoubleClick's tools.

"Instead of ensuring competition, (the Commission) and the FTC have literally paved the way for the emergence of a global digital duopoly over online advertising," the Center for Digital Democracy stated.

Google shares could fall another 20 percent
(Yahoo! News)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O), whose shares have plunged more than 40 percent since November, could fall almost another 20 percent due to the U.S. economic slowdown and aggressive spending by the Internet search engine company, according to the latest issue of Barron's.

"While a short-term bounce might follow the stock's swift descent, the shares are likely to head even lower if analysts start slashing their earnings estimates to reflect today's tougher operating environment, as they should be doing," the report said.

The article's headline questioned whether Google shares, which closed on Friday at $433.35, could be headed below $350.

Web search engines slow on the update
(Information World Review)

A researcher has uncovered serious shortcomings in how web search engines update their databases.

None of the search engines in a study by Dirk Lewandowski updated their results on the same day as there was a change in the web pages they were indexing.

“There’s simply no use in indexing a page daily if the search engine is not able to show this as a result on the same day,” said Lewandowski.

A Microsoft spokesperson said: “We are always working to improve the freshness of our index while ensuring we don’t waste webmaster bandwidth by downloading pages that change infrequently.

“We have recently made changes to our freshness strategy, including deploying support for conditional gets.”

Google had no comment to make on the findings.

Yahoo did not respond by the time we went to press.

Search Engine, Sputtr.com, Releases New Single Multi-Search Feature (Cheap Web Hosting Directory)

London, United Kingdom - March 5, 2008 - Multi-search engine, Sputtr, has released a major new feature, designed to provide users with the ability to actively participate in building the comprehensive search engine solution.

Steffen Hilgemann, Founder and CEO of Sputtr.com explained, ''This new feature allows our users to upload and submit completely new search engines to Sputtr's multi-search engine. By doing so, our users will actively contribute towards building the most comprehensive and user-friendly multi-search engine on the Internet today.

Sputtr already includes industry leaders such as Google, Yahoo, Ask, and many more. But in the future we would like to extend our reach to the thousands of alternative or niche search engines that today's internet users increasingly utilize to find relevant results in an ever more complex online world.''

The Unjustified Google Panic (Seeking Alpha)

Remember the panic which ensued when comScore (SCOR) announced that Google's paid-click rate was declining? Henry Blodget went so far as to call it a "Google Disaster", and the shares plunged.

But it turns out that the comScore data aren't nearly as disastrous as they might look at first blush. The company has a long blog entry on the subject which explains that it very much looks as though Google is doing this on purpose. In a nutshell, Google is running fewer ads, with higher minimum bids, which are more relevant for web searchers.

comScore Search Engine Rankings: Google Up, Double Digit Growth for MSN Live (Search Engine Watch Blog)

Rich search engines got richer in January in the monthly search engine rankings. Among the Top 50 properties worldwide some surprises surfaced this month as comScore reported total searches grew at a 7.9 percent clip.

Sites owned and operated by Google enjoyed 7.7 billion searches. No shock, maybe awe.

Yahoo sites again came in a distant second (2.5 billion searches) -- again growing at less than half Google's overall 8 percent rate.

Google.com grew even faster - 9.4 percent. YouTube's modest 2.6 percent growth rate slowed the core search engine down.

Microsoft sites at 1.1 billion searches means a combined Microsoft-Yahoo would only total 3.6 billion searches.

Search Engines Must Comply With Strict EU Privacy Rules (Mashable!)

What goes in the US doesn’t necessarily carry over to the European Union. European data privacy regulators issued a short report which says that all internet search engines, even those based outside Europe, must comply with EU privacy rules. Does this include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo? Yup. As the EU folks put it, “Search engines fall under the EU data protection directive if there are controllers collecting users’ IP addresses or search history information, and therefore have to comply with relevant provisions.”

These rules include users’ consent to their data being collected, as well as giving users the ability to object to or verify their personal information. The regulators, known under the “Article 29 Working Party” moniker, are working on a more detailed report; it will be interesting how it pans out, because users, for example, at this time don’t really have a good way of making Google change their personal data.

Reacting to the short report, Google gave the standard “we’re working with everyone to improve privacy online for all users” answer; Yahoo didn’t comment, while Microsoft said that companies should remove the IP address from saved information. The full report by the Article 29 Working Party is due in April.

Has the Google bubble burst? (Herald Sun, Australia)

GOOGLE'S stock price sank overnight in the wake of a report hinting that boom times may be over for the internet darling's money-making advertising.

It may be Google's data, but it's you they'll arrest
(Computerworld Malaysia)

Right now, Google feels like a much bigger threat to my privacy than Microsoft and Yahoo combined.

For example, try asking Google what it's planning to do with all the user information it collects after it has fully digested DoubleClick? Or why it needs to retain IP addresses for Google searches? Good luck getting any response at all.

In fact, Google's biggest privacy accomplishment in the last year has been deciding to hold onto users' IP addresses for only 18 months instead of 24. Gee, I feel more anonymous already. Don't you?

Last week, Google's Public Policy Blog posited the argument that IP addresses are not personal information, because they are often shared between machines and users. (Though, personally, my home office has a static IP.) This makes sense until you think about it for 15 seconds. Strangers have also occupied my home address in the past, and probably will do so in the future. But if you ring my doorbell today, I'm the one who answers.

Of course, Google won't share this information with anyone... unless they have a court order. Or a National Security Letter. Or maybe the spooks have already tapped into one of the Network Access Points outside the Googleplex.

SEOs of the World, Unite!
(Search Engine Watch Forums)

January was a bad month for SEO reputation. Will February be SEO Groundhog Day?

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, along comes "SEO Expert" the world's most evil cartoon character.

We don't know whether we should sue, or just let him do battle with Cartoon Barry. Danny calls these attacks "SEOs are scumbags" incidents. He says, "I find myself with little energy to push back against them with yet another defense of the industry."

So SEOs of the World, Unite!

How Does One Find New Clients for Search Engine Optimization? (Search Engine Roundtable)

A High Rankings Forum member is starting his own SEO consultancy firm and wants to know how to find clients. Where would you look if you're just beginning?

EU: Search Engines Under EU Rules (PhysOrg.com)

European data privacy regulators said Thursday that Internet search engines based outside Europe must also comply with EU rules on how a person's Internet address or search history is stored.

Germany's data protection commissioner Peter Scharr, who has just stepped down as the head of the group, said last month that IP addresses, a string of numbers that identifies a computer, should generally be regarded as personal information.

Treating IP addresses as personal information would have implications for how search engines record the data they need to understand search patterns and correctly bill online advertisers for the number of times their ad is viewed.

The Black Swan, Or You Can't Predict The Next Google
(Information Week)

If you read one book this year, make sure it's Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable." Taleb's thesis is that everything the experts think they know about forecasting is wrong, and if you think you can predict the future performance of the stock market from a study of past trends, you're gonna be losing lots of money. And don't go looking for the next Google, either, because it's going to come out of left field.

Bill Gates vows fight to finish with Google
(IBNLive)

Microsoft Corp plans to invest heavily in Web search to compete against Google Inc, even if it fails to acquire Yahoo Inc, the company's chairman Bill Gates said on Monday.

"We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done. We will do that with or without Yahoo," said Gates in an interview with Reuters.

hooeey: Track All Your Browsing History From Any Search Engine (EFY Times)

Supporting both Internet Explorer and Firefox, the free Web application allows users to track their browsing history from multiple browsers and multiple computers in one place.

Report: EU To Curb Search Engines (MediaPost)

EUROPEAN AUTHORITIES ARE REPORTEDLY POISED to impose new limits on how long search engines can retain data tying users to search queries.
.

Does the Government Have the Right to Read Everything on your Computer? (WXPNews)

[...] And when we say "government agents," we aren't just talking about regimes in countries that don't have constitutions or bills of rights.

Most people aren't aware of the power that U.S. Customs has to search you and your things when you cross a border.

Think you're protected from searches without probable cause by the sixth amendment?

Think again - that prohibition doesn't apply to "border searches" by Customs agents.

They can search your person - and your computer - just because they want to.

Don't assume that the information you store on your computer can't or won't be perused by government agents at some time or another.

Chinese Democracy Advocate To Sue Google, Yahoo
(WebProNews)

You guessed it: they're still censoring things.

China's Baidu Search Engine Sued over MP3s
(Short News)

Three major record labels, Sony BMG Entertainment Hong Kong, Universal Music and Warner Music Hong Kong, have all sued Baidu, China's largest Internet search engine, claiming that it allowes illegal downloads of mp3 files.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said: "All of the Chinese companies involved operate similar services based on delivering music to their users via 'deep links' to hundreds of thousands of infringing tracks..."

The IFPI said that around 99% of music downloads in China are illegal, causing billions of dollars of damage to the music industry every year.

Google offers Yahoo lifeline to thwart bid
(DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE, Japan)

Google Inc. offered help to Yahoo Inc. in any effort to thwart Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited 44.6 billion dollars bid for Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Sunday.

However, industry data shows Google has an about 60 percent share in the Internet Web search market in the United States, whereas Yahoo has an about 20 percent share, meaning the two firms would have the combined share of about 80 percent if their businesses are merged.

As such, antitrust regulators are highly likely to bar integration of the two Web search companies, making a Google takeover of Yahoo or merger of the two companies unlikely, according to industry sources.

Google is believed to be considering forming a business alliance with Yahoo or helping the firm tie up with any other companies and maintain Yahoo as an independent company.

Microsoft want to buy internet search engine Yahoo! for £22billion (Mirror.co.uk, United Kingdom)

Microsoft plans to buy internet search engine Yahoo! for £22.4billion to go head-to-head with rival Google.

The software giant founded by Bill Gates said the deal would allow it to challenge a market "increasingly dominated by one player".

The offer follows predictions online advertising will double to £40.2billion by 2010.

World's Web Users Are Shopping Online
(eMarketer)

More than 85% of the world's Internet users surveyed have purchased something online, according to The Nielsen Company's "Global Online Survey on Internet Shopping Habits," conducted in October and November 2007.

Boom time for search market (China Economic Net)

China's online search market will breach the 10-billion-yuan (US$1.39 billion) mark in four years to overtake Japan and enter the world's top three.

"The amount of search inquiries actually has exceeded that of Japan or the United States, but the revenue from each search is far less than those two markets," said iResearch in a report.

As of last year, Beijing-based Baidu.com had the largest share of 60 percent.

Google China ranked second with a share of 21.2 percent as it attracted more customers from real estate, education and healthcare. China Yahoo! finished third last year with a share of 14 percent.

BitDefender Detects Trojan that Hijacks Google Advertisements (Geekzone, New Zealand)

BitDefender have detected a new trojan which hijacks Google AdSense text advertisements, replacing them with ads from a different provider.

The threat, which is identified by BitDefender as Trojan.Qhost.WU, modifies the infected computers' Hosts file (a local storage for domain name / IP address mappings, which is consulted before domain name servers and is considered authoritative).

The modified file contains a line redirecting the host "page2.googlesyndication.com" which should point to an IP of the form 6x.xxx.xxx.xxx to a different address, of the form 9x.xxx.xxx.xxx, so that the infected machines' browsers read ads from server at the replacement address rather than from Google.

"This is a serious situation that damages users and webmasters alike," said Attila-Mihaly Balazs, a BitDefender virus analyst. “Users are affected because the advertisements and/or the linked sites may contain malicious code, which is a very likely situation, given that they are promoted using malware in the first place. Webmasters are affected because the trojan takes away viewers and thus a possible money source from their websites.”

In House SEO Salary Survey Results
(Search Engine Guide)

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), http://www.sempo.org/, today announced top line findings from its first-ever survey of in-house SEM job salary compensation.

An Open Letter to Google Engineering: Please Slow Down a Little (Search Engine Watch Blog)

We really do love your software. And we appreciate the fact that you introduce valuable new features so frequently. But please: slow down a little, and spend a bit more time on bug testing.

Will Google Own the World? (Seeking Alpha)

Who will own our geography? Will latitude and longitude mappings to businesses, points of interest, historical landmarks, and natural wonders be a public resource (like today's Internet), or will those mappings be for sale to the highest bidder?

Said another way, when you ask for directions to the best outlook over the Grand Canyon, will you hear about the wonders of the view or will it be brought you by Fedex or the local Burger King?

We could do worse for a public way to map our real world. And if we don't? With Google (GOOG) Maps and Google Earth already compiling much of this data, Google might end up owning our world instead.