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%.