Archive for March, 2006
Google Will Be Ordered To Give Up Data to DOJ
From the Associated Press, “A federal judge said Tuesday he intends to require Google Inc. to turn over some information to the Department of Justice in its quest to revive a law making it harder for children to see online pornography.” This ruling after Google initially resisted a subpoena to turn over any information because of user privacy and trade secret concerns.
Can You Trust Google and Yahoo With Your PPC Dollars?
When you first read this headline, you might be thinking click fraud, right? But what I am referring to is the Google AdWords Jumpstart or Yahoo! Search Marketing Fast Start programs that essentially allow both PPC providers to set up your campaign for you. Is the company that provides exposure for your ads the best solution to set up your account? In my own professional opinion, I would have to answer a resounding “no!”
GoDaddy.com Petitions Government In Fight Against Verisign
From The Business Journal of Phoenix, local domain registrar GoDaddy.com is fighting against a ruling that it believes creates a monopolistic environment in the Internet domain name registration industry. They are petitioning the U.S. Department of Commerce to deny final approval of the recent controversial .com registry agreement with VeriSign.
Finding Web Classifieds Is Now Easier With Vast
Looking to capitalize on the need for more specialized search services, Vast launches today. Vast is a search engine and Web crawler designed to more easily find classified ads. The initial focus has been on three areas – autos, personals and jobs, but more topics like housing, motorcycles and pets will be added as the year goes on.
Confirmed: Google Comes To Tempe
As a follow-up to a story I blogged on Monday regarding Google’s move to Arizona and whether that location would be Scottsdale or Tempe, it has been confirmed that Tempe is the winner.
The Business Journal reports today that Google has confirmed that they will lease temporary office space at Arizona State University. “The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is expanding in the Valley with an engineering, operations and IT support functions office as part of a worldwide effort to build engineering centers in locations where there are great engineers,” according to Google.
More Proof of Google’s Threat to Microsoft
In the latest of acquisitions, Google has acquired Writely, a collaborative word processor that runs in a web browser. The acquisition was noted on both Writely’s main Web site and on a blog run by Writely co-founder Claudia Carpenter. Now with a word processor in its arsenal, Google continues to tread on ground that was once sacred to Microsoft.
Political Bloggers To Get Federal Protection?
Just in from CNet News, according to a bill approved by a House of Representatives panel on Thursday, political loggers would be largely immunized from hundreds of pages of confusing federal regulations dealing with election laws.
Gilbert Wi-Fi Launch Will Give Arizona Largest Contiguous Network
From The Business Journal, the town of Gilbert, Arizona is preparing to deploy citywide wireless Internet service, which will expand on the Tempe network, completed in February, and the Chandler network scheduled to be fully deployed by the end of September.
Phishing Shield To Be Added to Firefox
From CNet News, an upcoming version of Firefox will include protection against phishing scams, using technology that might come from Google.
I didn’t even know what “phishing” was until I read in the CNet story the following analysis, “Phishing is a prevalent type of online scam that attempts to steal sensitive data such as user names, passwords and credit card details. The attacks typically combine spam e-mail and fraudulent Web pages that look like legitimate sites.”
Content Thieves Beware – We’re Mad As Hell & Not Taking It Anymore!
An excellent thread (rant) has been started by Karon Thackston over at High Rankings Forum dealing with the issue of content thievery. There is an ever-increasing amount of “services” popping up all over the place that will take 300 or so characters from a web page and then create what they call “original content.” Even though what they are really doing is stealing content they justify their actions by stating that they are only using a portion of the content. Yeah right! That is like someone who steals one apple out of a whole bag is not really stealing.
80% of Advertisers Using Online Marketing
A recent study by Outsell shows that online advertising is now being used by 80% of marketers. Key findings include growth in search engine ad spending, keyword ads are more affective then contextual, Google rated more effective than Yahoo! & MSN and more.
Microsoft Launches Windows Live Search
Microsoft launched a new search service today called Windows Live Search. Chris Sherman does a pretty good write up on it at SearchDay. According to Adam Sohn, Microsoft’s Director of Global Sales & Marketing PR, both the new Windows Live Search and the existing MSN Search will be powered by the same underlying technology. Chris adds that Windows Live site will focus primarily on productivity, the MSN brand will continue to evolve as a media and content destination.
