Search Engine Strategies Forum

I am not a great fan of online translation services, or at least not the free variety which almost invariably end up making some huge gaffs. However, Google obviously likes the idea as it has been providing just such a tool for a while now in the shape of Google …

First let's deal with the big negative I've seen on a number of websites including the BBC: [URL="http://www.wolframalpha.com"]Wolfram Alpha[/URL] is American-centric. Well, yes, it kind of is. This will be because it's starting up and America is the biggest market it has to serve. Personally I find that understandable - …

It has not been the best of days for Google. First there were the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4339.html"]reports about Gumblar[/URL], a Google SERPs manipulation that is growing at an unprecedented rate. And now it seems that porn has been thrown into the Google mix, or at least into the Google Gadgets mix. I …

I was watching an ad the other day for Panasonic where it showed people watching YouTube on a big flat screen TV in the living room. Yet most people don't watch content from the web on TV, probably because it still takes a technical leap that's simply too difficult for …

[URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10234622-93.html"]Ms. Mayer went to Washington[/URL] the other day to defend Google against recent attacks that it is responsible for the ongoing problems of newspapers. Marissa Mayer, who is the Vice President, Search Products and User Experience at Google testified before a Senate sub-committee on '[URL="http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=7f8df1a5-5504-4f4c-ba34-ba3dc3955c61"]The Future of Journalism[/URL].' Not surprisingly …

The cheap Netbooks you see advertised at discount stores might not turn out to be so cheap after all. If you see a Netbook advertised at $100 or less, beware--it will end up costing you many times the regular price of $275-$400 USD. As I predicted in my post, "[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4188.html"]Branded …

Looks like Google could be in deep water, along with the Open Handset Alliance and some 40 or so companies, over an apparent trademark infringement. Now you might think that there had been some pretty heavyweight due diligence before Google and the OHA determined to call the open source mobile …

Last evening, my friend [URL="http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow"]Jason Perlow[/URL], IM'd me and told me to go to this [URL="http://download.cnet.com/Presto/3000-2094_4-10910300.html?tag=mncol"]link[/URL] and download a program called [URL="http://www.prestomypc.com"]Presto[/URL]. He had just returned from some "green" IT show in New York City and apparently had seen, or heard about, this Presto thing--a new Linux operating system that …

A new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has gone into public beta. I say search engine but it's not quite that; it's a new concept that takes a question asked by the user, goes and has a look online and offers a proper answer in return rather than a series of …

The [I]New York Times[/I] is [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/technology/internet/29google.html?_r=1"]reporting[/URL] that the Justice Department is opening an antitrust investigation of Google’s settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed suit against Google, claiming that Google’s practice of scanning copyrighted …

The Android is about to take the leap from the cell phone to the netbook, and much like the first Android-powered cell phone, the first iteration is a bit of head-shaker. Instead of a dazzling showcase, it's underpowered and small, and although it has some interesting qualities, cost is going …

If you recall, on April 11, I wrote "[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4227.html"]Linux Store Open for Business: A Fantastic Voyage[/URL]," where I told you that I wanted a Netbook for my anniversary. I also described my fantasy computer store where you select your computer, OS, other options and walk out happy. I had a …

It’s no secret that one big key to unlocking the business and consumer technology spending lockbox is easier credit from banks and other lenders. On the surface, the better-than-expected earnings news from big banks like Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase gave a much-needed boost to that theory. …

As you probably have heard, Oracle bought Sun for $7.4 billion today. I'm no Larry Ellison fan, because frankly, I think he's a few cards short of a full deck but I think in the long run, this is good for Sun. Not all of Sun but a lot of …

Google stock was up yesterday, down this morning and everyone has an opinion for the yo-yo effect currently frustrating Google investors. At the top of the list of issues is actually a projected issue – Google’s first quarter earnings which come out on Thursday. The sentiment is a downward one …

The Nasdaq is down 43 points this morning, with Google (down $12) and RIMM (down $3) leading the charge down the hill, so to speak. I think we’re seeing the first symptoms of anther false bottom, which sounds incredible after hearing from so many experts on Wall Street that the …

A lot of companies are attempting to hitch their wagons to a star these days with a long layover in the Clouds. Big companies like [URL="http://www.sun.com"]Sun[/URL], [URL="http://www.ibm.com"]IBM[/URL], [URL="http://www.hp.com"]HP[/URL], [URL="http://www.cisco.com"]Cisco[/URL], [URL="http://www.amazon.com"]Amazon[/URL], [URL="http://www.google.com"]Google[/URL], [URL="http://www.vmware.com"]VMware[/URL] and [URL="http://www.citrix.com"]Citrix[/URL] are making major financial investments in Cloud culture. Are they chasing rainbows or will they find …

According to a [URL="http://www.mk-news.co.uk/mknews/displayarticle.asp?id=405050"]report[/URL] in a local UK newspaper, the MK News, it seems that Google Street View is not welcome in the affluent English village of Broughton in Buckinghamshire. Apparently concerned about the potential for criminals intent on breaking into their houses, residents of one street which has already …

It seems, at long last, that Google has added some semantic thinking into the search mix. Ori Allon, the Technical Lead with the Google Search Quality Team, and Google Snippets Team Engineer Ken Wilder, have [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/two-new-improvements-to-google-results.html"]confirmed[/URL] the roll out of the improvement to Google search. With immediate effect, Google is …

[URL="http://earth.google.com/"]Google Earth[/URL] now supports the use of historical imagery -- back to 1945 in some areas -- that lets users see how certain areas have changed over time. As described by [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_earth"]Wikipedia[/URL], Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program that was originally called Earth Viewer, and …

Not as though it's ever going to happen, but suppose I were at a party one night and [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/it100/2005/executive/GOOG.htm"]Eric Schmidt[/URL], CEO of Google happened to be there. I would love to corner him and get him a glass of wine or scotch or whatever it is that CEOs at large …

I knew it was going to happen, you knew it was going to happen, [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19244/53/"]everyone knew[/URL] that Street View would cause a privacy stink when it eventually launched in the UK. Everyone except Google it would appear. Although it is not saying how many images have been removed from the …

This has started earlier than I expected. American readers will be quite used to the idea that in many areas if you go to Google Maps you'll find pictures of the street as well as maps. Personally I think this is a good thing; only two days ago I was …

The digital generation brought up Googling, Wikipediaing, and Twittering their way through their lives is starting to have problems when it turns out they don’t see why they can’t do the same thing when they’re in a courtroom, according to the [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18juries.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1"]New York Times[/URL]. In a recent case, it was …

On January 9, Google’s stock was at a historic low – at $290 per share – it spiked upward to $380 per share in mid-February before settling in at its current state at $340. Now, that’s a lot of volatility, even in this wild stock market environment. But Google has …

Remember [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3344.html"]last fall[/URL], when people were terrified that pedophiles were using Google Streetview to find parks and schools so they could more readily find their young victims? Apparently a California legislator has been listening to them, or someone like them. Last month, California Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-El Cajon, introduced a …

There’s a lot of talk about ‘dead cat” bounces in the financial markets these days. Nobody really knows if the stock market has hit bottom, but last week’s rebound continues into Monday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke went on “60 Minutes” and said that the recession could abate if …

So Google is going to compete with Skype. If you weren't signed up to the GrandCentral service the company acquired, forget it - as per the info on [URL="http://www.google.com/voice/about"]this link[/URL], the service is only available for existing customers right now. All the same, it's an interesting move. At the moment …

I was one of the lucky ones who was able to get in on the phone management service [URL="http://www.grandcentral.com/"]Grand Central[/URL] when it was still in beta. [URL="http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/"]Google announced[/URL] late last night that its relaunching the service as Google Voice and is available to current customers as a private beta. I, …

Stephen Wolfram is a British physicist perhaps best known for his work in creating the computational software Mathematica. That could all soon be forgotten if his Wolfram Alpha computational data engine proves to be the Google killer that some are suggesting. After all, it claims to be able to answer …

When Google released Chrome last Fall, I wrote that it represented a [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3092.html"]direct attack on Microsoft and Apple[/URL]. This week, my colleague [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=334716"]Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes in ComputerWorld[/URL] that Android could be coming to a Netbook near you by the end of this year. If this reports turns out to …

[I]This is the mystery of the quotient - Upon us all a little rain must fall. ~Led Zeppelin, The Rain Song. [/I] It's been quite a couple of weeks for Google. First there was the mistake that caused the entire Internet to be [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/31/google-flags-whole-internet-as-malware/"]flagged as malware[/URL]. Next came the great …

...I didn't get any email outage at all through my [URL="http://www.google.com/a"]Google Apps[/URL] account. Call me old-fashined but when you sign up for something like that you deserve to be included if everyone else gets a complete service failure. I can only assume this is because, remiss of me though it …

The great Gmail outage, which as far as I can tell lasted a couple of hours over night in the US has prompted some nasty articles such as this one from [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/24/trouble-in-the-clouds-gmail-turns-into-gfail/"]TechCrunch[/URL] where they derisively refer to Gmail as Gfail. Let's grow up, people. Software fails all the time and …

It is about time, but Twitter has now announced that it is rolling out a real time search function for users. Unfortunately the 'Search and Trends' feature is currently only available for a "limited set of accounts" [URL="http://blog.twitter.com/2009/02/testing-more-integrated-search.html"]according to[/URL] Twitter founder Biz Stone who adds that most people "will not …

The usual image of a stalker is some creepy bloke obsessed by some TV star, following them around and making unwanted advances. When it comes to the online realm, however, it would appear that we might have to redraw that stereotype. New [URL="http://www.yasni.co.uk"]research[/URL] has revealed that while 50 percent of …

The tabloid newspapers are full of it, some here in the UK even have the [URL="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2255989.ece"]Google Ocean image[/URL] on the front page. Hardly surprising when you consider that it would appear the Google mapping app has discovered the mythical underwater city of Atlantis. The image, taken from the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3919.html"]recently launched[/URL] …

Well, thank goodness for that. A couple has failed to sue Google for infringing their privacy by - wait for it - including their house in its Street View function on Maps. It is of course (in my view) ludicrous to state that anything visible in public can't be included …

BlackBerry smartphones get love from Google and iPhone gets love from, well, everybody. Most companies that develop mobile apps worry about these two user bases before any other, leaving other mobile phone users out in the cold. According to an announcement out of the [URL="http://reviews.cnet.com/gsma-world-congress/"]GSMA Mobile World Congress[/URL] in Barcelona, …

Beacon Research is out with its monthly, and highly useful take on technology stocks, focusing on Google and Yahoo, among others. In its “Traders Alert” report, Beacon says that a new alliance between Google and IBM make the latter a good buy. "Google Inc. (GOOG) shares slipped .38% to $341.70 …

As my colleague [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3927.html"]Davey Winder pointed out earlier today[/URL], Google has launched yet another cool tool, [URL="http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html"]Latitude[/URL]. For the most part, its usefulness doesn't extend much beyond social gadflies, but I can think of at least one practical implication for the workplace. Google Latitude is an opt-in location tracking service …

Topping the news this morning is an announcement by Citigroup that it will finally crack open its wallet, stuffed with over $45 billion tax-payer funded TARP cash, and start lending again. The financial giant had come under fire in recent months for taking the TARP money and sitting on it. …

Regular readers will know that I am pretty much [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3412.html"]in love with everything to do with Google Earth[/URL] although the same cannot be said about Google itself. However, even the stains left by the search giant [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3900.html"]blacklisting the entire Internet[/URL] last weekend or it trying to [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20508/53/"]grab all your rights …

Well that was, err, interesting. For the best part of an hour this morning (Saturday 31st Jan) Google search effectively broke. In fact, it blacklisted the entire Internet so that any search just returned a screen warning users that whatever site they had searched for "may harm your computer" and …

Early this morning, people using the Google search engine got a strange surprise. Nearly every result for every search was marked with the alert message, "This site may harm your computer." If you clicked on a search result, instead of being directed to a Web site, you were automatically taken …

[URL="http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc//home"]Yahoo![/URL] announced this week plans to shut down its free online storage service, Briefcase. Users have until March 30th to find a replacement service before their files become inaccessible. There are loads of free online options to choose from, but here are three of my favorites: [URL="http://www.idrive.com/"]IDrive[/URL] -- This service …

When Google launched Gmail's IMAP capabilities last year, it thrust the ubiquitous Web-based mail service into the limelight as a true contender for enterprise use. Even though it's tightly integrated with [URL="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html"]Google Apps[/URL], a powerful suite of business tools, many people still shunned Gmail citing about a lack of offline …

If your company has an online presence, it's tempting to dismiss offhand comments from disgruntled customers who claim they plan to smear your name on the Internet. I mean, one negative comment online cant amount to much, right? That's not necessarily true. [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank"]Google PageRank[/URL] is the current gold standard that …

It’s Tuesday and all eyes on Wall Street are on Yahoo, where new CEO Carol Bartz is expected to lower expectations for Yahoo going forward as the tech behemoth issues its Q4 earnings results. We’re in the midst of the tech earnings season right now and there have been surprises …

Google was up 7% in Friday trading, and that was enough to bounce the NASDAQ back up 1% - which seems like 10% consider the week we just had. Google, which came in with better-than-expected financials today, is also a good buy for investors right now, says CNBC’s Jim Cramer …