If you know the right questions, Google will show you how to rent a French call girl named Olga for “an exciting and passionate night”, at your place or hers. Holy hookers, Batman, Google is now a pimp!
What’s going on? Well, Google has a service called Google Q&A that they introduced way back in April of ‘05, that algorithmically pulls vital data from trusted sources and puts it above the regular search results as an instant answer, similar to what Ask or other search engines do

Happy New Year everybody! Lets hope this year is even better than the last (which, unless you got married like I did, isn’t too hard).
Here’s Google’s New Years Doodle:

UPDATE: Gary is catching a whole bunch of logos, mostly various international search logos. I’m shocked that at 1:43 am Eastern, Yahoo and Ask still haven’t put up theirs.
For reference, here are all the previous New Year’s Doodles:
2006:

2005:

2004:

2003:

2002:

2001:

2000:

After posting my last article about the contacts "JSON API", Haochi Chen discovered that by simply appending a "callback" variable in the URL, the creators of a malicious site could gain access to a visitors entire Gmail contact list without warning.
<script language="javascript">     function getContacts(response){       var output = "";       for(x=0;x<response.Body.Contacts.length;x++){        

Happy New Year to EVERYONE! The logo is not yet up on Google.com but is already displaying in some countries Google home pages, such as Google Australia and Google Japan. The small case ‘g’ in the logo is really creative, great work, Dennis.
Happy New Year!!!

Here’s some good news: One blogger reports that the AdSense logos appearing with his Google ads are actually matching the colors of the ads themselves, resulting in ads that blend and don’t look like crap. Google has been experimenting with putting the Google logo in the “Ads by Google” line in AdSense ads, but publishers have hated it, due to the crap look of the logos, and it looks like Google is listening

Before I head out to the finest (and authentic) french restaurant in Raleigh - Saint Jacques - for a New Year’s celebration dinner, I wanted to let you know about a new item you’ll find in the Marketing Pilgrim sidebar.
Pilgrim’s Picks is tied directly to my “shared” items in Google Reader

Google has had a rash of missteps in the last few day, leaving a negative feeling going into the new year.
First off: Google accidently deleted the inboxes of some 60 Gmail users, leaving them with none of their stored email (and, surprisingly, Google’s vaunted server architecture didn’t have any backups either)

View my New Year’s Google Maps “Geo-Greeting” to you!

All the best in 2007!

Description: Show some  to Google. Comes with the “I’m feeling lucky” Google License Plate Frame. I though you can only have numbers and letters in the driver license plate. Photo by Eszter Hargittai, taken in the parking lot of the famous Googleplex.

In addition to the 101 Biggest Stories in Search we mentioned earlier, it’s worth taking some time to check out The Year in Search Reviewed, and part 2. In addition to highlighting the top stories, these lists add analysis from Chris Boggs, search strategist at Avenue A | Razorfish and SEW blogger.

December was a peaceful month for Google.
An AP article explained us that: “Even if Google stands by its promise to protect its users’ information, there are no guarantees that mischief-making computer hackers or crusading government agencies won’t eventually try to pry into the database.”
After that, a site was removed from Google index because it contained spammy links and its owner complained

This is not the official Happy New Year post, but since it’s already New Year in the many part of the World, including China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, ect. I would like to say Happy New Year to everyone! Also check out the Happy New Year group on YouTube and the pictures on Flickr. [photo by Florens W. in Australia, photo taken in January, 1st, 2007]

In 2004, before Google’s IPO and shortly after Gmail arrived with a big splash, the Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were interviewed by Playboy, expressing some of their core philosophies (which I think aren’t altruistic philosophies, or mere publicity spin, but sound business decisions further shaped in the wake of the dotcom bust)

“25 editors around the globe at the beginning of 2007 - 50 by the beginning of 2008!”

As we start 2007, I reflect on a superb year for Multilingual Search where we have broken new ground and new territories around the …

I don’t know if anyone noticed something strange in two of my previous posts: 2006 Metrics and Google Video Contact Manager. Both contained a reference to Performancing, a small startup that offered great products for bloggers: a nice editor for Firefox, a real-time statistics service and an ad network

Hi, in case you haven’t been following along at home, I’ll give you the short catch-up info first. Blake Ross wrote a post criticizing some tips that Google recently tried. I agreed that I didn’t like the tips, primarily because the targeting was too poor (even substrings would trigger the tips)

In BusinessWeek, analyst Tim Boyd of Caris & Co. used Comscore numbers to determine that Google makes between 19 and 21 cents per search executed, totalling just under $5 billion in the first nine months of this year. To compare, Yahoo monetizes its searches at a rate of 10-11 cents each, which, combined with a lower market share, totals a considerably less $1.6 billion

On December 27, PayPal announced a “virtual debit card”, letting you make online purchases everywhere MasterCard is accepted. One little problem: Christmas was a few days earlier, meaning the online financial service missed the holiday shopping season for some stupid reason.
PayPal’s move was a smart one, devaluing “exclusive” arrangements like the one Google Checkout has with online merchants (in fact, you could use PayPal and Google Checkout on the same purchase, thanks to this)

Ionut of Google Operationg System blog dug out a new feature in Google Video that hasn’t yet show up in the Google Video interface and hasn’t yet announce on the Google Blogs. The new feature, Pick People to Email, allows you to select people from your Gmail’s contact list to email the video of your choice.
Although you can’t find a button to click on the enable this feature, but here’s a trick you can do - go to a video on Google Video, copy and paste the following JavaScript code into the browser and hit enter, then the window like the one above should pop up.
javascript:handlePickerClick(0);
Have fun

Some hidden code in Google Video points to a new contact picker — something I have always thought would make sense in Gmail when you are deciding where to send an email (when you want to choose from a list).  That is currently a little tough to do when the only thing in your arsenal [...]

University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Matt Nolan has produced an online video that uses his research on Alaska’s McCall Glacier to explain the anatomy of a glacier and how glaciologists do their work. It had me watching with rapt attention. I don’t think I’ve ever learned so much about glaciers in so little time

The Official Google Blog shares some interesting statistic with us about their year in Google blogging.

unveiled 24 new products
wrote up 128 product upgrades, new features and how-to-use-it items
told you about 7 acquisitions
blogged about policies or issues 23 times
Google.org yielded 7 posts
7.6 million unique visitors, 15 million pageviews
top non-Google referrers are Digg.com and Slashdot

These statistic are only for the Official Google Blog English version

In November, Google Earth Team’s Jessica Pfund gave a one-hour Google Tech Talk that serves as a great introduction to Google Earth, its user interface and the things you can do with it beyond looking at your house. The talk has now been posted to Google Video. I too learned something: Double right-clicking will zoom you out in Google Earth.The video is a link worth sending to anyone you know who still hasn’t caught the Google Earth bug (and who has a free hour)

This doesn’t not happen often, but yesterday I saw a working* YouTube player in Google Reader - that means you can play YouTube videos in Google Reader like on any other web pages, just the video player would be on top of everything else. In contrast, the MP3 player would be at the very bottom of a post.
Google Reader have gotten a lot better lately, especially after the big update in September, when it received a lot of attentions

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team The definition of “googol” is a number, and Google lives by numbers. So how else should we look back over the year but with numerical bits? Here goes: This post marks the 294th time this year you’re reading a post from us — nearly 100 times more often than in 2005

Google Video has a new feature that lets you send a link to a video much more easily. Google Video already had a way to share videos, but you had to type emails and the autocomplete was barely usable.
Now you can see all your contacts or just the most contacted, you can search for a contact and even get a picture for contacts that use Gmail and lets you see it.
The new contact manager is not yet available from Google Video’s interface, but you can see it if you go to a Google Video (like this one) and type:

javascript:handlePickerClick(0);void(0);

in the address bar

Affinity could be defined as “a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character” (WordNet). I’ve always complained that Gmail doesn’t show statistics about your messages, your contacts, but I’ve just discovered a cool way to find out something more about your Gmail contacts.
If you open this XML file (you should be logged in), you’ll discover a list of Gmail contacts sorted by affinity and a value for each contact

Ok, I’m only doing this because..
a. It’s a Saturday
b. It’s the end of the year
c. Everyone else is doing it.
I took the superhero test and it appears I’m Superman wannabe (with a concerning dash of Supergirl, Catwoman and Wonder woman)…
You are Superman

Superman

70%

Iron Man

55%

Hulk

50%

Green Lantern

45%

The Flash

45%

Robin

40%

Spider-Man

40%

Supergirl

35%

Batman

30%

Catwoman

25%

Wonder Woman

20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test
Let me know what Superhero you are

During 2006, Google made a substantial investment in adding new imagery to the Google Earth/Maps imagery database. Google hasn’t released the numbers, but I think the significance of the data made available for free is truly astounding. We’re talking millions of square miles/kilometers of high resolution sateillite/aerial photos all over the planet

YouTube hosts New Year’s Eve Bash - CNet
The video sharing Web site now owned by Google is teaming up with Warner Music Group to produce the first-ever YouTube New Year’s Eve Countdown. The promotion, which is sponsored by Chevrolet, will celebrate New Year’s as it happens around the world with new videos featured every hour from New Zealand to Los Angeles.
YouTube software threat to Google plans - MSNBC
YouTube’s failure to complete a key piece of anti-piracy software as promised could represent a serious obstacle to efforts by Google, its new owner, to forge closer relations with the media and entertainment industry.
Google’s Bad Hair Week - Wired
Someone seems to have misplaced the mouse over in Mountain View and the wind hasn’t been blowing Google’s way this week

Mars Sucks is a game for Google Earth, created by “an Intel Team focused on gaming technology spent some time developing a video game concept using Google Earth”. You can play the game by downloading this KMZ file and run it on Google Earth.
The game is simple, but you probably to know some geography facts

In case anyone is interested, here are some stats from Google Analytics for this blog:
Unique visitors: 1,340,000Pageviews: 3,382,000
Top referrals:google [search results]: 27.26%digg.com: 16.20%google [referral]: 14.63%direct: 12.49%slashdot.org: 2.15%

Top countries:US: 46.64%UK: 7.27%Canada: 5.90%India: 3.13%Australia: 2.57%
Top browsers:Firefox (57.89%)IE (32.67%)Opera (4.01%)Safari (3.29%)Mozilla (1.09%)
Top platforms:Windows (87.21%)Mac (7.36%)Linux (5.09%)
Regarding the feed, here’s a chart that shows the number of subscribers, courtesy of Feedburner:

Top feed readers*:NetvibesFirefox Live BookmarksBloglinesNewsGator OnlineGoogle Desktop
*The list doesn’t include Google IG/Reader, My Yahoo, Windows Live.
Most of these numbers are meaningless, but they may show you some behind-the-scene details

The FCC has approved the $86 billion mega-merger of AT&T and Bell South, after AT&T agreed to a number of concessions, including an important one on the issue of net neutrality.
One of the most important concessions is AT&T’s commitment to a basic set of principles that establish a practical implementation of Net neutrality

Oliver Gassner pointed me to AdsBlacklist.com, a service which generates a list of URLs based on a URL and a set of keywords you provide. You can then copy & paste this list into your Google AdSense competitive ad filter* to (supposedly) increase ad revenues by up to 50% – because low-paying sites are disabled, leaving more room for those advertisers earning you more cash per click

If you speak French or Finnish, you will probably find the above screen shot from Google Desktop’s functionality page a little weird, half French and half Finnish. Tom, who found the mistake, said, “I know that French is difficult to read, but when French look like Norvegian, (he later found out that it’s Finnish) it’s harder to understand!”
Well, if you can still recall yesterday’s post, “Get Disorganized in 2007 with Google Desktop“, it would be really amusing - Google got themselves disorganized by Google Dekstop, not us.
Thanks Tom.

When you search for a singer or a music band at Google.com, you’ll notice a box above search results that shows more information.This feature is not new (in fact, it’s been available for almost a year), but many people don’t know that you can trigger Google Music Search by simply adding “music:” in front of your query

Yahoo announced they are dropping the message boards for their news vertical. They have announced they will be introducing new features in the near future.

World Wide Web-famous in Christchurch? Stuff.co.nz
Start your search engines – a mysterious plane on the tarmac at Christchurch Airport may have ferried Google internet kings Sergey Brin and Larry Page to New Zealand.
My thoughts on recent Google tips - Matt Cutts
But everyone will have different opinions about what is fine or problematic

With the clock ticking down to the end of 2006 and the start of 2007, here are some Google Maps sites that will help you to ring in the New Year:

World Time
- Check the time and countdown!

DayLightMap.com
- Use this cool Google Maps tool to follow where New Year’s Eve is taking place

World Weather from WeatherBonk
- Check the weather where you are on a Google Map before heading out for New Year’s Eve celebrations!

Find out the sunrise time for your location
(Tools -> Sun)

WebCams

News came out earlier this week that Wikipedia cofounder
Jimmy Wales had a new
project in mind, to build a community-driven "Google-killer" search engine. I’ve
just finished talking with Jimmy about his plans. Here’s a rundown on his vision
and what may come as his Search Wikia project grows over the course of the next
year or two.

DestinSharks’ Virgil Zetterlind is kind enough to host Intel’s demo game, Mars Sucks, on his server. Here is his blog post announcing the link. It’ll be up as long as it isn’t popular:-)

Time Magazine’s Wilson Rothman likes 3DConnexion’s SpaceNavigator. But he finds it “annoying” that you can’t use it for anything besides Google Earth

Those of you who live in the UK (maybe in the US too), might have noticed some cool ads on the TV featuring my favourite software Google Earth! British Airways used it to show-off their prices. Not only this, but they also released a Google Earth layer you can download here which shows you clouds in the shape of the price to certain locations at the location!
Ad 1:

Ad 2:

Ad 3:

(Christian | Via the TV and Google Earth Blog)

Last month I got a mail from someone who wanted an option to backup all your Google data or just a part of it.
Joe T. sent me an interesting idea: Google Desktop could download your data from Gmail (already does that partially and slowly), Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Notebook, etc. and make it searchable offline

I wanted to talk about Blake Ross’ post entitled “Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose”. I agree with much of what he says. There’s a continuum to showing tips. Toward the “hawk” side of the spectrum is the notion that a company can show whatever reasonable content they want on their own web site

Save Searchblog roundups and a post or two from Melanie, and my predictions post, which I hope to do this weekend, Searchblog will be quiet over the next ten days, as I take a holiday. See you in the New Year!

The game concept put together by an Intel team was released in their article I wrote about earlier today. Virgil at Destinsharks.com has set up a server and you can play the game now. All you need to do is download this network link . Move to the country described by the clues on the lower left and move over the spaceship which will appear there

It feels like a bad week to be Google. Honestly, if there’s a tipping point,
the freakout that they’ve become the evil company they said they didn’t want to
be seems to have arrived. Goodness knows there’s plenty to be concerned about
with Google, as with any large powerful company. The entire Google could become
the next evil Microsoft? Yeah, been there,
covered
that 2002

After nearly 22 hours(21h 59m) of downtime, Orkut is now back online. No new features as I thought it will. This is the longest downtime they have since May.

Google Notebook has a new search feature, and it is exposing the fact that on the internet, some people are just morons. By default, everything in Notebook is set to private, and you have to specifically turn on the feature that makes your Notebook public and exposes your information to others. So, my question is, why they hell would a person put in their social security number and other personal information, and then click to make it public?
I don’t know, but some Diggers had fun ferreting out the idiots

Mashable has “tagged” me to share my predictions for 2007. Here’s some brief thoughts…

Digg will get acquired or die (maybe even both). I think Digg is very close to jumping the shark and is close to its maximum level of exposure. It will either realize this and sell or wait too long and decline