Today Google made public their efforts in wireless broadband which makes use of local plumbing and sewage systems.  The new service is a breakthrough and will provide free wireless broadband to anyone with a toilet and a laptop with a wireless adapter. For years, data carriers have confronted the "last hundred yards" problem for delivering [...]

It's been in the making for several months, but now after finalizing their output and distribution techniques, they are finally going live with a new service on Gmail's birthday.  It's called "Gmail Paper". It lets you receive physical copies of important (or even spam) messages without the need for your own printer.  The cost?  Completely [...]

The Matt Cutts Blog Gets Hacked The Dark SEO Team has had a bit of a beef with Google’s Matt Cutts from back in 2005 over URL hijacking. Looks like they’ve pulled a prank on him today. Matt’s blog is down, hacked — and archives wiped out as well. Matt has posted previously to this about the site being slow (post gone, but you can see his Twitter comment here) and heading offline through Monday, so you might be seeing the screen above fo

To the Google Maps Mania faithful: Sorry for the recent radio silence - I’ve been traveling and not able to get my usual daily posts up.. :)World Climate Map - Drag the Google Maps marker to learn about climate data in countries all over the world!Google Maps (and Earth) introduces swimming into Directions - See #36 - Frank Taylor comments about it on the Google Earth Blog..Google Using Pre-Katrina Imagery on Google Maps (Slashdot) - Quite an ar

Goodness knows Google’s Matt Cutts is popular at conferences. I’ve seen him swamped by people at them. In fact, so many people surround Matt wherever he goes that I nicknamed them "Cuttlets" last year and wondered if they’d ever form a formal fan club. Well, turns out they’ve done more than that. Fans of Matt are assembling for the first ever CuttsCon later this year — and Matt will be there, as well. Appropriately, it will be in

You never know when Google is going to launch a new product, you never know what new feature Google is adding to its products, but there’s one predictable day, we all know what Google is going to do - be a prankster!
With only a few hours before April Fool’s Day 2007, let’s review Google’s infamous hoaxes in the previous years: Google MentalPlex (Googleplex) - acts like your psychologist, and the search results can be ve

My site has been acting a little slow and weird today. I checked my logs, and I’m seeing a lot of GET requests causing strange errors. Most of the requests have escaped Unicode characters, but they don’t appear valid. Sorry that the site is kinda slow; I’m going to be away from the computer until around late Monday, so I don’t have time to check it now, but I’ll try to track it down when I get back.
Update: The site

Every couple of weeks, we like to take time out to thank our advertisers. Without the support of the companies listed below, we would not have the resources to provide the same detailed coverage of internet marketing news.
SEO Copywriters - offering well-researched, interesting and informative content for any business in any industry. Text Link Brokers - if you looking to buy links - for traffic or SEO - Text Link Brokers has a vast network

It is frustrating that Picasa Web Albums does not display the total number of photos on the footer as they do with the storage, which made me to add the number of photos manually when writing “How Many Pictures Are There on Picasa Web?“.
In case I have to repeat the tiresome process in the future, yesterday I created two scripts to handle the job for me. One is to see the total number of photos, and the other one is to see the number

Google launched in October 2005 a feed reader, which became popular a year later. The company also offered publishing tools like Blogger, Page Creator and Google Docs, but even if they make your job easier by letting you focus on the content, you still have to come up with the text and the ideas.Google Writer is a new application planned to be launched soon at Google Labs. It will integrate with many other Google services and guide you while writ

The YouTube blog noted that YouTube has pushed some minor updates last Wednesday night. Home Page: Now featuring Channels & Groups
Subscribe to Favorites
Category pages updates: more features and videos
More tweaking with the Channel pages: Transparency Okay, isn’t it time to improve the video qualities?
Off Topic: for some reasons I think that the guy in the video looks like Sergey Brin, doesn’t he? Well, he has to shave

The Yahoo Publisher Network may be testing the blocking of YPN contextual advertisements from serving in certain countries according to the accounts of some webmasters who are running YPN on their sites.
In what may be an attempt to curb International click fraud and spillover of intended US audience only advertisements, reports have come in from various webmasters that YPN is not serving ads to International visitors, specifically India.
A threa

Here’s a link to the story.

In December of last year, DestinSharks.com announced a beta test of full featured nautical charts for Google Earth. They have now announced availability of EarthNC Plus - a single CD with 677 nautical charts covering the entire US regions based on the NOAA dataset. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) releases their nautical charts in electronic form for free. The trick is in processing the data and making it availa

Probably the best press release written by Google was on April 1st 2004, when Google launched Gmail.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 1, 2004 UTC - Amidst rampant media speculation, Google Inc. today announced it is testing a preview release of Gmail – a free search-based webmail service with a storage capacity of up to eight billion bits of information, the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email. Per user.The inspiration for Gmail came from a Google

When you want to say that a company is a leader in a field or has the best products, you say it’s the Google of that field. If you search for “* is the Google of *”, you’ll find a lot of services and companies compared to Google.* Krugle is the Google of programming code* Baidu is the Google of China* YouTube is the Google of Video* Michael Arrington is the Google of Web 2.0 (?!)* Gamespot is the Google of Videogames* Nero is the Google of burnin

As widely reported, ICANN Board members rejected the application for a new .xxx top level domain yesterday. After reading through how the board voted and their meeting commentary, I can safely report that the TLD approval process is broken.

I upgraded my WordPress installation from 2.0.x to 2.1.x tonight, and I’m a little grumpy. Autosave is great and all, but does upgrading WordPress have to be so much of a hassle? The official way to upgrade is to unpack the latest zip over top of your current installation, which seems like a recipe for cruft to keep accumulating. Things like WP-Cache can get really confused in the middle of an upgrade, and then you’re stuck doing surg

AdSense Publisher View Of Google Pay Per Action
Barry looks at the new referral products, with lots of screenshots of the interface.
(tags: google adsense advertising)

A Blockbuster employee uncovered a possible new XBox 360 game called Beautiful Katamari Damacy, and the date October 19th, 2007 is mentioned. Oh please, let this be real. (via GameSpot).

Google’s commitment to “green” means that the company sources carpet and sofas made without PVC, paints without volatile organic compounds, and cafeteria food from local growers. It’s not surprising, then, that they would roll out the largest commercial solar deployment in the US—a 1.6MW installation that covers most of the buildings at Google’s campus and extends even to shaded parking spaces. At the ETech conference in San Diego this week, Google’s Anthony Ravitz explained how Google did it, and why.

Voting is one of the methods that we all accept for refining search results. While voting helps from a directional standpoint, results won’t be perceived as accurate or relevant by everyone who sees them. That’s because votes come from a self-selected and thus biased sample. The WSJ’s Numbers Guy provided a stellar example of voting bias just yesterday. He analyzed issues related to Zagat’s dining guides. Many diners rely on Zagat, but don

Google has added Google Apps as part of the AdSense Referral Program, a week after adding Google Checkout to the program and the announcing of the Pay Per Action program.
On the set up page, it says,
You will be credited [$5] when someone clicks your referral and signs up for Google Apps with a domain that has not already been signed up for the service. The domain must then have one or more Google Apps email accounts in use for four consecutive

Do you own a website where users generate content? Well, the newly released Google AdSense API may be something for you to think about.  "Free" services that rely only on advertising dollars from programs like Google AdSense are all the rage these days, but is that the future?  I think we are seeing the beginning [...]

Google probably thought they were doing something good when they updated the imagery on Google Earth for New Orleans with that from a time before Hurricaine Katrina.  Turns out, the residents are angerd by the recent changes, and have formulated conspiracy theories involving a deal between the local government of New Orleans and Google to [...]

Similar to the Starbuck’s SMS search tool that we wrote about a few weeks ago, Yellowpages.com today announced text-based local search tool for mobile devices. Any cell phone user can now send a business name or category in a text message to YP411 (97411) to receive the three top listings for that term. Brands that have tried to launch SMS search tools have received limited traction because of the relatively low adoption of mobile search so far.

Since their introduction in September 2006, AdWords Seminars have helped advertisers across the US learn how to get more out of their AdWords accounts. Many seminar attendees have told us that what made the experience valuable were the knowledgeable, enthusiastic seminar leaders who were able to teach them ways to use AdWords more effectively. Now, due to a high level of advertiser interest, we’d like to expand the program — and we’re looking fo

We’ve already seen an increase in news related to online reputation management in the last few days, and now Wired magazine lists it as one of the top trends for 2007.
Their excellent article “The See-Through CEO” looks at how businesses are becoming more transparent with their communications and how consumers are wielding a lot of influence over your online brand equity.
“Online is where reputations are made now,” s

Valleywag writes about a billboard on California’s Highway 101, that reads:
THE ALGORITHM KILLED JEEVES
The reference is about Ask.com, but the question is: Who bought it? Sure, Google is the likely culprit, perhaps as a response to Ask’s “Information Revolution” campaign, but evidence is pointing in the direction of Ask buying it themselves. The evidence: A later billboard apparently reads:
THE ALGORITHM IS FROM JERSE

Now that we’ve established that you can use the exact same commercial is more effective online than on TV, we should also point out how much more effective video is than static advertising, even online.
A DoubleClick (they’re for sale, folks!) study released this week that states that Internet users itneract more with video ad than they do image ads.
Here are the hard numbers: Online video ads experience click-through rates ranging f

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
From Search Engine Land: This Week In Search From Flickr Images: BETAThis week I had an idea for a new column, possibly weekly, where I tracked the search industry through images uploaded to Flickr. Although we don’t have an official name for this column, I thought I’d tag this as a BETA release and see how it goes. So sit back…

No, I am not giving you one, Google is. According the Keith from gSpy, some AdWords users are invited to improve Adwords and have a chance to win an 80 GB Video iPod. The 80GB Video iPod is the largest in the iPod family, as in both dimensions and storage. [more specs here]
Due to the non-disclosure agreement with Google, he can’t tell you much about the survey.
Owing to the agreements in the email, I could not reveal what the survey is ex

When Google introduced AdSense API last May, it was only available to a limited amount of developers, but Inside AdSense blog announced today announced that it will be opened to qualified AdSense users!
Here are some of the possible benefits for using the API: Target contextual ads against users’ content.
Implement AdSense Referrals alongside users’ content.
Customize AdSense for Search boxes.
Generate detailed performance reports.

This week I had an idea for a new column, possibly weekly, where I tracked the search industry through images uploaded to Flickr. Although we don’t have an official name for this column, I thought I’d tag this as a BETA release and see how it goes. So sit back and let me run you through this week in search, brought to you via Flickr!
Click to continue reading…

iMedia Connection has two useful articles in as many days. I like to read their articles, but I seldom feel prompted to link to them. But these might be helpful. Check them out: The Best Website Metrics Are…: If you don’t already know it, your website should be measurable. It should be giving you lots of beautiful data. (I love data. That’s why I love web analytics.) Even if you already have well established web analytics

Not surprisingly, we’re big fans of emphasizing the search box on websites and intranets, as search puts the entire contents of a site at the visitor’s fingertips. That is why we are pleased to highlight the City of Virginia Beach, a Google Search Appliance customer, who redesigned their website around search. So whether you are looking for info on parks or parking in Virginia Beach, its only a search away.

Despite support from some adult sites and anti-porn activists, the ICM Registry’s proposal for a .xxx top-level domain was rejected by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in a 9-5 vote. ICANN states that a .xxx TLD would be difficult to enforce worldwide as well as create “public policy concerns.”
From CNET: “ICM’s response does not address (the ICANN Government Advisory Committee’s) conce

I’m generally not a big fan of meta search technologies—I prefer to go directly to the search service I feel will likely give me the best response for any given query, rather than sifting through the aggregated results from several engines provided by meta search engines. But recently, developer Stephan Schmid invited me to kick the tires on his Switzerland-based meta search engine eTools.ch, and after playing around with it a bit I came a

If you blog, you should get the Linkify bookmarklet that Laurence Gonsalves wrote.
How does it work? It’s an easy 2 step process:
1. Drag the Linkify bookmarket to your personal toolbar.
2. Dang! There is no step 2! Sorry about that. I, um, got mixed up. There’s just one step.
Now how do you use it? Well, see the link I made to Laurence Gonsalves? To do that, I wrote the words “Laurence Gonsalves,” selected that text, and

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) engineering team in our Atlanta Engineering office and participating in our Atlanta open house (read about how it went). This was a fun event mostly designed to let the Atlanta community hear about what our engineers are working on in Midtown Atlanta. That is, what we’re working on outside of hiring more people.
I’m eager to share some photos, which include an appearance by Pr

E-consultancy has published a free 12- page briefing on the Paid Search industry in the UK.
The document is packed full of useful information, including: An overview of the UK market (including market valuation and trends)
A write-up of the key points emerging from the discussion
New statistics Useful resources Topics discussed included: Yahoo!’s launch of Panama platform Landing page optimization Bid management technology Quality o

Last week, I spoke at BlogHer Business about search engine optimization issues. I presented with Elise Bauer, who talked about the power of community in blogging. She made great points about the linking patterns of blogs. Link out to sites that would be relevant and useful for your readers. Comment on blogs that you like to continue the conversation and provide a link back to your blog. Write useful content that other bloggers will want to link t

We have some news and then a big ‘ole mess to bring to your attention.
First, the news. AOL has announced that it’s Advertising.com unit would manage advertising sold on the new online video site being built by NBC and News Corp.
Ok, now the mess. Google owns 5% of AOL, yet AOL is involved in what might be Google’s biggest video competitor.
Will Advertising.com now exclude the management of video campaigns outside of this new v

Google is coming under criticism for rolling back satellite imagery of New Orleans, replacing the images of post-Katrina New Orleans with older, pre-hurricane photos that show the city in a much cleaner condition than is the reality. In this article by The Age, Google says it is only offering the best images it has, and that there are many factors that went into the change:
Chikai Ohazama, a Google product manager for satellite imagery, said th

Over at SEO Refugee, “Skitzzo” posts a bold proclamation that “SEO is Dead” (linkbait anyone?), and I agree, to an extent.
While at Search Summit Australia, I was asked to name the winners and losers for 2007. I chose the title “search engine marketer” as a loser - not for the skills, just the name. You see, search marketers have grown their talents tremendously over the past few years, and to say that we focus

By Naureen Kabir, Google Base SupportWe’re happy to let you know that Google Base is now accepting tab-delimited (or TSV) bulk upload files formatted using Google Spreadsheets. Most spreadsheet programs allow you to export data into a TSV file, and Google Spreadsheets is no exception. For instructions on converting your Google Spreadsheet to a tab-delimited file, click here. More details and information about tab-delimited files can be found here

With the Google Phone rumors quashed this week, Searcharazzi was pleased to get a taste of this schematic of a semantic visual search engine purportedly by Nokia. More on that from SEL’s dedicated local and mobile gurus. In the interim, we would be remiss to omit the big rumor of the week: DoubleClick is reportedly in talks to be acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion. Now that’s some nice coin for private equity firm Heller & Friedman.

[UPDATE 2-April 1400: see the release of new imagery for New Orleans.] [UPDATED 2210 ET] The recent update to the imagery for Google Earth has caused a bit of an uproar. According to the GEC and my sources at Google, the imagery for New Orleans was actually changed last September. The previous imagery was directly after the storm struck, and was of inferior quality. Although the imagery of New Orleans is from pre-Katrina now, it is of be

I’ve been publishing online about search for nearly 11 years now. My work, or my comments, have been quoted in mainstream publications on the topic of search for virtually the same time. Much more often than not, those references never include a live link back to my web site, not from the websites of those same mainstream publications where links are totally possible.
Over the years, I’ve watched others in similar situations get upset about

SketchUp co-founder Brad Schell has decided to leave Google, reports AECNews. The parting seems to be most amicable. Converjed has more about GeoGlobe, the Second Life/KML mashup reported on a few days ago. Oxford’s city government has virtually modelled a part of the city with SketchUp, and will release it to the public “once it’s to a completed point where we’re satisfied with it,” reports the Oxford Press. TechCrunch’s rumor about Google ha