http://www.gstories.com Gstories is a source for what's new and interesting about Google(TM) & other search engines Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:53:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So I've been meaning to do some write-ups on some browser toolbars and plugins that may be useful for SEO purposes . . . and leave it to Rand at SEOmoz to remind me of this with his review of 12 popular browser toolbars. Link Counter is one that ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/18/counting-links-the-easy-way/ Google invited hundreds of folks, mostly from D.C.'s tech policy set, to nibble on hors d'ouerves at the opening of its new Washington digs, which temporarily took on a nightclub-like glow.(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com) WASHINGTON--I now know the real reason why Google ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/18/googlers-vips-inaugurate-new-dc-office/ WASHINGTON--Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt on Thursday suggested NASA could learn a few things from his company. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was the keynote speaker at a Washington luncheon commemorating NASA's 50th anniversary.(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com) Speaking at a luncheon series to commemorate the agency'... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/17/googles-schmidt-to-nasa-be-more-open/ Google.org's technology project to help save lives in the event of natural disasters or public health threats is expected to launch Thursday. The project, called Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster (InSTEDD), is a nonprofit organization that ambitiously aims to help communities around the world use Web ... ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/16/social-software-twitter-facebook-called-on-for-higher-purpose/ Vic Gundotra, vice president of mobile and developer at Google, shows of the new user interface of Google Web apps for the iPhone being unveiled at Macworld on Monday.(Credit: Google) On Christmas Day thousands of people opened up boxes with something cool and functional inside and wasted no time ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/14/google-betting-big-on-mobile-market-and-apple/ Two of the most useful online services have got to be maps and weather. With this in mind, The Weather Channel Interactive is offering a new mapplet for Google Maps that lets people add customizable weather layers to maps and see weather data on Google Earth (download here). One ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/09/rain-and-shine-hit-google-maps-and-google-earth/ Google just keeps getting more popular for search. The latest figures from Hitwise, which monitors search market share, show Google with a record 66 percent share of Web searches in the United States for the month of December 2007. Google had just over 63 percent for the same period ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/08/googles-search-juggernaut-continues/ With the recent admission by Matt Cutts to Stephan Spencer that Google is using Adobe's Search Engine SDK technology, a new set of optimization opportunities opened up. That fairly definite confirmation of how Google reads text within Flash files makes it possible to create Flash .swf files with some ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/08/google-does-read-flash-text-optimize-it/ http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/08/adwords-downtime-january-12-10am-2pm-pst/ Google may not have monopoly power, but it certainly has monopoly mind share. As The New York Times reports, Google's search market share has jumped from 58 percent in March 2006 to 65.1 percent today. Yahoo? Less than one-third of Google's share. Microsoft? Less than one-ninth. Monopoly? ... http://www.gstories.com/2008/01/02/googles-market-share-tops-65-percent/ In its attempts to add social elements to products, is Google pulling a Facebook? Google Reader has allowed people to share items they are interested in with others since 2006 with hyperlinks, clips on blogs and storing them on a public page that you had to know the URL ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/27/googles-privacy-faux-pas-with-reader/ An appeals court has reinstated a patent lawsuit filed against Google over a toolbar feature called AutoLink that provides links to online maps or books on Amazon.com, according to a Bloomberg News report. Wisconsin-based HyperPhrase Technologies sued Google in 2006 for patent infringement. The case was thrown out a ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/27/appeals-court-rules-against-google-in-patent-suit/ A court in China has dismissed a trademark lawsuit filed against Google, according to a report on ChinaCourt.org that was translated into English and posted on Pacific Epoch. A Beijing company called Gu Ge Technology sued Google China earlier this year, claiming that its Chinese name, "Gu Ge" was ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/27/chinese-court-dismisses-trademark-suit-against-google/ Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is breaking up with YouTube. On Thursday, Hilton said that he would stop posting videos on YouTube, according to story on TVWeek.com. Instead he plans to host video on his own site, Perezhilton.com. (Credit: PerezHilton.com) The feud began earlier this week after YouTube ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/21/perez-hilton-dumps-youtube/ Google is using its YouTube video site as a forum for explaining its privacy practices to the millions of consumers who use its products every day. The company launched a Privacy Channel on YouTube about two months ago. The videos aren't professionally produced; they are made by Google engineers, ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/20/google-goes-viral-with-privacy-message-on-youtube/ Federal Trade Commission regulators said Thursday that Google's controversial $3.1 billion merger proposal with DoubleClick can proceed, despite earlier complaints raised by competitors and privacy advocates. FTC regulators have been reviewing the proposed merger for months for possible antitrust violations, after Google announced plans in April to acquire ... ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/20/ftc-we-wont-block-google-doubleclick-merger/ Jason Shellen, who was the founding product manager for Google Reader, is joining social network and blogging platform LiveJournal as vice president of product development. Shellen will be based in San Francisco in new offices LiveJournal will be opening in 2008, according to the company. He arrived at Google ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/19/former-blogger-googler-shellen-joins-livejournal/ A computer worm has been spreading on Google's big-in-Brazil Orkut social network, according to a report on the Sounds from the Dungeon blog. The relatively harmless worm appears to use JavaScript and Flash code to create new scrapbook entries on profiles with a New Year's message in Portuguese ... ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/19/report-googles-orkut-fights-off-worm-attack/ Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google will pay a combined $31.5 million to settle allegations they accepted money for illegal gambling ads, according to the Associated Press. All three companies said they stopped accepting ads for gambling years ago. The agreement settles an investigation launched in 2000 and conducted by the ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/19/microsoft-yahoo-google-to-pay-315-million-for-illegal-gambling-ads/ At a Capitol Hill hearing in September, Microsoft's top lawyer skewered the proposed merger of Google and DoubleClick as a sure path to an online advertising monopoly. "One company will become the overwhelming dominant gateway that connects the universe of online advertisers to the millions of websites that display ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/19/google-microsoft-viacom-deal-helps-our-doubleclick-defense/ Yahoo Maps users can now re-route a trip on the fly.(Credit: CNET Networks)Yahoo's mapping service has been tweaked today to include a rerouting feature similar to the one Google's had since June. The new addition lets you pick up and drag your directions at any point ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/18/yahoo-maps-gets-drag-and-drop-rerouting-enhanced-business-listings/ European lawmakers plan to hold a hearing next month to scrutinize the privacy implications of the proposed Google acquisition of online-ad firm DoubleClick, according to the Associated Press. The proposed $3.1 billion deal has provoked complaints that it would give Google an unprecedented amount of information about consumers' online ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/17/europeans-to-hold-hearings-on-google-doubleclick-and-privacy/ http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/17/new-account-structure-report-now-available/ For those who have spent years wringing their hands over Microsoft's desktop dominance, have no fear: competition is on its way. It's called Google and it promises to dramatically shake up the computing market by shifting the battle to the Internet, as the New York Times insightfully writes.... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/17/the-looming-battle-between-old-economy-microsoft-and-new-economy-google/ Ask.com released its Top 10 list for Web search terms for 2007 on Friday and it was noteworthy as much for what made the list as for what didn't. No. 1 is MySpace, followed in order by: Dictionary, Google, Themes, Area Codes, Cars, Weather, Games, Song Lyrics, and ... ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/14/askcoms-top-10-has-google-but-no-britney/ As if we hadn't all already given up trying to extricate Google from our brains today they came out with sync for Google calendar and your Blackberry. It also supports Google Apps for your Domain. If this doesn't kill MS Exchange I don't know what will...and ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/12/google-sync-for-blackberry-now-available/ Two privacy groups are asking the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to recuse herself from the agency's review of Google's proposed acquisition of online ad firm DoubleClick because her husband's law firm is advising DoubleClick on antitrust. In addition, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras used to ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/12/groups-ask-ftc-chair-to-recuse-in-google-doubleclick-review/ Antitrust regulators with the Federal Trade Commission have received an extension to review the controversial $3.1 billion Google-DoubleClick megamerger, according to sources. The FTC faced a Thursday deadline to either challenge the deal or allow it to go through. But the commission is now expected to stay quiet for ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/12/sources-ftc-gets-more-time-to-review-google-doubleclick-deal/ With Google's recent crackdown on Web sites the sell PageRank--which really means selling links--a new era has begun for backlink building. In Google's eyes, links coming into a given Web site from external, quality sites increases that site's PageRank, and therefore its standing in the search engine'... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/12/say-bye-bye-to-link-buys/ Google has demonstrated experimental technologies to the Federal Communications Commission in an effort to pressure the agency to open up unused wireless spectrum between TV channels for broadband Internet use. Google, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and EarthLink formed the White Space Coalition earlier this year to lobby the FCC and ... http://www.gstories.com/2007/12/10/google-making-more-air-waves/