Huh, what do you know, there are six jobs on the Searchblog jobs board. I expected maybe two. Hey, maybe I’ll post a few more myself!

Here’s a link to the story.

No. Really. Watch this space.

Every so often, Rich gets up and rips one off. His most recent is called “How to beat Google, part 1.” From it: Our entire industry is scared witless by Google’s dominance in search and advertising. Microsoft and Yahoo have been unsuccessful at staunching the bleeding of their search market share. VCs parrot the Google PR FUD machine that you need giant datacenters next to hydroelectric dams to compete. They spout nonsense about how startups s

My pal Jonathan Weber emailed me with a special code for any Searchblog readers who might want to register for the conference I referenced here. Use code SPK0607 for $150 off!

Well, Gary has found a conference and related papers that start to build a body of academic work around this here place. I must say, I’d sure like to be in Colorado about now, thinking about the implications of the blog world.

…I’d write long, overly analytical posts on these issues: Metaweb. I spent some time with Danny Hillis today. What he’s trying to do is deeply important in terms of how the web is going to work - or not. I will write something soon, I promise. YouTube. Man, this one is not going away, and there’s a lot to say about the new NBC/Newscorp thing. First, don’t pay attention to the content. I don’t think it matters. Pay attention to two things: O

Who doesn’t love a good data visualization? This one’s a doozy. From the writeup on Seed: This map was constructed by sorting roughly 800,000 published papers into 776 different scientific paradigms (shown as pale circular nodes) based on how often the papers were cited together by authors of other papers. Links (curved black lines) were made between the paradigms that shared papers, then treated as rubber bands, holding similar paradigms near

As many of you know, in a previous life I ran the Industry Standard. My partner in editorial pursuits was Jonathan Weber, a man I hold in very high regard. He’s running New West now, an innovative regional newssite based in Montana. He asked me to come to his New West Summit, and I certainly couldn’t refuse. It looks like a great event. If you have an interest in how the economy of the Rocky Mountain region is changing, I highly recommend it. A

I was in the Portland airport recently and I saw an image of a happy, professionally smiling face welcome me as I logged into the free wifi there. The image is at left. It was very, very familiar. I felt like I had seen it, or rather, her, hundreds of times. Then it hit me. Once we can search by image, I mean, really by image, we’ll be able to find ALL the instances of this gal, all over the web. Imagine what happens once we can find every si

Mark Fletcher, who started Bloglines among other stuff, has created a blog to help folks start up companies. He asked me to help him with his first post. Check it out here.

From Moment. Well done.
What’s interesting is that Sergey let the author talk to his parents, even visit his home. That was off limits a few years ago.

Promote the hell out of it….

Build.

Is the stem the L? I dunno. I think Google needs a spell checker. Oh wait, they have one?!

hat tip to KK

GigaOm: Telcos Target Google in ‘Neutrality’ Fight
If you like your wrestling with mud, this is the place to watch.

TechCrunch: NBC Piles On Google - YouTube Strategy in Question
And…we’re surprised?
The deals are not going as the majors want them to go. The millions are not in their bank account, and the honeymoon is over

I like search hacks by grad students. Like SearchBots, for example.

Searchbots.net is an experimental search engine that investigates the use of mythology, personification and game theory as motivational strategies in creating a sustainable search community. Searchbots has a rich history and is unique in that it allows you to search using more “human” and entertaining types of information like colour and mood. If you picked the colour red you might get a website about tomatoes, communism or angry people.

Googlers pride themselves on being Googley. Remember the first line of the IPO filing (”Google is not a conventional company…we do not intend to become one…”)? But I got this press release today, and man, it sounds, well, just like any other lame press release from any other company trying to spin itself into some sales

An overview of Greenplum, the “Web 2.0 server”, from VentureBeat.

One of the big buzzy facts of Davos life this year was Second Life. Reuters was busy interviewing folks for the Second Life audience (yeah, OK, I did it), and nearly everyone at Davos who was NOT in the internet industry was busy talking it up as important (and many who were as well, but for different and deeper reasons)

Greg has a lovely post about moving on from his creation, Findory.

I’ve become interested in the whole carbon credit thing, and wonder if any of you are as well. My research shows a few sites which allow you to pay off your guilt for your globe-warming ways, but I wonder, are these sites for real? Do they matter to anyone but the guilty conscience of the person who is paying them off? Is any one better than the others? Any readers out there use these services, and do you recommend them?

Google Tops Fortune’s 2007 List of Best Companies to Work for, Yahoo and MS Also Makes List

SearchEngineLand Analyzes Its Growth

USC Collaborators Preserve the Digital Fingerprints of Ancient Scribes

Why MyBlogLog.com Is the Worst Social Network in the World

Google to Help Build Telescope

Totally off topic, but….

So today I posted a couple of jobs over at FM, and I used LinkedIn’s job listing service. I plan to use others, including some of the job boards at FM sites like GigaOm, TechCrunch, and the like, but I was on LinkedIn for other reasons and decided to get it done there first

From time to time, I am jolted into re reading stuff that I practically memorized while writing the book. Here’s one passage, an appendix to “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine” - the original paper by Larry and Sergey introducing Google - that felt like it was worth another look, in particular given the tempest over “tips” and ongoing pressures to monetize partnerships like AOL and YouTube, as well as the increasing creep in the number of ads we all see in Google results

It was killed by “conservative managers” says an ex-Googler in this Chronicle article from earlier in the week.

The piece tracks familiar territory of rich early employees getting the itch to go do something else.

Extremely wealthy from stock options that soared in value, 100 of Google’s first 300 workers have quietly resigned to go to law school, help poor shopkeepers get loans or simply to live the good life

Google’s Matt Cutts explains what I thought was going on. Yahoo lost views due to Ajax.

I don’t trust any metrics but this one will make headlines. From the Times:

Google, the search engine company, displaced Yahoo as the world’s second-most-visited Web site in November and closed in on the leader, Microsoft, a market researcher said yesterday.

Visitors to Google’s sites rose 9.1 percent, to 475.7 million in November from a year earlier, while those to Yahoo sites rose 5.2 percent, to 475.3 million, the researcher, ComScore Networks, said. Both sites trail Microsoft, which had 501.7 million visitors, ComScore said

Aaron argues yes. I say, if it works, do it.

This is where things are going, folks. (via Digg)

I have been watching Google Checkout, and if you care about the space, you should too. Ebay is most likely VERY worried. They should be. Google is leveraging its cash, its brand, and its AdWords to push this new service. Watch this space. (B2).

Philipp tracks the changes.

A for effort in terms of giving us a bit more to grok….

I must say, the amount of info Google knows, versus what it gives back to us, is just silly. Look at this chart of “Dancing With the Stars vs. American Idol vs.Project Runway”

All relative values, no real data. But what do they really know about this, and, oh, every other entry in the Database of Intentions? A shitload, for sure. This Zietgiest is the best ever for giving us more to check out, but it shows just how little the rest of us know about what, for Google, is knowable.

Is to innovate in how to give employees liquidity. Matt Marshall explains it here.

While Google’s stock price defied gravity through January this year — there are strong signs it may stall going forward (see graph below). It means that an employee hired a couple of weeks ago got their options at a price of $500, but now see the stocks valued at $481

In response to what I noted below, Matt accuses Yahoo of stealing Google’s approach to displaying ads. Be careful, Mattt… Jeremy can respond with proof that Google ripped off Overture…

Jeremy wonders.

Wapo:

Seeking Iran Intelligence, U.S. Tries Google
Internet Search Yields Names Cited in U.N. Draft Resolution

Early in my ponderings around Google Book Search and the library program, I wondered:

First, who is making the money? Second, who owns the rights to leverage this new innovation - the public, the publisher, or … Google? Will Google make the books it scans available for all comers to crawl and index? Certainly the answer seems to be no

That’s one of the searches in this parody of what Dick Cheney’s search history might look like, from Vanity Fair. I like seeing this kind of stuff in mainstream culture, it means the very concept of clickstreams and Database of Intentions is seeping into our consciousness….

(Thanks, David)

Gary has the scoop on two approaches that take their cue from ant and dolphin behavior. Press release fodder or breakthrough? You be the judge.

Denise is a dear friend, and today she launched her book, INTERVENTION: Confronting the Real Risks of Genetic Engineering and Life on a Biotech Planet.

Denise was pretty much Searchblog, Techcrunch, Web 2.0, Wired, and the Industry Standard all rolled up into one person back when no one else was paying attention

Tactics Used to Rig Social Sites - Cnet Exposes

Google ClickFraud Extorter: Case Dismissed After 2 Years

Ted Leonsis SEO Contest is Misguided

coull.tv Launches - First Intelligent Online Video Search Site

NewsTrust - A Social News Network Devoted to Quality Journalism

I keep a vanity Google Blog search in my RSS reader, and lately I’ve noticed a bunch of new splog entries - I think that’s what they are - that quote my book. They always quote the same passage from my book, and then mention perfumes. Like this:

John Battelle’s new book says the interface of commerce is changing, and Google’s poised to control it

Please. Please. PLEASE stop using this word (WPP boss Martin Sorrell on Google yesterday). Why? I hate it. Isn’t that enough? No? Ok, well, perhaps stop using because it’s a cop out - a way of not dealing with a company that represents in a nutshell the need for major media companies to confront shifts in their audiences, content producers, and business models

This will be worth watching for sure. Om’s post.

Via Digg, three sites that are just worth wasting some time on.

Live action hamster video game

Dawkins on the Big Question

A Google Christmas lights mashup.

So it’s fun to note that Fred is an authority on Borat, and Tom on porn. We love search!

Best of luck, Danny, and for sure, watch this feed.

As one might expect with an abrupt change of control, a lot of senior folks are leaving (or plan to leave) AOL since the new boss (Randy Falco from NBC) came on board. And they are talking - off the record - about what happened to former AOL CEO Jon Miller. Now, clearly this is sourced by folks who were Miller lieutenants, but they say Falco’s unexpected appointment means one thing: AOL is going to be stripped down and sold off within the next year

Yahoo has had some hard knocks lately, but when Google Answers went down, Yahoo’s PR dept. couldn’t help themselves. And you know what, sure, what the hell, they have a fine story here, so to quote from the email:

I’m sure you’ve heard that Google Answers is closing down. Wanted to make sure you had the latest Yahoo! Answers stats:

- US/English-speaking countries numbers for Yahoo! Answers: Yahoo! Answers has 14.4 million unique users (comScore October) and 60 million answers.

I await the posthumous email from Jeeves, and the angle Microsoft might take