If you only pay for one year of domain registration, then in Google's eyes you will look more like a spammer than someone who registers for 10 years. Spammers tend to run fly-by-night operations...
Apparantly the quote is from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer:
At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "F*king Eric Schmidt is a f*king pussy. I'm going to f*king bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f*king kill Google.More at SearchEngineWatch
Well, Google does have that much cash, and they WILL spend it on something. Read the opinion of Gord Hotchkiss about what they might do with it
A British company launched "G-Mail web based email" in May 2002 - gmail.co.uk . And now, "after about 15 months of "correspondence and negotiations" with Google in an effort to have the "superiority" of its claim over the trade mark to G-Mail recognised, discussions are now at an end with no agreement having been reached."
Not so bad if it were just personal things (email, search, portal) but Google is requiring folk to use the one login for everything they do at Google, including business (AdWords, AdSense).
Google is aggressively moving to include classifieds listings in its organic search results, making the rounds of classified advertising Web sites, requesting a direct feed of listings.More info at this non-Google press release
It is called "Everybody Hates Chris". The entire first episode of this new sitcom, created by comedian Chris Rock based on his childhood, will be available for four days via Google Video at http://video.google.com/chris
I suggested previously that it might take Google some time to have a bigger index than Yahoo... Recently Yahoo said theirs was 19.2 billion pages, whereas Google's was only 8 billion.
By running a search with Google's filters on, and another with them off, the differences between the two sets of results are those which Google determines to be "unsafe". Porn, bad language, hate, violence etc.
Car insurance firm GEICO sued both Google and Yahoo! subsidiary Overture in May 2004 over the sale of its registered trade marks as sponsored search terms in the keyword advertising services of both search engines.Found at The Register
Overture settled in late November, but Google continued its fight, winning a significant victory in December when Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that there was no evidence that the use of the trade marks as sponsored search terms caused confusion.
However, she acknowledged that GEICO had produced survey evidence "sufficient to establish a likelihood of confusion regarding those Sponsored Links in which the trade mark GEICO appears either in the heading or text of the ad."
Accordingly, she allowed the case to continue over the question of whether the use of the trade marked terms in the text of sponsored ads breached GEICO's rights.
This was unlikely to be a major concern for Google: it has always allowed trade mark holders to request that their trade marks do not appear in the headings or text of sponsored links.
In her formal opinion, published in August, Judge Brinkema wrote: "Google may be liable for trademark infringement for the time period before it began blocking such usage or for such ads that have slipped or continue to slip through Google's system for blocking the appearance of GEICO's mark in Sponsored Links."
Google and GEICO confirmed that the lawsuit has been resolved. The terms of settlement remain confidential.
They are slowly but surely heading for the #1 spot...
Microsoft chief Bill Gates was the wealthiest person in the US for the 11th straight year with a net worth of $51 billion, followed again by Berkshire Hathaway Inc chief Warren Buffett’s $40 billion, according to Forbes.Found at Indian Express
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s ranks rose to No 16 with $11 billion each, up from No 43 last year.
Only some users get this option at present, while it is being trialed:
In Google Labs you can find the Google Ride Finder. It uses the Google Maps pages and links them with taxi companies that have registered with Google. Users can then see the real time locations of available cabs and ring for a booking. I love this one!
A Google spokesman said the current test is limited to two public sites near the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters - a pizza parlour and a gym - located in the heart of Silicon Valley.The great thing about it being free, is that customers don't have the same complaining rights as a paid service. It will probably be a long-term beta with regular outages, based on other non-search Google products....
The spokesman said: "Google WiFi is a community outreach programme to offer free wireless access in areas near our headquarters.
"At this stage in development, we're focused on collecting feedback from users. We'll determine next steps as the product evolves."
"This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law," Nick Taylor, president of the 8,000-member New York-based Authors Guild, said in a statement.Google's hubris is getting bigger, and it's nice to see someone slowing them down. More at the BBC
"(Authors), not Google, have the exclusive rights to... authorize such reproduction, distribution and display of their works," the guild's complaint says.
But Google said its project "directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing awareness of and sales of the books in the programme".
"Only small portions of the books are shown unless the content owner gives permission to show more," it added.
According to Reuters:
A WiFi service, which offers a high-speed connection to the Internet, would take Google even further from its Internet search roots and move it into the fiercely competitive world of Internet access providers and telecommunications companies.Perhaps there will be an announcement at the semi-secret partner forum on Oct 25-27?
The Google Web site has several references to Google WiFi but provides few details. One page, http://wifi.google.com/faq.html, refers to a product called "Google Secure Access", which is designed to "establish a more secure connection while using Google WiFi."
A separate page, http://wifi.google.com/download.html, offers a free download of Google Secure Access, carrying the headline: "Your wireless connection is almost ready to use."
http://google.com/blogsearch
The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service.
Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when...
His eye was caught by unusual 'rectangular shadows' nearby. Curious, he analysed the image further, and concluded that the lines must represent a buried structure of human origin. Eventually, he traced out what looked like the inner courtyards of a villa.
Called Grotica, the new service uses sophisticated image processing tools to automatically categorize still photos and movies according to subject matter and degree of explicitness. Google's powerful keyword search functions have been further enhanced for this application with over 3000 synonyms for anatomical terms and erotic activities.
It works on the Internet, why not Print, TV & Billboards? Rather than having set rates, why not have advertisers bid for a spot. A Google billboard could be available to the highest bidder, and if it was digital, ads could change instantly. At MediaPost they are asking:
Imagine for a moment that Google cracks the code and extends its yield-managed auction not only to broker print, but also radio, television, out-of-home, and new media formats like podcasting and handheld devices.
Google has always bragged about an increase in their index size, when it has suited them to make an announcement. Despite evidence that the index is now substantially larger, they won't tell us until it is bigger than Yahoo's, it seems.
Google said on Thursday that it has appointed Vinton Cerf, an Internet pioneer and co-designer of the TCP/IP communications protocol, as its chief Internet evangelist.
Mr. Cerf will be leaving his position at MCI, formerly known as WorldCom, where he served as senior vice president. However, he will continue in his role as chairman of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization that administers the Internet.
Before and after images let you assess the tragedy from your computer screen. Info and pics at The Register
Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page for the first time top the list of Vanity Fair's New Establishment, the magazine's annual powerbroker ranking, which hits newsstands today.
The 32-year-old new generation honchos beat out Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr., who fell from the top slot to second place.
It's actually a little sad. Why? Well, in 7 years they have added lots of accessories, and bought plenty of businesses, but their core function, the search engine, still works on the same old principles.
When you have spyware of course. The Washington Post reports on this common problem:
How's this for a one-two punch -- software that secretly alters your Google search results, then tries to drop nasty programs on your computer by luring you to a bogus eBay link?
That appears to be what is happening with a new program documented by security software vendor Webroot Software Inc. Called 2search, the program secretly hijacks some Google searches by presenting fake results in the midst of legitimate ones. Because the pages shown look identical to regular Google results, most victims would have no clue anything is amiss.
Google is providing free pizza to college programmers.
According to The Onion newspaper:
As a part of Purge's first phase, executives will destroy all copyrighted materials that cannot be searched by Google.
"A year ago, Google offered to scan every book on the planet for its Google Print project. Now, they are promising to burn the rest," John Battelle wrote in his widely read "Searchblog." "Thanks to Google Purge, you'll never have to worry that your search has missed some obscure book, because that book will no longer exist. And the same goes for movies, art, and music."
"Book burning is just the beginning," said Google co-founder Larry Page. "This fall, we'll unveil Google Sound, which will record and index all the noise on Earth. Is your baby sleeping soundly? Does your high-school sweetheart still talk about you? Google will have the answers."
Seoul was in talks with Washington over 'Google Earth', which makes available images of South Korea's presidential office and military facilities including Air Force bases and naval ports. "As (Google's) satellite photos are beyond our control, we are in discussion with US authorities," presidential spokesman Kim Man-Soo said. He said Google Earth's satellite photos sparked "security concerns." MoreOf course these images have been available via other sources, but as with many similar complaints, the problem is that when Google offers something, everyone hears about it.
In the latest editions of Ziff Davis' PC Magazine and Future Networks' Maximum PC, Google has purchased a full-page ad, subdivided it into five smaller ads, and resold it to AdWords advertisers. The initiative was first reported by CNET's News.com.
