Google breaking own "image next to ads" rule!

While we have one commentator arguing that the new rules are too vague, another has found evidence of Google doing precisely what it has asked AdSense users not to do:


If those Xmas trees are not drawing one's attention to the ads, I'm a snowman!

Competitive Ad Filter Not Working?

I've not had this problem myself, but some folk are reporting that although they have excluded ads from certain domains appearing in their AdSense ads previously, the filter is not excluding them at present.

Add to this ad groups in Adwords being sorted by click, regardless of how often you try to sort it other ways, like by cost or by CPC....

...and one gets the impression that all of their tech staff are on vacation - not too hard to believe considering Google's extraordinary decision to not work weekends, considering the importance of their role on the web!

$25 new merchant bounty for Checkout

Poor Google now have to decide whether to leave it as a fine, but minor accomplishment that they forget about (as in Froogle & Google Answers), or do they keep promoting it and throwing cash at it - like offering $25 per new merchant?

I think they should make it free for well past Xmas, offer $100 per new merchant, and actually go and sell it to merchants, rather than relying on merchants hearing about it. Ads on TV... definitely. Forget about taking on PayPal, but concentrate on replacing the likes of 2CO.

Patent Search

What took them so long? This is a great way of building a core, niche audience - search 7 milion US patents for the last 200 years here.

Would you trust GOOG with your medical records?

In my experience, the last bastion of privacy is your medical details. It's about the only thing US citizens can still keep to themselves, without companies and govt, departments selling your data to the highest bidder.

Now Google wants to volunteer to bring medical records into the 21st century, by storing them online on your behalf.

Quote:

Every ill person needs a “health URL,” an online meeting place where their caregivers, with express permission from the ill person, can come together, pass on notes to each other, review each others’ notes, look at the medical data, and suggest courses of action

Free Landing Page for New AdWords Starter Edition Customers

All you need do is create the page using a simple Word-like interface. Then you have a landing page for your Adwords ads, without needing to actually own a web site.

I'm guessing that it is only available to AdWords Starter Edition customers for one good reason - otherwise Adwords affiliate marketers would use these landing pages to get around the "landing page quality" problem, because surely Google would not penalize folk who use this new service.

More...

Process Sales For Free!

New! Process sales for free.
Process your Google Checkout sales for free until the end of 2007.

(This is a real incentive to make a change to Google - one year is a long time in web retail)

Researcher launches own service #1

I say "#1" because I expect others to follow suit.

David Sarokin (pafalafa-ga) was one of the 500 researchers who lost their Google Answers gig. Being one of the highest rated and most prolific, with 1727 questions answered at GA, he would be a good choice if you are after some quality research for a reasonable fee. His service is called Xooxle Answers, and I'm hoping Google won't issue him a cease & desist, seeing as they can't really suggest he is costing them business...

Googleplex going solar

They think solar power can provide 30% of their needs, and that it would be a good example for the rest of corporate America. If companies like Exxon or Walmart did this, the effect would be stronger. But Google, I don't think other corporations will care.

Google Answers not the first failue in this genre...

1999: LookSmart Live!
1999: GuruNet / Answers.com
2000: Yahoo Experts
2002: LiveAdvice

All tried to provide the same service as Google Answers, and all failed. A good article on past and current competitors here.

No commentators have really suggested the real reason Google shut it down. My best guess is that it is a combination of many things:

- no Google staff member wanted to work on it
- it didn't warrant home page promotion, but without that it had few visitors
- it went against the "information for free" principle
- technical difficulties! (somehow they were unable to email customers when their question was answered - very embarassing)
- low profits - although it should have easily made money, it probably did not have the same ROI as other Google services
- were tired of being poorly compared to the Answers service of Yahoo

In the hands of a research company targeting big business, or another search engine that would promote the results appropriately, Google Answers could thrive.... but Google would be too proud to sell it.

Official: Keywords in URL help

SEO folk have been sure of this for a long time, but now Google's Matt Cutts has (sort of) admitted it:

Most bloggy sites tend to have words from the title of a post in the url; having keywords from the post title in the url also can help search engines judge the quality of a page.

A Fond Farewell to Google Answers

Not many people had heard of it, being buried away in the depths of Google - but those who have used it realised what a tremendous & unique resource it was, with hundreds of very smart researchers tackling difficult questions for a very reasonable fee.

Now Google has pulled the plug - no reason given. Presumably it is due to embarassment that Yahoo's answer has been far, far more successful when measured by visitor numbers.

Google Answers failed because:

- Google makes money by providing something for free, and generating ad revenue. GA wasn't free.
- Google didn't promote it.
- Whereas it is a great resource for a question/answers search engine like Ask, Google didn't know what to use this massive resources of answers for

Google should have merged GA answers into regular search results. This would have promoted the service, and added value to the search results. GA answers are authorative, un-biased, and totally spam free. And they reinforce the integrity of the Google brand.

Google say they will archive the questions and answers. If a third-party were to buy it from Google, that to me would signal the beginning of a long, slow Google demise...

I was a researcher with Google Answers when it first began, and despite the poor pay I lived and breathed it. It was a great stepping-stone towards a more lucrative career, and I will miss it personally, and as a resource professionally.

Bye bye Google Answers.