PayPerPosters The Latest To Lose PageRank

I'm still convinced that this is a manual adjustment - a punishment for obvious and high-profile offenders - intended to frighten the rest of the web to conform to Google's policies.

In reality it might be that Google does not have any automated means of punishing others - and if that is the case their tactic is clever. Let the webmasters know that Google moves in mysterious ways, and we should all be good citizens.

Some bloggers participating in PayPerPost's program have found their site PageRanks lowered to virtual obsolescence by Google in the past week.

Ultimately the way forward is clear - if you want to do well via Google you have two choices:

1) Learn deeply what Google considers to be evil, and don't be evil
2) Outsmart Google

If 100% of my income came from a singular site, I'd play ball. If I had dozens of sites, I'd be testing to see exactly how well Google can tell if your site is pure and genuine.

Google Maps now photographing Aussie streets

If you see a car like the one above, smile! It's Google taking pics of the streets of Australia. More...

Internet giant Google is in secret talks with Simon Fuller, the British entrepreneur behind the Spice Girls, about a joint venture that could change the way TV is watched over the internet.

The media focus has been "new tv show, broadcast online". I disagree. The "thing" will be online voting. The next big thing is the same tv shows we already have where people get to vote via phone/SMS, but online or an online/tv hybrid. The kicker is that anyone can compete, like a cross between Digg and American Idol.

It'll be the show remembered for getting people to watch TV on their PC screens...

Google Answers reborn as Yahoo Answers / LinkedIn Answers clone

Over at Orkut you can now opt in for their new "Ask A Friend" feature, which is like that at LinkedIn, but at present only your friends can help you out with an answer. Presumably they will expand that to "only people in groups you belong to" and then "any Orkut user".

23andMe launches with $999 DNA test

Give this Google-funded company your saliva and they'll analyze your DNA, allowing you to find out if you are genetically pre-disposed to any diseases. It'll also give you the chance to participate in large medical trials for the benefit of everyone.

News / Image Glitch

Searches conducted on Google News on Friday occasionally returned photos from Reuters Group PLC that didn't match the stories they were listed next to, such as a shot of bunches of vegetables that appeared alongside a story about a Japanese merger firm.

Another story listed on Google News' top business stories had a Reuters photo of a guitarist next to a Wall Street Journal story about Sprint Nextel considering changes to a wireless Internet service plan.

This highlights one of the problems facing Web 3.0 - the butterfly effect. All one site needs do is change their code or xml or layout etc, and any other site/service that is utilising that data will have problems.

The answer is that every data originator builds an API. But then we have a gazillion APIs, so the answer is to standardize APIs. So to complete the circuit, Google should create OpenAPI...

Larry Page: Engaged!

What a ($18.5 billion) catch!

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, co-founder Larry Page will marry his girlfriend, Lucinda Southworth, at an undisclosed location during the weekend of Dec. 8.

Guests have been advised to have their passports available to travel internationally, the newspaper said.

I don't envy him - he might give her a million dollar ring and she could feel that he is being a cheapskate...

gPC - a Google PC in everything but name?

It appears to be the PC Google would make if it made PCs:

Everex, known for its low-priced laptop PCs sold through big-box stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, introduced a sub-$200 desktop PC with a "Google-centric" theme. While they are stopping short of calling it the "Google PC," many of the usual suspects are in the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen; FireFox, You Tube, Wikipedia, Meebo, and Open Office are all represented and fully functional.

Which makes you wonder why Google haven't ventured there as yet. Could it be that marketing studies have shown that it would cheapen Google's brand? Could it be that there is not enough profit margin? (my pick). Could it be that they are waiting until they have developed their own OS?

Palestinian militants using Google Earth

Yet another report about how Google Earth is being used for evil, but good on the Times of India for including this statement from Google:

When queried about the use of Google Earth by militants, Google issued a statement saying "We have paid close attention to concerns that Google Earth creates new security risks. The imagery visible on Google Earth and Google Maps is not unique; commercial high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world is widely available from numerous sources. Indeed, anyone who flies above or drives by a piece of property can obtain similar information."

News services tend to forgot that Google isn't the only supplier of satellite imagery, just the best known!

MySpace Joins OpenSocial

Typical of Google hogging the PR channels, one day after announcing they had everyone on board except for the biggies MySpace and Facebook, they announce that MySpace is on board. presumable this deal did not take place within the space of a day, but was inked prior to their first press release.

It's a good way of making Facebook look like a loner.

Google At The Gas Pump

Coming soon to 3,500 pumps across the USA, on color screens connected to the web, it will list local businesses (and coupons) and provide Google Maps directions to them, if you want. At this stage you won't be able to choose your own destinations. Future enhancements include weather & traffic reports. More...

Gmail now has IMAP

This means that you can have full access and control of your Gmail in Outlook or on your Blackberry. Great for people who access mail from multiple locations and devices. Google's help files can get you started

Devices/software supported:

iPhone
Thunderbird 2.0
Apple Mail
(and most other email clients)
Outlook 2007
Outlook 2003
Outlook Express
Windows Mail
Blackberry
Windows Mobile 6
Symbian S60

Android: cell phone software / alliance

Google is turning that old adage "if you can't beat'em, join'em" on its head. They are saying:

We can beat you, but it'll be even easier if you join in.

It's almost like a Trojan horse - Google knows it has the brand and brains to make the best and most popular apps. What it doesn't have is access to the platforms - the social networks and cellphones - so it has created an open source universal platform that appeals to potential partners, with no strings attached. Once adopted, Google will waltz in with its superior products, and steal the show.

The future of apps is who have you heard of, and who do you trust. I suspect Apple will be quietly creating some apps as we speak...

Read about Android

What is the mysterious GG?

Original expose (in French)
At Blogoscoped

It's a version of the search results that throws up extra data, for internal use only. Conspiracy theorists are yet again suggesting that buying AdWords ads boosts your organic rankings (never made any difference to any of my sites!). Google's official answer, from Matt Cutts is:

It is a tool used by members of our AdWords sales team to help prioritize new customer acquisition.

...suggesting that the GG figure is something like "we could earn this much per 100,000 impressions from these folk if they joined AdWords".

To me the most interesting part is official proof of Google categorizing sites.

Here Comes OpenSocial

The trend was looking like:

- Every year many new social networks arrive
- Every year a new king is crowned
- App providers needed to constantly rewrite their apps for each network

Google have cleverly created a system for themselves that social networks can also use - a standard framework - and they already have Orkut, LinkedIn, hi5, Friendster, Plaxo, Salesforce and Ning - collectively they have 100 million users, double the users of Facebook. MySpace is also not involved at this stage, but you could expect that all new networks will embrace OpenSocial.

I'm guessing that the networking site itself writes apps that form the personality/look/feel of the site, and that slots into the same framework.

If this means that joining a new site is easier because you can import your data into it with a single click, it will be a big success.

And don't be surprised if Google do someting similar for virtual worlds - they make the framework, businesses create the worlds, users can shift their avatar & data from one world to another with ease