This page contains some news quotes about Google for year 2005.
Link Spam Detection Based on Mass Estimation
Link Spam Detection Based on Mass Estimation
Stanford InfoLab
October 31, 2005
"Abstract"
"Link spamming intends to mislead search engines and trigger an artificially high link-based ranking of specific target web pages. This paper introduces the concept of spam mass, a measure of the impact of link spamming on a page’s ranking. We discuss how to estimate spam mass and how the estimates can help identifying pages that benefit significantly from link spamming. In our experiments on the host-level Yahoo! web graph we use spam mass estimates to successfully identify tens of thousands of instances of heavy-weight link spamming."
"1 Introduction"
"In an era of search-based web access, many attempt to mischievously influence the page rankings produced by search engines. This phenomenon, called web spamming, represents a major problem to search engines [Singhal, 2004, Henzinger et al., 2002] and has negative economic and social impact on the whole web community. Initially, spammers focused on enriching the contents of spam pages with specific words that would match query terms. With the advent of link-based ranking techniques, such as PageRank [Page et al., 1998], spammers started to construct spam farms, collections of interlinked spam pages. This latter form of spamming is referred to as link spamming as opposed to the former term spamming."
"This paper proposes a novel method for identifying the largest and most sophisticated spam farms, by turning the spammers’ ingenuity against themselves. Our focus is on spamming attempts that target PageRank. We introduce the concept of spam mass, a measure of how much PageRank a page accumulates through being linked to by spam pages. The target pages of spam farms, whose PageRank is boosted by many spam pages, are expected to have a large spam mass. At the same time, popular reputable pages, which have high PageRank because other reputable pages point to them, have a small spam mass."
"The strength of our approach is that we can identify any major case of link spamming, not only farms with regular interconnection structures or cliques, which represent the main focus of previous research (see Section 5). The proposed method also complements our previous work on TrustRank [Gyöngyi et al., 2004] in that it detects spam as opposed to “detecting” reputable pages."
"2.3 Link Spamming"
"In this paper we focus on link spamming that targets the PageRank algorithm. PageRank is fairly robust to spamming: a significant increase in score requires a large number of links from low-PageRank nodes and/or some hard-to-obtain links from popular nodes, such as The New York Times site www.nytimes.com. Spammers usually try to blend these two strategies, though the former is more prevalent."
"In order to better understand the modus operandi of link spamming, we introduce the model of a link spam farm, a group of interconnected nodes involved in link spamming. A spam farm has a single target node, whose ranking the spammer intends to boost by creating the whole structure."
"A farm also contains boosting nodes, controlled by the spammer and connected so that they would influence the PageRank of the target. Boosting nodes are owned either by the author of target, or by some other spammer (financially or otherwise) interested in collaborating with him/her. Commonly, boosting nodes have little value by themselves; they only exist to improve the ranking of the target. Their PageRank tends to be small, so serious spammers employ a large number of boosting nodes (occasionally, thousands of them) to trigger high target ranking."
"In addition to the links within the farm, spammers may gather some external links from reputable nodes. While the author of a reputable node y is not voluntarily involved in spamming (according to our model, if he/she were, the page would be part of the farm), “stray” links may exist for a number of reason:"
"• Node y is a blog or message board or guestbook and the spammer manages to post a comment that includes a spam link, which then slips under the editorial radar."
"• The spammer creates a honey pot, a spam page that offers valuable information, but behind the scenes is still part of the farm. Unassuming users might then point to the honey pot, without realizing that their link is harvested for spamming purposes."
"• The spammer purchases domain names that recently expired but had previously been reputable and popular. This way he/she can profit of the old links that are still out there."
"3.4 Estimating Spam Mass"
"The assumption that we have accurate a priori knowledge of whether nodes are good (i.e., in V+) or spam (i.e., in V-) is of course unrealistic. Not only is such information currently unavailable for the actual web, but it would be impractical to produce and would quickly get outdated. In practice, the best we can hope for is some approximation to (subset of) the good nodes (say Ṽ+) or spam nodes (say Ṽ-). Accordingly, we expect that search engines have some reliable “white-list” and/or “black-list,” comprising a subset of the nodes, compiled manually by editors and/or generated by algorithmic means."
"Depending on which of these two sets is available (either or both), the spam mass of nodes can be approximated by estimating good and spam PageRank contributions."
"3.6 Spam Detection Algorithm"
"There are at least three reasons to apply a threshold on PageRank. First, remember that we are interested in detecting nodes that profit from significant link spamming. Obviously, a node with a small PageRank is not a beneficiary of considerable boosting, so it is of no interest to us."
"Second, focusing on nodes x with large PageRank also means that we have more evidence—a larger number of nodes contributing to the PageRank of x. Therefore, no single node’s contribution is critical alone, the decision whether a node is spam or not is based upon data collected from multiple sources."
"Finally, for nodes x with low PageRank scores, even the slightest error in approximating Mx by M̃x could yield huge differences in the corresponding relative mass estimates. The PageRank threshold helps us to avoid the complications caused by this phenomenon."
"6 Conclusions"
"In this paper we introduced a new spam detection method that can identify web nodes with PageRank scores significantly boosted through link spamming. Our approach is built on the idea of estimating the spam mass of nodes, which is a measure of the relative PageRank contribution of connected spam pages. Spam mass estimates are easy to compute using two sets of PageRank scores—a regular one and another one with the random jump biased to some known good nodes. Hence, we argue that the spam detection arsenal of search engines could be easily augmented with our method."
"We have shown the effectiveness of mass estimation-based spam detection through a set of experiments conducted on the Yahoo! web graph. With minimal effort we were able to identify several tens of thousands of link spam hosts. While the number of detected spam hosts might seem relatively small with respect to the size of the entire web, it is important to emphasize that these are the most advanced instances of spam, capable of accumulating large PageRank scores and thus making to the top of web search result lists."
"We believe that another strength of our method is that it is robust even in the event that spammers learn about it. While knowledgeable spammers could attempt to collect a large number of links from good nodes, effective tampering with the proposed spam detection method would require non-obvious manipulations of the good graph. Such manipulations are virtually impossible without knowing exactly the actual set of good nodes used as input by a given implementation of the spam detection algorithm."
"In comparison to other link spam detection methods, our proposed approach excels in handling irregular link structures. It also differs from our previous work on TrustRank in that we provide an algorithm for spam detection as opposed to spam demotion."
http://dbpubs.stanford.edu/pub/2005-33
Links:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051108-144815
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/4605
Google Publication Ads
"Broaden your advertising horizons. See your ads in print."
"Google Publication Ads enables you to place ads in print publications, allowing your advertising to reach an audience that's targeted to the demographics and topics you choose."
"Publication Ads is currently in a pilot phase. If you've been invited to participate, it's easy to place an ad:"
"Select a publication."
"Use target demographics, circulation details or keywords to create a list of relevant publications. Compare each publication's details and pricing information to select the publication that's right for you."
"Create your ad."
"Combine text and images to build an ad that you can preview as you go along, like the one shown below."
"Submit your ad."
"Verify your ad and publication, then submit it with one click. We'll review your ad and provide it to the publisher for their approval, and when it runs, we'll send you proof of publication and an invoice for payment."
https://adwords.google.com/publicationads/login
Google Publication Ads
November 11, 2005
"Google releases Google Publication Ads, a service similar to AdWords except it’s for print, and not the web (it’s invite-only at the moment). Google says the service “enables you to place ads in print publications, allowing your advertising to reach an audience that’s targeted to the demographics and topics you choose.” Graphic ads are allowed as well."
"According to MediaPost Publications, for now ads are only available in two Chicago newspapers."
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2005-11-11-n31.html
Links:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051111-093131
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2498
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051110GooglePublicationAdsAvailableForPrint.html
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2005/11/10/google_tests_program_for_text_ads_in_print_pubs/
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=36187
Personalized Search Graduates from Google Labs
November 10, 2005
"We're happy to announce that today Google Personalized Search graduated from Labs and is ready for prime time. As part of our continued efforts to improve the quality of search results, Personalized Search will now be offered to all users when they create a new Google Account."
"Personalized Search is an improvement to Google search that orders results based on previous queries. Learning from the history of searches and search results that have been clicked on, Personalized Search brings certain results closer to the top when it's clear they're most relevant to the user. For example, a user who recently searched on iPod accessories who enters a query on [apple] would be shown results related to the computer manufacturer before those related to fruit."
"In addition to coming off Labs, Personalized Search also now includes several new features, such as:"
"• Bookmarks & Searchable Labels: Users can now create bookmarks and add searchable labels and notes to any item in their search history to help organize their information. Since these are created through a Google Account, this information is accessible from any computer by signing in to their account."
"• Remove Results: This new feature offers users greater control over search results by enabling them to remove unwanted results from future searches. Users can remove a single page or an entire site, for one search or all future searches."
"• International Expansion: Personalized Search is now available in 39 domains, in 12 languages. The Personalized Homepage is also now available in 17 domains, in 12 languages."
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/personalized_search.html
Google Personalized Search
Google Personalized Search Help
http://www.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1593&hl=en
Google Renames Urchin Google Analytics, Makes It Free
November 14, 2005
"Google has renamed its Urchin web analytics unit to be -- yep -- Google Analytics (as Gary predicted), in a move that follows with similar rebranding such as Keyhole being renamed Google Earth. And just like with Keyhole and Google's Picasa photo software, Google is turning Google Analytics into a free product."
"The On Demand product is free for anyone. If you don't have an AdWords account, you're limited to five million page views per month (which is a lot). Need more? Make a $5 one time deposit, open an AdWords account, and you're set with unlimited page views."
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051114-030100
Urchin Goes Free, Becomes Google Analytics
November 14, 2005
"Google has removed the fees from its web analytics package, which should be a welcome bonus to AdWords users who may have shied away from it previously."
"After Google picked up San Diego-based Urchin in March, it kept the name and fees in place. Now the company has dropped both, renaming the service Google Analytics and making it free."
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051114UrchinGoesFreeBecomesGoogleAnalytics.html
Google Analytics
"Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You'll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors."
"Sophisticated, yet easy to use"
"We believe that web analytics should be simple and sophisticated at the same time. We've designed Google Analytics to have enterprise level capabilities and yet still be accessible to anyone who wants to improve their marketing and site design. Google Analytics delivers all the features you'd expect from a high-end web analytics offering, and provides timesaving AdWords integration features."
"Integrated with AdWords"
"If you have an AdWords account, you can use Google Analytics directly from the AdWords interface. Google Analytics is the only product that can automatically provide AdWords ROI metrics, without you having to import cost data or add tracking information to keywords. Of course, Google Analytics tracks all of your non-AdWords initiatives as well."
"Free"
"Google Analytics gives us an opportunity to invest in our advertisers and everyone else who wants to create quality content on the web. Instead of spending money on web analytics, you can focus on creating targeted, ROI-driven marketing campaigns, and on improving your site design and content."
http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Analytics Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/analytics
Google Analytics Forum
http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help
Google Base
(November 16, 2005)
"Google Base is a place where you can add all types of information that we'll host and make searchable online."
"You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local."
About Google Base
(November 16, 2005)
"Why should I use Google Base?"
"If you have information you want to share with others, but aren't sure how to go about gaining an audience, Google Base is for you."
"If you don't have your own website, we'll host your content for you. You'll be able to choose labels and attributes that can draw more attention to the content you're showing."
"Google Base is free. Plus you're always in control – you can edit or archive your items at any time."
http://base.google.com/base/about.html
Google Base FAQ
(November 16, 2005)
http://base.google.com/base/about.html#faq
Google Base Support Forum
(November 16, 2005)
http://groups.google.com/group/base-help-discussion
Google Base - Editorial Guidelines
(November 16, 2005)
"The most effective item communicates a clear message to a targeted audience. Once you determine whom you want to reach and develop appropriate text, you need to create an item that will inform users. The Google Base Editorial Guidelines will help you create effective items to meet your goals"
"Underlying all the Editorial Guidelines are two simple principles:"
"Be honest, accurate, and factual."
"Clearly and accurately describe your message."
http://base.google.com/base/guidelines.html
First Base
November 15, 2005
"Today we're excited to announce Google Base, an extension of our existing content collection efforts like web crawl, Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video. Google Base enables content owners to easily make their information searchable online. Anyone, from large companies to website owners and individuals, can use it to submit their content in the form of data items. We'll host the items and make them searchable for free."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/first-base.html
My Experience With Google Base
November 16, 2005
"it seems pretty easy to post items. Its easier than eBay or Craigslist. Now, easier than eBay you can expect, since it is less complicated, but the fact that Base is easier to post to than Craigslist is a problem Craigslist needs to solve. It can take twice as long to post a free item to Craigslist, in my experience, than to Base, and that is going to send a lot of people to Base."
"Currently, my “item” is number one on a Base search for “Google”. Most of the rest of the results are people linking to articles. In a way, besides being a cheap, fast and easy marketplace, this is also the world’s worst implementation of del.icio.us. Since each item is listed seperately, if multiple people decide to post http://base.google.com/ to Google Base, they clutter the results, instead of adding depth to it."
"there is no way to pay for the item through Google Base. So, the product does some things better than Craigslist and some things worse than eBay."
"It’s halfway in between “The World’s Marketplace” and the world’s classified ads, and it wants to be both. When Google Purchases (or Wallet) hits, this may be perfect."
"The most important thing is that Google gets enough items to satisfy users and enough users to satisfy sellers, something Craigslist and eBay have in abundance. While having item feeds is a start, it won’t fulfill everything, but if anyone has a shot at rapidly growing a service, its Google."
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2005/11/16/my-experience-with-google-base/
Google Base Officially Live Now
November 16, 2005
"At this time, the service feels a little like a Froogle for everyone, to offer anything, to be shown anywhere. (The actual Froogle, Google’s shopping service, has strong limitations on the types of people it accepts as merchants, as well as the types of items – just to give it a try, I once submitted Authorama.com’s public domain books, but was rejected – and, as far as I know, it only displays Froogle items on Froogle.com.) Even more than Froogle, GBase is close to Google’s mission statement (“organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”)."
"Other than Froogle, Google Base reminds me of another initiative: the Semantic Web, evangelized by the creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee and the W3C. In this initiative, web owners will share meta- information on their available data using RDF files on their own servers."
"Not only does Google Base have a centralized approach to adding meta -data to items, unlike the Semantic Web you don’t even need to have your own web server if you prefer"
"And who knows when they’ll add their own PayPal-like money transaction service and start charging commissions. Google Wallet could be the last piece of the puzzle here."
"I think over time more Google Base use-cases will pop up; the concept is certainly interesting, and I’d like to hear what kind of information you entered, and possibly, where else other than Google Base it appeared. Can Google Base be used to enter blog posts? Can it be used to release a daily cartoon? Can it be used as eBay replacement?"
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2005-11-16-n68.html
Google Base is Live
November 15, 2005
"Google Base, the now-you-see-it-now-you-don't free Web-based database which first surfaced a couple of weeks ago, is now live."
"Google Base can be used to store information of any sort--the company seems to like using recipes as an example. Already, there's commercial stuff like classified ads and job listings in there; the service has been described as an eBay killer or a Craigslist killer. At the moment, it's clearly very far from being either."
"I recently sold a wristwatch on eBay and was struck by just how highly-evolved that service is--it not only has scads of general features for buying and selling (and in PayPal, the mechanism for moving the payment between parties), it has tools specifically for people selling vintage watches, and for folks doing many, many other specialized tasks. It took eBay a decade to get so powerful and easy to use, and I don't see Google Base catching up anytime soon, even though its features for defining data types are, in a sense, an attempt to get users to do some of the heavy lifting that eBay's done itself."
"Some of the folks who think that Google is out to take on eBay and Craigslist envision, I'm sure, that the company wants to take a monetary cut of transactions that take place in Google Base. There's no infrastructure for doing so at the moment. But the company doesn't have to be a financial middleman, or to replicate the richness of other sites, to change the game."
"Google has become the most powerful company on the Web by doing a spectacular job at finding stuff in the messy, far-flung, essentially unruly place known as the Web. With Google Base, the company is asking the world to store information right on Google's servers, and do so in a tidy, easy-to-understand way."
"If the world responds by entrusting Google with massive amounts of data, and the company monetizes it with its usual amazing efficiency, this could be the start of something big. And maybe--over time--a threat to big established sites. We'll see."
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/001098.html
Google Base service goes live
November 15, 2005
"Google's mysterious Google Base service went live late on Tuesday, allowing people to post any kind of information they want for free and to provide labels to describe it so others can easily find it."
"The new beta service allows people to post "all types of online and offline information and images" that will be searchable on Google Base and, depending on their relevance, may be searchable on Google Search, Froogle and Google Local, the company said."
"While some observers have speculated that Google is targeting the online classifieds market space, specifically eBay and Craigslist, with the service, a Google executive denied that that is the company's intent."
"Marc Leibowitz, Web search and syndication director, said Google merely wants to serve people who have information to share that is not already on a Web site and being crawled by a search engine to open it up to the public. In addition, much of the information in Google Base is expected to be noncommercial, a Google spokesman said."
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5954797.html
Google raises flag over Base
November 16, 2005
"Google is expanding its already ambitious efforts to organize all the world's information with the launch of a service today that allows people to upload a wide array of content to a central database so others can find it."
"The free Google Base service at http://base.google.com will accept just about any type of content from anyone, from recipes and events information to large batches of job listings compiled by classified-ad companies such as CareerBuilder.com."
"Company founder and Chief Executive Kendall Fargo said that before Google Base, his Web site's product information could not be found through Google. Now, though, people who are shopping for items such as dishwashers will be able to locate Web pages that feature the products sold by local retailers."
"Speculation has been widespread that Google Base is a way for Google to dive into classified ads and listings, a market dominated by newspapers, craigslist and San Jose online auction company eBay. Individuals will be able to create free listings for items they want to sell. And CareerBuilder, a national job-listings Web site, has been helping Google test its service, Google said."
"Although Google users will be able to restrict their search to just the content of Google Base, the Mountain View company's larger goal is to push the content it receives to its various services, where appropriate. Product listings, for example, might appear on the Froogle shopping service, while restaurant listings might end up at Google Local. Other content might end up in Google's main Web index."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/13179904.htm
Google Aims for the Classified Ads Business
November 16, 2005
"Google is poised to enter the highly competitive classified advertisement business, posing a threat to online and traditional businesses in that field."
"On Tuesday evening, Google, the dominant Web search site, was planning to introduce a service called Base, which it said was intended to permit Internet users to upload files and other information to Google's servers and make them searchable by category."
"During an interview at Google headquarters last week, Salar Kamangar, Google's vice president for product management, said the new service was experimental and cautioned against viewing it as a imminent assault on the classified advertising business because it could be used in far broader ways."
"Still, several industry executives and analysts said they believed that Google Base was an aggressive first step in a series of maneuvers that would position the company as a powerful player in the $100 billion annual market for classified advertising."
"The general industry perception is that Google could potentially transform that market, which has already been shaken by the rapid shift to online searching and the free listing services offered by Craigslist."
" Last week, the newsletter reported on a Google patent application filed in March 2004 for a service called Automat, which the newsletter said went so far as to use the URL address "classifieds.google.com" in several drawings. The application was titled "System and Method for Providing On-Line User-Assisted Web-Based Advertising." The company said in a statement, "Prospective product announcements should not be inferred from our patent applications." "
"The system is intended to simplify the process of making either small or large amounts of digital information easily accessible. Google Base, Mr. Kamangar said, offers fields that will permit users to "label" and define the "attributes" of each piece of information they upload to Google. The information can then be quickly indexed by the company's search system."
"Mr. Kamangar said the service would enable users to store all kinds of information ranging from DNA sequences to home recipes, allowing both commercial and noncommercial uses."
" "We saw there were large instances of information we didn't have and couldn't make searchable," he said, noting that, "we realized that we could make it possible for people to make information on information available." "
"A variety of Web services like Technorati and Flickr already use a mechanism known as tagging, which makes it possible for computer users to categorize Web pages they have found and to annotate them."
"Google Base would offer users a similar function."
"There is intense industry interest in what Google will do with its Base and Automat services as well as an online payment system that is reported to be under development."
"The company faces several challenges if it does decide to enter the classified ad market, a move that would put it in competition with companies like eBay, Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com, which are currently all major Google advertisers."
"In fact, starting Tuesday evening, Google searches were to direct job seekers to specific listings on the CareerBuilder Web site."
"Google currently is dominant only in its Web search service, while its other offerings like e-mail, news and maps, all significantly trail competing services from Yahoo and others. Google's success in gaining classified revenue might depend on the degree to which it is able to integrate the information into its main search offering."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/technology/16google.html
Links:
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3564506
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2527
http://www.researchbuzz.org/2005/11/now_google_base_really_do_all.shtml
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/searchinsider/wpn-49-20051116GoogleBaseArrives.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-11-16-google-base_x.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2005/tc20051027_587849.htm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/16/BUGCFFOPKT1.DTL
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174300039
Google Click-to-Call
(November 24, 2005)
"1. What's the phone icon on Google search results? How does it work?"
"We're testing a new product that gives you a free and fast way to speak directly to the advertiser you found on a Google search results page – over the phone."
"Here's how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click 'Connect For Free,' Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party."
"We won't share your telephone number with anyone, including the advertiser. When you're connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can't see it. In addition, we'll delete the number from our servers after a short period of time."
"2. Am I charged to connect to an advertiser?"
"No. Google foots the bill for all calls - local and long-distance. However, if we call a mobile phone number, you may incur airtime fees depending on the mobile phone plan. Check your mobile phone provider for details."
http://www.google.com/help/faq_clicktocall.html
Links:
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2005/11/24/googles-got-click-to-call/
http://google.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000343069498/
Google Gives London Some Google Space
November 25, 2005
"Google has opened Google Space in London’s Heathrow Airport, giving those waiting for their flights free internet terminals and a chance to test-drive some Google applications. Google even has some live employees helping out there."
"The employees are wearing shirts that have a button on their shoulders and appear to say, “Press For Assistance”."
Google turns Heathrow into testing lab
November 24, 2005
"Google Space aims to entertain passengers waiting at Heathrow, and will also allow the search firm to road-test new products"
"Google has taken its first foray into the physical world with the launch of an Internet cafe-style computing booth in London's Heathrow Airport."
"The temporary installation, termed Google Space, consists of ten Samsung laptops in the public lounge of Terminal One at London's main airport."
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/ecommerce/0,39020372,39237536,00.htm
Links:
http://www.google.co.uk/googlespace/
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051124GoogleSpaceIsVeryDownToEarth.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4463634.stm
http://www.telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=105912&nr=
Xooglers
(November 26, 2005)
"A gathering spot for ex-Googlers to reminisce and comment on the latest developments in search."
Xooglers!
November 25, 2005
"check out Xooglers. It’s a blog that Doug Edwards started to reminisce about his experiences at Google (other ex-Googlers may join in at some point). Doug’s a great guy and he helped shape Google culture in many ways. If you’ve read the copy on the spam report page, you’ve seen some of his polishing work."
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/xooglers/
Links:
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2005-11-25-n77.html
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051125-091043
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/4795
Google Transit Trip Planner
(December 8, 2005)
"Create your own trip, complete with schedules"
Google Transit FAQ
(December 8, 2005)
"Do you live in or near a city? Want to go someplace—to the airport, to dinner, to work every day—and not worry about the hassles and expense of driving and parking? Google Transit Trip Planner enables you to enter the specifics of your trip—where you're starting, where you're ending up, what time of day you'd like to leave and/or arrive— then uses all available public transportation schedules and information to plot out the most efficient possible step-by-step itinerary. You can even compare the cost of your trip with the cost of driving the same route!"
"At the moment we're only offering this service for the Portland, Oregon metro area, but we plan to expand to cities throughout the United States and around the world."
http://www.google.com/transit/help/faq_transit.html
Google Transit forum
(December 8, 2005)
http://groups.google.com/group/googletransit
Public transit via Google
December 7, 2005
"One of the best things about working at Google is a policy known as "20 percent time," which you can read about on our jobs page or in this post. Having the freedom to pursue projects during 20 percent of our work week means engineers can pursue a breadth of unique and interesting ideas without having to wait for anyone else."
"So not too long ago, a few engineers from San Francisco, New York, and Zurich -- all of whom regularly use public transportation -- decided that being able to plan local trips without having to go to multiple websites, and done in an easy, intuitive way would be a useful product. So they devoted their 20 percent time to building it. As it happens, a lot of people thought this was a great idea, and our small team quickly grew with "twenty-percenters" from across Google."
"Today, we are happy and proud to tell you that their efforts have resulted in a new Google Labs experiment: Google Transit Trip Planner. With it, commuters will be able to easily access public transit schedules, routes, and plan trips using their local public transportation options. This first release covers only the Portland, Oregon metro area, but we are working to expand our coverage very soon. (If you're from a local transit agency interested in being included in Google Transit, we would love to speak with you. Just write to us.)"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/public-transit-via-google.html
Gmail Web Clips
A cure for the common inbox
December 8, 2005
"Ever get the feeling that your email experience is a little too predictable? I certainly have. Over the past few months, I've been working on Gmail Clips, a new feature that can help mix things up a bit. Starting this week, you can see headlines from your favorite blogs and news sites right above your Inbox. Gmail tips and relevant text ads appear from time to time as well."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/cure-for-common-inbox.html
What is 'Web Clips'?
(December 8, 2005)
"Web Clips shows you news headlines, Gmail tips, blogs, any RSS and Atom feed, relevant sponsored links, and more -- right at the top of your inbox and messages. Receive updates from your favorite sites without having to leave Gmail!"
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=18219&topic=0&type=f
What's new on Gmail?
(December 8, 2005)
Feed me
"View your favorite RSS feeds right in Gmail as “Clips” along the top of your Gmail screen. Display clips from blogs, news sites and other online sources. Pick from the latest headlines, random popular feeds, or add any RSS/Atom feed you want."
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html
Gmail Mobile
(December 16, 2005)
"Now you can access your Gmail messages from the web browser on your mobile phone or device. Read and reply to your Gmail messages any time, anywhere."
" Point your phone's web browser to http://m.gmail.com "
http://www.google.com/glm/gmail
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html
Matt Cutts Interview
Sarah Mackay (Ms. Write) of Webmaster Radio (http://www.webmasterradio.fm/) interviews Google's software engineer Matt Cutts (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/).
Audio file: http://www.webmasterradio.fm/episodes/audio/2005/MW120205.mp3
Some of the topics discussed:
- indexing time
- ranking high in search results
- how to get banned
- re-inclusion after getting banned
- SEO companies
- Matt Cutts' blog
- Google free search
- Froogle
- googlers in conferences
Links:
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/4925
http://www.seobuzzbox.com/webmaster-radio-matt-cutts-interview.html
http://www.boydcreative.net/google/recapping-sarah-mackays-interview-with-googles-matt-cutts/
http://www.seologs.com/archives/2005/12/06/audio-interview-with-matt-cutts/
http://www.sempro.org/2005-12/matt-cutts-audio-interview/
Desktop goes international
(December 14, 2005)
"Today we're pleased to announce the out-of-beta release of Google Desktop in 16 languages, including Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese/Brazilian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish."
http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/2005/12/desktop-goes-international.html
Google Homepage API
(December 14, 2005)
"The Google Homepage API is our effort to open the Google homepage to developers. Use it to turn your web content or application into modules that users can add to their personalized homepage. You can also develop features that affect other aspects of the page, such as font and color schemes."
http://www.google.com/apis/homepage/
Google Homepage API FAQ
http://www.google.com/apis/homepage/faq.html
Google Homepage API Developer Guide
http://www.google.com/apis/homepage/guide.html
Google Homepage API forum
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Homepage-API
Discover Homepage Content
http://www.google.com/ig/directory
Build your own Google homepage
December 13, 2005
"The personalized homepage was created to bring together the stuff that interests you from across the web. From an engineering perspective, this became an opportunity to create a framework for all types of content and information. Supporting RSS and Atom feeds was one step in that direction, and today we're excited to start supporting richer web apps as well. With the Google Homepage API, developers can now create modules for the personalized homepage. It's designed to be flexible and easy to use, and you don't need to download anything to create a module. To get the ball rolling, the team's created a few modules to add to the directory."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/build-your-own-google-homepage.html
Google To Create Over 600 New Jobs in Ireland
December 13, 2005
"Google is to create over 600 new jobs, with the support of IDA Ireland. It was announced today by Micheal Martin TD and John Herlihy, European Director of Online Sales & Operations at Google."
"Dublin is Googles European Headquarters and its largest operation outside the US, with employees from over 40 nationalities. It provides a range of technical, sales and operations support, financial and shared services to Googles customers in over 35 countries."
"Over 600 new high level positions will be created in total over the next two to three years. Google will be recruiting across the business from operations, customer sales and engineering to legal, finance and human resources."
"Google aims to become the number one choice for all nationalities wanting to pursue a career in the European media or technology industries. Google recruits employees at a very high skill level and many of the positions will require third level educated graduates with multilingual skills. Google currently employs over 800 people across Europe."
"In order to accommodate its growing work force, Google has also signed a lease for a further 100,000 square feet beside its current European headquarters building on Barrow Street, Dublin 4."
http://www.irishdev.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=1527
Google to create 600 new jobs in Ireland
December 14, 2005
"Google is to create 600 new jobs at its European HQ in Dublin. The new jobs will bring the total number of Googlers in Ireland to around 1400."
"The company is also reported to have signed the lease on another 9,300 square meters of office space in the Irish capital."
"Ireland was already known as a favourite destination for US companies looking for a European HQ with both Dell and Intel basing their operations there."
"Not only is the population well-trained and speak English, it serves well as a tax haven from the United States. Ireland's corporate tax rate is 12.5 percent, compared to 35 percent in the US."
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/81331/google-to-create-600-new-jobs-in-ireland.html
Links:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0512140121dec14,1,2062395.story?coll=chi-technology-hed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121300819.html
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8EFFSA88.htm?campaign_id=apn_tech_down&chan=tc
http://software.silicon.com/applications/0,39024653,39155028,00.htm
http://www.forbes.com/business/services/feeds/ap/2005/12/13/ap2389758.html
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051212IrelandMayLuckIntoMoreGoogleJobs.html
Google warns of runaway server costs
December 12, 2005
"Google has warned that servers could soon cost more to run than to buy."
"Luiz Andre Barroso, an engineer for the company, warned that if performance per watt does not improve then servers could become prohibitively expensive, a chilling thought for his parent company which relies on hoards of servers for its own business."
"Mr Barroso suggested that processors should incorporate more cores and threads to allow them to execute instructions at the same time. Sun's Niagara processor, included in the recently launched T2000 server, follows similar engineering ideas."
" "The possibility of computer equipment power consumption spiralling out of control could have serious consequences for the overall affordability of computing, not to mention the overall health of the planet," Mr Barroso wrote in the Association for Computing Machinery's Queue journal. "
http://www.itwales.com/799663.htm
Links:
http://hardware.silicon.com/servers/0,39024647,39154982,00.htm
Google's Blogger gets blocked again in China
December 14, 2005
"Access to Google Inc.'s free Web log service, Blogger, appears to once again be blocked by official censors in China, less than two months after the service became accessible to users here."
"Web logs, or blogs as they are more commonly known, are personal Web sites that are similar to online diaries, allowing people to record events in their lives, share pictures, or comment on politics current events."
"The Chinese government has a policy of blocking access to Internet sites that it deems undesirable but the specifics of these efforts, which can change over time, are not generally acknowledged by officials in public."
http://www.infoworld.nl/idgns/bericht.phtml?id=00256F6C005C22FC482570D60081A9DE
Google’s Golden Triangle
December 12, 2005
" "It's not the searcher, it's the engine," said Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO of Canadian search engine marketing firm, Enquiro. Hotchkiss, presenting at SES Chicago last week, was relaying some telling eye-tracking data, comparing where users' eyes fall on major search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Google, with its "Golden Triangle" eye-tracking pattern, seems to produce results faster than the others. "
" "Google has trained us how to search. Sorry MSN. Sorry Yahoo," Hotchkiss continued. "
" The data suggested that Google's homepage was set up exactly right. Users' eyes landed directly on the search box. With busy portals like MSN and Yahoo, eye patterns were more diverse, distracting users with a barrage of imagery. The imagery causes the pattern to scatter as users look around the page between query and result. This is a pattern Hotchkiss called the "accidental tourist." "
"Users scan Google's results page in a triangular pattern now called the Golden Triangle, a shot of which can be found here, from the top left to the top right, connecting to the bottom left just above where searchers begin to scroll. Eyetools reports that in its initial study, 100% of study participants looked at this area of the SERP."
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051212GooglesGoldenTriangle.html
Searching for music
December 15, 2005
"we created a music search feature. Now you can search for a popular artist name, like the Beatles or the Pixies, and often Google will show some information about that artist, like cover art, reviews, and links to stores where you can download the track or buy a CD via a link at the top of your web search results page."
"We do this sort of thing a lot -- adding a bit of special information to results for important searches. For example, we have movie showtimes and stock quotes. The more information we can make easily accessible with a simple search, the better."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/searching-for-music.html
Google Extensions for Firefox
"Welcome to the Google Extensions for Firefox page. Extensions are small applications that you download and install into your Firefox browser to add new functionality. We hope you enjoy these extensions!"
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/extensions/index.html
Google Extensions for Firefox forum
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Firefox-Extensions
Google Safe Browsing for Firefox BETA
"Google Safe Browsing is an extension to Firefox that alerts you if a web page that you visit appears to be asking for your personal or financial information under false pretences."
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/safebrowsing/index.html
Blogger Web Comments for Firefox BETA
"Blogger Web Comments for Firefox is an extension that makes it easy to see what bloggers are saying about a page you're viewing in Firefox"
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/webcomments/index.html
Google Toolbar for Firefox
"Take the power of Google with you anywhere on the Web"
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/index.html
Google Send to Phone
"Send text messages of web page content to your mobile phone (U.S. numbers only)."
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/extensions/sendtophone/index.html
Google Suggest for Firefox
"Google Suggest for Firefox is an extension that completes your search terms as you type them into the search box located to the right of the address bar."
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/extensions/suggest/index.html
Google FireFox Extensions Collect Data, Share it With Spammers and Scammers
December 20, 2005
"Every request is transmitted to Google over HTTP, i.e. in clear-text. This is not good. Here is why:"
"Consider a web application that uses SSL to encrypt the session. If this web application were to submit private information about you via a GET request (i.e in the URL, such as a credit card number), this will now be transmitted to http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/lookup
in clear-text, allowing someone on your network segment, or any router in between yourself and google.com to sniff the information off the wire."
Two Things That Bother Me About Google’s New Firefox Extension
December 15, 2005
"Google just released a new Firefox extension called “Safe Browsing for Firefox”."
"what information does the extension send to Google? To find out, I intercepted the traffic between my Firefox browser and google.com. For every request you make, the extension invokes /safebrowsing/lookup on http://www.google.com."
"Here are two things that bother me about this extension:"
"1) Every request is transmitted to Google over HTTP, i.e. in clear- text. This is not good. Here is why: Consider a web application that uses SSL to encrypt the session. If this web application were to submit private information about you via a GET request (i.e in the URL, such as a credit card number), this will now be transmitted to http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/lookup in clear-text, allowing someone on your network segment, or any router in between yourself and google.com to sniff the information off the wire."
"2) The extension sends the entire GET request to Google. If a web application were to send private information via GET parameters, this will now be transmitted to Google."
"I am more worried about the issue #1. However, I do realize that web applications should be designed to use POST in order to send sensitive information, but the fact of the matter is that many web applications do not follow this guideline. Google's extension makes this situation worse by transmitting this information over clear text (assuming the web application uses SSL). This extension is designed to help protect users from illegitimate resources, but the irony is that it has the potential to expose sensitive information about you when you visit legitimate resources!"
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8760
Links:
http://www.traffick.com/2005/12/when-safe-isnt-safe-google-firefox.asp
http://www.smartguypress.com/2005/12/more-phishing-info-googles-firefox.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28384
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/5060
Jingle All The Way
December 15, 2005
"By using XMPP, an open standard protocol, we give Google Talk users the choice of what client to use, and make it easy for developers to implement their own clients and innovative services on top of our network."
" we've released a library we call "libjingle." "
"Libjingle is the very same code Google Talk uses to negotiate, establish, and maintain peer-to-peer voice sessions, packaged as a library for other developers to use in their own projects. By incorporating Libjingle into your project, you enable its users to voice chat with other users of the Google Talk service."
"I'm really thrilled to be able to release this source code to the IM development community."
http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2005/12/jingle-all-way.html
Why should text have all the fun?
December 15, 2005
"We at the Reader team like to receive some visual stimulation with our reading, so we're subscribed to a bunch of photo feeds. It's great that RSS and Atom can deliver more than just text, but it gets boring to view everything in the exact same fashion."
"We've therefore come up with what we call "photo templates," which is a special display mode we have for photo sites. When it's triggered, we try our best to expand thumbnails to full-size photos. Additionally, on the right side of the screen we display a list of clickable thumbnails of other photos from that feed, so that you can cherry-pick the best ones to view."
"Our plan is to support the Media RSS extension to RSS and Atom (the thumbnail and content tags are most relevant to photo feeds). This way, if you include the right tags, Reader will be able to display your feed with the photo template without us having to do any work. The Media RSS spec is pretty thorough, and you can use Flickr's feeds as examples of usage."
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2005/12/why-should-text-have-all-fun_15.html
Creating Global Advertising Partnership
December 20, 2005
"Google to Invest $1 Billion for a 5% Stake in AOL"
"Companies to Collaborate on Online Video Offering and Make More AOL Content Available to Google Users"
"Google Talk Instant Messaging Software to Communicate With AIM Users"
"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and America Online, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), today announced that they are expanding their current strategic alliance. The agreement creates a global online advertising partnership, makes more of AOL's industry -leading content available to Google users, and includes a $1 billion investment in AOL by Google. This strategic alliance expands on the original relationship between the two companies launched three years ago."
"Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said: "AOL is one of Google's longest-standing partners, and we are thrilled to strengthen and expand our relationship. Today's agreement leverages technologies from both companies to connect Google users worldwide to a wealth of new content. We've also created a simple way for AOL Marketplace advertisers to buy and place search-related advertising across the AOL network."
"Under the strategic alliance, Google and AOL will continue providing search technology to AOL's network of Internet properties worldwide. The agreement's broad range of new features for users and advertisers include:"
"Creating an AOL Marketplace through white labeling of Google's advertising technology - enabling AOL to sell search advertising directly to advertisers on AOL-owned properties;"
"Expanding display advertising throughout the Google network;"
"Making AOL content more accessible to Google Web crawlers;"
"Collaborating in video search and showcasing AOL's premium video service within Google Video;"
"Enabling Google Talk and AIM instant messaging users to communicate with each other, provided certain conditions are met; and"
"Providing AOL marketing credits for its Internet properties."
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/twaol_expanded.html
Google’s founders named Men of the Year
December 22, 2005
"Google’s founders may have conquered the internet world in 2005 – but given their outsized ambitions, this may only be a start."
"Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are on Friday named as Men of the Year by the Financial Times, harbour hopes that reach well beyond their search engine business to “make the world a better place”, a promise made at the time of Google’s initial public offering last year."
"The Men of the Year recognition reflects the effect the company created by Mr Brin and Mr Page only seven years ago has had on internet users, as well as the worlds of business and technology, in the past 12 months."
" The men, who are only 32, see plenty of scope to improve Google’s core product. “It’s clear there’s a lot of room for improvement, there’s no inherent ceiling we’re hitting up on.” "
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/86e14656-7315-11da-8b42-0000779e2340.html
Links:
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/12/24/business/12955077&sec=business
http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=112346
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/12/23/googlebrin.shtml
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1580451,00020015.htm
http://news.com.com/Google+creators+named+Men+of+the+Year/2100-1038_3-6006918.html
The Original GOOGLE Computer Storage [Page and Brin] (1996)
(December 26, 2005)
"The development of the Google algorithms was carried on on a variety of Computers, mainly provided by the NSF-DARPA-NASA-funded Digital Library project at Stanford. Click to see the equipment in its laboratory setting on the basement floor of Gates Information Sciences. Crawling the web to obtain its link structure required an enormous amount of storage in comparison with typical student projects at that time. We show here the original storage assembly, containing 10 4 Gigabyte disk drives, giving 40 Gbytes total."
http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/0-4-Google.htm
Computer History Exhibits Photo TOP Index
"This page first created January 2000 by Gio Wiederhold. They are incremetally updated as more information is validated and new artifacts are acquired or returned to their owners."
http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/index.htm
Computer History Exhibits Photo Tour
http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/phototour.html
A Trojan Horse program that targets Google ads has been detected by an Indian Web publisher
December 27, 2005
"Trojan in action Techshout.com reports that a new, deceptive Trojan Horse program has surfaced. The program is engineered to produce fake Google ads that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The ads are incorporated in Google AdSense, the program that lets website owners display ads from Google’s list of advertisers. The Trojan Horse apparently downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page and then replaces the original ads with its own set of malicious ads."
" Since the Trojan Horse makes the deceptive ads look like normal Google ads, the program was nearly impossible to detect by the general public. However, Raoul Bangera, an Indian web publisher, discovered the bogus program and contacted the Google AdSense team. Bangera emailed the team a number of cases, including various screenshots, log files of an infected computer and system files as proof. The AdSense team validated the news saying, “We can confirm from the screenshots that these are fake Google ads, formatted to look like legitimate ads. We agree that this phenomenon is likely the result of malicious software installed on your computer.” "
"The working of the Ad has a specific procedure. Wherein when the ad is clicked it forwards the user to 3 different sites one after another. What follows next is that the user finally lands himself to a page having a bevy of ads and links to more ads. Through this malicious program advertisers and publishers are the ones who are being deprived of their revenue."
Links:
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/003036.html
http://www.jensense.com/archives/2005/12/malicious_softw.html
Google Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox 1.5
(December 29, 2005)
In the summer Google released Google Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox 1.0:
On late November Mozilla announced Mozilla Firefox 1.5:
http://www.mozilla.com/press/mozilla-2005-11-29.html
Now there's also Google Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox 1.5:
"Firefox 1.0+, 1.5"
http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/index.html
Opera Software chooses Google as search partner
December 29, 2005
"Norwegian Opera Software has agreed that Google Inc. will be the default partner for its mobile Internet browsers, Opera said on Thursday."
" "Google will be the default search partner for the mobile browsers: Opera Mobile and Opera Mini," Opera Software ASA said in a statement. "Under the one-year contract, Opera will make Google Search a major part of the browsers home screen." "
"Oslo-based Opera Software is a tiny competitor of Microsoft in the Internet browser market, but the fast-growing part of its business is in browsers for mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices."
Links:
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051229OperaGoogleExtendSearchPlacement.html
http://www.betanews.com/article/Google_Opera_Partner_on_Mobile_Search/1135873365
P.R.A.S.E Page Rank Assisted Search Engine
(December 29, 2005)
"Select the range of Page Rank that you are searching for in PRASE. If you chose the default option of 0 - 9 you will get the listings with the highest Page Rank first and the results are sorted in descending order. For more targeted results you may increase the minimum Page Rank and decrease the maximum. This is especially good for those who are either link building or who are wanting to bypass the larger Page Rank sites."
"© 2005 Don Johnson Design, LLC. all rights reserved."
Last modified: January 10th, 2011
Author: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com)
URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/news-quotes-google-2005
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