Zooogle

This Blog is Dead

2008-05-31T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'll no longer be maintaining or posting to this blog (Zooogle) and it will be deleted shortly. Please visit my main blog: Nullvariable.com for more frequent posts and cool stories.

Third-party ads now available on the Google content network

2008-05-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

Third-party ads now available on the Google content network:

"Greetings from Google!

We're happy to announce that the Google content network now
accepts display ads served from qualified third-party vendors.
During this initial release, only ads in English are eligible,
although we look forward to offering more options in the future.

By accepting third-party ads, we can attract a greater variety of
advertising on the Google content network, which we believe will
result over time in increased revenue for publishers and more
relevant advertising for end users.

If you're currently opted in to image ads, you're already able to
receive third-party ads. If not, you can enable image ads to start
receiving third-party ads immediately. (Learn how to enable image
ads at
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=9741.)

If you choose to allow third-party ads on your site, please update
your privacy policy to inform your visitors that third-party
vendors may serve ads on your site. Please also provide links to
these vendor websites and inform your users that they may opt out
of cookies (if the vendor offers this capability). For more
information about updating your policies, visit
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94150.

You'll continue to have full control over which ads appear on your
site with tools like competitive ad filtering and the Ad Review
Center. Also, only advertisers with whom we have proven
relationships and who've clearly demonstrated commitments to our
quality standards may participate in this program. Our policies
governing ad content and formatting remain unchanged.

To learn more about third-party ads, please visit our blog post at
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/05/introducing-third-party-ads-on-google.html
and our FAQ at
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14535.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us at
adsense-support@google.com.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043"

If hackers don’t get you, maybe Google will

2008-05-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

If hackers don’t get you, maybe Google will | Storage Bits | ZDNet.com: "All the hacked files were gone. Google had spidered the site after that but they still had the links in their search results.

So the Sri Lankan looking for Tamil porn videos was coming to StorageMojo for a non-existant page and getting a “System Error” message - instead of a low overhead static 404 page. And that was killing the virtual server’s performance.

After a few hours the Google referral traffic declined and my hosting company put StorageMojo back up - now serving up an StorageMojo page from cache that says “No articles found.” Much lighter."

Advertisers Can't Sell Hard Liquor But Google Can

2008-05-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

Advertisers Can't Sell Hard Liquor But Google Can [SearchEngineWatch]: "Google AdWords has a strict no advertising rule for hard liquor, as they call it. You will not find ads for terms like rum, gin or vodka. Well... vodka searches now add a twist. Google has started to promote their vodka sellers with the top entry.

Before you get to the search results, there is a Google Checkout listing promoting various vodka sellers. Now that does seem like they are contradicting their own rules."

Google puts new Cambridge digs on display

2008-05-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

Google puts new Cambridge digs on display - Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology:: "About 60 people -- mostly local media members and bloggers -- attended an open house event at Google's Cambridge office that included demonstrations of Google products such as Friend Connect and Android that were developed in Cambridge.

The Cambridge office is one of just three that Google operates with a fully staffed engineering department, media sales and online sales departments. The other two operate in New York and at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif."

Google founders have grown up

2008-05-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Google founders have grown up | Technology | Reuters: "It's official: the guys who founded Google are grown up.

That was the pronouncement on Thursday from Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, who was hired in 2001 to provide mature, traditional business savvy to the Internet search company founded by whiz kids Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

'The boys have grown up,' Schmidt told a news conference ahead of the wildly successful company's annual meeting."

Toilet Internet Service makes a come back

2008-05-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Remember Google's April Fools joke TiSP? Well it seems that its no longer a joke but soon to be a reality!

Super-Fast Broadband Via the Sewer System : EcoWorldly: "[Bournemouth, UK is] first in the UK to make use of the sewer system in a whole new way.

Rather than rely on the rather un-environmentally friendly process of digging up swathes of countryside and road to lay cables, H2O Networks Ltd have been called in for the gig.

As is so often the case, simple ideas seem to have manifest benefits and using sewer systems to lay fibre optic cables is a case in point."

Yahoo comes up short against Google with a group that matters

2008-05-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

Yahoo comes up short against Google with a group that matters - Los Angeles Times: "But amid all the analysis and punditry since talks between the two companies fell apart last week, the one angle that's proved elusive is what avid users of Microsoft's and Yahoo's products have to say.

I'm not just talking about people with computers and Internet connections. I'm talking about people for whom information technology is part of their DNA, who can't imagine making it through the day without access to Facebook and YouTube and the other feeding grounds of the chronically wired.

That's why I found myself the other day surrounded by a couple of dozen fresh-faced students in the tech center of Loyola High School, an all-boys college-prep academy near downtown Los Angeles. Founded in 1865, it boasts of being the oldest school in Southern California."

Is Microsoft stalking Powerset's search technology? | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com

2008-05-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

Is Microsoft stalking Powerset's search technology? | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com: "While Powerset is preparing for the public rollout of its unique, semantic search engine, Microsoft may be interested in acquiring the startup, according to sources.

I asked Barney Pell, Powerset co-founder and CTO, whether there was any truth to a Microsoft-Powerset deal. He said, 'No comment,' and noted his policy of not commenting on rumors. Microsoft also declined to comment on rumors."

Civic groups urge DOJ probe of possible Google-Yahoo deal

2008-05-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

Civic groups urge DOJ probe of possible Google-Yahoo deal: "According to published reports, the DOJ has been looking into the antitrust implications of a partnership between Google and Yahoo. Last month, the two companies were engaged in a test whereby Yahoo delivered relevant Web advertising from Google alongside its own search results. However, there has been no news regarding a continuation of that test."

Odd coalition opposes Google-Yahoo ad plan - Los Angeles Times

2008-05-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

Odd coalition opposes Google-Yahoo ad plan - Los Angeles Times: "Internet search king Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have yet to agree on a deal to put some Google ads next to Yahoo search results. But their discussions have already provoked objections from an unusually diverse set of Washington players. In fact, it is safe to say that the American Corn Growers Assn. has never before joined forces with the Dominican American Business Network.

Those and 14 other nonprofit organizations sent a joint letter to the Justice Department on Friday asking for an antitrust investigation of the possible Google-Yahoo alliance, which they said 'threatens to undermine privacy and consumer choice, increase consumer prices, irreversibly damage online competition, and hurt small and medium businesses across the country.'"

Google Plastic Bag View

2008-05-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

Google Plastic Bag View: "'The bag remains in place for quite a long way actually - right along College Road, onto the Old Steese Highway and halfway up Minnie Street, where it finally disappears at the junction with Clara Street. Hopefully the discovery of this exciting technique will allow privacy advocates everywhere to finally thwart Google's endlessly evil efforts to provide us all with really useful driving directions!'"

Yahoo?s Answer to Google?s Universal Search is Glue (Coming Soon to America) - washingtonpost.com

2008-05-09T04:43:00.000-07:00

Yahoo?s Answer to Google?s Universal Search is Glue (Coming Soon to America) - washingtonpost.com: "Much like Google's Universal Search that brings in results from images, videos, maps, news, or other sources as appropriate. It is also similar in appearance to Ask since its redesign last summer.

Yahoo Glue only works for certain categories of searches (sports, travel, entertainment, health, stocks, and tech), but it does produce a more satisfying experience than the traditional list of blue links. The only issue is that the results take a little bit longer to load. But humans are visual creatures and we respond better to the visual display of information. Yahoo Glue brings in results in three different panes, both from Yahoo and elsewhere. They can be images, videos, Wikipedia entries, HowStuffWorks entries, sports stats, and news, and results from other sources."

Google News fails to Digg-ify itself | The Register

2007-08-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

Google News fails to Digg-ify itself | The Register: "Google News is allowing Digg-style reader comments. Sort of.

Today, on the official Google News blog, software engineers Dan Meredith and Andy Golding announced a 'new, experimental feature' that gives readers the power to publicly comment on stories turned up by the site's news aggregator - if they're actually involved in the stories.

'We'll be trying out a mechanism for publishing comments from a special subset of readers: those people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question,' they wrote. 'Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we'll show them next to the articles about the story. Comments will be published in full, without any edits, but marked as 'comments' so readers know it's the individual's perspective, rather than part of a journalist's report.'"

Google To Join Group To Protect Linux From Possible Patent Challenge -- Google Linux

2007-08-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

Google To Join Group To Protect Linux From Possible Patent Challenge -- Google Linux: "Google To Join Group To Protect Linux From Possible Patent Challenge

The Open Invention Network members share their Linux patents with each other and offer the prospect of a joint defense if Linux is confronted with a legal challenge."

Burglars Google their way into safes

2007-07-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Top Stories: NEW! Burglars Google their way into safes: "Bumbling Bigg City burglars got $12K
By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD
THE GAZETTE
July 10, 2007 - 4:49PM

The two burglars had door keys, pass codes and combinations for the safes at a Colorado Springs indoor amusement center.

But when it came to actually opening a combination lock, they did what most of us do when we’re stumped — they called Google to the rescue.

The burglary at Bigg City, formerly Mr. Bigg’s Family Fun Center, turned into a comedy of errors early June 10. The burglars tried to disable a security camera by repeatedly spraying it with WD-40 — it only cleaned the lens — and spent an hour and 15 minutes trying to open three safes, apparently unaware that some types require the dial to be turned two or three times.

They finally did a Google search for “how to open a safe” and “how to crack a safe” on a computer in the next room.

“They’re not professional safe people,” said Colorado Springs police detective Chuck Ackerman. “No, they’re not.”

On the other hand, the Google query apparently worked: The burglars haven’t been caught, and they did get about $12,000.

Police say evidence points to an inside job. It started about 2 a.m. when two white males clad in black with their faces covered entered the empty business with keys. They went straight to where the safes are kept and had the correct codes for a security keypad.

But if they had done their homework on Bigg City, they hadn’t studied other principles of burglary. The WD-40 dripped off the camera within 30 seconds, Ackerman said. They did it eight or nine more times.

“The first few times it actually cleaned the lens and made it a better picture,” Ackerman said.

They also sprayed a fire alarm, apparently thinking it was a camera.

The real camera recorded the next 75 minutes of frustration as the burglars tried in vain to open the safes. The video shows them bouncing from safe to safe, becoming increasingly agitated and at one point seeming ready to give up.

“It looks like they were going,” Ackerman said. “They got to the point where they said, ‘The hell with this. We’ll talk to somebody and come back and try again.’”

Then one left the room, and a check of an office computer showed the Google search. They easily opened the safes, escaping with cash, plus a laptop computer and a PlayStation, Ackerman said.

Investigators have interviewed managers and employees and are now trying to talk to former employees, Ackerman said. No suspects have been identified, and no employees were working at the time.

“If they didn’t work there, they knew somebody who did,” Ackerman said.

Managers at Bigg City have given six employees polygraph tests and hired a private investigator. They have identified areas where pass code and safe combinations were not kept as securely as they should have been, said Chief Operating Officer Matt Van Auken.

Although he acknowledged it affects the morale of about 100 employees to know a coworker may have been involved, they’re trying to laugh.

“The two most important questions when you get robbed are, ‘Did anybody get hurt and did anybody get hurt,’” Van Auken said. “If the answer is ‘no,’ you tend to quickly find humor in whatever you can.”

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at 444-7000 or Crime Stoppers at 634-STOP.

SAFECRACKING ON THE WEB

A few of the thousands of Google results for “how to open a safe” and “how to crack a safe”:

- A book on Amazon.com titled “Techniques of Safecracking”

- A guide to opening a safe-deposit box

- “How safecracking works” at www.howstuffworks.com

- A news story about Paris Hilton wanting to open a safe house for female former jail inmates

- A guide on how to open safe files after downloading from a Web site

- A message board posting at www.locksmiths101.com indicating the experts won’t share information on how to crack a safe

- Many, many step-by-step guides to cracking safes

Google goes Green

2007-06-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

Google is going green: A Clean Energy Future @ Google

Official Google Blog: Adding more flare

2007-06-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: Adding more flare: "As you know, we're constantly looking for ways to identify and offer new tools for content creators and website publishers. Likewise, we constantly aim to give AdWords advertisers broader distribution to an even wider audience of users. For these reasons, we're very pleased to tell you that we've just acquired FeedBurner.

For those of you who aren't bloggers, podcasters, or feed creators, Chicago-based FeedBurner is a leading provider of feed distribution and management tools. A web feed is a way for online publishers to syndicate their content and deliver it straight to readers. Each day, FeedBurner delivers feeds to millions of users around the world and offers unique and useful tools for publishers to analyze, optimize, and monetize their content. Further, FeedBurner offers a feed advertising platform for advertisers to reach engaged feed readers through targeted in-feed ads and innovative techniques like RSS feed-driven ads.

We're excited to continue offering the exceptional tools of FeedBurner to content creators throughout the world, and our teams will work together to improve the experiences of feed users, advertisers, and publishers. You can sign up for FeedBurner's services and take advantage of their feed tools and features immediately."

GigaOM » Google, Sergey and 23andMe: Why it all makes sense

2007-05-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

GigaOM » Google, Sergey and 23andMe: Why it all makes sense: "There is a good deal of buzz in the tech-news world about a $3.9 million investment that Google has made in a company called 23andMe, a startup in hiring mode with dreams of “helping consumers understand and browse their genome”.

$3.9 million? What’s the big deal about a company that Google is investing less than 1/750th the cash is put out to buy DoubleClick? As Eric Schmidt has pointed out, Google buys companies with “1-2-3 people and you never, never hear about them.”

The big deal is this: Anne Wojcicki, who is a co-founder of 23andMe and who is also a shareholder and member of the board of directors, is married to Sergey Brin, Google’s President, Technology and one of its founders. Sergey also holds approximately 35% of Google’s Class B common stock.”

Oh, and some of that $3.9 million is going to pay back a $2.6 million loan that Brin made to 23andMe. Also, another participant in the round of investment is Genentech, whose CEO Arthur Levinson also sits on Google’s board."

Google Friends Newsletter - April 2007

2007-04-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

POWER TIP

Create your own Google Maps

A new Google Maps feature lets you easily create maps with placemarks
that incorporate your text comments, photos, and videos from YouTube
and Google Video. It's a great way of sharing your stories on a map,
whether it's stops you enjoyed on a recent vacation or the best places
to grab a quick bite to eat in your city. To get started, just click
the "My Maps" tab on the left-hand side of the Google Maps homepage.
You can take a look at the maps other people have created (there's
even one of the Googleplex), and then get started making your own by
clicking "Create new map." If you make your map public, we will make
it searchable for other folks who use Google Maps.
http://maps.google.com

--------------
NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Call 800-GOOG-411

Use the new Google Voice Local Search experiment to connect to local
businesses anywhere in the U.S. from your phone, for free. Just dial
the toll-free number 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) and speak the
name of a business ("Giovanni's Pizzeria") or its category ("pizza").
You can choose to connect to the business directly over phone or, if
you are calling from your mobile phone, you can also say "text
message" and we'll send you the business's details by SMS. Google
won't charge you for a thing, but note that regular phone charges may
apply based on your phone service provider.
http://labs.google.com/goog411

Updates to Google Docs & Spreadsheets

This month, you'll notice some changes in the spreadsheets portion of
Google Docs & Spreadsheets. In addition to improving its general
performance, we've added several new features: you can create simple
charts, including column, bar, line, pie and scatter charts; attach
comments to individual cells; quickly duplicate a spreadsheet; and
search the web for the text in a cell by using the right-click menu.
And heads-up: this summer, watch for a new addition to the Google Docs
& Spreadsheets family: presentations.
http://docs.google.com

Find your next home with Google

Searching for a place to live is rarely fun, so we've made the search
experience on Google a lot easier. Now when you type in queries like
[New York real estate] or [homes for rent in San Francisco], you'll
see the location you're interested in and type of listing at the top
of your search results. Clicking the "Go" button will display details
of individual homes that Google has indexed. If a certain listing
interests you, click on the provided link or image, to go straight to
the listing source.
http://www.google.com

Google Desktop beta for the Mac

If you're a Mac user, you can now search your computers using Google
Desktop. In addition to searching everything on your Mac, you can also
search your emails (including Gmail), web history and deleted files.
Just click the ⌘ key twice to start using the Quick Search Box.
http://desktop.google.com

--------------
MISCELLANY

We knew Google Earth was remarkable when we first saw it, but at that
time we didn't imagine all the uses to which it might be put. Since we
unveiled it in 2005, millions of people have enjoyed zooming in to
their homes, zooming out to far-flung places around the globe. More
recently, many information providers outside of Google have developed
"layers" you can add to your personal Earth. You can explore Africa
through the eyes of National Geographic photographers and writers; you
can see "America's Favorite Buildings" from a contest held by the
American Institute of Architects; you can study historical maps from
the renowned Rumsey Collection. But a recent project with the United
State Holocaust Memorial Museum demonstrated even a newer use: Google
Earth as a powerful current events resource. By showing recent imagery
from the Darfur region of the Sudan, suddenly millions of people can
see the destruction and desolation for themselves. We hope this
powerful combination of information and technology spurs enlightenment
and action on the part of many. You can search YouTube or Google Video
for 'google darfur" and find the videos talking about the project. Or
visit the Museum and read more about this important geography
education initiative.
http://earth.google.com
http://www.ushmm.org/

Powerpoint the next target for Google

2007-04-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

Eric Schmidt announced today that Google will be introducing a product as part of Google Docs that will be comparable in some respects to Microsoft's PowerPoint. While Eric claims that these products are not intended to compete with Microsoft's Office suite it is clear that they are gaining ground by building free applications that provide a significant number of features in common with Google. Personally I feel that until a corporation can feel these applications are secure and easily implement them through out an enterprise that these applications will remain the domain of personal users and small businesses. These applications are perfect for smaller businesses and personal use as they offer cross compatibility with main stream applications but add the feature of collaboration a tool that our increasingly mobile society demands.

Eric also addressed issues of Google's lawsuit with Viacom and their proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. Several people brought up the fact that Google's free applications pack includes a tool that deletes DoubleClick cookies. Eric stated that they like this application and they intend to keep it.

I worry that as Google continues to dominate the online sector that we may become too dependent on them. Just as Microsoft has dominated the desktop OS market, Google appears headed to domination of the online market. Recently Google has been acquiring new companies with visionary online applications just as Microsoft does. Is this the end of internal innovation for larger companies?

Review - SEO Spyglass

2007-04-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered a new tool called SEO Spyglass. This tools allows you to see how competing sites are gaining top Google rankings. It traces backlinks and exaimines them so that you can see how either a specific keyword is top ranked or how a specific site atains its rankings.The company Link-Assistant offers two versions of the product, a free license that allows only the main version of Google, MSN, and Yahoo or an paid license version ($87) that allows the various localized verisons of these search engines to be used. In addition the free version does not allow you to save your projects, access support or get updates. The tool operates pretty efficiently but this will vary by connection speed.

It took about 15 minutes for me to run a search for VoIP. The application is Java based and so it easily runs on almost any operating system. The disadvantage is that it takes a significant amount of system resources.

The 15 minute wait was well worth it. This wait will vary by the number of backlinks a site has. In this case my search returned 1156 backlinks. The first result for this term (besides fcc.gov) was the wikipedia entry covering VoIP. SEO Spyglass returns an amazing level of information about each site linking to the site your examining. It starts with the backlinks page rank, The title of the page, whether or not the pages links back, the anchor text linking it, the URL, the number of outbound links on that page, total of links on that page, the link value, the domains page rank, whether or not the page is listed in DMOZ, listed in Yahoo directory, the Alexa ranking for the site, and the age of the domain.

This level of detail allows you to examine the value of the links that are launching a page into the top of the Google rankings. You can also sort all of the backlinks by any of the above information types.

Overall SEO Spyglass is a very nice addition to a webmasters tool box and if you are targeting more than the main Google and Yahoo sites is definitely worth $87. The company claims that new features are coming for the paid version, I'll try to review these as they become available.

Google Buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion - New York Times

2007-04-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Google Buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion - New York Times: "The sale offers Google access to DoubleClick’s advertisement software and, more importantly, its relationships with Web publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies.

For months, Google has been trying to expand its foothold in online advertising into display ads, the area where DoubleClick is strongest. Google made its name and still generates most of its revenue from search and contextual text ads."

Google 2084 - Humor

2007-04-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

Not sure of the source of this graphic but I found it a funny look at a possible future with Google.

Can Google keep growing?

2007-04-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

According to Hitwise, Google has this month increased their search share to 64.13% with Yahoo taking second at a mere 21.26%. Many of us may have seen the slew of recent Ask.com commercials but they appear to actually be losing market share from the previous year. Google continues to add features and enhance their platform which likely accounts for their continued growth. I find it interesting that while Microsoft's search is the default provided with every copy of Windows that they have only a third place ranking. Microsoft's Hotmail service lacks many of the features that Yahoo and Google offer and has fallen well behind. Will Google continue to grow or will they reach plateau?Hitwise appears to have a pretty good method for actually measuring traffic:

Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology captures the anonymous online usage, search, and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users

Yuri Gagarin - Celebrated by Google

2007-04-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

If you missed it Google changed their logo to celebrate Yuri Gagarin. Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space according to Wikipedia. He made his trip on the Soviet craft Vostok 1. Yuri died during a routine training flight flying a Mig 15. There are many theroies on why his flight crashed but most believe that the crash was caused by a loss of control due to another plane.

He is celebrated by an international event in his name celebrating the first human in space called "Yuri's Night." The event was began in 2001 and became quite popular in 2004. Want to know more? Try Yurisnight.net to see if there are events being held in your area. The Russian Archives Online has Yuri's life in pictures.

Google's N.C. expansion faces legal challenge

2007-04-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

Google's N.C. expansion faces legal challenge - East Bay Business Times: "A former state Supreme Court justice is leading a legal challenge to hefty tax breaks that Google Inc. has been offered to open operations in North Carolina's Caldwell County, according to reports Tuesday.

Associated Press said the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law has authorized the challenge under the guidance of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Orr, who is executive director of the group and a critic of such business incentives.

By the end of the month, a lawsuit will likely be filed challenging the constitutionality of an exemption that permits Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to avoid sales taxes on electricity and equipment, AP reported.

The provision could save Google up to $90 million over about 30 years.

Orr has said the provision is illegal because it give one company special treatment.

Orr indicated he does not plan to challenge local incentives. Those, in combination with state tax breaks, could save Google $260 million over the same period."

Good or Evil? Google Supports Porn

2007-04-08T04:17:00.000-07:00

Over the years I've seen many businesses affected dramatically by changes in the Google algorithms but very rarely does the company respond to requests for assistance much less actually do anything to resolve or assist in the issue. But when it comes to porn more specifically Tony Comstock's porn it seems that Google is partial to helping out. Matt Cutts one of the Google search experts got in touch with Tony the day that Tony's site started having problems. It seems that Google was trying to better filter out junk/spam porn sites and in doing so filtered Tony's site too. I find it strange that this sort of special treatment is awarded to a porn site.

In Matt's defense Google and he himself probably get hundreds of emails every day dealing with the same issue and I imagine that its difficult to decided who if anyone to really help. I do however find it interesting that this was a same day response. I don't know if Comstock's site uses AdWords or not but if he is using them his company may be spending a lot of money with Google thus implying that he got through to them because of the financial component. Perhaps they took the time to work on it since it was something that happened that day. I have a feeling we may never know but I would be interested.

What does this say about our dependence on Google? I have seen several stories, blog posts and forum posts lately talking about businesses that made their business model too dependent on organic results from Google and when they lost search ranking their business went down the toilet. To quote the NY Post:

Customers couldn't find him anymore, Comstock realized. "The Internet is the last place where adults can discuss sex freely," he says. "It is our distribution channel."

Comstock operates a blog The Art & Business of Making Erotic Films, this link is not safe for work. You can read the article that this post is based on, "GOOGLE STROKES PORN GUY" at the NY Post.

New changes to Google Ads, evil in the wings?

2007-04-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Google told us that Adsense ads are changing. Donna Bogatin thinks that this could be a trend towards a slightly more 'evil' approach with Adsense. The new ads are designed to perform

"even better for publishers and advertisers"

Read about the changes directly on Google's Adsense Blog. Donna also talks about the new Pay Per Action model that is in the works and how it seems to go against the Google "Do no evil" mantra.

Welcome to Gmail

2007-04-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

New Gmail Paper! (April Fools!)

New! Introducing Gmail Paper

Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.

Google Easter!

2007-04-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

Not sure if anyone else has found this yet but Google has a little Easter tidbit for us. Help their bunny catch the eggs to spell "Google." According to the site:

Google has a long tradition of celebrating holidays with special graphics on our web site. We are very pleased to have our second animated graphic for Easter. The java applet was developed specially for us by Ken Perlin of New York University.

Well it seems after looking a bit further that this one is from 2000. Guess we'll have to wait and see what comes this Easter.

How TiSP Works - April Fools From Google

2007-04-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

How TiSP Works: "Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines."

Not to be out done the BBC provides a "sniff screen" and NASA held the first Space Quidditch Match.

Google never fails to go all out with these gags, you might remember the moonbase facility gag.

Google CEO, co-founders get $1 salary

2007-04-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

Google CEO, co-founders get $1 salary: "The trio of billionaires who run Google Inc. collected less than $600,000 in combined compensation last year while they raked in big jackpots by selling some of their holdings in the online search leader.

The total amount that Google paid its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin during 2006 would have been less than $5,200 if not for personal security and transportation costs, according to documents filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Schmidt's package totaled $557,466, including $532,755 for personal security. Page pay totaled $38,519, with most of the money covering personal transportation, logistics and security. Brin's 2006 pay consisted solely of a $1 salary and $1,723 bonus. Google paid the same salary and holiday bonus to Schmidt and Page."

$1 Million in Google AdSense Earnings

2007-04-04T02:50:00.000-07:00

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead.

And if that number doesn’t wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004.

Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he’s quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner.

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day. If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they’ll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable.

That’s quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers.Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that.

Google’s AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense’s premier position seems secure for now.

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster's pages. When someone visits the webmaster's site and clicks on one of Google's AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry.

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis’ impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level.

Calacanis’ million dollar blog entry can be viewed at: http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000403051129/

Scott Adams is an internet entrepreneur, and earns a living by marketing affiliate programs on pay-per-click search engines, including Google’s AdSense. He explains the remarkable system he uses in his book, Affiliate Adventure, which is available at http://www.AffiliateAdventure.

Google vs. Microsoft: Vying for DoubleClick

2007-04-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Google vs. Microsoft: Vying for DoubleClick: "Google and Microsoft are squaring off in a fight for the online ad outfit DoubleClick that shows Internet advertising is moving far beyond search. The three leading search engines—Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), and Microsoft (MSFT)—are competing to become one-stop shops for companies that want to advertise across the Web. To achieve that goal, Net players need more than a ton of traffic on their own online properties and the ability to match up tiny text ads to search queries. They also need to sell ads on popular Web sites beyond their borders and obtain more user information."

A three-foot python the subject of Google's latest search - Apr. 3, 2007

2007-04-03T16:45:00.001-07:00

A three-foot python the subject of Google's latest search - Apr. 3, 2007: "Latest Google search: A python in the office
Reports say Web search engine leader finally located a three-foot python that was on the loose in its New York offices."

Google Gets into TV Ads with EchoStar - Home Video News - Digital Trends

2007-04-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

Google Gets into TV Ads with EchoStar: "Internet titan Google is set to enter the TV advertising business, inking a deal with EchoStar to automate buying, selling, and measuring the effectiveness of TV ads."

Another blog for the Nullvariable Network

2007-04-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

I got tired of cluttering my main blog page with all my Google clippings so I've created a new home for all of the various things I find interesting relating to Google. Enjoy!