Tag Archives: Google Search
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/22/10
Posted on 22. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
0 Comments
Google is expecting outside developers to grow business in a synergistic way, with both sides benefiting from the partnership.
Here’s a breakdown of the competition for interactive TV that Google faces with their own service coming out in the fall on DISH Network.
As expected, Google has locked down searches with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption.
There are a lot more issues involved now that Google is a full fledged tech company with search no longer the central element of their business.
The beta (Chrome 5) and development (Chrome 6) versions of the Chrome browser were updated this week.
Inside Google? Really? Seems More Like Outside
Posted on 22. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit organization whose mission is to fight on the behalf of “American consumers and taxpayers” has launch a blog called Inside Google where they intend to keep in check some of the privacy issues that the search engine giant has been encountering recently. From a few of the articles that I have read on the site, Inside Google clearly believes that the folks at Google need to be more open about the way they do business, and one of the issues highlighted is the way their search algorithm is calculated to bring back query results.
This is especially true when looking at the post fuming about the fact that the term “Inside Google” doesn’t come up on the first few pages of a Google Search, yet does when querying Bing. The opposite end of this is perhaps Microsoft should be asked if they are trumping up the Inside Google site while Google is giving it a representative ranking since the Inside Google site is very new; the domain was only registered three months ago and currently has no PageRank.
Plus, there is no update on this post since it was written to point out that searching the term Inside Google appears in the first page of Google Search, at least when I queried it today. Even when done in Incognito Mode or another browser with cleared history. Looks like the “lack of transparency” tag placed on these posts doesn’t apply to Inside Google.
I know that I have not always written rosy things about Google, and they still rank me well, probably because their engine is based on a specific system to return the best results for a query, not by humans directly manipulating search results. Here are some examples of things I’ve written:
Concerned About Privacy? Scroogle Scrapes Your Searches
Do You Know Why Google Wants to Trade Energy?
Maybe Google Knows Too Much, GoogleSharing Can Help
Google Invests in Recorded Future
Inside Google is based on the foundation that because Google has seventy percent of the United States market of online search it should be investigated because it is a monopoly. But there are other competitors in the search market. In reality if Bing, Yahoo or Ask were actually better search engines than Google, I would use them. But they are not. Hence the reasoning behind the fact that I use Google Search as I’m sure others who read this post would agree.
If serious privacy or security issues arose that Google was not willing to face or to make amends for, I would be all for going after them, as would a great deal of others. In that regard perhaps Inside Google is on the right track with what they are doing but some of these articles posted on the site seem, well, a bit angst driven for some reason. Is there a motive to why Inside Google feels like they’ve been left on the outside? Possibly because its journalists were formally a part of the once dominant print media industry?
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/15/10
Posted on 15. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
The Chrome Extensions Directory now has six categories to help better organize the over 4,000 extensions that are now available.
Google has decided to stop collecting wi-fi information from its Street View project, citing internal privacy concerns with the information gathered.
In addition to this announcement comes the revelation that Google Search will become encrypted, possibly starting next week.
Is simply apologizing enough when Google announces privacy breaches?
Google Flatlining in Search Just Means it Needs a New Platform
Posted on 12. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
It would seem problematic to many that Google is unable to sustain growth in the search market. Unfortunately, with the emergence of Microsoft’s Bing, that now is the case. But this is not something that the folks in Mountain View did not see coming: they have been working away for quite some time now on providing more incentives to use the Google platform, and this chart is proof of that now more than ever:
The Silicon Alley Insider has used this chart as the centerpiece for their post, “Big Bad News for Google: Search Share Gains Have Flatlined“. However, looking at this chart it doesn’t appear that Google Search has been on a growth tear in terms of market share for the past couple of years. Therefore, what this chart fails (understandably) to take into account is the growth in the mobile market as well as the ongoing expansion of internet users.
Plus, Google has been working on this issue for years, most likely realizing that there is going to be a limit that they reach in terms of market share. In a free market world, no one is going to have complete control of any business niche since there will always be competition. Plus, I’m not sure anyone really wants to see Google have complete control since once a company has that ability they could use their power to push around other would-be competitors.
The way around this for them is to expand their bevy of applications into their own platform. This has just begun with Android, and as the recent New York Times article out about early adopters who have taken an interest in Chrome OS before any commercial product is available shows that a platform outside of smartphones has some likelihood of being viable.
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/11/10
Posted on 11. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Does Google’s new Search interface mean that they are starting to move their core business into an application?
The Ubuntu Light netbook operating system only takes seven seconds to boot. Sounds like a Chrome OS competitor.
Stability features make up the revisions going into the 5.0.375.38 Beta release of Chrome browser for Windows, Mac and Linux.
There are going to be venture capitalists at Google’s I/O conference, and those who code are even going to speak.
Google is looking to hire someone with the job title “Head of Social” to put a face on its social initiatives – some of which have had backlash.
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/9/10
Posted on 09. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
The New York Times is running a profile about those who are downloading and using Chrome OS, complete with a bit about our pal Hexxeh.
Some people are concerned that Google is getting too big, like former journalist turned Consumer Watchdog advocate John Simpson.
Is Apple developing their own alternative to Flash?
Although some people don’t like the recent changes that have been made to Google Search, there will be no option to revert to the classic version.
Google has launched the Google Analytics Application Gallery where developers can submit their own tools for Google Analytics.
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/5/10
Posted on 05. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
They are keeping at it marketing the speed with which Google’s Chrome browser can render pages, especially for Chrome 5.
Google plans on launching its own e-book store, according to the Wall Street Journal.
There’s a new look to Google Search that has been introduced, and the company is telling people that there are even smarter changes to come.
The Mobile user interface has also had a design refresh.
For the year, Google has acquired ten companies, spending more than $250 million to do so.
Wireless Carriers Get Revenue Share From Google Search
Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
There are an estimated 3 billion people who use cell phones worldwide. Google just wants a portion of them using their search engine.
Tricia Duryee of PaidContent is reporting that the major mobile phone carriers who have Android phones have a deal with Google to share revenue. Not just any revenue of course – but the kind that comes from search engine advertising. Not a shocker, then, when you see search being prominently featured on Android phones. And it isn’t just because Android was developed by Google, but because the carrier providing service for that phone has a stake in the mobile advertising market that Google is trying to enter.
To be sure, it is not that easy right now to make money in mobile advertising. But as the user experience for smartphones improves (a la Android) and the technology gets better, I’m sure the major carriers realize that advertising that is running through their “pipes” will someday prove to be uber-profitable.
Consider Google’s acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob for $750 million, which is still awaiting regulatory approval. The amount of money involved in the deal, and the technology that AdMob brings, is surely convincing to the mobile networks that this could be a massive money machine for everyone involved. While Google is the expert on search advertising, AdMob will bring its experience in web display and app display ads to the table, which could be later added to a partnership deal with carriers if it hasn’t been already.
It may already be part of it, since Duryee’s article also says that carriers get a piece of the Android Market revenue that is coming in, and that has to be growing.
And let’s not forget the fact that Google is trying to change the way we buy mobile phones. Instead of choosing a carrier and then deciding on a phone, they want us to pick out a phone and then choose a carrier. Hence the reasoning for a powerful Google phone like the Nexus One. Consider the options table when you go to purchase Google’s phone:
The same will soon be said for Chrome OS hardware, may that be a netbook or tablet. We will most likely lust after the best specs that Google knows we want and then choose where our connectivity for that device will come from. There will be a choice of carriers – much larger than this example above if they are interested in lucrative ad profits.
So is the Nexus One really a failure it has been said to be? Probably not. This is a trial run to see how Google can perform in the hardware market, and the fact that the carriers are making money from Google Search, and possibly other things in the future like Google Apps, will give them cause to keep quiet while Mountain View tries to change the dynamics of the wireless industry.
Concerned About Privacy? Scroogle Scrapes Your Searches
Posted on 24. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
It’s no joke that Google is everywhere – we hear this piece of information so often it’s beginning to become something that we no longer think about. There are some serious privacy issues that are presented when thinking of how much information Google collects in order to make a tidy profit, and most of us just assume that we can expect Google to make the best judgment about what to do with that information.
Enter Scroogle. If anything else, I guarantee you will find some entertainment by visiting this unique site. But its main purpose is to offer folks the ability to conduct searches without having any data sent back to Google. The way it works is pretty straightforward: the cookie that is assigned a unique identifier by Google is used once and then trashed by the Scroogle servers within an hour, and their logs are deleted within 48 hours. Therefore, Google gets a cookie that has some information, but has no real way to use it since it is used only once and then thrown away.
The site even offers instructions on how to make Scroogle the default search in whatever browser you use with their own SSL sever, claiming under the instructions for Chrome that it “phones home a lot”.
According to the site statistics, Scroogle is used quite a bit. It does over 300,000 scraped searches every day and is on a steady rise. It’s ranked as one of the top ten thousand sites on the web by Alexa, an impressive feat considering a search (non-Scroogled, by the way) for the site offered very little information on the site. There’s a Firefox add-in for Scroogle, but I suspect that we won’t be seeing an official Chrome Extension anytime soon. Give it a shot if you are concerned that Google or perhaps another organization such as your ISP is looking over your shoulder a bit too much.
Facebook May Have the Traffic, But Google Visitors Worth More
Posted on 23. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
Last week it was announced that Facebook had overtaken Google Search as the most heavily trafficked site on the web. While this does not include Google’s other offerings – only Search – it still means that Facebook is going to be a major competitor against Google in the future. I would expect the companies to be competing on several different fronts and along with Microsoft’s push of Bing with no abandon for how much they spend on marketing Google is beginning to enter a phase where they can expect rivals on all fronts.
Something that many people may not realize is how much every user Google gets to their site that they covet because of how much every single visitor is worth:
Google: $18.44 per unique
AOL: $12
Yahoo: $6
Microsoft: $4.42
Facebook: $3.09
Twitter: $0.62.
So although Facebook has surpassed Google Search, it isn’t exactly a day of reckoning. Google’s revenue in terms of traffic to its sites far outweighs any other web property and Facebook isn’t even close. This is because Facebook doesn’t really have a solid revenue model yet, plus the fact that their users are not interested in creepy ads that take personal data from profiles. Actually, if you think about it, social media on this graph is not doing very well in terms of revenue per user.
Sure, Twitter has yet to really monetize their site, citing that they want to focus on their core business first. But what is their core business? Whatever it is it should probably include making some money. AOL is doing surprisingly well here, because somehow their long standing subscription model that still seems to work, while Microsoft and Yahoo continues to push their portals as media hubs which seem to be doing them well.
And Google? Well, let’s not be surprised here why they want to push Android, Chrome browser and Chrome OS. The more that they do that, the more this number will go up. The resulting gap between them and their competitors will continue to widen, but that’s with the consideration that social media can’t find a way to fight back and find innovative ways to make money on their sites – all while trying not to fall apart like MySpace.
Google Offers “China Service Availability” Page
Posted on 22. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
In a move that has been anticpated for several weeks, Google has finally decided to pull the plug on its Google.cn search operations. Back on January 12, the search engine giant proclaimed that it would no longer censor searches on the site, a law that the Chinese government has refused to back down on since that announcement.
As a result, when one goes to Google.cn, the site redirects to the Google.com.hk Hong Kong domain. The Hong Kong Google search is not subject to Chinese law, and has uncensored search engine results. However, it is possible that the Chinese government will begin blocking the Hong Kong-served site for those who reside within China.
This is also not to say that Google will be completely exiting the Chinese market. According to the statement by Senior Vice President David Drummond, they will continue to have a sales and R&D presence in the mainland; however continuance of those operations will be dependant on access restrictions.
What’s interesting is that Google has even put up a page that lets users know the status of Google’s services in China. If a user is having trouble accessing Picasa, for example, they can go here to get a status update on if the service is being blocked or not:
NOTE: According to the site, it doesn’t appear to be updated today yet. These metrics are not being recorded in real-time. Also, I assume that “Web” means search? Why not put a “Search” line item here?
I wrote last week about a search engine called Goojje that has received some interest by venture capital firms, most likely from Hong Kong. Goojje was anticipating this day, and with a good portion of the market share in search for the Chinese market, it appears that Goojje was developed at just the right time.
It will be intriguing to see how this develops. Stay tuned.
Facebook Overtakes Google in Traffic
Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
For as long as Google has been around, it has been a very popular site and as long as I can remember it has been the top ranking site in the world. That’s no surprise seeing as how they offer the best search functionality of any engine out there. Most people need a starting point when they are on the web, and search is the way to go for that.
But Facebook has been coming up in Google’s rearview mirror, and according to Hitwise, has overtaken Google as the most heavily trafficked site on the web (albeit slightly). Take a look at the following graph:
You can see that Facebook a year ago was not even close to comparing to Google’s share of traffic. Now the two together combine for over 14% of total web traffic.
But the search engine giant has been eclipsed before. According to Google Blogoscoped, MySpace passed by Google for a time in 2007. I know that’s hard to believe now seeing as how MySpace has been on a path of decline, but this tidbit is interesting to note because many MySpace users have migrated to Facebook, resulting in a slow exodus that has resulted in the traffic trend that we are seeing today.
Keep in mind that this is Facebook versus Google’s main search page, not the plethora of other services that Google offers like Gmail, Maps and Docs. I also wonder how much of a factor the recent introduction of Google’s real time search feature has contributed to the inflow of internet users to Facebook – many of them signing up and becoming regular users of the site.
