Legal Search Marketing Blog

Mobile Image Ads Now Available via Adwords

What are mobile ads?

Mobile ads are a format of AdWords ads that appear on mobile websites, and are available as either text or image ads. Mobile text ads can also appear when users search Google from a mobile device. With either type of ad, users who click on your ad will be sent to your mobile webpage. With mobile text ads, you also have the option to connect users to your business phone.

How do I create a mobile webpage?

You can create a mobile webpage for free through Google's free AdWords Business Pages for mobile ads service, although this feature isn't available in all countries. AdWords advertisers can set up business page in a few quick and easy steps.

You can also create a mobile website of your own by rewriting your page in a mobile markup language, such as XHTML, WML, and CHTML. You should also make sure the layout of your website is properly formatted to display on mobile phones.

Google Custom Search Engines Go International

Google has expanded its Custom Search Engine program internationally. Now it's available in 40 languages, and in close to 80 countries worldwide. The Custom Search Business Edition (CSBE), which provides users with complete control over their look and feel, and does not show any ads in the results, is also being made available in those same languages and countries. Unlike the free edition of Custom Search Engines, CSBEs come with a fee. Another benefit of CSBEs is that you can get email support, which is not available in the free edition.

Yesterday I spoke with Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager of enterprise search at Google, and he told me that Google has found the predominant use of Custom Search Business Edition is as a tool to implement site search. Correspondingly, Google plans to setup a web page just for site search applications, though this page is not currently implemented. This should make the setup and management of site search versions of Custom Search Engines easier to manage and deploy.

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Google Print Ads - Advertise in Local Newspapers

In the Google adwords program, they recently introduced a way to advertise your business on local radio stations. Now they have added Print Ad as an option in your adwords account. This will allow you to advertise in different newspapers around the country.

Ive taken a look at the program and it seems like a really good way to easily advertise in different newspapers but the one thing I noticed is it's VERY expensive. They have a good system that allows you to offer whatever amount you want and the newspaper can accept it but odds are unless you offer an amount close to the suggested price, it won't get accepted.

You also have to have an add, they give you the option of hiring a professional to create an ad but that will cost you additional money.

Google Print Ads makes newspaper advertising easy and affordable. Here's how it works:

Select newspapers, sections, and ad size Easily choose from hundreds of local and nationwide newspapers. For each newspaper, pick a section and tell us which days of the week your ad should appear. Set your own price With our offer-based bidding system, you decide how much you'd like to offer newspapers to display your ad. The more you offer, the better the chances your offer will be accepted. Upload your ad and start your campaign If you don't have a print ad ready, let us connect you to a professional who can create the perfect ad for you. Once newspapers run your ad, you can track conversions and performance reports to determine which ads were the most effective. Read more at Google

Google Results Good, But Not Good Enough?

Google reported its second-quarter results yesterday, which showed rapid revenue growth and strength in its business. Unfortunately for Google, expenses rose more than analysts expected, and profits fell short of expectations.

The news sent investors scurrying in after-hours trading, according to the New York Times 

"The company spent too much, as they said they might some day," Jordan Rohan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, told the Times. "It wasn’t a bad quarter. It was a quarter where the analysts’ models need to be reset at a slightly lower level of profitability, and that hadn’t happened in a while."

Google attributed much of its overspending in the quarter to operating expenses, including payroll expenses for 1548 new hires and a revamping of its bonus plan.

"We ended up somewhat higher on our headcount expenses than we planned," CEO Eric Schmidt said on the investor call. "We will watch it, we will adjust, we will be opportunistic but we are going to be careful about that."

Google reported revenues of $3.87 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, an increase of 58% compared to the second quarter of 2006 and an increase of 6% compared to the first quarter of 2007.

In the second quarter of 2007 ending June 30, Google-owned sites generated $2.49 billion, 74 percent higher than the $1.43 billion gathered the same quarter of '06. Its AdSense network sites garnered $1.35 billion in Q2, a 36 percent leap over second quarter 2006.

Paid clicks revenues saw a boost, too, rising about 47 percent since the same period last year. Paid clicks represent the aggregate number of clicks related to ads served on Google sites and AdSense partner sites.

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Google Lawyers Who Blog

A new blog offers a glimpse into the thoughts of attorneys at one of Silicon Valley's most influential companies. Google's new public policy blog made its public debut June 18, though contributors have been internally posting to it since April.

The googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com site broadcasts the company's opinions on a variety of issues, including privacy, so-called "net neutrality," H-1B visas, patent reform and copyright protection -- all subjects in which Google has found itself tangled in recent years.

"We're seeking to do public policy advocacy in a Googley way," Andrew McLaughlin, the company's director of public policy and government affairs, wrote in the first public posting. "Yes, we're a multinational corporation that argues for our positions before officials, legislators, and opinion leaders. At the same time, we want our users to be part of the effort."

The blog also offers a chance to hear from some of the legal muscle behind the company.

Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of juicy, behind-the-scenes gossip. It's pretty serious stuff.

Read More

Google Income, Profits Up

Google reported its first-quarter financial results today, with profits up 69 percent to $1 billion, or $3.18 a share, on revenues of $3.66 billion, up 63 percent year-to-year.

Google execs spent much of the earnings call emphasizing the importance of its core businesses, search and search advertising. The company has been criticized of late for its apparent lack of focus, exhibited by its dabblings in offline media, intended acquisition of display ad network DoubleClick, and other non-search activities. More details are available from ClickZ News.

SOURCE: Search Engine Watch

Google Still The Search Leader

Hitwise’s latest numbers indicate that Google, already the clear leader among search engines in the US, is still growing at a pretty healthy rate.

All the other major search engines have declined in the last year. Google, on the other hand, now drives 64% of US searches—10% growth over last year.   Google is obviously the most important search engine to have your law firms website listed at.

SOURCE : Marketing Pilgrim

Google Has Too Much Money

The Washington Post highlights an unusual problem for Google - it has too much money!

Companies whose securities make up more than 40 percent of their assets can fall under restrictions that govern the mutual fund industry. So Google, which has increased its cash and securities to almost $10 billion since its 2004 initial public offering, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission late last month for an exemption.

Google hopes to get an exemption, similar to the one Microsoft acheived in 1988.

Google Launching New Blogger Features

Google has announced they are rolling out new features for Blogger. Some of the cool new tools include:

* Permissions: Decide who gets to read your blog.
* Labels: Categories for Blogger, yay!
* Extra feeds: let readers subscribe to comments etc

Google Adds Supports For NOODP Tag

Post from Search Engine Watch about Google now supporting the NOODP meta tag, which can help those sites that have been stuck with a bad DMOZ Title listing.

Google has granted our wish. If you have one of those pesky titles pulled from the ODP (dmoz.org) directory, don't fret it, just add the NOODP tag.

How do you do it? Just add <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP"> to your page source. If you want to just exclude MSN use <META NAME="msnbot" CONTENT="NOODP"> if you just want to exclude Google use <META NAME="googlebot" CONTENT="NOODP">.

Keep in mind, it takes time for Google to spider your pages and then determine if you do not want to use the ODP title. So if you add the tag today, it may take several weeks to have an impact.

Webmasters, this can have a huge affect on your organic traffic. If you have a poor ODP title and Google uses it in the results, by tweaking your title, your click-through rate from Google can potentially dramatically increase.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Judge Orders Google To Disclose Advertiser's Info

Out-Law reports that Google was ordered by Justice Rimer to hand over the information on an advertiser to Helen Grant for copyright infringement. Helen Grant "complained that a Google advert led to a service which she claimed violated her copyright in a forthcoming book."

A search brought up a site named Realityunlocked.com, "which offered a free download of an earlier draft of the book, and that the site violated the Trust's copyright." Google asked Grant to take the issue to court, this way Google does not have to worry about the privacy issues with handing over the information.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Google Search Engine to Join S&P 500 Index

From Bloomberg.com

Google Inc. shares gained 9.7 percent on the announcement that the world's most-used Internet search engine will be added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

Google replaces Burlington Resources Inc., an oil company being acquired by ConocoPhillips, after the close of trading on March 31. Google, with a fourfold increase in its shares since its initial stock sale, was valued at $101.6 billion yesterday, more than all but 18 members of the index.

Google Doesn't Need To Hand Over Search Logs To Justice Department

Good post from Search engine watch about the Google and Department of Justice ongoing battle.

Let's recap:

• Last year, the DOJ demanded that Google handover two month's worth of query data, from June 1 through July 31, 2005. That would have been billions of queries in total. Just put them in an "electronic file," Google was told. Then find a terabyte USB key big enough to hold this monstrous text file, so that I guess the DOJ could open it up in WordPad on the special computer used to process Bill Gates's taxes. Maybe that has enough memory to load the file :)
   
• The DOJ backed off the original request, saying it wanted only on week's worth of data. "Only a week" still would have put the number of queries in the billion plus range.
   
• In court last week, the DOJ declared that it now only needed 5,000 random queries in total. Got it? Originally it needed billions of queries and went to court to force Google's hand, then it decides only 5,000 were necessary.

The judge decided against giving the DOJ any search data at all. Why? From my reading of the ruling (PDF format), the judge found that the possible concerns over privacy outweighed the concerns that the DOJ needed to have Google's data in addition to data it already obtained from other search engines or could obtain through other options.

Department of Justice Rejects Google's Claims of Privacy Threat

Good article from Internet News about the DOJ rejecting Googles claim that the governments subpoena would threaten a users privacy.

    The Department of Justice (DoJ) has rejected Google's assertion that a government subpoena for search data threatens the privacy of Internet users.

"The government has not asked Google to produce any information that would personally identify its users," according to the DoJ's response filed Friday in a San Jose court.

Earlier this month, Google rejected the government's request in a strongly-worded response to the subpoena, arguing that the disclosure of the information could give competitors insight into its user habits. Search rivals Yahoo, MSN and AOL have already complied with the subpoena.

"Users trust that when they enter a search query into a Google search box, not only will they receive back the most relevant results, but that Google will keep private whatever information users communicate," according to Google.

But the government said Google's objections are "meritless."

Google Rejects Justice Department Bid For Search Info

Google Inc. on Friday formally rejected the U.S. Justice Department's subpoena of data from the Web search leader, arguing the demand violated the privacy of users' Web searches and its own trade secrets.

Read fully story at Yahoo News

New Google Toolbar

Google has released a new toolbar, Version 4 at http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/T4/.

Matt Cutts, Google Engineer, blogs on it also with his ideas and suggestions. So far it looks really good to me and Ill blog more on it after Ive given it a test run.

Google Fights Bush Court Motion

Google is resisting a motion from the Justice Department that is requesting "all URLs that are available to be located through a query on the company's Web site," plus "all queries that have been entered on the company's Web site between June 1, 2005, and July 31, 2005."

CNN Reports that Google Inc. said it intends to "vigorously" resist the Bush administration's request that a court order the popular Web site to turn over a broad range of materials.

"Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches," said Nicole Wong, associate general counsel for Google Inc. in a written statement to CNN. "We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously."

The lawsuit indicates that the government is narrowing its original subpoena from July 31, 2005, requesting Google to produce an electronic file containing "all URLs that are available to be located through a query on the company's Web site," plus "all queries that have been entered on the company's Web site between June 1, 2005, and July 31, 2005."

The Justice Department is now asking for "a multi-stage random sampling of one million URLs" and "the text of each search string entered onto Google's search engine over a one-week period."

Google Sees Its Largest 1-day Loss Ever

Google took a bit of a tumble Friday falling about 8.5% to under $400.

Google stock posted its largest single-day loss ever Friday as investors showed concern about prospects for the Internet advertising market and the company's role in a Justice Department lawsuit about Internet searches.

Source : CNN Money

Google Mentions on Saturday Night Live

Post from Search Engine Watch blog about more mentions of Google on SNL.

Last night was the first new Saturday Night Live program since the Yahoo, MapQuest, and Google mention in the now famous "Lazy Sunday" video. Last night's show included two Google mentions along with one about the European multimedia engine (in development), Quaero.

After the opening monologue from guest host Scarlett Johansson, the show featured a skit about a new MTV Channel (MTV 4, "The Alternatives Alternative") that airs a song about "Googling." Cast member, Amy Poehler, portrays a singer (Kaylesha Kane) who sings a song about "'Googling' her man."

From the transcript:

I told my boyfriend to hold to the phone, I had to Google something while I was alone. I Google his name and did a Google search and what I found made my stomach hurt Google found a picture of my boyfriend and you I recognized him from his Bart Simpson tattoo. Why did i goo goo Google him goo goo Google goo goo Google I'm through through through with him. Don't Google your man.

Google Analytics Status Update

Google is reporting that they will be re-opening signups for the Google Analytics program. I'm hoping to get my invitation soon!

We've added enough capacity that we are re-opening signups on an invitation basis. Many of our users who previously submitted their email address to us will be receiving an invite shortly.

We will continue to send out additional invites as we add more capacity. If you haven't submitted your email address to us, please do so on our signup form.

Click Fraud Case Against Google Continues Its Way Through Federal Court

The search engine watch blog has a post about a click fraud lawsuit filed against Google by Steve Mizera in the Northern District of California in San Jose.

Google Faces Patent Infringement Lawsuit Over Google Talk

Post from the Search Engine Watch Blog about Google being sued for patent infringement over the VoIP portion of the Google Talk program.

Rates Technology says that two patents they hold (awarded in 1995, 2001) for minimizing the cost of long distance calls using the Internet are being infringed upon by Google Talk. Copies of these two patents along with one more mentioned in the filing are included in the complaint.

MicroSoft Gets a Chunk of Coal for Christmas, Google Extends AOL Partnership

Reuters reports that Google will renew its partnership with AOL and that MSN is out.

Time Warner Inc. is in exclusive talks with Web search leader Google Inc. about broadening a partnership with Time Warner's AOL online unit, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Microsoft Corp., once considered the front-runner for a deal with AOL, is -- at least for now -- out of the running.

Google Adds Blog Ticker to Gmail

Nathan Weinberg has details of a handy little RSS ticker now available in Gmail.

Souce: Marketing Pilgrim blog

Who's Afraid Of Google? Everyone

Wired The December issue of Wired, takes a look at Google's many different ventures and reports on just who might be "scared" of them in the article and chart titled: Who's Afraid of Google? Everyone.

New Google Video Beta Site

Google has launched a new video search engine. Info from the Google Video Blog...

Our mission is to organize the world's information, and that includes video. Google Video offers viewers a way to see material from archived TV programs, educational videos, personal productions and more.

Just type in your search term (for instance, ipod or Napa Valley) or do a more advanced search (for instance, title:nightline) and Google Video will search the closed captioning and text descriptions of all the videos in our archive for relevant results. Click on a video title on your results page and you can view still images from the video and, where a transcript is available, short snippets of transcript text.

How The Google Jagger Dance Is Treating People

Jim Boykin has a great search marketing blog and has a current poll going asking people how the new Jagger Dance has treated  them and the results are below. 

Rotten is leading great but this is usually the case after Google makes a big update. I voted for great but thats an overall grade because some of my sites have gone up, some down and most have stayed the same.

How is the Jagger Dance (The Google October Update) treating you so far?
Rotten	35%
Great	26%
No change	21%
Not good	12%
Good	7%
Total Votes: 43

Latest Google Update - Update JAGGER

Google has once again updated its indexed causing many websites to flucuate in rankings, backlinks and pagerank score. Googles Matt Cutts has good information on his blog about this latest Google update.

I dont see that much change in my sites. I see some movement in page rank and link totals but not much else, so far.  Usually you dont have to worry about your site just disapearing, as long as you have a good site that follows the Google guidelines.

Talking With Google's Matt Cutts

Great interview of Googles Matt Cutts that covers a number of topics including the fact that nobody can guarantee a top ranking on Google and that you should ask for SEO references when hiring a SEO firm. A number of other great tips for people interested in being listed on Google, which is basically everyone!

Sun, Google In Software Distribution Pact

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - Google Inc. will promote Sun Microsystems Inc.'s word processing and office software products in an alliance announced on Tuesday that could mark a first step toward challenging Microsoft Corp's dominance of the computer users' desktops.

Source: Yahoo News

Google Going After Madison Avenue

Search 'N' Sell from the New York Post is a relatively short look at how Google is cozying up to major ad agencies, holding more than 100 training sessions to help them understand search marketing better.

Agencies are also given support teams so they can call around the clock with questions. Google's also taking part in this week's Advertising Week in New York apparently doing little last year.

SOURCE:  Search Engine Watch

Google begins limited test of Wi-Fi service

LONDON (Reuters) - Google, the online search leader, confirmed on Tuesday it has begun a limited test of a free wireless Internet service, called Google WiFi.

The existence of the Wi-Fi service, which offers high-speed connections to the Internet over short distances, is confirmed by public pages on the company's Web site and was first reported in a Silicon Valley newspaper in July.

Google spokesman Nate Tyler said the current test is limited to two public sites near the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters -- a pizza parlor and a gym -- located in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Read full story at Yahoo News

Google Launches New Blog Search Engine

Google has launched a brand new blog search engine engine that is just focused on blogs. This shows just how big blogs have become and another reason why most lawyers should consider one as part of the online Internet marketing strategy.

INFORMATION FROM THE GOOGLE WEB SITE:

Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves.

1. How do I use Blog Search?

   Just type the word(s) you want to search for in the text box and click "Search." That's all there is to it!

   If you want more control over your search, click the "Advanced Search" link to the right of the search button. There you'll find options to specify titles, authors, languages and more. Once you get your search results, there will be an additional link that allows you to switch between displaying the results with either the most relevant or recent results at the top.

   In the Blogger version of the interface, there is an extra "use search options" link beneath the search box. This will show a few of the most common advanced options, such as a specific blog or a date range to search within.

2. Which blogs are included in Blog Search?

   The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service.

3. How do I get my blog listed?

   If your blog publishes a site feed in any format and automatically pings an updating service (such as Weblogs.com), we should be able to find and list it. Also, we will soon be providing a form that you can use to manually add your blog to our index, in case we haven't picked it up automatically. Stay tuned for more information on this.

Read more about the Google Blog Search

Google Hires 'Father Of The Internet'

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. said on Thursday it hired Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf to become its "chief Internet evangelist," the latest high-powered engineer to sign up at the Web search leader.

Cerf, 62, is widely known as the "father of the Internet" for his role in developing the TCP/IP standards that form the structure of the Internet.

He was hired away from telecoms company MCI Inc. and tasked with helping to develop new Internet applications for Google. MCI is in the process of merging into Verizon Communications Inc..

Read Full Story at Yahoo

Top 5 Reasons to Launch Google Talk

Jupiters Joseph Laszlo lists his funny Top 5 Reasons to Launch Google Talk.

******** 

5. Larry and Sergey got tired of yelling across the office at one another.

4. Skype’s profit margins just too tempting to pass up.

3. Felt they just hadn’t confused the market sufficiently in the past couple of days.

2. Google doesn't know you intimately enough just reading your e-mail and peeking at what kind of naughty pictures you search for.

1. Wanted yet another communication channel via which to refuse to talk to CNET.

Google to Deliver Instant Messages

According to the LA Times Google is rumored to be launching an instant messaging service called Google Talk.

Continuing its rapid expansion into new product categories, the Internet search giant plans to launch an instant messaging program called Google Talk as early as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the service.

The new service follows by just a few days the introduction of Google Sidebar, which pulls news stories, photographs, weather updates, stock quotes and other features onto a user's computer without opening a Web browser.

With all the new services, Google now competes with Internet portals such as Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s America Online squarely on their turf, even as those companies encroach onto Google's with updated search engines.

Google May Be Liable For Trademark Infringement

Paid third-party ads on Google that use the trademark of car insurance company Geico in the text of ads could infringe trademark law, and Google may be liable for such ads, according to a recent court opinion.

Although Geico senior counsel Jonathan Shafner said Tuesday that the court opinion signaled that the judge wants the two sides to reach a settlement, he said he could not comment on any settlement discussions.

If the parties do not settle within the 30-day period for which the judge granted a stay, trial could continue on whether Google is liable for damages if Geico's trademarks are found to be infringed from any non-Geico ads that refer to Geico and what the damages would be, Shafner said.

SOURCE: News.com

Judge puts hold on ex-Microsoft exec work at Google

Reuters reports that a Washington state judge temporarily blocked a former Microsoft VP from starting work at Google.

A Washington state judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a former Microsoft Corp. vice-president from heading up rival Google Inc.'s new research center in China.

The ruling by Kings County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez marked a small victory in a wider battle to keep Kai-Fu Lee from working at Google.

Microsoft sued Lee and Google last week, claiming the former head of its Beijing research and development center had violated his employment contract by agreeing to take a job at Google.

Google Releases Q2 2005 Earnings

Google has just published its Q2 2005 earnings, as covered in this press release "Google had another solid performance," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt.  What a surprise!

Titans Battle for China: Google Countersues Microsoft

Google yesterday asked a California Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County to invalidate what it said was an "overreaching and unlawful" noncompete agreement - central to Microsoft's lawsuit against former vice-president Kai-Fu Lee, who was hired by Google to head its new research center and operations in China - reports ZDNet (Reuters).

Google contends that the clause violates California laws giving workers the right to change jobs, writes Business Week (AP), quoting Nicole Wong, Google's associate general counsel, as saying that Microsoft's restriction is "clearly an illegal restraint of trade...Google is trying to create an environment for innovators. Microsoft is focused on litigation and intimidation."

Search giant Google is a growing competitor of software giant Microsoft - which is threatening to threaten Google in the search arena.

Source: Marketingvox

Can Yahoo or MSN Ever Top Google? Doubtful

BusinessWeek has an article asking whether Google's 52% market share is too much of a lead for the other search engines to catch.

Google's share of U.S. searches hit 52% in June, up from 45% a year ago, according to Web analytics firm WebSideStory Inc. By contrast, Yahoo's and MSN's share slipped to 25% and 10% respectively.

Google's search lead, moreover, looks pretty unassailable, at least for now. Despite many studies indicating the near-parity of rival search technologies, changing searchers' habits is more difficult today than in the Web's early days, when surfers hopped from Yahoo to Excite to AltaVista and back.

One familiar yet persistent reason for this loyalty is Google's spartan home page, which includes just 13 links or so -- less than a tenth of the number at MSN and Yahoo.

I would agree that Google is here to stay and its going to be very hard for anyone to overtake them, mainly because they have such a strong name and they just have better results then anyone else.

Google Wins Domain Squatting Case

According to DM News, Google has the rights to domain names that are similar to its own, the National Arbitration Forum ruled Friday.

The NAF, Minneapolis, said Google has rights to googkle.com, ghoogle.com, gfoogle.com and gooigle.com, even though an individual, Sergey Gridasov, had registered those names.

Google Hits All-Time High in U.S. Search Referrals

Google’s U.S. search referral percentage hit an all-time high, climbing above 52 percent for the first time.

According to independent research that was collected and analyzed by WebSideStory, Google’s search referral percentage – the percentage of search traffic it sends to other sites on the web – is more than double that of its nearest competitor and culminates a meteoric, four-year rise.

This is no surprise to me because every site that I monitor gets more traffic from Google then anywhere else, always.

Google Launches New Sitemap Service

GOOGLE MAKES IT EASIER TO GET MORE PAGES INDEXED

Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to help improve your coverage in the Google index. Its a service that will help get more of your pages included in the Google index and it lets Google know when you make updates to your site.

Updating your pages and adding fresh content is a very important part of getting good rankings at Google, so when Google wants to give you a way to make that process easier, I would take advantage of it!  Below is info from Google about the process.

What is Google Sitemaps?

Google Sitemaps is an experiment in web crawling. Using Sitemaps to inform and direct our crawlers, we hope to expand our coverage of the web and improve the time to inclusion in our index. By placing a Sitemap-formatted file on your webserver, you enable our crawlers to find out what pages are present and which have recently changed, and to crawl your site accordingly.

Basically, the two steps to participating in Google Sitemaps are:

1. Generate a Sitemap in the correct format using Sitemap Generator.
2. Update your Sitemap when you make changes to your site.

Who can use Google Sitemaps?

Google Sitemaps is intended for all web site owners, from those with a single web page to companies with millions of ever-changing pages. If any of the following are true, then you may be especially interested in Google Sitemaps:

• You want Google to crawl more of your web pages.
• You want to be able to tell Google when content on your site changes.

Google More than a One-Hit Wonder

The Motley Fool explains why Google is more than the "one-hit wonder" claimed by Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer.

...rather than argue about Ballmer's gutsy move in biting the hand that feeds his audience, let's get into how hypocritically preposterous that accusation seems. Microsoft was once erroneously tagged as a one-hit wonder when it was simply providing personal computers with its operating-system software...If Google is a one hit wonder, Steve... man, oh, man, just wait until you check out the B-side.

Google Launches AdSense for RSS Feeds

From the Google Blog, Google has launched Adsense for RSS Feeds, which enables publishers distributing content through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or Atom feeds to include relevant text ads in their feeds and receive a share of the revenue generated by ad clicks.

Enter AdSense for feeds, launching today in beta. The idea is simple: advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising - and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from.

Given the great flexibility that feeds can offer, it’s essential to get the model right, especially so that readers are satisfied. Towards this end we have outlined what we believe are some best practices for advertising in feeds.

Publishers who want to participate in the public beta can apply here.

Google Confirms Bugs in Web Accelerator

Matt Hicks confirms that Google Accelerator does indeed have a bug that can cause users to see web pages under other users' logins.

Google officials Friday confirmed that the company was aware of as many as five sites where Web Accelerator was returning users cached pages under other people's user names.

"It is an unfortunate problem, but it looks worse than it is," Mayer said. "We are caching those pages on the server side with the user name on them…You see it, but it's important to point out that you are not logged in as user and you do not have the session cookies needed to perform operations as [that] user."

Update From Search Engine Lowdown:

It appears that Google is on the ball. They've stopped allowing downloads of Accelerator, while they fix the bugs. From the download site:

Thank you for your interest in Google Web Accelerator. We have currently reached our maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of users we can support.

New Google Software Speeds Up Web Browsing

Danny Sullivan has details of Google Web Accelerator, debuting at Google Labs. The new beta tool is designed to speed up the web.

Google Web Accelerator (GWA) is client software (about 800k) along with a plug-in that's installed on your computer. It's only available for Windows (at least for now) and works with both Internet Explorer and Firefox. According to Google's Marissa Mayer, this is the first product that she knows of that's built and optimized for broadband web users. She added that dial-up users are also welcome to use the software.

I have just downloaded this and will test it out and report back on how it works.

Nod to Search Engine Lowdown

Google Moves Blog

Google has moved the official Google blog to a blogspot URL and also has added a blogroll.

Google Dynamically Changing Page Titles

Ive noticed that Google seems to be dynamically changing the title and description that comes up for web sites for different keywords.  They seem to be using the title and description from the Open Directory Project in certain instances, opposed to the title and description from the individual page.

Ive seen a few other examples of this and it shows how much Google values the listings from the Open Directory. Its a very good idea that you get your site listed and hopefully with a very good keyword rich description.

New Google Link Filter?

Good article today from Webpro News about a possible link filter that Google is using, which basically doesn't give your site full credit for the link right away and instead gives you partial credit and as time goes by, you get more credit.

"The theory says that Google provides a partial immediate credit, by running new links through a dampening filter. Only as the link ages, and remains linked to the site for a given period of time, does the full value of the Google PageRank and the link popularity receive its complete credit level."

This actually makes good sense and is similar to the "sandbox theory" for sites, where you basically have to go through a waiting period before your site gets better placement.

Yahoo Fires Back At Google

CBS News online has a story about the ongoing battle between Google and Yahoo.

Yahoo Inc. is quadrupling the amount of storage provided with its free e-mail accounts and upgrading its desktop search software in its ongoing duel with rivals Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

Yahoo said late Tuesday that it will provide 1 gigabyte of storage for each free e-mail account. The current limit is 250 megabytes.  As part of its e-mail changes, Yahoo also is providing software from Symantec Corp. to clean viruses detected in attachments.

Google Local Business Free Listing

The new Google Local Business Center is available for all businesses in the United States regardless of whether or not their listing already exists in Google Local.

To access this new feature, businesses must visit www.google.com/local/add and request that their Google Local business listing be added or edited.  This is yet another thing you need to do for your law firms web site. 

Using the Google Dictionary

Google has a couple of options when it comes to getting a definition online and they are both very easy and useful.

You can just enter the word “define:” along with the word you want to look up into the Google search field:, so for example to get the definition of voir dire, you would enter define:voir dire and you would get a results list of many different definitions.

Even easier, you can just enter the search term and google has a link on the top right side of the page called "definition" and when you click on it, it will take you to the Answers.com definition page. It gives you not only the definition but many facts and is also an encyclopedia. This is a very good online resource.

Google toolbar move raises online ire

CNN reports that Google's browser toolbar is raising eyebrows over a feature that inserts new hyperlinks in Web pages, giving the Internet search provider a powerful tool to funnel traffic to destinations of its choice.

When Web surfers install the toolbar in their Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser and click the AutoLink button, Web pages with street addresses suddenly sprout links to Google's map service by default.

Google, the world's most widely used search engine, denied that the AutoLink feature is an attempt to control which destinations Web surfers visit.

Nevertheless, some critics charge that AutoLink takes the liberty of modifying Web pages to direct people the way Google sees fit. Microsoft took the same approach with its Smart Tags feature years ago and eventually pulled it because of trust and trademark concerns.

Google updates causing ranking changes

Search Engine Guide reports it's seeing signs of an oncoming "Google dance," the introduction of an algorithmic change that could have major effects on who gets listed among the top sites for each keyword.

Google is conducting a house cleaning stemming from what appears to be an algorithm update. Several SEOs have noted the typical precursors of change including a decrease in counted back-links and minor fluctuations in page-rank values. For the past few days, Google's results have been bouncing, with placements moving up and down frequently.

The site indicates that among the big losers appear to be those who have had their sites linked far and wide from irrelevant web content. If true, this would constitute a setback to comment spammers and other annoying web "marketers" whose effluent of links -often found in discussion areas of sites - pollute otherwise relevant content.

I have noticed a big fluctuation in search rankings at many of my clients web sites. No doubt having a lot of fresh quality content and links from other sites that are similar to your sites theme is the way to go at Google at least. MSN and Yahoo are also very important and can not be forgotten.   Sometimes people just focus on Google and forget about the other search engines which can also produce focused and qualified visitors to your site.

Murder Case declared mistrial after reporter Googles a key witness

Crime in the age of Google

Interesting story in the National Post that shows how Google's cache can keep information living-on and how it can be utilized.

On Tuesday, the judge in Toronto's Johnathan murder case declared a mistrial because of new evidence uncovered when a National Post reporter Googled a key witness and found a cached version of her Weblog.

New Beta version of Google Toolbar now available

A New Version (Beta) of the Google Toolbar is Now Available

Google has just released a new beta version of the their toolbar.

Google Toolbar 3.0 (beta) can now be downloaded via this link. If you already have the Google Toolbar installed, you'll still need to download this beta version.

WHATS NEW IN THIS TOOLBAR:

New! AutoLink
The online review of a great new restaurant has the place's address but no map. You could type the restaurant's street, city, and ZIP code into the search box, but why bother, when clicking the Toolbar's AutoLink button will automatically create a link to an online map (US addresses only)? AutoLink can also link package tracking numbers to delivery status, VIN numbers (US) to vehicle history, and publication ISBN numbers to Amazon.com listings.

New! WordTranslator
Ever need to translate words on English web pages into another language? Don't bother looking up words one by one - just hover your mouse cursor over an English word and Toolbar's WordTranslator will tell you what it means in your own language. WordTranslator currently supports translation from English into Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

New! SpellCheck
ARe yu a raelly bad tyipsst? Google Toolbar's new SpellCheck button finds any spelling mistakes whenever you type into a web form, including web-based email, discussion forums, and even intranet web applications. The AutoFix option even corrects all of your text with a single click.

I am in the process of testing this new google toolbar out and will write a review after Ive had a chance to use it.

Googlers Give to Democrats

Googlers Give to Democrats

The Search Engine Watch Blog reports that in an article in the USA Today, Google's givers go Democratic, discusses the $207,650 of donations given to federal candidates in 2004.

Google employees gave $207,650 to federal candidates for last year's elections, up from just $250 in 2000 when it was still a start-up. And 98% went to Democrats, the biggest share among top tech donors, a new USA TODAY campaign finance analysis shows.

'Google Hacking' Digs Up Sensitive Material

From Reuters , they look at the growing problem of sensitive data being readily available via a simple Google search.

Using Google, identity thieves can easily find credit-card and bank-account numbers, tax returns, and other personal information buried in court documents, expense reports and school Web sites that contain such information.

Wow that's pretty scary to know your sensitive information is so vulnerable.