Search Engine News & Updates
News - Search Engine News & Updates
Microsoft and Google Attempting to Follow Twitter`s Lead
The extreme success and popularity obtained by the social networking site known as Twitter has caused other companies to take notice. Among those companies are technology giants Microsoft and Google, who have both seen Twitter become highly successful and plan to follow suit...but not, perhaps, in the way you might be thinking.
The way in which they will follow suit has a twist to it. Rather than looking to social networking as a fun medium, Microsoft and Google are looking to create programs that incorporate social networking to help companies increase efficiency and productivity.
Microsoft is testing social networking in the workplace via its OfficeTalk application. OfficeTalk is not available to the public, as it is more of a research project. With OfficeTalk, employees can post ideas, updates, and the like in an effort to share information with others within the organization through microblogging, just as Twitter does, but in more of a social form.
Microsoft is testing the effectiveness of such a product on itself first by making OfficeTalk available to its own employees. The company is hoping to find out how employees will use the program and what features would be helpful. After using themselves as a guinea pig, Microsoft will then shift the focus of the program to other organizations to get a better sample size and more ideas on how to improve OfficeTalk. This is essential; many businesses differ, and what might work for a company like Microsoft might not work for another type of company.
Not to be outdone, Google is also testing a similar social networking in the workplace concept with its Google Buzz program. Google Buzz is a program that works in conjunction with Gmail to give users a comprehensive view of their friends' information. For instance, they can view friends' statuses, photos, videos, and links all in one place. If this sounds familiar, then it is, as Facebook basically uses this model. Google hopes that Buzz will be more useful for organizations and employees, however.
Buzz also integrates several existing social networking sites into its platform, such as Flickr, YouTube, Picasa, and more. Unlike Microsoft's OfficeTalk, Google Buzz was actually made public on February 9, 2010. While the idea sounds good, the program has already received criticism for its perceived lack of privacy in sharing too much personal information with other users.
One has to wonder, why doesn't Twitter come up with a workplace-based program? They could be developing one, and at the moment they do offer private accounts to keep information safe and enclosed. Whether or not a full-fledged corporate program gets released in the future is something to be determined.
Besides the already-diagnosed problems with privacy as seen with the Google Buzz program, other questions and concerns could arise concerning the development and use of such a social networking program within a business. Primarily, will it cause too much of a distraction? With many people's lives seemingly consumed by text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and the like, will the implementation of such a system at work actually decrease efficiency? The possibility seems to be very high. If developers can provide a solution that does increase workplace efficiency without causing a distraction, however, it will be worth its weight in gold.
Google Wants Webmasters to Take Note: Speed Kills
In a world with increasing technology, there is little doubt that time is of the essence. Apparently, Google agrees with this thought, as the search engine giant has decided to factor website speeds into search rankings.
The decision has been at least a few months in the making, as Google hinted at the possibility of using website speeds to determine search engine placement back near the end of 2009. It is a sure bet now, however, as they just announced that speed will be added to the overall equation.
Does this mean that speed will be the overriding factor in where websites place? No, it does not. In fact site speed, or more specifically, the rate at which a website responds to requests, is just a tiny piece of the overall search engine ranking puzzle. This should come as a relief to many webmasters who might have jumped the gun in scrambling to see how they can improve their site speed after the announcement was made.
In actuality, the new site speed signal is just one of the 200-plus signals used by the company. While many do not know just exactly how important each signal is with regard to one another in terms of weight, the fact that there are so many used means one must have a well-rounded site to place favorably. Also, a site's relevance to the topic at hand is still on the top of the list in terms of dominance. The sheer amount of signals used in the rankings also means that many webmasters might not notice a change in their pages' rankings despite the site speed addition to Google's algorithms.
So, why has Google decided to introduce speed into the equation? Quite simply, Google, like many of us, believes that time is money. Not only can web surfers become annoyed by long load times, but companies can be affected by the extra time wasted when visiting a site. Increasing site speed increases efficiency. Also, if a site loads faster, a user will be more likely to visit it more often, especially if it provides an enjoyable and quick surfing experience. Sites loaded with lag and long load times might prove to be too frustrating for many users, causing them to not even want to visit them.
While this news is definitely positive for the casual Internet user, some webmasters are not so enthusiastic. For one, they believe that Google, for the time being, is too vague as to just how the site speed affects the rankings. They also believe that using site speed as a determinant for rankings will encourage simplicity. Many webmasters will try to make their sites simpler to accommodate the change, and those with sites that require more complex programming will be punished.
To keep things fair, Google uses a range of tools to compare website speeds, and they also are doing their best to advise webmasters how they can clock their own sites speeds for better clarification. It will be interesting to see just how much this change affects the Internet landscape; hopefully, it will be for the better.
Bing gains U.S. search-market share for 10th straight month
Edmonton Journal
Sat Apr 10 2010
Page: E12
Section: Business
Source: Agence France-Presse
Microsoft's new Internet search engine Bing increased its share of the U.S. search market in March while market leader Google slipped a bit, online tracking firm comScore said Friday.
Bing's share rose to 11.7 per cent in March from 11.5 per cent in February, the 10th straight month of modest gains, the firm said.
Microsoft's search partner Yahoo! saw its share increase to 16.9 per cent in March from 16.8 per cent in February.
Google remained the overwhelming market leader, although its market share fell slightly in March, to 65.1 per cent from 65.5 per cent in February.
Ask.com'sshare improved to 3.8 per cent from 3.7 per cent while AOL's was steady at 2.5 per cent.
Microsoft unveiled Bing last June, accompanied by a $100-million ad campaign in a bid to challenge Google.
U.S. must halt China's censorship of the Web; State Department sanctions needed to facilitate unfettered access to Internet for millions of Chinese
Vancouver Sun
Mon Apr 5 2010
Page: B3
Section: Canada & World
Byline: Craig and Marc Kielburger
Column: Craig and Marc Kielburger
Source: Special To The Sun
Ai Weiwei sits in his studio in mainland China, shut off from the rest of the world.
His blogs have been shut down. His bank accounts have been investigated by state security agents. Two of his Gmail accounts were hacked.
The artist tries to contact the outside world through blogs and social media. But his online activism is silenced, met by threats and violence -- one police beating left him with a painful throbbing in his head.
Less than a year after the attack, Ai Weiwei was diagnosed with cerebral hemorrhaging and had emergency surgery.
His situation was explored in a recent documentary, Concepts of a Chinese Artist.
"I want to shake people up and remind them of what kind of society we are living in. What kind of justice system we have. And how police in China treat our citizens," Ai Weiwei said.
In December, Google announced that it was the victim of a highly sophisticated cyber attack originating from China.
"During our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties," stated David Drummond, the company's corporate development and chief legal officer, in a statement posted on the company's official blog. "These attacks and the surveillance they uncovered ... had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn."
This prompted Google's decision to stop self-censoring search results, an action that defies local Chinese censorship laws. Google's decision comes at no small cost--a 20 per cent market share and annual revenue of up to $300 million.
But completely withdrawing from the Chinese market leaves an attractive void for other U.S. and European search engines. To address this, Google's recent address to U.S. Congress requested action to limit censorship.
"Governments need to develop a full set of new trade rules to address new trade barriers," said Alan Davidson, Google's director of public policy, who believes censorship restricts free trade. This is a relatively new area of business and trade policies must reflect new technologies.
Trade policies, including possible sanctions, would be necessary to cajole competing companies to exit a lucrative market to ensure the free trade of information--and support of human rights.
The word "sanctions" seems to be synonymous with "ineffective" in recent memory.
Despite three rounds of sanctions -- and likely a fourth on the horizon, with the upcoming G20 Summit -- Iran continues to push ahead with its nuclear development program. Likewise, we've seen similar results in North Korea. The elite find ways to circumvent the sanctions and access the products.
But if the U.S. government approved electronic sanctions prohibiting U.S. firms from facilitating censorship in China, perhaps we would see a change in the effectiveness of this approach.
Aside from Google, the major players self-censoring information are Microsoft and Yahoo! -- American companies. Enforced by the U.S. government, these sanctions would be limited to a handful of easy-to-monitor companies.
One notable exception is Baidu, China's largest locally based search engine. In order to prevent domestic companies from capitalizing on a vacant market, the U.S. government must couple sanctions with pressure on the Chinese government to allow the free trade of information.
Software programs developed by dissidents in China provide a means around government-controlled censorship, but once past this "Great Firewall" users are met with a second barrier: Companies outside China, such as Microsoft and Yahoo!, self-censoring their own information.
"The anti-censorship software invented by Falun Gong is being widely used in China," said Dr. Yang Jianli, a senior fellow at Harvard University, and former Chinese political prisoner. It is the U.S. and European companies further impeding these dissidents from accessing information.
Yang argues that the U.S. State Department must act now to facilitate the movement toward providing uncensored Internet access to millions of citizens in Iran, China, and elsewhere.
"Decisive action by the U.S. government is needed to tear down this Berlin Wall of the 21st century."
Craig and Marc Kielburger co-founded Free the Children. The goal of the organization is to free children from poverty and exploitation through education.
Top 10 ways to avoid travel troubles
The Ottawa Citizen
Sat Apr 3 2010
Page: G6
Section: Travel
Column: Advice
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
The April issue of Consumer Reports ShopSmart magazine says that "these days, you're a happy traveller if something doesn't go kerflooey on your trip."
It notes that while some problems, such as flight delays, are beyond your control for the most part, you can take steps to minimize the chances of difficulties.
Here are the magazine's Top 10 expert tips:
Flights
Be an early bird: To minimize
delays, get the earliest flight of the day. And avoid the last flight out; a mechanical problem could leave you without options.
Go nonstop: If you must connect, steer clear of airports with chronic problems, like Dallas, Newark and Miami. Check www.bts.gov for American airport stats. (Go to www.flightstats.com to find ratings of Canadian airports as well as which flights are the most reliable.)
Increase your options: Choose an airline with multiple flights per day. If you must get there on time -- say, you're connecting to a cruise -- it can give you more options.
Don't drink the water: It turns out that the old rule about not drinking the tap water overseas also applies to airplanes.
Luggage
Avoid checking bags: You can find great tips on packing light at OneBag.com. If you must check bags, pack your itinerary and contact info in every piece of luggage.
Keep valuables close: Never check anything valuable. Airlines generally won't pay for lost, damaged or stolen jewelry, cameras and other valuables. If a pricey item is too big to carry, don't pack it, ship it.
Hotels
Go online and get the scoop: Before arranging any sort of travel, go to a search engine like Google and type in "review" plus the name of the hotel, travel seller or cruise ship. If a hotel gets dozens of consistently good reviews on major review sites such as Yelp, Booking.com, Hotels.com and TripAdvisor, it's probably a good bet.
Take written proof: Print the reservation and take it with you. Also, call ahead with any concerns, such as a late arrival.
Rental cars
Know what you've got: Before you leave the lot, check the vehicle. Whether it's a dent in the door or a tire low on air, report it.
Check your coverage: Before you decline that waiver, check with your insurance agent and credit-card company to see exactly what coverage you have.
April 1 a boon for pranksters
Edmonton Journal
Fri Apr 2 2010
Page: A3
Section: News
Byline: Patrick Denison
Source: Canwest News Service
Judging by reaction to some of the April Fool's pranks making the rounds Thursday, P.T. Barnum may have been right about a sucker being born every minute.
One of the biggest ones winding though cyberspace was that Google had changed its name to Topeka -- turning the tables on a proclamation from the Kansas city that it would rename itself Google for a month to try to lure the online search engine's fibre-optic network.
Elsewhere, YouTube offered its readers a chance to view videos -- in text.
In Canada, Premier Jean Charest of Quebec received a shock when the daily newspaper La Presse apparently announced his resignation.
But it was all a gag by Montreal blogger and media critic Pascal-Pierre Fradette in a realistic copy of the newspaper website's landing page. It also included the following headlines:
- -Harper wishes he brought an extra pair of underwear.
- -Still nothing to report in Liechtenstein.
- -The TSX closes on a high, whatever that means.
- -Women with big bosoms appreciated by men.
In Manitoba, the Winnipeg Sun got irate letters from dozens of readers after they reported the government was set to tax the Internet.
And WestJet Airlines sucked in more than a few people with an announcement about clapper technology on all its airlines, so that passengers could turn on lights and adjust seats by clapping, with the help of a headset transmitter.
Canadians may have a sense of humour, but we're not even in the same league as Great Britain, where newspapers have traditionally tried to top each other for the most outrageous story. The Daily Telegraph had an article discovering that ferrets are key to delivering broadband to rural areas.
The Daily Mail ran a story about the Automobile Association (Britain's version of CAA) equipping mechanics with jet packs to reach stranded motorists. The paper said the launch of the "Rocket man" program marked the first time AA would go over stranded traffic rather than through it to reach drivers.
And The Sun announced it had succeeded in creating the world's first flavoured newspaper. Readers were invited to "taste our page and guess the taste."
Google becomes Topeka in cyber-prank
Vancouver Sun
Fri Apr 2 2010
Page: B5
Section: Canada & World
Dateline: SAN FRANCISCO
Source: Agence France-Presse
Internet giant Google turned its mega search engine on its ear Thursday by changing its name to "Topeka" in a huge cyberspace April Fool's joke.
Google said the move was inspired by a Kansas town which in March changed its name to that of the Internet giant as part of a U.S. bidding process to be the test hub for the company's experimental super-fast broadband network.
"Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in the company blog. "We've been wondering ever since how best to honour that moving gesture.
"Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1 a.m. April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka."
Initially it appeared that the change only applied to searches within the United States, as searches initiated elsewhere brought up the normal Google logo.
While Google's April Fool's Day name change was clearly a joke, the mayor of Topeka, Kan., was deadly serious when he announced his stunning move.
More than 600 communities across the United States are vying to test the project, after the California-based Google promised to build an experimental super-fast broadband Internet network.
Topeka jumped out to an early lead in the wackiness stakes by renaming itself "Google, Kansas -- the capital city of fibre optics" for the entire month of March.
Google announced in February that the envisioned one-gigabit-per-second fibre-to-the-home network will be built in "one or more trial locations," serving at least 50,000 people and potentially as many as 500,000.
The winner will be announced later this year.
Schmidt said Thursday in his spoof that correspondence to corporate headquarters and offices around the world "should now be addressed to Topeka Inc.," but otherwise can be addressed normally.
"Google employees once known as 'Googlers' should now be referred to as either 'Topekers' or 'Topekans,' depending on the result of a board meeting that's continuing at this hour.
"Whatever the outcome, the conclusion is clear: we aren't in Google any more."
Locals know; Short Hops: When it comes to discovering hidden tourism charms, a new website gives travellers the inside scoop
Montreal Gazette
Sat Mar 27 2010
Page: G1 / BREAK
Section: Weekend: Travel
Byline: DAVID JOHNSTON
Source: The Gazette
Series: short hops
One of the most interesting new travel developments in Canada is an online tourist attraction - the federally funded website localsknow.ca.
Created by the Canadian Tourism Commission last summer with federal economic-stimulus money, the Locals Know website is an electronic tourism billboard.
Canadians are invited to upload images and text showcasing interesting things to see and do in their neighbourhoods.
When I first heard about the site, my reaction was that localsknow.ca had parallels with The Gazette travel section's own Short Hop series, which began in June 2007.
The Locals Know program is dedicated to the proposition that local people have inside knowledge about hidden charms or emerging travel trends in their area.
Indeed, many of the stories featured by Short Hops are the product of suggestions from Gazette readers, or from a reporter's unexpected discoveries while visiting a place.
Here's an example.
A reader told us about the growth in new nordic-style spas in the Laurentians, featuring saunas and river dips. Winter is the high season for these spas, when skiers from Montreal visit the spas for a little après-ski. While visiting these spas last winter, I heard that locals use these spas in spring as sun destinations, as a substitute for Cuba or Florida.
The spas tend to have big hot-water pools and sun decks protected from the wind. In March, April and May, as the spring sun increases in intensity, sun-seeking locals spend around $30, the average admission charge, to catch some rays from inside the hot pools or outside on the reclining deck chairs. The past several weeks have seen spring-break college kids migrating up from Montreal's northern suburbs. Something that started out as a locals-know phenomenon is spreading south to Montreal.
Short Hops runs in summer and winter, with some overlap in spring and fall. Today is the final instalment of a winter series that began last Dec. 5 with a story about outdoor Christmas markets near Montreal. Short Hops will resume again in late May and run through Thanksgiving.
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LOCALSKNOW.CA OFFERING PRIZES FOR INTERESTING INSIDER ADVICE, PHOTOS
Localsknow.ca and its sister French site, secretdici.ca, will offer free travel prizes later this spring to people who upload the most interesting images and texts.
The two sites, operated by the Canadian Tourism Commission, held a winter Ultimate Upload contest that ended last Sunday.
A panel of travel writers will name the 13 winners in the coming weeks, one for each of the 13 provinces and territories.
The CTC is expected to open up its summer upload campaign in late April. The Gazette's Travel section will publish a story about the campaign when it is formally announced.
Prizes for the 13 winners are expected to consist of a free return flight with WestJet and free stays at hotels that are partners of the localsknow.ca/secretdici.ca initiative .
Air Canada flights and selected hotel stays were prizes associated with the recently completed winter Ultimate Upload campaign.
Localsknow.ca and secretdici.ca are supported financially by federal economic-stimulus money. The two sites opened up last summer and are expected to close in the summer of 2011, when the stimulus funding is due to end.
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WEBSITE FEATURES IMAGES FROM MORE THAN 1,000 LOCATIONS
Here's how to navigate the localsknow.ca site:
1. Go to www.localsknow.
ca. You will notice the home page contains a selection of uploaded images from across Canada. The home page is one of 31 such pages on the site. More than 1,000 locations are featured.
2. There is a French version of localsknow.ca. To find it, click on the word Français in the upper-right-hand corner of
localsknow.ca, or go directly to www.secretdici.ca. On the French site, there are almost 200 uploads.
3. To look for uploads from Quebec, enter the word Quebec in the search engine in the upper-left-hand corner of the home page of either the English or French websites.
4. To upload your own images and text, click on the Upload Your Spot icon, or, in French, the Téléchargez votre coin préferé icon.
5. To see videos, click on See Our Videos or Accèdez à nos vidéos.
6. To search for special travel deals being offered by participating airlines and hotels, click on Get Great Deals or Parcourez les forfaits.
Google loses, Baidu wins?
National Post
Wed Mar 24 2010
Page: FP8
Section: Financial Post Investing
Byline: Matt Hartley
Source: Financial Post
As the Google vs. China saga drags on, Wall Street analysts are left wondering what to make of the search engine titan's plans for the world's largest Internet market.
Yesterday, Google Inc. (GOOG/ NASDAQ) announced it was shutting down its Chinese-language, Chinabased search engine and had begun redirecting traffic to its Hong Kong portal in a move which drew swift condemnation from Beijing.
By opting to stop offering censored search results in China -- which boasts the world's largest Internet market with more than 384 million users -- Google is running the risk of the Chinese government blocking Google sites for its citizens.
Of course, if Google loses access to the Chinese market, that's bound to have an impact on the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm's core online advertising business, and its bottom line.
While Google's decision to redirect Chinese users to its Hong Kong servers may prove to be the beginning of the end for the company's China controversy, it "does not end the negative reverberations that are likely to continue for some time," said BGC Partners technology analyst Colin Gillis in a note to clients yesterday.
"No one wins by Google's actions," he said. "Google is not helping shareholders or the citizens of China by exiting the country. China loses the benefit of having its country grow by using Google's technology."
Mr. Gillis-- who maintains a "hold" rating on Google's shares and a long-term price target of US$580-- said questions remain over how the hacking of Google's Gmail service by unidentified parties in China resulted in the company's decision to stop offering censored search results.
"The lack of transparency from Google on the actual events and the decision process that occurred is a disservice to shareholders," he said.
Google's actions could have a downside impact of between US$10-billion and US$15-billion on its market value (about $30 to $50 per share), depending on the severity of the response from Beijing.
Shares of Google have dropped about 6% since the firm first raised the spectre of its Chinese exit in mid-January, resulting in an US$11.6-billion hit to the tech titan's market cap.
If Google does wind up being shut out of China, or if Chinese users grow frustrated with the slower speeds of the search engine that are likely to occur, due to the increased traffic strain on the company's Hong Kong servers, one possible winner would be Chinese-based search provider Baidu Inc. (BIDU/NASDAQ).
J.P. Morgan analyst Dick Wei raised his forecast on Baidu to US$650 from US$540, based on the assumption that Google would lose 50% of its traffic to Baidu due to "inferior user experience" and Baidu's "current weaker monetization capability compared to Google."
Mr. Khan believes Baidu's revenue could jump by 8.5% (US$85-million) in 2010 and 14.5% ($218-million) in 2011. Shares of Baidu are up more than 44% since Google's announcement.