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SearchNewz
Daily Focus: 
What's
Up with Verticals?
You probably haven't given a lot of thought lately to vertical search results,
that thin sliver of search real estate that is sandwiched between the top sponsored
ads and the top organic ads that generally shows a few lines of news results,
or local, or products.
More
SearchNewz |
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San Jose SES News |
Glitches
Surface In Google Checkout
It appears that the good people of Google may have a bit more fine-tuning to do
on one of their newer products. Users have reported experiencing a few glitches
as they tried to take advantage of Google Checkout. Long delays are also trying
the patience of some.
Windows
Live Writer Gets Warm Welcome
Microsoft has released a new desktop-based blogging client called Windows Live
Writer, and reports and reviews of it are flooding in. The general consensus is
a positive one, although there are a few nits to pick.
Homer's
Odyssey? I Missed That Episode
A poll conducted by AOL and Mark Burnett Productions ahead of its online reality
show "Gold Rush" finds that more people know Homer from the Simpsons than Homer's
work on "The Odyssey" or "The Iliad."
Blogger
Unblocked In China
The Chinese government's ban on Google's Blogger service has apparently been lifted
after four years of unavailability. Chinese Netizens were able to regain access
to the service as of last Thursday, according to CIO Magazine. The last time Blogger
was accessible...
Google
Parks Trailers With Movie Listings
Searching for a movie on Google will return a link to the film's trailer along
with the reviews and showtimes that have been appearing in the Google Onebox.
Picture this - it's Friday night, and your beloved wife wants...
Bloggers
On The UK Terror Story
The aftermath of a number of arrests in the United Kingdom, and the revelation
of a massive plot to destroy US-bound airliners with explosives, may be the point
where New and Old Media begin to work in cooperation instead of competition.
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Tuesday August 15, 2006 |
Recently, the Washington Post received a letter, on paper, hand-addressed, and in the mail, from Google attorneys asking the newspaper to avoid using Google as a verb. Perhaps paper makes a demand seem more serious than email. The Post responded, only slightly mocking in tone, snickering at the legal use of the word "hottie."
Editor's Note: Is Google beating a dead horse trying
to prevent publications from using "to google"? Do you think genericide applies
in the online world? Those in charge of Google's branding seem to fear it might.
Tell us what you think in WebProWorld.
 From
the article:
Appropriate: He ego-surfs on the Google search engine to see if he's listed in the results.
Inappropriate: He googles himself.
But this one's our favorite:
Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party.
Inappropriate: I googled that hottie.
Not only is "googled" inappropriate, but apparenly the word "hottie" is frowed upon as well.
Google was sensitive about the use of its trademark before Merriam-Webster officially added "to google" to the English language. Last October, I received a particularly snippy email (which means it wasn't nearly as serious as WaPo's paper letter) asking that I make it clear that a person could not google something on Yahoo! (I'm paraphrasing).
Funny, the company didn't seem to mind when Pontiac made use of the phrase, instructing consumers to google Pontiac on national television. In fact, the company consented ahead of time.
And, as The Independent points out, the company takes a much different stance on intellectual property when it comes to Google News and Google Print. Well, that's convenient.
It's understandable Google's trademark managers don't want to risk the Xerox and Kleenex branding death march, even if its unclear that genericide will apply to an Internet company in the same way it does to consumer tangibles. In the dotcom world, it seems very clear to everyone what is meant by "googling" something.
But then again, it took "escalator" 50 years to become generic. Too bad for Otis Elevator, who trademarked the phrase. The genericization of the word crippled the company, right?
Oh. Guess not.
Google needs to realize the meme that is Google.com has juggernauted far beyond the point of no return. It's too late, without taking down your site altogether, to perform a lexicographical Googlectomy. It's part of the language. Good luck in changing it back.
About
the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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AOL
Snakes In A Userplane
 By
David A. Utter
AOL's mergers & acquisitions department lands it Userplane, a provider of
private chat and instant message technologies.
The instant message technology used on sites like MySpace and IGN now belongs
to AOL. Userplane provides
IM and chat technology for more than 100,000 websites on a variety of business
models.
Interoperability with AIM should be something that happens once the technology becomes integrated with the overarching AOL infrastructure. Userplane boasts that its technology can deliver streaming audio and video to a targeted audience based on user profiles and demographics.
This would extend AOL's advertising reach to more of the sweet spot demographic 18-35 year olds that marketers covet. Userplane said in a statement that users of its chat and IM average 20 minutes of usage of those services.
Userplane's founders said on their website they were just about to take money from a top venture capitalist when AOL CEO Jonathan Miller came calling:
Through immediate and spirited discussion, we quickly found both companies have mutual interests. We saw that as a unified entity, Userplane could better serve clients and realize its long-term vision, while AOL could best make the strategic leap they know is essential.
Also, Userplane's founders stressed that existing clients will not see any changes to the service. They likewise noted they do not plan any pricing changes for services.
About
the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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Marketing Without Money
As I've said here many times before, as the ecommerce industry continues to grow,
it has given birth to a new method of marketing that is threatening to surpass
the traditional styles: the marketing of a website. One of the most obvious ways
to do so is through using the search engines to your advantage. However, how else
can you accomplish this goal if you don't have any excess money to spend? Well,
that's the dilemma being faced by one of our posters who is attempting to do this
very thing. Share some ideas and suggestions of non-cost methods of getting the
word out about your site.
|| Chris||
Marketing
a Site With No Money
In another thread Andilinks and I were talking about what it takes to get a business
going. I had made the statement that a business could be started with no money
(I started my first business with no money) and she was saying it would take a
lot of money to start a business.
It just so happens that for the last month I’ve had some friends coming here and
wanting me to help them meet American men. I put a one page site online a week
or two ago but have done nothing with it. I did ask some questions a week ago
as well to find out a little about the industry and I found that it is a very,
very competitive industry and companies are coming and going every day.
Now to prove my point I’m going to get into the very competitive mail order bride
industry with out spending the first penney out of my own pocket. To make it more
fun I’m going to pretend this is my only source of income, so I’ll need to be
producing $4,000.00 a month with the site in the next 3 months.
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WebPro Question: |
Would I benefit in Google's magic formula if I added an RSS feed to my site? Do
you think they are giving extra points to sites that syndicate their content?
- lukkyjay
Comment
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