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News
Flash: SEO Can Help Your Business
A little website optimization can go a long way toward helping an entrepreneur
get a site placed highly enough in search results to make a marked impact in the
bottom line.
Live
Expo Finds Jobs With CareerBuilder
The Windows Live Expo team added several features to the site in recent weeks,
including job listings from CareerBuilder.com.
Google
Set To Steal Froogle's Thunder
Google's main search engine is soon going to take on some distinctly Froogle-ish
characteristics. Supposedly, Google "has no plans to monetise this product-search
capability with display ads or listing fees, but that could change..."
Google
Searches For Stones In Belgium
Shortly after some impressive huff-and-puff grandstanding, Google decided it best
to comply with a Belgian court order after all. The company initially refused
an order to post a ruling against Google on its Belgian homepage and Google News
site...
Rival
Throws Sour Grapes At Facebook Founder
It seems Facebook.com founder Mark Zuckerberg stepped on a few toes on his way
to the top, and those toes are swinging back around to catch him in the pants.
The young CEO (22) was recently chastised by an old rival, who doled out some
backhanded advice...
Yahoo
Again Linked To Partner Click Fraud
The company's association with Oemji.com, a firm labeled by several security companies
as one that may be enabling click fraud through its software tools, has been called
into question due to its advertising...
Google,
Yahoo Facing Click Fraud Pressure
A lengthy look at the issue of click fraud, where search advertising companies
and site publisher networks profit from bogus ad clicks that cost advertisers
real money, indicated a light is at the end of the tunnel...
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Tuesday September 26, 2006 |
Being compelled to remove certain news sources from the Google index and Google
News was not a big deal for the company, but being required to post the judgment
on its Belgian homepage apparently touched a nerve with the search advertising
company.
Editor's Note: Having to place the text of the initial
judgment against Google by the Court of First Instance in Brussels has rankled
Google much more than removing content from its index. Do you think Google's reaction
is justified? Let us know at WebProWorld.
 Google's
European Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Rachel Whetstone, posted
some of Google's side of the case
against it in Belgium.
"Whilst we aren't allowed to comment on the judgment itself, we thought you may want to know the facts of the case -- what actually happened, and when -- and the issues it raises," Whetstone wrote.
The lawsuit, filed by copyright management firm Copiepresse in Belgium in August 2006, accused Google of breaching copyrights of publications represented by the firm. This month, the Court of First Instance in Brussels ordered the publications removed from Google.
So far, no problem, and Google complied. The second part of the judgment, requiring
Google to post the details of the decision on its Belgian
home page for a period of five days, evoked a strong response from Google,
and Whetstone posted at length about this:
Last week we asked the court to reconsider its decision and requested that the requirement to post the ruling on our home pages be suspended. The court on Friday 22nd September agreed to reconsider its ruling in November this year, but maintained the requirement that we must post the initial judgment to our home pages for five days or face a fine of 500,000 Euros a day.
As the case will be heard in November, we can only offer general comments on the larger issues it raises at the moment. Any legal discussion must be pursued in court. Nevertheless we do feel that this case raises important and complex issues. It goes to the heart of how search engines work: showing snippets of text and linking users to the websites where the information resides is what makes them so useful. And after all, it's not just users that benefit from these links but publishers do too -- because we drive huge amounts of web traffic to their sites.
Google evidently believes that it can prevail in the November hearing. Having to post the initial judgment in order to stop the potential fines could be seen by Google as an admission of guilt, something which the company strenuously denies.
Whetstone further referenced the Web Robots Exclusion Standard, known and implemented by webmasters around the world with robots.txt files.
"If publishers don't want their websites to appear in search results (most do) the robots.txt standard (something that webmasters understand) enables them to prevent automatically the indexing of their content," Whetstone wrote. "It's nearly universally accepted and honored by all reputable search engines."
Robots.txt has been around as a standard for nearly as long as spidering technology
has existed for indexing websites. It seems Copiepresse and its affiliated publications
could have easily placed robots.txt files on their sites and avoided the need
for any legal action.
About
the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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Yahoo
Catches Up With Busy "Family 2.0"
 By
Doug Caverly
A Yahoo and OMD study found that modern families are using technology to their
advantage. "Family 2.0," as the study calls it, is "harnessing pervasive technology
and media to help them manage busy households and achieve more balanced, satisfying
lives." Family 2.0 has also apparently managed to extend their days by 19 hours
through multitasking.
Anecdotal evidence may suggest that technology can isolate family members from one another, but the study refutes that.
"The study shows that regardless of their size or composition, today's families value time-honored traditions like dining together, and they're using technology to help manage busy, family-centered lives," said Wenda Harris Millard, Yahoo's chief sales officer, in the press release.
"Technology is essential to family life, not because people love gadgets, but because it helps them do what they want to do," she continued. Findings from the research project supported that statement - 70% of the people involved "agreed that technology allows them to stay in touch with family," and 54% felt "that without technology they ‘wouldn't be able to stay in touch with friends and family.'"
Technology is allowing something else that wouldn't normally be possible. U.S. respondents defied the normal definition of a day by listing "on average, a total of more than 43 hours of daily activities." A number of these activities, such as "listening to the radio" and "commuting," could of course overlap. Joe Uva, the president and CEO of OMD Worldwide, offered a positive interpretation of those busy schedules.
"It's clear that within the ‘43-hour day,' families are making concerted efforts to spend time together and to live out a new family value that says ‘we control technology - it does not control us.'"
About
the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.
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Where Is The Yahoo Slurp Bot?
Many of you who are into Internet marketing keep a close eye on your site statistics,
especially those having to do with search engine crawls, looking to see when each
search engine indexed your site last. One of our posters was doing so and noticed
it's been awhile since Yahoo's search bot, Slurp, paid his site (a site that gets
updated frequently) a visit. Has anyone else noticed this from Yahoo or are is
your site getting crawled like normal? Let us know what's going on at WebProWorld.
Subscribe
to the WebProWorld RSS Feed 
|| Chris||
What
Happened to YAHOO!?
I haven't really played over here in a while, nor payed much attention to their spidering for some time, but it sure seems like it is more difficult to get the spider to fly over.
It used to run you over as soon as you posted somethin new up.
I just don't see near the activity I used to see on several sites, and haven't for a long time now.
What's going on over there?
I have probably missed something here, but can't afford the time to drudge back through all the threads.
Anyone want to fill me in?
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WebPro Question: |
What are the possible reasons for a page to have "Supplemental Result" next to
the URL in the Google search results?
- billshorters
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