Today’s search podcast covers new Google products unveiled during yesterday’s
Press Day, including the hot research tool Google Trends, the “freaky weird”
mass tagging system of Google Co-op, Google Gadgets for your desktop and a
coming Google Notebook. Also a look at Google issues with a click fraud
settlement, pushback on cutting commissions and more!
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Below are links to items discussed:
- My Big Fat
Google Press Day 2006 Round-Up
We’ve blogged a number of items out of Google Press Day today. I wanted to recap
them below, along with coverage from across the web that’s beginning to flow in.
I’ll likely update this page over the next day, as well. New items will be
posted below old stuff and flagged, or we’ll do postscripts, to help those who
keep checking back. Let’s go!…
- Google
Trends: Peer Into Google’s Database Of Searches
Now live via Google Labs is a new Google Trends service, announced today as part
of Google Press Day. The service allows you to tap into Google’s database of
searches, to determine what’s popular. For example, do a trends query on cars,
and you can see the volume of queries over time, by city, regions, languages and
so on….
- Fun With
Google Trends
Danny just posted about Google Trends, a service of Google that shows you search
volume trends over time for a keyword or for multiple keywords. I thought it
would be fun to ask Google Trends which search engine, of the top four, is the
most popular, in terms of search volume. So I queries Google Trends for Google,
Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN (keep in mind ask jeeves is now ask.com). I also thought
it would be fun to pin Apple vs. Windows vs. Linux. So let’s see what Google
Trends had to say……
- Google
Co-op: Add Your Own Vertical Search To Google
Google said it would have a health-related announcement at today’s Google Press
Day — but no, it’s not Google Health. Instead, it’s Google Co-op, a way for
people to create specialized search engines by tapping into the main Google
index or the option for searchers to pick preferred vertical search providers to
show up in Google OneBox results. Yes, health information is one of the new
features — but this is more than Google Health. This is Google making a giant
and somewhat perplexing leap into mass tagging….
- Google
Destination Guides: Not Much There — Yet
A part of Google Co-op, “Destination Guides” was promoted as ?Google City
Guides? at Google Press Day today. And while everything about Co-op has been
officially qualified as a ?work in progress,? this is something of a
disappointment ?- as are many of the content areas and the general
user-experience of Co-op. Danny has a more complete write up of Co-op here.
Co-op is an ambitious project, not unlike Base, to create verticals, add
structured and user-generated content and make the search experience more
personalized. If you want to create your own “vertical search engine,” which is
one of the…
NetworkWorld Talks With Raul Valdes-Perez, CEO of Vivisimo & Clusty
Gary Price points to a NetworkWorld.com interview with Vivisimo CEO Raul
Valdes-Perez, of Clusty Search. Clusty uses clustering technology to provide
results. The NetworkWorld author was convinced, during his interview with Mr.
Perez, that Google/Yahoo/MSN provide “incomplete results.” Is clustering the
future of search? Give Clusty a try for yourself. Also, for past articles at
Search Engine Watch on Clusty click here….
- New Google
Desktop Beta Features Google Gadgets
The Inside Google Desktop blog announced the release of a new version of Google
Desktop. The new version’s main feature are Google Gadgets, some of the many
widgets include Weather Globe, Google Calendar and many more….
- Google
Notebook Comes Next Week
Announced today as part of Google Press Day is a new Google Notebook service to
go live via Google Labs next week. The service will allow you to add notes to
search results, which in turn can be saved into one or more notebooks. Notes you
make about a site also will show up when you visit those sites, similar to how
the A9 Your Diary feature works. Yahoo and Ask also offer the ability to add
notes associated with search results….
- New Google
AdWords Traffic & Cost Estimator
Google AdWords has finally launched a standalone tool where advertisers can
get traffic and cost information for keywords without needing to login to their
AdWords accounts to do so. Data included in the results are keywords/minimum
bid, maximum CPC/predicted status, search volume, estimated average CPC,
estimated ad positions, potential clicks per day and potential cost per day….
- Advertiser
Files Complaint To Block Google Click Fraud Settlement
One Google advertiser is making a very formal rejection of the proposed
Google click fraud settlement — he’s filed a complaint to try and block the
agreement, and this before notifications from Google have even gone out….
- Google
Commission Woes In Sweden, Australia
Over the past few months, Google’s been trying to reduce or eliminate commission
on its ad products in countries where they are offered (North America, notably,
has never had them). Now there are some news reports that the plans aren’t well
received Down Under and in Sweden….
- Online Ad
Spending Continues to Grow
During the Dot Com Boom, many companies planned their online revenue models
around free services supported by advertising, and for many, this model didn’t
pan out because many traditional ad agencies – and their big brand, big spend
clients – did not embrace the online advertising opportunities available at the
time. However, a new article from CNET reports on the current status of online
advertising, including how it has cycled back to a point where many new services
are expected to be supported through online advertising and where big brands are
a major part of the expected growth of online…
- Google &
Yahoo Are Challenged In Mobile Search Space
A Wall Street Journal article reports that InfoSpace, amongst other startup
search engines, are providing a challenge for Google & Yahoo in the mobile
search space. I believe both Yahoo and Google are taking mobile search very
seriously. The market is still extremely new and there is a lot of opportunity
for startups to make key partnerships with the carriers….
- Finding
European Flights On The Move
Stuck in a European airport and looking for a cheap flight while on the move?
Skyscanner has got a new tool for you — a mobile-friendly version of its site,
Skyscanner Mobile….
- Google Maps
Marriage Proposal Or Not?
Nathan Weinberg reports that someone has proposed to his girlfriend via Google
Maps. If you take a look at the this roof top in Google Maps, you will notice it
reads, “Will U Marry Me.” But the true question is, was this meant for a fly
over via plane or helicopter or was it meant to be a proposal via Google
Maps?…