Symetri Blog

After almost a year of awaiting regulatory approval, Google has announced in their blog that the acquisition of Double Click is complete and official:

I'm pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today. Although it's been nearly a year since we announced our intention to acquire DoubleClick last April, we are no less excited today about the benefits that the combination of our two companies will bring to the online advertising market.
...
As the combination of Google and DoubleClick delivers better, more relevant display ads, we're also looking forward to delivering an improved online experience to users. Because user trust is paramount to the success of our business, users will continue to benefit from our commitment to protecting user privacy following this acquisition. And our scale and infrastructure mean that users will also be spending less time waiting for web pages to load. Ultimately, we believe that by combining our advertising network with DoubleClick's display ad serving products, and by investing resources in the display ad business, we will be able to help publishers and advertisers generate more revenue.

Also pending in court is Google's attempts to acquire the entire internet, planet Earth, and our arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, all in separate proceedings.

Labels: google, world domination

From New Scientist's Tech Pages:

The open-source search engine backed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales could go live as an early test version as soon as next week. Unlike Google, Search Wikia will not share search data with advertisers, nor invade privacy by storing users' search terms.

In a SETI@home-style project, 500 volunteers are running web-crawlers to compile Search Wikia's web index, which so far totals 100 million pages. Jeremie Miller, the project's technology chief, hopes an "alpha" version of the engine will be running by Christmas. As well as search, it will offer "wiki-style tools to improve search and basic social networking", he says. Users will also be able to vote on the effectiveness of search hits.

But don't expect too much, too soon. "The alpha version will probably break in numerous ways we can't predict, but that'll help us improve it," Miller says.

Now that you've read the blurb, feel free to openly laugh at the title if you have not already.

While I do commend not sharing search terms with advertisers, if you don't store search terms somewhere, then how can you compile information on popular searches? How do you sort through millions of variations? How do you know what to give people when they search for something if you don't have anything to match that search term to?

Ah, maybe they mean something else. Over the past few years, Wikipedia has become (a bit of) an elitist community where if you don't spend long days editing and updating entries, any submitted entry has the potential of being attacked within two minutes by someone who does, all in a world where every single Pokemon character has its own page.

At this point, anything with "Wikipedia" attached may be slightly soured, but we are looking forward to something new, even if we only end up making fun of it.

Labels: google, internets, online tech, search engines, Wikipedia

The good folks over at search engine land have hit on a recent tale of Google, the EU, and really, really old cookies. 30+ year old cookies, to be exact. Danny Sullivan goes into a great deal of detail about Google's data retention, the EU, and how silly the EU is for making this a spectacle.

That got me started thinking about cookies and all the other crap that gets to collecting like so much lint, blocking up the flow of information and bogging down your system. The message to all of this is simple: Clean your browser. So I wondered how often people are cleaning their browsers. From a study in 2005:

Nearly 40 percent of Internet users delete cookies from their primary computers on at least a monthly basis, according to a study by JupiterResearch. The finding has big implications for advertising and marketing firms that depend on cookies for tracking and targeting.

Based on a survey of 2,337 U.S. respondents, the study finds that 17 percent of Internet users delete cookies on a weekly basis. Approximately 12 percent do so on a monthly basis, and 10 percent make it a daily habit.

Ten percent of internet users delete cookies every day? Only 10%? Clearing cookies, clearing your cache is like brushing your teeth.

Granted, this is good news for, well, some of the business I do; cookies track analytics, visits, time on site, exit pages, and all those goodies us SEO dorks pore over for hours, comparing the merits of pie charts vs. line graphs. The more cookies and the greater their longevity, the better the tracking and the more solid the data. So I'm sure someone will give me a spanking for this: Clean Your Computer!

Every time you see an image on your screen, that image is stored on your hard drive. Almost every site places a small piece of information to go with it: the cookie. Most cookies identify you or a bit of information, like if you were already at the site before. Some can be malicious and track in much more detail.

I'm not going to delve into the methods of cookie deletion when so many resources already exist on the web.

But don't stop there. I personally use webroot's Window Washer and have for about 5 years. It does cost $30, but it's worth every penny, eliminating unnecessary files at dozens of levels. Looking for free? Lavasoft's Ad-Aware is free for personal use and not only kills tracking cookies, but specifically targets spyware. Good stuff.

So clean your browser. Daily. Brush your teeth. Probably twice daily. Get a haircut. And get a job.

Labels: cookies, google, internets, software

It's the 411 on ...well, the 411. Really. GOOG-411; It's just like calling information. Only way cooler because it's Google. The Google Labs Page.

Here's the deal: you dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-4664-411). You say the City and State you are looking for. You say the business name (or category). It will connect you. For free. Yay!

But how does it really work?

I love Indian food, so I thought I'd give it a little challenge looking for "The Ceramic Grill" in High Point, NC, near where I work. I dialed the number (Google is bold, I'm in italics).

"Calls recorded for quality. GOOG 411. Experimental. What city and state?"
"High Point, North Carolina."
"High Point, North Carolina."
"What Business or Category?"
"Ceramic Grill"
"Ceramics Grill. If this is not right, say 'go back.'"
I wasn't sure it got me, so I said "Go back."
"High Point, North Carolina."
"What Business or Category?"
"Ceramic Grill"
"No Match. Try Again. What Business or Category?"
"Ceramic Grill"
Ceramic. If-
"Go back."
"High Point, North Carolina."
"What Business or Category?"
"Ceramic Grill"
"Ceramics Grill. If this is not right, say 'go back.'"
Okay, let's see what they got.
"I'll connect you or you can say 'details' or 'go back.'"
"Details."

And they proceeded with the correct details of the Ceramic Grill. I guess Google had it right the first time.

Saying something that doesn't have a direct match will still produce results, just like a Google search will. Saying a category will produce a top 9 so you can punch a number and get those details or connect. Shouting "Can't we have anything nice?" or "You don't know me!" produces no results.

And the bestest? Prank calls, of course. Making this phone call brings up 1-800-4664-411 on the caller ID of the recipient. Okay, so it's too cool to use for that purpose. Maybe.

Give it a try! And when you're done, if you're in the neighborhood, drop me a line and we'll hit the Ceramic Grill (soooo good).

Labels: gadgets, google

In the 2006 wrap up, I wrote about how Yahoo and MSN jumped onboard (yay!) to support the Google Standard of sitemap joy. They both came out, but MSN isn't quite playing yet. Still, there is no official interface (like Google and Yahoo) with which to submit your sitemaps.

And so while awaiting such an instrument, autodiscovery comes to the forefront at SES NY. Autodiscovery is what they're calling the ability to place a single line of code (e.g., Sitemap: http://www.symetri.com/sitemap.xml) in the robots.txt, and everyone can read it.

So that's why MSN's been sitting on their hands.

And who's there to show them up? Ask! No, silly, the computer can't hear you. I mean Ask.com. And not only do they support the simplicity of this wonderful idea, they even have a secondary measure: you can submit XML sitemaps directly to them using their sitemap submission link. Aww, snap.

So how does this affect us in SEM Land? It's another piece of armor to strap on; we're not replacing the chain mail with the full plate, but layering. We've got a "we support this" from the Big 4 (after this move by Ask, they deserve it), but no numbers backing how it will all sort out. Maintain the Yahoo and Google accounts, keep your feeds up to date, and add that extra line of code to the robots.txt.

But layer appropriately, fair traveller. If you reach your weight limit and the onyx sword is revealed, it's of no use if you can't even pick it up.



Category: Search Engine Marketing and Optimization

Labels: ask, big 4, google, microsoft, symetri, yahoo

As many SEO Specialists are aware, Google's reporting of links back to a site (link:symetri.com) have been like the fruit to Tantalus; we can see some of them, we know Google has the information, but we just...can't...reach.

Until now.

Google is now adding a more robust Link Discovery to their Webmaster Tools. Webmasters who have verified their ownership of the site will get a much more comprehensive list and even split it into internal and external links. This is great stuff. You still won't be able to see any backlinks that hit supplemental pages. It could be helpful to see those links, but Google's throwing us a bone here and thrilled giddy about the new car. Whining about it not having a GPS standard? Too Veruca for me.

Google's official blog entry is here, and is pretty extensive. Search Engine Land has rendered it down some.

Yay backlinks!


Category: Search Engine Marketing and Optimization

Labels: backlinks, google, symetri, webmaster