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My 2 featured articles for the week ending Mar. 24, 2006:

Archived blogs for the week of March 20, 2006

1137 - March 23, 2006 - 11.36 AM EST

Real estate and Google Base

Google users have been reporting sightings of a Google Base search box that appears above the main search results when performing certain Google searches.

The sightings have been noticed mainly by American and English Google users over the past 24 hours.

An example is a Google search for “homes for sale” in which a lot of users are being served the Google Base “Refine your search for homes for sale” box.

The change is a mix of local and niche search by Google, which is hosting the search result content in the reality feeds indexed and updated using the Google Base system.

A good bit of the blogs covering this news point to GoodROI.com which may have broke the story:

Since they are already showing three paid listings on top of the organic search results it is interesting they would take away even more page real estate to add a search box for real estate listings in Google Base.

If they keep this up it will not matter if you rank #1 since no organic search results will be above the fold. Google Base is still free so it wouldn’t be adding revenue.

Posted on Businessblog™

1136 - March 22, 2006 - 3.29 PM EST

Google upgrades its keyword research tool

Google has improved its keyword research tool for its AdWords PPC program. Google's new keyword research tool even allows users to have access to it from outside AdWords accounts.

Google also added seasonal search data for global and also local searches. The new keyword research tool is accessible by match type, ie. broad search, keyword-only search, keyphrase search, exact search, etc.

One of the ways MSN could possibly catch up a bit with Google on the SEM front is to make the default keyword research tool.

Posted on Businessblog™

1135 - March 22, 2006 - 1.53 PM EST

Windows' Vista: Only in Jan. 2007

I know I'm off topic on this but I had to rant about it! I've been saying for the past 2 years that Windows Vista (remember LongHorn?) is long overdue. Windows XP is over 4 years old and starting to show some signs of aging.

But late yesterday, Microsoft said that Vista won't be ready until January! Talk about another let down by the biggest software company in the world! Will Microsoft ever get anything right?

Let's recap here a bit... Near the end of 2003, Bill Gates said LongHorn (now renamed Vista, another big mistake) would be ready in Q1 2005. Later in 2004, Microsoft said it won't be ready in 2005, but instead in 2006. And now this!

I think Microsoft should carefully review its own priorities before claiming they want to be the biggest search engine in the world!

There, now I've said it and so I can go back to work.

Posted on Businessblog™

1134 - March 22, 2006 - 1.38 PM EST

PodZinger turns podcasts into text

If you often listen to or view podcasts, you may want to examine PodZinger a bit more closely.

If you're interested in the latest audio and video search technology you will most likely be interested to know more about PodZinger.

What makes PodZinger different is that the technology does not rely on meta data alone to categorize the podcasts.

PodZinger turns podcasts into text and then indexes it. That way you can search the entire podcast and hope to find a specific segment you are looking for.

The audio is transformed into text with the help of Speech recognition technology from PodZinger’s partner, BBN Technologies.

Posted on Businessblog™

1133 - March 21, 2006 - 4.16 PM EST

Yahoo starts beta testing in Canada

Yahoo starts beta testing in Canada for a new version of Yahoo Mail. Yahoo Mail beta (http://mail.yahoo.ca) provides a faster experience with enhanced functionality, such as drag and drop e-mail organization, message preview panes and an integrated RSS reader.

Like the current Yahoo Mail experience, the new version is browser-based, making it universally accessible from any computer connected to the Internet, without the need for a software download.

The beta incorporates Oddpost technology and provides the most significant enhancement to the Yahoo Mail interface and user experience since its launch in 1997.

Rogers Yahoo Hi-Speed Internet customers will also be able to enjoy a beta test of the new service on Rogers Yahoo Mail (http://rogers.yahoo.com/mail).

The beta also recently became available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France and Korea, and will be rolled-out to all Yahoo! Mail users in Canada and those markets in the coming weeks.

Yahoo intends to make the new version available to all users worldwide after the completion of beta testing.

Beta testers will be able to toggle between the different versions of Yahoo! Mail in order to try the new interface.

Posted on Businessblog™

1132 - March 21, 2006 - 10.36 AM EST

Google launches financial Web site

Today Google has launched a beta version of Google Finance, an aggregating informational portal about companies that features interactive charts, correlating news and other financially-related events of interest.

Various stock charts can be arranged to show certain stock activity for different time periods by clicking and dragging, and they can be zoomed in or out on to get more detailed information on their characteristics.

News stories that correspond to specific days are displayed on the side and are automatically adjusted to reflect selected time periods.

People have been able to get a stock quote by typing a ticker into the Google search bar.

The Google Finance page will be one of the top links on the results page.

Google Finance includes links to news about public and private companies, a personalized area for keeping track of stock quotes for select companies, related news that automatically displays news related to the tickers searched on and a portfolio section for keeping track of companies a user is researching or trading.

It also has charts that show the volume of news stories for a particular company on a specific day as well as company facts, summary, financials, management and related companies and links to outside news and finance sources.

Posted on Businessblog™

1131 - March 20, 2006 - 4.59 PM EST

Google sued over Page Rank issue

On Friday, KinderStart filed a lawsuit against Google in U.S. District Court in San Jose, alleging Google improperly banned its Web site. A copy of the legal filing could not be obtained at this point but various news reports confusingly use the term "blacklisted".

An AP news wire story states that KinderStart claims Google blacklisted its Web site which would mean it couldn't be found in Google.

However, KinderStart.com has over 43,000 pages in Google's database. The legal issue centers on PageRank because all 43,000 KinderStart.com pages have a rank of zero.

Google famously uses PageRank to help determine results for web searches. A rank of zero would likely mean KinderStart would rarely show up in the top ten results for any search.

The civil complaint asks the court to be certified as a class action "representing the owners of all Web sites blacklisted by Google since January 2001".

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2006. All rights reserved.

All views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of Serge Thibodeau only and are not representative of any company listed. All slogans, trademarks, text or logo representation used or referred to on this blog are the property of their respective owners.