Category: Google (GOOG)

Google (GOOG)

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SES San Jose Day 3 – Eric Schmidt Interview

Danny Sullivan conducted a rather lively and interesting interview session at Search Engine Strategies San Jose the morning after the Google Dance.   

Danny: AOL controversy, privacy, etc?

It’s obviously a terrible thing. Speaking for Google, the trust of our end users. It’s funny that we talk about the company being more transparent. We had a case where the government gave use an overbroad subpoena. A judge ruled for us.

Danny: Google saves the data. Should you destroy the data?

We are reasonably satisfied, it’s not and accidental error. We’ve dbated what you suggest.

Danny: Does a search engine need to filter more of this data?

In California, information on DMV was public. It would be nice if there was a systemic way to list it. It is illegal to

Danny: Should you take a site like that down.

We’ve discussed it.

Danny: The debate about click fraud?

The advertisers show a click fraud rate now. Why are trying to give advertisers information about how it’s working.

Danny: How much money is going into search?

We have chosen not to release the underlying economics… We are working to give people the ability to target where their ads go.

Danny: Google ads are now on radio, image, etc…

Much of the world’s video will be repurposed to the web. Using video ads can enable that.

Danny: Whatever you do, it’s going to be measurable…

Measurable ads start now. You hear ads that ae a waste of your time today. You should end up with fewer ads with more purpose. That is going to benefit everyone.

Danny: Standards – why is this happening now?

Click fraud, link fraud, standardized formats. Tim Armstrong is working with the IAB on this for us.

Danny: Adsense is a power for good. Should the problem areas be clamped on?

Overall, it’s a great outcome. We have people that abuse it. We are getting better at detecting the areas of attack.

Danny: Boring, search can boring, search is still working on a box.

Many people are happy with this one box. But, we are starting igoogle, a series of gadgets.  

Danny: Links…

We want to provide the best technical result. How do we use information that is very proprietary. Even I don’t know the algorithm.

Danny: Book search…

Google has to be careful, we want to avoid issues. There is a fair use issue. The law is not that clear.

Danny: Google we are everywhere you want to be…I surrender. Give me the implant.

Would you like to be a test case? (laughs) Primary goal is to make their lives better. We’ve talked about the limits of our growth. People are one click

Danny: How often do you search?

50-100 times a day…A politician, came in and knew there was more outhouses than Tivo? A year later is wasn’t true. Google is not a perfect truth filter.

Danny: When was the last time you clicked on an ad?

All the time, I search, Google search cause I do a lot of online shopping and I want to know how things work.

Audience: Transparency, do you see plans – momentarily will I be able to monentize my search.

I hadn’t thought of that fully, that is clever. There are elements right now. 

Audience: Ebay question…

We want to integrate Paypal so that people have choice.

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SES Day 2 – Auditing Paid Listings & Click Fraud Issues Session

Basic legal update was presented – you can read this elsewhere.

Edelman – new suit against Yahoo! Alleges spyware in publishing network causing clicks.

Special claims process. Claims process being overseen by a federal judge. What deos click fraud mean. Plaintiff’s lawyer said we are giving up positive praise. Yahoo will have customer panels. John Slade is pleased that these things are settling as it allows the freedom to start talking.

Shuman made a very short statement that shared John’s sentiment.

Paul Vallez (Ask) – they have been trying to learn from Yahoo! and Google.

How big is click fraud? Tom Cuthbert says 14.1% is the figure he sees overall. He did not discuss variability.

Shuman published study that shows fictitious clicks. 17 pages – Shuman says page loads are causing these.

Reports submitted to Google there are Yahoo ads included. Shuman claims some people have reported over 100% percent.

Lori Weiman reprimanded Shuman for not sharing the report with the panel in advance because it made it impossible to respond to Shuman’s points.
 
Tom Cuthbert – reasonableisnotenough.com

Media rating council. IAB is a publisher network and is not the right panel.

Jessie commented on John’s positive contributions. Then pointed to Shuman for issues with

Shuman stated a number of invalid click efforts ongoing from Google.

Jessie then challenged for Shuman to agree that data both sides was necessary. Shuman agreed.

There was a lively and choppy question and answer session (as always).

Analysis: Yahoo! is clearly collaborating with customers to work to solve the issues. Google is clearly trying to move from defense to offense – but I’m uncertain what this accomplishes in the long term. Can’t wait for next time.

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Google Video Migrates to the Google Home Page

In this post on July 20th, I predicted that Google Video would appear on the homepage soon. However, I guessed wrong on it replacing Images. At first, I’m surprised that Froggle was what was removed. After thinking about it more I shouldn’t be, Google Checkout migrates to the back end of process what Froggle did upfront. If there is enough penetration of Checkout, it now makes sense to me that Froggle would be unnecessary.

Maybe they are starting to run the company off of my blog suggestions now… 😉

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SES Day 1 – Social Search Overview

Chris Sherman made introduction speech I cant stress enough that he did a really *amazing* job of planning the session and laying out the issues. Major props.

Social Search goes back to the first days of the Internet.

W3.org – first directory.

Directories were the first forms of social media. Spammers destroyed the first directories with spam.

Future – people will be getting these things right

Talent pool is volunteer and free. The scaling is happening due to people participating.

Types – Shared bookmarks (del.icio.us), tag engines (blogs and RSS) and collaborative directories (Wikipedia).

Types of social search – Personalized verticals and collaborative harvesters.

Popurls.com – combines all news sites like dig, reddit, etc in one place.

Scale and scope will be major, tagging, ambiguity of language, human laziness, lack of controlled vocabulary, and of course…idiots!!!

Spammers – new systems create new opportunities.

Chris Sherman is optimistic about social search but is concerned about some issues. Trust networks, increased personalization, etc are great opportunities

Grant Ryan , Eurester speaks:
Flew in from New Zealand and is tired!

Anyone can create their own search engine with Eurester.

Power to the people – socialization of the search technology. Spidering, Directories, Link Analysis, Swickis

Search engines have done everything to avoid

We are a printing press not a publisher. We can decide how it looks and how to make money. We have created 20,000 search engines.

Monetize the printing press the way you want to – chose what is best for your community.

Swikinomics – How can you create vertical search engines. You can own your own Swicki. Property rights are key to motivate people in any economic system.

Anyone can create a valuable asset based on their knowledge

Existing communities and brands can extend into web search to create valuable services

Anyone can organize information on the Internet and get paid for it.

Tim Mayer, Yahoo!

Launching a search builder today – builder.yahoosearch.com

Search breakthroughs come from untapped authorities and rich new sources of metadata.

Yahoo’s mission – “Enrich peoples’ lives by enabling them to find, use, share and expand all human knowledge.”

Obtain a critical mass or high-quality user generated experience.

Nils Pohlmann, Lead Program Manager, Windows Live Search

Live spaces – new release

Ideas.live.com beta release Windows Live Q&A

Windows Live Local – Maps with tags

Windows Live QnA – sign up as qna.live.com

Questions:
Are the demographics different than in a bookmarking versus answers?

Tim – Del.icio.us is tech influencers. Tails of the tags are more mainstream. Myweb are early adopters. The demographic is younger overall.

Subscribers for a tag, Answers, is about contribute valuable knowledge.

There was a question about paying for bookmarking actions and the panel was in agreement that they are leery of going this route.

Regarding Yahoo! – Tim – Builder.search.yahoo.com – create customized web search. Create customized search experience. Reputation and trust are important!

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SES Day 1 – Social Search : Up Close With Google

I never did catch the marketing speakers name….sorry!

Google Co-op – Subscribe links. This is new types of content and new types of information.

Building socialized search. Example of subscribed links flight stats: Instyle Magazine, Search Engine Watch and Digg are good examples.
You have control over how they work.
Fresh content is important.
Target precisely so the experience is better.
Make sure it is actionable.
Make the content pleasing to read.

Query formulation is hard for some users. Google Topic Value Proposition – Refinements allow users to start with simple queries and refine using labels.

Lack of content, users don’t know what they are looking for. Labels suggest ways to look for information.

Users don’t understand how to bring that relationship.

It was surprising to see Google only send one person with a 10 minute speech for this. They were leaving the room in droves even before he finished. When I saw it was going to be an hour and fifteen minutes of random questions, I bailed to the branding session.