Content Matters

Google has long had rules designed to discourage websites from "deceiving their users" by presenting one set of content to be spidered, then redirecting the user to different content when they click on the site.  Initially, this was designed to prevent web spam from porn sites and the like.  I'd heard that Google had "delisted" certain sites from their search engine for violating this, but it was always small sites with little traffic.
Now, Google seems to be sending a loud and clear message.  In a posting on his blog, Matt Cutts, Google's "Gadget Guy", indicates that they have removed the German home page for BMW from the Google index and will be doing the same with the German site for Ricoh.
While there remain many incentives for webmasters to try various webspam options, this may send a message to some (at least at the more established brands with more at risk) to play by the rules.
Now, if they could only figure out how to do something about trackback spam on blogs....

I love Web 2.0 technologies.  All of these great tools for social collaboration are fantastic, and the fact that they're all hosted applications makes them accessible and affordable.  I truly love them...
...when they work, that is.
I've previously praised Six Apart (TypePad's parent) including them on the "50 Content Companies that Matter" list.  Their TypePad service is easy, affordable and does 80% of what I need it to.
But recently, TypePad has gone through some growing pains.  Last fall, they had some stability issues and were forced to offer partial refunds to their subscribers.  During the past 3-4 weeks, these problems have come up again (while they apparently move to a new hosting facility) and the site has run with sporadic service.  I realize that, in context, this isn't a huge problem.  After all, the citizens of Iraq have only 2-3 hours of electricity each day, so my not being able to see usage statistics on my blog is a pretty small problem.  But, it is a problem that Six Apart has to resolve quickly. 
The downside to running an ASP model is that the switching costs for users are extremely low.  There are no systems to install and integrate, no hardware to purchase and no users to train.  I switched from blogger to TypePad about a year ago, and have been happy until now.  But if the stability issues are not quickly resolved, I think we'll see many TypePad users explore other options.  I know of one content industry blog that switched from TypePad to Blogger just this week.
So while I still like TypePad's tools, I hope they get their access problems fixed quickly.

When I finished reading John Battelle’s “The Search”, I intended to post a book review to my blog. But, although I found the book compelling, I realized that there was almost nothing I could add that hadn’t already been said in one of the more than 1,800 blog posts discussing the book. Not to mention, of course, the more than 40 reviews on Amazon, plus detailed articles in dozens of business magazines. Sometimes, there’s little more to say.

 

However, I’ve recently begun reading a different book on Google. This one, by search engine analyst Steve Arnold, is an e-book entitled “The Google Legacy: How Google’s Internet Search Is Transforming Application Software”.

This 295 page tome takes a technologically-focused look at Google, and proposes that Google and their network-centric approach is the “logical heir to the Microsoft dynasty”. 

The Google Legacy is geared to those looking to capitalize on the large economic ecosystem created by Google, or those who may soon find themselves threatened by it. As Arnold shows, Google is much more than simply web search. With more than 50 applications today, ranging from the Google Search Appliance to Google Local to Gmail to image management application Picasa, Google has leveraged its search technology in numerous ways. According to Arnold, this huge array of products and services exist due to Google’s software and hardware engineering achievements. Google’s success in these areas is as much tied to their ability to harness commodity hardware and Linux in creating massively parallel computing system as it is to their search algorithms. 

The Google Legacy is a comprehensive analysis of Google, its technology and its potential impact. If you’re in software, hardware or information services, or in a knowledge-driven business, you need to better understand the impact that Google will be having in your market. 

You can view the Table of Contents or read a sample chapter at the Infonortics site.

Jarid Lukin, of Alacra, has an interesting take on the latest version release of the Google Toolbar.  Using the new "custom buttons" feature, you can configure your Google Toolbar to search Yahoo or MSN.  Now you can have the best of all worlds - a single toolbar that lets you compare search results across any of the GYM sites.  For a quick walkthrough on how to configure this one-click solution, take a look at Jarid's post.