Should Google Be Getting More Bing-Like?

This week Google released its new design for Image Search. The new design includes a tiled layout with instant scrolling between pages. This has already drawn some inevitable comparisons to Bing's image search, which is particularly interesting given Google's overall more Bing-like user interface launched earlier this year. 

In fact, Google has been drawing a great deal of criticism, and general observation this week regarding its increasing "Bingness". A very large percentage of the articles written this week about Google's new image search, not only make comparisons to Bing, but mention it in the title.

Some question why Google is trying to become more like Bing, while it already controls a much larger part of the search market. Others think the changes are for the better. After all, it's not like Google has changed its algorithm to match Bing's.

Still, "It seems that almost every time that Google makes an improvement in its aesthetic appeal, it looks more and more like Bing, notes  Converseon's Mike Moran. "Remember the short-lived attempt to customize the Google home page recently which has since been removed?"

Let's Look at the actual new design...

You can get up to a thousand images in one scrolling page, and the pages will have page numbers so you can keep track of where you are. This has been a feature lacking from Bing's image search (though it does at least display a number for the range currently displayed...such as 377-416 of 6,400,000 results).

Google is also providing larger thumbnail previews on the results page, with a hover pane that appears when you mouse over a thumbnail. This includes more info and other features like "similar images."

"Once you click on an image, you’re taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it’s hosted on visible right behind it," explains Google Images Product Manager Nate Smith. "Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context."

Finally, you can use Page Up/ Page Down to scroll through pages quickly.

Some webmasters have taken issue with Google's new image search design, complaining that it puts their ads further away from being clicked. "The main issue from a webmaster perspective, as noted in WebmasterWorld, is that when you click on an image, it doesn't take you to the site," writes Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable. "Instead, it keeps you on Google, overlays the image in large format on top of your grayed out web site."

"So any ads on your site won't be clickable after the first click from Google. Users are instructed to either go back, click on the web site with the image or click on the actual image source file," he explains. "I should note that clicking anywhere on the background web site will take you to that web site."

Remember, the new design did come with a new ad format too. The format is called (appropriately) Image Search Ads.  

"These ads appear only on Google Images, and they let you include a thumbnail image alongside your lines of text," explains Google Images Product Manager Nate Smith. "We hope they’re a useful way to reach folks who are specifically looking for images."

Yahoo/Microsoft Search Alliance in Cartoon Form

Microsoft and Yahoo have released a new video illustrating how the two companies intend to create a "powerful new choice in search" with their Search Alliance, due to begin making its way to customers before the end of the year.

There is not much in the way of news about the alliance to come from the video, but it does put its goal into a simple, easy-to-understand 2 minutes without going into all of the specifics.

On the site for the Search Alliance, Microsoft and Yahoo say they still plan to launch the transition (at least in the U.S.) before the holidays season, but they also say they may wait until 2011 if they decide that it will be more effective. 

Chrome Team Names Favorite Extensions

Anyone who's still at a loss as to why they should try Chrome - or is using it, but feels a little adrift - may want to look at a new list Google's put into circulation. The Chrome team has identified 19 apps that can make the browser much more useful.

Here's the list of apps in the order Google named them: Opinion Cloud, Google Voice, AutoPager, Turn Off the Lights, Google Dictionary, After the Deadline, Invisible Hand, Secbrowsing, Tineye, Slideshow, Google Docs/PDF Viewer, Readability, Chromed Bird, Feedsquares, ScribeFire, Note Anywhere, Instant Messaging Notifier, Remember the Milk, and Extension.fm.

Together, those options cover all sorts of contingencies. Not that other apps might not fulfill the same functions for Firefox users, of course, but Google's list makes these apps easy to find, and the Chrome team's official endorsement counts for a lot with regards to quality. It's possible Chrome will see an uptick in use as a result.

Certain developers should definitely see the installation rates of their apps increase, too, making this move a nice and unselfish gesture on Google's part.

Jonathan Rosenberg, a senior vice president product management, concluded on the Official Google Blog, "We're proud of the Chrome browser and the great extensions that its developer community has created, and we hope you enjoy them!"

Fring: Skype are Cowards, Skype: Fring are Liars

Skype and Fring have become engaged in something of a battle of words on the companies' respective blogs today.

Well, first, Fring issued a press release claiming Skype forced Fring to stop Fring's use of the service, threatening legal action. Fring posted on its blog, "Now that fring expanded capacity to support the huge demand for video calling for all users, Skype has blocked us from doing so. They are afraid of open mobile communication. Cowards."

Skype's Robert Miller then fired back from Skype's blog:


An hour or so ago, Fring reported on their blog that we had blocked their access to Skype. I want to make one thing absolutely clear: this is untrue.

Fring was using Skype software in a way it wasn’t designed to be used – and in a way which is in breach of Skype’s API Terms of Use and End User License Agreement. We’ve been talking with Fring for some time to try to resolve this amicably.

However, over time, Fring’s mis-use of our software was increasingly damaging our brand and reputation with our customers. On Friday, for example, Fring withdrew support for video calls over Skype on iOS 4 without warning, again damaging our brand and disappointing our customers, who have high expectations of the Skype experience.

Miller adds that "there is no truth to Fring's claims that Skype has blocked it," and that Fring made the decision to remove Skype on its own.

It's highly unlikely that this is the last we will hear from either side of the argument, but if nothing else, it has given Fring some press and some a great deal of commentary about both Skype and Fring from comments on both blogs.

Yahoo's CFO Pledges To Improve Buying/Selling Strategy

If you've ever heard about a Yahoo acquisition and thought that the price sounded excessive - or heard about a sale and thought the opposite - know that Yahoo's CFO is aware of the problem. Tim Morse recently indicated that the company is trying much harder to spend wisely.

Morse told Brian Womack during an interview, "You've seen our track record on M&A with buying really high and selling pretty low. We've got to be careful." So from now on, when Yahoo considers buying a company, Morse stressed, "It's got to have a business model, it's got to fit into our strategy."

And that strategy - or at least the goal it's supposed to lead to - is an impressive one. Morse wants to increase his company's return on invested capital from five percent (which is all it achieved in 2009) to between 18 and 24 percent in 2013.

The changes aren't going to stop with what Yahoo buys and sells, either. Its CFO said, "One of the big efforts in the company is to kind of change the culture, create more of a culture of efficiency."

Database Administrator Sentenced To One Year For Hacking

A former senior database administrator for electric provider GEXA Energy in Houston was sentenced today to one year in prison for hacking into his former employer's computer network, the U.S. Department of Justice said today.

Steven Jinwoo Kim, 40, of Houston pleaded guilty on Nov. 16, 2009, to one count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage. Kim was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore in the Southern District of Texas. Kim was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to GEXA Energy and to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

According to court documents, on February 5, 2008, GEXA Energy fired Kim from his job as senior database administrator and took away all of his administrative rights and access to the company's computer network.

In pleading guilty, Kim admitted that in the early hours of April 30, 2008, he used his home computer to connect to the GEXA Energy computer network and a database that contained information on approximately 150,000 GEXA Energy customers. While connected to the computer network, Kim caused damage to the computer network and the customer database by inputting a number of Oracle database commands.

Kim also copied and saved to his home computer a database file containing personal information on the GEXA Energy customers, including names, billing addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth and drivers license numbers. According to court documents, Kim's actions caused a $100,000 loss to GEXA Energy. source: www.webpronews.com/topnews/

Google Music, Android 3.0 To Launch Together This Year

Two of the most anticipated projects in development at Google should be rolled out in a coordinated fashion rather soon. Android product manager Gaurav Jain indicated in a recent interview that Google Music and Android 3.0 will come out together in time for the holidays.

Zach Epstein deserves credit for coming across the interview, which was published by Israel's Calcalist. As for the contents, a (somewhat mangled) Google translation sure enough indicates that Jain said, "Google will combine music download service next version of Android launched for the U.S. holiday season."

That's a pretty definite sign some cross-promotions will take place. It's easy to imagine how television commercials might work in both the new Android operating system (or at least the new phones utilizing it) and the availability of lots and lots of music via a cloud service.

Factor in the time of year, and it even starts to seem likely that we'll see the largest Android advertising campaign to date.

Unfortunately for Google, as exciting as all that might be, the timing of the rollout could leave it at a disadvantage. Epstein noted, "New rumors circulated earlier this week suggesting that Apple is on the verge of revealing the fruits of its Lala acquisition . . . . These rumors suggest a September announcement for streaming iTunes service, which would be bad news for Google."

On the other hand, if Apple moves first, that might provide Google with an opportunity to address some of its competitor's shortcomings.

Google Still the Top Search Property Worldwide in 2009

Latest data from comScore are showing familiar trends in the global search market once again, except for one peculiar point. Interestingly, while Google retains its lead among the search properties worldwide, Microsoft’s search market share seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds. Of course, Yahoo still got the lowest percentage change in search market for 2009 among these three major search engines.

Here are the highlights of comScore’s study on the global search market growth:

• total searches worldwide is at 131 billion representing a 46% increase from 2008; this is equivalent to 4 billion search conducted worldwide daily
• the U.S. search market remains the biggest with 22.7 billion searches in 2009, representing 17% of all the global searches made;
• China ranks second with 13.3 billion searches and followed by Japan with 9.2 billion and the U.K. with 6.2 billion searches.
• Google got 87.8 billion searches which is a 58% increase from 2008, followed by Yahoo with 9.4 billion searches and 13% increase from 2009; while the biggest surprise is Microsoft on the fourth place with 4.1 billion searches – a big 70% leap from 2008 search market data.

Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/

Bing Maps Leaves Beta, New Features Added

Microsoft has just announced that its Bing Maps service is finally leaving the beta state. And as it prepares to become a full-pledged Microsoft geo-mapping service, Bing has brought some new stuff with it.

These new features aims to give users better experience while using Bing Maps. Perhaps equal to how good Google Maps is or even better?

Here are the new features of Bing Maps:

• improved speed and performance of the default page load time
• improved speed of routing driving directions
• updated user interface to make features and maps more discoverable
• map legends are now easier to use
• addition of Vancouver and Whistler to the Bing Map database

Bing Maps also promises more new applications to be added on a regular basis. For starters, two new apps were just released. One is an application for tweaking the map appearance and can be used for customization while the second app helps you find local events by overlaying activities on a Bing map.

And finally, to kick off Bing’s becoming a full-blown web service Microsoft is holding the Bing Maps Challenge, where you can have a chance to win $100 gift card. Good luck!

Content Can Now Go Viral More Easily with Facebook

Over the past year or so, Facebook has made a number of moves, which bring more Twitter-like functionality to the social network. Some question why Facebook would want to become more like Twitter given that it is much more dominant in the social media space, but Facebook sees the growing-popularity of Twitter, and likely wants to make sure it offers everything users want, to keep them around for the long haul.

The latest Twitter-like feature to come to Facebook is the "share" button, which is pretty much Facebook's answer to Twitter's "retweet." The feature was rolled out over the weekend, and appears as a text link on posts in your news feed that stem from links ("share" is currently not an option for regular status updates, photo uploads, etc.).

Just click "share" and you are presented with a pop-up window that allows you to share the link, and says "Via username" (although you can remove this):

Just like that, you have passed the link on to your own friends, which may or may not include a variety of people who aren't friends of the original poster. This in effect makes Facebook an even more valuable tool for content publishers. It will help content go viral, spreading through new audienceses.

source: http://www.webpronews.com/

Google Gets 72% of Searches in December 2009 (Hitwise)

Following up Nielsen search market share data, Hitwise has also released their search metrics for December 2009. And just like Nielsen’s stats, Google is also leading the pack, getting 72.5% of all searches conducted in the U.S. during the said period. This is equivalent to 1% growth rate from November 2009.

All the three other search engines trailing Google from behind suffered a decrease in searches. Yahoo got 14.83%, down from 15.93%, Bing got 8.92% from 9.34% and Ask.com got 2.54% from 2.65%.

In addition, the Hitwise report also pointed out that Google has been driving more traffic to key U.S. industries while Bing’s stat showed the biggest leap in terms of driving traffic to these key industry categories. Specifically Google has been sending the most traffic to Automotive, Shopping and Travel Categories. While Bing is good at sending traffic to all four categories and Yahoo in the Shopping category.

Hitwise also note, through a post on its official blog that although Bing suffered minor loss in searches during the said period, it is however showing signs of success rate.

In October 2009, BIng’s success rate was well below the competition with a success rate just north of 70%. That rate has been steadily increasing, and now Bing is showing a success rate over 75%. There is one caveat when reading these numbers; search success rate is often influenced by the complexity of the search. Traditionally, portal search engines tend to have more simple navigational and brand related queries in their top searches which are easier to resolve then searches for information.

There you go. That will probably end our year-end coverage of search market happenings in 2009. Although, Compete.com is yet to release its own data for December. Google obviously still is the king of search all through out 2009.

Will there be any change in search trend this year? That we will have to wait and see.

source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com

New Facebook Feature Combats Dodgy Friend Requests

Facebook is testing out a new feature that lets you identify strangers who attempt to friend you, according to a report published today by the Inside Facebook blog. Facebook confirmed it’s testing the feature in an email to Mashable.

Ever encountered someone who just can’t take the hint, “I don’t know you, so, no, I do not want to be your friend,” and attempts to friend you over and over again despite numerous rejections? Or have you been spammed by a fake Facebook profile whose friendship you carelessly accepted?

Well, Facebook () has the remedy for all of these ills: A new function called “Mark You Don’t Know.” Now, after choosing “ignore” when you receive a friend request, Facebook gives you the option to report said person as a stranger. Check out the screenshots below (here’s hoping Mashable’s Samuel Axon doesn’t get blocked for kindly taking part in this demonstration):

The new feature will likely be a great help to the site and its members, given that it has been a target recently for both phishing attempts and spam. Still, it does seem to be sending mixed messages in the wake of the launch of new privacy features and founder Mark Zuckerberg’s proclamation that sharing is the new “social norm.”

It remains to be seen just how well this new feature will function. In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments.

source: http://mashable.com

Google Launches the DoubleClick Ad Exchange

Finally after acquiring Double Click for a whooping $3.1 billion, Google will now try to regain what they’ve invested in the company. The Official Google Blog has just announced the launch of the Double Click Ad Exchange – a real-time marketplace to buy and sell display advertising.

The DoubleClick Ad Exchange hopes to achieve what Google AdWords and Google AdSense have achieved so far. With it, Google hopes to create more open display ad ecosystem for everyone. The ecosystem we’re talking about here consists of Ad Exchange Sellers and Buyers, Google AdWords Advertisers and Google AdSense Publishers.

The DoubleClick Ad Exchange would benefit these four players, and so Google said. For Ad Exchange Buyers, the display ad marketplace will give them access to more websites and ad spaces, as well as bid for ad space in real-time. For Ad Exchange Sellers this program would mean more advertisers and more revenues for their ad spaces. Google AdWords advertisers are also to benefit from the DoubleClick Ad Exchange through easy access to the many websites in the Ad Exchange in addition to the websites in Google’s Content Network. While Google AdSense publishers will have their ad spaces exposed to more certified ad networks in the Ad Exchange. Both AdWords and AdSense members can enjoy the DoubleClick Ad Exchange through their respective interfaces and don’t need them to get through the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

So, if you’re a Google AdSense publisher you can check out how the DoubleClick Ad Exchange will affect you at the Inside AdSense blog. If you’re a Google AdWords advertiser, this is the link that you would want to check out.

Other details about the DoubleClick Ad Exchange are enumerated on this PDF file and also at the Double Click Blog.

source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/

Google Fast Flip Goes Mainstream

Update 2: Google has now placed Fast Flip at the bottom of Google News.

Update: Google announced that it now has 2 dozen more publishers representing over 50 publications on board the Google Fast Flip train (which is still in experiment status). New sources include Tribune Co. newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, McClatchy Company newspapers such as the Miami Herald and the Kansas City Star, the Huffington Post, Popular Science, Reuters, Public Radio International, POLITICO and U.S. News & World Report.

Original Article: For being nothing more than a "labs" project for Google, Fast Flip has received an overwhelming amount of attention as well as criticism. In case you have been under a rock, Fast Flip is a lab Google launched, that has been talked about before under its codename, "Flipper."

What it does is let you "flip" through news articles on the web, as you would do with a magazine. In Google's words, "Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers."



Google partnered with the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Salon, Fast Company, ProPublica, and Newsweek to launch the lab. According to Google, partners will share revenue earned from contextual ads shown with articles. Google says that encouraging readers to read more news is "part of the solution" to the woes of the publishing industry, though the company does acknowledge that there is "no magic bullet."