Is Google Playing Rope-A-Dope With Social Media?
Regarding social media, the best you can say about Google is that the company has merely dabbled in it. Google’s absence in this space becomes as glaring as Godot’s when chief rival Microsoft is busy funneling money toward the hottest new products, products created even by former Googlers.
That leaves us with two options: Google’s either planning something or avoiding it altogether. Recent events—or maybe better, non-events—suggest the latter.
Oprah Looks To Dominate Twitter
Oprah does everything in a big way. She affects book sales in ways that make publishers drool. She gains a lot of weight then she loses a lot of weight. She can make someone go from just living in a household to being a household name. She certainly has a pop culture Midas touch of sorts so recently she lent that power to none other than the folks at Twitter.
Digg Tries to Put DiggBar Controversy to Bed
Update: Digg’s proposed changes to the DiggBar are now live.
Original Article: Digg made an announcement today regarding the controversial DiggBar, which some people have embraced enthusiastically, while others have shaken their fists at.
Yahoo Posts Bad Numbers, Still Skates By
Yahoo had a good day on the stock market, gaining a full 5.27 percent during normal trading hours. And – in what some may find to be a surprising development – it doesn’t seem set to drop much in after-hours trading as investors dissect the company’s first-quarter earnings report.
Jimmy Wales Talks Consumer-Generated Content At ad:tech
ad:tech San Francisco kicked off today, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was present to give the opening keynote presentation. His speech was called "Wikipedia, Wikia, and the Future of Consumer Generated Content," and it nicely complemented an introduction by Drew Ianni on the state of the overall industry.
FTC to Regulate Blogs and Social Media?
The Federal Trade Commission plans to begin regulating blogs and social media. While they’re getting tougher on results-based advertising, they are also looking at going after blogs and social media users who portray products they’re promoting in a less than accurate light. AdAge explains:
Hosting Company Defends Hiring Twitter Hacker
The seventeen-year-old hacker who gave Twitter a busy weekend earlier in the month was subsequently hired by hosting company exqSoft Solutions, a reward that may have inspired further bad behavior.
Surveying The Mobile Landscape
In the ad:tech MobileMix keynote session "Surveying the Mobile Landscape in 2009," Mike Wehrs, president and CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association, offered his views on the mobile industry.
Google Improves Search-Based Keyword Tool
Back in November Google introduced a new keyword tool called simply Search-based Keyword Tool that enables paid search advertisers to see what keywords they may be missing out on based on searches that are leading to your site. Today Google has announced wider availability and some improvements to the tool.
Google’s Need For Freshness Sours Search Results
Every so often SEO professionals produce a list of what they believe to be the top factors influencing search engine rankings. The latest update to this list of proposed factors looks much like past lists, focusing on traditional factors like links, content, HTML tags, and domain registration age, and some new ones like geographical factors and personalized search history. But one term might be new to many people: link velocity.