Rich Skrenta is running a series on his blog called How To Beat Google, detailing the strategies needed to defeat Google in the marketplace, and consequently, showing exactly what Google’s competitors are doing wrong. The advice includes:
Are We All Afraid of Google?
You may find that tech blogs are running a little late today. You can blame Business Week for their lengthy look at whether Google has become too powerful. The cover page asks “Who’s Afraid of Google” and Rob Hof has an excellent take on whether Google is starting to feel a backlash, or not.
Google Whispers More Details About PPA
The pay per action beta test for Google AdWords recently debuted, and spurred plenty of advertiser interest.
Google Reaches Out To Presidential Campaigns
Google is holding lectures giving tips to political and advocacy group consultants, showing them how to better use all of Google’s services in managing their messages. According to the Los Angeles Times, Google packed 80 consultants into a lecture hall earlier this month, and conducted an hourlong seminar showing:
Get A Clue, Viacom, Says Google
The media company wants to rewrite existing copyright laws to suit itself, Google has charged in response to Viacom’s op-ed piece in the Washington Post about the billion dollar copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube.
Google Notebook Grows Up, Learns Languages
Yet another Google Labs product has made it into the real world; behold Google Notebook in its non-beta glory. The tool has gained the ability to “speak 17 other languages besides English,” but would-be users shouldn’t expect much in the way of additional improvements.
Google Files Patent For Targeting In-Game Ads
With its purchase of Adscape, Google sent a clear message that it was looking to establish an advertising presence in the worlds of both online and offline gaming. In a patent filing, the company outlines particular strategies that it is seeking to implement to gather specific information on gamers in order to tailor personalized advertising toward them.
Why Google’s Brand is Hurting its Offline Expansion Plans
When most people think of the Google brand, they get a warm fuzzy feeling. Indeed, Google is one of the top influential brands in the world, but not everyone feels butterflies in their tummy, when they think of Google.
In fact, when it comes to offline advertising channels, Google is finding that it’s brand is more of a hindrance, than help, when it comes to negotiating deals with radio, TV and newspaper markets. As the NYT highlights, many traditional ad channels are very cautious, if not fearful, that Google will enter their space and devalue the existing offering.
Google Looks To Improve Health Search
When searching for health information online, it’s hard to know what sites are trustworthy. Google has a system for marking authoritative results, but by the company’s own admission most users are unaware of how to interpret the indicators. So how can the experience of searching for health-related information be improved?
Admit Spamming to Request Google Reinclusion
The way to make it back to Google index is to simply send in the reinclusion request. This is how it is supposed to work. However, Barry on Search engine Roundtable informs about a WebmasterWorld thread which states that Google Reinclusion request forces you to ‘admit’ that you’re a spammer.