Aaron Stanton had a plan. A crazy plan, some might say, but still a plan: In a nutshell, he wanted to pitch a business idea to the folks at Google — the world’s largest search engine, a $130-billion colossus with 10,000 employees, etc., etc. — so he decided to get on a plane, fly from his home in Indiana to the massive, sprawling “Googleplex” in Mountain View, California and sit in the lobby of the Google headquarters until someone agreed to listen to his pitch.
We Won’t Be Hearing Much More About Aaron and Google
I met with Aaron Stanton yesterday, who is visiting the San Francisco Bay Area with the goal of getting Google to build his idea (his home is in Idaho, and this is the first time he’s been to SF/Silicon Valley since he was younger and visited with his parents). I see Mathew Ingram is asking “now what?”
Google’s Greed Over a Rollback
Google recently announced they were updating the Adwords Quality Score, however it appears that there is a bug that raises the prices form any advertisers:
Google AdWords Quality Score Has Major Bug
Google AdWords Adds Quality Score Column & To Improved Quality Algorithm from Wednesday warned us of the new changes coming but apparently there is a bug that makes good performing ads prices spike through the roof.
Google and NoFollow
A recent Google Groups thread draws attention towards Google’s way of handling nofollow attributes in links. Way back Google posted an entry where they tried to clarify their nofollow attribute. However, the real picture is still not clear.
Google Expects Complaints
UPDATE: It looks like Google’s pushed the button too early – and it could be the wrong button too. Lots of people are complaining that their Quality Score has gone crazy.
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I just got off the phone with Google’s Nick Fox, Senior Business Product Manager for Ad Quality, and got the scoop on the upcoming changes to the AdWords Quality Score.
301 Redirects Pass Google PageRank In 2 Weeks
Search Engine Roundtable reports that 301 Redirects Pass Google PageRank & Signals in a "Couple Weeks". SEOs and Webmasters have always queried about the time taken for a site to pass along a PageRank value from one URL to another via a 301 redirect.
Google Reader To Report Subscriber Numbers
Publishers asked for it, and the Google Reader team listened. Engineer Justin Haugh announced earlier today that the company’s crawler now “reports the number of Google users subscribed to the feed.”
Google Has Great Taste
Google has universally been accepted as one of the finer places to work, both in the United States and abroad. It’s vast amenities, which among others include on-site gyms, dormitories, and a gourmet cafeteria, are often a lucrative tool in attracting the biggest and brightest talent.
Historically, perks that have been associated with multinational corporations would include a luxurious company car, membership the finest country club in the area, and perhaps even an executive washroom.
Can Google Hear Aaron?
Aaron Stanton wanted to get a meeting with Google to present his idea to them. Only problem? He didn’t have an appointment. So beginning of this month, according to his video blog at CanGoogleHearMe.com, he hopped on a plane to California, arguing that if Google doesn’t give him a meeting, he’ll just be "going to sit in their lobby like a spoiled child in hopes that they’ll change their mind."
Google and Yahoo’s Campaign Management
Advertisers must carefully weigh pros and cons when considering whether or not to use Google and Yahoo’s automated bid optimization tools. The two biggest PPC search advertising networks are getting into the campaign optimization act, Google with its "Budget Optimizer" tool and Yahoo with its "Campaign Optimization" tool. While the cost can’t be beat (hint: they’re free), in general marketers should avoid giving the networks the keys to the car.