News.com, via Search Engine Land, reports that computer expert Matthew Schuster was sentenced to 15 months in prison for hacking his ex-company, Alpha Computer Services… and he was found guilty partly due to Google searches like “make device interfere wireless network” that were used against him. News.com’s Declan McCullagh writes:
Google’s Real Search Share 70 Percent?
Nielsen//Netratings released its monthly search rankings report, putting Google on top again, controlling nearly 50 percent of all US searches. But as those that follow the industry have come to expect, every month that number conflicts with two other metrics firms, both of which conflict with webmaster statistics.
Brokaw: Google Is Making America Fat
Veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw goes off on a tangent about the Internet being the cause of American indifference and obesity.
Google Clarifies Quality Score Guidelines
Since announcing algorithmic adjustments to the calculation of landing page quality score, and the subsequent impact on minimum bids, Google has been the object of some scrutiny from its advertising partners. Following much anticipation, the company has finally released more concrete basis of suggestion for achieving high quality score ratings.
Google Says It Wins With Video Ads
Along with the praise Google bestowed upon itself for their click-to-play video advertising spots, Google took credit for boosting the awareness and attendance for Google advisor Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth.
Google Lays Down Duplicate Content Law
Even in most cases where Google finds duplicate content during a crawl, they are more likely to show a less-desirable version of the content page than to drop it completely. The issue of duplicate content continues to vex webmasters who repurpose content on their sites to suit different needs, like mobile web use and printer-friendly formatting. It’s an area of concern that Google’s Adam Lasnik wants to clarify.
Digg Could be New Google…Suggested Improvements
Despite being incredibly sick of always hearing about “the new google”, and not believing it can happen due to the extremely high barrier to entry, I think there *IS* still opportunity for someone to gain significant share of the stagnating search marketplace.
Google Gets Playful
It’s often refreshing to see a bit of goofiness at the corporate level, and Google, much more than some other companies, seems to have a good sense of humor. Philipp Lenssen collected photos of some Google-related gags, and posted them for all to see.
Make More Than One Stop With Google Maps
I’m an advocate of the “combined trips” way of moving around town; it saves time and gas, both of which appear to be in short supply. Planning these excursions just got easier, because Google Maps now allows for multiple destinations within its driving directions.
Top 10 Google Searches 2006
2006 is officially the year the Internet caught a social disease. Searches related to social media sites take up eight of ten positions on the 2006 Year-End Google Zeitgeist report, reaffirming Time Magazine’s person of the year. The person of the year was You, in case you missed the memo.