Google News added a new feature last week that lets participants in news stories leave comments below the stories in the search results. The feature is an expirement in the U.S., designed for people or companies who are mentioned in news stories and felt they did not receive a fair shake. If you want to comment on a story that mentions you, email news-comments@google.com and “your comment, a link to the story, your contact details, and information how your contact information can be verified”.
For example, if the Tooth Fairy wanted to comment on a recent story about dental hygiene, she may sign her comment:
“Sincerely, Tooth Fairy.
Verify my identity by losing a tooth and placing it under your pillow. I’ll leave you a business card along with a small payment for your tooth. Alternately you can call 1-800-TEETH-4-ME and speak to my assistant, the Tooth Mouse, who can confirm my email address and comment.”
It’s important that we’re able to verify your identity, so please include clear instructions with your comment. If we need further information, we’ll email you.
Yeah, I didn’t make that up. A little too jokey, right? Tone it down next time, Google. Time and a place.
Personally, I think it’s a great idea. There are a ton of cases of journalists getting the story wrong or deliberately skewing things to match their point, completely ignoring the truth. If I trusted other journalists, I’d still be working with them. Google is turning the news into a two-way street, something that’s been tried before, in a way that could work. They just need to get the system to scale better.
In time, these comments could become a huge supplement to the regular media, to the point that they render some of the news media irrelevant. At the least, they give Google exclusive content for news junkies. Anyone can index the news, but only Google has the other side of the story.
Interestingly, during the experimental phase, Google has said it will not be leaving any comments on stories about itself. Good idea. After that? Oh boy, if they try, it’ll start something…
Someone at Google must have been sick of seeing all the Diggers posting about “Black Google”, the idea that if Google switched its background color to black, it’d save 1.21 gigawatts of electricity (or something) per year. It’s one of those ideas that, even if correct, just sound silly, and every single bit of science on the topic says the theory is almost 100% incorrect.
Well, Bill Weihl, Google’s “Green Energy Czar”, has finally seen fit to address this on the official Google blog. Bill explains that while the spirit of the idea is in the right place, the facts don’t support it. On flat-panel monitors (like LCD screens), which make up 75% of the market, energy usage actually increases when a black background is used, because dark colors require more energy. They point to a detailed study that supports this.
So, can we stop the “Black Google” talk? I keep seeing it on Digg, and even the Wall Street Journal went and wrote about it, but it’s time to put this one to rest.
Since San Francisco’s political establishment can’t stop bickering long enough to let Google and Earthlink set up a free wifi network, the mayor has decided to send the decision to the voters. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has submitted a ballot proposal for the November 6, 2007, which is nonbinding, meaning that even if it passes overwhelmingly, will still require the politicians and special interest groups to come to an agreement regardless of the wishes of the voters.
The full text of the ballot proposal is on the sfgov.org website, but is impossible to find in any way but the Google cache, and even then only available in a non-indexable PDF. Wonderful way of opening up to the voters, idiots. The proposal also contains no mention of the companies involved, presumable a problem or a positive, depending on the voter.
Here’s the text as extracted by Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, which does decently acceptable OCR of screenshots:
Declaration of policy supporting a wireless broadband network that provides free high-speed internet access for all San Franciscans and protects user privacy.
It is the policy of the People of the City and County of San Francisco that:
(1) The City should provide a wireless broadband Internet access network (‘Wi-Fl Network”)
serving all parts of San Francisco equally;
(2) The Wi-Fl Network should provide free Internet access for all of the City’s residents,
businesses, institutions, and visitors;
(3) The Wi-Fl Network’s free service should operate at a high speed that fully supports typical
home, educational and civic uses of the Internet;
(4) The City should initially provide the Wi-Fi Network through a public-private partnership that
utilizes expertise of the high technology sector and minimizes financial risk to the City;
(5) The City should ensure that any private entities with which it contracts to provide Wi-Fl
service adhere to privacy policies that offer strong safeguards against the unauthorized sharing of
personal information with third parties and against the unnecessary retention of information about WIF
l users’ locations; and
(6) The City should approve all agreements necessary for providing a City-wide Wi-Fl Network
and should implement such agreements as quick’y as possible consistent with applicable law.
(7) Private entities negotiating with the City and County should consider in good faith adopting
the strongest privacy safeguards against the unauthorized sharing of personal information with third parties and against the unnecessary retention of information about Wi-Fl users’ locations, adopting
clear service standards for Wi-Fi users prior to finalization of a contract with the City and County, and
adopting a reasonable term of contract that avoids a franchise relationship between private entity and
the City and County and is beneficial to both parties.
The following factors support the need for a citywide free Wi-Fl Network in San Francisco:
As technology and telecommunications have advanced, the Internet has become a key tool that
individuals use to communicate, access information, and improve their standard of living and
quality of life. Broadband Internet access provides individuals efficient access to this life-changing
technology.
• Since 2001, the United States has fallen from fourth to fifteenth in the world in the number of
broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
• Highly skilled jobs have been exported to countries that have exploited advances in
technology and telecommunications.
• These trends, if allowed to continue, will inevitably lead to higher unemployment, loss of
competitiveness and less consumer choice for City residents.
• According to a recent survey conducted by the City Controller, approximately twenty
percent of San Francisco residents lack any internet and computer access at home,
resulting in a “Digital Divide” between households with Internet access and those without
such access. San Francisco’s non-white population is substantially less likely to have
home computers and Internet access than the City’s white population. Studies further
show that limited English-speaking and disabled populations are much less likely to use
the Internet and own home computers.
• Lack of computer access, knowledge and skills create a roadblock to obtaining a good
education, a better paying job, and a higher standard of living. Free Wi-Fl service can
play a significant role in erasing the Digital Divide and fostering DIgital inclusion.
• Increasing broadband Internet access will foster community development, economic
development, and government efficiency, and will better equip San Franciscans to
compete in the global economy.
• The City can further foster Digital inclusion through Wi-Fl. access combined with
expanding programs that offer free or low-cost computers, training, and specialized
content for those now lacking Internet access.
• A City-wide Wi-Fi Network will ensure that all parts of San Francisco are equally served,
not just the red “hot spots” that now offer Wi-Fi Service.
OF ELECTIONS BY:
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Google has pulled a brilliant swerve, requesting to depose late night comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in their court case against Viacom. Viacom is suing Google over YouTube, trying to shut down the popular site that is stealing so many of their viewers.
Viacom’s claim centers on the idea that YouTube is filled with copyrighted content, that content is uploaded without permission, and that the presence of that content hurts media companies like Viacom. Stewart and Colbert, in their fake news programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, often do stories criticizing their parent company’s anti-YouTube stance, use YouTube to generate and report on viral videos, and owe some of their rising popularity to sharing of popular clips.
Google is hoping to put Stewart on the stand and force him, under oath, to repeat some of the things he’s already said on his national cable TV show. All Stewart has to do is repeat what he’s already said and Viacom’s case is hurt immeasurably. Expect after this is done for Viacom to severly curtail whatever freedom Stewart and Colbert now have to speak their mind, further hurting the ability of comedians to be honest (something Comedy Central already does an awful job of).
This is just a brilliant move by Google, bringing in the men who work for the plaintiff and who’ve said in a very public way that YouTube is good for their business. The comedy will suffer, but Viacom will suffer, and that’s the goal, especially if YouTube wants to survive.
This SEO blog has a list of “known” Google filters, though many of these may be more superstition of the SEO community than actual Google search results filters. Still, if you’d like an idea of the myriad of filters SEOs are scared of every single day, it’s worth reading just for that.
The list includes:
Google -30 Filter
Google seems to apply the -30 filter to web sites that use spammy SEO methods. These spammy methods include use of invisible text, JavaScript redirects, doorway pages or other spam techniques. If this penalty applies to your website then your rankings will drop by 30 spots.
To get out of this filter immediately remove all spams methods you are using on site and offsite. This filter seems to be automated so after some time of removing spammy things you will see your site again on good ranking.
Google Duplicate Content Filter
This filter is applied to those sites having duplicate or same content. This filter results a drop in your sites index pages or even complete removal of your site except your homepage.
Problem is that If your site is much newer than some other sites who has domain age of two years and they steal your content than You have to suffer from this filter. Its sad but its true.
To get out of this filter use unique meta tags for each page and avoid use of duplicate content.
…
Too Many Pages At Once Filter
This filter applied to website have too many pages in a very short period of time. To avoid this filter don’t use content generator softwares or stop copying other sites content.
You know, you could make a pretty decent game with all these filters as penalty cards. Anyone up for it? “The Game of SEO”?
(via Digg)
Google uploaded this video to their YouTube account showing how game designer Matt Harding has been using Google Earth to show where’s he been around the world (dancing, apparently):
