Search Engine Optimization News Blog

International markets made up $3.5 billion, or 52% of Google’s revenue, in the last calendar quarter of 2009. However, their international presence is not without its detractors. According to BusinessWeek.com:

The European Union said it is examining complaints from companies that accuse Google of demoting links to their sites in search results. The same day, a court in Italy found Google managers and a former employee of the Mountain View (Calif.)-based company responsible for privacy violations caused by a user-submitted video on YouTube. The flare-ups in Europe come just six weeks after Google threatened to shutter some Chinese operations after a cyber attack on its users was linked to the country.

Google is consistently under fire in Germany; China and the US based search giant had a knock down drag out over an hacking incident, and Google fights for a foothold in lesser countries. In Italy, display of a child with Downs Syndrome led to the trial and conviction in absentia of three Google execs – a matter that Google addressed on the Google blog:

… we are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them — every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video — then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.

The EU wants Google to delete unblurred Street View images from its database after 6 months instead of 12 – Google demurred:

“The need to retain the unblurred images is legitimate and justified — to ensure the quality and accuracy of our maps, to improve our ability to rectify mistakes in blurring, as well as to use the data we have collected to build better maps products for our users,” Peter Fleischer, a Google lawyer in charge of privacy issues, said in an e-mailed statement. “We have publicly committed to a retention period of 12 months from the date on which images are published on Street View, and this is the period which we will continue to meet globally.”

Overall, Google keeps making European countries mad – but it doesn’t seem to affect their bottom line.

The wildly popular Yahoo Answers has gotten a bit more than a facelift. According to the Yahoo Answers blog, the revamp is pretty intense and in depth.

The homepage and navigation have been entirely redone.  On top of the the Answers banner, there are four new, navigation tabs: Home, Browse Categories, My Activity, and About. These tabs and the green Answers banner stay up constantly, so reaching important parts of the site is a snap.

Home brings you to a standard screen from which you have several choices. The link to the Answers Blog is now on the right hand side, as well as the most recent questions. You can also see  the Best of Answers rotating module. My activity lets you go directly to your Answers profile and view your network/ your network activity or edit your preferences. About allows you to get a refresher on Answers and the Community Guidelines, and view the leaderboard, Suggestion Board,  and  Answers Blog.

Browse categories has been greatly updated. Previously all of the categories were permanently displayed on the left hand column on the homepage. Now they can be accessed from the top hide-away menu and you can browse the category tab to reach a page where you may view all of the questions that are open, resolved or in voting.

The Yahoo blog states:

“Over the past few years we’ve heard from quite a few of you that you love the Answers green but it’s just a little too green. So we’ve taken your feedback to heart and have toned down the green just a bit and have replaced the white background with a light blue that is a little easier on the eyes. Our smilies have also received a facelift and look a bit more polished throughout the site.

Additionally, you’ll notice that the page feels a bit wider—one thing we heard from you when we introduced the new category pages several months back was that you liked the extra space. This extra space allows us to display even more questions on the homepage, making it easier for you to jump right in.”

In addition, some  backend bug fixes are included in the update as well as  feature requests such as updating the category leaderboards daily instead of weekly.

According to Google, the not quite 2 year old Ad Manager is being retired. Instead Doubleclick (acquired in 2008) will be carrying the load. From the Google Blog:

The upgraded DFP includes a wide variety of features that will help publishers to get the most value out of their online content:

• A new interface that has been completely redesigned to save time and reduce errors.
• Far more detailed reporting and forecasting data to help publishers understand where their revenue is coming from and what ads are most valuable.
• Sophisticated algorithms that automatically improve ad performance and delivery.
• A new, open, public API which enables publishers to build and integrate their own apps with DFP, or integrate apps created for DFP by a growing third-party developer community (apps under development today include sales, order management and workflow tools).
• Integration with the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange’s “dynamic allocation” feature, which maximizes revenue by enabling publishers to open up their ad space to bids from multiple ad networks.

The blog goes on to detail the two types of service provided:DFP comes in two flavors, tailored for different publishers’ needs: DoubleClick for Publishers, for the largest online publishers, and DFP Small Business, a simple, free version designed for growing online publishers. We’ll be upgrading current DART for Publishers publishers to DoubleClick for Publishers over the next year as we continue to add features and modules, and we’ll be moving Google Ad Manager customers to DFP Small Business in the coming weeks.

The DoubleClick blog has more info:

The new DFP will serve as the foundation for our long-term commitment to advertising technology innovation. We will continue with the rapid release of additional features and modules for this platform throughout 2010 and beyond as we upgrade current DoubleClick publishers.

Finally, we think that an upgraded platform deserves an upgraded look. We’re today making some changes to the DoubleClick logos – including typset changes, incorporating our new “by Google” theme, and retiring the “DART” brand. These changes reflect Google’s continued investment in DoubleClick’s products for agencies, advertisers and online publishers; and the central role of DoubleClick’s technology products within Google’s display advertising business.

Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. are now being sued by Xerox. You read that right – Xerox. The company most people associate with copy machines is suing the two biggest search giants over patent-infringement claims.

The suit, which is about patents related to search queries and data integration, was filed Feb. 19 in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. Xerox is seeking both cash compensation and an order to ’stop Yahoo, Google and Google’s YouTube from further using the patented Xerox technology without permission’.

Bill McKee, a spokesman for the Stamford, Connecticut-based company, says that the search patents arose because of Xerox research into managing documents online.

“We’ve been in dialogue with Google and Yahoo for some time without coming to a resolution,” McKee said in a telephone interview. “We believe we have no option but to file suit to properly protect our intellectual property.”

One of the patents was filed back in 2004, for a program to automatically generate queries based on keyword searches. Sound familiar? Yep, Xerox says that Google’s AdSense and AdWords software are infringing on that old patent, and that Yahoo’s Search Marketing, Publishing Network and Y!Q Contextual Search software are, too. Wonder why it took so long for them to realize this?

Another patent from 2001 concerns a method of updating pages based on user reviews. Xerox points to Google Maps, Google Video, YouTube and Yahoo Shopping saying they all are infringing and should be forced to pay renumeration.

Response was swift from Google:

“We believe these claims are without merit and we will defend against them vigorously,” said Catherine Lacavera, Mountain View-based Google’s senior litigation counsel.

Sunnyvale-based Yahoo hasn’t yet weighed in, but we can expect similar response. Both California companies are expected to stand strong and not buckle under the accusations from Xerox; – Google in particular has an excellent track record when it comes to beating lawsuits.

The case is Xerox Corp. v. Google Inc., 10cv136, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Wilmington).

Stats show Twitter gaining in hits since Google started funneling traffic their way.

Not long ago Google announced their partnership with Twitter:

In the past few years, an entirely new type of data has emerged — real-time updates like those on Twitter have appeared not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is happening right now in regard to a particular topic.

Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.

This became a core part of Google’s “Real Time Search”:

Our real-time search enables you to discover breaking news the moment it’s happening, even if it’s not the popular news of the day, and even if you didn’t know about it beforehand. For example, in the screen shot, the big story was about GM’s stabilizing car sales, which shows under “News results.” Nonetheless, thanks to our powerful real-time algorithms, the “Latest results” feature surfaces another important story breaking just seconds before: GM’s CEO stepped down.

Click on “Latest results” or select “Latest” from the search options menu to view a full page of live tweets, blogs, news and other web content scrolling right on Google. You can also filter your results to see only “Updates” from micro-blogs like Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and others. Latest results and the new search options are also designed for iPhone and Android devices when you need them on the go, be it a quick glance at changing information like ski conditions or opening night chatter about a new movie — right when you’re in line to buy tickets.

Now, according to Venture Beat, Twitter is getting quite a boost from Google Search:

ComScore data show the number of unique visitors to Twitter increased by 9 percent from December 2009 to January 2010. The 21.79 million unique Twitter visitors in January was an all-time high, just over the 21.25 million visitors that comScore tracked in July 2009. December 2009 unique visitors were up 3.1 percent over November, so Google’s real-time search, which launched on December 7,  appeared to have impact on Twitter for the month of December as well.