Googler Gets Short With Upset Webmaster It is rare to read a post by a Googler in the Google help forums and get the impression that the Googler was angry with who he/she was replying to. So when I saw Googler Asaph Zemach reply to the ongoing thread on the Webmaster Tools link report bug with, what appeared to me as, anger - I was a bit taken back. The story goes as follows... SEO comes in and asks why the link report in Google Webmaster Tools looks wrong. But a few webmasters came back in basically saying that they felt it was related because of the timing of the bug. Google's Asaph replied with, like I said, what appears to be with anger: I will not discuss recent ranking changes. Of course, maybe it was not a snappy response by the Googler. No one from Google is discussing anything in the thread you reference. Again - I understand both sides - asked and answered vs. suffering webmaster. Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help. Photo credit to xlibber on Flickr.
“Knowledge” Replaces “Search” For Google Google’s no longer in the “search” business — it’s now in the “knowledge” business. OK, not exactly. TechCrunch points to a April 11, 2011 SEC filing that discloses a job-title change for Alan Eustace, Google’s Senior Vice President, Engineering & Research. He has become Google’s Senior Vice President, Knowledge. It was widely believed that Eustace was promoted to “SVP of Search,” with the product-centric reorg that recently happened: SVP of Search — Alan EustaceSVP of Advertising — Susan WojcickiSVP of Mobile/Android — Andy RubinSVP of YouTube — Salar KamangarSVP of Social — Vic GundotraSVP of Chrome — Sundar PinchaiSVP of Local & Commerce — Jeff Huber There are apparently a number of related shifts and reporting changes that occurred along with the substitution of “knowledge” for “search.” Eustace is still effectively in charge of search. Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Employees | Google: Web Search | Top News
Where Is Google Investing Its Marketing Spend Internationally? If Google reigns supreme and leads the majority of the world’s markets taking a comfortable first place, why would the company decide to dramatically expand its sales and marketing efforts? This is a question many analysts were asking following Google’s recent first quarter 2011 results announcements – and with good cause, when you start to dig into the figures. Since 2006, I have been tracking Google’s pronouncements on their progress particularly with regard to international performance. In the early days, these announcements were rudimentary and broke out only international revenue versus that in the US. Later, in the first quarter’s results in 2007, Google began to detail sales revenues split out for the UK. For the first of the following year, the headcount figures were included. Marketing Spend Leaps 69% As the graphic below shows, the total amount invested in sales and marketing by Google during this year’s first quarter increased by 69% over the same first quarter last year.
Google: Mobile Search Will Pass PC Sooner Than People Think Mon, 04/25/2011 - 07:17 by Greg Sterling There's an extensive article in the New York Times about Google and mobile search. The article is mostly a feature about the evolution of Google's approach to mobile. It also discusses voice search and Goggles but there's little hard data or new numbers. The $1 billion mobile ad run rate is mentioned as are several previously released data points. Here are a few of the stats and observations from the article: Google says mobile searches are growing as quickly as Web searches were at the same stage in the company’s early days, and they are up sixfold in the last two years. We've estimated, using comScore and Google's own public data that between 1.9 and 2.4 billion monthly queries on Google are coming from mobile. But here's the "money quote" from the NY Times' piece: “Mobile search is definitely going to surpass desktop search,” said Scott B.
Legal Woes Mount For Google: “Locationgate,” Skyhook Suit And FTC-Search Probe Following the revelation last week that the iPhone stored user location data a consumer class action was filed. This kind of disclosure/revelation-class action cycle is now familiar. And because Google also collects location data it is now also the subject of a similar class action (Brown et al v. Google) seeking $50 million in damages. Google says it captures user location data only on an opt-in, consensual basis. Where Are the Damages? As a former lawyer who did a fair amount of plaintiff-side litigation in my past I’m sympathetic to the consumer class action and believe that it has been a valuable tool to police corporate misconduct, which regulators have often been unwilling to do themselves. The Apple and Google suits fall into that category. Arguably nobody has suffered any actual harm as a result of having location identified by their smartphones — at this point. Internal Emails Show Importance of Location Data to Google As I wrote last October: FTC Readies Broad Google Investigation
Where Are They Now? Products Announced During Past Google I/O Keynotes The keynotes at Google I/O — Google’s developer conference — are always filled with such promise. Google TV, Google Wave, music in the cloud! But the products themselves haven’t always gone on to meet expectations. Google I/O Class Of 2008 I didn’t attend the very first Google I/O, held May 28-29 2008. Looking back on the TechCrunch coverage, a Wikipedia round-up and some checking against the official Google Blog, the Google I/O Class Of 2008 appears to have been Google Gears becoming just Gears, Android being shown on a handset, Google Friend Connect, and the Google App Engine opening to anyone. Google Gears: Dead Gears (originally Google Gears) was held out as a Google-backed way designed to allow web browsers to run software applications natively. Gears effectively died in February 2010, when Google made it official that building browser/cloud-based apps with HTML 5 was the way forward, for the future. Google Friend Connect: Forgotten Google App Engine: Quiet Success? Evidence? My take?
DOJ Investigating Google Ads; $500 Million Set Aside For Potential Settlement In a regulatory filing this afternoon, Google disclosed that it was taking a $500 million charge in the first quarter, apparently to potentially settle charges related to a Department of Justice investigation of the company. Google didn’t elaborate, saying only that the probe was “into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers.” The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news. From the filing: In May 2011, in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers, we accrued $500 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2011. The $500 million charge wasn’t announced when Google reported earnings for Q1 in April. Google has updated its press release related to Q1 earnings to reflect the change. The wording of Google’s disclosure was interesting, in that it said the investigation related to the use (misuse?)
Report: Google May Pay $500 Million To Settle Complaint Over Illegal Drug Ads Earlier this week, Google filed a mysterious report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it was setting aside $500 million related to a “potential resolution” of an advertising-related probe being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Now, the mystery may be solved. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the investigation relates to possible criminal charges, alleging that Google knowingly took money from, and displayed ads for, advertisers that violated U.S. prescription drug laws. The Wall Street Journal, like Search Engine Land, got “no comment”s from official sources, but cites information from “people familiar with the matter” in pegging prescription drug violations as the crux of the probe. Though the WSJ says the questionable ads were placed by online pharmacies in Canada and elsewhere that violated U.S. laws, it’s not clear whether they dispensed drugs without a prescription or whether they sold counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
Examining Facebook’s “Smear Campaign” Concerns About Google Social Circles I read the news today, oh boy. The Facebook army had just declared a war. Well, a smear campaign against Google. The required prerequisite reading is the Daily Beast article talking about the PR campaign that Facebook attempted. Let’s start with the allegations. So I read the Daily Beast article. Facebook replied: No ‘smear’ campaign was authorized or intended. OK, as it happens, I know a few things or two about the Google Social Circles product. Google Social Circles Launches Google Social Search — which used the Social Circle feature — launched in October 2009 as an experimental feature. When Google Social Search launched, it allowed you to see things that people you know had created and posted on the public web. Nothing that Google Social Search presented was “private” content that was somehow magically pulled out of Facebook or other social networking services. But did Google use “private” information from other services to figure out who your friends were? Google Social Circle Vs.