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08 Sep 2010 21:04

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Tech: Google Instant Search looks awesome but has downsides

  • Google’s Instant Search is pretty darn cool, yes, but it has some possible downsides. A lot of businesses have built their models around Google’s SEO and paid search benefits, which could be harder to grab using this model. (If people aren’t misspelling words, for example …) Search Engine Land is particularly concerned about the effects on “long tail” searches: “With our example, starting the query with “Las”, shows ads for Las Vegas. Some of those ads are for hotels. Why would a user continue typing if they see hotel ads already?” Gawker, on the other hand, is more concerned with finding unfortunate word combinations that come up, such as the one above. source

02 Sep 2010 21:21

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Tech: Copyright owners use YouTube ads as a backdoor into ¢A$H

  • 2 billion views of YouTube videos with ads every single week
  • 14% the percentage of total weekly views on YouTube each week ad-supported videos make up – a small chunk, but definitely still a lot
  • 33% of those videos (or more) are clips which are copyright violations that the owners have chosen to make money from source

02 Sep 2010 21:00

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Tech: Consumer watchdog group to Google CEO: Don’t be creepy

  • Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said some pretty weird crap lately. He thinks you should be able to change your name as an adult. He suggests that you shouldn’t say certain things online if you don’t want them to get out there. And it’s got consumer groups pretty concerned. We don’t think Schmidt is anything other than a weird dude, but this clip makes him look like the second incarnation of Chucky from “Child’s Play.” Is it really this bad? Really? source

31 Aug 2010 12:09

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Tech: Google’s Priority Inbox promises to change your life, help you lose weight

  • Just what we’ve been looking for: A video about e-mail clutter. Seriously, though, Gmail’s new Priority Inbox feature allows us to do what we’ve always wanted: Ignore the crap we get (e-mails from readers) and focus on what we really want to read (e-mails from people responding to our Craigslist “Missed Connections” ads). source

29 Aug 2010 21:10

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Tech: Did YouTube break its featured videos formula for some reason?

  • Half of the top eight videos are videos that have something to do with a single YouTube celebrity – Shane Dawson. Great if you’re a fan of Shane Dawson, awful if you’re just about anyone else. Why is this? Well, YouTube changed its formula recently, so now it’s not done by hand. This makes no sense. Before, it encouraged the discovery of new videos. Now, we get Shaytards. And Fail Blog. And Shane Dawson. All of which, in our opinion, completely suck and aren’t nearly as good as that random stuff that used to bubble up. In other words, established entities win over actual viral content. Way to not understand your user base, guys. We know you’re owned by Google, YouTube, but get your humans back. source

18 Aug 2010 11:10

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Tech: Google’s Chrome Web Store is an awesome deal for developers. Why?

  • 5% the percentage of revenue Google plans to take source

16 Aug 2010 20:31

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Tech: Thanks to Google’s Eric Schmidt, our name is now Jim-Bob

Apparently Schmidt recently suggested that teen may have to change their names as adults to avoid getting nailed for the stupid crap they did. No words … source
 

13 Aug 2010 11:17

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Tech: Google’s all on the defensive after that net neutrality thang

  • We’re not so presumptuous to think that any two businesses could – or should – decide the future of this issue. We’re simply trying to offer a proposal to help resolve a debate which has largely stagnated after five years.
  • A statement from Google • Regarding criticism it has faced since they decided to go down the net neutrality rabbit hole with Verizon. Their suggestion, which was to treat wireless internet networks differently from wired networks, has gone over like a lead balloon with net neutrality fans. Facebook has gotten in on the jabbing too, saying this in a statement the other day: “Preserving an open Internet that is accessible to innovators — regardless of their size or wealth — will promote a vibrant and competitive marketplace where consumers have ultimate control over the content and services delivered through their Internet connections.” Ouch. source

12 Aug 2010 23:58

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Tech: Google vs. Oracle: One giant sues another over Java

  • In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly, and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement.
  • An Oracle spokesperson • Discussing the lawsuit the company, which recently bought Java maker Sun, filed against Google over their use of Java code in their developer kit for Android. This is pretty bad for a lot of reasons – the most important being that lawsuits like this usually involve two-bit operations suing large companies over patents. In this case, Oracle is as big and respected as Google. While we’re guessing Oracle just wants a piece of the pie, this could end poorly for all involved. source

11 Aug 2010 10:19

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Tech: Google Wave’s wake: Some people really want to save it

  • 29,000 fans can’t be wrong (right?) source