Monday Google News: “Base” Attacks Reputation System & More
|
Written By Reprise Media | March 13, 2006 | Share This
|
|
As usual, Google didn’t take the weekend off, so we’ve got a few tidbits to share.
And it isn’t just talk, talk, talk Google Base sellers who haven’t exactly been upfront with their transactions might have to worry about acquiring a bad reputation; Tech Crunch posted screen shots Saturday of a new ratings system installed for the search engine’s online classifieds service (and purported eBay killer). The simple interface allows buyers to rate sellers on a one-to-five star scale and leave comments about transactions.
Threadwatch wonders if Google has any plans to integrate additional information about its account holders into the five-star rating system, and also ponders how the engine will combat attempts to game the ratings - a poser that’s given eBay headaches - “Is it not a harder problem to stop than SEOs trying to bust search algorithms?” eBay isn’t just standing around twiddling its thumbs, by the way. Search Engine Journal has coverage of the auction site’s meetup.com acquisition, whose 2.5 million registered users are now within easier reach.
Get Ready for a Surprise! We can now count Google among those who’ve beaten astronauts to the Red Planet. With some help from NASA, Google Mars offers infrared, visible spectrum and elevation maps of the storied celestial object, dotted with pinpoints highlighting terrain features and spacecraft touchdown zones.
The Google Blog says that the project was unveiled yesterday in honor of Percival Lowell’s birthday; he’s the turn-of-the-century astronomer who helped popularize the now-defunct Martian Canals theory. Google Blogoscoped speculates about the emergence of a “Google Galaxy” - and possibly a conspiracy theory. Meanwhile, Barry at Search Engine Roundtable sardoncally wonders when “we will get Mars driving directions, with local paid results.” First let’s see if Google can find some oxygen up there.
Topics: Google |