International
Yahoo Holds it Together with Glue
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Written By Drupad Sil | May 8, 2008 | Share This
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Despite all the questions swirling around Yahoo thanks to its rejection of Microsoft’s buyout offer the company has managed to implement an interesting new way of presenting search results called Glue. Barry Schwartz at SearchEngineLand expands:
“The Glue Pages combine classic search results on the left hand column with more visual information related to your query in the middle and right section of the page. The results contain images, videos, articles and more.”
I have to admit, searching on Glue Pages is pretty cool. The modules of information are split between traditional Yahoo directories (finance, maps, news, images) and well-known third party sites (Wikipedia, YouTube, Quick Facts, MonsterTrak) and change depending on the specific query. For example, a search for “Microsoft” pulled up the company’s stock charts from Y! Finance, job postings in
Classic search results are still on the left-hand side of the page, and sponsored links modules also exist. Something no one is mentioning, however, is that the Glue idea is very similar to how Ask.com presents its results. Below are screenshots from Yahoo! Glue Pages and Ask.com searches for “mango”.
The most noticeable difference is the emphasis given to classic search, with Ask.com placing them prominently in the center, and Yahoo more shunting them off to the side. Glue Pages definitely puts more weight on the module content and consequently each module has more information then the corresponding one in Ask. Furthermore, Yahoo possesses more third-party sources of module content than Ask, with an emphasis on image and video multimedia. Overall, I’d say the conclusion is that while Ask.com has had the right idea, Yahoo’s Glue Pages has gotten it right in this beta.
If nothing else, it allows users to understand a topic they are searching for information on at a glance while creating a high probability of the user finding relevant specific information on the main page in an aesthetically-pleasing manner. For now, Glue Pages is only beta for India, which houses one of Yahoo’s key research and development centers in Bangalore, but between this and Google launching YouTube India just a little earlier, it’s definitely a good time to be a user in that large and rapidly growing market.
Europe Wants Search Engines to Delete Data Sooner
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | April 7, 2008 | Share This
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The European Commission may soon tell search engines to delete user data within six months, the BBC reports, after a report found that search engine data storage might not do enough to protect user privacy. From the Beeb:
The report from the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party said search engine providers had “insufficiently explained” why they were storing and processing personal data to their users.
It said “search engine providers must delete or irreversibly anonymise personal data once they no longer serve the specified and legitimate purpose they were collected for”.
The report said the personal data of users should not be stored or processed “beyond providing search results” if the user had not created an account or registered with the search engine.
Currently, Google keeps data associated with users for as long as eighteen months, but then anonymizes its data logs. Google’s Public Policy blog didn’t waste any time responding to the EC:
We believe that data retention requirements have to take into account the need to provide quality products and services for users, like accurate search results, as well as system security and integrity concerns. We have recently discussed some of the many ways that using this data helps improve users’ experience, from making our products safe, to preventing fraud, to building language models to improve search results. This perspective — the ways in which data is used to improve consumers’ experience on the web — is unfortunately sometimes lacking in discussions about online privacy.
Though Google acknowledges that discussion about online privacy when it comes to search and its other products is needed, it doesn’t actually initiate the dialogue or take a real position in this post. Understandable - now that Google owns DoubleClick and will have its hand in more targeted advertising, more user privacy doesn’t help its bottom line. Same goes for Yahoo and Microsoft.
More:
- Charlie Cooper of CNET breaks it down.
EBay To Cut Jobs and Restructure
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | March 20, 2008 | Share This
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Reuters reports today that eBay will be cutting some staff in what a company spokesperson calls a “globalization and centralization effort.” The number to be cut is less than 1% of eBay’s workforce, the spokesperson said, which could be as many as 150 people, as eBay has around 15,500 employees, according to Portfolio.com. With recent news that eBay dumped its partner ValueClick in favor of handling its affiliate network in-house, it looks like eBay is focused on making a lot of improvements in advance of its Q1 earnings call in April.
Despite a seller’s strike over increases in fee listings, Wired reports that eBay’s doing very well, though Don Reisinger at CNET’s News Blog argues that’s because eBay’s got no competition. Reisinger writes that eBay’s decisions over the last few years have made the company forget its core service as an auction site:
eBay is an auction site much like Christies is an auction house. Do you see “Buy it Now” features promoted at the Christies auction? Can people attending the auction make VoIP calls during it? Do they really want buying advice?
eBay has lost its way and the only reason it’s able to enjoy these profits is because there’s no company out there that’s willing to compete on such a grand scale. But why not? eBay is obviously worried about the future and auctions are still a viable way to buy products. If a company came along that finally revolutionized online auctions, the entire landscape of the business could be changed forever and eBay would be long forgotten.
EBay’s CEO Meg Whitman is leaving at the end of this month, and with eBay’s new focus reportedly being on platforms and distributing its content, I think that might be the revolutionary push the company needs to restore its past glory.
YouTube, Google News Censored in China
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | March 17, 2008 | Share This
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The Chinese government has blocked YouTube and Google News in the wake of pro-Tibet protests. China’s the most recent in a long string of countries that have blocked YouTube, but TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld notes that Google is in a tough spot when it comes to doing business in China. If the company removes the videos that China doesn’t want seen, it becomes complicit in the country’s censorship. If it doesn’t, Google loses its business in China. Schonfeld writes:
I am speculating here—there is no indication that Google has been asked to remove information about Tibet or that it would do so. But if it were to do so, then it would become complicit in China’s censorship. That might have to be the price it has to pay to give the Chinese access to all the other information on YouTube and Google News. The alternative might be a permanent ban.
Which option is the lesser evil for a company that has pledged itself to do none whatsoever?
Schonfeld brings up a really good point, one that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has spoken to in the past, which is the role of Google when it comes to government. In fact, Schmidt has said Google made a compromises with organic search in China, leaving out censored results but telling users it has done so. At the Personal Democracy Forum last year, Schmidt spoke about Google’s role in China. From our post:
Schmidt said that the company [Google] deals with issues of government pressure on a case-by-case basis. The cost of censorship, he said, is often an even bigger problem for governments than the censored issue itself. In Bahrain, for example, the government blocked Google Earth because Bahrainis could see how much land was held by the royal family. But in doing so, the Bahraini Government undermined their authority on the national land issue.
On the topic of censorship, Schmit discussed Google’s experiences with the “great firewall” of China. Google’s compromise on censorship is to omit censored search results, but tell the user that there are results being censored. Schmidt argued that this transparency prompts the user to find the information via alternative means (namely, getting around that firewall).
It seems that, at least technologically speaking, Google could very well do the same thing with YouTube, blocking content in China that doesn’t suit the government and telling people it’s blocking it. But it is certainly a slippery slope for the company, and it is not in keeping with their “Don’t Be Evil” mantra.
EU Approves Google-DoubleClick Deal
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | March 11, 2008 | Share This
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The European Union today approved Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of display ad tracker DoubleClick. From the EU:
The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the online advertising technology company DoubleClick by Google, both of the US. The Commission’s in-depth investigation, opened in November 2007 (see IP/07/1688), concluded that the transaction would be unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers, either in ad serving or in intermediation in online advertising markets. The Commission has therefore concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition within the European Economic Area (EEA) or a significant part of it.
The European Commission determined that Google and DoubleClick aren’t rivals and wouldn’t have a negative impact on competition. Of course, Yahoo and Microsoft, ironically two companies that may now merge and would have to face the same commission if they do, vehemently opposed the Google-DoubleClick deal because it gives Google the leverage it needs to take over the display ad world online, as it has with search ads. Google has made no secret of its ambitions in display ad space, either: Dow Jones reports the company wants to secure a “very significant” place in online display advertising by next year, at latest.
International Social Networking: Facebook in German, LinkedIn in France
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | March 3, 2008 | Share This
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Two interesting developments in social networking localization: Facebook today released a German-language version of the site, and LinkedIn has entered the French market in a bigger way by signing a deal with popular job listing site Apec.
Facebook’s German translation took less than two weeks, thanks to 2,000 German-speaking users that contributed translations and then voted on the best German words for Facebook terminology like “poke” (that’s “anklopfen” in Deutsch). Application developers will soon be able to use the same crowd-sourcing to get their apps translated. TechCrunch reports a French version is on the way soon.
LinkedIn’s deal with French job site Apec is not about translation but lets LinkedIn use Apec’s API to get Apec members signed up on LinkedIn. Apec will get a referral fee for each new user LinkedIn gets, and LinkedIn gets more global by invading Apec via application.
And speaking of translations, and French, and social network globalization, this very interesting map (in French) shows popularity of social networks in different parts of the world. Facebook is fourth in Europe, so perhaps a German translation will bump it up soon. LinkedIn does not appear on this map.
Searchviews: Week in Review
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | February 29, 2008 | Share This
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This week in search engines and social media: Yahoo launched a couple of new initiatives, Microsoft got a big fine from the EU, and fake Facebook profiles are proved more trouble than they’re worth, at least in some parts of the world. And in other news… (more…)
EU Slaps Microsoft with $1.3B Anti-Trust Fine
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | February 27, 2008 | Share This
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Despite Microsoft’s recent promise to focus on interoperability, the EU’s European Commission today levied a $1.35 billion fine against the company for not complying with the EU’s 2004 order to provide interoperability information to its competition. This brings total Microsoft anti-trust fines from the EU to about $2.6 billion.
From TechCrunch:
At a press conference EC commissioner Neelie Kroes said of Microsoft’s last-minute overture last week: “We don’t want talk, we want compliance. If you cheat the rules, you will be caught.” She also noted that was Microsoft’s fifth announcement about improving interoperability.
Fake Facebook Profile Lands Moroccan Man 3-Year Jail Sentence
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | February 26, 2008 | Share This
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Moroccan computer engineer Fouad Mortada, pictured here, created a fake Facebook profile for a Moroccan prince. Fake profiles are nothing new to Facebook; do a search for any popular celebrity on the site and you’re bound to find a profile or ten.
But Moroccan courts have misinterpreted the just-for-fun profile as something malicious - impersonation and identity theft - and thus have ordered Mortada to pay a $1,000 fine and serve three years in prison. The blogosphere is up in arms, and rightfully so: the prince and Moroccan government should have gone a less litigious route in protecting the Moroccan prince’s personal brand, by asking Mortada for ownership of the profile rather than throwing him in jail.
Microsoft Shifts Business, Will Open Up APIs
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | February 21, 2008 | Share This
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Microsoft today announced it will change the way its operations and philosophy to open up many of its products and encourage interoperability with third-party developers. With news of Microsoft’s ambitions to buy Yahoo still reverberating in the tech business world, the move is seen by many - and acknowledged by Microsoft execs - as at […]
Microsoft today announced it will change the way its operations and philosophy to open up many of its products and encourage interoperability with third-party developers. With news of Microsoft’s ambitions to buy Yahoo still reverberating in the tech business world, the move is seen by many - and acknowledged by Microsoft execs - as at least partly an effort to stave off European antitrust issues. The “strategic shift” aims for the following:
- Ensuring open connections
- Promoting data portability
- Enhancing support for industry standards
- Fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities
Last month, Microsoft was one of several high-profile companies to join Dataportability.org, a group that promotes Internet users’ ability to access/use/own their own data, regardless of platform. The move also comes at a time when companies are increasingly relying on outside development to spur their growth (see Facebook, in which Microsoft has a stake).
And because Microsoft has a bunch of products which will be affected by this initiative, the most familiar of which is its Office suite, this really points to the emergence of cloud computing and the increasing importance of Web 1.0 desktop-based software to be able to compete with free Web 2.0 products that basically do the same thing. The company seems to be applying the Facebook model to itself; could we see Microsoft apps on Facebook soon, as we had proposed the company consider? From the press release:
According to Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect, the company’s announcement reflects the significance that individuals and businesses place upon the ease of information-sharing. As heterogeneity is the norm within enterprise architectures, interoperability across applications and services has become a key requirement.
It will be really curious to see what an open API could do for Office and how it will all work; though Microsoft isn’t going open-source, it is “providing a covenant” (so ominous, so biblical!) not to sue open source developers. But Matt Asay at CNET notes the “we won’t sue” promise is not new, and the biggest news is in the open APIs and the 30,000 pages of documentation that Microsoft will be revealing to developers.
Further reading:
[Full disclosure: Microsoft is a client of Reprise Media, which owns Searchviews.com.]