Archive for the ‘eBusiness’ Category
Darko on July 4th, 2008
All the engineering acumen in the world, or at least in the Googleplex, can’t prevent an old-fashioned burglary of unencrypted employee data held by an outside firm.
A failing company also failed to adequately keep its assets protected from theft. Colt Express Outsourcing Services lost some data to a Memorial Day burglary, and it’s now come to light that the dominant search engine formerly used that company’s services.
Unfortunately for Google, and for CNET employees also affected by the theft, a report at CNET noted employees from both firms were in the same boat. “No credit card numbers were in the stolen data; just names, addresses, SSNs–all the information needed for a thief to open a credit card account under another’s name,” the report said.
An ex-Google staffer, Danny Thorpe, blew the whistle on the Google data loss. Employees hired before the end of December 2005 at Google may now have their personally identifiable information skating around places like the forums favored by identity thieves and traders.
Colt doesn’t appear to be the best managed firm in the world, either. CNET said the company is in financial trouble, with the company’s founder washing his hands of any potential assistance Colt might give affected individuals.
We’re betting Colt will be on the receiving end of more attention from Google, specifically the legal department. “We take the security of our employees very seriously and require outside vendors to meet appropriate security standards,” a Google rep told CNET.
Darko on July 4th, 2008
Until now, Google Street View never allowed anyone to see outside America. Thankfully, this year’s Tour de France seems to have provided enough of a reason for other images to be released.
Photos detailing certain parts of France - parts along the bicycle race’s route, to be exact - have become available. They allow for plenty of sightseeing, as everything from the Eiffel Tower to scenic country roads gets covered.
These new images seem to be of considerably higher quality than the usual Street View shots, as well. Granted, this isn’t necessarily a good thing for everybody, but to address privacy concerns, Google’s face-blurring software has been set to work on license plates as well as people’s heads.
Assuming no river of lawsuits results from the release, other images of France - and all of Europe, for that matter - will hopefully become available in the near future. Street View cars have been driving around different countries for some time now, so this one small step may be the start of a major move.
Hat tips go to the French blog Zorgloob, which received word straight from Google, and Philipp Lenssen, who took up the matter in English.
Darko on June 22nd, 2008
Google recently introduced Google Trends for Websites, which has sparked some controversy around the web.
The tool allows users to view stats for any site they choose, this could mean trouble for companies like Alexa, Compete, and their competitors.
That’s not entirely where the controversy comes in however. Google seems to have no problem showing everyone else’s stats including Yahoo! for example, but when a query for google.com is entered, there is nothing to be seen.
The concept isn’t sitting too well with many site owners. “Google gave us all up without consent or prior permission,” says Michael Gray aka Graywolf.
Google has “laid everyone else bare, naked and exposed but kept their own stats locked up and private,” says Gray.
Google doesn’t seem to be keeping the stats on all of their properties hidden though. A doubleclick.com query turns up some results, but queries for youtube.com and blogger.com are MIA. Maybe Yahoo! or Microsoft will hook us up with that information eventually.
Lisa Barone at Bruce Clay points out that “there’s no way to opt out”. Even allowing sites to do just that would take the heat off of Google a little bit I would think.
It’s not very shocking that people are upset that their data is being broadcast to the public without their consent. Google had to have expected this.
In a comment on a post from Matt Cutts about the new feature, someone inevitably pointed out the lack of Google info. Cutts responded:
I asked about that myself. Personally, I’d love to get as much data as possible, even data about various Google properties. My guess is that they were worried that people would take the traffic estimates as some sort of forward-looking guidance and possibly misinterpret it. Bear in mind that it is a Google Labs launch, so consider it an early-stage feature. I passed that feedback on though.
I guess the whole thing is going to be misinterpreted from some angle no matter which way you spin it. I would expect that Google will eventually join in the party and offer some stats, whether this is the real reasoning or not.
Darko on June 22nd, 2008
Though some US legislators expressed concerns about Google’s growing power in online advertising, one big ad firm welcomed Yahoo’s search ad agreement with Google.
In the US, Microsoft and Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) publicly fretted about the increasing control Google possesses over contextual search advertising. High-ranking Microsoft executive Kevin Johnson complained in France about Google taking over 90 percent of the search ad market.
Another Continental concern expressed no concern about Yahoo turning to Google to possibly deliver $800 million in ad revenue in the first year of their partnership. The Guardian cited Maurice Levy, head of Publicis Group, who expressed a positive view of the deal between the former search ad rivals.
Speaking in Cannes as Johnson did, Levy put forth the idea that Google and Yahoo could share search data and come up with better ad campaign targeting for their clients. Publicis is a partner with Google on ad technology.
With Barton in the House and Herb Kohl (D-WI) in the Senate asking questions about antitrust and privacy concerns, the idea of Google and Yahoo mixing and matching user data to their heart’s content may pull sharper focus onto a deal the two companies believe has no reason to fall under regulatory scrutiny.
Darko on June 22nd, 2008
According to Google Webmaster Central Blog, after numerous requests from Webmasters to integrate Webmaster Tools for third-parties, Google has finally released Webmaster Tools API, a tool that integrates API (Application Programming Interface) into Webmaster Tools.
The debut version of the Google Webmaster Tools API supports the following features:
Managing Websites:
- Retrieve a list of your sites in Webmaster Tools.
- Add your sites to Webmaster Tools.
- Verify your sites in Webmaster Tools.
- Remove your sites from Webmaster Tools.
Working with Sitemaps:
- Retrieve a list of your submitted Sitemaps.
- Add Sitemaps to Webmaster Tools.
- Remove Sitemaps from Webmaster Tools.
As of now, the Webmaster Tools API offers a limited subset of all the functionality that Webmaster Tools provide. However, as this is the initial phase of the Webmaster Tools API, there are going to be a lot of updates and improvements for certain.
For all those Webmasters who are interested in this tool and would like to make the best out of it, here is the link to Developer’s Guide for the Webmaster Tools Data API. Check out the guide and get on with more improvisations.
Darko on June 22nd, 2008
After being unveiled a couple of weeks ago at the very consumer attractive price of $199 USD, the iPhone 3G is set to go on sale next month through Apple and AT&T.
According to new reports, it appears however that AT&T is subsidizing the phone, over $400 USD in some cases, just to be able to reap in the benefits of a 2 year contract including data plans.
Oppenheimer financial analyst Yair Reimer writes that as a general rule of thumb, wireless carriers subsidize the price of smartphones by about $200 USD and make it back from expensive data plans. AT&T it appears though, is losing $325-425 for each unit sold and could be buying each phone from Apple for as much $724 USD for the 16GB model.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster also wrote a report estimating that Apple will make about $466 USD per iPhone. Bernstein Research’s Toni Sacconaghi, in a separate report says he anticipates Apple is selling each phone at $700 USD.
Darko on June 20th, 2008
Microsoft executives said the company does not plan to make a slew of Internet acquisitions since it ended its bid for Yahoo.
There has been speculation that Microsoft would possibly buy Facebook, which it has a small stake in or Time Warner’s AOL along with a number of other companies.
“People don’t understand what they’re talking about,” chief executive Steve Ballmer said in an interview with the Financial Times. “At the end of the day, this is about the ad platform. This is not about just any one of the applications.”
Kevin Johnson, head of Microsoft’s Windows and Internet businesses, said that the bid for Yahoo was part of Microsoft’s strategy to strengthen its advertising business, with the focus on the search advertising market.
After Microsoft dropped its bid for Yahoo last month it returned with an offer for the search business.
“The most important application for the foreseeable future . . . is search,” Ballmer said.
“I don’t think we can say, ‘OK, well, we’re going to be in the ad platform business and we’re going to do it just on the strength of non-search-based assets.’ We don’t have to dominate, but we’d better have a darn good chunk of the search market over time.”
Darko on June 20th, 2008
Network Solutions suggested to ICANN the adoption of a per-transaction fee to try and rein in the practices of domain kiting and front running domain names in volume.
Domain buyers saw a big chunk of their revenue fade when Google declared an end to permitting its AdSense product to be placed on domains that had not been open for six days. A five-day add grace period (AGP) permitted domain buyers to hold the domain for five days, see if it could draw enough traffic to be profitable, and dump it for a full refund if it did not.
Other domainers “kite” their domains, dumping and re-registering the same ones over and over. Even without Google, plenty of ad opportunities exist to make the business profitable at volume.
Such volume may be the weak point that can be broken with a suitable application of force. In the case of Network Solutions, the big registrar hopes to persuade the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board of directors to keep a provision in its fiscal year 2009 budget to thwart domain tasting.
“This budget includes a provision to make the non-refundable 20 cent per-transaction ICANN fee applicable to domain names deleted during the AGP once the level of deletions exceeds 10 percent of a registrar’s net new registrations in that month,” Network Solutions said in a statement.
If adopted, not only should the measure curtail a lot of the kiting and tasting taking place, but it should hamper the front running efforts of registrars. Network Solutions took heat in January over its front running of domains, a practice they claim was in place to stop domain tasters.
Network Solutions said they would discontinue their front running practice, should ICANN adopt the budget provision in question. “We believe that the adoption of this provision, will make tasting and kiting uneconomical, and will evaporate the incentive to engage in domain name front running,” they said.
Darko on June 20th, 2008
Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft, whined a bit about the pact between Google and Yahoo, during a debate in Cannes about advertising topics.
Yahoo EVP Hilary Schneider gave Johnson a little something to chew on in exulting over the company’s advertising agreement with Google. Valued roughly at $800 million in annual revenue initially, placing Google ads alongside Yahoo search results gives the latter a big boost.
Reuters noted Schneider calling the deal a “win-win,” to which Johnson said, “If win is consolidating around 90 percent of the paid search with Google, you can say, ok, Google would do that as a win.”
“I don’t think that from an industry perspective that supports having choices and having a number of strong players in the advertising business,” he continued.
Unfortunately, the awful truth shows Microsoft completely missing the boat on search, and the multi-billion dollar revolution delivered by contextual search advertising. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the Financial Times his company simply didn’t take advantage of the chance search presented.
“I give Google credit for innovating in the business model around search. They did a nice job on that, and that’s why they won,” he said in the report. Ballmer also blamed the five-year gap where its research and development resources were focused on Windows rather than other areas, including search, as ‘calcifying’ Microsoft’s ability to respond to Google’s competition.
Darko on June 20th, 2008
The founder of bookmarking service Delicious, Joshua Schachter, plans to follow several other executives out the door at Yahoo.
When Yahoo was on a bit of a spending spree for social media-type startups, Delicious represented one of several companies on Yahoo’s shopping list. Delicious offers a social bookmarking service, where people can keep and share the links they find interesting.
The site’s continued development will happen without its founder, as Schachter intends to leave Yahoo. Several Yahoo executives left or plan on leaving Yahoo before their annual meeting takes place on August 1st.
TechCrunch learned from Schachter of his impending departure. “The development of the new version of delicious seems to have almost stalled within Yahoo, and Joshua cited recent frustrations with the process as playing a part in his resignation,” said TechCrunch.
Schachter has no current plans for other projects, unlike other high profile departures like Jeremy Zawodny and Vish Makhijani. Both men have new jobs awaiting them in their post-Yahoo lives.
Delicious continues on as well. The Delicious blog announced the release of its add-on for Internet Explorer. An add-on for Firefox has been available for quite a while, and this gives Delicious the potential to be a fixture on a lot more browsers than it is today.
