SEO Junkie

According to the news, Ask.com is wading into the blogosphere after Google, Ice Rocket, Sphere, Technorati and Yahoo.

On Thursday, the Oakland, Calif.-based search site plans to add a Blogs & Feeds tab to its Internet search tools menu and to more thoroughly integrate its search engine with its online news aggregation site, Bloglines.

Daniel Read, Ask.com’s VP of consumer products and user experience said:

The reason we’re getting into blog search is it’s the fastest growing content type on the Web.

Ask Blogs & Feeds Search lets users query three different categories:

1. blog posts,
2. RSS feeds, and
3. a selection of around 7,000 news sources

Also, it allows queries to be sorted using additional criteria including date, popularity, or a combination of the two. This can be particularly useful for locating recent blog posts.

Ask Blogs & Feeds Search relies on another measure of collective wisdom to identify relevant blog posts–the subscription data submitted by the hundreds of thousands of Bloglines users.

Via CNET comes news that Google has launched its first mashup - a map-based Web site with information about earth-friendly locations in five of the U.S.’s top travel destinations.

 According to Luanne Calvert, creative director at Google:

The site, at maps.google.com/green, features information on and video tours of spots in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and Orlando, Fla., as well as tips for “traveling green” during the summer using Google Maps.

 She further explained:

By “green” Google means “things that are earth friendly,” That includes “restaurants that are about sustainable living” and “a car service in New York that only uses (gas-electric hybrid) Prius vehicles,”

They will certainly get more and more people to use Google Maps to get around this summer.

Google has finally launched its Google Notebook service which offers their users an ability to make notes and bookmarks through any browser.

According to the IT Week news:

Google’s Notebook service, which allows web users to store and compile links to web sites, favorites, and snippets of information while browsing, went live last week as a beta.

Users will need a Google or Gmail username and password; and Firefox users will need to download version 1.5 of the browser.

Notebooks can be made private or public. Public sites will be open to search by other users, though this service is currently unavailable.

It seems to me pretty useful for the users. Plus Google will benefit from the service by learning their users preferences and bookmarks.

Via CNET comes news that Nokia will unveil a new version of its internet tablet device that runs Google Talk.

The pact between the Finnish company and Web search leader Google would offer consumers the ability to chat with other users of instant messaging software via the Nokia Wi-Fi device, which relies on short-range wireless networks.

The deal with Nokia marks the Mountain View, Calif.-based Google’s latest move beyond computers and into the mobile communications market.

Isn’t it time for Yahoo and MSN to have their services featured on handsets?

According to a published report, Google has expressed concerns about competition from Microsoft in the Web search business in recent talks with the Justice Department and the European Commission.

Marissa Mayer, the vice president for search products at Google, said:

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services. We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

Jeremy Zawodny, a member of Yahoo’s technical development group, recently wrote how Google itself has entered into a deal with Dell Computers, so a “Googleized” browser comes standard in some Dell machines:

“Google bought their way into the default position. And now they’re upset because they can’t do the same with Internet Explorer? Cry me a river.”

Ditto Don Dodge, director of business development for Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team wrote on his blog:

“It is pretty clear Google is whining and complaining about something it does itself with Firefox. Remember, Google hired the founders and leaders of Firefox and pays money to Mozilla. So Google heavily influences what happens in both browsers.”

As far as I think, it’s a case of a pot that calls the kettle black. Google only complains when things aren’t in their favor.