CategoryGoogle

Google Site Search is shutting down

If you use the paid version of Google Site Search then be aware Google is shutting it down this year. Here’s SEL with the news. You’ll have to find a replacement, one of which is the free Custom Site Search – basically the same as Google Site Search but shows ads. Interestingly if you go to the Google Site Search page you can still sign up – at least for another month or...

What’s the Australian Federal Election Date?

Answer: The Australian Federal Election date is Saturday 02 July 2016.
Interesting that as I write this on 25 May 2016, right in the middle of election campaign mayhem and just over 5 weeks until the next Australian Federal Election, that neither Bing nor Google give me the answer I was wanting when I searched:

And Bing:

Thankfully DuckDuckGo has something more helpful:

Google’s Payday continues

Following on from last week’s note about Google banning payday loan ads in AdWords, and their hypocrisy (as clearly highlighted by Aaron Wall), it’s good to see the Wall Street Journal putting the boot in as well.
But for the best part, check out the comments on the article.

Google launches Spaces – a new tool for attracting outraged comments from people who haven’t used it yet

Google released a new product today – Spaces – that they described as: a tool for small group sharing. Not exactly an unsolved problem, but given the growth in messaging options, it’s possible there’s benefit if their attempt is compelling or provides some new value. Their reasoning for building Spaces: We wanted to build a better group sharing experience, so we made a new...

Google’s Payday

Another of Google’s ‘do as we say, not as we do’ moments.
Do as we say: Payday loans are bad.
Not as we do: Aaron Wall sets the record straight. Again.
The masters of PR:

More on that Google Peaking idea

Another excellent post (long, but worth the read) from Aaron Wall, discussing the ever-growing impact of Google on businesses – no matter how big or small – that markets themselves online (ie just about every business). Scary times.
Not that this is new of course.

Google Fucktardery

The always awesome Aaron Wall lets loose with another blistering rebuke of Google’s regular business practices. When Google complains about censorship, they are not really complaining about what may be, but what already is. Their only problem is the idea that someone other than themselves should have any input in the process. Definitely worth a read. It’s a tricky area for me...

Don’t be the weakest link

An interesting comment by Chris Evans, a Google security engineer for the Chrome browser, at the recent Pwnium 4 security competition in Canada. Commenting on their approach to security: “Bad guys are fundamentally lazy, like the rest of us. They’re looking for the highest return with the least amount of effort.” “They want the weakest link, and we will never have...

Google Burn

Always funny to see these thing play out. Google announces a new (yes, yet another one) tool for reporting scraper sites, and the interwebz responds with a clear message: Google is the biggest scraper site of all. And as SEL reports it’s pretty much gone viral now. Even the main technology blogs are reporting on it now. Hilarity ensues. .@mattcutts I think I have spotted one, Matt. Note the...

Google Instant Roundup

It’s been a week now since Google Instant hit the news desks of IT blogs everywhere. I’ve started getting a few questions from clients and friends about it, so I thought I’d put together a simple collection of recommended links, and finish off with some of my thoughts. There’s been tons of discussion of course, but for a good summary of the main points, the following 4 or 5 posts will...

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