Archive for the ‘Internet News’ Category
iPhone 4.0 and IADS
Apple announced the release of iPhone 4.0 Operating System last week, in big conference-style no less, demonstrating all of the new features the wizard gadgetry has to offer.
One of the most interesting developments to come out of the announcement is “iAds“.
iAds are online advertising featured within installed applications and web-pages. In essence, iads are to mobile phones, what adwords are to Google searches. It is presumed that developers will use iads to subsidise the supply of free applications, similar to what is already going on withing Google Android application development.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that over 1 Billion ad impressions are expected in the mobile advertising space per day, and research group Gartner expect revenue from mobile advertising to tip over $1.6Billion this year alone.
Given the roaming nature of a mobile user, we expect this advertising to be even more targeted, and be more locale-specific than ever, with ads for a nearby pizza store being targeted to the user’s handset.
These are interesting times for online advertising, and the progress of monetisation of the mobile space, and particularly the success of iads is something SearchNews will be keeping a close watch on.
Google weighs in on internet filter
Google’s Australian division, has added it’s 2 cents to the debate on the Internet Filter Policy proposed by the Labour Government of Australia to filter all web traffic it’s citizens view and deny access to refused classification or other objectional content.
In it’s blog, Google have openly opposed the Australian Internet Filter, and submitted it’s arguments to the Labour party including:
- The filter would block access to some important content, including some politically controversial content, with Google indicates is vital in democracy.
- It removes choices, claiming that parents will become complacent, under a false sense of security, believing they or their children will be protected from harm on the internet.
- Isn’t effective in protecting children, because the objectional content is often found outside of HTTP websites.
They’ve also stated it will signficantly slow down internet access of large websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s own video channel, YouTube.
Google has used Youtube as an example, citing it’s Community Guidelines Policy, and self-regulation, and also said that the government should shift it’s focus to user education to help improve online safety.
We at SearchNews are very opinionated on the matter also, we also believe that the filter is poorly thought out, will put burdens on resources, having a direct impact on internet access pricing, and will have a detremental effect on internet access in Australia.
We beleive there are much better ways to protect children and weed out criminals, and that our tax-payer’s dollars can be better allocated to other programs.
The Proposed Internet Filter Policy will be brought before the senate in coming weeks, however it will require support from the Australian Liberal Party to pass into legislation.
We will be watching with great anticipation and hope the outcome is the Internet Filter Policy being shelved as a technological blunder in the history of the Australian Government.
For related information see the following websites:
Yahoo-Microsoft-Bid-Update
In the ongoing saga of Microsoft’s continued attempts to buyout Yahoo!, Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft has come out publicly saying he still wants to buy Yahoo’s search company.
In a recent interview by AllThingsD with Balmer at this week’s 2009 Media Summit this week in New York, Balmer has said that Microsoft has made a significant investment in Research & Development into Search, which is something Google has clearly led the way in, but he believes Yahoo isn’t in a position to make such an investment.
Balmer believes that by combining Live Search with Yahoo’s search, the company will pool it’s resources, customers and advertisers together to add scale, and he seems to think therein lies the real value of merging the two businesses, with a goal of holding 15-20% of the search market in the next few years.
Balmer declined to comment on the new Kumo Search product, but did go on to say that search was updated at Microsoft every 9 months.
Latest Google Bomb: Gmail Down
It has been the topic of much discussion recently on news websites and forums: Gmail was down and allegedly exploited by porn sites this week.
Google was in fact experiencing technical difficulties this Wednesday, and given the large number of subscribers, many users were searching for answers to explain why.
In the most recent public case of Google Bombing, Search Engine Optimisers were fortunate enough for Google to be offline long enough for users to start searching for ‘Gmail Down‘..
It seems those opportunistic folks who were triggering the search term and setting up groups in Gmail forums, were directing visitors to pornography sites which has outraged many, and led to some interesting, and perhaps misinformed media coverage.
Google Bombing is a method of black-hat SEO, whereby hundreds of website create text links (or anchor text) of words you want Google to rank contained within a hyperlink, and therefore anyone searching for that particular keyword in Google; or any search engine whose algorithm is similar to Google’s, will list the destination site at the number one spot in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
One of the most popular Google Bomb references is the search term ‘miserable failure’ which directed searchers to the White House (USA Government) profile page of George Bush. An ‘I’m feeling lucky‘ search would instantly take the user to the site, causing some hilarity and ridicule as the ‘trick’ of displaying the page spread through the web.
Either way, it seems Gmail’s service has been restored, and a few people giggle over the incident, but it reminds us that email services aren’t bullet-proof, even those supplied by someone as big as Google, and with a little black-hat SEO, you can still get to the top of the search engines, although we highly recommend against this.