The Google - YouTube Deal- coverage roundup

While CNet heralds a triumph for social computing (and asks marketers to face the music and get comfortable with UGC videos), CNN Money augurs "the beginning of the end?"

Dalka points to a few good, unanswered questions on the deal: Will the unprecedented operational independence Google's giving YouTube provide enough distance to partially protect the buyer from copyright infringement lawsuits? And, will the users (now at over 20 million) stay if Google has to clean house?

Forever Geek discovers the zen in the new alliance: an alignment of cultures willing to fight against the copyright overlords, a similar knack for accumulating prized industry data, and the brand name.

A VC highlights, from an earlier post, how this startup landed the biggest acquisition offer Google has ever made--and in transit "kicked Google's ass (and everyone else's too)."

TechCrunch posted the original scoop on the rumor-- ahead of most major media outlets, including the NYT, as the blogosphere was quick to note.

Mark Cuban plays a singular devil's advocate in the dissent, on a count of the landslide of copyright violation suits to come. And in that prediction, of course, he's no lone cassandra. Copyright suit magnet? asks the Journal.

Business Week discusses YouTube's maneuvers to fend against suits, including a new 'copyright fingerprint' tag it will implement to allow owners of copyrighted materials to take part in the viral-sharing decision and subsequent ad revenue.

On the other side of the fence... Robert Scoble asks, what if was Microsoft that bought YouTube? In all fairness, Yahoo News runs an AP article entitled "Google eclipses rivals with YouTube." (now that is editorial restraint.)

The YouTube co-founders, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, have their celebratory clip joking, "The king of search and the king of video have gotten together--- we're going to have it our way."

But it's fair to say a YouTube user has created a more professional clip: a droll vid on what users can expect from the Google-YouTube honeymoon.

• Posted by Melanie Colburn at 08:54 PM
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SearchMob Roundup

Google Video is no match for YouTube

Become.com’s Search and Shopping Solution Beats Google

Eventful and Microsoft Launch New Event Search Plugin for Windows Live Writer Blogging Software

Yahoo! Creeps Into Bed With Current TV

GOOGLE Debuts * Public Source Code * Search Engine

• Posted by John Battelle at 07:59 PM
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Friedman, Oil, Google, Dow Jones....

So I had an hour just now, an HOUR!!!, to do whatever I wanted to. And what did I do? I read my feeds. In one sitting. How nice it was. And here's the highlights:

Haaaaaaaaahahahahaahaha....(via Danny)

Fred rants at the Times for putting important voices like Friedman behind the paywall. I agree.

Barrons and many others cover charges being filed against the HP folks.

Google does new AJAX search API, Gadgets, updated Groups, and a ton of other stuff (another post is coming on that...)

SearchMash - a "secret" place for Google to try new things.

Yesterday the Dow Jones hit a historical high. As I said to my wife - time to start squirreling money away, and perhaps we should consider moving money from those mutual funds to cash.

By the way, and totally random, but can anyone explain why oil prices have dropped so dramatically lately? I mean, really, besides just saying "Karl Rove made it happen"?

The winners of Yahoo Hack Day are here....

Paul likes stealth market research on Google, read more here....

I can't keep up. Google Movies?!

1500 Diggs and still counting, and I wonder why...

Bebo on the rise in the UK...

It's Ask sponsored listings news!

• Posted by John Battelle at 05:26 PM
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Searchmob Roundup

Yahoo Acquires Online Video Editor, JumpCut

Have Blogs Replaced Newspapers, and Should We Care?

Using a Blog to Track Down a Missing Retainer

Dynamic, Realtime Travel Planning Info

Behind the Scenes in the Search Engine Labs

Australia via Google Earth

• Posted by Melanie Colburn at 09:29 PM
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Weekend SearchMob

Top stories:

Nokia Adds Microsoft Live Search

Search Engine Bias and the Demise of Search Engine Utopianism

BusinessWeek Cover Story and Investigation on Click Fraud

Over 30 Domain Names Transferred to Google Inc.

FORBES: 400 Richest American$ , Their Details

New AOL Search Beta Test Available

Save the Forbes story (what is it with lists of rich guys?), I've been really pleased with the quality of the stories sumitted to SearchMob. What I wish I had was more voting from readers - in general, the voting has been pretty anemic - 4-6 votes for top stories, usually. I'm not looking for Digg numbers (1000 diggs is not unusual), but my logs tell me there are thousands of readers each day at Searchblog. So...is SearchMob working, or not?

• Posted by John Battelle at 06:25 PM
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SearchMob Top Stories

As of this evening:

Google Adds Text to Shopping Cart Icon

Local Matters and Mobile People Partner

Battelle Media Blog Worth $1,011,091.14 (oh really....)

Top 5 alternative search engines

Google Receives Several DMCA Requests From Around the Globe

Now guys, remember you can vote on new stories here, and post new stories here...

• Posted by John Battelle at 07:24 PM
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SearchMob Top Stories

At present:

Search engine to track how U.S. money is spent

Home Depot Begins Selling Electronics

Yahoo signs search deal with Acer

Digg dealing with the same problems as Google?

Hitwise Says Google, Ask Gain Search Share in August; MSN, Yahoo Slip

• Posted by John Battelle at 11:51 AM
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Top Stories on SearchMob Right Now...

Are....

New Technology Allows Searchers to Scour Online Audio, Video to Target Advertising

Mobissimo First to Bring Comprehensive Travel Search to Netvibes' Five Million Users

beRecruited.com - Social Networking for Sports Recruiting

TV Guide and Yahoo Announce Deal

Google Checkout Competing with Affiliates

I'm pretty pleased with the focus and quality of the stories that are being posted on the site, but I do have some issues with the whole thing. I have no idea if you, the readers, are checking it out, or find it very compelling. I'm adding a navigation link, so you can find it in the first place, which I guess would help (Ren: Iiiiiiiidiot). And I want a widget that pulls the top five stories and rotates them over on the right or the left. That would be really cool. Any ideas?

• Posted by John Battelle at 04:54 PM
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Re-Aggregating: What I Missed Last Week

You probably hate these posts? Why doesn't Battelle just use Delicious, for goodness sakes? I dunno, call me old school, but here are stories I find noteworthy that happened while I was away last week on vacation:

Microsoft says folks can use Google in Vista.

Google moves the ball on "invalid click" tracking - a report out of the Lanes click fraud case says Google is taking reasonable steps to control it.

Google killed its earnings again, Yahoo had less than happy news (delays on YPN, for starters). MSN, meanwhile, reports revenues are down. But Google's stock didn't pop. Some folks say the reason is increasing costs. Fred says buy YHOO.

Hitwise breaks down Google properties.

YouTube hits 100mm a day (I hope to have a new post on YT soon, pending response from them about this post, which I can understand they didn't take kindly to).

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:36 PM
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Melanie Rounds It Up

Microsoft Live (Search) Desktop
Microsoft announced its version of an integrated-search desktop that can scour the desktop, corporate network and internet. It's now available to download. "Windows Live Search" is the tentative title, but the product is apparently separate from the other beta by the same name, which is internet-only search. As Geeking with Greg points out, it sounds very similar to Google’s Desktop Search, a imitation Googler VPs told the AP they long expected.
Google Notebook Live
Google Notebook went live in the labs earlier this week. Downloading the Notebook extension places a shortcut tool (displayed in the bottom right of the browser) with which to scrapbook pages, links, and notes. (One can also login and begin playing with the capture and note-taking tools without the extension, but it remains a bit awkward.)
A Faster, Even Viral Google Video
After an inauspicious start (trumped by YouTube), Google Video is changing gears. Users can now feed their videos directly online, eschewing the desktop upload program and editorial submission time-lag. That's exactly why YouTube ran ahead, and that's why Google is responding.
And amid the popularity of the promotional DaVinci Code game (but the movie is getting hammered), Google is trying a viral video marketing venture with the new movie The Break-up. In addition to offering previews, Google is hosting a page where users can share digital shorts of their own humorous trips to splitsville. (John here - does this feel...well...dumb to anyone else?)
Java-to-AJAX Toolkit (for Programmers, with Love from Google)
Google releases the Web Toolkit (Beta) free to the public. The toolkit aims to assist in coding dynamic web applications (like Gmail) by allowing programmers to develop AJAX tools in Java. Helping to navigate a myriad of browser eccentricities, the toolkit features include retaining full Java debugging support for ultimately AJAX apps.
Notebook Snooping
ZDnet goes snooping about the Google Notebook source code and finds some tantalizing bits, or rather hanging questions: Integration with Gmail? Third-party add-ons? Options like in Google Page Creator? (Via Lenssen who also points to a Achewood Cartoon on Google.)
StumbleUpon new sites
StumbleUpon, launched new features early last week, lets users wander through new websites recommended from like-minded users. Still in trial mode, Stumble just added photo, video and Wikipedia stumbling to its Firefox extension. Recently moved to San Francisco from Canada, the start-up just completed an angel round of funding with big tech names. Investor Mitch Kapor remarked in the press release, "Search when you know just what you're looking for, stumble when you don't."
Job Trends at Yahoo, Google
Tracked by the Swiss research group UBS: Google job growth is still explosive--new positions composing 27% of its current headcount, compared with 23% last year--while Yahoo's has flat-lined (from 12% to 8%). More at GigaOm.
A little innovation at the business school
On the online business journal Knowledge@Wharton, Wharton is internally converting search terms into article labels. Terms that result in an article selection automatically become tags in the related articles box and link to all similar articles. (tip from Kurt Oeler)
List of New Search Patents
...Including eight from Microsoft, two from Yahoo, and two from IBM. From Resource Shelf
Small Biz Bloggers Wanted
Jan Jantsesh is looking for bloggers to join the growing channel network at Duct Tape Marketing. See his post for details.

• Posted by John Battelle at 06:15 PM
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Yahoo Analyst Day Roundup

I'm interviewing Jeff Weiner, who runs Yahoo Search & Marketplace, tomorrow in Detroit. So Yahoo's analyst day this week is of keen interest. Here are some thoughts from across the web:

Cnet: Focuses on the new ad system, covered here earlier. "Yahoo's new ad system is designed to let marketers target prospective consumers not only by the search terms the people use, but also by their demographics, location and what they do on other areas of the Yahoo network, executives said.

The system, scheduled to launch in the U.S. in the third quarter, offers enhanced ease of use, advanced testing features, geo-targeting and automated analytics, Tim Cadogan, vice president of search, said during the company's analyst day in San Francisco on Wednesday. "

Paid Content: A round up as well, starting with Llyod Braun's pushing user generated content.

SEW rounded it all up, here's their coverage of Jeff's talk. Jeff's all about social search, Answers, etc. Innaresting.

• Posted by John Battelle at 09:26 AM
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Melanie's RoundUp

AdWords on Google Base

The Google Base Blog announced that users can now use AdWords ads to drive traffic to their Base listings, automatically geo-targeted with the keywords targeting based on the ad copy (screenshots, via SEW).

SELowdown opines, "So let me get this straight: Give us content to index through Base. Pay us to advertise this Base content in Google searches. Well I guess that's not THAT different from Google's current model..."

Conversely happy with the new union, VoidStar recommends eBay join Words-Base to rectify its own keyword targeting. Coincidentally, Forbes today reports about Google "increasingly infringing on eBay's territory and limiting the online auctioneer's growth potential, at least in the near term, according to Cowen & Co. analyst Jim Friedland."
The article continues:

While the new Google Base service, a free database of product listings, has not become a significant driver of sales for e-commerce companies as of yet, 50% of the conference attendees said they have started to list products on the database. Advertisers that use Google keywords benefit from a 70% click-through rate, versus Yahoo!'s 18% and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) MSN's 8%, according to Friedland...Friedland also found that more and more small- and medium-sized businesses' market resources are being directed away from eBay to Google AdWords and Google Base.

Google, Nokia Team-up for Mobile Search
A formal announcement is expected Tuesday of Google search powering the new Nokia, reports the WSJ (via CIO Tech Informer). The forthcoming 770 Internet Tablet allows simultaneous voice or IM alongside web surfing. It will be Google's first foray into mobile telephone deals, which Google has made clear is the new territory its staking out. Connecting through the interenet rather than cellular signals, the Tablet provides Google Talk wherever there is wifi--making service spottier but cheaper, SeattlePI notes.

The WSJ: Because it’s based on short-range Wi-Fi technology, the device is not a cell phone...It’s a bit larger than the average PDA, and it features a high-resolution screen designed specifically for browsing the Internet.

Vista Cleared by DOJ
Despite Google's accusation that Visa's default to MSN Search (in absense of pre-set preferences) is unfair, the DOJ determined Friday MS has done no harm. CNet: As part of its status report on Microsoft's antitrust compliance, the Justice Department said that it had reviewed the search box and concluded that Microsoft's implementation "respects users' and (computer makers') default choices and is easily changed."

Web 2.0 Commencement
Tim O'Reilly, giving the commencement speech for the UC Berkeley School of Information this past Saturday (John gave it last year), talked about defining Web 2.0 The full transcript is on O'Reilly's site, Geeking with Greg excerpts:

The internet as platform. What does that mean? ...It's as simple as this: the secret of success in the networked era is to create or leverage network effects... When we first began thinking about Web 2.0, we asked ourselves what distinguished the companies that survived the dotcom bust from those that failed. And we came up with the surprising observation that in one way or another, each of them was good at harnessing user contributions, applying some of the same insights to consumer applications that leading edge software developers have applied to open source software projects like Linux.

A true Web 2.0 application is one that gets better the more people use it. Google gets smarter every time someone makes a link on the web. Google gets smarter every time someone makes a search. It gets smarter every time someone clicks on an ad. And it immediately acts on that information to improve the experience for everyone else.

It's for this reason that I argue that the real heart of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence. ...The world of Web 2.0 *can* be one in which we share our knowledge and insights, filter the news for each other, find out obscure facts, and make each other smarter and more responsive. We can instrument the world so it becomes somethng like a giant, responsive organism.

GigaOm also recently posted some new thoughts on Web 2.0 as meme, mainstream misunderstanding, and an enterprise.

Does Google Desktop "improve search"?
Jeremy Zawodny doesn't buy the message from Marrissa:

We're told that Google Desktop 4 improves search, but that's not backed up by any evidence at all. Instead, we're presented with a non-sequitur about gadgets you can use to increase your day to day information overload.

A Googley Economist Article
The running gag in a new Economist article was whether Google has become the new Microsoft. Though an excellent article, most of it overviews Google's growth and culture with which Seachblog readers are already familiar, so just a few the highlights here. Google recently sent its first lobbyists to Washington, DC. Its decision to build an “evil scale” to help it devise its China strategy was more unusual, but its hiring of Al Gore, a former American vice-president, to aid the process, was just the kind of thing that old-fashioned empire-building firms do all the time.

The closing graph:
Google thus finds itself at a defining moment. There are plenty of people within the company who want it to play the power game. “The folks who are closest to Larry and Sergey are very, very worried about Microsoft, as well they should be,” says John Battelle, the author of a blog and a book on Google. Yet the company's founders themselves may not be prepared to drop their idealism and their faith in their own mathematical genius.

Quote of the article: "Google seems to use betas as dogs sprinkle trees—so that rivals know where it is."

DOJ Moves to Close EFF Complaint
EFF writes: Early Saturday morning, in the darkest hours of the night, the Department of Justice made good its threat to file a motion to dismiss our class-action lawsuit against AT&T, contending that AT&T's collaboration with the NSA's massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications (which violates the law and the privacy of its customers)--despite being front page news throughout the United States and the subject of government press conferences and Congressional hearings--is a state secret. The motion was accompanied by declarations by Lieutenant General Keith B. Alexander, Director, National Security Agency and John D. Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence. We will vigorously oppose this motion. Donate to EFF and help stop the illegal spying!

• Posted by John Battelle at 05:55 PM
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The Melanie Round Up

Melanie has been hard at work poring through feeds, looking for items of interest. She's already got a bunch of great stuff, and as I've been behind, here are some highlights of stories from the past two days:

Adsense is allowing text links for referrals. And Matt is coy about using Toolbar data for search relevance. As I wrote in the book, I think clickstreams could be the next step in relevance.

A major new grassroots net neutrality campaign. Om says it's missing some angles.

How much do you Google? This is getting a lot of attention.

Yahoo is catching up in clickthroughs...

Sphere is launching. I can't wait to use it. But the site is not open...yet...

Yahoo makes Meedio free. Talk about a TV mashup....

More to come....

• Posted by John Battelle at 09:05 PM
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