Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: /hospitality/

Google PageRank Update - Page Rank Update and Page Rank Explained

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 03:24:00 GMT

As of Friday a Google PageRank update has been rolling out across Google Data Centres. At present, Page Rank updates are visible at most DC's, but not at every single one; some data centres continue to use a slightly older infrastructure for a few query types, and so will take much longer to update their Page Ranks.

Every quarter, Google takes an imprint of their PageRank internal values and makes them available in the Google Toolbar. The new set of PageRank values replace the last updated page ranks, and these began rolling out on Friday the 29th of September. As of Monday the second of October, most of these Page Rank updates will be complete for various geographic centres from 10.00 GMT.

By way of clarification, PageRank is Google's way of determining a page's importance. It is important because it is one of the factors that determines a page's ranking in its search results. As with anything to do with Google and its various algorithms, there is always a degree of speculation as to what the contributing factors in this determination are. With the example of PageRank, bigmouthmedia knows for a fact the following are key aspects:

Inbound Links - Votes that you have received from other pages
High Quality Sites linking to your site

The above factors are particularly affected by:

The measurable strength of a brand
The traffic that a particular site receives
The quality of the website's design (for example use of pop ups could have a negative effect)
The relevancy (to your site's theme) of the pages linking to your site and the PageRank of these pages

It pays to keep these in mind when considering PageRank in many contexts. Overall, the best advice in assessing PageRank is to ignore it and focus on the variables that control it: for example, keep producing content that other sites want to link to. Page Rank is just one of the many methods Google uses to determine a page's relevance or importance, and is only one component of the larger picture when it comes to achieving Google rankings. The Google PageRank update will be completed within the next few days.

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Google mobile maps – an opportunity for the motoring industry

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 03:49:00 GMT

Traffic - road traffic that is - is big news and competition is tight to be first choice for added value services such as SMS traffic alerts. Over 32.9 million cars are currently registered in the UK and car production is increasing disproportionately to growth in road networks. Motoring news organisations such as the AA, the BBC and car manufacturers like Toyota are providing SMS traffic alerts to attract subscribers.

Google have also joined the club having now added to its list of value services for Mobile motoring users. The latest beta version of Google Mobile Maps raises the game with free real time traffic information.

How does Google Mobile Maps work?

Google Mobile Maps users in the US can now view traffic information with a free download that gives them access to directions and maps with integrated search results for business locations and contact information. The latest Beta version of Google Mobile Maps does not however work with all mobiles as it is not yet supported by all US carriers.

Mobile users with the Google Mobile Maps download can view a 'traffic light' colour display that shows traffic directions and conditions. Green roads are clear, yellow roads indicate congestion, and red roads indicate a traffic jam.

Can it be used when driving?

The free service is not without its problems. While the mobile service has a handy 'real time' aspect to plot your route and access accurate traffic information, Google Mobile Maps doesn't use GPS even with a GPS enabled mobile phone. You must use the arrow keys to track your trip. This makes it dangerous (and illegal in the UK) to use the service while driving.

This new offering from Google provides another opportunity for the motoring industry to attract online and mobile users and of course adds another functionality string to Google's every expanding bow.

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Google and China: a tight-lipped conversation?

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 03:13:00 GMT

A recent compromise between Google and the Chinese government has left the United States foreign affairs committee - along with more than a few others - questioning the advancement of human rights in China. The collaboration, which has resulted in China's very own google.cn, restricts online access to information in accordance with Chinese law - especially when the information pertains to political affairs. For example, Google China would not display search results for such events as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, or any sites supporting free speech in China. If anyone were to conduct a Google search on these topics anywhere else in the world, they would undoubtedly get countless results. But not on google.cn - such results simply seem to have vanished.

Of course, there was a time when Google existed in China without any censorship. So what happened? In September of 2002, google.com suddenly disappeared from computers in China - the site seemed to be 'down', with a mere error message in its place. But what soon came to light was that the government had blocked Google - in the name of censorship. In China, one of the ways to censor the Web is to implement warnings and penalties in order to keep site content within the realm of what the government considers 'appropriate.' But the catch is that this is only possible if a Web company is based within China. Sites based outside of the country's borders have a different method of censorship applied to them - that of the Great Firewall of China. 'Router' switches, which are required by the Chinese government to run at the edge of each network, are China's censors to 'out of border' Internet companies. This results in all site requests and searches in China from private sector companies having to first hit this router at the border to be 'approved'. If sites contain words that the government considers unsuitable for its citizens, it will block the signal - that is, if a site isn't fully blacklisted to begin with. In place of an 'unfit' site, an error message would be displayed - and this is precisely what happened to Google in September of 2002. The reason behind the occurrence was that people still had the ability to find links to prohibited sites - and while following such links would only result in an error message, the process constantly reminded citizens of China that information was being withheld from them. Because Google was an 'out of border' company, China had no control over the search results and links it produced - even if the links were dysfunctional. So the government did the next best thing - it blocked Google altogether.

Theories began to fly that Baidu, the leading search engine company in China, also had a hand in the occurrence. As mentioned in a previous bigmouthmedia article, Baidu began gaining power at immense speed just one year ago when it was unveiled at Nasdaq. It's main competitor? Google. And it's said that a common practice among domestic Internet companies is to turn to the government with complaints about prohibited content on their competitors' sites, in hopes that consequences will follow. A cynic could claim that censorship is a handy tool - not only in politics, but also in business, but little can be proved.

While Google was started up again just two weeks after the Chinese government blocked it, problems still arose with the firewall slowing down the flow of Google's data into the country. And additional 'mini' shutdowns as a result of people trying to access banned sites only made matters worse. At the time, Google was also taking into account considerable sectors of the Chinese population which it was not reaching - mainly college students who were unable to access foreign websites on campus computers. Needless to say, the search engine company began to consider its options. The outcome? A negotiation with China to eliminate search results from sites seen as unfit by the government - hence, the beginning of google.cn. However, the negotiation does not prohibit access to the original google.com site, which still carries links to 'uncensored' pages - though following such links would still only lead to that infamous error message. And while google.cn only displays censored information, it comes unhindered by any firewalls, shutdowns, or error messages - a big plus to many internet users. And how did Google come up with its blacklist of 'inappropriate' sites? The Chinese government certainly didn't provide them with one. They set up a computer in China that would attempt to access countless sites outside its borders - and if it was blocked, it was placed on Google's very own blacklist.

While many in the US are arguing that the recent collaboration infringes on human rights in China, others are curious to know what Chinese citizens have to say on the matter. Kai-Fu Lee, the head of operations for Google in China stated that the students he comes across 'do not hunger for democracy,' and that the general feel among Chinese people on the issue is not one of depravity. He believes Chinese citizens are simply happy with technological advancements, such as search engines, which simply make their lives easier. So if this is truly the case, it would seem that everyone directly linked to the operation wins - the Chinese government, its citizens, and Google. Yet others see the procedure as a compromise, in more ways than one.

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Google splash out with free Wi-Fi

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 02:49:00 GMT

It may not look to be a profitable move but Google may soon become overwhelmingly popular in their home city of Mountain View, California. Google are to supply a municipal wireless network covering the entire city of Mountain View, with free Internet access for both residents and visitors.

Google's headquarters are situated in Mountain View and Google indicated around a year ago that they would indeed start building their own network. Some may think it has simply been designed as a perk for the 1,000 or so Google employees living in Mountain View. This possible motive for the Wi-Fi project may be slightly far fetched but there is indeed an air of uncertainty surrounding the reasoning for this free service.

Costs to install the network would be large and have been estimated to be at least several million dollars. This money has come directly from Google's pocket and Google have pledged to operate it for five years.

The network is presently being fine tuned ahead of its official public launch which Google have said will take place by the end of the summer. From their pledge we can assume that we will see the network launched before the 23rd Sept.

Google Wi-Fi, as the network is known, uses the same wireless networking standard as built into most notebook computers. Instead of the wireless Wi-Fi routers common in homes, Google has installed 380 boxes called 'nodes' with distinctive twin antennas, on lamp posts scattered around Mountain View. Each node has a range of several hundred feet.

Google has said that the maximum speed of the network is 1Mbps. In comparison, a fast DSL home connection may be 2.5Mbps. Although the speed is not astonishing, it is pretty good and with best connection speeds attained outside homes and close to nodes we could see much more evidence of 'on-the-go' internet use.

Although the Google Wi-Fi network is unique as it is run by the largest search company in the world in its own hometown, it is not the first Wi-Fi network to be built. In around 60 other regions in the US, cities and companies have built similar networks, both fee and free-based. Presently another 130 city and countywide projects are underway. Across the world there is also growing interest in countries from France to China to Macedonia and the UK.

Could this be a service that will become standard as we look into the future of the global use of the internet?

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Yahoo! Launches Trip Planner

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 08:00:00 GMT

Over the last nine months Yahoo! has been fine-tuning its Trip Planner services with the help of its beta users and is now ready to unveil this new and exciting technology to the general public.

With the explosion of the backpacker culture over the last decade there is certainly room for such a service online.

Yahoo! describes the travel tool that simplifies the research, planning and sharing of trips online. This enables users to customise their travel plans to suit their needs and print into a personal guide book.

The system lets users find information on Trip Planner and the rest of the Internet and amalgamate this information into one AJAX interface. Users have the ability to control who has access to their trip plan from just a few people to the entire web.

Yahoo! has created a knowledge bank of travel plans and feedback which is an excellent tool for travellers looking for the next hidden oasis to explore or dangerous areas to avoid. Trip Planner includes top trip plans chosen by users which is illustrated on Yahoo! Maps allowing people to view a trip around the world or a specific area. Other features include the ability to post a travel journal and display photos.

The Yahoo! Trip Planner community can rate how helpful the individual plans are by bookmarking their favourites for their next adventure. Trips are linked through to Yahoo! 360 where user profiles can be displayed when viewing trip plans to find out more about the author. Yahoo! has also created a local restaurant, hotel and entertainment guide for users looking for the next drinking hole or party central.

So, how does one use the Yahoo! Trip Planner?

Starting from the search box, Yahoo! directs users to the Yahoo! Trip Planner when entering destination keywords along with a word such as 'trip'. Users can link directly to the top community ranked trip plans for example 'Vancouver trips' will link to the Yahoo! Trip Planner which gives the best trip plans for travelling in Vancouver whether it is a cruise up the Alaskan coast or just walking about in the city.

Google has also been working on similar technology to link travellers and their hints and tips. I'm looking forward to seeing when the search engine giant unveils their version.

Somebody get me my backpack and hip flask - its time to see the world again.

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Post World Cup surge expected

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 07:48:00 GMT

UK search activity in June, as predicted, focussed on this year's first major sporting event: the FIFA World Cup 2006 held in Germany. Search terms such as 'metatarsal' 'Wayne Rooney' and 'David Beckham' were suddenly up at the top of the most popular lists with thoughts of summer holidays banished to the back of people's minds as football fever grabbed the nation.

Across the board the travel industry saw volume and spend flat-line during a period that in a football free year would be expected to be on the up and up. Unusually for Summer, travellers were choosing to stay in their arm chairs cheering on their team of choice rather than booking the otherwise traditional last minute breaks. Summer travel was not looking promising.

However, fear not! After June comes July - and the exit of England from the World Cup. Holidays become just what is needed to banish those footballing blues. The desire for some sea and sun has returned and bookings have surged.

Lastminute.com reported that bookings on Sunday and Monday - the 2nd and 3rd of July - increased by 35%, with 80% of the bookings being for departures in the next two weeks.

This trend is something that was expected amongst online travel experts as a similar pattern occurred in the aftermath of England's early exit from Euro 2004. This prior knowledge, allied with tools such as Google Trends, have enabled advertisers to be prepared and reap the rewards of boosted sales.

And who said football fans were predictable...

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German professors warn of Google supremacy

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 06:49:00 GMT

Whilst Google have for a long time now maintained their "Don't be evil" motto to anyone who dared to question their ethics, new questions over their dominance in the German market have been raised by leading European experts.

Marcel Machill, a journalism professor at the Leipzig and Dortmund universities, has claimed that as the one company which dominates 70% of the German go-to market for information, Google has an unprecedented power which would be "unthinkable" in the classic media sectors. Adding comments on the importance of there being effective checks and balances on Google's ability to control the supply of information, Machill's views again return us to this question: how realistic it is for individual governments to 'police' the web?

In Germany, Google (along with Yahoo! and MSN) control 90% of the search market, and each of them have a responsibility not to allow access to sites of an illegal nature - which includes websites such as those with neo-Nazi content which is forbidden in Germany. Whilst each subsidiary of search engines like Google have a obligation to screen their search results for violent or x-rated material, Machill argues that governments need to be aware of how the search engine companies operate in order to effectively regulate them.

Norbert Schneider, director of the North Rhine Westphalia state media institute also backed up Machill's comments, adding that this voluntary obligation is not enough and governments need to be taking the lead to make sure the power of search engines is clear to web surfers.

These comments come in the wake of France's plans to spearhead a new European search engine in spite of Google and Yahoo!'s dominance in the market. The French search engine would be dedicated to reducing the omnipresence of US culture in French society. French president Jacques Chirac recently claimed that the power that companies like Google had over French internet users was akin to a threat from Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism.

This European search engine, dubbed "Project Quaero" (meaning "to seek") is still far from completion and is thus unproven in the market, but commentators like Machill are already suggesting that a major European engine is what's needed to counter the big three US engines' current global domination.

However, Google themselves claim that there's no need for added regulation to be applied to their results because they're all created by mathematical formula - and the only results that can be bought are labelled as advertisements. Furthermore, there is every reason to believe that as search engines like Google and Yahoo! grow and find new and innovative ways of making their search engine 'sticky' - meaning able to keep the users on-site - for their users, a new engine will start far behind in any race for serving the most popular search results.

So it seems whilst German commentators and the French government might be adamant about the need for added regulation and greater choice, there's no concrete evidence as yet to suggest that the current 70% of German users going straight to Google will have any inclination to change their searching habits anytime soon.

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Google sells its shares in the Far East

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 04:37:00 GMT

The latest change in the empire of Google is that it has sold its 2.6% minority shareholding in China's leading search engine Baidu.

All About Baidu

The Baidu search engine is based in Beijing and has a huge presence in the Middle East. It was established in 2000, being incorporated in the Cayman Islands and now has grown to around 700 employees. Recent results have shown that Baidu currently tops China's list of Search Engines with a share of 43.9% in the first quarter of 2006. It is also now the forth largest website in the world and has an index of around 700 million pages.

The name 'Baidu' means a 'hundred times'. It comes from an ancient poem and was chosen to help the world remember its Chinese heritage. Baidu's challenge of applying avant-garde technology to the world's most ancient and complex language fuels their business development intensions.

As well as its text and image search, the Multimedia search facility of Baidu has an overwhelming popularity in China. This is called MP3 search and locates file formats such as MP3 and WMA. It is used mainly to search Chinese pop music.

Other Baidu services include:

Baidu Zhidao - Q&A service
Baidu Baike - Encyclopedia service
Baidu Post - A keyword orientated discussion group. Users are taken to discussion groups of relevance on entering keywords.

In addition to the above services, Baidu also provides online marketing services. With Baidu, customers can access some of the world's largest online audiences and target specific groups and interests of people. The marketing products are performance-based unlike some traditional online advertising services which charge a flat fee.

Google, Baidu and China

Google bought its share of Baidu in 2004 for around $5m which it has now sold for over $60m.

Baidu listed on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2005 opening with $27 per-share. It is now trading at around $80.

At the beginning of this month there were rumours about Google pulling their Google China site. These rumours were fuelled by criticism of Google.cn for abiding with the Chinese government censorship rules. Google's spokespeople however always defended their commitment to the Chinese market. Now with Google's selling of Baidu we have been given hints that their intentions are indeed to expand their own brands services in the Middle East as well as North Africa.

So, what kind of presence do Google want to attain in these countries? Is there something big planned? There is a certain amount of speculation with this one, but as always, one thing is for sure...

We all know, and I'll always say: Google love to keep us guessing!

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Yahoo's Chinese search engine bows down to censorship

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:49:00 GMT

A while back the main search engines were being vilified in the press for their censorship of search results in China and for their level of cooperation with the Chinese authorities. In January this year, Microsoft took down the blog of an outspoken Chinese journalist - Zhao Jing - in order to comply with China's rules and therefore the government. This caused a serious furore as to the legitimacy of tampering with what should be an arena of freedom for expressing views and anonymity. Yahoo! went one further last year by giving personal information about the email account of journalist Shi Tao which lead to him being jailed for 10 years for 'divulging state secrets'. Never has there been such global criticism for the actions and power of search engines. Google didn't escape the outrage having been found to censor their SERPs to show pro-Beijing results for 'subversive' keyword searches.

New tests have been performed by a press advocacy group based in Paris to show the extent to which search engines are still censoring results in China. Yahoo.cn is the worst offender, even more so than Baidu.cn - China's local search engine - which is quite frankly more than a little surprising. A whopping 97% of 'subversive' keyword searches on Yahoo.cn returned pro-Beijing results, compared with 83% on Google.cn and 78% on MSN.cn. To give you an idea of just how much censorship is going on behind the Great Wall, the same searches using 'subversive' keywords on Google.com returns 28% pro-Beijing results.

Yahoo! also employs the tactic of blocking keywords for sensitive political subjects such as 'Tibet independence' and 'Tiananmen Square massacre' returning an error message, a censor technique also adopted by Baidu.cn. Microsoft and Google not appear to filter results in this way but they do refuse to include sites considered illegal by the Chinese government.

Of course, restricting access to information has become part of doing business in the communist nation of China for internet companies. This has obviously had a negative affect on how people in democratic countries view the situation. Should companies such as Google with their headquarters in the 'freedom fighting US of A' even be operating in China if it involves such heavy censorship? Would it be ultimately better to withdraw in protest than tarnish your company's reputation and ethos, even if it meant sacrificing the huge investment? Surely such an action would have resounding political, ethical and financial affects for the Chinese government as the publicity spins on and on and on...

I do understand the situation of the business bods - more than 100 million Chinese have access to the internet which is less than one tenth of the current population of China. That is a whole lot of users with potential spending power and would be a huge slice of pie to miss out on in terms of advertising revenue; particularly for search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, who have such strong advertising based business models.

The issue here is, however, not the money - this is no longer the Eighties, thank God. In the immortal words of Austin Powers, we are now living in a world of freedom with responsibility - at least the lucky ones are. This is something we should be aspiring to attain for everyone. Google in particular has tried to single itself out for its ethical stance to business with the mantra 'Do no evil'.

In complete contrast to the views in the west and despite the censorship, six out of ten Chinese people believe that the internet will increase political transparency and provide more opportunities for criticising the Beijing government. Interestingly, Americans are less than half as likely to believe that. This premise was confirmed by a separate study undertaken by the Canadian Internet Project which found that 'more than any country in the world, people in China see the internet as giving them more say in government and more political power'. There is undoubtedly more than a little irony in there.

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Microsoft's Maps get 'trafficed'

Tue, 30 May 2006 08:36:00 GMT

Thanks to Microsoft we can now plan road travel more easily and with more accuracy. On Tuesday the 23rd of May, Microsoft launched a new version of the Windows Live Local online mapping service which now includes a real-time traffic incident report as an available function. Other new features include map and information sharing. With these new functions users will accurately be able to plan for delays when mapping out routes. Plans are in place to expand this mapping service with a test version in the UK and a limited offering in Canada, and promises to add new markets in the coming months.

The upgrades to the mapping site are intended to accelerate Microsoft's pursuit of Google and Yahoo! into the $15 billion online advertising market. With this in mind they are offering more appealing web services in order to potentially attract advertisers and increase traffic volumes over the search engine.

Features on the online mapping service can now help users create lists of favourite locations within a map and share them over e-mail or post them on blog sites. Groups can now share maps and information within an Instant Messenger window. Small businesses are now able to target customers effectively within the mapping service regardless of whether they have purchased online ads previously or not. A Windows Live Local add-in is said to now be available for Microsoft's Office Outlook e-mail and scheduling software. The free download allows users to find and print maps and directions from within Outlook and allows them to schedule driving time into the calendar. It would also be possible to send links with mapping information about meeting locations to other people within Outlook calendar requests.

The market leaders in mapping are America Online, followed by Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft. Mapping is among many services which now serve as battlegrounds for the big guns of the internet: Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google.

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