China to Google: "That's not a knife"

Our story begins on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010. On the official Google blog, David Drummond, Google SVP and Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, makes some startling claims:

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1. That Google China is under cyberattack, along with at least 20 other large companies
2. That the attacks appear to be focused on Chinese human rights activists
3. That additional attacks are occurring on non-Chinese advocates of human rights in China

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Universal Google personalization a virtual given

Congratulations! You're the proud owner of personalized search results -- whether you like it or not. This past Friday, Google announced the extension of personalized search results to everyone, by default, whether or not they were signed into a Google account.

And, yes, we can choose to opt out -- but let's get real. No matter how savvy we get, no matter how many hundreds of millions of us are on Facebook, the overwhelming majority of Internet users still don't go messing around with settings.

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Dramatic license in the Bing/Google race

Media coverage of the search industry often reminds me of the editing on The Amazing Race. Even if the first-place team is miles and hours ahead of the second-place team, the producers have to make things seem close and exciting. Otherwise, why would you watch? Come to think of it, this past U.S. election was a bit like that as well.

And so it passes that Bing's every move gets covered in relation to Google. Is this the upgrade that will finally allow Microsoft to breathe Google's rarefied air? Will we finally see Bing launched into the Google stratosphere?

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Searching For Cream: The Endless Battle To Find The Best

Search represents the coming together of two parties: the seeker and the sought. Just as communication engages both a "sender" and a "recipient", effective search consists of helping people find the most relevant result, on the assumption that that result wants to be found.

It is a fact, however, that many people who do want to be found and who deserve to be found are failing spectacularly in doing so, because their methods of drawing attention to themselves are ineffective for the system in which we operate.

Enter SEO.

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Getting To Know Google

It’s hard to imagine a world without Google. The Mountain View-based search giant has become completely integrated into our online existence. Their name is effectively synonymous with search, a function that arguably made widespread adoption of the Internet possible. By 1996, just three years into the World Wide Web’s existence, there were already 600,000 Web sites, and service providers who could help us navigate this ocean of data delivered equal benefit to those who wanted to find and those who wanted to be found.

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Microhoo allows economies of scale? Ho-hum

By now, we've all heard: nearly a year and a half to the day Microsoft first tried to take Yahoo to bed, the pair have finally completed their prenup negotiations and gotten hitched.

For both of these companies, this is a big deal. Yahoo! gives Microsoft the opportunity to crack double digit search share. Microsoft gives Yahoo! some significant cash, according to GigaOm:

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It's Lonely At The Top

We are comparative creatures in a polarized world. Like magnets or batteries, we exist only in relation to. Without positive, there is no negative; without contrasts, there is no current.

Our lives play out with this same polarity. We are better or worse than others; we are someone's brother, someone's mother, someone's wife or uncle. We define ourselves by defining something else.

Newton's Three Laws of Motion can be summed up by saying that things only move because of other things. So what exactly does all this have to do with Google?

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Google's Dilemma and Why It Will Die, Part II

In Part I of this two-part series, I softened Google up with a few well-placed punches to the torso. In this post, I'll deliver the knockout blow -- and hopefully encourage a bit of reflection.

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Google's Dilemma and Why It Will Die, Part I

Please trust me on this one: Google will die. If it hasn't happened by the time you read this post, you're just not patient enough.

Last week, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster was quoted by Wall Street Journal blogger Andrew LaVallee as saying that Google is "essentially insurmountable." And certainly Google's 73% share of US Searches is, shall we say, intimidating.

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Hey Google, did you just feel the floor shake?

I've already gone on record saying that I think Twitter has the potential to unseat Google in search. I believe this precisely because they're not trying to. Nobody will win against Google head-to-head, but perhaps, just perhaps, an upstart will create a fun new game in a new arena where people like to play, and the next thing you know Google's wondering where all the traffic's gone.

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If it's too big to die, it probably should

In a recent piece called Let Beached Whales Die, Max Kalehoff suggested that, just as it can be more humane, if more emotionally painful, to let beached whales die, it can also be more humane to allow large, poorly run businesses to come to a natural end.

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We don't care about privacy; we care about choice

Privacy is the hottest news story nobody cares about.

Oh, sure, we say we care. We may even leave outraged comments on blogs, ranting about Big Brother Google or Facebook's transgressions. But, really, we don't care.

How do I know we don't care? Because our actions say so. As soon as there's something we want, even just a little bit, our privacy concerns go straight out the window.

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'Anonymous' doesn't mean nobody knows who you are

Google has always been an easy target for privacy infractions, but it's been a doozy of a month even for them.

First, they announced their new behavioral targeting model -- and got immediately ripped into by privacy advocates.

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In an online ecosystem, the barnacles offer the benefit

You know you've made it online when other people start building services around you.

Okay, Google doesn't exactly need a sign to know they've made it, but you get my point. The more other businesses use your business as the basis for their business model, the more they barnacle on to your business, the more staying power you're going to have. Suddenly, it's not just a question of how well you serve the customer; other people are invested in your success and will do whatever they can to keep you going.

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The Problem With Google

The problem with Google is that it has such a clear identity.

This clear identity has been a boon to the company for the past ten years. Their laser focus, manifested by the complete lack of clutter on their home page, has led them to be the undisputed leaders in the very market on which they're focused.

But now they've got a problem, and it's similar to the Facebook problem. The problem is that the users, rightly or wrongly, think we own the experience.

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Behavioral targeting and some comments from Google's Chief Economist

Earlier this week, I attended a talk by Hal Varian, Google's Chief Economist, on how computer-mediated transactions are transforming business practices.

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What do Google, Obama, a heavyweight fight, and HDTV have in common?

Answer: They all need to get their distance right to be effective.

That may not make any sense just yet. Bear with me a moment, if you please.

Let's start with Obama. It's been a long time since the general public in America connected with a politician on such a personal level. Obama makes you feel like he's speaking to you individually, like he could be your friend, like -- you never know -- he just might show up at your Superbowl party.

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If your model relies on Google, you'd better have a Plan B

First of all, hello! This is my first post for the Network World Google Subnet. I'm delighted to start this conversation, I welcome your comments, and I look forward to having some good hearty debates with you.

Now let's get down to business. Specifically, yours. More specifically, your business that is what it is thanks to The Financial Ecosystem That Is Google: your AdSense business, your affiliate business, your online whitepaper-downloading business.

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