Bush administration requests data from Google

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.

The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.

"We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously." Nicole Wong, a Google lawyer, said in a statement. Wong said the demand for information "over-reaches".

The government argues that it needs the information as it prepares to once again defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in Pennsylvania. The law was struck down in 2004 because it was too broad and could prevent adults from accessing legal porn sites.

According to ZDnet, who’s quoting an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, other search engines complied to release the information: Microsoft, AOL (who fully complied) and Yahoo (who complied in parts). ZDnet writes that a Microsoft spokesperson said, “MSN works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested ... It is our policy to respond to legal requests in a very responsive and timely manner in full compliance with applicable law.”

Google objected to the government's subpoena, saying it would reveal trade secrets by providing the data and disclose personally identifiable information about its users. It's important that Google doesn't provide this information because it will be the first step in government's requests. To give up the first time means setting a bad precedent.

Marketing beta products

Marketing Beta versions is a creative, if somewhat risky, tactic in hyper-competitive, hyper-accelerated, impatient online markets where the notion that things are kind of dynamic and changeable anyway is already pretty well understood.

It’s less polished, less formal, more populist. And those aren’t necessarily bad things. But it also carries the risk of watering down the “promise of performance” that underpins a brand. The emerging philosophy seems to be, “Here, try this out. Maybe you’ll dig it. Tell us what you think. But we’re not making any promises about what it is ultimately going to be—or when.” (StealThunder)

Users are the beta-testers, they improve the product, test its scalability and build the hype. Beta versions are cool because they are unfinished. They look good, but you know you don't see the whole package - there are still things to come. Moreover, you have the privilege to be one of the first persons who can try that product.

That may be the case with developers, adventurers, or teenagers, but I don't think many businesses can afford to use a beta product for corporate work. But maybe that shouldn't be the case.

Baidu vs Google - viral video

Here is an interesting Google vs. Baidu video that has been making the word of mouth of rounds on Chinese BBS and blogs and mail forwards. Altough Baidu doesn't mention Google in the video, it seems pretty obvious that Google is represented by the foreigner.

Baidu is a popular Chinese search engine. Its design resembles that of Google and features the capability to search news and images, among other functionalities. Baidu claims itself the biggest search engine in Chinese language. As of December 2005, it is the fourth most visited site on the internet, according to Alexa. Baidu translates to "hundreds of times" in English.

Are you awake?

Whenever we meet someone new, one of the first questions that goes through our minds is, “Is this person awake yet?” The vast majority of people are still asleep, meaning that they aren’t really conscious and aware of what their lives are all about, why they’re here, or what their purpose is. You can easily identify such people simply by asking them, “Why are you here on earth at this time?” These bears — we call the sleepers bears because they’re still hibernating — can’t answer this question intelligently because it’s outside their normal mode of thinking. But conscious people (and those who are becoming conscious) will consider the question truly important and will be able to provide an intelligent answer, even if it isn’t fully formed yet. I think of the conscious people as eagles because they have huge eyes and soar above the terrain, taking everything in and being able to see clearly over a distance.

From Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog.

Steve's purpose in life is:
to live consciously and courageously;
to enjoy, increase, and share peace, energy, passion, and wealth;
to resonate with love and compassion;
to awaken the great spirits within others;
and to fully embrace this present moment.

BugMeNot - easy to get account login passwords

Ever tried to access a site to read an article and found you needed an account? Maybe you are too lazy to create an account for such a small thing, or maybe you don't want to pay for a subscription.

BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times).

Some nice people post their username and password and let you use them.

What sites are in the database: www.nytimes.com, www.nypost.com, www.washingtonpost.com, www.chicagotribune.com, www.latimes.com, www.imdb.com and many more.

If you are too lazy to visit BugMeNot.com every time you need a login, you can install a Firefox extension or use a simple bookmarklet.

Google to Broadcast Radio Ads

Google is acquiring Newport Beach-based dMarc Broadcasting, which runs an automated advertising platform for radio. It seems like Google will start delivering radio ads with an automated system.

dMarc connects advertisers directly to radio stations through its automated advertising platform. The platform simplifies the sales process, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio advertising, enabling advertisers to more efficiently purchase and track their campaigns. For broadcasters, dMarc’s technology automatically schedules and places advertising, helping to increase revenue and decrease the costs associated with processing advertisements.

In the future, Google plans to integrate dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers.

How much did Google pay? Only $102 million.

SEO contest: v7ndotcom elursrebmem

Yahoo search was able to index the sites which have covered or entered in the v7ndotcom elursrebmem SEO competition - 24 hours after the contest keyterm was announced. The SEO contest is being hosted by v7n.com , who have announced the keywords which must sites must be ranked within the top 5 of Google results in order to win : V7ndotcom Elursrebmem. Elursrebmem is “Members rule” spelled backwards.




The rules for entering the contest are simple, in order to qualify for the contest a page must have either a link back to the V7N home page, one of the Official ‘V7ndotcom Elursrebmem’ v7n SEO Contest banners, or the following text “We support v7n.com“. To win the first prize (4000$ + one iPod), you must place first in Google (organic rankings) for the search term on May 15, 2006, noon, Pacific standard time.

For more information, visit Contest Keywords Announcement Forum.

So it seems that Yahoo has a more up-to-date index than Google, probably because Google wants to check new pages for spam.

Google refines queries

It seems that Google is in a experimental mood. Web 2.0 Central reports that Google tries to grasp a meaning from our queries - and that's a first step to semantic search.

Earlier today I was searching on google and something new popped up. It seems Google was experimenting with some interesting search refinement.

On a search for Apple, it offered a few refinements (as I recall more news, more blogs)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=apple+more%3Ablogs&btnG=Search

It appended a more:blogs to the search and low and behold the search results had more blogs in them.