Santa’s Google Search Tips Rap

We want to wish you all happy holidays from the State of Search team. And we want to leave with this video from Google .

You Can Use Streetview To Travel The World

It is not a type of video I normally post here, but I thought this one was so special it deserves the spot today. We know Google Streetview, we know of all the privacy matters, we know of all the fun you can have with it if you find that odd picture taken. But it can also be used to travel the world. Take a look at this video, if possible make it full screen to get the full experience.

Made by Theoryfilms

Friday Talks: Nikesh Arora at the Marketing Society Annual Conference

This is already a talk from a few years back, but it is always interesting to listen to Nikesh Arora when he is on stage. Here he talks at the Marketing Society Annual Conference in London in 2008. Especially because it is an ‘old’ talk, it is very interesting to see, because he clearly knew already what was going to happen back then…

Matt Cutts: Google Does a Relatively Good Job at Black Hat

We all know the videos in which Matt Cutts talks about Google changes and answers questions from Webmasters. Here is another one. But this one is kind of special. Because does Matt Cutts actually mean it when he says Google is good at blackhat, or spam?

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Looking at the why of the Semantic Web

The “Semantic Web”, a term much used, but not much understood. Why do we even bother using it in the first place? Because in the end, it does make sence. At least, the ‘why’ behind the Semantic Web makes sense. And maybe we won’t be using the term that much, Semantic Web is coming. Just look at the user intent many search engines are now trying to ‘grab’.

The documentary below (found through Mashable) gives a good insight in the idea behind the Semantic Web. This video was actually made by a student, Kate Ray, who interviewed several people to get an insight in the Semantic Web.

If you were just getting a sandwich for lunch, I’d suggest you start up this video while eating your sandwich!

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

Optimising or optimizing for videos on YouTube: Greg Jarboe explains

The International Search Summit is a conference which has a focus which you don’t find on many conferences: international, the title already says it. Its amazing how little this subject is addressed on the larger conferences. It made Andy Atkins Kruger, an international search expert, start his own conference.

On the day there were many good speakers addressing all different topics. In the morning we saw Steve Capone of Nokia addressing the different international challenges Nokia faces, followed by a great presentation from Mark Neal from Armagard. The second part of the day saw speakers Anne Kennedy, replacing Shari Turow about Website Usability and Gillian Muessig about search in India.

The one presentation I’d like to highlight here is the presentation by Greg Jarboe. After Bruce Daisley of YouTube opened the afternoon with an overview of YouTubes growth Greg talked about video optimization, a growing profession with the growing number of videos online.

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How well does Google Translate really work?

Google Translate can be a handy tool. But to be honest, a lot of the times the translations you get back can be really really crappy. But it is getting better, that is true. Still in my opinion Google Translate is there for the quick interpretation, knowing what something is about, not for the actual translations itself. If you optimize a website do not use Google Translate to translate a story and put that on your site. You will not get the right text, I can assure you that.

Still, this video below shows a nice way of how Google Translate can work. And apparently it does work for ordering Indian food! Then again, I can’t really check, because I don’t speak Indian. Still, its a nice video .

Ever wondered about Google’s datacenter?

This weekend I was having dinner with friends and we came on the subject of YouTube and how many videos there are online at the moment. The numbers are huge. “Can you imagine the serverpark that YouTube and Google have?” my friend asked me. I knew they were big, but to be honest I didn’t have a real idea of what they looked like. But Eric Schmidt was right when he said “We can more or less know what you’re thinking about” because along comes a tweet from Fili, a Googler yes, can you believe that. He retweeted a video which was shot in 2009 but which gives a great view of how these datacenters look like.

Google News creator Krishna Bharat talks journalism

Almost lunchtime on the Friday afternoon and waiting for the next World Cup match? You have one hour to ‘kill’. How about using that hour to listen to Google News creator Krishna Bharat. He was interviewed at Stanford University earlier this month. A very interesting talk with someone who has a great amount of knowledge and is willing to share that. Worth the look!