Posts About ‘News’

Looking for a Taxi in Moscow? Try Yandex

taxi-moscow

I don’t know how many of you have actually been to Moscow before or will go in the near future, but apparently getting a taxi in the Russian capital is a big problem. Waiting takes a long time, at least half an hour.

But there is a solution coming for that issue from a surprising corner: the search engine Yandex. Yandex launched Yandex.Taxi, intended to find taxi’s quickly and reduce the waiting time.

Yandex has made a deal with several Taxi service providers and will be looking at their cars and availability. Yandex.Taxi will then send a booking request to the car nearest to the client. Once confirmed “the client can track their taxi right on the city map.”. (more…)

The video From The New GMail Google Didn’t Want Us to See

Google didn_t want us to see the new GMail...-1

Google is re-designing Gmail. I think many of you might even already have the new design working because you opted in for the beta-version. I know I do. It looks really nice and works pretty nice also.

The redesign however is just part of what Google is planning to do with Gmail. They are adding some features which are not even in the beta version which is currently available.

Last week Google accidentally put a video online introducing the new Gmail. That wasn’t supposed to happen. If look for to the video now you won’t find it. Copies were taken offline on YouTube. Users who had a copy on YouTube were seen as copyright violators. (more…)

Google is cleaning up: Google kills Buzz and Jaiku, focus on Plus

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Google is cleaning up. The online giant is again saying goodbye to several products they developed over the past years. Many of the products came from the illustrious 80/20 rule where Googlers are able to work on projects they thought of themselves for 20% of their time.

Other products are bought products, mainly intended to catch up with some of the developments on the web, like for example one of the products getting killed, Jaiku. In this latest fall-clean up Google has decided to drop some social related products, Buzz and Jaiku for example, to really focus on Google+. (more…)

Be Careful: Google Adwords Phishing Going Around

adwords-phising-intro

Just a quick warning that some people have noticed there are phishing mails out there who are targeting Adwords account owners. In the e-mails (see examples below) the Adwords account owners are warned that their ads have stopped running based on “a number of issues”.

The owners are asked to verify the status of their Adwords accounts and notify Google if the ads do not appear online. When they go online they are led to a place which looks a lot like Adwords where they have to fill in their account details. (more…)

Did Google Turn Back Panda 2.5?

Panda-dance

Only little over a week ago Google threw Panda 2.5 into the US market. That latest update gave food to a lot of discussion. Some sites seemed to be hit by the update which might not have supposed to be hit. The Next Web for example was mentioned, even though the people at the Next Web themselves didn’t see a direct consequence.

Now it seems as if Google has reversed the Panda 2.5 update. Searchmetrics tells us they are seeing a large-scale recovery in ranking data before and after Panda 2.5. (more…)

Facebook pulls review functionality from pages – next steps for SMBs

facebook-block-logo

Last week admins for Facebook pages that were utilizing the Reviews application were warned that this functionality (along with discussions) would cease to exist from the 31st October, with Facebook taking the official line that:

“We’ve found the best way to encourage conversation and feedback is through posts and comments on your Wall, so we’re removing the Reviews and Discussions tabs for now.  We’re working hard to help you moderate, filter and manage content in one powerful place.  Stay tuned.

You won’t be able to access your reviews and discussions once they’re removed, so please save this content if you’d like to keep it for future reference.

On place pages with a location, fans can still write a recommendation for their friends or others from the right-column that says Recommendations” (more…)

Is Microsoft Going For A Second Attempt to Buy Yahoo?

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When Carol Bartz was fired in a way the “Bold and the Beautiful” writers could have thought of immediately rumors started about Yahoo possibly being up for sale. So far there is no official news around that, but now there are rumors that Yahoo’s partner in crime when it comes to search, Microsoft, might be considering a new attempt to buy Yahoo.

In 2008 Microsoft also tried to buy Yahoo bidding up to an amount of 44.6 billion dollars in a hostile take over attempt. That take over then was prevented and Yahoo and Microsoft found each other in a special search deal with Bing. (more…)

Panda 2.5 “Hits” the US: YouTube ‘Wins’

Google-Panda

Google’s Panda Update has been going around the world this summer and now it has returned home. The latest version of the feared update has ‘hit’ the US last week, confirmed by Google. This time YouTube again seems to be the big ‘winner’ when it comes to SEO visibility. Google’s video site saw a 10% increase in visibility.

The losers list which was released by Searchmetrics however shows the more interesting names. News wire-sites like Business Wire and PR Newswire seem to have been hit fiercely as were well known sites like The Next Web and Technorati. (more…)

Eight Google Birthday Doodles

Google-7th_birthday

Google celebrates its thirteenth birthday today. And they do that like they have done it in the past 8 years: with a doodle. Google started using the birthday doodles in 2002 and has since every year created a special birthday doodle. To be honest, they are a lot less “breathtaking” than some of the doodles they have made in the recent past. Still it is a nice overview of doodles. (more…)

Google Hits Puberty Today

Google-13-years

Today is the day Google hits puberty. Why? Simply because the search engine today turns 13. Thirteen years ago Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided to name their idea “Googol”, which turned into “Google”. Since then they have grown their company to be the leading company in Tech and a company which dominates how we behave on the web.

Google celebrates its thirteenth birthday with a special doodle, which surprisingly goes to Google.co.nz, to promote the fact that that is now available in Māori. (more…)

Google Removes Blue Arrows, Adds Previews for Sitelinks

Google-sitelinks-enhancements

One of the most successful posts on State of Search ever is this one. It is a post I actually wrote on the plane, on my iPad, because I was so annoyed with a new feature which Google launched: the blue arrows.

Apparently many agree with me (and some disagree) that they are annoying for those using the arrows to scroll. Now when I’ve finally gotten used to them and a different way of scrolling (still not using the arrows though) Google decides enough is enough: they are gone.

Together with that change Google also added Instant Previews to the sitelinks. Now your sitelinks can be previewed. It also seems like Google has added some extra rich content to the previews. (more…)

Google Analytics Can be Used in Germany without Complaint

googlejail

The Germans have a long history of privacy matters, even outside of the Internet. They are especially keen on protecting their citizens from unwanted collection of data. That has lead to some strange situations, like for example people opting-out their houses from Streetview and then talking about that, with a picture in front of their houses, in the German newspapers.

One of the ‘targets’ of this privacy-sensitive policy has for a long time been Google Analytics. A few years ago it even looked like the Hamburg Data Protection Officer was going to get Analytics declared illegal in Germany. The Data Protection Officer has been working with several commissions and webmasters, as well as Google, to come to a solution. They have now declared officially that Google Analytics can be used in Germany without complaint from the German data protection authorities. (more…)

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