GDSPlus Adds Extra Filetypes To Google Desktop Search
Web Straction points us to GDSPlus, hack of Google Desktop Search which allows GDS to read the contents of more filetypes, including XML, RTF, and WordPerfect. Sounds like a good plan. I'm tempted to install it just to properly read WordPerfect files. The program is simply a hacked version of the regular GDS program, and any future GDS updates would "break" it, but hopefully Google will add that functionality in the future. Read Dodger's post; he explains more.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/31/2004 11:47:00 PM 0 comments

 
Yahoo Celebrates Halloween As Well
Apparently, Yahoo is going Google with its logos:

Have they ever done this before? Note the neat animation, something Google doesn't do with its logos. The smaller size of the image means this logo is only 24k, 8k more than Google's, despite the animation.


In more personal Halloween news, the cons and pros of Halloween:
Con: Kids throwing eggs at my bus on the way home.
Pro: Knowing if they try to pull anything with me, like any smart New Yorker, I always carry a weapon on Halloween.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/31/2004 11:26:00 PM 0 comments

 
Halloween Google Doodle
Today's Google Doodle celebrates All Hallow's Eve:

For more Google-related Halloween fun, check out this post and this post.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/31/2004 01:26:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google NOT Working On Google Desktop For Mac
Don't you love it when people blow things out of proportion? Boing Boing is reporting that any reports of Google Desktop coming to the Mac are just bogus. Eric Schmidt was asked by Tim O'Reilly if Google was planning a MacOS version, and he said "Yes, and no," that a Mac version would require a new project from the ground up, and that while Google would like to, it wasn't planning anything. O'Reilly explains it, and Sean Bonner backs him up. My, my. Are searchblogs turning into political blogs?

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/30/2004 09:41:00 PM 2 comments

 
Google Working On MacOS Version Of Desktop Search
Google is working on bringing its Google Desktop Search product to the Mac, says CEO Eric Schmidt. Talking at a UCLA conference celebrating the 35th anniversary of the internet, Schmidt said, "We intend to do it," but would not set any sort of timetable. Because of the differences between the systems, Google will have to build an entirely new product from the ground up. This would mark the first time Google has ever released a product for a non-Windows operating system.
(via Web Stractions)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/30/2004 08:54:00 PM 0 comments

 
Gmail Security Vulnerability Fixed
InfoWorld is reporting that Google says it has fixed the Gmail security problem. That was fast!
(via The Unofficial Google Weblog)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/30/2004 08:41:00 PM 0 comments

 
Gmail Security Breach Discovered
A major security hole in Gmail has been found, reports the Israeli site Nana. A hacker, Nir Goldshlagger, told Nana NetLife Magazine that, "Everything could get publicly exposed – your received mails might be readable, as well as all of your sent mail, and furthermore – anyone could send and receive mail under your name". He also warned that even a novice hacker could exploit the hole. Google has admitted to the existence of the breach, which involves allowing a hacker to steal your Gmail cookie and use it to log in to your account. Gmail is noted to be more of a security threat than most email inboxes, since users tend to store more mail than on most services, thus increasing the likelihood hackers will find sensitive information, like credit card numbers. Aimless Words suggests not clicking on the "Don't ask for my password for 2 weeks" option, and notes that it is an XSS exploit. Slashdot talks about it here, as does the Register. Google Blogoscoped notes that all Gmail users who did click the auto-login button were forced to re-login this morning, so Google may have already dealt with it.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/30/2004 08:09:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google Celebrates Halloween
Today in the Google Blog, Google celebrates Halloween, with pictures of Google employees in disturbing and hilarious costumes. My personal favorite is the dog with devil ears, because he has a bad case of red-eye that is just perfectly fitting. Google Blogoscoped also points to Blogger, where you can see their "Happy Halloween" message, and two dudes as goats! And of course, there's the Froogle Halloween doodle.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/30/2004 07:33:00 PM 0 comments

 
New Issue Of AdWords Newsletter Online
You can read the latest issue of Google's AdWords newletter here.
(via Search Engine Watch Blog)
- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/29/2004 05:44:00 PM 0 comments

 
SEO This!
PR Newswire announced a service they are offering to optimize your press releases. They announced it in this press release. The irony, as explained by Andy Beal at Search Engine Lowdown: They announced it four weeks ago, but nobody noticed it, since they didn't optimize the release! Oh, yeah. Great job. Taking a quick look at the release, it seems like they didn't optimize it at all. Perhaps they should release a new version that is optimized, and maybe we'll see some improvement, thus making it a good advertisement, instead of just embarrassing.
- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/29/2004 05:42:00 PM 2 comments

 
Ram Shriram Talks About How Google Gets Good People
Silicon Beat has an interview with Ram Shriram, the investor and current Google board member who guided founders Page and Brin through the companies early days. He basically created their hiring philosophy, in which a candidate is grilled for four hours to the point of exhaustion, a process which you might remember Russell Beattie dropped out of yesterday. The article explains his philosophy:

It’s all in the grooming. Shriram set out to made sure Page & Brin hired only the very best, or “A” people. He cited the well-known Silicon Valley tenet: Hire only A people, and they’ll hire other A people. If you hire the B person, they’ll hire C or D people.

(via John Battelle's Searchblog)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/29/2004 12:43:00 PM 0 comments

 
Yahoo Redesigns Front Page
Yahoo officially activated its new front page today, and it's quite the improvement. It's still Yahoo, so it's still cluttered, but at least it now has structure. Yahoo says it redesigned it based on feedback from users. Many of the long lists are now alphabetical, so no more searching through a random list, some stuff is cutomizable, and the directory has been shoved all the way to the bottom. You can read all about the changes at this page.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/29/2004 11:15:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google Says To Vote, Google Employees Say To Vote For John Kerry
Yesterday, the official Google Blog told everybody to vote. They didn't endorse anyone, but if you want to guess who they would endorse, it wouldn't take a lot of thinking. Political Money Line has a listing of campaign contributions, and if you search for Google, this is what you get:

Google employees donated a total of $130,365 to Democrats and Democrat-backing groups. Contributions went to:

• John Kerry - $86,500 [includes: Kerry Victory 2004 (a DNC committee) - $55,250 and John Kerry For President - $31,250]
• Democratic National Committee - $8,500
• MoveOn.org - $6,165
• Anna Eshoo For Congress - $5,000
• Maine Democratic State Committee - $5,000
• Dean For America - $4,200
• The (Edward John) Markey Committee - $4,000
• Campaign For A New Majority Committee - $2,500
• Gephardt For President - $2,000
• (Ronald Lee) Wyden For Senate - $2,000
• Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee - $1,000
• Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - $1,000
• Cantwell 2006 - $1,000
• Samara For Congress - $500
• Democratic Senatorial Campaign - $250
• Erskine Bowles For US Senate - $250
• Committee To Re-Defeat The President - $250
• Clark For President - $250

Google employees donated a total of $3,250 to Republicans. Contributions went to:

• Bush-Cheney '04 - $3,250

Google employees donated a total of $1,850 to non-partisan issue groups and third party candidates. Contributions went to:

• Intellectual Property Action Committee - $1,600
• Nader For President 2004 - $250

By far, the most generous contributor was Google CEOEric Schmidt, with $2,000 for Gephardt, $4,000 for Anna Eshoo, $2,000 for Wyden, and $27,000 for John Kerry, $35,000 in total. Sergey Brin and Larry Page are nowhere to be found on the list. Mucho thanks to Gary at Search Engine Watch Blog and John Battelle, for the links. You can also check out Yahoo's Political Action Committee, which tends to spread the money around better, and your own neighbors via Fundrace.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/29/2004 01:27:00 AM 0 comments

 
Why Jeeves Plummeted
Two days ago, I reported that Ask Jeeves released some quarterly numbers that seemed very good on the surface. Investors, however, must have thought differently, since they sent the stock plummeting 25%. Motley Fool explains why analysts have little confidence in the future of the company, and the mistakes Jeeves made that added to their anxiety.
(via Search Engine Lowdown)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/29/2004 12:15:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google? I'm Not Interested
Russell Beattie had a job interview at Google today, but he canceled it. He's just not interested. He cites the fact that Google seems to have no direction, that he thinks all the Google employees with millions in stock are probably acting like their "all that", and that Google claims not to be evil but is really just making excuses.

Do you want a job at Google? I hear there's a position that just opened up...
(via John Battelle's Searchblog)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/29/2004 12:00:00 AM 0 comments

 
Search Helps The Big Players; Search Hurts The Big Players; I Just Don't Know!
dotJournalism reports on the Association of Online Publishers conference in London last week. Associated New Media managing director Andrew Hart says that search engines will push all the power to the major publishers, who can pay SEO companies to push them to the forefront. He says that the search will become a big tool that those with the big bucks can exploit, and:

This kind of complex distortion is only made available to the big players and will make business in the long term impossible for small firms. Spend on search is the fastest growing sector in online advertising spend, so money is flowing to just a handful of online web search brands - and to those with only the biggest marketing budgets.

On the flip side, Lorainne Twohill, Google's director of European marketing and Paul Rossi of the Economist argue that Google helps small sites more than large ones, and Rossi claims that Google will kill the value of brands.

Google says it has the answers, so users will go to the top page result and it doesn't matter where that is. The brand is secondary in the user's mind.

Techdirt exclaims that, "Thus, some random blogger (the horror!) might get more attention than the Economist".

I think the publishers just don't get the point. Yes, Google makes it easier for small publishers and bloggers to get notice. The most quality reporting will make its way to the top. However, the biggest blogger will simply be besieged by job offers from the big media companies, since that will be where the money is. For the first time, journalists can build a global audience and get major reader loyalty, and big media can pick them up as "free agents," so to speak. Blogs are an incredible way to gauge talent and appeal. Wouldn't it be great to actually be able to weigh job candidates, seeing how many people already follow them, what sort of audience they appeal to, and what advertisers they appeal to? Well, it already exists, and it's the blogosphere, the ultimate job interview.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/28/2004 11:42:00 PM 0 comments

 
Wired Takes A Look At The Changing Face Of Search
Wired News reports on a study by Amanda Spink of the University of Pittsburgh and Bernard J. Jansen of Penn State, which examines the differences between how people search today, and how they did seven years ago. The news: sex searches are down, e-commerce searches are up. People use the net more and more for information and less for entertainment. The study is based on Vivisimo, not Google, and I would expect the results from Google to be even more skewed towards information than Vivisimo's.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/28/2004 03:49:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google and BellSouth Reach Agreement To Sell AdWords
In a very smart deal for both companies, Google and BellSouth announced today that BellSouth will now be offering Google AdWords to its Yellow Pages customers. Not only will this make it easier for local businesses to advertise, since they will be able to buy ads on Google for monthly fees instead of per-click; not only will this put BellSouth's 2000 trained sales people to work for Google; and not only will this help Google better reach smaller businesses; this agreement will most importantly be a major boost for Google Local, since Google Local can now provide ads in specific geographic areas for businesses in that area. This will push Google's ad relevance in Google Local to higher levels than would be possible with keyword matching, making Google Local all the more robust. Google expect local search revenues to grow from $45 million last year to $2.5 billion by 2008.
(via Search Engine Watch Blog)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/28/2004 12:35:00 PM 0 comments

 
New Worm Targets Google
The new Zafi.C worm is attempting to launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against Google, reports Web User. It is also attacking Microsoft, the Hungarian Prime Minister, and asking for the death penalty to be reinstated in Hungary. A spokesman for Sophos, a security firm, said:

The Hungarian author of the Zafi worm has been very successful in the past in spreading his viruses - all of which have a political message. Hopefully computer users are becoming more suspicious of unsolicited emails and are more vigilant about protecting their PCs from attack.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/28/2004 12:20:00 PM 0 comments

 
Linspire Allows One-Click Google Searches Everywhere
Linspire, a Linux operating system company, today unveiled new features today for its internet suite called "Hot Words", that allow users to click on any word on any web page or in any email, and conduct an instant Google search. Users of the Google Toolbar have been able for a while to right-click on any selected text to search Google for it, but Linspire's technology allows for more advanced options. It lets you choose, via its pop-up menu, web, Google News, or Froogle searches, as well as conduct spell checks on anything you type. Michael Robertson, Linspire's CEO, says:

Searching needs to evolve beyond putting tool bars into browsers. If searching is embedded directly in the operating system, people can immediately search when they want to. This is an emerging trend -- you'll soon see this kind of search implemented in all operating systems. With Hot Words, Linspire is leading the way toward integrating effortless, efficient searches directly into the user experience.

Also, because Linspire is built on the Gecko layout engine used by Mozilla/Firefox, it should integrate seamlessly into those browsers. Linspire users can download the new suite here.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/28/2004 12:05:00 PM 0 comments

 
AOL To Offer Free Antivirus Software
Cnet reports that AOL will begin offering McAfee Antivirus software with its service, starting in November, doing away with the $2.95 a month subscription fee. Definitely a good move. The major software and internet providers have been getting (unfairly, in my mind) blamed when their users are struck with viruses. Because users don't pay for antivirus and don't install updates, they are besieged with spyware and malware, and who do they blame? Either their OS or ISP, of course, and not their own bad judgment in not paying a small fee for Norton or clicking on the paris-hilton-free-software.exe attachment. It seems increasingly so that the top companies will have to give away antivirus software for free, just to make up for their customers bad judgment. MSN and Yahoo already do, and the Windows Partner Pack now does also.
(via Web Stractions)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/28/2004 10:44:00 AM 0 comments

 
A Good Source For Google Desktop Tips
Scott Kingery is determined to collect every single Google Desktop tip out there into one place, so you can keep checking back at this site, which aims to grow into a very handy guide. Included in his tips are some amazing things I've never realized, like:

• You need to tell Google Desktop not to index... Google Desktop! Desktop makes the mistake of indexing itself, so you need to ban indexing http://127.0.0.1:4664/ and http://127.0.0.1/.
• How to move your Desktop index to wherever you want it to be.

You can also find lots of tips in the Google Desktop Search group in Google Groups.
(via Web Stractions)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/28/2004 12:00:00 AM 0 comments

 
Ask Jeeves Reports 178.5% Growth, And Things Couldn't Be Worse
Ask Jeeves reported its quarterly earnings today, meeting analysts expectations with 178.5% year-over-year growth. Revenues grew from $27.2 million to $75.7 million, topping estimates slightly, although the fourth quarter revenue guidance of $86 million is $1.7 million lower than expected. Still, despite the large percentage growth numbers, Ask stock fell 15% in after hours trading. Why? My guess, and this is pure speculation, that stockholders compared Jeeves $75.7 million to Google's $805.9 million, and decided it just wasn't worth it.

Oh, and congratulations to the Boston Red Sox!

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 11:40:00 PM 2 comments

 
Google Hates Microsoft, Google Loves Microsoft
Dan Gillmor talks on the Silicon Valley blog about how Google's programs have all been released for Windows, and how the reason is because that's where the competition is, so that's where the battle must be fought. He says:

Actually, this is the same old story in some ways. Given Microsoft's monopoly status, it's almost impossible to compete with Microsoft without simultaneously boosting the monopoly.

I couldn't agree more.

Also, in off-topic news, InsideGoogle was pre-empted for the last seven hours by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. My review: go out and buy it!

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 11:06:00 PM 0 comments

 
Boing Boing Reports Blogger Is Down. Really now!
Can you read this? If you can, Boing Boing is wrong. See, at 3:53, Boing Boing said:

Blogger down.
BB reader Chris sez, "All Blogger sites, including the home page, are down."

Really now! How do you figure?


- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 04:29:00 PM 2 comments

 
Page and Brin Vault 16 Spots On The Forbes 400
Michael Bazley has figured out the numbers I've been wondering about for days, showing that Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have gone from being worth $4 billion in late September to $6.9 billion today, thanks to Google's closing price of $181.80 last night. This pushes them (assuming nothing else has changed) from 43rd place to 27th place, pulling them ahead of Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg. Venture Capitalist John Doerr now occupies their former spots, since his Google stock is now wort $3.8 billion. Doerr and his colleagues at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had planned to sell the stock at $85, but decided it was better to wait. Patience is not just a virtue; sometimes its also worth two billion dollars.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 04:24:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google Buys Keyhole
Google announced today that it bought Keyhole, a company that provides satellite maps that lets you zoom in and view any location from above. Boy, Google sure likes pissing off people who worry about privacy, don't they?
From the press release:

"With Keyhole, you can fly like a superhero from your computer at home to a street corner somewhere else in the world - or find a local hospital, map a road trip or measure the distance between two points," said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president, Product Management. "This acquisition gives Google users a powerful new search tool, enabling users to view 3D images of any place on earth as well as tap a rich database of roads, businesses and many other points of interest. Keyhole is a valuable addition to Google's efforts to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Google immediately announced a price cut, from $69.95 to $29.95. Not bad. You can also get a free 7-day trial from keyhole.com.

Yet again, Google acquires a company that has had much success analyzing and working with large amounts of data, just like Picasa. See a pattern?

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 03:32:00 PM 0 comments

 
Froogle Adds Merchant Ratings
Google Blogoscoped points out that Froogle has added merchant ratings below search results. Now, when you search for anything, the merchant name has a rating next to it on a five-point scale. Clicking on the rating reveals a page like this one, with various review of the store. Smart of Google to improve Froogle for the holiday gift buying season.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 10:53:00 AM 0 comments

 
How To Optimize Your Blogger Blog For Search Engines
SEbasic has some tips on how to optimize your blog for search engines. He basically has two tips, explaining how to add keywords to pages, and how to make the post title link to the post page. Expect me to add those features momentarily, and every Blogger Blog really should as well.
(via Web Stractions)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 01:59:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google Cheat Sheet
Google has a quick guide to many of its most useful features, something it calls the Google Cheat Sheet. Check it out.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 01:35:00 AM 0 comments

 
My Google Doodle From Digital Life
Google's Digital Life booth had a fun feature: An oversize Google search page that you could stand in to create your own Google Doodle. They finally put the photos online at google.com, and you can see my photo (top right). I think the quality wasn't so good, so I guess it turned out well that I had the Google rep take a shot with my own camera (bottom right). The Google Blog talks about Digital Life today, and Google has a decent page dedicated to the event.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/27/2004 01:25:00 AM 0 comments

 
New MSN Search Interface (Accidentally?) Leaked
Gary Price at Search Engine Watch did some URL manipulating and discovered http://cc.msnscache.com/, which appear to be the interface for the new MSN Search. If MS takes it down, Gary has a lot of screenshots, so check that out. It doesn't allow searches yet, but that does makes sense. Microsoft has different teams working on the index and the interface, so it makes sense that they'd integrate the two later. The new features in the interface are very interesting. You now get a drop down menu called "Search Builder, that gives you the option to (pictured at left) adjust the weight of your search according to three factors: recently updated pages, popular pages, and exact or approximate matches, as well as more enter in more advanced searches, search domains, backlinks, countries of origin, and languages. Tabs at the top give access to News, Image, and most interestingly, PC Search. If this is a sign of what's to come, it's a very good one. I'm just guessing, but I'd expect to see the new MSN Search and the Desktop Search (codename: ME2) to come out together, at the end of the year.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/26/2004 12:50:00 PM 0 comments

 
No Search Engine Radio This Week
Guess you guys will just have to wait.

Turns out Search Engine Radio host Brad Fallon is enroute to China today. Who knew? So, since the election is next Tuesday, it'll be at least two weeks before I can do the show. Hopefully it'll work out and you can all hear my amazing radio voice as soon as possible.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/26/2004 12:00:00 PM 0 comments

 
First Ever Froogle Doodle
For what I believe is the first time ever, Google has made a site-specific Google Doodle, a halloween one for Froogle:

(via Zorgloob)

UPDATE: I've been informed there was one last year, for Christmas, which is available here.
- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/26/2004 11:52:00 AM 1 comments

 
Google Tests Out Inline Image Search On Regular Results Page
GoogleGuy confirmed on the Webmaster World forums reports that Google is testing out adding an "Image Results For {keyword}" line to the top of regular search results pages. He said, "You know us; we're always testing out different little UI changes..", to which another forum member, Nikke, replied, "we tend to think so, but would really like to know you better..." I couldn't have said it better myself.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/26/2004 11:42:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google Repurchasing Shares Already?
Take a look at this SEC filing, dated today, in which Google is announcing its intent to repurchase 23,443,819 shares of its own stock from current and former employees, plus 5,226,843 shares unexcersized options of Class B common stock. The shares will be repurchased at prices ranging from 30 cents to 80 dollars, equal to what those people paid, plus interest, while the options will be purchased at 20% of current stock value, plus interest. What does this mean? Thanks to Eric Lebeau of Zorgloob for the heads-up.

UPDATE: First off, reading through the filing, I see that Google has always intended this, mentioning it back in the original April 2004 IPO filing. This is an offer that former employees can choose to accept or reject, and Google says they expect the majority to accept it. Basically, that stock seems to violate the Securities Act of 1933 and the state securities laws of Arkansas, California, the District of Columbia, Maryland and New York. As a result, Google is offering to buy back the 23 million shares and 5 million options, held by 1,279 and 282 current and former employees, respectively. The filing says, strangely enough, that the offer expires on "November , 2004". Yes, that space is not a misprint, but an intentionally blank space, so there's no way to know when this offer expires.

UPDATE 2:There is a portion of the statement warning about potential risks, including this tidbit about Google's chief competitors:

We face significant competition from Microsoft and Yahoo.
We face formidable competition in every aspect of our business, and particularly from other companies that seek to connect people with information on the web and provide them with relevant advertising. Currently, we consider our primary competitors to be Microsoft and Yahoo. Microsoft has announced plans to develop a new web search technology that may make web search a more integrated part of the Windows operating system. We expect that Microsoft will increasingly use its financial and engineering resources to compete with us. Yahoo has become an increasingly significant competitor, having acquired Overture Services, which offers Internet advertising solutions that compete with our AdWords and AdSense programs, as well as the Inktomi, AltaVista and AllTheWeb search engines. Since June 2000, Yahoo has used, to varying degrees, our web search technology on its web site to provide web search services to its users. We have notified Yahoo of our election to terminate our agreement effective July 2004. This agreement with Yahoo accounted for less than 3% of our revenues for the year ended December 31, 2003 and less than 2% of our revenues for the six months ended June 30, 2004.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo have more employees than we do (in Microsoft’s case, currently more than 20 times as many). Microsoft also has significantly more cash resources than we do. Both of these companies also have longer operating histories and more established relationships with customers. They can use their experience and resources against us in a variety of competitive ways, including by making acquisitions, investing more aggressively in research and development and competing more aggressively for advertisers and web sites. Microsoft and Yahoo also may have a greater ability to attract and retain users than we do because they operate Internet portals with a broad range of products and services. If Microsoft or Yahoo are successful in providing similar or better web search results compared to ours or leverage their platforms to make their web search services easier to access than ours, we could experience a significant decline in user traffic. Any such decline in traffic could negatively affect our revenues.

Also, this:

We also face risks associated with our trademarks. For example, there is a risk that the word “Google” could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word “search.” If this happens, we could lose protection for this trademark, which could result in other people using the word “Google” to refer to their own products, thus diminishing our brand.

I doubt that could happen, but I guess they have more reason to be worried. They even state that they must warn investors that the fact that they have three people at the top, Larry, Sergey, and CEO Eric Schmidt, may hamper their ability to make decisions. Guess you gotta cover all the bases.

Now we can wait and see how this will play in the mainstream media...

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/26/2004 08:01:00 AM 0 comments

 
Sell Google?
Steven Syre of the Boston Globe says that although only one of twenty stock analysts says to sell Google, he agrees with the guy. He reasons that Google is rising too high on overexuberant hype (which is true) and could fall dramatically (also true) for four reasons:

• Stock market giddiness
• Artificial demand because of limited shares (making the excellent point that with only 19.6 million shares, and 5.2 owned by Fidelity and 3 by Bill Miller, there's very little Google at all)
• Expiring lock-ups (one next month, the rest from now to February)
• Incredibly strong competition from Yahoo and Microsoft

Definetly, the "bubble fever" that has been going around is dangerous for Google. All this craziness over the stock can hurt the company badly. If Google's stock was based on what the company was worth, and not what it could be worth, the company would have more than enough money to be fine, but since the stock price is speculative, it runs major risks that can only hurt Google in the future. I'm rooting for the stock to stop rising. If the market cap goes above $65 billion before the next quarterly report (due in late January), then the stock is just pushing it, and in very dangerous territory. GOOG has made plenty of money. Time to slow it down and hope for stability.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/26/2004 07:39:00 AM 2 comments

 
What If Google Were Elected To Run The Country?
The Stanford Daily's Amid Patel wonders, "What if Google ran the U.S.?" His suggestions for what a Google administration would do are great, including that Desktop Search could be used to find terrorists. Worth reading.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 08:31:00 PM 2 comments

 
Traders Who Bet Against Google Scramble To Cover Their Losses
Reuters reports that traders who were so sure Google would fail that they short sold the stock, spent today deperately buying back the rare number of Google shares in a desperate arrempt to cover their losses. Boy, that was a good plan! As a result of these poor, poor, losers, Google shares peaked at $194.43 before settling at its current $187.85.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 08:11:00 PM 0 comments

 
Oh, How I Love Thee, Seattle Times
The Seattle Times reads InsideGoogle:

Rival on turf

By CompiledTimes technology Staff

The rumor that Google was planning a development office in the Puget Sound area has been brewing for months now, and last week the company confirmed it would open an office in Kirkland next month.

The company wouldn't elaborate on those plans — it already has a sales office in Seattle — but the news was enough to get the search world buzzing about Google invading Microsoft's territory.

On his InsideGoogle Web site, blogger Nathan Weinberg posted a picture of "The Simpsons' " Homer Simpson, with Google's logo on his shirt, standing next to his neighbor, Ned Flanders, who wore Microsoft's logo (insidegoogle.blogspot.com/2004/10/google-and-microsoft-neighbors.html).

"I'm just trying to picture in my head a really bad sitcom where two neighbors who run opposing tech companies try to get along at home while waging war on the job," Weinberg wrote.

Not sure if these neighbors will be that friendly. Just as Homer has a tendency to make off with Flanders' power tools, we suspect Google may be permanently borrowing some of Microsoft's resources.

As Homer would say: Woo Hoo!

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 07:54:00 PM 1 comments

 
Google AdSense Changes Terms And Conditions
Google has made a change to its terms of service for AdSense. The notable change is that Google will no longer be sending out checks at teh end of the year to publishers who have less than $100 earned, instead just sending a check after every $100 is accrued. The whole text of the edited section, section 11:

Payment. You shall receive a payment related to the number of valid clicks on Ads displayed in connection with Your Site(s) as determined by Google for its participants in the Program. If You have elected to receive Search Results, this payment will be offset by fees applicable to Search Results. Unless otherwise agreed to by the parties in writing (including by electronic mail), payments to You shall be sent by Google within approximately thirty (30) days after the end of each calendar month that Ads are running on Your Site and/or Search Results Pages if Your earned balance is $100 or more. In the event the Agreement is terminated, Google shall pay Your earned balance to You within approximately ninety (90) days after the end of the calendar month in which the Agreement is terminated by You (following Google's receipt of Your written request, including by email, to terminate the Agreement) or by Google. In no event, however, shall Google make payments for any earned balance less than $10. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Google shall not be liable for any payment based on (a) any amounts which result from invalid queries or invalid clicks on Ads generated by any person, bot, automated program or similar device, as reasonably determined by Google, including without limitation through any clicks or impressions (i) originating from Your IP addresses or computers under Your control or (ii) solicited by payment of money, false representation or request for end users to click on Ads; (b) Ads delivered to end users whose browsers have JavaScript disabled; (c) Ads benefiting charitable organizations and other placeholder or transparent Ads that Google may deliver; (d) Google advertisements for its own products and/or services; or (e) clicks co-mingled with a significant number of invalid clicks described in (a) above, or as a result of any breach of this Agreement by You for any applicable pay period. Google reserves the right to withhold payment or charge back Your account due to any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by You, pending Google's reasonable investigation of any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by You, or in the event that an advertiser whose Ads are displayed in connection with Your Site(s) defaults on payment for such Ads to Google. In addition, if You are past due on any payment to Google in connection with any Google program (including without limitation the Google AdWords program), Google reserves the right to withhold payment until all outstanding payments have been made or to offset amounts owed to You in connection with the Program by amounts owed by You to Google. To ensure proper payment, You are solely responsible for providing and maintaining accurate contact and payment information associated with Your account. For U.S. taxpayers, this information includes without limitation a valid U.S. tax identification number and a fully-completed Form W-9. For non-U.S. taxpayers, this information includes without limitation either a signed certification that the taxpayer does not have U.S. Activities (as described on the Google AdSense: Tax Information Page located at https://www.google.com/adsense/taxinfo, or such other URL as Google may provide from time to time) or a fully-completed Form W-8 or other form, which may require a valid U.S. tax identification number, as required by the U.S. tax authorities. Any bank fees related to returned or cancelled checks due to a contact or payment information error or omission may be deducted from the newly issued payment. You agree to pay all applicable taxes or charges imposed by any government entity in connection with Your participation in the Program. Google may change its pricing and/or payment structure at any time. If You dispute any payment made under the Program, You must notify Google in writing within thirty (30) days of any such payment; failure to so notify Google shall result in the waiver by You of any claim relating to any such disputed payment. Payment shall be calculated solely based on records maintained by Google. No other measurements or statistics of any kind shall be accepted by Google or have any effect under this Agreement. The payments made under this Agreement are for use by You only and may not be transferred or in any manner passed on to any third party (i.e., distributed to Sites managed by You that require separate payments) unless expressly authorized in writing by Google (including by electronic mail).

(via Search Engine Watch Blog)
- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 07:03:00 PM 0 comments

 
Yahoo Chief Terry Semel Sells Two And A Half Million Yahoo Shares

Among high-level insider trades, the largest deal came from Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) Chairman and CEO Terry Semel, who sold 2.45 million shares acquired through the exercise of options on Oct. 21 at a market value of nearly $86.4 million. This is the largest-ever sale of shares by Semel - and the largest at Yahoo by an individual - and his first sale since July. Semel has sold more than 7.5 million shares this year at a market value of nearly $290 million.

Source - CBS MarketWatch

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 06:48:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google Keeps Surging
GOOG rose another $14.97 today, closing up 9 percent to $187.40. Google's market cap is now higher than Yahoo's, reaching $50.8 billion to Yahoo's cap of $47.8 billion. Google actually needs to stop surging before it becomes so overvalued that people start selling stock. The lockup period isn't even over. Seems like investors are speculating on the future value of the company. Lets hope they hit a reasonable level and stay there, and not rise to a point above their own worth, so we can watch their bubble burst.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 06:22:00 PM 0 comments

 
Image Ads Coming To Google Image Search?
Brian Morrissey at DM News talks about the future of Google advertising. In particular, he talks with Google execs about image ads, which currently are available to AdSense publishers who are interested in them. The most interesting tidbit is this:

Google has begun to test the display of graphical ads on Google Image search.

Looks like Google's happy with the performance of the image ads in AdSense, so they're looking into porting them over to their own network. If you think about it, image ads make more sense at Google Images than anywhere else, since they wouldn't significantly slow down the already image-heavy pages. Lets just hope this doesn't mean we'll be seeing image ads on regular Google search
(via Search Engine Lowdown)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 10:56:00 AM 0 comments

 
New Mysterious Google Toolbar Version, Again
As Zorgloob reports, Google has once again released a new version of its toolbar, 2.0.114.7, but hasn't announced it or said what it does differently, and using it doesn't reveal any new features (like support for Google Desktop). I've decided to dispell any speculation by revealing, via leaks from special anonymous inside sources (thanks, Sergey B.!), what the last four revisions of the Toolbar do.

• 2.0.114.4 - adds support for Google Coffee
• 2.0.114.5 - First revision that tells your wife who you're secretly seeing on the side
• 2.0.114.6 - Redirects all searches for Microsoft products to a page that says "Oh no you di'int!"
• 2.0.114.7 - Finally completes the switch over to PigeonRank technology

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/25/2004 07:34:00 AM 0 comments

 
Yahoo Search Now Being Integrated Into Adobe Products
Yahoo and Adobe are expected to announce tomorrow a partnership that will place Yahoo search tools into Adobe's core product, Acrobat. Under the agreement, the next time users upgrade their version of the free Adobe Reader, they "can choose to install" a Yahoo / Adobe toolbar that includes Yahoo search, as well as links to Adobe subscription services, and a feature that converts web pages into PDF files. Thus, another shot is fired in the search engine wars' battle for offline content. One can only hope users will be asked to install the toolbar, not forced to.
(via CNN)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/24/2004 11:18:00 PM 0 comments

 
Gmail Adds Phishing Report To Options List
I just noticed that in addition to the big yellow bar that warns if Gmail thinks you're being phished, Gmail now also includes an option in its "drop-down menu" that asks you to report phishing. This comes off as a tiny bit annoying to me, since I've become quite adept at clicking "More Options" and then "Trash this message". Now, my timing is a bit off. Still, a little more security options is a good thing, and Gmail has got to be adding a delete button eventually.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/24/2004 10:19:00 PM 0 comments

 
InsideGoogle Community On Orkut
I'm just getting the hang of Orkut, and I thought to myself: Why not kick off my experiment with an InsideGoogle community? There don't seem to be any active discussion forums about Google on Orkut, so why not start one. Now, true believers, you have somewhere to rant and rave about all things Google, and about any other items I post about. Obviously, you need to be an Orkut member, but I'm sure any InsideGoogle reader can figure out how to get one. So, the community is naturally called InsideGoogle, and please, sign up and start ranting (actually, ranting is against community rules; I'm a happpy person).

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/24/2004 03:25:00 AM 6 comments

 
Web Stractions Takes Us On A Trip Down Google Memory Lane
Check out this post on Web Stractions, where Dodger uses the Internet Archive to look at various incarnations of Google, including the original Stanford prototype, the 1999 public launch, and the late 2000 version, which is basically what we have today.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/23/2004 10:49:00 PM 8 comments

 
How To Access Your Google Desktop From Another Machine
Project Computing has designed a tool that allows for remote access of your Google Desktop from another machine, or even make it available to the entire web. I'm enormously glad that Google doesn't normally allow that, but if you really want it, go for it. I guess the number one reason would be to allow your home PC to quickly search your work PC.
(via John Battelle's Searchblog)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/23/2004 10:24:00 PM 1 comments

 
Microsoft Will Deliver MSN Desktop Search Before End Of The Year

During its earnings call with financial analysts, Microsoft said an MSN-branded tool would be made available before the end of 2004. The tool and an algorithmic Web searching engine will be in beta testing by year's end, a representative said Friday.

Source: CNet News.com

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/23/2004 10:11:00 PM 1 comments

 
Inside Gmail's Guts: It Ain't Pretty, But It Is Powerful
Jon Udell takes a peek under Gmail's hood, and is eminently impressed by what he sees. He looks at Gmail's address auto complete, the spell checker, and what he describes as "JavaScript/DHTML wizardry". As he explains, Gmail uses a JavaScript loaded "UI engine". Johnvey Hwang, who deconstructed the JavaScript and created a .NET-based Gmail API, noted that Oddpost was the first company to perfect this technique. He noted this on July 5th. On July 9th, Yahoo acquired Oddpost. Heh.

So is Gmail a rich Internet application? Sure. Although that label most often applies to Java, .Net, and Flash clients, Gmail shows that Web clients can join the club too. But crucially, Gmail’s architecture is open to other kinds of rich clients, too. It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/23/2004 10:03:00 PM 0 comments

 
And Now I'm On Orkut
Today, I got my Orkut invite in the mail, and I'm just starting to check out the service. I got the invite from Orkut Buyukkokten himself, after meeting him at the Google booth at Digital Life. It was actually kind of funny. Here I am, running around thinking I am the king of all reporters, asking questions of everybody I see, and when I realize I am questioning the man whose name the service bears, I kind of wasn't sure what to do, and just sat through the product demo. I just felt like I shouldn't be asking Orkut to show me Orkut; like, he was somehow above that. I can't explain why. I've never had that problem with politicians or public relations people, I even had the balls to ask Chris Rock a horribly racially charged question, but Orkut, he phases me. Go figure.
Anyway, I'm going to start playing around with the service. If you use or have used Orkut, let me know of anything I should know of going in.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/23/2004 08:02:00 PM 3 comments

 
Happy Caps Lock Day!
MERRY CAPSMAS!

IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, THIS IS THE LAMEST HOLIDAY EVER. BUT I REFUSE TO CRASH ON ANYONE'S CELEBRATION, SO I RESPECT YOUR RELIGIOUS RIGHT TO CELEBRATE CAPS LOCK DAY. FOR MORE CAPSOVER NEWS, CHECK OUT METAFILTER, DEREK ARNOLD, VIA GOOGLE BLOGOSCOPED, VIA WAXY, VIA EMPTY BOTTLE.

Whew, that was actually kinda fun. See you on October 22, 2005!

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/22/2004 03:35:00 PM 1 comments

 
Holy ****! Google Up Twenty-Five Dollars!
As of right now, GOOG is at $175.73, up $26.35 from yesterday's close, an astounding 17.64%. This means Google stock has doubled in the two months since it's Initial Public Offering, up 105.88%. Google's market capitalization is now $47.66 billion, just below Yahoo's $48.97 billion. Maybe now Google can start chasing Microsoft, which is at "only" $302.71 billion. CNN Money has announced that Prudential has increased its target price for GOOG to $200 from $130. SiliconValley.com says:

Uh, Jack, that memo you wrote about Google being overvalued at $90 ... the boss wants to see you.

Wall Street elitists who rolled their eyes at Google's unconventional initial public offering are wiping the tears from them today. Reporting for the first time as a publicly traded company Thursday, Google more than doubled its year-ago performance, posting a third-quarter profit of $52 million on soaring online advertising revenue. "We have record revenues this quarter," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive officer, during a conference call. "The demand that exists for the kind of advertising we do, is large and unmatched ... [The paid-search market is] much larger than where Google is today. ... We're at the beginning." Google's dramatic increase in operating income led its shares, which closed at a little over $149.38 Thursday afternoon, to continue skyward this morning. At the time of this writing Google's stock was trading above $173, more than double its initial offering price of $85 and just $27 away from the target price given it by Prudential Securities.

And in the interests of crow eating:
Wired News - August 18

In a sign that Google's initial public offering will not be as hot or big as expected, the company has slashed its estimated per-share price range and reduced the number of shares to be sold by insiders.

Mercury News - August 8

Looks like Google Fever has cooled.

The New York Times - August 6

Every investment involves uncertainty. But Google's auction, and the company's approach to investors, make its shares riskier than most.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/22/2004 03:26:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google Exploits Volunteer Translators?
Dirson reports that a message is found in the Galician version of Google that criticizes the search engine. Basically, if you make a search that has no results, like "aaaaiuyq", you get this message:

Google, empresa millonaria, EXPLOTA TRADUTORES VOLUNTARIOS para gañar máis diñeiro. "aaaaiuyq".

Dirson also has a screenshot (the snippet below is a part of the screen capture, the rest of it can be found behind the link):

Translated back into English, it means:

Your search 'aaaaiuyq' did not match any documents. Google, millionaire company, EXPLOITS VOLUNTARY TRANSLATORS to earn more money

Basically, Google translates through volunteers, and one of them played a cruel joke, which I'm sure will be corrected as soon as someone reads this. How exactly it is possible to exploit volunteers, I don't get, but I guess this is the risk you take when you do anything wiki-style.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/22/2004 10:57:00 AM 2 comments

 
Why Microsoft Released The Partner Pack
I'm installing Microsoft's just released Partner Pack for Windows XP, and I believe I've figured out why the thing exists. Microsoft has been trying to convince users for a long time now to install the .NET package from Windows Update. Now really, what better way to ensure computer users do that than giving away an antivirus program and several utilities, and requiring installation of the .NET runtime before you can download? Smart move, MS.

The Partner Pack includes:
Google Deskbar - Microsoft's description page resists the urge to say anything mean, or even give instructions on how to use MSN Search with the Deskbar
Computer Associates eTrust - for the first time, Windows gives away an antivirus program, at least free for a year
Onfolio Express - Research assistant panel for Internet Explorer
Post-it Software Notes - lets you put little digital sticky notes all over your computer screen
Super Slyder - a puzzle game
Desktop Media Gallery - lets you search PixelMill templates and Corbis images for Microsoft Office, and gives away many of them for free
PhotoSite - free photo hosting and sharing
PayPal Payment Request Wizard - makes it possible to pay PayPal money through email
Serpentine - another puzzle game, this one with some sort of Chinese theme
Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager - gives all flash drives an interface, instead of leaving them to fend for themselves as virtual drives
Microsoft Time Zone - lets you keep track of multiple time zones via the system tray

UPDATE: I kept reading through the copy on Microsoft's website and they clearly state that Google Deskbar runs on .NET:

When Google wanted to make the Google Deskbar extensible for developers, they decided to create a .NET-based plug-in API. The productivity and security enhancements enabled by targeting
the .NET Framework make the Deskbar easy to extend with new functionality.

Now, I know the Deskbar couldn't have originally been a .NET product, because if it had, I wouldn't have been able to run it previously. Does the Partner Pack include a .NET version of the Deskbar, or I am totally misreading things (or is it .NET, and you don't necessarily need the .NET runtime to run it)? And more importantly: Does the .NET version of Deskbar run better than the normal version?


UPDATE 2: The Partner Pack version of the Google Deskbar is definetly a new version. The "About" page lists it as version 0.5.94, while the current Deskbar version on Google's website is 0.5.81. It also seems slightly faster, although there's no way for me to properly confirm that.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/22/2004 09:29:00 AM 2 comments

 
Google's Jeff Dean Talks About Google File System And Clustering
Greg Linden saw Jeff Dean's talk at the University of Washington, and Jeff, one of Google's software engineers, talked about the company's research into clustering, that is separating search results by meaning, not words, and showed a demo of how that will work in the next update to the search system. Also, he talked about the Google file system used to coordinate more than a dozen copies of the web on computers on several continents. If you want to see the future technology behind Google, you should check out the video of his talk when it is uploaded to the archives on this page. If you're as obsessed with anything Google like I am, you'll be waiting.

UPDATE: The videos are up, and the one thing that grabbed me was that Jeff describes Google's coming clustering search as being similar to the clustering Google News uses, which could make it a very effective solution.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/22/2004 01:39:00 AM 2 comments

 
Google Shares Have A Great Day (If You Want To Understate It)
Expectations of a good earnings report pushed Google shares up 6.33%, or $8.89, to $149.93. However, when that report came in and beat expectations, after hours trading shot GOOG up another 7.98%, or $11.92, to the current $161.30! That means Google is up more than eighteen dollars on the day, thanks to a very positive report. Boy, I bet you wish you had Google shares! Google is now only $8.70 away from doubling their IPO price, after only two months. Congratulations guys!

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 09:12:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google And Microsoft: Neighbors
Greg Linden lets us know that Google is opening a new office in Kirkland, Washington, right near Microsoft, intending to steal some MS talent. I'm just trying to picture in my head a really bad sitcom where two neighbors who run opposing tech companies try to get along at home while waging war on the job.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 08:55:00 PM 3 comments

 
Can You Ever Truly Be Safe?
Reports continue that there are security holes in Google. Technically, of course, these are not holes in Google but holes in the way the web works. But when anything seems wrong, people just gotta blame Google.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 08:31:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google Beats Expectations
Google announced that their third quarter revenues were $805.9 million, up an unbelievable 105% from the same quarter last year.

Things I've noticed from the release and the conference call:
Google's revenues are almost split between ads on Google sites ($411.7 million, or 51%) and ads on AdSense partner sites ($384.3 million, or 48%). Google sites saw a 99% increase, while AdSense sites saw a 120% increase.
Google gave out less stock-based compensation this quarter, down from $73.8 million to $68 million.
Google has $1.86 billion in cash.
Google expects it's tax rate to trend lower, to 38%, from the 53% rate it currently suffers.
Google has 2,668 employess, adding 376 from 6/30 - 9/30.
Google doesn't plan on rushing its beta process any time soon. It likes to think long-term, and in terms of quality. Google's strategy is first make the product "exceptional", then monetize it, especially with Desktop.
Froogle and Gmail are still young and not significant sources of revenue.
International revenue grew 145%, according to Mark Mahaney.
Google Travel seems unnecessary to Google, because of their close relationship with travel companies. But they do think the name "Troogle" is too silly, even for Google.
Google is not planning on being a portal, ever, at least as far as they are concerned now.

The release summary:

Financial Release

GOOGLE ANNOUNCES RECORD REVENUES FOR THIRD QUARTER 2004

Company reports revenues of $805.9 million, up 105 percent year over year in first post-IPO quarter.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – October 21, 2004 – Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2004.

• Google reported record revenues of $805.9 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2004, up 105 percent year over year.
  
• Income from operations, on a GAAP basis, was $11.1 million, or 1.4 percent of revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2004 compared to $66.6 million or 16.9 percent of revenue for the prior year’s quarter. Income from operations includes the effects of a non-recurring, non-cash charge of $201.0 million related to the previously announced settlement of warrant and patent disputes with Yahoo! Inc.
  
• Without this non-recurring charge, Google would have realized income from operations of $212.1 million or 26.3 percent of revenues for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2004, compared to $66.6 million or 16.9 percent of revenues in the prior year’s quarter.
  
• Income from operations includes a $68.0 million non-cash stock-based compensation charge compared to a $73.8 million non-cash, stock-based compensation charge in the prior year’s quarter.
  
• Net income on a GAAP basis in the third quarter of 2004 was $52.0 million or $0.19 per share on a diluted basis. Net income before certain non-recurring items was $125.0 million or $0.45 per share on a diluted basis. The non-recurring items are the settlement charge and its associated tax benefit, as well as a reduction to our provision for income taxes related to certain stock-based compensation charges recognized prior to the IPO.
  
• Net cash provided by operating activities for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2004 totaled $608.9 million as compared to $308.9 million last year during the same period, an increase of 97.1 percent.
  
• Adjusted EBITDA, another liquidity measure, increased by approximately $44 million or 16 percent to $321 million (or 40 percent of revenues) in Q3 from $278 million (or 40 percent of revenues) in Q2.

“We are very pleased with the results of this quarter. Record revenues, robust margins and cash generation all illustrated strong performance and execution over the last quarter,” said Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive officer. “Our commitment to users and to the development of quality products and services for them clearly translated into robust financial results. That dedication to our users, combined with our relentless technology innovation and market opportunity make us very optimistic about our company’s future.”

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 04:35:00 PM 0 comments

 
Yahoo Announces Size Expansion For Yahoo Images
Gary Price at Search Engine Watch Blog says Yahoo is announcing this afternoon that its image search engine now has 1 billion images. Gary also says to expect Google Images to announce a higher number than its current 880 million within a week. Translation: The numbers seen on the pages are purely for promotional purposes. If Google says 880,000,000 it really has at least 1.2 billion, but any smart PR guy will tell you to lowball the figure as much as possible while still beating the competition. This way, when Yahoo says it has a billion, you immeadiatly "update" the number to 1.1 billion, and tell the image guys to get it to 2 billion as soon as possible. Trust me, Yahoo doesn't have a billion. It probably has 1.2 billion also. These numbers are meaningless, and are simply blows in the search engine war, far too reminiscent of the mid-90s war. Google won the war by proving it was relevancy that mattered, not numbers. Yahoo is doing a good job fighting Google, but this fight is just on the wrong turf.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 03:55:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google Decides Not To Release Quarterly Report
Citing a desire to remain unconventional, Google decided today not to release its quarterly figures as expected and mandated by law, reports Yeald. Gooogle founder Sergey Page and Larry Brin were quoted as saying “We were afraid people would see us as a conventional company with quarterly reports and all. We really want to be unconventional.” They also revealed a little known Google motto: "Say nothing, keep smiling". The article continues on with Google's consideration of using a Dutch-style auction for the quarterly report, using lava lamps to solve Califonia's energy crisis, CEO Eric Schmidt's statement that Google's IPO prospectus clearly states Google can be "unconventional", and if you haven't figured out by now that this is a satire article, you really need to work on your deductive reasoning.

Five hours to go...

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 11:22:00 AM 8 comments

 
Microsoft Windows Partner Pack Includes Google Software
Computer Business Review reports that Microsoft' almost released Partner Pack for Windows XP, a collection of software based on the .NET framework that Microsft believes will deliver a "next generation computing experience," will include Google's Deskbar application. Curious, since the Deskbar is a prime connection to the Windows-killer Desktop application. I guess this means the Partner Pack can be described as "bipartisan computing". It will be available later today at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/partnerpack/. The Pack also includes a free 12-month subscription to Computer Associates eTrust EZ Antivirus 2005 software, meaning Microsoft can now claim an antivirus solution for Windows XP, kinda. There are 11 products in all, including games and software from eBay PayPal, 3M, and Homestead, plus Onfolio's Web Research Tool Express Edition, as reported here.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 11:12:00 AM 0 comments

 
Big Day For Stocks
Today is a big day for the market, as CBS MarketWatch reports. Besides Google, which is expected to report earnings of 56 cents a share in a webcast 8 hours from now, there are a lot of big companies with big announcements. Microsoft is expected to report earnings of 30 cents a share. Merck & Co., 71 cents. EBay reported yesterday a 77% jump in earnings. Amazon is predicted to reporta 18 cents a share third quarter profit. AT&T: 51 cents. Coca-Cola: 47 cents. Hershey: 64 cents. Xerox: 14 cents.

It's odd, but there is a short list of companies whose names are powerful cultural icons, even if those companies mean very little as their market presence has eroded and their earnings dropped. If I had to put together that list, it would be Amazon, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Disney, EBay, Ford, Google, Hershey, McDonalds, Microsoft, Nike, Starbucks, Xerox (and yes, some of those companies are far less important than others, I was just trying to build a basic list). What's truly amazing is how many of those companies are releasing quarterly reports on the same day. I would expect a huge amount of market activity today, which could make for some great opportunities for investors large and small.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/21/2004 08:56:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google Named Fastest Grower Ever
Deloitte & Touche have ranked Google as the fastest growing company ever, with a 437,115% increase in revenue in the last five years.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 09:46:00 PM 0 comments

 
Simon Moores Is Worried About Google Desktop Privacy
Simon Moores on Computer Weekly worries that Google Desktop's privacy policy allows it to send Google personally identifiable information, and he's not the only one. Currently, a Google News search for Google turns up a lot of articles concerned with the privacy implications of Google's Desktop search tool. Why are people so worried? Honestly, I have no idea. The Privacy Policy is very specific about the fact that it only sends back non-personally identifiable information, like how long a search takes, so Google can improve the speed. Also, when checking for new updates, it sends your id number and version number. And you can turn off most of those anyway. It ain't exactly Gator, folks. So, when Simon worries that Google Desktop will somehow get him arrested for having downloaded MP3s, trust me when I say this: If someone has access to your computer, they will find your stolen music. If they don't, they won't. The only difference is that if you have Google Desktop, they will be able to find it faster. But if someone already has access to your computer, Google Desktop is the least of your problems.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 05:23:00 PM 14 comments

 
InsideGoogle Gets Listed On Seven Wonders
Seven Wonders lists InsideGoogle as today's "Site Worth Bookmarking"! Welcome all Seven Wonders fans, and please read through the archives for tons of fun stuff.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 03:40:00 PM 3 comments

 
A Look Back At The First Search Engine War
Mike Grehan of Search Engine Watch writes as several search pioneers take a look back at the search wars of the mid-90s. Some of the huys in charge of Excite, Infoseek, and AltaVista back in the day talk about those two kids from Stanford they threw out, saying "go pound sand". Those two college students were pushing a new search technology, and when the big search engines rejected them, they decided to start their own search engine and call it Google. Lots of fun stuff in the article.

If you want to look back at the early days of search, here's two great links from Resource Shelf: The first is a look back on the sixth anniversary of AltaVista's public beta, and the second is articles on the history of Google from Google's fourth birthday.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 02:08:00 PM 0 comments

 
Leaked Documents Reveal Google Growth Forecasts
The San Francisco Chronicle has obtained some leaked documents revealing Google's predictions of growth. Google has always remained tight-lipped about its future, refusing to issue forecasts, because, as the IPO prospectus explains, "A management team distracted by a series of short-term targets is as pointless as a dieter stepping on a scale every half hour." So, with the quarterly report coming tomorrow, someone has leaked out some internal Google documents forecasting expected growth over the next few years.

As the graphic on the right shows, Google expects to gain just under 100,000 advertiser accounts every year. Google made the forecasts as part of the specifications of a new billing system it had commissioned, showing the company, BFS Finance, how big it needed the system to scale. Google refused to confirm the validity of the document. Scott Kessler, an analyst for Standard & Poor, says the numbers are very good, but that the number of advertisers should prove less relevant over time, with more emphasis on the price of ads. The article mentions a Morgan Stanley study, which showed the rocketing price of two or three word queries.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 09:37:00 AM 2 comments

 
Services.Google.com
In this post early this morning I linked to a site at services.google.com. Every so often, I'll go digging through the Google site, looking for an interesting tidbit to post about, and this would be one of those times. Faithful reader ElfWord, though, seems to have delved through all of the services.google.com results, and here's what he found:

• RSVP for Blogger's celebration of their new home at Google (Hurry, you only have until March 2003!)


• A Macromedia Breeze powered slideshow about contextual advertising


• A 7-reason online advertisement about the contextual ads service


• And finally (and expect this to be taken down soon) a full login with username and password for Petr Vokác for Google Public Service Search.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 08:18:00 AM 0 comments

 
Lycos UK Offers 10 Gigabytes of Email Space
Lycos UK is now offering the largest paid email accounts around, 10 gigabytes, Webstractions reports. This move also boosts their free email storage to 300 MB. All of Lycos' email services now include Lycos' new virtual drive, the better to use that 10GB, which costs 5 euros ($6.30) a month

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 07:41:00 AM 0 comments

 
Which Languages Has Google Been Translated Into Best?
This Google page lists the status of Google translations into various languages. Of the more interesting incomplete translations are Klingon (98%) and British English (9%).

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 12:56:00 AM 0 comments

 
Where Did My Internet Explorer Go?
The Toque has such a funny post that is only peripherally related to Google, but that's enough to post it here. Basically, its the story of someone who installed all the toolbars there are, and can't bear to close even one of them, until the web browser window is only a few inches across. The final line:

So what are you going to do to correct this bizarre Internet Explorer browsing problem? F**k it. Just install Mozilla.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/20/2004 12:34:00 AM 1 comments

 
Journalist's Life Saved When Iraqi Militants Google Him
National Nine News reports that an Australian journalist in Iraq who was captured had militants check his articles out on Google to save his life. The four Sunni militants and ex-Iraqi soldiers who captured John Martinkus thought he was an American informer. Too prove he was harmless, he told them to Google him, and when they read his articles, they believed him. Thank god the terrorists have internet connections.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/19/2004 07:01:00 PM 6 comments

 
Google Desktop International Versions Coming Soon
Google founders Sergey Page and Larry Brin confirmed before an audience in Japan that their new research and development center in Tokyo would be putting out a Japanese version of Google Desktop very soon. "You'll see a faster stream of products released to Japan," explained Brin, which may int that countries with their own regional Google center will see international versions of Google products well ahead of their brethren. This from the Mainichi Daily News. Also, Page adressed the issue of a Google Browser, saying, "We are working hard to make browsers work harder, but we don't intend to reinvent the wheel".

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/19/2004 07:29:00 AM 0 comments

 
Analyst Predicts Earnings Of 23 Cents A Share
Standard & Poor's equity analyst Scott Kessler says he expects Google to post Google to post earnings of 23 cents per share for the third quarter when it releases its quarterly report Thursday. This is before the charge from the Yahoo settlement is deducted, so actual earnings will be slightly lower. Google is a tough stock to handicap, since founders Sergey Page and Larry Brin have long said the company will not issue earnings forecasts. Kessler described his analysis as "guesstimation", saying, "I feel like I'm in a very dark cave with a lot of other folks." Kessler's rating is based on a prediction of $739 million in revenue. Lehman Brothers analyst Douglas Anmuth, meanwhile, is predicting $448 million, comparable to the second quarters' $423 million. Also, David Garrity of Caris & Co. gave Google a rating of "above average", predicting the stock will rise 5-20% over the next 12 months. Of course, shares were up 3.5% just for yesterday, so that appreciation may come a lot sooner than 12 months.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/19/2004 12:44:00 AM 1 comments

 
Google Almost Hits The Big $150
GOOG closed today at $149.16. With after hours trading pushing Google's stock to $149.51, Google is about to hit a psychologically significant level of $150, and any stock analyst will tell you that numbers like that are meaningful in the strange world that is the stock market. Should be a good high for Google to be on going into Thursday's quarterly report.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/19/2004 12:32:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google's Quarterly Report Is Coming
Google's first quarterly report will be delivered Thursday, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern / 1:30 p.m. Pacific, and you can watch the webcast of the announcement at http://investor.google.com/webcast. The webcast will remain available online, for anyone who misses it.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 04:46:00 PM 0 comments

 
An Easy Way To Find InsideGoogle
I've noticed in my referral logs that 16% of my referrals lately are coming from searches for this blog by name. This means people remember my blog and want to come back, but forgot to bookmark it, so they search on Google for InsideGoogle. Might I suggest a better way? Just remember this: insidegoogle.info. Yup, I picked up a free .info referral service, to help out anybody who wants to remember the URL. Just please don't link to the .info, since it's completely useless for PageRank purposes.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 04:23:00 PM 2 comments

 
How To Use Hello To Create An Online Store In Blogger
With all the new people coming to InsideGoogle to learn about Hello, I thought I'd point out one cool and unconventional thing you can do with Hello: create an online store. Richard Soderberg explains in the comments to my original Hello post that you can create a store complete with shopping carts on your Blogger page, automating the whole process through Hello. The trick involves folling Richard's six easy steps in his Floating Atoll blog, combining Blogger, PayPal, and Hello to post your photos to your blog with a PayPal "Add To Cart" button. Check out this page, which lists all the categories, and this page, which shows you the final product (and a bunch of berets!). Cool stuff.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 03:15:00 PM 0 comments

 
Google Desktop Code Name Confirmed: Fluffy Bunny
In a bit of news that means nothing to all but the most ardent Google-watchers, MarketingVOX has confirmed the code name for Google Desktop was indeed "Fluffy Bunny". Apparently, though, the original code name was "Total Recall", but Google wisely changed it to avoid comparisons to "evil"-sounding Department of Defense code names like "Carnivore" and "Echelon". "The choice of Fluffy Bunny may even have been intended to be sarcastic," says MarketingVOX.
- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 10:36:00 AM 0 comments

 
Info.com Wants To Out-Google Google
Info.com, a meta search engine , launches today, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The new site lets you search from Google and 13 other engines, including Teoma, AltaVista, Fast, Overture, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves, and Yahoo, in addition to comparison-shopping via Shopping.com, news via Topix.net, and weather and phone book listings. The article also explains how the founder of the company, Stephen Scarr, bought the Info.com domain back in 1999 and has been building the search engine ever since. Lots of features, but unless the site plans on offering its own content, I don't know if its gonna make it. Plus, combining the results from many different engines doesn't necessarily make for a better search, since the results from less-accurate engines are only hurting the better engines, not making them more accurate. You are only as accurate as your worst search engine.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 08:00:00 AM 2 comments

 
GMail Beefs Up Security To Beat Phishers
Slashdot reports that Google has begun testing out Yahoo's DomainKeys signatures on outgoing mail. DomainKeys is a free solution by Yahoo which allows email to be verified, eliminating the possibility of someone sending spam while pretending to be you. This maks Gmail the first large provider to do see, even ahead of Yahoo. So basically, Gmail can now claim that its outgoing email is the only one guaranteed authentic, thus giving people more reason to send their mail from Gmail than from accounts which can contribute to the problem. A good move. Gmail's ahead of the curve.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 01:54:00 AM 0 comments

 
Google Provides Hack For Google Desktop In Google Deskbar
Google designed the Deskbar with Google Desktop and similar products in mind, because it provided an easy hack to work the Deskbar with Desktop. It's rare Google actually gives this sort of advice themselves, but good for them. Simply: Go to Google and click on the Desktop tab. Copy your URL, which should look like this: http://012.3.4.5:4664/&s=6789012345&q=. Go to the Deskbar and click Options. Go to Customized Searches, click Add, paste your URL in the URL box, but add {1} (it'll look like:http://012.3.4.5:4664/&s=6789012345&q={1}) and name it Google Desktop Search. That's it, unless you want to fiddle with the options more. Thanks to the Unofficial Google Weblog for noticing this.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 12:51:00 AM 0 comments

 
Could Google Desktop Be Used For P2P?
Paolo Massa Blog suggests Google might want to use Google Desktop as a basis for integrating P2P accross the web, or at least through Orkut. Personally, I think the idea is too far fetched. Google won't risk the lawsuits. It has lost plenty of money in the Overture lawsuit, and may lose more to Geico. Of course, adding simpler peer-to-peer file sharing to Orkut would be a good idea, and slightly more legal. But more of course, Lycos Circles already does that, as I mentioned last week. Thanks to ElfWord, a reader from the LJ mirror, for the link.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/18/2004 12:13:00 AM 1 comments

 
Firefox Toolbar Lets You Search Gmail And Google Desktop
If you use Firefox, you'll be pleased to learn that there is now a Google Firefox Toolbar that allows you to search all of Google's engines, plus Gmail and the new Google Desktop. You can even add other engines to it and customize at will. Check it out.
(via Blogoscoped)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/17/2004 09:18:00 AM 1 comments

 
Can Google Take The Answer Engine To New Heights?
Many people use Google as an answer engine, not a search engine. They use it to find particular answers to a particular question. And, as any expert will tell you, you'd probably be better off asking an actual expert. Searching Google for "best digital camera" just turns up ads and online stores. You can't actually find the best digital camera on Google. But its more than just that. There is a lot of research that could be done faster and better off of Google, whether on federated search engines (topic-specific engines) or with actual people, whether online or off. The easy answer is "Just go and do it off of Google", but I thought it might be interesting to imagine a way Google actually could get you all that information.



What if Google could utilize the power of all its services to ensure you could find experts out there who could help you? What if you could have Google find you not just the most popular sites on the web for digital cameras, but the most popular digital camera experts on Orkut, questions on that topic on Google Answers, relevant groups on Google Groups, and links to Google Local searches for relevant experts at libraries and universities, plus public records repositories you can check out?

Google has a lot of resources that can be combined in powerful ways. Sure, Google wants you to rely on those services yourself, but simply providing a list of links to point out to users the connections they may not make in their own minds. Take a look at Google Answers. How many times is the answer "Ask a librarian"? (about 300 times) How many questions could be answered faster by checking with a phone call to an expert or chatting with a live one on library sites like the New York Public Library's? How many people don't realize they have a friend of a friend on Orkut who is considered an expert on what they want to know?

Google can benefit a lot if integrating its services takes it's reputation to knew levels. Right now, academics complain that too many people rely entirely on Google when they should be looking in the real world. Google should beat that argument before it gets popular by showing that you really can find anything on Google, just not necessarily with Google Search.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/17/2004 12:37:00 AM 1 comments

 
Do We Need PageRank For The Desktop?
Don Park says Google Desktop can never be as good as Google Search because there's no PageRank. He wishes Desktop could index Windows desktop shortcuts and the Start Menu to determine relevance. Greg Linden responds:

Page rank is great, but I think this overstates its importance. All is not lost without page rank.

I gotta go with Greg on this one. When I spoke to Marrissa Mayer at Digital Life yesterday, she didn't seem so concerned either. It seems Google is putting a lot of faith in the other 150 determining factors it uses and updates constantly. As long as the Desktop ranking algorithm sees constant updates with new ranking code, it should do just fine. Plus, keep in mind that Google Desktop is supposed to replace all those shortcuts we now use. Power users of Desktop will have no shortcuts, making PageRank useless.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/16/2004 10:09:00 PM 1 comments

 
Sergio Sancho Wins Google Code Jam 2004
The Google Blog reports that Argentinian native Sergio Sancho won this year's Google Code Jam and its $10,000 prize. The top 50 finalists got free trips to the GooglePlex in Mountain View California, plus got they got noticed by Google, so really, they're all winners. Just not as much as Sergio, who plans to blow all the money on naked pictures of Apple G4s.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/16/2004 09:34:00 PM 0 comments

 
How To Use Firefox With Google Desktop
Jon Udell has come up with a way to get Google Desktop to index Firefox Browser History, and points to Ken Schutte's Slogger solution, which he says is even better.

(BTW - Has anyone noticed Blogger running a whole lot faster and more stable these last few days?)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/16/2004 08:49:00 PM 0 comments

 
New York Times Multimedia Presentation On Google
The New York Times's John Markoff weighs in on Google's future with a neat multimedia presentation, talking about Gmail, AdWords, Yahoo, Microsoft's plans to integrate MSN Search with MS Office.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/16/2004 08:38:00 PM 0 comments

 
A Fun Google Desktop Review
Adam Lasnik of BLADAM decided to review Google Desktop by interviewing the number one Google expert he knew, himself! It's a pretty fun read, and chock full of useful information.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/16/2004 08:12:00 PM 0 comments

 
Oh, How I Love Thee, CNet
Shameless self promotion alert!
From CNet: Will Google Say Hello To IM?

"It's a good bet that as Google integrates Picasa better with the rest of its services, Hello will be its chat client, with full feature support for Gmail and Google Desktop. And if you are worried about security, Google claims that it's more secure than AOL Instant Messenger," said Nathan Weinberg, who runs the InsideGoogle blog.

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/16/2004 08:03:00 PM 0 comments

 
Microsoft: Google Is Kicking Our Butt
I stole this post from a Microsoft Developer's blog:

Uh-oh, it's google

So now I have GMail, the Google Toolbar, the Google Deskbar, and the Google Desktop. To search MSDN help, I use google. At home, all my computers use Google as their home page. When I want to browse the web on my phone, I use Google Number Search.

See a trend here?

I work for Microsoft. I own plenty of Microsoft stock. I want Microsoft to succeed. But right now Google is kicking our butt. We're so far behind everyone else on these things, and Google is so far ahead of everyone else.

Both Cyrus and Mini-Microsoft have noticed.

I say "right now" because I think it'll change. Microsoft is working hard to change the picture. I think we can do it. Watch Microsoft pull all the peices together & produce a highly-integrated, high-performance, high-value story that is 10x better than Google.

It should be exciting.

(Via Dirson)

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/15/2004 06:01:00 PM 1 comments

 
Get A Free Copy Of X1 Desktop Search
The Unofficial Google weblog is giving out free copies of X1's desktop search software to the first 100 blogs who link to the post. I guess I can now get a copy to review, and so can a few more people, since the comments are only up to 70. Go for it!

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 10/15/2004 05:53:00 PM 4 comments