Has anyone else noticed the subtle changes when posting a listing at Craigslist.org. As a developer, I am aware of the steps that I take to move something in a new direction. The changes that they are making (displaying a zero dollar invoice upon submission) could be in place so that they are able to flip a switch and let the charges start rolling in.
Total To Be Charged:0.00
Keep your eyes open… and buy shares in Ebay (ebay).
Well, it is on. Google is attacking the Operating System Space. They are not boxing something up with millions of lines of code, they are actually providing a platform for their other apps. This is an open source OS that is juiced up to work better with Google.
Oh wait, Google isn’t the one putting this out. Well, the group who has produced gOS is basing this on Ubuntu Linux. That is what Google uses internally. I have to believe that this comes with a blessing from inside Google. Why wouldn’t it? This is free promotion for a slew of their products.
More users=More Ad Space
In any event, I know that that this is great for competition, pricing, and product quality.
Just in time for the holiday season, Google products has tightened up their “Products” search. In the past things seemed a bit scattered and not completely logical. My guess is that some of the experimentation with Google Base has led them to include certain fields. The ability to add your own fields to a Google Base product gives them quite a bit of information regarding important fields for particular item types.
Google Products might just be best suited as a mobile application. This new search interface leads me to believe that it is going more in that direction.
The next 12 months will be incredibly interesting in the phone market. It seems like there are a number of folks who will be entering the space. Two of the biggest names are Google (GOOG) and Skype (owned by Ebay). The entries are not confirmed, but ask a cell phone tech company, in the valley, if they are working on anything for a Google phone and you will probably see some tight lips, or hear “no comment”. Of course a couple of beers later during an “off the record” conversation should reveal much more.
Is this a case of the ‘grass is greener’? My bet is that this is a case where many people are starting to see the capability that will come with something like WiMax. With the money behind it (Intel), this will be a reality.
It appears that the Skpe phone is gearing toward functions like no cost PTT (push to talk) to other Skype users. Logical.
In any case, I have to believe that this will be good for the end user. Better hardware and more competition. What to choose… iPhone, gPhone, ePhone?
If you enjoy technology, spy movies (sort of), and movies like the 40 year old virgin, you will probably like “Chuck” on NBC. My hope is that it doesn’t start playing too much to the less tech crowd (geek) as networks often do. It is great for a laugh on Monday nights.
Did anyone else notice the recent Apple (APPL) commercial that displayed the monitors for the new iMac and finished with a keyboard and mouse in front of the unit. Very sleek.
Did you also notice that the mouse was on the left hand side? Think different, you right brained folks.
Is the value of a backlink going to diminish at some point? Paid links are frowned upon by Google (just read www.mattcutts.com/blog for more) and yet we have major companies pitching the value in selling you a back link.
DirectoryM is one such company. I received an e-mail a short time ago that pitched a backlink and the SEO value that it would provide your site. Link Selling.
Contextual Backlinks
Single Region: $9.95 per month
All Regions: $147.75 per month
These premium links are designed for maximum SEO benefit through:
* Contextual Focus
* Regional Orientation
* Trusted Branded Directory Origination
* Flexible 30-character display… Match the display link text to the key word/phrase of your choosing
* Direct link… Link directly to any page on your website
Will this hurt DirectoryM? How about Businessweek or BizJournals. This is a clever way for the companies who use the DirectoryM listings (businessweeek.com and bizjournals.com to name a couple) to insulate themselves from link sales. At least that is what you might think. At the end of the day, a web site is responsible for their own site.
Tired old line, isn’t it? It is really a question for investors, fans, etc. Have they jumped the shark? By Google jumping the shark, I don’t mean that they are suddenly a bad company, or going to start doing things poorly. I am really referring to the fact that the unique company that is doing things differently might not be the case anymore.
Google renames Froogle to Google (GOOG) Product Search. Why? This sounds very Microsoft’ish (MSFT). Are they trying to bury it? Trying to make it more corporate sounding so that large companies can embrace the possibility of the product feeds? I certainly have more questions than answers.
What tipped me on this one? Rumors of Google buying Monster Worldwide (MNST). This is very “me too” or Yahoo’ish (YHOO). Is Ask.com going to jump on the “me too” bandwagon (rather redundant)? If so, Robert Half International (RHI) should be the next target.
What is the next phase of acquisitions for the big 3, I mean big 4 networks… err search companies? Feels like the old network game doesn’t it. Then along came cable and Fox fit in. Ask.com is the online version of Fox. I have always like their search technology. Can be harder to game and therefore a better result. It will be interesting to see if the Ask.com advertising campaign of 2007 will help deliver.
I am about to apply for an additional Advanta Business credit card, so if you are an active member of the Advanta affiliate program, I will apply through your affiliate link.
I am not necessarily going to use the first person who comes along. I want someone who I have crossed paths with in the past, or someone who has a site that I respect for the effort that is put into it.
Leave a comment, or contact me directly to point me to your Advanta Business Credit Card link. I’ll confirm once applied.
Google seems to have been doing a bit of testing in their Adsense layout and branding. This is probably the most subdued one that I have seen and I wanted to provide a snapshot of it.
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I didn’t alter the image. That washed out, greyscale ‘Ads by Google” is what displayed on the page. Notice that the block also fails to display the “advertise on this site”. Yes, the site that I clipped this from is enrolled.
The next 12 months will be incredibly interesting in the phone market. It seems like there are a number of folks who will be entering the space. Two of the biggest names are Google (
