Google tried to crash Ebay's user conference by throwing a party on the same day and openly inviting all those who were supposed to attend the conference...
Ebay retaliated by pulling out of Google's advertising network..
You can read the news here
This, mind you, came days after Google's antitrust complaints against Microsoft.
Who said the technology industry is boring ?
Friday, June 15, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
An Ad Exchnage?
It's interesting to observe the evolution of online advertising industry.
Bill Gross was one of the first men to come up with the concept of paid advertising.. he started the ball rolling with goto.com... the company became public in 1999 and two years later was renamed Overture Services. In 2004 it was acquired by Yahoo!
Next big step came from Google's Adwords and its bidding system... The system is based on a very sound algorithm which calculates your cost for click based on several factors such as the CTR history, your "quality score" and your bid amount.. In a typical Google fashion, it makes the auction more "user friendly" by making it a second-price bidding system...(Well, my auction theory Prof might disagree that it's a second-price bidding system, as you pay slightly higher than the next best bidder. But we can live with this small glitches for the time being)
In my opinion, the third most important step of the industry is the introduction of the "Ad exchange". Rightmedia is one of the companies to introduce this concept and recentlty there is again some movement in this field, with the introduction of ADSDAQ
It's again an advertising exchange and works very similar to your stock exchanges. (follow the link for more details)
Only time will tell if it is actually going to be a paradigm shift for the entire industry or it is just one of those fads (like paying users for the clicks) that dies quickly. I believe (and hope) it's the former.
Bill Gross was one of the first men to come up with the concept of paid advertising.. he started the ball rolling with goto.com... the company became public in 1999 and two years later was renamed Overture Services. In 2004 it was acquired by Yahoo!
Next big step came from Google's Adwords and its bidding system... The system is based on a very sound algorithm which calculates your cost for click based on several factors such as the CTR history, your "quality score" and your bid amount.. In a typical Google fashion, it makes the auction more "user friendly" by making it a second-price bidding system...(Well, my auction theory Prof might disagree that it's a second-price bidding system, as you pay slightly higher than the next best bidder. But we can live with this small glitches for the time being)
In my opinion, the third most important step of the industry is the introduction of the "Ad exchange". Rightmedia is one of the companies to introduce this concept and recentlty there is again some movement in this field, with the introduction of ADSDAQ
It's again an advertising exchange and works very similar to your stock exchanges. (follow the link for more details)
Only time will tell if it is actually going to be a paradigm shift for the entire industry or it is just one of those fads (like paying users for the clicks) that dies quickly. I believe (and hope) it's the former.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Google and Privacy...
Is Google and Privacy beginning to sound like "Microsoft Works" i.e. an oxymoron :-)
Search engine expert Danny Sullivan doesn't think so..In his article, he criticizes the Privacy International's rankings and concludes that it's unfair to rank Google at the bottom...
Well, the argument will definitely continue for a while. But, what can't be denied is that Google is treading a very thin line when it comes to privacy. I'm not very comfortable with the idea of Google Street View.. For example, if you are staring at a girl on the street (who doesn't), would you like those pictures to be visible on Google Map's street view? Does it seem far fetched ? .. Well check this out then..
News.com ran a story of a guy who almost got fired because of this Google Map feature..
One lazy afternoon, Maer Israel and a colleague ducked out of work to have a double espresso at a nearby cafe in San Francisco.
Several weeks later, the information technology manager at the French American International School was alerted that a picture of him sitting at the cafe could be found on Google's online map as part of the search giant's new street-level photo view.
"The HR manager ran into me in the hallway and she pulled me aside and...said, 'Do you know that there are cameras everywhere?'" Israel recounted. "Of course, I was a little freaked out because it's the HR person telling me that we got busted having a coffee next door...My mother is surprised I haven't been fired."
I would let the readers draw their own conclusion....
Search engine expert Danny Sullivan doesn't think so..In his article, he criticizes the Privacy International's rankings and concludes that it's unfair to rank Google at the bottom...
Well, the argument will definitely continue for a while. But, what can't be denied is that Google is treading a very thin line when it comes to privacy. I'm not very comfortable with the idea of Google Street View.. For example, if you are staring at a girl on the street (who doesn't), would you like those pictures to be visible on Google Map's street view? Does it seem far fetched ? .. Well check this out then..
News.com ran a story of a guy who almost got fired because of this Google Map feature..
One lazy afternoon, Maer Israel and a colleague ducked out of work to have a double espresso at a nearby cafe in San Francisco.
Several weeks later, the information technology manager at the French American International School was alerted that a picture of him sitting at the cafe could be found on Google's online map as part of the search giant's new street-level photo view.
"The HR manager ran into me in the hallway and she pulled me aside and...said, 'Do you know that there are cameras everywhere?'" Israel recounted. "Of course, I was a little freaked out because it's the HR person telling me that we got busted having a coffee next door...My mother is surprised I haven't been fired."
I would let the readers draw their own conclusion....
Monday, June 11, 2007
Not a great week for Google
First there were the Shiv-Sainiks... forcing the cyber-cafe owners to block orkut.. Well, perhaps we can dismiss this as a cheap political stunt, which in all likelihood would last only for a few more days...
But then came the big blow on 9th June... An organization called Privacy International released the "Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies".. Google was ranked at the bottom ... below Microsoft, eBay, Amazon and many others.. Here is the link to the rankings..The organization has also gone into great detail to explain why they put Google at the bottom. To quote them..
In summary, Google's specific privacy failures include, but are by no means limited to:
* Google account holders that regularly use even a few of Google's services must accept that the company retains a large quantity of information about that user, often for an unstated or indefinite length of time, without clear limitation on subsequent use or disclosure, and without an opportunity to delete or withdraw personal data even if the user wishes to terminate the service.
* Google maintains records of all search strings and the associated IP-addresses and time stamps for at least 18 to 24 months and does not provide users with an expungement option. While it is true that many US based companies have not yet established a time frame for retention, there is a prevailing view amongst privacy experts that 18 to 24 months is unacceptable, and possibly unlawful in many parts of the world.
* Google has access to additional personal information, including hobbies, employment, address, and phone number, contained within user profiles in Orkut. Google often maintains these records even after a user has deleted his profile or removed information from Orkut.
* Google collects all search results entered through Google Toolbar and identifies all Google Toolbar users with a unique cookie that allows Google to track the user's web movement.17 Google does not indicate how long the information collected through Google Toolbar is retained, nor does it offer users a data expungement option in connection with the service.
* Google fails to follow generally accepted privacy practices such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines and elements of EU data protection law. As detailed in the EPIC complaint, Google also fails to adopted additional privacy provisions with respect to specific Google services.
* Google logs search queries in a manner that makes them personally identifiable but fails to provide users with the ability to edit or otherwise expunge records of their previous searches.
* Google fails to give users access to log information generated through their interaction with Google Maps, Google Video, Google Talk, Google Reader, Blogger and other services.
.. and we all believed in Google's "Don't be Evil" philosophy..huh..
Jokes apart, I'm not entirely convinced that Google deserves to be at the bottom. I've to find out more about this paper to draw any conclusions. Till then if you want to read more about this organization and this study, then .. well just Google it..
But then came the big blow on 9th June... An organization called Privacy International released the "Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies".. Google was ranked at the bottom ... below Microsoft, eBay, Amazon and many others.. Here is the link to the rankings..The organization has also gone into great detail to explain why they put Google at the bottom. To quote them..
In summary, Google's specific privacy failures include, but are by no means limited to:
* Google account holders that regularly use even a few of Google's services must accept that the company retains a large quantity of information about that user, often for an unstated or indefinite length of time, without clear limitation on subsequent use or disclosure, and without an opportunity to delete or withdraw personal data even if the user wishes to terminate the service.
* Google maintains records of all search strings and the associated IP-addresses and time stamps for at least 18 to 24 months and does not provide users with an expungement option. While it is true that many US based companies have not yet established a time frame for retention, there is a prevailing view amongst privacy experts that 18 to 24 months is unacceptable, and possibly unlawful in many parts of the world.
* Google has access to additional personal information, including hobbies, employment, address, and phone number, contained within user profiles in Orkut. Google often maintains these records even after a user has deleted his profile or removed information from Orkut.
* Google collects all search results entered through Google Toolbar and identifies all Google Toolbar users with a unique cookie that allows Google to track the user's web movement.17 Google does not indicate how long the information collected through Google Toolbar is retained, nor does it offer users a data expungement option in connection with the service.
* Google fails to follow generally accepted privacy practices such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines and elements of EU data protection law. As detailed in the EPIC complaint, Google also fails to adopted additional privacy provisions with respect to specific Google services.
* Google logs search queries in a manner that makes them personally identifiable but fails to provide users with the ability to edit or otherwise expunge records of their previous searches.
* Google fails to give users access to log information generated through their interaction with Google Maps, Google Video, Google Talk, Google Reader, Blogger and other services.
.. and we all believed in Google's "Don't be Evil" philosophy..huh..
Jokes apart, I'm not entirely convinced that Google deserves to be at the bottom. I've to find out more about this paper to draw any conclusions. Till then if you want to read more about this organization and this study, then .. well just Google it..
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