Google Gets the Department of Justice’s Seal of Non-Approval
I can hear it now. We normal folks won’t be able to hear this signal (kind like a dog whistle) but this is being sounded across the US to Washington, DC from Mountain View, CA as we speak.
“Calling all ex-Google employees in DC! Calling all ex-Google employees in DC! (Especially if you still have stock) I repeat – Calling all ex-Google employees in DC! This is your real leader, Eric Schmidt, and we need you to ‘talk’ to some people about this ‘problem’ that the US government has with our book deal. Remember where your allegiance is and who is more powerful. Go and do your duty for the Goog immediately. Thanks and have a great day!”
OK, so it really is a ridiculous thought but I bet the folks at Google wish that could happen when a road block like this happens to a deal that seems quite important to one of the most powerful companies in the world. Sfgate.com tells us
The Department of Justice said in a filing late Thursday that revisions to the proposed legal settlement allowing Google Inc. to publish millions of books online didn’t do enough to allay antitrust, copyright and other legal concerns.
The landmark deal would allow the Mountain View search titan to move ahead with its ambitious project while establishing a system for identifying and paying appropriate rights holders.
The government acknowledged “substantial progress” on several issues, but said in a statement filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that core concerns remain unresolved, including the amount of power granted to Google.
There is quite a bit at stake with this book deal for sure and there are those who are both for and against. Those against include library groups, academics and competitors who have privacy and anti-competitive concerns. Those for the deal include student, minorities and the disabled because the service would provide the ability to access more information than ever.
Google is doing an “act as if” and not really publicly recognizing this decision that could influence whether this gets past the government’s scrutiny or not. This whole drama has been two years in the making and Google has had a similar battle in Europe. Whether this will ever reach the point of an agreement that allows Google to do what is proposed for many out of print volumes is a major TBD (to be determined).
Google keeps running precariously close to the line that reads “If crossed people will yell monopoly!” I suspect they would like just one victory but whether that will happen in this case may be more out of their control than usual.
How do you feel about this book agreement? Have you followed it? Do you care? If Google gets the green light is it truly giving them to much power? If they can’t do it will any of these books ever be seen again by anyone?
The 3 Biggest Risks You Take With Social Networking Profiles
Online reputation management isn’t always about big corporate brands. In fact, half of my book Radically Transparent is dedicated to building and managing personal reputations.
Just in case you’re not convinced that you need to worry about your personal reputation online, you might want to check out the interview I did with WCCO Radio:
In it I discuss three important themes:
- How your social networking profiles can hurt your career and job hunting.
- How debt collectors are tracking people down via social networks.
- How scammers and thieves are praying on the naive.
If you’re not an audio person, the same advice was recently published on Yahoo Finance via an interview I did with Bankrate.com.
Drop a comment with any case studies or other risks you can think of. Thanks!
Facebook Slow Rolls New Home Page Design and More
Facebook has begun introducing a new home page redesign to about 20% of the total 400 million ‘users’ of the social media platform. It appears as if the gist of the changes are just moving certain elements to different parts of the page so they can get more attention from users. More usage of the functionality means more stickiness means more opportunities to make cash. It’s that simple. Inside Facebook tells us
First off, a lot more people are engaging with notifications in the new design, Facebook’s Peter Deng tells us, which isn’t surprising since it’s at the top left-hand side of the site instead of the right hand of the bottom toolbar. Notifications for third parties will appear within the new interface for the rest of the month, until Facebook removes them on March 1.
Matthew Sanders put together a good group of photos here. While there are other changes on the way you have to like the way Mark Zuckerberg promises what is coming down the pike by saying:
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg also tells us that the company is planning to roll out “something cool” every month from now on, but no word on what products we’ll see.
Is this the new leadership way? Tell people something that gets them interested but provide no real information about it or no road map? While I trust that Facebook is going to be innovating (they have to in order to figure out ways to get more cash from the service) we’ll sit back and relax until something actually happens rather than get all revved up about ‘the next big thing’.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reports on one project that a Facebooker was willing to leak. It’s called Project Titan and it is a full blown webmail application for the service.
Facebook is completely rewriting their messaging product and is preparing to launch a fully featured webmail product in its place, according to a source with knowledge of the product. Internally it’s known as Project Titan. Or, unofficially and perhaps over-enthusiastically, the Gmail killer.
That’s some big talk about being a Gmail killer. The folks at Facebook should relax a bit on the hyperbole but hey you aren’t one of the cool kids these days if you aren’t taking swings at Google or having Google take swings at you, right?
So here’s to innovation at Facebook. So far it’s 20% of their accounts having a homepage redesign and the prospect of a webmail service and the promise of monthly improvements. Part of me is interested and another part of me wants to yawn.
Two Simple Rules For Fixing High Bounce Rate Pages
Of all the metrics that I struggle and fight with, probably the easiest one I’ve found to correct is a high bounce rate. The reality of website design lies in the fact that many choices are made in page layout, color and image choice based on what the graphic designer or website owner like—not [...]
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Microsoft Extends Bing Search Deal With Facebook
The Bing Search Blog announced Microsoft has extended their search deal with Facebook. In addition to extending the search deal, as expected, Facebook will drop Microsoft on the display ad side of the deal.
The extended search deal includes a more robust Bing search experience on Facebook. This includes “richer answers combined with tools [...]
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Focused on PPC? SEO Your Thing? New to Search? Personalize Your Learning – from Beginner to Expert – at SMX West
“Have it your way!” Remember that classic advertising slogan?
We do. That’s why Search Marketing Expo – SMX West offers 50 sessions in 12 tracks on all of the search engine marketing topics – seo, PPC, social media marketing, real time search, local & mobile, and more.
Create an agenda that meets your needs. You’ll [...]
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Search In Pictures: Bing Hat, Yahoo Balls & Yahoo Karate
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
Bing Winter Hat:
Assortment of Yahoo Golf Balls:
Yahoo Guys Karate:
Yahoo Girl Happy:
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Google Earth Adds World War II Imagery
The Google LatLong Blog announced the addition of World War II imagery to Google Earth. Now you can compare, side by side, the earth as it is today versus how it was during World War II.
Google said:
Images taken in 1943 show the effect of wartime bombing on more than 35 European towns and cities. [...]
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Siri: Not A “Search Engine” But You Might Use It Like One
When I’ve spoken in the past to people at Siri we’ve discussed and they’ve struggled a bit with how to present and “position” what they’re doing. Described as a “virtual personal assistant” — and called the “Siri Assistant” in fact in its formal launch — the company’s much anticipated iPhone app has arrived. There will [...]
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Q&A With Ann Smarty On Usability Planning & Website Iteration
Well-known seo consultant and search writer Ann Smarty recently launched a new project that many white hat seos have welcomed with open arms: My Blog Guest. The project helps seos find guest-blogging opportunities, and site owners to find bloggers to write for them. I sat down (virtually) with Ann and discussed the usability planning and [...]
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