Google A Advertising Monopoly?

Bam, with all the good news floating around these days, I was not much too happy to read the article on Bloomberg about President Obama's nominated Antitrust chief, Christine A. Varney, might be gunning for Google.
“For me, Microsoft is so last century. They are not the problem,” Varney said at a June 19 panel discussion sponsored by the American Antitrust Institute. The U.S. economy will “continually see a problem -- potentially with Google” because it already “has acquired a monopoly in Internet online advertising,” she said.
But Barney has also praised Google previously;
"The Mountain View, California- based company, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, is a “spectacular” innovator that became the dominant online advertiser through “terrific work,” Varney said. She also said Google had “lawfully” obtained its monopoly."
I for one will be watching this!
Bloomberg article takes you through her role in previous governments and anti trust case against Microsoft.

Tags: Christine A. Varney, Internet online advertising, Google, Google Advertising Monopoly, Lawful Monopoly, Microsoft anti trust case

Is Your SSL Web Transactions Secure? BlackHat Conference Says NO!

You may have seen the padlock mark on your browsers status bar when you visit a secure site that begins with HTTPS://. You know it is secure, you conduct you banking or ecommerce transaction because certificate provider like Verisign says that the session is secure. An independent hacker at Blackhat conference has shown otherwise.
Independent hacker Moxie Marlinspike demonstrated a number of ways the “chain of trust” intercepted during a SSL encrypted transaction at the Black Hat security conference in Washington DC.
Marlinspike claimed that by deploying attack using free software tool called “SSL Strip” on several secure websites such as PayPal, Gmail, Ticketmaster and Facebook, he garnered 117 email accounts, 16 credit card numbers, seven PayPal logins among many other secure logins.

Tags: Black Hat security conference, PayPal, Gmail, Ticketmaster and Facebook, hain of trust, SSLSNIFF, SSL STRIP, SSL WEB HACK

Google Maps Search Tweak Shows More Results Like "CoffeeShops In Berkeley"

Google Maps went through a small tweak recently to give you more results on a search conducted on a map. Previously Google Maps showed the top 10 results of a local search conducted. Now you see more results and to make the top ten distinct, Google places map makers on them, Others are shown as dots and may be closer to you or to a place you might be visiting later.
To test the feature, I searched for Coffee in Berkeley to see coffeeshops around UC Berkeley campus. Even though I know most of these coffeeshops, yet I found a new one on my walk / bike ride to the campus. But that might not stop me from going to Peet's Coffee.
I think this will attract more business a chance to be prommianant. Advertising on maps!

Google LatLong: 1000 is the new 10

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Tags: Advertising on maps, Google Maps, lat long advertising

Google Drops Radio Ads Too.

We noticed and reported that Google was getting out of print Ad business. I think it was a wise move and when there is no return from what you do, you move away to another place or drop the under performing enterprise.
So Google is dropping one other advertising ventures. Radio advertising. Google started Audio Ads and Google Radio Automation in 2006 to bring in revenue from / for broadcast radio, produce more relevant advertising for listeners and to streamline the process of buying and selling of radio ads.
But according to the post below, all is not lost as Google is selling off Radio Automation Business and plan to use the lessons learned will focused on online streaming audio. I for one looking forward to see what it will be.
Traditional Media: Let's Take it Offline: Google Exits Radio but Will Explore Online Streaming Audio

Tags: Ad business, Google Radio Automation, broadcast radio, Online Streaming Audio

Yahoo Search Pad, For Research Online

Yahoo launched their search pad which let you conduct research by taking notes while surfing the web. Search Pad allows you to cut and paste from various websites and once the note taking mode is enabled, most of these tasks are done automatically for you in the back ground. I think it will be a boom to people who write articles or engaged in making money via weblogs to gather the information to from all over the web to formulate a proper article.

(Search Pad is) a new feature we’re testing on Yahoo! Search that helps you keep track of websites and take notes whenever you do research online. It intelligently understands when you’re in research mode and, if you choose, collects information about the sites you visit. You can create research documents with saved websites, edit and reorder your personal notes, and share them with friends. No more handwritten scrawls, Post-Its or scattered documents. And you can access them from wherever you are.

Yahoo Search Pad is currently only in testing and is not visible to all users. Mean while you can get some information on the project from Yahoo blog.

Tags: yahoo, Yahoo search Pad

Google Punishes Google.JP And Drops PageRank!

I noticed this on Matt Cutts twitter, "Google.co.jp PageRank is now ~5 instead of ~9. I expect that to remain for a while." and after further investigation I found a post by Google Blogscoped, it is Google Punishing itself for link spam vis paid posts. Google.jp has recently gone hunting and buying blog posts in a promotion campaign. So when google says it is serious about paid posts on blogs, I guess, it is serious. (more info)

Tags: PageRank, paid posts, Matt Cutts, Google Blogscoped

Display Relevant Google News On Your Website

I usually start my web day with reading Google News among other news portals. But I am sure many of you start your day with your own website. In that case, Google has offered means for you to run Google news sidebar or a Google news widget on your site, saving you you few clicks. (In my case click home icon and then click news as my starter page is Google.)
You will also be able to focus on the segment of the news you want to read or know. Perhaps what your readers might be interested in like Sports, Business or entertainment. If you prefer, you can also select keywords releated to your website, like Advertising or The viral frontier, as I would chose.
All these are thanks to Google Ajax Search API and you can read their post or just run the wizard offered by the team. I learnt about it at the following link;
Official Google Blog: Add Google News to your website

Tags: Google News, Google Search, Google Ajax Search api, the viral frontier