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Google Decides to Fight Back Hard Against Viacom

posted on April 30, 2007

Google has filed an answer to Viacom’s copyright lawsuit and according to Rob Hof’s summary, the search engine is not taking any chances with its defense.

First up, Google contends Viacom’s suit goes against the principles of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

“By seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for Internet communications, Viacom’s complaint threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression.”

If that doesn’t work, Google’s next defense is the Safe Harbor provision…

“We actually got well above and beyond what the law tells us to do,” such as marking copyrighted files that have been taken down once, so they’re immediately taken down the next time they’re uploaded, and a 10-minute limit on uploaded videos, which prevents full TV episodes from even getting posted.

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First the iPod Now Comes iGoogle

posted on April 30, 2007

I just heard from Google that they’ve re-branded the Google Personalized Homepage to something less of a mouthful. It will now be known as iGoogle.

My first reaction was, what will Apple have to say about them “borrowing” the whole “i” brand. Then, I remembered that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, sits on the Apple board, so I’m sure it’s all approved.

Along with the new brand comes the launch of Google’s Gadget Maker which will allow even non-developers to create content for their personalized homepage.

According to Google, Gadget Maker currently offers seven templates to create the following types of gadgets:

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The Technorati 100 Not So Hot?

posted on April 30, 2007

Is it worth it to crack Technorati’s Top 100 Most Favorited Blogs? While the honor might be flattering, it may not be extremely useful to you or your blog. Amit Agarwal contends that the popular trend of “reciprocal favoriting” schemes have devalued the list:

It takes almost 150 votes to get on Technorati Favorites list and that number is easy to achieve once you participate in any these Technorati link exchange programs.

Amit says that the schemes are even beginning to displace long-seated Top 100ers:

Even Jeff Jarvis, John Battelle and Gawker are on the exit route though guys like Michael Arrington, Darron Rowse, Merlin Mann and Frank Warren are still way up in the Technorati ladder.

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Free Marketing Job Listings in May

posted on April 30, 2007

If you’re company is looking to fill an open marketing position, we’re offering free job listings on the Marketing Pilgrim Job Board from now until the end of May.

Simply use the coupon code “maypilgrim” for free listings!

So whether you need a new link ninja, copy wizard, analytics warrior, email sorcerer, or any other marketing super-hero, now is the time to list your job openings!

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Google Checkout Dives Without Consumer Coupons

posted on April 30, 2007

What happens to a PayPal rival’s market share, when the owner stops providing $10 and $30 coupons? This…

It goes to show, PayPal built its market share by powering e-commerce sites (and eBay sellers) that didn’t have access to a shopping cart and merchant account. Google, on the other hand, tapped big merchants (such as Buy.com) and used coupons to convince consumers to use Google Checkout. When the coupons stopped, the consumers simply went back to using the merchants existing shopping cart – myself included.

Via.

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Monday’s Linkorama and Site News!

posted on April 30, 2007

I know some of you haven’t yet subscribed to my Google Reader link blog. In fact of the 5000 of you who subscribe to this blog, only 50 of you care about the lonely links that wander aimlessly in cyber-space. Shame on you - you know who you are! :-)

Anyway, I’ve made it easier for you to read the link blog. I’ve embedded it on this Marketing Pilgrim page, and it even has its own RSS feed. How’s that for easy!

In the meantime, here’s some tasty morsels of news for you to digest over lunch…

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What the Heck is Google Hell?

posted on April 30, 2007

Ok, I have to admit that I didn’t realize we had labeled Google’s supplemental results as “Google Hell” – well actually Jim Boykin gave it the label - I must have been building my Zwinky avatar at the time.

Anyway, Boykin joins Aaron Wall and Michael Gray in explaining Google’s supplemental results to Forbes.

Two observations from the article.

  1. How can a consultant take a company’s $35k and “mistakenly” create duplicate content?
  2. If you’re hired as a company’s “vice president of search marketing” and you got burned by you link-building practices – costing your company $250k in sales – why would you want to tell the world and shouldn’t you be looking for a new career?

(in case you don’t read the article, neither of the two cases above are about Boykin, Wall or Gray).