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Purchase Links or Build Website Networks?

posted on November 28, 2007

For a long time now Google’s Matt Cutts has made it clear that purchasing links will become a hazardous business both for the link seller and the link purchaser. Recently Google has cracked down on the sale of links for the intention of selling link popularity and to that end has penalized a number of well-known sites and site networks. This penalty has caused those sites to lose much of their PageRank, especially what shows within the Google toolbar. This has reduced the marketable value of the links coming from the penalized websites and in many cases also cost the purchasers a lot of money for links that most likely will not accomplish what they formerly did.

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GDrive Pending Once Again?

posted on November 27, 2007

As Andy mentioned this morning, it looks like Google might have “unscrapped” their plans for “GDrive,” an online file storage service. Last July we first reported on the pending plans, but there was no real news again until August of this year, when it looked like Google was giving up the dream. And then the Wall Street Journal got ahold of the story, and it’s tearing up the airwaves bandwidth again.

Google is preparing a service that would let users store on its computers essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives — such as word-processing documents, digital music, video clips and images, say people familiar with the matter. The service could let users access their files via the Internet from different computers and mobile devices when they sign on with a password, and share them online with friends. It could be released as early as a few months from now, one of the people said.

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Open Web Awards Nominations: Social Search

posted on November 27, 2007

As we mentioned earlier today, we’re now collecting your nominations for the Open Web Awards. This is your chance to nominate–and ultimately vote–for your favorite social networking sites.

Next up, we’re seeking your nominations for the best “Social Search.”

What type of site does that cover? Well, where do you search when you want the input of others? Are you a fan of Eurekster, Yahoo Answers, or Wink? Heck, it’s a broad category, so you could also nominate, ZoomInfo, Technorati, or Bloglines. Those would all be good examples.

To make your nomination simply leave a comment below with the following format:

NOMINATE – [site name here]

Please do put “nominate” in all caps, so we can spot your nomination more easily. Please, only one nomination per person, per category. Deadline for nominations is noon EST Tuesday December 4th.

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Open Web Awards Nominations: Social News & Social Bookmarking

posted on November 27, 2007

As we mentioned earlier today, we’re now collecting your nominations for the Open Web Awards. This is your chance to nominate–and ultimately vote–for your favorite social networking sites.

Next up, we’re seeking your nominations for the best “Social News & Social Bookmarking.”

What type of site does that cover? Well, where do you like to share your favorite links? Are you a fan of Digg, StumbleUpon, or del.icio.us? Those would be good choices.

To make your nomination simply leave a comment below with the following format:

NOMINATE – [site name here]

Please do put “nominate” in all caps, so we can spot your nomination more easily. Please, only one nomination per person, per category. Deadline for nominations is noon EST Tuesday December 4th.

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Open Web Awards Nominations: Mainstream & Large Scale Networks

posted on November 27, 2007

As we mentioned earlier today, we’re now collecting your nominations for the Open Web Awards. This is your chance to nominate–and ultimately vote–for your favorite social networking sites.

First up, we’re seeking your nominations for the best “Mainstream & Large Social Networks.”

What type of site does that cover? Well, you’ve got to think big! Are you a fan of MySpace, Facebook, or Beebo? Those would be good choices.

To make your nomination simply leave a comment below with the following format:

NOMINATE – [site name here]

Please do put “nominate” in all caps, so we can spot your nomination more easily. Please, only one nomination per person, per category. Deadline for nominations is noon EST Tuesday December 4th.

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MySpace to Launch News Feeds a la Facebook

posted on November 27, 2007

MySpace is working on a News Feed feature of its own, reminiscent of Facebook’s own feature, Reuters reports. And while Fox Interactive Media President Peter Levinsohn told Reuters the time line was 30-45 days, Michael Arrington reports that they’re coming a bit sooner than that. Try Thursday—except in Ireland and New Zealand, where they’ve already been testing it.

MySpace Friends UpdatesArrington has screenshots (right) of the eerily-familiar-looking mock up of the feed, which will be called Friends Updates. (Cryptic, I know.)

MySpace is prepared to thwart the potential backlash. If you don’t recall, over 100,000 people signed a petition against Facebook’s news feeds (no idea how many have signed the petition against Project Beacon/Social Ads).

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Google’s Renewable Energy Dreams

posted on November 27, 2007

Today’s press conference with Google was big on dreams but short on details. It had an all-encompassing feel but it was difficult to pin down. Google spends a lot of energy and cash running data centers. They have a social conscience. They also have a huge economic incentive to save money. Since they do have a more progressive outlook, they hope their solutions can save more than money – but save the planet. Ambitious isn’t it.

Google.org working with funds from Google.com stock are expanding their reach to develop renewable technology – specifically solar thermal, wind, and geothermal energy. They’ve already done a lot in this area and they want to not only continue but expand what they’ve done. The message really is: cheap, clean energy for the masses. They see this as a driving force to development and for helping solve problems of poverty and climate change.