Search Engine Optimization News Blog

Last week a phishing scheme hit Twitter - the first large scale hit on Twitter. People were receiving emails to go and check out a story. The emails took them to a ‘Twitter login page’, and their usernames and passwords were being captured. Fortunately, Twitter acted quickly to resolve the problem, and the damage was quite limited and contained. Another story that made headlines was the hacking of Twitter accounts belonging to people like Barack Obama, also quickly dealt with.

Facebook also recently received a visit from phishers - wall requests have been going out and many people’s friends lists being targeted for false emails. MySpace has been hit over and over by phishing scams and other hacks - social networks are reeling.

There is an easy fix however - simply be paranoid. Any emails you get , double check the URL of the page they send you to - and if it seems the least bit off, go to your social site by means of a trusted favorites tab or bookmark, or by typing the URL directly.

Phishing for email addresses and other info is getting more and more popular once again, as people spread out on the web and become more open to attack. Deliberate attacks rose in 2008 to twice what they had been in past years, despite vigilant attempts by Google and others to decrease the amount of spam. Continual vigilance is the only true answer.

Increasing adult content on the internet has raised concerns of the internet community. China has voiced out this concern and it has cornered Google and 18 more websites for their irresponsible behavior in this regard. These major internet players have not done anything to curb this menace from the internet. China is pressurizing these internet giants to take positive steps towards filtering the sexual content from the internet searches.

China has recommended that if websites promote vulgar content, they should be penalized and if the fail to comply with the norms, they should be taken for task and they should be shut down. This kind of reaction though have come from various quarters at different points of time, it is this time China’s voice has exhibited such great aggression in their stand regarding vulgar content online. In China, such sites are illegal but at the same time, it has one of the largest number of porn sites. For this reason, they are exhorting the internet giants to take internet censorship seriously and filter websites that contain vulgar content.

Chinese authorities have clearly listed the transgressions of the websites that they have identified are supposedly ignoring the internet censorship. Their report also states that Google image search is one of the major sources of vulgar sites. Google seemingly has not taken any action in this regard even after several notices to the company. In China, Baidu is the top search engine and Google follows Baidu.

To defend itself Google has stated that, there are “clear policies to protect freedom of expression while not allowing illegal content on our sites in China and elsewhere around the world”.  However, Google has admitted that it has not taken proactive steps to filter vulgar content. On the other hand, it uses automatic filters to take care of the websites that are of adult nature.

The Chinese government is very clear about its internet policies and what should be made accessible to their citizens. Besides filtering adult content users are also stopped from accessing anti communist content and policies or content that celebrate democracy. Chinese government also has its own filtering system to monitor and filter the internet content. China does not stop blaming the internet giants for allowing adult content in their searches, but they also take decisive steps against people who do not comply with the rules. These actions also include arrests.

The question however, is it just the problem of China or is it a global issue that everyone should take part to stop vulgar and adult material from spreading across the web. One of the problems here is that the search engines cannot possibly differentiate between adults and children. So whatever is accessible to adults is also accessible to children. This can eventually result in lot of social problems in a few years time if not curbed now.

Google currently uses stemming, as described by the company itself:

Word variations (stemming)

Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for pet lemur dietary needs, Google will also search for pet lemur diet needs, and other related variations of your terms. Any variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.

 

A statistical model patent has been applied for that would be even more complex. If question and answer pairs are closely examined, one after another by the thousands, and also query and snippet pairs, a pattern may emerge that can shed light on what people search for and how they phrase their queries. Results that have been selected and viewed more frequently and/or longer by people who searched using those query terms may indicate that those snippets are more relevant for the query term searched with.

Phrase and paraphrase pairs such as “How to ship a dog” or “How to transport a dog” are phrases that can be translated easily from one language to another and back again without losing the key meaning. Synonyms are a large part of the concept behind search query anticipation.

Misspellings are also being addressed - Google will often ask you if you meant something else, provide a mixed batch of results, or simply pre-empt your query and provide the results it is fairly certain you are looking for. A search for madona will in all likelihood bring up a blend of results ranging from famous art to the pop star.

If you search for a query that includes the word “automobile” and the word “car” produces very relevant results as well, then that kind of query expansion is bound to become more popular. Expect to see more ‘stemming’ and expansion of query strings in 2009.

Google has always something brewing in its labs to attract more users and to increase its market share. As of now Google has the largest market in the search industry. Its other competitors are trailing behind and all their efforts are of no avail when compared to this internet giant. One of the latest in the Google labs is the timeline view of the search results. This was in the Google labs for quite some time and it was part of opt-in experiment. Now this feature is available in the main searches of Google.com.

Using this timeline view we will be able to get the search results displayed according to the timeline. All entries are arranged according to chronology. We will also be able to get the historical data on the searches. If you make searches using terms such as Thomas Jefferson, you will be able to see how the results are arranged.

This feature will be highly helpful for those who are making researches and writing academic papers that concentrates on historical data. Along with the timeline view, graphical representation of the data is also presented making it a cool function to try. When we click the link for more timeline results from the main search results page, we will be able to get further historical data.

According to Google reports, the historical data is retrieved from the news archive section of Google search. When Google makes the books and newspapers searchable online with its book library, we should be able to get better results for the timeline searches. We are not sure whether Google is planning to use integrate the timeline view to the data in Google library. However, it would make more sense if Google were to do that because there is so much of data that is being uploaded which can be put to use.

However, as of now the timeline data is retrieved from their news archive section. It provides easy access to Google’s historical data store. While others are just thinking of fighting the competition, its Google that always manages to surprise its users with its innovative projects. Probably that is one of the reasons that make Google the global leader not only for the search industry but in also other areas of the internet features.
Using the timeline view you can get timeline results not only for people’s history but also for events and ideas. Google is yet to fine tune this feature. This will be a highly faster way to gather information when it comes to gathering data and compiling information in historical fashion.
Google also gets the data from the partner sites as well as from its own archive. Some of the search results are freely accessible whereas the others may be accessible for a fee. Users can decide whether they like to access paid data or free data based on their need.

Matthäus Krzykowski and Daniel Hartmann of VentureBeat have managed to get the Asus netbook fully up and running on Android. They even installed nearly all of the necessary hardware including graphics, sound and wireless card for Internet connection. It only took them four hours.

This prototype shows that it can be done; that Android is powerful enough to run on a larger computer. Many people now say that Android netbooks are going to be the next big thing - in the struggling economy a $400 price tag beats an $800 one anytime!

Kryskowski and Hartmann argue that an Android netbook could hit the market in just a few months. Cooperation and collaboration would of course be needed between the device makers and carriers in the Open Handset Alliance. The duo pointed out:

As we evaluate the progress of the various OHA projects, we expect conditions for a mass-market netbook to ripen in 2010, rather than in 2009. Right now a variety of OHA members, announced and unannounced, are working on projects to set up a sufficient ecosystem…. The fact that various OHA partners have already developed Android enough to easily work on our netbook may be considered evidence enough that Google is getting increasing buy-in from industry players to realize this vision.

The programmers said Android has an operating system direction for MIDs or mobile Internet devices, which include netbooks, and that Intel already had the right drivers for MID chips in place. They say 2010 is when we should expect mass rollout of Android netbooks, but 2009 remains a possibility if programmers can replicate Android on netbooks quickly and there are no major bugs.

Kryskowski and Hartmann also commented:

Imagine the billion dollar market at stake here if Google can make good on this vision. Netbooks are basically small-scale PCs. For Silicon Valley myriad of software companies, it means a well-backed, open operating system that is open and ripe for exploitation for building upon. Now think of Chrome, Google’s Web browser, and the richness it allows developers to build into the browser’s relationship with the desktop — all of this could usher in a new wave of more sophisticated Web applications, cheaper and more dynamic to use.

And the programmers also wonder what this will mean for Microsoft. Android and other Linux developments are way ahead of Microsoft Windows in netbook applications.