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Google Local, Definitions, & Registrar
A few Google bits in the bin this morning starting with Philipp Lenssen writes "Google Local has now moved to the Google homepage. The service, while still in beta, has been around for quite a while as one of many Google tools in the Google labs."
Mr. Anonymous noted that "In the past, when you clicked the [definition] link after a Google search, you'd be taken to the Dictionary.com page for the word. Now, Google has jumped aboard GuruNet's Answers.com, which not only provides definitions, but encyclopedia articles, etymology, medical defnitions, legal definitions, and word translations all on one page."
And lastly, several folks noted that Google has moved into the Domain Registrar Biz which we mentioned monday.
I can definally see google hosting happening now... So many other rumors like the VOIP and the "GooGLeOS".. The hosting one seems it could be legit, expecially now since they are domain guys now.
My Blog
They're going to use the expired domain information they'll receive as a registrar to cancel previous pagerank.
I have used google local for a while now, and I have to say that it has performed great, usually giving accurate results. There was this one time however where it gave a wrong location, and I was prepared to walk about a mile or two to get there, before I called the actual place and confirmed it. Google's stuff, even when in "Beta" has worked great 99% of the time for me, especially gmail.
I, and many other folks, recently got set to having 50 invites left. While before it was already close to true that anyone that wanted one could find one, it is now REALLY true.
Seems their "beta" stuff works better than the first, or even second revision of released code from some other company...
It's almost like google want to be the central repository of all knowledge. I'm no expert, but could this lead to 'problems' down the line similar to the way Microsoft have cornered the PC market.
Total information domination. Might lead to the 'all information has a cost' thingy people shout about from time to time.
Paid for services - no money, no info.
It's all part of the Google Grid.
Sinch
How about this? google personals... mostly for gurus (and slashdotters).
Ehy... that is not bad.. do you think I can be hired in google now?
I sincerely hope that google breathes new life into the locality domains for the US. The use of domains such as computers.boulder.co.us or flowers.boaz.al.us would do a lot for partitioning the flood of information that now exists on the Net.
Imagine the possibilities of the supporting searches such as "pizza site:atlanta.ga.us". And actually getting pizza places in the area? Top that with a simple UI on Googles page and the ability to add your local to firefox's url box (typing pizza tries pizza.atlanta.ga.us first)
If this becomes or is already a part of their plan, I'd pay a premium. The flattening of the DNS namespace is to me the second most tragic side effect of the Internet's adoption. The first of course being spam.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
I don't imagine this has anything to do with MS putting a local search ("Near Me") on their new search.msn.com, would it?
I don't even live in a particularly large city, and I have been regularly using Google local to find businesses. If you're not really sure what it's for, here is what I have used it to find: nearest branch locations, taxi services, pizza order lines, etc.
I think at the moment, putting the suggest on the main front page would put a large strain on the system.
Granted its a strong network, but its certainly not invulnerable. gmail has knocked itself out a few times, and recently the DOS and associated splattering in the media took them off the map for a day ("clicky, "is it back up yet?", "dang! no", clicky, clicky, clicky, "nope, still not working")
I guess one or two of the PHDs at google have crunched the numbers and found out how much bandwidth would be required/wasted for this very nice feature.
There is also the thinking that using a dictionary search will increase hits on those sites listed in the keywords at the detriment to other possibly more relivant sites.
I think the best compromise at the moment is the "did you mean xyz" suggestion for possible spelling errors after a search.
For you, just change your homepage, then you get it always.
liqbase
It'd be fairly slick to see those street maps generated by Google local make use of actual satellite imagery, wouldn't it?
Well, one thing I haven't seen on Slashdot (although it's possible that it was reported and I missed the story) is that Google changed the way they do links. It used to be simply a direct link to the page or item. Now, it's a Google referral link that looks like this:
/ ww w.skyloop.org/cals/rebuttal/01-4-Have-I-Built-Anyt hing-JEA.pdf&e=7152
http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http:/
What's wrong with that? Well, the above link is a PDF. If you click it, it opens in your browser. What if you want to save the PDF for later use? You used to be able to right click the link, click "Save Link as..." and save the file to your desktop. (That's using Windows OS and IE.) Now, doing that gives you a little text file with the link inside. There's no easy way to download a copy of the file vice opening it in the default application.
And before I get a crapload of suggestions, keep in mind that I'm at work, on a government computer. I'm not allowed to change the default behavior of Adobe, install wget or Firefox or any other programs, and I'm certainly not allowed to change the OS. If there's an easy way to grab the file on a locked down machine, please point it out. If not, is there a search engine that returns just straight links? I download product manuals and similar documents fairly regularly, and it's now become a PITA to do.
When I saw my 50, I started handing them out to the gmail o matic, its easy, paste the address, invite, repeat. no fake name creation or clicking 'invite another', just keep pasting and hitting enter. its nice.
eventually everyone will have one and they'll launch gmessenger.
For context, click Parent.
I put together this site a while ago that tracks blog postings (for all major services that ping blo.gs), tries to parse out nouns, and then displays the top 100 nouns encountered in the last hour scaled by frequency.
Google is almost always a big one.
http://www.stevex.org/longtail/hottopics.aspx
I just renewed my domain Tuesday. I'd have done it with Google if I could have.
I mod down pyramid schemes in sigs.
Ever wonder what happens when you drop a Google ad? Your sites completely disappear from the Google search results.
Is there a Googopoly game to reflect their monopoly status yet? I'll bet Google determines the rules.
Anyone notice that some of the google spiders report like Mozilla User Agent strings. Could it be that Google plans to shift some of the marketshare through it's bot army?
This is totally bogus. Google advertising per se doesn't affect the search results at all - this is stated over and over again in the AdWords terms of service and I can personally attest that it doesn't happen. It's possible that the added popularity of a site advertised in AdWords could affect a site's search ranking if other people started to refer to it, but the effect certainly wouldn't be immediate.
"FUD" I name thee!