Google Operating System reports that Google is planning a microblogging search engine that will let users search tweets and updates from other microblogging sites.
Much like Google Blog Search, Google's microblogging search service will sort the results by relevancy and it also be integrated with Google's web search engine: the keywords that are frequently used in recent posts will trigger a MicroBlogsearch universal search group.
On the plus side, a microblog search engine can return the latest information about an event or topic. On the negative side, there is the potential for the microblog services to become filled with spam and repetitive entries. The more popular they get the more likely that is. Filters can help with these problems and Google's microblogging search engine will likely implement multiple filters.
Loic Le Meur says he asked Google co-founder Larry Page what he though about Twitter search. Larry Page says he was always saying that Google needed real time search. He also says that now that Twitter is being used for search people at Google know they need to compete.
"I have always thought we needed to index the web every second to allow real time search. At first, my team laughed and did not believe me. With Twitter, now they know they have to do it. Not everybody needs sub-second indexing but people are getting pretty excited about realtime."
Twitter is very useful for realtime search but even more so than Google News and other news sources you tend to get the same information repeated over and over. The key will be who can provide the best filter or filters for the endless stream of current tweets and news.
Chris O'Brien at the Mercury News has an article about how Twitter's search tool could ultimately be a threat to Google.
Very quietly, one of Twitter's most powerful applications has become its ability to allow people to conduct real-time searches.
In fact, the motto posted on Twitter's search page (http://search.twitter.com) says, "See what's happening - right now." And many people do exactly that. During a live event or amid breaking news, a growing number of people are turning to Twitter search to follow the conversations among its users.
How much the behavior is growing is hard to say, since Twitter is privately held and doesn't release such figures. But the company thought enough of its potential to acquire a small New York company called Summize, a group of five engineers, which had built the Twitter search technology. Summize's site was folded into Twitter last summer.
Twitter's acquisition of Summize last year was a good move and greatly improved Twitter. The search tool can be very useful to find out about current events or breaking news although there have been complaints about a lack of more advanced queries. It doesn't really seem like much of a threat to Google's main search. It seems like more of a Technorati or Google Blog Search threat. It is potentially a threat to news searchers like Google News and Yahooo News if people decide to dump those tools in favor of Twitter's search.
Google's Blogger.com service suffered an unfortunate error over the weekend that marked some legitimate Blogger account as spam. These users marked as spammers were unable to use their accounts reports The Register.
Blogger.com emailed an apology to users on Saturday when access was restored.
The company said it was looking at extra monitoring and process checks to stop the mistake happening again.
One irate blogger said: "Google lost my trust yesterday. They'll have to work twice as hard to regain it due to their lack of acknowledgment of the problem."
Figures from Alexa.com found Blogger suffered more downtime in 2007 than any other Top 20 website.
There is an apology Blogger users posted here on Blogger Buzz titled "You Are Not Spam."
We want to offer our sincerest apologies to affected bloggers and their readers. We've tracked down the problem to a bug in our data processing code that locked blogs even when our algorithms concluded they were not spam. We are adding additional monitoring and process checks to ensure that bugs of this magnitude are caught before they can affect your data.
Google's Blogspot isn't the first social service to have its spam fighting efforts bring down legitimate users and it won't be the last. Twitter has also recently been suffering from similar problem as it tries to curb spam.
Google and MacFarlane Cut Web Video Distribution Deal
Google and Seth MacFarlane have cut a distribution deal that will send fifty short two-minute episodes of a MacFarlane-created show called Cavalcade screaming around Google's AdSense network. It's an interesting use of the AdSense network and one that is likely to garner Google new content partners if it is successful.
Silicon Alley Insider notes that Kim Malone Scott from Google Adsense boldly claims that Google has just "recreated the mass media." Silicon Alley Insider also notes that MacFarlane is wisely keeping his hefty Family Guy job with Fox.
Lots of interesting implications here for publishers, content creators and advertisers here if this takes off. Google's Kim Malone Scott, who runs sales for AdSense, modestly suggests "we have recreated the mass media."
But one thing isn't changing in the short term: If content creators want big paychecks, they had better stick with big media. MacFarlane's deal with Google is a side project, not one that will interfere with his day job working for Rupert Murdoch's Fox network. Good call: The Times notes that he's just signed a multiyear deal with Fox that will pay him more than $100 million.
It is certainly a unique deal and it will be fascinating to see how it all pans at both for Google and MacFarlane but also for the future of online video. Eric Berlin as Online Media Cultist reminds us that the "quality of the new show is obviously going to affect how popular it is, but more than likely that won't be a huge factor in the overall storyline." This is a good points because the public often surprises tv execs with what shows they love or hate. Unfortunately, sometimes shows people love are also canceled because of these same tv execs. How this all translates to online media remains to be seen.
Google AdSense - an advertising vehicle used by many bloggers - is updating its terms and conditions for publishers using Google AdSense. A post on the Google AdSense blog says the changes have to do with future products - that may be priced, paid, or managed differently than current products - and with privacy requirements - that punlishers notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons.
This time around, most of the changes to the Terms and Conditions fall into two broad categories: 1) future products and features and 2) privacy requirements. Specifically, one of the main changes is that the terms anticipate future products that may become available in other advertising formats and mediums, for example Gadget Ads. As we look forward to monetizing more online and offline content, we've re-worded some portions of the terms to make them applicable across a broader array of media and formats -- anticipating, for example, that future products may be priced, paid, or managed differently than current ones.
We've also added some specific requirements that make it necessary for publishers to post and abide by a transparent privacy policy that users see. According to this policy, publishers must notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad serving process. This change relates to advertisers' use of innovative products and features like Gadget Ads and other offerings in the future.
The AdSense also says Google has made "made small changes throughout" the terms and services so be sure to read the entire revised document. Publishers will see the new terms will they try to login to Google Adsense. Publishers have until May 25, 2008 to accept the new terms.
Google has added another blog to its growing list of corporate blogs. This blog called the Google Grants Blog helps charities learn how to make use of the Google Grants porgram. Google says its grants program has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.
When we launched the Google Grants program, we set out to harness the power of Google search to support organizations that share our philosophy of community service. Through the in-kind advertising awarded to grant recipients, organizations have been able to reach a wider audience for free with their messages. Since our debut early in 2003, the number of grant recipients has grown steadily, and we're excited to help even more of your good causes make a bigger impact on the world.
With more and more people looking for information and joining the program all the time, we want to make sure that we can answer your questions quickly and give you what you need to make your group more successful. So we're starting this blog as a place to read about the latest Google Grants news and information - whether you're a 501(c)(3) organization looking to join, or a current recipient who wants to learn how to make your campaigns more effective.
The charity ads will often show up on AdWords when Google does not have a targeted advertisement to show for a webpage. (via Philanthropy.com)
This is a clever and funny video that plays on the privacy concerns with Google's Maps Street View feature. Privacy concerns were raised when Google's cameras captured people and their thongs. There is a point at which Google's efforts to map our cities will have to stop. The tagline of the video is "Two young men take a turn down the wrong street view." (via Valleywag)
eWeek reports that Google is going to add blogs to its Universal Search alongside images, news, books, maps and videso. Google has been running Google Blogsearch as a seperate search engine. eWeek says Google will make the move to include blogs this week (which is nearly over) or next week.
Starting this week or next, queries on the leading search engine will return links to blogs alongside the images, news, books, local maps and video, Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, told eWEEK in a briefing at the company's headquarters here.
Blogs have been gaining significant momentum in the last couple of years, fueled by everything from fascinating news revelations to gossipy snipes. The inclusion of blogs as a genre on Universal Search is a nod to their growing number and ability to get people to go online to find content, which is what Google is all about.
Universal Search is the fruit of a five-year effort involving hundreds of engineers working to refine the company's search algorithms and add multimedia content to its search returns to give users richer results.
It's a logical move for Google or any search engine that wants to provide current and relevant information for it users. Frequently updated blogs tend to contain news about what is happening right now. That's often just the kind of information people are searching for. Blogs have always been indexed by Google so it will be interesting to see how much more exposure this will give blogs and what the search results will look like.
Here is a video explaining what Google's Universal Search is all about. (hat tip Jim Kukral).
Google has a post explaining the addition of subscriber numbers to its Google Reader service.
There's been a lot of discussion this weekend about the subscriber counts that have recently appeared in Reader's search results. Leaderboards have been drawn up, numbers are being compared and in some cases there's confusion as to how these numbers compare with other subscriber metrics. Additionally, we've made changes (some as recently as today) as to how counts are being calculated. This is probably going to be pretty boring unless you're a feed publisher, but we thought it would be best to explain things a bit. Here are the various numbers you may come across, and what they all mean:
Google subscriber counts: These numbers include subscribers across all Google services, including Reader, iGoogle, and Orkut. You can see them in Reader's feed search results (pictured below) and the Google Webmaster Tools. Additionally, our crawler reports them to the publisher each time we fetch the feed. Reader's feed search was recently showing stale and incomplete data, but as of today (October 15) the numbers should be the same everywhere.
Mashable notes that feeds that have been included in one of the feed bundles on Google Reader tend to have the highest subscriber figures. That's probably true with any news reader that offers bundles. People are more likely to add one of the bundles which auto-subscribes them to all the feeds in the bundle. However, these readers won't necessarily become regular readers of all the feeds contained in the bundle - they may never even read a single one of the feeds. Still it would sure be nice to have your feed offered in one of the bundles. Mashable says the best way for that to happen is "by striking a deal with the feedreader company or being friends with the owner." Some of the same feeds have been bundled on Google Reader for quite a while. It would be nice if Google Reader and some of the other feed bundlers would mix it up a little bit and give other feeds a chance to be King for a while.
The New York Timesreports on Google's clever plans to turn its very popular YouTube video sharing service into a video syndication service.
The Internet search giant is expected to introduce a service on Tuesday to allow Web sites in its ad network to embed relevant videos from some YouTube content creators. A Web site or blog specializing in hiking, for instance, might choose to embed hiking videos from YouTube.
The service, which represents the first major combination of a Google product with YouTube, will give video creators wide distribution beyond YouTube via Google's network, known as AdSense. Since the videos will be surrounded by ads, the service is another way for Google to cash in on the huge number of video clips stored on YouTube.
Several other networks distribute videos and ads on the Web, but none reach as many Web sites as AdSense.
Google said it would share revenue from the ads with the creators of the videos and with the Web sites that embed them, though it declined to specify what percentage of the revenue will be kept by each party.
If the television networks aren't going to turn website into syndication channels Google will it seems. For now these are generally just very short video clips but in the future full television shows could be syndicated in a similar manner.
Google has an introductory post about the new video units here. There is also a faq. The faq says the ads in the video units will be both pay-per-click and CPM based. It says reporting will be different for these ads than other AdSense ads. Website owners can select video content by selecting specific categories or by choosing a specific provider.
This will be a big deal for video publishers. Google says AdSense publishers can select specific providers so video publishers will be trying to get AdSense users to syndicate their videos. NewTeeVee has a short list of who some of the early video content providers are.
Read/WriteWeb says Google is expected to expand the number of video providers -- currently only a few YouTube user channels are being syndicated.
Ads have been run along side a very select few user channels on the YouTube site for a handful of months but these reports indicate that the program will be made much wider and be taken off of the site all around the web.
Here is an explanatory video from Google about their video units.
Google News Now Hosting Stories From Wire Services
Google continues to show signs that it is becoming more of a media company. First there was the addition of special comments to stories appearing on Google News. Now Reuters reports that Google has cut a deal with four wire services to host their stories on Google.com.
Google is playing host to articles from four news agencies, including The Associated Press, the company said Friday, setting the stage for it to generate advertising revenue from Google News.
The news agencies - the Press Association of Britain, Canadian Press, Agence France-Presse and The A.P. - now have their articles featured with the organizations’ own brands on Google News. The companies have agreed to license news feeds to Google.
The five-year-old Google News service previously searched the Web to uncover links to news articles from thousands of sources, and clustered links on similar subjects together.
Josh Cohen, business product manager of Google News, said his company would consider eventually running advertising alongside the agencies' articles.
What will this mean for blogs with numerous AP and Reuters stories now basically being contained as "one story" on Google News? It could be good in a way because it sort of ties all that competition off as a single source. On the other hand most blogs are not featured in Google News results anyway.
Mathew Ingram and others here, here, here and here are correct that the real story here is the trouble this causes the daily newspapers which were already struggling.
The Reuters story mentions this as well.
Because of Google's campaign to simultaneously reduce duplicate articles, the original wire service article is likely to be featured in Google News instead of versions of the same article from newspaper customers, sapping ad revenue to those newspapers.
Any website relying on wire services as a main source of their content could be in trouble as newspapers and wire services start competing more and more with each other. On another note CNN recently ended a 27-year agreement with Reuters. That may just be another sign that things are changing.
A BBC article says hungreds of Blogger blogs have been spammed with short posts containing a link to booby-trapped downloads that can be used to take over a Windows PC.
Security researcher Alex Eckelberry from Sunbelt Software first noticed the booby-trapped links turning up on Blogger on 27 August.
Now many hundreds of blogs on the site have been updated with a short entry containing the link.
Mr Eckelberry said it was not yet clear how the links were posted to blogs. The bogus entries could have exploited a Blogger feature that lets users e-mail entries to their journal.
The blogs themselves could also be fake and set up solely to act as hosts for spam.
The article says Google has yet to respond to the numerous unwanted blog posts appearing on Blogger blogs. Mashable says the entries are being posted to some of Blogger's many spam blogs. Google needs to regain control of Blogger's spam problems before confused web surfers are taken advantage of by these spammers.
Google has announced the launch of its embeddable maps feature that makes it easy to post a map on a blog or website.
Today we're excited to announce a new feature on Google Maps that allows you to add maps to your blog or website just by copying and pasting a snippet of HTML. And once you embed the map, it has all the same functionality of the Google Maps you know and love; it's clickable, draggable, and zoomable.
Adding a map to your website or blog is now as easy as embedding a YouTube video. No programming skills are required, and there's no need to sign up for a Maps API key.
Embedding the code is easy to do. You just look for the "Link to this page" on the top right-hand corner of Google Maps and then cut and paste the code. Here is a map of New York City as an example. The embeddable maps offer many of the the same features found at maps.google.com website.
Google Maps Mania says geo searches are also embeddable. As we mentioned before there are a lot of potential uses of this service such as providing a map on a travel-related entry or posting directions to a concert or conference.
APC reports that Google is going to be launching an embed feature for Google Maps that will make it as easy to embed in your blog as a YouTube video clip.
Google Australia this morning showed a new iteration of Google Maps, launching about a week from now.
First up, if you know how to embed a YouTube video in your blog, you'll be able to embed Google Maps in your website, Google promises.
It'll be as simple as cutting and pasting a bit of HTML code into your website, just like a YouTube video.
The embedded maps have the full functionality of Google Maps -- they provide satellite view, map view or hybrid view, and users can click and drag the maps around.
To embed a Google Map, you pull up the map you want to embed--it can be a location, a business, series of driving directions, or a My Map you've created--and then click "Link to this page" and copy and paste the HTML into your website or blog. The embedded map will be fully interactive--you can drag and click or zoom in on a location, and view it in map, satellite, and hybrid modes,
This sounds like it could be a great feature for blogs. If you are talking about an event such a concert or conference an embeddable map could keep the viewer on your site while they use the map. They would also be useful for current events to pinpoint the location. It would be useful to have a map to show visitors when blogging about breaking news events like the Minnesota bridge collapse or the trapped Utah coal miners story. The maps would also obviously be very useful for travel blogs.
Update 8-15-07: Google Operating System discusses a couple services that already let you embed Google Maps: Map Generator and My Maps Plus.
Google Operating System 
Loic Le Meur 
Chris O'Brien at the Mercury News has an 
Google's Blogger.com service suffered an unfortunate error over the weekend that 
Google and Seth MacFarlane have cut a 
Google AdSense - an advertising vehicle used by many bloggers - is updating its terms and conditions for publishers using Google AdSense. A 
Google has added another blog to its growing list of corporate blogs. This blog called the 
Google has a 
Google continues to show signs that it is becoming more of a media company. First there was the addition of 