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Last week, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy announced a distribution partnership.

What did they decide?

Google's toolbar will be bundled into downloads of the Java Runtime Environment and Sun's Java will be used to power new software developed and released by Google.

Google might also include links to Sun software that directly competes with Microsoft software such as the Open Office suite in future updates of its toolbar.

This is probably only the first step in Google's and Sun's battle against Microsoft. Google wants to win more market share on the desktop of computer users and it wants to move computer applications from the desktop to the Internet.

Google has also recently filed a new patent that indicates that Google is working on a way to constantly monitor all of your actions in order to build personalized search queries.

According to the patent specification, Google aims to monitor whatever you type in your word processor, the things you copy to your clipboard, the position of your mouse, the content of your emails, instant messenger messages and more.

If Google has access to Sun's free Open Office suite, it might be easier to do that. By gathering as much information about you as possible, Google can offer you personalized search results and - more important to Google - personalized ads.

What does this mean to you?

It seems that many of Google's recent "free" applications mainly serve the purpose of gathering more data about you for Google so that Google can monetize that information for targeted ads.

If you use many different Google services, you share a lot of information with Google. It's up to you to decide if you're willing to exchange private information for "free" software and services.

This distribution partnership is probably only the start. It's likely that we can expect a lot more from this alliance between these two online giants.

"Google Inc. has quietly patched a potentially dangerous security flaw in two of its business-facing services after a private security research outfit warned that malicious hackers could exploit the bug to hijack sensitive user information."

"The only working feature on the fake Google Toolbar saves credit card details, according to Christopher Boyd, the security research manager of Foster City, Calif.-based FaceTime Security Labs."

Yahoo tests blog search tool

" Yahoo has revamped its news search tool to grab material from thousands of blogs in addition to headlines from 6,500 newspapers and magazines."

Yahoo adds Podcast search

"Yahoo Inc. [...] launched in beta a podcast search service, heightening the web portal's competition with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music service. Yahoo Podcasts enables consumers to search a directory of 10s of thousands of the audio programs."

MSN AdCenter pilot

"Now, as we prepare to launch the US pilot of MSN adCenter, we need your help in getting your friends and family to apply to participate in the self-service offering for small-to-medium businesses."

Search engine newslets

• Google releases the Google Reader for news feeds.
• FTC asks court to shut spyware firm with fake Google and Yahoo sites.
• 'UnGoogleables' hide from search.
• Yahoo adds a French translation tool.
• Google's Sergey Brin: the video lecture (RealPlayer video).
  

"Next time you tap a phrase into the Google toolbar on your browser, think what you're revealing to one of America's biggest corporations.

Whether you Googled for Paris Hilton, a stock tip or a gift for Mom, you've opened a window on your life to a company with a market value of $92 billion, the 22nd largest in the United States.

Yahoo CEO belittles Google's expansion

"Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel belittled rival Google Inc.'s recent efforts to expand beyond its leading Internet search engine, describing the diversification as a haphazard attempt to catch up with his company."

Look what you can find on Google

"A free software program on the Internet is causing a buzz among map collectors and military buffs but is giving security experts sleepless nights.
The esplanade with its distinctive twin domes can be seen clearly in this picture."

Google ETA? 300 years to index the world's info

"It could take 300 years to index all the world's information and make it searchable, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt predicted on Saturday at the Association of National Advertisers annual conference here."

An interview with Google's Matt Cutts

"If you're doing whitehat SEO, the same principles will apply going forward: make a great site (e.g. that provides a useful service or relevant information) and think of creative ways for people to find out about it."

"I used software by a well known company for years and all was okay until this year when all of a sudden our web site dropped off the number 1 spot on Google - in particular, our loans page appeared to vanish overnight.

We used our original software to try and optimise our site but the reports were complicated - by chance, we saw IBP on Google.com and downloaded the trial version to evaluate it.

We initially thought what is the point of buying this and having a similar product to what we already have but believe me, having a proggie which reports in easy to understand English is a real big bonus.

We went ahead and purchased the Standard version of IBP which suits the number of projects we want to cover (5 in total).

We then 'played' around with the software to get a feel for it - you know what its like, new piece of software and afraid of touching the wrong key on your keyboard - with IBP, its not like that, every facility IBP offers, you are guided through the whole process by way of advice on the page or clicking boxes for a run down on what a particular field is about.

Whilst not being a newbie to SEO, to be quite frank, up until this last fortnight, all SEO stuff baffled me - it was a total load of jargon ... since using IBP to try and find out what is wrong with our site both on-page and off-page factors, both myself and my husband have really gotten to grips with all things SEO.

We are not experts by any means but when first running through each section of IBP, the various aspects of both on-page optimisation and off-page optimisation have become exceedingly clear and simple.

We haven't quite finished our current project yet but the steps we have taken to improve the first part of our SEO have been amazing - running reports on our newly optimised home page against our competition shows that we are getting the initial search engine optimisation right.

As with anything SEO, all sites require on-going maintenance and we use IBP to help with this - we are not quite ready to upload our new home page plus the other internal web pages which we are about to optimise and when we do, our next course of action will be the off-page optimisation, getting the links in with Link Popularity Improver.

IBP provides ALL the SEO tools you will ever need - both the software and the help pages of their manual are the most clear and easy to understand of any SEO software we have used.

In the past, we produced our pages using simple common sense combined with muddling along - we kept our fingers crossed that we were doing things right and simply by chance for a couple of years, we were - then, as mentioned, things went wrong, we dropped out of range in Google.

From this, we have learned important lessons, don't just simply sit back and watch your web site in the number 1 spot on Google as someone is bound to come along and knock you off it because they have better optimised their site than you.

Also, monitor your pages not just for what your competitors are doing but from the point of view that any changes Google makes to its algorithm, IBP will pick up and advise on in the appropriate reports - this year, although it is too technical for me, I understand Google has made a few changes to the way in which it shows positions of web sites.

So, in a nutshell, I changed to IBP because it does what it says it will - the whole process from start to finish is the most easy to get to grips with of any software on the market - my next investment will more than likely be Arelis but that will be when my linking strategies get big - at the moment IBP can quite comfortably handle what I want."
Jane Newman, Webmaster Credit Solutions 4 All.co.uk

 

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