Healthy Blog Reviews

If you were using Chrome, you’d already know what that headline means. (Okay, probably not.) Chrome is integrating a translation tool in its latest beta version. If you browse across a site that’s not in your default language, it’ll offer to translate it for you. Which may or may not help you understand it . (Since this page is in English, it probably won’t help you with the title. Sorry.) Other improvements in this edition of Chrome include better access to your privacy settings. The translation tool will use Google Translate. While machine translation is growing by leaps and bounds, however, it may not be enough to help you understand the page. We’ve seen many times that, like all machine translation, Google Translate isn’t a perfect tool—and many times, it can’t even convey the gist of the page. I gave it another shot this time around. This one was pretty good ( original ): The Basque Government has approved in the Board meeting today, the order of the Minister of Interior, Rodolfo Ares, laying down the aid, equivalent to six months of unemployment benefits, to be received by women victims of violence gender with the goal of independence from her abuser can and facilitate their social inclusion. This one was pretty funny ( original ): Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, who a year and half ago signed a EUR 390 million to acquire Villa Leopolda, the world’s most expensive house, you lose more than 40 million by backing down on the operation. The Russian, also gave birth to a fortune in the nickel industry that Forbes magazine estimated at some 9,500 million, tried to give up buying the house and recover the deposits of 39 million that conducted by the spectacular home located in Riviera, southeastern France. But the High Court of Nice has ruled against the billionaire and friend of Mikhail Abramovich, owner of Chelsea soccer team, lose the money advanced before the final agreement. (Sorry about the 40M Euros you just lost.) But, hey, that’s some of the best work we’ve seen, considering that just over a year ago when Google Reader added the service , they didn’t even try to translate 38% of the posts we looked at, and another 38% didn’t make enough sense to get the gist. So let’s see the progress over time (Blogger Gabriel Campanario’s original English version ): Google Reader translation, 11 Nov 2008 The last time I drew one of these kiosks to buy you a coffee without getting in the car was not stopped anyone to buy anything. But this time I was lucky and it went through two cars, which is in the parking lot of North Sound Vineyard Church. Google Docs translation, 29 Aug 2009 The last time I drew one of these kiosks to buy a coffee without get off the car did not stop anyone to buy anything. But this time I was lucky and two cars passed by it, which is in the parking lot of North Sound Vineyard Church. Google Chrome translation (via Google Translate), 2 Mar 2010 The last time I drew one of these kiosks to buy a coffee without download car did not stop anyone to buy anything. But this time I was lucky and two cars passed by it, which is in the parking lot of North Sound Vineyard Church. Is it just me, or are we suddenly regressing? What do you think? Will you use Google Chrome’s translate tool—if so, do you expect it to do a better job than this?

Tags: google-reader, house, interior, money, north, Reader, russian, Social
Posted March 2, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Well, if the shoe isn’t on the other foot. Once upon a time, Microsoft seemed to be the biggest threat to free trade in the computer world, facing suits across the world. And now it’s Google’s turn—and coincidentally, Microsoft certainly looks like the man behind the curtain. In fact, two thirds of voters at the Wall Street Journal think it’s Microsoft’s machinations throwing the gauntlet down at Google: How is Microsoft doing this? Certainly not directly (pot, kettle). No—it would have to be through backroom puppetry, which Microsoft of course denies. The evidence does appear highly coincidental. The WSJ outlines one instance where Google filed a two-sentence suit against a small site owing them $335,000 for AdSense—and got a 24-page antitrust countersuit, with Microsoft’s chief outside antitrust council listed as one of the litigants. Note, though, that this is Microsoft’s outside council: he doesn’t work for Microsoft and Microsoft alone. It’s entirely possible that the small website searched out someone who was familiar with antitrust law and actions against Google. Meanwhile, Google is facing scrutiny in Europe, including an antitrust suit from a Microsoft subsidiary which has prompted a European Commission investigation . Naturally, many companies and individuals are concerned about Google’s dominance. Accusations and suits seem to be coming from all quarters , including the US government . Microsoft has used a few more open tactics to wage an antitrust war . These latest volleys might not be orchestrated by Microsoft—or are they? What do you think?

Tags: certainly-looks, cloud-computing, down-at-google, legal, listed-as-one, litigants, Microsoft, Rumors, street
Posted March 2, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

W hen you read headlines like this it sometimes feels like the rich just keep getting richer. That is until you learn that it was a trek that started six years ago and it’s serendipitous timing is a bonus. One would think that Google is rubbing their hands together and giving their best “Boo ha ha ha ha!” mad scientist laughs in Mountain View because it seems like there is just a little interest these days in targeting ads by location and the money that it could represent. Digital Beat reports While the blogosphere was buzzing over the patent Facebook won for its news feed last week, Google earned a killer one too. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded the search giant a patent for using location in an advertising system last Tuesday, which is the emerging business model for most consumer-facing location startups today. Filed six years ago, the patent is fairly broad. It covers using location for targeting, setting a minimum price bid for an ad, offering performance analytics, and modifying the content of an ad. This is the kind of news that on the surface looks like it could bring up more of that dirty anti-trust-monopoly talk but it’s far too early to see just how this patent will play out in the market. How Google wields this power is certainly something that remains to be seen but the folks at Digital Beat take a look at what might be brewing. However, the location-based ad patent may give Google a nice big stick as it goes head-to-head with Apple in the world of mobile advertising. Both companies have acquired or agreed to acquire a mobile ad network in the last three months; Google agreed to buy Admob for $750 million in November, while Apple bought Quattro Wireless in January. Google actually bucked a patent Apple owns last month, when it added multi-touch functionality to its Android operating system. Perhaps this is the card the search giant had up its sleeve. So as with anything else these days it seems like the battle lines are being drawn in every area of the online space. “Google v. Apple” and “Google v. the Rest of the World and Its Regulatory Bodies” is going to be a common theme for the foreseeable future. I suspect that Google is armed and ready but so is everyone else. It’s starting to feel like the WWE in the Internet space. Maybe there will be a pay-per-view event with Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs in a steel cage death match. I’d pay for that. If you are into these kinds of things here is the abstract for the patent The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. Location information is determined (or simply accepted) and used. For example, location information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, location information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of location information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information. Finally, tools, such as user interfaces, may be provided to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information. The location information used to target and/or score ads may be, include, or define an area. The area may be defined by at least one geographic reference point (e.g., defined by latitude and longitude coordinates) and perhaps additional information. Thus, the area may be a circle defined by a geographic reference point and a radius, an ellipse defined by two geographic reference points and a distance sum, or a polygon defined by three or more geographic reference points, for example. So here we go. Patents and lawsuits and egos…..oh my.

Tags: Apple, digital, digital-beat, facebook, internet, patent, Search, world, wwe
Posted March 2, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Apparently Google’s promise to bring ultra-fast broadband to select communities has small towns in a tizzy. I was pleasantly surprised to see neighboring Durham, North Carolina step up to the plate : After Google put out an RFI, or request for information, on the company’s blog on Feb. 10, about 50 people gathered at the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce last week to form groups helping the city of Durham gather information for an application. The possibility of getting Google Fiber in Durham has also generated much enthusiasm online. A Facebook group has been formed with nearly 700 fans, and a Web site has been created at www.hifiberdurham.com, where people can submit ideas on how they would use the ultra-high speed network. Oh Durham, you’re going to have to try harder. Apparently the people of Topeka, Kansas, want Google broadband so bad, they are willing to change the city’s name to Google, Kansa–albeit not officially: Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation Monday calling for Topeka to be known for the month of March as “Google, Kansas — the capital city of fiber optics.” Bunten told city council members about the proclamation prior to a special meeting of the council held at noon at City Hall to hear the first reading of a proposal that wasn’t linked to local efforts to convince Google to make Topeka a test site for an ultrafast Internet connection. That’s going all in! However, this is not the first time that Topeka has changed its name. Back in 1998 the city changed its name to “ToPikachu” in recognition of the launch of Pokemon/Pikachu franchise. Rumors are that if the Google thing doesn’t work out for them, residents can look forward to the city being renamed Tapioca Pudding , Kansas. It won’t bring them free broadband, but they’ll have pudding, so won’t care! ( via )

Tags: city, council, Durham, facebook, Kansas, mayor, north, North Carolina, people, proclamation, tapioca-pudding, Topeka
Posted March 2, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Don’t panic! Don’t panic! There’s a good chance that your site has not been hacked. However, if in the future, your web site were to suffer at the hands of some malicious hacker, Google Webmaster Central will alert you to that fact. Starting this month, we will notify more webmasters of more potential issues we’ve detected on their websites, including: Starting this month, we will notify more webmasters of more potential issues we’ve detected on their websites, including: Spammy or   abused user-generated content Abused forum pages or egregious amounts of   comment spam Suspected   hacking These notifications are meant to alert webmasters of potential issues and provide next steps on how to get their sites fixed and back into Google’s search results. If it pertains to a hacking or abuse issue, the notification will point to example URLs exhibiting this type of behavior. These notifications will run in parallel with our existing malware notifications. The notice will look something like this: Google also suggests that it is considering these alerts to include “other types of vulnerabilities or abuse issues.” What that means, who knows? I know you shouldn’t hold your breath that Google’s going to tell you how to improve you rankings any time soon.

Tags: existing, future, look-something, month, more-potential, more-webmasters, notification, Search, some-malicious, steps-on-how, their-websites, these-alerts, websites, will-notify
Posted March 2, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media