March 23, 2006
What do house guests and SEO have in common? Well, they both require more time than you think they will…
At the moment, I’m in the midst of a three-week period of home visitations - and when people have flown 4,000 miles to visit, you naturally spend a good chunk of time with them. As a result, my blogging has taken a slight fall in frequency.
March 20, 2006
I also use GMail as a quick go anywhere word procesor. As long as I have internet access it doesn’t matter what computer or OS I’m on.
Comment by beaglebot on Lifehacker
The comment above suggests to me just how thoroughly the internet is taking over the
world of computing. Where 20 years ago you may have fought for access to
your university or corporate mainframe, today you can access your own documents anywhere in the world, provided you can access the internet.
You don’t even need to have a computer handy - if you’ve got your cellphone or your PDA. You don’t need to "plug-in" if you’ve got satellite access, bluetooth, wireless access . . . the list goes on. How critical is it to get your business online? Well, it’s pretty important - and getting moreso every day.
I remember, perhaps only 7 or 8 years ago, when I would routinely go to the store to look for a gift, a book, or some tech gadget. If I found it, I was satisfied. I also know that today my shopping starts online. If your store doesn’t have a website - it’s out of the running. It’s not that I won’t go to a "real" store - it’s that I want to learn as much as I can about your store before I walk in the door. I want to have looked at your products, compared their prices, read reviews, and decided whether I want to buy before I EVER talk to a salesman.
But the issue isn’t just whether or not you have a website. It’s also whether I’m impressed by your website - and I’m not impressed by a beatiful, complicated, fascinating website. At least, not when I’m shopping. I don’t like shopping, so I want to find the information I need as fast as possible.
You wouldn’t design your store so that a customer had to go through some kind of maze of mirrors for each product they want to look at, would you? Consider that when you’re building your online store.
Your potential visitors may be anybody. They may access your store from anywhere. They might be using any number of different devices - and it’s all useless if your store doesn’t help them find and use its services.
March 19, 2006
The
resolution of Google’s well-publicized dispute with the United States Department of Justice is now well-known - and Google won. At least, mostly won.
Google’s official blog post on the matter states very clearly that they were successful - "Judge tells DoJ "No" on search queries". Google has been spared the need to provide millions of search queries to the government. However, they have not been spared entirely. They will still be required to supply 50,000 URLs from their index to the government.
Compared to the original data request - billions of URLs and two month’s worth of user’s search queries - this measly 50,000 URLs is nothing. A tiny fraction of a day’s queries for the search giant. Google has every reason to crow!
Google has the good fortune to have been the only one of the three major search competitors to have fought the Department of Justice on this issue. This gives it a badly-needed boost to it’s image as a member in good standing of the industry’s Junior Justice League. With the damages Google has suffered from the recent Chinese censorship fallout, the company needed a chance to demonstrate their moral superiority to Yahoo and MSN.
A large part of Google’s success, I believe, comes from the simple phrase "Do no evil." Regardless of the realities of a large corporation, the motivations driving the company are perceived as more egalitarian than their competitors. A court victory on privacy issues gives them great PR.
Nonetheless, the realities of business continue to press on Google. Recently, I Hate Google posted on the terms and conditions for Google Pages. He noticed specific elements in the terms and conditions such as:
Users outside of the United States agree to comply with their own local rules regarding online conduct and acceptable content, including laws regulating the export of data to and from the United States or your country of residence.
Clearly, Google is taking precautions to smooth the way should the censorship beast raise its ugly head - but not in favor of those who may be censored. No, they’re protecting their own backs. Good business - but not something they’ll necessarily publicize heavily.
It’s not easy to define Google’s corporate philosophy. "Do no evil" is simplistic and unsustainable in an international business arena. On many levels, evil can be easily avoided. I doubt Google will be likely to employ child labor or hire assassins, for example. But as an international corporation, the company must acknowledge a reasonable set of laws. Their dispute with the Department of Justice demonstrates that they are willing to fight for their principles - but they should not be expected to go too far. Being willing to take your principles to court is very reasonable, but had the federal judge ruled against Google, it is unreasonable to expect the company to continue to resist.
A company can’t remain viable if they will not acknowledge the laws of doing business. The defense of Google’s principles can and should be taken to the courtroom at every opportunity, but it can’t be taken further.
What I’m trying to say is that Google’s principles are a great thing - but the company won’t sacrifice their success on principle. As long as Google takes advantage of the appropriate means to defend itself, they are succeeding in the fight
against evil.