Focus, focus, focus: Why Web retail is like a really cheesy mall
25 Jul 2008 9:38pm GMT When questionable economics makes for good business. Years ago, for my wife's birthday, I bought her a terrarium for her orchids. You know where I got it? Terrariumsale.com. Because that's what showed up in Google. Now, Terrariumsale.com is not a business unto itself. It's one of several front-ends to a catalog of goods sold by FineWebStores. I was reminded of this today when I got a pitch for FreeShippingOn.com, a site that helps you find items available for sale online that you can get...
Google reveals scope of Web-crawling task
25 Jul 2008 8:21pm GMT It's a pity the National Security Agency can't talk about its computational challenges, because it's leaving a lot of the boasting rights to Google. (Credit: Paul Ford) In a blog posting on Friday the company shared some detail about the challenges of one aspect of its search operation, the Web indexing and processing that must take place before the results are delivered to users. The short version: Google has no choice but to think big. First comes surfing. "We start at a set of...
Knol and void: The day I became a published Google 'expert'
25 Jul 2008 7:00pm GMT I'm an expert on pit bulls! Really. I just wrote a knol, a Web article akin to an encyclopedia entry, using Google's new Knol publishing platform launched publicly on Wednesday. With Knol, Google is encouraging people to create more authoritative content that can be indexed by its search engine and monetized with ads. Unlike blogs, which tend to be casual and opinionated in tone, knols are supposed to be fact-based, informative, and well-sourced articles on a specific subject. The...
Users can automatically encrypt Gmail connection
25 Jul 2008 2:30pm GMT Update 12:35 p.m. PDT: I clarified this post to reflect the fact that this involves encryption only between a user's browser and Gmail's servers. Gmail now can be set to encrypt communications between a browser and Google's servers by default, an option that makes the e-mail service harder to snoop on but also potentially slower. Users already could encrypt communications with Gmail servers (by going to https://mail.google.com), but on Thursday, the company added an option to use that...
AOL to sell Xdrive, close photo and mobile sites
25 Jul 2008 2:05pm GMT AOL is scrapping some online destinations but will push others harder in an attempt to improve its finances, according to internal memos. Among those products to be shuttered are Bluestring, a site to share videos, music, and photos; Xdrive, a general-purpose online storage service; and AOL Pictures, where people could store and share photos, according to a July 14 memo from Kevin Conroy, AOL's executive vice president of products and marketing. The memo was published Thursday by...