:: Media Viper ::

Google has released a patent with Sergy Brins name on it as well as that of other Google employees whose names which are on the patent as inventors and are Alexander Mark Franz, Monika H. Henzinger, and Brian Christopher Milch.

Google Voice Search

The abstract reads

A system provides search results from a voice search query. The system receives a voice search query from a user, derives one or more recognition hypotheses, each being associated with a weight, from the voice search query, and constructs a weighted boolean query using the recognition hypotheses. The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user.

This seems like a great application that marketers could use to do business in more ways than thought possible. Think instant translation to any language Google works with and which can be scaled to any device and any device with a microphone could interface with the voice search.

Google has also released a beta test of the applications termed Google Voice Local Search which is just the tip of the iceberg

You can read more here

Google Voice Local Search

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone land line or cell phone.

# search for a local business by name or category.
You can say “Giovanni’s Pizzeria” or just “pizza”.

# get connected to the business, free of charge.

# get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
Just say “text message”

Best of all it’s free. There is no charge by Google for the call or connecting you to the business (cutting at the telephone companies profits) and they even tell you on the webpage the phone company might charge you.

You can use your telephone keypad to spell the business name or category. Enter one digit per letter and Google will figure out what you want so if looking for toys you would key in the nummbers 8 6 9 7 (8=T 6=O 9=Y 7=S)

That is pretty cool!!!!!

Here is a list of other short cuts

Google Voice Local Search Short Cuts

Search marketing resources

It has been announced that Google will soon advise Advertisers where their ads are run across the Adsense Publisher Network. This move gives advertisers some previously missing information to help the advertiser decide where their ad money is best spent.

You may recall Google allowed publishers to purchase ads on targeted websites in April 2005, however advertisers till this point were left out in the cold as Google only fed the amount of impressions and clicks to the advertisers.

Once all of the newly offered features are completely intergrated Adveretisers will be able to pull a CSV within the Google reporting tools and will be supplied a detailed list of where the ads are running.

The new reporting is in beta at this point and should be in full swing by the second quarter of this year. This move is one Advertisers have been demanding so that they may control where their ads are displayed, a move aimed at quality control of advertisers brands.

To me this is a move aimed also at killing off Spammers and MFA (Made for Adsense) websites. What better way for Google to clean up their index by having Advertisers decide where their ads are published??

What do you think?

Google gave me a nice bite yesterday and I had meant to post my disdain about it but decided to wait and let the sting heal a bit. As you may know Google launched a enterprise version of its Web applications including Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and a customizable home page builder.

For those not familiar with the Google Enterprise it allows webmasters like you and I to have our business e-mail and now other applications hosted on Googles’ server. Really it’s a way for Google to display ads to my e-mail list, users of my domain and myself.

The business enterprise presentation or Google Apps Premier Edition delivers a new interface shown in the images (click to enlarge) which show the dashboard interface Google has developed.

The new offering of bundled services includes additional e-mail storage a nice bundle of administrative and business integration tools. Definitely competing with some other services that are available.

Here is the bite…this was at one time free, now there is a fee of $50 per user account, per year. While expecting Google to integrate Docs & Spreadsheets into its Apps for Domain bundle, which allows webmasters to customize the Google applications for our own websites and domains, I had no idea there would be a fee charged.

Well I did have a sort of idea but they could have sent an e-mail to let webmasters know about the planned offerings and associated charges.

So while Google portends to be a more “open” Google, it still has quite a few closed door sessions.

I’ve read the articles and forum posts as well as occassional blog posts on how personalized search is going to effectively end SEO101 as we know it. Here is the bite pun intended

You have to log in to your account with Google for personalization. Who wants an extra step added to search??? Wheres the KISS? Ohh Google can’t do that otherwise those comp sci degrees will seem a waste.

I was originally going to name this How The Yellow Book Proves Personalized Search Wrong. But I liked the new title better giving the ending as this is nothing personal against personalized search…I just don’t see it as the SEO Killer (number 132)

How the telephone book proves Google personalized search is nothing to fret over, and Why many search engine marketers are wrong about personalized search.

According to Google’s Web Help Center,

“Personalized Search is part of Google’s ongoing effort to make your search experience more relevant to you. Using Personalized Search, you can:

* Get the results most relevant to you, based on what you’ve searched for in the past

* View and manage your past searches, including the webpages, images, news headlines and Froogle results you’ve clicked on

* Create bookmarks you can access from any computer

One search engine marketer whose writings I read and someone who I feel knows more than most is Jim Hedger, and while I think he is great I think he went the wrong way see Jim feels that personalized search is the end to the usefulness of the old school SEO techniques.

“the advent of personalized results makes the standard website ranking report somewhat useless” was what Jim said in an article recently.

However there is only one slight problem with this thinking and that is the telephone book. Yes the white and yellow page telephone books with millions of residents and businesses phone numbers inside which can be found by anyone.

You are going to say that the telephone book is no longer relevant…it’s something your parents used, and you do not know where the one you have is, or you throw it away when it’s delivered perhaps.

That’s all good except one thing many seem to forget and that is history is a great teacher of the future,

You see I need not look in the telephone book for the number to my friends or family, in fact after several decades I can still remember the very first phone number of my childhood due to having to have memorized it back then.

I don’t need to look up the number to my favorite pizza shop, my favorite concert venue, where I like to buy my clothing, or shop for music and movies, nor to my favorite places to dine.

We do not typically search for what we know…..we search for what we do not know. Be it the results of the recent Super Bowl or how to install a ceiling fan in the den. This is what search is all about, information we do not know,

I do not need to search for topics on SEO or Search Marketing as I know them very well, the new news on these areas is delivered to me via Google alerts or I can set up an RSS reader and pull RSS feeds from the sites and topics I need to stay abreast of.

What I do need information on is one of my passions and that is a muscle car. A 1988 Monte Carlo SS. I love this car and the particular style. It is becoming more and more rare as time goes by and the upkeep and restoration is a way for me to find my balance.

When I look for a part such as the new rear springs I put on as the old ones felt like I ran over a speed bump at 65 mph when in reality it was an anthill at 5mph.

This is when I needed to do a search as I wanted to find the best parts, and others experience with them. Some parts cannot be found at the local automotive parts stores, and so I need to order online and have them delivered, this is when search is most important to me.

Another aspect is bookmarks, and once I have found a site I am sure I will find useful again I bookmark it and can get there without needing to do a search.

In fact once I know the website or company name, I can simply type that alone into any internet browser and be taken directly to the website, so for example if you type in the word ‘jegs’ you will be taken to http://www.jegs.com the website where I order most of my parts.

While writing this, I never once needed to do a search, as I said earlier, search is not for what we know, it’s for the millions of things we do not know.

SEO ranking results are even more important in the age of personalization.

Well today while looking at my Adsense earnings I noticed a new tab up top labeled
My Publishers

Below is what was on the screen when I clicked the tab!

I checked the blog and jensense and neither has any information….Weird eh?

I don’t have any other information about it yet but will update the blog here when I do.

As there does not seem to be too many others with this added I have decided to add a screenshot. Here it is from the front side. I have another screen shot below this with the look of the tab once clicked.

Here is a screenshot of what the page looks like with the MyPublishers Tab clicked on.