Recently, a court issued a restraining order against Google and ordered the Silicon Valley search giant to remove personal identifiable content from its cache system. This order was derived from content accidentally posted online, identifying citizens of Johnstn county North Carolina.

The actual web page which contained the data has been updated and the personally identifiable data has been removed. However, a search on the Google engine shows that data still available and easily displayed in the cache of the web page. Some of the data includes social security numbers, cell phone numbers and other like data.

The moving party was fearful for possible identity theft with such information in the public domain. The information had been posted for six (6) weeks on the county’s web site, but once it was discovered, the data was promptly removed.

Google in no-way disputed the court order and was working at the time of the hearing to remove the data. However, in today’s litigious society some people are just so quick to pull the trigger on civil litigation and not give the preverbal deer in the cross hairs a chance to fix the problem.

Labels: cyberlaw, google, law suit

According to Matt Cutts blog, on February 5, 2007, a web site owner can now view all of the backlinks that Google has indexed to their web site. This can still not be seen by using the link:site.com command, but the Google’s webmaster console does allow those with access to a specific account to view the backlinks that Google sees.

Labels: backlink, google

As an SEO consultant, I have been asked on more than one occasion, is there a way to combine traditional SEO practices and pay per click advertising into one bundled package for optimal results? I am always delighted to provide the answer to that question. Absolutely YES! Yahoo has a program called Search Submit Express. The way the program works is for a site owner to set up an account with Yahoo and pay a nominal value to register a URL in the program. You then pay $0.30 cents per transaction each time a user clicks on your web site in the Yahoo Search Engine Results Page.

Now the question that generally is asked to me following that explanation is, how is this any better than pure PPC? The answer to that is rather simple. In traditional PPC, you may pay much less, $0.05 per click, or you could pay much more (in some cases $30 per click or more). Moreover, in a PPC campaign you select the keywords to go after and need to manage the account very closely. In the Search Submit Express program, you do not select your keywords; rather, your site comes up for the same terms it should come up for based on your SEO efforts. However, being a part of the aforementioned program your ranking is theorized to increase from its natural position in the SERPs to a higher position.

What is the gist of this program? You still need to use link building, content optimizing, title and Meta tags optimization and other forms of search engine optimization. However, the program will enhance those rankings which look natural to the user. All the while, you pay only a fraction of what many PPC programs might cost, and eliminate the stigma attached to paying your way into the engines that many searchers have.

Labels: PPC, PPI, SEO

Google and its near unlimited bandwidth email service, Gmail suffered a crushing legal blow last week in a German court. The search giant lost its right to the trademark Gmail in Germany. A German company for the past six (6) years has operated a same-day postal service to complete with the national postal service called Gmail. Google’s email brand of mail delivery has been in existence since 2004, but not nearly as long as the German postal company since 2001.

Under Trademark law, the key element is first in time, first in right. Google simply was not fast enough to market with its name. They made the argument that the two (2) Gmail names were not confusingly similar, but the court would have none of that.