The Google Insider

Google added a music portion to the search engine functionality. You are now able to type in an artist and bring up results that are closely related to the artist. As of right now the functionality to type in an album still brings up normal results. Such results for the artist though, brings up results similar to these. From this page, you can then navigate to an album or a song that the artist has written. Details are able to be pulled directly about each album and lyrics pages are even drawn in the results for the viewer. This added ability to searches for music will help increase popularity. Google is offer links to download these albums too. iTunes, Sony, and Real Rhapsody are the primary providers for these content links and Google will be able to draw in a lot more revenue through these links. I believe there is much more than simply a partnership though, there is an investment for all companies involved with these affiliations so that they can create a more unified music industry on the web. With the recent near-closure of music lyrics applications/websites, it will be … fun … to see where Google goes with this new addition to the search engine.

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Yesterday, December 23rd 2005, Google and Microsoft came to terms about the newly hired Kai-Fu Lee by Google. There have been many rumors and discussions about the liability and breach of contracts by Google, Microsoft, and Lee. The settlement recently came to terms and they are finally willing to just stop the whole deal. The terms of the ‘non-compete’ contract were in breach by Lee being hired by Google. The dispute really ratcheted up some nerves between the companies as they are competing in the same industry of search, advertising, and products. With a surprise, the two companies came to terms but would not disclose any of the Terms and Conditions to the public, but it seems that it has finally been resolved.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates testified in September that Lee was “one of the top two'’ people influencing the company’s strategy in China.

It seems that Lee was a ‘hot product’ on the market and that Gates really did have an eye on him and wanted to keep him. Google got the better end of the deal and now is looking to push forward with the services of Lee for the company.

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Have you been waiting to add more sites to your account for Google Analytics? Did the hack not work for you? Wait no longer! Google Analytics recently added the ‘Add Profile’ link back to the homepage of your account portfolio so you can once again add websites. I’m hoping that Google Analytics open their sign-ups system once again too, to the public so people can sign up. I was one of the fortunate .. couple hundred thousand people, I think it was, that was able to sign up when they first offered it. Hope everyone can enjoy the new ‘Add Profile’ link and start tracking as many sites as you want.

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Google’s search technology, contrary to popular belief, is not owned by Google themself. They are actually using technology that has been licensed to them by Stanford. Google technology has been patented by Stanford and they have a multi-year agreement for the usage. Along side of this agreement, Stanford owns, well rather owned, a little over 1.8 million shares of stock in Google. This was roughly about 10% of the company. Stanford recently sold most of these shares for $336 million.

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Reports have shown that Google is making a push for the Google WiFi to go up around June 2006. This WiFi network would still be just for Mountain View, CA and not for any other cities surrounding. The current plans that were approved last month would be a network of 72,000 residents. Each client being limited to 300 kbit/s, that’s still quite a bit of bandwidth and network utilization. Yes, I am sure Google has that kind of capability, but this will still be quite a service for the neighborhood kids and families. The Google WLAN will be a local portal for their adserver, AdWords, to provide a local advertising network when people search using their engine.

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AOL and Google recently announced that they were going to stay partners. Google is going to provide AOL a sum cash of $1 billion and Google will take home 5% of AOL. In turn, AOL will stay with Google as their powered search company and advertiser. Google was fighting Microsoft on this bid to see who would win the position. Google came out on top. Google is extending the deal with AOL from when they first started in 2002 with AOL as the search and advertising provider.

Even on top of all this, now that Google is staying with AOL, AOL is making a bigger push to have busier ads. They are going to be looking for ads with flash, ads with more logos, ads with a busier look to them and make them more attractive.

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Safe Browsing for Firefox through Google was recently released. This plugin will help keep users even safer than they already are, but the focus is now towards phishing and security holes. Such phishing scams based on eBay or Amazon or PayPal accounts can easily lure in a user to type in their username and password and before they know it, their account is gone. This plugin helps protect against these fake websites and help protect the individual user. Google created this plugin with one thing in mind, the user. Want to be safer while you’re browsing the web? Download and install this plugin today!

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As reported before, I was able to attend the eConference in October. The even was a great success and they are making another big push for it this coming year. As soon as early January, specifically January 7th, you will be able to sign up for a full pass. This is not limited to past attendees such as myself, but it is open to everyone. In the previous Xpo, Google AdWords had a booth setup and I also believe that Google AdSense did as well. I was able to get some inside details and talk to a couple of the reps that were at the booth. While at the booth, you can also sign up for contest prizes that happen everyday of the conference. Simply visit www.ecomxpo.com on January 7th to sign up and be part of the upcoming Xpo which will happen on April 4th-6th. I look forward to hopefully seeing some of you there!

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So you login to gmail and the spiffy AJAX gets you in. You may look at your inbox and see nine new messages and click one…mark as read and then maybe read another that is important. While you look at the other 732 emails in your inbox, you may want to take a look at your spam box just to see if something accidentally was caught as spam that was good. I, for one, know that I do look because often it will catch something good. If you look at the recent GMail feature list, you’ll notice that they implemented an RSS feed reader. Being as funny as Google is, they thought they would give you some spam that may actually taste good.

This might make for a good meal for the average starving college student like myself. We need a good meal here and there and if Gmail can provide that, heck I’m for it.

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Google recently released Homepage APIs. Did you ever want the Google homepage to look and feel just like you want? Google APIs are here and they have a LOT to offer. Google APIs have now given webmasters, programmers, and everyday users the capability to add in whatever they want to their homepage. You say you want Yahoo! now instead of Google on your homepage? Simply code it into an API, host it, and now you have Yahoo!. The point of the APIs is to give everyone the opportunity to create Google IG (Personalized Homepage) the custom feel they want and need. Google isn’t becoming a portal like Yahoo! or MSN, but rather they are giving everyone the freedom to do whatever they want. This kind of flexibility in an application is very strong and innovative.
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