Anyone who’s familiar with the Mozilla Firefox browser will have seen that Google has been the browser’s default search engine for some time, allowing users to make Google searches directly from the taskbar. This relationship has been hugely positive for both Google (helping to ensure their market dominance by featuring so prominently on one of the most popular western browsers) and Mozilla (adding user functionality, improving brand awareness and making them a considerable sum of money), so news of the pair continuing their relationship at first doesn’t seem too surprising.

However, with the current deal between the two major brands expiring in November, plus Mozilla’s recently released ‘Firefox with Bing’, many people had begun to speculate that the deal between Mozilla and Google could be coming to an end (with many suggesting an imminent switch to Bing as the primary search provider). Considering the growing rivalry between Firefox and Google’s own Chrome web browser, this didn’t sound completely outside the realms of possibility.

According to an announcement from Mozilla, the new deal between the company and Google will run for a minimum of three more years, with Google continuing as the Firefox default browser.

Although the monetary elements of the new deal weren’t disclosed, one can expect it to be extremely lucrative for Mozilla, with their relationship with Google accounting for more than 80% of their revenue in 2010.

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SEO can be a difficult business at the best of times, but with Google’s recent Panda updates, many people have seen significant drops in their search engine rankings and subsequent website traffic. As a result, many people are looking to improve their online marketing techniques in order to stay on the right side of Google’s algorithm.

So how has the Panda algorithm update changed SEO? How can you alter your SEO campaigns in order to ensure you not only avoid ranking drops, but improve your overall search visibility?

Well now you can find out exactly how to do just that, with a recent infographic published by Custard Media:

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If you’ve been following the activities of Google in recent months (or you’re an SEO engineer), you’ll have undoubtedly come across the +1 concept recently introduced by the search giant.

Initially an experiment in utilising user-based recommendations to inform search results, Google has rolled out the +1 button more comprehensively by allowing the integration of a +1 button into your blogs and websites.

There will undoubtedly be numerous WordPress plugins in the coming months featuring simple +1 button integration, but in the meantime here’s a simple guide to adding the Google +1 button to your WordPress-based blogs and websites yourself in two simple steps:

1. Editing your WordPress theme files

You will need to add a line of Javascript to your WP theme files, but this isn’t as difficult as it may sound to some people. Simply login to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Appearances > Editor.

On the next screen, locate and select ‘Footer.php’, which should reveal the coding for your website’s footer. You’ll need to locate the closing body tag, which will look like this: </body>

Then simply paste in the following line of Javascript immediately before the closing body tag:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script>

To help you out, here’s a screenshot of what you’ll need to do:

Once you’ve placed the code in the right place, simply hit ‘update’ and you’re ready to move on to the next step.

2. Adding the +1 button to your website

Once the javascript is added to your Footer.php file, you’ll be able to add the +1 button with a simple shortcode:

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

This can be added to individual posts and pages easily, by simply adding the shortcode into the body of the post or page. However, you might find it a better option to add the button into the sidebar of your blog, post, page, etc. To do this, simply navigate to Appearances > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard.

From here, you can simply select a widget market ‘Text’, drag it into the appropriate sidebar section and add the +1 shortcode. This will give you a permanent +1 button in the corresponding sidebar, allowing users to recommend your site via the new Google button.

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If you have any questions at all on installing the +1 button on your own WordPress website, simply leave us a comment with the issues you’re having and we’ll do our best to help.

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Social media hasn’t exactly been the forte of Google so far. To date they have had 5 attempts themselves (Orkut, Dodgeball, Lively, Wave and Buzz) which range from unmitigated failure to still-around-but-not-that-popular. They have had some good results with both Blogger and YouTube, but these were existing businesses that were purchsed by Google.
However, they seem intent on breaking into the social market, and this is probably due to the staggering success of Facebook in recent years. There has been a lot of chatter about a Facebook rival from the big G, and now it seems they are gearing up for a social media push of their own. A leaked internal memo from Google shows the importance they are now placing on this, with 25% of the employees bonuses at stake! Obviously some urgency is required with this…

The latest offering from the search giant is a ‘+1′ button. Currently it is only available to logged in users with Google accounts, it has to be activated to use. When activated it gives a +1 button next to any link returned in search results, allowing you to recommend the site to your friends and other Google users. In a statement by Google, they say:

Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.

Although only Google users can currently rate sites, it is widely thought that this will be rolled out across the whole Google network if popular enough. Google have basically admitted in the small quote above that this will contribute to search engine rankings as well (i.e. others on the web). This would bring a whole new way for Google to rank sites, and bring social media into another of the web’s most used sites.
Soon, you might have to add another icon to your site. Follow me on Twitter, like our Facebook page and +1 us on Google.

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In the current Internet based world, online business reaches new levels each year. For this reason, Internet security is taken ever more seriously. Every year new threats emerge that exploit either badly written or hastily put together code, and due to the pace of technological development, this is happening more often.
Hewlett Packard and Google are just two of the many big names that are investing in the would be hackers of the future, and exploiting their skills. Hewlett packard run an annual competition known as ‘Pwn2Own’, run from March 9-11 in Vancouver this year, in which contestants are challeneged to hack various devices and win prizes.

This year the challenges posted will have a mobile theme, and will include trying to break:

- Blackberry Torch 9800 running Blackberry 6 OS
- iPhone 4 running iOS
- Nexus S running Android
- Venue Pro running Windows 7

Although this may seem frivilous, and giving potentially dangerous programmers good practice, it does have it’s uses. It is cleverly used by large companies to test the durability of their soft and hardware. Having the best hacking minds in the business test their programs in a controlled environment gives invaluable information on the hardy-ness of the product. Google has been exploting the vast amount of interested users of their products as an army of testers for a long time now. They offer a reward program for finding bugs within their programs, so hope that no-one will be able to meet this latest challenge.

Google has added to the Pwn2Own prize fund with an extra $15,000 challenge. This is to hack the Chrome browser, using either a Sony Vaio, an Alienware M11X, or an Apple MacBook Air. Due to the unfinished nature of the Chome OS notebooks, Google put the proviso of the use of these other notebooks, and is fairly sure that no-one will be able to do it.

If you fancy a go, send an email to ZDI@tippingpoint.com and you’ll be allocated a random half hour slot to hack to your hearts content!

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According to a recent set of statistics released by Experian Hitwise, Facebook now account for almost one-quarter of all website page views and 10% of overall internet visits. Google, who will be more concerned than most about Facebook’s increasing domination of internet page views, came in second on the survey, holding around a 7% market share, with their video search engine YouTube holding 3%.

The difference in page views between Facebook and Google isn’t particularly surprising, given that users visit Google to find external websites, as opposed to Facebook, where they’re far more likely to stay and visit numerous pages.

However, this ‘stickiness’ could quickly become a major concern for Google, as numerous page views to a single user is a major benefit when it comes to selling advertising space; a huge income stream for Google. Couple this with Facebook’s potential to provide super-targeted advertising and Google have a major competitor for advertising revenue.

Facebook are attempting to capitalise on their market share advantage, prompting users to make Facebook their homepage. This is a pertinent move by the social media giant and could see their market share increase even more as a result. Whilst this is clearly a move to increase their page views and time spent on their site, Facebook are playing down the strategy, with a spokeperson stating:

We are asking some users if they would like to make Facebook their homepage … this is just a suggestion for people who want to make it easier and faster to get to Facebook.

Meanwhile, Google have attempted to put an end to growing speculation that they will be putting together their own social networking site (rumoured to be called Google Me); stating that rather than building a new site from the ground up, they will be further integrating social media platforms into their pre-existing services.

Twitter also saw a rise in their online market share, announcing that they soon expect to reach 1 billion users globally. The booming social networking site has also announced that they will be integrating a free analytics service into the platform, allowing users to see the popularity of their tweets and a host of other pertinent statistics.

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For a long time, Google Maps has been sparking controversy with the positions of borders. This came to a head in late 2009 with so many complaints that Google altered the map algorithm. From then on it has been showing borders in different positions depending on where your IP is based, and this seemed to solve most disputed border issues for Google. However, recently they have found themselves in a few more sticky situations.

Around the 5th November, Nicaraguan troops crossed the San Juan river, dividing Nicaragua from Costa Rica. They then proceeded to plant a Nicaraguan flag on Calero Island, Costa Rican territory in the middle of the river. The island lies in a region of the border that has been hotly disputed for many years, but has been recognised as part of Costa Rica since 1987. The disturbing part is that this invasion was in response to Google Maps placing it in Nicaragua. As soon as this was noticed, troops were sent. In response, Costa Rica sent security forces as they have no army of their own, and tensions have been high since.

Google have admitted their mistake in wrongly labelling the stretch but so far nothing has been done to fix the issue. The president of Costa Rica has even recently appealed to the UN Security Council to resolve the problem.

This issue reared it’s head again on the 10th November, when they wrongly identified the Ilsa de Perejil (Parsley Island). This is a small rocky island off the Moroccan coast, and was identified as belonging to the North African country. However, Spain claims sovereignty over the island after the latest dispute in 2002 when camped out Moroccan troops were ejected. The issue of the island threatened to ruin Spanish – Moroccan relations, until the USA was brought in to broker a deal between the two.

The worrying thing is that both of these disputes have been brought on by Google Maps, despite Google’s claims that ‘by no means should Google Maps be used as a reference to decide military actions between two countries’. The use of this as an excuse to invade disputed territories is a concern for both Google and for people of the world in general. Is this a worrying portent of what the future holds?

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Blekko, the newest search engine to be considered a possible threat to Google, finally launched their Beta version this week, after more than three years in development. The so-called ‘social search’ engine, which was founded by Rich Skrenta (former CEO of community site Topix), aims to provide more relevant and targeted search results by allowing users to take part in the search experience.

The site works in a similar manner to Wikipedia; allowing a considerable network of volunteers and moderators to eliminate spam and malware sites from the search engine index. To help increase the relevance of returned results, users can create ‘slashtags’ for topics that they like or they find interesting, allowing them to collaborate with other slashtag users to minimise non-relevant results. The slashtags appear very similar to the hashtags used on Twitter to focus discussion around a particular area, and Blekko hope this approach will return far more relevant results to the user.

For example, let’s say you wanted to search for the record label Domino; a Google search for this term would likely reveal results containing at least one wiki page on the game of dominoes, several results for the pizza outlet and potentially one result relevant to what you’re looking for. If you were using Blekko, you could use the slashtag “Domino/music” which should return results far more relevant to what you’re after.

Whilst this may indeed provide more relevant results, it doesn’t appear any different to using a longer-tail search on Google (Domino Record Label), which would return exactly what you were looking for.

Despite this however, Blekko insist that their user-refined results will return far less in the way of spam and malware sites, which has been a reasonably consistent issue with certain Google search terms.

“We’re really using the Wikipedia model,” said Mike Markson, Blekko’s vice president of marketing, “you bring people in and log everything so people can watch what other people are doing and can flag suspicious entries someone makes”.

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Google have recently confirmed that they are testing self-driving cars; Sebastian Thrun, a distinguished software engineer at Google, posted on the official Google blog stating that the California based company were trialling autonomous vehicles. In his post, Thrun discusses the motivations behind the move, suggesting that Google was always built on an ethos of using modern technology to solve major problems. With an autonomous vehicle, Google hope to reduce carbon emissions and improve road safety, whilst also giving more time back to drivers to focus on things other than controlling their vehicle.

The fleet of cars, which have logged 140,000 miles so far in the US, utilise video cameras (including a roof mounted camera), radar sensors and even a laser range finder which can effectively ‘see’ other vehicles on the road.

Whilst reducing emissions and freeing up time for commuters are both excellent benefits of the autonomous system, the real aim is the considerable reduction of deaths from road accidents, currenly sitting around a staggering 1.2million people per year. Google hopes the removal of the ‘human error’ factor could markedly reduce this number, saving hundreds of thousands of lives every year.

Despite the numerous successful journeys completed by Google’s self-driving fleet however, the vehicle is unlikely to go into production anytime in the near future. Whilst the technology may not be too far away from production standard and safety testing, the law in both the US and the UK would need to be modified in order to accomodate an autonomous vehicle.

In general, road laws, insurance claims and criminal prosecutions are based on the notion of human error and assignable fault; this is removed with an autonomous system, creating a myriad of legal ‘grey areas’. For example, would Google as the software manufacturer, be liable in the case of every accident? If that were to be the case, this would undoubtedly disuade the company from putting the software into mass production.

Either way, it’s the best example of a truly autonomous vehicle that we’ve seen to date, and it appears to be the first capable of making lengthy journeys littered with other vehicles and the general unpredictability of the modern world. It will be interesting to see whether or not we will see an autonomous vehicle in our lifetime, as the concept opens up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to personal transport.

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Google Street View is now officially on every continent, as they announce that parts of Antartica are now covered by the innovative exploration software. In a post on the Google blog, the search giant announced they were also rolling out street view functions for Ireland and Brazil; giving them an even greater coverage of some of the major cities and countries on Earth.

Brian McClendon, Google’s vice president of engineering for Google Earth and Google Maps, had this to say about the new Street View on the official Google blog:

“[Google Earth is] a way to show you what a place looks like as if you were there in person – whether you’re checking out a coffee shop across town or planning a vacation across the globe. We hope this new imagery will help people in Ireland, Brazil, and even the penguins of Antarctica to navigate nearby, as well as enable people around the world to learn more about these areas.”

Many users have already taken the opportunity to virtually visit Antartica, with most reacting favourably to the addition to the service. Ed Parsons, in an interview with The Guardian, spoke of the motivation behind the move:

“One of the challenges we wanted to crack is to go to these remote places, and one of geo teams at Google went to Antarctica so he took some kit and took some imagery. It’s called Street View, but there aren’t many streets in Antarctica!
This allows people to understand the contrast between New York Times Square and being on the edge of a glacier looking at penguins.”

Google used a specially designed snowmobile to capture the footage; mounted with Google GPS equipment and a 360 degree camera, the snowmobile was designed to capture the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. You can view a video of the Google Snowmobile here.

As you might imagine, the area covered by Google Street View in Antartica is minimal; it’s the size of America and Mexico combined and at any given time has a population of no more than a couple of thousand. Despite this though, users can still see most of the beautiful Half Moon Island – where McClendon and his team began their expedition of the continent.

This is the first time Google has taken their Street View cameras to a continent without being greeted by concern around privacy issues from government officials and onlookers alike. This issue has been particularly fuelled in recent months, with vigorous complaints and legal proceedings from authorities in the UK, China and most notably, Germany.

Despite the concerns however, Google is pushing forward with increasing the coverage of Google Street View and Google Maps, insisting that they are taking criticisms on board and will be utilising technology to address privacy issues in the future.

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