Free Google Account Passwords...Ooooopps

Not good, Google:

Google Inc. has quietly patched a potentially dangerous security flaw in two of its business-facing services after a private security research outfit warned that malicious hackers could exploit the bug to hijack sensitive user information.

The vulnerability was 'flagged and fixed' in the Google AdWords and Google Services subdomains.

Because both sites use data from the Google Accounts username/password system, security experts said the flaw presented a major identity theft risk.

As if click fraud wasn't a bad enough issue. As they continue to collect and cross reference information they need to be careful with that user privacy issue.

Google Gmail Autosave: Hmm

So Gmail created an autosave feature, which saves your email drafts.

What is scary about that is that sometimes you may start writing stuff that you did not want to send...you may have been blowing off steam in a random form box only to find it got cached and later winds up in court.

I think Google makes many of these features with genuinely good intent, but some of the people in positions of power may have bad intent.

Having recently read the WSJ today to find Drug Maker Under Fire for Sharing Data and DeLay was indicted again and spending many thousands of dollars on an ongoing lawsuit that I think is without merit makes me wish some of the new features were widely mentioned and easily opt outable before they were live launched.

Some of the pressures Google will feel are not internal. Just look at the maps, or think of how absurd 38,514 hours of wiretapping the wrong line sounds.

Google Eyes Classifieds

All your ads are belong to usTM, so say Google.

Google is looking to get feeds from classified sites, according to Paid Content:

CIR's John Zappe writes: "Commercial classifieds sites such as CareerBuilder, Cars.com and others have to weigh the additional audience Google could deliver against the potential loss of revenue. Analysts, including us, predict that advertisers will move to free sites if they become convinced that they will reach an audience as large - or larger - on a search engine than on a paid advertising site."
Baker told CIR that's why the company and some of its larger clients are looking at alternatives including pay for performance rather than pay for distribution.

As Google (and others) gather data and Google makes advertising easier many hollow underperforming businesses will have their business models destroyed.

Those who are unwilling to share their data with Google will likely lose marketshare to smaller, newer, and more efficient competitors who have nothing to lose by partnering up with Google.

This makes heavy investment into vertical search much more risky, especially considering how shoddily some of the more established players are operating.

As Google gets more efficient at selling ads (with advertisers helping other advertisers free) you can bet they are going to get more and more ad dollars, directly & indirectly.

Google Changing European Agency Comissions

Danny says Google is changing their European Agency Commission Structure:

  • Commission will be tied to business brought in or grown

  • Commission will be tiered to a maximum of 12 percent
  • The new program opens across Europe from January 2006 to any qualified third party agency (at least five clients, two Google certified professionals on staff).
  • Yes, search marketing firms are eligible.

Danny also posted more about the current payout levels in the subscribers article linked to from his blog post.

Google Adds Block URL Feature

Sorry MSN, no AOL for you - at least not yet (or Richard Parsons is using the media to increase your offer price)...

AOL portal leaves beta & Time Warner sees AOL as the way forward, but is it?

I think Yahoo! & MSN are spot on with their search strategy. Going forward you are best off owning your own search service. Why? Because if you ever become too strong your search provider can give you inferior quality stuff. It is oh so easy for Google to bolt on a remove this URL feature that makes users feel like they own the results and are making the web a better place. It is a lot harder for AOL to do stuff like that without locking them into using a specific provider and getting a lower cut on future revenues as they become more reliant on that partner.

You need a Google account to be able to use the remove result feature. Remove this site adds a quick and easy way for surfers to give Google feedback without needing to file a needless spam report.

When Google first created their accounts many people were afraid to sign up because they did not want Google knowing what sites they owned. I sorta think that having a number of Google accounts with a long search history will be a great way to help influence search results.

Google Working on Predictive Market Technology?

This is where Google can really make scary scary scary profits. I am sure they want to be careful with the way they leverage their Database of Intentions, but nobody in the world has access to as much user data as Google does.

A while ago I whinged on about how Google could leverage their data to own just about any trading market in the world.

Free Secure Wifi?

Maybe. GoogleNet, coming soon...

Not sure if it will be secure enough to withstand the scud missles, though...

Disabled AdWords to be Deleted & Some Google Banned Websites to be Notified

When Google changed the AdWords system they left disabled keywords in AdWords accounts. If you did not re enable them Google will be deleting them next week.

Google is notifying some banned sites about why they were banned:

Google is trying out a pilot program to alert site owners when we're removing their site for violating our guidelines.

Many people have complained about the lack of communication between search engines and webmasters. I think the Google is smart enough to realize that if they can automate better webmaster relations that means more good PR and a larger marketshare for them. Of course, automating stuff can sometimes backfire too. Surely some search marketers are going to be beta testing the new system.

Google Moving Away from Snippets?

Dan Thies posts about seeing DMOZ and Meta description tags more in Google's search results.

In many small niche categories it may be a bit hard to build quality links outside of DMOZ & the Yahoo! Directory, and acquiring links from those may hurt your listing ad copy.

For those who absolutely recommend avoiding DMOZ & the Yahoo! Directory where else do you recommend getting links from for small niche sites?

Google Sells Print Ads

Google sells print ads in PC magazine & Maximum PC for search engine submission services and other advertisers, buying whole pages and selling the various sections to different AdWords advertisers.

Danny also thinks that some print yellow pages may be coming down the pipe from Google and/or Yahoo!. The Google print ad story is also covered on NickW's Threadwatch.

Ads bought through Google are White Hat ads.

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