Facebook – there’s no better way to catch up with your friends online and squeeze a few minutes’ Internet gaming into your lunch break. MySpace is so 2006 and who’s even on Friendster these days? Facebook is certainly the most popular social networking platform of our time – but Google search could be changing all that in the near future. The gargantuan Google search engine company may be developing their own social network to compete with sites like Facebook.

There’s no denying that Google web search is huge. The multi-coloured text logo is instantly recognisable around the globe, Google marketing can send a company’s popularity and profits skyrocketing and the Google search engine is so dominant that the verb “Google” has even been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. If you want the low-down on anything, anyone or anywhere… just Google it! Google search tools like Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Product Search are all you need to find comprehensive information online. American company Google Inc. owns 160 domain names internationally, and the search engine remains the go-to search option for Internet users worldwide. And of course… can any of us honestly say we haven’t performed Google searches on ourselves?

The issue of Google privacy is not a new one and there is no doubt about that. Google seems to find themselves constantly in the news concerning some or other privacy clause and now they seem to be turning the tables and shifting the bright, glaring spotlight away from their own faces. Google are known for coming up with new ways in which to push the boundaries of privacy for them and others and now Google focusing on government officials in what I can only see as a bit of an expose of sorts.

In their efforts to enhance free expression on the internet, Google have recently announced on their blog that they are intending to live up to this conduct and turned the privacy issue on its head by introducing a Government Requests Tool that lets the public get just a little closer to the privacy of what government will do in order to protect themselves. The tool, known as the Government Requests Tool allows you to see the requests that Google receive from Governments worldwide concerning privacy issues such as takedown notices and removal requests.

I have to admit that I do not use real time results as much as I should. When I decided to write this post, I searched a few terms before I was shown a real time search results section (I had to resort to entering “Tiger Woods” into my search – there is no doubt I wouldn’t find up to date reports on that). I have no doubt that there are times when I conduct a search and ignore the real time results, not out of spite, but merely because I forget that they are actually there. This is my search results routine but is it yours?

Last week New Corporation declared that they may start charging for news online and stop allowing Google to index their stories. Yet, Google has declared their commitment to the news industry. So, what does the future hold for the news industry online?

Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corporation, told Sky News Australia (which belongs to News Corporation) last week that he thinks they will start charging for their newspaper content online. He also said that they are considering disallowing Google to index the pages, so that the news stories will only be found by subscribers and won’t come up in organic searches. Free online newspapers indexed by Google have been attributed to the ‘death of the traditional newspaper’ and it seems that Murdoch is declaring war on Google News’ dominance of the industry. He also told Sky News that he doesn’t believe offline newspapers will disappear in the next twenty years but it is possible that they will eventually die out.

If you accidentally posted a letter to the wrong address, would you sue the post office? We live in a litigious society, so perhaps the more pertinent question is: could you successfully sue the post office? I’m going to stick my neck out and say that no, you couldn’t successfully sue them for a mistake that you made. One of the problems with society today, and this is when I put on my granny pants, is that no one wants to take responsibility for anything, from politicians to banks accountability has become the stuff of legend. Take, for example, the bank in Wyoming, USA that is suing Google because they sent a sensitive email to the wrong address.

I love visiting the library. Some may not know this, but libraries are is still open. Libraries remind me of my childhood when I sat on the mat and listened to stories read by an elderly lady whose name escapes me but whose face I’ll always remember. The eBook phenomenon is a fairly recent development and millions of people are opting to download their favourite eBook instead of buying the paperback novel from their local bookstore or checking them out of the library. Have the masses replaced their books for screens because of money constraints, time limitations or because the availability of books online is instant and never-ending?

As reported by Matt McGee, Nielsen has just released search market share stats for August 2009 and at 10.7%, the figures for Bing look promising. In June 2009, Bing nabbed 8.8% of the search market share. Google rather obviously had the lion’s share of the market – 66.1%. But since then, Bing has been creeping up on the search giant. July saw Bing gain 9% of the search market while Google’s lead slipped to 64.8%. Bing’s leap to 10.7% in August is pretty significant considering that it’s still a young search engine.

Search Market Share August 2009

Search Market Share July 2009

Search Market Share June 2009

Google’s share of the search market dipped again in August, although at 64.6% the drop is almost negligible. It’s worthwhile noting that Bing isn’t falling away as many previously touted ‘Google killers’ have been prone to do. And while Google’s lead may seem unassailable, Bing showed a 22% growth in searches over July.

The world

Good news for all of us who live and die by Wikipedia – the ultra-convenient source of dodgy information is finally giving users the means to separate iffy content from that which by common consensus is accepted as correct. What that means is that you’ll be able to tell what the masses think is genuine, but it won’t necessarily tell you the truth. And validity is skewed towards regular Wikipedia contributors as opposed to first time writers who really know their stuff.

According to the website in question (i.e. Wikipedia), “WikiTrust is a MediaWiki extension that implements an author reputation system, and a text trust system, for wikis. WikiTrust adds to a wiki a check text tab that enables any visitor to check the author, origin, and reliability of wiki text. Thus, visitors can easily spot spam, surreptitious changes, and information tampering.” (Emphasis author’s own)

Google Earth launched its new update on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which allows users to explore the moon like they are able to explore the ocean floors virtually, thanks to Google Earth version 5.0.

We’ve all seen pictures of the moon landing, and while it looks like it may be fun for a half-day excursion on a school trip, quite frankly, I think exploring the moon extensively would be rather dull. The low gravity factor will hold you enthralled for all of fifteen minutes, but after that there are only so many rock formations and craters you can point out before you’ll need to bump into the man on the moon and discover something made of cheese to alleviate the boredom. And exploring the moon virtually can’t be much better, can it?

Microsoft’s Bing is actually doing really well at the moment, despite predictions of a fate similar to that of Microsoft Live. The search engine is being described as a decision engine. Statistics from Hitwise in the UK, as well as the USA/Canada region, have indicated that Bing is making waves. It is catching up to Yahoo! and reactions from techies and average users alike are mostly positive.

Having said that, will Bing be a passing fad or will it actually make inroads in Microsoft’s titanic battle with Google, and what, if anything, will this mean for SEO or DEO – “Decision Engine Optimisation” for Bing?
All of Bing’s features are only available in the US at the moment, which is a pity for the rest of us who will have to wait a bit longer to see what all the fuss is about.

What are some of the positives?