How is everybody doing today? We had a special visitor at the office this week, Ben Pfeiffer aka Phoenix, Senior Editor of the Search Engine Roundtable, so it's been a fun week in the sun.
Memorial Day
On Monday, many in the United States celebrated Memorial Day. Ask.com commemorated the holiday with a Memorial Day logo, and we did the same here at Search Engine Roundtable. The other search engines didn't feature any different logo, which was noticed by some people, but perhaps that's because there's not a lot of AdSense traffic on any Memorial Day weekend which probably means that search traffic is low and people aren't even using Google. Or at least that's how some people might see it. (Right.)
Maps Get Interactive
This week was a big week in maps. The coverage really is all at Search Engine Land but we highlighted it here. Google has launched street view photography, Microsoft has expanded 3D coverage to include New York, and MapQuest introduced a new ActionScript API for richer maps. Also, Google has acquired Panoramio which is a photo-mapping application and is actually pretty cool.
Yahoo Panama Hits Europe
Earlier this week, Yahoo rolled out Panama to the United Kingdom and announced that it will be going live shortly. Two days later, that dream became a reality when they launched Panama in all of Europe. Now all advertisers in Europe can take advantage of Yahoo's latest and greatest marketing platform.
Just Plain Silly
A funny kid has applied for a job at Best Buy and decided that because he is an AdSense publisher, he can put on his resume that he is employed by Google. No, AdSense publishers are not employed by Google. They are independent contractors and have no right to make such a claim. Sure, I understand the desire for people to fluff up their resumes by adding these things, but that one is just simply outrageous.
People Can Access Your Gmail Account When You Die
When you die, your family members may need to access your Gmail account. This can be done if necessary, but paperwork will need to be filed (including a death certificate) and will be processed within 30 days before access is granted. If you need data sooner, you chould try to hack the account with brute-force get a court order, but Google will only go through legal processes due to privacy concerns.
Google Gears Lets You Read Your Feeds Offline
Earlier this week, Google Gears, an extension of Google that lets you read your content offline, was launched. Barry wrote a pretty detailed screenshot presentation of how he got Google Gears working with Google Reader, which enables people to read their feeds offline. I'm sure people who have mobile connections and travel often would find this useful.
Jason Calacanis Launches Mahalo
Mahalo, a human search engine, has been launched by Jason Calacanis, entrepreneur of sorts. So far, Mahalo has been deemed an aggregate of About.com, del.icio.us, and Wikipedia, with an emphasis on what's popular. Maybe that's just now. After all, Jason emphasizes that it's pretty much in major alpha (if you didn't notice), so perhaps everyone should give it time and wait until the editors get working.
Stop Crying About PageRank
Seriously. We have this conversation everyday. I think the forums people are probably sick of it. Stop hoping that your link buy will up your PageRank. PageRank is not a definitive indicator about anything on your website. Even if you are listed in the Yahoo! directory, you may not have a high PageRank. That doesn't mean that the link is useless. It's still a high-quality link. PageRank also takes time. Again, I point you all to Danny's excellent guide on PageRank and I'll continue showing that to you until everybody gets it. :)
Next Week
Next week, Barry and I are headed to SMX Advanced which will be held in Seattle, Washington. There will be conference coverage on the blog from us and Carolyn Shelby will be guest-writing for this blog. If you're there, be sure to come up and introduce yourselves. I look forward to meeting you all!
