Google’s KML Becomes Industry Standard
In an example of how becoming top dog can empower a company to influence and set industry-wide protocols, Google Earth’s KML format has been declared an open standard for geographical data by the Open Geospatial Consortium (”OGC”).
It’s really great and progressive that such a large, publicly-traded company such as Google would release control of its considerable intellectual property rights and allow KML to be used by anyone.
Google’s LatLong Blog also crows a bit about how KML is “the HTML of geographic content”, and explains that KML is no longer owned by Google, but is now administrated by the OGC.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 04/14/2008 | Permalink | 
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Filed under: Google, Local Search, Maps, technologyGoogle-Earth, KML, open standards
Do CueCats Have 9 Lives?!? Google Resurrects a Bad Idea
For those of us who’ve been around the internet biz for a while, there’s often a feeling of deja vu or “been there, done that!” Thus we have that sensation today when we see this article from Silicon Alley Insider which seems to gush just a bit in its praise of these cute, “new” barcodes that Google is resurrecting in some print ads that can be scanned camera phones so people can easily connect up instantaneously to associated websites.
The article fails to mention the last time this sad concept was foisted on the world. Remember the company, Digital Convergence, with their various “CueCat” devices that allowed people to do this exact same thing?
Popularity: 39% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 01/29/2008 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Advertising, Google, technologyCueCat, Digital Convergence, Google, Google Adwords
Google Maps to Embed in New Magellan GPS
Barely one day in advance of the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show opening in Las Vegas this week, Magellan issued a press release about their next generation of GPS navigation devices, highlighting how they will come integrated with Google Maps to provide local search capabilities.
John Hanke, Director of Google Maps & Earth is quoted, saying, “We’re pleased to be partnering with Magellan to provide users with detailed, relevant local information while on the road. Magellan devices are powerful, interactive tools for navigation and discovery that serve as a cutting-edge platform for Google’s robust local search capabilities.” (more…)
Popularity: 29% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 01/07/2008 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Google, Local Search, Maps, technologyCES, Consumer Electronics Show, Google-Maps, GPS, Magellan
NebuAd - New Twist on Behavioral Targeting for Online Ads
News stories this week highlighted Silicon Valley startup NebuAd, which recently unveiled their behavioral targeting network at ad:tech.
Behavioral ad targeting is nothing new on the internet, and I easily recall it being offered in one form or another as far back as about 1999. In fact, 24/7 Real Media currently offers behavioral targeting through their ad network as just one case in point. So what’s new with this incarnation is the way in which NebuAd collects data to base the targeting upon. NebuAd’s innovative twist on behavior targeting is based upon monitoring individuals’ internet browsing habits through their ISP, essentially seeing all the sites and pages that a user visits. (more…)
Popularity: 11% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 12/11/2007 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Advertising, Paid Search, Research and Development, Security, technologybehavioral targeting, internet ads, internet advertising, Nebu Ad, NebuAd, online ads, online-advertising
Verizon Hijacks Mistyped Domains
I was stunned today to read this report by Martin Bosworth at Consumeraffiars.com on how Verizon is delivering up custom search results pages to fiber-optic users when they misspell domain names. Since I started working from home here in the Dallas area this Spring, I’d upgraded to Verizon’s FiOS service, so this change would affect me directly. Indeed, after a moment’s worth of testing, I see that I am being sent to a Verizon search results page when I type in a domain name that doesn’t exist:
It’s not all that surprising that Verizon might do this, since they oppose net neutrality, but for users like myself, this is highly undesirable. I’ve been highly complimentary about Verizon’s FiOS service, because I’ve had excellent speed and high quality from it. I work from home providing expertise around internet technologies, so it’s vital that I be able to clearly experience the internet just as the majority of the rest of internet users out there, so having Verizon meddling with what’s delivered up to me is not cool.
If you all recall, another company did something quite similar to this back in 2003: Verisign previously did something quite similar when they abruptly launched their “Site Finder” service which
Popularity: 12% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 11/05/2007 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Domain Names, Monetization of Search, News, Worst Practices, technologyDomain Names, InfoSpace, net-neutrality, VeriSign, Verizon, Yahoo
Yes, you can automate SEO - we’ve done it!
Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal wrote a post highlighting Commerce360’s stated intention to build automatic optimization software, using a lot of venture capital they raised for this purpose. Loren asks, “Can SEO Be Automated?”
Inspired by this thread, Lisa Barone at Bruce Clay, Inc. responds with “You Can’t Automate Search Engine Optimization” (which is just the tiniest bit ironic, since Bruce Clay’s Dynamic Site Mapping tool arguably provides a level of automated search optimization).
While Commerce360 is looking to create search optimization automation, we’ve already been accomplishing it for quite some time here at Netconcepts, as I outlined in an earlier article on Automatic Search Engine Optimization. So, do I think SEO can be automated? Hell, yes!
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 09/21/2007 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: HTML Optimization, Marketing, Monetization of Search, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Tools, technologyAutomatic-Search-Engine-Optimization, Automatic-SEO, GravityStream, Netconcepts, SEO, SEO-Web-Services
Misguided Science Fiction Writers Advise U.S. on Homeland Security
USA Today has reported in “Sci-fi writers join war on terror” that a small group of science fiction writers have been contacted by the U.S. government to advise on new and innovative ways that security could be improved. The group, called Sigma, was formed about 15 years ago by writer Arlan Andrews and was specifically intended to advise the government on advanced technology issues.
Their motto seems ominous in context of recent-history political trends and frighteningly nationalistic: “Science Fiction in the National Interest“. I think their involvement is a bit horrifying, misguided, and more than a bit egotistically self-grandiose. Read on for more details.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 05/31/2007 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Futurism, News, Security, technologyArlan-Andrews, Eric-Kotani, Greg-Bear, Homeland-Security, Jerry-Pournelle, Larry-Niven, Sage-Walker, science-fiction, Sigma-Group
How Web 2.0 Affects SEO Strategy
My colleague, P.J. Fusco just wrote a great article over at ClickZ on How Web 2.0 Affects SEO Strategy. In it, she provides a good overview of what’s good and bad about “Web 2.0″ stuff, and how some of the technology involved can challenge the goal of natural search optimization of a website. It’s well worth a read if you’re unfamiliar with these issues.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 05/23/2007 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: SEO, technologyAJAX, SEO, Social-Media, Web-2.0
The Game of Life: New Chromatic Projection Method
I’ve been interested in The Game of Life ever since I heard about it back in the 70s/80s. It was some time around when my dad bought us our first personal computers. The Game of Life was invented by the mathematician, John Horton Conway, as he worked upon a way of modeling life-like behaviors within a simple field of rules. Conway’s Game of Life was popularized by Martin Gardner — the well-known writer of a popular science column in Scientific American.
Tons of hobbyists and computer programmers cut their eye-teeth by playing the Game of Life through programs copied out of magazines onto their PCs. I recall copying one of these programs out of a computer magazine into either our Timex-Sinclair 1000 or Commodore 64. I can’t recall whether it was Dr. Dobb’s or one of the myriad specialty Commodore zines that my dad was always buying.
Glider Pattern animated
with color path projection
Popularity: 4% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 02/14/2007 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Dynamic Sites, General, technologycellular-automata, game-of-life, John-Conway, Martin-Gardner, The-Game-of-Life
Is SOX Compliance Pushing Companies out of the US? The Duke of York’s Speach at Nano TX Conference
On the final day of the nanoTX conference here in Dallas last week, HRH the Duke of York, KG, KCVO, stopped by to give a speach. The Duke has been serving Great Britain as a sort of ambassador for business and industry, and it was in this capacity that he spoke to the Nano TX attendees. He had earlier in the day visited the Lockheed-Martin plant in Arlington to inspect the Joint Strike Fighter F-35 jet, which he described as being chocked full of mind-blowing technologies.
He went on to speak of the promise inherent in nanotechnology, and he spoke glowingly of Great Britain’s role in the advancement of business and technology while partnering with the United States and other countries. He noted that one of the co-discoverers of Buckminsterfullerene (aka “Bucky-balls”, a nano-scale structure of carbon atoms in a geodesic-style polyhedron), was British.
The really interesting thing that the Duke said was how the UK was committed to making it easy for businesses to function there. He specifically mentioned how they worked to keep paperwork an bureaucracy to a minimum for the sake of being good for businesses.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 10/02/2006 | Permalink | Email
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