Judge Denies Google Summary Judgement In Geico Case
John Battelle reports that the judge in the Geico vs. Google case has denied Google summary judgement to dismiss the case. A summary judgement is where a party asks to dismiss because the case has no merit (which I, and obviously the judge, would disagree with). John, and the Unofficial Google Weblog both point out that this case isn’t getting the coverage it deserves, so much so that even news like this requires some deep digging.
More on the Geico case:
Geico Gets The Go-Ahead To Sue Google And Overture (9/3)
Should Google Ban Trademarks? (11/14)
Content Management Systems And Pay-For-Blogging
Search Engine News Journal has two interesting articles today. The first discusses using blogs as a marketting tool. The second talks about Content Management Systems and SEO. Why am I pointing out these? I find it curious seeing these articles posted almost simulaneously, as they relate to Marqui’s new pay-for-blogging program, which begins tomorrow (more on that later).
Mark Mahaney Finally Comes Around; Google Gets $215 Price Target
American Technology Research analyst Mark Mahaney, who has been one of Google’s stock’s biggest detractors, has given the stock a $215 price target, saying it will increase 17% from current prices. The article also points out that Google’s float is very limited compared to similar companies, like Yahoo. Even after all the stock is made available, there will still be significantly fewer Google shares than Yahoo shares, keeping demand relatively high.
Google! Go Get Me A Pizza!
Phillip at Google Blogoscoped has created a mock-up of what he calls “Google Brain”, which demonstrates an intelligent, back-and-forth question-and-answer session with Google. The idea is to replace the standard search engine with an automated bot that figures out what you want. The “demo” shows a person who clearly has no clue how to power search (like 80-90% of searchers), and how the bot walks the searcher through it to find what he or she is looking for. Cool stuff.
Google News Inaccessible From China
Interfax reports that Chinese users have been unable to get to the english version of Google News. Evidence suggests it is being blocked by China’s firewall. This comes after several other issues Google has had with Chinese censorship tactics.
(via John Battelle)
TV Search Is Coming
Cnet’s Stefanie Olsen reports that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are working on digital video search tools. Google’s is reportedly the most ambitious plan, with the search giant working together with broadcasters to create a TV search engine, something I correctly predicted they were working on over three weeks ago. Microsoft’s efforts center on interactive cable TV, while Google’s focus more on broadband internet users. Yahoo, meanwhile, simply wants to index already available multimedia content, much like AOL’s Singingfish already does.
Google’s project for TV search is ultra-secretive; only a handful of broadcast executives have seen it demonstrated so far. To build the service, the company is recording live TV shows and indexing the related closed-caption text of the programming. It uses the text to identify themes, concepts and relevant keywords for video so they can be triggers for searching.
Advanced Users Video Guide To Google
Phillip Lensen of Google Blogoscoped has put together a comprehensive, 23 minute video showing how to use all the advanced features Google offers to their fullest. And, for a little fun, he points to a cartoon: “Before the Internet“.
Google, Oracle, Sun Scramble To Aquire "Nuclear Patents"
Commerce One, a bankrupt software company, is selling off its assets. These assets include 39 patents, some of which include the protocols used for exchanging business documents over the web. Naturally, this has worried every major net business, since it is believed that some company could snatch up the patents (completely violating the purpose of patent law, which is to protect the creator, not the holder of a random document) and begin suing every business on the internet. So, to combat what the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jason Shultz described as “nuclear material” that shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands, some of the biggest net companies have banded together, including Google, Oracle, Sun, and more than a dozen others, into a nonprofit group called CommerceNet, who plan to buy the patents and summarilly trash them.
This really needs to stop. It’s bad enough when companies file for patents they have no right to own. But that a company should be allowed to auction off patents to the highest bidder; patents to items that are clearly publicly available (internet protocols) and thus have no value in their own usage; patents which have usage in only one aspect: lawsuits; this has to stop. Why doesn’t the governement have any controls over this kind of “patents as a form of rape” usage of a system it owns. Couldn’t there simply be a law that states:
“Under no circumstances can a company sell a patent in and of itself. A patent is a property connected with a product, individual, or company, and may only be transferred not through the sale of itself, but through the sale of the attached product, individual, or company. A sale of a patent for pure monetary purposes shall deem that patent void, for all purposes, especially litigation.”
Currently, patent law states:
Under no circumstanes may this law be applied in a sane, rational manner honoring the spirit in which it was intended. Under no circumstances shall a company be called to task for being complete douches, for that is the way we were taught in law school. Neener neener neener.
Seriously, that’s the passage from the patent law. I swear. You can look it up.
But seriously, this should not be neccessary. I’m the first one to step up and ask the government to stop getting involved in our lives, but I’m also the first one to explain that the governement needs to step in and fix its own messes. You crapped on my floor? You mop it up. Don’t force companies to buy the patents to avoid some kind of ridiculous blackmail scheme. It’s like when someone figured out you could be the web addresses of popular brand names that had yet to do so themselves, and then wait for that company to show up and pat hundreds of thousands of dollars for the domain name. The government showed up there and made the practice illegal. Why isn’t patent blackmail illegal, if all other forms of blackmail are? Why is it the only form of blackmail created, sanctioned and supported by the governement? See a problem here? I do.
Investors (wisely?) Bet Against Google
CBS MarketWatch reports (registration required) that in the month ending Novemeber 15, short selling of Google stock (that is, betting that it will go down) rose 35%.Considering that since then, Google dropped $40, it seems like it was a safe bet. Of course, the stock recovered half of that slide, so, like any good bet, you gotta know when the stocck is about to turn the other way. I wonder if anyone made a lot of money off the slide?
Taget Pushes Drugs
NOTE: If you are linking, DO NOT link to this post. Link to this one. This post has a misspelling, and I cannot fix it without deleting the post, so I must keep the misspelled one while referring everyone to the corrected post. Please oblige, if you have any understanding about PageRank.
Check it out, Target has marijuana for $25.25! You know why this bothers me? Two reasons. First, there’s no proper product description. Where was it grown? What additives can we expect? Where’s the photo? Most importantly, how much do I get for $25.25? Also, it says “Free Shipping – when you spend $30″. Always like a pusher, trying to hassle you into buying more. Thanks to reader Coolz0r for the heads-up.
UPDATE: tricia_rva2 notes in the LiveJournal comments that Target is also selling Crack for $11.66. Also, I feel like a true idiot for posting this with a misspelled title, but if I fix the misspelling, Blogger changes the URL and I lose my backlinks and referrals. Brilliant bit of programming there!
Comments on this story:
Steve Rubel: Dear Target, a PR crisis is brewing for your company in the blogosphere. Please tell me you’re listening. Love, Steve
Neville Hobson: Target, is this really someting you want to be doing?
Jeremy Zawodny: Jesus Fu@%ing Christ, people. It’s a stupid mistake.
Larry Borsato: Wow, you really can get more than ever at Target.
