YBO Interactive Blog

Google reported yesterday that their Street View cars have been recorded all the traffic they could gather from open WIFI networks in their way.

This means that if you were there at the right time and the right place and didn’t use any service that will help you connect to Facebook in https, it is more than likely that Google has your Facebook password. Isn’t that cool?

Their statements end with an apology: “Google works hard to earn your trust—and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here. We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake.”

Remember the buzz apology? I have a feeling that sometime soon they will apologize again. This is not the last time that our privacy is trashed by Google.

Google has just announced that faster websites will be ranked higher.

There are few tools like Page Speed and YSlow that you can use to optimize your site speed, and of course if you thought about a stronger platform for your website, now you have another reason to do so.

Question: How is that possible that I see different SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages) when I’m logged in to Gmail than the SERPS I saw when I was logged out?

Another Question: How is that possible that I see different SERPS when I use Firefo, Chrome or Internet Explorer?

The answer is Google Personalized Search.

Here is an excellent video that explains this issue - for dummies.

Here is a really funny clip made by comedy.com.
The fact that this video clip is hosted on YouTube proves that the people in Google still got some sense of humor left.

Google reported in the official google blog that they are on their way out of China.

This is unbelievable.  The amount of traffic Google is going to loose as a result of this move is enormous.  The revenue they will loose as a result of this move is still unknown, but I guess that out of the $5.94 billion they made in Q32009 a few hundred millions came from China. I’m not sure that investors will like it, however I’m sure that companies that provide services that allow internet users to use Google from China will be very happy with this news.

My mom just called, saying something is wrong with her computer. After a very short investigation I understood that it’s not the computer that is not working, but it is Google that seem to be broken.

After I checked Google myself I smiled

Today, Oct 7th, 57 years ago, the Bar-code was invented.

Like many other occasions, Google changed their logo to respect this day.

So if you find a strange Google logo, don’t worry. They are probably trying to say something…

(The answer is Yes.)

I have just looked at the Google Q2 2009 Results and thought about some questions people been asked me like ” Is Adwords really worth it?” “Isn’t that a waste of money?” “Isn’t that full of fraud?”

The answer is this: During Q2 2009 Google-owned sites (Google.com, Gmail, Youtube etc.) generated revenues of $3.65 billion. Does that answer the question? Three and a half billion dollars think that it is worth it. If it wouldn’t be worth it, do you think that Google would have made so much money?

I will write another post soon about why I think Adwords is a must tool for every business.  Can’t do it today. Got to run. Lot’s of work!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Madams and Monsieurs:

I have officially became a Google Amabassador!

(applause)

Unfortunately although I’m an ambassador, I still can not get you a Visa to visit the GooglePlex, and I have nothing to do with Google’s foreign affairs…

However, there is one good thing you can get from my embassy: Google gave me a pack of 200 NIS vouchers for Google Adwords. So if you are new to Google Adwords, and thought about trying it, whether if you are a YBO Interactive customer, or not, I’ll be happy to get you one of those vouchers, just to try Google Adwords and see how powerfull this tool is.

This is how these vouchers look like:

Let me know if you need one.

How stable is Google?

Every now and then, we get the news that Gmail is down. I have personally felt only some of those outages, but the news is full of those stories.

And now, if you want to know exactly how stable Google is, here is the official answer.

Google has a site that shows the status of all Google apps in real time, with a few weeks history.

I have never seen a tier one company that is so open with this info. Usually companies keep their stability issues for themselves, hiding their downtime, hoping that nobody noticed.

Again, as said more than once, here is another proof that Google is different.

Isn’t that a lousy picture? well, that’s the best I could do with my phone…

It was a very nice day at Google, I’ll write a few posts about what I’ve heard, it was quite interesting to hear what the Google guys think about what we do every day.

I also got quite a few $50 Adwords Coupons for my customers, so if you need one, feel free to contact me and I’ll send you the code. It was funny to hear that in Poland and Turkey the guys that got the coupons from Google sold them on ebay on the same day… so mines aren’t for sale, just giveaways

I have to say that when I looked at the Ben&Jerry’s freezer in the GooglePlex, I thought about that VISA commercial when Keren Mor says “Why do I deserve all that Good?…” It sure looks like it is fun to work there…