Google problem ‘spreading’ from Santorum to Romney

A new website with a very off-color description of Mitt Romney could create a serious image problem for the Republican presidential candidate. Reputation management experts call it “image-jacking” -- and Google says it's out of the company's hands.

Rick Santorum was the first to suffer from a “Google-bomb”: the SpreadingSantorum.com website created by sex columnist Dan Savage that offers a repulsive description of the candidate. Romney may be the latest to suffer from such repugnant manipulation of the Internet, but he won’t be last, said Reputation Management expert Kenneth Wisnefski.

“The more attention such sideshow distractions receive only takes away from politicians' ability to get their message out,” Wisnefski said. The spreading problem could affect candidates’ ability to connect with new voters.

A Google bomb is the intentional manipulation of a search engine to return a specific result, thanks to large numbers of relevant links or related searches. One recently uncovered by FoxNews.com connected the search string define: to certain swear words. And whether officially a “bomb” or merely an explosion in popularity, such image-jacking is clearly on the rise.

“These attacks can significantly impact the integrity of the candidate as voters unfamiliar with search engine optimization justify why these sites are present,” he said.

Google has a different take on the matter, telling the SearchEngineLand.com website that the search results weren’t a bomb -- just a site rapidly gaining popularity.

“This site has been live for about a month and has attracted a fair amount of attention both on TV and online, and Google’s algorithmic rankings are reflecting that fact,” a representative from Google said.

The SpreadingRomney.com site, created by Jack Shepler as a joke, offers a very off-color description of Romney clearly meant to echo Savage’s site. Danny Sullivan, editor of the SearchEngineLand.com website, agreed that the site’s rise in search results was remarkable -- yet hardly unexpected.

“It’s a remarkable gain given that it beat out news stories and existing sites … that are both years old,” he wrote. Representatives from both Google and Bing told Sullivan the site’s prominence was just them doing their job.

As with the define: search results, Sullivan says the new anti-Romney site isn’t an official bomb. That is to say, people haven’t intentionally crafted a network of links to artificially boost the relevance and profile of the site.

“My guess is that SpreadingRomney hit on a perfect storm of things in its favor to rank well,” he wrote, noting the newness of the site, a few links (notably one from Rachel Maddow), and the site’s appearance in “Romney” searches.

And it appears no one is safe: Newt Gingrich may be next on the list.

The site spreadinggingrich.com recently appeared online, asking visitors to “submit your definition of gingrich and take your shot at Internet immortality.”

Source-foxnews

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Google TV Gets A New YouTube App

Last month, Google began showing the new versions of Google TV at CES, giving the press a taste of what was in store. One particular panel discussing Google TV’s new capabilities led Rupert Murdoch to take to Twitter, bemoaning the pirating ways of the search behemoth. Forbes has the backstory here. Google TV posted on its Facebook page yesterday, saying that it has some big announcements in store for Monday.

Today, it announced that it is upgrading the YouTube experience on Google TV with a new, revamped app. The YouTube app for Google TV is available for download on the Android Marketplace. The initial drive behind Google TV was to create a user experience that seamlessly blends web video with the boob tube, to change the way consumers interact with TV, but the first Google TV fell flat. Matt Burns reviewed the version, saying that, while it’s getting closer, it still has a long, long way to go.

In its announcement today, Google is promising some “big improvements” to its new YouTube app, among them that navigation is smoother and faster, along with some much-needed additions to its UX, like the new “Discover” feature, which basically just brings YouTube channel categories to Google TV, enhancing their browse-ability within the app. They’ve also brought its new channel pages, enabling users to navigate playlists and videos and subscribe to favorites.

Google says that users can also now view related videos from the same user by pressing the up and down arrows on their remote controls, or to find the “Info screen” to leave a thumbs up, add to your playlists, or to leave a comment.

The new app looks good, and this certainly stands to improve the YouTube experience on Google TV, though it’s certainly not the “big announcement” that many were hoping for. We’ll be keeping our ears out in the event that there’s more Google TV news in store for Monday.
Source-techcrunch

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Google's GDrive Reportedly To Launch As Dropbox-rival 'Drive'

Google's long-rumored GDrive that would let you upload and store files to its servers and be able to access them from anywhere you have an Internet connection may finally be close to launching in the coming weeks as a more cheaply priced Dropbox rival.
The new product, reportedly called "Drive," will be free to consumers up to a certain size limit, and would also be folded into Google Apps for enterprise customers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper cited "people familiar with the matter."
"If a person wants to email a video shot from a smartphone, for instance, he can upload it to the Web through the Drive mobile app and email people a link to the video rather than a bulky file," the newspaper said.
If that scenario sounds familiar, that's because Google already offers similar functionality using a variety of Google tools.
You can, for instance, record a video on your Android phone and then have it uploaded automatically to Picasa through a service called Instant Upload. Then you could either share your video on Google+ or move it to a different album to share publicly or with a select group of people such as close family members.
Google also allows you to upload files of any type to Google Docs, effectively giving you a Dropbox-like service. When Google added the functionality in early 2010, many critics referred to it as a kinda, sorta GDrive.
By the end of 2010, Google had also added drag-and-drop functionality to Google Docs (just as it had to Gmail in April and May that same year), making the service even more GDrive- or Dropbox-like.
Unlike Dropbox, however, which offers 2GB free storage, Google Docs' storage offerings are a bit more complex. You can upload up to 1GB to Google Docs, while files created inside Google Docs have specific limitations such as 400,000 cells for spreadsheets with a maximum 256 columns per sheet.
Google in 2011 also unveiled an online music locker and streaming service called Google Music.
So if Google is already offering online storage for virtually anything you have stored on your PC, what could this rumored "Drive" offer that is new? Will Google simply duplicate offerings it's already built? Possibly, but given CEO Larry Page's recent focus on integrating Google's services, that seems unlikely.
Google may be looking to bring its cloud storage services for photos, videos and files into one cohesive whole. That way you'd have one central drop location for your files similar to Dropbox or Microsoft's Web-based alternative, SkyDrive, instead of having them spread across multiple services.
It's not clear if Google's long-awaited GDrive would also offer you easy access to your documents already on Google Docs. But that seems likely if Google's vaunted "Drive" is a web-based tool as most of the company's other popular products are.
Another option is to emulate Dropbox's desktop-web hybrid model that sticks a folder on your desktop. Anything you put into the folder is then automatically uploaded and synced to Dropbox's servers and your other Dropbox installations.
Google's expected GDrive was first rumored around 2007, then resurfaced in 2009 after a reference to "Google Web Drive" was discovered in a collection of Google desktop programs. In September 2011, TechCrunch reported that Google Drive was launching "for real this time."
Google was unavailable for comment early Thursday.
Source-pcworld

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GOOGLE+ SAYS 'YES' TO NICKNAMES, BUT NO TO ANONYMITY

Google relaxed the strict naming policy for Google+ users and will allow nicknames and pseudonyms on the social network. The new naming policy, announced by Google’s Bradley Horowitz on Google+, will start rolling out this week and allows users to choose alternatives names, be it nicknames or names in non-Romanized languages. But there’s a caveat.

Even if you add a pseudonym to your Google + account, such as "Jedi Master", people will still see your "real name" adjacent to your nickname (see image below). Much to the chagrin of human rights activists, who have argued it should be easier for Google+ users to protect their true identities, Google does not let you with its move Tuesday.

[Click to enlarge] Since its beginnings seven months ago, Google+ took Facebook’s strategy to use real names to the next level. To enforce the use of real names on the social network, Google disabled users accounts that did not use their (purportedly) real identity. At first, Google was criticized for disabling accounts without notice, and later began sending warnings to address the problem to users infringing the naming policy.

But Google found that 60 percent of Google+ users (now more than 90 million) want to be able to add a nickname to their identity, while another 20 percent simply prefer to use a pseudonym or another unconventional name. As with Facebook, Google also found some 20 percent of signups are businesses that try to create a profile instead of a page.

A Google+ nickname or pseudonym does not mean your full name won’t be displayed on the social network anymore. If you choose an alternate name, it will be added to your real name registered with the account. For example, if John Doe wants to use the "DUDE" nickname, the name will be displayed as either; John “DUDE” Doe or John Doe (DUDE). You can’t just have the nickname displayed. To add a nickname, go to Edit profile, select your name and click on More options.

Good News for Prima Donnas

The good news though is that Google will allow established pseudonyms, such as Madonna, as long as users provide proof to confirm their identity. This may include references in news articles or scanned official documentations, such as a driver’s license. Google will also accept as proof an established identity online with a meaningful following, but it’s unclear how sizeable this following would have to be.

“This seems like a reasonable compromise: all the joys of pseudonymity, without any of the unpleasantness that comes with anonymity,” a Google+ user commented on Horrowitz’s announcement, but most users seem to remain unsatisfied with the change.

“None of us wear ID tags in real life as we walk the streets. We don't show our ID card to the cashier when we shop for groceries,” another Google+ user argued. “But we do write letters to the editor for the local newspaper under a signature of our choice and we have nice and polite conversations to strangers we meet at the public library or on the bus without giving up our identity. Truth is we simply don't need to reveal our identity to each and everyone who happen to look our way (unless maybe we have a very big ego and/or are trying to "brand" our name or something), it works just great anyway.”
Source-pcworld

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