In 2005, Google and AIM signed a deal which consists of showing google ads on AOL search engine. Another part of the deal comes with the GTalk-AIM integration. Two years having passed, Google started working on the system for the GTalk users to communicate with AIM’s users in order to compete with the Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger interoperability which is doing very well. AIM is now updating their system to create a XMPP gateway which would allow XMPP/Jabber clients to access the AIM network using AIM screen names.

Google has added a new feature in their search results. They’re showing a list of related topics that may help the user to refine his search query. For example, when i searched for “Digital Cameras”, here’s what I got in the bottom of the search results page:

#1 Border and Background

Always use the background color of your webpage for your ad border and background:

#2 Ad block placement

Try to embed as much as you can your ad block within the text. For example, in the beginning of the text, place the ad in a div that floats on the right:


<div style="float:right; margin: 0 0 10px 10px;">
<!– your adsense code –>
</div>
Start writing your article here



For the large horizontal ads, place them centered between the header and the contents of your website.

#3 Ad Formats

Avoid the banner format since it has become a very well known ad format and your visitors will not even notice it.

The rectangular ads have proved to have a higher CTR especially when they’re embedded within the text.

On the other hand, the horizontant ads are easier to read than the vertical ones. So use Leaderboards for horizontal ads.

The recommended ad formats are:
- Large Rectangle: 336×280
- Medium Rectangle: 300×250
- Leaderboard: 728×90

#4 Colors

The dark green color has proved over time that it relaxes the visitor. In other words, the green color represents safety, success and trust:

Also, websites with white background have a higher CTR than websites with colored background. So try to place your ads in a white area!

#5 Link Units (Vertical)

Use a vertical link unit on the top of your side bar - It’s recommended to place this unit over the main menu of your website.

#6 Link Units (Horizontal)

Use a horizontal link unit under the top menu of your site - You can make this link unit as a separator between the header and the contents of the site.

#7 Firefox Referrals

Google adsense teem has recently approved to convince the users to try a product provided with the referrals units. Here’s a smart way to convince your users to download Firefox with Google toolbar:

#8 Which referral to show?

Do not show a Firefox referral unit for Firefox users. You can show a picaza referral instead!
Here’s a code you might use:


<!–[if IE]>
Place your firefox referral block here!
<![endif]–>



#9 Show less links on the page

It’s obvious that when you have too many links on your webpage, the probability to click on your ad will decrease. So try to stick to the neccessary links!

#10 Show targeted ads

If you want to show targeted ads on your site, use the ad section tags. The adsense robot will check for these tags and get keywords from text in between.


My non relevant text
<!– google_ad_section_start –>
My <b>relevant</b> text
<!– google_ad_section_end –>
My non relevant text



Stay tuned!

Have you tried mobile Messenger yet? It’s a great option for staying connected when you’re away from your computer,and is definitely worth trying out.

Recently, Windows Live Messenger for Mobile released a beta. Check it out at ideas.live.com.

The new version has proved to be a success.It includes emoticons, contact groups,status control while online, and a conversation window,which make the program extremely user-friendly.

Here’s what’s posted on ideas.live.com:

What it is?
It’s everything you already love about Messenger on your mobile device. Windows Live(TM) Messenger for Mobile helps give you instant access to your contact list, emoticons, and friends.

What’s new in this version?
• Easier-to-manage contact list and conversation inbox
• View and participate in up to 5 active conversations at one time
• No more idle conversation experience: Messenger for mobile can now maintain current conversation history and reestablish an idle conversation in the background
• Emoticons are now displayed as graphics within display names and conversations
• Easily change your display name and status, and even set status before you sign in
• Sort and find contacts more quickly and easily (search, filter by group, and hide offline contacts)
• Call or send e-mail to contacts directly from their contact cards
• Converse with temporary contacts (new people who don’t yet appear on your list of Messenger contacts), and receive the option to add them to your contact list

To try it out, browse to mobile.live.com on your mobile device and click “Messenger beta”. Sign in with your Windows Live ID… and you’re connected!

Google earth 4 is now out of Beta, complete with the recently upgraded SketchUp (6).The newest version of Google Earth 4 is 4.0.2722,which has been declared “Non-Beta”.

Google Earth has also developed a “Product comparison” page, where the user can find the most appropriate version for them, however the free version is still good enough for the majority of users.
The latest version can be downloaded on this page on Google Earth.

Microsoft is about to launch a free Web Analytics service for webmaster. It’s called Gatineau and you can check it out on the following link:

If this truly will be Google Analytics’s competition, I’m hoping this is going to address several shortcomings that I’ve found in Google Analytics, particularly the notion of inaccurate counts (especially when compared with Urchin, which is ironic given that Google purchased Urchin yet dropped its core functionality), the absence of the direct referral page in the analysis review, and complexity (especially for newbies — how about simple Urchin-like reports and an advanced view?)

Google video appears to be trying new advertising methods, though the technique is old. Instead of integrating its video commercials before or at the end of the movie clip, Google video is inserting its ads in commercial breaks during the clip.

Nathan Weinberg points to this Charlie Rose clip from Google Video. Once you begin watching the video you’ll notice two blue boxes in the video time progress bar.

When the video reaches the blue squares,a 15-second-long commercial starts.
The blue boxes can be skipped; however, once the commercial starts,the viewer needs to go to its end to resume watching the DVD.

Yahoo has launched a new mobile search service dubbed Yahoo oneSearch which Yahoo says takes a different tack towards the displaying of search results on mobile phones and other mobile devices.

“Yahoo! oneSearch presents answers directly in the results – not just a list of Web links to PC sites. It delivers the right results with just one search.” said Marco Boerries , senior vice president of connected life, Yahoo!.

In addition to providing relevant results, the new mobile search provides immediate answers for any chosen category (business,movies,sports…).

The result category is specific to the query term, for example, if the query term is “ipod”, the top of the result page includes results from Shopping, with prices and reviews, which could help the user who’s considering a purchase.

Yahoo oneSearch tends therefore to be extremely user-friendly by determining the most relevant results and providing the best compatibility with most mobile phones.

It is the next generation of mobile search…

Yahoo is releasing a new version of Yahoo Messenger, loaded with new features, in the Spring of 2007 optimized for Windows Vista.

I got some Screenshots from CNET news website:

Here’s a list of the new features:

• Resize the contacts window.
• Start a chat without opening a chat window.
• Easy access to a color wheel to change the background color.
• Make photos full-screen size when sharing them.
• Combine multiple chat sessions into one window with multiple tabs.
• Drag and drop a contact onto the desktop for separate viewing.
• Automatic creation of contact groups based on Yahoo network affinity groups of which users may be members.

Google has joined a team made by 19 American universities and Labs to create a Large Synoptic Survey Telescope - LSST.

Scheduled to begin operations in 2013, the 8.4-meter LSST will be able to survey the entire visible sky deeply in multiple colors every week with its three-billion pixel digital camera. The telescope will probe the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, and it will open a movie-like window on objects that change or move rapidly: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids as small as 100 meters, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects.

…

“The LSST will be the world’s most powerful survey telescope, with vast data management challenges,” Donald Sweeney, LSST project manager, said. “LSST engineers and scientists have been collaborating with Google on number of these exciting opportunities. Even though the universe is very old, exciting things happen every second. The LSST will be able to find these events hundreds of times better than today’s other big telescopes. Google will help us organize and present the seemingly overwhelming volumes of data collected by the LSST.”

The requirements of this project are kind of impossible for normal user to imagine. This system will be using around 30 Terrabyte/Day of images (30000 GB/Day). The role of Google will be challenging in order to make a really useful knowledge based system out of these images.

Will the Adwords users be bidding to show their ads on some constellations? I don’t think so!

Actually I can’t wait to see details on Mercury or even Pluto