Some newspapers are planning to put their content behind a ‘pay wall’, meaning that they will charge you for access to their articles. The New York Times is planning to set up such a wall, which will probably will be in place by January 2011. The Wall Street Journal website already offers certain articles to subscribers only. When you are doing research, pay walls can be very annoying. They can also be tiresome when you are not doing research of course. However, there is a trick that you can use to get access to pages behind those walls. How? The answer is Google News. Google News has a...

The table below summarizes Google’s, Yahoo!’s and Bing’s trademark policy with regard to the use of trademarks as keywords by competitors of those trademarks. In this table, Google’s policy is the policy announced to take effect on September 14, 2010. France Trademarks can be used by competitor. Google does not investigate the use of trademarks as keywords. The Advertising Terms and Conditions are silent about the use of trademarks, Advertisements have to comply with the editorial rules that are also silent about trademarks. Competitive use is not allowed. The...

Scad (noun). A sponsored search result that is purposely designed to deceive search engine users. It has nothing to do with Stamp Collectors Against Dodgy Sellers, but it is a portmanteau of the words ‘scam’ and ‘ads’. The word is invented by the Alliance Against Bait & Click, which is comprised of “a diverse group of leading experts, organizations, and companies working together to stop bait & click and make deceptive sponsored search results a thing of the past”. Among these experts, organizations and companies are: 1800 Contacts, Rosetta Stone (not just...

The controversial plan to filter the Internet could be dead in the water after the Liberal-National Coalition, the main opposition group in the Australian parliament, declared it opposed the policy. The current Australian Government announced the filter two years ago as part of its cyber safety program to protect children from pornography and offensive material. With little over a week to go until the elections, the Internet filter has become a controversial issue that is dividing the political parties in Australia. In their ‘plan for real action to protect Australian Families Online‘,...

It all started with  rumors that “Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege“. That news wasn’t completely true because the two didn’t close a deal, but they introduced a Legislative Framework Proposal for how the Internet should be regulated. Both companies posted a statement explaining their efforts on their public policy blogs: Google and Verizon. Much has been said about...

Below is an excerpt from a patent application that I bumped into while doing research on Google’s advertising program. A method and apparatus that use voice/audio recognition and analysis technologies to deliver assigned context sensitive information and data of interest (keywords, phrases, mood, etc.). Below is an example of how that technology can be put to use in Skype. Scary, isn’t...