It is not easy to label something ‘Content Farms’ to the companies that have huge presence in the web. Yes, many produce large amounts of inexpensive, search-engine-optimized content usually of very low value to the readers. These sites were mutually beneficial to Google and ‘content farm’ sites in terms of ad revenues. Now, Google has taken steps to de-rank such sites.

The SEO pundits have been suggesting webmasters to use such sites to increase their search visibility. Some of the popular such sites like EzineArticles, Hubpages, wisegeek, Associated Content (Yahoo’s), Suite101, Mahalo, Flixya and other such sites.

One of the most surprised (and vocal) was the publisher of CultOfMac website,  Leander Kahney. He claims, ‘We can go toe-to-toe with any other tech news site out there.’

Another popular ‘content farm’ site, Demand Media’s eHow, however seems to have benefited from the steps Google has taken. Three other sites of Demand Media, namely Trails, Livestrong, and AnswerBag, were however affected by the Google algorithm change.

In response the EzineArticles CEO Chris Knight says:

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Google search – Content Farm – Losers and Winners

Google has started using a new algorithm that helps in removing low-quality websites from its search result. It is told that the new algorithm will "noticeably impacts 11.8%" of queries done on Google. These ‘content farms’ copy the contents from other sites or make low quality content targeted to the search engine rather than the users.

Quality of a website is a relative term and it can’t be quantified. It is to be know how the Google algorithm works, but there is a chance that some legit sites might be penalized to be a ‘content farm’ if the content written is not well written. At the same time, some article sites, like ehow.com, might also come under ‘content farm’ as they collect articles from the users. The quality of such articles may not be as good as those prepared by professionals.

In their blogpost, Google fellow Amit Singhal and Google principal engineer Matt Cutts say:

This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other Web sites or sites that are just not very useful.

Yes, content should be valued, and important content given a higher priority in search. But, in the process, unsuspecting and innocent sites shouldn’t be punished.

Anyways, search engines are the kings! (Content is NOT).

Google’s head of Webspam team., Matt Cutts’s blog is full of Bing and Google search pages, comparing what Microsoft has stolen from the Google search results. Google has accused Bing of shoplifting the Google search. Microsoft says, it is using user data gathered from the Bing Toolbar and IE8 Suggested Sites feature. Google does teh same thing – collect who-knows-what data with Google Toolbar and/or Chrome. Even an ex Google engineer says that Google does the same as what Bing is being accused of by Google.

I thought, others follow the leaders. And, leaders don’t care. It is only when the leader gets a feeling that he/she can’t keep the pace… will turn around and start telling the followers to do something other than following him/her.

In the similar manner, as long as Google has its innovative muscles it wouldn’t care what others copy. That was the reason it was giving away almost everything for free. At least, I thought it was like that until it started resisting others like, blocking Facebook access Gmail contact.

I might be completely wrong, and the change in behavior might be because of Larry Page taking over the rein. Kara in allthingsd thinks Google’s Bing attitude defines Larry Page. I hope, it is nothing more than the "drive and aggression" of Bill Gates within Larry as told by Kara.

If that is not so, may be, Page should let Eric Schmidt run the company and get back to work on his PageRank.

Google has named its co-founder Larry Page the new chief executive officer (CEO)  to replace Eric Schmidt. Eric won’t be leaving Google, at least not now, and will work as the executive chairman.

PageRank, the backbone algorithm of Google search is named after Larry Page.

A flimsy business card, printed in bubble jet printer, back in 1998 (source), might come handy now, as Page takes the responsibility of CEO of Google, again.

In the last sixteen months (since August 2009) the internet search giant, Google, has managed to acquire two companies in average totaling at least 32 companies (publicly announced). The second half of 2009 was the time when the economy was having its toll on business and, it was also the time when Google decided it to start the buying spree. According to a report from San Jose Mercury News daily, Google has spent over two billion dollars on small startups and larger established social networking, gaming, mobile advertising, travel, video, and music related companies.  It is speculated that the aggressive buying spree of Google could draw attention of antitrust watchdogs.

Most of the popular services in Google including Blogger, Google Maps, Android and YouTube were based on technology and manpower Google acquired by acquisitions. Google also prides itself in retaining two-thirds of the startup founders who joined Google through acquisitions.

Within a week of release of a dedicated laptop, Cr-48 Notebook, to feature a news operating system from Google, experts have started to predict its life. A former Google employee predicted it to be dead by as soon as next year. The Gmail creator Paul Buchheit, in his Twitter post said, "Prediction: ChromeOS will be killed next year (or "merged" with Android)". Buchheit had left Google for Facebook and then founded FriendFeed.

The testers of this new device have pointed out the lack of application to browse local files. But, Google’s philosophy behind the OS is that – everything is located in Google server and there is no local files at all. We have seen that in iPhone – we can’t browse the files in iOS devices.

In the current standard of computer operating system, Chrome OS can be considered creepy -

• First time log-in, the OS tries to snap the user’s photo
• You can’t browse the files in your pen drive
• You have to log-in with Google account at start-up – does that qualify for being anti-competitive?
• Once logged-in, you are logged in everything in Google from Search, Gmail to Google Docs
• It is most unlikely – but, what happens if Google goes bankrupt? How will one log-in?
• Will businesses want to store their data in Google server?

Thank god, there is an off-line mode. If not, internet outage would be more severe than power outage (you can at least use battery, for power outage).

Techcrunch notes that, the key architect of the Chrome OS project, Matthew Papakipos, left Google over the Summer — for a job at Facebook.

Some of the features of latest offering from Google – a Google netbook running on the beta version of its new cloud-based operating system, Chrome OS, are:

• No CAPS LOCK key
• No F-keys – replaces function keys with media-keys
• 12-inch screen, 3.8-pounds
• 8-hours battery life
• 3G and Wi-Fi
• Solid black
• Intel Atom processor
• flash memory drive

Chrome OS laptop comes with a free Verizon data plan of 100 MB per month for the first two years. It’s good to see no long-term contracts pay as you go data purchase.

The worst part of the whole equation is that, one needs to log in with the Google account during start-up. The user is virtually locked-up in Google and there is nothing out of it.

Google desperately wants to tell the world that search is not the only thing it is best at and there are various avenues it wants to jump into. Let Facebook have higher share of visitors, all Google wants is money.

Google has released its own eBookstore. The bookstore is currently US only:

Google eBooks are only available for sale to customers in the U.S. at this time … For U.S. users traveling abroad: Before you head to the airport, be sure to load and sync the ebooks you wish to have with you for continued reading without interruption.

Users from the rest of the world can still download and read the free and public domain Google eBooks.

The new Google ebookstore will compete with other online retailers like Amazon.com, Apple bookstore, and Barnes & Noble, among others.

DRM protection

For those hoping for “DRM Free” books from Google will be disappointed. Google seems to plan ahead for being “closed” with a recent purchase of Widevine, a content delivery optimization and security company. The Widevine video DRM technology might be useful for YouTube and GoogleTV. For books, Google is using Adobe’s DRM – Content Server 4 in the books sold in Google ebookstore.

New Nexus S smartphone

Google learnt a lesson from Nexus One, launched earlier this year, that Google Web store is not a store good enough to sell smartphone. Now, WSJ reports that Google is releasing another smartphone, Nexus S, developed with Samsung Electronics, to be released with a new version of the Android operating system. But this time, the phone will be sold in third-party retailers like Bestbuy starting mid-December.

That is not all, Google had also announced Chrome OS Netbook on Friday.

Google has announced an event to be held in San Francisco for December 7th, with a promise of "exciting news about Chrome."

It is expected that a netbook running Google’s Chrome OS might be unveiled on the December 7 event. Egadadget reports that the Atom-powered laptop will not be the final product and will not be marketed. It is also told that, only be around 65,000 units will be produced and distributed among Google’s closest "friends and family".

Crome OS is is told to be still in beta stage and is not ready for public release yet. It is expected that Google will unveil an App store for the cloud-based OS soon. It is worthwhile to note that Google has updated its browser, Chrome 8, yesterday.

Google Documents had its mobile version for the last three years but, it was not truly mobile. The mobile version used to be read-only.

In a latest announcement from Google, it is rolling out the updated version of Google Docs with edit support. The update will be rolled out in the next few days for English-language users around the world. The updated Docs is compatible with Android-based handsets running Froyo version 2.2 and iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running Apple iOS V3 or higher.

Although writing or massive editing in a phone might not be that convenient, minor correction or reviews are best done on the go. Microsoft in is latest release, has also included its Office package in Windows Phone 7. Apple is also selling its iPad versions of text editor, spreadsheet, and presentation software.

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Google Documents adds mobile editing for Android and iPhone