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Digging Google's My Search History
With the search history function, you can search through the past record, writes Deepak Mankar.
Remember last week's opening para about Google Suggest Beta? I mentioned there that the suggestions were not based on the searcher's previous search history. Now let me tell you a bit about Google's My Search History. It's available only to registered users, mind you. Only if you sign in at Google with your Google (Gmail) account, will a link appear at the top right of the page, reading: 'My Search History'.
Clicking on it will display a list of your searches in reverse chronological order plus links to the web sites you went to see from those search results - something akin to what happens when you click on the Favourites button on your desktop. The calendar feature informs how many visits you've made to a given web page and when you viewed it last. With the search history function, you can search through the past record. Learn more on Google My Search History here: http://www.google.com/searchhistory/help.html.
Judging by the initial blogger reaction to it - which can be described as overwhelmingly favourable - Google seems to have unveiled another winner in its time-honoured tradition. However, I found a dissenting voice at this address: http://www.searchnewz.com/searchnewz-12-20050421GooglesNewMySearchHistory.html. In his ' Google's New "My Search History"', Contributing Writer Mark Fleming writes: "…I think a lot of people will have a problem with it. … most people simply 'Google it.' And with the extreme popularity of Gmail now, many people don't even realize that their Gmail account is their Google account … And then there is the broader issue. This history is not stored on your local computer, but on Google's servers. " Furthermore: "Even if you are completely innocent, you could do a search for something that tricks you into a site you shouldn't be in. Or, someone else could sit down [at] your computer and search for some illegal activity while you are signed in. Who knows what authorities might get a look at look at that information someday." Looks like Fleming - who writes the Google Tutor blog http://www.googletutor.com/ - has hit the 'privacy' nail squarely on the head, what? The previous week's comment on Google Suggest Beta can be read at http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1351868,0003.htm.
"NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP." Meeker on Net advertising.
Morgan Stanley's Internet analyst Mary Meeker was far from meek when she predicted the future of web advertising at a late-April Ad: Tech industry conference attended by 6500 delegates. She put forth her views quite bluntly: "Internet advertising spending has nowhere to go but up." One of her surprising revelations was about one major Net company that "now spends more than 60 percent of its marketing dollars online". She called the Web "the most underutilized advertising medium" - getting only 3% of total US ad spending. However: "… it's a pretty good prediction of the way things are going for the successful companies," she added. Her prediction is based on the assumption that high speed Internet access to drive the growth in digital advertising will be forthcoming in adequate measure as audio and video marketing efforts become more Net-friendly and compatible.
Meeker identified two areas to watch for "explosive business growth": (1) China; and (2) the free software for making phone calls over the Internet, Skype, already claiming 33 million registered users. Meeker also said that the U.S. was about the only country where Internet users outnumbered mobile device owners. Also, the amount of Internet consumed vs. the amount of net ad spend suggested that the Internet remained - in spite of Google's and Yahoo's burgeoning income stats - a vastly "underfunded" channel. (Please see Elisa Camahort's 25 April post to be found at http://www.adtechblog.com/archives/20050425/keynote_via_disembodied_voice_2_mary_meeker/.) Talking to Business Week, Meeker called Skype "the most rapidly growing product from an acceptance standpoint the world has ever seen". Her 50-page pdf presentation can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/age_of_engagement.pdf. Learn about Skype here: http://www.skype.com/.
