Google Toolbar

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/15/HNgoogletoolbar_1.html

 

Seems Google is doing all the "positioning" it can regarding the IPO. I also found an article at http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=displaynews&NewsID=4237 about their recent purchase of Picasa that makes software for organizing and managing digital photos and that runs a peer-to-peer network for sharing digital photos.

 

$64,000 question is where exactly are the "keyword phrases ===> web URL's" mapping come from - some internally generated list? I.e. how do they KNOW that they have the "official" site for the Grand Canyon?

 

I bet it all breaks down to SERPS rankings. If the number 1 result blows away the number 2 then it is the one to show. If it doesn't then it just shows the SERPS.

 

Well Bling, some webmasters are getting hip to the Google hype, I hate to be the one always breaking the news to you, but here it is, not in my words, but in someone elses words.

http://www.webpagepros.net/google-toolbar.html

 

That can oly be good news...

Now I KNOW which sites are authority sites.

Good news as far as I am concerned

 

The website/page referenced seems to point purely to conjecture and assumption rather than fact. As for me, it doesn't give me enough of anything to change decisions regarding the use or non-use of the tool. IMHO.

 

The point is VA is that folks are aware that the toolbar is a data mining spyware software product.

What proof are you looking for, would you like to see a report on every page view that Google has built on your surfing habits?

They have this information, you do not.

Google knows more about your page views than you do, you can bet on it.

 

Anthony, Google doesn't have to use the toolbar to do all that supposed data mining, they have this nice big search engine that does around 300 million searches per day, and they can track clicks and more on as many of those searches as they care to. Remember the Google cookie? Actually all search engines have this capability if they choose to use it, so to be really safe you need to stop using search engines.

As for Google knowing where searchers using my machine surf, why not? None of the information is personally identifiable, and I really have nothing to hide. I don't even care if Google knows that the human using my machine often uses Yahoo to check certain things like backlinks.

If you stop and think about it a moment you will realize that Google does not have information on where you and I surf, but they do have information on where the machine with Cookie such and such a number surfs.

There is a big difference in researching data on anonymous surfers and making it appear that your personal (i.e. information relating to a particular human being) information is being recorded.

 

The bottom line is this factor (Google will decide just like they do with "Larry Page Rank", which Google has admitted in a court of law, that Page Rank is simply Google's opinion and an expression of free speech), Google will decide which sites to show when folks do a toolbar keyword search, this means that Google bias toward their favorite sites (advertising partners) will be the top sites that come back, they are doing it now and will do it in a big way down the road.

Page rank is not science as Google has claimed, what this means is that Google is free to decide what sites to rank high, without regard to links or Page Rank Math if they so choose to do. They will do the same thing with the "Keyword Toolbar Search function" as they do with Page Rank.

The toolbar is a major factor in the Google search program, it autoupdates without knowledge of users, users do not know the code Google loads when the updates take place.

The Google toolbar is like drugs for webmasters and surfers, they need to get their fix everyday and Google knows this. Got to get that "Page Rank High" man.

Some webmasters are hip to what Google is trying to accomplish with the toolbar and others really are in the dark, can you explain why there is a backlash starting in the webmaster community against the toolbar scams?

http://www.webpagepros.net/google-toolbar.html

 

LOL Anthony I would hardly call one web page out of 30 billion as constituting a "backlash in the Webmaster community".

You seem to be confused regarding Google search, the Google toolbar and PageRank. PageRank is (just as you said) Googles considered opinion of the importance of a web page, and it has nothing to do with the toolbars operation (except of course the toolbar shows us a relative indication of PageRank) and the toolbar does not affect Google search results.

But I could be wrong, so why not provide me with some search terms which show different rankings at about the same point in time using the toolbar vs searching from a plain browser, so I can learn.

 

Question about another element on the Google toolbar. Does the and the (on the toolbar more options) have any true affect on G regarding PR? SERPs? anything else directly?

I understand it to be like a "vote" either pro or con. The question is what happens with the results?

 

Mel you can laugh all you want, but the last laugh will be on toolbar users that give away page views in exchange for looking at a page rank gauge.

For some reason you can not see that the toolbar is nothing more than a MIS data collection device for Google, giving them a real time view of the activity of the web surfing activities of "Page Rank Junkies".

Now when you punch in a keyword on the "junkiebar" you will get "Google approved sites", how do you know if those sites are Google partners? Did Larry and Sergey email you and tell you to trust them again Mel?

 

Remember I feel lucky?
Just picks p1 if full match plus if in line with expected numbers of search returned (too few too many) and it seems to use cookie to determine if one accepts first results or not.

I.E type in names - p1 comes up - do a search - type in names agin and it reverts to search.
Short lived as M's new op's will not play ball and it doesen't improve se results it's a rather primitive stop gap as G is loosing it slowly.
M

 

I was just about to say that. It's no different than clicking "I feel lucky." Seems to only do it on brand names and .edu or .org information sites.

Also all this bull about Google tracking online behaivors....why shouldn't they?? It's web analytics and any company that wants to improve their useability tracks their users actions. You dont think your activites aren't tracked on sites like Amazon or Ebay??? You bet they do and that info is attached to your profile which is far worse than what Google is doing with their data. How come no one complains about that!??! Because they like the recommendations Amazon/eBay gives them and what other people that bought a CD also bought. Hypocritical in my opinion!

Hell I track my users and the information I gain turned into a redeisgn of my website because what makes sense to me doesnt necessarily correlate to the online user. I have to listen to them through their actions. Redesigns sole purpose is to increase ease of use so my users can find what they are looking for.........sound fimiliar?? Google is doing the same. They want their users to find what they are looking for in any means necessary. Even if it's in a recommendation like Amazon/eBay does.

Thats the point of the web. Effeciency.

 

I feel no different letting having Google collect my statistics than I do when I drive over the "Car Counting" cables in the middle of the road. If it better's may day to day life, collect your statistics.

 

When did Ebay and Amazon start following people around the entire internet like Google toolbar does?

Can you explain how they do it?

Do those companies have every page view like Google does?

 

Important point I am aware of Shawn, so indirectly Amazon has profiles, but not as much as Google.

Alexa toolbar is considered spyware by most of the spyware scanners, Google software will be added down the road, bet on it.