Google.com banned... from Google Search

Oops.

One of the major search engine has found out what happens when you break Google's rules - the hard way - a total ban.

The Google.com website has apparently tripped Google the search engine's automated quality filters (aka the Spam filter).

The result - a search for www.google.com results in the ominous "no information" message:

Sorry, no information is available for the URL www.google.com

Find web pages that contain the term "www.google.com"

This result is reserved for domains not in the index - either because they are new, have no incoming links that Google has found, or they've been removed from the index.

Other functions, such as the site:google.com (which would normally bring up their "all about google pages") are equally banned.

A search for web pages that contain "www.google.com" pulls up Google's other TLDs (www.google.co.uk, for example - with the appropriate PR etc).

Can't wait to see some sort of statement about this, but of course, with the Google IPO looming imminent, that may not happen.

A Better Page Rank Tool For Firefox

As a follow-up to a previous post on a Page Rank Tool for Mozilla and Firefox - a new plug-in for Mozilla and Firefox is available (and works much better!).

Download it here: http://pagerankstatus.mozdev.org/installation.html

MS Employee Busted For Hacking Into Altavista

I guess the stakes for Search are higher than I thought:

Man arrested in hacking case is Microsoft employee

July 9, 2004

SEATTLE - A newspaper reports that a man charged with hacking into an Internet search company in California works on search engine development for Microsoft.
Microsoft officials confirmed yesterday that Laurent Chavet works for the company, but they would not specify his assignment.

He was arrested last week after being indicted in San Francisco on federal charges of unauthorized access and reckless damage to a protected computer.

The charges stem from 2002, when Chavet left the search company AltaVista to work for IBM.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports today that three sources with knowledge of his work at Microsoft have confirmed that he now is on the MSN Search team.

Assistant U.S. attorney Christopher Sonderby says none of the accusations in the indictment against Chavet pertain to Microsoft.

In addition, FBI agent Greg in Seattle says no computers have been seized from Microsoft in the case.

Microsoft officials will not discuss the case, citing company personnel policies.

Source: http://www.katu.com/printstory.asp?ID=69082

Microsoft's Upcoming Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2

I tried to install the SP2 a couple of times and it kept on freaking out - it wasn't until I disabled Norton Internet Security (2003) that I was able to get the new 100 MB service pack installed in my PC.

It is still in Beta - so expect minor problems - but if you are an early adopter like me...

Highlights of SP2 include:

• Highly visible and "idiot proof" security monitor - automatically activates the Windows Firewall.


• Built-In Pop Up Blocker


• Security warnings on "suspicious" downloads - JS activated downloads and executables among other files.


• Security Warnings on the execution unsigned executables.


• The addition of a link to the "Windows Marketplace" on the IE links bar.


• Assorted minor bugs - my machine has locked up twice since this version was installed.

The Windows Firewall is a little weird to use - especially for a novice. It blocks everything. I found Norton's approach much easier to handle: "Hey a program named X is trying to access the internet". Windows just blocks everything -- not even a "hey I blocked something" message. I tried to use my FTP program and I thought my internet connection was down.

Kudos to the MS engineers - You can tell that they've been working late to fix the problems that have left them with egg on their face. It is a huge step in the right direction - but will it stem the tide? Time will tell.

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/sp2preview.mspx

Marketshare Woes For Microsoft

Being the biggest isn't necessarily best. Microsoft's mega-market share has made it target to thousands of viruses, security exploits and other hacker chicanery.

You know that Bill cried himself to sleep the day that US CERT released this statement:

"There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites."

CERT otherwise recommends users to set security settings to high and disable JavaScript.

I suspect my mom would probably say something like "you mean there are other web page thingies other than the internet?"

Which would be her way of asking if there were other web browsers other than Internet Explorer.

Yes, Virgina, there are other web browsers.

Mozilla is a free web browser developed by a volunteer army of programmers. It's not Internet Explorer - it's actually different, and may take a little getting used to.

If you like to visit sites with Flash animation - this browser can't see Flash... yet. However, a recent (June 30th) announcement states that Macromedia, Adobe and others have embraced and open API project which will lead to the developement of a Mozilla flash plug in.

"Hey, I work in search engine optimization" - ;) - "how am I supposed to know my Google PageRank?

Don't worry - just go over to PRgooglebar.org and get the toolbar that will let Mozilla and Firefox browser show you PageRank.

New MSN Search Now Available

Well, it looks like the mythical MSN Search is alive and kicking: http://techpreview.search.msn.com/ .

Over all the results are pretty nice - but there are definitely some keyword areas that need some work.

In general, for sites in niches that I promote, pretty much the same factors that make a site rank well in Yahoo and Google will let it rank well in the new MSN search.

This "tech preview" does show a few problems - namely that unlike most other search engines - MSN Search is showing every page from a site that matches the search terms.

One of my sites occupies 38 of the first 45 search results for a keyword.

More to come, I am sure.