Google Bringing the 2000's 2D Back

Google has its mind set to be the reigning champ of advertising. Fair and square, it is probably going to become that, now that the DoubleClick deal is about to go through, and with the newspaper ad sales that it is eyeing, it might break the barrier that held the Mountain View-based company in check this far.

The Internet company has decided to introduce printed barcodes in newspapers, in an attempt similar to that of Digital Convergence,
that tried to strike rich with it in 2000. The response received then wasn’t positive, but it wasn’t negative either: it was indifferent, and many know that it hurts the most. The big disadvantage that the project had at the time was that people, in order to use the barcodes, had to buy a reader from the company and a handheld barcode scanner. Google is now taking advantage of the technology available and it is trying to resurrect the idea, because all you’d need to use of that now is a phone that has a camera and zooming options. That and a web connection with it, but that’s currently defaulted with most handheld mobile phones.

Another big problem that the late 90s startup Digital Convergence had to overcome was the privacy issue, back then, when everybody was afraid of doing almost anything in order to prevent personal data collection online. Google already has the data, so that shouldn’t concern it at all.

If you don’t remember the campaign back then, or if you cannot figure out what good any printed barcodes can do, here’s what Google thinks about them: "2D barcodes are a way to encode information, just like conventional barcodes – but 2D barcodes can encode significantly more. This information can be read by devices with cameras, such as cellphones. For advertisers, using 2D barcodes in newspaper ads can be an effective and flexible way to engage with potential customers. The benefit to readers is an easier, quicker way to get more information about businesses that interest them."

Interested?

Googlebombs Half Defused

About a week ago, the Google Webmaster’s Guild (ok, Blog, but it sounds like a secret organization) brought back into attention the Googlebombs, saying that they have been defused after a prolonged and sustained effort from their dev team. The algorithm they came up with actually works… some of the times.

Not familiar with the term "Googlebomb"? Also called
a "linkbomb" because it’s not always connected to Google, it is actually a sort of a prank that has people attempting to cause someone else’s site to rank for an obscure or meaningless query, in an attempt to lower its credibility and create an overall embarrassing effect.

Ryan Moulton and Kendra Carattini both wrote about the way that they had dealt with the problem and about what they put together to be their "defusing kit." Apparently, the algorithm they developed worked like a sort of deeper inquiry, trying to match the words in the query to those on the site. In plain words, if it ain’t there, it’s not going to show, and that should usually be enough.

Philipp Lenssen of blogoscoped.com found an interesting Googlebomb still ticking: searching for "dangerous cult" will find the website of Scientology.org. This case is interesting because the site actually contains the word "dangerous", but "cult" is not there. And as the Webmaster’s Guild said that they weren’t looking for a manual resolve of any problem, they’ll be looking at some more work to come up with a solution. I would be the first to remove the result from the query’s search results page and then figure out what went wrong, but they seem to want to do it by the book.

Luckily, the bombs have been pretty much defused. Unfortunately for us, the solution to partly include in the "funny" URL that pranksters sent, in order to create one such bomb, words on the site means that they will still continue, perhaps at an unmodified scale. Long live the Bomb Squad!