Google Street View has come under a lot of criticism since its launch in the UK earlier this year. One Village in the UK prevented Google from taking images of its streets in a protest against privacy. This resulted in complaints to the Information Commissioner about possible breaches of the Data Protection Act by Google.


The Residents of Broughton, near Milton Keynes, stopped the driver of the Google Street Maps car from entering the village. The Police were called to attend after residents reported Google was invading their privacy and “facilitating a Crime”, insisting that Google should have obtained permission before entering the village.


Privacy International put forward a formal complaint, along with 74 other individual, to the Information Commissioner requesting the service be suspended, pending an investigation due to the fact that some faces were clearly visible on the published images.


Google Street Views does use a face blurring technology but some individual faces are not obscured. Google has put in place a system that allows users to request the blurring of their face or of an image. Dozens of images have been removed from the UK version of Street View since the service went live.
The information Commissioner has ruled that Google is not in breach of the Data protection act and that Google is not invading the privacy of UK residents. In fact it’s clearly evident that Google is clearly removing images as quickly as possible.


“We recognise that a small minority of people may not wish their house to be included in the service which is why we have created easy to use removals tools,” said a spokesman from Google.
David Evans the Information Commissioner’s senior data protection practice manager compared being caught on an image in Google Street Views to being captured by a film or TV news camera.
“It would not be in the public interest to ‘turn the digital clock back’,” he said.


“In the same way, there is no law against anyone taking pictures of people in the street as long as the person using the camera is not harassing people,” he said.

“In a world where many people Tweet, Facebook and blog, it is important to take a commonsense approach towards Street View and the relatively limited privacy intrusion it may cause.”


The Information Commissioner will continue to monitor Street View as a way of regulating the service.


Article Written by Creative SEO, Search Engine Marketing Agency

Technorati Tags: Google, Google 3d Street, google data protection, Google Earth, google maps, google street view, information commissioner, Liam Gallagher Street View, street view, street view information commisioner, street view uk

Google has launched two new products, as part of the Google Labs concept, both still experimental and in testing. The first feature is known as “Similar Image” and the Second is a new Timeline to the current Google News Database.

Similar image is a unique system which allows the user to search for images which are similar in photographic composition based on the image itself and not the title or text of the image. It allows the user to sort through image results more efficiently by simply clicking on the “Similar Image” link. This allows the user to be displayed more contextually relevant images which are based on the picture composition itself and not on the title and description. Effectively the technology is able to visualise the image subject, understanding  the context and composition.

“Image search is an inherently hard problem to solve because it is a visual problem and explains why people say an image is worth a thousand words because it is so difficult to describe,” said Ms Malpani.


This new technology could potentially have a wide implication within the SEO community if successfully tested. Imagine if Google was able to spider a website and use this technology to read images and understand the exact context of a web site, this potentially would be the one step closer to Google being able to understand how to index a website based on a “human” interpretation of the site and its content. Although this will be a long time in the future the possibilities are extremely exciting.


Google News Timeline is another tool which has been designed to provide Google users with more relevant results. It’s the brainchild of the original Apple Macintosh development team. Timeline will display a historical timeline of news articles by date, week, month and year and will include Videos, Images and articles. The search can also be refined by publication type, including magazine, newspaper, blog, movies and music. The new features potentially provide a very valuable wealth of information which will be free to access.


Article Writen by Creative SEO, Search Engine Marketing Agency.

Technorati Tags: Google, google human, google image search, google labs, google news, google news timeline, Google similar Image, similar image

In 2006, in an attempt to rebrand and increase its online presence, the search engine Ask dropped the lovable butler from its logo and branding. Jeeves the butler, based on the character created by P G Wodehouse, was killed off as part of a series of facelifts aimed at increasing the company’s market share and to directly challenge Google. The famous characters demise created huge amounts of publicity. Had Ask made a mistake and did the death of the Jeeves generate more exposure than the rebranding exercise? It would seem so, Google still dominates the marketplace and Ask has maintained a steady backseat in the search engine wars.


Jeeves is back, reincarnated due to user demand. Ask’s unique question based search facility is simple to use and offers good, relevant results. Is the return of Jeeves a last ditch effort to challenge the Growth of Search Giant Google. Will Jeeves unique search interface be able to offer a more valuable user experience?


Asks Managing director, Cesar Mascaraque denied Jeeves Return was a last-ditch effort to improve their stake in the Search Marketplace.


“We have seen a growth of 20% this year, so we are not struggling,” he said.
“We have been focused on developing an outstanding producer that will deliver outstanding results and Jeeves is just the icing on the cake.”

“Our aim is to give our users the answers they need for the lives they lead and Jeeves’s role is to give our users answers in a more human way.”


We have to wait and see how the changes will affect Ask, but one thing is for certain, it’s great to have Jeeves Back!


Article Writen by Creative SEO, Search Marketing Agency.

Technorati Tags: Ask, ask jeeves, jeeves, jeeves alive

Wide spread rumours have now been confirmed by two sources close to Google, YouTube is planning a complete redesign which will include a clear separation of Premium and User-posted content.
YouTube has been known primarily for its User-posted content and recently has come under attack from The Performing Rights Society (PRS) for allowing users to publish and watch premium music videos. PRS insisted that Google owned YouTube pay a much higher licence fee to counter the increase in music video popularity. In a shock move, YouTube refused the deal and removed all of the offending content. The hardest hit from this decision was the music industry itself; YouTube was a powerful marketing tool for promoting and developing an artist’s brand and this resource was no longer available. The up and coming redesign of YouTube is set to address these issues and offer an even wider choice of Premium content. Is this a result of the recent PRS challenge or is this purely part of YouTube’s ongoing development?


With the launch of the iPhone, Google Android and Blackberry, mobile streaming content has become big business and YouTube is one of the first to be taking this to the next level. If the rumours are correct, Premium content will be available through a registered account with YouTube, streaming directly to a mobile phone. This could potentially revolutionise YouTube and guarantee its continued growth and success over the coming years.


According to two sources close to Google the new design will see a change in the layout of the current site navigation. Users are currently directed to “Videos”, “Channels” and “Community” categories. The new design will include a tabbed interface with clearly defined sections including Premium Content. The new design will feature 4 main tabs: Movies, Shows, Music and Videos. The first three tabs will display premium shows, clips and movies from the Google network and studio partners. The Video Tab will display User-posted content and amateur video. Advertising revenue will be generated from in-Video Advertising.


“They’re putting up walls between all the UGC stuff, which will live within the video channel,…and the brand safe content,” said one senior agency exec who was briefed on YouTube’s plans.
YouTube will also feature a redesigned video player. The new interface is said to resemble Hulu. Hulu is the NBCU owned video portal that overwhelming success has seen massive levels of growth since its launch just over a year ago. Like Hulu, users will be able to dim the content around the video player to allow a more concentrated user experience.


Amazingly the planned launch date for this major YouTube update is 16th April 2009. Will this be the death of YouTube or will it usher in a new era of mobile video accessibility? Die hard YouTube users are not happy with the prospect of change and are worried that YouTube will become too corporate. All we can do is wait and hope that YouTube maintains its individuality and continues to offer a valuable user experience.


Writen by Creative SEO, Search Engine Marketing Agency

Technorati Tags: Google, google youtube, New youtube, premium youtube, YouTube, youtube content, youtube movies, youtube music, youtube redesign, youtube video