slamboard

Google is too big and too powerful. That is the opinion of various netizens and some of them feel strongly enough about the situation to try to boycott Google. I am not one of them. Google is indispensable to me for a number of reasons. I am frustrated enough with the Google attitude that I get a little giddy when I see them miss out on an opportunity to extend their domination.

Today I am happy because T-Mobile chose Yahoo over Google for its mobile search. This is a European story and one quote has more enough quirky UK figures of speech to fill the boot of your lorry (did I say that right?).

SEO tends to focus extensively on Google for the most part. MSN and Yahoo each have a piece of the search engine pie and everyone else gets crumbs. I was very surprised to see how many small players are on this decidedly unlevel playing field. One particular search engine appeared up on my radar today. It is called StrategicBoard and it is based in Israel. It is focused on blogs and has a human editorial element that is designed to exclude spam. If any of you readers are attempting to operate Google-free for ethical and/or spiteful reasons, you should check it out.

Microsoft is following in Google’s footsteps by announcing that it intends to anonymize the data from search queries after 18 months with the permanent removal of cookie IDs, entire IP addresses or other identifiers from search terms.

They have a good reason to do this. They are jumping into the third party advertising pool with both feet subsequent to their $6 billion purchase of aQuantive. I remember reporting on this when it was announced. I didn’t grasp the significance of it back then. I am working on my grasping skills.