As you may well know, Google recently pulled out of the Chinese market, due in no small part to the Chinese’s hacking of Google’s servers.

Flowers for Google

Well since this blog isn’t currently blocked by china I thought I’d reprint China’s rules on Google reporting.

—- Official Chinese reporting rules —–

All chief editors and managers:

Google has officially announced its withdrawal from the China market. This is a high-impact incident. It has triggered netizens’ discussions which are not limited to a commercial level. Therefore please pay strict attention to the following content requirements during this period:”

A. News Section

1. Only use Central Government main media (website) content; do not use content from other sources

2. Reposting must not change title

3. News recommendations should refer to Central government main media websites

4. Do not produce relevant topic pages; do not set discussion sessions; do not conduct related investigative reporting;

5. Online programs with experts and scholars on this matter must apply for permission ahead of time. This type of self-initiated program production is strictly forbidden.

6. Carefully manage the commentary posts under news items.”

B. Forums, blogs and other interactive media sections:

1. It is not permitted to hold discussions or investigations on the Google topic

2. Interactive sections do not recommend this topic, do not place this topic and related comments at the top

3. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which attack the Party, State, government agencies, Internet policies with the excuse of this event.

4. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others have a different tune from government policy

5. On topics related to Google, carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions

6. Chief managers in different regions please assign specific manpower to monitor Google-related information; if there is information about mass incidents, please report it in a timely manner.

We ask the Monitoring and Control Group to immediately follow up monitoring and control actions along the above directions; once any problems are discovered, please communicate with respected sessions in a timely manner.

Additional guidelines:

– Do not participate in and report Google’s information/press releases

– Do not report about Google exerting pressure on our country via people or events

– Related reports need to put [our story/perspective/information] in the centre, do not provide materials for Google to attack relevant policies of our country

– Use talking points about Google withdrawing from China published by relevant departments

—- End of Rules —-

OK so what does this all mean? Well, I think China is concerned about the effect Google’s pull out will have both to their own citizens (i.e. making them more aware of China’s censorship methods) and other companies (i.e. Microsoft). To do this they are controlling the source of the news, This same line of thinking also explains why it is discouraging investigative reporting — a key pillar of journalism in the western world and online media is being strong-armed as well. The key to this point is that websites cannot have any media or stories that “have a different tune from government policy.”

It’s clear that things like the rows of flowers that Chinese citizens put in front of the Google logo sends the wrong message to its citizens, and China’s relying on the media to clean it up and tow the line.

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I’ve complained a number of times about the attitude of some web professionals towards throes who are stuck using IE6 (or 7 or for that matter 8). The convert or your a moron attitude, will always fail to win converts, especially when the people your calling morons have no choose about what browsers they are stuck using.

Thankfully people are starting to lesion and start thinking how throes people who are stuck using old out-of-date browsers can still access high performance websites like Google wave.

First their was the “Hay IT” campaign which still used the same bully boy tactics but at least was targeting the right people.

Now Google have released Chrome Frame a plug in for IE 6, 7 or 8 on the PC (If your using Linux or a Mac and are using IE… then maybe you are a moron… as your default browser will be better) that will allow you to experience the power of a standards complaint web browser without having to upgrade yours.

Chrome Frame won’t over write IE and the Chrome engine is only called if a special meta tag is found on the web page, and it’s unknown if throes IT departments who won’t allow users to use a good browser will allow people to install Chrome Frame, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

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OK so your all set, you have a nice web site, you know the basics of how to use social media to your advantage, and now… How the hell do you find the people who may be interested in your project?

The answer… Google

Google has a whole range of free, easy to use tools that can help you make the most of social media and the Internet.

First off iGoogle, Google’s nice and fancy front end. Based on netvibes iGoogle allows you to add widgets to Google’s search front page (only you see your widgets of course) Google mail, Google notebook, Google Calendar, and RSS reader and Google Doc’s (as well as a phase of the moon widget, but I think you’ll be more interested in the others).

This allows me to use Google’s home page as a one-stop-shop for how the areas of interest my customers have is going, as well as my e-mail and project management tools. It’s really what I link everything else in with.

Next Google Alerts, Google Alerts allows you to set up an RSS feed (that goes into my Google RSS Reader) for any keywords, this allows you to be able to comment on any story that Google picks up that relates to your product.

Google Alerts currently offers 6 variations of alerts – ‘News’, ‘Web’, ‘Blogs’, ‘Comprehensive’, ‘Video’ and ‘Groups’.

• A ‘News’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.

• A ‘Web’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.

• A ‘Blogs’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.

• A ‘Comprehensive’ alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources (News, Web and Blogs) into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.

• A ‘Video’ alert is an email aggregate of the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.

• A ‘Groups’ alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.

I recommend you go for A ‘Comprehensive’ alert for the major keywords you found in step 1.

This Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (or whatever your targeted social media sites are) searches should provide you with enough information to start to pick-up on the on-line vibe, and allow you to start making your self known (in the right way) to the community.

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It appears some in the music industry at least realise that the UK governments plans to pull the plug on internet file sharers, is a moronic and stupid move.

Despite not normally understanding how the internet work’s Billy Brag said “We should be encouraging people to become music fans, and whether we like it or not, illicit downloading does encourage people to become music fans”.

The problem with the UK Government idea of cutting throes who use P2P services to share files is it won’t work as Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien said, “It’s as simple as that. I was talking to a serial file-sharer the other day, who is a friend. He downloads films and he hasn’t paid for music for six years. I asked his opinion of it and he laughed. He said, ‘even if they cut me off I’ll still be able to do it’. It’s something you do not want to take on, so move on.”

If you kill off P2P services people will just carry on ripping MP3’s from Flash movie files shown on YouTube. If you kill off YouTube, people will just share things via another method.

Blur drummer Dave Rowntree says it best when he points out, “The sensible thing to do is to try to see how we can monetise all this file-sharing activity, which is evidence of a lot of interest in music.”

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Once you have picked a good set of keywords, and scattered them through you web site, your next task is to get inbound links. The whole Google search engine was founded on idea that, like academic papers, the number of ”citations or backlinks to a given page” is important, if a page has a large number of inbound links, it’s more important, and so ranks higher.

That said, Google extends this by “not counting links from all pages equally” if your linked to from a page that has lots of inbound links (i.e. an important page) your page is more important, than if you where linked to from a page with few links.

Stop their. At this point, the more devious amounts you are thinking, “WOW, maybe I could make a page that has lots of inbound links, from other pages I’ve made then just link to my main page. That would boost my ranking loads”, However believe me your not the first, and Google fairly quickly figured out how to spot this, and they then just removed all your pages from their search. That said if your still interested there is are good resource for ”Blackhat” SEO (Search Engine optimization) elsewhere on the net.

So how, without bringing the wrath of Google down on you, do you get lots of inbound links to your page?

Their is fundamentally only one way to do this, great content. Great content will be cited by others, you can ask people if they will exchange links with you (yes I will, more on how to get a link to your site on my blogroll in a bit), but they will only do so if you’ve great, relevant, content. Stuffing your site full of keywords may help a robot find your site, but it won’t help a human reading it.

Thats all for now, in Internet marketing part 3, I’ll talk about using social media to aid your site.

For anyone interested in exchanging links with this site, I’ll be happy to, you must however have a site focused on either social media, marketing (on or off line). If you do, add a link to either my home page “our-party.org.uk” or this blog “our-party.org.uk/blog” and let me know either via posting a comment here or via the contact me box on my homepage.

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• September 13, 2009 -- Internet marketing made simple – 4 – Using Google (1)
• September 11, 2009 -- Internet marketing made simple – 3- Using Social media (5)

We’re not inclined to refute reports from a professional journalist on Twitter, so when Daily Telegraph reporter Jon Swaine says Google’s UK headquarters are currently on fire, we believe it’s true. Especially since the man has managed to provide some evidence by uploading a couple of picture to photo-sharing service TwitPic.

Here’s a clear picture of fire on the roof of some building, supposedly housing Google UK’s offices. Let’s hope no one gets hurt.

(Via @Scobleizer)

One last thorght, you don’t think they where useing an iPhone do you?

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OK I stole the title, but it neatly sums up the communication problems that appear to plague any attempt to more the corporate world to the web. Fundamentally this issue comes down to one question.

Who control what happens, and why?

In the world of the web i.e. designers, developers, start-ups etc. The one using the application is paying the bills, I choose to use facebook and twitter, but not MySpace. However the corporate world is anything but that. Their your told (for the most part) what app to use, someone has picked the office package you use, the account package or the web browser, you may not like it, but you can choose. This leads, when the corporate world and web world collide, the web world to make unjustified assumptions about the corporate world. Surely you will use our brand X, it’s much better and cheaper than your current brand Y. Which of course it is, however the people we talk to tend not to be the right people to talk to, we talk to who we think has the power, the end-user.

MicroSoft figured this out sometime ago. They didn’t sell the best operating system, but they sold it to the right people.

Vs.

Which a consumer would you buy? Now as a manager, yep sorry, it true, Steve Ballmer wins every time. Why because look at all the wonderful thing you can get for free, even a program called “Terminal” (Did anyone ever use that for anything?). And what more your companies on a budget, and Windows is only $99. If your not a techie manager (and most arn’t and don’t care. Get used to that fact) then why would you choose anything other than windows?

Now fast forward a few years, to 2009, and two campaigns organized by the web world. The first is death to IE6 and the other is Google’s attempt to place it’s self as the new PIM, it’s Going Google campaing.

First Death to IE6.

The site it’s self asks you to install some code on your site re-directing users, or warning them at least, that IE6 is a rubbish browser, and they need t upgrade to use the site. It sounds reasonably, IE6 is a flawed browser and has a number of security holes that will never be fixed.

The most strict version of the warning displays the following dialog box and redirects the user to a web page asking them to upgrade their browser,

This of course works well for your average home user, however most users of IE6 are stuck on corporate machines, so place yourself in the shoes of a non-techie (yes again most are, learn to deal with it), who see this message and is then re-directed to a site asking them to do what they can’t do, i.e. upgrade their browser.

thankful most people are coming to terms with the fact that this tactic doesn’t work with the users who use IE6, and are stuck in the corporate world. However a new tactic has developed which is just as useless in the world of the corporation, and highlights the problem web people have with understanding the needs of the corporate world, and that is the “Hay IT” which has the same problems as the other bad example, Going Google.

The problem with both Hay IT and Going Google is, yet again, the web world doesn’t quite understand how the corporate world thinks. Both campings ask users to put pressure on the people making the decisions to change their way of working. However all thats likely to happen is both campings will see annoyed IT staff (who don’t have a say in what browser or PIM a company uses) react badly against both the products and those up-start users who presume to tell people how to do their job’s

In other words it’s likely to have a negative effect

However all is not bad for Google, their new software, I think by accident, said the magic words every sysadmin and corporate world IT guy loves to here. It was said by Stephani at the 09′ IO conference.

At one hour ten minutes, the magic phrase “If Peter and Milton made a privet reply that wave would never leave acme’s server closet.” was said. This may seam to the web world a small thing but the fact a business can own that the information, and ensure that data doesn’t leak out of their company, data which could lead to law suite etc. Is whats going to make Google wave a credible alternative to e-mail for the corporate world.

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We all know that Google loves twitter, they have after all 55 active twitter accounts

twitter.com/Google – our central account
twitter.com/Blogger – for Blogger fans
twitter.com/GoogleCalendar – user tips & updates
twitter.com/GoogleImages – news, tips, tricks on our visual image search
twitter.com/GoogleNews – latest headlines via Google News
twitter.com/GoogleReader – from our feed reader team
twitter.com/GoogleVoice – updates & info on Google Voice
twitter.com/iGoogle – news & notes from Google’s personalized homepage
twitter.com/GoogleStudents – news of interest to students using Google
twitter.com/YouTube – for YouTube fans
twitter.com/YouTubeES – en Espanol
twitter.com/GoogleAtWork – solutions for IT and workplace productivity

Geo-related
twitter.com/SketchUp – Google SketchUp news
twitter.com/3DWH – SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse
twitter.com/Modelyourtown – 3D modeling to build your favorite places
twitter.com/EarthOutreach – Earth & Maps tools for nonprofits & orgs
twitter.com/GoogleEarth – updates from the Google Earth team
twitter.com/GoogleMaps – uses, tips, mashups
twitter.com/GoogleSkyMap -Android app for the night sky

Ads-related
twitter.com/AdSense – for online publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsHelper – looking out for AdWords questions and tech issues
twitter.com/AdWordsProSarah – Google Guide for AdWords Help Forum
twitter.com/GoogleAnalytics – insights for website effectiveness
twitter.com/GoogleAdBuilder – re building display ads
twitter.com/GoogleAdManager – info on managing online ads & inventory
twitter.com/GoogleAffiliate – info for publishers from Google network advertisers
twitter.com/GoogleRetail – for retail advertisers
twitter.com/GoogleTVAds – info on our digital system for more measurable TV advertising*
twitter.com/TechnologyUK – for U.K. tech advertisers
twitter.com/UKretail – for U.K. retail advertisers
twitter.com/creativesandbox – for advertising agencies
twitter.com/InsideAdWordsDE – for German AdWords customers
twitter.com/GoogleAgencyDE – for German ad agencies
twitter.com/AdSensePT – info for Portuguese-language publishers
twitter.com/AdWordsRussia – AdWords news & tips in Russian
twitter.com/DentroDeAdWords – Spanish updates from the Inside AdWords blog
twitter.com/AdWordsAPI – AdWords API tips

Developer & technical
twitter.com/GoogleResearch – from our research scientists
twitter.com/GoogleWMC – Google Webmaster Central
twitter.com/GoogleCode – latest updates for Google developer products
twitter.com/GoogleData – Data APIs provide a standard protocol for reading and writing web data
twitter.com/app_engine – web apps run on Google infrastructure
twitter.com/DataLiberation – our initiative for complete import/export of all data
twitter.com/GoogleMapsAPI – about using Google Maps embedded in websites
twitter.com/GoogleIO – Google’s largest annual developer event

Culture, People
twitter.com/googletalks – notes from our @Google speaker series
twitter.com/googlejobs – the voice of Google recruiters

Country or Region
twitter.com/googlearabia – news from the Google Arabia Blog
twitter.com/googledownunder – Google activities in Australia & New Zealand

twitter.com/googlebrasil – News & info for Brasil
twitter.com/googlecanada – News & notes from Google Canada
twitter.com/GoogleDE – Google in Germany
twitter.com/GoogleKorea – News & notes in Korean

twitter.com/GoogleLatAm – Latin America (en Espanol)
twitter.com/GooglePolicyIt – Notes on Google policy issues in Italy

But what surprised me was just how much Microsoft love’s twitter as well! They have 52 twitter accounts!

There is of course

@Microsoft

 But also…

Products and Services: 

@Bing – Bing Search
@BingCashback – Bing Cashback
@BizSpark – Microsoft BizSpark
@FixIt4Me – Microsoft Fix It
@ie – Internet Explorer
@Live_at_Edu – Microsoft Live@edu
@LiveFramework – Windows Live Framework
@LiveMesh – Windows Live Mesh
@MicrosoftTag – Microsoft Tag
@Microsoft_Xbox – Xbox
@MSaccess – Microsoft Access
@MSMyPhone – Microsoft My Phone Team
@MSOfficeResKit – Microsoft Office Resource Kit Team
@MSSurface – Microsoft Surface

@MSWindows – Microsoft Windows
@Office_Live – Office Live Team
@OfficeLabs – Microsoft Office Labs
@SharePoint – SharePoint
@WindowsLive – Microsoft Windows Live
@WindowsMobile – Windows Mobile
@WLMessenger – Windows Live Messenger
@WMDev – Windows Mobile Developers
@ZuneMarketplace – Zune Marketplace  

Blogs & Web Community: 

@AskTechNetUK – TechNet UK
@Ch8 – Channel 8
@Ch9 – Channel 9
@Ch10 – Channel 10
@CodePlex – Microsoft’s CodePlex Open-Souce Project
@MajorNelson – Major Nelson, a.k.a. Larry Hryb of the Xbox 360 Team
@MIX09 – The MIX09 Conference (see also @MIX07 & @MIX08)
@MixOnline – Mix Online
@MSDN – MSDN Team
@MSExpression – Microsoft Expression Community
@TNEdge – TechNet Edge
@XNACommunity – XNA Creators Club
@ZuneInsider – Zune Insider Blog 

Microsoft Corporation: 

@adCenterBlog – Microsoft adCenter
@Microsoft_EDU – Microsoft EDU
@Microsoft_Green – Green Microsoft
@MicrosoftPress – Microsoft Press
@MicrosoftStore – The Microsoft Store
@MicrosoftUP – Microsoft Unlimited Potential
@MicrsftTech4All – Microsoft Accessibility Team
@MVPAwardProgram – MVP Award Program
@MSAdvertising – Microsoft Advertising
@MSFTResearch – Microsoft Research
@MSLearning – Microsoft Learning
@MSPartner – Microsofti Partner Program
@MSRobotics – Microsoft Robotics  

Other: 

@ContinuumShow – Microsoft Client Continuum
@ProjectRosetta – From Flash to Silverlight

 For a company that has traditionally been more concerned about off line communications, this is a huge surprise.

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In the second half of 2010, according to a press release, Google plans to release a new operating system for netbooks designed as a cloud based operating system so it will likely rely heavily on the now not free, Google apps and Google wave. Google’s Chrome OS is thankfully not really a new operating system (if it was it would have huge problems with the wide range of different equipment all of which would need new drivers etc.) it’s based on Linux.

So here’s my view of how Google’s Chrome is going to work in practice.
HAL – Since Google is aiming it product at netbooks, they can (like Apple) be fairly confident as to what hardwhere it will be running on. Allowing it’s HAL (inc drivers etc.) to be quite small.

Memory manager – again this will be relatively (compared to windows, or a normal Linux kernel) quite easy to implement, as Google has said that it will be a cloud based OS, I envisage it running all its applications via its internal (HTML 5 ready) web browser. It therefore won’t have to worry about applications not freeing memory or not playing nice with other applications, as it will have written everything that runs on it.

File manager – again more or less nonexistent.

API / Applications / GUI – with no hard drive to speak off (storage being farmed off to the cloud) and a protective buffer between the hardware and new code, you’ll need no anti-virus, no spy where scanners and no file manager (as such) all the API’s can be kept in house, and the GUI and a web browser (or really the same thing) is all that runs. OK you’ll need a net connection to do anything, and it makes the “it will be open source” a bit pointless, but it save Google a whole world of pain.

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