The Googlebot just got bigger. Question is, does it have teeth? is it more like a Labrador or a Pit-Bull, both have ravenous appetites, but only one bites?

Google has announced a new partnership with the US States of Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia that will see public information and data from all 4 State Governments indexed and available via Google.

To quote Search Engine Journal (source) quoting Google:

These partnerships developed as both Google and officials with the four state governments recognized that the public is increasingly turning to search engines like Google to access government services, but that a significant share of the information on state agency websites is not included in its index of information sources on the web.

As a result, many online government services can be difficult for the public to find.

According to SEJ, the States will be using Google’s Custom Search Engine.

Originally posted on April 30, 2007 @ 9:47 pm

A new survey from Scansafe has found that 80% of blogs contain “offensive” content, ranging from “adult language” to pornographic images.

In a report at Ars Technia, ScanSafe says that it discovered the “offensive” nature of blogs by analyzing more than 7 billion web requests coming from their corporate customers.

Further, 6% of blogs were also said to contain some sort of malware.

Now I know that MySpace blogs aren’t pretty, but does bad layout and bright graphics make for offensive content, or is it just that ScanSafe’s Corporate customers have a predilection for porn?

Apparently, any blog that contains the F word is considered offensive by Scansafe, which pretty much means this blog, along with every over blog I read would be marked as offensive, at least at one point in time. I suppose it could be worse, they could find terms such as “freedom online” and “surveys are stupid” offensive as well :-)

Originally posted on April 25, 2007 @ 10:42 pm

Is Ghostblogging CEO Blogs Bad?
Debbie Weil, who has been dishing out great advice for corporate/CEO blogs recently moderated a panel and the consensus seems to be that ghostblogging is not bad. At least, that’s the consensus of a small group of writers surveyed. This is in response to a Dilbert cartoon about the pointy-haired boss wanting to start a blog. Tris Hussey gave his perspective on ghostblogging.

Twitter Too Popular in Australia
Apparently Twitter can’t handle it’s popularity in Australia and have suspended their SMS feature there. Rumor is that 901am’s Duncan Riley did this single-handedly :)

The End of Blogs?
I don’t know what the big fuss is. So what if the blogosphere has halted at 15 million blogs? Inorganic populations have lifecycles, too. No doubt there will be mini-spurts as more serious publishers join.

How To Blog Jason Calacanis?
Let’s not pussyfoot around here… If almost anyone else had done what Jason Calacanis just did on his blog, telling you how to get his attention online, they’d be called arrogant. But I don’t think that applies here. Calacanis is the genius who built up and sold Weblogs, Inc., turning himself into more than just a celebrity in his own mind. And that means some bloggers would like to catch his attention. It’s a fact, and he knows it and so do you (if that’s what you want). So get to it, grab his attention. Just don’t expect an interview over the phone.

Originally posted on April 30, 2007 @ 10:38 am

Bad news for Adam Curry, content from the Podshow network is being dumped from Sirius Satellite Radio from May 1.

There is no word yet as to why the previous arrangement was not renewed.

Paul Colligan believes that the decision means that Satellite Radio “Becomes Even Less Important”, and that 10.5 million iPods sold last quarter is proof of the potential audience size for podcasts.

Originally posted on April 29, 2007 @ 9:42 pm