Location, location, location. That’s the common refrain about how to have a successful business, right? Well, now it’s the common refrain of mobile app developers, too, and the song is reaching a crescendo this week, with Where 2.0, the location-based everything conference going on in San Jose.

Today, Skyhook Wireless is announcing a software developers kit called “Local Faves”, which will help developers to add location to any iPhone app. So for those of you saying “Location, location, location”, we say, get to it.

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Similar to SimpleGEO, a more robust service that offers location data storage, formatting and even a marketplace for location data. The Local Faves SDK, on the other hand, looks like a simple way to add location to an app, and that’s that.

From the company on what it expects the SDK to be used for:

Developers traditionally use location in apps that are tied to the physical environment, like navigation, social networking, weather, and search. Local Faves is designed to bring the context of location to digital content-based apps, like music, wine, food, reference, books, and more. [...] Local Faves features fully customizable content tagging, allowing users to indicate that that they loved, hated, ‘favorited’, saw, or read a piece of content within an app, and enables sharing of this content, and exactly where it was experienced, via Facebook and Twitter.

To all of this, we have to say “If you got it, use it.” Why not add location when you can? Why keep location separate and quarantined for specific mobile apps and not others? We know we said we wouldn’t be using Twitter’s web-based location, but adding location to any and all mobile apps (as an opt-in feature, of course) seems like common sense.

Although the company hasn’t offered any specifics on what platforms this will be available for, a report the company put out earlier this month would appear to hint at its intentions at growing the location market for all platforms.

Skyhook Wireless says that AppMakr plans on adding its SDK’s features to its platform for news apps and points to several other apps, such as Audobon Guides, where it plans to see it used. The Local Faves SDK will be available for developers in mid-April – and you can sign up to find out when.

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Google is developing a system to ingest real-time content updates from any page on the web automatically, using the open PubSubHubbub Atom protocol, we reported on Wednesday.

Google already indexes a whole lot of content very quickly, will a real-time indexing system make a big difference? There are differences of opinion on the matter and we’d like to know what you think. Search analyst Danny Sullivan told us on Wednesday that he thought it could be “the next chapter” for Google. John Battelle said this morning: “In short, it’s a new way for Google to get (more) real time signals. But honestly, not a huge deal. I don’t think. Correct me if I’m wrong…” What do you think, readers?

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Do You Think a Real-Time Google Index is a Big Deal?polls
We explained the specifics of how the Hubbub system might work in our earlier coverage so let’s talk now about possible impacts (or lack thereof).

As we wrote on Wednesday:

PuSH is much more computationally efficient for Google but [Google's Brett] Slatkin says that even more important is the impact of such a move for small publishers. Right now many small sites get visited by Google maybe once a week. With a PuSH system in place, they would be able to get their content to Google automatically right away.

A richer, faster, more efficient internet would be good for everyone, but the benefits in search wouldn’t be limited to Google, either. The PubSubHubbub is an open protocol and the feeds would be as visible to Yahoo and Bing as they would be to Google.

Readers Who Think This is Big

Sharon Kavanagh says:

This all sounds fantastic for the small guy as I have just created my first ever website which is for a reunion. The site will only be live for a short period as the date is May15th 2010 for the event and yet, it will probably take Google till then before my site is indexed and hence the peple I am trying to reach will never find it.

Scott Holodak says:

Previously you had to wait for spiders to crawl around the web to find changes on your site. Pages are crawled over again and again just to see if anything has changed. It’s a pretty inefficient process. Now the spiders are going to be fat and lazy because you are going to deliver your changes directly to them.

No Big Deal

Reader comments arguing this is not a big deal.

“Scott” says:

A properly designed website already “pushes” to (more accurately: gets “pulled” by) search engines and the frequency of indexing by search engines is determined by the popularity of the website.

This information doesn’t seem too new to me.

Bruce Wayne says:

Pushing unstructured content in real time can only mean the non relevant results will make it into the search results faster. To me this is another google hocus pocus distraction away from the the fact that search as it is today has hit a wall….millions of pages on unstructured data created exclusively to game the system….and now these pages of non relevant content can be pushed into the search stream in real time….

What Do You Think?

I think there is something fundamentally different about a web that Google’s index subscribes to in real time vs. a web that Google has to plow through with a spider looking for new content. I’m still wrapping my head around it, but there’s something about the PuSH method that feels like it would make the Google index a living, breathing phenomenon.

What do you think?

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Google Earth, Google Maps, and regular Google search results may sport some more geographically relevant photos in the future.  Today, Google announced that it’s linked Panoramio and Picasa in order to make it easier for people to share pictures.

Panoramio is the geolocation-centric photo-sharing site that Google acquired in 2007.  Picasa is the more traditional photo-sharing site Google’s owned since 2004.  Bringing them together makes sense, even if it’s not the timeliest move Google’s ever made.

As for some specifics, Roger Trias i Sanz, a software engineer at Panoramio, wrote in a post on the LatLong Blog, "[W]e are happy to announce that you can upload your pictures right from Picasa Web Albums into Panoramio.  By uploading your best photos of places into Panoramio you can share them with the Panoramio community and the world . . ."

Or you can not share them, of course.  Google’s apparently learned some lessons about unauthorized automation since the debut of Buzz, as the post made clear that photos must be both geotagged and in a public album to be transferred from Picasa to Panoramio.  Plus, users will have to be logged into a Panoramio account to start an upload.

All in all, this development has the potential to improve several of Google’s products without upsetting anybody.

Google Earth, Google Maps, and regular Google search results may sport some more geographically relevant photos in the future.  Today, Google announced that it’s linked Panoramio and Picasa in order to make it easier for people to share pictures.

Panoramio is the geolocation-centric photo-sharing site that Google acquired in 2007.  Picasa is the more traditional photo-sharing site Google’s owned since 2004.  Bringing them together makes sense, even if it’s not the timeliest move Google’s ever made.

As for some specifics, Roger Trias i Sanz, a software engineer at Panoramio, wrote in a post on the LatLong Blog, "[W]e are happy to announce that you can upload your pictures right from Picasa Web Albums into Panoramio.  By uploading your best photos of places into Panoramio you can share them with the Panoramio community and the world . . ."

Or you can not share them, of course.  Google’s apparently learned some lessons about unauthorized automation since the debut of Buzz, as the post made clear that photos must be both geotagged and in a public album to be transferred from Picasa to Panoramio.  Plus, users will have to be logged into a Panoramio account to start an upload.

All in all, this development has the potential to improve several of Google’s products without upsetting anybody.

While none of us here at ReadWriteWeb have yet to see it in our Google News, a tip this morning from blogger Joe Hobot tells us that trending topics may be coming to the search engine’s news aggregator.

We got in touch with Google this morning and a spokesman confirmed that the feature is indeed part of a series of experiments the company has been running since early this month.

Image thanks to Joe Hobot.

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According to Chris Gaither, a spokesperson for Google, Search Engine Rountable first reported the potential feature’s appearence last Friday. Gaither said that trending topics are one of many experiments Google is conducting in their redesign of the news homepage.

At Google, we run anywhere from 50 to 200 experiments at any given time on our websites all over the world. Right now, we are running a small test of a new Google News homepage design. More information about how Google runs experiments can be found [here].

Google last redesigned its news page last May, adding more visual content to the layout. This time around, we expect to see more in the way of real-time content, including features such as the trending topics seen here.

If you keep a close watch, it is possible you will see other new features that Google is testing, but as the company’s blog post points out, often these features will show up and go completely unnoticed. In Hobot’s case, the trending topics showed up for a brief period before disappearing again.

We asked about the specifics of the new feature, but Gaither said that statement included above is all the company is saying about it at this time.

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Perpetrators of click fraud are getting sneakier and sneakier. Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman has uncovered one of the more diabolical click fraud schemes known to be hatched. As he summarizes it:

Here, spyware on a user’s PC monitors the user’s browsing to determine the user’s likely purchase intent. Then the spyware fakes a click on a Google PPC ad promoting the exact merchant  the user was already visiting. If the user proceeds to make a purchase — reasonably likely for a user already intentionally requesting the merchant’s site — the merchant will naturally credit Google for the sale. Furthermore, a standard ad optimization strategy will lead the merchant to increase its Google PPC bid for this keyword on the reasonable (albeit mistaken) view that Google is successfully finding new customers. But in fact Google and its partners are merely taking credit for customers the merchant had already reached by other methods.

Edelman details all of the specifics about his dicovery, pointing to an example perpetrator – Trafficsolar, which he blames InfoSpace for connecting Google to. He also suggests Google discontinue its relationship with InfoSpace and other partners who have their own chains of partners, making everything harder to monitor. In his example, he finds an astounding seven intermediaries in the chain between the click and the Google ad itself.

"Furthermore, Google styles its advertising as ‘pay per click’, promising advertisers that ‘You’re charged only if someone clicks your ad,’" says Edelman. "But here, the video and packet log clearly confirm that the Google click link was invoked without a user even seeing a Google ad link, not to mention clicking it. Advertisers paying high Google prices deserve high-quality ad placements, not spyware popups and click fraud."

As Andy Greenberg with Forbes points out in an article, which brought Edelman’s findings to the forefront of mainstream exposure (and likely to Google’s attention), Edelman has a history of criticizing Google, is actually involved with a lawsuit involving misplacement of Google ads, and has served as a consultant to Microsoft, but maintains that this research is not funded by Microsoft or a company involved in that lawsuit. Greenberg reports:

As for its ability to detect the new form of click fraud, Google has long argued that it credits advertisers for as much as 10% of their ad spending based on click fraud that the company detects. While the company wouldn’t comment on Edelman’s TrafficShare example, a spokesperson wrote that the company uses "hundreds of data points" to detect fraud, not just clicks.

In a report last October, click fraud research firm Click Forensics measured click fraud at around 14%, significantly higher than Google’s estimates. But even Click Forensics may not be counting the sort of click fraud Edelman accuses TrafficSolar of committing. Because Click Forensics’ data is pulled from advertisers, the company can’t necessarily detect click fraud that is disguised as real customers and real sales, according to the company’s chief executive, Paul Pellman. Pellman believes, however, that the kind of click fraud Edelman discovered is likely mixed with traditional click fraud to increase the scheme’s traffic volume while keeping it hidden.

Click Forensics’  own Steve O’Brien says "it was probably a fairly low-volume scheme to begin with.  It’s limited to machines of users that are infected with spyware who also visit select Google advertisers…It’s a problem, but probably not a huge one.  What would make it more serious is if there were another version of the spyware that simply clicks on paid links in the background without the user’s knowledge…"

As for Edelman’s suggestion that Google sever ties with Infospace and the like, O’Brien doesn’t think it is worth going that far. "A better solution would be for Google and InfoSpace to deal only with reputable partners who provide verified, audited clicks to ensure advertisers get what they pay for," says O’Brien.

Though Click Forensics appears to downplay the threat compared to Edelman’s own analysis, it shows the increasing sophistication with which fraudsters are carrying out their plots. Good times.

Related Articles:

> How Search Engines Manage Click Fraud

> Botnets Driving Click fraud Traffic

> Massive Click Fraud Ring Shut Down

Back in August, Google gave AdSense publishers more control over what ads appear on their sites by launching an upgrading the category fitlering feature and extending the feature’s beta to the US and the UK.

So in essence, if you don’t want certain kinds of sites showing up in ads on your site, you could block them. Google shows how the different ad categories contribute to your income, so you can take that into consideration.

Today Google announced that it will be providing users with more ad filtering options. Soon, the option for 3 more filter categories will be added for a total of 8 different categories. These will be coming in the next few weeks.

"To get started with category filtering, sign in to AdSense and visit the Ad Review Center, located under the AdSense Setup tab," says Google’s Arlene Lee. "You can choose from the listed categories, which include religion, politics, and dating, and your selections will be applied to ads in English no matter how they’re targeted."

"Please keep in mind that filtering ad categories may affect your AdSense revenue — we recommend first reviewing the percentages displayed in your account to understand the amount of revenue you may be blocking," she reminds users.

Google says its continuing to work on additional filtering capabilities as well, but does not get into specifics. They are of course encouraging feedback.

The company that operates America’s largest wireless telecommunications network now considers itself a friend of Android.  Google and Verizon Wireless have sealed a deal that’ll see the two working together on mobile products and services.

The results should be almost immediately apparent, as Verizon’s promised to introduce Android-based handsets within the next few weeks.  A formal statement also promised that the two companies will "devote substantial resources to accelerate delivery of leading-edge innovation that will put unique applications in the hands of consumers quickly."

Then they should collaborate on even more devices, services, and apps in the future.

Both sides seem excited about the arrangement.  Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "The Android platform allows Verizon Wireless customers to experience faster and easier access to the web from any location.  Through this partnership, we hope to deliver greater innovation in the mobile space to consumers across the U.S."

Unfortunately, a lot of specifics remain unknown.  Schmidt and Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam didn’t discuss the nature of the forthcoming apps and services, for example, or show off any new phones.  Also, if any money changed hands to help seal this deal, no one talked about it, and while some sort of time limit is probably attached to the agreement, it wasn’t mentioned.

Probably the most important step in getting your site found in a search engine is the one in which the search engine crawls it. There are things that can be done and things that can be avoided to make this process as painless as possible for the search engine, which will in turn, make it as painless as possible for the webmaster.

Since Google dominates the search market share by such a large market share, it is always a good idea to listen to what they have to say about such matters. So when they post a presentation with tips on optimizing crawling and indexing, you’ll probably want to pay attention.

Google has done just that, highlighting things to stay away from, and things you can do to enhance your site’s crawlability. Here is that presentation with specific examples of URLs.

"The Internet is a big place; new content is being created all the time," says Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa. "Google has a finite number of resources, so when faced with the nearly-infinite quantity of content that’s available online, Googlebot is only able to find and crawl a percentage of that content. Then, of the content we’ve crawled, we’re only able to index a portion."

"URLs are like the bridges between your website and a search engine’s crawler: crawlers need to be able to find and cross those bridges (i.e., find and crawl your URLs) in order to get to your site’s content," continues Moskwa. "If your URLs are complicated or redundant, crawlers are going to spend time tracing and retracing their steps; if your URLs are organized and lead directly to distinct content, crawlers can spend their time accessing your content rather than crawling through empty pages, or crawling the same content over and over via different URLs."

If you want to get crawled faster by Google, you should remove user-specific details from URLs. Specifics of this can be viewed in the slideshow.  Basically, URL parameters that don’t change the content of the page, should be removed and put into a cookie. This will reduce the number of URLs that point to the same content, and speed up crawling.

Google says infinite spaces are a waste of time and bandwidth for all, which is why you should consider taking action when you have calendars that link to infinite numbers of past/future dates with unique URLs, or other paginated data.

Tell Google to ignore pages it can’t crawl. This includes things like log-in pages, contact forms, shopping carts, and other pages that require users to perform actions that crawlers can’t perform themselves. You can do this with the robots.txt file.

Finally, avoid duplicate content when possible. Google likes to have one URL for each piece of content. They do recognize that this is not always possible though (because of content management systems and what have you), which is why the canonical link element exists to let you specify the preferred URL for a particular piece of content.

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