January 04 Google Chrome communicates with google.com. Matt Cutts chief spam officer at Google tackles the issue head-on by talking to the Chrome team to find out if there’s anything to worry about. The short answer is no. For the long answer, read on. - If you’re just surfing around the web and clicking on links, that information does not go to Google.com. - If you are typing a search or url in the address bar, Google Chrome will talk to the current search service to try to offer useful query/url suggestions. I love this feature, but you can turn it off. Right-click in the Omnibox/address bar and choose “Edit search engines…”. Or click the Chrome menu (it looks like a wrench), then Options->Basics and then the “Manage” button. Either way, you’ll see this box: 
Uncheck the checkbox at the bottom of the dialog box that says “Use a suggestion service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar.” - By default, crash reports and other anonymous usage statistics (e.g. which features are used most often) are not sent to Google. The Chrome team would love if people opted-in to send crash report data though, because it would improve Chrome for everyone. To opt in, click on the Chrome menu (it looks like a wrench), then click “Options.” On the “Under the Hood” tab, check the box that says “Help make Google Chrome better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google.” You can read more about this opt-in option on this support page. - Google Chrome sees a very short, stock 404 page (less than 512 bytes), it talks to Google in order to try to suggest other possible pages and options. same underlying technology talked about earlier this year. if you have a helpful 404 page (> 512 bytes), Google Chrome doesn’t modify that (this 404 page isn’t changed for example), but Google Chrome does try to help with very short/unhelpful 404 pages. If you still don’t like this feature, you can turn it off. -
Go to Chrome/Wrench menu->Options->Under the Hood and uncheck the box that says “Show suggestions for navigation errors.” By the way, just as a quick plug: if you as a site owner want to improve your 404 pages, Google offers a nice snippet of JavaScript (well under 20 lines) to offer this functionality to site owners. See this 404 page blog post for more info. - Google Chrome checks for automatic updates every 25 hours. Other modern browsers check for updates as well, e.g. to plug security holes. Given today’s sometimes-hostile web, I think checking for updates like this is a very smart choice. - Every 30 minutes, Google Chrome downloads a list of 32-bit url hashes of urls thought to be dangerous (malware or phishing). That is a download of data from google.com, not to google.com. As you surf around the web, if you happen to hit a url whose hash is in the dangerous list, the 32-bit hash is sent to Google and Google replies with a full 256-bit hash of the dangerous url in question. Not only does this happen very rarely, but Google Chrome doesn’t send a url to Google, it sends a url hash, so Google doesn’t learn the url from this exchange. By the way, this is essentially the same protocol that Firefox 3 uses to protect its users from malware/phishing urls as well. January 03 
Gray doesn't extrapolate into the near future, but Sarah Lacey is happy to: As Louis says, the company has instead relied on bloggers and tech publications to spread the word. That is myopic and naive. It's one thing to be a lean startup with no marketing department. It's another to pretend even the biggest cheerleaders in the Valley ecosystem will be enough to make your company a mainstream product. After all, early adopters tend to treat Web startups like fads. It's the "real people" who build a sustainable, real business. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook-- they all get that and that's why they don't cater features to the Valley elite's power users. I'm predicting a modest acquisition in someone's future, with a price tag that decreases as the brutal 2009 wears on. That's a shame for a company that had a bright future and a good product, but it goes to show it's as much about execution as it is idea and attention. /Message: Louis Gray on Why Friendfeed Will Fail December 28 Life at Google Google is not a conventional company, and we don’t intend to become one. True, we share attributes with the world’s most successful organizations – a focus on innovation and smart business practices comes to mind – but even as we continue to grow, we’re committed to retaining a small-company feel. At Google, we know that every employee has something important to say, and that every employee is integral to our success. We provide individually-tailored compensation packages that can be comprised of competitive salary, bonus, and equity components, along with the opportunity to earn further financial bonuses and rewards. Google has offices around the globe, from Bangalore to Zurich, but regardless of where we are, we nurture an invigorating, positive environment by hiring talented, local people who share our commitment to creating search perfection and want to have a great time doing it. Googlers thrive in small, focused teams and high-energy environments, believe in the ability of technology to change the world, and are as passionate about their lives as they are about their work. We’re always on the look-out for new Googlers. Take a look inside. Why work at Google?   
Google Jobs December 15 An overview of the data feed submission process Data feeds are a convenient way to create multiple items in Google Base. Feeds are assigned an item type, which classifies the feed according to what sort of items it contains. Once you've created your file, you'll upload it to Google Base. After your file is processed, your items will be added to Google Base. Creating and submitting your feed can be done in just four steps: 1. Select Item Type You begin the process by choosing an item type based on the collection of items your feed contains. There are over a dozen to choose from, including common types such as Products, Vehicles, Jobs, and Recipes. Each item type is associated with its own set of standard attributes, which define the characteristics of your items. The predefined item types include a list of common attributes and feed file samples. You can also define your own custom item type if needed. 2. Create Data Feed This step begins with choosing the format of your feed – tab-delimited or XML. Comparisons of these two formats along with examples are provided. You'll then add your item data and save the feed, which is now ready to be registered and uploaded in your Google Base account. 3. Register Data Feed After creating the file, you must register it in your Google Base account. This lets our system know to expect your file, and what item type it is. 4. Submit Data Feed Once you've registered your file, you'll need to upload it to your Google Base account. This can be done from within Google Base itself or via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). These methods are discussed to help you decide which one to use. Your items will be added to and appear in Google Base after your file is successfully uploaded and processed. In general, this takes up to 24 hours. Video in Breeze here: http://services.google.com/bulkupload/excel/ December 08 Products Listed in Google Adwords are from Google Product Search - aka Base or Froogle Here is a sample ad that caught my eye tonight. Note the advertisers name has been altered for trademark reasons.  // here is where you can expand and contract the product sample inside the spry
Clicking the plus sign will produce the following: 
I wonder how badly this will hurt the smaller companies that are not up to speed with Google product inclusion and Google base optimization? I know one thing is for sure they will be scrambling to get their data feeds formatted and accounts setup. Typically most feeds have some or all failed items the first time if EXPORTED FROM DATABASE or dynamic shopping cart site. Since the feed must be validated XML there is some recoding using the errors reported in the Google Base dash board. The next feed can be totally perfect or still off due to un-escaped symbols and other issues. Then during the first week you will have a few products get flagged that have no image, no price or other error in an attribute. And if you are real popular your competitors will turn you in the instant they can find a violation of terms of service~~!! Got to love competition. So at this stage right before Christmas if you are doing Google Adwords and you have an extensive product line and you need to get into base fast - BE SELECTIVE. Take a manageable chunk of products and get them formatted for uploaded ASAP. Then learn from your first upload while modifying to correct errors with additional products to expand it each time. You can update your feed daily and automatically up to a certain size. Once you break a certain size you will have to create a Google FTP account inside base and push your own feed manually. Feeds expire every 30 days. I assume that this traffic and clicks will show up on the dashboard performance tab for API Access - didn't take the time to get that far. Contact me for more information on Google Base or other Google Search Engine Marketing Services. Google Search Marketing Quick Start References: Sign in to Google Base FTP uploading
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