Cookies Are Spyware

Friday, July 15, 2005

Cookies Are Spyware, According to The Wall Street Journal
This piece was first published by M Naples

A Recent Article By the Wall Street Journal States Cookies Are Spyware

So, be sure to disable your cookies, all you WSJ subscribers. That's clearly what the Wall Street Journal would have all of us do. Seriously? Well, maybe.

Walter Mossberg's essay - which ran on Thursday - contains so many inaccuracies that it reminds me of a ruse from a different industry a couple of decades ago. But, perhaps he has an agenda.

Remember the Bottle Bill? The Bottle Bill was created by urban environmentalists and nurtured by the plastics industry because it necessitated returning beverage containers to retailers. In states that passed Bottle Bills, everyone knew that glass and aluminum containers were going to be replaced by unbreakable, larger, easier to handle plastic ones and that more comprehensive recycling programs would suffer. The nine states that have bottle bills today don't have more comprehensive statewide programs since the whole packaging mix was subverted by the 2-liter plastic container.

Enough detail on that. Here's the connection: Almost every major paper in the United States supported Bottle Bills. Most major publishers lobbied hard for them state by state. Of course, this is because newspapers comprise maybe 30 percent of the waste stream while beverage containers comprise maybe 3 percent. Newspapers just wanted to take the spotlight off their own bad litter and waste story. In nine states, they succeeded. Do you know how much post-consumer content is in that copy of the WSJ you read this morning? Not a lot, especially when compared to those beverage containers.

Well, if you read the WSJ online, recycled content is obviously not a concern. But, subscriber dilution is a concern to its publishers. Newspapers as a whole are terribly worried about online, even those newspapers like The Wall Street Journal that have done great things to make money and protect their brand digitally. Talk to enough newspaper publishers about the relationship between their print and online assets and the word you will hear is "cannibalize," because they feel that online readership's erosion of their traditional subscriptions is cannibalizing their share of the advertising market.

That's the first thing I thought of when I read Mossberg's piece. Obviously, The Wall Street Journal depends on the cookies it places on its subscribers' hard drives, just as every reputable media company does. Unfortunately, spyware companies can use cookies and IP targeting to locate and target users' hard drives too; so can companies that track users across multiple sites.

While tracking users across sites (with full disclosure and without sharing their PII) is okay with me, these same users deserve to know that they're being tracked across media, just as they do in the non-digital world. The fact that they're afraid of it, is our fault as an industry, not theirs as consumers.

The point here is that what companies do with cookies is what we should be talking about, not the cookies themselves. Mossberg seems woefully misinformed - but it's not his fault. His is not the first anti-cookie piece I've seen in a major newspaper, although it's the worst-informed, and it appeared in the most influential outlet. What may be happening here is that newspapers are perhaps posturing toward a role that is somewhat similar to their role in the Bottle Bill debacle 20-some years ago.

Tired of bleeding money online, newspapers are buying marketing companies and many publishers are doing deals with Google, of all companies, to generate more page views and text links. Do you think that newspapers wouldn't rather be the ones managing their own optimization instead of farming it out to the new monolith, and subordinating their brands both nationally and locally?

Well, of course they would - only they haven't figured out how to do so yet. Mossberg wants cookies to be banned because if cookies are gone, all meaningful online measurement is thrown in the air and newspapers are at less of a disadvantage. Or, maybe he thinks - like many others in the print world - that fomenting fears of online media might bring newspapers readers back to traditional newspapers.

Understand that I'm ascribing to this subversive notion because I'm giving him credit for knowing his business. If this agenda were not his intention, then he's just plain wrong and the Journal's publishers should be embarrassed for editorially shooting themselves (and their advertisers) in the foot. Honestly, if this is not his agenda, then it's akin to a major sports league skipping a full season, essentially telling its consumers and sponsors to stick it. I mean, who would be so...so...dense?

What the Debate Should Properly Be About The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) will be hosting a major industry retreat near its headquarters in York Harbor, Maine next week. From their invitation: "Since the debate over spyware has created such an urgent need for those of us in the online industry to identify and support best practices for adware and online advertising..." the best and brightest among our privacy officers and some c-level executives will gather for a two-day workshop to hammer out definitions of what is and is not spyware and adware.

As with any properly drafted restrictive regulation, please note that the NAI workshop will focus on best practices. Cookies aren't the villain here any more than the ads that support our salaries (including yours, Mossberg) or the text links in the galleys of our pages. However, what companies do with cookies, with what's lurking behind those text links can be villainous.

Remember, what users give up to cookies online - in terms of information on them or their behavior - is a small fraction of what they give up to credit card companies they do business with or when they subscribe to The Wall Street Journal newspaper.

What matters here is not the technology, but the behavior. It's no more or less true in online media than it is in traditional media. Next time the Journal's parent, Dow Jones, sells a subscriber db-segment to one of its direct mail partners, that behavior must be above-board. It will be enabled by technology not unlike cookies. Traditional media companies sell these records every day. What matters is how they sell them and to whom - the behavior, not the technology.

Let's face the fact that, as an industry, we've failed to make it clear to consumers that cookies are not the problem. Now - it seems - we can add newspapers themselves to our list of opponents, joining marketers of spyware removal products, who started this mess in the first place by identifying all cookies as spyware. I hope I'm wrong. But, as much as I trust the beleaguered cookies on my hard drive, these days I always suspect an agenda from anyone turning cookies into the villain.

The best chance the

Relevant Content The Key to Google System

Google Makes Further Conent Acquistion Advancements to Become the World's Library

Google Library Project

What is the Library Project?

Google Print makes offline information searchable. As part of this project, we're now working to index the book collections of several major research libraries and make this content searchable through Google Print alongside books provided by publishers through our Publisher Program.

What is the goal of Google Print for Libraries?

This project's aim is simple: make it easier to find relevant books.

We hope to guide more users to books – specifically books they might not be able to find any other way – all while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers find new readers.

What will library books in Google look like?

If you are in the United States and you search for Books and Culture by Hamilton Wright Mabie, for instance, you'll be able to page through as much of it as you like, because its 1896 copyright means it's now in the public domain in the United States.

These public domain books look very similar to publisher-submitted books except you will be able to click through all the pages of the book. A book such as the 1924 True Stories of Pioneer Life by Mary C. Moulton, on the other hand, may still be in copyright in the United States, and we treat it as such.

So, when you preview it on Google Print, you'll only see snippets of text directly around your search term. This snippet view is designed to help users find the book in their search results and make a decision about whether to go find a physical copy of the book with just bibliographic information and a few short sentences around their search query.

Visiti The World's Most Content Relevant Library Here:

http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html

Yahoo Socializes Search

Yahoo has introduced the My Web 2.0, a new "social search engine," based on a page-ranking technology that organizes pages based on a user's search patterns and "the shared knowledge of the people they trust," Yahoo states.

Rival search engine Google and their existing "Page Rank" technology, is based on the frequency with which results are linked to by the Net collectively.

Building on tagging networks like Flickr --which Yahoo recently acquired -- My Web 2.0 makes Web pages popular among a network accessible to everyone within that network.

The new Yahoo Social Search is now available in a limited beta on a first come, first serve basis at myweb2.search.yahoo.com.

The service also lets users create a personal online archive by saving desired Web pages, search results, and a search history to "My Web."

Using the Yahoo Social search beta version of "Save to My Web" button on the new Yahoo toolbar, internet users can save an existing Web page to their personal search archive, which can be retrieved at any time by searching "My Web." With the new Yahoo search engine optimization sharing feature, Yahoo searchers can also add notes to saved pages in order to personalize and organize the stored files. Users will be able to create files that are shared by a community; when updated by the user, everyone in the group will receive the update via RSS feed, said Tim Mayer, director of Yahoo Search.

Yahoo announced the beta release of an earlier version of their Social search service, My Web 1.0, at the end of April--almost exactly one week after Google released a test service called "My Search History," which tracks keyword searchers when they are signed on to the service, and allows them to search those pages at a later date.

"My Web is the next step in integrating Yahoo search and personal search with community by giving our searchers an easy way to have their own personal Web search experience--which incorporates what matters most to them on the Internet--and allowing them to share that experience," said Mayer upon the initial release of Yahoo social search.

Yahoo is offering an open API for the new application--which, enables developers to use Yahoo data to create new products. "My Web" can also be accessed via the new beta version of the Yahoo Toolbar.

Yahoo is expected to release an extension of its Search API offering with the availability of Yahoo Maps API at developer.yahoo.net/maps/.

Supremem Court New Media Ruling Update

This piece was just released from Tobi Elkin of MediaPost.

Media mogul Tom Rogers finally got what he wanted all along - to become head of TiVo. He's been vice chairman of the company for more than a year and successfully negotiated a deal with Comcast to integrate TiVo into the company's digital cable set-top boxes.

Rogers has been chomping at the bit to lead TiVo and now he's the top dog; he'll assume the role of president and CEO on July 1, succeeding Mike Ramsay, the company's founder, who announced he would step down in January as CEO. Now, it's up to Rogers, the ultimate dealmaker, to forge deeper connections with cable and satellite providers to distribute TiVo which, despite having only 3 million subscribers, is a force to be reckoned with.

It's not the company though so much as the technology that has taken the advertising and media worlds by storm. We will no doubt hear a sober forecast on advertising growth today from TNS Media Intelligence due, in part, to the advent of TiVo, which enables ad skipping. Of course there are many other factors at work and reasons why ad growth, at least in the TV segment, isn't as robust as it once was.

We expect estimates for online ad growth to be healthy.

TiVo's Rogers told CNBC yesterday that while cable distribution of TiVo is a cornerstone of the company's strategy, selling the standalone TiVo box at retail remains an important part of the overall plan as well. It's important, Rogers said, for people who don't have access to digital cable: "We have to find more creative ways to drive those standalone sales." TiVo, meanwhile, will also seek additional cable distribution deals.

Regarding yesterday's Supreme Court ruling on file-sharing and copyright protection, Rogers said the decision is significant "because content is critical to driving any of these new technologies. TiVo has always been respectful of copyright issues. ..We are very much believers that copyright protection is a very important principle that needs to be pursued." Copyright protection advocates have scrutinized TiVo's TiVoToGo product.

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Ask our Peak Positions clients they'll tell you that search engine optimization is the most effective fom of online advertising and they are enjoying huge return on investment percentages.

The power of Organic search engine optimization is unmatched by all other media...that is exactly why online ad growth will continue to explode.

Google Unveils Video Player
GOOGLE RELEASED ITS OWN video playback feature, "Google Video Player," an open-source-based application for use with Google video search.

The Google video player allows searchers to stream video clips uploaded to Google's video search application by creators.

This move from Google is "probably the most significant play in the online-on-demand video market," said Jupiter Research analyst Gary Stein. "It cuts the distance between producer and consumer," he said, adding "that whole content distribution channel has been disintermediated."
A couple months back Google began soliciting uploads of video clips, which allows content producers--including consumers--to have their videos hosted on the Web. Google asked uploaders to label video clips with keywords and also issue a price per-view price tag on their ieo clips. Google takes a portion of the revenue, and in some cases, charges a small hosting fee for large or in - demand 'hot' videos.

Video clip owners were given the option to allow free downloads of their video content.
With the release of the Google Video Player, the video clips marked as free now can be streamed directly from Google's video search results pages.

The Google video player is based on the open-source videoLAN client media player. Google's decision to create its own open source video player allows Google to sidestep support of rival video players and also preserves the open flexibility to upgrade or extend the free software in the future.

Google's introduction of a free video search player is timely considering Google's recent announcement of Google Wallet, a new online bill payment service gearing up to provide users a choice other than Paypal.

Google's new video content player, Gmail, and Google Wallet are just the most recent examples of the search engines' determination to broaden their revenue models and user reach in advance of rolling out the GBrowser being developed to change the internet enterprise and take Google users far beyond keyword search.

Stay Tuned Redmond the Mountain View Boys are $300 a share for a reason !

Google Releases Code

Code.google.com is a new site published by Google for external developers interested in Google-related development.

This new website is where Google will publish free source code and lists of their API services.

To Learn more visit: http://code.google.com/projects.html

It all about Code !

Search Engine Optimization - Google Update - Things to Avoid

Google is becoming frustrated with the growing number of websites seeking to game the google keyword search system.

If search engine optimization is a marketing focus of your organization it is imperative that your webmaster or web dev team avoid these optimization techniques.

Here is a summary of Google's Quality Guidelines and Specific Search Engine Optimization Best Practices guidance.

Google Search Engine Optimization Quality Guidelines:
Thing to Avoid:

***** Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.

Don't send automated queries to Google.

Don't load pages with irrelevant words.

Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

Webmaster's who seek long-term search engine placement success need to stay within these search engine optimization guidlines in order to ensure the best possible results.

Also when you consider that 98% of all new first-time website visitors are actually delivered by a search engine or directory, it only makes logical business sense to outsource search engine optimization services with a proven, dedicated, and ethical search engine optimization firm like us.

Local Newspaper Websites Dominate Metro Markets

According to the The Media Audit, local newspapers have the leading websites in 74 of the 81 metropolitan markets regularly surveyed. TV station websites have the largest audience in five markets and websites operated by a combination of TV station and local newspaper lead in two markets.

For several years The Media Audit data has shown the Washington Post to have the most successful “local” newspaper website among the markets surveyed. The Post is still number one with a rating of 40.5 percent, but now WRAL-TV, serving the Raleigh-Durham market, has succeeded in attracting 39.0 percent of the Raleigh real estate agents adults in its immediate market to its website.

“WRAL-TV, KUSA-TV in Denver, KXAS-TV in Dallas, KTHV-TV in Little Rock and some others make it clear that newspapers are not going to ‘automatically’ dominate any market. Like the www.record-eagle.com in the The Detroit News website leads with 16.9 but WDIV-TV attracts 16.1 percent.
Of the 898 websites surveyed (newspapers, alternative news weeklies like the Metro Times in Detroit) in the current report, 236 attracted 10 percent or more of the adults in their immediate market. Of the 236, 117 were TV stations. Only one newsweekly, The Austin Chronicle, attracted 10 percent or more.

Much like the Yellow Pages, Dialy newpapers print circulation is dwindling as consumers get their news and information without commercial interruptions.

Advertisiers are beginning to understand that their media mix needs to be revamped as traditional sales drivers like the Yellow Pages and the Thursday and Sunday newspaper just don't make the needle move like the old days.

Maximize reach with organic website optimization that drives search engine placement for your company website...contact Peak Positions SEO.

The next time any Internet Marketing Company asks or informs you that Cookies need to be set on your website ask them a most important question: "How will these cookies serve our website users?"

Expect to wait a very long time for any type of relevant answer.

This recent article provides an in-depth review of cookies and the problems that they create.

Crumbling Cookies Threaten SEM and Online Advertising

A recent Jupiter Research study found "as many as 39 percent of online users may be deleting cookies from their primary computer every month, undermining the usefulness of cookie-based measurement and leaving many site operators flying blind." Client data we've seen indicates the problem may not be quite as dire as all that... yet. But the trend toward blocked or deleted cookies is clearly increasing.

(It's about time that internet marketing company executives address the nagging cookie issues)

Over the last few years, spam nearly killed the e-mail marketing industry, at least as far as opt-in e-mail as a customer acquisition vehicle is concerned.

In an overall ecosystem, the cheaters who sent the spam caused mailbox clutter and consumer outrage. Users found themselves digging out from under mountains of spam.

ISPs and independent software companies stepped in to offer technology to reduce spam.

Yet no solution really works perfectly, and the e-mail marketing industry is moving too slowly. Domain authentication still isn't standard for e-mail sending. Bummer. Now, even legitimate opt-in communications from publishers and companies to their customers and subscribers are often flagged as spam or not delivered.

A lesson can be learned from e-mail's demise as a customer acquisition vehicle. Self-regulation must be early and decisive when there's preventable activity that threatens an entire industry.

A similar threat looms over the entire online advertising industry, the Web analytics business, online publishers, and even paid search. That threat is cookie blocking, cookie removal, and cookie scrubbing by consumers and businesses alike.

The proliferation of spyware and unwanted adware has resulted in a surge in popularity of spyware removal programs. Many of these also remove third-party cookies. Simultaneously, many Internet security software packages include cookie blocking, cookie removal, or cookie management features that are turned on by default. (and with good reason!)

Without third-party cookies, many marginal online marketing technologies would have to rely on alternate means to measure ad performance. The user also loses. Cookies, like an e-mail or a postal address, or a customer phone number, can be used by marketers wisely or poorly. Instead of using cookies to enhance the user experience with highly targeted advertising, some have instead focused on short-term gain.

Many Internet adverting businesses (not reputable organic search engine optimization solutions providers) worry it's too late. They think wild hysteria and paranoia fueled by spyware, privacy advocates, and media will kill the cookie as a viable way to bring users better site experiences, easy log-ins, relevant advertising, and personalization.

Who Can Save the Cookie? (ONLY SPAMMERS !!!!!!!!!!! )

Several trade associations are positioned to help save the cookie as a viable ad tracking method (if it can be saved). They have several weapons at their disposal, including:
Proactive consumer PR efforts, so consumers will understand cookies' positive effect in helping them manage their online experiences

(MANAGE OUR ONLINE EXPERIENCE ? -- USERS SEARCH OR LOCATE THE CONTENT THAT THEY NEED -- ONLY USERS MANAGE THEIR ONLINE EXPERIENCES)

and even to see more relevant advertising

(WE HARDLY NEED MORE RELEVANT ADVERTISING MESSAGES PER DAY )

Lawmaker education on the realistic levels of privacy "invasion" caused by non-personally-identifiable cookies served by first- and third-parties. Trade associations that should add cookie preservation to their agenda include, but aren't limited to:

Cookies need to go away. If you want to track performance analyze your website server logs.

Be wary of any party looking to ADD NEW COOKIES to your web pages.

MSN Announces New Pay Per Click Search Advertising Program

At an annual gathering of its most important advertisers last week, MSN officially announced during it will enter the paid search arena with a full-blown self-service paid listing program similar to those run by Yahoo! and Google.

The program will be tested in France and Singapore during the close of 2005. A date for a worldwide rollout has not been set.

MSN needs to establish its own program, something that seemed inevitable once Yahoo! announced it would purchase Overture in 2003. The move meant Overture -- which had been providing paid listings to both Yahoo! and MSN -- effectively lost its "neutrality" and really couldn't continue to be a long-term partner for MSN.

In addition, MSN had already decided at that point to build its own robot spider crawling search technology that is similar to how google works to produce editorial search listings. Developing a paid listings capability seemed almost a requirement for MSN , given competitors Google and Yahoo! have their own PPC search marketing programs.

MSN's PPC program is set to operate on a broad match basis, similar to Google's. Advertisers will also be able to target specific words and phrases such as sign design company , in addition to having exclusion video game testing options.

Beyond Google's and Yahoo!'s programs, the new MSN program will offer features such as dayparting, geotargeting, and demographic targeting based on age group, lifestyle, and topic such as: honda car parts .
Until MSN's new Pay Per Click search marketing program rolls out, MSN will continue its long-standing featured sites in the U.S., where search advertisers that spend at least $75,000 per month can get top placement for terms they want to target, above any results provided by Yahoo!

What does this MSN Pay Per Click development mean for Yahoo? Obviously, Yahoo stands to sacrifice significant chunks of income that it receives by providing paid listings to MSN. Advertisers won't flock to MSN and forsake the other two however portions of their Pay Per Click budgets will be reissued towards MSN's program.

MSN will be a third chocie PPC program that most everyone will enroll in.
Is it too little too late from MSN only time will tell. At least Redmond has finally found the lucrative search party, makes one wonder if they intend to continue improving their organic search shortcomings.

MSN Announces New Pay Per Click Search Advertising Program

At an annual gathering of its most important advertisers last week, MSN officially announced during it will enter the paid search arena with a full-blown self-service paid listing program similar to those run by Yahoo! and Google.

The program will be tested in France and Singapore during the close of 2005. A date for a worldwide rollout has not been set.

MSN needs to establish its own program, something that seemed inevitable once Yahoo! announced it would purchase Overture in 2003. The move meant Overture -- which had been providing paid listings to both Yahoo! and MSN -- effectively lost its "neutrality" and really couldn't continue to be a long-term partner for MSN.

In addition, MSN had already decided at that point to build its own robot spider crawling search technology that is similar to how google works to produce editorial search listings. Developing a paid listings capability seemed almost a requirement for MSN , given competitors Google and Yahoo! have their own PPC search marketing programs.

MSN's PPC program is set to operate on a broad match basis, similar to Google's. Advertisers will also be able to target specific words and phrases such as sign design company , in addition to having exclusion video game testing options.

Beyond Google's and Yahoo!'s programs, the new MSN program will offer features such as dayparting, geotargeting, and demographic targeting based on age group, lifestyle, and topic such as: honda car parts .
Until MSN's new Pay Per Click search marketing program rolls out, MSN will continue its long-standing featured sites in the U.S., where search advertisers that spend at least $75,000 per month can get top placement for terms they want to target, above any results provided by Yahoo!

What does this MSN Pay Per Click development mean for Yahoo? Obviously, Yahoo stands to sacrifice significant chunks of income that it receives by providing paid listings to MSN. Advertisers won't flock to MSN and forsake the other two however portions of their Pay Per Click budgets will be reissued towards MSN's program.

MSN will be a third chocie PPC program that most everyone will enroll in.
Is it too little too late from MSN only time will tell. At least Redmond has finally found the lucrative search party, makes one wonder if they intend to continue improving heir organic search shortcomings.

Copyright Suit Targets Google News

Internet search and content giant Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) , known as one of the top aggregators of news and other information online, has been sued by Agence France Press (AFP) for allegedly publishing copyrighted content without permission.

The French media publisher -- which is seeking more than US$17 million in damages and an injunction barring Google from further publishing its news stories and photos -- took its action in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in March of 2005.

The suit follows Google's defeat in French court in February of 2005 over trademark infringement allegations from fashion designer Louis Vuitton, despite Google's victory in a similar trademark infringement case involving the insurance company: Geico.

This case is somewhat different in that AFP is suing Google for theft and distribution of copyrighted content and materails. The Google News site aggregates and indexes the headlines and first few lines of news stories from more than 4,000 sites. Users who click on the headlines are then sent to the site of the original publisher.

The opt-out feature was cited by Google in response to the AFP suit. AFP went on to argue that Google had been informed of the alleged infringement, yet ignored requests to avoid the publication of AFP's copyrighted content. A similar suit, which is ongoing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, was brought against Google by pornography publisher Perfect 10 last year.

American Internet publishing and copyright cases in recent years have largely depended for precedent on the Total News case of more than five years ago, in which the courts held that permission to publish is required if companies present content online inside their own window or under their own logo.

Is google stealing copyrighted content with its news headlines at the top of the keyword search results pages ? It could be years before the judges and governing legal bodies are ablt to issue precedent setting rulings on these matters. One question is what is preventing any newspaper, magezing, ezine, or any publication from republishing another party's content and re-labeling the distrbution channel with another ownership logo?

Do traditional publishing laws and established truth in advertising trademark policies apply to the internet?

Google Loses Trademark Infringement Case in Europe

Google loses French court appeal

Google is one of the world's most popular search engines Internet search engine Google has lost its appeal against a court ruling over trademark infringement brought about by two French travel companies.

Google must now pay 75,000 euros ($100,300; £52,000) in damages and costs to Luteciel and Viaticum. A lawsuit was filed after Google users searching for the two French companies found themselves directed instead to rival sponsored links.

Google's failure to follow an order quickly enough triggered the fine. In October 2003, the French courts told the search engine to stop displaying rival sponsored links. The court said that Google AdWords had been guilty of "trademark counterfeiting".

Companies pay to have their websites linked to particular terms on Google. Under current Google policy, if it is judged that an advertiser uses a trademarked term as a "keyword trigger", those words are taken out of its campaign.

However, the Google AdWords still does not offer upfront protections against potential AdWords sponsors creating Pay Per Click advertising accounts intended to sponsor and advertise on established trademark terms.

This ruling could set precedent and lead to hundreds of trademark infringement judgments against Google AdWords in the European courts.

Peter Norvig
Director of Search Quality Google

"Meta Data Cannot Be Trusted, Content is King" says Peter Norvig

Recent Interview with Google Director of Search Quality, Peter Norvig, confirms that content is king and meta data cannot be trusted.

"In general, search engines have turned away from metadata, and they now try to hone in more on what's exactly perceivable to the user in the browser. Our hypertext spiders (robot crawlers) are seeking to parse text content, text elements, and engage semantic matching logic with page text compositions."

Content Relevancy is the determining factor in Google's binary-based, data retrieval keyword search system.

"For the most part we throw away the meta tags, unless there's a good reason to believe them, because they tend to be more deceptive than they are helpful."

Website Optimization needs to hinge on Content Relevancy in order to make the greatest impact on our system, not links, PageRank, cloaking, or SPAM, the deciding factor is: CONTENT RELEVANCY.

Mr. Norvig also goes onto discuss the advancements being made by Google to target cloaking, sneaky redirects, and web sites using misleading meta tags.

The closing paragraph of this interview with Peter Norvig og Google is a must read for anyone interested in securing and maintaining premium, natural keyword search positions on the Google results pages.

Learn more about Google's ongoing search quality challenges involving automation, knowledge, spam, growth and more. Mr. Norvig addresses the four leading individual challenges at Google Organic Search.