Who are these guys? Would you believe that these two actually control Google? No really, we are not kidding here!

»Larry Page (left) is the man behind the research and development of the latest new search technology that gets added to Google.

»Sergey Brin (right) is the man that controls what you see at Google. In other words, Sergey determines monthly what 62.2 million Google visitors should or should not see. How is that for a splash of cold water? His corporate motto: "Don't be evil".

In short, we felt that you should get to know the men at Google. Their story is truly inspiring and the philosophical and ethical decisions that Sergey has had to face over the past year are extremely interesting.

The full 5 page article on Brin and Page is excellent and available at Wired.com, just follow this link. You will truly gain some insight into Google. They just might end up running the Internet. Believe it or Not.

Google gets Froogle
As if there isn't enough news about Google these days, now they have another excellent concept that was just quietly released in BETA format. Froogle.com is the latest generation of comparison shopping web site. I have to tell you that from an online shoppers perspective, this site looks slick and undoubtedly another gold mine for Page and Brin. Just search for your product of interest and sit in stunned silence while not only the pricing from select retailers appear but also a snapshot of the product next to each listing. You can search for the product while specifying a minimum and maximum price to ensure desired results.

Comparison shopping is a market with massive potential and Froogle.com appears to be the next leader in this field. Since this is only a Beta it does appear that there are many options that require tweaking, but Google's track record erases any doubts in our mind of a failing grade.

Pay for News at Yahoo!?
Yahoo! will now be charging $1.50 per article accessed when doing a search in their new Associated Press News Archives. These archives will house articles from as far back as January 1, 1998. Nearly 1 million archives are currently available via AP Archives. It should be noted that stories, clips and other multimedia as recent as 15 days old will still be free.

HotBot Gets Reheated
The time has finally come for HotBot to get a makeover. HotBot now offers a variety of search options. From their search page you can now choose the major search engine database you wish to search from. The options are FAST, Google, Inktomi, and AskJeeve's Teoma database. As with most of the latest makeovers, HotBot has also simplified its look and removed much of the clutter that initially appeared on the home page. HotBot even offers a slick text-only version for the simplest and cleanest of searches. in fact it kind of looks like Infoseek did back in its hay day.

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Improving Link Popularity and Relevancy: In our Oct 30th newsletter we noted the importance of external links to your web site. Now we would like to give you some ideas for expanding your incoming links. The next few issues will be focusing on this issue. This week is Tip#3.

3: Directory Relevance
Placements in online directories can immeasurably help your web site placements. There are two different types of directories that should be targeted; Web Directories and Industry Directories.

Web Directories are the most common and include the Open Directory Project (Google uses this), Yahoo!, LookSmart, etc. Acquiring a listing in a directory such as these may cost nothing (Open Directory) or an exorbitant fee (Yahoo!).

Industry Directories are often dedicated to advertising vendors from a specific industry. For example, StepForth is a prominent advertiser at SearchEngineGuide.com which is a portal site dedicated to the news and vendors of the search engine world. Acquiring a listing at a industry-specific portal may require a small monthly advertising investment, or it may just be an annual membership fee. In our experience, the credibility, increased traffic and placements that are derived from this monetary outlay have more than proved worthwhile.

Nothing reveals more about a society than the information that interests them. Everyone loves lists and everyone loves Google so. here is a list of the most searched keywords or keyword phrases at Google for the Year 2002:

1. Spiderman (movie) .2. Shakira (celebrity) 3. Winter Olympics (sports) 4. World Cup (sports) 5. Avril Lavigne (celebrity) 6. Star Wars (movie) 7. Eminem (celebrity) 8. American Idol (television) 9. Morrowind (game) 10. Warcraft 3 (game) 11. Natalie Portman (celebrity) 12. Dungeon Siege (game) 13. Trillian (Instant Messaging System) 14. Las Ketchup (ummm….) 15. Neverwind Nights (game) 16. Battlefield 1942 (game) 17. Pink (celebrity) 18. Garth Gates (celebrity) 19. Loft Story 2 (French television) 20. Ikea (furniture).