Google image searches can be further refined thanks to a hidden feature few knew about – until this week.

A blog post by Ionut Alex Chitu has shown that by adding a simple piece of code to the end of your Google image search, can be used to refine the results. Adding “&imgtype=face” to the end of the search URL string will refine the list of images with just those of faces.

Wired blogger Adario Strange posted today that he had taken this search to the next level by replacing the word “face” with “hands” during an image search for PBS television host “Charlie Rose”. Strange notes images of Roses hands appearing, however, I was unable to duplicate these results.

This kind of image and face recognition is in its infant stages and it will be interesting to see how far Google goes, and when they will in fact release this technology openly within image searches.

Its scary to think that perhaps some day, armed only with a photo of someone, a user may be able to use the uploaded image to do a name look up and background search. While the technology (at least as far as I know) is not advanced enough to do such a thing, it is certainly within the realm of possibility.

If you are currently using long descriptions for your Yahoo Ads, be warned that effective this June, the short description option will be the only way to go.

Until end of day today, advertisers have had two options for ad copy; short descriptions utilizing a 70 character limit, and long descriptions providing up to 190 characters. As of June 2007, long descriptions will be eliminated, and those who are unprepared will see their ad copy truncated with an ellipsis. Read more…

Blogs 101 is a resource to provide our clients and readers with a clear concept of what a blog is, why a blog might be a positive addition to their website or marketing campaign, and how to implement, optimize and promote a blog. In Part 1 of this series I discussed the basics of a blog and some of the necessary steps to take before starting one. In Part 2, I explained blog feeds and how to optimize a blog. Now in Part 3, I will explain social media marketing and outline a selection of strategies for socially marketing your blog. Read more…

The US and Canada have had access to the new Panama platform for some time and now advertisers in Europe are able to use the new version, just launched this week.

There have been many comments on the new system on both the positive and negative side of things, but hopefully most of the initial issues that plagued US users have been corrected in time for this launch.

When it first launched in North America, Panama caused chaos for some advertisers when the transition saw ad campaigns completely shuffled about. Some key phrases were lost, where others were moved into different groups and some groups disappeared entirely. While not everyone had issues with the account switch, there was plenty to be said in the forums regarding the changeover. (see “Yahoo Panama Pros and Cons, and Part 2“)

Hopefully Europe will see a smoother transition into the new system with the correction of some of the known bugs. Currently, Google has approximately 70-80% market share for search in Europe.

In a press release issued by Microsoft Tuesday, the announcement of the first commercially available surface computer was made.

Expected to be released late this year, Surface will first appear in places like Casinos and hotels.

“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology,” Ballmer said. “We see this as a multibillion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror. Surface is the first step in realizing that vision.”

Read more…

Recently when traveling on the ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver BC, I picked up the June 2007 issue of Discover Magazine. In this issue there was one article that I found particularly interesting. On page 42, “How Much Does the Internet Weigh”?. The article attempts to put an actual physical weight on the data being transferred over the internet on an average day.

The article in many places is far too technical and scientific for me to truly understand, but the basis for the theory is that every bit of data sent via voltages in electronic circuits has some level of mass, albeit minuscule. There is an incredible amount of data sent across the internet on any given day so there must be a measurable figure of weight. Read more…

I just finished enjoying a great article cleverly prophesizing Google’s future fall from grace: “The Final Days of Google: It is Going to be an Inside Job“. It was written by PBS Pulpit writer Robert X. Cringely. Check it out.

As a follow up to my article “So Google Has Feedburner, What Now?” I thought this Wallstrip video interview with Feedburner CEO Dick Costolo was a perfect addition. If you are at all curious about Feedburner this is a clip for you:

Here is a direct link to the clip on YouTube in case the video has difficulty showing on our blog. Unfortunately this is more often the case than not. Apparently YouTube is not very Blogger friendly which seems ridiculous to me.

Russell Shaw over at ZDNet caught a new Google patent filed today revealing their potential plans for mobile search.

I must stress ‘potential plans’ because you just never know if they will follow this roadmap exactly. Now with my caution stated, I DO believe this patent is a good indicator of their future plans simply because it includes many of the options already present in the recently launched Ask Mobile GPS service. Furthermore, unless I missed something fundamental, everything I read was relatively expected and necessary for the proper functionality of local search on mobile phones.

That said, the patent application is detailed and has many great images to drive the point home. Since most commercial websites are bound to have a mobile website (or a compatible one) in 5 years or less this patent may be worth a moment of your time.

According to TechCrunch.com today Feedburner is in the final steps of an acquisition by Google for $100 million – with little or no chance of the all-cash buy going south.

What is Feedburner?
“FeedBurner is the leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds. Our Web-based tools help bloggers, podcasters and commercial publishers promote, deliver and profit from their content on the Web.” Read more…