I have long been a fan of Google Earth because I find it so thrilling to see the world from my desktop. It is especially cool that with a flick of my mouse I can zoom right in to my neighborhood. Unfortunately Google Earth’s resolution has been getting a bit too clear for comfort for some users.

The picture on the right is that of a cat called Monty, sitting on a perch in his window. This image was found by Monty’s owner by using a new zoom function on Google Earth called StreetView which allows a 360 degree, street-level view of an area. Needless to say this has Monty’s owner a little creeped out.

Here are some related articles that are likely to make your hair stand on end:

• Google StreetView: Your Face and License Plate Could Be Online
  
• Calls for Google to censor images on Google Earth
• Wired News writes about StreetView

Google Product Manager Vanessa Fox posted her notes from the Duplicate Content Summit at SMX Advanced. She discusses some of the recommendations from the audience members and some of the questions and answers from the audience. It is worth a read if even just want to reassure yourself with words from a bonafide Googler.

Want more info from SMX Advanced? Here is part 1 of my SMX Advanced notes. Part 2 will be released today or tomorrow.

The details have yet to be released but on June 5th Google reportedly acquired PeakStream Inc.; a firm that appears to specialize in leveraging the power of software on next generation computers.

Google is tight-lipped about the actual size of its monolithic computer network but as you might imagine Google just can’t get enough computing power for its lofty aspirations. I did a little digging and it appears that PeakStream has had at least one pretty amazing breakthrough as of late which might have ‘peaked’ Google’s interest.

On June 7th the San Francisco Chronicle published an article about the growing privacy concerns related to the planned Google and DoubleClick merger. According to the article a coalition of privacy groups have requested that federal regulators “prohibit the merged companies from compiling detailed dossiers about users’ online behavior.”

It would be a rare case for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider privacy implications when ruling on the merger (since they usually deal with fair trade concerns) but this precedent may be worthwhile due to the considerable personal dossiers expected to be combined by the two companies. Read more…

Today marks my first day back from a short road trip through Oregon and from Danny Sullivan’s inaugural SMX Advanced Expo in Seattle. Considering the conference was the first expo in Danny’s new conference series I would say it was a blazing success. Danny brought together an impressive gaggle of leading names from the search engines and search marketing industry including: Matt Cutts, Tim Meyers, Vanessa Fox, Amit Kumar, Todd Friesen, Bruce Clay, Neil Patel, Greg Boser, Christine Churchill, and Jennifer Slegg just to name a few. Now let me get to the meat of the matter… what can I and what can’t I share with you? Read more…

Roughly 4 percent of all search results display links to potentially dangerous websites, according to a report published by McAfee’s SiteAdvisor, on Monday. The report notes that Yahoo results are the riskiest with AOL leading the pack as having the safest results.

Over the past year, both organic and sponsored links have seen an increase in safety, however, the biggest change is seen within sponsored listings. On average the number of risky links declined from 8.5% in May 2006, to 6.9% in May of this year. Organic results saw a drop from 3.1% down to 2.9%. Read more…

The new quality based pricing system being rolled out by Yahoo will allow advertisers to enjoy reduced click charges based on ad relevance and quality.

Yahoo announced in a mass mail out yesterday the launch of Quality Based Pricing. Discounts will be automatically applied to an advertisers account based on conversion rates and other measures. The roll out of the system has already begun as of yesterday.

There is nothing you need to do to receive this discount, simply continue creating quality relevant ads for your campaign, and assuming the quality is high enough you will start to see some reduced costs.

For more information visit the Yahoo Search Marketing Help page for Quality Based Pricing.