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…

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…

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.

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.

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…

My friend and fellow Canadian SEO company owner Jeff Quipp over at Search Engine People has launched a lyrics contest where one lucky person could win $1000 USD. The contest rules and details are listed here but here is a quick lowdown on this fun contest:

SEO Lyric Contest Overview:

• Create a full lyrical song using terms from the SEO/SEM industry.
• Contestant website’s should be internet marketing related and have no bans or search engine penalties.
• Song parodies are allowed but the source must be noted.
• Entries will be evaluated “totally unscientifically” by a panel industry people (including myself – unless of course I enter something), social bookmarking votes, and comments.
• The award will go to the “most popular and marketable submission”.
• Weird Al is completely prohibited from participating – purely out of principle.
• A minimum of ten contestants must enter for the contest to take place.
• The contest ends at midnight (wherever you are) June 21st, 2007.
• etc. (see the complete rules for more detail)

An important note:
“You do not have to be an expert or experienced composer! Far from it. This is all about fun, and blowing off steam!”

Have you got the chops for prose? Give it a shot, it can’t hurt! After all, winning a cool grand would definitely be a nice way to start the Summer.