The Hamburg data protection agency has launched a formal investigation into Facebook’s data policy. The agency claims that Facebook keeps information about non-users without their permission, which is assumed to be gathered through Facebook’s ‘invite’ feature. Johannes Caspar, who runs the privacy agency in Hamubrg, issued an official letter to Facebook on Wednesday. Facebook has yet to respond.

Twitter Launches @earlybird

Twitter launched its new @earlybird account this week, dedicated to serving followers with special deals and ‘earlybird’ coupons. Here’s how it works: Twitter will serve followers of the @earlybird account with special, timely offers from businesses that pay to be in the stream. The account currently has 13,000 or so followers, but that number is bound to grow in time.

What’s interesting about the prospect of the @earlybird is that it may be the first real opportunity for Twitter to capitalize on its growing search base. If the first @earlybird account works as imagined, it could lead to more specific accounts for competitive verticals, like flights, auto insurance, technology offers and so on.

Twitter’s the World’s Fastest Growing Search Engine

Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone revealed that Twitter serves more than 24 billion search a month, making it the fastest growing search engine, ahead of Bing’s approximate 4.1 Billion and Yahoo’s 9.4 billion searches.

Apple and Google Fight on the App Front

Google improved the mobile version of the YouTube website this week. The upgrade to m.youtube.com is, according to Google’s blog post on the topic, really fast and incorporates “larger, more touch-friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go,” as well as, “the features and functionality you’ve come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists, the ability to designate “favorite,” “like” or “unlike” videos directly from your device.” If the new mobile interface proves to be as good as it sounds, it could make Apple’s YouTube iPhone app obsolete.

YouTube Introduces Leanback

On Wednesday, YouTube announced the beta launch of their new YouTube Leanback service. According to the YouTube’s blog, the new service is more specifically tailored to the interests, tastes of individual users. According to the blog, “YouTube Leanback is all about letting you sit back, relax and be entertained. Videos tailored to your interests play as soon as you visit the site and they play in full screen and high definition, continuously. There’s no need to click, search, or browse, unless you want to, of course. Watching YouTube becomes as easy as watching TV.”

Facebook’s User Growth Plateaus

Facebook’s growth seems to have lost a bit of steam in the last month. According to the monthly growth data published by Inside Facebook, Facebook only gained 320,000 new U.S. users in June 2010 — a dramatic drop from the 7.8 the site accumulated last month. Ryan Singel, from Wired.com, takes a closer look at the causes behind this drop, asking if Facebook’s privacy problems have played a role, or whether Facebook’s U.S. population is simply saturated.

Search Market Share Number: June 2010

Hitwise, a British search marketing analytics firm, released their search market numbers for June 2010. According to their report, Bing gained 7 percent last month, stealing 1 percent from Google’s market share. Google, however, still accounted for 71.7% of U.S. searches conducted last month.

ComScore released its May 2010 research on online video viewing on Wednesday, revealing that YouTube continues to dominate the growing arena of online viewership. According to the report, YouTube showed 14.6 billion videos in the month of May, accounting for 43.1% of the 34 billion total videos viewed this month by 183 million Web users. Hulu ranked second with 1.2 billion videos, followed by Microsoft, Vevo and Viacom.

Facebook Introduces New VP of Global Policy

Facebook announced this week its hiring of Marne Levine, former chief of staff of the National Economic Council, as its new VP of Global Policy. Levine, who will be based out of Washington D.C., will oversee Facebook’s relationships with international governments and organizations, representing the social network’s interests on copyright, children’s security and privacy issues.

Twitter to Experience More Outages During FIFA World Cup

Since the start of the FIFA World Cup two weeks ago, Twitter has experienced several system outages due to increased traffic from soccer fanatics across the globe. Users are warned to expect several outages during this weekend’s biggest games- Germany vs. England,  U.S.A. vs. Ghana, and Argentina vs. Mexico.

Google’s Android Winning Traction in App Development

According to a report in BusinessWeek on Wednesday, Google’s Android system is winning in the ongoing battle over app developers. According to a survey conducted by Appcelerator, the Android is experiencing the most promising long-term potential among smartphone operating systems. Although Apple’s iOS system continues to dominate the smartphone sector, Android operated devices acquires 100,000 users daily and, according to researcher Garnter Inc., the Android will surpass iOS as the world’s second most popular operating system by 2010.

Google to Enter Music Business (Rumored)

This week rumors emerged that the search giant Google may enter the music industry and produce a subscription based service to compete with Apple’s iTunes. According to Scott Morrison from the Wall Street Journal, “Google Inc. is preparing to roll out a music download service tied to its search engine later this year, followed by an online subscription service in 2011, according to people familiar with the Internet giant’s discussions with the music industry.” According to an article published in Rolling Stone, Google’s music service is rumored to focus heavily on a shift to the ‘cloud’ computing system. Rather than accessing music through services like Rhapsody or Spotify, Google’s service may enable users to access music via remote servers in an open, search-like environment.

Twitter Settles with FTC

Twitter reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week in a case over Twitter’s privacy policy. Charges were brought against the micro-blogging site last year, when Twitter allowed hackers to view private “tweets” and send fake messages from the then-President elect Obama’s, Fox news’ and others’ accounts.

Suggested Blogs/Articles/Podcasts:

• On this week’s NYTimes Tech Talk Podcast, Bettina Edelstein sits down with Nancy Spector, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Foundation, and Ed Sanders, senior marketing manager for YouTube, to discuss their most recent collaboration to bring Art videos to YouTube through a project called “YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video.”
• Kevin Kelleher authored a witty post this week on gigiacom.com entitled “App Creep and the Case for the Mobile Browser,” in which he discusses the overwhelming number of available mobile apps and the need for a functional mobile browser.
• Dan Tynan poses the question of whether Facebook would be able to offer a better privacy policy if they charged for their services.

Google Adds Flash to Chrome

• Google announced on Tuesday their plans to incorporate Adobe’s Flash play with downloads on their Chrome browser. Although Google’s Chrome currently only accounts for 5% of Internet browser user-ship, their decision to package Flash with Chrome is an obvious poke at Apple and a competitive gesture for a stake in the mobile market. While Apple’s iPhone still dominates the smartphone industry, Google’s Chrome has become increasingly popular among mobile searchers, adding Adobe to its capabilities is likely to boost Chrome’s popularity. However, as Michael Cote, an analyst at the RedMonk research firm, stated, “Integrating Flash into Chrome is more of a signaling and partnership thing than anything else. After all, anyone who wants to get Flash can otherwise download it.” To read more about how Google’s decision could affect its relationship with Apple and the internet climate at large, be sure to check out Priya Ganapati’s article on Wired.com.

April Fools!

Google and Topeka

• What does Kansas have to offer, besides Obama’s mama?   Well as of this week, Topeka, Kansas can proudly say that it was the punch line of an international April Fool’s joke. The notorious corporate April fool’s enthusiast, Google, kept their reputation alive this week by renaming itself Topeka, in honor of Kansas’ capital.

If Apple Had a Sense of Humor…

• The Register reported on Thursday, Apple’s intentions to remove HTML support from their most popular devices, the iPhone, iPod and long sought after iPad. The traditional programming codex will be replaced by Apple’s very own iHTML. Analysts speculate that Apple will charge a license fee of ten cents per page for sites seeking to convert to iHTML. With an estimated one trillion pages floating out there in cyberspace, Apple can anticipate profits exceeding 100 billion dollars. That being said, Apple has implemented a metatag identification string detection platform that signals whether the page is “Approved by Apple.” [Note: This is a joke.]

iPad Apps Have Arrived

Apple has started adding iPad apps to their iTunes store. Although the iPad hasn’t yet hit the market, Apple fanatics can pre-purchase applications, which will be stored on their computer until the iPad is connected.

YouTube Updates

Redesign

• YouTube launched its redesign on Wednesday with new features intended keep users engaged on the site longer. While the user experience on YouTube is on average three minutes long, Shiva Rajaraman, a senior product manager at YouTube, told the New York Times their goal in the redesign was to create opportunities for users to watch longer periods of content. Rajarman said, “We want users to leave because they run out of time, not because they run out of things to watch.”

YouTube to Shut down Text-Advertising

• AdAge reported this week that YouTube will shut down its text-advertising network on April 30, 2010 and surrender its market share to Google to focus on premium display advertisement.

The Google-China saga continued this week as Google announced its decision to stop censoring results in China.  The final decision to remove filters from their results page comes as no surprise after weeks of industry rumors, suggesting that the search giant would remove its business all together from the Republic. The repercussions of this decision are still unknown but are bound to have profound implications. On the one hand, Google has just dismissed itself as a contender for the Chinese market. Many are speculating that as a result, Bing-Yahoo, which has made it clear that they will not follow Google’s leading in stepping out of China, could take Google’s place.

In an effort to prevent such a situation, Google has made its decision a national matter. Alan Davidson, director of public policy for Google, made a speech to a joint Congressional panel on Wednesday encouraging them to withhold aid from countries that specifically restrict access to certain Websites. According to Davidson, “The growing problem for Internet censorship is not isolated to one country or one region. No single company and no single industry can tackle Internet censorship on its own.” This certainly is becoming one of the most complicated and interesting topics in the industry. If you have any comments, opinions or rants you are dying to express, leave a comment below. Also to read more about how this decision will affect China’s web, check out Jonathan Stray’s article on the New York Times’ technology blog.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Outages

When Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all experienced outages this week, all fingers pointed at China. While Google officials denied that YouTube’s outage was caused by their decision to ‘rebel’ against China. A spokesperson reported to eWeek that “YouTube is up again following a technical issue which has now been resolved. We know how important YouTube is for people and apologize for any inconvenience the downtime may have caused.” Fast Company tells the story a bit differently; claiming that global sysadmins noticed that traffic to the three social media sites was being diverted to services in China and as a result were subjected to Chinese censorship software.

Google Wins in Trademark Battle with Louis Vuitton

Courts ruled in Google’s favor in the trademark case with the owners of Louis Vuitton, ending a seven-year battle. The suit primarily concerned Google’s AdWords system, which allows advertisers to bid on other companies’  trademarked keywords. According to Europe’s highest court, however, the search giant did not violate any trademark practices. For an insightful description of the legal implications of this ruling, check out W. Scott Blackmer’s article on the Information Law Group’s site.

Twitter Will One Day Have a Business Model

Interested in how Twitter plans to monetize their network? Well, you will one day find out. In an interview with CNBC, Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, said that their plans will be revealed “soon.” Exciting, right?

Google’s Nexus One Outsells iPhone in February

It’s quite surprising, but Google’s Nexus One outsold Apple’s iPhone in February by 16%. After months of criticism and disappointing market statistics, Google’s Nexus One has finally pulled ahead, according to 3G.uk.

Remarketing now available through Google AdWords

Google launched its own display re-targeting program this week, enabling advertisers to serve ads through the Google content network to visitors that had previously interacted with their site.  Remarketing had been part of Google’s internet-based advertising beta since last March, and includes a variety of customization and targeting features to serve ads based on the specific actions customers have taken.  To learn more about Google Remarketing, check out Leonard Herman’s blog post, Turning Clicks into Conversions.

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes launched the soft version of his new start up, Jumo, this week. The company, named after the Yoruba word for “together in concert” is a non-profit organization designed to match up people who want to ‘help the world’ with suitable organizations. In an interview with Fast Company, Hughes states, “We’ll be matching people based on their skills and interests with organizations around the world that need their input. It’s a discovery process that first matches then helps people build relationships then lets people share their resources.”

YouTube and Viacom

YouTube accused Viacom of “roughing up” video content this week in order to make them look illegitimate, i.e. illegally copied. The background to the story is a bit more complicated than mere name-calling, however. Viacom has an ongoing legal suit against YouTube for $1bn for copyright infringement. According to Viacom, “YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube’s founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement.” The court is expected to rule in late April. Until then, we can sit back and watch as two media giants participate in dramatized mud throwing. As Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, told the San Jose Mercury News, “It’s like a prize fight — they are both scoring points; they are both beating each other up. But instead of making money from the fight, they are paying to be in it. That’s really dumb.”

Apple to Join the Geolocation Race?

Patently Apple uncovered Apple’s plans for a new location based social networking application called iGroups. According to the patent application, the service will work directly with the iPhone, allowing friends or colleagues to stay up to date about their communities whereabouts and activities, similarly to MobileMe.

Google’s Chrome Gets Updated

The non-beta Windows version of Google’s Chrome was updated this week, which offers better privacy controls and automatically translates foreign sites. Check out Scott Gilbertson’s article on Wired.com to learn more about Google’s improvements.

Foursquare

The social media site Foursquare reported this week via tweet that they acquired 100,000 new members in 10 days.

Google and China, cont.

The rumors regarding Google’s intention to remove its operations from China have continued this week. According to China Business News, Google is planning on pulling its operations on April 10.

Must read blogs:

• Really interesting article this week on Wired.com from Adam Frucci about the perils of memory in a modern, digital, internet age. Very witty.
• The brilliant Bradd Libby published an article on Search Engine Land this week that address the importance of statistical significance in search marketing.
• For a look into the future of our Twitter based eulogies, check out John Herrman’s article entitled  “What Happens (Online): When We Die.”

In the article, I take a look at the question “Why do some videos rank well on Google but not on YouTube and vice-versa?” It may seem an odd question, considering that Google owns YouTube, but the answers are complicated and important for those of us in SEO to understand.

Comparing Google and YouTube video ranking strategies, I attempt to break down the relevant information for marketers, offering advice on how to improve your approach to video optimization.

The bottom line is that YouTube relies heavily on social interaction whereas Google depends primarily on a healthy back link profile. The best way to achieve both is via a robust social media and/or viral marketing strategy.

For a more complete explanation on how to better you video rankings, check out my article on Search Engine Land.

The beloved social networking site Facebook turned six last week with an astounding 400 million users. During a celebratory party last Thursday at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Facebook received yet another facelift. The update, which places emphasis on the top menu and left column, is said to focus on improving site navigation.

In related Facebook News:

• Bing to be Facebook’s Exclusive Search Engine- Microsoft and Facebook reached an agreement on Friday for Bing to become Facebook’s only search engine. In exchange, Facebook will now manage its advertising space, which was previously controlled by the firm Redmond. According to Bing’s official blog, the partnership will provide Facebook users with a better, Bing search experience. Others suggest that their new partnership will be seen as a snub towards Google.
• Facebook to Offer an Email Service- According to TechCruch, Facebook has set its eyes on email, preparing to rework its messaging system and replace it with a proper webmail product. Known as “Project Titan,” Facebook’s email services would allow users to access their account through Facebook itself, making the social networking site a one stop shop for digital updates.

Aardvark Publishes Research Paper

The social search engine Aardvark published a research paper last week entitled “Anatomy of a Large Scale Social Search Engine,” written by Damon Horowitz and Sepandar Kamvar. The paper draws parallels to Google’s groundbreaking paper “Anatomy of Large-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine,” which outlines a prototype for a search engine based on using hyperlinks and other data to determine a website’s relevance. Similarly, Aardvark uses a set of factors to identify which individuals on their networkare best qualified to answer a given user question. Aardvark currently has 90,000 users, however, as the push towards smartphones and mobile advertising continues many are expecting that number to grow.

YouTube Offers Video Rentals

Last month, YouTube entered into the video rental business, with a library of five videos from the Sundance Film Festival. Despite their limited offering, YouTube reported over $10K in revenue from their video rental experiment. While this is a drop in the bucket for Google/YouTube, it does signify a new effort to go head-to-head against Netflix and Apple.

Google’s Display Ads to Top $1 Billion

Analysts reported last week that Google’s displays should turn profitable in 2010 and are likely to contribute roughly $1 billion to Google’s annual revenue. If these estimates are accurate, the $1 billion mark would represent a 40% increase in sales from 2009.

This week’s stories are highlighted growing competition in the mobile market as Nokia raises the stakes with new navigation technology and Apple schemes to drop Google for Bing as the default iPhone search engine.

“Navigation on Your Nokia. For Free. Forever.”

Nokia, the world’s No. 1 phone maker, ‘upped the ante’ this week for mobile phone producers and navigation makers alike with the announcement of their new, free global navigation suite.  Nokia’s navigation service will be available anywhere in the world and at any time. Maps will be stored directly on the phone, making searching for a cell signal while lost a thing of the past. To read more about how Nokia’s navigation service could affect Google, Apple and companies like TomTom, check out Charlie Sorrel’s article in Wired magazine.

The War Wages for the Mobile Space: Google vs. Apple

Apple created a bit of controversy this week in the mobile market. Its rumored to be in talks with Microsoft to replace Google with Bing as the iPhone’s default search engine. No deal has been finalized, but the rumors highlight how controversial and competitive the smartphone market has become, particularly with Google’s recent launch of the Nexus One.

Amazon Introduces Kindle ‘Apps’

The e-reader market is also heating up this week with Amazon’s invitation to software developers to begin building games and puzzles for the Kindle. Programs, such as word games, should be available later this year. Many are calling Amazon expansion into the ‘app’ space a preemptive attack against Apple’s rumored tablet computer, which will include an e-reader and, as such, could pose a serious threat to Kindle’s success.

European Commission Approves Proposed Oracle Acquisition of Sun Microsystems

The European Commission approved Oracle’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems this week. According to the Commission’s verdict this week, which launched an antitrust investigation into the deal this fall, the takeover is not expected to pose a serious threat to Europe’s database software market.

Google Reaps a Near $2B Profit in Q4

Google reported a fourth-quarter profit of nearly $2 billion on Thursday, breaking records and exceeding Wall Street’s expectation.  Although Google made serious efforts in 2009 to diversify its revenue base with Google Apps, YouTube and its smartphone, the majority of profits still came from search engine advertising.

Google Blog Update: Synonyms

Google offered a peek this week into how it interprets synonyms in search queries and results. The post offers a rare insight into Google’s algorithms and a deeper understanding into the linguistic correlations they make.  According to the post, “…measurements show that synonyms affect 70 percent of user searches across the more than 100 languages Google supports. We took a set of these queries and analyzed how precise the synonyms were, and were happy with the results: For every 50 queries where synonyms significantly improved the search results, we had only one truly bad synonym.”  Google’s update is a must read for anyone interested in SEO content.

Obama’s First Tweet

President Obama published his first official tweet this week, addressing the Haitian earthquake disaster and commenting on the Red Cross’ relief efforts. While President Obama openly admits to not personally using Twitter, he has over 3.1 million followers.

Google unveiled part of their Chrome operating system this week. Although the actual launch date isn’t until late next year, the Chrome OS code will soon be released to the public under an open source license. Google’s operating system has been much rumored about, as it will run almost entirely through Web applications, relying on Web-based cloud storage, rather than computer storage. As such, Chrome is expected to pose real competition for Windows and Apple’s computing systems. While Google promotes the benefits of the ‘cloud,’ many are still skeptical about how reliable and secure it will prove to be. To read more about Chrome, its critics and fans, check out Neil McAllister’s article in the SF Chronicle.

Google Adds Captions to YouTube

Google and YouTube released an automated caption generating service to YouTube videos this week. Previously, users had to manually add caption to videos, but with the new automated service, users have the choice to insert machine-generated captions. According to Ken Harrenstien, Google hopes the captions will help the deaf and hearing impaired, as well as open up video content across 51 languages. This may end up being a major enhancement to  SEO Best Practices for YouTube. To see YouTube’s demo video and for more information on the project, check out Austin Modine’s article on The Register.

BigDeal Unveils Website

BigDealhas launched their website with the help of $4.5 million from Mayfield Fund, Foundation Capital and First Round Capital. BigDeal is a live auction site, enabling users to purchase $0.75 bids and bid on retail items, like digital cameras, DVDs, TVs. The catch is that, unlike with traditional auctions, BigDeal keeps all the bid money and users receive ‘credit’ from their bids which they can use to purchase retail items directly from BigDeal. To read more about BigDeal and other auctions sites like it, check out Brad Stone’s article in the New York Times.

AOL Plans to Cut One-Third of Employees

AOL announced this week their plans to cut their staff by a third over the coming month. The company will conduct a “voluntary layoff program,” allowing employees to choose to leave the company. If the target number of 2,500 layoffs is not met by December 11, then the company will conduct an involuntary layoff. The cuts come after an economically difficult year for AOL and a month after their spin off from Time Warner. 

Bits and Bolts

• Twitter Changes Catch Phrase- Twitter made a slight change to its homepage this week, changing their opening greeting from “What are you doing” to “What’s Happening.”
• Infoserve Group- Infoserve’s stock dropped nearly 17% after last week’s announcement that they will no longer be an authorized Google AdWords reseller as of the New Year.
• Paul Allen Diagnosed with Cancer- Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, disclosed this week that he was diagnosed with lymphoma, a cancer affecting the body’s lymph node system.
• DirecTV Announces new CEO- DirectTV announced this week that  Michael White, former head of PepsiCo’s international business, will become their new chief executive.
• Facebook and Zynga Class Action Suit- Facebook and Zynga face a class action suit for their alleged ‘scamming’ of Farmville and Mafia Wars users.

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and eBay announced this week their plans to offer free Wi-Fi from various outlets across the country for the upcoming holiday season. Google has partnered with Boingo Wireless network to bring free Wi-Fi to 47 national airports, Microsoft has taken care of hotels and airports across the country, provided that users use Bing for search, and Yahoo has computers and mobile phones covered in Times Square. Corporate rationale has, most likely, less to do with bringing holiday joy to the nation and more to do with potential ad revenue. To read more about how offering free Wi-Fi will benefit Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and eBay, check out Om Malik and Stacey Higginbotham’s article.

Debates Continue over Social Media Marketing and the Pharmaceutical Industry

The debate over social media marketing and pharma ads continued this week with a two day public hearing, hosted by the FDA. The goal of the hearing was to determine whether or not the FDA needs to take political action to regulate the presentation and promotion of approved drugs on the internet. Google and Yahoo, as well as other ad-supported sites, attended the hearing, seeking federal simplification of drug advertisement guidelines.

Google Launches Flu Shot Finder

Google launched a flu shot finder this week, which enables users to search for clinics offering both traditional and H1N1 flu shots. The project is a collaborative effort between Google, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Health and Human Services. So, if you are feeling a bit feverish, check it out at Google Flu Shot Finder.

Google to Test “Skippable” Ads on YouTube

Google started testing “skippable” ads this week, which will allow users to skip ads and go directly to their video content. The experiment will keep track of which ads are skipped, before what content and who the users are.  With this data Google gains rich insight who, what, when and wheres of ad-skipping and may look to shift the traditional advertising model from  cost per impression or per click to cost per engagement, as Laurie Sullivan addresses in her article on MediaPost News.

Bits

• Twitter Users Drop 7.9%- According to a study published by ComScore this week, Twitter’s user numbers dropped 7.9% from September to October.
• New Apple Store in NYC- Apple opened their new store on the Upper West Side this week. The impressive, glass store comes as part of Apple’s plans to open between 40 and 50 stores internationally in the coming fiscal year.
• From Twitter Channel to T.V. Sitcom- ‘S— My Dad Says’- Justin Helpburn’s Twitter channel ‘S— My Dad Says,’ which covers the joys and challenges of being 29 and living with your 79 year old father, is being turned into a CBS sitcom.
• Google Buys AdMob- Google announced this week their plans to acquire AdMob, a mobile advertising firm, for $750 million, making it one of Google’s largest purchases to date. 
• Electronic Arts Buys Playfish- The video game company, Electronic Arts, announced this week their plans to buy Playfish, the highly successful free-to-play gaming company for $400 million. They also announced this week their plans to cut 1,500 jobs, 16% of their work force, by March 2010.
• Google Cuts Storage Rates- Google announced on Thursday their plans to cut their annual fee for data storage from $20 for 10 GB to $5 per year for 20 GB.