Portals

What is left for Google to solve with search?   It’s much more than 10 percent, says Google VP Marissa Mayer, commenting on a much blogged interview she did recently with the Los Angeles Times.

Yesterday in San Francisco, Kelsey Blodget, associate producer at Beet.TV sat down for an extensive interview with Google Vice President Marissa Mayer.  In this segment, Marissa talks about the development and functionality of Chrome, the new Web browser from Google.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CA — A Delta 2 rocket carrying a GeoEye satellite lifted off at 11:50 a.m.  PDT today.  The imaging satellite will provide mapping exclusively to Google.  The Google logo is seen on the logo of the rocket in the photo taken this morning.  (See below.) Reuters reports that Google co-founders Larry […]

For small and big publishers, the key to successful search optimization is “compelling, original content,” says Adam Lasnik, Google’s Search Evangelist.  Having the tools to share and filter high quality editorial links is essential, he says in this interview.

MOUNTAINVIEW, CA — While the recently announced collaboration between Google, Yahoo! and Adobe to search and index Flash files (not Flash video) could yield better results, the project is in the very early stages.  For effective search optimization, Webmasters have to think text, says Adam Lasnik, Search Evanglist at Google.

Whether or not the McCain campaign’s “Is He Ready to Lead” video will help or hurt his campaign is hard to say, but it is surely a hit.  Uploaded yesterday, the video has garnered about 1.1 million views as of 10 p.m. Eastern time on 7/31.

Google wants to index all the world’s information, and that includes finding PowerPoint presentations and PDF files, weather, flight information and currency conversions. Kelsey and I visited the Googleplex in Mountainview, California last Tuesday for a number of meetings and demonstrations.  In our first segment, we speak with Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead.

PALO ALTO — “There are no TV journalists anymore,” says Charles Tillinghast, president and publisher of msnbc.com in this interview with Beet.TV msnbc.com is a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft. Nope, he didn’t mean that there’s any downsizing over at NBC News, he means that video news gathering is no longer television-centric but […]

Karin Gilford, who heads entertainment for Yahoo! is leaving for Comcast, TechCrunch reported yesterday.  This evening, paidContent’s Staci Kramer reports that Gilford’s duties will be assumed by James Pitaro, General Manager of Yahoo! Sports. In May, I visited Karin in her Santa Monica offices for a rundown on the success of Yahoo! entertainment, which has […]

MSNBC correspondent Courtney Hazlett, who has been reporting on the celebrity gossip scene in a series called “Scoop,” has just gotten her own branded destination with customized video player.  The site is up and looks pretty good.  This would be the second microsite over at msnsbc.com — the first was launched for Keith Olbermann.

Ken Li over at Reuters has what appears to be the first report out today about the new personal finance channel from AOL called  WalletPop.  The launch comes as the portals are gearing up personal finance sites which have become increasingly popular.

Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All things D, had a blockbuster scoop yesterday on the sale of paidContent to the Guardian News & Media Group. Later in the day, she reported that TechCrunch and AOL have been in on and off again talks about an acquisition.

Vuze, the P2P client software used to watch online videos, formerly known as Azureus, received a mostly positive review by Seth Rosenblatt on CNET Download.com today. We’ve also published Seth’s video review and demo of Vuse (above). In June, Vuze introduced the new user interface.  It has improved its search functionality and added social networking, […]

Google Finance, in beta for the last year, has been quickly evolving with with introduction of realtime quotes from the NYSE late last month and international launches of Google Finance in Canada the U.K. and China.

Google Trends for Websites, launched late last month, reports website traffic, related websites and search terms. In short, the kind of services also offered by Compete and Alexa. Trends for Websites isn’t a serious business tool yet, since the data Google currently provides are estimates based on search volume and search traffic, not accurate numbers. […]

Google Labs will soon become “more transparent in its interaction with end users,” R.J. Pittman, who heads Google’s consumer search operations, told Beet.TV earlier this week in this video interview.  He also said the company is making a major commitment to expand and accelerate the rate of innovation of the Labs.

HOLLYWOOD — Here on Wednesday night at the Henry Fonda Theater, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley kicked off YouTube’s debut of a new showcase for long and short-form films.   Beet.TV was on the scene. The YouTube Screening Room has attracted several highly regarded filmmakers — and not just for the online exposure of the mega video […]