News of the search expert's departure from the website and conference most strongly identified with him has the search engine community buzzing with commentary.

Google's noteworthy blogger Matt Cutts described Danny Sullivan's departure from Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Strategies as an "earthquake."

"For the search industry, this is a nine on the Richter scale and has the potential to shake the whole industry for a few months," wrote Cutts.

No kidding. Fortunately, Sullivan had a few moments at what is certainly a busy time for the man who has been associated with search engine commentary for the past decade to share some insights with our readers on his pending departure from Incisive Media.

Sullivan noted that he made the decision to leave Incisive in July. He had been negotiating with Incisive CEO Tim Weller, and Sullivan had been urged to continue to have talks with the company. Ultimately those did not prove productive.

As he noted earlier today, Sullivan is definitely leaving. He did allow that, contingent on financial terms, he could do SES shows on a case-by-case basis. "I really don't expect that to happen," he said.

Contractually, Sullivan does not have a non-compete agreement in his way as he charts out his future. About five serious offers have been made for his services as of right now, so he won't lack for opportunities, including ones he can make for himself.

On the topic of going forward from Incisive, I asked him what appealed to him the most. "Mainly being in control of my own destiny more, plus the ability to know that if I want to start a new site, I can get things going faster than with the existing development structure," he said.

Could that lead to a new version of Search Engine Watch? "Possibly. Right now, the first step for me has simply been to say goodbye to the institutions I've helped build. The next step really will be to consider what exactly I want to do going forward," he replied.

Whatever happens, followers of the search engine industry can be assured that one way or another, Danny Sullivan will continue to write, as he responded on one last question - could he see becoming a mainstream media columnist on search?

"It's very possible, and it appeals a lot. My favorite thing is taking an important issue and examining it through writing, something that I've been pulled away from more and more as the site has grown. Getting back to that, probably through a new blog or site, is something I'm very likely to do," he said.

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Tags: Danny Sullivan, SEW, SES

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On the anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Microsoft announced an upgrade to its KatrinaSafe.org website, created through an extensive partnership with the Red Cross. A new site, called Safe and Well, allows disaster survivors to post information about their condition, and allows loved ones separated from it to search for information as it is available.

The original site for this type of purpose, was set up just after the hurricane struck. Katrinasafe.org, which offered survivors and families the same type of online tool, was developed in four days by Microsoft database architect Jim Carroll. Microsoft says in the past year, over 340,000 people have logged onto the site to use the tool.

The Red Cross' Safe and Well List mirrors that effort, also developed with Microsoft's help, and intends the tool to be the standard for exchanging welfare information in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The partnership hopes it will allow for faster communication during times of crisis.

Guidance for the tool's development came when the Red Cross met with a technology consortium to address the lessons learned from Katrina. They identified flaws in infrastructure that were the most pressing for future disaster response, and looked to technology companies to help them solve those problems.

The Red Cross identified three key areas for increased technology investments, some of which was made by Microsoft:

Creating an emergency call-center with the capacity to process 1 million cases in 10 days (or 100,000 cases per day), and the maximum capacity of 2 million cases.
Improving response capabilities by pre-positioning computers, satellite equipment, and phones, radios and other communications technology in 21 cities, within nine coastal states.
Adopting a disaster welfare system based on Katrinasafe.org. This Web site, now known as Safe and Well (https://disastersafe.redcross.org/), allows people to search for information on a family member, or survivors to post relevant information about their location and physical condition, all in a manner that complies with privacy and child protection laws. People will also be able to register by phone if Internet access isn't readily available.
"The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a perfect example of a partnership in action and how the expertise of partners and volunteers can help create the foundation for future improvements in disaster response capabilities," said Steve Cooper, CIO of the Red Cross.

Microsoft was heavily involved in Katrina relief. Aside from the website development, Microsoft employees helped with logistical communications by increasing the capacity of the Red Cross network by 400 percent and deploying three of Microsoft's satellite-equipped "Across America" buses to Red Cross relief centers in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The company also pitched in to improve the logistics of medical relief efforts. Microsoft mobility specialist Dawn Gagnon enlisted the help of family and friends to program 180 Microsoft SmartPhones. The provision of the phones to 150 National Guard troops and 30 doctors at the Red Cross triage center in Baton Rouge enabled e-mail, instant message and phone calls for quicker emergency responses.

Microsoft, Red Cross, Katrina

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The controversial group Greenpeace has published a Guide to Consumer Electronics, and Apple and Lenovo aren't happy about it. A number of companies were "ranked on their use of toxic chemicals and electronic waste (e-waste) policies," and those two corporations placed last.

"For a company that claims to lead on production design, Apple scores badly on almost all criteria," one Greenpeace page asserted. "Apple performs poorly on product take back and recycling, with the exeption of reporting on the amounts of its electronic waste recycled." In a CNET article, an Apple spokesperson had the opportunity to refute those charges.

"Apple has a strong environmental track record and has led the industry in restricting and banning toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, as well as many BFRs (brominated flame retardants)," the representative maintained. "We have also completely eliminated CRT monitors, which contain lead, from our product line."

Lenovo, which actually ranked numerically lower than Apple, was granted a kinder wording: "needs to do better on all criteria." But none of the companies had cause to rejoice over the report. Even Nokia and Dell, which tied for first, "scraped a barely respectable score" of 7.

"With a [sic] average score of only 4/10 it is clear that the electronics industry has a long way to go before it can make any claims to being a green industry," the Greenpeace site stated.

Of course, the organization's reputation is, um, subject to debate. And by its own admission, "companies are scored solely on information publicly available on their global websites," so if Apple has a secret recycling program, it didn't receive any credit for the effort. Still, the Guide to Greener Electronics is an interesting assessment of some of the leading names in the industry.

Tag: Greenpeace, Apple

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Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake admits that Lycos has been "out of the glare" for quite some time, largely due to foreign ownership. But Lycos reminds the industry the portal still has 25 million daily visitors, and plans to increase those numbers through a partnership with blinkx to launch "the new Lycos broadband search experience."

Since the company's pioneering days on the Internet, many have assumed Lycos went the way of the Pony Express, and may further argue that it's a little late to be getting into the video search game - a long stretch after Google, AOL, and Yahoo!.

So what makes Lycos think its offering will be different or better than the others?

Well, namely, blinkx technology will give it an edge says Chandratillake. Suranga hails his video search engine as the only one that can actually listen to and watch video and understand it with speech recognition and visual analysis. Other engines use metadata-based keyword search - something Suranga calls "old fashioned."

Plus, to build out its video index, blinkx has partnered with the big boys: Reuters; HBO; MTV; and YouTube, among 100 others over the past two years.

"That lets us get very, very deep access to content on those sites," he told WebProNews. "There really aren't any video search engines out there. There are video-sharing sites, but none that crawl across the entire Web."

According to Suranga, it's the video-sharing sites that make advertisers reluctant to place their brands alongside online video. There's no control over where the ads appear, if any Web user can upload.

Blinkx' partnership with Lycos, he says, aims to give that control to advertisers, as content is not only from already established media, but crawled by a system that knows what the content is before hand. Blinkx' index included TV and news clips, documentaries, music videos, and video blogs, among others.

"Lycos will have a video search box powered by blinkx," said Suranga. We will share advertising revenue. As it gets more popular, that should generate great revenue."

Alfred Tolle, CEO of Lycos, Inc., called creating a best-in-class video search experience "critical" in the future of the Web.

But Lycos isn't the only of blinkx' recent darlings. Suranga said there are other deals with major portals down the pipe, though he wouldn't elaborate on whom.

"Nothing is signed enough for me to feel happy about [telling who else we're working with]. We've got a few big ones coming up."

Lycos, Blinkx

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IBM's Express Track program "is reaching out to thousands of local IT resellers around the world" in a "$100 million global drive."

The main purpose of this drive is to increase the company's presence (and sales) in the mid-size business market.

One of the key changes is the addition of about 300 staff members.

ITBusiness.ca spoke to Paul Myerson, a channel analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, who applauded the hirings.

"The vendors consistently throw tools over the wall but they're not always the easiest things to find, so now they've got people who can lock step with the channel to show them how to be effective in utilizing the tools," he said.

The article also included several quotes from "the vice president of IBM's worldwide sales for small and medium business solutions and services," Richard Michos. "With more than 50 per cent of our SMB revenue coming through partners - and SMB comprises around 20 per cent of our overall revenue - this is a very important area for us," Michos stated.

"Express Track is trying to help us open more outlets in areas where we see opportunity and advance our coverage, expand our resources and energies there," he added. In terms of expansion, IBM is doing quite well - over 2,500 "Business Partners" joined it in the first half of 2006.

"We think that will grow even more with the additional resources, demand generation and enablement capabilities that fall under Express Track," Michos said.

As far as where that growth might occur, he hedged somewhat, but it sounded like America's neighbor to the north might be an area of concentration. "By anybody's rendering with regard to IT, Canada is viewed as a mature market. But much like the U.S. there's still significant growth occurring, particularly in SMB."

Tag: IBM

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As part of the revisions to their real estate site, Yahoo has added mortgage rate information to its search functions and returning those rates on the search results page.

A number of changes entered production on Yahoo's Real Estate portal, according to the Yahoo Search Blog. An entry by Vivek Gupta
Senior Engineering Manager, and Carlos Teran, Product Manager, both on the Yahoo! Real Estate team, described those, starting with the latest Yahoo Shortcut:

Go to Yahoo! and search for '[your city] mortgage rates' (ex: Santa Clara mortgage rates).
The new shortcut displays three of the most popular loan types along with their daily rates and the week-over-week trend. The shortcut also has links to view nearby individual lender rates as well as state mortgage rate trend graphs. If you're looking for a mortgage type that is not displayed, you can click the 'More mortgage rates' link for additional loan types. You can also select the 'Calculate payment' link to figure out your monthly payments and amortization schedule for your desired loan amount.
They also referenced previous updates to Real Estate. One of those paired Yahoo and Zillow.com in creating a home valuation shortcut, accessed by entering "home values" on Yahoo Search to retrieve it. Another Shortcut returns options when searching for "[city] real estate."

Gupta and Teran also noted Yahoo Real Estate's use of a couple of the company's APIs to deliver enhanced results on the Real Estate site. The redesign combines satellite imagery available through Yahoo's Maps API and information from the Yahoo Local API:

With the new design, you can easily browse homes on a map and plot nearby points of interest such as schools, grocery stores, parks, and restaurants; many of which feature user reviews from Yahoo! Local. The site also allows you to research local market conditions such as an area's housing inventory, median price, price trends, mortgage rates, and rate trends.
Developers can also access those publicly available APIs as part of the Yahoo Developer Network.

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Tag: Yahoo! Real Estate

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Money appears to be the big factor, as Sullivan cited on his personal blog that "I needed some long-term incentive for helping (Incisive Media) continue to grow and strengthen the site and conferences."

What becomes of Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine Strategies conferences without search maven Danny Sullivan's presence behind both? Incisive Media apparently will watch the well-known and highly-regarded Sullivan depart as his contract with the company ends.

Sullivan will be around through the remainder of 2006, according to the post on his personal blog. He will write for Search Engine Watch through November 30th, and the SES Multimedia & Mobile Edition show this October in Los Angeles, then the SES Chicago show in December.

He cited chances of either writing for SEW or ever chairing another SES event as "extremely slim," and has asked to be removed from being listed as the SES New York 2007 chair.

Although Sullivan said he was not unhappy when Jupitermedia sold SEW and SES to Incisive Media last year, he did have concerns about going forward with Incisive:

I was concerned about moving forward with Incisive, however. I'm far from the only reason behind the success of SEW and SES, but I've played a major role. I helped build both of those assets. Then I watched one company sell them to another without me having any formal capital stake in the sale. That left me wary of history repeating itself. I wasn't going to help this new company grow the business out of the sheer kindness of my heart.
I explained these reservations at the very beginning of my relationship with Incisive, that I needed some long-term incentive for helping them continue to grow and strengthen the site and conferences. After over a year of talks, that's failed to materialize. As a result, I'm departing.
Search engines have grown to be a multi-billion dollar business thanks to advertising. Coverage of Google in particular has reached the kind of proportions normally seen for Apple's product releases. Given Sullivan's close relationship with Google and a significant media demand for search news, we won't be surprised to see him emerge in a lucrative columnist's role with some prominent news outlet in the future.

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Tags: Danny Sullivan, SEW, SES

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Upcoming.org and Yahoo unveiled several new features that combine Yahoo's social media aspirations and numerous events in Yahoo Local with Upcoming's event tracking services.

Upcoming.org has been around for three years, with almost a year of that under Yahoo's ownership. Being with Yahoo gives the event tracker access to many more resources, and several updates have been made available today.

Topping the announcement list, Upcoming opened up a new section, called Undiscovered Events. It has had an impact, as Upcoming founder Andy Baio posted that thanks to the efforts of the Yahoo Local team, the number of events on Upcoming jumped by 3000 percent.

"Unlike all the active events on Upcoming, this is a very deep well of events that Upcoming members haven't added yet, collected from around the web and updated daily by our friends over at Yahoo! Local," he wrote.

Event filters for metro listings and search results can be used to tailor those by metros, category, or date. Upcoming's export options allow these filtered results to be set up as a RSS feed or iCal calendar too.

Through the use of tags, Flickr photos can be associated with events. By using a special Upcoming tag, the images will appear on the relevant Upcoming event page. Flickr will automatically add a link back to the Upcoming event from each tagged Flickr photo, according to Baio.

Flickr members can now use their avatars as buddy icons. This update can be made through the Upcoming site, by entering the Flickr username at the Change Buddy Icon page. Baio also noted design changes to the event pages and the overall user experience should make the Upcoming experience a better one for visitors.

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Tags: Upcoming.org, Yahoo

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Flickr, which describes itself as "almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world," added a feature today that makes the site's lead even more of a sure thing. Called geotagging, this feature allows users to sort (and search) photos by place.

The FlickrBlog has provided a couple of tutorials, which also features screenshots of the geotags in action. They're a fairly intuitive feature, but there's a lengthy list of explanations in the event users need something cleared up. There are also "official help and bug topics in case you have any problems."

User-friendliness appears to have been a priority. "In the upper right corner you can search for locations - city names, airport codes, US zipcodes and postal codes in several other countries, street addresses (US/Canada only for now, but more soon), many landmarks and points of interest worldwide, even names of neighborhoods in larger cities around the world." Also, "you drag multiple photos at once for quick mass-geotagging."

The geotags have received a warm welcome. Dafydd Llyr Pearson wrote in his blog, "I've waited for this feature for such a very very long time . . . . You have no idea how pleased I am with this."

Steve Lacey, "an Englishman in Seattle," echoed the sentiment. "I've been waiting a long time for this, and finally it's here," he wrote. "Expect to see a lot of location based image mashups appearing very soon."

By adding geotagging, Flickr has accomplished something directly related to its second main goal: "to enable new ways of organizing photos." This feature isn't debuting here, of course, but I still think it counts.

Tag: Flickr

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Boston attorney Jeffrey P. Hermes asks the question: "Do podcasters know their legal obligations?" The answer to that is largely, well, probably, "no." Though cases involving Internet content and properties are becoming more regular in the courtroom, the podcast is still virgin territory. Hermes believes that will change, and probably soon.

"There is both a developing and still incomplete understanding in this area," said Hermes, a partner in Brown Rudnick's Litigation Department.

But not only are podcasts destined for court dates alongside other forms of Web publications, Hermes says to expect the rules that apply to traditional media to be applied to Web media.

This is an interesting time in the world of media as, for the first time in history, anybody can be a broadcaster, a journalist, an anchorperson, a publisher, a media mogul. Also, if not for the first time, but for the first time in ages, media is once again nebulous and unruly.

The content producer is often without formal training and education. Worse, he typically doesn't have teams of lawyers to slap him on the wrists before they end up in court. Instead he has a fool for a lawyer, representing himself in Web 2.0 as publisher and litigator, without the credentials for either.

That is, of course, unless he is a thief to begin with, which is just one of the perils of such an open media - anybody can publish, bad guys too.

WebProNews made Hermes talk until his voice was sun-baked gravel under brand new snow tires. By the end of his torture, we had garnered a lot of useful information.

The Limits of Fair Use

"[Fair Use is] a fairly amorphous standard," said Hermes. "It's a balancing of several factors."

Using a portion of someone else's work depends on how you use it, and whether or not you can support a claim that your use of it is a small part of a larger creative work. There are a number of questions to ask.

In a Vodcast (video podcast), for example, why are you including a movie clip? Are you illustrating something? In quoting text, what percentage of the original are you using?

But most important: Are you seriously interfering with the author's ability to promote his work? Are you effectively preventing the author from selling the work?

"If so, then this is much less likely to be considered Fair Use."

See source: Fair Use.

Libel

Typically when an untruth is publicly spoken with the intent to defame or cause harm to a reputation, it is considered slander. But on radio, on television, or on podcasts, it is considered published. Once it's recorded, it's libel, and that brings a broader case for damages.

"When you bring a case for libel," said Hermes, "you don't need to claim special damages. With slander, only certain categories can cause damage. "

But that doesn't mean that, once in court, all cases are open and shut. Libel claims, and the extent of damages, depend on a number of factors. A key distinction is between determining whether a statement was made because of malice or because of negligence.

Celebrities and politicians have to prove actual malice, which can win punitive damages. Generally, punitive damages are not available for negligence. In that case, the court looks for proof of actual damages, such as the loss of business, damage to reputation, and emotional stress, rather than deterrent damages. But in order to hold someone liable, the court needs to know if the publisher or author was aware that the statement was false.

"The law does allow the use of circumstantial evidence indicating what the reporter was aware of."

What about libel by indication, , or leading the reader/listener to a conclusion that is false with true statements? Hermes says this is a hot topic in libel law. And it's a tricky one.

For example:

A preacher was seen entering an adult products store, followed by a gay bar, followed by a street corner known for transvestite prostitutes. He left with one. Without saying a conclusion, the publisher can lead the reader/listener to it. In reality, the preacher may innocently be inviting people to church, putting up fliers, ministering to an unconventional crowd, and rescuing someone forced into the profession.
"There is a wide variety of opinion on this topic, depending on which state and jurisdiction. You can be liable for statements that are implied rather than expressed. The question is, 'how is it implied?'

"You publish facts A,B, and C. Is conclusion D an opinion provided to readers, or is it a statement of fact? Courts are reluctant to allow a libel case to go forward based around true statements, though some have."

And that's where determining malice, negligence, and damages comes in.

"[Internet libel cases] have been brought, they will continue to be brought. Libel cases involving podcasts have not been brought, but that will change. Precedents in print and broadcast will apply to Web publishers."

Fortunately, there are significant protections in most jurisdictions for publications that try to make corrections. The Web is treated the same as traditional media, using the "single publication rule." Though a Website may be able to alter content continually, and take down the offending statement, leaving it up for days or months is not considered publishing it more than once.

"Because the Internet is such a valuable resource for free speech, courts have generally applied [this rule]. Doing otherwise would chill online media. The burden is so severe that they don't want to chill speech that way."

Third Party Comments

In broadcasting, the broadcaster is generally responsible for the factual accuracy of guests, like when interviewing someone.

"It isn't sufficient to say his views aren't my views," said Hermes. "You can be held responsible for other people's statements."

The first objection to this is for many will be citing the Communications Decency Act, which offers immunity or safe harbor for interactive computer services, such as a Website, an ISP, or a Web operator that serves as a pass-through of content. If you host a blog site, a chat room, or a forum, then you are not held responsible for comments made there.

"Soliciting somebody for a podcast is different. A podcast is not an interactive computer service. You select, promote, and choose to bring their statements to the attention of your listeners. There will be people who try to apply the CDA to podcasts. I have my doubts about how effective that will be."

Podcasting

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