This is a copy of an e-mail I just sent to Blogger developers:
"Dear Blogger Developers,
For some reason, Blogger development lags far behind the general pace and quality of Google development. Why is that?
I complain about this from time to time on my Blogger blogs but it seems to fall on deaf ears.
The newest glitch is part of the Blogger advertising toolbar script code which Blogger enters onto blogspot.com pages. This script has the nefarious quality of now appearing on Google as the "description" of the site (since it appears before any other TEXT on the site)".
I have a new blog, megaliths.blogspot, for which the following "description" appears now on Google (March 22, 2006):
"Notify Blogger about objectionable content. What does this mean? Blogger · Send via SMS · Get your own blog · Flag Blog · Next blog · BlogThis! ..."
This is not limited to my site. You can also see this if you enter the search phrase - "link size" Blogger - into Google and look at the first result, which is a page from the site linux.help.blogspot.com. I looked at that page http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2006/02/concise-explanation-of-i-nodes.html and it is quite a normal page, so why is Google giving us Blogger Babble????
As seems so often to be the case at Blogger, programming changes are instituted before such changes are suitably tested for their effect on the real world.
Sincerely,
Andis Kaulins"
P.S. Note also how the long link in the text of this page - a Blogger template - runs across the right border, at least it does on my Firefox browser. I have left it that way intentionally to show another Blogger error which needs correction.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Find the Google U.S. Home Page in English
We have a problem with Google in Germany since Google apparently redirects the Google.com URL to the Google home page of the country of the location of the computer or server. Worse, even when one is diverted here in Germany to Google.de and selects the option "English" in the language preferences, it remains the Google Germany home page, even though it is in English. This is apparently done to direct local advertising to local users.
The solution here is the following link
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en
which takes one to the original Google.com U.S. site in English.
However, this kind of a fudge should not be necessary. The user is quite aware that he can reach Google Germany by using the google.de URL address so that there is no reason to redirect such a user to google.de if google.com is the address which the user has typed in or clicked as a URL.
We have the same problem with AOL by the way, which is keyed to the language of the browser used. For AOL, we thus use our English-language Mozilla Firefox version, because AOL under IE otherwise redirects us to the German pages of AOL, even though we explicitly select aol.com and not aol.de. The reason for this is that the language of the Internet Explorer installation is tied to the language of the Microsoft Windows version installed on the computer. If you buy a computer in e.g. Germany, the default versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system and IE browser are all in German and there is no way to get English versions, which makes Internet Explorer a washout for AOL overseas.
In any case, go here for the real true Google.com website in English.
The solution here is the following link
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en
which takes one to the original Google.com U.S. site in English.
However, this kind of a fudge should not be necessary. The user is quite aware that he can reach Google Germany by using the google.de URL address so that there is no reason to redirect such a user to google.de if google.com is the address which the user has typed in or clicked as a URL.
We have the same problem with AOL by the way, which is keyed to the language of the browser used. For AOL, we thus use our English-language Mozilla Firefox version, because AOL under IE otherwise redirects us to the German pages of AOL, even though we explicitly select aol.com and not aol.de. The reason for this is that the language of the Internet Explorer installation is tied to the language of the Microsoft Windows version installed on the computer. If you buy a computer in e.g. Germany, the default versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system and IE browser are all in German and there is no way to get English versions, which makes Internet Explorer a washout for AOL overseas.
In any case, go here for the real true Google.com website in English.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Google Guidelines for Third Party Use of Google's Trademarks
Although Google is now a household word used daily by millions of people around the world, Google™ is also a trademark of Google™ Inc. As a result, there are strict legal limitations on what use can be made of the Google™ trademark online or elsewhere.
Google has a special page online titled "Google Permissions" which provides Guidelines for Third Party Use of Google's Trademarks.
We abide, for example, by one of these rules in formulating the name of this blog "Google Pundit", where Google is an adjective describing just what kind of Pundit we are, e.g. to distinguish us from "Law Pundit". As Google writes in the Guidelines "Use the trademark ONLY as an adjective, NEVER as a noun or verb, and NEVER in the plural or possessive form".
Here is how we see the law, but this is only our opinion, and not legal advice.
Trademarks relate to products and services of a company and the whole idea of trademark law is to permit trademark holders to distinguish their goods and services from those of others and to profit from the goodwill of their trademark. Without a license from Google for example, no one is permitted to produce any kind of a product with the name Google used in that name. For example, a software product named "Google Search Optimizer" - without a license from Google to use its Google trademark in the name of the product - would violate that trademark.
In our opinion, our blog title (and anyone else's blog title with Google in the name of the blog) would be a clear case of trademark infringement if it created confusion with regard to its ownership, and that is why our blog specifically contains a prominent notice that Google Pundit is in no way related to Google Inc. but rather presents third-party information about that company and its products and services. Indeed, the subtitle of our blog is "An informative blog about Google which is NOT affiliated with Google™ Inc. in any way."
Take a look at the "Google Permissions" at Guidelines for Third Party Use of Google's Trademarks. You will see that Google has many trademarks.
Google has a special page online titled "Google Permissions" which provides Guidelines for Third Party Use of Google's Trademarks.
We abide, for example, by one of these rules in formulating the name of this blog "Google Pundit", where Google is an adjective describing just what kind of Pundit we are, e.g. to distinguish us from "Law Pundit". As Google writes in the Guidelines "Use the trademark ONLY as an adjective, NEVER as a noun or verb, and NEVER in the plural or possessive form".
Here is how we see the law, but this is only our opinion, and not legal advice.
Trademarks relate to products and services of a company and the whole idea of trademark law is to permit trademark holders to distinguish their goods and services from those of others and to profit from the goodwill of their trademark. Without a license from Google for example, no one is permitted to produce any kind of a product with the name Google used in that name. For example, a software product named "Google Search Optimizer" - without a license from Google to use its Google trademark in the name of the product - would violate that trademark.
In our opinion, our blog title (and anyone else's blog title with Google in the name of the blog) would be a clear case of trademark infringement if it created confusion with regard to its ownership, and that is why our blog specifically contains a prominent notice that Google Pundit is in no way related to Google Inc. but rather presents third-party information about that company and its products and services. Indeed, the subtitle of our blog is "An informative blog about Google which is NOT affiliated with Google™ Inc. in any way."
Take a look at the "Google Permissions" at Guidelines for Third Party Use of Google's Trademarks. You will see that Google has many trademarks.
Google Pundit Not Affiliated with Google™
Google Pundit Is Not Affiliated with Google™ Inc. in Any Way
As a graduate of Stanford Law School - Stanford is the home of Google - we are great fans of this amazing company and have been from the very beginning, having informed our law students at the University of Trier Law School from the outset (1999) that this was the search engine to watch.
As a result, we have already posted regularly about Google on our other blogs (e.g. in defending Google Book Search, (formerly Google Print) at LawPundit, e.g. here, here, here, here and here).
Hence, we thought we would see if the name GooglePundit is free on Blogger. The name was free, so we thought we would try out a blog devoted solely to Google, where we will also repost some of our previous postings relating to Google if they bear on actual matters of interest.
Please note that Google™ is a trademark name of Google Inc. It belongs to them, not to us. See the Google Guidelines for Third Pary Use of Google's Trademarks. Obviously, anyone is free to write editorially about Google, but using the Google name in a blog is a borderline case legally. However, since the blog is hosted on Blogger, a Google company, we imagine that they can shut us down if they want to. Besides, we are favorabale towards Google and intend to post positive information, so that this blog may be tolerated, though this is not guaranteed.
Our personal intention in creating this blog is to keep up on what Google is doing. There are now so many new projects under way that it has really gotten quite difficult to keep up. This blog will assist us - and perhaps our readers - in the necessary task of keeping up with a dynamic company that is rapidly changing our planet.
Note that we also limit our blogroll solely to official blogs or official websites of Google, excepting only our selection of non-affiliated unofficial blogs about Google, which we thought necessary for balance.
As a graduate of Stanford Law School - Stanford is the home of Google - we are great fans of this amazing company and have been from the very beginning, having informed our law students at the University of Trier Law School from the outset (1999) that this was the search engine to watch.
As a result, we have already posted regularly about Google on our other blogs (e.g. in defending Google Book Search, (formerly Google Print) at LawPundit, e.g. here, here, here, here and here).
Hence, we thought we would see if the name GooglePundit is free on Blogger. The name was free, so we thought we would try out a blog devoted solely to Google, where we will also repost some of our previous postings relating to Google if they bear on actual matters of interest.
Please note that Google™ is a trademark name of Google Inc. It belongs to them, not to us. See the Google Guidelines for Third Pary Use of Google's Trademarks. Obviously, anyone is free to write editorially about Google, but using the Google name in a blog is a borderline case legally. However, since the blog is hosted on Blogger, a Google company, we imagine that they can shut us down if they want to. Besides, we are favorabale towards Google and intend to post positive information, so that this blog may be tolerated, though this is not guaranteed.
Our personal intention in creating this blog is to keep up on what Google is doing. There are now so many new projects under way that it has really gotten quite difficult to keep up. This blog will assist us - and perhaps our readers - in the necessary task of keeping up with a dynamic company that is rapidly changing our planet.
Note that we also limit our blogroll solely to official blogs or official websites of Google, excepting only our selection of non-affiliated unofficial blogs about Google, which we thought necessary for balance.
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