Wednesday, April 14, 2004

U Penn Procurement Update [Line56: B2B News] 8:55:54 PM    comment []

What Does Google Know Trademark Lawyers Don't?. They must know something, because late last week they notified their advertisers that it was open season on trademark keyword buys (CNET story here). Yes, this is the long simmering issue that is still in the courts - trademark owners don't want third parties bidding on their trademarked terms (the most well-known case is Playboy). In any case, this is a bold move, akin to "waving a red flag at the bull" as one source told CNET. But is it? At the end of the day, the law favors clarity and consistency, if it can. Seems to me this move forces clarity: It's all or nothing. Google is, by its action, declaring what it thinks is the appropriate approach - let the market decide. LImiting... [John Battelle's Searchblog] 8:54:14 PM    comment []

NEWS: A9, Amazon's Search Portal, Goes Live: Reverberations Felt in Valley. A9, Amazon's much discussed skunk works search project goes live today, so I can finally write about it. I saw it last month (caveat: unbeknownst to me until recently, Amazon targeted me as their conduit to break this news - I think they wanted it to move from the blogosphere out, as opposed the WSJ in) and had to keep the damn thing to myself, it was hard, and here's why: On first blush it's a very, very good service, and an intriguing move by Amazon. It raises a clear question: How will Google - and more broadly, the entire search-driven world - react? My gut tells me the public face will be one of partnership: After all, A9 uses Google' search results and displays... [John Battelle's Searchblog] 8:53:06 PM    comment []