SEO News: Google Street Cars back on the prowl
So Google’s controversial street cars are back on the street, ready to collect photos of streets, faceless people and crime in action (and nothing else!).
Surely you all remember my absorbing blog post: Google’s SEO hampered by investigations?
Okay, well in case you were ill or something that week; Google’s street cars were found to be collecting data from wireless connections, which they said was simple accident though they have been accused of nefarious intentions. A lot of people (in a lot of countries) were very upset because Google chose to store the information rather than just sort out the problem and discard the collected data.
A lot of apologies and legal threats later, and Google have been cleared of any wrong doing by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
This is the little bit of win that Google needed, after the demise of Google Wave and the continued growth of Facebook. I don’t think you ever need to feel sorry for a business goliath, and this is no exception.
Google has got itself into a great position with SEO but seems to be struggling with its new initiatives. Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable.com, believes that Google’s inability to create welcoming, simple social media platforms (Buzz, Wave) is holding it back (And making Mr Zuckerberg very happy).
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s only a matter of time before Facebook jumps into the SEO game, it already has the details and preferences of 500 million users. In the future they’ll surely be able to tailor search results to individuals that will be a highly valued resource.
Or, who knows, maybe we’ll end up with the Search Engine wars…or not.
