Since its launch in June 2005, Google’s Webmaster Help Group [GWHG] has helped tens of thousands of frustrated webmasters to overcome a vast array of problems, penalties and other assorted issues between their websites and Google. Now, some three and a half years later, on Thursday December 4th 2008 at 8.15AM PST, Google’s main front-line support group has undergone a dramatic transformation.

Moved from its old location within the Google Groups framework to a brand new home within Google’s own support site, the Webmaster Help Group has received a much-needed technological upgrade. Gone are the old ‘Usenet Feel’ and the clunky, unresponsive, plain-text interface, replaced with a slick new look, rich-text functionality and the ability to cross-reference answers, post live links, cite resources and even embed video, all of which combine to turn the group from being a great webmaster resource into a truly outstanding one.

Another major improvement in the new group is the introduction of user-levels, ranging from 1 through 6 [One being a new user and six being a Google employee], with increasing access to the group’s new functionalities as users gain reputation and progress through the levels. And, since a user’s level is clearly displayed next to any posts they make, it is now much easier for new forum members to distinguish whether the person answering their question is also a new user, a regular, a top contributor or even a Google employee.

So, from a sheer technology & functionality standpoint, Google Webmaster Help has taken a huge leap forward

But, like so many things, a support group of this kind cannot function on technology alone; it needs expert members, capable of dealing with the myriad problems webmasters around the globe will ask it to address.

As things stand currently, some three and a half years after the group’s inception, Webmaster Help is inhabited by a colourful assortment of professionals from around the globe, always ready to answer the many questions thrown at them by close to 42,000 members. During the past year, the group has also seen the ever increasing participation of Google Employees (affectionately called Googlers), with even such ‘celebrities’ as Matt Cutts, Adam Lasnik, John Müller and Susan Moskwa answering the occasional frustrated query.

Indeed, given the ever-growing number of Googlers regularly frequenting the group, Webmaster Help can now safely be counted as the best place to get your website questions answered by Google’s own staff, given that the company fields no means for webmasters to contact them via phone or email.

However, the Webmaster Help Group’s strength lies not simply in the participation of Google’s staff, but mainly in its population of resident experts, dubbed Bionic Posters by Google. Currently numbering fourteen, the ‘Bionics’ are an eclectic crowd of experts in subjects ranging from site design, CSS, Java and W3C compliance to more SEM-specific topics such as improving conversion rates and SEO Consultancy, who freely donate their time each day to help webmasters and frustrated site owners who reach the group in need of some expert advice.

Ultimately it is this little crowd, along with a growing number of less frequent regulars, who answer the vast majority of users’ questions, be they about Rankings, HTML, Penalties, SEO or whatever. And, thanks to the new group’s architecture and facilities implemented by Google, they will now be able to answer those same questions far more efficiently.

And, with persistent rumours of a group companion-site, laden with answers, statistics and diagnostics tools coming in the New Year, Google’s Webmaster Help Group is poised to further extend its reputation of being the single most comprehensive resource of its kind on the internet.

Having spent a substantial amount of my spare time around Webmaster Help since August 2006, I have witnessed a great many changes and improvements to the group, though none on quite this scale. I have also been privileged enough to be part of an online community which has taught me more about web design and online promotion during these last 28 months than any other resource on the web, and would heartily recommend anyone reading this article to take a look at the group and learn from the wealth of knowledge shared by its many inhabitants.

As a technical writer and SEO consultant with a career spanning almost fifteen years, Sasch Mayer has been living in the Republic of Cyprus since 2005. He has helped countless webmasters and online business owners to diagnose problems with their websites and is rated as a Top Contributor by Google in its Webmaster Help Group. His company, IceGiant Web Services also undertakes graphic and web design work.

Want to know the hottest search terms across the various search engines? Yahoo, Ask, and Google [Product Search] have listed the most popular items. Here’s what Yahoo has as its top 10 searches:

1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Barack Obama
4. Miley Cyrus
5. RuneScape
6. Jessica Alba
7. Naruto
8. Lindsay Lohan
9. Angelina Jolie
10. American Idol

And Ask.com’s most popular list, on the contrary, doesn’t seem that interesting (as some say):

1. Dictionary
2. MySpace
3. Google
4. YouTube
5. Facebook
6. Coupons
7. Cars
8. Craigslist
9. Online degrees
10. Credit score

Google’s most popular searches are not available (yet?), but Google’s most popular product searches are public:

1. nintendo wii
2. wii fit
3. ipod touch
4. xbox 360
5. nintendo ds
6. ipod nano
7. uggs
8. nikon d90
9. zune
10. digital picture frame

Surprised much? Some are.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

The Interactive Adverising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers have released internet advertising data for the first six months of 2008. The six month period saw $11.5 billion in revenues, up 15.2% over the same period in 2007.

The second quarter of 2008 was up 12.8% over Q2 of 2007, but showed a slight decline, 0.3%, from the first quarter.

Search revenues neared $5.1 billion, up 24% year-over-year. Display neared $3.8 billion, up 19%.

“Interactive advertising continues to demonstrate year over year growth as marketers and consumers increase their embrace of digital media,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “The essentially flat performance we see quarter to quarter reflects in part cyclical advertising trends. Compared to the trajectory in other media and in the general economy, interactive has outperformed because it delivers a level of accountability unmatched by any other advertising medium.”

Internet web sites, including most blogs, are dependent on advertising to pay the cost of their site and to make a profit on their writings. But with money becoming tight and with economic uncertainties in the news, it seems that there is some doubt as how advertising on the Internet will fair. Some are taking the position that advertising could take a hit as companies cut back on their Internets ads. But is it all doom and gloom? Is the sky falling?

According to one article which states:

But Sly Bailey has a more sinister view of the year. “Remember 1999?,” she rather gloomily asked last week’s Association of Online Publishers’ conference. “Well 2009 will be like Groundhog Day. For the lucky we should expect consolidation – and for the less fortunate, failure.” The Trinity Mirror boss said she was “firmly of the belief that there will be casualties in the coming months”.

She’s not the only senior media figure predicting blood on the digital publishing carpet. Maurice Levy, the chairman and chief executive of Publicis, warned of a second bust as long ago as last November. “Far too many people are building plans based on advertising and they may well be disappointed because there is not enough money for everyone,” he said. “It’s exactly the same situation as we saw at the end of the 1990s, when everyone thought that because he had a website he’d get the valuation. Now everyone building a Web 2.0 operation believes he will receive the advertising.”

I believe that the American people, as well as people around the world, may cut back on their spending for luxury items. But I also think that many more people may turn to the Internet to do their shopping. With high gas prices, people may want to stay home and order items from the Internet, instead of heading to a brick and mortar store front.

If this comes to pass, than Internet advertising may increase instead of decline, as more folks shop online.

What do you think? Will you be doing more shopping online this holiday season?

Google Inc. has created a product to cut down on drunken e-mail.

The Mountain View, Calif., company (NASDAQ: GOOG), which makes most of its money from advertising, spends that money on a wide variety of issues, from the profound to the absurd.

Last week, Google plopped out a policy document, a plan to get people thinking about weaning the United States off fossil fuels.

This week, as a post on the “official Gmail blog” puts it, the problem to be cured is angry or embarrassing emails sent by drunk people.

Gmail plans to offer “Mail Goggles,” a kind of sobriety test to make sure a sender is sober enough to send a message. Rather than test the sender’s alcohol blood level, the program prompts the user with a series of math problems (69-38 =?, 11×2=?, and so on) which must be solved within a time limit.

The program’s default setting is for late at night on the weekend, when, as the blog says “you’re most likely to need it.”

Jon Perlow, the Google worker who wrote the post, says his inspiration for the product was “the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message.”

Just as soon as Google makes Google Chrome available, I’ll take a look and let you know my thoughts on Google entering the browser space. In the meantime, here’s a screenshot (floating around the blogosphere) so you know what it will look like.

NeeTeeVee reports Google is going to be adding video sharing tools to Google Apps for businesses this coming Monday. Paid users of Google Apps will be allowed to upload videos with no time restrictions but a maximum size per upload of 300 MB, for a total of 3GB per account and unlimited video views.

The tool is not going to give Google App users live video broadcasting or video conferencing capabilities, but users can tag, star and comment on videos. Video creators can also thumbnail important parts of the video, in order to highlight key points in the video. In addition, the videos can be embedded on other sites, used as a Google gadget and download an MPEG-4 version of the video.

Postscript: Google posted a press release with the official details on this new service:

Google Video for business is available now in English to Google Apps Premier Edition accounts at no additional cost. Each Google Apps Premier Edition domain gets 3GB of Video storage per user account. Existing Premier Edition administrators can enable Google Video for business immediately from the Google Apps control panel. A version for Google Apps Education Edition customers that allows faculty and staff to upload and share videos with students will be available on September 8 for free trial until March 9, 2009, at which point it will cost $10 per user, per year.

Yesterday, Google announced the winners of the Android Developer Challenge I, a contest that awarded cash prizes to the most innovative and promising applications designed for the upcoming mobile OS, Android. The ten top teams received $275,000 and 10 other teams received $100,000. The ADC Gallery lists all the winners as well as the finalists.

Although Google has already named their winners, we decided to browse through the gallery to find the apps that we’re most excited to use. Some of the apps, like for example, cab4me, may have been declared a winner, but we know not everyone lives in a major metropolitan area where hailing a taxi is a part of everyday life. Instead, we picked out some apps that have more universal appeal. They are as follows:

The App That Backs Up Our Contacts: PhoneBook 2.0

An app that backs up your contacts for you to a remote server can give you piece of mind in case your phone is ever lost or stolen. However, the app isn’t just a backup tool. PhoneBook 2.0 combines mobile social networking with your address book to let you share your mood, location, and photos with your friends.
The App That Keeps Us From Getting Lost: BreadCrumbz

Sure, sure, the phone has Google Maps, but BreadCrumbz is even better. Instead of getting directions, you get picture-based routes so you know to turn at that huge oak tree or the building with the blue awning. Your friends can make routes for you and record them with the camera and GPS.
The App(s) That Save Us Money: CompareEverywhere and GoCart

There are not one, but two, apps that basically do the same thing: compare prices and save us money. Using the camera, you can “scan” the barcode of an item by snapping a picture. The app will then comparison shop for you. You can read online reviews and even create price alerts if the price drops. CompareEverywhere also lets you use the GPS to find nearby stores and then call them directly.

The App That Lets Us Store Files in the Cloud: Teradesk e-Storage

This one wasn’t a grand prize winner, but looks like a handy app to have around. With Teradesk, you can store files in the cloud with file transfers that allow for pause control, resume, and full recovery of broken transfers. You can share files with friends via Bluetooth and MMS and the app even integrates with Google Docs.
The App That Keeps Us Informed: Life360

There were several of these “alerting” apps, but only one that won the grand prize. Life360 is an app that sends you messages from your family and local community. You can be alerted to a danger in the community (rabid dog on the loose!), but you can also just receive messages from family, too (mom’s running late today). This is a personalized alert system that displays only the messages you need to hear.

The App That Lets Us IM And Blog: Maverick

No Google phone would be complete without an app that lets us use GoogleTalk to IM our friends. Maverick lets you exchange messages, location, and multimedia content in the form of audio clips, photos and scribbles (drawings created on the mobile phone) with other Maverick clients, Gtalk users, or iChat users. You can also use the app to publish content to Blogger.

The App(s) For Social Music: TuneWiki or Diggin

Another case of having two great apps - this time, for music. TuneWiki won the grand prize with their social music maps that displays audio, video, and lyrics. You can also use the GPS to see what other people are playing nearby in real-time. Although only a finalist, Diggin looks interesting, too. This app lets you listen to thousands of streaming radio stations and downloads the album art for what you’re listening to automatically.

The App That Lets Us Whiteboard With Colleagues: ShareYourBoard

Did your co-worker miss the meeting? Now you can get them up to speed with ShareYourBoard. Designed specifically to capture and enhance whiteboard images with edge detection, geometry transformations and image enhancement, ShareYourBoard takes great pics in any angle, any lighting, and with any type of whiteboard or markers used.

The App That Tells Our Phone How To Behave: Locale

Maybe you shouldn’t have those rockin’ ringtones turned on at the office…and perhaps that wallpaper is a bit inappropriate, too. Instead of having to adjust your profiles yourself, you can use an app that knows how to do so automatically. Using Android’s built-in GPS, Locale will let you set up “Situations” (like At Work, At Home, In a Meeting, etc) which you can have automatically triggered by setting conditions like location (via the GPS), time, or other conditions which you add. The app can then adjust your ringtone, wallpaper, and other settings automatically.

The App That Scans Our Eyeball and Saves Our Passwords: BioWallet

Honestly we wouldn’t care what this app did, but it happens to be a “safe wallet” that stores sensitive information (passwords, certificates, documents, conversations, notes, pictures, etc.). The info can only be accessed through iris or handwritten signature based authentication. Oh come on! It does retina scanning! We didn’t get an Android phone to play space monkey games, now did we? This one delivers pure geek cred.

A Google Groups thread has a detailed discussion around the topic of Google spider, GoogleBot, crawling too much. Sometimes servers can be overwhelmed by all the traffic it gets and automated crawlers, such as GoogleBot, can add a tremendous amount of stress to a server that is already stressing. Most webmasters are not in the position of banning GoogleBot from accessing their sites, so what can you do?

Here are some of the tips from the thread, including tips from Google representatives:

• Make sure GoogleBot is really GoogleBot and not some spammer. More on that over here and here.
• If you have a large site, limit or instruct GoogleBot on what it can or cannot crawl via the robots.txt file.
• Some URLs might be more “expensive” to be crawled than others (i.e. static pages versus large dynamic and graphic rich pages.
• Do you have 2 or 3 times the amount of pages indexed by Google, as you have actual product pages on your site? If so, why?
• Redirect any temporary URLs or tracking URLs using a 301
• Set the Google Crawl Rate, in Webmaster Tools, more on that over here

The Android Blog is reporting that Google has officially announced the Android Market, an App Store like solution that allows publishers to upload programs and sell them online.

Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube. We chose the term “market” rather than “store” because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available. Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings.

More information on CrunchGear as we get it.