I came across a large number of links that I wanted to share this week, probably too many for one post, so I figured that I would limit myself to a baker’s dozen.
* Keri Morgret attended BayCHI this past week where Google senior research scientist Dan Russell spoke on the topic How Do People Use Search Engines (page no longer available). She notes some interesting observations on eye-tracking studies at Google, as well as providing a link to a video of an earlier version of the presentation.
* Will we ever see server-based Google Maps and client-based Google Earth someday merge together? How much more lightweight would Google Earth be for it to function like Google Maps? A Google Tech Talks video discusses how 3D global visualization systems might be optimized for faster speeds in Understanding Urban Environments Through the Use of Elements of Urban Legibility
* Eric Goldman wrote about the Top Cyberlaw Developments of 2006, which includes a number of cases involving search engines.
* Susan Kuchinskas gives us the details on Yahoo’s first confab micro-conference in Yahoo’s Confab on Prediction Markets (link no longer available). We learn a little about how companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and HP use prediction markets from the post.
* Andy Beal writes a thoughtful Five Secret Strategies to Add $1 Million in Revenue to your Interactive Marketing Agency in 2007. Excellent suggestions in there.
* Stephen Pitts writes about a Google Earth Scavenger Hunt that I somehow missed.
* Thoroughly enjoyed What we want from Google this Christmas from Per and Susanne at Pandia Search News.
* Philipp Lenssen turns devilishly funny in The Anti-Google FAQ.
* Liked Halfdeck’s thoughts on Why Google Will Not Move Away From PageRank.
* Yahoo’s Panama is the topic of Lee Odden’s very detailed interview with John Slade.
* Rafat Ali is the only blogger I’ve seen refer to Yahoo!Kimo’s acquisition of blogging and photosharing site Wretch.
* Greg Sterling has a nice writeup on some of the recent reverse Google Local Search engineering that Mike Blumental is doing. If you’re interested in local search, you might want to get involved in the discussion.