Ajit Gaddam: TechNews and Security

If you are logged in into any Google Service such as GMail or Google Notebook or Google Analytics or any other service from Google and then visit Google.com and enter a search query, you will see the “Note this” option button beside the Cached and Similar Pages option.

Once, you click on “Note this” option near your search result, you see a “Duly noted” option.

Now, if you wish to see these snippets or rather search results you have been saving, you can log on to your Google Notebook account. There you will be able to see all the google search results you might have been saving. In your Google Notebook, a link to the site and a brief description of the URL you just noted will show up. Here, you can add a comment, and also change the URL of the site you just saved. If you wish to add notes from any webpage on the internet, you can download this browser extension provided by Google
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Google announced on it Adsense Blog a couple of hours ago that they have changed the way some of their ad units are displayed giving them a fresh new makeover. Google claims that this change is the result of extensive testing and research and that these new ad formats are more visually appealing, more cleaner and attractive for visitors besides providing better performance results for Adsense publishers and advertisers.

AdSense is an ad-serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis.

Google utilizes its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the user’s geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google’s targeted ad system may sign up through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

At AskStudent, we started seeing these new ad formats a couple of hours ago. Notice the way, ads are displayed in the old format and the brand new format.

Old Format

New Format

As you might have observed,  the ad units still match the site where the fonts and colors of the ads are still the same. The most important changes seem to be that Google has done away with the way it displays its Logo. Gone is Ads by Goooooogle and is replaced by a sleeker image which says Ads by Google.

Another option which has been removed which could be very significant is Advertise on this site option on Google Ads. When this option was introduced by Google a year ago, it allowed advertisers to bid on specific websites besides letting the advertisers see how their ads might show up. However, Google Adwords has matured a lot since it was launched and allows a lot of options for advertisers giving them all the control they need.

Besides,  Google expects visitors who click on Ads to take them to sites which ad value to the content they have been looking for and to get the answer they have been looking for on that article page and not necessarily advertisers looking to market their products at a particular site.

Below, is another example of the old format and new format of the Adsense units.

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Wow. Matt Cutts. <takes a bow>

As reported by SearchEngineLand and a number of blogs, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s WebSpam team, had his blog defaced by the Dark SEO Team over the weekend. Matt’s blog is down, hacked — and archives wiped out as well. Matt has posted previously to this about the site being slow (post gone, but you can see his Twitter comment here) and heading offline through Monday, so you might be seeing the screen below for awhile.

Now, Matt Cutts seems to have taken his sweet revenge. You can check it out yourself by visiting the Dark SEO’s website

The Content of the hack

Defaced by Matt ! I ownz you, Dark seo team !

Of course I’m lying when I make everyone believe that content is King.
Of course black hat SEO and spamdexing are the only Kings.
Google is just a stupid algorithm relying on spammy backlinks.
But you guys had no right to let everyone know. That’s why I defaced your bloody DST site. To show the entire world how evil a white hat can be.

In fact, I’m as evil as my employer

All your backlinks are belong to us !

Head of the Google’s Webspam team

Update: Matt Cutts and Dark SEO combined to make this a successful April Fools Joke. <takes a bow again>

Related Links:

In case you wish to view larger pictures, if Matt Cutts blog and Dark SEO’s website are restored to their original pristine glory

1. Matt Cutts Blog Defaced by Dark SEO

2. Matt Cutts defaces Dark SEO’s website