Page one!

Excuse me for a moment of self indulgence here, but I noticed my search referrers were going up for my first name — and as it turns out, I’ve gone from page two to page one (number ten, to be exact) for “ryan.” Okay, I know it’s nothing compared to Veronica, who claims the number one spot for her name, but watch your back, Ryan Adams, because number nine is only a matter of time now.

Schmidt stonewalls reporter that flew cross-country for interview

It’s not too often I directly relate to CNET reporters (they’re often doing different things in different ways than us), but I totally feel for Elinor Mills — the way Eric Schmidt treated her as a member of the press is pretty weak. But worse, I’d say, is that his PR / handlers didn’t make it completely clear ahead of time that this wasn’t a general interview, and that she was expected to stick to only one topic — that day’s announcement, which happened to be the excruciatingly dry news about Google Health. (Typically when I get high level executive interviews anything similar to that I just turn them down. Really, what’s the point?) I don’t know if I’ve ever been stonewalled that bad though, that’s rough — very poor form having her fly all the way out for ten minutes of nothing, Google. I don’t know about anyone else, but I want to see a redux — and from Mountain View or SF, next time.

Android using Java VM for apps — whatever!

I can’t be the only one who’s disappointed with Android using Java as its application layer environment, can I? I’d heard in advance they were doing this but kind of didn’t want to believe it. Sure, props to their team for deconstructing and redeveloping Java in a pared-down, supposedly extremely efficient environment they’re calling the “Dalvik Virtual Machine”, but Java as a technology is no less clunky and annoying today than it was before Android was announced. (You know what they say about lipstick and pigs…) And while it’s great Android’s got a lot more optimized frameworks than your average Java-capable device, a mobile multitasking Java VM app environment is never going to run as well as something coded native to the core OS; this is already visible in the video demo where some of the swipes, taps, and touch gestures present a far chunkier, less visually satisfying experience than the bar that’s been set by the iPhone / iPod touch. Yeah, I know, the software is early, but Google’s offering up $10m for developers to start working on Android apps, and before we get too entrenched in even MORE phones running Java I’m nominating the first significant Android app work be done on the redevelopment of a new, proper application layer.

Strange, wonderful stuff from a completely crazy day

What a bizarre day. Among other things…

• Veronica’s show finally launched! I love it. The coming episodes are pure gold.
• I got to interview #3 on my “most wanted” list — look for that on Engadget soon.
• Google announces its long-awaited mobile platform. For the second time this year I’m genuinely stoked about the mobile space.
  • (Side note on Android, in 2004 before Google acquired the eponymous startup founded by Danger founder Andy Rubin, Peter and I brainstormed for weeks on a feature called “The Googlephone”, where we romanticized about what would happen if Google did a SideKick-like cellphone. Not even kidding. Bummer we never got it out the door.)
• Dick Parsons, the CEO of my parent company’s parent company’s parent company — Time Warner — is apparently out.
• Screenwriters go on strike, and I want in on that action. I write for a screen, don’t I?
• Oh yeah, V and I were on TWiT again. (Here’s us recording from our office.)

Google ranks being restored; fun with algos

Last week’s Google ranking smackdown hit a lot of high profile sites (Engadget included). Was it just been an unfortunate fluke, or did it spring a bunch of these publications (Engadget included) into action, encouraging them to take a closer look at how Google perceives their sites? I’m not entirely sure which, but it looks like the lot of the sites hit by the drop are starting to see their ranks restored in part or in full.

Frankly, I found the whole thing pretty surprising. Not only because Engadget and Weblogs, Inc. haven’t made any changes in last few months (or years!) that Google would find substantive enough prompt that kind of severe reaction, but also because there was zero warning before the hit. Engadget has always been a good Google partner (it was the first ever publication to get RSS AdSense, for example), and I guess maybe I expected a warning message in Webmaster tools or some kind of guidance, being that we had no clear way of attributing anything to our sudden drop in rank. I know a lot of people blamed the rank drop to network linking, but Jason, who isn’t even with us anymore, said it best: all the links and cross-pollination on Engadget / Weblogs, Inc. sites are intended to highlight other great content and create a positive reader experience. It’s not now, nor has it ever been, about linkfarming or SEO. (Of course, that doesn’t necessarily make the many cross-network links necessary, and we’re always looking at ways we can make for a better reading experience and be better search engine citizens.)

Well, whatever changes Google made, they’re apparently in the process of unmaking — or is at least getting some of the innocent bystanders on the road to recovery. Engadget, Joystiq, Fortune, Washington Post, and many of the other sites named in the algo “Jihad” are in the process of having their Google rank restored to pre-smackdown positions (others, however, are not) The lesson was learned, though: don’t take your search rank for granted — not even the pub that broke Watergate is immune from Google’s scrutiny. And even though we haven’t made any substantive changes to our sites before or after G’s algo shift, there’s no doubt that now is as good a time as any to take a long, hard look at cutting some of the link-fat on our sites.

Background:
Andy Beard - Digg Favorites Slapped By Google (and followup / reactions here)
TechCrunch - Google Declares Jihad On Blog Link Farms
Scoble - Google Page Rank is dead and has been for quite some time (Yo Robert, you didn’t hear me getting huffy, now did you? I knew this would work itself out fine.)