In honor of their 10th anniversary, Google has released a fun little nugget:  their search engine as it was in 2001.

The logo is the 2001 version.  And the search results are the same as they were in January 2001.  Try searching something recent like “Palin” or “Wii” or “iPhone.”

Oh, and Google partnered with the Internet Archive (also known as the Way Back Machine) to make all the links point to the actual 2001 versions of the web page.  So you can search by brand name using this thing and see what major companies’ websites looked like 7 years ago.

It’s terribly fun seeing how far we’ve come and how much has become commonplace that simply wasn’t on the radar back then.

I don’t think this will last forever, so enjoy it while you can.

Google continues to provide useful and clever new services.  The latest is the voting information they’re slowly rolling into their Google Maps product.

Users who visit http://maps.google.com/vote will be prompted to enter their address.  Google then tells you where to register, how long you have left to register, and where the local polling places are.  They’ll even direct you to the appropriate government website for more information.

This is really handy.  It’s still being populated with data, so not all cities have all their information yet, but they should soon.

While there are plenty of non-voters who choose not to vote for various personal reasons, there have to be many who simply didn’t know where to vote or even how to register.  Granted, government agencies have been making this information available for a long, long time… but having it accessible through Google just makes it that much easier (and less embarrassing) to find out what you need to know.

Google, the current king of the Internet and all-around innovator, has announced a new technology called Audio Indexing–actually it’s called GAudi, which sounds more like a car than a web service.

Either way, it’s one of the slickest things I’ve heard of in months.

GAudi will catalog every word uttered in a YouTube video and add it to a searchable archive.  Translation:  you will soon be able to search videos by keywords used within the video.

For now, the product is still in Beta (limited testing mode), and will only be indexing YouTube videos related to the current political races.  So you can search for a soundbite you read about in a news article–maybe something Obama or McCain said–and then use GAudi to search for video of the speech on YouTube.

That’s pretty mind-blowing to me.  Sure, there have been speech-transcription services for years that allow you to dictate text to your computer… but they are far from perfect, and had never been applied to video like this.  As video’s importance on the web increases, technology like GAudi makes finding the right video a heck of a lot easier–and if you’ve ever tried to search for a particular video on YouTube without knowing its title… you know how frustratingly hard it can be.

Imagine a future where your company creates and uploads videos to YouTube–maybe instructional, maybe humorous, maybe just advertisements–and you’ve used some good keyword selection in writing the spoken script for that video.  People who just surf around YouTube for videos related to their favorite topic will then have a much easier time finding your content than they currently do.

So now everyone in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) industry will be adding video content writing to their roster of services, as companies begin to learn how the spoken audio of their movies can help them reach new customers.

Very exciting stuff.  Stay tuned for more developments.  And you can check out GAudi and search for things the candidates have said here.

I have been awaiting the release of Google’s first web browser, called Chrome, since news of its pending release exploded everywhere yesterday.  Seems they accidentally sent the announcement of Chrome a bit early, and some bloggers ran with the story.

Since then, I’ve been checking the supposed download page regularly, and until a few moments ago, it was a dead link.

Now, however, the Beta download of Google Chrome is available–in fact, I’m writing this post via Chrome.  For some of the uninitiated… a “beta test” is an early version that is likely to be buggy and unstable–we’re not recommending you download it just yet.  Here, in random order, are my initial thoughts and first impressions:

• Upon install, Chrome tries to import settings from your current default browser (Firefox for me), and I experienced an error with that which crashed Chrome.  Oops.  When I restarted it, however, the settings had been imported just fine.  This is nice because all my browser-stored passwords were already remembered.  Sweet.
• Google is claiming that Chrome is faster and more secure.  At this point, however, it’s not visibly any faster than Firefox.  In fact, it seems to take a fraction of a second longer to load a page than Firefox 3 (which is pretty darn fast to begin with).
• I love the trimmed down nature of Chrome.  It’s really no-frills in terms of UI, and the lack of bloat, combined with the tabs being on top of the window instead of below the address bar means you see more of the page than ever before.  I’m a big Netvibes user, and have several feeds on several tabs… and Chrome allows me to see and scan even more of my favorite content than Firefox or IE.  Right off the bat, this is a great feature and will probably keep me using Chrome a lot more.
• My coworker also downloaded Chrome, and he got a strange, glitchy look to his windows… with a mirrored sliver of the on-page content showing up in duplicate on the right next to the scroll bar.  It also wouldn’t let him scroll.  Hey… it’s a Beta release.  I’m sure they’ll find and promptly fix stuff like this… and I’m not sure what my friend might have running on his machine that may have contributed to it.
• I like the idea of the “incognito” window.  There’s plenty of concern online these days with privacy, especially where Google is concerned.  And while it may seem odd to simply trust Google when they say that “incognito” browsing never stores anything anywhere… the project is open-source.  That will allow for some checks and balances regarding how well the shielded browsing function works.
• I also love the feature where a crash only closes the current tab instead of the whole browser.  I was able to browse to a site I know crashes browsers (a site we’re currently developing) and the crash did, indeed, close only the open tab and not the entire browser.  That is a fantastic addition that cannot be overstated if you’re a power-browser.

All in all, the first few minutes of testing it out have been a postiive experience for me.  I am unashamed of the fact that I use and love tons of Google products beyond search (docs, gears, calendars, gmail, and more), so maybe you can label me a homer.  But better competition in the browser market is nothing but good for the consumer.

For Firefox, however, it’s probably a very bad day.  Google has long been a top financial supporter of Firefox (through an arrangement with the Google Toolbar).  I don’t think Firefox is destined to die or anything–they have a rabid fan base.  But they’re definitely going to need to seek dollars from new sources if Chrome gains any foothold on the market.

And this is a clear step from Google to infringe on Microsoft’s territory.  Should be interesting to see how it impacts that rivalry as well.

Stay tuned.  I’ll be playing with it more in the coming days and will be sure to update you on my findings.

UPDATE: So upon further testing… there are a lot of reports that the Chrome browser is a memory hog, slowing down your machine’s performance.  It browses the web fast enough… but I personally have seen it clog up my PC resources and slow down all programs.  I’m sure this is not the same for everyone, and I’m guessing it’ll be fixed as testing continues.  But for now, it’s reason enough to keep me from using it regularly.

One of the most high-profile and highly respected search engine consultant firms in the US is SEOmoz in Seattle.  They have built a business out of consulting with and advising other search engine experts such as myself.  I am a Pro member at their site, which gives me access to some wonderful tools and insider knowledge.

Last week, SEOmoz hosted an Expert Training Seminar on search–advanced tactics and cutting edge thinking.  So for three days, yours truly was in Seattle, soaking up as much knowledge as possible.

I met a ton of people to network with, but more importantly, I learned a TON.  The world of search engines changes every day and is constantly in flux.  To be in a room with 150 of the top search engine consultants, all of us learning from the cream of the crop of search experts, was an experience worth every penny (and then some).  It was even worth the five hour flight on Southwest, with minimal leg room.

In terms of specifics, a lot was made about viral marketing and developing outstanding content, and how drastically your search rankings can climb with the right piece of catchy content.  We also talked at length about search engine work for small businesses, how social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace can impact your visibility, the importance of online reputation management, and so much more.

The point of all this is to remind you that we here at Keystone are never satisfied with our level of knowledge and understanding.  As the technology world continues to stretch and grow and reshape itself, we’ll be doing all we can to stay up to date on what’s new, so that your business can stay ahead of the trend.  Give me a shout if you’d like to learn more about the latest trends and tactics in the world of search engine optimization, and how I can use what I’ve learned to help your website rank better on Google.

Oh, and Seattle is definitely one of the coolest cities I’ve ever seen.  I highly recommend visiting.  There’s beautiful scenery, temperate weather, and plenty to do.   Here’s a photo I snapped on one of my morning walks from the hotel to the conference location, with a temperature of 64 degrees in the middle of August: