If you’ve never heard of searchmash.com, that’s okay with Google. Searchmash was created by Google to test new search features apart from the Google brand.
According to SEO Chat, Google is hiding under the secret identity because it’s studies show that consumers tend to rate Google interfaces in light of the company’s branding. By separating the interface and innovations from the brand, the company gets a more objective view of consumer opinion.
Google says that it’s own studies have show that people rate Google’s search results higher even when they are identical to another search engine.
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Google announced on its blog yesterday that it will install solar panels at its Mountain View, California headquarters. In the post, Google says it will be one of the largest corporate solar panel installations in the U.S. if not the world.
The 1.6 megawatt array will provide up to 30% of the headquarter’s power. For comparison, that’s enough to power 1,000 homes.
Other notable corporate users of solar power include FedEx’s 904 kilowatt array in Oakland and Microsoft’s 480 kilowatt array at its Mountain View research center.
Technology
BusinessWeek offers a interesting article about the holes websites face when trying to quantify website usage specifically as it relates to attracting advertisers.
While page views remains an strong indicator of web usage for static websites, sites that rely on Flash, AJAX or multimedia must determine better ways of measuring their usage.
The BusinessWeek article doesn’t provide many answers but highlights an issue that needs a better solution.
BusinessWeek - Web Numbers: What’s Real?
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