Google Releases Free SEO Guide

Google has released the Search Engine Optimization Guide for beginners...

Here goes the link - Download Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Brand New Search Engine - http://www.quintura.com/

This morning I got a free SEO Tip. The tip was about a new search engine "Quintura". Yet to test the features...Thought of sharing..The tip must be useful for professionals who are interested in the study of "semantics".

Here goes the tip..

For those of you interested in the study of "semantics" or Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) as it relates to which keywords have close contextual relationships to other keywords....here is an interesting experience.

Check out a brand new Search Engine called http://www.quintura.com

Not only does it use LSI but it even displays the evidence of how your search words have other words relating to them. Unlike keyword-based search, that returns too many "irrelevant results," Quintura often finds what your looking for with one merely one click.

Enter your search term. It displays a "cloud" of results. The size of a word shows its significance in relation to the query. The larger a word is, the stronger the contextual relationship with your query. The smaller the words appear the less related they are. Now place you mouse over each keyword in the cloud and see how your SERPs change. You may find what you're looking for visually with just one click. Click on any word in the cloud to change your query and get relevant results that will comply with your new query.

Visit http://www.quintura.com and give it a try.

Google Image Search - To Steal or Not to Steal

I read this article titled "Google Image Search - To Steal or Not to Steal" posted by Jason following the newsletter link from SiteProNews.com.

Here goes the article..

It's a graphic designer's dirty little secret. A plethora of images of anything you can think of, all for free! That's right, good old Google Image Search. Well, if you're thinking of pulling an image from some random site via Google images, think again my friend. Though it is a useful resource, just because an image appears in a Google image search does not make it free for the taking.

According to Google:

The images identified by the Google Image Search service may be protected by copyrights. Although you can locate and access the images through our service, we cannot grant you any rights to use them for any purpose other than viewing them on the web. Accordingly, if you would like to use any images you have found through our service, we advise you to contact the site owner to obtain the requisite permissions.

In other words, the original creators of the images own the copyrights. When you click on an image and are redirected to their website, it will hopefully provide more information on the image's copyright (or the lack thereof). Specifically, look for a copyright statement somewhere (usually on the bottom) or a Terms of Use section.

Images published in the U.S. are automatically copyrighted by their owners, even if they do not explicitly carry a copyright warning. Therefore, you may not reproduce copyright images without their owner's permission, except in fair use cases, or you could risk running into a lawyer's warnings, cease-and-desist letters, and copyright suits.

Recently in Germany, Google has learned that there is "kein fairer gebrauch" or "no fair use". The internet search giant lost two German copyright decisions, as the courts ruled that the thumbnail images that appear in Google Image Search violate German copyright law. The company said in an email that it believes "that services like Google Image Search are entirely legal and provide great value and critical information to Internet users." "Today's decision is very bad for Internet users in Germany," Google added.

What does this mean for U.S. citizens who use Google Images? Nothing different yet, but many sources say this will most likely start a chain reaction and could possibly spread to the U.S.

There are millions of pictures on the internet, and the odds are pretty good that no one will care if you use one for non-commercial purposes (like a personal blog). If someone does end up caring, they will most likely ask you nicely to take it down before taking any kind of legal action... hopefully.

For more information about copyright as it stands in the United States, be sure to check out: Copyright.gov

Hope this article will be useful for Web Masters and Web Developers.