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    Hub You - Google Co-Op Topics - Annotating Web Content

    Act As If
    Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have. --Brian TracyAct As IfSometimes, achievement is simpler than most make it out to be. You can act as if you are fully prepared and even very experienced at public speaking or negotiation or effective private communication, whatever the day requires you to do.Of course, this takes a measure of self-confidence, of belief in oneself; but so does just getting through the day for many people. Is this acting or fooling yourself into an attitude adjustment? For some it may be, but to act as if you can do what you need to do is really what is a big part of everyday life.When one is called upon to stand up and speak before a group and a flood of fearful thoughts intervene, yes, all the self-esteem and faith and belief in oneself that you can must may be necessary. We do it every day in driving a car, for example, a potentially dangerous enterprise, yet a familia
    that may be associated with a URL in subsequent columns includes:

    • Score - a ranking of relevance from 0 to 1 (0 to 100%)
    • Comment
    • Attributes - user defined attributes which may only be included in the tab-delimited file format

    Annotation Examples

    A few examples will go a long way to illustrate annotating URLs. If I were using a tab-delimited file to annotate a travel related web site it might look something like this:

    URL                                                     Label            Label         Label        Score Co

    Creating a Business Plan with Punch
    If you want to create a multi million dollar business and personally become successful, you will need to be able to present difficult concepts to investors, staff and key stakeholders. The creation of wealth through business will not be possible unless you are able to do the following three things very well.1. Simplify, conceptualize and analyze business models and marketplaces. Then develop this opportunity analysis into solid strategies for growth.2. Make people understand the key vision and direction of the company.3. Produce a clear concise action plan to ensure that we follow through on the plan.The biggest tip I can give any fellow business person is to learn the art of simplifying the world around you and explain it in simple terms to those that you wish to follow you.When it comes to preparing a business plan with punch...The first thing to do when preparing a business plan "with punch" is to understand the reason why you are actually undertaking to
    In May of 2006, among other announcements, Google announced Google Co-op. This article is a follow-on article to a previous article, "Google Co-Op Overview", which provided a high-level overview of Google Co-op. This article will go into one of the components of Google Co-Op, Topics, in more detail than was covered in the previous article.

    Google Co-Op is important to users for several reasons. Google Co-Op allows users to contribute information that will help Google to improve search results for everyone. In addition, Google Co-Op allows an end-user to customize their own search experience so that information that is more relevant and trusted will appear at the top of the user's search results. Users accomplish this by subscribing to "trusted" sources of information. Information from those trusted sources will appear at the top of a user's search results for relevant searches.

    Google Co-Op is a beta-test service now being offered by Google. Anyone with a Google account may participate. While still in its infancy, Google Co-Op represents Google's efforts to embrace social web and social search concepts in a major way to help improve Google search results. Google Co-op consists of two things:

    1. Topics, which are simply a means of labeling web content
    2. Subscribed links, which are a means for users to subscribe to a particular web site's content

    Topics can further be sub-divided into two things:

    1. The ability to create an entire categorization or labeling scheme
    2. The ability to simply provide labels for web content, which Google calls annotations

    The remainder of this article will focus on the annotations aspect of Google Topics.

    Annotations to URLs

    Annotating URLs is perhaps the easiest part of Google Co-Op to understand. It also requires the least amount of technical expertise to implement. A "topic" is simply Google's way of saying "area of interest". Topics are a labeling or categorization scheme. Topics allow users a way of providing labels (which may also be referred to as tags, or categories) for information on the web (represented by URLs). Labels may be provided for an entire web site, portions of a web site, or even a specific web page. These "labels" provide some indication of the topic or topics for a given web site or page. In essence, they provide additional information on what the web site is all about.

    Anyone with a Google account can label web sites. Google refers to the process of providing labels for web sites as "Annotating URLs". An annotation is simply the association of a label, or multiple labels, with a URL. For example, a travel site might get the label "destination_guide".

    Users may use labels for topics that Google already has under development, which include: health, destination guides, autos, computer & video games, photo & video equipment, and stereo & home theater. Users may also develop their own labels for topics. For example, if a user has an interest in "wine" they may develop labels for the topic wine, which may include "wine_regions", "wine_types", etc. They can then use these labels to annotate sites that deal with wine.

    An end user may submit their annotations to Google in one of two formats: 1) in a tab-delimited format (which can be created using Microsoft Excel or any spreadsheet); or 2) in an XML file. Perhaps the easiest format for most users to deal with is simply to create a spreadsheet where the first column contains a URL or URL pattern, and the subsequent columns contain labels, one label to a column. Further information that may be associated with a URL in subsequent columns includes:

    • Score - a ranking of relevance from 0 to 1 (0 to 100%)
    • Comment
    • Attributes - user defined attributes which may only be included in the tab-delimited file format

    Annotation Examples

    A few examples will go a long way to illustrate annotating URLs. If I were using a tab-delimited file to annotate a travel related web site it might look something like this:

    URL                                                     Label            Label         Label        Score Com

    Vision-Mission-Purpose-What Does It All Mean?
    We hear the words purpose, vision and mission everyday, but what do they really mean and how are they different from each other? It is easy to puzzle over these questions for hours. Large companies will pay consultants tens of thousands of dollars to help them craft elegant statements to adorn their walls and motivate their employees. Many times these become so overlaid with business jargon that they end up not saying much at all. As a small business, choosing the right words and applying them to your business can serve the organization by defining leadership roles, unifying efforts, setting departmental and company-wide goals, better serving customers and encouraging and motivating employees. However, the larger purpose of defining these words and applying their meaning is to illuminate your focused strategy and ensure that everyone that comes in contact with your company has a clear understanding of what your organization is abut and what they can rely on you for. A few well crafted sentences can
    is a beta-test service now being offered by Google. Anyone with a Google account may participate. While still in its infancy, Google Co-Op represents Google's efforts to embrace social web and social search concepts in a major way to help improve Google search results. Google Co-op consists of two things:

    1. Topics, which are simply a means of labeling web content
    2. Subscribed links, which are a means for users to subscribe to a particular web site's content

    Topics can further be sub-divided into two things:

    1. The ability to create an entire categorization or labeling scheme
    2. The ability to simply provide labels for web content, which Google calls annotations

    The remainder of this article will focus on the annotations aspect of Google Topics.

    Annotations to URLs

    Annotating URLs is perhaps the easiest part of Google Co-Op to understand. It also requires the least amount of technical expertise to implement. A "topic" is simply Google's way of saying "area of interest". Topics are a labeling or categorization scheme. Topics allow users a way of providing labels (which may also be referred to as tags, or categories) for information on the web (represented by URLs). Labels may be provided for an entire web site, portions of a web site, or even a specific web page. These "labels" provide some indication of the topic or topics for a given web site or page. In essence, they provide additional information on what the web site is all about.

    Anyone with a Google account can label web sites. Google refers to the process of providing labels for web sites as "Annotating URLs". An annotation is simply the association of a label, or multiple labels, with a URL. For example, a travel site might get the label "destination_guide".

    Users may use labels for topics that Google already has under development, which include: health, destination guides, autos, computer & video games, photo & video equipment, and stereo & home theater. Users may also develop their own labels for topics. For example, if a user has an interest in "wine" they may develop labels for the topic wine, which may include "wine_regions", "wine_types", etc. They can then use these labels to annotate sites that deal with wine.

    An end user may submit their annotations to Google in one of two formats: 1) in a tab-delimited format (which can be created using Microsoft Excel or any spreadsheet); or 2) in an XML file. Perhaps the easiest format for most users to deal with is simply to create a spreadsheet where the first column contains a URL or URL pattern, and the subsequent columns contain labels, one label to a column. Further information that may be associated with a URL in subsequent columns includes:

    • Score - a ranking of relevance from 0 to 1 (0 to 100%)
    • Comment
    • Attributes - user defined attributes which may only be included in the tab-delimited file format

    Annotation Examples

    A few examples will go a long way to illustrate annotating URLs. If I were using a tab-delimited file to annotate a travel related web site it might look something like this:

    URL                                                     Label            Label         Label        Score Co

    Ezines; What is an Ezine?
    An Ezine is an Electronic Magazine that you can receive in your email inbox. That is the pure definition, although there is some debate as to what is an Ezine and what is an online newsletter. Most believe that an Ezine is a Magazine in Electronic form and those who made up the word surely believed that, but today this definition is evolving and some are arguing over what an Ezine really is?In fact from a pure usage standpoint of those who gather their news and information and prefer this format, I would say that Ezine does not suffice and needs an upgrade of the definition. Additionally an online newsletter or update with multiple stories or information and graphics is an Ezine, I beg to differ with anyone who denies that. In fact if it is not, then you better go 70% of those out there that call them selves Ezines, because they are running away with the show and many have HUGE subscription bases in the 10s of thousands.The definition of Ezines is evolving and attempting to limit the defini
    of Google Co-Op to understand. It also requires the least amount of technical expertise to implement. A "topic" is simply Google's way of saying "area of interest". Topics are a labeling or categorization scheme. Topics allow users a way of providing labels (which may also be referred to as tags, or categories) for information on the web (represented by URLs). Labels may be provided for an entire web site, portions of a web site, or even a specific web page. These "labels" provide some indication of the topic or topics for a given web site or page. In essence, they provide additional information on what the web site is all about.

    Anyone with a Google account can label web sites. Google refers to the process of providing labels for web sites as "Annotating URLs". An annotation is simply the association of a label, or multiple labels, with a URL. For example, a travel site might get the label "destination_guide".

    Users may use labels for topics that Google already has under development, which include: health, destination guides, autos, computer & video games, photo & video equipment, and stereo & home theater. Users may also develop their own labels for topics. For example, if a user has an interest in "wine" they may develop labels for the topic wine, which may include "wine_regions", "wine_types", etc. They can then use these labels to annotate sites that deal with wine.

    An end user may submit their annotations to Google in one of two formats: 1) in a tab-delimited format (which can be created using Microsoft Excel or any spreadsheet); or 2) in an XML file. Perhaps the easiest format for most users to deal with is simply to create a spreadsheet where the first column contains a URL or URL pattern, and the subsequent columns contain labels, one label to a column. Further information that may be associated with a URL in subsequent columns includes:

    • Score - a ranking of relevance from 0 to 1 (0 to 100%)
    • Comment
    • Attributes - user defined attributes which may only be included in the tab-delimited file format

    Annotation Examples

    A few examples will go a long way to illustrate annotating URLs. If I were using a tab-delimited file to annotate a travel related web site it might look something like this:

    URL                                                     Label            Label         Label        Score Co

    Productive Networking
    Social events, seminars, workshops, breakfasts, lunches, meetings over coffee, after-hours events – the list goes on. With the number of opportunities to network in any given week, you could spend two thirds of your available working time just meeting with people!However, networking is usually only a piece of your overall marketing plan, so how do you make certain your networking hours are well spent?Get realistic about how much time an event will take. Where is the meeting or event and at what time of day?? Will your trip there or back be during rush hour?? Do you need to get there early or stay late to be around when the networking really happens? Here’s a hypothetical but very realistic situation. You’ve decided to attend a networking luncheon that also features a guest speaker. It will take you 20 minutes to get from your office to the event where you’ll spend just over two hours including the time you’ve built in for pre- and post-event ne
    tination_guide".

    Users may use labels for topics that Google already has under development, which include: health, destination guides, autos, computer & video games, photo & video equipment, and stereo & home theater. Users may also develop their own labels for topics. For example, if a user has an interest in "wine" they may develop labels for the topic wine, which may include "wine_regions", "wine_types", etc. They can then use these labels to annotate sites that deal with wine.

    An end user may submit their annotations to Google in one of two formats: 1) in a tab-delimited format (which can be created using Microsoft Excel or any spreadsheet); or 2) in an XML file. Perhaps the easiest format for most users to deal with is simply to create a spreadsheet where the first column contains a URL or URL pattern, and the subsequent columns contain labels, one label to a column. Further information that may be associated with a URL in subsequent columns includes:

    • Score - a ranking of relevance from 0 to 1 (0 to 100%)
    • Comment
    • Attributes - user defined attributes which may only be included in the tab-delimited file format

    Annotation Examples

    A few examples will go a long way to illustrate annotating URLs. If I were using a tab-delimited file to annotate a travel related web site it might look something like this:

    URL                                                     Label            Label         Label        Score Co

    The Effect Of A Good Business Card Design Part II
    Each of these approaches dovetails well with the two major approaches you can take when defining the identity of your business. You can either emphasize your professionalism, your affluence, and the proven success of your business, or you can emphasize your innovation, your creativity, and the fact that you bring something new to the table. Either approach is valid, but which approach works best for you is something that only you can decide.If you choose to design in order to impress, then your design options are limited to traditional effects, but within those limits you can create a business card whose elegance is its own argument for prospective clients. Some interesting design ideas include varying your paper stock, varying your typeface, or even including some complicated printing extras like high-color processes or gold leaf. This adds a level of expense to your printing costs but it's well worth it in terms of effect--and your potential clients will see that you have the money to spend
    that may be associated with a URL in subsequent columns includes:

    • Score - a ranking of relevance from 0 to 1 (0 to 100%)
    • Comment
    • Attributes - user defined attributes which may only be included in the tab-delimited file format

    Annotation Examples

    A few examples will go a long way to illustrate annotating URLs. If I were using a tab-delimited file to annotate a travel related web site it might look something like this:

    URL                                                     Label            Label         Label        Score Comment http://www.travelsite.com/*                   sightseeing    museums    shopping   1         Detailed destination information

    If I were using an XML file to annotate the same travel related web site it might look something like this:

    <Annotations> <file>travelsite-annotations.xml</file>

    <Annotation> <about>http://www.travelsite.com/*</about>

    <Label> <name>sightseeing</name> <score>1</score> <Comment>Detailed destination information</Comment> </Label>

    <Label> <name>museums</name> <score>1</score> <Comment>Detailed destination information</Comment> </Label>

    <Label> <name>shopping</name> <score>1</score> <Comment>Detailed destination information</Comment> </Label>

    </Annotation>

    </Annotations>

    Conventions for Labels

    There are some simple conventions that should be followed when labeling content. First it is important to understand that labels may be applied to URLs or wildcard URLs. Using wildcards makes it much easier to label a lot of content with a few statements. For example:

    • Labels applied to www.mywebsite.com/ would only apply to that specific page of the web site
    • Labels applied to www.mywebsite.com/* would apply to all URLs that starts with the URL "www.mywebsite.com"
    • Labels applied www.mywebsite.com/*tips would apply to all URLs that start with the URL "www.mywebsite.com" and contain the word "tips"

    A single URL may have multiple labels. If using a tab-delimited file, each label must appear in its own column.

    Labels should be all lower case with all punctuation and conjunctions (and, or) removed. For example, "hardware and software" would become "hardware_software".

    Labels should be as short as possible and as unambiguous as possible. Watch out for words that can mean multiple things.

    Additional Information

    There are many good places to find additional information. The first is the Google Co-Op Site (http://www.google.com/coop) where they have posted a Topics Developers Guide. The Google Co-Op FAQ is also helpful. There is also a good article entitled "How to Use Google Co-op" at Google Blogoscoped (http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-05-11-n40.html).

    Why is Labeling Content Important?

    The process of labeling content will benefit everyone in several ways. Labels will provide Google with a vast amount of information about web sites, potentially down to a very granular, or individual page level. If an individual's annotations are found to improve the quality of the search results, they will be shown to everyone. In essence, over time, Google will use annotations and other aspects of Google Co-Op to improve search results.

    Conclusion

    Annotating URLs is a relatively low effort task for individuals that can reap benefits for everyone - better and more relevant search results. While still in its infancy, and going through the growing pains that are normal for services that are in beta test, Google Co-op clearly has a lot of promise to enable Google to provide much more powerful and relevant search results to users.

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