According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is in talks to buy a famous video sharing website, YouTube, for US$1.6 billion. A purchase of YouTube could give a big boost to the online video efforts of Google. YouTube commanded 46% of visits to U.S. online video sites in August, according to market research firm Hitwise. That compared to a 23% share for the video activities of News Corp.’s MySpace social-networking site, and 10% for Google Video. This rumor has not yet been confirmed by either Google or YouTube.

Via Wall Street Journal.

Google Gadgets are mini-applications which can work with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or any page on the web. These mini-applications can range from simple HTML to complex applications, and can be a calendar, a weather globe, a media player, or anything else you can dream up. There are two types of Google Gadgets, universal gadgets and desktop gadgets. The Universal Gadget works with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or your own webpage, while the Desktop Gadget only works with Google Desktop. The gallery of 1,220 Google Gadgets has been made available to homepage users, such as financial information, sports news, communication tools, jokes, horoscopes, or geometric puzzle games. However, the applications are subject to limitations of the browser being used by the homepage owner. And the most important thing is that these “gadgets” do not work when the user is offline. Visit Google Gadgets for more info.

Via Google Gadgets.

Several bloggers are now using Google’s MP3 wrapper in an inline frame to stream audio onto their sites. The same thing happens on Gmail. A new GMail feature lets you play MP3 files right inside the GMail interface without having to download the MP3 or open an external media player. As a result, when an MP3 appears in your Gmail inbox, you can listen to it right on the spot. Just click the button beside the file name and a stripped down version of Google Video Player will pop up and play the song.

Via Digital Inspiration and AnythingButiPod.

If you want your blog to get listed on Google then adding a sitemap would be a good first step, especially if it is a new blog since it takes quite some time for Google to index your blog on its own. XML-Sitemaps.com is a tool that helps you generate Free Google Sitemaps with unlimited number of URLs per sitemap. When your sitemap is ready, you can download it in .xml, xml.gz, .ror, .html and .txt file formats. And when you’re finished creating your sitemap, you can simply submit it to Google.

Via Ades Blog.

If you’re like us and you check your AdSense stats around the clock every moment you get a chance to then you might’ve noticed the reminder AdSense has put up on their stats control panel. It seems like too many people are checking their stats too many times so Google decided to put a timer there to remind us to get a life. LOL.

Via ProBlogger.

Ever wonder what Google is up to? You might get an idea from their growing list of domains. Currently at the moment of this writing Google owns 520 domains. Their domain collecting business has been going on for the last couple years, mostly from companies they acquired bought. Some domains are just weird IMHO, like allevil.org which doesn’t fit their company motto, Do no evil. Or maybe they’re just trying to keep evil from spreading? They’re very wise however to snatch domains that sound similar to Google. I’m sure this is typo prevention so people can type Google the wrong way and still reach their main site. Some of these domains are googel.com, gogle.com, gogole.com and wwwgoogle.com. You can see the complete list at Pronet Advertising. Now I wonder what they’ll do with porngoogle.com. Another evil prevention scheme?

The days of making an income out of AdSense is still young, but some people are already making a good fortune out of the system. Michael Cheney is one of them, with around $19,000 monthly AdSense earnings. Obviously he’s a guy who has mastered the art of making money through AdSense, and now he’s sharing his secrets with us in his AdSense Videos.

The truth is it’s not easy, but Michael is willing to let you in on his secrets. In his own words:

You Are Going To Watch Over My Shoulder And See EXACTLY How I Make $19,156 Per Month With AdSense And Then Steal My Step-By-Step Blueprint To Explode Your Own Earnings..

So check him out if you ever want to achieve that six figure dream from the comfort of your own bedroom!

You can now get your Google AdSense reports sent to your inbox:

Now, new emailable reports offer you even more freedom: the ability to have your AdSense earnings reports sent straight to you. You select where and when you want your reports sent. Up to ten custom reports can be delivered daily, weekly, or monthly to the inbox of your choice.

To set up an emailable report today, visit the new ‘Report Manager’ page, under your Reports tab…

Google have also announced their ‘Themed Ad Units’, with seasonal images and colour schemes being displayed during holidays, the festive season and special events.

For more information on Google AdSense custom reports by email, Themed ad units, AdSense for search designs and new improvements to their Link Units visit the Google AdSense what’s new page.

This is an update to my post earlier this month about the Google AdSense Referral Program. You may recall that in this article I mentioned the Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral program wasn’t an option for international publishers.

All that’s changed and International publishers now have the option to refer their visitors to the Firefox plus Google Toolbar through the AdSense Referral feature. You can earn up to $1 for every user who downloads and runs the product for the first time, which obviously excludes users who already have it installed.

What is FireFox plus Google Toolbar ?
As described by Google

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser with pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, and privacy and security features. We’ve integrated the Google Toolbar into the Firefox download to offer you even more features: Google search, SpellCheck, and Autofill.

You can access the Firefox referral code from your AdSense account Referral Tab.

Iichii yaa yaa readers!!!! In this installment I will talk about how to understand your web statistics to increase revenue to your blog. In my safari hunt in the internet jungle, I came upon a word I’ve seen many times but didn’t understand what it meant. That word is Webtrends. I found out it is an advanced log analyzer. A more precise definition is:

WebTrends is specifically designed for mid-sized organizations featuring revolutionary visualization capabilities that transform historically complex reports into easy-to-interpret analysis and new Dashboard and Excel integration technologies that seamlessly build web analytics into your daily workflow. From the most granular examination of campaigns and merchandising performance, to the most complete navigation, conversion and search engine marketing analysis, WebTrends provides mid-sized companies comprehensive insight for easier decisions, smarter marketing and optimum results.

Now you don’t have to run out and purchase this expensive software for your blog, but some tips I’ve seen on how to use the data it provides will enable you readers out there to understand your own web analytical software no matter how minimal the features. The good thing is, you can use Google’s free Web Analytics to play with the information I have provided to you! As provided by Extremelee’s blog post *Numa Numa Dances* *Ahem* This website has in-depth knowledge on how to use what are called “Key Metrics”:

Key Metrics are usually a ratio of something measuring an action to visits and visitors of a website. An example is finding a ratio of which visitors to your blog stayed 20 minutes or more, and which categories of your blog did they view the most? This can help in determining the type of category content to focus on, and maybe focus your entire blog to it to generate ample amounts of revenue. In addition it can help on which type of ads to display. For instance if you have a cooking blog, and most of your visitors stayed 20 minutes or more to read recipes on quick breakfasts, it would be important to focus ads on say toaster ovens, a brand of egg or something of that nature.

To read more on this exciting new realm of analyzing your site data and increasing revenue, please visit “Using Webtrends” over at Jimnovo! Blog on!!