There’s something about this topic that is unsettling – the deal seems nearly devilish, beneficial and somewhat horrifying at the same time. Google’s latest plea to the US and EU governments to help fight censorship centers on the economics, not the political morality, of censorship.

After starting out on an internal-only basis, the Google Public Policy blog has been opened for public consumption and commentary.

With the new Google Public Policy Blog, transparency’s the name of the game; Googlers will explain the company’s position on issues that could affect us all.

Google’s Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer appears to be a master of textual undercurrents (what the reader understands as "between the lines"), responding to Privacy International’s recent condemnation of the company’s privacy policies without mentioning the group itself.

People returning to their feedreaders after the SMX conference and elsewhere found new AdSense policy changes awaiting them.

Google’s policy of retaining user information for up to two years, has become the center of an investigation by an EU panel, according to the AP.

Advertisements for weapons, drugs, and prostitutes have been banned from Google.  All right, fair enough.  But now advertisements for essay-writing services will also be forbidden, and while more than a few people have raised their eyebrows, others have cheered.

The United States has 58.1 million broadband (256 kbps or better) in December 2006, but at 19.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, America is just average at getting broadband to the people.

US Broadband Penetration Just Stinks

It hasn’t been a good week for long-time shock jock Don Imus. After his controversial comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, his Imus in the Morning radio show was quickly dumped by both MSNBC and CBS. The events surrounding the scandal have had an interesting impact on the search world as well.

Prior to CBS axing the Imus program, several major sponsors pulled their advertising from the show, which no doubt was a major factor in the network’s decision to pull it from the airwaves.

In the wake of the Kathy Sierra kerfuffle, there have been calls for a blogging code of ethics; the problem isn’t with bloggers, or even their blogs.

I have been consulting on internet marketing for over a decade. In my career I have seen many unethical things, from Fortune 500 companies performing many questionable actions, to observing sales agents selling on a fundamentally wrong foundation.

Bringing certain content-updating behaviors to web pages without reloading them has been a key piece of the ‘Web 2.0′ online application meme; it now appears the criminals could have a way to break them open too.

The Oslo-based software company clarified its position on tomfoolery, gimcrackery, shenanigans, mischief, mayhem, but not hijinks.

Opera Software ASA, makers of the best browser in this, or indeed any, universe, today revealed the results of a five month process to determine this year’s April Fool’s joke. After considerable competitive analysis, structural synthesis, skilled observation, educated prognostication and blind luck, the management along with Opera’s Corporate Relations and Prevarication department determined there will be no April Fool’s joke for FY07.

Lots of sites reporting news that Google has taken down a Blogger blog, after it posted a death threat against a New Zealand politician.

Google spokeswoman Victoria Grand today said the weblog was taken down this morning after a complaint from the Ministry of Social Development. She said it was not just yesterday’s death threat that prompted the site shutdown, but that Google believed it was repeat violation of site rules.

I lived to see this day come to bear .. Myspace sending SPAM "member" emails, to an email address, that doesn’t exist (bliggy[at]bliggs.com), on one of my domains.

All the headers are legit, and the "member" email is sent to a "confirmed email". Go figure guys.

As recently shown, people don’t read your terms of service. My stats also show that people don’t read my comments policy before posting a comment. Sometimes I am forced to delete comments from possibly well meaning people who don’t realise that their comment might be looked on as spam .

I’m not exactly sure what caused all this secondary fuss about no-follow and reviews lately but I think it’s time someone pointed out that Google is being extremely hypocritical about the entire thing and using fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to corral web publishers to their way of thinking.

The headline may sound a little harsh, but based on their recent Adsense policy updates as noted by Jensense, it’s the conclusion that has to be made.

I wasn’t sure about posting about getting the nix from digg earlier this week, but apparently it was on many people’s minds.

With more pressures on bloggers to disclose their business relationships, Weblog Tools Collection points to a neat Wordpress plugin that helps bloggers set up their own disclosure policy.

The Peppercom and Bulldog Reporter Business Blogging Survey conducted on 1,200 marketing industry executives from the United States and United Kingdom, revealed some startling disconnects in corporate communication policy on both sides of the pond…