This morning I saw an article in the New York Times with the headline Two-Thirds of Americans Object to Online Tracking:

ABOUT two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers — and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.

So naturally I clicked to see who the co-authors were. One of the study’s co-authors was Chris Jay Hoofnagle. Hoofnagle has served as the Senior Counsel and Director of the West Coast Office
of Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). You haven’t heard of EPIC? EPIC was the group that in 2004 argued that Gmail should be shut down: “In a letter sent to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Monday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center argued that Gmail must be shut down because it ‘represents an unprecedented invasion into the sanctity of private communications.’ ”

I can guess what you’re saying. “That was five years ago. People didn’t know then how useful Gmail was going to be.” Okay, then did you know that EPIC lobbied the government to shut down Google Apps earlier this year? Here’s the article from March 2009:

A privacy advocacy group has asked the Federal Trade Commission to pull the plug on Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and the company’s other Web apps until government-approved “safeguards are verifiably established.”

If the FTC grants the request, hundreds of millions of Internet users would be unable to access their e-mail or documents until the agency’s formidable collection of lawyers in Washington, D.C., became satisfied with the revised applications. The outage would extend to businesses that pay for access to Google Apps.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center submitted the far-reaching request to the FTC in a letter from its director, Marc Rotenberg, on Tuesday.

Most people know that the choice of questions in an study can make a huge difference to the outcome. To fully inform the people who read the study, do I wish Chris Jay Hoofnagle had mentioned his connection to EPIC in the paper’s bio section? Yeah, I kinda do. At least when I checked Techmeme, not a single story mentioned Hoofnagle as a Principal Investigator on the grant and co-author on the study, or Hoofnagle’s connections with EPIC.

I’m sure that EPIC has done plenty of fine work to improve privacy on the web. I certainly disagree with some of their opinions: EPIC may have wanted to shut down Gmail five years ago and wanted to shut down Google Apps earlier this year, but I believe that would be a bad idea. I don’t think a majority of people want their Gmail or Google Apps accounts shut down by the government. And maybe this most recent study will be received as completely impartial–but I wish that Hoofnagle’s connections to EPIC had been disclosed in the bio section.

Don’t get me wrong. I welcome criticism of Google (or other companies’ practices) from all corners of the web. From that criticism it’s important to look for ways to improve. People love (and hate) Google enough to give us passionate criticism, and I truly appreciate the feedback. It’s when Google’s features and products are greeted with indifference or apathy that I’ll really be worried.

To this day, you still see courts mistakenly believe that meta tags occupy a pivotal role in search rankings. We wanted to debunk that misconception, at least as it regards to Google. Google uses over two hundred signals in our web search rankings, but the keywords meta tag is not currently one of them, and I don’t believe it will be.

In addition to the official blog post, we made a video as well:

I hope this clarifies that the keywords meta tag is not something that you need to worry about, or at least not in Google.

Step 1. Buy a productivity book.

Any productivity book will do. I use a book called “The Now Habit.” It doesn’t matter what book you order though, because you probably won’t read it. You can use any random “increase your productivity” book.

Step 2. Look at the productivity book and tell yourself, “If I don’t get X done, I’m going to have to read that productivity book.”

That’s it. As far as I can discern, staring at the cover of a productivity book gives you almost as much of a motivational boost as actually reading the book. And if staring at the cover doesn’t work, then tell yourself the punishment for not getting your work done is that you’ll have to read that dang productivity book. Pretty soon you’ll be off and working. Enjoy.

Update 9/17/2009: We made a special “Search Software Engineer” position that you can use to apply.

Bummer. Then I found out that I wouldn’t be getting the Wall Street Journal:

Bigger bummer. But after a while, I started to notice a trend. See if you can tell what the trend was:

Doh!

Doh!

Doh!

Doh!

Doh!

Doh!

That’s right — not a single magazine or newpaper showed up. Instead, eight different times I was told that an “overwhelming response” meant that title wasn’t available.

So where do things stand now? Well, in the 4-10 weeks that I had to wait for the subscriptions to start, those 15,000 frequent flier miles expired. I can’t try to subscribe to any other magazines or even donate the miles to charity at this point.

To add a cherry on top, I keep getting emails from U.S. Airways, which apparently can’t understand why I would let my miles expire and would be happy to sign me up for a credit card to resurrect those miles from the dead:

You know what, U.S. Airways? Just keep the miles. Or better yet, if anyone from the U.S. Airways Dividend Miles program sees this post and wants to do something nice, please donate those miles to charity.

If you fly with U.S. Airways, be aware that redeeming miles for magazine/newspaper subscriptions might not work as well as you’d like. And will I be avoiding 321mags.com (which now redirects to magazineoutlet.com) in the future? Yes, I will be avoiding them.

We basically decided to say queries until something went badly wrong, and I almost ran out of queries. I did:
[behavioral economist]
[ed felten dmca]
[fox theater redwood city california]
[time in beijing]
[39 centimeters in inches]
[answer to life the universe and everything]
[safebrowsing api safari firefox]
[custom made pinata] < – this got recognized as [old custom made pinata], but the search results were still fine
[google quality guidelines]
[sheraton hotel boston massachusetts]

I can’t promise that the voice recognition work as well for you, but I have noticed that the voice recognition has improved considerably since the mobile app first launched. If the recognition doesn’t quite understand your accent, I hope it will in the future. Give it a try though, because you might like it.

This month is really busy with some internal Google projects–don’t worry, not related to webspam–so I’m not planning to do a new 30 day challenge this month. I have kept biking in to work and I’m enjoying it more lately. I think I’ll enjoy biking even more after I bling my bike out with the full-color LED lights I bought from MonkeyLectric at Maker Faire. Here’s an image from MonkeyLectric’s gallery to show you what they look like:

I have to say, they’re a big step up from my Tireflys, which are just LEDs that stick on the stem valve of your bike tire.

We’ve added rel=”nofollow” to any external link that we’re not sure we can vouch for. This includes all external links from comments, user profiles and story pages below a certain threshold of popularity.

I think this is pretty smart. Digg isn’t adding nofollow to everything, just the links that they’re less sure about. Once a story looks real to them, I can imagine that they would lift the nofollow. I discussed this for Google web properties in a recent video:

Google does something similar with Knol. Initially Knol authors received nofollow’ed links, but as we gain more trust in authors, we can remove those nofollows. As I recently said in another video, if a site like Wikipedia had good confidence in an editor, you could imagine links made by that editor not having the nofollow attribute. So if you have a way to determine which user-generated links are trustworthy, that could be a more nuanced measure of when to use the nofollow attribute. I discussed this subject a bit more in this video in case you’re interested. It’s about 1:24 into the video:

So new move by Digg is a positive change in my opinion, because Digg decreases the benefit for spammy stories but Digg still helps normal and high-quality stories in the search engines.

For the last 30 days, here are my Google Analytics stats for mattcutts.com:

For me, 8.97% of my readers run Chrome, up from 7.04% in March 2009.

Some different browser marketshare numbers:

- Net Applications says that Chrome went from 2.59% to 2.84% from July 2009 to August 2009.

- StatCounter gives daily stats. I’m seeing 3.31% on Saturday August 1st to 3.59% on Saturday August 29th.

- Clicky says that in the last 60 days, Chrome has gone from 3.376% to 4.004%:

So after one year, three different sources report market share of 2.84%, 3.59%, and 4.004%. That’s pretty good for 12 months. More importantly, Chrome has pushed all browsers to be faster, more modern, and generally better.

I’m also looking forward to some of the fun things coming in Chrome. Features like bookmark syncing and themes in the latest developer or “dev” release of Chrome are quite nice. If you’re adventurous, you can also try dev versions of Chrome for the Mac and Linux too. And if extensions are your thing, those are coming along as well.

Does anyone know of other sources for browser marketshare? How do the browser stats look for your site(s)?

One of my favorite hidden Google gems is a program for Android phones called My Tracks. I like it enough that we made a short video about it. Enjoy!

As always, you can watch more videos on the official webmaster video channel on YouTube.

Erin Patrice O’Brien for PEOPLE for use on CBB

Meet Paloma Louise Lebenzon!

Ugly Betty star Ana Ortiz and husband Noah Lebenzon welcomed their first child on June 25th in New York City, and Celebrity Baby Blog can exclusively share their in-depth interview and baby’s first photos.

Click below for the interview and images!

Erin Patrice O’Brien for PEOPLE for use on CBB

On her labor:

Ana Ortiz: I went into labor Friday night around 1:30 a.m. and I just kind of dealt with it. It was a surreal experience. I’m like “This is finally happening. This is really happening.”

I tried to sleep but I couldn’t — it was too intense. Around 3 a.m. I got up, sat in this chair and just tried to breathe through it. It was hard. I was just so excited and anxious.

I wanted to stay home as long as possible because I didn’t want to have the epidural too early. I was afraid that I was going to get talked into things that I didn’t want to get talked into, like getting induced just to make the labor go faster. I wanted to take its own time and be as natural as possible.

Around 6 a.m. the contractions were five minutes apart and it was intense. That feeling is … well, I can’t even explain it. So I called the doctor and he’s like, “You should get to the hospital.”

We got to the hospital around 7 a.m. and around 1:30 p.m. I had the epidural. At 4 o’clock I started pushing and 4:25 p.m. she was born.

On Paloma’s birth:

AO: I was so scared, but it really was a wonderful and — I hesitate to say easy — but it was a nice experience.

I [had her at] Mount Sinai Medical Center, overlooking [Central Park]. My mom was there, my best friend Jill and my husband, so it was a full house. But it was great. I didn’t have to push until 25 minutes before [she was born].

I’ll tell you the funniest part. When I was in the process of giving birth my husband was right with me and he’s telling me, “Babe, you’re doing so great,” whispering encouragement –- he’s super mellow and cool.

Then I started to crown a little bit and he’s still going, “Oh my God baby, it’s amazing. You’re doing great, keep going.” And then her head popped up and then he goes, “Woah, woah, woah!! Holy moly! That is crazy.”

I couldn’t see it, thank God! They offer you a mirror and I was like, “Uh, no.” There will be none of that. I don’t need to see that. I was a birthing partner for two of my friends so I’ve been at births. But I didn’t want to see my own.

Noah Lebenzon: I feel like we are connected on a different level now. Watching Paloma coming out of Ana was the most insane thing I’ve ever seen from the female body. I have so much respect. It’s just so incredible.

I love Ana a lot more that I did before, that’s for sure. My relationship with her is even better with a kid. It really is. Ana is more beautiful than ever as a mom.

On seeing their daughter for the first time:

AO: Oh my God! Well, she was pretty. When they come out babies are normally freaky looking and she wasn’t. I know I’m biased. I’m telling you she was gorgeous!

I guess I was just completely overwhelmed because I didn’t cry and was sort of in a state of shock. When I first saw her … I can’t even begin [to say].

They took her right away to get her cleaned up — the umbilical cord was still attached and Noah cut it. I told him, “Go with her, go with her.” He was with Paloma the entire time, looking over her and it made me feel so reassured and safe. She had these big, big red lips, and these big cheeks and was perfectly pink.

NL: I was so afraid because the woman is pregnant so she feels the baby and I’m like, “What if I don’t love the kid?” I really want to love her but I don’t feel that connection because it’s so outside from me. But right when she was born it was that lightning strike of absolute love.

On naming Paloma Louise:

NL: It’s hard naming a kid! I didn’t think it was going to be that hard. It was complete stress and freaking out on what we are going to call this person for her entire life.

AO: We had a list that we liked and just wanted to see what suited her. Even when she was born the whole night we still weren’t sure on the name. We were like, “I don’t know. What do you think? Which name, which name?” We couldn’t decide.

NL: We just hung out with her for a day and a bunch of them dropped away. Then it was between two.

AO: The next day, we were still unsure. My best friend Marie Anna came over, and the four of us — Noah, Paloma, Mar and I — were just sitting there talking about different names.

Then all of a sudden Noah was just like, “It’s Paloma! It’s Paloma,” and my best friend and I were like “It’s Paloma!!” So Noah decided. I think it fits her well. Thank God!

NL: I was talking with my mom in Los Angeles about it and I said, “It’s going to be Paloma” and she’s like, “That’s the name!” It was a nice choice and it’s always nice to have your parents back you up.

She just looked like a Paloma to me. It’s Spanish and it’s cool. I never thought I’d have a kid in New York with a Spanish name. You never know! You just roll with it.

AO: Paloma means dove, which is the bird of peace, but I just thought was a beautiful name. It’s elegant and yet it’s powerful.

I wanted a Spanish name that people who don’t speak Spanish could pronounce without destroying it, so Paloma fell into that category. Paloma is easy in English and easy in Spanish. And the name just suited her.

The middle name, Louise, is my grandmother’s name, my mother’s middle name and my middle name. It just fits with Paloma. Paloma Louise just seems old-fashioned and yummy! I just liked it.

On Paloma’s looks:

AO: So far she really looks more like my husband and his side of the family. Her nose and her coloring. She came out with this light sandy-colored hair and I was like, “What the…?” She’s totally pink and there’s no olive in her!

On Paloma’s personality:

AO: She’s really calm. I’m sure she gets it from my husband — he’s really patient and even keel. He’s from California and is mellow and she is too. We just got really lucky.

I’ve been told that their personality when they are born is pretty much their personality. That’s really interesting and I hope it’s true! So I’m so lucky. I couldn’t have asked for a better kid. She’s our own little Buddha baby so far.

I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop to tell you the truth. It’s like the calm before the storm.

NL: We’re lucky with her because she’s such a good kid right now. I say that and she’s probably going to have a temper tantrum and be completely insane.

It’s tough though. I didn’t think it was going to be that hard through the night, waking up all the time. [Paloma fussing] is an alarm clock for Ana. As a guy, I just sleep right through it.

It’s funny — Ana really responds to Paloma, but I respond to Ana, so it’s like a domino effect. She’ll get up with the baby and then I will get up. So that’s the way it works with us.

On breastfeeding:

AO: When it switched from colostrum to milk there was a whole day where she didn’t poop or pee — I went into a tailspin of panic! I was like, “Her kidneys are shutting down! I’m killing my child! I can’t feed her!” It was literally like total dismay. And my mother was like, “It’s fine. It’s fine. Call the pediatrician.” The next day everything was fine!

Paloma is up every two hours to eat. Oh my God! At first I was like, “She’s so awesome! She’s sleeping for four and a half hours. My kid is rad! This is easy!” But now she is up pretty much every two hours to eat and I feel like I’m not making enough milk. I really feel like a machine! I just have to stay completely hydrated. But it’s so well worth it.

On each other as parents:

NL: Ana’s very natural — she really takes care of her. It sounds so stereotypical but it’s really not an effort for her. She’s really hands on with Paloma, breastfeeding.

AO: Yeah, he’s been amazing. He’s always like, “God, baby, you look amazing. You look so great” even though it’s 5 o’clock in the morning and I’m breastfeeding. I look like a complete monster and he’s like, “Babe, you look beautiful.”

NL: I feel bad sometimes but I can’t really do that much for her because it’s such a mother and daughter time right now.

As a mother she’s very patient, which I think is necessary. She’s amazing! I know that sounds cliché but she really is a great mom. I always knew she would be. She always had that quality in her.

Erin Patrice O’Brien for PEOPLE for use on CBB

On motherhood:

AO: It’s incredible! Sometimes I look at her and I go, “You came out of me? You’re mine? You’re here. This is it. We are going to be together for the rest of our lives.” But it’s an amazing and incredible feeling.

It’s everything that I imagined it would be and more. It really is.

My best friends would tell me, “When she’s born you’re never going to believe how much you can love somebody.”

You hear it and of course it makes sense logically, but when it actually happens, it’s the most intense feeling. I can’t believe I love someone this much.

It’s just the right time with everything in my life. I totally have to pinch myself. I have a daughter now.

In fact, I was talking to the receptionist at the pediatrician’s the other day and I was like, “My daughter is a patient here.” It was the first time I said, “my daughter” and I started giggling. She’s my daughter, my daughter.

It was like when I got married. I couldn’t say “husband” without giggling for six months. [laughs] It’s the same thing.

It’s totally surreal. I still feel like a kid sometimes myself so hard to believe that I’m a mom. Now I’m an adult! It only took 38 years! [laughs] I’m a late bloomer. What can I say?

On fatherhood:

NL: I’m still figuring it out. I’m still navigating the whole thing. But so far it’s great! I love being a dad.

Ana pumps and I can feed Paloma, that’s one of my favorite things to do with her right now. Looking into her eyes.

On going back to work on Ugly Betty at 2 ½ weeks postpartum:

AO: It was hard. I’m not going to lie. The first thing I did back at 2 ½ weeks was a fitting for costume and wardrobe, and if you know my character, she’s a little miss cha cha. I was like, “Where are the Spanx?! Get me the Spanx!” I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head.

I was nervous about being pregnant because they didn’t write the pregnancy into the show, so I stayed really active. Being in New York City is the best because I’m always walking, taking the subway and walking up and down the stairs — whether you like it or not, you’re going to get exercise.

I also worked out three times a week so I think that really helped with my body and with the delivery.

NL: Work is just brutal. But she handles it so well and she’s such a champion. Her hours are crazy. Waking up at 5 a.m. or waking up at noon, depending on that week’s schedule … and she’s up all night.

AO: I was on set yesterday and I was like a zombie. America [Ferrera] was like, “Are you okay?” And I was like, “Huh?” But I can’t believe how fast things are going.

On favorite activities:

AO: Walking around the city with her. We take her in the stroller and we walk across the Brooklyn Bridge up into SoHo. It just feels like such a family, the three of us.

I love to walk around with her. It’s amazing how many people stop you when you have a kid. They’re all like, “Oh my God, can I see?!” I’m like, “Okay!”

NL: I play guitar for her and try to soothe her. She likes the acoustic guitar — the electric, not so much! So I will play a lot of folk and classical. She really loves it. It’s fun for me because I get a lot of practice in at three in the morning.

On dating:

NL: Paloma can at 35. God, I didn’t have a girlfriend until I was in my 20’s. I was such a nerd. Ana was much more advanced in that department. Hopefully I can drill that into her head while she’s a baby. I’m coming out with a high-tech chastity belt for high school.

I’m sure I will have absolutely no control over that. Like the birth, you can’t have a set idea on how you think everything is going to go or else you find yourself in a lot of trouble. I just want to be flexible and just be there for her for whatever she needs.

More kids?:

AO: Yes! Absolutely. Very much so. I will probably only give birth to two and then the rest will come to our family however it happens. I can only hold two, but you never know. I really want a boy because boys love their mamas!

– Paul Chi

Posted in Featured, Main, Today’s Top Story

Jeff Sciortino for PEOPLE for use on CBB

Competing on The Biggest Loser didn’t just help Amy Wolff find a husband (fellow contestant Marty Wolff, whom she married last year).

The NBC weight-loss show “prepared me to be pregnant,” says Amy, who refused to fret when she went from 180 to 250 lbs. before delivering the couple’s 10 lbs., 14 oz son Blaine Patrick via c-section on July 4th.

Now “I have the knowledge and confidence that I can get back to normal,” says Amy, 30, who has already shed 40 lbs., mostly through running (on Loser in 2006, she had lost 106 of her original 260 lbs.).

“I know it’s possible.”

Besides, bonding with baby has made it all worthwhile.

“Blaine is a mini-me!” says Marty, 28, who with Amy runs Reality Wellness, a weight-loss and self-improvement program, from their Omaha home. “He’s a big guy.”

Which has given Marty equally big ideas about his future: “Marty thinks he’s going to be a football player,” says Amy. “He got him a shirt that says ‘No. 1 Draft Pick.’”

But Amy will be happy no matter what Blaine becomes. “I love looking into his eyes and thinking of the possibilities,” she says. “We want to raise him in an environment where he knows he can acheieve anything he wants.” Just like his parents.

– Cynthia Wang

Click below for a second photo!

Jeff Sciortino for PEOPLE for use on CBB

Posted in Babies, Dads, Exclusive, Main, Parenting, Reality TV