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Google Thinks I’m Someone Else

PR guru Steve Rubel notes that Google now includes thumbnails for WordPress blogs in search results. That’s great, except for one thing: Google thinks I’m Filipino gaming manager Carlo Ople.

I blog about the guy twice, and I become him. Talk about identity theft. Carlo’s not alone — Google also thinks a lot of people are tech blogger Allen Stern.

I blog about Filipina cosplayer Alodia Gosiengfiao a lot more than I blog about Carlo. If Google’s image matching algorithms are going to mistake me for someone else, why couldn’t Alodia appear in my search result thumbnail? No offense to Carlo, but Alodia’s a lot prettier.

Microsoft Buying Yahoo Search? Rubbish.

The Times of London says Microsoft is about to buy Yahoo search, providing a surprising amount of detail on the supposed deal. BoomTown’s Kara Swisher says it’s nonsense.

…a convoluted $20 billion deal that would include well-known Internet execs Jon Miller and Ross Levinsohn, is–in the words of one key player–”total fiction.”

Actually, that’s Levinsohn speaking, on the record. But that’s also the essential word from all key players regarding the Times’ report.

BoomTown has spoken to top sources at Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) too and all scoff at such a deal now taking place or that either side has been in any such discussions of late.

Yahoo’s entire market cap, in fact, is only $16 billion.

I’m with Kara on this one. She was the first to break the story of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang stepping down, so she’s got good sources there. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has also made very clear his vehement disinterest in Yahoo, much to Yang’s utter humiliation.

That, and common sense dictates you don’t buy part of a $16 billion company for $20 billion. Of course, Ballmer isn’t known for his common sense, but even he must know that sixteen is less than twenty.