Yesterday it was announced that Google has gone all language-y on the web, updating its algorithms to understand not only the words being searched, but also the relationship between words. This is known as search semantics, and it is Google’s newest attempt to impress the web public with relevant search results.

Aside from the new word-relationship component, Google has also increased the characters devoted to summary paragraphs that attempt to pin down what people are searching for. In a recent blog post Google search quality team technical lead Ori Allon and snippets team engineer Ken Wilder wrote that the company “[is] deploying a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search. We are now able to target more queries, more languages, and make our suggestions more relevant to what you actually need to know.”

Heretofore Internet search services have focused on matching key words typed into query boxes with words at websites or in other online data. The newest generation of Internet users has caused a rise in demand for semantic searches that go beyond matching words to actually understanding what sentences or combinations of words mean. The trick, from a company stand point, has been whether or not adequate technology can be developed to process the increasingly complex searches with the high speed that Internet users have come to expect.

Not content with their current position behind Google in terms of search, Microsoft has recently stated that it is testing a Kumo.com semantic search engine. The hope is that the new search technology will be more popular than Microsoft’s current Live Search service, catapulting it beyond Yahoo! and Google.

As of Tuesday Google has rolled out semantic search capabilities in 37 languages. Some examples given by Wilder and Allon included a search in Russian for “fortune-telling with cards” which brought up search results for “tarot” and “divination.” Conversely, a Google search in English for “principles of physics” generated suggestions about “big bang” and “quantum mechanics.”

Keen (or tech wonky, take your pick) folks have recently noted that Twiter has gone all SEO on us. Twitter, it seems, has optimized its title tags. This could turn out to make Twitter an instant SEO tool, launching people to the top of Google.

While this author hasn’t seen much change in his Google profile with the Twitter tweak, it is only a matter of time before Google re-indexes the profile page, which should shove it up a little bit. New users, especially businesses, will feel the larger ramifications of this little move by Twitter. In essence, open a Twitter account get a spot in the top 10 (page one) of a Google search. Not bad. There are a ton of SEO companies that would love to have such a sure fire tool at their finger tips, and now, well, they do. Other social media companies are adopting this approach, Facebook among them. The end result is more personal branding for individuals, and easier corporate branding for companies. Instead of having to commit to time and labor intensive approaches like blogs and forums, people will find the easiest, most effective way to secure those results, be it Twitter or some other service.

With the rise and blossoming of online networking sites like LinkedIn and ClaimID, many people, especially younger people, are doing the majority of their business networking online. This phenomenon is not anything new, and it has been covered in this blog and elsewhere.

But while it may be easier to sit in front of the computer screen and interact with your peers, it is hard to think that interpersonal relationships can ever be fully fleshed out (if you will) in the digital sphere. Face-to-face networking will never go away. The information on the Internet is not always accurate (although that doesn’t mean it isn’t relevant, according to Google’s algorithms), and there is a lot to be said for looking someone in the eyes.

Today people should try to balance their “new school” digital networking with the “old school” tried and true methods. The approach will literally double the amount of chances a person has to make an impact with a potential employer, and the effort required to do so is not unreasonable (point of fact, until a few years the “old school” method was the only game in town).

LinkedIn and other popular business networking sites thrive because they offer an alternative to actually speaking with a fellow networker. The information you put in the profile becomes the equivalent of a hand shake and a greeting. Thus, a user profile, for business purposes, should be looked at as an opportunity to distinguish yourself as someone others want to know and be connected to.

There are small and effective steps one can take to achieve this. Focus on brevity. 100 words is enough to grab someone’s attention and establish a positive image. If done correctly, a LinkedIn profile can, for practical purposes, be the difference between just another interview and a job offer. Conversely, a poorly written profile can have you knocked out of the running before you even get started.

Many employers look at LinkedIn as a sort of research tool. A resume can only say so much about a person, and employers are always looking to find out the little bits about a potential employee that are not immediately apparent. This fact has had disastrous consequences for some people whose Facebook and MySpace profiles contain otherwise unflattering images/language/etc. We’ve blogged that story here more than once.

Online business networking profiles are still just a piece of the puzzle, though. A successful blend of the old and the new networking techniques will counteract the deficiencies inherent in both approaches. A human touch in the new digital landscape goes a long way towards maintaining awareness and crafting image, while drawing in more localized business and opening channels previously untapped.

A recent article from Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reveals the plans of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to fine people who create hyperlinks to sites on the Authority’s official blacklist. Which raises the question, how much is a hyperlink worth? The Australian Communications and Media Authority recently threatened the host of an online broadband discussion forum with an $11,000/day fine over a link, if that’s any indication.

 At present ACMA’s list of banned sites doesn’t impact Aussies too much, but that could all change if their government begins to apply a proposed Internet filtering program. Until then web surfers from Down Under may feel that they’re OK, but this most recent revelation shows how far ACMA is willing to go to control Australians’ activities online.

 Wikileaks, a site that has been placed on ACMA’s blacklist had this to say: “The first rule of censorship is that you cannot talk about censorship.” Wikileaks has come under fire from regulatory bodies for its mission to publish anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, or religious documents. Wikileaks has exposed the banned list of sites of several countries, including Thailand, Denmark and now Australia.

 Regarding ACMA’s efforts to restrict user access to Wikileaks, Electronic Frontiers Australia noted how ACMA’s own list of banned sites may someday find itself in the public sphere. “We note that, not only do these incidents show that the ACMA censors are more than willing to interpret their broad guidelines to include a discussion forum and document repository, it is demonstrably inevitable that the Government’s own list is bound to be exposed itself at some point in the future. The Government would serve the country well by sparing themselves, and us, this embarrassment.”

 Australia has become a new focus for those concerned about controlling information on the Internet, with Reporters Without Borders placing the South Pacific nation on its “watch list” of countries that are enforcing anti-democratic internet restrictions.

 The larger report from Reporters Without Borders on the state of freedom of information on the Internet was seized by Australian Senator Scott Ludlam, who is quoted as saying “This report demolished the Communications Minister’s contention that Australia is just following other comparable democracies, we are not. The Government is embarking on a deeply unpopular and troubling experiment to fine-tune its ability to censor the Internet. I agree with Reporters Without Borders. If you consider this kind of net censorship in the context of Australia’s anti-terror laws, it paints a disturbing picture indeed.”

 However, dissenting groups are lauding the proposed Internet censorship scheme. Citizens such as Jim Wallace, the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, have expressed their desire to see the sex industry and online gambling sites go broke as a result of the censorship scheme.

The Associated Press is reporting today the sad tale of a Wisconsin man whose ex-girlfriend placed a profile of him on the popular San Francisco-based community website CraigsList indicating he wanted to engage in “dirty” talk with other men.

According to police in Eau Claire County, the woman allegedly posted a profile of her ex-boyfriend on Craigslist under “casual encounters.” The “casual encounters” section of CraigsList is commonly used for illicit sexual hookups, and the woman reportedly set up the profile on the Internet indicating (falsely) that her ex-boyfriend wanted other men to call him at work and “talk dirty.”

When her ex received such a call from an unknown male who proceeded to do the dirty talking the ex-boyfriend immediately questioned what was going on. When he got home the ex went on online where he saw the Craigslist personal ad beckoning dirty talk, complete with pictures of himself. Then he called Altoona police to report the false profile.

With a little digging authorities were able to locate the man’s ex-girlfriend, and she is now charged with causing harm through identity theft, which could send her to prison for three years if convicted.

ReputationDefender has seen these identity spoofing sorts of attacks occur in the past. It pays to be civil in real life, and it pays dividends to remain diligent online when it comes to your personal online profile.