(Continued)

And to end the week, Google claims that anyone accusing it's Gmail service of privacy violations simply misunderstands its methodology. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has responded with a dedicated Web page addressing the issue: "Gmail and Privacy," which can be accessed from the Gmail home page.

Gmail, Google's new email service, has come under considerable scrutiny since the company announced its intention to enter the email market in late March. Google created Gmail with the idea of turning the folder-based model of most email services into a searchable database/archive model. Currently still in beta-test mode, Gmail will be free to users, and will offer them virtually unlimited storage space, at 1 gigabyte per user.

Because of its controversial ad model, in which an automated program scans user's emails in order to deliver contextually relevant text ads, Gmail has drawn the ire of consumer activists, privacy advocates, and even federal regulators nationwide.

"Some of the present dialogue," it says, "has been inaccurate, especially with regard to privacy concerns surrounding Gmail. Gmail does not represent a compromise or invasion of anyone's privacy," the company states.

New York Times columnist David Pogue notes that Yahoo and MSN Hotmail already bombard users with ads on their respective services. He says that Gmail's text ads are far less intrusive. "The ads are so subtle, so easily ignored, that it's hard to imagine anyone preferring the big, blinking slow-loading graphic ads that appear every time you check for messages at the Hotmail and Yahoo mail sites."

My 2 featured articles for today are "Eight ways to target better sales in your SEM campaigns" and "Choosing the right keywords for maximum ROI". But first, as usual, let me answer some of the 23 questions I got from some of you this week:

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