Google has just released yesterday a new version of its toolbar (v2.0.114-5) to fix some vulnerabilities. It's not possible anymore to inject code remotely on MS Internet Explorer.

According to SecurityTracker, it was reported that the 'About' section of the Google Toolbar did not properly filter HTML code. A user could create HTML that, when loaded by the target user, will invoke the About page and execute arbitrary scripting code in the context of the page.

Via and .

After the , Google Local Search is now available for the .

For now, Google Local only searches for locations in Canada and the United States. We plan on expanding this service to other parts of the world once we work out the kinks in this beta product

One small difference between the 2 versions is the unit used for distances: in miles for the United States and in kilometers for the Canada.

Yellow Pages Group (Canada) made a deal with Google to include the business listings in Google Local Canada. As part of the agreement, YPG’s 2.4 million Canadian directory listings will be available on the new Google site, helping to provide users of the service with comprehensive local search results.

According to a Kelsey Group study, 25% of all commercial online searches are now local in nature. Google Local addresses the growing online local search market and represents the next step in local search technology.

Few days after the launch of the new Google checksum algorithm, is this new checksum already cracked ?

As far as we know, it does not seem to be the case yet, but some people are hardly working on cracking it again in order to update their tools. According to Nick Stallman comment on our previous article "I'll start cracking it again", PRGooglebar is already working on it. Nick Stallman is the admin of the PRGoogleBar project, a modification of the extension for Mozilla and Firefox, which adds Pagerank to the Googlebar of Mozdev.

I also use Firefox and I do support it (if you don't already use it you should at least try it...), but I do not support any project based on a crack.

Will they succeed ?

As they have already done it and as the new checksum algorithm is similar to the old one, they will probably succeed. But nobody knows how long this crack will last. Users of unofficial PR toolbars and online tools that display PageRank with a craked algorithm shoud be aware that at any time, Google can easily turn their tools obsolete.

This is the reason why we chose to base our PageRank and Backlinks Analyzer software PR Weaver on the Google toolbar and not on cracked versions of the algorithm.

How Google can avoid such cracks?

Until now Google's checksum algorithm is only based on one factor: the URL. Once the algorithm is cracked, it is easy to get the PageRank from a URL.

Now, imagine if Google changes the algorithm to base it on two factors (the URL and the unique ID of the user's computer for example), what would happen? Everybody would have a different checksum for the same URL, so all cracked and server solutions would instantly be useless with no hope to get back in the game.

New version 2.0.114

Google has just released a new version of its toolbar: v2.0.114. The Google Toolbar updates itself automatically, as :

The Google Toolbar automatically updates itself when a new version is available. This may not happen immediately, but it will eventually.

The last 4 updates of the toolbar were (french version of the toolbar):

• version 2.0.111 : 2004-05-14
• version 2.0.112 : 2004-07-15
• version 2.0.113 : 2004-07-30
• version 2.0.114 : 2004-09-09

The Toolbar checksum

As you may know, the Google Toolbar has a built in code (in a DLL) for computing the checksum associated to each URL viewed in the browser. This checksum depends only on the URL and is needed to retrieve the PageRank displayed in the toolbar. In June 2004, this checksum algorithm was cracked and the code was released all over the web (see comments about that). Since that time, many people developed some PageRank checkers based on this cracked code. That was the first time you could retrieve the PageRank so easily without using the Google Toolbar.

The new algorithm

Search Engine Marketers wondered how many time Google would leave a cracked algorithm like this... if that could be an explanation for the long awaited PageRank update (Google hasn't updated the PageRank since the time this algorithm was cracked...).

Our tests show that Google has just changed this algorithm. Let's see some examples:

Tested URL: https://prweaver.com/

• With the last version (2.0.113), the checksum was 6963020688.
• With the cracked version, the checksum was also 6963020688 (evident but we checked that...).
• With the new version (2.0.114), the checksum is

Tested URL: https://prweaver.com/blog/

• With the last version (2.0.113), the checksum was 6754577502.
• With the cracked version, the checksum was also 6754577502 (evident but we checked that...).
• With the new version (2.0.114), the checksum is 6831794505

Conclusion

Google has changed the Toolbar Checksum algorithm (it is not the first time, but there are not much updates). During a transition period, both algorithm are valid (if you still have an old version of the toolbar, you still can see PageRank) but in the future Google may only allow the new algorithm. If it's the case, all the tools based on the cracked version of the toolbar checksum algorithm won't work anymore...

This is the reason why we chose to base our PageRank and Backlinks Analyzer software PR Weaver on the Google toolbar and not on cracked versions of the algorithm.

Read our new related article :

Google has added (don't know if it is new...) an ad for Picasa, the software recently acquired by Google. This ad is displayed in .

Thanks kiki for the news.

Blogs coverage:

• John Battelle's Searchblog
• Search Engine Roundtable

Google Test Servers and are now redirecting to www.google.com ().

They were the most used tools to analyze the changes during a Google Dance. Google used to choose one data center to which these test servers were connected. For more information about these test servers and the Google Data Centers, read the very good article Google Dance - The Index Update of the Google Search Engine.

Photograph taken in one Google Data Center

Blog coverage:

• Search Engine Roundtable

Are you a good coder? You may enjoy participating to the . Google is looking for engineers with the programming skill to rewrite the world's information infrastructure. The Google Code Jam 2004 is one way Google hopes to find them...

The registration period began on September 1st and will last until September 15th. Then the Qualification Round will last until the Championship Round on October 15th.

$50,000 in Cash Prizes!

• 1st Place - $10,000
• 2nd Place - $7,000
• 3rd Place - $5,000
• 4th Place - $3,000
• 5th Place - $2,000
• 6th to 50th Place will share $23,000

Blog coverage:

• Google Blogoscoped
• Bazac