February 2, 2009

Dogpile.com's Search & Rescue Program Helps Soldiers Bring Home Rescued Dogs from Afghanistan

Last November, Dogpile.com launched its "Search and Rescue" program that donates money to animal-related charities. The program also helps people find help for needy animals.

Two soldiers in Afghanistan found out about the program and looked for assistance in bringing two stray dogs they'd rescued home to the U.S. The soldiers tours of duty were coming to an end and they couldn't bear to leave their new best friends behind. When Dogpile learned of the program, they agreed to sponsor the trip for the dogs.

Here's video of the dogs arriving in the U.S. and being picked up by the wife of one of the soldiers:

Dogpile.com's Search and Rescue program has already raised $100,000 for the ASPCA. Last August, Dogpile.com announced a partnership with Petfinder.com (which is where I found our new dog Ruby!)

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

December 2, 2008

Dogpile.com's Search & Rescue Program Raises First $100,000 for ASPCA

Dogpile.com searchers have raised $100,000 for the Search & Rescue Program, a philanthropic arm that donates money to animal-related charities. The program is on its way to reaching its goal of raising $1 million for the ASPCA by the end of 2009.

“Whether people are using Dogpile.com for their online holiday shopping or just for general information searches, the traffic to the site has helped us raise a significant amount for the ASPCA already,” said Stacy Ybarra, senior director of corporate giving, InfoSpace. “Search and Rescue allows any individual with access to a computer to support a worthy cause without significantly changing their habits or spending a penny of their own money.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 5, 2008

Dogpile.com and Petfinder.com Agree to Search Partnership (Plus, Tell Us Your Pet Story!)

Infospace's Dogpile.com has been selected as the search partner for Petfinder.com. Additionally, the partnership will see both parties producing and promoting widgets and toolbars for Dogpile as well as promoting Petfinder's listing of over 250,000 pets.

“This partnership is a great extension of the Dogpile brand,” said Bruce Allenbaugh, Chief Marketing Officer of InfoSpace. “By working closely with Petfinder to introduce Dogpile's search experience and our pet-affinity to their pet-loving audience we'll encourage cross-traffic between the Dogpile and Petfinder sites.”

Did you use search to find your pet? (I found my bengal kitty Cinnamon on Craigslist.org and rescued my other kitty on the side of the road near a local Walmart). Yeah, that's right. Matt Cutts isn't the only one with adorable cats!

Now it's your turn. Tell us your pet story in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 19, 2008

Dogpile.com Releases a Searcher's Best Friend, a Desktop Widget

Dogpile.com has released a desktop search widget. The widget features a single-search bar, which blends results from Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com. Dogpile's SearchSpy, which features searches conducted all over the world, is also included on the widget.

But this isn't your average search widget. Dogpile's mascot, Arfie, is featured on the widget and you can pet him and play fetch with him. Awww!

“Offering a little fun with your search is one critical element our team is focused on as we continue to improve Dogpile.com,” said Mark Whidby, director, search product management of InfoSpace, Inc. “Our users have always loved Arfie, and now we're giving them a way to take him home with them. This widget is the first of many new engaging and useful tools we hope to launch in the coming months. A top priority as we continue to upgrade Dogpile.com is to engage and entertain our users while providing a superior search experience.”

To download the Dogpile widget (and Arfie!), visit www.dogpilewidgetdownload.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 24, 2008

Dogpile.com Updates Search Algorithm, Design and Content

Dogpile.com has been doing a little spring cleaning and has come out the other end with an updated search algorithm, design and new partner content. Don't worry. Arfie, the cute spotted Dogpile mascot, still greets you on the homepage.

Here's what to expect from Dogpile's updates

• Improvements in the blending of results • Tabbed search categories on the home page • The launch of a SearchSpy social networking widget for Netvibes or iGoogle • Deep links (think Google sitelinks) • Integrated content from new partner agreements

“Search is now the primary focus at InfoSpace and we are committed to enhancing Dogpile.com, our flagship site,” said Mark Whidby, director, search product management of InfoSpace, Inc. “We've listened to our users and have conducted additional research to bring them an enhanced search experience at Dogpile. We look forward to continuing to upgrade the site and offering our users improved features and technology.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:44 AM | Permalink

October 13, 2006

Consumer Satisfaction Doesn't Equal Market Share

Earlier this week J.D. Power and Associates released the findings of its "2006 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study." The study, based on a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. residential Internet users, found that Yahoo Messenger ranked the highest among IM clients and that – and this is something of a surprise – InfoSpace's Dogpile had the highest rankings among search engines.

Here are the rankings of IM clients in terms of customer satisfaction:

1. Yahoo! Messenger 2. MSN Messenger 3. Windows Messenger 4. Instant Message Average 5. Google Talk 6. Trillian 7. AIM/AOL Instant Messenger

Compare that to U.S. IM market share (per Nielsen//Netratings):

1. AOL 2. MSN 3. Yahoo 4. Google

The J.D. Power report also said that U.S. residential IM usage was flat vs. 2005, at 36%. Yet the survey found that "among customers who report using IM on a regular or occasional basis, nearly 70 percent report that to some degree, instant messaging has replaced the use of traditional telephones." There are implications here for traditional telephony that are striking and worth further exploration.

Probably more interesting to readers of this blog are the search-engine findings. The survey reported that 75% of residential Internet subscribers used multiple search engines.

Here's the market-share breakdown that J.D. Power found:

1. Google: 51% (up 8 points from 2005) 2. Yahoo: 17% (down 4 points) 3. AOL: 9% (down 1 point)

The release doesn't report on the respective shares of Ask or MSN/Windows Live. Presumably they constitute the remaining 23% of usage or something approaching that.

Compare comScore August search market share data:

1. Google Sites: 44% 2. Yahoo: 28.7% 3. MSN: 12.5% 4. AOL: 5.6% 5. Ask: 5.5%

Here are the J.D. Power survey's customer satisfaction findings. Little used Dogpile was ranked number one:

1. Dogpile 2. Ask.com 3. Google 4. Yahoo! Search 5. AOL Search 6. MSN Search 7. Internet Explorer (treated as a search engine in the survey)

I don't have any insight into the survey methodology so we have to take the results at face value. But 10,000+ respondents is a very large sample. A disconnect is the difference between search engine market share and the satisfaction ratings. Based on these findings one would think that if Ask and (especially) Dogpile could gain broader awareness and visibility they might be able to gain some share.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 11:19 AM | Permalink

May 12, 2005

Dogpile Gets New Look, Overlap Comparison Tool & Study

Dogpile has released a significant upgrade to its meta search engine, allowing easy comparison of search results across the major search engines. Dogpile has also introduced a new comparison tool that visually illustrates search engine overlap (or lack thereof) in the top results for Ask Jeeves, Google and Yahoo.

In today's SearchDay article, Dogpile Enhances Meta Search, Offers Comparison Tools, I take an in-depth look at these new services, and also comment on some new research that quantifies search engine overlap and why it's important for both searchers and search marketers alike.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 1:39 PM | Permalink

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