October 22, 2009

"The Art of SEO" Isn't a Paint-by-Numbers Kit

The Art of War by Sun Tzu isn't about Chinese pottery and The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin and Jessie Stricchiola isn't a paint-by-numbers kit.

The Art of SEO is a comprehensive guide to search engine optimization strategies and tactics written by four SEO experts:

-- Eric Enge, the President of SEO consulting firm, Stone Temple Consulting, who is widely recognized as an expert on the topic of SEO.

-- Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz.org, one of the web's most popular portals on the topic of search.

-- Stephan M. Spencer, the founder, President & CEO of the SEO firm Netconcepts.

-- Jessie Stricchiola, the founder of Alchemist Media, Inc., a San Francisco search engine marketing company.

The Art of SEO provides proven guidelines and cutting-edge techniques for planning and executing a comprehensive SEO strategy. The authors clearly explain SEO fundamentals, while correcting many common misconceptions. If you are new to SEO, you'll get a complete and thorough SEO education, as well as an array of effective tactics, from basic to advanced. Seasoned practitioners will find this book useful as a complete reference to SEO best practices.

The chapters on Keyword Research, Developing an SEO-Friendly Website, Creating Link-Worthy Content & Link Marketing, and Tracking Results and Measuring Success are must-reads for anyone interested in mastering search engine optimization.

I interviewed Fishkin on the future of SEO at SES London 2009. He said people are using more social elements and direct methods of getting information rather than using the traditional search engines. Programs such as Yelp, OpenTable for local search, and Kayak, Faircast Live for travel search are examples of this recent development.

Fishkin said people today who want to converse or learn more about social media don't use Google but use such applications as Facebook or Twitter. He also offered his take on the significance of links.

Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz, on the future of SEO in 2009

Fishkin and Enge will both be speaking at SES Chicago 2009. Fishkin will be speaking about "PPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle" and "Black Hat, White Hat: Does it Really Matter Anymore?" Enge will be speaking about "Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues."

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 5, 2009

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for "Four Keynote Themes"

During the past three weeks, I've given you three great reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those who want to catch up, they were "three key trends", "two early birds," and "a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll focus on a fourth compelling reason -- and it isn't to hear "four calling birds."

You should plan to attend SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 to hear "four keynote themes."

Let's start with SES Chicago 2009, where there will be three keynote themes well worth hearing.

On Day 1, the opening keynote is being given by Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? He is associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism. He is also consulting editor and a partner at Daylife, a news startup.

Jarvis writes about media, technology and business on his blog, BuzzMachine. A former TV critic for TV Guide and People magazine, as well as the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, he has also been assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a reporter for Chicago Today.

"My keynote, like my book, isn't really about Google," says Jarvis. "It will be about the profound changes in the economy and society brought on by the Internet -- as seen through the success of the one company that has figured out and exploited them better than any other: Google."

Jarvis adds, "We'll have fun discussing the impact of search and the Google economy on every sector from media to advertising to restaurants to government.

On Day 2 of Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009, the keynote speaker is Peter Morville, author of the best-sellers Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become and Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites. He is also the President of Semantic Studios and blogs at findability.org.

During his keynote, Morville is expected to expand on the themes found in his published works, including the idea of findability and the importance of a navigable and friendly user interface.

"At SES Chicago, this will be my first opportunity to talk about ideas in my new book - about the future of search and discovery," says Morville. "In addition to exploring the relationships between information architecture, ambient findability, and search engine optimization, we'll also be covering mobile search, decision engines, augmented reality, and emerging technologies that will change the way we find everything from answers and articles to products and people."

On Day 3, the keynote speaker is Dan Siroker, the web entrepreneur known for leading the analytics team for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. He also served as the Deputy Director of New Media on the presidential transition team.

Siroker's team of software engineers and analysts were responsible for optimizing the effectiveness of the Obama campaign's online operations that ended up raising over half a billion dollars, registering over 2 million voters, and enabling 3 million phone calls to be made in the final four days of the campaign.

Before joining the Obama campaign, Siroker was a Product Manager for Google Chrome and, before that, he worked as a Product Manager for Google AdWords.

"SES Chicago is, of course, in the President's hometown, so I'm really looking forward to sharing the lessons my team and I learned during the Obama campaign and how these practices can be applied to any data-driven decision," says Siroker. "Whether you're a developer, designer or marketer, if you're building a product or selling an idea, you can use data to do it better."

The fourth keynote theme will be delivered by Bill Hunt, the President of Back Azimuth Consulting and co-author of the best selling book "Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site", who will be the opening keynote speaker at Search Engine Strategies Berlin.

Hunt is currently on the Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization and writes Bill Hunt's Rants & Raves blog, which provides digital marketing commentary from a global marketing road warrior.

Hunt firmly believes that when we understand the searcher's intent, where a searcher is in the buying cycle or even understanding the type of search they are doing, advertisers can better intersect with the current demand for their type of products and services to increase sales. That's a keynote theme worth going to SES Berlin to hear.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons to go to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, keep singing "four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 30, 2009

Bryan Eisenberg Shares 69 Free (or Low Cost) Tools to Improve Your Website

Bryan Eisenberg, the co-author of the bestselling books "Call to Action", "Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?" and "Always Be Testing", has a new personal blog named, Bryan Eisenberg. (Does he owe his parents royalties for using that name for his blog?)

And he's just posted an incredibly useful list of 69 Free (or low cost) Tools to Improve Your Website.

(I should disclose that I'm mentioned in the 69th listing, which is for Market Motive, but so are Avinash Kaushik, John Marshall, Todd Malicoat, Matt Bailey, and Jennifer Laycock, who are also members of the Market Motive faculty.)

So, check out the complete list of low-cost and free tools. Yes, yes, you'll find ones like Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer, that you already knew about. But there are plenty of others that I'd never heard about before.

And while you are visiting Eisenberg's new blog, let him know if there are other free (or low cost) tools that should be added to the list. Hey, improving your website is hard, so we want to know as many options as possible.

Oh, and if you come to SES Chicago 2009, thank Eisenberg in person. You can't miss him. He's the New York Yankees fan being interviewed by the Boston Red Sox Nation citizen in the video below.

Bryan Eisenberg, Future Now, at SES London 2008 on SEO

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 23, 2009

How To Pimp Your YouTube Channel and Other Miscellaneous Advice

This may seem like shameless self-promotion, but if you read all the way to the bottom of this post, you'll benefit in ways that you wouldn't imagine. Besides, I figure that you'd want to know how to pimp your YouTube channel and get other miscellaneous advice. I could always blog about this topic, but the details have just been dished out in three videos and a podcast.

Let's start with the interview that Mike McDonald of WebProNews did with me at SES San Jose 2009. (Actually, the video starts by itself, but don't let that throw you.) The video is entitled, Finding Marketing Value in YouTube.

With people being increasingly drawn to video content, everyone is trying to capitalize on video sharing sites such as YouTube. I told McDonald, however, there is one problem: it isn't always easy.

YouTube is known for funny videos of cats or children. While these videos may go viral, they will likely only produce a one-time audience. In other words, these kids and cats may not to do the same thing again, which means there would be no reason for viewers to return to that channel for more content.

To be successful on YouTube, users cannot simply upload a single video. Statistics show that in an average minute, 24 hours of video has been uploaded to YouTube. As a result of this large amount of competition, I tell McDonald that users should create a series of "compelling content" in order to bring viewers back continually.

Users have to have a reason for wanting to come back to a particular YouTube channel and it is up to the content providers to produce that desire. Is your YouTube channel creating that appeal?

Now, I should provide equal time for other views.

Over at ReelSEO, Mark R Robertson interviewed me at SES San Jose 2009 about Leveraging the Power of YouTube for Search Marketing. I told him, "One of the most important trends in search is YouTube. It is the second most popular search engine on the planet."

But I suggested a two-pronged approach:

1. Optimize your video so that it can be found in searches 2. Involve yourself in the community, which helps breed the sharing aspects of YouTube.

I then told a story about Monty Python. I interviewed Monty Python's producer about their YouTube efforts. The producer originally just went looking for a way to help keep pirated copies of Monty Python's work from being uploaded all over the place. So they created their own channel and began posting their work themselves -- in a higher quality.

As an afterthought, they put a click-to-buy link at the bottom of the video so that users could click and be taken straight to Amazon to purchase DVDs. A funny thing happened when they did that: sales went up a staggering 23,000%.

The point of the story, obviously, is that although YouTube is not thought of as a direct-response marketing platform, as it continues to evolve, it's turning into a direct-response marketing solution faster than people may realize.

But wait! There's more! Check out the YouTube video below. Mike Grehan, Senior Vice President of content for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ, and Search Engine Strategies, says my new book "won't help you find the answer to life, the universe and everthing in it, but I guarantee it will help you get your videos found on YouTube, Google and other sites. So, read this book. It will change your life. You'll become more wealthy, more attractive to the opposite sex."

Mike Grehan, SVP for SEW, ClickZ and SES on YouTube Marketing: An Hour A Day

If you find this hard to believe, then check out the podcast on DishyMix.

This all started when Susan Bratton saw me dashing through the San Francisco Airport, with a new copy of my book, "YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day."

Bratton says, it "is another one of those Wiley tomes that plunges all the way to detail hell on every aspect of using web video for marketing. This book is a must-read that will get you up to date on the constant changes YouTube is putting into place so marketers and Google can milk this phenomenon for everything it's worth."

The random encounter at SFO got me invited on DishyMix, where Bratton has just posted her interview of me. It's entitled, Episode 117: Greg Jarboe: Pimp My YouTube Channel, 6-Steps to SEO PR and Roosevelt's Arena.

According to Bratton, "Start making video and let Greg tell you how to produce it, research the keywords and optimize your video so you can get found, watched and loved."

She adds, "And in case you still want to get those press releases out there, Greg gives us his updated, freshly reformulated 6-Step Process for Optimizing Press Releases for the News Services."

If you like those DishyMix episodes where the guest delivers how-to advice in painstaking detail, then this is the show is for you. According to DishyMix, it is "packed with great tips, insider short cuts and a level set on the world of online video marketing, banana-milkshake fueled Jarboe works his buns off for you."

I know, I know, even I would take these comments with a grain of salt.

So, if McDonald's video, Robertson's video, Grehan's video and Bratton's podcast still don't provide you with enough details about video optimization, then you have options.

You can attend today's Online Publicity Workshop at Market Motive. It starts at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific and is entitled, YouTube & Video Marketing.

No, this isn't duplicate content. I will explore the world of online video, including what it takes to be successful and how to use some of the lesser known tools to prepare and track an online video marketing campaign.

Or, can also attend SES Chicago 2009. On Day 1, Monday, Dec. 7, I'll be speaking at a session entitled, "YouTube & Video Optimization."

Online video marketing is crucial in today's marketplace. More than 158 million Americans watched an average of 8.3 hours of online video during July 2009. That's more viewers than the 151.6 million Americans who watched Super Bowl XLIII, which reached the largest television audience in U.S. history.

My solo presentation will provide you "with proven, practical guidelines for developing and implementing video marketing for your organization." At least, that's what the SES Chicago website says.

And if you register by this Friday, Sept. 25, you can save up to $600 with the Early Bird Rate. See, it does pay to read all the way to the bottom of these posts.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

July 29, 2009

20 Authors of Business, Marketing, PPC and SEO Books Speaking at SES San Jose

Bring a couple of book bags to Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2009 because there will be more than 20 authors of business, marketing, PPC and SEO books and speaking at the conference. I should disclose that I'm one of them.

Now, there are a lot of great conference speakers who haven't written a book -- yet. I should know. I've been speaking at SES conferences since 2003, six years before I wrote a book. And writing a book isn't like Doc Ostrow getting a Krell brain boost in the movie Forbidden Planet (1956).

Nevertheless, getting a book published does indicate that you've got more than 12 minutes of PowerPoint slides to share with attendees. And, it's "something that never looks bad on your permanent record," according to Greg Marmalard in the movie Animal House (1978).

As a new author, I'm also beginning to learn that tracking where you rank on Amazon.com is almost as addictive as tracking where you rank in Google. Now, Google guidelines do not recommend the use of products to check rankings. However, Amazon.com welcomes them. For example, Rankforest provides sales rank tracking for authors and publishers. They can view historical charts, export rankings, compare items, create alerts, and more.

So, as you look over the agendas for SES San Jose, the Social Media & Video Strategies Forum, and the Local Search Summit, you might want to know about the subjects that the conference speakers have written about as well as the topics that they are going to address. Here are the 20 authors that I know will be speaking at one or more of these events:

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.

Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.

Tim Ash, author of Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions.

Optimizing Landing Pages -- Tim Ash's Tips and... Footwork

James Colborn, author of Search Marketing Strategies: A Marketers' Guide to Objective Driven Success from Search.

Bryan Eisenberg, co-author of Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results, Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing, and Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer.

Bryan Eisenberg Always be Testing: Google Website Optimizer

Mona Elesseily, author of Mastering Panama.

Eric Enge and Stephan Spencer, co-authors of The Art of SEO.

Dave Evans, author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day.

Andrew Goodman, author of Winning Results with Google AdWords.

Andrew Goodman- Winning Results with Google AdWords

Mike Grehan, author of Search Engine Marketing: The Essential Best Practice Guide.

Bill Hunt, co-author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site.

Greg Jarboe interviews Bill Hunt about his new book

Greg Jarboe, author of YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day. http://www.amazon.com/YouTube-Video-Marketing-Hour-Day/dp/0470459697

Greg Jarboe - Mysteries of Online Video

Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day.

Rebecca Lieb, author of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization.

Rebecca Lieb, eConsultancy, on her new book about search engine optimization at SES NY 2009

Lance Loveday, co-author of Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers & Prospects into Leads.

Robert Scoble, co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.

Ayat Shukairy, co-author of Landing Page Optimization: The Complete Guide.

Shari Thurow, author of Search Engine Visibility and When Search Meets Web Usability.

Amanda Watlington, co-author of Business Blogs: A Practical Guide.

Now, I'm probably missing a few authors -- especially a couple of conference speakers who are still writing books that haven't been announced yet. Still, if you review the list above, you could fill a bookshelf with all the titles that have already been written by speakers at SES San Jose, the Social Media & Video Strategies Forum, and the Local Search Summit.

So, if you will be attending Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2009 for the first time, then imagine entering Flourish and Blotts for the first time. It's the popular bookstore in Diagon Alley where most Hogwarts students purchase their schoolbooks.

Who knows. Maybe famous wizard author Gilderoy Lockhart will be holding a book signing at the store.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

April 2, 2009

Read "The Truth About Search Engine Optimization" by Rebecca Lieb

Read, don't skim, "The Truth About Search Engine Optimization" by Rebecca Lieb. It's has just been published by FT Press and this book reveals 51 proven search engine optimization techniques and bite-siz, easy-to-use advice that gets results.

Okay, I should disclose that I've know Rebecca Lieb for years. She was the The ClickZ Network's editor-in-chief for over seven years, which is about as long as I've been doing SEO PR. But she now oversees the U.S. operations of Econsultancy, the leading source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and e-commerce. So, I have no conflict of interest in plugging her book.

Lieb spoke at SES New York last week and Jamie O'Donnell, the co-founder of SEO-PR, interviewed her about the target audience for her new book. As she says in her introduction, "It's not a book for geeks. It will not teach you how to write code, or get you up to your elbows in programming. But whether you're a small webmaster or a chief marketing officer overseeing a search optimization initiative, you will learn tactics, strategies, and best practices for wrapping your arms around this whole search thing."

Rebecca also discusses her favorite takeaways from her new book. Of course, my favorite is Truth 22: "Using SEO PR as a link strategy."

Check out the interview below:

Rebecca Lieb, eConsultancy, on her new book about search engine optimization

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 13, 2008

“Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer”

The new book, "Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer," is hot off the press. Written by Bryan Eisenberg and John Quarto-vonTivadar, with contribution from Lisa T. Davis, the book will help you understand how to set up website optimization tests and improve your conversion rates.

And, if you are going to SES San Jose next week, head over to the "Pay Per Conversation" session on Monday, Aug. 18 at 11:15 a.m. and get Bryan to sign a copy of the book, which is being provided as a courtesy by Google.

(Get there early since Google will only be giving away a few hundred books.)

I confess that we've been sitting on this story since June, when Mitch Joel of Twist Image and Six Pixels of Separation blog interviewed Bryan about his new book for the SES Conference Expo Channel on YouTube. If you want a sneak preview, check out the video interview below.

Bryan Eisenberg, "Always be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer"

If you want more information, read "Always Be Testing Unleashed" on the GrokDotCom blog.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 2, 2006

55 Ways To Have Fun With Google

Interested in playing games? Want to learn a few other trick things you can do with Google? Google Blogoscoped author Phillip Lenssen has written a book titled: 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google. Learn about playing the classic Snake game among others, and using Google calculator utilities etc. According to the description, there's no programming skills needed. I haven't read the book, but knowing Phillip's blog, it sounds like it could be very interesting reading.

Posted by Detlev Johnson at 9:18 AM | Permalink

April 5, 2006

Getting More from Google Maps

Google Maps is fundamentally easy to use, but with a bit of extra effort you can create some really interesting, useful "mashups" combining maps with other types of information. For example, I wrote about Placeopedia, a site that lets you map places mentioned in Wikipedia. If you really want to plunge in to creative uses of Google Maps, you should check out Google Maps Hacks, a new book from O'Reilly. I've got a review of the book in today's SearchDay article, Hacking Google Maps.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:42 AM | Permalink

December 27, 2005

Transcripts and Video: Authors of Books About Google Interviewed on TV

In the past few days, the authors of both recent books about Google and web search have been interviewed on tv or featured in tv news reports.

+ First, "The Search" author, John Battelle, was interviewed on television recently and an edited text transcript of that chat was posted on CNN.com yesterday. The post is titled: The future of online search.

+ Second, on December 15th, Reuters Television posted a report about Google and chatted with the co-author of The Google Story, David Vise. You can view the report by here. It's available via AOL Video Search.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:24 PM | Permalink

December 14, 2005

Wayfinding on the Web

We've come a long way since the early days of the web, both as information consumers and search marketers. But we can do a lot more to improve our experience, writes Peter Morville in his new book, Ambient Findability. Though a relatively short book, Ambient Findability is big on ideas and concepts useful to anyone who spends a lot of time playing in search space. I've got a full review of the book in today's SearchDay article, Information Wants to be Found.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:27 AM | Permalink

December 8, 2005

A Potpourri of Search Technology Books

I review all sorts of search-related books in SearchDay. Part three of my collection of search-related book reviews, A Compilation Search Technology Book Reviews, looks at reviews of books covering everything from hacking your own search engine to digging deeper into data mining.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:25 AM | Permalink

November 14, 2005

An Excerpt from The Google Story

It's time for another book about search, Google to be specific. While John Battelle's excellent book The Search is about the search biz and technology as a whole (yes, with plenty about Google), the new book (due out tomorrow in the U.S.) by David Vise from the Washington Post and Mark Malseed focuses squarely on Google (Vise calls it a biography) and is titled, The Google Story. Today, The Post published an excerpt from the book.

You can read Chapter 26, "Googling Your Genes," here. More to say once we can read the entire book. Btw, an abridged audio version of The Google Story is also being released.

Here are a few key passages (IMHO) from the excerpt:

Brin and Page foresee Google users having universal access to vast repositories of fresh information, some of it public and some private, which is not currently available on the Internet. This encompasses motion pictures, television, and radio programs; still images and text; phone calls and other voice communications; educational materials; and data from space. The pair is also involved in the hunt for clean, renewable energy sources to power Google and broaden economic growth. "These guys have a big, compelling vision for what the company is going to do," said Stanford president John Hennessy. "They think very hard about the long term."

One of the most exciting Google projects involves biological and genetic research that could foster important medical and scientific breakthroughs.

Google's data-mining techniques appear well-suited to the formidable challenges posed by analyzing the genetic sequence. It has begun work on this project, but has not been required to disclose any information about it publicly since the work has no impact on its current revenue and profits.

Among the other innovations that Sergey Brin and Larry Page would like to see Google and other firms achieve in the future is the production of affordable, clean-burning fuel that does not harm the environment. The source for this power is likely to be the sun. This area of research is important to Page, who for years has focused on the enormous quantities of electricity needed to power Google's network of hundreds of thousands of computers.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:57 PM | Permalink

October 19, 2005

SearchDay Book Reviews: The Big List

A frequent question we get here at Search Engine Watch is "do you know any good books about... [search engines, search marketing, how to build your own search engine, etc]." We certainly do. Over the past years I've reviewed dozens of good search-related books, and I'm now pulling them all together in a Big List, which I'll keep updated going forward.

The first installment of the list covers books about general-purpose web searching. Check it out in today's SearchDay article, Searching for a Good Searching Book?. Later installments will cover reviews of books on search marketing, specialized search tactics, search technologies, and more.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:22 AM | Permalink

September 15, 2005

My Thoughts On "The Search"

Chris did the heavy lifting in reviewing John's Battelle's new book, "The Search," but I wanted to add my own comments as well. Overall, it's fantastic work and a must read for anyone interested in search.

The web-driven search industry is now about 10 years old and has been sorely lacking a good recounting of how it developed. John delivers us that history, and it's very welcome to have. One of the most pleasing things is that he's managed to avoid as much as possible making this entirely about Google. Google is a dominant force, but other players such as AltaVista and GoTo/Overture get well deserved time here.

I told John already I felt a bit sad that the rise and fall of the Open Directory and human directories in general really didn't get covered. They may be a footnote, but for a short period, it seemed like human power was going to be the way forward. Why that failed is an important lesson as we go into a second decade where many assume folksonomies will somehow take over.

Another quibble. In 1996, it's not correct to say as on Page 78 that it was "nobody's goal" to be indexed in search engines. Plenty of people wanted exactly this. If they weren't, I wouldn't be writing now. That's the year I started writing about search and SEO issues, and the positive reception from readers told me there was tons of interest in being well indexed.

Site owners simply didn't want to get stomped on by badly behaving spiders that threatened to stall their servers, as Google's predecessor BackRub was doing. That WAS a concern for some during that year and more in the preceding years. That leads me to the only really good prior history on web search we've had until now, "Bots: The Origin Of New Species" from Andrew Leonard from 1997. That's another must read. It's amazing we've gone this long without the rest of the chapters of search being written since Leonard's book, but again, so glad John's now done that now.

John also talks of Google getting complaints over how people were ranked because "this was the first time anyone had claimed to rank the inherent value of a web site." I have to disagree and feel this overcredits Google. Plenty of people were concerned about being listed well in Excite or Lycos or Infoseek or AltaVista or Yahoo -- and all of those services suggested they were trying to rank sites by their quality or relevancy. Some of them even did rudimentary link counting.

As I said, these are quibbles. I'm a tough audience to please, and if that's all I'm finding in a 300+ page book, it's an A+ effort :)

Some favorite parts. Overall, for anyone who has been involved in search over the years, I think the entire journey through of various search milestones will make you smile, laugh or go "oh, yeah" as you recall where you were when you heard bits of search news.

Out on page 185, there's a jaw-dropping part that Google may have rigged AdWords to show ads in a certain way to help its trademark infringement suit with American Blinds. He writes:

The American Blinds lawyer dropped his bomb: he had what he believed to be incontrovertible proof that Google had fiddled with its own search results this very day and only in this region so as to sway the court's opinion in this matter

Google denied the allegation, suggesting it might be a technical glitch that caused it.

John also talks of the US Patriot Act and how it requires search engines among others to cooperate with the US government to release information -- and how Google cofounder Sergey Brin hadn't read it. Wow. Well, wow to some, I'm sure, as I've seen in some reviews of the book. I can see not reading the legalese part, so perhaps Brin hadn't read it but knew what was in it. But still wow again, when you come to the part that the act prevents apparently even disclosing to anyone that you've handed over information!

Be sure to check out the footnotes, where it turns out Google cofounder Larry Page originally, in discussions over a final interview, wanted the right to review any mention of Google, himself or Sergey Brin in the book and respond in footnotes. John spent weeks in negotiations before Larry backed down and even apologized, though he felt journalism in general was "extremely flawed" and wanted a way to "make it better." Can you imagine all those who feel Google's search results may be flawed and would like the ability to "footnote" their own listings. That idea wouldn't fly far.

Aaron Wall over at SEO Book notes today that there's not a lot of focus on SEO in the book, and that's true. The history of search marketing and the search marketing industry essentially revolves around the Florida update of 2003 (named not as the book says for the hurricanes to hit Florida that year but for the WebmasterWorld conference planned to hit the state a few months later) and how many webmasters woke up to the fact they couldn't expect a free ride on Google.

Such shake-ups had happened before to webmasters on Google and on other search engines even before that. I can remember getting a call at home on the weekend after an Excite shake-up knocked a guy out in 1999 or 2000. I'm in the UK; he was in the US and tracked me down, having a crisis because his business was so dependant on free traffic from Excite (yes, Excite!) that he was going to go under. But Florida was certainly a watershed for a generation of SEOs/SEMs that had effectively only known Google.

There's some discussion of the give-and-take/arms race/whatever between site owners and search engines, in particular Google. But for the most part, that's a side issue in the telling. Don't expect the book to be a history of SEO and search marketing. This is really a book focusing on the business of search engines themselves.

Need some more summaries? USA Today has a good review here, the Associated Press over here and Google's Matt Cutts writes over here highlighting parts he liked from his perspective.

Like I said, it's a must read, a fantastic effort, and I'm glad he fought through all the interviews not to mention the constantly changing industry to do it. Rest up, John, then get to work on The Search: Part 2, because there's going to be more history that needs a tellin'.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:22 AM | Permalink

Two Thumbs Up for Battelle's The Search

John Battelle's book The Search has finally been published, and it was worth the wait. Combining a history of the search industry with an analysis of search as a business, it's unlike any other book I've yet seen. The book is also worth reading for Battelle's thoughtful musings on the evolution of search into what he calls "the database of intentions," a medium that's all pervasive and will have an impact on just about all aspects of our lives.

I've got a full review of the new book in today's SearchDay article, Search as the New Great Game.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:11 AM | Permalink

August 17, 2005

Battelle Excerpt: Google Goes Public

Second Book Excerpt: Google Goes Public is the latest excerpt from The Search that John Battelle has posted on his blog, from his forthcoming book. It looks at the lead up to Google going public. See also The Boys Versus The Adults: Google Goes Public Story that we blogged about earlier this year, a great read on the same theme from GQ.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:15 AM | Permalink

August 7, 2005

Battelle Posts Excerpt from "The Search"

As Danny pointed out a few weeks ago on SEW Blog, John Battelle's new book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, is due out next month. I was fortunate enough (thanks John) to have been asked to review a couple of chapters and when I get home from SES, the completed manuscript (thanks again JB) is waiting for me. A few hundred words have already been excerpted in Wired and John is now beginning to post excerpts on his Searchblog site. The first excerpt, "focuses on [Bill] Gross's [Overture, Snap, etc] early insights into market economics.

Btw, it's already a busy time for for search books. Of course, not to be missed is our own Chris Sherman's just released, Google Power. Also of note and also already available is Ran Hock's, Yahoo to the Max.

Battelle's book is due in about one month followed about six weeks later with the release of David Vise's book, The Google Story. Happy Reading!!!

Posted by Gary Price at 9:34 PM | Permalink

July 28, 2005

Battelle On The Birth Of Google

The Birth of Google at Wired, spotted via Google Blogoscoped, has John Battelle recounting how Google came to be. Larry Page and Sergey Brin found each other obnoxious at first. Page was fascinated by the math the web represented and how who was linking to whom might be useful. That led to the precursor of Google, Backrub. Brin joined up and together the rank calculation system dubbed PageRank (the Page coming from Larry's last name) was born. Fast, easy read and tantalizing glimpse of John's The Search book due out in September, from which its excerpted.

Postscript (from Gary): Many of the underlying concepts that Brin and Page used to formulate PageRank (aka link analysis) have been around for prior to when Sergey met Larry. This blog post takes a look at Dr. Eugene Garfield, the father of "citation analysis" which has been used be academics and librarians since the 1950's. Also, not to be forgotten is the pioneering work of Dr. Jon Kleinberg and the IBM Clever team. Take a look at this paper by Kleinberg and the Clever team. The "Web Analysis and Search: Hubs and Authorities" section of Dr. Kleinberg's home page yields even more interesting reading. One paper, "Authoritative Sources in a Hyperlinked Environment" is even cited by Brin/Page in their "Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine" paper. Battelle interviews Kleinberg here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:28 AM | Permalink

See More Posts From:

This Week | This Month

 

• Send us feedback
|
• Technical questions or bug reports?
|
• Newsletter problems?
|
• Receive news via SEW RSS feeds

• Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. 2009 All rights reserved.
| Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints & Permissions |
• Privacy Policy
|
• Affiliates

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-564586-7"); pageTracker._setDomainName(".searchenginewatch.com"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); window.collarity_appid = "incmedia"; //> //>

• Send us feedback
|
• Technical questions or bug reports?
|
• Newsletter problems?
|
• Receive news via SEW RSS feeds

• Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. 2009 All rights reserved.
| Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints & Permissions |
• Privacy Policy |
• Affiliates