The Search Engine Update - Number 208 - Nov. 9, 2005
Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan's recap of top search engine stories from the second half of October 2005.
Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan's recap of top search engine stories from the second half of October 2005.
===================
In This Issue
===================
+ SES Chicago Agenda Is Live!
+ Map Yourself!
+ Top Stories
+ More From The Search Engine Watch Blog
+ Daily SearchCast: Search News Via Podcast
+ Our Search Newsletters & Feeds
+ About The Newsletter
=============================================
SES Chicago Agenda Is Live!
=============================================
Our next SES show in the US comes to Chicago on Dec. 5-8. At the conference web site, you’ll find a full breakdown on all the returning and brand new sessions we’ll be having on search marketing. Check it out if you’re looking for that last SES fix for the year or missed any of our other US shows.
Out last non-US show this year is in France, from Nov. 29-30. It’s the first time ever for the show to be held in France, and you’ll find more info here.
For the 2006 line-up, including our New York show from Feb. 27-March 2, see the Search Engine Strategies site. For news as each event approaches, check out the SES Blog. That’s also the place to look for speaking opportunities for any of the shows.
=============================================
Map Yourself!
=============================================
SEOs Around The World covers how our SEW Forums editor Elisabeth Osmeloski decided it would be fun for SEOs and SEMs around the world to shout out where they are on a map. And thus this map was born. To date, there are nearly 400 people on it. I’d really like to see that number skyrocket. If you’re in the SEM industry, please consider adding yourself. It’s quick, easy and will be a great way to show the world what a force SEM is. Want to comment or discuss? Visit our forum thread that kicked it off, Map the SEO Stars.
===================
Top Stories
===================
Below is a recap of major articles from our daily SearchDay newsletter and important Search Engine Watch Blog postings since the last newsletter. Want to receive these stories daily or via RSS/feed? See the Search Engine Watch Newsletters & Web Feeds page for sign-up instructions.
=== Nov. 9, 2005 ===
Google Automat: Web-Based User-Assisted Classified Advertising – Many sources report on a new “Google Automat” program that was discovered in a patent and may lead the company into the classified ad space.
===================
Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie: “We Knew Search Would Be Important” – We’ve read numerous comments from Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in the recent past about web search and Google in particular. This time it’s Microsoft’s CTO Ray Ozzie with a few thoughts that were published internally but are now out in public view. See also:
===================
Real-Time Flight Tracking – Want to check on the status of a flight that’s currently in the air? The major search engines and other specialized services offer real-time flight tracking services that show you the status of major airline flights.
===================
Recap Of SEW Forums Live Event At Disneyland – Didn’t make it to our second SEW Forums Live event at Disneyland? Here’s a rundown on what was covered at this low key event.
===================
SEMPO Survey Of Search Marketing Industry Seeks Participants – It’s SEMPO survey time again! I’d encourage everyone to participate, because it’s one of the few surveys out there driven out of the search marketing community.
===================
Upcoming Google Print Debates – Can’t wait for the court fights over Google Print’s library scanning program? Relax, because debates are underway to tide you over, including one at our upcoming SES Chicago show.
===================
Google’s Personalized Results Patent – Yes, another Google patent to talk about, this one related to personalization of search results and which is getting the attention of many search marketers. Let’s dive in!
=== Nov. 8, 2005 ===
Using Search for Public Relations & Reputation Management – Search marketing should go beyond traditional search engine optimization and paid links by bolstering a firm’s reputation and customer image, according to a panel of experts. This version of this story for Search Engine Watch members offers advice on the rightand wrong way to use blogs in a search marketing campaign, as well as 10 specific tips for reputation management on search engines.
===================
The Library Card Catalog 2005: More than Just Basic Book Info – Library card catalogs are all grown up from what you might remember. Gary Price takes you on a tour of some cool things you might not realize exist.
=== Nov. 7, 2005 ===
Google Launches Local for Mobile – Google’s new Local for mobile service is a stripped-down version of the web-based Google Local that puts a heavy emphasis on maps and driving directions.
===================
Yahoo Testing Pay Per Call In US – Yahoo Testing Pay Per Call has member Webvisitor reporting that Ingenio is telling him that Yahoo is testing the company’s pay-per-call solution. Ingenio already provides AOL pay-per-call listings, as covered more in A Closer Look at Pay-per-Call Search Marketing from SearchDay earlier this year. Yahoo launched pay-per-call in the UK in August.
===================
The Difference Between Google Print & Google Library – After reading yet another confused article about the Google Print debate, I’m literally shaking my head in disbelief at the mix-ups in it and what it may breed among those who read it. So once again, I’m going to dive into what Google Print is, what it does and the difference between that and what I’m going to call Google Library. Perhaps some history will be helpful given all the debate in recent weeks. See also:
===================
Yahoo Lowers Ad Deposit To $5 – First Yahoo eliminated its $20 per month minimum spend requirement for search ads last month. Now today, the Yahoo Search Blog has announced that the minimum deposit to get started has dropped from $30 to $5.
===================
Google Oct. 2005 Jagger Update Continues Into November & Hating The Term Canonical – Discussion of Google’s October 2005 “Jagger” update is STILL going on, as is the update itself. Here’s a fast rundown on things, including a look at canonical issues, what the heck that means and why after a decade of existence, maybe it would be nice if search engines gave us a better way to indicate the domains we own and which to use when listing our pages. Seems like that would help solve canonical/domain name problems.
===================
Program Your TiVo via Yahoo – Yahoo and TiVo (another verb for many, just like Google) have announced a partnership that will allow users of TiVo Series2 recorders to program their TiVo box via a special site on Yahoo.
=== Nov. 4, 2005 ===
Forthcoming “Amazon Pages” & “Amazon Updade” Programs To Sell Books In Electronic Format – Amazon.com, proprietors of the wonderful Search Inside the Book (SITB) program, has announced a new Amazon Pages program that builds on SITB to allow consumers to download specific pages, chapters, or the entire book for offline reading. See also:
===================
Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Google to Manipulate Organic Rankings with User Profile – Microsoft Announces ‘Windows Live’ – Meta Keywords Advice – Reciprocal Linking: Dead or Alive? – Offline Influence On Online Purchases, and more.
=== Nov. 3, 2005 ===
Yahoo Enhances Maps, Integrates Local Search – In a major overhaul, Yahoo has significantly upgraded its Maps offering with cleaner maps and integrated local search results.
=== Nov. 2, 2005 ===
Where Tagging Works: Searching for a Good Game – A new site jumps on the tagging bandwagon and actually ends up with useful search results. Why? Because it’s narrowly focused on a specific topic and has a large degree of agreement among its user community.
=== Nov. 1, 2005 ===
On Microsoft Live, Live.com and Start.com Personalized Portals – Plenty of coverage of Microsoft’s new Windows Live services today which looks, acts, and feels just like Microsoft’s nearly year old “incubation experiment” Start.com (it works with Firefox) personalized portal that we’ve been posting about for some time.
===================
Web Analytics, Demystified – Measurement is a crucial part of a successful search marketing campaign, but understanding and using web analytics tools can be daunting. A new book demystifies the process, showing you how to implement your own effective measurement strategies.
=== Oct. 30, 2005 ===
Google Wants to Make TV Ads More Relevant – According to the New York Times article: Google Wants to Dominate Madison Avenue, Too Google wants to use its technology to make ads on TV (and just about everywhere else) more relevant.
===================
Searching for Library Books with RedLightGreen – Google Scholar isn’t the only online service that can help you track down and read scholarly or academic books and other content. The oddly named RedLightGreen is a powerful and highly useful alternative.
=== Oct. 28, 2005 ===
Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Google Base, Classified Ads? – Is ‘Jagger’ A Major Google Marketing Error? – Tracking Your AdSense Statistics – New Keyword Popularity Tool Debuts, and more.
=== Oct. 27, 2005 ===
A Compilation of Search Marketing Book Reviews – Looking for a book to help you sharpen your search marketing skills? Look no furtherhere’s a compilation of reviews published in SearchDay over the past several years.
=== Oct. 26, 2005 ===
Microsoft Announces MSN Book Search; Joins Open Content Alliance – Microsoft, yes good old Gates, Ballmer and crew, are getting in on the online books digitization game and more. I can’t say that I’m totally surprised. When Google first announced Google Print and then expanded the program to Google Print for Libraries last December, I wondered if/when Microsoft would get in on the book digitization act. Well, today is the day. Here are a few facts that I just learned via a news release and a call with Microsoft’s GM of Search Content Acquisitions, Danielle Tiedt. See also MSN & British Library Partner On Book Search Project.
=== Oct. 25, 2005 ===
Google’s New “Travel” OneBox – A new feature on Google offers direct links to several travel databases (Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz) when you enter in city pairs. See also Accessing Flight Info on the Web.
===================
Google Base: It’s An Early-Stage Test Project from Google – What is Google Base? From what screen caps show it’s a new database service that Google is making available to the public. Sell a house? Sell a car? Whatever. Lookout eBay, However, it might be more than that. See also Riffing on Google Base.
===================
Shopping Search and Merchant Reputations – Consumers often look to merchant reputations on shopping search engines when deciding to make a purchase. But who determines these reputations? And can you trust them?
=== Oct. 24, 2005 ===
Inside the Internet Movie Database – The Internet Movie Database is a standard and respected reference database for film and TV information, but for film, TV and pop-culture fans it’s also a great deal of fun.
=== Oct. 22, 2005 ===
Talking Search with MSN Search Geeks – Over on Channel 9, Scoble has posted a one-hour video “frank” talk about search with Andy Edmonds and Erik Selberg from the MSN Search team.
=== Oct. 21, 2005 ===
Letting MSN Search Know About Trademark Concerns – I noticed a new page today on the MSN Web Search Help site titled, “Submit a Trademark Concern.” It offers a step-by-step guide on how to contact Microsoft over these types of issues.
===========================
More From The SEW Blog
===========================
Below are posts from the Search Engine Watch Blog since the last newsletter and not mentioned above. Want to keep up on daily news from the blog? Visit the home page or subscribe to the blog feed. Note that references to “I” may becoming from Danny Sullivan, Gary Price or Chris Sherman, all of whom post to the blog.
=== Nov. 9, 2005 ===
Macmillan’s Book Digitisation Program: BookStore – Trying to keep all of the book digitization projects out there in some order is becoming a full time job. The Information World Review article: Macmillan takes on Google Print, features comments from Macmillan Chief Executive, Richard Charkin, about the his company’s content digitization plans called BookStore….[MORE”
===================
Google Adds Option to Limit to Creative Commons Licensed Material – Many sources including Philipp, Nathan, and Tara, have reported that Google has made an addition to their advanced search interface and now allow users to limit their search to content that carries a Creative Commons license….[MORE”
===================
Recap Of SEW Forums Live Event At Disneyland – Didn’t make it to our second SEW Forums Live event at Disneyland? Here’s a rundown on what was covered at this low key event.
===================
Warning! The World In Google Maps May Be Bigger Than You Think – Just because I’m feeling kind of punchy, does anyone else think it’s odd that you can convince Google Maps that the world is three times larger than reality? I mean, look at this….[MORE”
===================
Google Text Search Ads Going To Newspapers – Remember those display-style ads Google’s placing in print magazines? Vinny Lingham reports a new twist. This time, Google is apparently to put its text ads (just like you see in search results) into a Chicago newspaper. Hmm, where? The classifieds section, maybe? If so, perhaps there’s hope for newspaper classifieds yet.
===================
Get Your Google Patents On CD – News.com has a nice mention of long-time search watcher Stephen Arnold having compiled more than 120 patents he believes belong to Google on a CD. Want to get them in one go? Visit his site, pay your $50, and there you go. Gary, of course, regularly posts here about patents and links to where you can download them for free (use that Legal: Patents link below this post if you are an SEW member for a fast way to see his past posts). But if you want to save yourself some time and love reading patents, this looks like an easy way to go.
===================
Tapping Google’s Patent To Push Domain Registrations – GoDaddy References Google’s Patent is a nice one from Aaron at SEO Book looking at how one domain registrar is making use of a Google patent to help promote the idea you should buy domain names for a longer period of time. Ah, finally a new twist for domain registrars. The last search engine oomph push they had was really when longer domain names came out in 1999. That gave us a mad rush for hyphenated domain names that to me never really paid off for people. But a lot of domain names were sold.
===================
Yahoo’s Ass Kicking Statue Controversy – This was one of those, “should I skip it” decisions, but I did find it interesting. Phillip at Google Blogoscoped in Yahoo in Battle Mode summarizes how Yahoo’s mail team was given a statue (yep, there’s even a picture) for “kicking an enemy’s ass.” That would be Google’s bottom being whacked, specifically….[MORE”
===================
Search Marketer Lucas Morea Makes BusinessWeek Young Entrepreneur Finals – Lucas Morea is one of our regular SES speakers, and Nacho Hernandez tells you more about him in this post at Search Engine Roundtable, sparked by Lucas making the BusinessWeek Top 20 Young Entrepreneurs List. You’ll find his profile page here, though I was having trouble getting it to load. Think he should be the winner? Well, cast your vote here.
===================
Search & Portal Features Charted – Reading the Google Tea Leaves has Tristan Louis doing a nice job charting various search and portal features that the major services offer, reminding me exactly what I used to do back in the late 90s. But maintaining those charts is a nightmare! If you need a quick rundown, definitely check it out. Tristan also uses the charts to speculate on what products Google might offer. No real revelations there, however….[MORE”
===================
More On Office Depot Versus Staples Over Google Ads – We mentioned the case of Office Depot suing Staples over ads on Google last month. Now Eric Goldman takes a look at the case in more depth in Keyword Lawsuit Between Office Depot and Staples on his Technology & Marketing Law Blog. He also posts one of the court documents.
===================
WebmasterWorld’s Brett Tabke Interviewed On PubCon Growth – Via Search Engine Roundtable, Brett Tabke Interview on Pubcon & WebmasterWorld at the Online Marketing Blog has Lee Odden talking with WebmasterWorld founder Brett Tabke in advance of next week’s PubCon 10. Brett covers how PubCon got going initially and how it is growing.
===================
Phishing Scam Purports Google To Be Giving Away $400 – They might give you $1 to download Firefox, Picasa for free and all the web searches you can eat, but Google is not giving away $400, as an apparent phishing scam is saying. Google phishing scam promises a $400 windfall from News.com has some additional details, and Websense gives even more in this alert, complete screenshots of the very believable site.
=== Nov. 8, 2005 ===
Google Plans to Open Office in Manchester, UK – A story from Cambridge Reports alerts us to the fact that Manchester will serve as Google’s main “base” (no pun intended) “outside of London” for the English Midlands, northern England, Wales and Scotland.
===================
Holiday Shopping in Full Swing, According to Search Data – Hitwise has been tracking a rise in holiday-related search queries in the U.S. since September, and saw significant jumps last week over the prior week for “christmas” (up 41 percent), “christmas gift ideas” (up 185 percent), “christmas gifts” (up 92 percent) and “christmas decorations” (up 75 percent)….[MORE”. See also Pricegrabber Survey Says No Holiday Blues This Year.
===================
MyCroft Plugin Available for Clusty Blog Search – A very brief note to point out that Clusty’s blog search option that I wrote about a few months ago now has a MyCroft plugin for your Firefox browser toolbar.
===================
A New Report on Estimating Link Spam – Here’s a new 21 page (pdf) technical research paper from the Stanford InfoLab that takes a look at link spam….[MORE”
===================
Why We Use Various Search Engines – InternetRetailer has done some nice charts off of a Majestic Research/comScore report looking at why we use particular search engines (for Google, it’s the results; for others, it’s because you’re doing other things). The stats also look at awareness of paid links and tolerance of demographic and behavior targeting. Here’s a summary….[MORE”
===================
Google Giving Away Google Mini With Google Search Enterprise Purchase – Google’s got a new deal going on now where those who purchase a Google Search Appliance to replace an existing solution are also given a Google Mini for free. That’s basically a smaller scale version of the GSA (more on the difference is here). So not quite the potential sweetener to get people to dump their existing enterprise search solution that I thought before.
===================
PubSub Gains Community Lists To Rank Top Blogs By Topic – Tara at ResearchBuzz talks about PubSub’s new Community Lists, human compiled lists in various topics. There are four so far, for Law, PR, Fashion and Librarians….[MORE”
===================
NYT On Google As Threat To Other Businesses – Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies from the New York Times is yet another piece that will fuel the view as Google conquering the world….[MORE”
===================
French Party Turns To Google Ads On Riot Issue – Via InsideGoogle, Paris Riots. Political Party turns to Google Ads to win support for policies of Interior Minister at Morrison covers how the UMP, the political party of French interior minister Nicholas Sarkozy, has turned to Google ads to drum up support for their policy to reestablish order in the country. More coverage from Reuters here.
===================
New Ad Targeting Options May Fuel Privacy Worries – Both MediaPost and AdAge have stories on a session at Ad:Tech yesterday on a panel about how search engines are starting to target ads more on personal behavior and touching a bit on the privacy backlash that might bring….[MORE”
=== Nov. 7, 2005 ===
Yale Law Holding Regulating Search Symposium – Regulating Search symposium at Yale Law School happens next month with plenty of good speakers and interesting panels….[MORE”
===================
Microsoft Said Leading The Race For Part Of AOL – Many Suitors, and Pitfalls, as AOL Seeks a Partner from the New York Times says Microsoft is now the “front runner” in a potential sale of a stake in AOL. See also Now It’s Yahoo’s Turn to Make a Play for AOL and Google and Comcast are in Talks to Acquire Minority Stake in AOL.
===================
Yahoo Buying Full Ownership Of Yahoo UK, Germany, France & Korea – Yahoo buy stakes in European, Korean portals from the Associated Press covers Yahoo spending about $500 million to acquire full ownership of Yahoo sites in the UK, France, Germany and Korea. In these countries, Softbank currently holds a 30 to 33 percent share of each country-specific portal. Yahoo said the move shows the confidence it has in its international business activities. The deals are set to complete by the end of the year.
===================
Yahoo Nov. 2005 Update Weather Report Issued – Google’s not the only one updating. Yahoo’s Tim Mayer issued a search index weather report last week saying it would be “mild and quick.” Indeed, scanning a few search blogs and forums, chatter seems light about concerns. Barry has a rundown on forum discussion areas here. Since it hasn’t yet been named, I dub it “Yahoo Nov. 2005 Update.” How’s that for catchy? Feel the urge to discuss? Yep, we have a forum thread: Yahoo Nov. 2005 Update & Weather Report.
===================
Miva Enhances Search Ad Offerings – MIVA announced today the launch of Ad Center 3.0, an enhanced self-service campaign management tool for advertisers. The company also debuted a new broad match tool. More information about both programs can be found at the company’s press release center.
===================
Oct. 2005 Keyword Prices Stay Flat From Last Month, Drop From Last Year – Fathom Online has released figures from its latest Keyword Price Index showing that prices overall stayed about the same as last month, rising $1.44 to $1.45. The automotive category dropped 14 percent, however, while the finance category rose 15 percent. Compared to the same month last year, however, prices dropped about six percent. More details in this press release from Fathom and this MediaPost story.
===================
Getting the Airfare Buzz from Kayak.com – Kayak Buzz from travel search engine/aggregator Kayak allows the searcher to see what are the “‘best fares'” to the most searched destinations from any airport in the world based on the searches other Kayak users have conducted….[MORE”
=== Nov. 6, 2005 ===
15,000 Blogs Added to Topix.net Database – Material from 15,000 blog sources have been added to the Topix.net database. Topix.net already contains material from 12,000 mainstream media sources. Items from blogs and mainstream sources are mixed on topical “feed” pages and search results pages….[MORE”
===================
Feedster Beta Testing Podcast Search Tool, Adds “Official” News Provider Search – I just noticed on the Feedster home page that Feedster is now beta testing a “podcast” only search tool that current indexes (there numbers) 27,482 podcasts. I also noticed another new tab on the Feedster homepage that offers a “news” only search from “official news providers”….[MORE”
=== Nov. 4, 2005 ===
Google Offers AdSense Referral Fees – Google has introduced a new program that allows AdSense publishers to garner fees for referring users to Google. Publishers add a referral button to their site that directs users to sign up for AdSense or download the Firefox browser with the Google Toolbar. If a referral signs up for AdSense and earns US $100, Google will credit publishers with a US $100 referral fee. If a referral downloads and runs Firefox, publishers receive up to $1. More information on the new program can be found here.
===================
Autonomy Buys Verity – The two largest players in the enterprise search market are now one. Autonomy is purchasing Verity for $500 million, according to this Red Herring story. The combined companies will have 16,000 customers, including those using Inktomi’s former Ultraseek platform, which Verity acquired in December 2002.
===================
Multimedia Searching: Speechbot is No Longer Available – Speechbot is no more. Speechbot was an experimental web-based tool from HP Labs (and before that Compaq) that used voice-recognition to create seachable keyword transcripts from thousands of hours of audio content and then allowed the searcher to listen to the material online and read the computer generated transcript….[MORE”
===================
Changes to Yahoo Video Search Page; Image Search Adds Results Page Refinements – Yahoo Video Search made a change last week that allows you to view your results in either a “grid” view or a “list” view which also offers some additional description/transcript info if available….[MORE”
===================
Details Emerge on Google Force One – When Google co-founders Page and Brin purchased a used Boeing 767 earlier this year, details were sketchy. Today the Wall Street Journal has page-one coverage filling in many missing detailsand naturally, the plane will feature in-flight internet access….[MORE”
=== Nov. 3, 2005 ===
Ask Upgrades Desktop Search – Over at Search Engine Roundtable, Barry notes that Ask Jeeves has updated its desktop search application. Looks like mostly incremental (though welcome) improvements, with a new feature called Writely, a web-based word-processor search that Gary says is slick. More info on the Jeeves blog here.
===================
Google Desktop 2 Leaves Beta – As Gary noted, Google Desktop 2 has left beta. In addition to several product enhancements, Desktop 2 also has new third-party panels and expanded plug-in development options….[MORE”
=== Nov. 2, 2005 ===
Google Blogorama: Two New Official Blogs from Mountain View – Two new “official blogs” from Mountain View! Google Blogoscoped reports that the Google Desktop now has its own official blog that’s titled “Inside Google Desktop” and that Google now has an official Video Blog that “celebrates” material contributed to the Google Upload Program.
===================
Think Partnership Acquires Web Diversity – Think Partnership, parent of search marketing firm WebSourced, has acquired UK based Web Diversity for a combination of cash and stock. As part of the acquisition, Web Diversity will continue its operations in Europe and open a Hong Kong office. More details in the press release announcing the acquisition.
===================
MapStats Wins MS Virtual Earth Contest – MapStats has won the Microsoft Virtual Earth Competition for developers to show their creativity/coding skills and win prizes including some cash. MapStats is a counter which visualizes the visitors of a website….[MORE”
=== Nov. 1, 2005 ===
UK: Thomson Directories Now Powering Local Search Results On Tiscali UK – Netimperative reports that Thomson Local listings are now being used for local searches on the Tiscali UK site. Web results on Tiscali UK come from Google.
===================
New Research from Stanford on the Truthful Auction Pricing of Keywords – A new research report — Truthful Auctions for Pricing Search Keywords — was just published online from the Stanford InfoLab….[MORE”
===================
Ask Jeeves Acquisition Helps IAC/InterActive Narrow Losses – John and Rafat both point out that the IAC/InterActive quarterly earnings call took place yesterday and the Jeeves acquisition made an impact on the company….[MORE”
===================
Reacteur.com is now Mozbot – Mozbot is a search engine built on top of Google natural and paid search results, with a number of additional features not found on Google….[MORE”
===================
Apparel Buyers Really, Really Like Search – New research from Yahoo and Compete, Inc. tracked Internet search and transaction activity related to retail apparel Web sites over one year. The study found that search was used by 20% of the 25 million unique monthly visitors, but also found that nearly 80% of all people who purchased apparel offline after using Internet search reported that search influenced their store visit and purchase….[MORE”
===================
Verizon SuperPages.com Adds Features – Verizon announced today that SuperPages.com now includes user reviews that lets searchers rate the more than 18 million local businesses, a new comparison shopping tool, and access to coupons and circulars from a particular local area.
===================
Major Ad Networks Working on Behavioral Targeting – Microsoft now plans to offer behavior targeting in its contextual ads starting next year. Online Media Daily is running the first of a three-part series on the forthcoming program, and the article asks some good questions about pricing, privacy and other issues….[MORE”
=== Oct. 31, 2005 ===
Looking at the Upcoming Holiday Shopping Season at Yahoo Shopping – In his non-stop series of interviews with influential people in the shopping search biz, Brian Smith from ComparisonEngines.com has posted a recent chat with Rob Solomon & Chris Saito from Yahoo Shopping that looks at Y’s plans for the holiday shopping season including talk of Yahoo’s new mobile shopping tool and their Shopping Gift Finder….[MORE”
===================
AllRecipes.com Cooks Up Smart Searches for Ask.com – I recently blogged that Ask Jeeves was offering a new Smart Search with direct links to recipes from the AllRecipes.com database. Today, the Dayton Business Journal offers a profile of this recipe/cooking vertical.
===================
The Yahoo Media Content Beat: Harry Potter Exclusive Video Clip and New Content from “The Week” – Yahoo is the exclusive home of a new video clip from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film and The Week will produce, “a daily roundup of print and online business news” for Yahoo Finance, according to Crain’s NY Business.
===================
Review: Google and Yahoo Hiring Booms – Those of you who look at our blog regularly know that we try to post interesting and “telling” job openings at Google, Yahoo, and elsewhere. Chris has already blogged about Google WILL hire programs to support Open Office despite reports to the contrary. That’s part of the story. This afternoon, Elinor Mills at News.com talks about the hiring rampages at both Google and Yahoo in the article: Google hiring like it’s 1999….[MORE”
===================
Looksmart Goes Vertical – Looksmart is turning itself into an About.com style portal, launching 161 vertical search sites in 12 categories including automotive, cities, food, health, home, sports and travel. Unlike About, Lookmart’s vertical sites are not put together by human editors, but are assembled using technology….[MORE”. See also Harsh Words for New Looksmart Vertical.
===================
IBM, Google Partner on Enterprise Search – IBM plans to integrate its OmniFind corporate search system with Google’s free desktop search and make the package available to enterprise search customers. Infoworld reports:
===================
Google Working on Open Office, After All – Despite recent articles claiming that a Sun-Google hosted desktop productivity suite and common operating system, “is way off base,” word comes today that Google plans to hire programmers to improve OpenOffice.org, the Sun developed Microsoft Office counterpart.
=== Oct. 30, 2005 ===
The “About” Yahoo Search Page – Not sure if I’m late to the party on this one but I just noticed that Yahoo offers this page that lists all of Yahoo’s search services. The page has a section for searchers (links to tips, options, Yahoo Next, etc.) and another set of links for “site owners” (webmaster info, ad info). The page also has a links to the Yahoo Search Blog, job openings, press mentions, and more. Don’t forget that Yahoo also offers this A-Z index of their entire range of services.
=== Oct. 27, 2005 ===
Cool! 3-D Imagery of the Moon Now Available via NASA’s World Wind – Yesterday at the NASA Ames Lab in California, 3-D imagery of the moon was released for the World Wind platform. World Wind is free software to download and use….[MORE”
===================
Google Tweaks Web Search Features Page With Info About Inline Image Results – Google’s made a small tweek to their Web Search Features page today. The page now includes a mention of “inline” image results (from Google Images) being available in some cases at the top of Google Web Search results pages….[MORE”
=== Oct. 26, 2005 ===
Two from Yahoo: Plan a Trip With Yahoo and Print Flickr Images – The Yahoo Search Blog has news of the Yahoo Trip Travel Planner and for the Flickr users out there, it’s now possible to order prints of your Flickr images online and then pick them up at your local Target store….[MORE”
===================
Award Winning Jux2 Meta Engine Sells on eBay for over $100,000 – The eBay auction for the award-winning Jux2 meta search engine (also a great tool for checking search engine overlap) has just ended and the winning bid was for $101,100 (Wow!!!) by a bidder named 3vCap. Congrats to Aaref Hilaly and the rest of the Jux2 team. For more about the now completed Jux2 auction (what was actually for sale, what you didn’t get, etc.), see my post from about a week ago.
===================
Google Makes Digitized Archive of Interviews with TV Legends Available Online – More fully viewable content is now available on Google. Television lovers and historians are going to be, well, thrilled. Google is beginning to digitize an archive of interviews of key people in TV history….[MORE”
=== Oct. 25, 2005 ===
Google’s New “Travel” OneBox – Looks like John “The Search” Battelle has caught yet another Google onebox on web search results pages. This new (I haven’t noticed it before) feature offers direct links to several travel databases (Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz) when you enter in city pairs. Say Seattle and Boston.
===================
Google Funds Open Source Development Initiative at Two Oregon Universities – A news release from Google (they never slow down) announces that the folks in Mountain View are getting together with the two universities in Oregon to support open source technology development. Google is making a $350,000 contribution….[MORE”
===================
Several Social Bookmarking/Tagging/Community Search Services Reviewed – PCMag.com offers a roundup of reviews of several social bookmarking/tagging/community search services in the articleShare and Play Tag on the New Web Playground….[MORE”
===================
Subject Experts Review Wikipedia Entries – The Guardian article: Can you trust Wikipedia?, asked subject experts to review Wikipedia enteries in their areas of expertise. Some very interesting reading. See also Orlowski Talks Quality Problems at Wikipedia.
=== Oct. 24, 2005 ===
Driving Directions using MSN Virtual Earth – A new service to the Via VirtualEarth gallery provides access to driving directions using Virtual Earth (U.S. only, for now)….[MORE”
===================
InfoSpace Announces New Pay-Per-Call Solution – Stories from Clickz and DMNews.com report that InfoSpace has partnered with Jambo to announce a new pay-per-call program. More in the official news release from Jambo.
=== Oct. 23, 2005 ===
Germany: Publishers Plan Online Book Service – This Reuters article out of Germany: Publishers to build own online book network, comes as no real surprise. Why? Back in June, we blogged about a trade group of German publishers considering their own book digitization program. It looks like what was discussed several months ago is now a go….[MORE”
=== Oct. 22, 2005 ===
Exalead Part Deux: An Intro to “Smart Bookmarks” – Looking at how Exalead lets you turn “favorites” into direct links that allow you to run a search in other engines like Google, MSN Search, whatever engines you like…[MORE”. See also Exalead’s Home Page Gets a New Look.
===================
Finding and Accessing Content for your iPod with Yahoo Video Search – More to play with. If you’re looking for video content for your new Video iPod, Andy Volk from Yahoo Video Search explains on the Yahoo Search blog how you can leverage a MediaRSS feed from Yahoo and use it with iTunes 6 to have new video content (video podcasts if you like) coming directly into your iTunes app. Volk’s post offers step by step directions and screen caps.
===================
MSN Shopping Receives Upgrade Down Under – A post on the MSN Shopping Insider Blog points out that the shopping database on ninemsn, MSN’s site in Australia, has been retooled and is now live. The Australian shopping site is utilizing the same platform that’s in use on the U.S. site. According to the post, ninemsn Shopping is home to 200,000 products from more than 200 retailers. An intro to the new site is available here.
======================================
Daily SearchCast: Search News Via Podcast
======================================
Want to keep up with the latest in search news while you’re on the go? Try our podcast, The Daily SearchCast. It’s a 10-15 minute recap of the previous day’s news. How to tune-in?
Here are the last two days’ worth of shows:
You can find all shows from previous days listed on the Daily SearchCast home page. Just select any file to download it and listed on your computer or digital audio device.
===============================
Our Search Newsletters & Feeds
===============================
News each day, throughout the day, alerts of new discussion threads from our Search Engine Watch Forums and more — we have a newsletter or feed that covers all of these. See our Search Engine Newsletters & Web Feeds for a full rundown on everything we offer, as well as special buttons to let you subscribe via news readers such as Rojo, My MSN, Bloglines, Feedster, Newsgator, Pluck and My Yahoo. Thanks to FeedBurner for providing our feed tracking and management services!
===============================
About The Search Engine Update
===============================
The Search Engine Update is a twice-monthly update of search engine news. It is available only to Search Engine Watch members. Please note that long URLs may break into two lines in some mail readers. Cut and paste, should this occur.
How do I unsubscribe?
+ Follow the instructions at the very end of this email.
How do I subscribe?
+
The Search Engine Update is only available to paid members of the Search Engine Watch web site. If you are not a member and somehow are receiving a copy of the newsletter, learn how to become a member.
How do I see past issues?
+
Visit the Search Engine Update Archives.
How do I change my address?
+ Send a message to [email protected]
I need human help with my membership!
+ Send a message to [email protected]. DO NOT send messages regarding list management or membership issues to Danny Sullivan. He does not deal with these directly.
I have feedback about an article!
+ I’d love to hear it. Use this form.