IndustryThe Search Engine Update – Number 222 – June 7, 2006

The Search Engine Update - Number 222 - June 7, 2006

Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan's recap of top search engine stories from the second half of May 2006.

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In This Issue
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+ New Correspondents & A Wedding
+ Upcoming Search Engine Strategies Events
+ Top Stories
+ More From The Search Engine Watch Blog
+ Daily SearchCast: Search News Via Podcast
+ Our Search Newsletters & Feeds
+ About The Newsletter

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New Correspondents & A Wedding
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Search Engine Watch has always had two main audiences: search marketers and searchers. We want marketers to understand how to reach an audience through search engines. Equally important, we want that audience — the searchers — to know how to search better and to be kept informed of great new tools and features.

Having Gary Price on board was a huge help in better serving our searcher audience, since his background was as a librarian — you know, those human search engines that have helped people for thousands of years. Our readers know that Gary left us earlier this year. Now I’m happy to say that a librarian has rejoined the ranks of Search Engine Watch — Phil Bradley.

Phil’s background is as a librarian, and he’s been blogging and speaking about search resources for years. Now he comes aboard here as our searching correspondent. He’ll be posting items related to searching the web, new search engines and searching resources, all from the perspective of searchers who use these tools. Welcome, Phil!

Meanwhile, our very first correspondent Jennifer Slegg is now going double-barreled with a new title: paid search & contextual ads correspondent. Jen was previously our contextual ads correspondent, but now she’s also going to post on paid search and search advertising issues in general, such as with today’s great post on the coming of dayparting to Google AdWords.

Finally, our hard-working chief news correspondent Barry Schwartz is now back from his honeymoon. Barry married Yisha at the end of May, concluding the engagement he started with a wedding proposal on Ask last year. Congrats from all of us at Search Engine Watch to the happy couple! If you’d like to send your best wishes, pop by our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Rustybrick Getting Hitched This Weekend!

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Upcoming Search Engine Strategies Events
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Don’t miss our search marketing & networking events! There’s one coming near you:

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Top Stories
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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.

=== June 7, 2006 ===

Brin Suggests Google Might Reverse Chinese Censorship In The Short Term; Meanwhile, China Ramps Up Google.com Blocks – Google cofounder Sergey Brin told reporters yesterday that it’s possible Google might reverse its policy of censoring on behalf of the Chinese government. That’s the real news from his talk — a possible reversal, perhaps soon — not the admission of compromise which Google’s made before. The news comes on the heels of China apparently ramping up blocks on the uncensored Google.com site. See also:

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A Real Estate Vertical Search Roundup, Part 1 – If you thought the housing market was competitive, try online real estate sites. After a couple of years of seeming stability and calm, the sector is now booming. See also:

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Presentations from the Future of Web Search, in Barcelona
When it was announced earlier this year that Dr. Ricardo Baeza-Yates would be joining Yahoo, part of the agreement involved him continuing to work with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. An event sponsored by Yahoo and the Web Research Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Future of Web Search took place on May 19-20, 2006, and included a large cast of presenters on a wide variety of topics. See also:

=== June 7, 2006 ===

Yahoo MyWeb Gets New Look, Easier Browsing & Viewing Features – Yahoo’s given its MyWeb bookmarking service a new look and new features, making it easier than before for people to find what others are saving and sharing on the service. See also: del.icio.us Adds Most Popular Links On Home Page.

=== June 6, 2006 ===

Funny Example Of Why DMOZ Titles Are Bad In Search Results – Thanks to Google and the Open Directory, a candidate for governor in Alaska appears already elected.

=== June 5, 2006 ===

Google Spreadsheets Launched – Google released a new Google Spreadsheets product on Tuesday, allowing anyone with a web browser to create and interact with spreadsheet information. See also: Google To Offer Picasa Web Albums?

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Google Testing Expandable “More Google” Links On Home Page & More – Philipp Lenssen reports that Google has been testing an expandable “More you can do with Google” link on the Google.com home page. See also:

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Kozoru Opens Public Beta Testing Of Byoms – Kozoru opens public beta testing of byoms (build your own mobile search) today — a way to get information from your site sent to others via instant messaging.

=== June 2, 2006 ===

DOJ Asks Microsoft, AOL And Google To Keep Records – Last week during meetings with executives, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asked several Internet companies to retain records for aiding in their prosecution efforts of terrorists and child predators. See also: Google Works With Brazil To Shut Down Orkut Communities.

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Yahoo Video Allows Uploads & Sharing – Yahoo Video, previously offering content found only by crawling the web, now has changed to also allow uploads from content owners, similar to services that YouTube and Google Video offer. See also: YouTube Dominant In Video Search, Now an Acquisition Target?

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Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: AdWords To Begin Crawling Landing Pages – Full Coverage Recap – SEW Live! – Expired Domains With Good Links – How Do We Fight Back Against The Google Monster? – Ask Now With Blog and Feed Search, and more.

=== June 1, 2006 ===

Ask Debuts Blog & Feed Search – Ask’s new blog and feed search offers a high-quality alternative for finding information in the blogosphere, with a number of unique tools not found on competing services. See also: Mark Fletcher Leaves Ask.com & Bloglines.

=== May. 31, 2006 ===

Microsoft Patiently Waiting To Advertise – Marketwatch quotes Bill Gates discussing Google as “very much the leader” contrary to Microsoft having made previous grand statements about matching Google within 6-months far longer ago. Bill Gates announced “it’s a five year battle.” See also:

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Google Sitemaps: Links To You Can’t Hurt You – The Google Sitemaps team note that links from bad neighborhoods do not harm a site’s rankings, only links to bad neighborhoods. It has long been theorized that links from bad neighborhoods do cause ranking problems and this goes against conventional thinking. See also:

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Yahoo Issues Late May 2006 Weather Report – Yahoo announced late yesterday that they have begun an update to their Web Search index. You can expect some changes to your Yahoo rankings over the next several days, and if you want to provide feedback, they supply a new form that you can use to do so. See also: How To Contact Yahoo Search.

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Google AdsBot Now Coming To Assess Your Landing Pages, Will Impact Your AdRank – Google’s rolling out a new system where ad landing pages will be automatically spidered by a new AdsBot. See also:

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NetRatings: Google Tops 50 Percent Mark In US Web Searches – New stats (PDF) out from NetRatings show Google now handles half the web searches in the United States. See also: Hitwise: Google Tops For UK Web Search But Weak With Other Offerings.

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Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Yahoo and eBay Partner – Google Sends Out Class Action Settlement Info – Larry Page Sets Out His Vision – Opting Out Of Open Directory Listings At MSN – Say Bye-bye to Rankings and Hello to SEO Success! and more.

=== May. 25, 2006 ===

Google & Dell Partner: Google Software To Be Installed On Dell PCs – Dell will be installing Google software on “millions of Dell personal computers.” That means software like Google Desktop search, the Google Toolbar, and the default search engine will be set to Google on these Dell PCs. Google is paying Dell an undisclosed amount for this partnership. See also: Google Anti-Phishing Will Be Part Of Firefox 2.0

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eBay & Yahoo Partner On Graphical Ads, Other Areas – Yahoo will be eBay’s exclusive provider of graphical ads and Yahoo will promote eBay’s PayPal to its merchants and publishers.

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U.K. Search Marketing Environment Thriving – The total market for search marketing in the U.K. grew at a blistering 100% rate in 2005, and further double-digit gains are expected for this year, according to a new report from E-consultancy.

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More From The SEW Blog
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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 any of the Search Engine Watch staff who post to the blog.

=== June 7, 2006 ===

Top Four & Two Percent Are Key For On Site Search Keyword Optimization – ClickZ has the details of a Patricia Seybold Group study which says that for e-commerce sites, the top two-percent of search queries conducted within the site are the most important….[MORE”

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Top 25 Search Phrases Conducted At The CIA FOIA Collection Listed – The CIA has a site that enables people to access and search CIA information such as previously released documents that were approved for release to the public….[MORE”

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comScore Research Tool To Track From Search To Sale (Even Offline Sales) – ClickZ reports that comScore Networks will soon offer a new tool named qSearch Retail….[MORE”.

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Advertisers Increase Search Marketing Budgets – A JupiterResearch study that shows both revenues earned from search marketing campaigns and budgets allocated to those campaigns have increased….[MORE”.

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AdWords Advertiser Pays $2,000 After Misleading Searchers – ComputerWorld reports that a man who was selling “ineffective antispyware” software through AdWords has paid $2,000 to settle the dispute out of court….[MORE”.

=== June 6, 2006 ===

French Lawsuit Over Google Book Search – A French publishing group becomes the third to sue Google over its book scanning program….[MORE”

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Topix Adds Free Local Classifieds – Joining the free classifieds fray, news aggregator Topix.net has added the ability to post listings on the site for housing, jobs, private party items, services, events and local shops….[MORE”

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Google Click Fraud Settlement: Why One Online Merchant Is Opting Out – “Radiator.com Boiling over Bum Clicks” from Multichannel Merchant takes a closer look at Radiator.com’s experience with alleged click fraud and why the company plans to just say no to the settlement….[MORE”

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Baidu, Chinese Search Engine TV Ad – Baidu, the Chinese based search engine, has launched a crazy new TV commercial….[MORE”

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Windows Live Mail’s Active Search: Gmail-Like Contextual Ads Next To Your Mail – Just like Gmail, Microsoft will deliver ads based on what email you’re reading. Unlike Gmail, there’s been no privacy freakout that I’ve seen.

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Google Stops New Ranking Lawuit With Anti-SLAPP Threat; Previous KinderStart Suit Continues Despite This – Eric Goldman looks at how a case involving rankings on Google got dismissed before going to trial, thanks in large part to a counter-suit that Google threatened….[MORE”

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Yahoo’s CEO Terry Semel’s Salary Adjusted To One Dollar – Bloomberg reports that Yahoo CEO Terry Semel will soon be earning a base salary of $1 per year….[MORE”

=== 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….[MORE”

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NoFollow Changes Linking Behavior – Jeremy Zawodny posts his commentary on the NoFollow tag after finding an interesting blog entry on how the NoFollow attribute has changed linking behavior….[MORE”

=== June 1, 2006 ===

SideStep Adds Travel Guides Beta, Names SVP of Engineering – The battle of features in travel search continues with SideStep launching Travel Guides Beta. Most of the content is licensed from Frommer’s with additional information courtesy of hotel partners….[MORE”

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Offline Print Ad Experiment Disappointed Google – Google senior vice president of product management Jonathan Rosenberg says the experiment in print ads “probably hasn’t taken off as fast as we would like”….[MORE”

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MSN adLab Launches With a Variety of Keyword Tools – MSN first announced adLab back in January, but it has now been made available to everyone (in beta) with a wide variety of interesting keyword tools for advertisers and marketers. They have launched with 11 demos, broken down into areas Paid Search, Contextual Advertising, Behavior Targeting and Emerging Markets….[MORE”

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AdSense API Launched for Developers – Developers with 100,000+ daily page views and users contributing content will now be able to offer a “one stop shop” for their content creators to sign up for AdSense while allowing developers to integrate and optimize their AdSense ads for them….[MORE”

=== May. 31, 2006 ===

Pay-Per-Call Looking For Ways To Grow – “Pay-Per-Call Struggles to Prove Worth in Internet Ad Realm” from E-Commerce Times looks at the latest in the space, how the companies that offer pay-per-call advertising are posturing and making deals with mobile search service providers to expand inventory….[MORE”. See also: MIVA Seeing PPCall Monetization Growth.

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Language Specific SEO Advice – A very well written elaborate white paper explains in great detail what’s involved, and most of the difficulties, with search engine rankings outside English….[MORE”

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Redfin Gets Funding and Prepares to Go National – Seattle-based Redfin.com, one of the first real estate mashups to employ a map interface as a primary navigation tool for real-estate search, is expanding to other markets….

=== May. 30, 2006 ===

Calacanis Dings AOL Search – AOL’s Jason Calacanis has written a forthright piece on the importance of fixing AOL search. He’s examined Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL Search, and in particular looked at the position of the first organic result, down to the number of pixels from the top and the left, together with useful screen shots….[MORE”

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Marchex Acquires Local-Vertical Search Company Openlist – New York-based Openlist, a local, vertical search engine, was acquired by Marchex, which provides search and contextual marketing but also owns a network of thousands of “direct navigation” domains….[MORE”

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Latest Google Payments Rumor: Google CheckoutRumors have been flying since yesterday about Google’s plan for a payment system and recent developments. Although unsubstantiated at this time, the talk is not new. Google itself has made some overtures about a pending payment system, and we can expect one to arrive sometime in the near future.

=== May. 29, 2006 ===

WikiMapia: Google Maps and Wikipedia Mashup – WikiMapia uses the Google Maps API and a Wiki interface. This enables users to enter or edit information with map hotspots….[MORE”

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Google Pressures CHMoogle Into Name Change – The chemistry search engine CHMoogle encountered opposition to its trademark filing by Google, and decided to resort to eMolecules rather than take on the search giant….[MORE”

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A Google Powered TV Guide – Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, comments that their mission is to provide access to everything, including television content….[MORE”

=== May. 26, 2006 ===

Google Dropping Conservative Sites? – “Is Google Dropping Conservative Sites They Disagree With?” from Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide is an interesting article regarding the possibility that Google is dropping sites from their index due to their political content….[MORE”.

=== May. 25, 2006 ===

Travel Search Used By Few But Will Grow & Kayak Gets Top Honors In Review – A new report finds few use travel search engines but that declares the area set to grow. Meanwhile, an recent review gives Kayak top honors when pitted against some competitors.

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Duplicate Content Detection Tool – A new tool that checks your site to see how much duplicate content like content you have throughout your site….[MORE”

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MSN Talking Acquisition With Wireless Ad Provider – MSN is in talks to buy a wireless ad provider, Third Screen Media. If this acquisition is successful, Microsoft can immediately, or almost immediately, begin serving up ads on mobile devices and phones.

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Ask.com Has Sweet Europe Maps With Aerials – Search Engine Journal reports that Ask.com has some pretty impressive Europe maps, with aerial imagery….[MORE”

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Daily SearchCast: Search News Via Podcast
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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?

  • Subscribe to our main SEW Blog feed, and you’ll receive the podcasts automatically when we alert readers to them each day.
  • Subscribe to our special podcast feed, and you’ll receive an alert only about new podcasts that we’ve posted.
  • Tune into WebmasterRadio.FM, where we go out live at 11:30am Eastern and then repeat at 2pm Eastern. The show archive at WebmasterRadio is here.
  • Listen via our Odeo channel, where it’s easy to see our past shows and hear them by using little play buttons right within your browser.
  • Listen online or subscribe for MP3 player downloads via our Yahoo Podcasts channel.
  • Listen via iTunes 4.9 or higher. Click here and you should find the show will load automatically in iTunes, if you have it installed. If not, then see further instructions here.

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.

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Our Search Newsletters & Feeds
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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!

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About The Search Engine Update
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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.

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