IndustryThe Search Engine Update – Number 225 – July 20, 2006

The Search Engine Update - Number 225 - July 20, 2006

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

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In This Issue
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+ Search Engine Watch Server Change
+ 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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Search Engine Watch Server Change
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About a year ago, Incisive Media purchased Search Engine Watch from Jupitermedia. Part of the purchase meant that Jupitermedia would continue to host Search Engine Watch for a year. With that time up, we’re finally moving. This is a heads-up that the change is happening.

The Search Engine Watch Forums (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com) already moved about two weeks ago. It was pretty painless and not noticed by most people.

The main Search Engine Watch site (https://www.searchenginewatch.com) has just moved. So far, most things are working. Even though all the pages have new URLs, redirections will take you to the new locations in virtually all the cases I’ve encountered so far.

Unfortunately, there are still issues being corrected. The biggest is with the members-only area. A small number of readers who recently renewed might find that their passwords are no longer working. If that’s the case, use the membership help form, so someone can get that solved right away.

I also know there are some glitches with the content within the Search Topics area. Subcategories aren’t displaying correctly within some categories, and none of the categories have been updated since the move happened earlier this week. All the archived information is there, but any new posts aren’t flowing in properly.

I’m annoyed and screaming loudly to get this and any other problems solved as quickly as possible, believe me. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience that the move may cause you. Hopefully, we’ll be through it all and back up to normal very shortly.

In the meantime, if you spot a bug, problem or issue, please use this form to let us know.

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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.

=== July 20, 2006 ===

Amnesty International Asking Users To Pressure Google, Yahoo & Microsoft Over China Policies– Amnesty International is urging users of Google, Yahoo and MSN in the UK to email the search engines opposing the way each operates in China.

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Microsoft Says Vista & Other Operating Systems Will Allow Search Engine Choice – Microsoft says it will adopt a “voluntary principle” that will allow the manufacturers of the computers to decide which search engine the operating system should default to.

=== July 19, 2006 ===

Yahoo Delays Launch Of New Ad System, “Panama” – ClickZ reports that Yahoo’s new ad system, aka Panama, will not be launching in the 3rd quarter. They now estimate a delayed launch date of the 4th quarter. The new ad system was reported on by Danny back in early May. ClickZ has more details on how the delayed launch has affected the company’s stock. See also: Yahoo’s Stock Falls On Panama Delay & Q2 Earnings Release

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Up Close with IAC’s Pronto Shopping Search – IAC, owner of Ask.com, has launched Pronto.com, a comparison shopping search web site. Can it compete with the entrenched, well-funded giants in the shopping search space?

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Judge Gives AFP Case Against Google More Time – A US federal judge has declined to dismiss a copyright infringement case filed by Agence France Press against Google News. Instead, she’s given both sides more time to assemble evidence before ruling on a dismissal motion. See also:

=== July 18, 2006 ===

Search, The South American Way – With over 80 million Internet users, Latin America offers attractive opportunities for search marketers who take time to understand the region’s unique search landscape. See also:

=== July 17, 2006 ===

Yahoo Finance Upgrades Features & Charts – Yahoo Finance has new features including tools to manage charts, an improved “investors chat room” and financial video news. See also:

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Google Maps Added As OneBox Result – Google has added a new Google Maps “OneBox” display for some results, which can be a big impact for a local merchant.

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Hawaiian Airlines Cries Search Engine Foul Over Use Of “Hawaiian” On Competitor Web Site – Hawaiian Airlines is alleging that new rival Go because Go made use of the word “Hawaiian” too often and thus might be influencing search results.

=== July 14, 2006 ===

KinderStart Becomes KinderStopped In Ranking Lawsuit Against Google – Kinderstart has lost its case over lost rankings on Google, though the company will be allowed to amend defamation claims relating to its PageRank zero score.

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Google: No, We Don’t Let Click Fraud Happen – Google CEO Eric Schmidt saying click fraud was “self correcting” with an economic solution of “let it happen” got the blogosphere buzzing. Google’s now responded to say that Schmidt was talking about hypothetical approaches to click fraud rather than what Google itself does. See also:

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Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Open Letter to Google Regarding Changes to The Ad Words Program – Analytics Analysis For Search Marketers – MySpace – Highest Traffic Site on Web – Google Search Finds Widespread Malicious Code, and more.

=== July 11, 2006 ===

New Search Patent Applications: July 11, 2006 – Google Patent Filings by the Dozen – Twelve Google patent applications where published this past week, including seven that focus upon geographical information and local search.

=== July 10, 2006 ===

Matt Cutts Of Google Comments On Recent Listings Issues – Google’s Matt Cutts, back from a long vacation, comments on a variety of listing issues that have come up on Google. See also:

=== July 7, 2006 ===

New Landing Page Quality Score Announced for Google AdWords Advertisers – New changes with Google AdWords will result in some advertisers faced with higher minimum bids to keep their campaigns running on AdWords, as a result in changes being made to the landing page quality score algorithm. While a small number of advertisers will be affected, AdWords is targeting those landing pages that offer a poor user experience to those who click the ads. See also:

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W3C Selling PageRank Or Thanking Supporters? – New attention is focused on how the W3C is selling links. See also: Business.com Adds Nofollow To Many Links.

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AOL Podcast Search Beta Live – TVEyes’ podcast search engine Podscope.com has been launched as a service on AOL Search in beta. See also: Google Video Launches In UK & Other Countries.

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Lawsuits Over The Google Party Jet; Arguments Over Bed Sizes On Board – New details out now about the Google Jet we’ve written about before, the used 767 that Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have purchased. Turns out, there are lawsuits filed over the retrofit of the plane, and with them, news of hammocks hanging from the ceiling and an apparent fight between the cofounders over bed sizes that Google CEO Eric Schmidt had to referee. See also: Google Jet Plane Security Threat? And Testing A Sofa In Mountain View.

=== July 6, 2006 ===

A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization – New to the sometimes confusing and seemingly arcane world of making search engine friendly web sites? A new book offers a systematic, common-sense approach to the art and science of SEO.

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Google In Another Dictionary: Merriam-Webster – The LA Times reports that the term ‘Google’ has been added to the Merriam-Webster, the dictionary I grew up on. The other day we reported that Google was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, the most authoritative dictionary of the English language.

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eBay Disallows Google Checkout – eBay has officially banned Google Checkout as a payment solution on eBay. Here is a list of payment solutions not allowed on eBay, including Google Checkout. See also: Google Checkout Could Increase Costs For The Shopping Comparison Engines

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Google Ombudsman? Search Ombudsman? Great Idea — Bring Them On! – Newspapers and others have ombudsmen, sort of impartial referees to handle disputes. Is it time for Google and other search engines to do the same?

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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.

=== Jul. 20, 2006 ===

Motorola To Add Yahoo Go for Mobile On Phones – Yahoo Go for Mobile service will be added to many new Motorola phones….[MORE”

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Lycos Powered By Windows Live & Retriever Directory – It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at Lycos, given how far it has slipped in the search world. Someone asked me about it today, so I took a look — and what’s this at the bottom of the page? “Portions powered by Windows Live”….[MORE”

=== July 19, 2006 ===

11 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Site – Rand Fishkin at SEOMoz writes up an excellent post he named 10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic. He has given us 10, plus one bonus idea for driving traffic to your site….[MORE”

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North Korean Missiles & Chinese Helicopter Training Site On Google Earth – Google Earth enthusiasts have spotted what appears to be a scale model mockup of a disputed section of the China-India border, while others track North Korean missile sites in the software….[MORE”

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What Do Google’s Leaked Spidering & Ranking Factors Mean? – Earlier this month we reported on Google’s Spam Score Details, but no one knew what it meant exactly. Todd Malicoat took a peek into the Google algorithm a week ago with his best guesses on what each value represents….[MORE”

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Yahoo Revamps Behavioral Targeting Platform – ClickZ reports on the details of Yahoo’s revised behavioral targeting platform, once known as Fusion and Impulse. Fusion and Impulse has been renamed to Engagers and Shoppers to better describe what the product does….[MORE”

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Reporting Data Delayed At Microsoft adCenter – I covered at Search Engine Roundtable that Microsoft adCenter has been having some reporting issues, where data in your adCenter reports are delayed as far back as the 14th (almost five full days). Microsoft is aware of the issue and will have things working properly as soon as possible.

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Google: Semantic Web Faces Webmaster Challenges – For years, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has posed the idea of a semantic web that will be smarter through tagging. I’ve always said the flaw with this idea is that people make mistakes with tagging. Google’s also said this type of thing before, as well — but Google’s director of search Peter Norvig gave fresh pushback yesterday when on a panel with Lee….[MORE”

=== July 18, 2006 ===

Mom’s Googling: Be Careful! – A mom decided to Google her daughter. What she found was an article from her daughter named “9 Tips For Surviving The Holidays At Your Republican Parents’ Home”….[MORE”

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Malware Search Engine Powered By Google – H.D. Moore of Metasploit designed a vertical search engine using the Google API to search specifically for malware….[MORE”. See also:

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The Google Idiots Are Damn Smart – The folks running Google are a bunch of idiots! At least that is what Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt wants you to think. Schmidt remarked to reporters the other day, “So, yes we are IDIOTS — and please WRITE THAT DOWN”….[MORE”. See also: Inside Google’s New-Product Process.

=== July 17, 2006 ===

More On MySpace After A Search Partner – BusinessWeek gives a few more details on the story we covered earlier about MySpace seeking a partner to power searches….[MORE”. See also: MySpace More Popular Than Google Or Yahoo?

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Find Great Podcasts – Podcasts are a very good way of keeping up to date with what is going on, they’re entertaining, you can play them in the background while you’re doing other things – but have you ever tried to find them? Quite frankly, it’s been pretty messy and not a lot of fun. However the article “Find great podcasts” is a very useful summary of podcast search engines, directories, and other resources. The comments also provide a useful collection of resources that can be used to find that elusive podcast.

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Google Hiring Television Engineers & Wireless Software Engineer – Google posted two new interesting jobs for the London office for Software Engineer, Television Technology & Wireless Software Engineer in Test….[MORE”

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Mobile-Local Search Now In 3DPoint and search mobile technology vendor GeoVector, which partnered with mapping company Mapion to bring a pointing-based mobile local search offering to Japan, is now introducing 3D search on Japanese mobile phones. Here’s an example of the 3D rendering on the phone. GeoVector also says it’s in talks with a “major US carrier” to bring its technology to the US market.

=== July 14, 2006 ===

Microsoft: “Enterprise Search Is Our Business” (It’s Not) & Google Can’t Have It (They Don’t) – Microsoft Chief Operating Office Kevin Turner declares “enterprise search is our business, it’s our house and Google is not going to take that business.” Gosh — I though enterprise search was Autonomy’s business….[MORE”

=== July 13, 2006 ===

AdSense Consulting Group Fed Up With Google AdSense – Wired has a story on AdSense, not Google AdSense, but AdSense Consulting, the company who registered AdSense.com back in 1996 and has to deal with people who assume it now has something to do with Google AdSense….[MORE”

=== July 12, 2006 ===

Yahoo’s Livesearch Added To Firefox – Yahoo’s Livesearch suggested search feature has come to Firefox 2.0….[MORE”

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Martin Child, VP Of Sales & Marketing Leaves Yahoo Search Marketing – Brand Republic reports that Yahoo Search Marketing’s vice-president of sales and marketing, Martin Child is leaving to work at Webloyalty. Child has been with Yahoo, Overture, for four and a half years prior to stepping down.

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ShopLocal Taps Topix for Geotargeted Ads – ShopLocal has partnered with news aggregator Topix.net to offer dynamic banner ads that are targeted by ZIP….[MORE”

=== July 11, 2006 ===

SuperPages Upgrades Maps With Microsoft – SuperPages, which had dynamic mapping almost before anyone else in local (though it was “kludgey”), has upgraded the mapping on its site using the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform….[MORE”. See also:

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Windows Live Adds Search/Personalized Toggle & 34 New Markets – You can now toggle between search and personalized experience at Windows Live, plus it is now offered in over 30 new markets….[MORE”

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Google To Set Up Offices In Michigan – Google will house up to 1,000 employees in a new facility in Michigan for at technology and call center, with a focus on the the library digitization project….[MORE”. See also: Yahoo Buys Land In Santa Clara.

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Google Drive Revealed? – A screen capture of what was named Platypus or GDrive suggests an internal tool used at Google is getting ready for prime time file storage by the public….[MORE”

=== July 10, 2006 ===

Kayak Launches $10m Ad Campaign – Includes TV – Kayak, the travel search engine, today launched a $10m advertising campaign with a HUGE offline component. The TV commercials are fun, creative, and potentially viral….[MORE”

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Click Packages Draw Local Advertisers Into Search – The Wall Street Journal reports on the “bundle of clicks” search distribution packages that all the major yellow pages publishers in the U.S. are now selling to their local advertisers….[MORE”. See also: The Changing Face of Local.

=== July 7, 2006 ===

Google Health Scrapbook: Google’s Health Portal – Reports have emerged that Google is working on a health portal named the Google Health Scrapbook. Google “users will be able to log in with their own account information and do things such as add a new medical provider, check their medical records or pay their bills”….[MORE”

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Dr. Stephen Hawking Turns To Yahoo Answers For How Humans Will Survive; Bono Posts Too – Wow. Dr. Stephen Hawking, yes, the real Stephen Hawking, has turned to Yahoo Answers for help. And stay tuned, because Yahoo’s planning to get U2’s Bono to post later today….[MORE”

=== July 6, 2006 ===

Smarter.com Updates Site – The Smarter.com shopping search made 4 major changes to its website. The company introduced a new design, new ranking methodology, clustering beta, and limited crawling….[MORE”

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Google Jockeying – Google jockeying (though it can be any search engine, it just seems that in order to gain attention Google has to be mentioned somewhere) is a situation where a teacher or presenter is giving a lecture and someone (the jockey) sits in the background running searches or using the search engine to demonstrate something that the presenter is talking about….[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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