IndustryThe Search Engine Update – Number 198 – May 31, 2005

The Search Engine Update - Number 198 - May 31, 2005

Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan's recap of top search engine stories from the second half of May 2005.

In This Issue

+ SEW Forums Live Atlanta & SES San Jose
+ Search Engine Watch Member Articles
+ Other Top Stories
+ More From The Search Engine Watch Blog
+ About The Newsletter

========================

SEW Forums Live Atlanta & SES San Jose

Our Search Engine Watch Forums is having its first official gathering, Search Engine Watch Forums Live. It’s happening on June 28 at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, from 8:00am – 1:00pm.

SEW Forums editor Elisabeth Osmeloski will be moderating the event, which kicks off with a panel on the latest trends, hot topics and issues in today’s SEM marketplace.

After the panel, there will be organized roundtable topics with discussion leaders to get into specific tactics and SEM strategies. In “speed dating” style, attendees will have a chance to move onto another topic they’ve indicated interest in during the registration process.

For more information or to register, visit the Search Engine Watch Forums Live site.

Meanwhile, our Search Engine Strategies conference returns to the US in August. coming to San Jose from Aug. 8-11. Basic details are available here, and a full agenda will be posted later in June. The conference features speakers from major search engines, along with experts on search marketing.

After San Jose, SES comes to Stockholm in October, and the year’s tour ends in Chicago in December. Links to sites about those shows can be found via our Search Engine Strategies site.

In the UK? SES London happens tomorrow, June 1 and continues through June 2. You can still register. More information can be found at the SES London 2005 web site.

=============================
SEW Members Articles
=============================

Below are articles published since the last newsletter exclusively for Search Engine Watch members. In between newsletters, you can now also find any new articles listed on the Search Engine Watch Members Area home page. Past articles can be found in the Members-Only Articles Archive area. Need to come up to speed on a particular topic? Browse articles from Search Engine Watch and across the web in the Search Topics area.

========================

Submitting RSS Feeds To Yahoo
May 31, 2005 – Yahoo has been accepting RSS feeds for some time. However, it recently released a Publisher’s Guide To RSS that formalizes some submission tips and procedures for feed owners. In this article, a closer look at how your RSS feed appears within Yahoo and tips on doing better.

========================

Recap Of New SEM Tools
May 27, 2005 – The past few weeks have been pretty busy in terms of new search marketing tools appearing. In this article, a recap of some things that have hit my radar recently, ranging from AdWords keyword generation tools to link analysis tools to Firefox add-ons for marketers. These include GoLexa, a very cool tool for site owners. It brings back Google results and provides a ton of extra information about the pages listed. Yahoo Link Harvester uses the Yahoo API to let you find links pointing at a particular domain or individual page. You can get back up to 1,000 listings. You can then easily get WHOIS info, Alexa info, Google full cache or text-only cache copy of the domain that the link is hosted on. More on these tools and others in the story.

=============================
Other 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.

========================

Yahoo Feed Search & Web Search Feeds Update
May. 31, 2005 – Last September, my “Yahoo, How About A Feed Search Tab?” article wished for Yahoo to make it easier for people to find its feed search service. Similarly, I recently wished that Yahoo’s new web search feeds were easier to find. Any plans for these things to change? Nothing immediate, says Yahoo, unfortunately. More on how to find and use both things, in the meantime. See also Yahoo Gains RSS Feeds For Web Search & Discovering Auto-Discovery.

========================

SES Toronto Round-Up
May. 31, 2005 – Didn’t make it to Search Engine Strategies Toronto? In this post, a round-up of news out of it.

========================

Navigating London
May 31, 2005 – London offers wonderful opportunities for rambling explorationbut it’s also easy to lose your bearings if you’re not careful. Fortunately, the web offers some terrific search tools and maps to help you find your way.

========================

Google Toolbar Currently Showing No PageRank Scores Across The Web
May. 30, 2005 – For two days, the Google Toolbar’s PageRank meter wasn’t showing ratings for sites all over the web. Despite a holiday weekend in the US and UK, site owners freaked out, a sad sign that obsession with PageRank remains. More in this post. See also Cache Server Down for 10 Minutes & Counting at our forums for another recent glitch in a popular Google feature and Google Says DNS Issues Caused Outage on how an internet glitch put Google offline in early May for a short period and spurred rumors and thoughts it had been hacked.

========================

Stanford Daily Removes Paid Links
May. 30, 2005 – In April, I wrote about how Stanford University’s student newspaper and many other student papers were selling offtopic links to advertisers almost certainly trying to increase their search rankings. Blake Ross came across the situation this week and noted it on his blog. In a new twist, he seems to have also found WordPress-like doorway page spam, as well. The Stanford Daily and search spam from Silicon Beat has fresh comments from the Stanford Daily, with them saying they’d review the situation. That review seems to have happened, as Ross’s blog notes the ads appear to have been removed. My previous summary of the situation is here: Stanford University’s Student Paper & Selling Links. If you’re a Search Engine Watch member, the longer version of that article goes into depth about the situation, with screenshots and a summary of what has been happening at other universities. Want to discuss? Visit our forum thread, Stanford Daily Selling Links

========================

Yahoo Mindset Demo Allows “Intent Driven” Search Refinement
May. 27, 2005 – The Yahoo Research Lab has quietly released a new demo called Mindset that allows users to dynamically rerank result pages using a “slider.” Very cool and in my opinion an intuitive way for the searcher, who would never use any type of advanced search options, to quickly and easily focus their result sets. More in this post.

========================

Search Engine Forums Spotlight
May 27, 2005 – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Association of American University Presses’ Position On Google – Is My Site Being Hijacked? – What Happened To Google Overnight!? – Measuring PPC Success – Directories: Are They Just for SEO?, and more.

========================

Ask Jeeves Serves Up New Features
May 26, 2005 – Ask Jeeves is rolling out two new enhancements today that help searchers quickly focus queries and get direct answers to questions without using complex commands or advanced search tools.

========================

New Interface Available: Search Only Material in the Google Print Database
May. 26, 2005 – Google has just released a Google Print “only” interface, allowing you to easily search material print materials that have been digitized. More details on how it works, in this post. See also the follow-up post, SafeSearch Doesn’t Work On Google Print & Can Full Book Preview Prevention Be Hacked?

========================

BitTorrent Search Opens; Ask Jeeves Ads There Actually From Google
May. 26, 2005 – A new BitTorrent search engine is now live, allowing people to easily search for movies, music, software and other files often illegally posted on the web. More details in this post, as well as how the service is carrying Google ads by way of Ask Jeeves. Also see BitTorrent Plans to Launch Search Engine & Carry Ask Jeeves Ads for further background.

========================

Google Regains Its Hijacked Listing; This Was A Big Deal, Folks!
May. 26, 2005 – Two days after it appeared, Google finally managed to get its hijacked listing restored for queries on “adsense” and “google adsense.” Two days! And this to correct a problem it has been told about for over year, a problem it largely dismissed as not being a big issue? It looks bad, coming days after the recent song-and-dance at the Google Factory Tour about how much energy is supposedly expended on core search and ads. More in this article and further background in Google’s Own Listing Gets Hijacked and Google Ranking Alternative Domain Tops For Searches On Google.

========================

Yahoo Launches Personalized Movie Recommendations
May 25, 2005 – Looking for a film recommendation based on your own personal tastes and interests? Check out Yahoo’s new personalized movie recommendations, launched today.

========================

Diller: Ask Jeeves Might Get New Name
May. 25, 2005 – Barry Diller told attendees at the D3 — All Things Digital conference that he is considering a name change. Of course, this also assumes that the IAC/Ask Jeeves merger goes through. It probably will be “Ask.” More in this post.

========================

Forget Google Print Copyright Infringement; Search Engines Already Infringe
May. 25, 2005 – The Association of American University Presses has concerns that Google Print’s digital library program may be equal to widescale copyright infringement. But that complaint, if ultimately upheld in a court case, would go far beyond print digitization. It might impact the fact that search engines already do widespread copying of content to provide the core search services we take for granted. More observations in this post.

========================

Introducing a New Web Search Contender
May 24, 2005 – These days, web search is dominated by giants, and it’s rare to see the emergence of a new potentially world-class search engine. Meet Exalead, a powerful search tool with features not offered by the major search engines.

========================

Some Publishers Not Happy With Google’s Library Digitization Program
May. 23, 2005 – The Association of University Publishers (about 125 scholarly publishers) have sent a letter to Google saying that the Google Library program, “appears to be built on a fundamental violation of the copyright act.” More details and observations in this article.

========================

MSN Virtual Earth To Take On Google Earth
May. 23, 2005 – Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has announced a MSN Virtual Earth service is to debut in the summer. The service is promised to provide satellite images with 45-degree-angle views of buildings and neighborhoods, images with street map overlays and the ability to add local data layers, such as showing local businesses or restaurants. Screenshots and more details in this post. Also see Microsoft’s MSN Virtual Earth: The Map is the Search Platform for a great overview article that came out after the announcement.

========================

ODP Forum Closes Status Check Service; Time For The ODP To Close?
May. 23, 2005 – Been wondering what’s going on with your Open Directory submission? A long-standing way to check on your status has now closed, due to time constraints. It makes you wonder if perhaps it’s time for the ODP to close or radically change how it compiles listings. More in this post. See also the follow-up post, Corrupt Editors? PageRank-less Categories? And Other ODP Problems.

========================

Search Engine Forums Spotlight
May 23, 2005 – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Google Gets Personalized Home Page Feature – Proposed Search Engine Standard For Titles & Descriptions – Traditional Marketing As Part Of Your SEM Campaign – Steve Ballmer: ‘One-hit wonder’ Google could disappear in five years – Search Engine Optimization and Gresham’s Law, and more.

========================

Google Launches My Google-Style Personalized Home Page
May 20, 2005 – Google has unveiled a new service that allows people to consolidate various Google features they use, ranging from web search to email, into a personalized home page. See also Reactions To My Google Personalized Home Page for a recap of stories across the web.

========================

Google News Study Finds Bias But Not Favoritism — But Study Also Has Flaws
May. 20, 2005 – A study has found that Google News results are significantly more likely to have an ideological bias than Yahoo News, though the bias will be on both ends of the spectrum. However, the study seems flawed in not accounting for how Google “clusters” results. More observations, in this article.

========================

Google Factory Tour Recap
May. 20, 2005 – So Google’s first “Google Factory Tour” has ended. Overall, I’d say it was a great success on the PR front — at least if you weren’t that familiar with Google. Most of what was said was old ground for many readers. But in this post, highlights of what seemed most interesting. There are also links to the webcast page and all the slides shown.

========================

Don’t Disable Your Site for Handicapped Users
May 19, 2005 – Are you designing web sites that are accessible to disabled users? If not, you’re overlooking a powerful market segment of millions of searchers and potential buyers.

========================

Proposed Search Engine Standard For Titles & Descriptions
May. 19, 2005 – It is becoming more noticeable that Google may substitute titles and descriptions from the Open Directory for its listings in place of using material from the page itself — and that’s not always to the searcher’s benefit. Nor is Google alone in this type of substitution. I’ve posted a proposed standard that the search engines might follow. You can read more in this thread at our Search Engine Watch Forums, plus add your own comments, ideas or vote for options.

========================

Google My Search History Spam
May. 18, 2005 – Using the Google “My Search History” feature? Turns out, there’s a new way to spam it into thinking you’ve done searches you haven’t. More in this post, which will generate an example you can view, as well.

===========================
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.

========================

Google Announces “Summer of Code” Initiative for Software Developers
May. 31, 2005 – Are you a student who likes to write computer code? Then Google might have a way for you to make some cash through its new “Summer Of Code” initiative. More details in this post.

========================

Have RSS Feeds Read to You
May. 31, 2005 – Don’t feel like reading RSS feeds but would rather listen to them? A free service called Speakwire allows you to have selected RSS feeds read to you using synthesized speech technology. More details in this post.

========================

On the RSS Beat: Topix.net CEO Speaks; FeedMesh Oveview
May. 31, 2005 – EditorsWeblog.com reports on recent presentations at the 58th annual World Newspaper Conference and the 12th World Editors Forum from Topix.net CEO, Rich Skrenta. Also, the eWeek article RSS Updates Moving Beyond Pings takes a look at the FeedMesh weblog/RSS update service that several companies are working together to develop.

========================

New Technical Report from Stanford Discusses Link Spam
May. 31, 2005 – The Stanford InfoLab has just posted a new 22 page technical report titled, “Link Spam Alliances.” The paper includes a focus on how, “link spammers manipulate PageRank scores.” The full text >here in PDF format.

========================

What Happened to Google’s Personalized Web Search Demo?
May. 31, 2005 – When we posted an overview of Yahoo’s new Mindset search tool last Friday I pointed out that access to Google’s Personalized Web Search was unavailable. Well, it’s about four days later and the service can still unreachable. I realize that Google Labs is a place to try new things out but it would sure be useful if Google could simply post a note saying that a service is no longer available or temporarily offline.

========================

Become.com Gets More Funding
May. 31, 2005 – The San Jose Mercury News article: $7.2 million in start-up’s 2nd round, reports that shopping search vertical Become.com has raised more than $7 million in a second round of funding. Here’s an overview article about Become.com that SearchDay published in April.

========================

Jux2 Goes Offline
May. 31, 2005 – Some sad news to report. Jux2, the winner of the Search Engine Watch 2004 best meta search engine award, is no longer available. Over the weekend, one of the developers of Jux2 told me that the service was originally designed to research search engine overlap (it sure was useful) and although they were thrilled and honored that many people also used it as a meta engine, the Jux2 team did not have the time, funding, and resources to keep the site running. Jux2 did have conversations with other meta engines to see if they would be interested in taking over the service but no one “stepped up.” Here are two other tools you might want to check out that can help determine search engine overlap: Dogpile’s “Missing Pieces” (More about this new search engine overlap tool in this SearchDay article) and Ranking.thumbshots.com (more about this in Exploring Search Engine Overlap.)

========================

Findory Now Offering “Personalized” Advertising
May. 31, 2005 – Greg Linden from Findory reports that his personalized news and weblog recommendation tool is now showing “personalized” advertising that’s not only based on the content of the page but also the “individual behavior” of the Findory user. Findory’s personalized ad engine is powered with content from Google’s AdSense.

========================

Yahoo CEO: 2005 Is For Making More Search Revenue & Better Ad Targeting Through Personal Info
May. 31, 2005 – Yahoo CEO: Better Search Monetization Is Top Co Priority from Dow Jones has Yahoo’s Terry Semel saying that increasing the revenue earned per search is the company’s “largest and most important project” in the search space and that Yahoo is going to tap into the tons of data is has about users to better target ads. A few more observations, in this post.

========================

Microsoft Slams “Perfect” Google Again
May. 31, 2005 – Forget the previous Microsoft party line on Google, where Microsoft admitted to being “stupid” in falling behind in the search space. Now it seems to be one of snicker at Google’s success. Spotted via Search Engine Lowdown, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates said during a conference last week in apparently sarcastic tones: “Google is still perfect; the bubble is floating, and they can do everything.” This follows on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggesting indirectly earlier this month that Google was a “one-hit wonder” that “nobody thinks can do any wrong.” Google, of course, does plenty of wrong. More on that and Ballmer’s remarks in my past post, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: Google “One-Hit Wonder”.

========================

Not Just A Search Engine: 2005 Edition
May. 31, 2005 – This time last year, Yahoo talked of being “more than a search engine,” sending me off on giant wobble. My Return To The Sad Days Of More Than A Search Engine? article asked if we’d come full circle, with search engines deciding it was cool to be portals again. If so, would search quality slip again as last time? Google’s Mission in Context from MediaPost has Google’s head of travel explaining recently “we’re not just a search engine” to an audience, sending writer David Berkowitz on a similar wobble on whether search engines — and Google in particular — are forgetting their missions. Missions? You’ll find a recap of Google’s and Yahoo’s here from me: Missions & Visions & Actions.

========================

Wall Street Journal On Search-Funded Spam
May. 31, 2005 – I’ve written before on the ironic situation of Google AdSense funding some of the spam Google has to eliminate from its indexed. Syndic8 Gets Outed for Spamming and WordPress Caught Spamming After Enlisting To Fight Spam are two close up examples, as well. Spotted via John Battelle, Web sites that exist only to sell advertising has Wall Street Journal writer Lee Gomes earlier this month feeling fed up with the situation as well. It’s not an in-depth look but more a personal commentary — and a sign that the issue is becoming more noticeable.

========================

AdWords: Limits On Number Of Terms, How Terms Get Disabled & Negative Site Feature Info
May. 31, 2005 – A three-fer here from the Search Engine Watch Forums, on how Google may limit new accounts to the number of terms they can bid on, how terms may get disabled and some examples on using the new site blocking feature for contextual campaigns. Links and info, in this post.

========================

More On Direct Links For Libraries In Google Scholar
May. 31, 2005 – Any library can now set up direct links to the full-text articles found in Google Scholar. In other words, say an article is kept behind password protection. If a library has a subscription, they can enable Google Scholar so that their patrons can automatically view the material. Spotted via On Google Scholar, Library Collections Linked on Google Scholar for Free is a recent article from Barbara Quint that looks at this and other library issues with Google Scholar, in more depth. See also Gary’s post at ResourceShelf, Direct Links to Articles: Google Scholar is Now Open to All Libraries and information from Google here: Google Scholar: Support For Libraries.

========================

Voice-Activated Search Technology Being Developed In Israel
May. 30, 2005 – The Globes site from Israel has a brief article about Maestro, voice-activated search technology, being developed at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Google Voice Search from Google Labs (no longer available) provided voice-activated search via the telephone. Yahoo by Phone allows you to speak your commands into the telephone and receive email, news, weather and other info but does not allow you to search the web. The new version of Opera also offers some voice-activated options. Speegle, is not a voice-activated search engine but does read your Google results back to you using synthesized speech. We blogged about it late last year.

========================

Is Google Planning to Open a New Googleplex in Boston?
May. 30, 2005 – According to the Boston Business Journal article: Google goggles Hub for major expansion, that the Boston area is one of four cities that Google is considering for a new Googleplex. Company representative have looked at more than 10 Boston/Cambridge locations in the past seven days. The three other cities in the running aren’t listed in the article but as far as Boston goes, Google wants 75,000 sq. feet of office space with an option to expand to over 200,000 sq. feet in the next 18 months. The article goes on to mention that Google would hire up to 1,000 “mid-salary workers.” The company already has a small sales office in Boston.

========================

Growing Your SEM Business Virtually
May. 30, 2005 – Want to grow your SEM businesses but don’t want to hire full-time people, deal with getting a formal office and other issues? Virtually Perfect: How To Structure A Virtual SEM Business For Success from Stacy Williams at Search Engine Guide looks at a number tips you might consider. Also check out the recent SearchDay article The Power of Virtual Search Engine Marketing and the Virtual SEM thread at our forum that cover similar issues.

========================

Looking At Google’s In-House Ad “Poets”
May. 30, 2005 – Spotted via Search Engine Lowdown, Search-Related Ads Rely on Poetry of Words, Numbers from the LA Times (free reg. required) looks at Google’s in-house team of “maximizers” who work with clients to improve ad copy and performance.

========================

Ask Jeeves Exec Jim Lanzone Answers Questions
May. 30, 2005 – 5 Questions with Jim Lanzone, Senior VP of Search Properties, Ask Jeeves from SearchViews has Jim Lanzone explaining why he likes the Bloglines service Ask bought, favorite blogs he reads, Ask eyeing plug-ins for Firefox, vertical versus general search and growing ad sales internally at Ask. Still have questions? Live Q&A Session with Jim Lanzone, VP of Ask Jeeves at the Cre8asite Forums is going on right now, letting you post things you’d like him to answer.

========================

Meet The Google Engineers Event Next Month
May. 30, 2005 – Google is having a special “Meet The Google Engineers” event in New Orleans next month, free to anyone interested. It’s being held in conjunction with the WebmasterWorld Search Conference that will be happening (more on that here). However, you needn’t be attending the conference to go to the Google event, Google says. Just use the Google sign-up page to reserve a spot. The event happens Wednesday, June 22 from 6pm to 8pm. There will be no presentations. Instead, Google is having tables dedicated to various topics. Which topics? That will be determined by what people say they want to discuss when registering (there’s a place on the sign-up form for this). Engineers from both Google’s ad side and editorial/crawling site will be participating, Google says.

========================

Google Press Releases Now Available Via Feed
May. 30, 2005 – Spotted via Steve Rubel, Google is now issuing press release notifications via a feed. Non-feed releases are here; feed is here. Steve noted Microsoft releases were available in RSS in February. I can’t recall when Yahoo added them, but they’ve been out there for several months, as I’ve long had that as a subscription. You’ll find the Yahoo feed here, off the non-feed release page. FYI, the company blogs are often well in front of the formal press releases. Official search blogs from each company are listed in the blogroll on our home page.

========================

Digital Envoy Suit Against Google Can Go Ahead & Full-Text Of Ruling
May. 27, 2005 – According to this News.com report, Digital Envoy’s lawsuit claiming that Google breached its contract with the company over IP geotargeting can move forward after being denied a summary judgment in a U.S. District Court last week. Full text of the order is available in PDF format > here.

========================

Types Of Links To Lead Search Engines To Your Site
May. 27, 2005 – Threads of the Web – Linking for Success from Scottie Claiborne at Search Engine Guide is a nice overview to the types of links you might want to obtain to help search engines and human visitors down these “roads” to your site. She also offers some short tips about each type.

========================

Last Week, Google Had A Strategy. This Week, It Doesn’t
May. 27, 2005 – Last week, Google was emphatic right on its own blog that they weren’t “just a bunch of mad scientists running around doing whatever we want.” This week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying they “delight” in having no strategy. More in this post. See also Information Week Publishes Interview With Eric Schmidt for a highlight of other interesting comments from Schmidt in a recent interview. And also see Engineers Running Rampant at Google, for more recent comments from Schmidt on the idea that Google engineers need space to be creative.

========================

Booting Copyright Infringers From Search Listings
May. 26, 2005 – Pursuing Copyright Infringers from Scottie Claiborne over at Search Engine Guide has a nice rundown on what to do if you find pages infringing your copyright in search results. Contacting the search engines along won’t get the infringing material off the web, but it will at least starve it of its search engine traffic when listings are pulled. And did you get pulled? Via Search Engine Roundtable, this WebmasterWorld thread looks at what you might do to get reincluded, as least if pulled off of Google.

========================

Search Marketing Trade Publication Coming
May. 26, 2005 – Search marketing is looking to get its first print magazine. It will be from SYS-CON media and to be called SEM/SEO Journal. A news release has more details on the launch, to come in the second half of this year. An online site is also promised at www.SEO.sys-con.com, though that URL just resolves back to the main SYS-CON site for now.

========================

Take The SEO Quiz
May. 25, 2005 – Rand Fiskin has created the SEO Quiz. It’s fun — give it a whirl. Then check out whether you’re at the top of the leaderboard. I’m hoping Rand will make it into a monthly or weekly quiz on news. And Barry notes it’s already had some spam. Want to comment on how the quiz might change? Visit our forum thread, The SEO Quiz From SEOmoz.

========================

Research Workshop On Sponsored Search
May. 25, 2005 – Workshop on Sponsored Search Auctions is a workshop covering research about paid listings and sponsored search, being held as part of the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce in Vancouver. It happens on June 5.

========================

New Cease-And-Desist Notices Sent To Google
May. 25, 2005 – Three new complaints at Chilling Effects have been posted asking Google to pull material because of defamation concerns. Links and brief info, in this post.

========================

Google Desktop Search Now Available in Many Langauges
May. 25, 2005 – A post on the Google Blog points out that Google Desktop Search is now available in several new languages.

========================

Search Spend Doubles, Sends Online Retailers 43 Percent Of Their Traffic
May. 25, 2005 – A new Forrester/Shop.org report finds that online retailers more than doubled their search ads spend from 2003 to 2004. Of 136 retailers surveyed, they spent $877,630 on search ads in 2004, over double the $399,923 spent in 2003. Retailers also reported that search traffic made up a giant 43 percent of traffic to their web sites. More details in this press release on the study and some charts in this ClickZ article: Online Retail Growth Robust.

========================

Digimarc Desktop Image Search Beta Opens
May. 25, 2005 – Not happy with the image search capabilities of your existing desktop search application? A new free beta of Digimarc Image Search software might help. It’s billed as working with existing services such as Google’s, Yahoo’s and MSN’s.

========================

A Google Ad Exchange Service? Domains Suggest It Might Happen
May. 24, 2005 – The Google Exchange from MarketWatch looks at the possibility of Google offering some type of advertising exchange service. In other words, beyond putting its own ads across the web, Google might also serve as an AdBrite-like ad broker for others. The article is all pure speculation, of course. A Google rep is quoted, but declined to comment on whether Google would do this. But here’s some fuel for the fire in the way of domain registrations by Google. More in this post.

========================

Could a New Algorithm Increase Profits for Search Ad Providers?
May. 23, 2005 – Phys.org has posted a news release from Georgia Tech University in Atlanta about a new computer algorithm, “that could further increase profits for search engine advertising.” The research itself was motivated by a question asked of one of the researchers by Google’s former Director of Research, Monika Henzinger, while he was interviewing for a job at the Googleplex last year. More details and text of the paper in this post.

========================

Yahoo Announces a Challenge for Webmasters, Bloggers, and Web Developers
May. 23, 2005 – Yahoo has launched the YQ Challenge to find the “most innovative” implementations of their YQ contextual search platform. Yahoo launched YQ in beta earlier this year. The winner of the YQ Challenge receives $5,000. Second place receives $2,500. $1,000 for third. This FAQ has more info. The deadline for submitting entries is June 19th.

========================

Personalization for the Mobile Web Searcher
May. 23, 2005 – TheFeature’s Peggy Ann Salz conducts an interview with search engine personalization expert Barry Smyth about using personalization to improve the online experience of the mobile searcher by using informal communities. A few more details and links, in this post.

========================

New South African Web Engine Now Online
May. 22, 2005 – If you track regional search engines you might be interested in a new service that searches only pages from the South Africa named Funnel. The Mail and Guardian article, New SA search engine promises relevant results, provided a brief introduction. A few more details, in this post.

========================

New Local Search Technology Company Prepares for Launch
May. 22, 2005 – The Rocky Mountain News article: World Wide Web cut down to size, takes a look at Local Matters, a new local search technology provider based in Denver that plans to fully launch by the end of 2005. One of the people behind the new company is Perry Evans, who was the founder of a company you might have heard of, MapQuest. (-:

========================

New From Yahoo: Guide to RSS for Publishers
May. 20, 2005 – The new Yahoo Publisher’s Guide to RSS will be especially useful as a one-stop shop for those just getting started with the format but can also serve as a worthwhile reference for experienced RSS types. The site includes an intro to RSS, how to create feeds with several services (not just Yahoo 360), info about submitting and promoting your feed, a link to sign-up for alerts about new services from Yahoo (RSS advertising), and more.

========================

Customize Landing Pages For Paid Search
May. 20, 2005 – Create New Pages for PPC Search Landing Pages from Kevin Lee at ClickZ reminds that with paid search campaigns, you can change your landing pages without worry that your rankings might drop. He provides some tips and idea on getting more out of your tweaks.

========================

Google and X1 offer New Desktop Search Services for Business Customers
May. 20, 2005 – Google announces that Google Desktop Search is now available for enterprise users and longtime desktop search provider X1, releases an edition for small and medium-sized businesses. A few more details, in this post.

========================

Three Attorneys Launch a Click Fraud Clearinghouse
May. 20, 2005 – Three of the attorneys involved in the click fraud class action lawsuit mentioned last month have started a web-based clearinghouse that will contain information about the case and links to articles about click fraud. The site is called LostClicks.com. Presently, it’s rather light on content but will hopefully contain more info as the case moves forward. Right now you’ll find a list of recent click fraud articles and a brief backgrounder about why the case was filed.

========================

Ask Buys Excite Europe; To Share Excite.com With Infospace
May. 20, 2005 – A Reuters article about 10 days ago mentioned that Ask Jeeves was planning on offering new services throughout Western Europe. These plans were made a bit clearer today when Ask Jeeves announced that they have acquired Excite Europe from Tiscali for an undisclosed sum of money. Want to discuss the acquisition? Check out this SEW Forums thread. In other Ask Jeeves news, the company has agreed in a “comprehensive settlement of litigation” with InfoSpace to share marketing costs and revenue from the Excite.com Web search function.

========================

Tweak Google Desktop Search
May. 19, 2005 – I just came across a new app (freeware) from Nathan Evans that allows you to make several changes to Google Desktop Search without having to go in and edit the registry. You can move your GDS index; change the drives that GDS indexes, including mapped network drives and attached (USB/Firewire) drives – even your iPod! You can also force a manual re-indexing of your drives at any time

========================

Yahoo Surveying Web Searchers
May. 19, 2005 – Michel from El Telendro dropped a note about a survey that Yahoo is asking random web search users to complete about the My Web beta. People who complete the survey are offered a chance to win $1000 in a monthly Yahoo sweepstakes. Michel grabbed a couple of screenshots and posted them here and here.

========================

Accoona Now Offering Some D&B Data
May. 19, 2005 – The China Daily reports that web engine Accoona is now offering a small amount of company info from the Dun & Bradstreet database. A few more details, in this post.

========================

Google AdWords & Other Feeds Offered
May. 19, 2005 – Spotted via Jensense, there’s a new Inside AdWords blog from Google. And from Dirson, an entire list of current Google feeds, such as from Blogger and Picasa. Not listed are the Google News feeds I wrote about earlier — but you can currently only get them within Gmail. Google Orkut Media also offers feeds.

========================

StatCounter & Alt Text For SEO
May. 19, 2005 – ClickTracks said it wasn’t the only tracking service to make use of tracking codes for SEO purposes. Frank Watson’s Some Tracking Companies Stealing Links looks today at how StatCounter apparently does the same.

========================

Blogdigger Goes Local
May. 19, 2005 – Blogdigger, a blog search engine being developed by Greg Gershman, has launched a new service called Blogdigger Local that allows you to search for blog posts by geographic location. More in this post.

========================

Demo Some Content Based Image Retrieval Software
May. 18, 2005 – A few weeks ago I blogged about content based image retrieval and listed a bunch of resources to learn more including several items from a company called LTU Technologies. At that time a content based image retrieval demo using LTU Technologies was unavailable. Good news, it’s back online. More details in this post.

========================

SortPrice Gets Drag-And-Drop Shopping Feature
May. 18, 2005 – The SortPrice shopping search engine has added a neat drag-and-drop shopping feature to its service. Do a search, then you can drag images of products you are interested in and drop them into the left-hand side of your screen, to build up an interest list. Sadly, it only seems to work in Internet Explorer.

========================

UK’s Yell Purchases Large U.S. Phone Directory Publisher
May. 18, 2005 – Reuters and Bloomberg News report in the article Yell snaps up more U.S. directories that the UK publisher has acquired TransWestern, one of the biggest independent publishers of U.S. phone directories. Yell paid $1.58 billion.

===============================
Want To Vote For Us?
===============================

MarketingSherpa is having its 2005 Readers’ Choice Blog Awards. Like our Search Engine Watch Blog? We’re not listed in category eight, “Blogs on search marketing.” But after you vote for the six shown there, you can also skip down to the last question and just past Search Engine Watch Blog into the write-in box. That is, if you like us. Here’s the voting form.

===============================
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.

Resources

The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

whitepaper | Analytics The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

8m
Data Analytics in Marketing

whitepaper | Analytics Data Analytics in Marketing

10m
The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

whitepaper | Digital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

1y
Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

whitepaper | Digital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

1y