IndustrySearch Headlines & Links: September 26, 2006

Search Headlines & Links: September 26, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search
Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we’ve spotted but not blogged
separately:

From The SEW Blog…

  • The
    Internet, ‘Family 2.0’ And The 43-Hour Day

    Yahoo and OMD issued the findings from the latest round of their ongoing
    global research project in 16 contries that involves online surveys and
    in-person interviews. What they found is that through technology and
    multitasking families are cramming the equivalent of 43 hours of activity into
    a 24 hour day. They also found that the Internet (and mobile phones) are a
    significant part of the fabric of daily family life. There’s a lot of
    interesting material in the findings. The top level data can be found in this
    release….
  • Google’s
    Index Bench: Build Your Own Google Search Engine?

    Gary Price reported that Google registered a few new interesting domain names
    including bench-index.com, benchindex.com, index-bench.com and indexbench.com.
    Since then Garett Rogers speculated that this may mean Google is building a
    product to allow users to build their own flavor of the Google search engine,
    much like how Rollyo does. Philipp Lenssen guesses that Google may be
    releasing some sort of Alexa engine. Some folks at Philipp’s forum suggest
    that “IndexBench could be tools that measure the quality of an index.” Loren
    Baker leans to siding with Garett Rogers’s guess. Me? I have no better guess
    at this time….
  • First
    Non English University To Join Google Book Search Project

    Reuters reports that The Complutense University of Madrid, a Spanish
    university, is to join the Google Book Search scan project as the first
    library to join in a “non-English-speaking country.” The Complutense
    University’s library is the second largest in the country, with 3 million
    works….
  • Some
    Google Belgium Follow-Ups

    Just a quick note that Google’s posted on its official blog about the Google
    Belgian news issue that I’ve been covering, while William Slawski has a nice
    translation in the works on the ruling itself….
  • Google
    Gets Long Distance Phone Call From Space

    The world’s first private woman space tourist Anousheh Ansari made a long
    distance call to the Googlplex to talk with Google co-founder Larry Page.
    Ansari and Page both are trustees of the X Prize Foundation. Google has
    highlights of some of their call here; including space fun, space food, space
    broadband and more. Larry Page asks, when can he “come up to join” Ansari? Who
    knows, maybe Page will cash out on some Google stock and fly to the
    International Space Station….
  • Yahoo
    Fellowships For Repressed Journalists, While Chinese Journalist Might Sue Them

    Earlier this month, I dinged Google over hypocrisy for getting behind Banned
    Books Week given its support of censorship in China. Now, a similar ding for
    Yahoo. Yahoo funds $1M Stanford journalism fellowship from the San Jose
    Business Journal covers how Yahoo — under fire for allegedly harming
    journalists in China — is going to fund fellowships for journalists in
    countries with press restrictions….
  • Google
    Aims To Make More Energy Efficient Computers

    A NY Times article shows how Google to Push for More Electrical Efficiency in
    PC. Why? (1) “It’s like putting a 400-horsepower engine in every car, just
    because some cars have to tow large trailers every once in a while,” Mr.
    Calwell of Google said. (2) “By deploying the new power supplies in 100
    million desktop PC’s running eight hours a day, it will be possible to save 40
    billion kilowatt-hours over three years, or more than $5 billion at
    California’s energy rates.” (3) Because Search Companies Energetically Seeking
    Electricity (4) Google’s Costs To Increase With Data Center Needs Energy…
  • DMA
    Offering Search Marketing Certification Program

    The Direct Marketing Association has announced a new certification program in
    search marketing, which is to launch at its annual conference next month. From
    the press release:…
  • Class
    Action Lawsuit Filed Against AOL Over Search Data Release

    TechCrunch reports in Suit filed against AOL; seeks to block search history
    storage that a class action lawsuit has been filed against AOL seeking $1,000
    in damages for each person whose search records were released last month. The
    release involved 658,000 individuals, so that’s potentially a $658 million
    bill, if the case succeeds. It’s even more if some of those people are
    California-based, since the case seeks $4,000 per California individual,
    according to TechCrunch….

  • Exploiting the Differences in Search Ad Programs

    The major search engines pay-per-click programs all have similarities, but
    also have their own unique features and nuances. Crafting your campaigns to
    take maximum advantage of each program requires understanding the subtle
    differences in each program. At a recent SES conference, a panel explored the
    different programs and offered suggestions based on experience using them.
    Read on for more on these differences in today’s SearchDay article, Compare &
    Contrast: Search Ad Program Strategies….

  • Microsoft Consolidates Platform, Portfolio In ‘Digital Advertising Solutions’

    Microsoft announced the launch of “Digital Advertising Solutions” and a
    related media campaign to promote it. What is “Digital Advertising Solitions?”
    It’s an effort to bring together, in one convenient buying environment,
    Microsoft’s extensive portfolio of consumer properties in gaming, mobile and
    online. According to the press release, “Microsoft Digital Advertising
    Solutions offers advertisers the ability to reach more than 465 million
    consumers each month across the MSN network and millions more through Windows
    Live, Xbox Live and Office Online. Microsoft’s advertising portfolio extends
    its reach across some of Microsoft’s latest releases such as Live Search and
    Live Local Search,…
  • Google
    Leads In Dead & Old Pages

    In Google Has the Largest Number of Dead and Old Pages, the Google Operating
    System Blog points to a video and some research from Google’s Ziv Bar-Yossef
    that discusses how to grab a random sample of pages from major search engines
    and extrapolate from those pages information about the search engines. This
    can be used in a number of ways….
  • Organic
    & Paid Search Conversion Metrics Similar

    ClickZ reports on a WebSideStory study that shows that organic search traffic
    realized a conversion rate of 3.13 percent while paid search traffic realized
    a conversion rate of 3.4 percent. The study covered 57 million search engine
    visits from “20 business-to-consumer e-commerce sites during the first eight
    months of 2006.” ClickZ notes that organic search traffic does tend to have a
    higher click rate (1.5 times higher than paid search volume)….
  • Google
    Displaying Really Long Site Descriptions?

    Philipp Lenssen spotted a screen capture of Google displaying a really long
    and extended description within the search results page for a search on [blogspot.com
    autoregistration]. I personally do not see the nine or so line description
    myself. Matt Cutts of Google commented saying he was also not able to
    “recreate those snippets,” so maybe a temporary Google bug, spyware, or a
    fake?…
  • Real
    Estate Search Engine Trulia Adds New Depth, Features

    As the housing market cools, the real estate vertical is heating up. Today,
    real estate search engine Trulia launched several new features, a week after
    Zillow introduced new functionality and about three weeks after Yahoo! Real
    Estate announced a range of new tools and a site redesign….

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