Today’s search podcast covers Netscape transforming into a Digg-like
community news site; the New York Times and its industrial-strength search
engine optimization work; Google relaunches its US government search service;
searching for products by color and more!
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Below are links to items discussed:
- Netscape
Aims To Be Digg 2.0, Slashdot 3.0 With Community News Model
I was never a big Slashdot fan, given that I found the conversations about
search often had comments from people who didn’t know what they were talking
about. Digg came along and hardly won me over. Having one of my stories Dugg
over there reinforced the idea that Digg was Slashdot 2.0 in all the wrong
ways. Now AOL is trying to revive its flagging Netscape brand by turning it
into a Digg-clone or Slashdot 3.0, if you will. You’ll find the new version
here….
- SEO for
All the News That’s Fit to Search
The New York Times has one of the most popular news web sites, but until this
year that was largely because of the strength of its brand. After its
acquisition of About.com, the Times embarked on an aggressive campaign to make
its web site more search friendly, a complex process that’s paid off with
notable traffic gains for the company. Today’s SearchDay article, Getting The
New York Times More Search Engine Friendly, takes a look behind the scenes at
how the Times and its vice president of enterprise search, Marshall Simmonds,
pulled it off….
- Google
Relaunches US Government Search, Now With Personalized Home Page
Google launched its search engine for US government information, informally
known as Google Uncle Sam, many years ago. It’s been running since at least
1999. But now the service has received an update giving it a personalized home
page and formal branding as Google US Government Search….
- Google’s
Complete Plays Of Shakespeare Less Than Compleat
The Google blog ‘Inside Google Book Search’ announced in No holds bard that it
is now possible to explore Shakespeare with Google – The complete plays of
Shakespeare now at your fingertips. Well no, not exactly. I’ve spent some time
playing around with this resource and it’s less than impressive for a number
of reasons….
- Google
Buys Headquarters For $319 Million
Last night I was notified of a SEC Filing showing Google has entered into an
agreement to purchase their headquarters (The GooglePlex) for $319 million. Of
the $319 million, $10 million was already placed into escrow on June 9. Google
is technically buying 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway and 1200-1500 Crittenden Lane,
Mountain View, California, about 978,066 square feet of land. In addition to
the $319 million price tag, Google has to pay $315,000 per month to the city;
$140,000 per month for ground lease and $175,000 per month for rent with rent
increases of 4 percent to 7 percent. More details…
- Google’s
UK Chief Kate Burns Leaving For More Family Time
Last time I saw Kate Burns last year, she was about six months pregnant. Now
Google managing director of UK, Benelux and Ireland is leaving the company to
spend more time with that growing family. Best of luck, Kate! More details in
Burns set to leave Google director role from Brand Republic….
- A New
Local Search Marketing Guide
I’ve often been amazed that there isn’t a more organized effort by search
engines and others targeting small business advertisers to “educate” them
about online marketing. There are independent efforts here and there, but all
players would benefit from a concerted initiative. Until then, small
businesses have to rely on more informed colleagues and the serendipity of
discovering resources online. One such resource, put together by Matt McGee,
is the relatively concise Local Search Marketing Guide….
Google Maps Table Tilt Control Solution
- Yahoo,
MapQuest Bring Where 2.0 Back to Earth
Excuse the pun, of sorts. Many of the speakers and panelists over the past
couple of days at Where 2.0 demonstrated a range of cool technologies or
whiz-bang features that probably don’t have a hope of becoming breakout, mass
market consumer applications. That doesn’t mean they aren’t interesting or
useful. But the question is: where will these companies be in 5 years?…
- New
Yahoo Publisher Network Changes Focus on New Publishers
Yahoo Publisher Network released a new version of the control panel today
which focuses on helping a new user get the most out of Yahoo, both within and
outside the Publisher Network realm. For new publishers many how-tos, help
guides and demos were added. But also included is a new Publisher Services tab
which promotes other areas of Yahoo….
- Yahoo
Sued For Trademark Infringement Using Google AdWords
DenverPost.com reports that Yahoo was sued by lovecity.com for bidding on the
lovecity.com trademark in Google AdWords. Reportedly, Yahoo placed bids on “www.lovecity”
and “lovecity.com,” so when someone searches on those phrases, Yahoo Personals
would come up in the search ads on Google and Google’s search ad network. I
tried a search on www.lovecity and saw two competing dating services but not
Yahoo, come up in the sponsored listings section. I actually find it humorous
that Yahoo would go this far, only because the left hand does not talk to the
right hand….
- SEMPO &
Fair Issac Team Up To Study Click Fraud
- ClickZ reports that SEMPO and Fair Issac have teamed up to study PPC click
fraud. Fair Issac is the organization that developed FICO scores to measure of
credit risk, a service used by most credit agencies. ClickZ explains that the
study will use several “artificial intelligence methods to determine the
extent of click fraud and to develop a solution for the search marketing
industry,” developed by Fair Issac….
- MSN’s
Hand Crafted Results
“MSN Hiring People to Hand Code SERPS” at SEO Blackhat is a nice catch from
the MSN Search jobs page talking about needing people to help hand-craft
results. Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped reacts with “Oh my.” I react
with “Hallelujah.”…
- ShopWiki
Launches Search By Color
ShopWiki this morning launched its ‘Search by Color’ feature which lets
consumers quickly and easily filter search results by color. From the press
release: Accessible on ShopWiki’s search results page, the Search by Color
tool displays more than 60,000 RGB colors for shoppers to choose from. A
shopper looking for a turquoise v-neck shirt, for example, can search “women’s
v-neck” then select the desired shade from the color tool. Once selected, the
search results are instantly updated to list those shirts available in the
chosen hue. You have to play around with Shop by Color to really understand
the power…
Website designers want searches to work for free
- The
Dilbert Google Logo Story
Remember the Google Dilbert logos? If you do, and you want to read the story
behind it, check out Doug Edwards’ post at Xooglers. Doug also notes some
controversy over Google selling coffee mugs (Danny’s posted pictures of one
here) with the Dilbert logo. You can see the old story about Google on at
InternetNews.com from May 20, 2002. Edwards begins the tale of Google logo
changes here and talks at the end about how recently the Dilbert strip poked
fun at Google. The story of Google and Dilbert continues to this second
installment, ending with today’s post….