Notable news and announcements from the web search world during the past month. Announcements without links to online versions were received via email.
Warning: The links and descriptions below are from official press releases, and may contain marketing hyperbole, claims or euphemisms not necessarily endorsed by Search Engine Watch.
March 2
comScore Announces Local Web Search Tracking Service
By categorizing and analyzing search activity that includes local modifiers, such as city and state names, zip codes, phone numbers or the words “map” and “directions,” comScore’s qSearch Local accurately estimates the number, type and search engine of origin of local searches conducted by U.S. Internet users.
Yahoo Search Launches New Content Acquisition Program
CAP enables non-commercial and commercial content providers to better interact with Yahoo Search Technology by directly providing their Web pages, which are then added to Yahoo’s search index and displayed in search results based on their relevance to a search term.
March 4
Ask Jeeves Acquires Interactive Search Holdings
Interactive Search Holdings properties include My Way, My Search, My Web Search, iWon, Excite and MaxOnline.
March 8
Topix.net Launches Webs Largest News Site
Topix.net features 150,000 topical news pages and local news for every US ZIP code. The Companys categorization engine provides a concept-based method towards aggregating news, which is unlike other vendors’ keyword-based search techniques.
March 9
Yahoo Launches SmartView Technology: New Mapping Feature Creates Customized Visual Search Capability
SmartView enhances the current Yahoo Maps product by allowing consumers to choose local points of interest and attractions — such as restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, parks, ATMs and post offices — to customize the current map display.
March 10
Google Brings Online Advertising Program to Korea
Advertisers can now use a Korean interface to effectively target their ads to users of Google and its partner sites. Google also announced an expansion of its partnership with Korean portal KTH HanMir.
March 17
Google Connects Searchers With Local Information
Google Local enables users to find relevant local information with neighborhood business listings, maps, directions, and useful web pages.
March 22
GuruNet Launches New Answer Engine
GuruNet displays authoritative answers, definitions and facts on more than 700,000 topics comprising news, people, places, history, events, and specific industry knowledge. The content is from more than 150 top-quality data sources and live data feeds such as The Houghton-Mifflin’s American Heritage Dictionary & Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, The Roget’s Thesaurus, Columbia Press Encyclopedias and AccuWeather.
March 26
InfoSpace to Acquire Switchboard
According to comScore/MediaMetrix, InfoSpace and Switchboard’s combined network of owned and operated sites and distribution partners comprises approximately 23% of total online yellow pages searches.
Kelkoo is the largest e-commerce service originating in Europe. It has operations in nine countries. Kelkoo enables consumers to quickly and easily find products through its product search engine, then compare prices from more than 2,500 merchants with more than 3 million products across 25 categories.
March 29
Google Introduces Personalized Search Services
Google Personalized Web Search and Google Web Alerts, both debuting on Google Labs, enable searchers to specify what interests them and to receive customized results based on those interests.
March 31
Google Gets the Message, Launches Gmail
Google Inc. today announced it is testing a preview release of Gmail a free search-based webmail service with a storage capacity of up to eight billion bits of information, the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email per user.
Switchboard Launches the Local Search Advisor Newsletter
The Local Search Advisor has been created to provide clear strategies and case studies from brands and marketers who have leveraged local search on the Web.
Yahoo Search Integrates Travel Planning Shortcuts into Web Results
Travelers can use Yahoo Search to find travel information including where to stay, what kind of weather to expect, or whether the plane is late.