The Search Engine Report - Number 81
This issue looks at LookSmart's expansion of deep listings to small businesses, Yahoo's offer to buy Overture and recaps top search engine stories from July 2003.
This issue looks at LookSmart's expansion of deep listings to small businesses, Yahoo's offer to buy Overture and recaps top search engine stories from July 2003.
| A longer, more detailed version of this newsletter is available to Search Engine Watch members. This is just one of the many benefits members receive. Click here to learn more about becoming a member |
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+ Search Engine Watch News
+ Early Bird Deadline For SES San Jose Tomorrow!
+ LookSmart Opens Deep Listings Option To Small Businesses
+ Yahoo To Buy Overture
+ Search Engine Resources
+ SearchDay Articles
+ Search Engine Articles
+ About The Search Engine Report
Hello Everyone–
I’ve updated the comScore Media Metrix Search Engine Ratings page (https://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156431) with figures showing top search engines in the United States for May 2003 (the latest available).
As for Europe, the Nielsen NetRatings European Search Engine Ratings page (https://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156441) has been updated with figures showing top search engines in various European countries for June 2003.
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If you’re thinking of attending the Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose from August 18-21, act by tomorrow, if you want a discount on the admission price.
This is the first four day Search Engine Strategies show that we’ve ever had, and you’ll find it packed with sessions that I’ve programmed for people of all interests and levels. Whether you’re new to search engine marketing, advanced, interested in organic listings or paid advertising, there are panels designed for you.
Three of the days will have keynote talks: one by me on the state of search engine marketing, a keynote “conversation” between me and Google cofounder Sergey Brin and a keynote presentation by Jeff Weiner, Senior Vice President of Search and Marketplace, Yahoo
I’ll also be moderating sessions every day. I’ll be joined by Search Engine Watch’s associate editor Chris Sherman, as well as over 50 different search engine marketing experts. Speakers from major search engines are also involved, including confirmed panelists from About.com/Sprinks, Ask Jeeves/Teoma, Google, LookSmart, Lycos, MSN Search, Overture (AltaVista/AllTheWeb) and Yahoo/Inktomi.
Session itineraries, daily agendas, registration information and more about the show can be found via the URL below:
Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2003
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/summer03/
Search Engine Strategies also comes to Munich from November 10-11 and Chicago from December 9-11. Agendas for these shows are not ready, but you can follow the links listed on the page below to get location and registration information or to leave your email in order to be notified when more details have been posted.
Search Engine Strategies
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/
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LookSmart has expanded its LookListings paid inclusion program so that small businesses can purchase “deep listings” previously only offered to large businesses with big budgets. The article below looks at the changes, as well as the role LookSmart plays in powering search at MSN and elsewhere.
LookSmart Opens Deep Listings Option To Small Businesses
The Search Engine Report, Aug. 5, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2244861
Search Engine Watch members edition:
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/2244851
What’s A Search Engine Watch Member?
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser8
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Yahoo is to acquire Overture by the end of 2003, in a move that has repercussions throughout the search landscape. My rundown on what this means for Overture, Yahoo, MSN, Google, advertisers and searchers can be found in the article below.
Yahoo To Buy Overture
SearchDay, July 15, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2234821
Search Engine Watch members edition:
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/2235211
What’s A Search Engine Watch Member?
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser8
SEMPO: Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
http://www.sempo.org/
The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) is a new group for companies and consultants in the SEO/SEM space. It aims to promote the value of search engine marketing to clients, agencies and marketing managers and provide support to those offering SEM services. The non-profit group is opening itself to member sign-ups for the first time during a meeting from 6pm-7pm at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose on August 20 (see the bottom of http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/summer03/agenda3.html). The meeting is open to anyone — you don’t need a conference pass to attend it. Not going to be in the area? Then look for the SEMPO site to lose its “temporary” status around the same date, providing information on how to join.
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Google Synonym Command
http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html#tilde
Want Google to look up words related to a keyword you’ve entered? Now there’s a new synonym command that you can try. Just place a tilde character (˜) in front of the word. For example, while a search for “gardening tips” would look for pages relevant only to both of those words, “gardening ˜tips” will make Google look for synonyms for tips, such as “help,” “guide” and “techniques.” A bit more information on the command is provided by Google at the URL above, and we’ll probably take a closer look at it in the SearchDay newsletter later this month.
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High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum
http://www.highrankings.com/forum
New forum for search engine marketing issues created by High Rankings newsletter author and SEM-expert Jill Whalen.
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YW
A new all-in-one search page. Select your search engines from the many choices offered, and even more are promised. The results will all appear within one page, side-by-side. It’s a great way to compare results, though a bit hard to read with more than two search engines selected. Formerly called Yes Wacked.
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Waypath.com
http://www.waypath.com
Allows keyword searching against blog material or provides the ability to see posts from blogs that are related to a particular URL.
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AllTheWeb Last 10 Queries
http://www.alltheweb.com/recentqueries
See the last 10 searches conducted on AllTheWeb via this live display.
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Microsoft Research Netscan
http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/
Got tipped to this by an article from the Inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10848) suggesting its Microsoft’s attempt to take on Google Groups. The service lets you keyword search to locate newsgroups. By default, it already is set to bring back newsgroups containing the word “windowsxp” in them. But you can replace that with, say, “dogs,” and you’ll get a list of newsgroups that are probably about dogs, such as rec.pets.dogs.behavior and alt.animals.dogs. You are also shown the number of posts, posters, replies and other data for each group — giving you an at-a-glance view of what might be most popular or active. Click on a particular group, and you’ll be shown the same data graphed over time. Interesting — but the inability to keyword search for posts definite does NOT make this a Google Groups replacement.
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Google Watch Watch
http://www.google-watch-watch.org/
Google Watch (not associated with Search Engine Watch) was created last year to monitor how Google’s “monopoly, algorithms, and privacy policies are undermining the web.” Now Google Watch Watch has been established, featuring an article that takes exception to the motives of Google Watch. In short, site owner Chris Beasley views Google Watch’s complaints as being driven out of the fact that Google Watch doesn’t feel it has good rankings with Google, rather than any actual wrong-doing by or serious problems with Google.
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False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth about How Search Engines Work
Consumer WebWatch, June 30, 2003
http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/news/searchengines/
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that a new study of how consumers understand paid listing disclosure would be available (Report Shows Confusion Over Paid Listings, https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2216101). The actual report is now available for download, via the URL above.
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Dulance
http://www.dulance.com/
Shopping search engine that pulls back likely product pages from across the web, rather than relying on merchant feeds. It sends your query out to one of four major search engines (Google, AllTheWeb, Inktomi or Teoma) but then should only list pages where you can actually buy a product you are interested in. The site launched last September and remains in beta mode.
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Seotie
http://www.seotie.com/
Tired of manually checking to see if your submission to the Open Directory was processed? Seotie is a free, web-based tool that promises to monitor for you.
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Gigablast
http://www.gigablast.com/
Matt Wells is an Infoseek refugee. A search engineer there, he’s gone on to create his own crawler-based search engine, Gigablast. The index size is tiny — only 200 million web pages. The smallest of the major search engines, Teoma, has 500 million plus, while others are well above the 1 billion range, capping out at Google’s over 3 billion. But hey, you gotta start somewhere. If you want an alternative crawler view of the web, give it a look. Want to be listed? If your pages haven’t been already crawled, use the site’s Add URL form to submit up to 100 per day. They’re supposed to be added within a few minutes. If your pages link back to Gigablast, they are rewarded with a “Gigaboost” ranking bump in the results. The site was launched in beta form in July 2002 but “Gigablast 2.0” was recently released in June, which can handle more queries, has the ability to 400 million pages and offers improved phrase matching.
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Powercons Toolbox
http://donotgo.com/book.htm
The Powercons Toolbox is a small, graphical box that sits to the right of web pages you view and offers button-activated access to a variety of surfing utilities called bookmarkets. Among these is the ability to highlight words and then send them as searches to Google, AllTheWeb, the Open Directory, as well as the Go Guides, JoeAnt and Gimpsy directories. The toolbox can be customized, offers keyboard shortcuts and is a light 100K download. Requires Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher.
Here’s a recap of recent articles from Search Engine Watch’s daily SearchDay newsletter:
Behind the Scenes at the Daypop Search Engine, Part Two
SearchDay, Aug. 5, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2236401
In May, SearchDay published the first part of an interview with Dan Chan, founder and sole proprietor of Daypop, a specialized search engine focusing on weblog and news content. Today, we present the second part of our conversation with Dan.
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Searching for Corporate Milestones
SearchDay, Aug. 4, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2235371
A unique feature from the MSN Money portal provides a list of the major milestones and historic events for publicly traded companies.
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Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, Aug. 1, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2243041
Contains links to these topics from search engine forums across the web: Pay Per Inclusion – Is There Still a Reason? – Writing Copy and Content for the Web – How Important Is HTML Validation? – dmoz Lists webPAGES or webSITES? – Boss Questioning My SEO Abilities – How to Handle Picture Names for SEO – I Know Nothing About Gimpsy…Help!
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Search Engine Milestones for July 2003
SearchDay, July 31, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2241621
The month in review: abstracts from selected press releases and announcements made during the prior month related to web search and search engine marketing.
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A Closer Look at Yahoo News
SearchDay, July 30, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2239521
Yahoo has fortified its news service in recent weeks, offering both increased depth and powerful search tools that make it a compelling choice for finding online news.
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Changes Afoot at HotBot
SearchDay, July 29, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2241301
HotBot has renamed three of the four engines it searches, but search results are still provided by the original sources.
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A Google-like Portal of the World’s Leading Scientists
SearchDay, July 28, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2223941
ISIHighlyCited.com calls itself ‘an expert gateway to the most highly influential scientists and scholars worldwide,’ using similar techniques to Google’s PageRank to identify these intellectual leaders.
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Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, July 25, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2243041
Contains links to these topics from search engine forums across the web: The About Directory – Report: Google Adsense – Another New Search Engine With Interesting Ideas – AdSense Temporarily Changes Shape of Inventory – Is Google the New Microsoft? – In-House Web Hosting or Outsource?
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Will Search Engines Slay the Yellow Pages?
SearchDay, July 24, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2239511
The success of Overture and Google’s paid listing programs has many industry experts speculating about the future survival of printed yellow page telephone directories. Search Engine Watch members should follow the link to a special members-only version of the article.
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Copernic Agent: Jack of All Searches
SearchDay, July 23, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2237971
Copernic Agent is a meta search engine, invisible web explorer, online research assistant and extensive tool box, all combined into an elegant, easy to use program.
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Searching for Search Engine Personalization
SearchDay, July 22, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2237961
A newly published study shows that despite a high degree of interest in web personalization, most search engine web sites offer few options that can be tailored to individual needs.
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Lycos Offers “Second Opinion” Search Results
SearchDay, July 21, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2236241
Lycos is rolling out a new utility that automatically displays Lycos search results in a side panel next to search results from Google, Yahoo or most of the other major services.
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Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, July 18, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2243041
Contains links to these topics from search engine forums across the web: Should we continue to use Dmoz? – Removing a redirected URL – Breaking Google dependency – Mozilla Foundation, impact on ODP? – H1 versus font size +3 – Yahoo to acquire Overture – Disappointed with targeted Adsense ads.
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Yahoo and Your Personal Information
SearchDay, July 17, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2226961
Yahoo’s public records search offers very basic information, but for a fee, you might be surprised at all of the information about yourself that can be found online.
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Optimizing Keywords for Search Engines
SearchDay, July 16, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2231541
New to search engine optimization? Here’s how to get started with selecting the most search engine friendly keywords and phrases that can help visitors find your site.
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Measuring Search Engine Marketing ROI
SearchDay, July 14, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2227111
Spending on search engine marketing is rising dramatically, yet surprisingly few companies are measuring the effectiveness of their campaigns.
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Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, July 11, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2234021
Links to these forum topics: Indented results in Google; Moving pages to a new Website; Log file hiccups; Any suggestion on sales tracking system?; Microsoft brains go head-to-head with Google; Fed up- SEO without usability.
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The Internet Under Surveillance
SearchDay, July 10, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2226331
One of the key architects of the Internet is calling for users to exercise ‘due diligence’ to assure that governments do not censor information for political purposes.
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How to Build Your Own Search Engine
SearchDay, July 9, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2220611
Want a detailed glimpse into the black boxes we call search engines? Mining the Web is a textbook that discusses everything from building your own crawler to the future of information finding on the web.
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Power Searching with Vivisimo
SearchDay, July 8, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2226841
Vivisimo is a capable metasearch engine, serving results from multiple engines simultaneously. Dig a bit deeper and you’ll find some powerful, unique features not found elsewhere on the web.
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Online Before the Internet
SearchDay, July 7, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2218441
Most people think the word ‘online’ means the Internet. But there was an ‘online’ before the Internet, and some early pioneers have published a fascinating account of creating the world that was the principal ancestor of the web.
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Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, July 3, 2003
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2231211
Links to these forum topics: Brand names banned from bids; Turning corporate speak into useful web copy; Google’s AdSense: A boost for information sites?; How do I check how many pages Google has indexed?; The Web’s 10 most influential people; Why didn’t my web designer take SEO into consideration right from the beginning?
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Want to receive SearchDay? Sign-up for the free daily newsletter from Search Engine Watch via the link below:
SearchDay
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/
If You Liked the Web Page, You’ll Love the Ad
New York Times, Aug. 4, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/04/technology/04ECOM.html
A look at the rollout of contextual ads from Overture and Google. Mentions how targeting isn’t perfect, as when Google placed a luggage ad on a New York Post article about someone who was murdered and packed in a suitcase.
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Overture Chief Sees Clear Sailing Ahead
The Street, Aug. 4, 2003
http://www.thestreet.com/tech/georgemannes/10105570.html
Overture CEO Ted Meisel says that being owned by Yahoo doesn’t mean Overture will lose relationships with other partners. Sure — not for some partners, but certainly it’s going to eventually cost Overture the MSN deal. Of course, Yahoo is purchasing Overture primarily for use on its own needs. So, any relationships that Overture retains really will be icing on the cake. Meisel also comments on plans to roll out geographically-targeted ads by the end of the year and that work to combine AltaVista and AllTheWeb will take through the end of the year — at which point Overture and Yahoo will have to then figure out how to combine everything with Inktomi.
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Battle of the blog
News.com, Aug. 4, 2003
http://news.com.com/2009-1032_3-5059006.html
When I did my story on RSS feeds (https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2175271) earlier this year, I stumbled across the debate and contention over the various formats that go by that name. This article delves into the rivalry that continues to no one’s benefit. RSS, by the way, is not a technology solely behind blogs, as the article suggests. Many blogs distribute posts via RSS, but non-blog content is also sent out in this way.
The article positions Dave Winer as the “gatekeeper” of RSS. In reality, he’s behind of one type of RSS, the version that stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Another version of RSS, “RDF Site Summary,” is not something Winer controls, has “frozen” or given to Harvard. That version can evolve any way it likes, with or without Winer’s participation. And people are also free to use it — in fact, some RSS readers can deal with either format.
When I looked at both formats, I suggested that my readers try the most current version that Winer promotes, RSS 2.0. Why? It is relatively simple to understand. The non-Winer version, confusingly called RSS 1.0, is much more complicated to dive into (because it is more ambitious in its aims). Ultimately, the best decision will be to use the format that’s most widely supported. As my article points out, that also turns out to be the version that Winer has promoted. Should this change in the future, obviously, you’ll want to switch formats. (permalink to this item)
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Best Search Practices for E-Tail
ClickZ, Aug. 1, 2003
http://www.clickz.com/search/strat/article.php/2243101
General tips to consider if you are an etailer going into search engine marketing.
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Google ‘key word’ ads undercut eBay
Bloomberg, Aug. 1, 2003
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/133251_onlinestores01.html
Is Google the eBay killer? If you run your own web site, certainly getting traffic from search engines (including Google) may be cheaper than going the eBay route. However, if you are a home seller with no transaction ability, eBay probably will continue to be a great route for you.
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Hackers turn to Google to find weakest links
New Scientist, Aug. 1, 2003
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994002
Hackers can use Google to locate pages that have inadvertently been placed on the web and which reveal usernames and passwords. Further, by making use of the Google cache, they avoid generating activity that make provoke suspicions. It’s not just a Google problem, however. Any search engine could be used to locate these pages. Yahoo even offers caching, currently powered by Google but which will probably remain when Inktomi takes over. Solution? Don’t place sensitive information on the web, and make efforts to ensure this isn’t accidentally happening.
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Observers drool for Google IPO, but it’s unlikely until 2004
San Jose Mercury News, July 31, 2003
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/6425365.htm
Why won’t Google go public this year? It promised not to in April, for one thing. It gains many advantages from staying private, for another. More members of the Google board of directors would also be needed.
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Ask Jeeves UK improves search results
NetImperative, July 31, 2003
http://www.netimperative.com/cmn/viewdoc.jsp?cat=news&docid=BEP1_News_0000055688
Ask Jeeves UK has changed its search results. Unlike the US site, human-powered answers are still being compiled for selected queries. Some ads have been removed, and finally, sponsored links get labeled.
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Search Powers Online Ad Revival
CyberAtlas, July 30, 2003
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/advertising/article/0,,5941_2242141,00.html
Jupiter Research estimates that paid search listings will total $1.6 billion by the end of this year, making up 25 percent of total online advertising spending. Two years ago, it made up only 10 percent of spending.
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Changes and Other Happenings at AltaVista
ResourceShelf, July 30, 2003
http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2003_07_01_resourceshelf_archive.html/#105951275450777140
AltaVista has dropped Moreover in place of its own system to gather content (that system, by the way, is largely using the AllTheWeb news crawler). Prisma refinement links are also offered with news searching (and have been moved to the right-hand side of the screen for ordinary web searching).
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MSNBC taps start-up for ad technology
News.com, July 29, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5057236.html
Another contextual ad deal — this time involving start-up WebRelevance placing ads at MSNBC.com
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The Future of Human Knowledge: The Semantic Web
TechNewsWorld, July 28, 2003
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/31199.html
In this article, we learn that in a few years, the Semantic Web will help search engines know if two different sites have related content. Well, search engines have been able to do this already for years (and users don’t make use of the feature). Search engines have also been able to use natural language for ages — in fact, they generally do not want you to try Boolean searching.
I like the part that says the Semantic Web will allow someone to enter “I want to buy a first edition copy of Gone With The Wind at a store in Beverly Hills this afternoon.” Yeah, I’d like to see that — I assume every rare book shop in Beverly Hills will be online, right?
How about just, “I want to buy a first edition copy of Gone With The Wind.” I can enter that into Google right now, and the first ad for BookFinder.com led me to some promising results. In Google’s editorial results, a link also led to a really good article on how to identify a first edition (and first printing, if that’s also what you want) of the book. Maybe the non-Semantic Web is actually better than Semantic Web proponents think.
(permalink to this item)
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Overture, Knight Ridder Ink Search Pact
InternetNews.com, July 28, 2003
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/2240941
Overture will be providing paid and editorial search results, as well as contextual ads, to 32 newspaper web sites operated by Knight Ridder, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News. It follows on a deal with Canadian portal Sympatico, which Overture has won away from Google.
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Averages Can Kill Your SEM Campaign
ClickZ, July 25, 2003
http://www.clickz.com/search/strat/article.php/2240031
Averages can be deceiving, when measuring performance. Look further into your data, to avoid costly mistakes.
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Searching Google Where’s Jeeves?
Forbes, July 24, 2003
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/fo/20030724/bs_fo/f51f7fbade2a8bb992664548a127678d
Ask Jeeves is dropping its butler mascot in an effort to get consumers to understand the site has changed.
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Overture counts cost of partner deals
NetImperative, July 24, 2003
http://www.netimperative.com/cmn/viewdoc.jsp?cat=all&ct=news&docid=BEP1_News_0000055449
Overture’s net income was down from $17.5 million in the second quarter last year to $7.6 million for the same period this year. Overall revenue was up 74 percent, however. The drop in profits was due to Overture having to share more with its partners.
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Gwyneth, the Grateful Dead and Google
News.com, July 24, 2003
http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-5053312.html
Gwyneth Paltrow’s just one of the latest famous people who have paid a visit to the Google headquarters.
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Lessons in Failure – The Top 10 Ways to Ensure Your Search Marketing Strategy Sucks
Marketleap Report, July 24, 2003
http://www.marketleap.com/report/ml_report_45.htm
Good top ten list of things NOT to do if you want to get found by search engines.
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Can Google save America Online?
News.com, July 24, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5053461.html
Paid listings have stood out in a bright spot for revenues with Yahoo and MSN but revenue from AOL’s deal with Google didn’t get a mention in recent financial reports. AOL doesn’t break out figures, but one financial analyst guesses AOL will make $28 million off of Google this year and that by 2007, Google (or presumably paid listings from someone) will make up 33 percent of AOL ad sales.
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Do Blogs Spam Google Results?
Microdoc News, July 23, 2003
http://microdoc-news.info/home/BloggerNews/2003/07/23.html/1
Is Google blog-clogged? Not according to a test using 5,000 queries. It found only 2.1 percent had blog content showing up in the first page of search results.
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Google, Weather.com Ink Content-Ad Deal
InternetNews.com, July 23, 2003
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/2239081
Google’s contextual ads have been added to the Weather.com site, which follows on another recent deal with Switchboard.com
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Verity, iPhrase Hone Search Intelligence
eWeek, July 21, 2003
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1200183,00.asp
Upgrades to enterprise search software from Verity and iPhrase have been released.
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Amazon’s new online plan: a little more of an open book
New York Times, July 21, 2003
http://www.iht.com/articles/103542.html
Amazon’s trying to make it possible to search the full-text of tens of thousands of books. Not quite certain where this article comes up with the idea that Google is “cutting in front” of Amazon when shoppers want to buy things. In fact, I’d say it’s the opposite. If you don’t know Amazon has a particular product, you’ll probably search at Google (or other search engines) just as people always have. But if you know Amazon has something — say you want a particular book — you’re likely to go right to Amazon.
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Deep links are legal in Germany. Official
The Register, July 20, 2003
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31838.html
A German court rules it was legal for search engine Paperboy to provide deep links to web sites.
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Overture to a patent war?
News.com, July 18, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-1027084.html
Overture has a variety of patents relating to web search, with lawsuits about paid listings already having been filed against Google and FindWhat. One reason Yahoo wanted Overture was for those patents, certainly to protect itself against suits and perhaps to go after others. But Google also has search patents, as does Microsoft (and others, see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156541#Patents)
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Overture would owe Yahoo on merger breakup-filing
Reuters, July 17, 2003
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030717/media_overture_yahoo_1.html
The Yahoo-Overture deal isn’t done yet. A third party could always try to steal Overture away from Yahoo. However, Overture would then have to pay Yahoo $65 million.
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Overture extends HP deal
News.com, July 17, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-1026765.html
HP will continue to make Overture the default search provider for those who purchase its computers. Don’t like it? Too bad — last year when I wrote an article about changing Internet Explorer search defaults (https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2164691), I heard from an HP user who discovered that making changes had apparently been disabled by HP. Imagine!
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Digging for Googleholes
Slate, July 16, 2003
http://slate.msn.com/id/2085668/
Google’s not perfect (nor is any search engine, for that matter), but some believe it to be. Steven Johnson points out flaws to dispute this myth, though there are some flaws to his flaws.
For example, Google’s top results are claimed to be heavily skewed toward shopping sites, if you are looking for something that is sold online. To prove this, a search for “flowers” is shown to bring up mostly online florists at Google (same is true for AllTheWeb, Teoma and Inktomi, by the way).
Well, if you are searching for flowers, there’s indeed a good chance you’d like a florist. If you want information about flowers, then trying “flower information” brings back much more general, non-commercial information. And if you are doing research on tulips, then typing something specific like “tips on growing tulips” works great and is what you should do.
You wouldn’t walk into a library looking for tips about growing tulips and simply say to the librarian, “flowers.” Nor should you do the same with Google or any search engine. Certainly, though, it’s good if a search engine tries to help you along. An example of this is at Teoma, where a search for “flowers” suggests “flowers gardens” as an alternative in the Refine section of the page. Google is notable among the major search engines for not offering search refinement assistance like this.
The synonym problem described, where “apple” is dominated by results related to Apple Computers, is true enough — and true on AllTheWeb, Teoma and Inktomi as well. But refinement at Google certainly would help for the odd person interested in apples you can eat. Do a search for apples at MSN Search, and you’ll see “apples (food)” suggested as a topic. Select this, and you’ll get a list of much more relevant sites.
(permalink to this item)
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FindWhat Finds the Spotlight
InternetNews.com, July 16, 2003
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/2235781
With Yahoo buying Overture, second-tier paid listings provider FindWhat is suddenly attracting attention as a possible MSN purchase.
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Search for Iraqi ‘WMD’ becomes big hit on Google
AP, July 15, 2003
http://business.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/07/15/search_for_iraqi_wmd_becomes_big_hit_on_google
Enter “weapons of mass destruction” on Google, and you’ll reach a very funny web page. It’s a take-off on an Internet Explorer error page that makes references about being unable to locate weapons of mass destruction. For the record, Inktomi and AllTheWeb also make this one of their top ranked pages, as well.
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World’s poor to get own search engine
BBC, July 15, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3065063.stm
The concept behind this experimental search engine at MIT is that you email a query, then receive back pages that seem to best answer your questions. The idea is that those in poor countries will save on bandwidth costs.
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Yahoo Move Alters Paid Inclusion Industry
InternetNews.com, July 15, 2003
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/2235291
In contrast to this article, I think paid inclusion is going to be in decline. Paid inclusion emerged because companies like Inktomi and LookSmart needed a way to offer their partners revenue. Google, in contrast, has never had a compelling reason to offer it. It already makes money directly for itself by selling paid placement. If it wants more money, rather than doing paid inclusion, it can simply expand the presence and amount of paid placement links. Now Yahoo owns three different companies that have paid inclusion programs. Like Google, I think Yahoo will find it easier simply to focus on the paid placement side of things.
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Yahoo finds itself in search spotlight
News.com, July 14, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-1025725.html
Good after-the-purchase announcement coverage full of figures, such as now often-repeated estimates of how much paid listings will generate in revenue in the coming years and the possibility that Overture will need to pay Microsoft $50 million if the acquisition by Yahoo goes through. Not sure if I agree that Yahoo will reign in the amount it offers to partners to carry listings. In fact, the opposite might happen. Yahoo may consider any deal it gains to be extra revenue it wasn’t expecting to earn. Given this, it can afford to be more generous, especially if it believes that will hurt Google and build the Yahoo search brand.
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Google moving in Mtn. View
San Jose Mercury News, July 12, 2003
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/6288652.htm
The Googleplex, Google’s headquarters, is moving — but only a few miles away, to more room in buildings owned by Silicon Graphics.
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Personalized Web Search Company Formed by Members of Stanford’s PageRank Project
ResourceShelf, July 12, 2003
http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2003_07_01_resourceshelf_archive.html/#105792742403772187
Personalized search has often seemed like an obvious way forward for better results, but companies in the field have all disappeared over time. Ask Jeeves-owned Direct Hit abandoned research into this, then newcomer Outride was bought by Google, where the technology has yet to reemerge (see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2164251). Other newcomer BuzzNotes also failed to make a go of personalized search. Now Kaltix.com may be entering the space — and may (or may not) have some Google connections, as well.
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The SEM Content Conundrum
ClickZ, July 11, 2003
http://www.clickz.com/search/strat/article.php/2233821
Contextual ads are not the same as search ads — so when your search ads are placed in a contextual setting, you need to be monitoring performance closely. Tips on how to do the necessary measuring.
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Autonomy Buy Bolsters Technology, Customer Base
Boston.internet.com, July 10, 2003
http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/2233561
Enterprise search company Autonomy has purchased video search company Virage.
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Google Field Search Problems
SearchEngineShowdown, July 10, 2003
http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/newsarchive/000687.shtml
I’m glad Greg Notess wrote this up — I meant to for the newsletter last month but ran short of time. Yes, the intitle and inurl commands are definitely broken at Google, which the company acknowledges. They told me at the end of June that this was anticipated to be a temporary problem and one caused by system upgrades. Supposedly, it will be corrected in the near future.
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Tips to Avoid AdWords Hassles
ClickZ, July 10, 2003
http://www.clickz.com/media/media_buy/article.php/2233201
Practical tips on meeting guidelines for the Google Adwords program.
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Feedster Updates Its Search Engine
ResearchBuzz, July 9, 2003
http://www.researchbuzz.com/news/2003/jul3jul903.shtml#feedsterupdates
Feedster has added the ability to search using a variety of commands, such as by title and language. As for the comment about search engines indexing more XML and less HTML, that’s not really a solution. Search engines could already support fielded searching using HTML meta tags. The problem is that they don’t trust that information, based on long experience of seeing it misused. RSS so far doesn’t appear to have a major trust problem, but RSS content also doesn’t appear to be exposed to anywhere near the audience that search engines interact with. As RSS grows as a distribution source, expect to see trust factors become a bigger issue.
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Google cache raises copyright concerns
News.com, July 9, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-1024234.html
Google’s cached pages is a great feature, but is it legal under copyright laws? Google says yes but others aren’t so certain. Eventually, a court case may decide (none have been filed, but this is predicted to happen). Nice details here about the caching feature. Google says most people actually don’t make use of this. Also interesting to read that the New York Times may be getting some express help from Google to “fix” the problem of its content being cached. Of course, once the content is pulled into a registration area, the cached version of the original article ought to disappear within a week to a month — so it’s more of an irritating factor for the NYT than a crisis. Note that Google is no longer the only major search engine to offer caching. Yahoo does, as well. Yes, Google powers this caching at Yahoo currently. However, I’d expect this will remain as a feature when Inktomi results take over. Finally, Google says that using the no cache tag doesn’t affect rankings. That’s true. But Google has also said that sites using the tag may open themselves up to more scrutiny for potential spam violations. In short, use it, and you make yourself suspicious. (permalink to this item)
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Court backs thumbnail image linking
News.com, July 7, 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-1023629.html
It’s OK for search engines to show thumbnail images in search results but the legality of displaying full-sized images remains to be determined, a US appeals court has ruled. The decision comes in the case of Kelly versus Arriba Soft (Ditto). Previously, Kelly had won a ruling by a lower court that showing full-sized images violated copyright. More background on the case and other related ones can be found on the Image & Multimedia Search Complaints page, https://www.searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156521.
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Overture Extends MSN Deal Abroad
InternetNews.com, July 7, 2003
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/2231661
MSN extends its agreement with Overture to provide paid listings for sites in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea through December 2004. This happened before the announcement that Yahoo was to acquire Overture.
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Sprinks to sign MSNBC.com
CBS MarketWatch, July 6, 2003
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid={9A4C0995-D7A0-46B8-A00A-DCD1C7461C3D}
MSN may have cut a deal to carry Overture’s contextual ads, but over on MSNBC, contextual links will be powered by Sprinks exclusively, for the next nine months.
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Sergey Brin and Larry Page on TV: A Conversation at a Recent Conference
ResourceShelf, July 6, 2003
http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2003_07_01_resourceshelf_archive.html/#105743116555294958
The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg interviews Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. ResourceShelf’s Gary Price provides a transcript and comments. Agree entirely with Gary’s surprise to see Mossberg assume that all search engines other than Google “disguise” paid listings. Also note the contextual ad horror stories that Gary provides, such as ads about airline tickets showing up on an Amazon page about a Sept. 11 book.
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Proximity Searching in Google
Microdoc News, July 4, 2003
http://www.microdoc-news.info/infoSeeker/2003/07/04.html#a751
Haven’t tested this myself, but a nice article on using the wildcard symbol to do proximity searching on Google.
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Freeserve to drop Google searches
PC Pro, July 3, 2003
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=44204
Google’s out at major UK ISP Freeserve, replaced by Overture-owned AllTheWeb listings.
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CompUSA Taps Range Online for Search Marketing
DMNews, July 2, 2003
http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=24339
Financial analysts depend largely on published revenues from Overture and other search engines to gauge the size of the search engine marketing space. Unfortunately, that leaves off money earned by third-party search engine marketing firms. Those still dismissing some of these firms as being in a “cottage industry” should think again. For example, Range Online Media projects $30 million in revenue, for this year. That’s a lot of cottages, honey.
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Optimising for Inktomi And how it can help on Other SEs!
SearchEngineBlog.com, July 2003
http://www.searchengineblog.com/columns/optimising_for_inktomi.htm
I’ve never been a fan of the concept that you should do some type of specific actions to please one particular search engine. In general, there are key things that you should do that work across the board. Nevertheless, if you want some Inktomi-specific tips, then Barry Lloyd has some suggestions in this article. Plus, he finds the ground work for Inktomi can translate into later Google success.
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Q&A with Krishna Bharat of Google News
Google.com, July 2003
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/morejul03.html#qa
This is from Google’s “Google Friends” newsletter and a short, good read for more insight into how Google News operates.
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Searching about Search Engines
LLRX.com, June 30, 2003
http://www.llrx.com/columns/notes59.htm
Looking for news and resources about search engines? Here’s a comprehensive guide to what’s out there, from blogs to books.
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Is Google broken?
Google Watch, June 9, 2003
http://www.google-watch.org/broken.html
Article suggest that Google’s current system can handle the number of web pages that it is trying to process. FYI, the official Google response is that it has no such problems.
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