The Search Engine Report - Number 92

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

In This Issue

+ Search Engine Watch News
+ Search Engine Strategies Comes To San Jose!
+ Search Engine Watch Articles
+ Search Engine Articles
+ Search Engine Resources
+ About The Newsletter

=========================
Search Engine Watch News
=========================

Hello Everyone–

The Essentials Of Search Engine Submission section of the site has been updated. It covers key tips on getting important directory, crawler and paid listings with major search engines. There’s nothing spectacular to regular readers and those experienced with search engine marketing, but for new people coming in, the pages have a much needed update.

The new Search Engine Watch Forums have also gone live, so I’d encourage you to come by and take part. More about the forums is described in this article: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3364871.

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

Search Engine Strategies Comes To San Jose!

In less than a month, the next Search Engine Strategies show will be coming to San Jose. This is traditionally our biggest event, and there will be plenty going on!

There are over 60 sessions ranging from the fundamentals of search engine marketing to tracks looking at the business aspects of search engine marketing and getting inside the minds of searchers.

New for San Jose will be sessions looking at how to do market research via search engines, understanding how searchers interact with search engines, how search will be personalized, ways searchers are being “detoured” past the first page of results, how to redesign without losing traffic, ways to market via search to Europe, the impact of CSS and JavaScript on SEO work, blogs and search and more.

We’ll also have a moot court session where the issue of trademarks and keyword-linked ads will be put on trial, a session where search executives will share thoughts on the state of the industry and a “search memories” session where those involved with early search engines will reflect on past times and current events.

There’s much, much more that will be happening. Full details about all that’s offered can be found via the URL below:

Search Engine Strategies San Jose: August 2-5, 2004
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/summer04/

SES also comes to Stockholm from October 27-28, and the year ends with a December 13-16 show in Chicago. Basic information about these shows can be found via the URL below:

Search Engine Strategies
http://searchenginestrategies.com/

===========================
Search Engine Watch Articles
===========================

Here’s a recap of major articles from Search Engine Watch since the last newsletter:

Search Engine Milestones for June 2004
SearchDay, July 6, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3376991

Notable news and announcements from the web search world during the past month.

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

Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, July 2, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3376461

Links to this week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: PPC, PFI et al – Is the Pain Behind Us Now? – Betting It All On AdSense – Help Please, Hired an SEO Firm, Now Banned – Google Pulls Plug on ‘onmouseover’ Pages – I’m Going to Write My Own Search Engine – Does Google Allow ‘PageRank For Sale’ Ads?

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

MSN Search Gets New Look; Microsoft Gets New Search Engine
SearchDay, July 1, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3376041
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3376031

Microsoft released a public preview of its long-awaited web search technology today. The company also gave a facelift to its popular MSN Search site that remains powered by Yahoo’s search technology and dropped paid inclusion listings there. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members that looks at some specific test queries for a rough sense of how the new search technology measures up, provides some general advice for webmasters wondering if they should optimize for “old” or “new” MSN and has more details on how the crawler operates and what it indexes. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Public Relations Via Search Engines
SearchDay, June 30, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3375321
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3375311

Blending the traditional tools of public relations with innovative search marketing techniques opens a new avenue of promotion for savvy content providers and site owners. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members that offers specific, actionable tips for creating search engine friendly press releases, as well as tips for using blogs and RSS tools for public relations efforts. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Behind the Scenes at Yahoo Labs
SearchDay, June 29, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3374821

The head of Yahoo Research Labs talks about the challenges of indexing various types of information, and Yahoo’s efforts at realizing a current hot trend — personalized search.

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

Alt Attributes Appearing as Anchor Text in Text-only Cache
Search Engine Watch Forums, June 29, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=413

Explains how the Google Cache feature works and how a new “text-only” version of the cache has been quietly introduced.

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

Overture Launches Local Match Listings Program
SearchDay, June 28, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3374101
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3374091

Overture launched a new Local Match program today to allow its advertisers in the United States to more easily target listings toward those with a local interest. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members that examines issues about how locator pages are required for all local listings, how local and regular listings are mixed so that advertisers are only ultimately represented by one listing, how the local program may cause a rise in prices for some locally-targeted terms, how pure local listings are ranked and the physical location requirement impact on resellers and others. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, June 25, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3373551

Links to this week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Branded Keywords – Paid Listings vs. Natural Listings – Being #1 Doesn’t Pay the Rent – Build First, Monetize Later? The Business of Search – Links Will Decide Position – Review and Breakdown of the New Google AdSense Terms, FAQ, Policies – Wanadoo Results – How To Reach Japan?

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

Use Caution when Going Broad with Overture and Google
SearchDay, June 23, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3371961

Running a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on Google and Overture can get complicated, especially now that both networks offer different types of keyword matching options when placing bids. Here’s how to avoid trouble and maximize your campaign’s effectiveness.

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

Search Marketing & the Spanish Speaking Internet
SearchDay, June 22, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3371721
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3371701

Looking for the hottest market potential in search? Look to the culture of salsa dancing, volcanic chili peppers and red hot Latin music. That’s right, Spanish speaking Internet users. Search en Espanol. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members that offers specific tips for marketing to Spanish speaking Internet users, including overcoming language challenges with keyword matching and spelling correction systems, and the best web sites to target for maximum exposure. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Ask Jeeves Sharpens Its Focus
SearchDay, June 21, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3370751

Ask Jeeves announced today several new ‘Smart Search’ shortcuts, along with a new page preview tool.

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

New Google WebSearch Program Pays Publishers For Searches
SearchDay, June 18, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3370331

Google has released two new services allowing site owners to install web search capabilities on their own sites, including one that pays.

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

Fox News & Danger Of Citing Search Counts
Search Engine Watch Forums, June 18, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=299

Fox News defended a report calling the BBC anti-American in part by citing a Google search count. The UK’s broadcast watchdog didn’t buy into that defense, nor should they. This thread explores how the same defense can be used to make the White House or George W. Bush seem even more anti-American — and underscores why search counts are often hardly proof of anything.

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

Going Beyond FTC Paid Inclusion Disclosure Guidelines
SearchDay, June 17, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3369651
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3369631

A look at how Yahoo might go beyond FTC guidelines about paid inclusion as a means of rebuilding faith in the impact of paid inclusion on relevancy and its listings in general. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members that explains how to decipher listing URLs at Yahoo to spot paid inclusion content, how some results for popular queries may be hardcoded, finds paid inclusion showing up in only 2 percent of listings based on a small sample of 700 queries, and looks how sponsor labeling in Yahoo’s directory hasn’t appeared to hurt the sites shown there. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Google Gains in Popularity, But Will It Last?
SearchDay, June 16, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3368371

Over the past year, Google took significant market share from Yahoo and MSN, according to a new report from industry analyst Hitwise. But the increasing popularity of vertical search sites poses a big threat to all of the major search engines.

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

Reader Q&A: June 2004
The Search Engine Update, June 15, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3368751

Exclusive article for Search Engine Watch members that answers to the following questions from readers:

I read that outgoing links are a drain on a site’s total PageRank. Is this true? – Where are sources to discover how much of a search share a particular search engine has? – The top result from Google for a query shows a page of text for less than a second, then a new page comes up. Is this cloaking? – Do you know where to buy a database of recent actual queries made to a top search engines? – Does the exact order of elements within a meta tag make a difference to search engines? – Is it better to have static pages instead of dynamic pages? – What prevents my competitors from clicking on my paid listings and costing me money? Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Yahoo Upgrades Email to Compete with Google’s Gmail
SearchDay, June 15, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3367771

Yahoo has expanded capacity and significantly upgraded the performance of its email system, making it a viable alternative to Google’s Gmail service.

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

All the News That’s Fit For You
SearchDay, June 14, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3367071

Findory is an online news aggregator that adapts its layout to the types of news stories that you read, providing a uniquely personalized view of the day’s headlines.

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

Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, June 11, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3366891

Links to this week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Google Search Integration for AdSense Publishers – Why Is PPC So High for ‘Gourmet Coffee’? – Teoma’s Search Technology Summed Up – Google Reinclusion Service, Shouldn’t Google Offer Better Support? – Get High on Froogle – Customized Tracking URLs for Overture – Google Wants China – PPC Engine Content Partner Control – Does Alexa Ranking Matter?

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

The Art and Science of an Effective Link Building Campaign
SearchDay, June 9, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3362781
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3362771

Is it wrong to buy or sell links? How far is too far in optimizing your internal link structure? If you operate a network of sites, can natural interlinking be perceived as link spam? A group of experts offers answers to these questions, and more. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members with specific tips from Google and Teoma, as well as strategies from some of the world’s most accomplished link building experts. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Yahoo new result layout
Search Engine Watch Forums, June 8, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4388

News and screenshots of the new search results page that Yahoo has been testing, leading to further information on how to try them yourself before the wider rollout happens. You can also read info here: http://tools.search.yahoo.com/whatsnew/

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

A Search Engine for Pages You’ve Read
SearchDay, June 7, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3362761

Having problems finding that web page you saw recently? A new tool makes it easy to recall everything you’ve seen on the web, automatically indexing all of this content and creating your own personal web archive.

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

Search Engine Milestones for May 2004
SearchDay, June 3, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3362041

Notable news and announcements from the web search world during the past month. Announcements without links to online versions were received via email.

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

The Paid Inclusion Dinosaur
SearchDay, June 2, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3361971
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3361961

Why would Yahoo and other search engines do paid inclusion? Money is a big reason — the ability to earn off what otherwise would be free listings. But paid inclusion involves a gamble that relevancy won’t be hurt. A look at the bet Yahoo’s making and alternative plays they could have tried.The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members that explains more about how paid inclusion was used to help search providers compete, touches on rumors of pricing changes and internal debate about paid inclusion at Yahoo and examines how paid inclusion technology might be a good, non-controversial way to expand paid placement listings. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

A Web Directory that Helps You Do, Not Find
SearchDay, June 1, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3361241
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3361231

Gimpsy is a different kind of directory, listing only sites that provide online activity or help you accomplish a specific task. Gimpsy founder, Mordechai Chachamu explains why. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members explaining the benefits of inclusion in Gimpsy and the directory’s unusual paid inclusion program. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, May 28, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3360631

Links to this week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: India’s Secret Army of Ad Clickers – Making a Directory and Requiring a Link – Scam Ranking Booster – Outgoing Links Now Very Important? – Corporate SEO Salaries? – Title Question: Plurals & Synonyms – Minimum Site Size to get Indexed?

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

Cloaking By NPR OK At Google
SearchDay, May 28, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/3360681
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3360671

A technique used by National Public Radio to get its audio content indexed by Google seems acceptable to the search engine despite apparently violating its own guidelines about cloaking. The second URL leads to the longer version for Search Engine Watch members that explains more about how the cloaking works. Learn more about becoming a member at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/benefits/article.php?source=ser7

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

Want to receive new Search Engine Watch articles every day? Sign-up for SearchDay, the free daily newsletter from Search Engine Watch via the link below:

SearchDay
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/

=========================
Search Engine Articles
=========================

Search Tangles
PC World, July 1, 2004
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116641,00.asp

A look at the pressures editorial results at search engines face given competition to rank highly, issues with paid inclusion, cloaking and where search may be going.

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

Tiger, Longhorn search for desktop answers
News.com, June 30, 2004
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5253421.html

Apple plans to make it easier for users of its computers to search their local drive through a new release of its operating system dubbed Tiger planned for next year. Microsoft, of course, has similar plans for those using the next version of its Windows operating system, dubbed Longhorn, which may not come out until 2006. Apple’s happy they’re further along. Who cares. Why has it take both companies so long to deal with the issue period?

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

Defusing the Google bomb
RedHerring, June 30, 2004
http://redherring.com/article.aspx?a=10721

A look at the search engine spam problem. Nothing new to regular Search Engine Watch readers, but a generally good recap if the issue is new to you.

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

Five Reasons Why Ad Agencies Hate Search Engine Marketing
MediaPost, June 29, 2004
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_searchinsider.cfm?artid=257268

iProspect’s John Tawadros weighs in on why he thinks traditional agencies hate SEM. Summary? It’s hard to make a profit. It’s hard to find the right people. They lack the tools and knowledge. SEM is constantly changing. SEM requires constant research.

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

To Mod_Rewrite or Not
Search Engine Guide, June 29, 2004
http://www.searchengineguide.com/whalen/2004/0629_jw1.html

Mod_Rewrite is a method of turning dynamic URLs into more search engine friendly formats. But before you reach for this powerful tool, understand whether you actually need it. It may be your dynamic URLs are being indexed without problem.

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

Google feels spyware strains
News.com, June 28, 2004
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5250383.html

Nice rundown on spyware and other parasitic programs that can change search results you see at Google and other search engines. Also see Adware hijacking Google Organic Results, http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000556.html for a good look at what one particular program did. Some forum discussion here: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230

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

SEM and Reputation Management
ClickZ, June 28, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3373271

Tips on why and how you should monitor your reputation through search engines.

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

SEMPO Outlines First Year Progress
Search Engine Lowdown, June 25, 2004
http://www.searchenginelowdown.com/2004/06/sempo-outlines-first-year-progress.html

What’s the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization been doing over the past year? President Barbara Coll outlines progress, in response to Andy Beal’s call http://www.searchenginelowdown.com/2004/06/sempo-adds-board-member.html for an update.

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

SEM Power Tool: The Mighty HTTP Referrer
ClickZ, June 25, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/strat/article.php/3372581

Referrer data provides wonderful clues to how people found you. Learn how to read the tea leaves.

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

Pay-Per-Click Affiliate Deals Come Under Fire at Symposium
DM News, June 24, 2004
http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=28849

Paid search has grown from a pay-per-click basis, but as clickfraud grows as a problem, will the model have to change?

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

A Selection of Cease and Desist Notices Recently Filed with Google
ResourceShelf.com, June 25, 2004
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/06/selection-of-cease-and-decist-notices.html

Rundown on recent requests to Google to remove content because of alleged copyright violations.

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

Advertising the Sale of PageRank at Google
Search Engine Roundtable, June 25, 2004
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000595.html

The first rule about selling PageRank via Google’s AdWords program is you do not talk about selling PageRank. The second rule is that you talk instead about how to improve or assist in gaining PageRank. More on the issue of ads that seem to go against Google’s rules of SEO behavior being on Google itself.

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

Ask Jeeves Drops Remaining Paid Inclusion Program
ClickZ, June 24, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3372791

Ask Jeeves is ending the remaining paid inclusion program it ran for its web search, the flat-fee based Site Submit. My understanding is that those with existing time left on their URLs will continue to receive listing benefits but no new URLs are being accepted.

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

Forging Yahoo’s Future
Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2004
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB108804182688246225,00.html

Interview with Yahoo CEO and chairman Terry Semel, touching on the need to own its own search technology and avoiding countering the “do no evil” mantra of Google with his own “what’s good for consumers” thought.

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

Could Search Sites Spawn Worms?
PC World, June 24, 2004
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116669,00.asp

A look at the idea that smart worms might mine search engine data as a means to seek out vulnerable sites.

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

Efficient Frontier Takes Holistic Approach to Keyword Search Bidding
MediaPost, June 23, 2004
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=256573

Efficient Frontier, which has been managing paid listing campaigns for some very big companies, offers its services to the general public. The company aims to predict how a portfolio of keywords will perform over time, in an effort to make ad management easier.

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

Paid Search Automation
iMediaConnection, June 22, 2004
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/3679.asp

Looking to automate you bid management? Here are some things to consider when looking at tools or services.

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

Web searchers don’t tune in with radio buttons
Penn State University, June 22, 2004
http://live.psu.edu/story/7248

Study finds that if searchers made use of options such as radio buttons, they’d more easily find images, audio-visual files or other non-web page content. The same is true about tabs and drop-down boxes, of course. As I’ve written before, searchers simply ignore all these type of things, which is why search engines are having to progress to invisible tab insertion of material: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3115131

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

The 10 Universal Mistakes Marketers Make in Search Engine Marketing
MediaPost, June 22, 2004
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_SearchInsider.cfm?fnl=040622

Summary of good mistakes to avoid if you are undertaking a search engine marketing campaign.

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

Yahoo searches for China
News.com, June 21, 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5241733.html

Yahoo launches a pure search service for China called Yisou.

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

Google’s Gag Order: An Internet Giant Threatens Free Speech
PERRspectives, June 20, 2004
http://www.perrspectives.com/articles/art_gagorder01.htm

A long look at an issue that’s come up numerous times before in this newsletter, that Google’s unwritten rules about ads it will and will not accept create confusion for advertisers and cause it to be accused of censorship. As the article notes, Google’s not required to publish anything it doesn’t want to. But does it have a social responsibility to censor lightly? My past article for Search Engine Watch members, The Ads Google Just Says No To (https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3335041) looks at other cases like this. It also notes that since Google doesn’t guarantee placement in its editorial results, those seeking visibility for key terms are told to buy an ad. But that’s not a solution to getting your views out, if you are denied the ability to buy that ad.

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

Portfolio PPC Campaign Management
ClickZ, June 18, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/strat/article.php/3369821

Forget thinking about your campaigns on a keyword-by-keyword basis. Instead, consider that you have an entire portfolio of keywords, which overall you hope will achieve a particular ROI. Think of it as keyword-cost averaging!

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

Business Search Engine Find.com Launches
ClickZ, June 18, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3370241

Meta search the web or tab over to search through premium content research reports, human-powered directory results from the Open Directory or meta search news resources.

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

Spam, Damn Spam, and Statistics
Microsoft/WebDB, June 17, 2004
http://research.microsoft.com/research/sv/PageTurner/

Research from Microsoft showing that many machine-generated spam pages can be statistically identified through a variety of ways. That can help search engines weed out abnormal pages and linkage networks. It might not catch sophisticated spammers diligently working to escape being noticed by doing abnormal things and other types of non-machine generated spam. You’ll find links to the paper in PDF and PS formats via the URL above, in the Further Reading section.

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

C2 Product Launch: How Coke Failed to Integrate Search
MediaPost, June 16, 2004
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=255499

Good examples of Coke should have taken search into consideration before the launch of its new low carb Coke, C2.

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

The web search behavior of adult learners
Pandia, June 16, 2004
http://www.pandia.com/sw-2004/24-socrates.html

An EU study found few go past the first page of search results and that Google is popular due to its usability.

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

Wanadoo told to mark paid-for searches after complaint
Revolution, June 16, 2004
http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=ViewNewsArticle&ID=213817

In the UK, large ISPs have often provided paid listing heavy or all paid listing results to those searching via their portals, without clear disclosure. Unlike in the US, there have been no government regulations pushing them to disclose. Now the UK’s advertising watchdog has ruled in favor of better disclosure in the case of one ISP. Ruling is here: http://www.asa.org.uk/adjudications/show_adjudication.asp?adjudication_id=38095, and good longer write-ups here http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=searchengineresult1087378894 and here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1240738,00.html

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

Is a Google Backlash Building?
BusinessWeek, June 15, 2004
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2004/tc20040615_8398_tc024.htm

Will upset advertisers and publishers hurt Google in the long-run? A look at some complaints and efforts by the company to improve things.

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

Amazon Switches From Google To A9
SEO Book, June 14, 2004
http://www.seobook.com/archives/000384.shtml

Amazon’s web search is now powered by A9, its search subsidiary. Previously, Google powered Amazon web searches. Google is still a key partner, in that A9 itself uses Google at its core. But the change puts A9’s own unique feature now in front of a larger audience. More about A9 can be found here: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3342881

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

The “Real” Numbers Offer Clue to Google’s Huge Lead
Traffick, June 14, 2004
http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=163

Andrew Goodman questions the statistics ratings services and others are pushing, finding Google may be stronger than reported.

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

The Missing Ingredient in SEO
Search Engine Guide, June 14, 2004
http://www.searchengineguide.com/wilkie/2004/0614_dw1.html

If I ever find more time, I want to start a “search log” feature where I document various searches I do each day and how things have gone wrong or right. So this piece resonated with me. Dave Wilkie wanted to reroof his house and needed a local contractor. Instead of using the print yellow pages, he risked doing a web search. Many hyphenated domains and doorway page middlemen later, frustration ruled.

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

ATW Now Offering Search Term Refinements
ResourceShelf.com, June 11, 2004
http://www.resourceshelf.com//archives/2004_06_01_resourceshelf_archive.html#108696877656566060

Yahoo-owned AllTheWeb gets new query refinement. Unlike the AltaVista Prisma feature (see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2160251) at its sister site, the refinement tool lets you also “subtract” terms from a query. Precursor of things to come on Yahoo?

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

Ask Jeeves Buys Tukaroo
Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2004
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108674579703032419-email,00.html

Securing its future against expected desktop search moves by Microsoft and Google (see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3355831), Ask Jeeves has acquired search technology company Tukaroo. The company hadn’t yet released any products but promised advances in desktop and other searching.

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

Google mulls RSS support
News.com, June 9, 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5229096.html

Leaked memo from Google shows the company considering offering both RSS and Atom feeds. Most newsreaders appear to be able to handle either, so why bother? Main reason would be good PR. Offering both is easy and gets those behind RSS 2.0 off Google’s back about not supporting both major web feed formats. More background on that fracas here: Google Launches Official Google Blog, Not Blog Search, https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3352121, for Search Engine Watch members.

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

Google Stirs Controversy With Froogle
Washington Post, June 9, 2004
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26277-2004Jun8.html

Google was running house ads for Froogle earlier this month. What did I think? Taking up one of the limited number of ad spaces from its own advertisers seems wrong. But promoting Froogle outside of the ad space? I’m all for it. In fact, it’s exactly what I think they should do, and something they have done since March: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3332511. Unfortunately, my comments about this never made it into the story.

It’s important to note that Google did NOT alter the regular “mathematically generated” web results that came up for golf clubs. Ten of those were still delivered, just as Google has regularly done. Those came from Google crawling the web and using its ranking algorithm to pick the best results. They did no intervention to those results.

By the way, Google house ads aren’t new nor restricted to Father’s Day. Going through my notes, I see one showed up for the words advertise website back on April 1 and is still running to promote AdSense. The words search engine optimization also bring up a Google house ad.

Yahoo is also doing the same. Reader David Ralph wrote me in the middle of June that Yahoo Shopping was being promoted to show up for the words “richie swimwear.” His client, who runs Ritchie Swimwear, wasn’t happy about this. Looking into it, it appears that Yahoo Shopping is bidding $0.13 per click for the term “swimwear” and being broadmatched against “richie swimwear,” as well.

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

Google making overseas ad push to boost revenue
San Jose Mercury News, June 8, 2004
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/8867532.htm

A look at the battle by Google and others to grow revenues by focusing on markets outside the US. Interesting news about Google investing in a local Chinese search engine, as a means to finally book profits earned in China. Like the quote from the Chinese internet expert saying many Chinese internet users still don’t know of Google. So explain again why China found it necessary to block Google back in 2002? More on the Google investment in Baidu is also here: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBVQQQVHVD.html

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

A Contest to Outwit Google
Wired, June 8, 2004
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,63755,00.html

The search engine optimization content I wrote about previously (see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/3360231) has its first winner. Hear what the first place and second place awardees had to say.

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

Questions for Froogle’s Mastermind, Part 2
ClickZ, June 7, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3363721

More Q&A with Google about its Froogle shopping search engine and tips on getting listed.

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

Yahoo Advertising on Google
MarketingVox, June 7, 2004
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2004/06/07/yahoo_advertising_on_google/

Yahoo’s running ads on Google to drive traffic to its shopping area. It’s not the first time a search engine has advertised on another one. Indeed, Yahoo’s currently running a major campaign in Europe on Google and Espotting to promote some of its portal features.

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

Transforming Clicks Into Rings
New York Times, June 7, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/technology/07ecom.html

No web site? No problem. Ingenio plans to insert telephone numbers in place of URLs for small businesses that are web challenged. Perhaps it will work, but I’ve got one big concern. It’s the wrong medium.

Someone who is already on the internet and doing a search to me will be more likely to click on an ad rather than pick up the phone. After they’ve visited an advertiser online and done some research, then I think they might be more inclined to call. But before? You’d do what’s normal, surf the web.

Consider the alternative. What if you opened your yellow pages directory and some ads had only URLs, for businesses that had no phone numbers. Would you put down the book and surf to the advertiser? Perhaps, but more likely you’d first call those who did have phone numbers.

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

Search Engine Strategies Conference London Report
SEO Chat, June 6, 2004
http://forums.seochat.com/t11609/s.html

Missed SES London? Here’s a comprehensive rundown of sessions attended by Alan Webb.

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

Google, Yahoo face off in suit
San Jose Mercury News, June 4, 2004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8836209.htm

Update on the fight between Google and Overture over Overture’s patent on paid listings. You’ll find past articles on the suit also listed here: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156541#Patents

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

When to Kill a Keyword Listing
ClickZ, June 4, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/strat/article.php/3363021

Tips to consider before you pull a keyword from your advertising campaign.

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

A Selection of Recently Awarded Search-Related Patents & Recently Published Search-Related Patent Applications
ResourceShelf.com, June 3, 2004
http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2004_05_30_resourceshelfextra_archive.html/#108628010965919749

Gary Price’s regular rundown on who is patenting what in the way of search.

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

Google Gains Overall, Competition Builds Niches
ClickZ, June 2, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/stats/big_picture/applications/article.php/3362591

Latest stats from OneStat put Google with the largest global search share, 56 percent, followed by Yahoo at 21 percent, then MSN at 9 percent. Also has demographics about major search engines as provided by Hitwise. Google is slightly more “male” than MSN Search and slightly younger.

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

You Had Me at the Search Engine
Search Engine Guide, June 1, 2004
http://www.searchengineguide.com/krause/2004/0601_kk1.html

You got them hooked with your search listing. Don’t fail to deliver when they walk through the door of your web site. Kim Krause provides tips to consider on keeping the interest and conversion going.

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

Yahoo Plays Favorites with Some Adware
eWeek, June 1, 2004
http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,1761,a=128565,00.asp

Last newsletter, I mentioned in passing at it was ironic that Yahoo was offering an anti-spyware tool when it was partnered with two companies that are considered by some to be spyware. Nice to see this article that takes a long look at the issue. It notes that by default, the new toolbar doesn’t have adware/spyware detection enabled. You have to switch it on. Claria (formerly Gator) is among the adware programs detected. Given that Yahoo-owned Overture generated 31 percent of Claria’s revenue last year, you’d assume if Yahoo was serious about helping consumers, they wouldn’t partner with the company. BusinessWeek has a similar look here: Guess What — You Asked For Those Pop-Up Ads, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_26/b3889095_mz063.htm

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

Doug Cutting Interview
Google Blogoscoped, May 28, 2004
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2004_05_28_index.html#108573025728740424

Q&A with open source search engine founder and creator Doug Cutting, with some interesting comments on Google wanting to help but fearing it will help their competitors, the idea that Nutch APIs may be coming and comments on dealing with spam.

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

Search engines try to find their sound
News.com, May 27, 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5221267.html

Primarily a look at how StreamSage is linking written transcripts to audio content as a means to help search engines understand the content of sound files. Conceptually, this is nothing new. Virage (see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2166601 and SpeechBot have been doing it for ages. It’s nice to have another player in the space, of course. For more on SpeechBot, other types of multimedia search engines and stories on this technology, see https://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156251.

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

Coming Soon the Death of Search Engines?
LLRX, May 24, 2004
http://www.llrx.com/features/deathsearchengine.htm

A look at the challenges search engines are facing, such as indexes being too large and the resurgence of search engine spam. Will dissatisfaction allow pay-per-view searching to finally come of age?

=========================
Search Engine Resources
=========================

Big List Of Blog Search Engines
http://www.aripaparo.com/archive/000632.html

The name says it all — plus along with the list, you get some submission guidelines.

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

Comparison Engine
http://roquefort.di.unipi.it/comparison.html

Enter a search term, then get results meta search style at the bottom of the page. No big deal. But look at the top, and you’ll find a great visual representation of which pages are unique to a particular search engine or how a particular page ranks across several search engines. It’s one of those things you’ve got to see to fully understand — and well worth a look. Some have noted multiple word queries are turned into phrase searches. It would be nice to have an option to turn this off, as most people don’t search that way — so for comparison purchases, raw unquoted searches are more useful. But I also didn’t find this happening, myself. I did find that the result didn’t always match perfectly what I’d see on the engines themselves. Further discussion of the tool can also be found here: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3759

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

Copyscape
http://www.copyscape.com/

Enter the address of one of your web pages, then Copyscape taps into Google to find other pages that might be using the material. I tried it using one of my pages. It found many pages that were carrying SEW headlines and story summaries, which was fine by me. No doubt it could uncover some copyright infringers, as well. What I really want is a big giant search box that will process more than 10 words, so I can be more selective about hunting down unique passages of text. We had tools like this around 2000, but they disappeared. You could also try the fee-based service, Turnitin, http://turnitin.com/static/products_services/search_engines.html — though there are student issues about that, http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/21/ctv.plagiarism/

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

Pricegrabber UK/Canada
http://uk.pricegrabber.com/
http://ca.pricegrabber.com/

The popular US-based Pricegrabber shopping search engine has launched a UK and Canadian (second URL) version.

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

Able2Know
http://toolbar.able2know.com/

New search toolbar letting you query many major search engines and smaller players such as Gigablast or Nutch-powered Object Search. Does search term highlighting, jumping to keywords on pages, pop-up blocking and more.

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

Ask Jeeves Weblog

http://ajweblog.blogspot.com/

Provides a recap of news and information about happenings with Ask Jeeves.

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

Googlebomb Watch
http://blog.outer-court.com/googlebomb/

Link bombs — or Google bombs at they are more commonly called – are attempts to manipulate the results on search engines through the efforts of mass linking. Get enough people to link to something for a particular term, and you may make that page come up tops. This new page recaps some of the more notable bombs, though all of them aren’t technically so.

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

HitsLink 3.0
http://www.hitslink.com/

Web-based tracking and page analytics service is being updated this month with new reports showing pages receiving traffic by search engine, search terms by search engine, pages by search engine and search terms and a search engine trend report, along with other enhancements.

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

Lushe.net
http://lushe.net/

Build your own specialty search engine with this tool that leverages Google. Pick the sites you want to search against, say a number of sites about golf. This tool will then let you just search against those sites using Google. I saw a similar service like this, but much better, from a major search company last year. Sadly, they still haven’t rolled it out.

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

NexTag UK
http://www.uk.nextag.com/

The popular US-based shopping search site launches a UK edition.

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

The Silk Road
http://www.piperjaffray.com/info3.aspx?id=344

Newsletter from Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy, which often has good information about search on the financial front.

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

Yahoo Gas Prices Shortcut
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/

Type “gas 92663” or any other US zip code, and Yahoo provides links to sites that show gas prices for that area at the top of its results. Link above provides a list of all types of shortcuts like this Yahoo offers, as well as further instructions.

=========================
Thanks!
=========================

Special thanks reader submissions and

+ Search Engine Guide, http://searchengineguide.com
+ Search Engine Lowdown, http://searchenginelowdown.com
+ Searchblog, http://battellemedia.com
+ Search Engine Roundtable Weblog, http://www.seroundtable.com
+ SEObook.com, http://www.seobook.com
+ ResourceShelf.com, http://www.resourceshelf.com
+ ResearchBuzz, http://www.researchbuzz.com
+ The Unofficial Google Weblog, http://google.weblogsinc.com
+ Google Blogoscoped, http://blog.outer-court.com

for some of the items listed in this newsletter.

================================
About The Search Engine Report
================================

The Search Engine Report is a monthly newsletter that covers developments with search engines and changes to the Search Engine Watch web site, https://www.searchenginewatch.com/. You may pass this newsletter on to others, as long either part is sent in its entirety. Please note that long URLs may break into two lines in some mail readers. Cut and paste, should this occur.

How do I unsubscribe?

+ Use the form at http://e-newsletters.internet.com/searchengine.html or follow the instructions at the very end of this email.

How do I subscribe?

+ Use the form at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/ or send a blank email message to mailto:[email protected].

How do I see past issues?

+ Use the Search Engine Report Archives link at the bottom of https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/

How do I change my address?

+ Unsubscribe your old one, then subscribe the new one, using the unsubscribe link above.

I need human help with a list issue!

+ Please email [email protected]. DO NOT send messages regarding list management issues to Danny Sullivan. He does not deal with these.

I have feedback about an article!

+ I’d love to hear it. Use the form at https://www.searchenginewatch.com/about/article.php/2155671