Google Will Hurt Trade Publications
According to AdAge.com, the latest players to see a fearsome competitor lurking behind Google's meteoric rise are publishers of tightly targeted magazines. Andy Beal
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May 29, 2004
Google Responds To Gmail Privacy Issues
Google responds to concerns about Gmail's privacy. John Battelle has the summary. Andy Beal
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May 28, 2004
Sign up for this week's Search Engine Lowdown newsletter
You have until about 2:30pm today to sign-up for this week's hot newsletter.
Only one Google story in this weeks edition! Andy Beal
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Forget Asking Jeeves, Ask Snoop Dogg
Not really a search engine, but AskSnoop.com is very funny. Enter the URL of your favorite site and let Snoop "shizzolate" it. Adults only. Andy Beal
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Yahoo, Microsoft Want to be King of the Search Engine Jungle More chest-beating and feather-fluffing from Google rivals, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Reminds me of an Animal Planet show I watched a few weeks back about a group of monkeys. The alpha-male had everything a monkey could dream of, including the ladies. Every now and then another male would make a challenge and make all the right noises. Unfortunately, it was all a show, with the challenger more often than not failing to have the goods to back up the challenge.
That is where we are right now. A lot of noise, but no real challenger. However, in the monkey kingdom, the alpha-male often gets weary, doesn't keep a close eye on his competitors and ends-up losing his crown. ;-) Andy Beal
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California Senate votes to restrict Google's Gmail
A California Senate bill by Democratic state Sen. Liz Figueroa would require Gmail to work only in real-time and would bar the service from producing records, reports Reuters.
The bill also would bar Gmail form collecting personal information from e-mails and giving any information to third parties.
Danny Sullivan Asks if NPR is Cloaking
Danny obviously spent more time dissecting the news that NPR is translating its audio into text, and serving it to Google.
He comes to the conclusion that NPR is effectively using the spam technique, cloaking. But, I would argue that perhaps NPR converting its audio into text is no different that including ALT tags on images or tagging Flash content.
I guess we'll learn more soon enough. Andy Beal
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May 27, 2004
Web Analytics Company, WebSideStory, Files IPO
Web site analytics company, WebSideStory, has submitted a registration statement with the SEC for its IPO, according to the company's press release.
The Nigritude Ultramarine Search Engine Optimization Contest
Danny Sullivan weighs-in on the SEO contest currently running.
Sadly, seeing which site is tops just for one day, and for one keyword, is a terrible way to measure search engine marketing effectiveness. A good search engine marketer helps you maintain a lasting presence in search engines for a variety of terms. Those terms should bring you a steady stream of traffic -- and traffic that converts into sales or some other particular goal. Andy Beal
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How Not to Rank a Website on Google
Check out this bold claim from Scott Alliy.
There are some wild and less than modest claims about his fantastic success in getting a site ranked on Google. When you are done reading the release, click on the link to www.findaseminar.com, listed in the release.
Next, hit control-A and look at the hidden text at the top of the page. Nice work, I'm sure that site will have many years of Google success. ;-)
As Scott says..."Most Internet business owners and self acclaimed SEO experts could only dream of such search engine supremacy". This "self proclaimed SEO expert" is smiling, not only are you spamming the search engines, you actually send out a press release announcing it. Does "Darwin's Evolution Theory" apply to SEO? Andy Beal
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Factiva Goes Beyond Normal Search The BBC gives kudos to Factiva's downloadable search tool.
Factiva brings together information from more than 9,000 sources including newspapers, newswires, transcripts of news programmes from the BBC and other broadcasters, plus historical stock market data. Andy Beal
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NPR Finds Search Engine Solution
Wow, Stefanie Olsen must have had a lot of time on her hands this weekend. Her article on the search engines inability to index audio, is a long read, but worth it. Andy Beal
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Google News Not Loved by Journalists
I love Google News, it appears I'd never make it as a jounalist if I continued to do so.
Google News was shortlisted in the category for best internet news service with more than one million monthly visitors, an award eventually won by WashingtonPost.com. Google News is an automated news aggregation service that delivers news headlines according to keywords selected by users.
Writing on EditorandPublisher.com, editor Carl Sullivan reports that MarketWatch.com president and CEO Larry Kramer received loud applause when he criticised the inclusion of Google News in the shortlist.
"While admiring Google's technological know-how, Kramer and others in the audience felt strongly that the EPpys should reward the hard work of human journalists, not the programming skills of Silicon Valley," writes Mr Sullivan. (full story) Andy Beal
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Yahoo Practices What Google Preaches - Launches Spyware Remover
Just days after Google released a proposal that discourages software makers from building spyware, Yahoo goes one step further and adds an Anti-Spy spyware remover to its Yahoo Toolbar.
Mutual Fund Managers Watch Google IPO
Legg Mason mutual fund guru Bill Miller is keeping his eyes on the Google IPO, according to Reuters.
Miller said he has assigned a "swat team" to evaluate the value of Google's business, even enlisting an auction theorist to help review it. Andy Beal
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May 26, 2004
Microsoft Has Big Plans for MSN Search
Allison Linn covers a speech given by Yusuf Mehdi, head of Microsoft's MSN division.
Microsoft Corp. will soon release technology that takes search functions far beyond the Internet, allowing users to pour through e-mails, personal computers and even big databases to find the information they want...the system being developed by Microsoft's MSN online division "will, as far as the consumer is concerned, be an end-to-end system for searching across any data type," said Mehdi.
He said Microsoft plans to release an early version of the technology soon, as part of the software giant's push to compete with Internet search leader Google Inc. A final version is expected in the next 12 months, he said. Andy Beal
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What lies ahead for local search engine technology? A Chat with InfoSpace
No topic has received as much coverage recently as that of "local search" - the ability to find search results that are targeted to a users geographical preference. Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves are all making impressive advancements with local search, but there is another company that is vying for the local search crown.
InfoSpace is best known for its search engine brands like Dogpile.com and Webcralwer.com, but the company is building a reputation for itself as a provider of local search results, while at the same time building useful applications for the mobile user. As part of Andy Beal's continuing look at "the future of search technology", Andy had a chance to ask Arnaud Fischer, previously AltaVista product manager from 1999-2001 and currently leading search product planning for InfoSpace's Search & Directory division, some questions about how local search will develop in the future.
[Andy Bea] InfoSpace recently re-aligned itself to serve online yellow pages and white pages customers. Can you tell us what most excites you about this space?
[Arnaud Fischer] I am most excited about the "local search" opportunity. Inktomi, Google, and others already serve country-specific search results today and geo-targeting at a more granular level will unlock a tremendous amount of value for local advertisers, in addition to serving more relevant content to end-users. The traditional yellow pages market is roughly a $25 billion a year global industry. Many small businesses are awakening to the efficiency and predictability of online marketing, increasingly shifting marketing budgets to Web search and Internet yellow pages. Unlocking that opportunity is no easy task, though.
Internet yellow pages sites such as InfoSpace.com and Switchboard.com are working hard to deliver an end user experience that will bring more of the billions of annual print YP (yellow pages) look-ups online. With the penetration of broadband, always-on Internet connections growing and increasing adoption and use of "data-friendly" mobile handsets, the print yellow pages appear to be on the verge of becoming obsolete.
[AB] What are some of the challenges search companies face with local search?
[AF] Search engines are developing ways to disambiguate and adequately address location-specific queries. Geo-targeting Web search content, both organic and paid, requires search engines to better understand users and queries, inferring local intent by extracting geo-signals and leveraging implicit and explicit user profiles. Taking local search marketing services to market is also very different than selling paid listings to online businesses. The vast majority of local businesses still don't have a Web site, nor the time and expertise to invest in managing sophisticated auction-type listing campaigns.
[AB] There's been a lot of discussion recently about paid inclusion services, where do you see advancements coming in this area?
[AF] Search marketing should keep evolving very fast this year. Although pay-per-click platforms have expanded match type flexibility, campaign targeting is growing beyond keyword analyses to include geo-targeting and day-parting. Search engines are leveraging smarter linguistic technology, concept extraction and contextual categorization, to optimize targeting of paid content, improving on relevancy, conversion rates and increase advertisers' ROI. While advertisers might be losing control over guaranteed placement over time, paid search has made budgeting for traffic-generation programs increasingly predictable. Effectiveness metrics are evolving from impression counts, and click-through conversion rates to more sophisticated return on investment (ROI) methodologies. Some engines already provide advertisers with tools to calculate conversion rates from impressions to orders and ROI metrics.
Overture and Google go one step further, suggesting forecasted traffic levels and cost estimates for specific keyword combinations, match types and bid amounts. In a yield-driven context, where content targeting gets more sophisticated and matching more scientific, Paid Inclusion and Paid Listing programs will eventually merge into more automated bid-for-traffic models. Ultimately, advertisers will target impressions by dictating an ROI level acceptable to them such as "8% over advertising spend". To meet these requirements, search engine marketers will increasingly rely on automation tools to target the right content to the right users at the right location at the right time.
[AB] Let's look beyond the next few months, what advancements do you see in the coming years?
[AF] One of the most significant developments currently underway in web search is the integration of search capabilities within a broad range of other services. Increasingly, this trend in creating a new competitive arena in web Search that is forcing established providers to adopt new strategies and creating new market opportunities.
As the #1 web application, search is becoming more ubiquitous as technology and business models mature. We are seeing more ISPs adding search capability to their portals; we are seeing more newspapers and community-type portals integrating local search and Yellow Page offerings as well, in order to retain users on their properties, and leverage what has become a very profitable business model.
InfoSpace has long offered its web search and online directory capabilities on a private-label basis that allows our distribution partners such as Verizon, ABCNews, FoxNews, and Cablevision to deliver these services under their own brand. The increasing level of search activity occurring at popular destination sites like these has been a key component of InfoSpace's growth over the past year. In January, we announced that distribution revenue accounted for over half of InfoSpace's search-related revenue in the fourth quarter of 2003.
[AB} We hear in the news that desktop search is going to be the next "big thing", who do you see as being the key contributors to this area of search?
[AF] Both Microsoft Longhorn and IBM WebFountain will eventually make search a lot more transparent and integrated to end-users' broader task-centric activities.
The Microsoft Longhorn operating system will have a significant impact on the overall information retrieval discipline and how users search. Microsoft is building centralized storage architecture around the next version of Windows that will make it much easier for end-users to retrieve locally stored information, no matter which application was originally used to author it. The subjective nature of users' intent when formulating queries is complex. A better understanding of the task surrounding a search could make strides into serving more relevant results. The desktop and associated applications add a level of understanding of the user context that a browser cannot match. You could envision a world where users working on a document in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, get presented relevant related content leveraging text analytic technologies extracting concepts and themes of the document being worked on in real time. This is query-less search, relevant, in your face, all the time, without user interaction.
IBM has also been quietly working on the next generation of search technology focusing more on text analytic solutions, leveraging what some call the "Semantic Web", including natural language processing, statistics, probabilities, machine learning, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence. IBM's WebFountain technology goes beyond crawling and indexing the Web for the mere purpose of returning relevant links for a given queries. The technology actually tries to make sense of massive amounts of structured and un-structured content, extracting knowledge from the Web, Intranets, chat rooms, message boards, blogs, to isolate insightful and timely information that is not readily perceptible or available today. Applications could include identifying trends, monitoring brand perception, competitive activities, and monitoring other concept-specific "buzz".
[AB] Let's look at commercial searches and informational searches; do you see the two becoming distinct categories?
[AF] No. A central theme behind classical information retrieval theories is that users are driven by an information need. More granular search log analyses over the past years have attempted to categorize queries as 'transactional' (Commercial), "informational", and "navigational". The immediate intent behind "navigational" queries is to reach a particular site; "informational" queries aim at acquiring information assumed to be present on web pages; while "transactional" queries usually result in some activity such as an online purchase. Andrei Broder, while chief scientist officer at AltaVista in the late 90’s demonstrated that queries at the time were roughly split equally among each category.
We don't live in a binary world where queries (or content) are either inherently commercial or purely informational. The commercial-informational dichotomy looks more like a spectrum to me, where understanding user intent and the psychology of purchasing cycle is critical. The definitions behind commercial and informational content are fuzzy and personal; content perceived as purely commercial by some might be informational to others and vice versa. Clearly, the query "1819 treaty manuscript" could be considered "informational" in nature, but leading to a book purchase at Amazon about the United States-Spain treaty of 1819, or even the schedule of a trip to Spain or Florida.
[AB] So what's the answer?
[AF] In focus groups, users have told us unequivocally that they would much prefer a search engine display an array of content types that may be relevant to their query, rather than try to guess what their intent was. Users also appreciate having tools available to help them narrow their results. Based in part of this feedback, InfoSpace worked with Vivisimo last year to deploy a 'Refine Your Results' feature on our three owned and operated search properties -- Dogpile, WebCrawler sand Metacrawler. The feature automatically organizes and groups results by category for every search, providing a comprehensive view of web search results and allowing users to more rapidly get to the information most relevant to them. For example, a search on "flowers" groups results into subcategories such as delivery, gardening, arts and crafts, and more.
[AB] If search engine users gave up a little of their privacy and allowed their search habits to be monitored, would this allow the search engines to provide better, customized results?
[AF] There is no doubt that sharing personal data with search engines would result in better individual search experiences. The quality of search results is a function of two sets of variables: i) the user query and ii) the content indexed. Search engines are constantly crawling and indexing more web pages, more often, leveraging better entity extraction and concept recognition techniques, inferring document relationships in smarter ways. An enhanced understanding of user intents would certainly unlock more value from this semantic understanding of Web content.
Link analysis and other "off-the-page" ranking criteria have played an increasing role in relevancy algorithms over the past years. Monitoring navigation behavior at a user-level could conceivably be the basis to developing an understanding of users' individual interests over time, in essence personalizing the equivalent of Google's PageRank scores. If you consistently browse music-related content, search engines should become smart enough to understand that your query "Prince" most probably relates to the singer than to the royal family. Personalizing search relevancy algorithms presents some major scalability and performance challenges, though. It takes days, if not weeks to process link analyses and compute authority scores for individual Web sites after a crawl.
[AB] Do you think search engine users will balk due to privacy fears?
[AF] Privacy concerns are certainly legitimate to some extent. I actually see some parallel between users' reluctance to using their credit card online in the early e-commerce days and giving up personal information to search engines today. It's a constant trade-off between privacy concerns and the added value extracted from that data.
In the meantime, IP-sniffing technology might take search engines a step closer to personalizing search results without requiring users to compromise on very personal information. IP-analytic software associate internet-connected devices to geographic areas, domains (.com, .edu, and .gov), ISPs, connection speed and browser types with some level of confidence. Analyzing click popularity at an aggregate level along IP-associated parameters could be leveraged to extrapolate personalized ranking for clusters of users exhibiting similar behaviors. This technique would not be unlike Amazon's implementation of collaborative filtering technology, in essence also reaching similar goals than social networks such as Eurekster.
[AB] InfoSpace also offers wireless data applications. Do you think that search has a future on a cell phone?
[AF] Sending local content such as yellow page listings, directions, maps and business ratings to mobile devices just makes sense. I remember looking up on my cellular phone the nearest ice-cream parlor from the park a couple years ago with my kid. It worked! The experience was far from optimal, though, scrolling through about 10 to 15 screens I could barely read. Personalization features, geo-based services, faster networks, better handset resolution and color displays should significantly improve the experience over time. The navigation schema, whether search or browse modes, will be critical to make cellular phones a viable platform for both end-users and IYP advertisers. About 90% of mobile phones will be Web-enabled by 2006, making it a more attractive platform for content providers, developers, and information architects to invest time on.
The opportunity to deliver Web search and online directory information to mobile devices is something InfoSpace is well positioned to capitalize on. InfoSpace was a wireless data pioneer in the US and our mobile division today powers wireless data applications for every major US provider with the exception of Nextel. Going forward, we see a significant opportunity to increasingly combine our mobile and search and directory assets to accelerate the adoption of thee services on wireless devices.
[AB] Thanks Arnaud for taking the time to share with us your thoughts on the future of search!
Google can't rest on laurels
SFGate looks at a recent survey that suggests Google is not immune from competition.
Gary Price, a librarian and editor of ResourceShelf.com, an online guide for finding information, said the survey's results illustrate what he has been saying for a long time. Some search engines are better than others for different kinds of queries, he said.
"Google is wonderful, and it does a lot of wonderful things," Price said. "But it is not the end all and be all of Web search. Others do a good job." Andy Beal
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Firms Line-up to Sue Google for Ad Links to Competitors
David Vise of the Washington Post reports on the current influx of lawsuits against Google and Overture for trademark infringement.
Google defends their position:
Michael H. Page, outside counsel for Google, said additional lawsuits are likely to be filed against the company as online commerce grows but argued that the search-engine firm is doing nothing wrong.
"If you are Pepsi, you can say every time somebody searches for Coca-Cola, you want to put up a Pepsi ad," Page said. "As long as you don't deceive the viewer into thinking the ad is placed by your competitor, there is nothing wrong with that." Andy Beal
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May 25, 2004
Using Popular Keywords Just to Get Noticed
I've talked about this is my blog's "comments". If you want to get your article or post noticed, it needs to include popular keywords in the title. That's why you'll see "search engine" or "Google" in a lot of my posts. I admit, I'm doing it mostly to attract the news engines.
However, I never use the term "Google", unless the post is indeed about Google. So can someone please explain this to CNET? I read their article "Forget Google redux" and sure enough, they "forgot" to mention it even once! Now that's working the system.
Search Engine User Attitudes
Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman join forces to breakdown recent search engine survey results. Andy Beal
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Vote for Search Engine Lowdown
You still have time to let the world know that you get your search engine news from Search Engine Lowdown.
MarketingSherpa is conducting a survey of the best marketing blogs, and we have been nominated. You can take the survey here.
Thanks to all of you who have already voted. Without your support and readership, this blog would be goin nowhere, fast! Andy Beal
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Why You Can't Sue Google
According to Julie Hilden, Google, or any other search engine, can't be sued for defamation.
The most direct reason is that a federal law ensures that those who host, rather than author, speech on the Internet cannot be treated, for legal purposes, as having published it. As a result, they cannot be sued for defamation - or for any other tort that has publication as one of its essential elements.
The law protects message board owners, chat room hosts, bloggers who give others access to their blogs, and indeed, virtually anyone who allows material on their site, or provides access to material, that they do not themselves author. That includes Google and other search sites. Andy Beal
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May 24, 2004
Plaxo Signs Deal to Integrate Yahoo Search Plaxo, the makers of the popular but annoying Outlook contact management system, today announced a partnership with Yahoo Search.
Plaxo 2.0 enables users to access Yahoo! Search directly from their Outlook and Outlook Express programs by embedding the Yahoo! Search window in the Plaxo Toolbar. Plaxo will generate revenue on searches performed.
Internet Advertising Sets New Record
ClickZ reports Internet advertising revenues rose to an all-time quarterly high of nearly $2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2004, according to research estimates from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
That's the highest quarterly total since the two began tracking revenues in 1996, marking a pronounced recovery from the dot-com doldrums. The previous record was set in the fourth quarter of 2003. Before that, interactive ad revenues hadn't seen such heights since 2000.
24/7, Kanoodle launch behavioral sponsored links
Interesting development found at AlwaysOn...
Set to launch in the second quarter of 2004, Kanoodle's BehaviorTarget will integrate 24/7 Real Media's proprietary Insight XE Web analytics technology to analyze and track user behavior anonymously throughout Kanoodle's BehaviorTarget network of publishers. It will enable Kanoodle to identify and build audience segments based on user behavior activity and allow advertisers to target their sponsored links campaigns to reach their customers based on past Web behavior. For example, an automotive advertiser will be able to target anonymous customers who have read new car reports in the last 30 days.
"I know I can run an advertisement on billions of Web pages that aren't contextually identifiable, like blogs and personal Web pages," said Lance Podell, president of Kanoodle. "A better indicator [of interest and intent] is past history of this anonymous user set. If I know someone has been on sporting sites, then I know this person is a sports enthusiast."
Any privacy protection advocates want to jump in on this one? I see the word "anonymous" thrown around. I guess they are looking at sample data, not your own personal browsing habits. Andy Beal
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Findory.com Helps Searches Find the Latest News
[CAUTION: YOU ARE ENTERING A NON-GOOGLE AREA] - Findory.com is a neat news search engne that attempts to make searching for news stories a little easier.
Created by ex-Amazon employee, Greg Linden - who helped build the personalized search features at Amazon - Findory.com, applies a similar concept of personalization to online news. In addition to letting a person search for news by keyword and subject, the site automatically remembers which news articles a person reads via the site and identifies other news articles likely to be of interest. Andy Beal
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Google's best chance to integrate itself into an operating system may be to work with one or more vendors of Linux, an increasingly popular operating system that works on open-source principles, which allow outside programmers to freely modify it or build new programs. Linux's main advantage is that it is cheaper and simpler in design than Microsoft's Windows.
What about the rumors that Google may launch an online operating system?
"This has been tried before, and it doesn't work," said Eric Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative. "People don't like not having physical control of their bits and bytes. You put your data on someone else's servers and it's fundamentally out of your control." Andy Beal
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*Seventy-six percent of respondents had heard of or used Google. (Each percentage point represents 1 million households.)
* Twenty percent of respondents had used Google within 24 hours of being interviewed.
* Only 17 percent said they would not consider Google a good investment.
* More affluent people earning over $70,000 a year were Google's biggest fans. Andy Beal
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Can GuruNet and Wikipedia Beat Google? Google is great for 90%+ of all the searches you may wish to do in a day. But what about those times that you need a specialized search engine? Stephen H. Wildstrom (my favorite BusinessWeek journalist, by the way) offers some suggestions for alternative sources, that include GuruNet and Wikipedia. Andy Beal
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Google Co-Founders Hold 16 Percent Stakes
Google revealed on Friday the percentages owned by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Andy Beal
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Google names more firms to underwrite IPO
Google will get underwriting assistance from 31 firms, according to Reuters. Andy Beal
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Demand for Google Gmail Increases
TechWeb News reports that the deman for Gmail is starting to get a little crazy.
One woman promised to be an online girlfriend for a month -- "photos negotiable; real contact not included" -- and one writer who claimed he was Marc Marcuse, who was a contestant on NBC's reality show "Average Joe," begged for an account, saying that he deserved one because "NBC never paid us a dime." Andy Beal
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Will Wall Street turn its back on Google?
Melanie Hollands suggests that the Google IPO is not a good idea and gives numerous reasons, including:
Google's bifurcated capital structure (with its two classes of stock) could make it difficult for management to adjust to the transition from being privately held to being public. For starters, it squashes the rights of ordinary shareholders. In addition, it concentrates special voting powers in the hands of senior executives -- including Brin, Page, and Schmidt. Andy Beal
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May 21, 2004
Help us, help you
Thanks for all of the great feedback we have been receiving about the new design for the blog.
One common theme emerging is that readers are concerned that we are not covering the smaller search engines enough. I wanted to let everyone know that I monitor news for a lot of the smaller guys, they just don't make as much noise as Google and Yahoo.
I hope recent articles on Dogpile, Vivisimo, FyberSearch, A9 and Ask Jeeves show that we ("we", mostly being "I") are committed to covering any search engine news.
I'd like to ask our readers to help us achieve this task. If you see a news story about a smaller search engine, that we have missed, send us an email to info@searchenginelowdown.com. If we think it's newsworthy, we'll post it and give you the credit (kinda like Slashdot does).
Though its success has yet to match that of Lycos, or come anywhere near Google, Vivisimo is profitable and growing in its niche of licensing its software to organizations that require ways to efficiently navigate huge databases.
One of its most recent efforts was to develop a software package for efficiently browsing content on Internet auction site eBay. Andy Beal
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Search Engine Optimization Contest - "Nigritude ultramarine"
Gary notes that the WSJ has picked up on the SEO contest currently running. Interestingly, the article's headline is..."A Contest to Gain Top Rank by Google; No Cheating Allowed".
Maybe the guys at WSJ should take another look. The contest allows any kind of search engine optimization method, even if it is considered spam by Google. Andy Beal
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Taking Search Engine Toolbar Testing a Little too Far!
I think Peter Caputa has got a little too obsessed with finding the perfect toolbar. If you want to search multiple search engines, try Groowe.
Don't Miss Search Engine Lowdown's Newsletter
You've got until about 2pm EDT to sign-up for our newsletter and get a bumper issue of search engine news.
The sign-up link is to the left of this post....nope, up a bit....a bit more..yep that's it, right there! Andy Beal
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Testing the Search Engine Toolbars I posted a few months back that I would try and give other search engine toolbars a shot.
We'll, there are no scientific results to report, just that Google's toolbar wins hands-down. It has everything I need, does a great job blocking pop-ups and the "blog this" button is one of the reasons I am able to keep my blog fresh. Andy Beal
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YouSearched.com, the First Search Engine for the Disabled Search Engine Guide has the news on YouSearched.com, which claims to be the first search engine that meets accessibility guidelines. Andy Beal
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Microsoft and Amazon's A9 Discuss the Future of Search
Over at eWeek, Mary Jo Foley reports from the recent WWW conference, where Microsoft and Amazon A9 execs both talked about the (distant) future of search engine technology. Andy Beal
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Google's Gmail a Hot Ebay Item
Can you believe that people are willing to pay $70+ on Ebay, for a Gmail account that will ultimately be free to everyone?
Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post looks at some of the reasons why.
Update: The USA Today has a similar story. They claim the accounts are going for $150 on Ebay.
Want the Lowdown on Shrek 2? Ask Jeeves!
Ask Jeeves is now serving up the latest movie information via their Smart Search technology. For example, a search for Shrek 2, brings up links to the official site, reviews and even the trailer. Thanks Gary! Andy Beal
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Dogpile Updates RSS & Atom Features on its Search Engine Toolbar This just in from Dogpile...
Search engine Dogpile.com today released an updated version of its RSS-enabled toolbar. The upgraded toolbar includes new functionality that provides even more timely and convenient access to users' personalized lists of RSS and Atom feeds. The Dogpile toolbar allows users to customize the toolbar's scrolling content ticker with the RSS and Atom feeds of their choice. The new version offers users the option of having the ticker automatically rotate through any or all of the feeds on their list or scroll a single feed at a time.
Overture to Target Direct Marketers
According to DM News, Overture sees its biggest growth opportunity from large, traditional direct response advertisers.
"Our real challenge is not necessarily the other people that participating in the search space but shifting dollars from other direct response advertisers, like direct mail and yellow pages," Andy Beal
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Gaming Google's AdWords and AdSense
Very interesting story at the WSJ Online (sorry if the link doesn't work) that discusses how AdSense users are gaming the system to earn extra money from Google.
"I find the most competitive and most expensive areas, and build sites around them," says Howard A. Brown, 36, the owner of Studio City, Calif.-based Real Results LLC, who runs sites on mesothelioma, depression and dyslexia. The eventual goal, he says, is to find sponsors for his sites, but in the meantime, AdSense "is a quick way to add some revenue."
Ed Kohler, a search-engine marketing consultant in Minneapolis, has a more complex strategy -- essentially AdSense arbitrage. He buys cheap ads to draw users to his site, HaystackInANeedle.com, where he writes about topics that will attract expensive ads. If a reader clicks on his cheap ad to come to his site, and then leaves the site by clicking on an expensive ad, Mr. Kohler makes money on the difference, minus Google's cut.
Wow. Build sites that target high-interest topics. Add the AdSense code and tweak the text to target those terms that you know AdWords advertisers are spending a fortune on. Then go and buy cheap ads yourself on AdWords. The visitor to your site clicks on the links and you pocket the difference.
Anyone know if this is against Google T&C? Andy Beal
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10 Things to Ask Google's Ethics Committee
The BBC has some candid questions, courtesy of Danny Sullivan, that it would like the Google ethics committee to answer. Andy Beal
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What to Know Before Buying Google IPO Stock
The USA Today has an interesting piece that dissects the S-1 and how the information can help anyone in deciding whether to invest in Google.
And in case you are interested, I don't plan to invest. 95% of income from a single product is just a little to scary for my blood. Andy Beal
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Search Engine Marketing Refresher
Every now and then, we need an article that explains what all the fuss is about. Inc magazine such an article which discusses why search engines are important and gives a few tips on how to optimize your site. Andy Beal
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Google Isn't Keeping Quiet After IPO Filing
According to David Vise of the Washington Post, Google isn't doing a good job of keeping mum during its "quiet period".
This may be the "quiet period" before Google Inc.'s initial public offering of stock, but the company is bucking tradition by making plenty of noise.
Since filing papers in late April saying it wants to sell $2.7 billion in stock to the public, the California-based search engine giant has not been shy about rolling out new products or articulating its views on software.
"It is against the norm to make these announcements and come out with new products during the quiet period," said Andy Beal, vice president of Websourced Inc., a search engine marketing firm. "It definitely shows that Google is not a company that conforms to the norm." Andy Beal
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May 19, 2004
Google Issues Guidelines to Prevent Spyware
Now this is interesting, Google has issued "proposed principles" that they want software makers to follow in order to prevent spyware.
Isn't it coincidental that they issue these guidelines when they are rumored to be just days from launching a new desktop search solution? Do you think they have perhaps learned a lot from the whole Gmail privacy fiasco and are making sure the same doesn't happen when they launch desktop search?
We intend to follow these guidelines ourselves with the applications we distribute (such as the Google Toolbar and Google Deskbar).
So please don't try and pick holes in our new desktop when we launch it! ;-) Andy Beal
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Australia's Sensis to Battle Google
TELSTRA'S Sensis division has set aside a multi-million-dollar marketing budget to create a new youth-focused search engine brand that will compete against Google, Yahoo and Microsoft/Ninemsn for a share of the burgeoning Australian search market, reports The Australian. Andy Beal
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Direct Marketing Associations' DM Days New York Conference
There is still time to register for the DM Days conference being held next week in New York. There are more than 200 sessions that will discuss various methods of direct marketing.
Google Takes Preemptive Strike Against Microsoft's Longhorn
According to the New York Times, Google is getting ready to launch a desktop search solution that will bridge the gap between internet and local search. The move is seen as a preemptive strike against Microsoft's 2006 launch of Longhorn which will include advanced search features.
The Google software project, which is code-named Puffin and which will be available as a free download from Google's Web site, has been running internally at the company for about a year.
Microsoft needs to get their butt in gear if they want to compete. 2006 is a long way off! Andy Beal
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Google's GMail Now Offering 1 Terabyte of Storage Space "Several users of the search engine's Gmail Web-based e-mail service noticed Tuesday that their storage limits had quietly been raised to 1 million megabytes, or 1 terabyte. That's four times the typical capacity of a new high-end PC's hard drive."
In a move that's apparently been made to declare staunch victory in the recente-mailstoragewars, Google is now offering its account holders one TERABYTE of free email storage.
Am I set with my gmail account for the rest of my life?
[Update]: Now, there is speculation that it is a bug of some sorts. A lot of people saw their storage revert back to 1000mb, however my account is still at 1000000mb. Ben Wills
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May 18, 2004
Interesting Search Engine Industry Data
Just got back from a dinner in New York, hosted by Majestic Research. The dinner brought together search engine insiders with mutual fund managers and investors to discuss the topic of paid search. John Battelle was the keynote speaker for the dinner and the event was attended by more than 50 people.
I promised John that I would not reveal some of the interesting data he uncovered (at least not until he had a chance to get back to California and blog it first). However, I can reveal some eye-opening info released by Majestic.
* The 3 largest buyers of keywords by category for both Overture and Google are auction sites, broad-based retail companies and comparison shopping sites.
* eBay bids on a large amount of keywords, including celebrity names and letters of the alphabet, paying an average of $0.11 per click.
* The more targeted the keywords, the higher the price-per-click advertisers are willing to pay.
* Roughly 58% of keyword bids on Overture were less than $0.15 per click.
* Narrowly-defined keywords can lead to short-term bidding wars. In March '04, eDiets.com and SouthBeachDiet.com managed to drive the cost-per-click of the phrase "weight loss diet" from $2.00 to over $75.00.
* Worldwide the number of searches at Google grew 10% during March.
John will have some interesting info on click fraud, interest in the Google IPO and other issues. When he posts them, we'll let you know. Andy Beal
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Geico sues Google, Overture for Trademark Violations So, you're Google. You announce your IPO. You state that you want to run your company like Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. You extoll the virtures of Buffett and indicate that you admire his style. So how painful is it to get sued by Warren Buffett, just a few weeks later?
Well, according to Stefanie Olsen, Geico, a subsidiary of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, is suing both Google and Overture for infringing its trademarks.
"This practice deliberately misleads consumers and allows Geico's competitors and these defendants to illegally exploit for their own commercial purposes Geico's investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in its brand," company spokeswoman Janice Minshall wrote in an e-mail.
Google Sends Cease-And-Desist To Orkut Geomapper Site
Google has sent a cease-and-desist letter to close the Orkut Personal Network Geomapper web site, according to Search Engine Watch.
The site lets you look up anyone in the Orkut database at the time the information was mined, then see their connections. However, Google says the information is used without permission. Andy Beal
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Google Tackles Friendster's Home Turf
Want some insight as to why Orkut appears to be on a road to nowhere?
One reason why Google is not plunging headlong into the social-networking market by providing more direct backing to Orkut may be the continued uncertainty about whether social networking sites can morph from online phenomena into money-making businesses, Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li told the E-Commerce Times. Andy Beal
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Google Looking to Become a Portal?
Over at the ABAKUS blog, they ask whether Google is getting ready to launch new products. A lot of speculation, but who can tell these days! Andy Beal
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Yahoo and Google Fight Over Paid Inclusion
Over at Search Engine Watch, Danny Sullivan begins a series of articles that will focus on paid inclusion.
In this episode, he looks at the two different stances Google and Yahoo take. Yahoo is promoting paid inclusion as a means to ensure no site is missed, while Google maintains that allowing someone to buy their way into the crawled results, is a bad thing.
Google had run into some bad publicity, what with its recent updates and Gmail...What on earth could save Google? Yahoo's complicated paid inclusion program came to the rescue. After weeks of having its own results questioned, Google got to sit back and watch Yahoo's program get put under a microscope.
Nice article Danny! Am I also starting to see more challenging questions being asked at SEW? If Google and Yahoo are sparring partners, Search Engine Watch can be the referee who likes to remind each of them exactly why they are fighting. Let's get it on! Andy Beal
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Who Controls Google, Page or Brin?
Interesting article in Business Week on the Google IPO. David Gumpert does a good job analyzing some aspects of the IPO filing that have been overlooked. For example:
Larry Page owns 38,593,700 shares and Sergey Brin owns 38,490,304 shares. Thus, Larry owns 103,396 more shares than Sergey. So the cynic tells me that for all the talk about "trust" and "healthy debate," when push comes to shove, Larry gets the final say. In this case, he chose to author the letter from "the founders." Andy Beal
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Guilty plea in Google IPO fraud case
Shamoon Rafiq, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud and faces 51 to 63 months in jail for trying to sell bogus Google pre-IPO shares. Andy Beal
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More 
The 
Google is great for 90%+ of all the searches you may wish to do in a day. But what about those times that you need a specialized search engine? Stephen H. Wildstrom (my favorite BusinessWeek journalist, by the way) 
I posted a few months back that I would try and give other search engine toolbars a shot.
This just in from Dogpile...
