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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Responds To Gmail Privacy Issues
Google responds to concerns about Gmail's privacy. John Battelle has the summary.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

Thanks Gary!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.


Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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!

Andy Beal is vice president of search marketing for WebSourced and its KeywordRanking Services as well as editor of Search Engine Lowdown.
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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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

Is this News engine spam?
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Search Engine User Attitudes
Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman join forces to breakdown recent search engine survey results.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.



Thanks again to John.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

Thanks John.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
Can Google Make the Leap to Desktop?
Some interesting views shared by Matt Marshall and Michael Bazeley of the Mercury News. Can Google figure out how to get desktop users from Microsoft?

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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
Everyone Has Heard of Google, Almost.
Some interesting survey results revealed...

*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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Co-Founders Hold 16 Percent Stakes
Google revealed on Friday the percentages owned by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google names more firms to underwrite IPO
Google will get underwriting assistance from 31 firms, according to Reuters.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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).

Thanks again!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Search Engine Vivisimo Quietly Builds its Reputation
Resource Shelf points out this article on Vivisimo.

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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.


Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos Getting All Google-Eyed
Looks like the founder of Amazon.com is going to benefit from the Google IPO.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

Crazy!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

While you're at their site, check out the lowdown on their mascot, Arfie the dog.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

I'll be there to provide the presentation "Integrating Search Engine Marketing With Traditional Campaigns".
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 recent e-mail storage wars, 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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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.

Ouch....big ouch!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
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 | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Catalogs R.I.P?
Gary Price asks if Google has given-up on its Catalogs?
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Local Search Products Hurting Newspapers
Newspapers face long-term damage to their business from online local-search products, far greater than the damage done to classified advertising revenue by competitors like Monster.com and HotJobs.com, a new study, "The Geo-Google Threat: Search Engines Target Local Advertising," reported today.

Thanks Mike!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Canada Search Engine Users More Active than USA
According to data provided by comScore and eMarketer, Canadians perform more searches per month, per person, than those in the U.S.


Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Search Engine Lowdown Launches New Look
Seems like a lot of sites have decided spring is a good time to launch a new design and we are no exception. I hope you like the new look site.

Why the change?

1. The old site was based on a Blogger template and had gotten corrupted by all the hacking and editing.
2. The old site looked awful in Mozilla and other non-IE browsers, the new site should look better.
3. I finally found a little time to get a new design together.

I hope you like it!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
DoubleClick to Buy Search Marketer in $65 Mln Deal
DoubleClick announced it will purchase search engine marketer Performics for up to $65 million to boost its ability to track the performance of online advertising.

Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Yahoo Says It Expects To Sell Its Stake In Google
This from Dow Jones...

A Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) executive said that the search-engine company will eventually sell its stake in Google Inc. (GGL.XX).

Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker outlined the company's intention at a meeting with analysts on Thursday. She valued the stake at several hundred million dollars, but gave no timeline for a sale.

Yahoo invested $10 million in Google under a four-year-old pact, now ended, in which Google provided it search services.

Google filed for a $2.7 billion IPO last month.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Why Google Competition is Good for Internet Users
Leslie Walker hits the nail on the head in her article that discusses how rivalry between Google and Yahoo is already brining benefits to Internet users.

With MSN about to get involved in search, search engine users will see fast developments in technology due to increased competition.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google or Googol?
This week's award for stupidity goes to the family of mathematician, Edward Kasner (the inventor of the term Googol), who think they might sue Google for royalties due on the use of the name.

Oh please, Google gives recognition for the origination of the company name, but to think that you deserve a piece of the pie is crazy.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google May Modify Gmail to Appease Lawmakers
According to the Oakland Tribune, Google may actually be making concessions to lawmakers who object to Gmail's intent to search e-mail messages for their content.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google AdWords will Jumpstart your campaign
Google has decided that advertisers are not creating AdWords campaigns that are attractive enough. They have taken the matter into their own hands with the launch of Jumpstart, a service that for $299, will get you the assistance of someone at Google.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Can Google Make CPC Banner Ads Work?
After reading this article at CNet, it appears that Google is taking a gamble with its new Image Ads.

The ad industry has been selling banner ads on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis for years and have claimed that banners are good for branding, whether clicked-on or not. Google's cost per click (CPC) approach is completely different.

"Google's making a public statement that the only value of a banner is when it's clicked upon, and it flies in the face of all the research done in the last five years that demonstrates the impact a banner can have on brand awareness and purchase intent," said Dave Moore, CEO of 24/7 Real Media, a New York-based company that sells advertising for 800 sites worldwide.

Either Google is going to make a fortune by convincing the world that CPC is better, or they will lose a lot of money from advertisers who use banners for branding and don't target a lot of click-thrus -- less clicks, mean less money for Google.

Ultimately, publishers will make that decision in whether to adopt Google's service, and at least one major Web site has said 'no.' That web site being the New York Times.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Microsoft's MSN Getting Ready to Launch Search Engine
The National Post of Canada gives an update on Microsoft's search engine plans.

Microsoft plans to unveil its own Internet search technology this year after seeing what MSN director Lisa Gurry termed the "amazing" consumer demand and the moneymaking potential.

At first, Microsoft plans to use its new technology only for Internet searches based on relevance, replacing Inktomi, now owned by rival Yahoo! Inc. Microsoft will continue to work with Overture Services, another Yahoo subsidiary, for the paid listings that run alongside regular search results.

Microsoft efforts are so sweeping that painting its strategy as a simple matchup with Google is a "narrow, narrow way of looking at it," said Jim Desler, a Microsoft spokesman.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Confirms Automated Page Removal Bug
Rumors that a bug caused Microsoft and Adobe websites to be removed from Google, are true, according to Search Engine Watch.

"We can confirm that less than 10 websites were inadvertently removed from Google's index for several hours [Thursday]. All of these sites have been restored and are accessible through a Google search. The removal occurred as the result of an outside attempt to abuse Google's automated web page removal tool -- a free service we provide webmasters who would like to remove web pages they own from Google's index. Upon discovering this bug, we fixed it immediately. We will also perform a thorough analysis to ensure additional web pages were not inappropriately removed."
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
FyberSearch Search Engine - Are You Getting Enough Fyber?
Someone at Google or Yahoo should give 19 year old Nathan Enns, the creator of FyberSearch, a job. His search engine has a great interface and intuitive filters.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Mamma.com rides the search wave
Mamma.com may have reported increased earnings recently, but Bambi Francisco reveals why their stock price is a roller-coaster ride for investors.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google to Sell Type of Ad It Once Shunned
Even the New York Times, which has in the past few weeks has had a love affair with Google, doesn't paint a rosey picture for Google's new Imaga Ads.

David Moore, the chief executive of 24/7 Real Media, said that Google was entering the graphic ad business because its text ads have not produced as much revenue as publishers wanted.

"We generate significantly better revenue for publishers than Google," Mr. Moore said. "We can charge higher prices because we sell in cost per thousand not cost per click."
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Ask Jeeves Maps Out Plans for Future
Ask Jeeves tells the Oakland Tribune its plans for the future and what it wants to do with Interactive Search Holdings.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google and Yahoo Ban Spyware Company
Repeat after me, "cloaking is bad".
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Back to Search Engine College for you!
Noted Kiwi search engine expert, Kalena Jordan apparently doesn't have quite enough to do even with an SEO company, a daily blog and a new-born baby. She has decided that the world needs a Search Engine College.

I haven't seen the course materials and I am not sure that the course is accredited or endorsed by anyone, but I am sure that Kalena can help the newbies get up to speed. Good luck Kalena!

P.S. Yes the cute kid on the homepage is Danny Sullivan, he has been studying search engines for that long! ;-)
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Verizon SuperPages.com Becomes Newest Sponsor of SEMPO
The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) today announced that Verizon SuperPages.com, the Internet's number one online yellow pages directory, has agreed to become a sponsor of the new industry association.

[CENSORED: Andy Beal's comments have been removed due to a strictly enforced pact with SEMPO leaders. Until such time as Andy behaves himself and says only positive things about SEMPO, his thoughts will be censored]
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Yahoo to Take on Google Gmail with Extra Storage Space
According to InfoWorld, Yahoo plans to raise the storage limits for its free e-mail users later in the second quarter or third quarter of this year from the current 6MB to 100MB, signalling it intends to compete heading with Google's Gmail and its 1GB storage.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Yahoo to Improve Search
According to SFGate.com, Yahoo execs are starting to sound the battle drums in this "search engine war".

Over the next year and beyond, Yahoo's users can expect to see more- personalized searches, better local searches and searches more deeply integrated into the company's Web site, according to Yahoo executives.

"We thrive on competition, and the winners of competition will be our users," Terry Semel, Yahoo's chief executive, said Thursday at the company's analyst day in San Francisco.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Groups Adds Mailing Lists, Competes With Yahoo Groups
Google has added new mailing list creation functionality to its Google Groups service, giving it a capability that competes directly with the Yahoo Groups service, according to Search Engine Watch.

As one of our readers put it:

They now have Google Groups, a carbon copy of Yahoo Groups. When I went to create a group,Google Groups recognized my Gmail cookie, and my Gmail address was plastered across the top of the Google Groups page. In other words, they are becoming more and more like Yahoo, where your identity follows you around their web site. Interesting.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Search Engines to Become Portals?
Danny Sullivan expresses his views on the recent announcements and suggests the search engines are hoping to become portals for all kinds of information.

Danny keep's his views guarded in the article, but reading between the lines, I feel as though he may hold the same views that I do.

Google has been fighting back, but this has been most dramatic on the portal front. Yesterday, it rolled out a new Google Groups mailing list service to rival Yahoo's long established one. In my article about the service, Google says this are good search reasons for this. I disagree.

Danny doesn't think this lines-up with search, and neither do I.

Putting pictures on web sites has to do with search how? It has nothing to do with it! But then, neither did putting textual ads on web sites.

I had a lot of calls and emails from my peers about my recent criticism of Google. I wanted to clarify two things:

1. I understand why Google is launching email, groups and banner ads. They are a business and want to make money. However, they have always said their focus is search and that they won't sell-out.

2. I still like Google, they are a great search engine. I just believe that they are losing focus. AltaVista took their eye off the ball and look what happened to them!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
CitySearch Selects Yahoo's Overture Over Google
CitySearch said Thursday that it has signed a deal with Yahoo's Overture Services to run the latter's paid ads in its local search listings for select cities and categories.

A non-Google story, Mike OK will be pleased! ;-)
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Exposed! Google's insidious plan to stay competitive and profitable
You gotta love this job. I spent days on end reporting on the virtues of Google, to the point where I got tired of it. I decide to look at an alternative view and the media latches on like you wouldn't believe.

I must remember to be more controversial in the future, it's good for PR.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google bets its way to success
David Vise of the Washington Post reviews the whole PPC concept and looks at how popular Google AdWords has become.

His panel of quoted experts include "the man in black", "the fiery redhead" and the "brit with the southern drawl". ;-)
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Adding Image Ads Will Give Google Appeal to Large Companies
Reuters, via USA Today, has their take on the new Google banners or Image Ads as they refer to them.

"This isn't a surprise to us at all. We think it's the right thing for Google to do," said Jeff Lanctot, vice president of media at interactive agency Avenue A, a unit of aQuantive.

"In some ways this is a bit of a nod to the large advertiser," added Lanctot, who has previewed the product. He said bigger advertisers are more likely to have the budgets to keep fresh advertising images on hand.

They are also less likely to care as much about conversion as they often use banner ads for branding purposes not sales. So it's starting to become a little clearer as to why they have introduced Image Ads. They now have something to offer larger ad buyers.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Adding Image Ads Will Appeal to Large Companies
Reuters, via USA Today, has their take on the new Google banners or Image Ads as they refer to them.

"This isn't a surprise to us at all. We think it's the right thing for Google to do," said Jeff Lanctot, vice president of media at interactive agency Avenue A, a unit of aQuantive.

"In some ways this is a bit of a nod to the large advertiser," added Lanctot, who has previewed the product. He said bigger advertisers are more likely to have the budgets to keep fresh advertising images on hand.

They are also less likely to care as much about conversion as they often use banner ads for branding purposes not sales. So it's starting to become a little clearer as to why they have introduced Image Ads. They now have something to offer larger ad buyers.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Hopes to Revive Banner Ads
Michael Bazely of The Mercury News covers the new Image Ads being offered by Google AdWords.

According to Google...

Google said the ads, being tested, will help advertisers "visually engage their customers'' and be more relevant to Web site users.

"The idea is to help make advertising better and to make it more informational,'' said Tim Armstrong, Google's vice president of advertising sales.

I still think there is another side to the story and was happy to play devil's advocate for the story.

"It's kind of scary that Google is moving into a medium that they helped crush,'' said Andy Beal, vice president of search marketing for WebSourced. "It's almost like they switched sides. They're saying they won't cave into the pressures of Wall Street. But I can't think of any other reason to do this other than to make money.''

Beal also questioned whether the image ads would be more effective than text ads.

"People got used to the fact that banner ads are a pain,'' said Beal. "People have gotten used to tuning out banner ads. I don't know how Google thinks they can revive the perception of banner ads.''

Thanks Mike for listening to me rant!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google AdWords Launches Banner Ad Formats
Ok, so the news is out and Google has update the AdWords site to include the newly launched Image Ad Formats. Yes, you can now display banner ads over the AdSense network.

The information can be found at the AdWords site, but here are some extracts.

What are image ads?

Google image ads are a new type of graphical AdWords ad appearing on select content sites in the Google Network. Image ads combine two powerful approaches: graphics and proven AdWords targeting technology.

Unlike traditional online graphical ads, image ads are matched to a page's content. This targeting makes image ads more attractive and relevant to anyone browsing the site. Therefore, image ads offer you yet another effective way to increase your business exposure and reach new prospects.

The image ads feature is currently in beta release to all advertisers in multiple languages and over 250 countries.


Why is Google offering image ads?

Our commitment has always been to enhance the overall web experience for users, advertisers, and publishers by delivering relevant search results and ads. With image ads, this goal hasn't changed.

We're simply combining images--which attract considerable attention--with our proven AdWords targeting technology. Because of this, we can offer advertisers yet another highly efficient way to reach the right customers. In addition, we can improve the variety, quality, and relevance of ads a user sees.

Showing image ads is optional. You may continue showing only text-based AdWords ads if you prefer.


How are image ads different from traditional banner ads?

Although their appearance is similar, image ads differ significantly from banner ads in terms of relevance to the reader. Google image ads are matched to a webpage's content by the same proven targeting technology that drives AdWords text ads. Because of this targeting, image ads are highly pertinent to the interests of a person browsing a particular content site.

By showing image ads, you're not just placing your brand and message in front of an audience, you're reaching potential new customers already inclined to be interested in what you have to offer.



So Google has decided that they can now revive the very ad format that has slowly died over the past few years, in part due to the popularity of search. Is it just me that thinks this is a little too diverse from what has made Google a success?

What makes Google think that they can make banner ads work any better than other companies. Oh wait, I know, they have 150,000+ advertisers willing to throw as much money as they can at the world's largest search engine; or should I say "Media Engine".

I don't often rant on this blog, but I think this announcement deserves a little of it. There is no doubt that Google can make this work, but for a company that just got done telling us how they will not be bowing to the pressures of Wall Street, it seems a little too soon to start offering a product that appears to be simply cashing-in on the willingness of their advertisers to spend money with them.

If I am reading the details of Image Ads correctly, it appears that advertisers will be charged the same amount for their banner ad as they will for their text version. Since when do banner ads convert at the same rate as text ads? They simply do not and it will be interesting to see if AdWords users start complaining and requesting a different payment structure for banner ads, as they are currently requesting with the Gmail ads.

Ok, I feel a little better now. I'm looking forward to hearing the official word from Google on why they have decided to launch Image Ads. Right now, I can only see one reason, and it has a picture of George Washington on it!!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Rumors Part 2
The rumors appear to be circulating to a larger audience, so I think it's safe to go ahead a reveal a little more of what I know.

Would you be interested in getting your AdWords ads displayed on AdSense partner sites in a format other than text ads?


Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Ask Jeeves Wins American Business Award
Ask Jeeves announced today that the Company received the Stevie award in the Best Business Turnaround category in The 2004 American Business Awards.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Dow Jones Google Story Error Sends Company's Stock Soaring
Shares in HEI, a maker of microelectronic and software systems, jumped nearly 40 percent early on Tuesday after the company was incorrectly identified in a news report as holding warrants in Internet search engine Google, reports CNet.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Intelliseek Launches BlogPulse com
WebProNews reports that a new blog search engine, BlogPulse.com, has been launched.

BlogPulse is a free online search and tracking tool that measures and ranks "buzz" about key issues, people, phrases and links that occur daily in more than million Internet blogs.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Is the Google Blog Censored?
CNet reveals that the postings at the new Google blog are not quite as casual as they might first appear.

Ryan Naraine gives an example of how the Google Blog changed.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Rumors
In case you wondered why updates have been slow today, it's because I am at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Toronto.

Anyway, rumors are flying that Google is getting ready to make an announcement that will test their current business model. I can't reveal any of the details, but expect the unexpected from Google and a new product that will be outside their normal scope.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google AdWords Advertisers Want Different Rates for Gmail Ads
Over at Search Engine Journal, they report on a recent survey that suggests that Google AdWords advertisers want lower click-thru rates for ads shown via Gmail.

The survey revealed, however, that advertisers don’t want to pay as much for Gmail ads as they pay for ads that appear alongside search results. Only 30 percent said they are willing to pay the same cost-per-click (CPC) as they pay for search-results ads. A full 50 percent said no to idea of paying the same rate as search ads. But if the rates are lower for Gmail, advertisers like the idea. Sixty nine percent say they would try Gmail at a lower CPC. And like good direct marketers, 69 percent would design a separate campaign for Gmail.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Launches Own Blog
So maybe we're not about to get a Google blog search engine after all. Google has today launched their own blog, which they claim will allow readers to...

Get the latest word direct from the Googleplex about new technology, hot issues, and the wide world of search.

Oh great, like we need another Google news resource!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Search Engine Lowdown Nominated for Blog Award
I've been told that Search Engine Lowdown has been nominated for a MarketingSherpa Blog Award.

Thanks to all of our readers, including Jenny, for the nomination.

If you'd like to cast you vote, visit the online voting page.

If you love this site, remember, we are "Search Engine Lowdown". If you don't like us, we are "Search Engine Watch" (just kidding Danny).
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Search Engine Radio
I recently thought about launching an Internet radio show covering search engine news. Then I realized someone had beaten me to it!
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Google's Blogger Launches New Look
Something fresh...Blogger has a new look and extra features.

The new version offers a number of interface enhancements and new functions including author profiles and posting via email.

Another new feature is a comments function that lets Bloggers invite readers to respond to their entries.

Program manager Evan Williams said: "Blogger is committed to bringing more voices and points of view to the Web. These enhancements make Web publishing as easy as possible, delivering the power of blogging into the hands of more people worldwide."
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Google Want's Your Desktop
Newsweek reports that Google is building its infrastructure so that it can lure its search users away from using Microsoft's desktop solutions.

Though Google's cofounders aren't commenting, their actions suggest a strategy to combat this structural disadvantage: move people's activities away from Microsoft's computer and onto Planet Google's mega-search machine. "Our goal is to search the world's information and organize it," cofounder Larry Page once told me, and why wouldn't that mission involve personal information that's not on the Web?
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Google Search with PageRank Display
Read on John Battelle's blog about Proogle. The site uses Google's API to show the PageRank alongside the search results.
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Google's Craig Silverstein Spills the Beans
Stefanie Olsen has been busy the past week. In this interview she chats with Google's Director of Technology, Craig Silverstein. You may know him as the one who predicts we will one day have talking computers like those used on Star Trek and also Search Pets.

Just about every question that has surfaced over the past few weeks, is put to Silverstein. Some he answers, others he's evasive on. Still, some very interesting insights.

Some computer scientists suspect that PageRank is dead, because Internet marketers have managed to exploit it by creating false popularity for their sites. Is that true? Has it been altered, or is it playing less of a role?

The point of view that PageRank is dead is kind of a very static view of the world. It will always continue to be a part of our ranking scheme but, over time, as we develop new ideas on how to do ranking, as we tweak existing ideas, as we think about new ways to have them play together--the role of any one of the techniques that we use will obviously change.
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Google Gets Ready to Juice up Adwords
According to Stefanie Olsen, Google is soon to launch a service that will allow larger AdWords clients the option of having their site crawled for suggested keyword bids.

"Its proposed service would allow marketers to pay to have a Web page examined more often for inclusion in sponsored listings, according to one source. Instead of having to bid on thousands of keywords, a large advertiser--such as Amazon.com--could rely on Google's search technology to automatically create connections between its Web pages and related search queries. Amazon would pay Google to examine thousands of its pages and to serve an ad whenever the software deemed it appropriate. Amazon would pay an amount previously bid at auction for those pages, whenever people clicked on its listings."
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Employees to Reap Rewards of Lucrative IPO
If you plan to buy Google stock, be sure to make a note in your calendar for six months after the IPO date...

The first wave of cashing in, if it happens, probably will come about six months after the IPO, when many employees no longer will be bound by restrictions on selling their stock.

"The flood is going to hit in six months," said Tim Sparks, president of Compensia, a compensation-consulting firm.
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Ask Jeeves Celebrates Mother's Day
Ask Jeeves puts on a dress and helps celebrate Mother's Day.


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Time Warner's AOL Exercises Google Warrant
AOL is looking to cash-in on Google, according to TheStreet.com.

In Time Warner's 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, the company says that earlier this month it exercised a warrant to purchase 7.4 million shares of Google's Series D preferred stock for approximately $22 million, implying a price of nearly $3 per share.
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Google Lacking Media Experience
While Google no doubt has the smarts and the money, Investors.com points out that they lack media experience.

The fact that 96% of Google's revenue came from ads last year makes it, by default, a media company, says Nate Elliott, an analyst for market tracker Jupiter Research.

"It's a technology-driven company with strong technology leadership, but it's a bit vexing that they've not yet brought in any media leadership," he said. "It makes sense to have expertise in your primary area of revenue."

Eric Schmidt stepped down as Chairman recently, could they be clearing the way for a top media mogul?
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What Am I Bid For Google?
Bambi Francisco asked her readers what they would pay for Google's stock. She got some interesting answers.
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Don't Miss this Weeks Search Engine Lowdown Newsletter
You still have time to sign-up for this week's newsletter. See the sign-up box on the right of the page.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
SEO Contest Picks "nigritude ultramarine"
The SEO Challenge has picked the phrase "nigritude ultramarine" as the term you need to get ranked on Google, if you want to win a prize.

I'm disappointed, they announced it a 9am, yet there are no results showing yet. ;-)

BTW, I'm not going to enter, but if you want to link to www.SearchEngineLowdown.com for the chosen phrase, it would be an interesting experiment to see how far links alone will get you.
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Yahoo Adds Search Shortcuts to Yahoo Messenger
Laura Hanson emailed the following Yahoo announcement:

Hi Andy,

You may have heard that Yahoo! launched a new version of Yahoo! Messenger this week. As part of the launch, Messenger now incorporates conversation search shortcuts that allow users to share search results. This is the latest example of integration of search across Yahoo!'s network of products and services and is another example of Yahoo!'s commitment to continue to improve and expand the Search experience through innovation.

To search in the new beta version of Yahoo! Messenger, you will need to download the beta and then type, "s: godsend" to see an example of the search function in action.

You can also check out what it looks like in the screenshot below:


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Ask Jeeves Closes Acquisition of Intreractive Search Holdings
Ask Jeeves, said it closed its $501 million purchase of Interactive Search Holdings.
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SEO Experts Asked to Stop Whining
John Jantsch is sick of hearing SEO experts whining about losing rankings on Google and Yahoo.

The one thing that I don't see enough SEO folks talking about is the fact that content rules, it always has, and it does now more than ever. Forget about filters, and algos, and stemming and blah, blah, blah...create good content and everybody wins.

I'll drink to that!
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Google Guilty of Murder?
On a lighter note...Google taken into custody for the apparent demise of AltaVista.
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Translating Google's IPO Message
I admit it, I am a big cynic. But, after reading Charles Cooper's review of Google's Brin and Page's statement, I have a lot more cynicism to go.

Here are a couple of his statement translations:

Don't be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served--as shareholders and in all other ways--by a company that does good things for the world, even if we forgo some short-term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.
This just in: Mary Poppins was sighted at 30,000 feet.

We aspire to make Google an institution that makes the world a better place.
It's a SEARCH ENGINE, for Pete's sake! After you invent the cure to leukemia, you can ask the Swedish Academy to put you on the short list of candidates for the Nobel Prize.
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NPR Talks to Tech Guru Omar Wasow about Google's IPO
NPR's Tavis Smiley talks to Omar Wasow of Blackplanet.com about the Google IPO and why they selected the "dutch auction" method.
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Google Stock Will Not Make Your Rich Overnight
The USA Today has reminder that the style of IPO Google is using, means that investors will not become rich overnight.

We've all heard stories of people getting rich on IPOs overnight — after the shares hit Wall Street and soared 600%. That's most likely not going to be the case with Google. Since it's a Dutch auction and the price will reflect the overall demand for the shares, most don't expect the shares to skyrocket on the first day.
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What Pressures Will a Public Google Face?
E-Commerce Times looks at the pressures Google will face a public company.

PriceGrabber.com president Kamran Pourzanjani said he will be watching Google closely but thinks that, in the end, the rigors of Wall Street may prevail. "If they're successful in doing that -- in bucking trends -- that will be amazing," he told the E-Commerce Times.
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German Meta Search Engine Vows to take Google to Court
ClickZ reports that meta search company metaspinner media has accused Google of failing to comply with a preliminary injunction issued in Hamburg district court.

The Hamburg court's judgment required Google to block bidding on the trademarked term "preisparaten" by its AdWords advertisers until there's a final decision in the case. But metaspinner says Google has continued to allow advertisers to use the term, and the German firm will now take the case to court. Preisparaten, which translates literally as "price ready," is the company's name for its shopping search tool.
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Is Google Filtering New Sites?
Is Google utilizing a "sandbox effect" when it comes to new sites? Interesting story developing over at Web Pro News.
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What will Google do with its IPO billions?
The USA Today speculates on where Google will spend the money it raises from its $2.7 billion IPO.

There is no dearth of ideas at Google Labs, the company's R&D arm. Executives keep a Top 100 priorities list, which today includes more than 240 items. So far, it has produced Gmail, a free service that makes it easier for users to organize and find e-mail; Froogle, a comparison shopping service; and Orkut, a social-networking site.
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Google Beats Overture to Dutch Classifieds Deal
According to DMeurope, Marktplaats BV, owner of the largest online ‘want ad’ portal in the Netherlands, has clinched a deal to deploy Google’s search engine ads on Marktplaats.nl and other websites in the Netherlands and abroad. This is evidently a coup for Google, beating its competitor, Overture, to the punch.
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Search Engines for Tomorrow
BusinessWeek looks at the future of web search and the competition Google is likely to face.
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Can Google Keep its "Do No Evil" Policy?
Patrick Hosking of the New Statesman compares Google co-founders to Anita Roddick, founder of Body Shop International. Both have strong ideals and both will come under close scrutiny from Wall Street.

But Page and Brin need to gird themselves for an onslaught of criticism if they so much as stumble. Only a relentlessly rising share price will fend off a vicious backlash.
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Google Needs to Take Notes from Microsoft
The Boston Herald reports that Google will face stiff competition from Microsoft. The article also suggests that Google can learn a lot from the antitrust case against Microsoft and ensure it doesn't get into the same trouble.
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Google CEO Steps Down as Chairman
SFGate.com points out that the recent Google IPO filing indicated that Eric Schmidt is no longer holds the title of chairman.

Analysts said that the decision to split the chairman and chief executive positions is probably a response to the broader trend in favor of better corporate governance....Google, which is based in Mountain View, appears to be preparing to bring in an outsider as chairman.
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Search Engines: The New Gatekeepers
Gregory Lamb of The Christian Science Monitor discusses the importance of the search engines and their future growth. In the article Lamb looks at how search engines have become the "gatekeepers" of all knowledge.

In the past, librarians or newspaper editors might have served that role, connecting people with information they're seeking. "This gatekeeper is a machine. And that's a really interesting difference."

Just as the article gets interesting, someone called Andy Beal has to steal the mic ;-)

"Search engines are pretty dominant right now. Most people are going there first in order to find something," says Andy Beal, vice president of search marketing at WebSourced, Inc. "I think that everyone is excited about search" as an ad medium. In contrast, banner ads have declined and "are not as effective as they were, say, five years ago," he says.

Search engines bring a precious commodity to businesses: ready buyers, Mr. Beal says.

"The consumer is initiating the contact. They're telling you what they're looking for," he says.


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Ask Jeeves About to Change Their Paid Inclusion Service?
Jason Dowdell passed on this email being sent out to Ask Jeeves affiliates via PrioritySubmit.com.

-----------------------------
PrioritySubmit.com Newsflash
-----------------------------

Dear Partner,

This email contains important information for all Trellian Partners and Affiliates who receive a commission from prioritysubmit.com

As of this email Trellian will be unable to provide a commission for all orders to the Ask Jeeves search engine through prioritysubmit.com, this will be the case until further notice is given. Due to the current changes at Ask Jeeves this program will continue to be supported, however commissions will not be earned. But we do anticipate the return of a new commission structure for this program very soon.

Could this suggest that Ask is getting ready to change their paid inclusion service? Yahoo affiliates were told a very similar thing just weeks before the new Site Match service was launched.
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The BBC Investigates the Google IPO
Apart from leaving iProspect and renaming his own SEM business, Mike Grehan has also been busy talking to the BBC.
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Search Engine Optimization Contest - Do you have what it takes?
Now this is novel. DarkBlue has launched a contest to see who is the best individual SEO out there. I've pasted some brief details below, but you can get more information at the DarkBlue site.

* SEO Challenge is a competition open to all Webmasters and SEOs.
* Inspired by the debates about High Risk Vs. Low Risk SEO the competition is designed to sort the Players from the Stayers and possibly prove which method works better.
* The competition runs for two months and is judged at two stages, giving away two prizes.
* An iPod will be given to the "Player" who is at the top of the SERPs one month after the launch - 9am GMT 7th of June.
* A Sony 17 inch Flat Screen monitor will be given to the "Stayer" who is at the top of the SERPs two months after the launch - 9am GMT the 7th of July.
* If the Player wins the Stayer prize that person will walk away with both prizes.
* The competition search term will be announced in the SearchGuild thread May 7th 9am GMT.

Oh what fun. Good luck to all of you who enter, may the best person win!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Outsources AdWords Billing
WebProNews reports that Google plans to outsource the billing of its AdWords customers. The move, due to the shear size of the task, could cause problems for Google if the company they select is unable to get things right.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
UK Investors Excluded from the Google IPO
According to the Scotsman, the UK Shareholders Association, the largest organisation of private investors in the UK, last night expressed its dismay that the millions of UK devotees of search engine Google are to be barred from investing in the US-based company when it floats later this year.

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Ask Jeeves and Google Keep the Peace
If you're wondering why Ask Jeeves is not coming out on the offensive against Google, this article reminds us that the two companies have a "symbiotic" relationship.
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Google Not Doing a Great Job Preventing Gambling Ads
According to Media Daily News, some online gambling, casino and sports book sites are managing to get past the recently imposed Adwords ban for such sites.
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Google URL Points To Blog Search
Is Google getting ready to add a blog search engine, Garrett French thinks so!
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Paging Mike Grehan
Interesting development. Looks like Mike Grehan has decided that he would prefer to run his own company, Smart Interactive. Mike had only recently taken over iProspect's UK office.

According to this bio:

Grehan was founder and Managing Director of one of the UK's longest established Internet Marketing Consultancies and formerly Managing Director, Europe for leading search engine marketing firm, iProspect.

What's the scoop Mike?
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Google to Spend Big Bucks on Expansion
According to Business Week, Google is ready to spend a lot of money on updating its technology.

One big reason why its spending plans may be so expansive: Gmail, Pitkow says. The new e-mail service will require a massive injection of computing memory into the Google infrastructure. "If you want to run Web mail and have it be truly ubiquitous, then copies of people's mail accounts will have to exist across the system," he says. So, even if a Gmail account holder only has 500 megabytes of mail -- half the system's capacity -- Google will need to create enough storage space across its network to handle several times that amount in order to backup the account.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
WebSourced Parent, CGI Holding Corp, Announces First Quarter Earnings
CGI Holding Corporation Reports 42% Revenue Increase and 80% Pre-Tax Earnings Increase For First Quarter

CGI Holding Corporation [CGIH] today announced that its revenues for the first quarter of 2004 rose to $3,825,431, an increase of 42% over the prior quarter, and an increase of 223% over the first quarter of 2003. The Company's earnings from continuing operations before taxes in the first quarter of 2004 were $959,469 or $.0357 per share, compared to $531,808 or $.0249 per share in the prior quarter, an increase of 80%, and an increase of 163,631% over the first quarter of 2003. The Company's earnings from continuing operations after provision for income taxes in the first quarter of 2004 were $638,691 or $.0238 per share.

Gerard M. Jacobs, the Company's CEO stated, "I am pleased with the progress of CGI Holding Corporation during the first quarter of 2004. Our balance sheet is much stronger, and our revenues and pre-tax earnings have increased significantly. The Company's total income tax provision for the first quarter of 2004 was $320,778, but due to a net operating loss carryforward of $3,440,747 the Company's actual tax payments for the first quarter will only be $61,469."

Jacobs further stated, "Because the Company's operations became clearly profitable during the second half of 2003, the Company's after-tax earnings for the fourth quarter of 2003 reflected a $275,166 or $0.012 per share increase due to a reduction of a previously recorded valuation allowance related to the deferred tax asset created by the Company's past net operating losses. Had the Company not recognized this gain during the fourth quarter of 2003, the Company's profit from continuing operations after taxes for the fourth quarter of 2003 would have been $356,311, compared to the Company's profit from continuing operations after taxes for the first quarter of 2004 of $638,691, a 79% increase."

Steven "Pat" Martin, the CEO of the Company's WebSourced, Inc. subsidiary stated, "An increasing number of companies are recognizing the value of WebSourced's website marketing capabilities. Our comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) business, led by our KeywordRanking.com brand, continues to lead the industry. We are also seeing a strong demand for our newly launched Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign management services from both prospective and existing clients. As interest increases, we envision meeting all of our clients' needs by offering marketing and advertising services that bridge the gap between online and offline campaigns."

Martin added, "We expect our Cherish.com subsidiary to begin contributing to revenue this quarter, and in addition we expect to soon introduce an online dating site geared toward the Latin community. Business is good and we are very optimistic about the future."
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Why Goldman Sachs Lost Google
As we reported last week, Goldman Sachs lost its chance to be the lead investment bank, when it went behind Google's back and contacted one of their investors. Now the UK's Telegraph has the real reason...

"What the hell is the chief executive supposed to do but make calls?" said one insider. "If that upset the two fruitcakes who run Google, so be it. Maybe they don't like Hank because he's bald."

Can you say "bitter"?
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Going Public May Be Google's First Bad Move
According to Allan Sloan of The Washington Post, there are a number of reasons why Google going public is a bad move.

No matter how high-minded and determined founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and chief executive Eric Schmidt are about thinking only long-term, taking Google public will set the snake of greed loose in their corporate Eden...The real question is whether Google, like Buffett, will be able to ignore Wall Street's demands and go its own way. I doubt it.
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Survey Shows Natural Search Engine Results are More Popular Among Searchers
iProspect has released further findings from their recent survey. They suggest that with Yahoo and Google, the natural search results are more relevant to searchers.

*60.5 percent of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL users selected a natural search result over paid search advertisements as the most relevant on a sample query

*60.8 percent of Yahoo! and 72.3 percent of Google search engine users chose a natural search result as the most relevant

“This could bode well for Yahoo!’s revenue picture because, like Google, they receive the majority of their clicks in the natural results and unlike Google, Yahoo! has a way to monetize the actual search results through their Site Match Xchange program� said Robert Murray, President of iProspect.
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Venture Capitalist to Gain From Google IPO
Oh, to be in John Doerr's shoes right now.
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Yahoo Adds Targeted Ads to its Companion Toolbar
There are definite advantages to having 90+ employees who are passionate about the search engines, they love to dig up the news. This time round, they spotted that Yahoo has quietly (and without permission) added targeted ads to their Companion toolbar. Take a look at the screenshot below.


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Could Media Companies Become Google's Biggest Competition?
Gary Price points to this CNN article that suggests that traditional media companies could be ready to return to the search arena.
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Web 2.0, Internet Industry Conference
John Battelle announces the dates for the Web 2.0 conference.
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Post IPO SEO Optimizing For A Public Google
Garrett French looks at whether the SEO landscape will change with the dawn of a public Google era.
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Are Google Search Claims Accurate?
Google recently stated that 65% of all searches are "information-seeking" with 20% being "consumer queries". Michael Heraghty wants a re-count!
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Could Fund Managers Pressure Google for Better IPO Prices?
The WSJ suggests that large fund managers could pressure Google to give them a better price at IPO.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google IPO Filing Leaves Out a Lot
What did Google leave out of its IPO filing? Chris Gaither of the LA Times suggests Google could have included more information in its SEC filing.

Computer makers report how many PCs they've shipped each quarter and automakers say how many cars they sell. But Google didn't disclose how many people use its search engine, how many queries it powers, how often people click on its advertisements or how quickly its traffic is growing.

...some techies were hoping Google would at least give some more hints about how its technology works.

"How many [computers] do you have?" asked Andy Beal, a vice president for WebSourced Inc., an Internet marketing company based in Morrisville, N.C. "What does it take to power the most-used search engine in the world?"

Many analysts believe Google has linked more than 100,000 server computers to create one of the world's largest supercomputers. But Google has said only that it uses more than 10,000 servers, and the filing was silent on the matter.

Thanks for the quote Chris!
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Search Engine Strategies Toronto - May 11-12, 2004
Don't miss next week's Search Engine Strategies. The first ever held in Canada.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google vs, The Competition
CNet has a good article that compares the Google model against its competitors, mostly Yahoo.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
SEC Web Site Can't Take the Google IPO Strain
It seems the SEC needs to tap into some of Google's 10,000+ servers. The site experienced significant slow downs due to the interest in Google's filing.

All we need now is for Slashdot.org to link to the filing and the entire site will crash.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
What They are Saying About Google on the Message Boards
CBS has a round-up of the most interesting message board posts relating to the Google IPO news.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Warren Buffett Praises Google Style
FT.com reports that Warren Buffett has praised Google for adopting his unconventional corporate governance.

"I liked their prose," said Mr Buffett. "It pleases us enormously that other people think it is a good idea to talk to their owners in a very straight-forward manner. I think more companies ought to do it."

Hardly surprising considering they quoted him in their filing statement. However, Buffett didn't go as far as to recommend the Google stock offering.

But the mutual back-slapping reached its limit when Berkshire's directors were asked whether IPOs made good investments for individuals. Though not mentioning Google by name, Mr Buffett warned that bargains were much harder to find than in secondary public markets.
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Can Google "Do No Evil" on Wall Street?
The whole " making money while doing no evil" mantra is something that worries me about Google. Can they truly keep to this philosophy as a public company or will they bow to pressures faced by many companies before them?

"When you operate as a public company, you're dealing with more regulations and much greater scrutiny which often leads to a change in corporate behavior," said Mark Mahaney, analyst at American Technology Research.

Online media company Yahoo "started off with just as much of an unconventional tilt as Google, and it's become more conventional over time," he said.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Investment in Google IPO not for frugal
Could brokers break the Google dutch-auction idea? According to the Arizon Republic, brokers are already trying to make this an exclusive IPO by insisting that investors deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to get a piece of the action.

"I'd like to buy some shares, but these people flat-out said I'd have to have $250,000 in a brokerage account to be considered," Hilbun said. "It was insulting."
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google Just Cashing In?
I read something in the NY Times that I didn't agree with...

"The sole reason for this [Google] initial public offering is to let employees and investors cash in"

This was in the "Opinion" section, so I am not sure if that is an editors opinion or a readers, but someone needs to brush-up on their Google news. Google is the last company in the world that I would associate the words "cash in" with.
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Google Dumped Goldman Sachs For Breaking Rules
Looks like Google is practicing throwing its considerable weight around, according to Reuters.

Google asked investment banks pitching for the business, worth it said an estimated $100 million in fees, to come up with new ideas to conduct the underwriting rather than rely on old relationship banking habits, the magazine said.

But when Google learned Goldman Sachs' Chairman and Chief Executive Henry Paulson had contacted one of the search engine's big investors, Kleiner Perkins, it deemed this as breaking the rules and bumped them from contention, Newsweek said.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |

 
Google's IPO Signifies the Resurgence of Search
It's been a busy week for me. My thanks to Matt Hicks of eWeek and David Vise of The Washington Post for including my thoughts in these weekend stories:

eWeek
The Washington Post
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