IceRocket Hangs with the Big Boys
IceRocket may not be a top-tier search engine, but with the backing of Mark Cuban, the upcoming search engine is making sure that it doesn't get left behind.
The Dallas-based company said it teamed with San Francisco start-up GoFish Technologies to bolster its multimedia search capabilities. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Finding Treasure with Garrgle
It appears Google has been around longer than we first thought. Captn. Cook was a big time user of Garrgle (love the "beta" mark).
Update - Looks like it might have been pulled, sorry. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Ask Jeeves Becomes Official Site Sponsor of Search Engine Lowdown
You may have noticed a subtle change to SEL. As of today, Ask Jeeves is the new Site Sponsor for Search Engine Lowdown.
We've always thought that Ask Jeeves was ahead of the game, and they today prove that by deciding that SEL is the best place to promote their MyJeeves personalization service.
For our loyal readers, we can promise that this sponsorship will by no means impact any thoughts we have on the company. If they screw up (which we doubt), we will hold them accountable. :-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Scoble on the NoFollow Tag
Scoble - one of the few guys who you simply don't need to mention his first name, everyone knows who you are talking about - argues in favor of the "nofollow" tag while some claim they are entitled to the "search engine juice".
Harms the connections? Huh? It makes them STRONGER. Why? Because now I can link to things that don't deserve the search engine juice.
I'm all for it. I've already used it to link to a site, that I didn't want to share the "juice" with. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Best Search Quote of the Day
Hats off to Danny for this quote in the Internation Herald Tribune...
"Yahoo says, 'Where is the mountain? Let's climb it,"' Sullivan said. "Google says, 'Maybe we want to go up the mountain, and maybe we want to go surfing."'
I'm assuming he's implying that Yahoo is focussed on one main project, while Google is happy to dabble in just about everything. But, I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time). ;-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
NextSearchSurvey Reveals Interesting Search Engine Data
Sid Yadav reveals the results of a survey he has been compiling for months now. More than 3500 participants shared their views on the search engines.
Microsoft Ready to Prove Its Search Stuff
Matt Hicks, eWeek's star tech journalist, keeps the reports coming, today looking at MSN's pending hard-launch of its new search engine. He chats to Danny Sullivan and others, including Allen Weiner of Gartner Inc., who has this to say...
"It's a pretty big move, and it sets the tone for what they're going to be doing moving forward," Weiner said. "They're going to look inside for innovation."
Weiner views the MSN search switchover as the beginning of Microsoft's longer-term bet on search as a fundamental technology across its products. Where the company can grab more search market share is by attracting search users through its other products, such as other MSN services and Microsoft's Office software.
The switch to the new index should happen any day now.
In other eWeek/MSN news, Microsoft says they do not plan to integrate desktop search with any new operating system. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Arrested Development Plugs Ask Jeeves It seems name-dropping search engines on hip TV shows, is the latest rage. This time round Ask get's the nod from the producers of Arrested Development. From the show...
It's a private Stock, so you cannot just buy up the shares unless someone is willing to sell. Are you sure? That's what they said on Ask Jeeves. All right, who's the majority shareholder now?
Ask's SVP, Jim Lanzone, tells me that they didn't pay for the placement and tells Danny how they think they got the placement.
...a good college friend of his is the agent of the creator of Arrested Development. He uses Ask Jeeves, so that's apparently worked its way higher. No money was spent, and the mention was a surprise to Ask Jeeves.
In the meantime, I'm working on a placement for Search Engine Lowdown. I think I know the brother of the second cousin, who served a cheeseburger to the dog-walker of the intern working on Animal Planet's "Pet Star" show. I'm hoping they'll have a Dachshund on the show who can bark "Search Engine Lowdown". I'll keep you posted! ;-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Want a Better Search Engine? Time to Open-up
CNet reports on a topic that is near and dear to my heart, the future of search engine technology.
I've always said that search will become better and more accurate when users decide to give-up more personalized information. It seems this is in line with many search engine execs [insert smug grin here].
Most of the executives conceded that the technology to build personalized search tools already exists, and they said the fight to persuade people to share more personal information is what stands in the way of new products.
"(Personalization) isn't an area where the technology isn't ready, where there's a need for a lot of innovation," said Ask Jeeves' Lahiri. "The question is, are people willing to give up (more information) to get a better search engine back in return? Only time will tell." Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Did-It.com Seminars
The best of luck to Kevin and team's launch of new SEM seminars, but could someone please explain to me what in the world they have done to their website? Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Don't Waste Time On Web's Biggest
Danny Sullivan is clearly not impressed with the bold claims of the new search engine, Web's Biggest.
Going back to this site, we get plenty of proof on why having the entire haystack is no help if you don't have a powerful magnet to pull the good needles to the top. A search for "movies" brings up a list dominated by porn sites (OK, I suppose they ARE movies). "Cars" brings up travel search engines and give away sites. "US patents" fails to find the US Patent Office.
Google Loses "Top Brand" Crown to Apple
OK, so we promise we're not out looking for stories to back-up up our recent question, "is Google losing its hip-factor?". That being said, a recent survey of more than 2,000 ad executives sees Apple taking-over the "top brand" crown from Google.
The annual survey asks respondents to rate the impact of a particular brand on people's lives, and does not attempt to quantify its financial value.
So has Google lost a little of its shine? Your thoughts? Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
January 28, 2005
Google Losing Hip-Factor?
CNet raises the question that Google may be losing its coolness after popular nighttime soap "The O.C." plugged Amazon's A9 in a recent episode.
...instead of using the well-worn phrase "I Googled it," like leagues of others. "I A9.com'd him last night, and according to the O.C. Weekly, he's pretty much everything that's wrong with Western civilization," one of the cast members said to another on Thursday night's episode.
A9 Chief Udi Manber claimed the company didn't pay for the plug. I don't think Google has too much to worry about, "Google it" trips off the tongue just a little easier than "A9.com it". Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
ClickTracks Launches New Optimizer Tool ClickTracks has launched a new mid-range analytics product, ClickTracks Optimizer. Designed for consultants and search engine marketers, ClickTracks Optimizer fits in between entry-level ClickTracks Analyzer and the more robust ClickTracks Professional.
"The market—and our own users—have been asking us to create a mid-range product, a hybrid of the ease of implementation Analyzer offers, but with some of the more robust features of Pro," said John Marshall, ClickTracks'CEO.
One of its coolest features is Robot Reporting...
ROBOT REPORT: When is the last time the Googlebot paid your site a visit?
How many times did a particular bot crawl your site within a specific time period? Gain insights into robot and spider behavior with ClickTracks Optimizer's Robot Report.
Caveat: The new product link is supposed to "go live" sometime today. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Wiki-Based Search Engine Claims To Be Web's Biggest Eric Ward takes an in-depth look at the wiki-based search engine, modestly named, Web's Biggest.
One curious snippet...
Web’s Biggest is unique in that they have created a virtually replica of the whois database. This enables them to search almost every website in the English-speaking world. Other search engines rely on hyperlinks and manual submissions to find websites and miss more than half of them as a result.
Doesn't that violate whois guidelines or something? I know I've seen notices at most places similar to NetSol's...
"...The compilation, repackaging, dissemination or other use of this Data is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Network Solutions. You agree not to use high-volume, automated, electronic processes to access or query the WHOIS database."
I'm not on one of my normal "witch-hunts", just curious. ;-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Searching For Searches
Arik Hesseldahl of Forbes looks at recent developments in search, Jux2 and Firefox search add-ons. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Friday Humor - Google Rank Cake By Tia Scott
-6 cups thick content mix
-1 jar word of mouth, whipped
-2 tablespoons meta tags
-1 cup creativity
1) In a bowl, stir content mix with 1 cup creativity. Stir. If hard, let sit overnight
2) Stir in meta tags.
3) Heat server to 100 degrees. In a 1024x768 pan or two 800x600 pans, pour mix. Beat in meta tags.
4) Let bake for one year.
5) While baking, prepare word of mouth.
6) Pagerank and Linkback will start to form on cake. Spread with a spoon of new content batter every 1-3 weeks.
7) Bake until done.
FAQS/Comments
Q. Should I buy content batter from the box or attempt to make it myself?
A. Content batter usually tastes best homemade. Although some people might want to get it over with and buy the mix from a box, it's all according to your taste. I, personally, believe homemade is more rich and adds your own personal touch.
Q. What if I'm out of creativity?
A. There are many, many people making these cakes and I'm sure they won't mind if you took a taste for inspiration. Sometimes the batter just needs a little beating. On the other hand, there are many people willing to give you free content batter in exchange for credit.
Q. I have baked for a year and pagerank nor linkback will grow!
A. Is the server set to the right temperature? Did you check it frequently? Several factors can contribute to lack of pagerank and linkback growth. Make sure you didn't do anything to make your cake stale.
Q. What brand of meta tags do you recommend?
A. Honestly, it doesn't matter. The generic ones are just as good as the expensive ones. So I wouldn't worry too much about spending tons of money on them. Actually"
Yahoo Provides Local Search Via Cell Phones
Matt Hicks of eWeek looks at the different cell phone search options and Yahoo's expansion with local search features. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
January 27, 2005
Breaking News: Google Makes AdWords API Available So Google played dumb and we all went along with the official statement, that there would be "no comment" on rumors of a Google AdWords API (definition). It now appears, sometimes, you can believe the rumors….
Google has just announced that they have indeed rolled out access to an AdWords API and as of this afternoon, you can request access. You can get the full details from Google, but here is a summary.
According to Google Software Engineer, Nelson Minar, the Google API will "enable advertisers and third-party providers to utilize their own software interface". While the release of an AdWords API "does not bring any new functionality", Minar says that everything that you could do with the AdWords control center, you can do with the API. While some had predicted that an API would allow better targeting of ads, the API will essentially allow the control of three aspects:
Those of you who might be drooling at the thought of micro-managing each keyword and updating your bids each second, might be disappointed. Each API user will be issued a “token” which Minar says will be tagged with a predetermined quota, limiting how often you can access your AdWords data stream. For example, requesting the status of a single Ad Group would be considered one operation. Updating the individual bids on 1,000 keywords would equate to 1,000 operations. Each quota is individually set and is calculated based upon the size of your AdWords account. Agencies and search engine marketing companies should see their quota being more than enough for their needs. Minar explains the quota is needed “to prevent spam” and “over-use” of the API.
The good news is the quota system will allow Google to roll out an API without any fees. This is a crucial step, if Google is to see larger advertisers embrace the API and utilize their own PPC management systems.
Minar ultimately expects access to an AdWords API will give greater control to advertisers. With the API, advertisers will be able to pause campaigns, when products go out of stock, or make changes to account for seasonal fluctuations.
Examples of the types of programs that can be built with the AdWords API include:
- Generating automatic keyword, ad text, URL, and custom reports.
- Integrating AdWords data with other databases, such as inventory and financial management systems to automatically trigger ads to reduce excess inventory in case of product overstock.
- Developing additional tools and applications to help better manage AdWords accounts, such as building internal interfaces to view and manage account data.
The release of an AdWords API is very much welcomed among the SEM industry. With more than 1300 clients, I can tell you that it is something that can make our lives a whole lot easier, while at the same time, improving the benefits to our customers.
Is Google Inflating Index Size?
Jean Véronis has some interesting research that he suggests raises questions about the accuracy of Google's index count.
There is a small oddity that was already noticed by many people: the count for the on the entire Web is rounded at 8 billions exactly, which is a bit suspicious. But this is not my point. The query for the in English pages returns only 88 million pages, i.e. just above 1% of the Web total. I have some trouble accepting this result, which would mean that nearly 99% of occurrences of the string the occur in non-english pages.
Amazon's Bold Plan to Add Pictures to Local Search Results at A9
CNet has details of A9's plans to add images to local search results.
The online retailer's search unit, A9.com, is masterminding the project, which will eventually pair digital photos of storefronts and their surroundings with more than 14 million U.S. business listings from around the country.
Late Wednesday, the company unveiled the first phase of its service, called A9.com Yellow Pages, with 20 million images from 10 cities, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.
Second Mozilla Developer Joins Google One is a coincidence, two is a partnership. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Google Blogger Back Online
After Mark Jen's blog was apparently pulled off the web due to the new Google employee revealing a little too much about the company, it is now back online, albeit in an edited form, according to CNet.
Jen denied he made the change under duress, insisting that Google "was pretty cool about all this."
Google spokesman Steve Langdon confirmed that Jen is a Google employee who started work at the company on Jan. 17, and that Jen is the author of the blog. He added that Google has blogging guidelines, but he declined to talk about them. Contrary to some speculation, Google did not pull the site from its index, Langdon said.
In his first post, after putting the blog back online, Jen says...
hi everyone, sorry my site has been down for the past day or so. i goofed and put some stuff up on my blog that's not supposed to be there. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
The Yahoo Factor
Technology Review gives us details of "The Yahoo Factor", like Fear Factor but with a little less roach-eating. ;-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Espotting to Provide Paid Listings for Sun Newspaper's Website
Espotting inks a deal with the UK's leading tabloid, The Sun.
For those of you who don't know, The Sun is famous for its Page 3 models (who are mostly sans top) and helped make Samantha Fox famous (those @#$%!&!). Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Guess Who's Hoping to Become.com the Next Google? When the founders of a new search engine include the bright-minds behind mySimon.com and Wisenut.com, you tend to sit-up and take notice.
Michael Yang and Yeogirl Yun join forces again, this time to create what they hope will be the next generation search engine for shopping.
Become.com has been 9-months in development and is currently in beta, pending its formal coming-out party (late February). Become is the first search engine for product and shopping information. Utilizing intelligent crawling and patented next generation ranking technologies, Become provides highly relevant and unbiased search results focused on product information: reviews, buying guides, forums, specs, etc.
"We recognized that Google's basic approach (which applied PageRank for general information purposes) was highly limiting when conducting online research for shopping. As a result, last year, we started a new search engine venture." said Michael Yang, President & CEO.
The site hopes to exit beta by the end of February when it expects to have more than 2.5 billion pages in its index. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Building a Better Article Writing Mousetrap You may have thought that since Garrett French joined WebSourced, that he had decided to retire from writing and journalism. Far from it. Not only is Garrett carving a name for himself as a copywriting guru, he's also conducting some very interesting research into article marketing.
His latest article explains the two very distinct types of article marketing methods. You can do it the fast way, and simply write articles purely for quick links or you can do it the thorough way and conduct a more in-depth marketing campaign. There's a secret third way, but you'll have to read his article to get the scoop.
Build Links and Your Brand: Article Marketing Delivers
Many online marketers have crowed about the value of writing and publishing articles for branding and credibility. A few have mentioned the effects articles can have on the links to your site and therefore your search engine rankings.
None of them, however, have made a distinction between what I see as the two article marketing methods. In this article we'll look at both "the fast way" and "the thorough way" of article marketing as well as something crucial that no other article I've read includes - a complete list of the 82 article directory submission sites that pass PR.
Comparison Shopping Search Engines In the latest issue of Catalog Age, our very own Heather Lloyd-Martin not only provides insight on advertising on shopping comparison sites, but she also manages to get her face on the cover!
Here's an extract...
“...one thing that's really cool is that the people looking to comparison shopping sites are looking for exactly what they need,” says Heather Lloyd-Martin, president/CEO of Bellingham, WA-based agency SuccessWorks Search Marketing Solution Director of Search Strategies, WebSourced Inc [yes, I edited that last part ;-)]. Any shoppers who come to your site via a comparison engine are in effect prequalified and should have higher conversion rates than other visitors.
Make a point of visiting the shopping sites yourself, suggests Lloyd-Martin, paying attention to the categories you click on, and looking at listings in categories you're interested in entering. From those findings, you'll know what you need when you're ready to start working with the shopping engine to maximize the reach of your listings.
Lloyd-Martin also recommends talking with other companies who use comparison shopping engines to gain a better understanding of how to streamline submitting data feeds and pictures and how to analyze ROI. “Get a hint of what you're up against and dealing with,” she says.
As to whether to go with free listings with comparison shopping sites like Froogle or paid sites like PriceGrabber.com, “everyone digs the free stuff,” notes Lloyd-Martin. Although free listings may not generate as many purchases as paid listings, the added revenue is money that cost you virtually nothing to earn.
Lloyd-Martin doesn't recommend using only free listings, however, because they may not provide a significant lift in sales. Instead, she advocates supplementing free listings with paid listings on other sites such as Shopping.com and Yahoo! Shopping.
Ask Jeeves Developing Wireless Search Service
Catching-up on this story. Ask Jeeves talks about its plans to launch a wireless search service for cell phones.
I spoke with Ask's Snr VP, Jim Lanzone about this last February. He hinted then that cell phone's would play an important role in search's future.
"Cell phones will probably adapt more to this device, ultimately, than the other way around, due to usability issues, and the user's desire to carry only one device. Standing on a street corner and using this device, you will search for a local restaurant, or a cab company, through the Internet. Instead of going to the cab company's website, you will click a link and initiate a phone call. The search engine will be compensated for the call (this is the traditional Yellow Pages model of "metered calling") rather than the click." Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Need the Info on the New "Nofollow" Tag? Dave Taylor has an interesting site. Consider Taylor your online agony-aunt -uncle for all things tech related. This post has him answering a question about the new "nofollow" tag, designed to help reduce comment spam on blogs. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Tough Blogging Policy at Google?
John Battelle reports that you can publish to a blog, as a Google employee, unless you start giving away secrets that best remain secrets.
From the deleted blog...
"i must say, 1500+ sales people getting drunk at a company sponsored party feels remarkably like a frat party."
Google Set to Provide AdWords API
Matt Hicks at eWeek delves into the rumors that Google is about to open up access to AdWords.
By expanding beyond its own tools and ad program, Google is signaling a greater willingness to work with third parties such as search marketers and ad agencies, said Gary Stein, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research.
We still don't have any official word from Google, but maybe if I keep reminding them that another PPC provider already has an API, they'll be embarassed into action (I know, like I can "arm-twist" a 800-pound guerilla).
Google's main search-advertising competitor, Overture Services, already offers an API into its system for search-engine marketers and third parties, said Andy Beal, vice president of search marketing at WebSourced Inc. Search marketers have sought similar access from Google. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Contextual Ads - Are They "Search" or Not?
Danny Sullivan has a summary of his recent keynote at SES Chicago. One interesting thought he has...
That brings me to contextual ads. If I had one resolution I could impose on everyone, it would be to stop calling contextual ads "search" or considering them part of search advertising. They aren't....search is on-demand. Contextual is passive and must be treated as such."
Not sure I entirely agree with this. While I do agree that contextual ads are "passive", they are an intrinsic part of any campaign with Google or Overture. Want to enhance and optimize your contextual ads? You'll likely turn to a search engine marketing company for assistance. What technology is used to display the most relevant contextual ads? Search technology. It's a tricky one.
Video Search the Next "Big Thing"
Ladies and gentlemen, today, the role of "desktop search" will be played by "video search". It seems that barely had the buzz surrounding desktop search subsided, the search engines hit us with video search options.
Google Video (in beta, of course) offers users the ability to search the content of television programs from leading TV content providers including PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN, among others.
"What Google did for the web, Google Video aims to do for television," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of Products.
The Google Video beta enables users to search across the closed captioning content of a growing number of TV programs that Google began indexing in December, 2004. Entering a query such as (iPod) will return a list of relevant television programs with still images and text excerpts from the exact point in the program where the search phrase was spoken.
Yahoo steps up the integration of its video search by adding a tab to the homepage and partnering with TV search player TVEyes to help it better index video content.
Yahoo!'s video index includes content from its own network, including video from Yahoo! News, LAUNCH, and Movies, along with exclusive partner content from Mark Burnett Productions and JibJab. The company also has video search partnerships with AtomFilms, RealNetworks, and IFILM. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
January 24, 2005
Yahoo Video Search Coming to a Homepage Tab Near You
Gary has news that Yahoo Video Search will be added to the homepage tab a little later tonight. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Mozilla Firefox Lead Engineer Joins Google
Neowin does just enough to keep the speculation going that Google may one day enter the browser market.
Ben Goodger, Lead Engineer for the popular browser Firefox has announced that he is no longer paid by Mozilla, and has joined Google. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
DMA Hints It Will Absorb AIM
Does this mean we get a refund on our AIM membership dues? Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Is Google Ready to Offer AdWords API?
I sure hope that the rumors are true. I'd love to be able to confirm or deny them, but Google simply gives the "no comment at this time" response.
That being said, there seems to be a lot of buzz surrounding this rumored launch. Funny, none of it seems to include mention that Overture has been providing an API - in the form of Advertiser Web Services (AWS) - since 2001. :-)
Anyone care to guess if any new AdWords API will be a "beta" release? ;-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Desktop Search and Personalization
I'm catching-up on my own vanity postings, so I'll clump these two together for your reading pleasure. ;-)
Google Loses French Trade Mark Case
According to Out-Law.com, Google France has lost a trade mark action brought by hotel chain Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Users Confuse Natural and Paid Search Engine Results
So information from a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, suggests that only 18% of search engine users can tell the difference between paid and natural search engine results.
So what does that tell us? Well, to me it suggests that the search engines have everything finely tuned and doing a great job. If the average user cannot tell the difference, it likely means that they are finding the most relevant results in both paid and natural listings.
I bet the same can be said for those "infomercials" or the "advertorials" you often see. Sometimes, it's hard to tell that they are paid placements, but it doesn't matter, if I find the stuff interesting and useful, who cares if someone paid to put it there. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
VoIP Service Coming from Google?
Some say that Google is getting ready to launch a free internet telephone service in the UK. Others tend to disagree. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
What did Online Retailers Learn in 2004?
The E-Commerce Times takes a look at the lessons learned by the online retail industry in 2004. Search was, obviously, the biggest lesson learned.
A study by Web consultancy Link2City reveals that 33 percent of Internet users believe companies found in the top search results must be a major brand, demonstrating that top search engine listings transmit brand equity.
I managed to get my 2-cents worth by suggesting that this year could be the year that traditional retailers finally realize that online traffic can lead to offline sales.
"In 2005, even brick-and-mortar stores will execute Internet campaigns to generate consumer interest and increase product recognition. Successful campaigns will drive in-store traffic as much as generate online sales." Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
New WebTrends 7 Offers Tools for Search Engine Marketers
WebTrends has updated its analytics software with more features for SEM's.
WebTrends 7 can now precisely quantify the relationship between organic and paid search positions and revenue within a single WebTrends SmartReport(TM) for Microsoft(R) Excel(R), seamlessly combining results information from WebTrends with search position data from the leading SEO solution, WebPosition(R) Gold 3, also a WebTrends solution. By examining the relationship between organic and paid search positions and traffic and revenue, marketers can more precisely prioritize where they should invest their resources to attain the most profitable search engine positions. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Yahoo Baby a Fake
I didn't find this story interesting enough to blog it the first time around, but now that the latest update reveals that the story was a big fake, it has my interest.
Could this have been one big publicity stunt by Yahoo? ;-)
*Mental Note* - if I ever I have a child, tell the media we named it "WebSourced". ;-)
Well actually, I'll be up to full speed on Monday, but couldn't resist blogging about Ask Jeeves' cheeky fun-poking at Google. It seems while the Google staff enjoy their new IPO-wealth at a ski retreat, Jeeves and the staff keep the search clock ticking.
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
| permalink | +marktd |
January 20, 2005
AOL Search Innovates AOL Search crowed new advances today and pointed out several future advances, including desktop search, more local search features through FAST, clustering with Vivisimo and pay-per-call among others.
Their most intersting current advance is what they're calling their "smartbox" technology. According to Battelle they've got a team of over 60 editors who assemble result packages for certain frequently searched terms (favoring AOL partners?) that account for 20% of all searches.
If this trend continues watch for SEOs, basically PR folk at this point, who specialize in creating sites worthy of inclusion in"smartboxes" vital to their client's business and in contacting these currently invisible editors.
Google Search and Picasa: Where to Now?
Google's known for developing great services without necessarily knowing how they're going to monitize them. Picasa's one such example.
The service itself makes editing and sharing pictures easy, and they made Froogle, Blogger and Gmail tie ins. But how is Google going to tie Picasa in with their key service?
Picassa's competitor Flickr (a free service that makes its dough from a pro account that allows a gig of upload a month) made an interesting partnership recently with blog search engine Technorati.
When searchers use Technorati tag search (about Technorati tags) they can search posts and flickr photos that have the corresponding terms in their tags. This gives a neat twist to those whose blogs are more marketing oriented, though I wonder how long it will take for spammers to jump on this particular function.
What makes this Flickr tie in work for Technorati is that they're both - for the most part - personal media sources. This can have compelling results. Try a A Tsunami tag search in Technorati. (not for the squeamish)
Google images gives me about four newsy pics and then a slew of pics from 1992. So I'm looking for a Picasa tie in soon, and for Google to get with the program and deliver some blog search with a Google News style front end. That plus Picasa pics would give new meaning to news.
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
| permalink | +marktd |
Yahoo, MSN Join with Google in "nofollow" Accord
Say goodbye to comment spam. Google Blog says MSN and Yahoo pitched in on their "end comment spam" initiative with the (rel="nofollow") attribute.
Put the tag on links others make in your comments and the spiders won't equate that text with the spammers site and you'll see most comment spamming end. Luckily the stupid spammers or the spammers looking for actual clickthroughs will keep posting links. Where else am I supposed to learn about the latest offerings from the online pharmaceutical industry?
Analog Search To The Rescue
Wired Mag reports on the most popular methods of searching employed when people's lives are on the line. Algorithms need not apply, radar and gps do the trick when trying to find people buried in mud, debris and snow.
"Sgt. Tim Hagel, who was one of the leaders of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department's search-and-rescue efforts in La Conchita, said his team relied on a combination of heat-seeking and sound-sensitive tools to try to find people.
According to Hagel, rescuers there used thermal imagers, known as forward-looking infrared, or FLIR, to try to detect the body heat of people trapped under the rubble. He said that the devices were used both in the air -- on helicopters -- and on the ground."
It's nice to see a completely different aspect of search. Sometimes we get pigeon-holed into thinking of search in a linear way and with all the hype about search engines it's no wonder we do that. However, search [as a verb] applies to all sorts of activities that have nothing to do with Larry, Sergey or bald Butlers.
Google Going after Dark Fiber CNET News.com reports that Google is making a push for Dark Fiber.
A recent job posting states:
"Google is looking for Strategic Negotiator candidates with experience in...(i)dentification, selection, and negotiation of dark fiber contracts both in metropolitan areas and over long distances as part of development of a global backbone network,"
For those who do not know, Dark fiber is the fiber optic cabling that has already been laid (not unlike telephone or cable lines), but is not being used, usually due to very high cost of operations.
Let the consipiracy theorists go nuts with this one. You might assume that Google is going to be creating a new, or added, massive network similar to the Internet. If so, that's a lot of information that Google would then control. "Do no evil," if that's still the mantra, it's easy to wonder how controlling another massive network similar to the Internet could be run without great temptation for abuse or misuse.
Google Doodles Dandy?
Google reps put the "smack down" on those seeking to dis their winter bear doodles.
Here's Google's response to the user who dared to "impugn" their bears:
"if you impugn the artistic integrity of the guy who draws the Google doodles, you can expect a very direct and very public smackdown."
Here's what the user dared contend:
"In reference to holiday illustration #3, I am curious as to how the larger polar bear learned, over a period of a few days, how to roll blobs of snow in almost perfect spheres. I mean, wouldn't this require a few thousand years of mental evolution"
On the Google blog what follows is what I hope is a tongue in cheek defense by Google blogger Michael Krantz. It's pretty funny either way.
And will someone besides booble please parody Google's Doodles? They give me the pukes. (thx2 Farnsy)
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
| permalink | +marktd |
January 14, 2005
Out of the Office Next Week
I'll be out of the office next week, taking a quick break before the conference circuit starts ramping up.
Ben, Jason, Garrett (and maybe Heather), will be stopping by each day to make sure none of our readers miss any major search engine news.
Seeing MSN Search Beta at Main Search Site
Not big news, as we knew this was coming, but thought you might like to know that a number of us at WebSourced are seeing the MSN Search Beta results from the main site.
Data Reveals 74% of Businesses Not Currently Working with an SEM Firm
If you missed the Jupiter Webevent we sponsored yesterday, you missed some very revealing data.
From those polled, 74% are either implementing an in-house SEM campaign or have not even begun an SEM campaign. For those of us in the SEM industry, that's is a lot of potential new customers.
And for those of you who still only report back to clients the number of top-10 rankings they have; those looking for SEM agencies, want a company that can demonstrate increased revenues and sales.
Seth Godin Discovers the Search Engine Industry We're all saved!
Just when we thought that perhaps the search industry was a figment of our collective imaginations, Seth Godin confirms there is a search engine industry.
I'll be sleeping well tonight. ;-)
Update: Have you ever seen Danny Sullivan get worked up? Me neither, but this is as close as it gets.
"Absurd? Yeah, absurd. Search marketing has long been a form of effective media -- even before we had paid listings. If Godin has only just realized this, then the people who have been buying his New York Times bestselling books on marketing have been cheated out of an important chapter.
I'm usually pretty mild-mannered, try to see all sides, be level-headed. But this is the second ridiculous post from someone who is supposed to know about marketing."
"Go Danny, it's your birthday!"
Update 2: Eating-crow, seeing the light, back-peddling or simply one big misunderstanding...Seth Godin feels compelled to answer his critics. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
And Ask Jeeves Too!
Ok, so if we're going to give Yahoo some love, let's give Ask Jeeves some love as well.
As for Ask Jeeves, Rashtchy [of Piper Jaffray] disputed some assertions that the company to also-ran status, behind Google and Yahoo.
"Ask Jeeves is not only remaining a meaningful search alternative, but is gaining faster than most other players," he said.
He estimates the company's usage rates rose 18 percent from the third quarter, the highest increase for the sector. He upgraded his rating to "outperform" from "market perform" and raised his price target to $40, a multiple of 18 times estimated 2006 EBITDA. His previous target was $32.
I would actually buy Ask's stock, but I wouldn't want it to get in the way of anything. I think Ask is one of the best search engines out there...if I owned stock, you may think I was just pumping. ;-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Time to Buy Yahoo Stock?
According to Forbes, Piper Jaffray are gaga over Yahoo's prospects, especially revenue from search.
Piper Jaffray said Yahoo! also gained share in the fourth quarter "and is likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the impressive growth in search."
The analysts raised target prices and earning estimates for Yahoo.
"We would be active buyers of the stock ahead of the earnings release next week," the firm said, noting that Yahoo! shares trade at a discount to other Internet leaders. Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
I'd brag about all the great things were going to do, but I know you'd just throw eggs. ;-) Andy Beal
| permalink | +marktd |
Jeff's World - SEMCares, Corporate Giving and Why I Don’t Care
I've made my thoughts clear on the practice of using non-profits, organizations and the recent tsunami to garner free publicity. Today, resident SEM cynic critic, "Jeff", offers reasons why we should all go full steam ahead and selfishly promote ourselves. We'll let you decide how firmly his tongue is in his cheek. Andy
As many of you know, I am contractually obligated to agree with Andy, 99% of the time. Fortunately, I’ve met my threshold this year and can speak the naked truth about SEM Cares as well as corporate giving in general.
I think blatant self promotion is a good thing, no… a great thing, a wonderful exercise in free market dynamics. Yep, I said it .In fact, it’s not only a good and holy thing, it’s damn near a fiduciary responsibility. Combine that with spamming the search engines and you have something very near and dear to my heart. Its not that what SEM Cares is doing is wrong, its that they aren’t going far enough! You call yourselves SEM professionals? Are you bidding on Overture and AdWords for “most generous SEM organization”? Are you ranked for “high and mighty”? Come on now!
The cynic, which is never really far from the surface in me, thinks that blowing one’s own horn when being charitable can actually be a good thing; particularly when it comes to the corporate world. And really what is the greatest vanity a company can have? Why being #1 on Google of course! Charitable giving and SEO is the greatest combination since clear and cola!
Let’s be honest corporate giving is down and even when being generous doesn’t actually cost anything, many companies are increasingly turning a cold shoulder. This past Christmas season, or Chriskwanzukah if you prefer, many companies modified their policies on allowing non-profits (including the Salvation Army) to solicit on their properties; including two large, yet unnamed companies (lets say they rhyme with Barget and Bal-Wart) So lets make it worth their while! As an industry, we get the biggest contributors ranked #1-10 for whatever they’d like to be found on. You know “cuddliest company”, “company with the biggest heart”, and “disaster friendly company”.
Which is fine with me. Really. What were they getting out of it before? Nothing. Their corporate noblesse oblige is taken for granted. Machiavelli warned us, love must be maintained, fear lasts forever. Best of all, rankings require them to keep up that corporate giving, or lose their position!
Besides, why should corporations donate money, supplies or services at all? It’s not their money they are giving, it is their shareholders’ money. Besides, I want to get the warm fuzzy feeling I get by putting my dollar in the jar for the latest disaster relief myself. Its just not the same when I company I own stock in, writes a fat check and hands it over
It seems name-dropping search engines on hip TV shows, is the latest rage. This time round Ask get's the nod from the producers of Arrested Development. From the show...
By Tia Scott
So Google played dumb and we all went along with the official statement, that there would be "no comment" on rumors of a Google AdWords API (
When the founders of a new search engine include the bright-minds behind mySimon.com and Wisenut.com, you tend to sit-up and take notice.
You may have thought that since Garrett French joined WebSourced, that he had decided to retire from writing and journalism. Far from it. Not only is Garrett carving a name for himself as a copywriting guru, he's also conducting some very interesting research into 
In the latest issue of 
Dave Taylor has an 
Hi honey, I'm home!
We're all saved!
