Friday, May 28, 2004
What Lies Ahead for Local Search Engine Technology? :
"By Andy Beal - May 27, 2004
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..."
"By Andy Beal - May 27, 2004
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..."
Search engines try to find their sound | CNET News.com:
"Last modified: May 27, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT - By Stefanie Olsen - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
To be Googled, or not to be Googled?
That was the question facing National Public Radio's online director Maria Thomas earlier this year. The answer would seem obvious for anyone doing business on the Web, where being included in search results can mean the difference between success and oblivion.
But in Thomas' case it wasn't that simple: Most 'spiders' that crawl and index the Web are effectively blind to audio and video content, making NPR's highly regarded radio programming all but invisible to mainstream search engines..."
Note: how will the Knowledge Share help with this? Users will point to relevant files or embed them in their search spaces. This will help other find them more easily. We will provide icons to differentiate between the different types of files. Future research is planned to make searching for these types of files (especially images) much more effective!
"Last modified: May 27, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT - By Stefanie Olsen - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
To be Googled, or not to be Googled?
That was the question facing National Public Radio's online director Maria Thomas earlier this year. The answer would seem obvious for anyone doing business on the Web, where being included in search results can mean the difference between success and oblivion.
But in Thomas' case it wasn't that simple: Most 'spiders' that crawl and index the Web are effectively blind to audio and video content, making NPR's highly regarded radio programming all but invisible to mainstream search engines..."
Note: how will the Knowledge Share help with this? Users will point to relevant files or embed them in their search spaces. This will help other find them more easily. We will provide icons to differentiate between the different types of files. Future research is planned to make searching for these types of files (especially images) much more effective!
LLRX -- Coming Soon - the Death of Search Engines? :
By Rita Vine
"News of Google�s initial public offering has turned the search engine business into headline news. Reports of the pending IPO have sent both big-name competitors and second tier search properties into a tizzy of activity and initiatives. Many of these smaller players hope against hope that Google will lose its edge as its employees, who cashed out big in the IPO, will pay more attention to their new Hummers than to the business. And over it all, rumors of a huge but mysterious play by Microsoft to outdo Google in the search/research wars linger in the background..."
By Rita Vine
"News of Google�s initial public offering has turned the search engine business into headline news. Reports of the pending IPO have sent both big-name competitors and second tier search properties into a tizzy of activity and initiatives. Many of these smaller players hope against hope that Google will lose its edge as its employees, who cashed out big in the IPO, will pay more attention to their new Hummers than to the business. And over it all, rumors of a huge but mysterious play by Microsoft to outdo Google in the search/research wars linger in the background..."
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Lawmaker tones down anti-Gmail bill | CNET News.com:
"By Evan Hansen - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
A California lawmaker has revised a proposal to block Google's new e-mail service, removing a key provision that would have have made it difficult or impossible for the Web search giant to operate Gmail in the state..."
"By Evan Hansen - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
A California lawmaker has revised a proposal to block Google's new e-mail service, removing a key provision that would have have made it difficult or impossible for the Web search giant to operate Gmail in the state..."
FindLaw's Writ - Hilden: Why You Can't Sue Google:
"The Reason Defamation Law Applies to News Sites, But Not News Search Sites, And What This May Mean For the Future
By JULIE HILDEN - julhil@aol.com - Tuesday, May. 25, 2004
As Google prepares for its Initial Public Offering, it's worth reflecting on a special advantage the law gives to it, and to other, similar search sites: Such sites are, in effect, immune from much of the liability risk a traditional publisher of news and other factual information faces.
For publishers of books, magazines, newspapers and the like, publishing, or even re-publishing, a false statement can trigger defamation liability. But, for reasons I will explain, the same is not true for search sites like Google.
Search sites can provide access to information that may be false, without worrying about the risk of a defamation suit. (No wonder, then, that Google's stock may turn out to be valuable; some of the value it will have doubtless comes from this special legal bonus.)
In this column, I will discuss what implications this may have for the future of news publications, on the Internet and off..."
"The Reason Defamation Law Applies to News Sites, But Not News Search Sites, And What This May Mean For the Future
By JULIE HILDEN - julhil@aol.com - Tuesday, May. 25, 2004
As Google prepares for its Initial Public Offering, it's worth reflecting on a special advantage the law gives to it, and to other, similar search sites: Such sites are, in effect, immune from much of the liability risk a traditional publisher of news and other factual information faces.
For publishers of books, magazines, newspapers and the like, publishing, or even re-publishing, a false statement can trigger defamation liability. But, for reasons I will explain, the same is not true for search sites like Google.
Search sites can provide access to information that may be false, without worrying about the risk of a defamation suit. (No wonder, then, that Google's stock may turn out to be valuable; some of the value it will have doubtless comes from this special legal bonus.)
In this column, I will discuss what implications this may have for the future of news publications, on the Internet and off..."
David Rumsey Announces Image Collection Portal -- ResearchBuzz, May 25, 2004:
"David Rumsey and Cartography Associates, known for really lovely map sites, has announced Visual Collections, a 'digital image collection portal that includes more than 300,000 works from museums, universities and private collections throughout the world.' It's available at http://www.davidrumsey.com/collections/ , and you'll need to use IE, Mozilla, or Netscape."
"David Rumsey and Cartography Associates, known for really lovely map sites, has announced Visual Collections, a 'digital image collection portal that includes more than 300,000 works from museums, universities and private collections throughout the world.' It's available at http://www.davidrumsey.com/collections/ , and you'll need to use IE, Mozilla, or Netscape."
Yahoo's Groovy Linkdomain Syntax -- ResearchBuzz, May 26, 2004:
"You learn something new every day, and today I learned about Yahoo's linkdomain: syntax. Yahoo's link: syntax finds everything that links to a particular page, but as you might guess from its name, linkdomain: finds all pages that link to a particular domain. It is used a little different from the link: format, though.
If you went to Web Search University, you might remember Greg Notess saying that when using the link: syntax, you had to be sure to use http:// with it. In other words, link:http://www.yahoo.com works, while link:www.yahoo.com is much less functional. Linkdomain: is backwards; using linkdomain:yahoo.com works, while using linkdomain:http://www.yahoo.com doesn't work.
Using linkdomain:yahoo.com finds about 116 million results: and it's mixable! linkdomain:yahoo.com site:gov works, as does linkdomain:yahoo.com intitle:google inurl:google. Now if only Yahoo had an API... "
"You learn something new every day, and today I learned about Yahoo's linkdomain: syntax. Yahoo's link: syntax finds everything that links to a particular page, but as you might guess from its name, linkdomain: finds all pages that link to a particular domain. It is used a little different from the link: format, though.
If you went to Web Search University, you might remember Greg Notess saying that when using the link: syntax, you had to be sure to use http:// with it. In other words, link:http://www.yahoo.com works, while link:www.yahoo.com is much less functional. Linkdomain: is backwards; using linkdomain:yahoo.com works, while using linkdomain:http://www.yahoo.com doesn't work.
Using linkdomain:yahoo.com finds about 116 million results: and it's mixable! linkdomain:yahoo.com site:gov works, as does linkdomain:yahoo.com intitle:google inurl:google. Now if only Yahoo had an API... "
McMaster University Researchers Develop Better Medical Searches -- ResearchBuzz, May 27, 2004: "Researchers at McMaster University have developed a way to find 'relevant and scientifically sound studies' from online medical databases.
The article about their effort is found at http://www.medicalpost.com/mpcontent/article.jsp?content=20040523_111944_5200 . From the article: 'That was achieved by first developing a list of search terms and phrases that would bring up sound studies, which were matched with a hand search of 161 journal titles from Medline. By consulting librarians and Medline experts, among others, the team next tested more than 5,000 search combinations, executing the searches both by hand and computer to ensure the identified papers would be pulled up'..."
The research paper can be found at http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/
The article about their effort is found at http://www.medicalpost.com/mpcontent/article.jsp?content=20040523_111944_5200 . From the article: 'That was achieved by first developing a list of search terms and phrases that would bring up sound studies, which were matched with a hand search of 161 journal titles from Medline. By consulting librarians and Medline experts, among others, the team next tested more than 5,000 search combinations, executing the searches both by hand and computer to ensure the identified papers would be pulled up'..."
The research paper can be found at http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/
Net News Big with Big Wigs: "Internet news sites are the second most important news source among senior executives in the US, according to a new survey by the Wall Street Journal Online..."
Traditional Companies Pick Up Online Ad Reins:
"Traditional, non-Web based companies are taking advantage of increased Web usage, such as a 26% rise in the average number of Web page views in the US, to push their online ad impressions up, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Internet usage statistics point to growth in multiple metrics, proof of an expanding audience for advertisers. Page views are up 26% from Q1 2003 to Q1 2004, time spent on the PC is up 11%, and session lengths are up 6%. The monthly average time spent with PCs among US Internet users in the first quarter of 2004 was 53 hours, 46 minutes and 51 seconds..."
"Traditional, non-Web based companies are taking advantage of increased Web usage, such as a 26% rise in the average number of Web page views in the US, to push their online ad impressions up, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Internet usage statistics point to growth in multiple metrics, proof of an expanding audience for advertisers. Page views are up 26% from Q1 2003 to Q1 2004, time spent on the PC is up 11%, and session lengths are up 6%. The monthly average time spent with PCs among US Internet users in the first quarter of 2004 was 53 hours, 46 minutes and 51 seconds..."
Newer Small Biz More Likely to Advertise Online:
"The Kelsey Group and ConStat report that 78% of older small businesses -- those that have been in existence for more than 20 years -- rely on Yellow Pages advertising compared to 52% of those small businesses that have been around for less than 10 years.
Younger businesses, however, are more likely to include e-mail, search engine marketing and Internet Yellow Pages in their overall advertising mix.
The study, conducted among 289 online advertising decision-makers at small businesses, finds that younger businesses spend an average of $4,753 per year on advertising whereas their older counterparts spend an average of $9,300 on advertising annually. The study notes, however, that younger small businesses average $756,000 in annual revenues whereas older small businesses average $2.8 million in revenues, proving that newer small businesses spend more on advertising than their older counterparts..."
"The Kelsey Group and ConStat report that 78% of older small businesses -- those that have been in existence for more than 20 years -- rely on Yellow Pages advertising compared to 52% of those small businesses that have been around for less than 10 years.
Younger businesses, however, are more likely to include e-mail, search engine marketing and Internet Yellow Pages in their overall advertising mix.
The study, conducted among 289 online advertising decision-makers at small businesses, finds that younger businesses spend an average of $4,753 per year on advertising whereas their older counterparts spend an average of $9,300 on advertising annually. The study notes, however, that younger small businesses average $756,000 in annual revenues whereas older small businesses average $2.8 million in revenues, proving that newer small businesses spend more on advertising than their older counterparts..."
MediaDailyNews 05-27-04:
"Definition of Site Clutter Varies, But Users Agree: It's Bad for Advertisers
By Kate Kaye - Contributing Writer - Thursday, May 27, 2004
While interactive ad industry execs revel in the news that online ad spending is skyrocketing, they might consider one thing: more ad spending equals more ads, which equals more clutter. A study from niche content site network Burst! Media shows the effect that advertising clutter has on user experience, brand perception, site abandonment, and message effectiveness. Not surprisingly, when users spot clutter, they're less likely to be hot for an advertiser's product or service...
[go figure this part] ;-)
...The Burst! study also isolates some gender discrepancies in terms of clutter's effect on ad tolerance and brand favorability. It appears that men are slightly more tolerant of advertising than women..."
"Definition of Site Clutter Varies, But Users Agree: It's Bad for Advertisers
By Kate Kaye - Contributing Writer - Thursday, May 27, 2004
While interactive ad industry execs revel in the news that online ad spending is skyrocketing, they might consider one thing: more ad spending equals more ads, which equals more clutter. A study from niche content site network Burst! Media shows the effect that advertising clutter has on user experience, brand perception, site abandonment, and message effectiveness. Not surprisingly, when users spot clutter, they're less likely to be hot for an advertiser's product or service...
[go figure this part] ;-)
...The Burst! study also isolates some gender discrepancies in terms of clutter's effect on ad tolerance and brand favorability. It appears that men are slightly more tolerant of advertising than women..."
Web Hosting Industry News | Spam Now Makes Up Two-Thirds of Email:
"May 26, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Spam continues to saturate the market with the increase in junk mail. Last month, spam made up for more than two-thirds of the 840 emails scanned by filtering firm MessageLabs (messagelabs.com), according to UK site The Register.
Email traffic sent to the United States, the UK, Germany, Australia and Hong Kong represents more than 97 percent of the global spam volumes filtered by MessageLabs, with the US rating the worst with spam hitting a staggering 83 percent. The figures suggest spammers are mostly targeting English-speaking countries and regions with the highest Internet and email usage.
MessageLabs chief technology officer told The Register that English-speaking countries would always be natural targets for spammers, as mass mailing in a common language is the simplest way to distribute their messages.
While the rise of pharmaceutical spam (40 percent) and financial spam (37.8 percent) continue to rise, rival message filtering firm Clearswift (clearswift.com) reports a decrease in sexually explicit spam (five percent). The majority of spam originates in the US, with Boca Raton, Florida being the junk mail capital of the world."
"May 26, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Spam continues to saturate the market with the increase in junk mail. Last month, spam made up for more than two-thirds of the 840 emails scanned by filtering firm MessageLabs (messagelabs.com), according to UK site The Register.
Email traffic sent to the United States, the UK, Germany, Australia and Hong Kong represents more than 97 percent of the global spam volumes filtered by MessageLabs, with the US rating the worst with spam hitting a staggering 83 percent. The figures suggest spammers are mostly targeting English-speaking countries and regions with the highest Internet and email usage.
MessageLabs chief technology officer told The Register that English-speaking countries would always be natural targets for spammers, as mass mailing in a common language is the simplest way to distribute their messages.
While the rise of pharmaceutical spam (40 percent) and financial spam (37.8 percent) continue to rise, rival message filtering firm Clearswift (clearswift.com) reports a decrease in sexually explicit spam (five percent). The majority of spam originates in the US, with Boca Raton, Florida being the junk mail capital of the world."
Microsoft Technology Will Widen Searches (TechNews.com):
"By Allison Linn - The Associated Press - Wednesday, May 26, 2004; 10:35 PM
SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. is developing technology that takes search functions beyond the Internet, allowing users to pour through e-mails, personal computers and even big databases to find information, a top executive said Wednesday.
The system 'will, as far as the consumer is concerned, be an end-to-end system for searching across any data type,' Yusuf Mehdi, head of Microsoft's MSN division, told analysts at a Goldman Sachs Internet conference. His speech from Las Vegas was broadcast over the Internet..."
"By Allison Linn - The Associated Press - Wednesday, May 26, 2004; 10:35 PM
SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. is developing technology that takes search functions beyond the Internet, allowing users to pour through e-mails, personal computers and even big databases to find information, a top executive said Wednesday.
The system 'will, as far as the consumer is concerned, be an end-to-end system for searching across any data type,' Yusuf Mehdi, head of Microsoft's MSN division, told analysts at a Goldman Sachs Internet conference. His speech from Las Vegas was broadcast over the Internet..."
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Yahoo! News - Picture this: Photo service may raise search engine revenue:
"Tue May 25, 6:57 AM ET - By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
The search engine war is taking on a new look.
More computer users are searching the Internet for photos as well as Web-site links - potentially boosting revenue for Google and Yahoo..."
"Tue May 25, 6:57 AM ET - By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
The search engine war is taking on a new look.
More computer users are searching the Internet for photos as well as Web-site links - potentially boosting revenue for Google and Yahoo..."
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Marketing to Online Teens:
"In its study of US teens online, Jupiter Research forecasts 22 million teens will be using the Web by 2008.
Jupiter conducted a survey of over 1,800 online teens ages 13 to 17, and analyzed the resulting data with an eye on how marketers can reach this demographic. Overall, Jupiter found healthy growth in the number of teens online between 2004 and 2008, which will increase from 18 million to 22 million. It also found that 17% of teens are 'teen influencers,' a group that is highly active online, style conscious, popular and exerts a strong sway over friends and family. As a group, Jupiter found that influencers are older and wealthier than the average teen, spend 8 hours a week on the Net (one hour more than the average) and are 53% female..."
"In its study of US teens online, Jupiter Research forecasts 22 million teens will be using the Web by 2008.
Jupiter conducted a survey of over 1,800 online teens ages 13 to 17, and analyzed the resulting data with an eye on how marketers can reach this demographic. Overall, Jupiter found healthy growth in the number of teens online between 2004 and 2008, which will increase from 18 million to 22 million. It also found that 17% of teens are 'teen influencers,' a group that is highly active online, style conscious, popular and exerts a strong sway over friends and family. As a group, Jupiter found that influencers are older and wealthier than the average teen, spend 8 hours a week on the Net (one hour more than the average) and are 53% female..."
MediaDailyNews 05-25-04: "Commission Junction Unveils New Performance-Based Pay-Per-Click Model
By Ross Fadner - Staff Writer - Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Marketers, long frustrated by not knowing which half of their ad spend is wasted, have found a new ally in pay-per-click advertising models. Search and contextual marketing are good examples of this, but often, marketers have to bid against each other for placement..."
By Ross Fadner - Staff Writer - Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Marketers, long frustrated by not knowing which half of their ad spend is wasted, have found a new ally in pay-per-click advertising models. Search and contextual marketing are good examples of this, but often, marketers have to bid against each other for placement..."
MediaDailyNews 05-25-04: "Online Reemerges As Fastest-Growing Ad Medium
By Joe Mandese - Editor, MediaPost - Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Online ad spending expanded at six times the rate of the overall advertising economy during the first quarter of 2004, proving that it has reemerged as the fastest-growing segment of the media economy. During the quarter, advertisers invested nearly $2.3 billion on Internet advertising--an increase of 39 percent over the first quarter of 2003, and the greatest rate of expansion for the medium since the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers began tracking online ad spending in 1996..."
By Joe Mandese - Editor, MediaPost - Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Online ad spending expanded at six times the rate of the overall advertising economy during the first quarter of 2004, proving that it has reemerged as the fastest-growing segment of the media economy. During the quarter, advertisers invested nearly $2.3 billion on Internet advertising--an increase of 39 percent over the first quarter of 2003, and the greatest rate of expansion for the medium since the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers began tracking online ad spending in 1996..."
The Associated Press: "Online Retailers Collectively Make Profit
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO - AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Online retailers collectively made a profit last year for the first time as sales jumped a better-than-expected 51 percent, in a sign of continued resilience in e-commerce, an industry survey found.
Online sales surged to $114 billion last year, surpassing forecasts of $96 billion, fueled by the travel category, according to an annual survey of 150 retailers conducted by Shop.org, the online arm of the National Retail Federation, and Forrester Research, an Internet research company..."
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO - AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Online retailers collectively made a profit last year for the first time as sales jumped a better-than-expected 51 percent, in a sign of continued resilience in e-commerce, an industry survey found.
Online sales surged to $114 billion last year, surpassing forecasts of $96 billion, fueled by the travel category, according to an annual survey of 150 retailers conducted by Shop.org, the online arm of the National Retail Federation, and Forrester Research, an Internet research company..."
Search Engine User Attitudes: "By Danny Sullivan, Editor & Chris Sherman, Associate Editor
May 25, 2004
With so much interest in search, it's amazing how relatively little research has been done into how people interact with search engines, especially from a search marketing perspective. That's finally changing.
Over the past few weeks, search engine marketing firm iProspect has released a series of reports studying search behavior. That survey, Search Engine Users Attitudes, involved 1,649 people surveyed at the end of March 2004 on behalf of iProspect by Survey Sample International..."
May 25, 2004
With so much interest in search, it's amazing how relatively little research has been done into how people interact with search engines, especially from a search marketing perspective. That's finally changing.
Over the past few weeks, search engine marketing firm iProspect has released a series of reports studying search behavior. That survey, Search Engine Users Attitudes, involved 1,649 people surveyed at the end of March 2004 on behalf of iProspect by Survey Sample International..."
Good overview on the current state of the search industry:
Economist.com: "Spiders in the web
May 13th 2004 - From The Economist print edition
Searching for profit has become highly competitive
THE tech folk in Silicon Valley knew something was up last year when another web spider appeared. Web spiders are powerful software programs that crawl around the world wide web, automatically analysing words, following links and collecting vast amounts of data. The catalogues they assemble are used by search engines to display an index of web pages in response to key words entered by a user. What was intriguing about this particular spider is that it belonged to Microsoft. Even the world's biggest software company cannot afford to ignore the power of search..."
Economist.com: "Spiders in the web
May 13th 2004 - From The Economist print edition
Searching for profit has become highly competitive
THE tech folk in Silicon Valley knew something was up last year when another web spider appeared. Web spiders are powerful software programs that crawl around the world wide web, automatically analysing words, following links and collecting vast amounts of data. The catalogues they assemble are used by search engines to display an index of web pages in response to key words entered by a user. What was intriguing about this particular spider is that it belonged to Microsoft. Even the world's biggest software company cannot afford to ignore the power of search..."
Friday, May 21, 2004
Technology News Article | Reuters.com:
"Microsoft's Gates Touts Blogging as Business Tool
By Reed Stevenson
REDMOND, Wash. (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Bill Gates often takes the stage to talk about the future of software technology, but on Thursday he also told top corporate executives that Weblogs and the way they are distributed can be used as business communication tools. "
"Microsoft's Gates Touts Blogging as Business Tool
By Reed Stevenson
REDMOND, Wash. (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Bill Gates often takes the stage to talk about the future of software technology, but on Thursday he also told top corporate executives that Weblogs and the way they are distributed can be used as business communication tools. "
Are Dot-Com IPOs the Comeback Kids?:
"CBSMarketWatch.com reported on Monday that according to Thomson Financial, there are currently 23 IPOs in the pipeline for Internet companies.
This total compares to 1998 when there were 25 Internet IPOs. The next year, the dot-com frenzy of 1999, a whopping 349 Internet companies filed to go public. Thomson notes that 11 Internet companies went public in Q1 of this year, marking the most dot-com IPOs per quarter since the end of 2000..."
"CBSMarketWatch.com reported on Monday that according to Thomson Financial, there are currently 23 IPOs in the pipeline for Internet companies.
This total compares to 1998 when there were 25 Internet IPOs. The next year, the dot-com frenzy of 1999, a whopping 349 Internet companies filed to go public. Thomson notes that 11 Internet companies went public in Q1 of this year, marking the most dot-com IPOs per quarter since the end of 2000..."
Paying To Play: "By Jill Whalen - May 20, 2004
PFI, PFP, PPC and Trusted Feed
It seems that everywhere we turn these days in the search engine marketing world, we are constantly hearing the phrases pay-for-inclusion (PFI), pay-for-performance (PFP) and pay-per-click (PPC). Here is a quick primer to explain what each of those programs means..."
PFI, PFP, PPC and Trusted Feed
It seems that everywhere we turn these days in the search engine marketing world, we are constantly hearing the phrases pay-for-inclusion (PFI), pay-for-performance (PFP) and pay-per-click (PPC). Here is a quick primer to explain what each of those programs means..."
Forbes.com: No More Nice Guys: "As the paid search business explodes, the battle between Yahoo and Google turns nasty.
Earlier this year the web site Shopping.com was regularly buying ads that would pop up when certain search words (like 'digital camera prices') were entered in Yahoo's search box. Paid search results, of course, are now common currency on the Internet.
Then Yahoo screamed, banning Shopping.com from buying the ads. What happened? Shopping.com's ads were directing users to its price-comparison site, which is run in close partnership with Yahoo rival Google. Once Yahoo users got to Shopping.com, they saw search results generated by Google; and if they bought a product, the money would be divided between Google and Shopping.com. Shopping.com now gets 38% of its revenues from its partnership with Google.
Only after Shopping.com agreed to begin including some Yahoo-generated links on one of its sites was the ban lifted..."
Earlier this year the web site Shopping.com was regularly buying ads that would pop up when certain search words (like 'digital camera prices') were entered in Yahoo's search box. Paid search results, of course, are now common currency on the Internet.
Then Yahoo screamed, banning Shopping.com from buying the ads. What happened? Shopping.com's ads were directing users to its price-comparison site, which is run in close partnership with Yahoo rival Google. Once Yahoo users got to Shopping.com, they saw search results generated by Google; and if they bought a product, the money would be divided between Google and Shopping.com. Shopping.com now gets 38% of its revenues from its partnership with Google.
Only after Shopping.com agreed to begin including some Yahoo-generated links on one of its sites was the ban lifted..."
Web Hosting Resource and Directory - Tophosts.com: "Survey Finds Web Sites, Search Engine Keywords Beat Traditional Marketing Tactics
Survey Finds Web Sites, Search Engine Keywords Beat Traditional Marketing Tactics as Critical Tools for Small Business Success
Small businesses are increasingly dependent on online services as both business channel and business resource...
...The group of small business owners surveyed was asked to select three marketing tools critical in driving business for their companies. Topping the list were Web sites (69 percent) followed by search engine keywords (36 percent) and then community relations (35 percent). Email marketing (24 percent) just beat out direct mail (22 percent) and the Yellow Pages, a long-time small business marketing tool, was seen as critical in driving business by only 12 percent of the respondents. At the bottom of the list were newspaper advertising (5 percent), outdoor advertising (4 percent) and print coupons (2 percent)..."
Survey Finds Web Sites, Search Engine Keywords Beat Traditional Marketing Tactics as Critical Tools for Small Business Success
Small businesses are increasingly dependent on online services as both business channel and business resource...
...The group of small business owners surveyed was asked to select three marketing tools critical in driving business for their companies. Topping the list were Web sites (69 percent) followed by search engine keywords (36 percent) and then community relations (35 percent). Email marketing (24 percent) just beat out direct mail (22 percent) and the Yellow Pages, a long-time small business marketing tool, was seen as critical in driving business by only 12 percent of the respondents. At the bottom of the list were newspaper advertising (5 percent), outdoor advertising (4 percent) and print coupons (2 percent)..."
Inc.com | If You Build It, Can They Find It?:
"Tips for shining a searchlight on your company's Web pages.
From: Inc.com| April 2004 By: Anne Stuart
Imagine trying to hit a pin-sized target in a pitch-black auditorium. Or looking for a quarter-carat diamond hidden someplace in Yosemite National Park. Or locating a single novel in a giant library that shelves books randomly..."
"Tips for shining a searchlight on your company's Web pages.
From: Inc.com| April 2004 By: Anne Stuart
Imagine trying to hit a pin-sized target in a pitch-black auditorium. Or looking for a quarter-carat diamond hidden someplace in Yosemite National Park. Or locating a single novel in a giant library that shelves books randomly..."
Thursday, May 20, 2004
A Tale of Two Patents: "By Susan Kuchinskas
UPDATED: Google's Gmail could be a huge moneymaker for the search leader. But someone else may have thought of it first...
...Google evidently had been planning Gmail for some time. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company applied for a patent on "serving advertisements using information associated with e-mail" on June 2, 2003. On that date, Google's engineers couldn't have known that a little tiny company called Sponster had a similar idea -- and had applied for a patent on the "method and apparatus for adding advertising tag lines to electronic messages" on April 5, 2002..."
UPDATED: Google's Gmail could be a huge moneymaker for the search leader. But someone else may have thought of it first...
...Google evidently had been planning Gmail for some time. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company applied for a patent on "serving advertisements using information associated with e-mail" on June 2, 2003. On that date, Google's engineers couldn't have known that a little tiny company called Sponster had a similar idea -- and had applied for a patent on the "method and apparatus for adding advertising tag lines to electronic messages" on April 5, 2002..."
Online Ad Spending a Big Story for Media Sites:
"Newspaper and TV station Web sites both became beneficiaries of an online spending increase of 27% by local advertisers between 2002 to 2003, according to Borrell Associates..."
"Newspaper and TV station Web sites both became beneficiaries of an online spending increase of 27% by local advertisers between 2002 to 2003, according to Borrell Associates..."
Yahoo! Targets TV for Ad Gains:
"By George Mannes - TheStreet.com Senior Writer - 5/19/2004 3:35 PM EDT
The advertising sales head of Internet powerhouse Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq - news - research) indicated Wednesday that Yahoo! could steal significant amounts of ad spending out of national advertisers' television budgets. But she suggested the shift wouldn't be significant until 2005..."
"By George Mannes - TheStreet.com Senior Writer - 5/19/2004 3:35 PM EDT
The advertising sales head of Internet powerhouse Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq - news - research) indicated Wednesday that Yahoo! could steal significant amounts of ad spending out of national advertisers' television budgets. But she suggested the shift wouldn't be significant until 2005..."
Google fleetingly offers some 1,000GB - News - ZDNet: "Google raised storage limits for some users of its e-mail service by a factor of 1,000, but the change was a glitch the search engine company is working to reverse.
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.
'It was a bug. We are working to fix it,' said Google spokesman Nate Tyler. 'Gmail offers users 1 gigabyte of storage'..."
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.
'It was a bug. We are working to fix it,' said Google spokesman Nate Tyler. 'Gmail offers users 1 gigabyte of storage'..."
Google defines good manners for adware - News - ZDNet:
"By Declan McCullagh - CNET News.com - May 19, 2004, 5:36 PM PT
In an attempt to cut down on misbehaving adware and spyware, Google has released a set of suggested principles for software makers to follow when writing programs that embed themselves on Internet users' PCs.
The guidelines, released Tuesday evening, say software should follow common-sense rules of politeness: It should admit what it's doing, permit itself to be disabled and not do sneaky things like leak personal information..."
"By Declan McCullagh - CNET News.com - May 19, 2004, 5:36 PM PT
In an attempt to cut down on misbehaving adware and spyware, Google has released a set of suggested principles for software makers to follow when writing programs that embed themselves on Internet users' PCs.
The guidelines, released Tuesday evening, say software should follow common-sense rules of politeness: It should admit what it's doing, permit itself to be disabled and not do sneaky things like leak personal information..."
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
MSN Search Preview Live for Some:
"Seems like Microsoft is testing out their new MSN Search technology at http://techpreview.search.msn.com/.
As DigitalPoint points out, 'Of course, no one can get to it because it's restricted by IP address, but still shows they are at least at the point of being able to test it.'..."
"Seems like Microsoft is testing out their new MSN Search technology at http://techpreview.search.msn.com/.
As DigitalPoint points out, 'Of course, no one can get to it because it's restricted by IP address, but still shows they are at least at the point of being able to test it.'..."
Center for Media Research - Daily Brief: "Broadband Penetration Over 50% By July
According to Comcast, overall broadband grew by 0.82% in March, with 45.97% of Internet- enabled U.S. households enjoying a high-speed connection..."
According to Comcast, overall broadband grew by 0.82% in March, with 45.97% of Internet- enabled U.S. households enjoying a high-speed connection..."
Google ups the email storage ante - again - ZDNet UK News:
"Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com, May 19, 2004, 09:25 BST
The battle of the gigabytes continues - for some email users, Gmail is now offering a terabyte of storage
Google just escalated the email storage arms race by a factor of 1,000. Several users of the search engine's Gmail Web-based email service noticed on Tuesday that their storage limits had quietly been raised to one million megabytes, or one terabyte. That's four times the typical capacity of a new high-end PC's hard drive..."
"Stephen Shankland, CNET News.com, May 19, 2004, 09:25 BST
The battle of the gigabytes continues - for some email users, Gmail is now offering a terabyte of storage
Google just escalated the email storage arms race by a factor of 1,000. Several users of the search engine's Gmail Web-based email service noticed on Tuesday that their storage limits had quietly been raised to one million megabytes, or one terabyte. That's four times the typical capacity of a new high-end PC's hard drive..."
The New York Times > Technology > Google Moves Toward Clash With Microsoft:
"By JOHN MARKOFF Published: May 19, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO, May 18 - Edging closer to a direct confrontation with Microsoft, Google, the Web search engine, is preparing to introduce a powerful file and text software search tool for locating information stored on personal computers.
Google's software, which is expected to be introduced soon, according to several people with knowledge of the company's plans, is the clearest indication to date that the company, based in Mountain View, Calif., hopes to extend its search business to compete directly with Microsoft's control of desktop computing..."
"By JOHN MARKOFF Published: May 19, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO, May 18 - Edging closer to a direct confrontation with Microsoft, Google, the Web search engine, is preparing to introduce a powerful file and text software search tool for locating information stored on personal computers.
Google's software, which is expected to be introduced soon, according to several people with knowledge of the company's plans, is the clearest indication to date that the company, based in Mountain View, Calif., hopes to extend its search business to compete directly with Microsoft's control of desktop computing..."
Smartdevil - Corporate - Press - Yahoo Search Catching Up On Google:
"MONTREAL, QC, May 17, 2004. A new ranking tool shows Yahoo search results are getting better and more relevant.
With the acquisitions of Inktomi, Altavista and Alltheweb search engines, Yahoo competes directly against Google. A new ranking tool from Thumbshots.com shows comparable results between Yahoo and Google for popular search queries.
Thumbshots Ranking is a new tool designed to visually study ranking algorithms of various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Alltheweb, MSN, Teoma and Wisenut. The tool allows anyone to perform his or her own comparison using any keywords. The ranking tool is made by Thumbshots volunteers and is available at http://ranking.thumbshots.com..."
"MONTREAL, QC, May 17, 2004. A new ranking tool shows Yahoo search results are getting better and more relevant.
With the acquisitions of Inktomi, Altavista and Alltheweb search engines, Yahoo competes directly against Google. A new ranking tool from Thumbshots.com shows comparable results between Yahoo and Google for popular search queries.
Thumbshots Ranking is a new tool designed to visually study ranking algorithms of various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Alltheweb, MSN, Teoma and Wisenut. The tool allows anyone to perform his or her own comparison using any keywords. The ranking tool is made by Thumbshots volunteers and is available at http://ranking.thumbshots.com..."
Search Engine News from Search Engine Lowdown: "Interesting Search Engine Industry Data
*... 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..."
*... 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..."
Geico sues Google, Overture over trademarks | CNET News.com:
"Last modified: May 18, 2004, 12:03 PM PDT
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Auto insurance company Geico has sued Google and Overture Services for allegedly violating its trademarks in search-related advertisements, in the latest legal salvo against the Internet companies..."
"Last modified: May 18, 2004, 12:03 PM PDT
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Auto insurance company Geico has sued Google and Overture Services for allegedly violating its trademarks in search-related advertisements, in the latest legal salvo against the Internet companies..."
MSNBC - Lycos Europe launches 1GB e-mail:
"Web portal boasts of beating Google to market
Updated: 2:12 p.m. ET May 18, 2004
LONDON - Web portal Lycos Europe beat its larger rival Google to market with an e-mail service featuring one gigabyte of storage space, the company announced Tuesday..."
"Web portal boasts of beating Google to market
Updated: 2:12 p.m. ET May 18, 2004
LONDON - Web portal Lycos Europe beat its larger rival Google to market with an e-mail service featuring one gigabyte of storage space, the company announced Tuesday..."
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Nutch is a nascent effort to implement an open-source web search engine.:
"Web search is a basic requirement for internet navigation, yet the number of web search engines is decreasing. Today's oligopoly could soon be a monopoly, with a single company controlling nearly all web search for its commercial gain. That would not be good for users of the internet.
Nutch provides a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines. Only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias. (Or at least their bias is public.) All existing major search engines have proprietary ranking formulas, and will not explain why a given page ranks as it does. Additionally, some search engines determine which sites to index based on payments, rather than on the merits of the sites themselves. Nutch, on the other hand, has nothing to hide and no motive to bias its results or its crawler in any way other than to try to give each user the best results possible.
Nutch aims to enable anyone to easily and cost-effectively deploy a world-class web search engine. This is a substantial challenge. To succeed, Nutch software must be able to:
"Web search is a basic requirement for internet navigation, yet the number of web search engines is decreasing. Today's oligopoly could soon be a monopoly, with a single company controlling nearly all web search for its commercial gain. That would not be good for users of the internet.
Nutch provides a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines. Only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias. (Or at least their bias is public.) All existing major search engines have proprietary ranking formulas, and will not explain why a given page ranks as it does. Additionally, some search engines determine which sites to index based on payments, rather than on the merits of the sites themselves. Nutch, on the other hand, has nothing to hide and no motive to bias its results or its crawler in any way other than to try to give each user the best results possible.
Nutch aims to enable anyone to easily and cost-effectively deploy a world-class web search engine. This is a substantial challenge. To succeed, Nutch software must be able to:
- fetch several billion pages per month
- maintain an index of these pages
- search that index up to 1000 times per second
- provide very high quality search results
- operate at minimal cost "
Jakarta Lucene - Overview - Jakarta Lucene:
"Jakarta Lucene is a high-performance, full-featured text search engine library written entirely in Java. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform.
Jakarta Lucene is an open source project available for free download from Apache Jakarta. Please use the links on the left to access Lucene.
"Jakarta Lucene is a high-performance, full-featured text search engine library written entirely in Java. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform.
Jakarta Lucene is an open source project available for free download from Apache Jakarta. Please use the links on the left to access Lucene.
Note: a few good reasons for the Knowledge Share:
ResourceShelf: "Information Retrieval
Source: ACM Queue
The top five reasons why search is still way too hardA short rant by David Brown (I agree with most of his points) that's worthy of your attention."
ResourceShelf: "Information Retrieval
Source: ACM Queue
The top five reasons why search is still way too hardA short rant by David Brown (I agree with most of his points) that's worthy of your attention."
ResourceShelf: "Information Retrieval
New, ALVIS: Open Source Semantic Web Search Project from European Consortium
A recently released open source, semantic web project from several research organizations based in Europe. Not much on the web site but here's what I was able to piece together.
+ From the web site, 'The new economy is based on innovation, and innovation is based on up-to-date information. The semi-static Internet alone has in the order of 1000 million pages of information, and search has become a fundamental service required both by individual citizens and businesses alike.'
+ From the web site, 'The project will conduct research in the design, use and interoperability of topic-specific search engines with the goal of developing an open source prototype of a distributed, semantic-based search engine. Existing search engines provide poor foundation for semantic web operations, and US companies such as Google are becoming monopolies, distorting the entire information landscape.'
+ Goal #1 -- Implement a semantic-based search engine, with the code as Open Source. A public demonstration of a topic-specific search engine in a topic to be determined will be done.
+ Project began at beginning of 2004 and will continue through 2006.
+ Consortium includes members from France, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, and Spain.
See Also: Next Generation Information Search (via CoSCo at the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology)
The site mentions that deims will be available beginning next monnth. "
New, ALVIS: Open Source Semantic Web Search Project from European Consortium
A recently released open source, semantic web project from several research organizations based in Europe. Not much on the web site but here's what I was able to piece together.
+ From the web site, 'The new economy is based on innovation, and innovation is based on up-to-date information. The semi-static Internet alone has in the order of 1000 million pages of information, and search has become a fundamental service required both by individual citizens and businesses alike.'
+ From the web site, 'The project will conduct research in the design, use and interoperability of topic-specific search engines with the goal of developing an open source prototype of a distributed, semantic-based search engine. Existing search engines provide poor foundation for semantic web operations, and US companies such as Google are becoming monopolies, distorting the entire information landscape.'
+ Goal #1 -- Implement a semantic-based search engine, with the code as Open Source. A public demonstration of a topic-specific search engine in a topic to be determined will be done.
+ Project began at beginning of 2004 and will continue through 2006.
+ Consortium includes members from France, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, and Spain.
See Also: Next Generation Information Search (via CoSCo at the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology)
The site mentions that deims will be available beginning next monnth. "
Vertical Digital Directories Serve As Bridge To Online And Paid-search Advertising For Many Local Businesses:
"Search Engine Articles and Press Releases - May 17, 2004
PRINCETON, NJ (May 17, 2004) - In a new 63-page white paper entitled, 'Going Deep: Vertical Digital Directories,' The Kelsey Group examines the role of vertical directories in local advertising. A 'vertical digital directory' is an online property that provides deep amounts of structured content for a niche category, such as travel, real estate or home improvement.
Among the report's key findings is that vertical directories are currently serving a valuable dual function�providing content to search engines in response to local queries, while also offering a gateway to paid-search advertising for small and medium-sized businesses..."
"Search Engine Articles and Press Releases - May 17, 2004
PRINCETON, NJ (May 17, 2004) - In a new 63-page white paper entitled, 'Going Deep: Vertical Digital Directories,' The Kelsey Group examines the role of vertical directories in local advertising. A 'vertical digital directory' is an online property that provides deep amounts of structured content for a niche category, such as travel, real estate or home improvement.
Among the report's key findings is that vertical directories are currently serving a valuable dual function�providing content to search engines in response to local queries, while also offering a gateway to paid-search advertising for small and medium-sized businesses..."
"Cheap" and "Free" Keywords: Not Always a Bargain:
"BY Fredrick Marckini | May 17, 2004
...One category of defectors is consumers who only buy from the lowest-priced provider in any market. He asks the audience, "And what should we say to these customers?"
The answer is, "Bye-bye."
There's no loyalty from shoppers who buy only from the lowest-price provider. The moment a competitor lowers its price below yours, the customer leaves. There's such cost and effort associated with acquiring customers that in many service industries, customers only become profitable in the relationship's second or third year..."
They find that longer phrases are cheaper and can have higher conversion rates but, you'll get less querries:
"We tested these phrases and noticed some trends. Keywords and keyword phrases with solid conversion rates plummeted when "cheap" or "free" was appended onto them.
Specifically, conversions were 25 percent less likely when the word "cheap" was appended to any of the company's search terms.
This occurred in the insurance industry. Other verticals may experience different results.
A second phenomenon is the relationship between longer keyword phrases and higher conversion rate. We expect a specific query to convert at a higher rate than a broad keyword would. Not everyone grasps the greater benefit: More specific, longer phrases are often less expensive than broad keywords. Again, the plural of "anecdote" is "data."
Here's a study we conducted of Overture keyword bid prices:
[see graph]
Watch what happens when we plot a business-to-business (B2B) client's conversion rates:
[see graph]
The longer the keyword phrase, the higher the conversion rate. But often, longer keyword phrases aren't queried with the same frequency as shorter phrases. The trick is to identify as many of the longer phrases as possible. Google's new AdWords Automater system could be a powerful tool in increasing marketers' ability to identify more long, specific keyword phrases that can be purchased at lower rates to increase volume on these higher-converting, less-expensive keyword phrases..."
"BY Fredrick Marckini | May 17, 2004
...One category of defectors is consumers who only buy from the lowest-priced provider in any market. He asks the audience, "And what should we say to these customers?"
The answer is, "Bye-bye."
There's no loyalty from shoppers who buy only from the lowest-price provider. The moment a competitor lowers its price below yours, the customer leaves. There's such cost and effort associated with acquiring customers that in many service industries, customers only become profitable in the relationship's second or third year..."
They find that longer phrases are cheaper and can have higher conversion rates but, you'll get less querries:
"We tested these phrases and noticed some trends. Keywords and keyword phrases with solid conversion rates plummeted when "cheap" or "free" was appended onto them.
Specifically, conversions were 25 percent less likely when the word "cheap" was appended to any of the company's search terms.
This occurred in the insurance industry. Other verticals may experience different results.
A second phenomenon is the relationship between longer keyword phrases and higher conversion rate. We expect a specific query to convert at a higher rate than a broad keyword would. Not everyone grasps the greater benefit: More specific, longer phrases are often less expensive than broad keywords. Again, the plural of "anecdote" is "data."
Here's a study we conducted of Overture keyword bid prices:
[see graph]
Watch what happens when we plot a business-to-business (B2B) client's conversion rates:
[see graph]
The longer the keyword phrase, the higher the conversion rate. But often, longer keyword phrases aren't queried with the same frequency as shorter phrases. The trick is to identify as many of the longer phrases as possible. Google's new AdWords Automater system could be a powerful tool in increasing marketers' ability to identify more long, specific keyword phrases that can be purchased at lower rates to increase volume on these higher-converting, less-expensive keyword phrases..."
Tech Biz: Mamma mia! - May. 17, 2004:
"Investors have thrown their arms around Mamma.com, but can the 'mother of all search engines' last?May 17, 2004: 4:17 PM EDT
By Eric Hellweg, CNN/Money contributing columnist"
"Investors have thrown their arms around Mamma.com, but can the 'mother of all search engines' last?May 17, 2004: 4:17 PM EDT
By Eric Hellweg, CNN/Money contributing columnist"
A couple of interesting (to me) Q/A's from: Google's man behind the curtain
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.
Are there any other algorithm techniques that you are using that are playing a bigger role?
Well, there are certainly other techniques that we are using. Talking about it is the trickier part. In broad terms, techniques we use fall into, like, two or three categories, and one is we try to understand and leverage human intelligence. We look for signals that people put in to indicate intelligence, like deciding to link from one page to another or annotating text with the description of what the text is about.
There are some personalization tools emerging. Amazon's A9.com and MSN are using different techniques. Google's tool is a little bit more like, "Give us information, and we will help you out," and the others take the approach, "We will learn from you, and then we will help you out." Tell me why your approach is superior. In the latter scenario, where first you learn, and then you help the visitor out, you have two places where the computer has to make intelligent judgments. I am not saying that is not an interesting or promising approach, but it does put more strain on the computer. When you tell it what your interests are, then the computer only has to be intelligent to use that information to try to help you out. They are both part of the same goal of trying to help people out with personal information--it is just a matter of how you get there. We will be seeing more of this in the future.
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.
Are there any other algorithm techniques that you are using that are playing a bigger role?
Well, there are certainly other techniques that we are using. Talking about it is the trickier part. In broad terms, techniques we use fall into, like, two or three categories, and one is we try to understand and leverage human intelligence. We look for signals that people put in to indicate intelligence, like deciding to link from one page to another or annotating text with the description of what the text is about.
There are some personalization tools emerging. Amazon's A9.com and MSN are using different techniques. Google's tool is a little bit more like, "Give us information, and we will help you out," and the others take the approach, "We will learn from you, and then we will help you out." Tell me why your approach is superior. In the latter scenario, where first you learn, and then you help the visitor out, you have two places where the computer has to make intelligent judgments. I am not saying that is not an interesting or promising approach, but it does put more strain on the computer. When you tell it what your interests are, then the computer only has to be intelligent to use that information to try to help you out. They are both part of the same goal of trying to help people out with personal information--it is just a matter of how you get there. We will be seeing more of this in the future.
Monday, May 17, 2004
Center for Media Research - Daily Brief: "Visitors Travel In Circles Searching for Travel Information
In the latest Industry Report on the Online Travel sector from Hitwise, key highlights tell a significant story:
- Over 30% of all visits to sites in the Travel category are referred from other Travel related sites. Over 45% of visits leaving a site within the Travel category are going to another Travel related site.
- While the market share of the Travel Agencies sub-category is increasing, the major agency sites; Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, are losing market share to sites such as Trip Advisor, Cheap Tickets and Hotwire.
- The market share of visits to Travel sites in theU.S.(compared with all Internet sites) has grown over 28% from January 2003 to February 2004. Since December 2003, market share of visits in the Travel category has increased over 38%..."
In the latest Industry Report on the Online Travel sector from Hitwise, key highlights tell a significant story:
- Over 30% of all visits to sites in the Travel category are referred from other Travel related sites. Over 45% of visits leaving a site within the Travel category are going to another Travel related site.
- While the market share of the Travel Agencies sub-category is increasing, the major agency sites; Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, are losing market share to sites such as Trip Advisor, Cheap Tickets and Hotwire.
- The market share of visits to Travel sites in theU.S.(compared with all Internet sites) has grown over 28% from January 2003 to February 2004. Since December 2003, market share of visits in the Travel category has increased over 38%..."
Is Content King of Effective Online Advertising?:
"May 17, 2004
Tacoda Systems and iVillage conducted a study earlier this year regarding online audience management targeting and found that simply placing relevant ads in a content group on iVillage was not as effective as placing the same ads throughout the site according to visitor behavior..."
"May 17, 2004
Tacoda Systems and iVillage conducted a study earlier this year regarding online audience management targeting and found that simply placing relevant ads in a content group on iVillage was not as effective as placing the same ads throughout the site according to visitor behavior..."
BEHAVIORAL TARGETING BOOSTS AIRLINE'S INTERNET AD RESULTS: "American and WSJ.com Online Comparison Focuses on Business Travelers
May 17, 2004
QwikFIND ID: AAP62Q
By Kris Oser
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A just-completed study of an integrated advertising campaign last fall from American Airlines has determined that online ads delivered through a database-driven behavioral targeting system achieved higher results than any other ad format used..."
May 17, 2004
QwikFIND ID: AAP62Q
By Kris Oser
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A just-completed study of an integrated advertising campaign last fall from American Airlines has determined that online ads delivered through a database-driven behavioral targeting system achieved higher results than any other ad format used..."
Yahoo says it will sell Google stake eventually: "Yahoo to sell Google stake eventually
Goal is $5 billion in sales, analysts and investors told
By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Yahoo may be flush with some additional dot-com cash.
The online media company said its stake in rival Google is worth "several hundred million dollars" and that it would seek to liquidate that investment in due time. Yahoo didn't give a date, but just the intention to sell its shares may be an overhang for Google's upcoming IPO.
Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) has a stake in Google from the investment it made during the boom years. At the time, sources put the stake at 5 percent of Google. A Yahoo spokeswoman, without confirming the initial percentage of its investment, says the stake has subsequently been diluted.
Google's valuation has been estimated by a couple of analysts at $35 billion..."
Goal is $5 billion in sales, analysts and investors told
By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Yahoo may be flush with some additional dot-com cash.
The online media company said its stake in rival Google is worth "several hundred million dollars" and that it would seek to liquidate that investment in due time. Yahoo didn't give a date, but just the intention to sell its shares may be an overhang for Google's upcoming IPO.
Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) has a stake in Google from the investment it made during the boom years. At the time, sources put the stake at 5 percent of Google. A Yahoo spokeswoman, without confirming the initial percentage of its investment, says the stake has subsequently been diluted.
Google's valuation has been estimated by a couple of analysts at $35 billion..."
Yahoo Sees Huge Demand For Searches - BizReport:
"by David A. Vise
Yahoo officials predict the market for Internet searches will grow from $3 billion to $11 billion over five years, as demand for local information soars.
Even as Internet searches continue to grow in popularity around the world, Yahoo executives said the big money to be made in the near term is by linking computer users with more retailers, restaurants, dry cleaners and other businesses located nearby. Already, 20 to 25 percent of online queries have some local component, and Yahoo is planning to introduce greater capabilities for companies to advertise locally in the coming months.
"We think now is the right time to go after the local market," said Ted Meisel, president of Overture, Yahoo's search engine subsidiary. "We are seeing users start to look for local information and we see commerce opportunities in local search. . . . We are going to make it easier for advertisers to participate"..."
"by David A. Vise
Yahoo officials predict the market for Internet searches will grow from $3 billion to $11 billion over five years, as demand for local information soars.
Even as Internet searches continue to grow in popularity around the world, Yahoo executives said the big money to be made in the near term is by linking computer users with more retailers, restaurants, dry cleaners and other businesses located nearby. Already, 20 to 25 percent of online queries have some local component, and Yahoo is planning to introduce greater capabilities for companies to advertise locally in the coming months.
"We think now is the right time to go after the local market," said Ted Meisel, president of Overture, Yahoo's search engine subsidiary. "We are seeing users start to look for local information and we see commerce opportunities in local search. . . . We are going to make it easier for advertisers to participate"..."
Search Engine News from Search Engine Lowdown: "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.
- Search Engine News by Andy Beal "
- Search Engine News by Andy Beal "
Search Engine News from Search Engine Lowdown: "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.'
- Search Engine News by Andy Beal "
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.'
- Search Engine News by Andy Beal "
Haaretz - Israel News: "GuruNet aims to raise $76 million on Nasdaq SmallCap
By Zuri Dar
Israeli startup GuruNet will be raising $76 million in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq SmallCap market. GuruNet will receive the ticker symbol GURU, according to Private Equity Week Wire. No comment could be obtained from the company. Two months ago GuruNet raised $5 million from existing shareholders and new investors. Its backers include Dawntreader Fund, Israel Seed Partners and venture capitalist Yossi Vardi. GuruNet, an online reference library, was established in 1999 by Shmuel (Bob) Rosenschein. "
By Zuri Dar
Israeli startup GuruNet will be raising $76 million in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq SmallCap market. GuruNet will receive the ticker symbol GURU, according to Private Equity Week Wire. No comment could be obtained from the company. Two months ago GuruNet raised $5 million from existing shareholders and new investors. Its backers include Dawntreader Fund, Israel Seed Partners and venture capitalist Yossi Vardi. GuruNet, an online reference library, was established in 1999 by Shmuel (Bob) Rosenschein. "
National Post: "Microsoft turns its might to growing field of search
Allison Linn
Canadian Press
SEATTLE (AP) - When it comes to the latest technology craze, Microsoft Corp. isn't known for being first or best: It's known for being biggest.
The software behemoth has used its strength, money and reach to go from underdog to top dog on everything from Internet browsers to digital content players. Now, its attention turns to the growing field of search, with a broad-based push that extends from its dominant Windows operating system to its MSN online division..."
Allison Linn
Canadian Press
SEATTLE (AP) - When it comes to the latest technology craze, Microsoft Corp. isn't known for being first or best: It's known for being biggest.
The software behemoth has used its strength, money and reach to go from underdog to top dog on everything from Internet browsers to digital content players. Now, its attention turns to the growing field of search, with a broad-based push that extends from its dominant Windows operating system to its MSN online division..."
DMNews.com | News | Article: "In Google's Shadow, Ask Jeeves Grows
May 17, 2004
By: Brian Morrissey, Senior Editor. bmorrissey@dmnews.com
While Google and its gigantic stock offering draw the attention, Ask Jeeves has been content to quietly build its share of the search market.
'The amount of attention focused on the Google brand has already been extreme,' said Jim Lanzone, vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves. 'We've had to deal with that every day.'..."
May 17, 2004
By: Brian Morrissey, Senior Editor. bmorrissey@dmnews.com
While Google and its gigantic stock offering draw the attention, Ask Jeeves has been content to quietly build its share of the search market.
'The amount of attention focused on the Google brand has already been extreme,' said Jim Lanzone, vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves. 'We've had to deal with that every day.'..."
Which SEO Did WhenU Use? Likely, Synergy6:
"As discussed in WhenU Spams Google, WhenU attributes its cloaking and other prohibited sites to 'an outside search engine optimization firm based in New York.' (See c|net article quote from WhenU CEO.)
It is therefore of interest to detmermine which outside SEO WhenU hired. It is necessary to know which SEO WhenU hired in order to attempt to confirm (by asking the SEO) whether the SEO acted in accord with WhenU's instructions, or whether the SEO went beyond what WhenU requested and/or authorized. Knowing which SEO did the cloaking is also of interest in order to seek out other search engine optimization sites that might violate search engines' listing rules."
Also see:
Search engines delete adware company - News - ZDNet: "Yahoo and Google have disabled links to controversial adware maker WhenU after the company was accused of engaging in unauthorized practices aimed at boosting its search rankings, WhenU's top executive confirmed Thursday. "
"As discussed in WhenU Spams Google, WhenU attributes its cloaking and other prohibited sites to 'an outside search engine optimization firm based in New York.' (See c|net article quote from WhenU CEO.)
It is therefore of interest to detmermine which outside SEO WhenU hired. It is necessary to know which SEO WhenU hired in order to attempt to confirm (by asking the SEO) whether the SEO acted in accord with WhenU's instructions, or whether the SEO went beyond what WhenU requested and/or authorized. Knowing which SEO did the cloaking is also of interest in order to seek out other search engine optimization sites that might violate search engines' listing rules."
Also see:
Search engines delete adware company - News - ZDNet: "Yahoo and Google have disabled links to controversial adware maker WhenU after the company was accused of engaging in unauthorized practices aimed at boosting its search rankings, WhenU's top executive confirmed Thursday. "
Friday, May 14, 2004
The Scotsman - Sci-Tech - Seeking that pin in the search-engine haystack:
"WITH all the hype surrounding Google�s multi-billion-dollar flotation, it is easy to forget that there are other, possibly better, search engines. Many can find that virtual needle in a haystack, and some can even work out that you are really looking for a pin, not a needle.
My current favourite is AltaVista (www.altavista.co.uk) which has been around for years, but has recently been upgraded as an unashamed copy of Google with many of the same features, such as the ability to search news sources or just for images or audio. I have not carried out a scientific comparison, but AltaVista�s results often seem closer to what I want than those from Google.
AltaVista is owned by Yahoo, which is currently Google�s only real competitor in the internet-search market. Although it feels as if a large number of companies are involved, in fact these two account for almost all online searches. Many well-known names are just the big two by another name..."
"WITH all the hype surrounding Google�s multi-billion-dollar flotation, it is easy to forget that there are other, possibly better, search engines. Many can find that virtual needle in a haystack, and some can even work out that you are really looking for a pin, not a needle.
My current favourite is AltaVista (www.altavista.co.uk) which has been around for years, but has recently been upgraded as an unashamed copy of Google with many of the same features, such as the ability to search news sources or just for images or audio. I have not carried out a scientific comparison, but AltaVista�s results often seem closer to what I want than those from Google.
AltaVista is owned by Yahoo, which is currently Google�s only real competitor in the internet-search market. Although it feels as if a large number of companies are involved, in fact these two account for almost all online searches. Many well-known names are just the big two by another name..."
CanadaIT.com - News On The Web
"Canadians love search engines: Study
By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update
Canadians, it appears, really like search engines. And that's good new for the marketing industry. In April, Canadian residents made about 575 million searches, or 40 searches per user.
By comparison, Americans made about 3.6 billion searches per month, or 35 searches per user. In percentage terms, that's about 85 per cent for Canada, and 73 for the United States..."
"Canadians love search engines: Study
By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update
Canadians, it appears, really like search engines. And that's good new for the marketing industry. In April, Canadian residents made about 575 million searches, or 40 searches per user.
By comparison, Americans made about 3.6 billion searches per month, or 35 searches per user. In percentage terms, that's about 85 per cent for Canada, and 73 for the United States..."
Is News Search New Outlet for Placement Game?
As the popularity of news search engines like Yahoo! News and Google News rises, industry players are considering it as a third outlet for optimization after organic efforts and paid placement. How might such optimization work?
Article
Note: if you don't already know about eMarketer, Inc or subscribe to their email lists or reports, you should. Here is the helpful graph that was emailed with their report that does not show on the article they posted to their site:
Reasons Why Internet Users World Wide Use Search Engines, 2003 (as a % of respondents)
As the popularity of news search engines like Yahoo! News and Google News rises, industry players are considering it as a third outlet for optimization after organic efforts and paid placement. How might such optimization work?
Article
Note: if you don't already know about eMarketer, Inc or subscribe to their email lists or reports, you should. Here is the helpful graph that was emailed with their report that does not show on the article they posted to their site:
Reasons Why Internet Users World Wide Use Search Engines, 2003 (as a % of respondents)
Yahoo! blasts back at Google | The Register: "Yahoo! blasts back at Google
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Friday 14th May 2004 08:37 GMT
Yahoo! used its annual financial analyst day to announce an expanded email service. With Google's beta GMail service grabbing so much attention, Yahoo! will expand the amount of free storage to 100MB per user over the summer, and a rather vague promise of 'unlimited' storage for paid users. GMail will offer 1GB of storage and a vastly superior search capability. 100 MB of storage in Yahoo! Mail currently costs $49 a year.
In response to privacy concerns, Google has said it will consider offering a pay-for version of GMail without the spybots. But Google often says it will consider doing something that it has no intention of doing, and never does. Yahoo! indulged in some bluffing of its own for Wall Street's benefit. The company says it intends to increase the number of subscribers, currently just below 6m, to 15m, a revised long-term target.
The portal has nevertheless bounded along in the past year. Its advertising business netted $418m in most recent quarter, up 120 per cent on the corresponding quarter in 2003 and the lion's share of Yahoo!'s revenue. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2004 was $476m, almost doubling the $240m for the same quarter a year ago. In the same quarter Google earned $389.6m, most of which came from advertising. Google is growing faster, but has warned that 60 plus per cent margins will erode. Significantly, because of its more diversified revenue base, including such ventures as broadband ISP partnerships, Yahoo!'s income costs more..."
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Friday 14th May 2004 08:37 GMT
Yahoo! used its annual financial analyst day to announce an expanded email service. With Google's beta GMail service grabbing so much attention, Yahoo! will expand the amount of free storage to 100MB per user over the summer, and a rather vague promise of 'unlimited' storage for paid users. GMail will offer 1GB of storage and a vastly superior search capability. 100 MB of storage in Yahoo! Mail currently costs $49 a year.
In response to privacy concerns, Google has said it will consider offering a pay-for version of GMail without the spybots. But Google often says it will consider doing something that it has no intention of doing, and never does. Yahoo! indulged in some bluffing of its own for Wall Street's benefit. The company says it intends to increase the number of subscribers, currently just below 6m, to 15m, a revised long-term target.
The portal has nevertheless bounded along in the past year. Its advertising business netted $418m in most recent quarter, up 120 per cent on the corresponding quarter in 2003 and the lion's share of Yahoo!'s revenue. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2004 was $476m, almost doubling the $240m for the same quarter a year ago. In the same quarter Google earned $389.6m, most of which came from advertising. Google is growing faster, but has warned that 60 plus per cent margins will erode. Significantly, because of its more diversified revenue base, including such ventures as broadband ISP partnerships, Yahoo!'s income costs more..."
Online Recruitment - The magazine for recruitment and HR professionals involved in internet recruitment: "Local media face growing threat from local search competitors
14/05/2004
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.
The study, by The Neil Budde Group and the Advanced Interactive Media Group, reports some newspapers may be forced to drop from daily to less frequent publication and that print margins are likely to erode as advertising migrates online and advertisers opt for pay-for-performance and self-service ad models. In addition, it states, yellow pages may become more immediate competitors to newspapers, noting that in two countries the leading yellow-page publishers have purchased large classified-advertising publications for integration into online search services..."
14/05/2004
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.
The study, by The Neil Budde Group and the Advanced Interactive Media Group, reports some newspapers may be forced to drop from daily to less frequent publication and that print margins are likely to erode as advertising migrates online and advertisers opt for pay-for-performance and self-service ad models. In addition, it states, yellow pages may become more immediate competitors to newspapers, noting that in two countries the leading yellow-page publishers have purchased large classified-advertising publications for integration into online search services..."
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Huge Bug in Google - Microsoft.com Missing!
"There has been complaints during the past week of missing homepages from the Google index. It seems someone found the loophole and posted it at WebmasterWorld. Here is the story..."
"There has been complaints during the past week of missing homepages from the Google index. It seems someone found the loophole and posted it at WebmasterWorld. Here is the story..."
All About Using Google Search Engine News Journal: "Some Google Tips
[ Search Engine News ]
... Sets - a new feature
What if you are looking for a pair of Valentino designer jeans but can’t recall the name of the designer? Query on Italian designer jeans may bring you the right result; however, there is a better tool that Google is planning to implement soon, called “Sets”.
Fill up the names of some designers that you remember in the given form such as Levis, Wrangler, Versace and click either of the two buttons and voila! You will get a list of designers name and probably, Valentino will be there. But bear in mind that this feature is still at Beta stage.
Calculator
The other day, I was sitting in a colleague’s office. She needed to calculate some basic stuffs and looking for her calculator on her desk. Much to her dismay, she could notfind the calculator and started to fumble through her computer programs in her attempt to find Microsoft calculator. I noticed that she was online and the browser was open. I, politely, asked her whether she knew that Google could
actually calculate most common mathematical expressions. It came out to be, she did not! She was just amazed after trying it herself. Google is even capable of unit conversion!
Give it a try!
Definition
If you are looking for a definition of a particular word or a phrase, Google is the best place to get it. In Google search box, write “define: the word or phrase” without the quotation marks and click search button. If there is a definition available for your search term you will, most certainly, get it. It’s a very useful feature for students and people, those who write research papers.
Synonyms
You may think that search engines are too dumb to show query results of the synonyms of your search term. It’s not so! At least, in the case of Google! If you use tilde “~” in front of a keyword in your search term, Google will bring results on the synonyms of that word as well.
Searching within a website
Another great feature of Google search engine allows you to make your query within a specific website. First you write your search term in the Google search box and then write “site: the website or domain name”. For example: if you are looking for word “Microsoft” within the website www.micromedia.com you will write: Microsoft site: micromedia.com.
Check backward links to your website
If you have a website, Google search engine also has a nice feature to show you which web pages are linking to yours. In the search box, write: Link: you website address.
Other important tips to remember are:
There is no need to use “AND”. Google always relate all the words in a search term with Boolean “and”.
However, if you would like to make your query for two words - one or another - you can use “OR”. You have to write “or” in capital letters to give it Boolean value.
Google is not case sensitive. You can write your search terms either in capital or in small letters. You can even mix them up.
Google omits most of the very common words, such as the, in, etc. If you, indeed, need to add a specific word forcefully, use plus (+) sign in front of that particular word. Same way, you can exclude a word from your search expression by putting minus (-) sign in front it.
If you would like to make a search on an exact phrase or expression, put the words within quotation marks. That way, your search result will show only those pages where the exact expression was found. In order to search the phrase: For whom the bell tolls, write “For whom the bell tolls” in the search box. I’ll also suggest you to download the Google Toolbar. Apart from the search box and its ability to block pop-ups, Google Toolbar also shows the pagerank of the website you are visiting now. Pagerank is a system of evaluating web pages - developed by Google founders and used as the core of Google’s search engine algorithm. The Toolbar also includes feature with the ability to fill up online forms from stored information automatically. You can also keep your daily journal or blog right from the toolbar.
[ Search Engine News ]
... Sets - a new feature
What if you are looking for a pair of Valentino designer jeans but can’t recall the name of the designer? Query on Italian designer jeans may bring you the right result; however, there is a better tool that Google is planning to implement soon, called “Sets”.
Fill up the names of some designers that you remember in the given form such as Levis, Wrangler, Versace and click either of the two buttons and voila! You will get a list of designers name and probably, Valentino will be there. But bear in mind that this feature is still at Beta stage.
Calculator
The other day, I was sitting in a colleague’s office. She needed to calculate some basic stuffs and looking for her calculator on her desk. Much to her dismay, she could notfind the calculator and started to fumble through her computer programs in her attempt to find Microsoft calculator. I noticed that she was online and the browser was open. I, politely, asked her whether she knew that Google could
actually calculate most common mathematical expressions. It came out to be, she did not! She was just amazed after trying it herself. Google is even capable of unit conversion!
Give it a try!
Definition
If you are looking for a definition of a particular word or a phrase, Google is the best place to get it. In Google search box, write “define: the word or phrase” without the quotation marks and click search button. If there is a definition available for your search term you will, most certainly, get it. It’s a very useful feature for students and people, those who write research papers.
Synonyms
You may think that search engines are too dumb to show query results of the synonyms of your search term. It’s not so! At least, in the case of Google! If you use tilde “~” in front of a keyword in your search term, Google will bring results on the synonyms of that word as well.
Searching within a website
Another great feature of Google search engine allows you to make your query within a specific website. First you write your search term in the Google search box and then write “site: the website or domain name”. For example: if you are looking for word “Microsoft” within the website www.micromedia.com you will write: Microsoft site: micromedia.com.
Check backward links to your website
If you have a website, Google search engine also has a nice feature to show you which web pages are linking to yours. In the search box, write: Link: you website address.
Other important tips to remember are:
There is no need to use “AND”. Google always relate all the words in a search term with Boolean “and”.
However, if you would like to make your query for two words - one or another - you can use “OR”. You have to write “or” in capital letters to give it Boolean value.
Google is not case sensitive. You can write your search terms either in capital or in small letters. You can even mix them up.
Google omits most of the very common words, such as the, in, etc. If you, indeed, need to add a specific word forcefully, use plus (+) sign in front of that particular word. Same way, you can exclude a word from your search expression by putting minus (-) sign in front it.
If you would like to make a search on an exact phrase or expression, put the words within quotation marks. That way, your search result will show only those pages where the exact expression was found. In order to search the phrase: For whom the bell tolls, write “For whom the bell tolls” in the search box. I’ll also suggest you to download the Google Toolbar. Apart from the search box and its ability to block pop-ups, Google Toolbar also shows the pagerank of the website you are visiting now. Pagerank is a system of evaluating web pages - developed by Google founders and used as the core of Google’s search engine algorithm. The Toolbar also includes feature with the ability to fill up online forms from stored information automatically. You can also keep your daily journal or blog right from the toolbar.
Marketers: Look Past Paid Search to News
"By Sean Michael Kerner
TORONTO -- Is it time for search engine marketers to look beyond their tried and true formats to the growing popularity of news-based searches (if they haven't already)?
The question emerged at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo here, during a pair of afternoon sessions about optimizing non-HTML content and balancing between paid and free search engine listings. The parent company of this publication, Jupitermedia, is producing the conference.
Since the dawn of the Search Engine era, standard HTML files have always been the easiest to index and have arguably always dominated search engine listings. Standard wisdom during the last nine plus years with search engines suggests that non-HTML files such as Macromedia Flash, PDFs and general audio and video files, do not index well, if at all, with major search engines..."
"By Sean Michael Kerner
TORONTO -- Is it time for search engine marketers to look beyond their tried and true formats to the growing popularity of news-based searches (if they haven't already)?
The question emerged at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo here, during a pair of afternoon sessions about optimizing non-HTML content and balancing between paid and free search engine listings. The parent company of this publication, Jupitermedia, is producing the conference.
Since the dawn of the Search Engine era, standard HTML files have always been the easiest to index and have arguably always dominated search engine listings. Standard wisdom during the last nine plus years with search engines suggests that non-HTML files such as Macromedia Flash, PDFs and general audio and video files, do not index well, if at all, with major search engines..."
Google PageRank, Meet Yahoo! Web Rank
"Search Engine Marketing
BY Danny Sullivan | May 12, 2004
Yahoo! has launched a system to show the 'Web Rank' popularity of pages viewed by those using its toolbar. It's similar to Google Toolbar's long-standing PageRank (PR) meter, and it brings with it some of the same potential problems.
The Google Toolbar PR meter reflects how popular Google believes a page is, based on the number and quality of links that point at it. Sounds great. But adding this meter was one of the worst things Google ever did..."
"Search Engine Marketing
BY Danny Sullivan | May 12, 2004
Yahoo! has launched a system to show the 'Web Rank' popularity of pages viewed by those using its toolbar. It's similar to Google Toolbar's long-standing PageRank (PR) meter, and it brings with it some of the same potential problems.
The Google Toolbar PR meter reflects how popular Google believes a page is, based on the number and quality of links that point at it. Sounds great. But adding this meter was one of the worst things Google ever did..."
Montreal search engine operator Mamma.com generates Q1 profit of US$1.4M
"Wed May 12, 5:59 PM ET
MONTREAL (CP) - Mamma.com Inc., an Internet search engine company, made a $1.4-million US profit in the first quarter, reversing a year-ago loss at the Montreal-based company..."
"Wed May 12, 5:59 PM ET
MONTREAL (CP) - Mamma.com Inc., an Internet search engine company, made a $1.4-million US profit in the first quarter, reversing a year-ago loss at the Montreal-based company..."
Google Adding Image Ads to AdWords Search Engine News Journal
"Google, the monster of both Internet search and search engine advertising, is adding something to their AdWords system that not many expected - banners, or image advertisements. According to the Google AdWords site, it is not clear as to where the ads will be shown, however, it seems that they will be integrated into the AdSense contextual advertising system. From Google: 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.
Google answers the following questions at the Adwords Helpdesk:
Will Google Image Ads be shown on Google?
At this time, we won�t show image ads on Google. The initial launch of image ads is focused on sites already showing graphical ads..."
"Google, the monster of both Internet search and search engine advertising, is adding something to their AdWords system that not many expected - banners, or image advertisements. According to the Google AdWords site, it is not clear as to where the ads will be shown, however, it seems that they will be integrated into the AdSense contextual advertising system. From Google: 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.
Google answers the following questions at the Adwords Helpdesk:
Will Google Image Ads be shown on Google?
At this time, we won�t show image ads on Google. The initial launch of image ads is focused on sites already showing graphical ads..."
MediaDailyNews 05-13-04: "Consumers Spent Nearly $1.6 Billion For Web Content In 2003
By Tobi Elkin
Executive Editor
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Consumers are apparently consuming and paying for online media at a growing rate. They spent nearly $1.6 billion for online content last year-- up 18.8 percent over 2002, according to a report by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).
The 2003 Paid Online Content U.S. Market Spending Report, released Wednesday by the OPA in conjunction with comScore Networks, identified the top three categories for paid content as Personals/Dating, Business/Investments, and Entertainment/Lifestyles. The three categories represented 64 percent of total online content spending in 2003--up 62.6 percent from 2002. "
By Tobi Elkin
Executive Editor
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Consumers are apparently consuming and paying for online media at a growing rate. They spent nearly $1.6 billion for online content last year-- up 18.8 percent over 2002, according to a report by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).
The 2003 Paid Online Content U.S. Market Spending Report, released Wednesday by the OPA in conjunction with comScore Networks, identified the top three categories for paid content as Personals/Dating, Business/Investments, and Entertainment/Lifestyles. The three categories represented 64 percent of total online content spending in 2003--up 62.6 percent from 2002. "
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
MediaDailyNews 05-12-04: "The Web Drives Tech Purchasing Habits Among Small Businesses By Tobi Elkin
Executive Editor
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Small- and medium-sized businesses consult online resources throughout the technology purchase process, according to research by Yahoo! and Grey Global Group's Grey, San Francisco. Executives and other personnel within small- and medium-sized businesses are on the Web for information-gathering and research purposes for an average of 110 minutes per day, consulting the 'Net more than TV, radio, magazines, magazines, or newspapers. In fact, 34 percent visit technology vendor Web sites every day, and 59 percent use search engines on a daily basis.
Small- and medium-sized businesses represent a $75 billion technology market. They often lack fully staffed information technology (IT) departments. In fact, the research found that of companies with less than 50 employees, only one-third have IT resources, while half of companies with 50-100 employees have such expertise. In medium-sized companies ranging from 100 to 1,000 people, 90 percent have a dedicated IT resource or staff..."
Executive Editor
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Small- and medium-sized businesses consult online resources throughout the technology purchase process, according to research by Yahoo! and Grey Global Group's Grey, San Francisco. Executives and other personnel within small- and medium-sized businesses are on the Web for information-gathering and research purposes for an average of 110 minutes per day, consulting the 'Net more than TV, radio, magazines, magazines, or newspapers. In fact, 34 percent visit technology vendor Web sites every day, and 59 percent use search engines on a daily basis.
Small- and medium-sized businesses represent a $75 billion technology market. They often lack fully staffed information technology (IT) departments. In fact, the research found that of companies with less than 50 employees, only one-third have IT resources, while half of companies with 50-100 employees have such expertise. In medium-sized companies ranging from 100 to 1,000 people, 90 percent have a dedicated IT resource or staff..."
Google Advertisers Like GMail, But Want Lower Rates Search Engine News Journal:
"[ Search Engine Advertising ]
According to survey results released today by Mosaic Media, 57.1 percent of Google AdWords advertisers want their ads to appear contextually in Google's Gmail. Gmail is Google's free e-mail service that is currently in beta testing and is expected to go into full release this summer.
Google intends to place contextual advertising in personal e-mails, so if someone is talking about taking a trip to Vermont, hotel ads may show up alongside the text. In Mosaic Media's survey, only 19 percent of Google advertisers gave a flat no to the concept of their ads appearing in personal Gmail correspondence.
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..."
"[ Search Engine Advertising ]
According to survey results released today by Mosaic Media, 57.1 percent of Google AdWords advertisers want their ads to appear contextually in Google's Gmail. Gmail is Google's free e-mail service that is currently in beta testing and is expected to go into full release this summer.
Google intends to place contextual advertising in personal e-mails, so if someone is talking about taking a trip to Vermont, hotel ads may show up alongside the text. In Mosaic Media's survey, only 19 percent of Google advertisers gave a flat no to the concept of their ads appearing in personal Gmail correspondence.
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..."
MediaDailyNews 05-12-04: "Rich Media Usage And Click-Through Rates On The Rise
By Kate Kaye
Contributing Writer
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Rich media usage is up, click-through rates have rebounded, and targeting by content is the strategy of choice, according to DoubleClick Inc.'s First Quarter 2004 Ad Serving Trend Report..."
By Kate Kaye
Contributing Writer
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Rich media usage is up, click-through rates have rebounded, and targeting by content is the strategy of choice, according to DoubleClick Inc.'s First Quarter 2004 Ad Serving Trend Report..."
BlogPulse Search Engine Launched by Intelliseek Search Engine News Journal: "[ Search Engine News ]
BlogPulse is a new online search and tracking tool that measures and ranks 'buzz' about key issues, people, phrases and links that occur daily in more than a million Internet blogs. Blog is short for 'weblog,' a type of self-published diary, journal or daily log that represents one of the fastest growing areas of published content on the Internet.
BlogPulse.com serves as a useful and entertaining research tool for Internet users, consumers, the media, observers, risk and reputation managers, pundits, politicians - anyone interested in tracking issues, personalities, trends and rumors that are circulating on the Internet, often before they hit mainstream media. BlogPulse is built on Intelliseek technologies that specialize in Internet search, machine-learning and natural language processing, and the analysis of the types of unstructured data found in online word-of-mouth behavior, or consumer-generated media.
And with content updated and ranked daily, BlogPulse.com can be used by bloggers to determine which blogs attract and generate the most traffic and to gauge interest in their own blogs. Intelliseek developed and launched BlogPulse as an outgrowth of the company's expertise in locating and analyzing unstructured data and consumer-generated media for marketing and business intelligence.
"BlogPulse is Intelliseek's contribution toward new sets of tools that identify and measure what�s happening in the public's mind, society, the marketplace and on the Internet," says Mahendra Vora, Intelliseek CEO. "Bloggers are a progressive, influential and opinionated group, and their important insights can serve as harbingers of what's on the minds of the public, consumers, voters – any individual or group that’s active on the Internet.”
The BlogPulse home page offers:
* Links to each day’s key trends, phrases, people and links – updated daily.
* A search engine to find specific information in blogs.
* A showcase search tool that graphically charts and compares key issues, trends, people and phrases over time.
* A BlogPulse blog that mixes editorial content and trend-mining tools toprovide interesting tidbits to site visitors.
BlogPulse joins the list of Blog Search Engines and Directories, which are redefining the way some search the Internet for trends and news items:
LIST OF BLOG SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES:
DayPop
BlogWise
BlogSearchEngine
BlogPulse
Technocrati "
BlogPulse is a new online search and tracking tool that measures and ranks 'buzz' about key issues, people, phrases and links that occur daily in more than a million Internet blogs. Blog is short for 'weblog,' a type of self-published diary, journal or daily log that represents one of the fastest growing areas of published content on the Internet.
BlogPulse.com serves as a useful and entertaining research tool for Internet users, consumers, the media, observers, risk and reputation managers, pundits, politicians - anyone interested in tracking issues, personalities, trends and rumors that are circulating on the Internet, often before they hit mainstream media. BlogPulse is built on Intelliseek technologies that specialize in Internet search, machine-learning and natural language processing, and the analysis of the types of unstructured data found in online word-of-mouth behavior, or consumer-generated media.
And with content updated and ranked daily, BlogPulse.com can be used by bloggers to determine which blogs attract and generate the most traffic and to gauge interest in their own blogs. Intelliseek developed and launched BlogPulse as an outgrowth of the company's expertise in locating and analyzing unstructured data and consumer-generated media for marketing and business intelligence.
"BlogPulse is Intelliseek's contribution toward new sets of tools that identify and measure what�s happening in the public's mind, society, the marketplace and on the Internet," says Mahendra Vora, Intelliseek CEO. "Bloggers are a progressive, influential and opinionated group, and their important insights can serve as harbingers of what's on the minds of the public, consumers, voters – any individual or group that’s active on the Internet.”
The BlogPulse home page offers:
* Links to each day’s key trends, phrases, people and links – updated daily.
* A search engine to find specific information in blogs.
* A showcase search tool that graphically charts and compares key issues, trends, people and phrases over time.
* A BlogPulse blog that mixes editorial content and trend-mining tools toprovide interesting tidbits to site visitors.
BlogPulse joins the list of Blog Search Engines and Directories, which are redefining the way some search the Internet for trends and news items:
LIST OF BLOG SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES:
DayPop
BlogWise
BlogSearchEngine
BlogPulse
Technocrati "
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Boston.com / News / Local / Blogs colliding with traditional media: "Blogs colliding with traditional media
Convention credentials expected forWeb logs
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | May 10, 2004"
Convention credentials expected forWeb logs
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | May 10, 2004"
Internet News Article | Reuters.com: "2003 Online Content Spending Up Almost 19 Percent
Mon May 10, 2004 12:41 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Spending by U.S. consumers for online content rose almost 19 percent to $1.56 billion in 2003 from 2002, largely fueled by increases in the two top categories, the Online Publishers Association and comScore Networks said on Monday.
Spending in the No. 1 category, personals/dating, grew to $449.5 million from $302.1 million in 2002. Business/investment spending grew to $334.0 million in 2003 from $292.0 million the year earlier.
In the entertainment/lifestyle category, the third largest, spending fell to $214.0 million from $227.5 million. Sponsors of the study suspected that decline was due to their current data collection approach, which does not include transactions from non-browser Internet applications, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iTunes online music store..."
Mon May 10, 2004 12:41 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Spending by U.S. consumers for online content rose almost 19 percent to $1.56 billion in 2003 from 2002, largely fueled by increases in the two top categories, the Online Publishers Association and comScore Networks said on Monday.
Spending in the No. 1 category, personals/dating, grew to $449.5 million from $302.1 million in 2002. Business/investment spending grew to $334.0 million in 2003 from $292.0 million the year earlier.
In the entertainment/lifestyle category, the third largest, spending fell to $214.0 million from $227.5 million. Sponsors of the study suspected that decline was due to their current data collection approach, which does not include transactions from non-browser Internet applications, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iTunes online music store..."
Future Of Blog Search Engine?
I had wondered if a Google Blog was coming, after sightings of a http://www.google.com/googleblog/ URL were reported last month.
There was some speculation that this newly-found URL, which had brought up a page simply saying "test," meant Google might launch a new blog search engine. That URL now shows an error, with the blog now living at a slightly different URL.
But how about the idea of a blog search at Google -- or even the ability to search for web feeds that many blogs and news sites use? Google has said in the past that a Google blog search engine will eventually come. But Blogger program manager Evan Williams said that there were no specific plans that he could discuss.
"It's certainly something we are interested in. We're always looking for stuff we should be searching," Williams said. "I'm very interested in there being an easier way to search blogs. That's all I can say on the subject."
As a reminder, Google-competitor Yahoo does offer a type of web feed search engine -- sort of. Visit the Yahoo's advanced search page, set the File Format option to RSS/XML, and now you can search through any blog and web feed content that Yahoo has indexed.
Unfortunately, the results aren't as good as you'll find using a dedicated feed search engine such as Daypop, Feedster or Technorati.
For example, a search for gmail at Feedster provides direct links to articles that were listed within RSS feeds. The same at Yahoo brings back mostly links to the home pages of sites with feeds that may have mentioned Gmail. You don't go directly to the distributed article.
For more blog and feed search engines, see the RSS News Feeds & Blog Search Engines section of Search Engine Watch. My RSS: Your Gateway To News & Blog Content article from last year also explains more about the concept of getting content through feed syndication.
I had wondered if a Google Blog was coming, after sightings of a http://www.google.com/googleblog/ URL were reported last month.
There was some speculation that this newly-found URL, which had brought up a page simply saying "test," meant Google might launch a new blog search engine. That URL now shows an error, with the blog now living at a slightly different URL.
But how about the idea of a blog search at Google -- or even the ability to search for web feeds that many blogs and news sites use? Google has said in the past that a Google blog search engine will eventually come. But Blogger program manager Evan Williams said that there were no specific plans that he could discuss.
"It's certainly something we are interested in. We're always looking for stuff we should be searching," Williams said. "I'm very interested in there being an easier way to search blogs. That's all I can say on the subject."
As a reminder, Google-competitor Yahoo does offer a type of web feed search engine -- sort of. Visit the Yahoo's advanced search page, set the File Format option to RSS/XML, and now you can search through any blog and web feed content that Yahoo has indexed.
Unfortunately, the results aren't as good as you'll find using a dedicated feed search engine such as Daypop, Feedster or Technorati.
For example, a search for gmail at Feedster provides direct links to articles that were listed within RSS feeds. The same at Yahoo brings back mostly links to the home pages of sites with feeds that may have mentioned Gmail. You don't go directly to the distributed article.
For more blog and feed search engines, see the RSS News Feeds & Blog Search Engines section of Search Engine Watch. My RSS: Your Gateway To News & Blog Content article from last year also explains more about the concept of getting content through feed syndication.
Google Contest - Nigritude Ultramarine Search Engine News Journal:
"Nigritude Ultramarine
Search engine optimization experts are having fun with Google. Experts, with DarkBlue.com at the helm, are holding a contest to determine how Google really works. Experts are competing, with the goal of optimizing a webpage for a non-sensical phrase: 'nigritude ultramarine'. On May 7th, the day the terms 'nigritude ultramarine' was announced, typing the phrase into Google generated no search listings. Search engine optimizers hoping to define themselves as industry leaders are all vying for the number one spot. Others see the contest as an opportunity to test theories and experiment without jeopardizing existing traffic. Some webmasters are leery at staking their professional reputation on a contest with an undefined number of participants.
As an added incentive for search engine experts and webmasters to participate and work their magic, DarkBlue.com is giving away an Apple Mini iPod and a Sony Flat Screen Monitor to anyone who can take their page to #1 for the phrase 'nigritude ultramarine'. The contest is scheduled to run for two months and will conclude on July 7th, 2004. "
"Nigritude Ultramarine
Search engine optimization experts are having fun with Google. Experts, with DarkBlue.com at the helm, are holding a contest to determine how Google really works. Experts are competing, with the goal of optimizing a webpage for a non-sensical phrase: 'nigritude ultramarine'. On May 7th, the day the terms 'nigritude ultramarine' was announced, typing the phrase into Google generated no search listings. Search engine optimizers hoping to define themselves as industry leaders are all vying for the number one spot. Others see the contest as an opportunity to test theories and experiment without jeopardizing existing traffic. Some webmasters are leery at staking their professional reputation on a contest with an undefined number of participants.
As an added incentive for search engine experts and webmasters to participate and work their magic, DarkBlue.com is giving away an Apple Mini iPod and a Sony Flat Screen Monitor to anyone who can take their page to #1 for the phrase 'nigritude ultramarine'. The contest is scheduled to run for two months and will conclude on July 7th, 2004. "
Darpa and Google fund KnowItAll - Search Visibility Report:
"May 10, 2004 - Posted by Merrick Lozano
According to a New Scientist news release the US Department of Defense's research arm, DARPA, and Google, are so impressed with KnowItAll, a search engine under development at the University of Washington, that they are providing funding for the project.
USING search engines to compile a list- like the top 50 greatest blues guitarists by record sales, say- involves a lot of drudge work because you have to visit many web pages to gather the data you need. But the next step in search engine technology could make creating such lists possible with a single mouse click. KnowItAll, a search engine under development at the University of Washington, Seattle, trawls the web for data and then collates it in the form of a list.The approach is unique, says its developer, Oren Etzioni, because it generates information that probably doesn't exist on any single web page."
"May 10, 2004 - Posted by Merrick Lozano
According to a New Scientist news release the US Department of Defense's research arm, DARPA, and Google, are so impressed with KnowItAll, a search engine under development at the University of Washington, that they are providing funding for the project.
USING search engines to compile a list- like the top 50 greatest blues guitarists by record sales, say- involves a lot of drudge work because you have to visit many web pages to gather the data you need. But the next step in search engine technology could make creating such lists possible with a single mouse click. KnowItAll, a search engine under development at the University of Washington, Seattle, trawls the web for data and then collates it in the form of a list.The approach is unique, says its developer, Oren Etzioni, because it generates information that probably doesn't exist on any single web page."
Monday, May 10, 2004
MSNBC - The Google Supercomputer:
"By Steven Levy
NewsweekMay 17 issue - How many computers does Google have? The answer may interest you if you're considering a bid in the upcoming Dutch auction for shares in the firm's recently announced IPO. One way to view to the processing power of the search giant is to count the powerful servers that store, scan and analyze all the information it scrapes from the World Wide Web. Since Google's own estimate is not really helpful (for years now it's been saying the number is 'more than 10,000'), obsessed observers have filled the backs of many envelopes to make their own estimates. A consensus now believes that Google has about 100,000 servers, an awesome number. Meanwhile, other Google watchers take a different approach to the question and have confidently produced a more precise answer: one."
"By Steven Levy
NewsweekMay 17 issue - How many computers does Google have? The answer may interest you if you're considering a bid in the upcoming Dutch auction for shares in the firm's recently announced IPO. One way to view to the processing power of the search giant is to count the powerful servers that store, scan and analyze all the information it scrapes from the World Wide Web. Since Google's own estimate is not really helpful (for years now it's been saying the number is 'more than 10,000'), obsessed observers have filled the backs of many envelopes to make their own estimates. A consensus now believes that Google has about 100,000 servers, an awesome number. Meanwhile, other Google watchers take a different approach to the question and have confidently produced a more precise answer: one."
Ask Jeeves Closes Acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings:
"By: ISEDB.com , 05-06-2004
EMERYVILLE, Calif., May 6, 2004 -- Ask Jeeves, Inc. (ASKJ), a leading provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, today announced it has closed the acquisition of privately-held Interactive Search Holdings, Inc.
"The acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings is an important step in Ask Jeeves' growth strategy. This acquisition doubles our market share and enhances our ability to compete in the fast-growing search market," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask Jeeves. "We now have substantially more traffic and advertising inventory, which we believe will increase our value to advertisers and partners. Additionally, consumers like to access information in different ways and we believe through our expanded portfolio of brands we will be in an even better position to meet those needs."
According to Nielsen NetRatings (March 2004), with the acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings, Ask Jeeves:
-- Becomes the 7th largest domestic Web property in terms of unique users;
-- Extends its reach to 27% of the domestic Internet, representing
approximately 39 million unique users; and
-- Increases its reach of domestic searchers to 25%, or approximately 29
million unique searchers."
"By: ISEDB.com , 05-06-2004
EMERYVILLE, Calif., May 6, 2004 -- Ask Jeeves, Inc. (ASKJ), a leading provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, today announced it has closed the acquisition of privately-held Interactive Search Holdings, Inc.
"The acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings is an important step in Ask Jeeves' growth strategy. This acquisition doubles our market share and enhances our ability to compete in the fast-growing search market," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask Jeeves. "We now have substantially more traffic and advertising inventory, which we believe will increase our value to advertisers and partners. Additionally, consumers like to access information in different ways and we believe through our expanded portfolio of brands we will be in an even better position to meet those needs."
According to Nielsen NetRatings (March 2004), with the acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings, Ask Jeeves:
-- Becomes the 7th largest domestic Web property in terms of unique users;
-- Extends its reach to 27% of the domestic Internet, representing
approximately 39 million unique users; and
-- Increases its reach of domestic searchers to 25%, or approximately 29
million unique searchers."
Google preps new tool to juice revenue | CNET News.com:
"Last modified: May 10, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Search engine leader Google is close to releasing new tools that could expand its profitable keyword-advertising business and fuel growth as it prepares for a highly anticipated initial public offering, according to sources familiar with the plan.
The technology aims to enable Google to examine the Web sites of large advertisers and to develop automated lists of keyword combinations that are likely to turn up in search queries, the sources said. If successful, the system will match more searches to advertisements, and thus boost revenue."
"Last modified: May 10, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Search engine leader Google is close to releasing new tools that could expand its profitable keyword-advertising business and fuel growth as it prepares for a highly anticipated initial public offering, according to sources familiar with the plan.
The technology aims to enable Google to examine the Web sites of large advertisers and to develop automated lists of keyword combinations that are likely to turn up in search queries, the sources said. If successful, the system will match more searches to advertisements, and thus boost revenue."
Friday, May 07, 2004
Mozdex.com - The Making of an Open Search Engine, part 1 Search Engine News Journal: "Mozdex.com - The Making of an Open Search Engine, part 1
[ MozDex - Making of a Search Engine ]
Mozdex recently announced our ambitious project to build a search engine with global reach, modeled on open source technology. Mozdex will operate transparently, revealing the processes and methods used to create and manage our index. We will use this forum to give updates into the inner workings and creation of Mozdex... "
Go to mozDex:
"MozDex is a search engine that uses open source search technologies to create an open and fair index."
Note: Powered by Nutch
[ MozDex - Making of a Search Engine ]
Mozdex recently announced our ambitious project to build a search engine with global reach, modeled on open source technology. Mozdex will operate transparently, revealing the processes and methods used to create and manage our index. We will use this forum to give updates into the inner workings and creation of Mozdex... "
Go to mozDex:
"MozDex is a search engine that uses open source search technologies to create an open and fair index."
Note: Powered by Nutch
Thursday, May 06, 2004
New spin on search ads | CNET News.com: "New spin on search ads
May 5, 2004, 4:15 PM PDT
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
A little-known technology company wants to extend the success of search engine advertising into new territory. "
May 5, 2004, 4:15 PM PDT
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
A little-known technology company wants to extend the success of search engine advertising into new territory. "
From ResearchBuzz: News and Information about Search Engines, Databases, and Other Online Information Collections: "* Get Your News In a Big Rectangular Flash App
My visual acuity is limited to 'Lookit pretty colors' but representing Google News stories as a Flash app full of rectangles which vary in color according to topic and age is rather fascinating. So if you've got a Flash-enabled browser and a little time, fire up Newsmap ( http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm ).
Not exactly text-only, is it? The 'bands' of news vary in color according to the category of news, in color darkness according to the age of the story, and in size -- I'm not exactly sure but I think it has to do with the number of related stories. (Couldn't find that information on the site.) If you hold your mouse over the story, a box will pop up with the story's headline, a sentence, and the number of articles related to that one.
When I opened the site, I saw US news. You can change that to one of Google's other country-specific news sites by selecting one of the tabs at the top of the screen. To change categories (sports, technology, business, etc.) use the controls at the bottom right of the screen. And finally, the default Newsmap display is live. But you can change it to cached versions made within the last week using controls on the bottom left. I'm not sure I'd read my news like this every day, but it's an interesting top-down view. "
My visual acuity is limited to 'Lookit pretty colors' but representing Google News stories as a Flash app full of rectangles which vary in color according to topic and age is rather fascinating. So if you've got a Flash-enabled browser and a little time, fire up Newsmap ( http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm ).
Not exactly text-only, is it? The 'bands' of news vary in color according to the category of news, in color darkness according to the age of the story, and in size -- I'm not exactly sure but I think it has to do with the number of related stories. (Couldn't find that information on the site.) If you hold your mouse over the story, a box will pop up with the story's headline, a sentence, and the number of articles related to that one.
When I opened the site, I saw US news. You can change that to one of Google's other country-specific news sites by selecting one of the tabs at the top of the screen. To change categories (sports, technology, business, etc.) use the controls at the bottom right of the screen. And finally, the default Newsmap display is live. But you can change it to cached versions made within the last week using controls on the bottom left. I'm not sure I'd read my news like this every day, but it's an interesting top-down view. "
Search for Tomorrow - Computerworld: "Search engines get smarter, more powerful.
Future Watch by Gary H. Anthes
APRIL 05, 2004 - Most information junkies would be hard-pressed to name anything that has transformed their professional lives as much as Internet search engines have. The miraculous devices can take your hot topic of the day, scan millions of Web pages and in seconds bring back product announcements, research papers, the names of experts and more - things that would be difficult or impossible to find otherwise.
But as powerful as they are, search engines have huge weaknesses. For example, a recent Google search on the word Linux took just 0.4 seconds, but it had 95 million hits. Too bad if the one you need is No. 10,000 on the list..."
Future Watch by Gary H. Anthes
APRIL 05, 2004 - Most information junkies would be hard-pressed to name anything that has transformed their professional lives as much as Internet search engines have. The miraculous devices can take your hot topic of the day, scan millions of Web pages and in seconds bring back product announcements, research papers, the names of experts and more - things that would be difficult or impossible to find otherwise.
But as powerful as they are, search engines have huge weaknesses. For example, a recent Google search on the word Linux took just 0.4 seconds, but it had 95 million hits. Too bad if the one you need is No. 10,000 on the list..."
Monday, May 03, 2004
Everyone is watching how the current court cases will effect paid search ads (see below). One "simple"(?) approach that would work, especially if all search engines adopted it, is to maintain a list of everyone who objects to having competitor's results shown when a search on their trademark is conducted. If a search was done on AXA, the search engine should return something like "AXA is a registered trademark." No links, nothing, just a search window to try again. It could also offer a list of "non-offending terms like " Did you mean insurance, financial planning, etc., etc." In other words, the search engine could offer a list of related "terms" that someone could search by (and would certainly find competitors with).
Of course, those companies that don't object would have their site listed prominently in the search engine results just as they do now (assuming they've done a good job at SEO or paid their inclusion fees etc.). I'm betting that once companies find that search engines no longer drive traffic to their sites, complaints will go way down. Just a thought...
New Trademark Lawsuit Challenges Google: "New Trademark Lawsuit Challenges Google
By Laurence Frost, AP Business Writer
April 25, 2004
PARIS (AP) - AXA, the world's No. 3 insurer, is taking Google Inc. to court next month in the latest trademark challenge to threaten the heart of Google's business model - advertising. "
Of course, those companies that don't object would have their site listed prominently in the search engine results just as they do now (assuming they've done a good job at SEO or paid their inclusion fees etc.). I'm betting that once companies find that search engines no longer drive traffic to their sites, complaints will go way down. Just a thought...
New Trademark Lawsuit Challenges Google: "New Trademark Lawsuit Challenges Google
By Laurence Frost, AP Business Writer
April 25, 2004
PARIS (AP) - AXA, the world's No. 3 insurer, is taking Google Inc. to court next month in the latest trademark challenge to threaten the heart of Google's business model - advertising. "
