June 1, 2005
New Article Looks at SEO "Gone Bad"
Companies subvert search results to squelch criticism from the Online Journalism Review looks how companies are trying to squash bad public relations in search engines.
From the article:
It's not illegal, but it's SEO gone bad. Companies such as Quixtar are using Google-bombing, link farms and Web spam pages to place positive sites in the top search results -- which pushes the negative ones down.
and
"I don't have any problem with search engine optimization, and businesses have every right to do it. But my complaint is that this is something that you don't want everybody to know about, because you know that it's deceitful, and it's not about providing value for people. It's not about providing a great information resource that will be the #1 site on the Web. It's about flooding the Web with crap, and in that sewage, [they're] going to bury everyone else. That's my main concern. The implications go across to other businesses like Scientology." -- Eric Janssen, proprietor of Quixtar Blog and online creative manager for the Memphis Commercial Appeal's site
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 8:25 PM | Permalink
GoogleGuy Shares Advice About May 2005 "Bourbon" Update
Via Searchblog and Threadwatch some advice from GoogleGuy about the Google update named "Bourbon" that's currently underway.
GG writes:
Here's the advice that I'd give now: take a break from checking ranks for several more days. Bourbon includes something like 3.5 improvements in search quality, and I believe that only a couple are out so far. The 0.5 will go out in a day or so, and the last major change should roll out over the next week or so. Then there will still be some minor changes after that as well. So my "weather report" along the lines of http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000095.html would be a recommendation that rankings may still change somewhat over the next several days.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 6:29 PM | Permalink
eBay Goes Shopping and Acquires Shopping.com
Just crossing the wires is news that eBay (you've heard of them) has acquired comparative shopping search site, Shopping.com. According to the Wall Street Journal (sub. req) and TheStreet.com, eBay will pay about $620 million in cash or $21 per share for all of Shopping.com's outstanding shares. Shopping.com became a publicly traded company in October 2004.
From the WSJ:
Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, said in an interview that eBay became interested in Shopping.com when it noticed its sellers listing merchandise on comparison-shopping sites, as well as eBay. Shopping.com, which is free to consumers, generates revenue primarily from merchants that pay fees when Internet users click on listings to reach their Web sites.Mr. Cobb said eBay plans to integrate its listings with the product listings available on Shopping.com so sellers can reach another pool of buyers. "This is about continuing to fuel our biggest business," he said.
Lorrie Norrington, president and chief executive of Shopping.com, said the deal will bring Shopping.com users broader choices. The Brisbane, Calif., company, which will be operated as a separate eBay business, plans to marry its Epinions product and merchant review system with eBay's seller and buyer "feedback" system, which lets buyers and sellers rate their experience.
The news release announcing the acquisition is here.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 5:42 PM | Permalink
New Study Looks at What Drives Online Usage?
This isn't a search item but I think it might be of interest to some of you.
The Online Publishers Association and the Media Management Center at Northwestern University have just published some results of the "Online User Experience Study." It looks at, "how people interact with and relate to digital media, and determined how each of those specific experiences impact site usage." The complete study and more details will be released at a conference that begins tomorrow.
So, just what drives online usage? Here's a list of the top 12 according to the study.
TOP USAGE DRIVERS
- Entertains, absorbs me
- Looks out for people like me
- Regular part of my day
- My personal timeout
- A credible, safe place
- Connects me with others
- Touches me and expands my views
- Makes me smarter
- Turned on by ads
- Easy to use
- Helps and improves me
- Worth saving and sharing
This news release from the OPA has more info including details about the study's methodology.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 2:15 PM | Permalink
Yahoo Adds News Headlines "Module" to Yahoo Mail Home Page
A few hours ago I noticed that my Yahoo Mail home page (the page visible after logging-in) now contains a "module" labeled "In the News." It offers headlines and direct links to five news stories. A pull down allows the user to see headlines for six news categories. I wouldn't be surprised to see other new "modules" (RSS feeds? Stock Prices? Local Weather?) in the near future. Here's a screen cap of what I'm seeing.
Yahoo made a similar "tweak" at the beginning of 2005 for My Yahoo users who utilize Yahoo's clutter-free and customizable search.yahoo.com homepage. The changes (still available) allow a My Yahoo user to see current news headlines, view the number of unread mail messages in their Yahoo Mail inbox, and review the current Dow Jones market average. All of these "modules" can be made visible/invisible with a quick click.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 1:46 PM | Permalink
Edelman Reports on Google's Role as "Advertising Intermediary"
Harvard researcher and adware/spyware expert, Benjamin Edelman, has posted a new report that asks the question, "Are ad intermediaries responsible when their ads are shown by software installed improperly?" Advertising intermediaries are the companies that supply the ads to those unwanted pop-ups that begin appearing when spyware/adware and other programs install themselves onto your computer.
From the Media Post article: Adware Maven Investigates Google's Role In Distribution.
Edelman stated that he had analyzed 88,388 current 180solutions pop-up ads and found that 4,678--or around 5 percent--of those ads included Google's AdSense ads. That is, for that 5 percent, the pages that popped up on users' screens contained pay-per-click ads served by Google...Although adware isn't in itself unlawful, Google prohibits AdSense participants from sending pop-ups that contain Google ads. A Google spokesman said that Google and 180solutions have no business relationship, and that the company is investigating whether its AdSense publishers violated the no pop-ups.
The full text of Edelman's report including the case study about 180solutions is accessible here.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 1:10 PM | Permalink
Yahoo and Google Rewrite the Information Industry Playbook, Divert Ad Revenues from Newspapers
Information industry consulting firm Outsell has published a new study about how Google and Yahoo have "rewritten the information industry playbook."
Outsell wrote that Google and Yahoo! are "clearly diverting advertising revenue" directly from the newspapers and magazines owned by the 10 largest information companies. In fact, Outsell found that the newspapers owned by the New York Times Co. are struggling as the industry in general tries to "recapture ad revenue growth and young audiences."
More info in the Media Post story: Report: Google, Yahoo! Taking Ads From Newspapers.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 12:42 PM | Permalink
New Compilation of Research Papers by Google Engineers
A new compilation with direct links to eight research papers (the actual papers are not new) by Google engineers is now online. All of the papers deal directly with Google technology. A link to the page can be found at the bottom of the Google Labs home page. The original "Papers written by Googlers" compilation remains online and is available here.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 11:55 AM | Permalink
The Guidelines for Employees Who Blog at Yahoo
Blogging in the workplace is a hot-topic and it's always interesting to read how various companies and organizations handle or don't handle personal blogging by employees. If you're interested in reading what Yahoo has to tell its employees about personal blogging, you might want to take a look at the just published Yahoo Employee Personal Blog Guidelines (PDF; 3 pages) that Jeremy Zawodny made publicly available today.
In addition to the "official" guidelines the document includes advice to Yahoo bloggers from four well-known Yahoo's (Zawodny, Beattie, Conlin, and Boulter) who blog. I've only been able to access the advice Zawodny posted here.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 11:17 AM | Permalink
PubSub Launches New Government Info Feed Service
PubSub has launched a new service today called PubSub Government today that allows the user to quickly track news and blog postings about the U.S. Federal government as well as all state governments.
Now, instead of having to pick and choose sources or develop keyword search strategies, the user can simply select from a long list of pre-built subscriptions to a constantly updated stream of news and comment about government officials and committees from PubSub's database of sources.
Since time, effort, and often a lack of knowledge about how to build focused queries are often issues for many searchers, the idea of pre-building search queries for certain types of material and then making them easily accessible for the searcher (just click and go) is a very good idea.
One of the five laws of library science is, "save the time of the reader." This new service plays precisely to that idea. I'll spend some time with PubSub Government soon and will report back.
More info about PubSub and the new service in this news release.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 10:37 AM | Permalink
Kayak.com Travel Search Coming to About.com
Kayak.com, the travel metasearch/comparison engine, has announced a deal with About.com to become About's "premier booking partner" and will provide access to their service on the About.com About.com travel and cities and towns channels.
More about the new Kayak/About relationship in this EyeforTravel.com story.
I've liked and used Kayak.com, since it launched in beta last year. In February, Kayak left beta and announced a paid listings service. Kayak.com technology also powers AOL's new PinpointTravel travel search site.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 10:03 AM | Permalink
A Look at Last Week's iMedia Agency Summit
In his new "Search This" column, Kevin Ryan provides an excellent in-depth review of what was discussed at the iMedia Agency Summit in Amelia Island last week.
Ryan lists the following areas as "hot topics" of discussion:
- Google Bashing Kevin wonders if, "an ego check is in order for Google?"
- Advanced search targeting "Everyone?s waiting to see what Microsoft will do next, and targeting seems to be the name of the game."
- Desktops and fraud and standards, oh my! "As the desktop space evolves, the tools used for desktop search will have a direct influence on the ones used for web search and ultimately the advertisements associated with them."
- Insecticide for SEM "Will feature-rich search be all the rage, or will a simple search box (a.k.a. boring search) on a page do the trick?"
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 9:56 AM | Permalink
Broadband Helps Make Local Search a Reality
Greg Sterling from the Kelsey Group has a new article posted at Search Engine Guide that takes a look at how broadband web access has made local search move from hype to reality. Greg's article features a bunch of data from a recent Kelsey Group consumer survey. Findings listed in the article include:
- Internet Use for Local: The reach of the Internet as a source of local information has increased from 60 percent of total households to 70 percent (equal to traditional newspapers).
- Search Growth, Broadband Key: Most of the Internet?s growth as a local shopping resource has taken place via major search engines, the usage of which increased from 47 percent to 55 percent. That growth came exclusively from broadband users; dial-up consumers used search engines less in the second survey than the first.
At the end of the article Sterling writes,
One should resist the temptation to see Internet adoption as a zero-sum game vis-à-vis print media. Use of the Internet does not mean that consumers have abandoned traditional media. But it does mean that their local influence has diminished somewhat.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 9:41 AM | Permalink
Tiscali's UK Portal Now Using Google Web Results
Netimperative reports that as of today the search function at the Tiscali UK portal is now using, or perhaps better said "enhanced" with Google results.
Posted by Gary Price on June 1, 2005, 8:54 AM | Permalink
Finding Bloggers in Anytown, USA
Last week, Gary blogged about Blogdigger's new local search feature. Rather than helping you find local businesses or services, Blogdigger local uses some interesting technology to pinpoint the physical location of individual bloggers in the United States. I take a closer look at this new service in today's SearchDay article, Searching for Bloggers Near You.
Posted by Chris Sherman on June 1, 2005, 3:22 AM | Permalink
