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August 27, 2006 - September 2, 2006


Search Headlines & Links: September 1, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Search Forums Roundup: Sept. 1, 2006
    Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: TrueLocal Launches Canadian Local Search Engine - The Video Void: Where Are All The AdSense Video Ads? - Here Comes Social Media Optimization? - Google Apps for Your Domain, and more....
  • Google Images Labeler: Google's Challenge To Flickr?
    Google Blogoscoped spotted the Google Image Labeler game, designed to help Google improve its image search results through tagging. It feels like a catch-up game with human-powered efforts that Yahoo is embracing via Flickr -- plus it also looks pretty influenced by the work of Luis von Ahn and his ESP Game....
  • Search Engine Roundtable Starts Podcast: The Search Pulse
    This is a self-promotional post but I wanted to let you know that I will be launching a new search podcast named The Search Pulse. The show is run in conjunction with WebmasterRadio.FM, much like the Daily SearchCast, but only once per week, on Tuesdays at 5PM (EST). The show will recap the most discussed and important topics within the search marketing community and have expert opinion and commentary from Ben Pfeiffer and Chris Boggs. The persona of the show will be a lot like Bill O'Reilly's show but only on search. It should be one hour of deep discussion...
  • Google Modifies Navigational Search Results
    I reported this morning that Google has changed the way they handle navigational like searches. For example, if you do a search on a site's name (i.e. navigational) you now get a different type of result set then you did a week or so ago....
  • Google Has 15 Days To Provide Data To Brazil Or Be Fined $23,000 Per Day
    AFP reports that Brazil has given Google Brazil 15 days to turn over the data on the Orkut users they have been asking for. If Google Brazil does not comply, they will be fining them $23,000 per day. Google has said that they would work with Brazil to shut down Orkut some communities but according to the court filing in Sao Paulo yesterday, those requirements have been 'unsatisfactorily met.'...
  • Yahoo Tests Enhanced Yahoo Answers Integration In Search Results
    Threadwatch discovered Yahoo testing a new way of displaying Yahoo Answer results within the Yahoo Search results interface. The new interface is larger and more pronounced, but in the same location (under the main organic results) as before. Threadwatch posted a screen capture of this here. I have posted a comparison of the current integration of Yahoo Answers and the test integration of Yahoo Answers at the Search Engine Roundtable....
  • How Google Handles Accented Characters
    Last night WebmasterRadio.FM aired a show with Vanessa Fox and Matt Cutts of Google, they talked about so many good things including how Google handles accent characters (see archived MP3 here). Last night, Vanessa posted a more detailed explanation saying that a Mexico will return results for both "Mexico" and "México" and the same is if a searcher enters in México, Google will return results for both "Mexico" and "México." It is clear that the results differ in ranking order, but what makes that order change - well, to me, it is not clear from the post. Vanessa also explains...

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan on September 1, 2006, 3:27 PM | Permalink


Search Forums Roundup: Sept. 1, 2006

Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: TrueLocal Launches Canadian Local Search Engine - The Video Void: Where Are All The AdSense Video Ads? - Here Comes Social Media Optimization? - Google Apps for Your Domain, and more.

Posted by Chris Sherman on September 1, 2006, 11:08 AM | Permalink


Google Images Labeler: Google's Challenge To Flickr?

Google Blogoscoped spotted the Google Image Labeler game, designed to help Google improve its image search results through tagging. It feels like a catch-up game with human-powered efforts that Yahoo is embracing via Flickr -- plus it also looks pretty influenced by the work of Luis von Ahn and his ESP Game.

The game pits you against someone else. If you see a picture of a car, and you both label it car, you can proceed to the next image. You continue until your time has run out. Here is an image of Horcrux and Barry Schwartz from our blog (rustybrick) scoring 300 points for matching tags on three images.

Image search has been tough for search engines. They can't easily tell what an image is about, since there's no good way to "see" the images and categorize them. Some technologies to recognize faces, colors, shapes, objects and other things are improving. Still, it's hard with an image of someone like Martha Stewart. Is she a woman, celebrity, criminal or just Martha Stewart? Or all of these? How do you know which one or ensure that all of them are applied.

Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz is probably one of the most famous converts from turning to human power over computer power. He's been cited many times as having originally sought a technological solution to understanding what's in video and image data, then moved to embrace people power. Here's one example of that from a Wired article last year:

Horowitz's favorite project is incorporating people-powered metadata systems from two other Yahoo! properties: the recommendation technology from Yahoo! Music and the tagging features from Flickr, the photoblogging company Yahoo! acquired this spring. Google's original stroke of genius was figuring out how to piggyback on human judgment by following the links people make between Web sites. Horowitz is borrowing functionality from two Yahoo! properties to develop something similar for video.

We've just seen Yahoo make more of a commitment to using that human power when it started inserting Flickr results, rather than Yahoo Image results (which are computer sorted), into regular web searches last week.

Google, of course, has no Flickr to use. Enter the game. It's designed to get lots of people to quickly label images because they want to have fun. If that concept sounds familiar, it's because that's exactly the method behind the ESP Game, created by Carnegie Mellon professor Luis von Ahn.

I first learned of Ahn's work through a 2003 Associated Press article, Researchers Hope to Improve Web Searches. His ESP Game came later. The Google system looks like a copy of it, perhaps with his cooperation. Perhaps he's even there now -- I'm checking. We know he was there just last month, because here's a video of his lecture on classifying images (well worth watching).  That Martha Stewart example above? That came from his video. I've also embedded it below:

In his video, Ahn thinks that in two months, all images on Google Images could be labeled. It's not hard to believe after hearing that, Google jumped to try this.

Postscript: I heard back from Luis von Ahn, who sent me this:

Yes, Image Labeler is based on my ESP Game, which Google licensed. I'm not employed by Google, however, since I'm a full-time faculty member at Carnegie Mellon.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on September 1, 2006, 9:43 AM | Permalink


Search Engine Roundtable Starts Podcast: The Search Pulse

This is a self-promotional post but I wanted to let you know that I will be launching a new search podcast named The Search Pulse. The show is run in conjunction with WebmasterRadio.FM, much like the Daily SearchCast, but only once per week, on Tuesdays at 5PM (EST). The show will recap the most discussed and important topics within the search marketing community and have expert opinion and commentary from Ben Pfeiffer and Chris Boggs. The persona of the show will be a lot like Bill O'Reilly's show but only on search. It should be one hour of deep discussion with controversy, disagreement and fun on the topics that interest search marketers the most. More details on the new show here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on September 1, 2006, 9:33 AM | Permalink


Google Modifies Navigational Search Results

I reported this morning that Google has changed the way they handle navigational like searches. For example, if you do a search on a site's name (i.e. navigational) you now get a different type of result set then you did a week or so ago.

For example, a search on the popular buy.com will now show:

Show Google's cache of www.buy.com
Find web pages that are similar to www.buy.com
Find web pages that link to www.buy.com
Find web pages from the site www.buy.com
Find web pages that contain the term "www.buy.com"

Instead it will show you results that match the keyword phrase "buy.com." That includes links to possible competitors. I wonder if that will upset geico.com?

In any event, I have compared how Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com handle these types of navigational queries at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on September 1, 2006, 9:27 AM | Permalink


Google Has 15 Days To Provide Data To Brazil Or Be Fined $23,000 Per Day

AFP reports that Brazil has given Google Brazil 15 days to turn over the data on the Orkut users they have been asking for. If Google Brazil does not comply, they will be fining them $23,000 per day. Google has said that they would work with Brazil to shut down Orkut some communities but according to the court filing in Sao Paulo yesterday, those requirements have been 'unsatisfactorily met.'

We have a good historical round down of this whole Google & Orkut & Brazil issue here. Business Week also has a nice write up on the issues named Google's Brazil Headache, highlighting why Google is saying they'll comply if only the requests were sent to Google in the US, rather than Google Brazil.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on September 1, 2006, 9:20 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Tests Enhanced Yahoo Answers Integration In Search Results

Threadwatch discovered Yahoo testing a new way of displaying Yahoo Answer results within the Yahoo Search results interface. The new interface is larger and more pronounced, but in the same location (under the main organic results) as before. Threadwatch posted a screen capture of this here. I have posted a comparison of the current integration of Yahoo Answers and the test integration of Yahoo Answers at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on September 1, 2006, 9:15 AM | Permalink


How Google Handles Accented Characters

Last night WebmasterRadio.FM aired a show with Vanessa Fox and Matt Cutts of Google, they talked about so many good things including how Google handles accent characters (see archived MP3 here). Last night, Vanessa posted a more detailed explanation saying that a Mexico will return results for both "Mexico" and "México" and the same is if a searcher enters in México, Google will return results for both "Mexico" and "México." It is clear that the results differ in ranking order, but what makes that order change - well, to me, it is not clear from the post. Vanessa also explains what triggers a different interface language and how to restrict search results with the plus sign operator.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on September 1, 2006, 8:55 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 31, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Flickr #1 Photography Site In UK
    Hitwise is reporting that Flickr is the #1 photography site in the UK. This isn't really a surprise at all - what's more suprising is that it's taken a while to get there, and how it's got there. Flickr's UK market share has increased 39%, Photobucket's share decreased by 17% and Webshot's remained flat. This is apparently due good SEO and searches for soft porn using the brand name and various terms you can work out for yourself. In some respects this is worthy of nothing more than a wry smile and shrug of the shoulders. Unfortunately however, this may...
  • When Good Search Bots go Bad
    Most people realize the importance of creating a search engine friendly site, but many don't take the final step of assuring that search engine spiders or bots can fully access the site. Even worse, they fail to block bots from non-public parts of the site, or don't recognize rogue bots that are crawling a site to steal content or for other nefarious reasons. In today's SearchDay article, The Taming of the Bots, guest writer Tony Wright has coverage of a recent SES panel where search marketers and representatives from search engines offered tips on managing bots, whether their intent is...
  • Topix's Cool Year-Long News Archive
    Somewhat lost among all the search news earlier this month was Topix and its launch of an awesome year-long news archive. It's a great resource and much more than just a cool "click-o-gram" that you'll see at the top of news search pages. News search engines typically only let you go back in time for about a month. After that, new stuff flows in and the old stuff moves out. That's terrible if you want to find news articles about a particular event further back in time....
  • Ask.com Adds Emoticons Or Smiley To Smart Answers
    The Ask.com Blog posted that they have added a new Smart Answer to their suitcase, it is called an emoticon or smiley. You know they look like, :-) or ;-) or :D, you get my point. So now if you search on some of the more popular emoticon at Ask.com you will get a Smart Answer....
  • Google Uses AdWords Conversion Data To Fight AdSense Fraud?
    ShoeMoney blogged that at the Arbitrage Issues session at SES San Jose, during Q&A time, Kim Malone of Google said that the AdSense team may use AdWords conversion data to determine which sites are trying to fraud advertisers and users (often named Made for AdSense sites - MFAs)....
  • Search Engines Handle No Index Inconsistently
    Matt Cutts has a nice illustrated survey of how various major search engines deal with the meta noindex tag in Handling noindex meta tags. He finds inconsistency, with this being the summary:...
  • Keywords In URL May Help Rankings, Google's Matt Cutts Says
    The hotly debated SEO topic of, does having keywords in your file names help with your rankings, will probably start all over again. Matt Cutts of Google wrote at his blog, and I quote; Most bloggy sites tend to have words from the title of a post in the url; having keywords from the post title in the url also can help search engines judge the quality of a page....
  • Understanding Digg.com
    Valleywag has an excellent Cheatsheet on What is Digg? Basically, if someone asks you what is Digg, just send them there. It describes the basics, how it works, how to break it, Digg's competitors, the recent publicity on Digg, "How Digg fits the buzzwords," oh and don't say "I got digged," I believe it is "I was dugg." Full details on Digg at Valleywag....
  • Tips On Getting Listed In Local Search Results
    Patricia Hursh wrote a ClickZ column named Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results. The article goes over the what, why and how on Local Search. In short, how does one get included in the local results you see search engines providing? She recommends that you (1) update your business listings at Amacai, infoUSA, and Acxiom, (2) submit your site to local engines such as Google Local, MSN Local, Yahoo Local, Ask Local, and TrueLocal, (3) update your Internet Yellow Page listings at YellowPages.com, Verizon SuperPages, and SwitchBoard.com, and (4) make sure to have your address...
  • Google AdSense Sued by Suspended Publisher
    Steve Bryant at eWeek reports that a woman has sued Google after she was suspended from the program for clicking on her own ads. Theresa B. Bradley filed a lawsuit against Google for $250,000 for fraud and misrepresentation, even though she admits she clicked her own ads "to verify that the advertisers were not selling competing products"....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 31, 2006, 3:30 PM | Permalink


Flickr #1 Photography Site In UK

Hitwise is reporting that Flickr is the #1 photography site in the UK. This isn't really a surprise at all - what's more suprising is that it's taken a while to get there, and how it's got there.

Flickr's UK market share has increased 39%, Photobucket's share decreased by 17% and Webshot's remained flat. This is apparently due good SEO and searches for soft porn using the brand name and various terms you can work out for yourself.

In some respects this is worthy of nothing more than a wry smile and shrug of the shoulders. Unfortunately however, this may be seen in some circles as a justification for the calls for libraries to limit their (innocent) involvement with Flickr.

As reported by Michael Stephens in ALA TechSource back in July various emails have been flying around making rather silly claims. While these emails seem to have been centered on American libraries it will be interesting to see if the same thing happens in the UK. I rather doubt that it will, but it's worth watching out for. So, a slightly double edged sword for Flickr in Britain.

Posted by Phil Bradley on August 31, 2006, 12:43 PM | Permalink


When Good Search Bots go Bad

Most people realize the importance of creating a search engine friendly site, but many don't take the final step of assuring that search engine spiders or bots can fully access the site. Even worse, they fail to block bots from non-public parts of the site, or don't recognize rogue bots that are crawling a site to steal content or for other nefarious reasons. In today's SearchDay article, The Taming of the Bots, guest writer Tony Wright has coverage of a recent SES panel where search marketers and representatives from search engines offered tips on managing bots, whether their intent is good or ill.

Posted by Chris Sherman on August 31, 2006, 11:39 AM | Permalink


Topix's Cool Year-Long News Archive

Somewhat lost among all the search news earlier this month was Topix and its launch of an awesome year-long news archive. It's a great resource and much more than just a cool "click-o-gram" that you'll see at the top of news search pages.

News search engines typically only let you go back in time for about a month. After that, new stuff flows in and the old stuff moves out. That's terrible if you want to find news articles about a particular event further back in time.

Take Hurricane Katrina, for example. So a katrina search today at Google News, and the information is all from current headlines. Hit the advanced search page, and the best you can do is to go back in the "past month." The same is true with Yahoo.

Now let's try Topix. Do a katrina search there. After you're done, you should see a graph like this at the top of the page:

060831-topix.gif

The chart shows you the number of news stories containing the word you searched for. Katrina was huge news a year ago, which is why you see those giant spikes in September 2005. Then it dwindles down until the new spikes happening now for the year anniversary.

Click on the graph, and you can change the results. For example, click in the middle of February 2006, and you'll see how results then get narrowed so that stories after mid-February disappear.

Want to just see stories from around the time the hurricane hit? Easy. Click to early in the month of September 2005, and you're set. By default, stories are then sorted in date order. That's useful because at the moment, you can't narrow to a specific time frame.

In other words, say you wanted only stories from March 2006 about Katrina. You can eliminate all the stories after that month easily, just by clicking on the line between March and April. The chart from April onward will go gray, meaning that stories from that point onward won't be in your results. But stories from before March 2006 WILL be included.

Topix had experimented with a two way "slider," a way to filter out stories from before and after a set period of time. That didn't make it into the current release mainly because of performance issues -- it slowed down the pages too much. If those can be tweaked, it might come in the future. In the meantime, at least the fact that stories from the particular cutoff point you select will come first may help.

Note that by default, keyword searches at Topix include both news and blog results. Want one or the other? Use the "Show Blogs or News" links near the top right-hand side of the page.

Also remember that for any search, you'll find an RSS icon and link at the bottom of the page. This is an easy way to have news results fed to you over time.

Along these lines, a call out is also in order for the many categories of information Topix has, as you'll see here. I mean, interested in dinosaurs? Here's a channel on that. NASCAR Busch Series? Here's the channel

Don't like clicking on a graph or can't for some reason. Use the advanced search page. You'll find options to narrow by time along with other features. Unfortunately, while you can restrict by source, you have to know what source you want to choose in advance (Google News and Yahoo News have the same issue).

Many have wanted Google News to list all of its sources (and generally neglect to ding places like Yahoo News or Topix for failing to do the same). A source list would help with this type of narrowing, but these services tend to view publishing that list as giving out too much data to their competitors.

Phil Bradley just wrote about how nice it is that Accoona's news search (powered by Moreover) makes it easier to restrict by publication. Accoona's system is a good compromise. From what I can see, you get a list of publications only relevant to a particular search you do. That's an easy way to give searchers more feedback on how to narrow without revealing your entire list.

While a year's worth of news data is nice, I still want more. Already, time has passed so breaking news about Katrina -- from when it happened -- is no longer in the Topix database.

Over at Find Articles, I can go back further. Here's an example of a search for stories mentioning the word "katrina" only for Aug. 29, 2005. That sounds great, but the search is restricted to "free articles" that can be read on the web without payment. Rather than there being hundreds of stories, you get only 55 matches, many of those coming from Business Wire.

At HighBeam, I'm able to do the same search. Free articles only brings back 44 matches from magazines and newspapers, with Business Wire being dominant again.

There are other resources beyond these, such as LexisNexis and Factiva, as Reuters notes in its article about the Topix expansion. Both those require fees.

Actually, Factiva will let you search for free, as you'll see in this query on katrina. They even have a little "Discovery Pane" showing a chart of news over the past few weeks. It's in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Similar to Topix, you can click on any time bar in that pane to narrow in on results from a particular period.

Unfortunately, try to click through to any of the stories, and you get a prompt to buy the service. The same thing happens if you try to use advanced search feature to go back further in time. If you do a lot of news searching, the $69 annual fee will probably be worth it. But for the more casual searcher, something like Topix will be a great boon, especially if they can let the archives grow further over time.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 31, 2006, 11:01 AM | Permalink


Ask.com Adds Emoticons Or Smiley To Smart Answers

The Ask.com Blog posted that they have added a new Smart Answer to their suitcase, it is called an emoticon or smiley. You know they look like, :-) or ;-) or :D, you get my point. So now if you search on some of the more popular emoticon at Ask.com you will get a Smart Answer.

For example, a search on :-) brings back;

ask-emoticons-answer.png

It does not work for all the emoticons on the dictionary but it works for many. It is also kind of important to note that this has been live at Ask.com for, I believe, three months now.

They also have Smart Answers for Internet shorthand, such as abbreviations you use while chatting with friends or txting with people. One example that works is the brb abbreviation that stands for "be right back," but what does not work, is the IMO abbreviation that stands for "in my opinion."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 31, 2006, 9:55 AM | Permalink


Google Uses AdWords Conversion Data To Fight AdSense Fraud?

ShoeMoney blogged that at the Arbitrage Issues session at SES San Jose, during Q&A time, Kim Malone of Google said that the AdSense team may use AdWords conversion data to determine which sites are trying to fraud advertisers and users (often named Made for AdSense sites - MFAs).

Jeremy said, "Kim explained that in many cases they are using Adwords conversion data to tell what MFA sites were actually converting for advertisers. She said using this data helps them easily identify arbitragers." To me, this doesn't sound a 100% right. The Google web search team said time and time again that they would not use this data for any organic ranking purposes. I know the AdSense team is separate from them and is even more closely related to the AdWords team, but to use that data for purposes of detecting MFAs? I am not so sure about this. Anyway, I trust Jeremy heard this but I suspect Kim Malone of Google didn't mean for this to come out. Either way, I would love to hear back from Google on this topic.

Postscript by Jennifer Slegg: Actually, this has been known for quite some time that AdSense uses AdWords conversion data to determine how well each publisher's clicks are converting for advertisers. I covered this nearly a year ago on JenSense in a detailed post about how smart pricing works, and what factors go into determining it.

Postscript by Barry: Ouch! I stand way corrected. Jen is the guru on this stuff. I should have looked at JenSense.com prior to putting myself out like this. Nice to have experts to correct you.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 31, 2006, 9:46 AM | Permalink


Search Engines Handle No Index Inconsistently

Matt Cutts has a nice illustrated survey of how various major search engines deal with the meta noindex tag in Handling noindex meta tags. He finds inconsistency, with this being the summary:

  • Google doesn't show the page in any way
  • Ask doesn't show the page in any way
  • MSN shows a url reference and Cached link, but no snippet. Clicking the cached link doesn't return anything.
  • Yahoo! shows a url reference and Cached link, but no snippet. Clicking on the cached link returns the cached page.

Interestingly, if you use a robots.txt file to ban indexing, in that case Google DOES show the page in some ways. Matt acknowledges this, but it still raises the question why Google operates differently when the intent of both mechanisms (explained here) is the same. I've commented in his blog on the issue as follows:

Why would Google want to treat meta noindex and robots.txt differently. They are both intended to do the same thing — keep pages out of an index. The only reason we have two options is simply because some people can't setup robots.txt files for their sites, which might be within the domains of others. However technically they are implemented, it seems like they should be treated the same way.

My gut tells me most webmasters would prefer that all the search engines not list any pages that use either a robots.txt or meta noindex command.

From a user perspective, I think the technique of showing a link to a site if you can learn about it another way is fine, such as being listed in the Open Directory or from links on the public web to those sites.

The Yahoo implementation of meta noindex is odd — why show a cached page. But I can see a hole here. They might not be actually indexing the page but still caching is since the specific noarchive tag isn't also being used:

Sounds like summit time! Not only would a standard on how meta robots and robots.txt be handy, but it would also be nice to know if blocking a page also inherently blocks caching.

A summit -- or consistent standards, is something the first person commenting on Matt's blog is calling for. If it happens, perhaps it could also be extended to feeds. Ask.com & Bloglines Proposes Blog Search Exclusion Tag from us earlier this month covers a proposed standard from Ask.com. The robots are coming! The robots are coming! over at SEOmoz gives some brief examples of why this might be useful.

Matt's blog already has a good discussion going on this topic, so if you have thoughts and ideas, add more over there.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 31, 2006, 9:39 AM | Permalink


Keywords In URL May Help Rankings, Google's Matt Cutts Says

The hotly debated SEO topic of, does having keywords in your file names help with your rankings, will probably start all over again. Matt Cutts of Google wrote at his blog, and I quote;

Most bloggy sites tend to have words from the title of a post in the url; having keywords from the post title in the url also can help search engines judge the quality of a page.

Did Matt just say, that keywords repeated from the post title in the URL, can help "search engines judge the quality of a page." Honestly, I have been listening to Matt talk in person, on radio, on video and on forums for a long, long time now and I have never seen him come out and say this. So what does that mean? Why would he come out and say this? I personally always felt the keywords in the URL help a bit, but how much was always my question. So I always tried to code client sites with the keywords from the title in the URL. But for Matt to point that out specifically, does that mean that it is more important than I, or you, originally thought?

Up for debate, and where else do debates work best than a discussion forum? Discuss it at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 31, 2006, 9:33 AM | Permalink


Understanding Digg.com

Valleywag has an excellent Cheatsheet on What is Digg? Basically, if someone asks you what is Digg, just send them there. It describes the basics, how it works, how to break it, Digg's competitors, the recent publicity on Digg, "How Digg fits the buzzwords," oh and don't say "I got digged," I believe it is "I was dugg." Full details on Digg at Valleywag.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 31, 2006, 9:24 AM | Permalink


Tips On Getting Listed In Local Search Results

Patricia Hursh wrote a ClickZ column named Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results. The article goes over the what, why and how on Local Search. In short, how does one get included in the local results you see search engines providing? She recommends that you (1) update your business listings at Amacai, infoUSA, and Acxiom, (2) submit your site to local engines such as Google Local, MSN Local, Yahoo Local, Ask Local, and TrueLocal, (3) update your Internet Yellow Page listings at YellowPages.com, Verizon SuperPages, and SwitchBoard.com, and (4) make sure to have your address clearly listed throughout your web site.

Don't have time to do all of that, you can pay one of these two companies to do it for you; Relevant Ads or RegisterLocal. Also, if you are interested in understanding who local search engine powers who, see Bruce Clay's and TrueLocal's PDF chart.

Postscript Barry: Although Amacai is related to another sister company, Localeze, it does not actually manage local search content. Localeze, a completely separate company (Amacai is its subsidiary), manages local search content for local merchants.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 31, 2006, 9:04 AM | Permalink


Search Forums Roundup: Sept. 1, 2006

Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: TrueLocal Launches Canadian Local Search Engine - The Video Void: Where Are All The AdSense Video Ads? - Here Comes Social Media Optimization? - Google Apps for Your Domain, and more.

Posted by Chris Sherman on August 31, 2006, 2:59 AM | Permalink


Google AdSense Sued by Suspended Publisher

Steve Bryant at eWeek reports that a woman has sued Google after she was suspended from the program for clicking on her own ads. Theresa B. Bradley filed a lawsuit against Google for $250,000 for fraud and misrepresentation, even though she admits she clicked her own ads "to verify that the advertisers were not selling competing products".

The site in question is BravaCorp.com, and she claims it took her staff 100 hours for "placing and reviewing HTML code for Google AdSense" on her site which seems to have under a few dozen pages. In addition, Bradley is also claiming her "brief business relationship with Google caused her irreparable harm by damaging her reputation and the reputation of her products and services."

Google responded to Bryant that "the suit is without merit and that the company would defend itself vigorously". However, Bradley did not reply to requests for comment on the lawsuit. Bryant notes that Bradley also sued Yahoo in August, although for unknown reasons at this time.

The full story is at eWeek (including additional information from the author in the comments). My additional thoughts on the case are at JenSense.

Postscript Barry: Steve Bryant from eWeek has learned that she has also claimed that Google deleted all emails related to the AdSense dispute from her Gmail account.

Posted by Jennifer Slegg on August 31, 2006, 1:44 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 30, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Yahoo 'Goes' for Windows Mobile
    Yahoo announced today the availability of its Go bundle of services for Windows Mobile. According to the release, the content and applications available include: Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Search (Local, Web and Image), Yahoo Photos, Yahoo Address Book and Calendar and Yahoo News and related content....
  • Matt Cutts & Vanessa Fox On WebmasterRadio.FM Thursday AT 1PM (PST)
    Vanessa Fox just posted at the Google Webmaster Central Blog that she and Matt Cutts of Google will be live on WebmasterRadio's GoodKarma show with GoodROI (Greg Niland). You'll be able to tune in tomorrow, Thursday at 1pm (PST) to hear Matt and Vanessa talk shop. Tune instructions at WebmasterRadio.FM....
  • Over 1.2 Million Flickr Photos Tagged In 24 Hours
    Flickr geotagging has clearly taken off in a big way, with the FlickrBlog reporting that 1,234,384 photographs were geotagged in the first 24 hours of the service launching, with another 400,000 9 hours later. In general the service has been very well received and the ability to do more complex searches is a real bonus. However, there's a fair amount of disappointment outside the US and Canada; the maps used for the service are poor at best, with very little detail, making the service close to unusable. I tried it myself and there are large tracts of nothing in the...
  • Internet Archive Suit Settled
    News.com reported that the suit issued back in July 2005 over the Wayback Machine and the Internet Archive has now been settled. Of course, the terms of the settlement have not been released to the public. In short, there was a page archived by the Wayback Machine that had sensitive information on it, the Wayback Machine technically should not of indexed it but a "temporary bug" had it indexed for a bit. Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive said, "this is really a lawsuit between two parties and we got sort of dragged into it and I'm glad we're now...
  • Yahoo Hiring Up All The Brains
    The Wall Street Journal published an article five days ago named Hoping to Overtake Its Rivals, Yahoo Stocks Up on Academics. The article describes how Yahoo is trying to compete with competitors by hiring up all the smartest people out there. About a year ago Danny wrote about The Google Battle For Hiring Tech Talent and if you are a SEW subscriber you can see all of Yahoo's recent hires here. So for now, Yahoo's plan is to hire very bright "Economists and Search Gurus" to get any edge they can against Google and MSN....
  • Google's Accuracy Can Easily Cost Advertisers $285 Million
    Brandt Dainow has a interesting article named How Accurate is Google AdWords? In that article, he shows how Google has earned $6 billion from advertising during 2005 and $4.6 billion in the first two quarters of 2006. He explains that if the conservative estimate that 95% of Google's revenue comes from AdWords, that puts Google's income from AdWords last year at $5.7 billion and $4.37 billion in the first two quarters of 2006. Now, if Google's statistical accuracy in detecting invalid clicks is 95%, which is pretty good, then they "mis-billed $285 million last year." Read the full article at...
  • Windows Live QnA Beta Now Live
    The Windows Live QnA Blog announced the other day that Windows Live QnA is now a public beta, meaning you can test it out yourself at http://qna.live.com/. Question and Answer search engines are now the new hot social search thing. Yahoo has been pouring money and promotions into Yahoo Answers and Google has their Google Answers product for a while. We covered QnA in the past, the first time was when they had a private beta and the second time is when we saw some screen captures posted. We may have a more detailed review on Windows Live QnA in...
  • Download Books For Free From Google Book Search
    Google is now offering free, downloadable versions of public domain books that you can find in Google Book search. Unfortunately, there's no way to browse through a directory of books that are available. However, you can keyword search for them easily, sort of....
  • Google CEO Eric Schmidt Joins Apple's Board Of Directors
    Google CEO Eric Schmidt's looking for another small company to help run -- this time, Apple. He's just been elected to Apple's board of directors. Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt Joins Apple's Board of Directors is the press release on the move, with these quotes from the two main men:...
  • Accoona Review In Ariadne
    Accoonawas recently reviewed in Ariadne magazine by me. (If you're not familiar with Ariadne, it's a quarterly online magazine aimed towards the UK academic market, but with a general wide appeal). I won't go into the entire review since you can read it in the magazine but in brief I'm pleased with the recent developments of Accoona, particularly in the area of news and the easy ways in which searches can quickly be targetted by date, publisher, company, country and more. If Accoona has passed under your radar recently it may be worth another look, and if you're in Europe...
  • Don't Get Caught With Your Contracts Down
    Even if you've got great search marketing chops, you need to cover your bases with clients with both pricing and contracts. In today's SearchDay article, Pricing Models for the Small SEM Shop, guest writer Christine Churchill has coverage of a recent SES conference where a number of experienced pros shared tips and insights on the mechanics of running a successful search marketing shop....
  • Microsoft ContentAds Inviting Advertisers into Pilot
    Microsoft adCenter began inviting selected advertisers into the ContentAds pilot, which is expected to begin displaying contextual ads across selected MSN properties such as Real Estate and Money this fall. The text-based ads, which will be contextually targeted, also allow advertisers to target using both the demographics, geotargeting and incremental bidding tools. For all the scoop, please see JenSense.com...

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 30, 2006, 1:30 PM | Permalink


Yahoo 'Goes' for Windows Mobile

Yahoo announced today the availability of its Go bundle of services for Windows Mobile. According to the release, the content and applications available include: Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Search (Local, Web and Image), Yahoo Photos, Yahoo Address Book and Calendar and Yahoo News and related content.

According to mobile analytics firm Telephia, 34.6 million U.S. wireless subscribers accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in June, 2006. Yahoo Mail was the number one mobile destination, while Yahoo Search was number 10:

1. Yahoo! Mail
2. The Weather Channel (Weather.com)
3. ESPN
4. Google Search
5. MSN Hotmail
6. MapQuest
7. AOL Mail
8. CNN
9. Yahoo! Weather
10. Yahoo! Search

Although the mobile market is still young, the competition and adoption are both starting to accelerate. Mindful of what happened to most ISPs on the Internet (they were simply ignored by users, except for the bill), carriers are seeking to protect against "disintermediated" on the wireless web. Accordingly, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that U.S. carriers fear Google and Yahoo and are trying to work with smaller companies "that they can control."

We'll see whether that strategy will pay off given the enormous brand equity that Google and Yahoo have online. For their part Yahoo and Google have struck a number of deals with handset makers such as Motorola and Nokia.

The Yahoo Go initiative is about creating a unified experience across multiple platforms: mobile, PC, TV. Here's SEW's original post when the service first launched.

Posted by Greg Sterling on August 30, 2006, 11:57 AM | Permalink


Matt Cutts & Vanessa Fox On WebmasterRadio.FM Thursday AT 1PM (PST)

Vanessa Fox just posted at the Google Webmaster Central Blog that she and Matt Cutts of Google will be live on WebmasterRadio's GoodKarma show with GoodROI (Greg Niland). You'll be able to tune in tomorrow, Thursday at 1pm (PST) to hear Matt and Vanessa talk shop. Tune instructions at WebmasterRadio.FM.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 30, 2006, 11:19 AM | Permalink


Over 1.2 Million Flickr Photos Tagged In 24 Hours

Flickr geotagging has clearly taken off in a big way, with the FlickrBlog reporting that 1,234,384 photographs were geotagged in the first 24 hours of the service launching, with another 400,000 9 hours later. In general the service has been very well received and the ability to do more complex searches is a real bonus.

However, there's a fair amount of disappointment outside the US and Canada; the maps used for the service are poor at best, with very little detail, making the service close to unusable. I tried it myself and there are large tracts of nothing in the UK, and the map for London is not terribly good. However, the folks at Flickr are aware of this (as reported in the linked blog entry) and it's something they're working on, and are promising 'more, better, soon.' I (and a great many others) are looking forward to it.

Posted by Phil Bradley on August 30, 2006, 11:02 AM | Permalink


Internet Archive Suit Settled

News.com reported that the suit issued back in July 2005 over the Wayback Machine and the Internet Archive has now been settled. Of course, the terms of the settlement have not been released to the public. In short, there was a page archived by the Wayback Machine that had sensitive information on it, the Wayback Machine technically should not of indexed it but a "temporary bug" had it indexed for a bit. Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive said, "this is really a lawsuit between two parties and we got sort of dragged into it and I'm glad we're now out of it." Read the long suit we reported back in July '05 here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 30, 2006, 10:36 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Hiring Up All The Brains

The Wall Street Journal published an article five days ago named Hoping to Overtake Its Rivals, Yahoo Stocks Up on Academics (free article available at Yahoo Research). The article describes how Yahoo is trying to compete with competitors by hiring up all the smartest people out there. About a year ago Danny wrote about The Google Battle For Hiring Tech Talent and if you are a SEW subscriber you can see all of Yahoo's recent hires here. So for now, Yahoo's plan is to hire very bright "Economists and Search Gurus" to get any edge they can against Google and MSN.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 30, 2006, 9:52 AM | Permalink


Google's Accuracy Can Easily Cost Advertisers $285 Million

Brandt Dainow has a interesting article named How Accurate is Google AdWords? In that article, he shows how Google has earned $6 billion from advertising during 2005 and $4.6 billion in the first two quarters of 2006. He explains that if the conservative estimate that 95% of Google's revenue comes from AdWords, that puts Google's income from AdWords last year at $5.7 billion and $4.37 billion in the first two quarters of 2006. Now, if Google's statistical accuracy in detecting invalid clicks is 95%, which is pretty good, then they "mis-billed $285 million last year." Read the full article at iMedia Connection.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 30, 2006, 9:27 AM | Permalink


Windows Live QnA Beta Now Live

The Windows Live QnA Blog announced the other day that Windows Live QnA is now a public beta, meaning you can test it out yourself at http://qna.live.com/. Question and Answer search engines are now the new hot social search thing. Yahoo has been pouring money and promotions into Yahoo Answers and Google has their Google Answers product for a while. We covered QnA in the past, the first time was when they had a private beta and the second time is when we saw some screen captures posted. We may have a more detailed review on Windows Live QnA in the future, for now, you can play with it at http://qna.live.com/.

Postscript From Danny: I couldn't help but laugh at the top question I saw when I popped in, which is better, window live QnA or Yahoo Answers?. And you've got to love that among the top superstars who answer questions is this person, yahoo_answers_sucks.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 30, 2006, 9:18 AM | Permalink


Download Books For Free From Google Book Search

Google is now offering free, downloadable versions of public domain books that you can find in Google Book search. Unfortunately, there's no way to browse through a directory of books that are available. However, you can keyword search for them easily, sort of.

On the Google Book Search home page, you'll see two options below the search box. By default, "All books" is filled in. Change this to "Full view books." Now search for something you are interested in, Dante's Inferno, an example both the AP and Bloomberg cite in stories about the new feature.

When the results appear, click on one of the books that comes up, such as this one. Over on the right-hand side, in the column just below the title, you should see a "Download" button. That will let you download the book in PDF format.

Here's the problem. Some Full View books are full view for reading online but not for download, and Google doesn't make it easy to narrow in on only the downloadable ones. For example, here's a search for mars. Here's the first book listed. No downloadable option is offered.

Since Google seems to be making downloadable versions of anything that's out of copyright -- and since those are books published before 1923 in the US -- you might try an advanced search for books before that date.

For instance, here's a search for all books about Mars for the years 0 through 1922 (FYI, I did try to search for books older than 0 AD, but the system doesn't support negative/BC dates, as far as I can tell).

Overall, this is a nice feature to have. Next time I'm heading on a trip, I might try downloading some PDF books to read for the journey. But that leads me to improvements I want to make it easier to find good books:

  • Give me a Google Zeitgeist for book search, or something like Google Music Trends. I want to know what people are reading via Google Book Search. What's the most downloaded book and so on, especially in different categories?
     
  • Provide a "Downloadable Books" search option, in addition to Full View, so I know I'm absolutely only going to get back results that match what I'm looking for.
     
  • Give me better ranking of downloadable books. Somehow I think there are much better popular interest books that could be coming up tops for a search on [mars] than I was finding in my example above.

Looking for more info? From Google's help pages, Why is the Download button only available on some books? explains that only public domain books get the download option right now, and even some of those have yet to be enabled.

How can I find books that I can download?  explains briefly what I've already covered in more depth above, but that might expand over time.

What is a public domain work? explains what books Google considers to be in the public domain.

Google's not the only place offering electronic, downloadable books. Project Gutenberg is probably the best known long-standing site already doing this, and you can see some of the top titles here, similar to what I hope Google will do in the future.

That's also a handy way to see if Google offers some of the most popular titles that Project Gutenberg does. So far, the answer is no. I took this top ten list from Project Gutenberg:

  1. Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases by Grenville Kleiser (334)
  2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (250)
  3. Kamasutra by Vatsyayana (245)
  4. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete by Leonardo da Vinci (244)
  5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (220)
  6. How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin (197)
  7. The Victorian Age in Literature by G. K. Chesterton (187)
  8. The Art of War by 6th cent. B.C. Sunzi (170)
  9. Ulysses by James Joyce (168)
  10. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (165)

I did quick searches using the Full View option along with the titles and author names. I couldn't find any of them available at Google for download.

Gary Price has also written about ebrary in the past that offers books for purchase and, I believe, some limited downloads for free. Last month, he also wrote of the World eBook Fair making 300,000 titles available for download. World eBook Library still offers links to these works, but you have to pay $9 per year for access to them. Wow, look at all those sci-fi books from Baen, including the alternative history work 1633 (I thought 1632 was great, 1633 OK and 1634, ugh!).

Watch ResourceShelf, as Gary's sure to post on alternatives to find downloadable books when he gets going later today. In the meantime, back when he was with us, his More Sources For Ebooks & Electronic Text post has a lot of resources you'll still find useful.

Google's also still apparently pondering sales of in-copyright works, with publisher permission, something that was floated by the company as an idea earlier this year. Amazon's also got similar plans in the works, but I don't recall seeing that having launched yet, despite its announcement nearly a year ago.

Finally, Google's also just offered a way for anyone to put a Google Book Search box on their site. Now you can add Google Book Search to your site from the official Google Book Search blog has more, as does this instruction page.

Postscript: For more resources on downloading books, see Gary Price's story here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 30, 2006, 9:07 AM | Permalink


Google CEO Eric Schmidt Joins Apple's Board Of Directors

Google CEO Eric Schmidt's looking for another small company to help run -- this time, Apple. He's just been elected to Apple's board of directors.

Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt Joins Apple's Board of Directors is the press release on the move, with these quotes from the two main men:

"Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple's board of directors," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric's insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead."

"Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire," said Eric Schmidt. "I'm really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple's board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing."

Google CEO elected to Apple Computer board of directors from the AFP has the expected (and reasonable) speculation that this will mean closer ties for Google and Apple.

The Wall Street Journal in Google CEO Schmidt Joins Apple Computer Board (paid sub. probably required) notes some of the cross-pollination going on:

Mr. Schmidt's election deepens existing high-level personal ties between the two companies. Genentech Inc. CEO Arthur Levinson sits on the Google and Apple boards, while former Vice President Al Gore and Intuit Inc. Chairman Bill Campbell, both Apple directors, are longtime advisers to Google. Mr. Schmidt's appointment means half of Apple's eight-person board of directors has a formal relationship with Google.

Messrs. Schmidt and Jobs also share the battle scars from long careers competing against Microsoft, Redmond, Wash. Mr. Schmidt, one of Silicon Valley's most seasoned technologists, spent more than a dozen years at Sun Microsystems Inc. starting in 1983, rising to the post of chief technology officer during that computer maker's fierce efforts to establish the Java programming language as an alternative to Microsoft's dominant programming standards. Mr. Schmidt joined Novell Inc., a bitter Microsoft rival in the market for network software, in 1997 as chairman and CEO.

Want to comment or discuss? Join our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Google CEO Eric Schmidt Joins Apple's Board.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 30, 2006, 7:32 AM | Permalink


Accoona Review In Ariadne

Accoonawas recently reviewed in Ariadne magazine by me. (If you're not familiar with Ariadne, it's a quarterly online magazine aimed towards the UK academic market, but with a general wide appeal). I won't go into the entire review since you can read it in the magazine but in brief I'm pleased with the recent developments of Accoona, particularly in the area of news and the easy ways in which searches can quickly be targetted by date, publisher, company, country and more. If Accoona has passed under your radar recently it may be worth another look, and if you're in Europe you can try the .eu version .

Posted by Phil Bradley on August 30, 2006, 5:49 AM | Permalink


Don't Get Caught With Your Contracts Down

Even if you've got great search marketing chops, you need to cover your bases with clients with both pricing and contracts. In today's SearchDay article, Pricing Models for the Small SEM Shop, guest writer Christine Churchill has coverage of a recent SES conference where a number of experienced pros shared tips and insights on the mechanics of running a successful search marketing shop.

Posted by Chris Sherman on August 30, 2006, 2:55 AM | Permalink


Microsoft ContentAds Inviting Advertisers into Pilot

Microsoft adCenter began inviting selected advertisers into the ContentAds pilot, which is expected to begin displaying contextual ads across selected MSN properties such as Real Estate and Money this fall. The text-based ads, which will be contextually targeted, also allow advertisers to target using both the demographics, geotargeting and incremental bidding tools. For all the scoop, please see JenSense.com

Posted by Jennifer Slegg on August 29, 2006, 5:45 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 29, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Social Media Optimization: It's Like SEO, For Social Sites
    One of the coolest things about the rise of social networking and sharing sites like MySpace and YouTube are the new opportunities they offer to marketers, even to search marketers. Into that space seems to have come a new term, SMO -- social media optimization....
  • New Search Patent Filings: August 29, 2006 - Yahoo looks at Interactive TV and VOIP
    Yahoo patent filings include one detailing bidding for placement in paid search filed this past April, another that details a very interactive environment for watching television programming, a third describing a method of soliciting consumer reviews, and a granted patent for a Voice Over IP (VOIP) system that doesn't require Telephony Interface Cards. Microsoft had two new patent applications published, including one which provides a means of suggesting alternative spellings for words, and another that interacts with searchers to help them construct queries. IBM filed a patent application for building social networks within a business organization, and was granted a...
  • Update On Coupon Shortcut, Yahoo Adds Cheap Shortcut
    Last week I told you about Yahoo's new Coupon Shortcut. In that post, I said that the comments on Adam Viener's Revenews post seem to suggest that Coupon Cabin is providing the coupon codes, but Chris Saito of Yahoo! Shopping told me that Yahoo! “aggregates coupons/rebates from multiple sources but hasn't released specific partners.” When I talked to Chris, he also alerted me to the new 'cheap' shortcut which highlights products which have been marked down in Yahoo! Shopping/Yahoo! Product Submit. Just search for 'cheap [insert product]'. Here are some examples: cheap plasma tv, cheap shirts, cheap jeans....
  • InsiderPages' 'Answers'
    InsiderPages, one of the top "social directory" sites, has launched its equivalent of Yahoo!'s Answers: "Insider Advice." It's only available to members but allows people to ask open-ended questions of the community. The press release offers an explanation and some examples: Posting a question on Insider Advice is quick and easy. Members simply click on the Insider Advice button, type in a question and hit “submit”. They can add as much detail or background to their question as they like. Insider Pages alerts them to replies to their queries via email and then they can sit back and read the...
  • AOL Launches New Music Store
    Reuters reported yesterday that AOL has lunched a revamped AOL Music portal. AOL has reportedly added a new music store and a subscription based service that includes "audio and video streaming, programmed radio and downloads that can be transferred to compatible digital media players." The store has over 2.5 million songs and videos and costs $10 (5 pounds) to $15 a month for access to AOL Music Now....
  • Flickr Adds Geo Tagging
    Techcrunch reports on the Flickr blog announcement that Flickr has added Geo Tagging to their feature set. Geo tagging will enable Flickr users to mark the pictures with geographic specific information, this way people can know where you took that photo. You can also search for photos within a specific location and then refine that search based on a keyword. Flickr has two very useful screencasts on (1) how to geotag your own photos and (2) searching and exploring geotagged photos. These are neat features, for sure, but I think they seriously need to work on making the registration easier...
  • Yahoo Revamps Real Estate Portal
    The Yahoo Blog announced that they have revamped Yahoo Real Estate. They have also added some more Yahoo Shortcuts that pulls data from Yahoo Real Estate, directly on Yahoo Search. For example, a search on suffern, new york mortgage rates brings back a Shortcut with a chart of rates, with more links to more detailed information. They added some more shortcuts, including a listing short cut, so if you search on chicago real estate you get links to Yahoo Real Estate, if you search on home values you get a instant home valuation tool, if you search on a specific...
  • Stepping Down From Search Engine Watch
    I'm leaving Search Engine Watch as of December 1, given that its owner Incisive Media and I have been unable to agree on terms to renew my contract. I'm also leaving the Search Engine Strategies conference series at the end of this year. Leaving Search Engine Watch on my personal blog Daggle explains my reasons for departing in more detail. I won't get all mushy and sad to say goodbye to readers yet, since I'm still planning to work just as hard as ever for Search Engine Watch through the end of November. I have no news on who will...
  • Google, Favored Sites, and Editorial Opinion
    There's a lot of blog coverage of a new patent from Google, System and method for supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results, which was originally filed with the US Patent Office in December of 2000. I'm seeing a lot of questions related to the patent......
  • New Search Patent Filings: August 28, 2006 - Identifying Web Spam and Adult Images
    New Microsoft patent applications include one that attempts to identify web spam based upon signals within the content of a page, another looks at ways to search using pattern matching and relevance to answer specific questions, a third describes a method of relating people to each other during a search based upon things such as being co-authors of documents, a fourth defines a process of refining searches based upon previous searches for the same query or by providing additional context to searchers, and a fifth allows users or communities of users to provide reviews of web pages independently of the...

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 29, 2006, 4:05 PM | Permalink


Social Media Optimization: It's Like SEO, For Social Sites

One of the coolest things about the rise of social networking and sharing sites like MySpace and YouTube are the new opportunities they offer to marketers, even to search marketers. Into that space seems to have come a new term, SMO -- social media optimization.

5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO) from Rohit Bhargava to my understanding is the first use of this new term. In it, Rohit expresses how SMO and SEO can work together:

The concept behind SMO is simple: implement changes to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati), and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.

In other words, many who do search engine optimization have learned to build search engine friendly sites. Do that, and the search engines often will naturally reward you with traffic. But is your site social media friendly? Have you added the things that will get you into the new fertile ground of SMO?

It's worth considering. Conceptually, some of this stuff isn't new. For example, we long had people taking about ways to help others bookmark your web site. But today's new wave of social media sites can operate as a magnifying glass. Get that one person to bookmark you to del.icio.us and in turn you might tap into many other links. And those links, of course, flow back into helping with search rankings.

Rohit's got tips in his post above. If those aren't enough, check out Cameron Olthuis's Introduction to Social Media Optimization, which provides further tips. Loren Baker then goes on with further ones in Social Media Optimization : 13 Rules of SMO, recapping those from Cameron and Rohit and adding his own. For yet more, Lee Odden offers some up on New Rules for Social Media Optimization. Need still more? You can't go wrong keeping up with post from SEOmoz. Rand Fishkin's never happier than when he's offering some SMO advice. And someday I'm going to sit Dax Herrera down and debrief him on the many sharing sites that I've him frequent with the ease of a native. The sale of his mustache, while not technically on a sharing site, was still a classic of working another site (eBay) to drive traffic to your own.

For me, that's one of the biggest adjustments coming from the SEO world and into SMO, understanding that your presence can be in multiple places without being harmful.

Here's what I mean. Generally in SEO, it's good advice to have one single web site that you point to. Build traffic to a common domain, rather than divide it among various places. Sure, as you mature in SEO, you learn the advantages to having multiple sites. A corporate blog and a corporate web site can equate to double the representation in top search results. But there are limits, and you're still basically driving traffic to places you own.

With SMO, the adjustment is understanding that you have multiple places that while you don't own them still can be valuable to you. A Flickr profile can get you traffic in the Flickr space. Similarly, your del.icio.us bookmarks while on the del.icio.us site still might drive traffic. And have you gotten a MySpace profile yet? Go now, because you might decide you want it to drive traffic from MySpacers down the line.

Matt Cutts didn't -- and now someone else owns his valuable Matt Cutts persona over there. Meanwhile, I might never flow into MySpace the way my 16 year old niece does. But should I decide to do more there, I'm sure I'll wish that I hadn't let this Danny Sullivan get the name I wish I'd had. Still, at least I've staked my claim -- and Tom's even my friend. Except Tom's NOT my friend, of course.

Want to discuss more? We've got two good threads going in the Search Engine Watch Forums, Here Come's Social Media Optimization? and What Is Social Search?

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 29, 2006, 3:00 PM | Permalink


New Search Patent Filings: August 29, 2006 - Yahoo looks at Interactive TV and VOIP

Yahoo patent filings include one detailing bidding for placement in paid search filed this past April, another that details a very interactive environment for watching television programming, a third describing a method of soliciting consumer reviews, and a granted patent for a Voice Over IP (VOIP) system that doesn't require Telephony Interface Cards.

Microsoft had two new patent applications published, including one which provides a means of suggesting alternative spellings for words, and another that interacts with searchers to help them construct queries.

IBM filed a patent application for building social networks within a business organization, and was granted a patent for a method of checking pages shown in search results for viruses.

America Online looks at the classification of queries in a manner which seems very similar to the editorial opinion decisions made in a recently granted Google patent.

Mobile search company Geovector comes up with a way to make quick hyperlinked image maps from mobile phones with cameras.

Yahoo

System and method for enabling multi-element bidding for influencing a position on a search result list generated by a computer network search engine
Invented by Ted Meisel, Peter Savich and Thomas A. Soulanille
Assigned to Overture
US Patent Application 20060190354
Published August 24, 2006
Filed on April 24, 2006

Abstract

A system and method for enabling information providers using a computer network such as the Internet to influence a position for a search listing within a search result list generated by an Internet search engine. A database stores accounts for the network information providers. Each account contains contact and billing information for a network information provider. In addition, each account contains at least one search listing having at least three components: a description, a search term comprising one or more keywords, and a bid amount. The network information provider may add, delete, or modify a search listing after authenticated login. A search term relevant to the content of the web site or other information source to be listed is first selected. A search listing includes the search term and a description. A bidding process occurs when the network information provider enters a new bid amount for a search listing. The system and method then compares the bid amount with all other bid amounts for the same search term, and generates a rank value for all search listings having that search term. The rank value determines where the listing will appear on the search results list page that is generated in response to a query of the search term by a searcher.

Framework for providing ancillary content in a television environment
Invented by Michael Mills, Philip Mckay, Michael Hoch, Kumiko Tanaka Toft, and Rod Perkins
US Patent Application 20060184579
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on January 5, 2006

Abstract

The present invention provides functionality for retrieving ancillary content associated with the content delivered to a given user's client device. According to one embodiment, the method of the present invention comprises retrieving the context of a given user and identifying a plurality of characteristics associated with the user's context. The one or more characteristics associated with the user's context are displayed to the user and the user may select from the displayed characteristics. One or more items of content are retrieved based upon the user's selection and presented to the user on the user's client device.

Group polling for consumer review
Invented by Norman Shi
Assigned to Yahoo
US Patent Application 20060190475
Published August 24, 2006
Filed on December 20, 2005

Abstract

Using a computer system comprising clients at which users interface to the computer system and at least one review server that maintains a collection of reviews, each associated with a presentation, a method of collecting the reviews including providing a first presentation to a first user via a first client associated with the first user; maintaining a trust network linking the first user to the other users in the trust network; receiving a request for a review from the first user via the first client; routing a request for a review to the users in the trust network who are linked to the first user in the trust network; and saving at least some of the returned reviews in the collection of review.


Voice integrated VOIP system
Invented by Madhu Yarlagadda, Patrick Loo and David H. Nakayama
Assigned to Yahoo
United States Patent 7,095,733
Granted August 22, 2006
Filed on September 11, 2000

Abstract

An integrated VoIP unified message processing system includes a voice platform that processes data in native VoIP format. There is no use of hardware telephone interface cards (TICs) or software transcoding to transform data to PCM or other formats. Cost reductions are achieved by the elimination of expensive dedicated hardware and scalability is achieved by obviating the need for software transcoding.


Microsoft

Query spelling correction method and system
Invented by Justin Harmon, Kyle G. Peltonen and Shajan Dasan
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060190447
Published August 24, 2006
Filed on February 22, 2005

Abstract

A method and system for providing to a user a set of alternative query suggestions is disclosed. The method, system and computer readable medium product in accordance with embodiments of the invention includes generating an index of all words in a corpus of documents available to the application, generating a popularity table for the index having a popularity value for each word in the index based on occurrences of the word in the corpus, comparing each entry in the popularity table to suggestions from a word generator, compiling a lexicon of word generator suggestion words that are found in the popularity table, submitting each word in the search query to the word generator to determine suggestion words, and displaying to the user one or more of the suggestion words from the lexicon that are more popular than the query word.

Dynamic client interaction for search
Invented by Matthew R. Richardson and Robert J. Ragno
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060190436
Published August 24, 2006
Filed on June 23, 2005

Abstract

A system for guiding a search for information is presented. The system comprises a user interface that accepts a phrase and receives at least one suggestion based at least in part on the phrase. The system also includes a phrase suggestion engine that matches the phrase with the at least one suggestion. Methods of using the system are also provided.

IBM

Method, system and program product for building social networks
Invented by Margaret A. Strong and Albert Tien Yuen Wong
Assigned to IBM
US Patent Application 20060190536
Published August 24, 2006
Filed on February 23, 2005

Abstract

Under the present invention, a user with an existing profile page who desires to have a social network built will first submit a subscription request. If approved, an existing contact list such as a chat list or the like for the user will be compared to existing contact lists for other subscribing users to establish commonalities. Based on such commonalities, a configurable social network of contacts is built. Using a graphical representation of the social network, the user can (among other things) provide or read testimonials about the contacts therein; access the profile pages for the contacts; provide or read "ratings" for the contacts; be provided with levels/degrees of separation between the contacts; validate trusts and business relationships, etc.


Virus checking and reporting for computer database search results
Invented by Cary Lee Bates, Robert James Crenshaw, Paul Reuben Day and John Matthew Santosuosso
Assigned to IBM
United States Patent 7,096,215
Granted August 22, 2006
Filed on January 13, 2004

Abstract

An apparatus, program product and method integrate virus checking functionality into a computer database search environment to assist in protecting a user computer from contracting a computer virus when accessing search results. The generation of a display representation of a result set generated in response to a search request may be based at least in part upon virus status information associated with at least a portion of a plurality of result records identified in the generated result set. Moreover, an apparatus, program product, and method configure a first computer to receive virus status information generated by a plurality of computers, with such received virus status information stored in a virus database that is accessible by the first computer.

America Online

Web query classification
Invented by Abdur R. Chowdhury, Steven Michael Beitzel, David Dolan Lewis and Aleksander Kolcz
US Patent Application 20060190439
Published August 24, 2006
Filed on January 27, 2006

Abstract

A query phrase may be automatically classified to one or more topics of interest (e.g., categories) to assist in routing the query phrase to one or more appropriate backend databases. A selectional preference query classification technique may be used to classify the query phrase based on a comparison between the query phrase and patterns of query phrases. Additionally, or alternatively, a combination of query classification techniques may be used to classify the query phrase. Topical classification of a query phrase also may be used to assist a search system in delivering auxiliary information to a user who entered the query phrase. Advertisements, for instance, may be tailored based on classification rather than query keywords.


Geovector

Imaging systems including hyperlink associations
Invented by Thomas William Ellenby, Peter Malcolm Ellenby and John Ellenby
Assigned to GeoVector Corporation
US Patent Application 20060190812
Published August 24, 2006
Filed on February 22, 2005

Abstract

Computer pointing systems include schemes for producing image map type hyperlinks which are associated and stored integrally with image data from which they are derived. An object being addressed by a pointing system of is implicitly identified by way of its location and position relative to the pointing system. A geometric definition which corresponds to space substantially occupied by the addressed object is rotated appropriately such that it perspective matches that of the imaging station. When an image is captured, the image data (pixel data) is recorded and associated with image map objects which may include network addresses such as a URL. On reply, these images automatically present network hyperlinks to a user whereby the user can click on an image field and cause a browser application to be directed to a network resource.

My usual reminder about patents: Some of the processes and technology described in patents are created in house, and some are developed with the assistance of contractors and partners. A percentage are never developed in a tangible manner, but may serve as a way to attempt to exclude others from using the technology, or even to possibly mislead competitors into exploring an area that they might not have an interest in (sometimes skepticism is good.)

There are times when a Google or Yahoo acquires a company to gain access to the intellectual property of that company, or the intellectual prowess and expertise of that company's employees. And sometimes patents are just purchased.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Technology & Relevancy area of the Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Bill Slawski on August 29, 2006, 2:33 PM | Permalink


Update On Coupon Shortcut, Yahoo Adds Cheap Shortcut

Last week I told you about Yahoo's new Coupon Shortcut. In that post, I said that the comments on Adam Viener's Revenews post seem to suggest that Coupon Cabin is providing the coupon codes, but Chris Saito of Yahoo! Shopping told me that Yahoo! “aggregates coupons/rebates from multiple sources but hasn't released specific partners.”

When I talked to Chris, he also alerted me to the new 'cheap' shortcut which highlights products which have been marked down in Yahoo! Shopping/Yahoo! Product Submit. Just search for 'cheap [insert product]'. Here are some examples: cheap plasma tv, cheap shirts, cheap jeans.

The cheap shortcut is the latest example of vertical results (shopping) creeping (as Danny would say) into regular search results. If you're a merchant, it's more and more important to market through the shopping comparison engines. If you're not using Yahoo! Product Submit/Yahoo! Shopping, you're missing out on potentially valuable traffic from regular Yahoo! searches. If you're not using Google Base, you're missing out on potentially valuable traffic from regular Google searches. Everyone should be working on search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC), but don't forget to test out the vertical search engines.

Posted by Brian Smith on August 29, 2006, 1:33 PM | Permalink


InsiderPages' 'Answers'

InsiderPages, one of the top "social directory" sites, has launched its equivalent of Yahoo!'s Answers: "Insider Advice." It's only available to members but allows people to ask open-ended questions of the community. The press release offers an explanation and some examples:

Posting a question on Insider Advice is quick and easy. Members simply click on the Insider Advice button, type in a question and hit “submit”. They can add as much detail or background to their question as they like. Insider Pages alerts them to replies to their queries via email and then they can sit back and read the thoughts, ideas and experiences their friends and neighbors have to share on the topic.

  • “Good places in the Bay Area for a father-son camping trip?” –Mitch G., Los Altos, CA
  • “What should I pack in my very picky 5 year old's lunch?” –Kathy S., Valencia, CA
  • “Where's a pretty, outdoor place to take wedding photos in the area?” –Suzanne A., Garden City, MI
  • “Could you share your experiences at the labor and delivery ward of the hospital where I plan to deliver?” –Rachel S., Longview, TX
  • “Who has the best cooking classes in Palo Alto?” –Marcelo C., Palo Alto, CA
  • “The Pros and Cons of œ day vs. full day Kindergarten?” –Angela B., Aurora, IN

InsiderPages' competitor JudysBook has a similar feature. And Yelp offers a "talk" feature that is similar but broader. These sites also offer profiles and the equivalent of local blogs for people to share their favorites and recommendations.

At a basic level, traditional yellow pages publishers (e.g., SuperPages) are adding ratings and reviews to their sites, but the social directory sites are far ahead in that game. The traditional publishers would do well to study these sites and take a cue from some of their more engaging features.

The mix of traditional local directory functionality, together with dynamic maps, user reviews and the ability to ask for "word of mouth" referrals is a valuable combination of features that represent the next generation yellow pages product.

Finally, InsiderPages has launched a local "best of" print directory that it mails to members. This "reverse published" directory vaguely resembles a Zagat directory and helps brand InsiderPages and extend the value of its online product. As I've said previously, the combination of online and offline assets is a key to winning in local.

Posted by Greg Sterling on August 29, 2006, 12:27 PM | Permalink


AOL Launches New Music Store

Reuters reported yesterday that AOL has lunched a revamped AOL Music portal. AOL has reportedly added a new music store and a subscription based service that includes "audio and video streaming, programmed radio and downloads that can be transferred to compatible digital media players." The store has over 2.5 million songs and videos and costs $10 (5 pounds) to $15 a month for access to AOL Music Now.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 29, 2006, 9:21 AM | Permalink


Flickr Adds Geo Tagging

Techcrunch reports on the Flickr blog announcement that Flickr has added Geo Tagging to their feature set. Geo tagging will enable Flickr users to mark the pictures with geographic specific information, this way people can know where you took that photo. You can also search for photos within a specific location and then refine that search based on a keyword. Flickr has two very useful screencasts on (1) how to geotag your own photos and (2) searching and exploring geotagged photos. These are neat features, for sure, but I think they seriously need to work on making the registration easier sooner than later. Anyway, a lot more detail on this feature release at the Flickr Blog.

Postscript: Phil Bradley at his blog showed how Flickr Geo Maps don't work too well in the UK.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 29, 2006, 9:04 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Revamps Real Estate Portal

The Yahoo Blog announced that they have revamped Yahoo Real Estate. They have also added some more Yahoo Shortcuts that pulls data from Yahoo Real Estate, directly on Yahoo Search. For example, a search on suffern, new york mortgage rates brings back a Shortcut with a chart of rates, with more links to more detailed information. They added some more shortcuts, including a listing short cut, so if you search on chicago real estate you get links to Yahoo Real Estate, if you search on home values you get a instant home valuation tool, if you search on a specific Prudential listing ID in the syntax of Pru ID you get information on that listing. Yahoo has also added deeper integration with Yahoo Real Estate and Yahoo Maps, using the Maps API. The whole thing is greatly revamped and retooled, tons and tons of features - check out the Yahoo Blog or read the full release below.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug 29, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Yahoo!(R) Inc.
(Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced an
extensively revamped site which combines access to one of the industry's
most comprehensive databases of real estate listings with a new set of tools
and services that provide everything home seekers need to buy, sell or rent
a home accessible through Yahoo! Real Estate (http://realestate.yahoo.com).

Yahoo! Real Estate combines access to more than 3 million homes with
easy-to-use tools such as interactive maps, access to millions of instant
home valuations through www.zillow.com, mortgage tools with access to local
market rates and more. Tightly integrated with Yahoo!'s powerful search and
maps technology, Yahoo! Real Estate gives users all the information they
need to find the ideal home, and even an agent and financing -- all in one
easy to navigate Web site.

"Finding a home is one of the most important -- and often most expensive --
buying decisions a person makes in life. We've found that house hunters are
most interested in prices, proximity to schools and restaurants, financing
options and home values," said Andrew Braccia, Vice President of Search and
Marketplace, Yahoo!. "By integrating our leading maps, local and search
products into Yahoo! Real Estate, we are giving home seekers fast and easy
access to the comprehensive information they need to make the right buying
or renting decision."

Yahoo! Real Estate has integrated maps and local community information to
transform the online buying and renting experience online. With house
hunters spending an average of 8 weeks(1) researching homes before making a
purchasing decision, they are hungry for information about their soon-to-be
surroundings. Yahoo! Real Estate has added maps with satellite imagery so
house hunters can easily see where homes for sale or rentals are located and
their proximity to roads and other landmarks. Integration with Yahoo! Local
allows users to also see "inside information" about their potential new
neighborhood such as the location of parks, schools, restaurants and read
reviews written by other Yahoo! users. Users can also see a market snapshot
of each community with average house prices, and historical price trends.
Local mortgage interest rates and trends can be accessed on feature-rich
graphs so users can make more informed financing decisions. In addition,
links to Yahoo! Answers allow users to post specific questions about a
neighborhood, mortgage rate or rental, and access a living repository made
up of real life experience, advice and opinion.

When beginning a home search, 77 percent(2) of all home seekers use the
Internet to find everything from listings, financing options and home
values. To improve the search experience, Yahoo! Search has created new
shortcuts that make it fast and easy to find real estate information.
Examples include:

-- Listings Shortcut: Go to Yahoo! Search and type "Chicago real estate"
and it will return links to Chicago listings based on 3 different price
ranges.

-- Mortgage Rate Shortcut: Go to Yahoo! Search and type "Miami mortgage
rates" and quickly see the latest regional mortgage rates directly in
search results

-- Home Values Shortcut: Go to Yahoo! Search and type "Home Values" and
users can easily enter an address for an instant home valuation.

-- Prudential Home Listing: Through an agreement with Prudential Real
Estate, home seekers can even search for details on a home they see
offline, by searching the "Pru ID" found on a home's for sale sign.

Yahoo! Real Estate provides a complete set of tools and access to
comprehensive listings including MLS properties in partnership with
Prudential Real Estate, classifieds, apartment rentals, for sale by owner,
foreclosures, and new home listings. Yahoo! users can easily access this
information by visiting http://realestate.yahoo.com or by utilizing Yahoo!
Search or other Yahoo! properties such as Finance, HotJobs, and the Yahoo!
home page.

(1) 2005 National Association of Realtors(R) Profile of Home Buyers &
Sellers

(2) 2005 National Association of Realtors(R) Profile of Home Buyers &
Sellers

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is the No. 1 Internet brand globally and the most trafficked
Internet destination worldwide. Yahoo! provides online products and services
essential to consumers' lives, and offers a full range of tools and
marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users around the
world. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

SOURCE: Yahoo! Inc.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 29, 2006, 8:52 AM | Permalink


Stepping Down From Search Engine Watch

I'm leaving Search Engine Watch as of December 1, given that its owner Incisive Media and I have been unable to agree on terms to renew my contract. I'm also leaving the Search Engine Strategies conference series at the end of this year. Leaving Search Engine Watch on my personal blog Daggle explains my reasons for departing in more detail. I won't get all mushy and sad to say goodbye to readers yet, since I'm still planning to work just as hard as ever for Search Engine Watch through the end of November. I have no news on who will be taking over, but I or someone else from Search Engine Watch will keep you informed as Incisive makes those plans.

Postscript Barry: I wanted to sum up all the news on this topic. So I wrote at my blog the Reaction from the Search Community on Danny Sullivan's Departure. I warn you, it is pretty detailed.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on August 29, 2006, 6:30 AM | Permalink


Google, Favored Sites, and Editorial Opinion

There's a lot of blog coverage of a new patent from Google, System and method for supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results, which was originally filed with the US Patent Office in December of 2000. I'm seeing a lot of questions related to the patent...

  • Is a reranking of sites going on in Google search results based upon a favored or non-favored status?
  • Do search engineers at Google manually decide that some sites are more appropriate for certain queries than others?
  • Is inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory or the DMOZ a way to become a favored site?
  • Does this patent describe Google Co-op?
  • Who are the "editors" that this patent talks about when stating that editors may determine query themes and a favored or non-favored status for a site?
  • Is Google using the process described in this patent?

Steve Bryant surmises over at Google Watch that the New Google Patent Hints at Direction of Social Search. Rand Fiskin notes that the patent may be an indication that Google is looking at the "quality of pages," and points out that a mention is made of ranking "sites" instead of "pages" in Favored vs. Non-Favored Sources. I tried to break down the language of the patent into some easier to digest pieces at SEO by the Sea, in Google looks at Query Themes and Reranking Based upon Editorial Opinion

A good number of white papers and patent applications published since the filing of this patent have looked at user queries and user behavior in fairly complex ways, such as chaining user queries together in sessions to identify user intent, and exploring how a searcher interacts with search results. It's imaginable that if Google has adopted something like what is described in this patent, that decisions regarding query themes and favored status are based on much more than a simple thumbs up or thumbs down.

Posted by Bill Slawski on August 28, 2006, 8:05 PM | Permalink


New Search Patent Filings: August 28, 2006 - Identifying Web Spam and Adult Images

New Microsoft patent applications include one that attempts to identify web spam based upon signals within the content of a page, another looks at ways to search using pattern matching and relevance to answer specific questions, a third describes a method of relating people to each other during a search based upon things such as being co-authors of documents, a fourth defines a process of refining searches based upon previous searches for the same query or by providing additional context to searchers, and a fifth allows users or communities of users to provide reviews of web pages independently of the owners of sites being reviewed.

Yahoo (Overture) was granted a patent on the bidding and ranking of pages through paid search. Yahoo also had published two patent applications which explore social networks, and previewing, inviting and granting authorization for others to view specific pages within that social network.

Ask.com looks at adult images, and a way to identify them as being adult content without performing a visual analysis of those images, but instead by looking a query sessions related to the pictures.

Oracle was granted a patent which mines information about users from query logs and user profiles to retrieve recommendations for pages, expansion of queries based upon that information, and a thematic clustering of those search results.

Microsoft

The following patent application covers some very similar ground as a white paper from Microsoft Research titled Detecting Spam Web Pages through Content Analysis (pdf). It looks at a number of ways that web spam might be identified from the content on a page, though the authors note that the methods involved would likely be used in conjunction with other indications of web spam, perhaps like the ones discussed in Spam, Damn Spam, and Statistics, and in an earlier patent application on Content Evaluation.

Using content analysis to detect spam web pages
Invented by Marc Alexander Najork, Dennis Craig Fetterly, Mark Steven Manasse, and Alexandros Ntoulas
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060184500
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on February 11, 2005

Abstract

Evaluating content includes receiving content, analyzing the content for web spam using a content-based identification technique, and classifying the content according to the analysis. An index of analyzed contents may be created. A system for evaluating content includes a storage device configured to store data and a processor configured to analyze content using content-based identification techniques to determine whether web spam is present.


Search methods and associated systems
Invented by Larry Israel and John Solaro
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060184523
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on February 15, 2005

Abstract

Search methods and associated systems are disclosed. One aspect of the invention is directed toward search methods and associated systems. One aspect of the invention is directed toward a computer-implemented searching method that includes receiving an input having a format. The method further includes finding a pattern that matches the format of the input using a rule set. The method still further includes determining a subject of the input based on the pattern, finding a result record corresponding to the subject, and sending an output based on the result record. In certain embodiments, the method can further include determining at least one qualifier based on the pattern and finding a result record corresponding to the subject and the at least one qualifier. In still other embodiments, the method can further include determining a subject of the input based on the pattern and at least one synonym rule.

Method and system for mining information based on relationships
Invented by Benyu Zhang, Wei-Ying Ma, Gu Xu, Hongbin Gao, Zheng Chen, Randy Hinrichs, Hua-Jun Zeng
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060184481
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on February 11, 2005

Abstract

A method and system for identifying information about people is provided. The information system identifies groups of people that have relationships based on their relationships to documents or more generally to objects. The information system initially is provided with an indication of which people have which relationships to which documents. The information system then identifies clusters of people based on having a relationship to the same objects. The information system may also identify clusters of related objects associated with a cluster of people. When a user wants to identify information about a person, the user can provide the name of that person to the information system. The information system then can retrieve and display the names of the other people who are in the same cluster as the person.

Content searching and configuration of search results
Invented by Greg A. Kohanim, Jonathan L. Wiedemann, Christine A. Jefson, and David Aaron Ward Snelling
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060184512
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on February 17, 2005

Abstract

Content searching and configuration of search results are described. In an implementation, a method includes in response to a search query, selecting a keyword based on heuristic data which describes a plurality of previously performed searched. A search is performed utilizing the search query and the selected keyword to locate content.


Method and system for contextual site rating
Invented by Peter G. Williams, Mark A. Wilson-Thomas, Martin Peck, Robert J. Wilcox, Andrew Burns, Martin Grayson
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060184608
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on February 11, 2005

Abstract

The present invention allows a user or community of users to rate content across a variety of web sites and display contextual sensitive reviews. Rather than the rating information being controlled by the web site owner, the rating information may be owned and controlled by a third party. Users have the ability to rate a web site, review ratings from a web site, or operate a web site rating system.


Yahoo

System and method for influencing a position on a search result list generated by a computer network search engine
Invented by Darren J. Davis, Matthew Derer, Johann Garcia, Larry Greco, Tod E. Kurt, Thomas Kwong, Jonathan C. Lee, Ka Luk Lee, Preston Pfarner, and Steve Skovran
Assigned to Overture
United States Patent 7,092,901
Granted August 15, 2006
Filed on July 24, 2001

Abstract

A system and method for enabling information providers using a computer network such as the Internet to influence a position for a search listing within a search result list generated by an Internet search engine. The system and method of the present invention provides a database having accounts for the network information providers. Each account contains contact and billing information for a network information provider. In addition, each account contains at least one search listing having at least three components: a description, a search term comprising one or more keywords, and a bid amount. The network information provider may add, delete, or modify a search listing after logging into his or her account via an authentication process. The network information provider influences a position for a search listing in the provider's account by first selecting a search term relevant to the content of the web site or other information source to be listed. The network information provider enters the search term and the description into a search listing. The network information provider influences the position for a search listing through a continuous online competitive bidding process. The bidding process occurs when the network information provider enters a new bid amount, which is preferably a money amount, for a search listing. The system and method of the present invention then compares this bid amount with all other bid amounts for the same search term, and generates a rank value for all search listings having that search term. The rank value generated by the bidding process determines where the network information providers listing will appear on the search results list page that is generated in response to a query of the search term by a searcher located at a client computer on the computer network. A higher bid by a network information provider will result in a higher rank value and a more advantageous placement.


Control for enabling a user to preview display of selected content based on another user's authorization level
Invented by Michael La Rotonda, Neal Sample, Paul Brody, Ellen Sue Perelman, Ericson DeJesus
Assigned to Yahoo
US Patent Application 20060184578
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on December 20, 2005

Abstract

Enabling a first user to preview content as it would be seen by a second user, if the second user had a selected user relationship with the first user. The selected user relationship may comprise a relationship degree, a relationship category, a relationship rating, and/or other form of relationship. In one embodiment, a user interface enables the first user to assign user relationships to portions of content and to other users. The first user selects a user relationship, which is used to access those portions of content that are associated with the first user and assigned the selected user relationship. The corresponding portions of content are used to generate a preview display for the first user, illustrating the portions of content that would be accessible to other users assigned the same user relationship or assigned a closer user relationship. Preview may be generated by a server or a local client.


Control for inviting an unauthenticated user to gain access to display of content that is otherwise accessible with an authentication mechanism
Invented by Michael La Rotonda, Neal Sample; ; (Santa Cruz, CA) ; F. Randall Farmer, Paul Brody, and Ellen Sue Perelman
Assigned to Yahoo
US Patent Application 20060184997
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on December 20, 2005

Abstract

Enabling an unauthenticated user to access content associated with an authenticated user as though the unauthenticated user had a selected user relationship with the authenticated user. The user relationship may comprise a relationship degree, a relationship category, a relationship rating, and/or the like. An invitation to join an electronic service, such as an online social network, is sent to the unauthenticated user at an address known to the authenticated user. The invitation includes a time-limited token, such as a URL, that includes an invitation identifier, which relates the invitation to the authenticated user content. The token may be encrypted in the invitation. The unauthenticated user returns the token as a request to preview the authenticated user content without first becoming an authenticated user of the electronic service. If the token is still valid, access is granted. The unauthenticated user may also request to establish a connection with the authenticated user.


Ask.com

Methods and apparatuses to determine adult images by query association
Invented by Kaushal Kurapati and Rahul Lahiri
US Patent Application 20060184577
Published August 17, 2006
Filed on May 18, 2005

Abstract

Various methods and apparatuses are described for an adult content detection implementation. In one embodiment, a method detects adult content images by tracked query association to a user's query for an image search. The set of images returned in response to the user's query on a search engine are based on whether one or more images in the set are classified as an adult content image.


Oracle

System and method for search and recommendation based on usage mining
Invented by Omar Alonso and Atul Kumar
Assigned to Oracle
United States Patent 7,092,936
Granted August 15, 2006
Filed on August 22, 2001

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for performing searching that generates improved queries, retrieves meaningful and relevant information, and presents the retrieved information to the user in a useful and comprehensive manner is described. The method of searching comprises the steps of: receiving from a user a search query requesting information, retrieving at least one recommendation relating to the search query, generating an expanded query based on the received query, performing a search using the expanded query to retrieve documents, and generating themes relating to the retrieved documents. The at least one recommendation relating to the search query is retrieved from a recommendation database. The recommendation database is generated by performing the steps of: performing data mining using users search query logs, user search patterns, and user profile information to generate a plurality of recommendations relating to search query strings, generating a data structure including the recommendations relating to search query strings, and generating a text index based on information in the data structure.

Posted by Bill Slawski on August 28, 2006, 6:29 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: August 28, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • EBay-Google PPCall Deal: More Than Meets The Eye
    Barry posted earlier about the reported Google-eBay AdSense and "Click to Call" deal. The press stories were somewhat vague and incorrectly implied all elements of the deal to be international only. I subsequently got some clarity from Skype on the implementation. The big deal here is that this is PPCall coming to both Skype/eBay and Google in a potentially big way. The "Click to Call"/PPCall piece of the deal is U.S. only, to be implemented in mid '07. It will then go international after that. Google and Skype are opening up both of their voice clients to PPCall -- it's...
  • Playing SEM with the Big Dogs
    Search marketing used to be a playground mostly for small and medium sized businesses with relatively modest budgets. But recently, larger players have entered the game, driving up costs and making it more expensive for smaller players to compete. But not to worry: At a recent Search Engine Strategies panel in San Jose, a number of savvy search marketers offered tips on how to level the playing field. Guest writer Patricia Hursh has coverage of the panel session in today's SearchDay article, Winning Big With a Small Search Marketing Budget....
  • Google Sued Over Personalized Search Patent
    Yonhap News reports that Park & Opc Co., a South Korean ISP, is suing Google over a patent dispute. Park & Opc Co. claims they have a patent on personalized search that Google has violated....
  • Google Seeks Offices In Seattle Again
    The Seattle Pi reports that Google is seeking new office space in Seattle. Google is highly expected to sign a lease for Tower 333, a 430,000-square- foot office building that was formerly known as the Bellevue Technology Tower. They are reportedly looking to occupy seventy-five percent of that building. The Seattle Pi takes this office as an advance at encouraging Microsoft employees to jump ship to Google. As an FYI, Google has office space in Seattle, as Gary Price reported back in 2004....
  • Google Blogoscoped's Philipp Lenssen Gets Married
    I just learned that Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped is a married man. Many of you know we often cite Philipp here, he often finds the latest and greatest with Google before anyone else does. You can see a picture of the happy couple, posted by Philipp here. If you wish to send a note to Philipp, you can do so at this thread....
  • eBay Signs International Paid Search Deal With Google
    The Wall Street Journal reports that eBay has reached a deal with Google to offer up paid search ads "on eBay's auction web sites outside the U.S." The multiyear deal is to begin in early 2007 and should include Click to Call features in some of the ads. In late May, we reported that eBay and Yahoo signed a deal, where Yahoo would be eBay's "exclusive provider of graphical ads and Yahoo will promote eBay's PayPal to its merchants and publishers."...
  • Yahoo Removes Blog Search For Short Term
    The blog community is buzzing over Yahoo removing blog search, including removing the Yahoo News integration of blog search or even accessing blog search at Yahoo. What is up? Why did Yahoo remove it? The only official quote I have seen was captured by Greg Jarboe at SEO PR, where he has a quote from Brian Nelson of Yahoo who told Greg that this is a temporary thing. In an email sent from Brian to Greg, Brian said that Blog search has "temporarily taken offline to retool the offering." Brian also adds that Yahoo "might be thinking bigger picture when...
  • Google Apps for Your Domain Live
    Google announced the official launch of Google Apps for Your Domain. Everyone is talking about how this is an enterprise solution because it allows companies use Google products, currently Gmail, Calendar, Page Creator and Talk on their own domain. You can expect many of Google's other products to be rolled into this service, including Google Analytics, Google Notebook, Google Spreadsheets and others....
  • New Search Patent Filings: August 27, 2006 - Google's Recommendations, IBM's Speedier Pagerank, Napster's Search
    Google looks at search history and user behavior to rerank results and offer ecommerce recommendations, provides a way to rewrite navigation on web pages for users of a proxy system to access the web, and shows some of the inner workings of Desktop Search. IBM was granted a patent based upon providing advertisements to people based upon sites that they have visited, another that allows people to download information from specified pages which can be indexed and searched locally, a way of speeding up pagerank, and a method for organizing bookmarks. Microsoft published a couple of patent applications, one which...

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 28, 2006, 4:21 PM | Permalink


EBay-Google PPCall Deal: More Than Meets The Eye

Barry posted earlier about the reported Google-eBay AdSense and "Click to Call" deal. The press stories were somewhat vague and incorrectly implied all elements of the deal to be international only. I subsequently got some clarity from Skype on the implementation. The big deal here is that this is PPCall coming to both Skype/eBay and Google in a potentially big way.

The "Click to Call"/PPCall piece of the deal is U.S. only, to be implemented in mid '07. It will then go international after that. Google and Skype are opening up both of their voice clients to PPCall -- it's really about accelerating adoption of PPCall. Whether there will be cross-distribution of advertisers remains to be determined, but I would assume yes eventually.

Here's a longer post on specifics of the PPCall piece of the deal on my blog.

Posted by Greg Sterling on August 28, 2006, 12:40 PM | Permalink


Playing SEM with the Big Dogs

Search marketing used to be a playground mostly for small and medium sized businesses with relatively modest budgets. But recently, larger players have entered the game, driving up costs and making it more expensive for smaller players to compete. But not to worry: At a recent Search Engine Strategies panel in San Jose, a number of savvy search marketers offered tips on how to level the playing field. Guest writer Patricia Hursh has coverage of the panel session in today's SearchDay article, Winning Big With a Small Search Marketing Budget.

Posted by Chris Sherman on August 28, 2006, 12:03 PM | Permalink


Google Sued Over Personalized Search Patent

Yonhap News reports that Park & Opc Co., a South Korean ISP, is suing Google over a patent dispute. Park & Opc Co. claims they have a patent on personalized search that Google has violated.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 28, 2006, 9:30 AM | Permalink


Google Seeks Offices In Seattle Again

The Seattle Pi reports that Google is seeking new office space in Seattle. Google is highly expected to sign a lease for Tower 333, a 430,000-square- foot office building that was formerly known as the Bellevue Technology Tower. They are reportedly looking to occupy seventy-five percent of that building. The Seattle Pi takes this office as an advance at encouraging Microsoft employees to jump ship to Google. As an FYI, Google has office space in Seattle, as Gary Price reported back in 2004.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 28, 2006, 9:08 AM | Permalink


Google Blogoscoped's Philipp Lenssen Gets Married

I just learned that Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped is a married man. Many of you know we often cite Philipp here, he often finds the latest and greatest with Google before anyone else does. You can see a picture of the happy couple, posted by Philipp here. If you wish to send a note to Philipp, you can do so at this thread.

What is with search bloggers tying the knot this year? Nathan Weinberg wedded this year, Gary Price recently got engaged, I got married this year and now Philipp. Did I miss anyone?

Congrats Philipp! May you both have a long and happy life together.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 28, 2006, 8:55 AM | Permalink


eBay Signs International Paid Search Deal With Google

The Wall Street Journal reports that eBay has reached a deal with Google to offer up paid search ads "on eBay's auction web sites outside the U.S." The multiyear deal is to begin in early 2007 and should include Click to Call features in some of the ads. In late May, we reported that eBay and Yahoo signed a deal, where Yahoo would be eBay's "exclusive provider of graphical ads and Yahoo will promote eBay's PayPal to its merchants and publishers."

Postscript: See also Greg Sterling's update on the click to call component, EBay-Google PPCall Deal: More Than Meets The Eye

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 28, 2006, 8:32 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Removes Blog Search For Short Term

The blog community is buzzing over Yahoo removing blog search, including removing the Yahoo News integration of blog search or even accessing blog search at Yahoo. What is up? Why did Yahoo remove it? The only official quote I have seen was captured by Greg Jarboe at SEO PR, where he has a quote from Brian Nelson of Yahoo who told Greg that this is a temporary thing. In an email sent from Brian to Greg, Brian said that Blog search has "temporarily taken offline to retool the offering." Brian also adds that Yahoo "might be thinking bigger picture when it comes to blog content.”

So, don't panic, we know blog results have been removed from Yahoo News, we know you cannot access Yahoo Blog search, we know your blog search RSS feeds are not returning results - but now Yahoo has left itself open to hit the blog community with something huge.

Why didn't Yahoo say anything about this prior to pulling the plug? Why didn't they issue a "maintenance announcement" prior to removing Yahoo blog search? These are very good questions. I do not have the answer to them. But some speculate that Yahoo pulled blog search due to a "rampant splog problem."

Time will tell. But I would expect blog search back soon from Yahoo.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 28, 2006, 8:15 AM | Permalink


Google Apps for Your Domain Live

Google announced the official launch of Google Apps for Your Domain. Everyone is talking about how this is an enterprise solution because it allows companies use Google products, currently Gmail, Calendar, Page Creator and Talk on their own domain. You can expect many of Google's other products to be rolled into this service, including Google Analytics, Google Notebook, Google Spreadsheets and others.

Let's step back, on February 10th Google launched a beta program named Gmail for Domains, they initially got some universities to sign up and then some small business also signed up (from what I hear).

Do you think IBM, Oracle, Pitney Bowes or other Fortune 500 would switch over? Is it Google's hope that they would consider it? Google seems like they will be offering a premium version of this service, but they don't have one at this time. Would I sign up my company on this program? Honestly, I highly doubt it. Why? Privacy, configurability, security, expandability and something doesn't sit right with moving my email or calendaring systems over to a free service - I need to pay someone in order to have someone to be held accountable.

Want to discuss in our forums? Join our Search Engine Watch Forums thread named Google Apps for Your Domain.

Postscript From Danny: Information Week has a long story on the program here, and there's lots of coverage from elsewhere you'll find on Techmeme here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on August 28, 2006, 8:01 AM | Permalink


New Search Patent Filings: August 27, 2006 - Google's Recommendations, IBM's Speedier Pagerank, Napster's Search

Google looks at search history and user behavior to rerank results and offer ecommerce recommendations, provides a way to rewrite navigation on web pages for users of a proxy system to access the web, and shows some of the inner workings of Desktop Search.

IBM was granted a patent based upon providing advertisements to people based upon sites that they have visited, another that allows people to download information from specified pages which can be indexed and searched locally, a way of speeding up pagerank, and a method for organizing bookmarks.

Microsoft published a couple of patent applications, one which looks at using game playing to provide user rankings for web pages, and a method of providing contextual advertisements for non-textual content.

Napster's peer-to-peer filing sharing system is described in a patent originally filed in August, 2000.

Google

This patent from Google describes a way to use past search history and user behavior to rerank search results and provide ecommerce based recommendations.

Interface and system for providing persistent contextual relevance for commerce activities in a networked environment
Invented by Donald R. Turnbull and Hinrich Schuetze
Assigned to Google
United States Patent 7,089,237
Granted August 8, 2006
Filed on January 26, 2001

Abstract

A search and recommendation system employs the preferences and profiles of individual users and groups within a community of users, as well as information derived from categorically organized content pointers, to augment electronic commerce related searches, re-rank search results, and provide recommendations for commerce related objects based on an initial subject-matter query and an interaction history of a user. The search and recommendation system operates in the context of a content pointer manager, which stores individual users' content pointers (some of which may be published or shared for group use) on a centralized content pointer database connected to a network. The shared content pointer manager is implemented as a distributed program, portions of which operate on users' terminals and other portions of which operate on the centralized content pointer database. A user's content pointers are organized in accordance with a local topical categorical hierarchy. The hierarchical organization is used to define a relevance context within which returned objects are evaluated and ordered.

Rewriting parts of pages through a proxy server, for use with mobile devices, is the focus of this patent granted to Google. It shows a method of understanding what parts of a page is navigation, in addition to determining which navigation may be ideally rewritten for a handheld.


Identifying navigation bars and objectionable navigation bars
Invented by Chade-Meng Tan and Daniel Dulitz
Assigned to Google
United States Patent 7,089,490
Granted August 8, 2006
Filed on November 30, 2000

Abstract

Detecting so-called "navigation bars" (or "nav bars") in a (Web) document by determining whether or not nodes of a parse tree of the (Web) document are "anchor-heavy". Generally, a navigation bar can be thought of as text, such as a hyper-text link or anchor text for example, without any immediate content. Once a navigation bar is detected, objectionable navigation bars (i.e., navigation bars, the rendering of which would be objectionable to users without special re-authoring), can be distinguished from non-objectionable navigation bars (i.e., navigation bars which would not be objectionable to users with no special re-authoring). Objectionable navigation bars may be distinguished from non-objectionable navigation bars by: (a) determining whether the navigation bar is so small that normal rendering would not be objectionable; (b) determining whether the navigation bar presumably conveys meaningful content; and/or (c) determining whether the navigation bar is a component of a non-objectionable navigation bar (where all components of the non-objectionable navigation bar are navigation bars themselves).


One of the inventors listed in the following patent application, Tomas Gunnarsson, is a Google Desktop Software Engineer according to a post he made in the Google Blog on a "quick search" for Desktop Search. It appears that this patent filing looks at some of the inner workings of Desktop Search.


Access to a target object with desired functionality
Invented by Johann Tomas Sigurdsson and Tomas Gunnarsson
Assigned to Google
US Patent Application 20060179441
Published August 10, 2006
Filed on February 10, 2005

Abstract

A system and method provide access to a target object associated with a desired functionality. This is accomplished by creating an instance of a pre-existing object, replacing one or more functions of a table shared by all objects of the object's class, and triggering a call that ultimately causes the replacement functions to be called to allow access to the target object. The system includes software portions for enabling the method.


IBM

As a person surfs the web, the process in this patent describes a way of collecting keywords from pages visited to target appropriate advertising for that user.

Method and apparatus for providing reduced cost online service and adaptive targeting of advertisements
Invented by Viktors Berstis and Herman Rodriguez
Assigned to IBM
United States Patent 7,089,194
Granted August 8, 2006
Filed on June 17, 1999

Abstract

A method and apparatus for adaptively targeting advertisements to a specific client computer from a server within a distributed data processing system is provided. As a user of the client browses the World Wide Web, the material that is downloaded to the client constitutes a datastream. At some location during the routing of the datastream, either on the server or at the client, the datastream is scanned to generate a list of keywords that are present within the datastream. The datastream may be analyzed in real-time or cached and analyzed on a delayed basis. The generated list of keywords represents a summary of the content that appears to be the focus of interest of the user. The keywords are compared against a database of advertisements, and the server selects an advertisement that matches the user's area of interest in comparison to the analysis of the user's browsing history. The selected advertisement is then inserted into the datastream to be routed to the client. In consideration for viewing targeted advertisements and to entice a Web viewer to allow the monitoring of a datastream so that targeted advertisements may be placed into the datastream, a Web viewer may receive online connection service for free, for a reduced cost, at a premium level of service, or for other some other value, such as frequent viewer credits that may be exchanged for goods and services.


Method and system for searching for web content
Invented by Michael James Osias
Assigned to IBM
United States Patent 7,089,233
Granted August 8, 2006
Filed on September 6, 2001

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for searching for web content. Specifically, the present invention provides a system and method for retrieving web content from designated web pages and hyperlinks, indexing the retrieved web content in a local database, and searching the local database for desired web content. Retrieved content is indexed in the local database so that future access of the web content can be more efficient.


System and method for rapid computation of PageRank
Invented by John Anthony Tomlin, Andrew S. Tomkins, and Arvind Arasu
Assigned to IBM
United States Patent 7,089,252
Granted August 8, 2006
Filed on April 25, 2002


Abstract

A method of ranking a plurality of linked documents. The method comprises obtaining a plurality of documents, and determining a rank of each document. The rank of each document is generally a function of a rank of all other documents in the plurality of documents which point to the document and is determined by solving, by equation-solving methods (including Gauss-Seidel iteration and partitioning) of a set of equations wherein:.alpha..alpha..times..times..times..times. ##EQU00001## where x.sub.i is the rank of the page indexed by i, .alpha. is a number strictly between 0 and 1.0, the summation is over all indices j such that page j points to page i, and a.sub.ij is defined to be the reciprocal of the number of links pointing out from page j (denoted d.sub.j) if page j points to page i, and zero otherwise.


Conditional promotion of bookmarks
Invented by Cary L. Bates, Gilford F. Martino, John M. Santosuosso, and Vincent T. Timon, III
Assigned to IBM
United States Patent 7,089,305
Granted August 8, 2006
Filed on September 25, 2001

Abstract

A method and system for organizing bookmarks. A bookmark structure includes a main bookmark list and at least one bookmark folder. A bookmark search list, which includes at least one bookmark in the bookmark structure, is generated. Software is executed, wherein the software searches each bookmark on the bookmark search list through depth N (N.gtoreq.0). The searching determines whether the bookmark satisfies an upgrade condition. The upgrade condition includes a boolean text expression and may also include at least one of: a client visitation condition, a general visitation condition, a bookmark existence condition, a content-type condition, a URL-age condition, and a Top-Level-Domain (TLD) condition. If the searching determines that the bookmark satisfies the upgrade condition and that the bookmark is not in the special bookmark location, then the bookmark is moved to the special bookmark location.

Microsoft

Improving quality of web search results using a game
Invented by Luis von Ahn Arellano and Josh D. Benaloh
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060179053
Published August 10, 2006
Filed on February 4, 2005

Abstract

A system combines individual estimates of the subjective appeal of web pages into a combined rating for each web page that can be used to rank web pages during a web search. In a gaming implementation, a web page recipient estimates the combined rating that other recipients of the web page have formulated. The recipient can be rewarded for accurately estimating the combined rating by receiving a subsequent web page that possesses a high rating.


Image and other analysis for contextual ads
Invented by Carl M. Kadie, Joshua T. Goodman, and Christopher A. Meek
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060179453
Published August 10, 2006
Filed on February 7, 2005

Abstract

The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates providing contextual advertisements based on one or more identified terms extracted from a non-text object such as an image, video, and/or audio object. Terms can also be identified and extracted from metadata associated with or other data derived from text objects such as email messages and attached text documents. One or more recognition techniques can be employed to identify data found in the non-text object (including the metadata or any other data derived therefrom) and data found in the metadata associated with the text object. Once the identified terms are analyzed, an appropriate contextual advertisement can be presented to the user. If the content of the non-text or text object is deemed of a negative nature, no contextual advertisement is provided.


Outland Research

Napster

System and method for searching peer-to-peer computer networks by selecting a computer based on at least a number of files shared by the computer
Invented by Wilburt Juan Labio, Giao Thanh Nguyen, Winston Wencheng Liu, Gurmeet Singh Manku
Assigned to Napster
United States Patent 7,089,301
Granted August 8, 2006
Filed on August 11, 2000

Abstract

A method and system for intelligently directing a search of a peer-to-peer network, in which a user performing a search is assisted in choosing a host which is likely to return fast, favorable results to the user. A host monitor monitors the peer-to-peer network and collects data on various characteristics of the hosts which make up the network. Thereafter, a host selector ranks the hosts using the data, and passes this information to the user. The user then selects one or more of the highly-ranked hosts as an entry point into the network. Additionally, a cache may collect a list of hosts based on the content on the hosts. In this way, a user may choose to connect to a host which is known to contain information relevant to the user's search. The host selector may be used to select from among the hosts listed in the cache.

My usual reminder about patents: Some of the processes and technology described in patents are created in house, and some are developed with the assistance of contractors and partners. A percentage are never developed in a tangible manner, but may serve as a way to attempt to exclude others from using the technology, or even to possibly mislead competitors into exploring an area that they might not have an interest in (sometimes skepticism is good.)

There are times when a Google or Yahoo acquires a company to gain access to the intellectual property of that company, or the intellectual prowess and expertise of that company's employees. And sometimes patents are just purchased.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Technology & Relevancy area of the Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Bill Slawski on August 27, 2006, 11:34 PM | Permalink

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