Subscribe to SearchDay, our free daily e-mail summarizing the day's Search Marketing News.

Back to Main

October 29, 2006 - November 4, 2006


Search Headlines & Links: November 3, 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...

  • Google Working To Stop Lawsuits Over YouTube
    The Financial Times reports that Eric Schmidt's Google is running from media company to media company trying to offer upfront cash, in sums of "tens of millions of dollars," to slow and "halt" the threat they pose to YouTube. FT.com says that Schmidt met with CBS, Viacom, Time Warner, NBC Universal, News Corp and others recently. There are some more details over at paidContent....
  • Yahoo Sending Panama Invites Out
    I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable this morning that Yahoo! Search Marketing Version 2.0 (Panama) Invites Going Out. I was one of the first to be invited to upgrade to the Panama release, but outside of my group, it appears that now others who have requested the upgrade are now receiving them. Wondering what the process for upgrading is? Well, (1) it takes about 8 hours for the upgrade to happen, so it while you do not need to make changes to your account and (2) keyword listings with zero impressions for past 13 months or zero clicks for...
  • Google Loading Cookie When Using Firefox RSS Display
    Nathan Weinberg covers a report from LegRoom.net that shows Google is loading a cookie on your browser that won't expire until 2038 when you access RSS feeds via the Firefox 2.0 RSS display. The real issue here, as I understand it and as LegRoom suggests, is that Google's favorite icon is loading a cookie on your browser. Since Firefox 2.0 is using the favorite icon in the RSS display, the cookie is automatically being added to your computer. Firefox is also calling the other RSS readers for their favorite icon, but I believe those favorite icons do not set a...
  • Yahoo Asking Users To Rate Usefulness Of Search Results
    SEOdisco has screen captures of Yahoo asking him to rate how useful he finds the first two organic results for his search query. He is asked to rate it on a scale from one to five, one being "not useful" and five being "very useful". This is not the first time we have seen Yahoo ask people to rate search results, I reported it back in July of this year. In addition, we know Google occasionally asks users to rate the AdWords results....
  • How Much Should SEOs Earn
    Rand at SEOMoz has another excellent post named SEO Salaries - How Much Should You Make. He details what he believes SEOs of all calibers should make. Here is a quick snap shot:...
  • Gmail Tests Open In Google Spreadsheets Link
    Philipp Lenssen reports that Google is testing a link to open your Microsoft Excel documents within Google's Spreadsheets application. I tried sending myself an XLS document, but I did not get the "Open In Google Spreadsheets" hyperlink. Philipp has a screen capture of it in action, and he explains, "We can expect much more of this cross-integration to be rolled out in the future."...
  • Ask.com Creates Flash Demo To Explain Why Ask.com "Is Better"
    Ask.com released a new flash demonstration that goes through all the features of search engine. The purpose of the demo is to illustrate to standard web users, how Ask.com provides easy to use tools and quick "smart answers" to give you a "better" overall search experience. I think they did an excellent job with it, starting the demo off explaining that Ask.com is different, in that they help you "Find" and not just "Search." The demo is linked to from the Ask.com home page but if you are on a Mac you won't see it. You will have to go...
  • See And Find With Quintura
    Quintura is the latest in the line of visual search engines such as Kartoo, Mooter and WebBrain. Quintura basically takes your search term, runs a search and then translates the results into a tag cloud effect on the screen. Users can then simply look at the results (powered by Yahoo) listed under the tag cloud and click on the link as per normal, or they can explore words displayed in the semantic map to focus the query more closely. The results section of the page is not exciting - title, URL, keywords in context and sometimes the size of the...
  • Search Forums Roundup: Nov. 3, 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: Deal or No Deal? - Turning Clicks Into Sales - The Google News Effect - Dumb Mistakes Resulting in Loss of AdSense Revenue - SEO Mythbusters, and more....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 3:11 PM | Permalink


Google Working To Stop Lawsuits Over YouTube

The Financial Times reports that Eric Schmidt's Google is running from media company to media company trying to offer upfront cash, in sums of "tens of millions of dollars," to slow and "halt" the threat they pose to YouTube. FT.com says that Schmidt met with CBS, Viacom, Time Warner, NBC Universal, News Corp and others recently. There are some more details over at paidContent.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 9:27 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Sending Panama Invites Out

I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable this morning that Yahoo! Search Marketing Version 2.0 (Panama) Invites Going Out. I was one of the first to be invited to upgrade to the Panama release, but outside of my group, it appears that now others who have requested the upgrade are now receiving them. Wondering what the process for upgrading is? Well, (1) it takes about 8 hours for the upgrade to happen, so it while you do not need to make changes to your account and (2) keyword listings with zero impressions for past 13 months or zero clicks for past 18 months will not be transferred over to new system. I have documented my experience with upgrading to Panama here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 9:20 AM | Permalink


Google Loading Cookie When Using Firefox RSS Display

Nathan Weinberg covers a report from LegRoom.net that shows Google is loading a cookie on your browser that won't expire until 2038 when you access RSS feeds via the Firefox 2.0 RSS display. The real issue here, as I understand it and as LegRoom suggests, is that Google's favorite icon is loading a cookie on your browser. Since Firefox 2.0 is using the favorite icon in the RSS display, the cookie is automatically being added to your computer. Firefox is also calling the other RSS readers for their favorite icon, but I believe those favorite icons do not set a cookie on the computer. So why is Google setting a cookie for their favorite icon?

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 9:08 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Asking Users To Rate Usefulness Of Search Results

SEOdisco has screen captures of Yahoo asking him to rate how useful he finds the first two organic results for his search query. He is asked to rate it on a scale from one to five, one being "not useful" and five being "very useful". This is not the first time we have seen Yahoo ask people to rate search results, I reported it back in July of this year. In addition, we know Google occasionally asks users to rate the AdWords results.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 8:38 AM | Permalink


How Much Should SEOs Earn

Rand at SEOMoz has another excellent post named SEO Salaries - How Much Should You Make. He details what he believes SEOs of all calibers should make. Here is a quick snap shot:

In-House SEOs:

  • VP/Director of Search Marketing: $100,000 - $350,000+
  • Director/Manager of Organic Search: $75,000 - $150,000
  • SEO Guru: $75,000 - $200,000
  • Campaign Manager: $55,00 - $100,000
  • SEO Specialist: $40,000 - $80,000

SEO Agency Employees:

  • SEO Director: $50,000 - $100,000
  • Search Marketing Consultant: $60,000 - $200,000
  • Link Builder: $35,000 - $100,000
  • Content Writer: $35,000 - $75,000
  • SEO Researcher: $30,000 - $60,000
  • Client Relations Coordinator: $35,000 - $75,00

There are surprising reads and detailed explanations of each category, so definitely worth a read.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 8:29 AM | Permalink


Gmail Tests Open In Google Spreadsheets Link

Philipp Lenssen reports that Google is testing a link to open your Microsoft Excel documents within Google's Spreadsheets application. I tried sending myself an XLS document, but I did not get the "Open In Google Spreadsheets" hyperlink. Philipp has a screen capture of it in action, and he explains, "We can expect much more of this cross-integration to be rolled out in the future."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 8:22 AM | Permalink


Ask.com Creates Flash Demo To Explain Why Ask.com "Is Better"

Ask.com released a new flash demonstration that goes through all the features of the search engine. The purpose of the demo is to illustrate to standard web users, how Ask.com provides easy to use tools and quick "smart answers" to give you a "better" overall search experience. I think they did an excellent job with it, starting the demo off explaining that Ask.com is different, in that they help you "Find" and not just "Search." The demo is linked to from the Ask.com home page but if you are on a Mac you won't see it. You will have to go directly to the demo at http://searchtools.ask.com/.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 3, 2006, 8:13 AM | Permalink


See And Find With Quintura

Quintura is the latest in the line of visual search engines such as Kartoo, Mooter and WebBrain. Quintura basically takes your search term, runs a search and then translates the results into a tag cloud effect on the screen. Users can then simply look at the results (powered by Yahoo) listed under the tag cloud and click on the link as per normal, or they can explore words displayed in the semantic map to focus the query more closely.

The results section of the page is not exciting - title, URL, keywords in context and sometimes the size of the page, but that's about it. I'd like to have seen more information, and keywords in context are no more than a word either side, which doesn't provide any guidance at all. This section of the page is also squeezed into the bottom half of the screen, giving it a cramped feeling. This is probably the weakest element of the search engine, and clearly the one that the developers spent least time on because they wanted to get onto the interesting and fun section of the semantic display.

This is where Quintura does become more interesting and quite fun to play with. After the search runs the search terms appear on the screen and are surrounded with other hopefully appropriate terms. My search on 'search engine watch' for example returned keyword suggestions such as 'blog', 'forum', 'search engines' and so on. The closer to the search terms, the larger the keyword suggestions (both in terms of font size and bold), the more relevant they are deemed. Holding the mouse over a term - note that you don't need to click - will display a new set of results in the bottom window and will also show another keyword cloud overlaying the original, which does get a little confusing at times, and it's quite hard to work out exactly what you're searching on.

However, it's an interesting approach to search, and users who enjoy different approaches to the display of search results will enjoy using it.

It does obviously have more flexibility though, as it's a reasonably well rounded search engine. Keywords can be dropped from the semantic display by clicking on the appropriate icon, and any associated keywords are also dropped at the same time. Excluding 'baseball' from the search on my name also excluded 'statistics' for example. Words can be added to a search by simply clicking into a blank area in the screen and typing them into the search box that appears; words can be excluded in a similar manner as well with the usual minus sign in front. It's possible to save searches as a favorite or it can be emailed to a friend or colleague.

There are additional things that I'd like to see with Quintura; a more indepth 'help' guide, RSS feeds, greater search functionality by type - at the moment it's limited to web or images, and news, blogs and so on would be a nice addition. Equally however it's in beta mode, so it would be unfair to be overly critical.

As previously mentioned, people who enjoy visual search results pages will get a kick out of this one, while for everyone else it's a bit of an oddity they'll ignore. While the semantic element is clearly the emphasis I personally found the cramped results section too irritating to want to use this engine for any length of time.

Posted by Phil Bradley on November 3, 2006, 5:39 AM | Permalink


Search Forums Roundup: Nov. 3, 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: Deal or No Deal? - Turning Clicks Into Sales - The Google News Effect - Dumb Mistakes Resulting in Loss of AdSense Revenue - SEO Mythbusters, and more.

Posted by Chris Sherman on November 3, 2006, 1:55 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: November 2, 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 Slurp Adds Wildcard Support For Robots.txt
    The Yahoo Search Blog announced that Yahoo's web crawler, aka Yahoo Slurp, now supports wildcards in the robots.txt file. The two parameters that Yahoo now supports include the "*" and the "&." The * will tell Yahoo to do a "wildcard match a sequence of characters in your URL." The & will tell Yahoo to do a "anchor the match to the end of the URL string." Many more details at the Yahoo Search Blog....
  • GPS, Geotagging, Images and Maps
    The NY Times has a long and relatively interesting article on geotagging images and mapping. It primarily discusses Flickr and, to a lesser degree, Google Earth and Picasa and other services such as TripTracker. The article also goes into the geocoding/tagging technology itself. Not discussed in the article is Microsoft's "Photosynth," which is an interesting hypothetical application and extension of all this technology. Mapping, images (including video) and local/travel are rapidly coming together in very rich applications, as alternatives to pure text-based online navigation....
  • Gmail Mobile Client Released
    Google just announced the release of a mobile client to manage your gmail account on your mobile device. The new benefits include; 5X faster, reduced clicks and scrolling required, plus attachments are "viewable and automatically resized to fit the user's phone." You can download the client on your mobile devise by visiting http://gmail.com/app on your mobile browser. For detailed help, visit here - I personally had trouble installing it on my Treo 700P. There is also a great review at MobileCrunch....
  • ClickRiver New Pay Per Click Program from Amazon
    Ever wanted to put your ads right on the product page of your competitor's product at Amazon.com, or wanted your product advertised with something related to it? Now with Amazon's new pay per click program ClickRiver, now you can. The program is in beta at the moment and through Amazon's A9 department. You can find out more about the program here and apply to participate in the beta at ClickRiver.com...
  • Google Effect Of Domain Name Change Of Ownership
    This morning I wrote Does Change of Domain Name Ownership Hurt Rankings? a question that has been bugging Danny and myself since I wrote Google Effect Of Domain Name Expiration & Change Of Ownership. Well, I now have some webmaster feedback on this that claims that domain name change of ownership, by itself, appears to not have an affect on your rankings....
  • In UK, Google To Surpass Channel 4's Ad Dollars
    The Independent reports that Google UK is expected to earn "£900m from the UK ad market in 2006." When compared to Channel 4's "£800m at the TV group" this year, Google is expected to beat this TV player in ad dollars. Channel 4's Andy Duncan said, "Some broadcasters have been very slow to realise this. The industry as a whole is frankly rather backward-looking and is perhaps underestimating the scale of change that is going on and the pace of change."...
  • Google To Partner With Clear Channel Communications?
    Business Week's Steve Rosenbush thinks it is a good idea for Google to partner with Clear Channel Communications. The article explains that Google has been "adding "high profile" radio sales people in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Chicago." And Google is known to be working towards embedding ads into radio with recent rumors that Google AdSense For Audio Coming Soon....
  • Ask.com Launches Elections Smart Answers
    Ask.com launched some new smart answers for the upcoming elections. You can do a search on elections 2006 to see "General Elections are Tuesday, November 7, 2006." The smart answer also gives you links to the Republican Party and the Democrats web sites. Additional quick links they give within the smart answers include; Analysis by Poll Reports, Race Profiles, Key Races, Key Issues, Races by Issue, and Congressional Districts Map. The additional resources include Candidate Reports, Ballot Items, Campaign Fact Checking, Campaign Funding, and Evaluating Initiatives. Finally, you can also break down by state by searching for New York state...
  • Yahoo Launches Yahoo Food
    What is for breakfast this morning? Well, you can now go to Yahoo Food and find out. Yahoo launched food.yahoo.com that contains "recipes, advice from regional celebrity chefs, video cooking guides and easy-to-use Web tools." Reuters reports that in early 2007, Yahoo Food will expand to Australia, Britain and Canada, then expand into other global markets later....
  • Google Says Belgium Did Not Send $43.2M Fine
    Elinor Mills reports that Google has claimed that Belgium fined Google $43.2 million the other week for not removing all Belgian publishers' content from the engine's index and cache. Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes, told Elinor Mills at News.com in an email, "Google has complied with the Copiepresse judgment and we are not aware of any fine. We believe this story to be completely untrue."...
  • The Interestingness of Social Networks
    Interestingness is a great name for a ranking algorithm. It's what Yahoo's photo-based social network Flickr uses to show which images the community finds the most "interesting." Techdirt considers the impact that a couple of recent Yahoo patent applications filed for in February, and published last week (which I wrote about at SEO by the Sea), might have upon the growth of social networks. They reference the thoughts of Thomas Hawk, CEO of Zooomr, who weighs in on the topic in Should Yahoo Own Social Search and Rank in a Web 2.0 World? We've seen the major search engines compete...

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 4:39 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Slurp Adds Wildcard Support For Robots.txt

The Yahoo Search Blog announced that Yahoo's web crawler, aka Yahoo Slurp, now supports wildcards in the robots.txt file. The two parameters that Yahoo now supports include the "*" and the "$." The * will tell Yahoo to do a "wildcard match a sequence of characters in your URL." The & will tell Yahoo to do a "anchor the match to the end of the URL string." Many more details at the Yahoo Search Blog.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 4:04 PM | Permalink


GPS, Geotagging, Images and Maps

The NY Times has a long and relatively interesting article on geotagging images and mapping. It primarily discusses Flickr and, to a lesser degree, Google Earth and Picasa and other services such as TripTracker. The article also goes into the geocoding/tagging technology itself. Not discussed in the article is Microsoft's "Photosynth," which is an interesting hypothetical application and extension of all this technology.

Mapping, images (including video) and local/travel are rapidly coming together in very rich applications, as alternatives to pure text-based online navigation.

Posted by Greg Sterling on November 2, 2006, 2:01 PM | Permalink


Gmail Mobile Client Released

Google just announced the release of a mobile client to manage your gmail account on your mobile device. The new benefits include; 5X faster, reduced clicks and scrolling required, plus attachments are "viewable and automatically resized to fit the user's phone." You can download the client on your mobile devise by visiting http://gmail.com/app on your mobile browser. For detailed help, visit here - I personally had trouble installing it on my Treo 700P. There is also a great review at MobileCrunch.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 10:03 AM | Permalink


ClickRiver New Pay Per Click Program from Amazon

Ever wanted to put your ads right on the product page of your competitor's product at Amazon.com, or wanted your product advertised with something related to it? Now with Amazon's new pay per click program ClickRiver, now you can. The program is in beta at the moment and through Amazon's A9 department.

You can find out more about the program here and apply to participate in the beta at ClickRiver.com

Posted by Jennifer Slegg on November 2, 2006, 10:02 AM | Permalink


Google Effect Of Domain Name Change Of Ownership

This morning I wrote Does Change of Domain Name Ownership Hurt Rankings? a question that has been bugging Danny and myself since I wrote Google Effect Of Domain Name Expiration & Change Of Ownership. Well, I now have some webmaster feedback on this that claims that domain name change of ownership, by itself, appears to not have an affect on your rankings.

Not only that, but I have not heard from Danny that his traffic is suffering here since Search Engine Watch changed (1) ownership of domain from Jupiter to Incisive and (2) Search Engine Watch switched servers. Maybe when Danny gets back, he can chime in?

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 9:07 AM | Permalink


In UK, Google To Surpass Channel 4's Ad Dollars

The Independent reports that Google UK is expected to earn "£900m from the UK ad market in 2006." When compared to Channel 4's "£800m at the TV group" this year, Google is expected to beat this TV player in ad dollars. Channel 4's Andy Duncan said, "Some broadcasters have been very slow to realise this. The industry as a whole is frankly rather backward-looking and is perhaps underestimating the scale of change that is going on and the pace of change."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 8:59 AM | Permalink


Google To Partner With Clear Channel Communications?

Business Week's Steve Rosenbush thinks it is a good idea for Google to partner with Clear Channel Communications. The article explains that Google has been "adding "high profile" radio sales people in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Chicago." And Google is known to be working towards embedding ads into radio with recent rumors that Google AdSense For Audio Coming Soon.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 8:53 AM | Permalink


Ask.com Launches Elections Smart Answers

Ask.com launched some new smart answers for the upcoming elections. You can do a search on elections 2006 to see "General Elections are Tuesday, November 7, 2006." The smart answer also gives you links to the Republican Party and the Democrats web sites. Additional quick links they give within the smart answers include; Analysis by Poll Reports, Race Profiles, Key Races, Key Issues, Races by Issue, and Congressional Districts Map. The additional resources include Candidate Reports, Ballot Items, Campaign Fact Checking, Campaign Funding, and Evaluating Initiatives. Finally, you can also break down by state by searching for New York state elections. I have taken some screen captures also.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 8:37 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Launches Yahoo Food

What is for breakfast this morning? Well, you can now go to Yahoo Food and find out. Yahoo launched food.yahoo.com that contains "recipes, advice from regional celebrity chefs, video cooking guides and easy-to-use Web tools." Reuters reports that in early 2007, Yahoo Food will expand to Australia, Britain and Canada, then expand into other global markets later.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 8:31 AM | Permalink


Google Says Belgium Did Not Send $43.2M Fine

Elinor Mills reports that Google has denied a report last week that it was fined $43 million for not removing all Belgian publishers' content from the engine's index and cache. Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes, told Elinor Mills at News.com in an email, "Google has complied with the Copiepresse judgment and we are not aware of any fine. We believe this story to be completely untrue."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 2, 2006, 8:17 AM | Permalink


The Interestingness of Social Networks

Interestingness is a great name for a ranking algorithm. It's what Yahoo's photo-based social network Flickr uses to show which images the community finds the most "interesting."

Techdirt considers the impact that a couple of recent Yahoo patent applications filed for in February, and published last week (which I wrote about at SEO by the Sea), might have upon the growth of social networks. They reference the thoughts of Thomas Hawk, CEO of Zooomr, who weighs in on the topic in Should Yahoo Own Social Search and Rank in a Web 2.0 World?

We've seen the major search engines compete with each other in the face of patented algorithms, following their own paths to returning relevant results to their users. Social networks shouldn't find interestingness to be an impediment to letting their communities decide together what is interesting or not. Hopefully these patent applications will inspire other social networks to follow their own paths, too.

Posted by Bill Slawski on November 1, 2006, 6:10 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: November 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...

  • Watch Full Length Current & Classic NHL Games on Google Video
    As a longtime Vancouver Canucks fan, I can vividly remember the 1994 Stanley Cup Game 7 where unfortunately, they lost the Cup to the New York Rangers. Now, thanks to Google Video, you can now watch classic NHL hockey games like that one as well as all the current NHL games on their new NHL Google Video section. These are all full length videos of each game and you can easily click on your favorite teams to check out the games that are currently available. Go Canucks!...
  • Video from Search Engine Strategies AdSense Booth
    If you have yet to go to a Search Engine Strategies conference, the Google AdSense team will let you see it in action with a video they just released. While the focus of the video is publisher testimonials (I was one of those interviewed), you also get a nice peek at the conference as well, including how jam packed the keynote was when Danny Sullivan talked with Google's CEO Eric Schmidt. You can view the video here....
  • Ask.com To Power Lycos Search & Search Ads
    Reuters reports that Ask.com has reached a deal with Lycos to power their search engine and search ads. Lycos is the 5th "most popular U.S. Web portal." Ask.com will provide Web search, image search, zoom search and ppc ads for the Lycos Network....
  • 100 Million Sites = Search Wins
    CNN reports that the Internet has now crossed a significant milestone; there are 100 million operating websites. The Web's growth has been accelerating: "There were just 18,000 Web sites when Netcraft, based in Bath, England, began keeping track in August of 1995. It took until May of 2004 to reach the 50 million milestone; then only 30 more months to hit 100 million, late in the month of October 2006." This is kind of like human population growth. The bottom line here is that the more unwieldy the Internet becomes, the more central search becomes as the main navigational tool....
  • Zotspot Wants To Share The Search Wealth
    One could plausibly argue that it's crazy to do anything in the general ("horizontal") search marketplace. But new engines continue to launch. The latest, having been in semi-stealth mode for the past several weeks, is Zotspot. Zotspot is a general-purpose engine that officially launched yesterday. Here's the press release....
  • Yahoo's Tim Converse Colors SEOs
    Tim Converse, the "spam fighter" at Yahoo, has a fun post he named Search engine optimization (SEO) from black to white. He tries to add nine colors between black and white. For example, a "dark gray" SEO is an SEO that "collects (aka steals) random text from other sites, and uses it to create thousands (or millions) of pages targeting particular queries. The pages have nothing original of value, but do have ads." The new shades of black and white include; Dark inky black, Charcoal, Dark gray, Slate gray, Gray, Light gray, Off-white, White, and Luminescent pearly white....
  • New adCenter Blog & adCenter Lab Features
    There is a new location for the adCenter blog, it is now at http://adcenterblog.spaces.live.com/ (yea, the whole live.com thing). Also, adCenter labs released updates for some of the tools. Search Funnel 1.5: This demo will be updated with over 4 million keywords added to the database. Keyword Forecast: This new demo will display a search term's impression count forecast and demographic predictions in any format: flash, picture or text. I have screen captures of the Keyword Forecast at the Search Engine Roundtable - pretty neat stuff....
  • New Conference: "Elite Retreat" With ShoeMoney & SEOBook
    ShoeMoney, aka Jeremy Schoemaker, has informed me of an event he is co-running named Elite Retreat. The two-day event is will cover topics on SEO, Monetization, Arbitrage, SEM, PPC, and Blogging. The event is open to a maximum of 35 people in San Antonio on December 18th and 19th. Jeremy, Aaron Wall (SEO Book), Dave Taylor, Lee Dodd and Andrea Schoemaker will be the individuals running the conference. The agenda is posted here and it looks pretty exciting....
  • Google Click Fraud Settlement Payments Received
    I reported this morning that Google Advertisers Receiving Settlement Payouts for the refunds they were rewarded based on the Google Click Fraud Settlement. The amounts of those payments are making many advertisers feel like they were ripped off. For example, one advertiser informed us that they paid Google over $480,000 over the past three years and only received a credit of $280. You can check to see if you received a credit by viewing your "Billing Summary" under each campaign in your Google AdWords account....
  • Live Search Box Allows You To Add Live Search To Your Site
    Microsoft's Live Search Blog informed us of a new feature where you can add the Windows Live Search box to your site. I have implemented the "Basic Search Box" on the Search Engine Roundtable, which means the box will display results on the Windows Live Search page. Below I will implement the "Advanced Search Box," which means the box displays results on this site. More details at http://search.live.com/siteowner.
  • Update On Google's 2nd Publication Ad Test
    PPC Discussions received an update from Google on the next steps he should take for his Google newspaper ad test. Here are some select details....
  • Quick Access to Cool Yahoo Features
    Today's SearchDay article, A Closer Look at Yahoo Shortcuts, is the third in our series looking at the special features search engines have implemented to speed up access to the information you care most about. The first two were A Closer Look at Ask's Smart Answers and A Closer Look At Microsoft's Instant Answers....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 3:59 PM | Permalink


Watch Full Length Current & Classic NHL Games on Google Video

As a longtime Vancouver Canucks fan, I can vividly remember the 1994 Stanley Cup Game 7 where unfortunately, they lost the Cup to the New York Rangers. Now, thanks to Google Video, you can now watch classic NHL hockey games like that one as well as all the current NHL games on their new NHL Google Video section. These are all full length videos of each game and you can easily click on your favorite teams to check out the games that are currently available. Go Canucks!

Posted by Jennifer Slegg on November 1, 2006, 2:31 PM | Permalink


Video from Search Engine Strategies AdSense Booth

If you have yet to go to a Search Engine Strategies conference, the Google AdSense team will let you see it in action with a video they just released. While the focus of the video is publisher testimonials (I was one of those interviewed), you also get a nice peek at the conference as well, including how jam packed the keynote was when Danny Sullivan talked with Google's CEO Eric Schmidt. You can view the video here.

Posted by Jennifer Slegg on November 1, 2006, 1:46 PM | Permalink


Ask.com To Power Lycos Search & Search Ads

Reuters reports that Ask.com has reached a deal with Lycos to power their search engine and search ads. Lycos is the 5th "most popular U.S. Web portal." Ask.com will provide Web search, image search, zoom search and ppc ads for the Lycos Network.

Postscript: Just got the press release, posted below...

Postscript 2: It looks like Ask.com ousted Microsoft's spot with Lycos.

Ask.com Selected to Power LYCOS Network Search

Multi-Year Agreement Calls for Ask.com to Provide Search and Advertising Across the LYCOS Network

OAKLAND, Calif. and WALTHAM, Mass.– November 1, 2006 – Ask.com, a wholly-owned business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) and LYCOS, Inc.(www.lycos.com), a leading web portal, today announced a multi-year agreement whereby Ask.com will be the search and sponsored listings provider for the LYCOS Network, including LYCOS.com, Hotbot.com, Tripod.com and Angelfire.com. Under the terms of the agreement, Ask.com will provide branded algorithmic search, including Web Search, Image Search, and Zoom Related Search, as well as the Ask Sponsored Listings advertising product across the LYCOS Network. LYCOS is the fifth most popular portal in the U.S., consistently ranked as a top 20 U.S. Web property, with more than 6 million monthly unique visitors using LYCOS Network Search. In addition, LYCOS will transition its current sponsored listings advertisers currently using its pay-per-click platform, InSite AdBuyer, to Ask Sponsored Listings, and will promote the Ask.com PPC product to advertisers throughout the LYCOS Network.

“We selected Ask.com over other providers because of its great search technology and tools like Zoom related search, which cannot be found on other engines,” said Brian Kalinowski, chief operating officer, LYCOS, Inc. “By partnering with Ask.com, we aim to deliver a world-class search experience to our millions of LYCOS users.”

“Ask.com has worked very hard to develop one of a kind search technology and search features that help users get the information they want more quickly,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. “With stiff competition in the marketplace for syndication deals, we are pleased that LYCOS recognized the merits of our search technology and advertising products. This new relationship will enable Ask.com to broaden its search offering to new users while also increasing the reach of Ask Sponsored Listings inventory.”

Under the agreement, Ask.com will provide the following:

· Web Search – Delivers highly relevant search results through its ExpertRank proprietary algorithmic search technology, which ranks results based on popularity within topic communities on the Web, rather than mere link popularity.
· Image Search – Combines Ask.com's proprietary index of pictures with ExpertRank and patent-pending image search technologies to deliver dramatically improved relevance and quality of search results. Ask.com Image Search has been touted by some as best of class for searching the Image Web.
· Zoom Related Search – Offers conceptually-related suggestions to narrow or expand a search query. Zoom related search is placed on the right side of the search results page where most search engines place advertisements. No other search engine has the ability to offer conceptually-related suggestions.
· Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) Search Advertising – Provides highly relevant keyword-targeted, pay-per-click advertising. Advertisers bid for placement through Ask.com's automated open-auction system that also allows marketers to manage and optimize campaigns on Ask.com and its publisher network. ASL sources more than 5 billion queries each month, and supports over 10,000 advertisers bidding on more than 10 million keywords.
About Ask.com

A leading search engine on the Web, Ask.com combines world-class search technology with one-of-a-kind search tools to help people get what they are looking for faster. Ask.com sites include Ask.com US (www.Ask.com), Ask.com Deutschland, Ask.com Espana, Ask.com France, Ask.com Italia, Ask.com Japan, Ask.com Nederlands and Ask.com UK. Additionally, Ask.com syndicates its search technology and advertising units to a network of affiliate partners. Ask.com is a division of IAC Search & Media, a wholly-owned business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI). Ask.com b-roll footage is available at www.thenewsmarket.com/ask.

About LYCOS, Inc.
LYCOS, Inc. (www.lycos.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications Corp., a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. LYCOS, Inc. creates and operates search, community and technology lifestyle sites including LYCOS.com, Hotbot.com, Tripod.com and Angelfire.com. Other LYCOS products and sites include LYCOS Mail, LYCOS Phone, LYCOS Entertainment, LYCOS Music, LYCOS Games, LYCOS Planet, and GetRelevant. LYCOS was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, www.daum.net.

###
©2006 Lycos, Inc. Lycos® is a registered trademark of Lycos, Inc. All other product or service marks mentioned herein are those of Daum Communications Corp., Lycos, Inc. or their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 12:51 PM | Permalink


100 Million Sites = Search Wins

CNN reports that the Internet has now crossed a significant milestone; there are 100 million operating websites. The Web's growth has been accelerating: "There were just 18,000 Web sites when Netcraft, based in Bath, England, began keeping track in August of 1995. It took until May of 2004 to reach the 50 million milestone; then only 30 more months to hit 100 million, late in the month of October 2006."

This is kind of like human population growth. The bottom line here is that the more unwieldy the Internet becomes, the more central search becomes as the main navigational tool. And that means -- ka-ching -- paid search will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

Posted by Greg Sterling on November 1, 2006, 12:24 PM | Permalink


Zotspot Wants To Share The Search Wealth

One could plausibly argue that it's crazy to do anything in the general ("horizontal") search marketplace. But new engines continue to launch. The latest, having been in semi-stealth mode for the past several weeks, is Zotspot. Zotspot is a general-purpose engine that officially launched yesterday. Here's the press release.

Like a number of others before it, the idea here is to "reward" users for searching. It claims to be the first engine to "pay users in cash for their normal search behavior." If you don't want the cash you can donate it to one of numerous partner charities.

You essentially get paid for referrals in a "multi-level" fashion. Here's how Zotspot explains how users get paid. Search engine ChaCha doesn't reward its users, but has a comparable payment structure for its "guides."

The theme here is "share the wealth." The question is will that be incentive enough to get people off their G-Y-M habit? One wants to root for companies that have their eye on the larger social good, but Zotspot's results at a minimum have to be as good as Google's or no one will be swayed.

Posted by Greg Sterling on November 1, 2006, 10:07 AM | Permalink


Yahoo's Tim Converse Colors SEOs

Tim Converse, the "spam fighter" at Yahoo, has a fun post he named Search engine optimization (SEO) from black to white. He tries to add nine colors between black and white. For example, a "dark gray" SEO is an SEO that "collects (aka steals) random text from other sites, and uses it to create thousands (or millions) of pages targeting particular queries. The pages have nothing original of value, but do have ads." The new shades of black and white include; Dark inky black, Charcoal, Dark gray, Slate gray, Gray, Light gray, Off-white, White, and Luminescent pearly white.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 9:12 AM | Permalink


New adCenter Blog & adCenter Lab Features

Microsoft adCenter Lab Keyword ForecastThere is a new location for the adCenter blog, it is now at http://adcenterblog.spaces.live.com/ (yea, the whole live.com thing). Also, adCenter labs released updates for some of the tools.

  • Search Funnel 1.5: This demo will be updated with over 4 million keywords added to the database.
  • Keyword Forecast: This new demo will display a search term's impression count forecast and demographic predictions in any format: flash, picture or text.

I have screen captures of the Keyword Forecast at the Search Engine Roundtable - pretty neat stuff.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 9:04 AM | Permalink


New Conference: "Elite Retreat" With ShoeMoney & SEOBook

ShoeMoney, aka Jeremy Schoemaker, has informed me of an event he is co-running named Elite Retreat. The two-day event is will cover topics on SEO, Monetization, Arbitrage, SEM, PPC, and Blogging. The event is open to a maximum of 35 people in San Antonio on December 18th and 19th. Jeremy, Aaron Wall (SEO Book), Dave Taylor, Lee Dodd and Andrea Schoemaker will be the individuals running the conference. The agenda is posted here and it looks pretty exciting.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 8:53 AM | Permalink


Google Click Fraud Settlement Payments Received

I reported this morning that Google Advertisers Receiving Settlement Payouts for the refunds they were rewarded based on the Google Click Fraud Settlement. The amounts of those payments are making many advertisers feel like they were ripped off. For example, one advertiser informed us that they paid Google over $480,000 over the past three years and only received a credit of $280. You can check to see if you received a credit by viewing your "Billing Summary" under each campaign in your Google AdWords account.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 8:45 AM | Permalink


Live Search Box Allows You To Add Live Search To Your Site

Microsoft's Live Search Blog informed us of a new feature where you can add the Windows Live Search box to your site. I have implemented the "Basic Search Box" on the Search Engine Roundtable, which means the box will display results on the Windows Live Search page. Below I will implement the "Advanced Search Box," which means the box displays results on this site. More details at http://search.live.com/siteowner.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 8:38 AM | Permalink


Update On Google's 2nd Publication Ad Test

PPC Discussions received an update from Google on the next steps he should take for his Google newspaper ad test. Here are some select details.

The ad sizes:
Ad Unit #1: 2.0"W x 2.25"H
Ad Unit #2: 4.0"W x 1.0"H

The ad specs:
Resolution: 300 DPI
Color mode: Grayscale
File formats: PDF or EPS
PDF: embed all fonts
EPS: convert fonts to outlines

Ad due date by Wednesday, November 8th but there is a "first come, first served" rule in affect.

Google also has the Google Print Ads Auction Editorial Guidelines page live now.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2006, 8:31 AM | Permalink


Quick Access to Cool Yahoo Features

Today's SearchDay article, A Closer Look at Yahoo Shortcuts, is the third in our series looking at the special features search engines have implemented to speed up access to the information you care most about. The first two were A Closer Look at Ask's Smart Answers and A Closer Look At Microsoft's Instant Answers.

Posted by Chris Sherman on November 1, 2006, 3:45 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: October 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...

  • Smarter Launches Visual Search
    Seems that just last week I mentioned a shopping comparison engine launching a color search feature. Well, this week it's Smarter's turn to take the colorful spotlight. Smarter.com today launched visual search. Visual search can be found by clicking on the Clothing & Accessories tab or by searching for any product within that section. Right now it's is a bit hidden as the consumer has to click on a small link under the header. Differentiator here is that Smarter's visual search is all about clothing. Users select gender, then a top (shirt, sweater, etc.), then a bottom (pants, shorts, etc.),...
  • SnapShot: A Better Version Of Alexa
    Compete, Inc. is a B2B firm that conducts consumer-oriented research for large clients. Now the company has released SnapShot, a free tool that anyone can use. It operates like Alexa or Google Trends to display relative traffic, as well as several other metrics such as page views and time on site. Here's an example....
  • Google Buys Wiki Maker, JotSpot
    The Google Blog announced that they have bought JotSpot, a Wiki maker software solution. JotSpot updated their site to include an FAQ on Google, while Google has turned off signup for the service and locked it down to invite only. You can sign up for JotSpot at the www.jot.com, luckily, I am already signed up with them. Gary Price explains that the "financials are NOT being disclosed."...
  • Ask.com's Revenue Increases 62 Percent
    IAC posted Q3 earning results, and part of that included results for Ask.com. Bloomberg reports that Ask.com's revenue increased 62-percent but at a cost of $2.1 million. The $2.1 million more than doubled from their previous operating cost....
  • SideStep Buys TravelPost
    SideStep acquired TravelPost for a combination of cash and stock. TravelPost will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SideStep. According to the press release, "TravelPost.com has grown into a leading source for unbiased user-generated hotel reviews and ratings, travel news, information resources and travel blogs. The company has excelled at organizing travel information to improve the way people research and shop for travel." TravelPost, with over 500,000 hotel reviews on its site, might be the smartest little travel site you've never heard of. The coolest feature is the ability to filter hotel reviews by Age, Gender, Budget, and Trip Purpose....
  • Google Asks Microsoft To Give Users A Choice
    Forbes reports that Google meet with the European Union the other day about antitrust issues. They asked Microsoft to give users a choice when selecting their default Internet search engine. The article explains, "Google refused to say if changes Microsoft has already made to its upcoming operating system, Vista, have gone far enough." You may also want to read Danny's long write up on the release of IE7 and search engine default battle....
  • Belgium Slaps Google With $43.2 Million Fine
    Gary Price points to a Poynter.org report showing that Google has been fined €34 million (about $43,231,000 USD) for not removing all of the Belgian publisher's content based on a court ruling. Google claims they could not find all the publishers and asked the publishers for help in identifying the content that has to be removed....
  • 15GB Gmail Accounts?
    Google Operating System reports that some users of Google Apps for Your Domain are noticing that they have 13GB more space then they originally had. Google Operating System asks if Google is just being "generous" or is this an initial "promotion for a paid service."...
  • More Details On YouTube & Google Acquisition
    Blog Maverick has some intimate details on the Google YouTube Deal from a "trusted anonymous author" in a message board. Here are some of the excerpts:...
  • Google Video Shares Ad Revenue With Video Authors
    News.com reports that Google is sharing most of the ad revenue earned on select Google Videos with the contributors of those videos. Specifically, the authors of the "The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment II" (which is really cool) will be getting "most advertising revenue generated by the latest video." Pretty cool....
  • Yahoo Adds Yahoo Store Authentication For Site Explorer
    The Yahoo Search Blog announced that if you run a Yahoo Store, you can now easily authenticate your site with Yahoo's Site Explorer. The step by step how to can be found at Authenticating your Site for Yahoo! Site Explorer....
  • Garrett French Leaves MarketSmart Interactive
    Andy Beal reports that Garrett French has left MarketSmart Interactive. Garrett, I believe, is the last of many well-known and respected individuals who have worked at MarketSmart Interactive to leave. Jason Dowdell was first then highly respected Andy Beal was second, then Heather Lloyd Martin left, then Mike Grehan resigned and now Garrett has left. You can keep up with Garrett at http://www.garrettfrench.com/....
  • Health Searchers may be Getting Bad Medicine
    Most health searchers don't bother checking the source or date of the information they find online, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Even so, a majority say that they are comfortable using this information to alter their own health-related behavior or to share with others. More on the findings released in this report in today's SearchDay article, Rampant Malpractice Among Health Searchers....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 2:09 PM | Permalink


Smarter Launches Visual Search

Seems that just last week I mentioned a shopping comparison engine launching a color search feature. Well, this week it's Smarter's turn to take the colorful spotlight.

Smarter.com today launched visual search. Visual search can be found by clicking on the Clothing & Accessories tab or by searching for any product within that section. Right now it's is a bit hidden as the consumer has to click on a small link under the header.

Differentiator here is that Smarter's visual search is all about clothing. Users select gender, then a top (shirt, sweater, etc.), then a bottom (pants, shorts, etc.), then choose the color for each. Smarter then returns two bands of products (the top on top, the bottom on the bottom) so users can see what the shirt and shorts might look like together.

More information (with colorful screenshots) on ComparisonEngines or try out Visual Search now.

Posted by Brian Smith on October 31, 2006, 1:07 PM | Permalink


SnapShot: A Better Version Of Alexa

Compete, Inc. is a B2B firm that conducts consumer-oriented research for large clients. Now the company has released SnapShot, a free tool that anyone can use. It operates like Alexa or Google Trends to display relative traffic, as well as several other metrics such as page views and time on site. Here's an example.

According to Compete, there's a qualitative and quantitative difference between this tool and Google Trends or Alexa, because it leverages their entire 2 million person panel. See Compete's Alexa comparison.

There are a few limitations: it's U.S. audience only, sites with fewer than 10,000 monthly uniques are excluded and you can only compare three sites side by side. But out of the gate it's a much better and more accurate tool than Alexa.

Posted by Greg Sterling on October 31, 2006, 12:14 PM | Permalink


Google Buys Wiki Maker, JotSpot

The Google Blog announced that they have bought JotSpot, a Wiki maker software solution. JotSpot updated their site to include an FAQ on Google, while Google has turned off signup for the service and locked it down to invite only. You can sign up for JotSpot at the www.jot.com, luckily, I am already signed up with them. Gary Price explains that the "financials are NOT being disclosed."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 10:10 AM | Permalink


Ask.com's Revenue Increases 62 Percent

IAC posted Q3 earning results, and part of that included results for Ask.com. Bloomberg reports that Ask.com's revenue increased 62-percent but at a cost of $2.1 million. The $2.1 million more than doubled from their previous operating cost.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 10:02 AM | Permalink


SideStep Buys TravelPost

SideStep acquired TravelPost for a combination of cash and stock. TravelPost will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SideStep.

According to the press release, "TravelPost.com has grown into a leading source for unbiased user-generated hotel reviews and ratings, travel news, information resources and travel blogs. The company has excelled at organizing travel information to improve the way people research and shop for travel."

TravelPost, with over 500,000 hotel reviews on its site, might be the smartest little travel site you've never heard of. The coolest feature is the ability to filter hotel reviews by Age, Gender, Budget, and Trip Purpose. TravelPost requires the reviewer to enter demographic information before posting.

As Sam Shank, CEO of TravelPost explained, I'd take trips off of my friends' advice or itineraries and have an amazing time because I'd stay at the right hotel or go to the right restaurant for me. [TravelPost] was a way to automate that word of mouth process."

TravelPost already is a close partner of SideStep, providing a subset of the hotel reviews found on the site. SideStep also works with PowerReviews and offers expert editorial content. SideStep has been an advertising partner of TravelPost for the last 6-8 months.

According to Sam "We have direct relationships with the Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and direct relationships with a majority of the major hotel brands like InterContinental, Hilton, and Marriott. We don't see any of that presentation changing on TravelPost in immediate future, but this acquisition lends itself to lots of experimentation."

Asked if there's a conflict with these advertisers since some of the major OTAs, Expedia and Travelocity, don't work with SideStep, Rob Solomon, CEO of SideStep responded "we're a media company – we want to work with the best advertisers in the space. We'll continue to work with the OTAs. Expedia and Travelocity don't participate in search on SideStep, but they spend money on SideStep in the form of deals and graphical media. While they [OTAs] say they don't want to commoditize their offerings, SideStep had 5 million uniques over the summer. [The OTAs] will wake up and realize have to participate. Travel search is a very real model and a legitimate part of the travel ecosystem. We're where NexTag, Shopzilla, and Shopping.com were 4 years ago."

It's interesting to note that Rob is the former GM of Yahoo! Shopping and Sam is a former employee of NexTag, so they both have plenty of experience with vertical search.

Sam and Rob both stressed the core of this deal is about user generated content. Sam explained "in travel, word of mouth and [recommendations from] friends are key. There's no better source of information than other people like you." Rob added "TravelPost really increases the corpus of information that's out there by allowing users to express their opinions. When you combine TravelPost with our scale, the consumer ends up winning."

Posted by Brian Smith on October 31, 2006, 9:55 AM | Permalink


Google Asks Microsoft To Give Users A Choice

Forbes reports that Google meet with the European Union the other day about antitrust issues. They asked Microsoft to give users a choice when selecting their default Internet search engine. The article explains, "Google refused to say if changes Microsoft has already made to its upcoming operating system, Vista, have gone far enough." You may also want to read Danny's long write up on the release of IE7 and search engine default battle.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 9:50 AM | Permalink


Belgium Slaps Google With $43.2 Million Fine

Gary Price points to a Poynter.org report showing that Google has been fined €34 million (about $43,231,000 USD) for not removing all of the Belgian publisher's content based on a court ruling. Google claims they could not find all the publishers and asked the publishers for help in identifying the content that has to be removed.

Postscript: Google Says Belgium Did Not Receive $43.2M Fine.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 9:42 AM | Permalink


15GB Gmail Accounts?

Google Operating System reports that some users of Google Apps for Your Domain are noticing that they have 13GB more space then they originally had. Google Operating System asks if Google is just being "generous" or is this an initial "promotion for a paid service."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 9:35 AM | Permalink


More Details On YouTube & Google Acquisition

Blog Maverick has some intimate details on the Google YouTube Deal from a "trusted anonymous author" in a message board. Here are some of the excerpts:

The first request was a simple one and that was an agreement to look the other way for the next 6 months or so while copyright infringement continues to flourish.
The second request was to pile some lawsuits on competitors to slow them down and lock in Youtube's position.
Infringement lawsuits will be served on Youtube and the new proud parent Google in the coming months. Google will respond with two paths: an expensive legal fight or a quick and easy settlement with most choosing the latter.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 9:26 AM | Permalink


Google Video Shares Ad Revenue With Video Authors

News.com reports that Google is sharing most of the ad revenue earned on select Google Videos with the contributors of those videos. Specifically, the authors of the "The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment II" (which is really cool) will be getting "most advertising revenue generated by the latest video." Pretty cool.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 9:18 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Adds Yahoo Store Authentication For Site Explorer

The Yahoo Search Blog announced that if you run a Yahoo Store, you can now easily authenticate your site with Yahoo's Site Explorer. The step by step how to can be found at Authenticating your Site for Yahoo! Site Explorer.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 31, 2006, 9:13 AM | Permalink


Garrett French Leaves MarketSmart Interactive

Andy Beal reports that Garrett French has left MarketSmart Interactive. Garrett, I believe, is the last of many well-known and respected individuals who have worked at MarketSmart Interactive to leave. Jason Dowdell was first then highly respected Andy Beal was second, then Heather Lloyd Martin left, then Mike Grehan resigned and now Garrett has left. You can keep up with Garrett at http://www.garrettfrench.com/.

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


Health Searchers may be Getting Bad Medicine

Most health searchers don't bother checking the source or date of the information they find online, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Even so, a majority say that they are comfortable using this information to alter their own health-related behavior or to share with others. More on the findings released in this report in today's SearchDay article, Rampant Malpractice Among Health Searchers.

Posted by Chris Sherman on October 31, 2006, 2:20 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: October 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...

  • Google Reader Bug Swatting
    Quick post from the Official Google Reader Blog - they've swatted some bugs in the product. On the most part, these are those small, but very irritating bugs that make a utility less enjoyable to use. It's a real miscellany as you'd expect, but includes things such as searching for feeds using keywords now works in Opera, the scrolling position is now always reset when moving between feeds or folders. The "none" color scheme for publisher clips now works, keyboard shortcuts in Internet Explorer should continue to work after using "gt" or "gu" (the tag and subscription selectors) and so...
  • Buying Keywords As Trademark Use?
    The London Free Press is reporting on a case in a New York Federal District Court, Rescuecom v. Google, in which the Judge granted a motion to dismiss on Google's behalf. The case involved the use of trademarked terms as keywords, finding that keyword advertising isn't a use in commerce. But, don't go looking to this ruling for any insights when it comes to the use of trademarked keywords in adwords. There are at least three reasons not to......
  • Google's Page or Brin Purchase NY City Apartment For $30 Million?
    The New York Metro suggests that either Larry Page or Sergey Brin, they are not sure which one, have purchased an apartment in 15 Central Park West, Manhattan, for about $30 million. The broker of the apartment is Corcoran's Patricia Warburg Cliff, who declined to comment. The NYC "apartment has 5,500 square feet, five bedrooms, and a terrace."...
  • Yahoo To Buy AOL? Sell To Microsoft? Merge With eBay? Or Keep Status Quo?
    Fortune reports that rumors are spreading that Yahoo is in talks with Time Warner about buying AOL. The article says, "FORTUNE has learned from multiple sources that Yahoo recently approached Time Warner about buying America Online." That rumor was shot down by Time Warner explaining "that there are no active conversations between the two companies." So the article then goes into what-if scenarios. What if Yahoo did buy AOL? What if Yahoo sold out to Microsoft? What if eBay and Yahoo merged? And what if Yahoo kept with the status quo?...
  • Google Base 2.0 Revealed?
    Garett Rogers found in Google's robots.txt file, "Disallow: /base/s2" and then gave the URL a try and found a potential Google Base version 2.0. When I tried example searches at the /s2 directory, they were being redirected to the main Google Base, such as ice cream maker search, which now redirects to the main Google base. Both Garett and Philipp Lenssen have screen captures of what it looks like....
  • Google Interview With Shashi Seth On Custom Search Engine Product
    Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting posted an Interview of Google's Shashi Seth. Shashi Seth is Product Lead of Search and was directly responsible for the Custom Search Engine. Eric asked Shashi questions about the new product and Google Co-op platform....
  • Google Appeals Federal Judge's Orkut Ruling
    The International Herald Tribune reports that Google has appealed a federal judge's order to hand over the IP address information to Brazilian authorities. Google claims the "federal civil court did not have the proper authority" for such information. But Google spokesperson, Debbie Frost said Google will help Brazilian authorities identify individuals accused of illegal activities on Google's social networking platform, Orkut. This history goes way back, just start from here and keep clicking those links back to the previous stories. This amazes me that it is still going on since early this year....
  • Judge To Rule By End Of Year On Kinderstart Case
    Reuters reports that Judge Jeremy Fogel said he will take until the end of this year to rule on the Kinderstart case. The case was about how Kinderstart's ranking and PageRank fell and Kinderstart sued Google on numerous counts for the ranking drop. The judge recently said, "Assuming Google is saying that KinderStart's Web site isn't worth seeing. Why can't they say that? That's my question." So he will consider this and other questions in his ruling....
  • Google Testing Newspaper Print Ads Again
    PPC Discussions documents receiving an email from Google this weekend about participating in a Google print publication ad test....
  • Google "In Bed" With The CIA?
    Threadwatch spots a disgrunt article named Former Intelligence Agent Says Google In Bed With CIA. Robert David Steele, a former CIA agent, "confirmed from his contacts within the CIA and Google that Google was working in tandem with “the agency." Steele said, “I think that Google has made a very important strategic mistake in dealing with the secret elements of the U.S. government - that is a huge mistake and I'm hoping they'll work their way out of it and basically cut that relationship off." Scary, very scary....
  • Press Releases: Legitimate SEO Tools or Manipulative Spam?
    The first press release was issued 100 years ago, and today there's a spirited debate raging about the value or legitimacy of press releases in a search marketing campaign. In today's SearchDay article, The 100th Birthday of the Press Release, guest writer Greg Jarboe offers a brief history of the press release and frames the debate over using press releases in online marketing campaigns....
  • Mazda 'Craves' Clicks From Honda
    Pontiac had a much celebrated TV ad in which the viewer was invited to “Google” its then-new Solstice convertible, but an ad for Mazda came up among the sponsored links. Here's Danny's earlier post on that episode. Now Mazda is at it again with its new CX-7....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 12:35 PM | Permalink


Google Reader Bug Swatting

Quick post from the Official Google Reader Blog - they've swatted some bugs in the product. On the most part, these are those small, but very irritating bugs that make a utility less enjoyable to use. It's a real miscellany as you'd expect, but includes things such as searching for feeds using keywords now works in Opera, the scrolling position is now always reset when moving between feeds or folders. The "none" color scheme for publisher clips now works, keyboard shortcuts in Internet Explorer should continue to work after using "gt" or "gu" (the tag and subscription selectors) and so on.

I'm glad to see that the Google engineers are doing their best to improve the product, but I've got two observations that will label me as less than charitable.

Firstly, in the announcement they say "Being an engineer isn't always about working on fun new features -- sometimes there are bugs that need to be fixed before anything else can happen." (My emphasis.) Having worked with engineers developing and improving products surely the point is that bugs need to be fixed because they ARE bugs and detract in some way from the product, not because they stop you doing something more interesting? The implication is that Google is prepared to leave bugs in products until and unless forced to fix them because of development plans; but I could be being far too pedantic here and mis-reading a comment.

Secondly is there any chance that the engineers working on Google Reader could be loaned out to Google Search, because there are a few long standing bugs there that need fixing, though since they only affect users rather than development plans they're considered low priority?

Posted by Phil Bradley on October 30, 2006, 11:08 AM | Permalink


Buying Keywords As Trademark Use?

The London Free Press is reporting on a case in a New York Federal District Court, Rescuecom v. Google, in which the Judge granted a motion to dismiss on Google's behalf. The case involved the use of trademarked terms as keywords, finding that keyword advertising isn't a use in commerce. But, don't go looking to this ruling for any insights when it comes to the use of trademarked keywords in adwords. There are at least three reasons not to...

First, as the London paper notes, this case was between the holder of the trademark and the search engine, and not the advertiser. It's possible that the advertiser using the trademark in advertisements might not see the same result as Google.

Second, this ruling added to a number of other cases making the landscape around the use of trademarks as keywords a murky area. Eric Goldman reported on the case, and quoted part of the Court's ruling in his post:

"Defendant's internal use of plaintiff's trademark trigger sponsored links is not a use of a trademark...because there is no allegation that defendant places plaintiff's trademarks on any goods, containers, displays, or advertisements, or that its internal use is visible to the public."

Does this apply just to the search engine? We can't be certain what meaning this might have for an advertiser.

Third, a New Jersey Federal District Court, after the Rescue.com decision, held against an advertiser in denying a motion for summary judgment. Eric Goldman also wrote about this case. A snippet from the Court's decision:

First, the alleged purchase of the keyword was a commercial transaction that occurred “in commerce,” trading on the value of Plaintiff's mark. Second, Defendants' alleged use was both “in commerce” and “in connection with any goods or services” in that Plaintiff's mark was allegedly used to trigger commercial advertising which included a link to Defendants' furniture retailing website.

It appears that the New York Federal Court doesn't consider the sales of adwords including a trademark as a use in commerce, and the New Jersey Federal Court does consider the purchase of adwords including a trademark as a use in commerce. The two positions seem contradictory.

Eric Goldman's latest post cites some other cases that cloud the issue even further.

Posted by Bill Slawski on October 30, 2006, 10:22 AM | Permalink


Google's Page or Brin Purchase NY City Apartment For $30 Million?

The New York Metro suggests that either Larry Page or Sergey Brin, they are not sure which one, have purchased an apartment in 15 Central Park West, Manhattan, for about $30 million. The broker of the apartment is Corcoran's Patricia Warburg Cliff, who declined to comment. The NYC "apartment has 5,500 square feet, five bedrooms, and a terrace."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 10:03 AM | Permalink


Yahoo To Buy AOL? Sell To Microsoft? Merge With eBay? Or Keep Status Quo?

Fortune reports that rumors are spreading that Yahoo is in talks with Time Warner about buying AOL. The article says, "FORTUNE has learned from multiple sources that Yahoo recently approached Time Warner about buying America Online." That rumor was shot down by Time Warner explaining "that there are no active conversations between the two companies." So the article then goes into what-if scenarios. What if Yahoo did buy AOL? What if Yahoo sold out to Microsoft? What if eBay and Yahoo merged? And what if Yahoo kept with the status quo?

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 9:40 AM | Permalink


Google Base 2.0 Revealed?

Garett Rogers found in Google's robots.txt file, "Disallow: /base/s2" and then gave the URL a try and found a potential Google Base version 2.0. When I tried example searches at the /s2 directory, they were being redirected to the main Google Base, such as ice cream maker search, which now redirects to the main Google base. Both Garett and Philipp Lenssen have screen captures of what it looks like.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 9:32 AM | Permalink


Google Interview With Shashi Seth On Custom Search Engine Product

Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting posted an Interview of Google's Shashi Seth. Shashi Seth is Product Lead of Search and was directly responsible for the Custom Search Engine. Eric asked Shashi questions about the new product and Google Co-op platform.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 9:24 AM | Permalink


Google Appeals Federal Judge's Orkut Ruling

The International Herald Tribune reports that Google has appealed a federal judge's order to hand over the IP address information to Brazilian authorities. Google claims the "federal civil court did not have the proper authority" for such information. But Google spokesperson, Debbie Frost said Google will help Brazilian authorities identify individuals accused of illegal activities on Google's social networking platform, Orkut. This history goes way back, just start from here and keep clicking those links back to the previous stories. This amazes me that it is still going on since early this year.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 9:13 AM | Permalink


Judge To Rule By End Of Year On Kinderstart Case

Reuters reports that Judge Jeremy Fogel said he will take until the end of this year to rule on the Kinderstart case. The case was about how Kinderstart's ranking and PageRank fell and Kinderstart sued Google on numerous counts for the ranking drop. The judge recently said, "Assuming Google is saying that KinderStart's Web site isn't worth seeing. Why can't they say that? That's my question." So he will consider this and other questions in his ruling.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 9:03 AM | Permalink


Google Testing Newspaper Print Ads Again

PPC Discussions documents receiving an email from Google this weekend about participating in a Google print publication ad test.

The email read;

We'd like to invite you to participate in a free test that Google is performing with a limited group of our current advertisers. As part of this test, we'll convert your existing (Market Segment Removed) related online ad to a print ad and place it in a newspaper. By participating, you'll be helping us test an extension of our AdWords program while gaining free exposure for your business.

Your ads may appear in daily newspapers in one or more U.S. cities over the next few months. Google will select the newspapers and corresponding sections for ad placement but cannot guarantee that your ad will run.

Should you sign up to participate in the test and wish to submit your own ad, logo, or graphics, we'll provide you with additional instructions by email.

We're excited about the prospect of your participation in this test and welcome any feedback or questions you may have.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team

This is not the first time Google ran print ad tests. Reportedly, the offline print ad experiment was a disappointment and deemed unsuccessful.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 8:51 AM | Permalink


Google "In Bed" With The CIA?

Threadwatch spots a disgrunt article named Former Intelligence Agent Says Google In Bed With CIA. Robert David Steele, a former CIA agent, "confirmed from his contacts within the CIA and Google that Google was working in tandem with “the agency." Steele said, “I think that Google has made a very important strategic mistake in dealing with the secret elements of the U.S. government - that is a huge mistake and I'm hoping they'll work their way out of it and basically cut that relationship off." Scary, very scary.

Postscript: Statement from Google on this, "The statements related to Google are completely untrue."

Posted by Barry Schwartz on October 30, 2006, 8:36 AM | Permalink


Press Releases: Legitimate SEO Tools or Manipulative Spam?

The first press release was issued 100 years ago, and today there's a spirited debate raging about the value or legitimacy of press releases in a search marketing campaign. In today's SearchDay article, The 100th Birthday of the Press Release, guest writer Greg Jarboe offers a brief history of the press release and frames the debate over using press releases in online marketing campaigns.

Posted by Chris Sherman on October 30, 2006, 2:17 AM | Permalink

See More Posts From:

This Week | This Month