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October 31, 2006


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

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