Get Our Blog Feed!

Blog Feed Via:

Listen To Our Podcast!

The Daily SearchCast

Listen Via Odeo

Listen Via iTunes

Listen Via Yahoo Podcasts

Bookmark This Page!

Save To Yahoo My Web

Our Blog Feed Has

Feed Tracking
& Management
Provided By
FeedBurner -
Check Them Out!

Web Analytics Provided By ClickTracks -
Check Them Out!

Don't miss our search marketing & networking events! There's one coming near you: · SES San Jose: Aug. 7-10, 2006 · SES Local Search Edition - Denver: Sept. 28, 2006 · SES Multimedia Edition - Los Angeles: Oct. 23-24, 2006 · SES Paris: Nov. 28-29, 2006 · SES Chicago: Dec. 4-7, 2006 · SES New York: April 9-12, 2007 Search Engine Watch Marketplace Learn How To Advertise Here! Search Engine Newsletters FREE! Over 150,000 readers depend on our free newsletters to keep up with search engines. To join them, enter your email below: SearchDay (Daily) Search Engine Report (Monthly) Learn more about our newsletters and feeds

Google Will Be Featured on 60 Minutes this Sunday

2005 will get underway with something we saw a lot of in 2004, media attention for Google.

At the moment, the company is scheduled to profiled in a 60 Minutes (a top-rated news program in America) segment this Sunday.

A "text version" with highlights from the 60 Minutes piece was posted this afternoon on the CBS News web site. However, I just noticed that the text of the article is no longer available online. Perhaps it was first posted by mistake.

Here are a few of my notes from the now unavailable article.

Searchblog's John Battelle offers comments throughout the article.

+ How after the IPO Sergey purchased a new car and t-shirt.

+ That Brin and Page still share one "tiny" office.

+ How Sergey wants to finish his Ph.D.

+ What's Eric Schmidt's daily worry? Managing a company that's growing as fast as Google. Human resources issues at Google were recently blogged about in this post.

+ Schmidt is also quoted saying that the search business isn't a zero-sum game.

+ The company has never run a television commercial. Btw, Danny mentioned about a week ago that Cindy McCaffrey, one of the key people in Google's marketing/branding success, has decided to leave the company.

+ The good food at the Googleplex. Note: Google is looking for chefs!

+ Brin and Page’s breakthrough was a series of algorithms -- software code -- that created a ranking system by relevance for the Internet.
Yes, the Google Guys deserve plenty of credit but so do Jon Kleinberg, Eugene Garfield, and others.

+ A mention of Google's "don't do evil" philosophy.

+ Google has teams working on all sorts of change-the-world ideas.
"Change-the-world ideas" include machine translation and video search. Yes, of course, many other companies have also been working on these types of technolgies for many years. It will be interesting to see if they mention this fact during the broadcast.

Traffic to Charity Sites Jumps

Hitwise reports that traffic to humanitarian websites has grown over five-fold since the tsunami disaster December 26, with the sector now representing 0.29% of all visits made online.

The UK's Disaster Emergency Committee, an umbrella organization which coordinates the UK's national appeal for humanitarian crises overseas, is the most visited Charity website. In fact, so many people are attempting to visit the site that the organization is asking people to call a toll-free number to donate.

A previously unranked blog site, tsunamihelp.blogspot.com, jumped to the number 10 spot this week.

Search Forums Roundup: Dec. 30, 2004

Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: The Little Engine That Could - What Is Your Greatest AdSense Advice? - Search Engines and FrontPage Shared Borders - Can Look And Feel Be Copyrighted? - My Experience With Site Match and Trusted Feed - Spam Reporting: Obligations and Issues and more.

Feedster Announces Winners of Developer Contest

Scott Johnson, VP of Engineering at Feedster, has just announced the winners of the Feedster developer contest. Lots o' interesting apps to check out including "RSS Zeitgeist." Here you can chart trends in the Feedster database. Intelliseek's BlogPulse offers a similar type of service.

Personalize the Look of the Exalead Home Page

Here's a personalization option I recently noticed on the Exalead home page that allows you to customize its look with shortcut links and preview images (thumbnails) to just about any web page.

To customize:
+ Click on any of the shortcut boxes "outlined" directly below the Exalead search box.
+ Enter a page title and url
+ Hit the enter key
Now, your favorite sites and/or pages that you frequently visit are directly accessible from the home page.

Exalead is a search engine that launched (beta) in October, is loaded with advanced search features, and will soon have an index containing more than one billion pages. It's definitely one to watch in the new year.

What's in Your Collection of National Geographic Magazines?

Here's a deep/invisible web database that might be of interest if you're a collector National Geographic magazines (and other NGS publications) but don't have a tool to quickly find out the contents of each issue.

The National Geographic Publications Index provides indexing (including subject descriptors) for every story, map, etc. contained in most NG publications back to 1887.

It's also possible and very easy to limit your search to a specific publication. Just follow the instructions on this page.

Access to the National Geographic Publications Index is free.

Search Publishers Not Friends Of Agencies, SEMs

Spotted via SearchEngineGuide.com, Buy Your Own Search Listings from iMediaConnection, Kevin Ryan writes of a concern I've heard from many search marketers over the years. Search engines aren't the friends of agencies and SEM firms. If they can, they want to go direct to the client and cut out the middleman. Heck, shoot back to 2002 when search marketer Greg Boser condemned "monetization targeting" at our SES San Jose show as just one example of this.

In my SES San Jose keynote this year, I touched on some of the issues this raises. SEM firms in particular have been what I called "foot soldiers" in winning advertisers over to search. Rather than cut them out, they need to be supported, rewarded and protected.

I also see the search engines -- the publishers as Kevin rightly calls them -- fighting the wrong battle if they think they can replace what agencies provide. The search publishers know their own publications, but it is extremely rare for an advertiser to want to be on only one network. People want both Google and Yahoo/Overture, to have as much reach as possible.

So when Google gains a client, will they do everything possible to ensure that client gets the best play on its competitor Overture? I doubt it. Instead, it will naturally want to keep as much of that client money as it can at home -- and the same would be true for Overture.

In contrast, Kevin writes (and I agree) on how agencies and SEM firms have incentive to work fully in the client's best interest, regardless of publishing venue.

For a related article on the tensions between agencies and search publishers, also see this article from MediaPost earlier this year: Search Turf War: Industry Growth Foments Tension Among Mutually Reliant.

And Expect More SEM Firm Acquisitions

Search Agencies Ripe for Picking from ClickZ takes a look at how further acquisitions of SEM firms may occur following in the iProspect acquisition last week. Several quotes, though mainly from those at SEM firms, rather than agencies. But no doubt we'll see more cashing out. Proceed's acquisition was announced the day after this was written. And while iProspect might have kicked off the latest round, the reality is that 2004 already had a number of acquisitions prior to that. A recap of those, in handy chart form, in my past post: Will 2005 Bring More SEM Acquisitions?

CGI Holding To Acquire Proceed

Only days after the acquisition of iProspect by a major marketing group, CGI Holding Corporation goes the other direction and intends to gobble up Proceed Interactive, which specializes in search marketing.

Proceed? They just went through a name change and were formerly called Meandaur. CGI Holding? It's the parent company of online marketing firm WebSourced, which in turn operates the search marketing division of KeywordRankings.com

Some brief details from ClickZ: Proceed to Merge with CGI. Value? In total, 1.3 million of CGI shares, half now, half based on performance over the next four years. Over-the-counter shares are currently trading at $6.15, so call it around $8 million, assuming the "restricted common stock" making up part of the deal is the same as publicly trading shares.

Some more details via a release on Search Engine Lowdown. That's Andy Beal's blog. Andy, of course, has a side gig as VP of search marketing for WebSourced.

Earlier this year, WebSourced also acquired Global Promoter, and the company has a letter of intent announced in November to merge the traditional marketing services of MarketSmart into its operations.

New Way To See Ads -- And Only Ads -- At Google

Spotted via Andrew Goodman's great SEM 2.0 mailing list, news of a special Google Sponsored Links service that you can use to see all the sponsored ads Google has for a particular query. In other words, it's all ads, all the time -- none of those pesky editorial listings to get in the way! When you first arrive at the service, you'll get what looks to be an error page: "Your search - - did not match any sponsored links." Just enter the term you are interested in, and the ads will come your way.

What Do Ad Agencies Think Of Search?

What do media buyers in traditional ad agencies think about search? That's something one of our forum members asked recently in our Media Buyers & Search Engine Advertising thread.

I responded in that thread with a variety of resources on the topic of ad agencies and search, including the fact that we've seen some recent acquisitions. But most of this is from the perspective of SEM firms who tend to think agencies "don't get it." Got some other resources giving the view from the agency side? Have your own viewpoints to contribute? Please come by!

FYI, the SEM Industry category of our Search Topics area available to Search Engine Watch members has some additional stories compiled on this subject stretching back to 1996

Google Scholar's New Advanced Search Interface

The Google Scholar team has released an advanced search interface.

You can now limit your search by:
+ Publication Title (No syntax available)
+ Date Range (No syntax available)
+ Words in the Document Title
+ Author (author: )
+ View up to 100 results per search
Complete documentation and caveats here.

I haven't had much time to use the new interface but almost immediately spotted a problem (yes, it's a beta) with the date limit. For example, I limited my searches to only documents published in 2004 and got plenty of non-2004 items. Here are three examples:
+ #1
The first item, a book, was published in 1987.
+ #2
The first item, a journal article, was published in 1995.
+ This search is limited to documents published between 2003 and 2004. The first item was published in 2001. Google does include a caveat about limiting by date in the documentation. Bottom Line: Be careful!

Get Cooking at Google

Do you like to cook? Do you want to work at Google? This might be your chance.

I mentioned yesterday that one of Google's most well-known perks is the free gourmet food offered at the Googleplex.

Today, I noticed two job listings that were recently posted on the Google web site. The company is looking for a Lead Chef and On-Site Food Services Manager to, "produce organic, high quality meals to attract Google employees."

Web search and food. What more do you need? (-:

Christmas Lights, Hoaxes, and Google Ads

For your, "it's always something" and your "it's easy to create a hoax" on the Internet file...

According to an AP article: Designer: Christmas Lights on Web a Hoax, Google is looking into a site that turned out to be a hoax. Why Google? The web site contained Google ads and at least one advertiser is unhappy.

It turns out that the web site, which was supposed to allow web visitors to control the Christmas lights in front of Alek Komarnitsky's Colorado home, was a scam. The story was picked up by the AP, linked from the Slashdot site and NYTimes.com, and by many other news outlets. In fact, several Colorado TV stations sent helicopters to fly over the home.

The AP picked up the story from a local newspaper and checked out the Web site but never visited the house. Oops.

Yesterday, after the site received more than four million visitors during December, Mr. Komarnitsky confessed to the Wall Street Journal that it was all a hoax.

Komarnitsky said he only made "pennies" from the Google ads but was unable to say precisely how much he earned due to an NDA with Google.

Paul McLellan, general manager of Minneapolis-based ServiceLighting.com, which had an ad on the site, said Komarnitsky's actions were unethical.

A spokesman for Google declined comment until officials could look into the matter further.

Site Search From Gigablast

We mentioned last week that Gigablast was offering a service that allows users to create topic focused search tools. Pandia has created a "search engine search engine" that queries a bunch of search-related sites including SEW.

Today, another new service from Gigablast. They've just announced a new service allowing you to quickly create a site search tool. You can search for pages from the main Gigablast index or "add your root url via the site search addurl page and it, and the pages it links to either directly or indirectly, will immediately be indexed at the rate of about one page every five seconds."

One-Stop Travel Search

2004 saw an increasing amount of attention given to travel search tools, particularly those that simultaneously search multiple databases. In fact, Yahoo acquired FareChase in July and launched a beta in September.

The article: Search engines revved up for one-stop travel service takes a look at some of the new travel search meta search engines including Kayak (they just announced a deal with AOL), Sidestep (download required), Mobissimo (just out of beta), and Quixo.

UPDATE: Pam Parker reports that Kayak is about to launch a ppc ad campaign to help bring traffic to their site. See: Kayak.com Readies New Year PPC Campaign. I've used Kayak for several months and particularly like its use of "sliders" to help modify and focus result sets.

Waypath Debuts New Look and Service

Waypath, the blog search and discovery engine, is online today with a new look and new service.

First, the Waypath home page has a new look.

Second, the Seattle-based company has released "Blogs on the News." Find what the blogosphere is saying about a specific Yahoo News story. BOTN utilizes semantic matching analysis. You'll find blog comments even if the post doesn't link back to the underlying news story.

New Patents for Google, IBM, Yahoo & Others

I mentioned in a post about IBM yesterday that Big Blue has been racking up plenty of search patents. You'll see several brand new IBM search-related patents and pre-grant patent applications in the following update along with new patents and apps for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others.

What follows is another helping of new patents and published patent applications via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This is not a comprehensive list. I've compiled these lists of search patents and published patent appplications on my ResourceShelfPLUS site for about a year. My first compilation on the SEW site was posted on SearchDay and the blog in November.

Let's get started!

Recently Published Pre-Grant Patent Applications
Systems and methods for searching using queries written in a different character-set and/or language from the target pages
Assignee: Google
Published: December 23, 2004

Personalized indexing and searching for information in a distributed data processing system
Assignee: IBM
Published: December 23, 2004

Content-driven speech- or audio-browser
Assignee: Phillips Electronics
Published: December 23, 2004

Architecture for generating responses to search engine queries
Assignee: NA
Published: December 16, 2004
NOTE: One of the inventors, Eric Brill, is the head of the Text Mining, Search and Navigation Group at Microsoft.

Universal search interface systems and methods
Assignee: Yahoo!
Published: December 9, 2004

System & method of identifying trendsetters
Assignee: NA
Published: December 9, 2004

Method for implementing search engine
Assignee: NA
Published: December 9, 2004

Recently Awarded Patents

Method and apparatus for improved information representation
Assignee: Surfnotes
Published: December 28, 2004

System and method for associating search results
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: December 14, 2004

Organizing and categorizing hypertext document bookmarks by mutual affinity based on predetermined affinity criteria
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: December 14, 2004

System and method for dynamically optimizing a banner advertisement to counter competing advertisements
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: December 7, 2004

System and method for improving answer relevance in meta-search engines
Assignee: Xerox
Awarded: December 7, 2004

Very-large-scale automatic categorizer for web content
Assignee: Microsoft
Awarded: November 30, 2004

System and method allowing advertisers to manage search listings in a pay for placement search system using grouping
Assignee: Overture (Yahoo!)
Awarded: November 30, 2004

Method, system and program for providing indexed web page contents to a search engine database
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: November 23, 2004

Google's HR Challenge

The News.com article: Will Google stay as hot as its lava lamps takes a look at what the company will faces from a human resources perspective as it works to keep its top spot. We've read similar articles in the past.

This new article focuses on recruitment (especially vs Microsoft), company perks* (a daycare center is in the works), and the possibility that Google veterans will cash out and leave the company. Just last week we learned that Cindy McCaffrey, vice president of corporate marketing (and someone who should get PLENTY of credit for Google's succcess) is leaving the company. In October, Evan Williams, the founder of Pyra Labs/Blogger decided to leave Google. Jupiter's Gary Stein also points out that other tech companies have "lost farsighted leaders" like Jobs and Wozniak at Apple.

Google's challengers not only face developing new and better technology but then getting the potential users to visit their service and realize/understand that it might offer advantages over what they've been using at Google. In other words, to some degree they need to change user behavior at a time when many people believe that if it's not in the Google database or if Google doesn't offer the service, the info doesn't exist and/or the service isn't all that useful.

* One of Google's most well-known perks, the tasty food provided free to everyone at the Googleplex, was just discussed in a S.F. Chronicle story: Variety of healthy food fills up oodles of Googlers
Search engine workforce gets meals for free.

IBM and Search

James Fallows' article in The New York Times: At I.B.M., That Google Thing Is So Yesterday, reports on his visit to IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center and some of what Big Blue is up to in the search arena, including their Piquant "answer agent", OmniFind, and other projects that utilize their unstructured information management architecture (UIMA).

The NY Times doesn't include a mention of IBM's frequently discussed unstructured data project named Web Fountain. You can learn more about Web Fountain in this Searchblog post and this compilation of articles from ResourceShelf. I've also noticed IBM racking up a large numbers of search related patents in the past couple of years. You can find links to a few of them via this page using and edit/find for "IBM".

Mr. Cicollo, the [IBM] search strategist, said that in a way his team was trying to match - and reverse - what Google has achieved. "As Google use became widespread, people began asking why it was so much easier to find material on the external Web than it was on their own computers or in their company's Web sites," he said. "Google sets a very high standard for that Web. We would like to set the next standard, so that people will find it so easy to do things at work that they'll wonder why they can't do them on the Internet." How soon might this happen? He said, with a chuckle, "Well, if I could freeze what everyone else is doing, it could be in two years."

Btw, you can also read about IBM's Marvel (video search) project in this blog post from September.

Positive Press for the Butler

The LA Times Chris Gaither looks at Ask Jeeves in the article: Which Search Engine Firm Is Coming Back?

The aim for Ask Jeeves is to become the first stop for Web searches, not just a service to try if Google doesn't deliver the goods, said Chief Executive Steve Berkowitz.

Forbes on Feeds

More mainstream business press coverage of RSS and syndicated content in the Forbes article: Feed Me. The article says that RSS/synidcated could, "disrupt real web businesses." Feedster's Scott Rafer is quoted saying, "A lot of industries are worried." Other services mentioned include Technorati, Daypop, Topix.net, and MyYahoo. Forrester's Charlene Li mentions that more than 2 million receive feeds regularly.

Gone For The Holidays

We'll be on a fairly light schedule over the coming week, given the holidays coming up. I'll personally be gone tomorrow, Monday and then the following Thursday and Friday. So just a quick note to anyone trying to get in touch next week -- unless it's really urgent, catch me after the New Year and keep your message from getting lost in the backlog. This New York Times article, E-Mail Doesn't Take a Holiday, crystallizes the type of situation I find myself always returning to if I take a few days off, snowed under by messages. Personally, I think we should all declare at least one week of the year to be a search holiday -- no news, no acquisitions, no releases, no nothing for a solid week. Now that's what I want under my tree for Christmas. Happy Holidays to you all!

Tips For Search Marketers Following The Google-Geico Ruling

Matt Naegar, one of our legal panelists at SES Chicago and general counsel for search marketing firm IMPAQT, looks at the Google-Geico ruling in Google Versus Geico: What Does It Mean for Search Engine Marketers? from MediaPost.

He warns that it's not anything goes, from a marketer's perspective. In particular, the ruling in one US district might not be followed by judges hearing a case in another district. He also offers some advice on trying to stay out of trouble, until we get clearer rulings.

The Geico case didn't involve marketers, of course -- it was targeted at the search engines as bigger targets (and deeper pockets). No doubt, we'll start to hear of marketers themselves being involved in high-profile cases in the future.

There's also no doubt that the Geico ruling won't be the end of this. Until we get appeals and a number of other cases testing different aspects of trademark law, as they apply to search marketing, the legalities will remain a matter of debate.

Will 2005 Bring More SEM Acquisitions?

I bet a friend last year that no, ad agencies are not going to swoop in and eat up all the search marketing firms out there. Hmm -- might have to pay out. Actually, I'll still stand by my guns that there's long going to be a place for the standalone search marketing shop.

Still, yesterday's purchase of iProspect has people wondering if there will be more buy-ups. DMNews.com looks at this in iProspect Deal Could Ignite Agency Buying Frenzy with various quotes.

It's also a good time for me to take some of the past acquisitions and make a nice little chart, as I love charts so much:

I've tried to stick with companies that were pretty firmly in the search marketing space from a service perspective that were consumed by traditional or semi-traditional agencies. Some of these we had yesterday, and I came across a nice article by Fredrick Marckini listing a few more: SEM Predictions for 2004 (The SEM CEO's View).

Fredrick, of course, is founder and CEO of iProspect -- so he fulfills his prediction of three-to-six SEM acquisitions in 2004 by getting his own company bought (and congrats, Fredrick).

Some other notes. Tempus bought a stake in MMG beginning in June 1998 to form a core part of its Outrider division. It looks like it gained the entire company from founder John Audette in Spring 2000 (side note: Bend, Oregon, where MMG operated from, remains a hot bed of SEM activity from those who later left the company).

Tempus also bought 75 percent of WGI in 2000 for $1.5 million and the rest apparently in April 2002 for some amount I can't locate. So, I've called it $2 million plus. Also, by this point Tempus had been bought by WPP -- which operates Mediaedge:cia -- of which Outrider is the digital marketing unit. So, I'm sticking with Outrider as the "purchaser" for both MMG and WGI.

Ready to sell your own firm or buy one? You might want to check out our past SearchDay article, How Much is a Search Marketing Firm Worth?

Finally, a reminder for those interested in things related to acquisitions and revenues. Search Engine Watch members have access to categorized lists of stories on these topics stretching back for years, within our Search Topics area.

Our search revenues category covers material of all types relating to revenues in the search space, while our search acquisitions category covers items relating to the purchasing and mergers of companies.

Postscript: I've added some WebSourced acquisitions and links in the chart provide more info. Value for Global Promoter involves some shares that can be earned over a two year period, so initial payout is shown. MarketSmart is actually an ad firm, rather than an SEM firm. Also added the mSearch and Rawhide acquisitions -- links again provide more info.

Search Forums Roundup: Dec. 23, 2004

Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: Having Trouble Believing In Crosslinking Penalties - Directory Wars - Local Search is just Hype - 20 Guidelines To Create Successful Landing Pages - Google as Web King, For Now... - Robots.txt Issue With Duplicate Content, and more.

Asking Search Engines Who's The Top Search Engine

It's been done before, but Gord Hotckiss takes a fresh look at what comes up tops for a search for "search engine" at, well, various search engines in his Of Serendipity and Search Engines article at MediaPost.

Is Google tops for that query at Google? Nope, it's some small web site no one's every heard of called Search Engine Watch or something like that. Now obviously I'm not going to disagree with that result, but Gord thinks maybe Google itself might want to rise higher than fifth place, certainly above the former search stars Lycos and AltaVista that currently outrank it.

Over at Yahoo, the big Y! puts itself first. Ah, but that's almost certainly because Yahoo appears to hand manipulate some popular queries as I've written about before and we've discussed (here and here) in our forums recently. That's not always a problem, by the way. Many times I wish Google would do some hand review of its results. As I posted recently, MSN used to do this, and it was a strength they've given up.

At MSN Search, Gord doesn't find MSN Search coming up tops, but over at Ask Jeeves, he's please to find them ranking themselves tops.

In the end, using his patented GordRank algorithm, Gord creates a list of the top search engines based on search engines themselves. Google comes in tops, followed by AltaVista.

To compare Gord's experience to the past, check out Chris Sherman's What's the Best Search Engine? article from 2003. I also used to do a somewhat similar spin on this seeing how the search engines ranked themselves for their own names in my Company Name Test. Ah, those were the days!

And for some past history on the idea of search engines making themselves tops for their own name or those of competitors, check out this News.com article from 1999: Lycos's loop has users reconsider rivals.

Copywriting For Search Ads

Kevin Lee's got a two-parter at ClickZ on writing copy for search ads. PPC Search Copywriting Strategies, Part 1 looks at the importance of keywords in the title and description, while PPC Search Copywriting Strategies, Part 2 looks at crafting compelling copy, such as price points and "power" words, along with other tips.

Search Year In Review, With A Laugh

Peter Da Vanzo's 2004: The Search Engine Year in Review article over at SearchEngineBlog.com (soon to gain the rightful tag, The Original Search Engine Blog™) not only gives you a short summary of major events in search with a search marketing perspective but also provides plenty of chuckles along the way, such as...

• It is strongly rumoured by those-in-the-know that Yahoo will definitely "go Inktomi" soon. Yahoo don't "go Inktomi". Instead, Yahoo confuses the hell out of everybody with a cryptic pay-per-inclusion program.
   
• MSN roll out their search beta, which gets mixed reviews. GoogleGuy helpfully suggests some deconstruction of the MSN algo.
   
• Bill Gates thinks he has the answer to search. It lies in providing answers to questions, like "Why is the sky blue". Amusingly, Google had the answer to that question at #1, while MSN featured an ad for a Casino. Still does, in fact.

On that last point, I have to add that for me, both Google and the current MSN Search (along with Yahoo) show exactly the same page as number one -- a clever online casino site that does provide the answer as a traffic draw, boosted by having apparently having acquired the domain previously used by a non-casino site talking about the blue sky topic. But the beta MSN Search site brings up a nicer page from Sky Watch, so a few kudos to Bill and team (and OK, nice going Ask Jeeves, as well).

Google, Yahoo Post 2004 Most Popular Search Terms

The list of most popular search terms from 2004 continues, with Google weighing in today. The 2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist gives you:

• Top 10 most popular queries in 2004. Britney Spears tops the list, and chat is the first non-person item on the list in at fifth place
• Top 10 most popular men, with Orlando Bloom ranked first
• Top 10 most popular women -- yes, it's Britney again
• Top 5 TV shows, with The Simpsons in top spot
• Top 5 popular tech items, with wallpaper listed first
• Top 5 most popular consumer brands, with ebay listed first (but want to bet Google itself made the list but was editorially dropped off?)

Top queries for news, image, shopping and local are also shown in various categories. Also offered are country-specific year-end wrap-ups, and a Flash-based interactive edition of the wrap-up, giving you a month-by-month look at some top queries, special Google logos and a major news events recap.

For those keeping score, other major search sites that have already provided end-year wrap-ups that we've blogged are:

• Most Popular Search Terms 2004: AOL
• Most Popular Search Terms 2004: Ask Jeeves
• Most Popular Search Terms 2004: Lycos

I haven't seen a formal announcement from Yahoo, but it may have slipped by me. I do see over on the Yahoo site that a wrap-up is available, however: Top Yahoo Searches 2004. It shows:

• Top 10 search terms, leading with American Idol
• Top 10 movie searches, with that boy Harry Potter on top
• Top 10 news searches, leading with Iraq
• Top 10 reality show searches, with American Idol tops again

And there's more, including some cool line charts pitting Lindsay Lohan against Hillary Duff (go Lindsay!), and Star Wars v. Lord Of The Rings v. Harry Potter and Howard Stern versus Oprah.

JavaScript & Search Engines

Shari Thurow shares some tips on how search engines interact with JavaScript in the aptly-named ClickZ column Search Engines and JavaScript.

MSN, MSN UK Plug-Ins For Firefox

Use a Mozilla-based browser like Firefox, with the integrated search box? The ability to hit a number of search engines is already built in, but not the beta MSN Search UK service. Solution for those who want it? Matt Cox has one for you here: MSN UK Search (beta) Mycroft Plug-in. Wait, you want the global MSN Search beta? No worries, he points over to one on the Ryanware Blog: MSN Search Beta search plugin for Mozilla.

Fire Them Search Spammers!

Patricia Fusco, one of the new SEM columnists at ClickZ, comes out swinging with an argument that if the firm you outsource SEO work to uses "black hat" techniques, they should get axed: Search Engine Spam? You're Fired! The caveat, of course, is this assumes you hired a firm and weren't aware they might use frowned-up techniques. Firing a firm that went aggressive with the search engines after they told you they would, or because you told them to do so, doesn't make much sense. You shouldn't have hired them in the first place!

Trademarks and Search Engines

IDG's Juan Carlos Perez offers a lengthy look at trademarks and search engine advertising in the Infoworld article: Trademark owners battle search engines.

MSN Launches a Search Wiki

This afternoon and just in time for the holidays, let's say hello to the MSN Search Wiki.

The new wiki is another way of interacting with the MSN Search team. MSN also offers a msnsearch WebLog, newsgroup.

MSN also has a rep who occasionally lurks in the WMW Forum. Yes, SEW has an MSN Search forum as well -- while other search reps frequent our forum, MSN has yet to appear. We're told they're working on it.

The MSN Search wiki can be read by anyone and covers both their algorithmic search tool and their desktop search app. If you're interested in editing you'll need to be a registered user.

Topics include:
+ What are our