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July 5, 2006

July 5, 2006

More Money into Interactive Marketing

A couple of financings making news today may have some impact on the interactive marketing space.


  • Kontera, which I wrote about here (and which was previously known as eZula), has taken in $7 million from venture firms Sequoia Capital and Lehman Brothers. The company's press release touts Kontera's ability to monetize user-generated content -- via in-text links in discussion forums and the like. Kontera doesn't specify what it'll do with the dough, just saying it will fuel growth.

  • Meanwhile, IGA Worldwide, the in-game advertising company, has brought aboard Intel Capital as an investor. The firm is taking in a total of $17 million in a Series A funding round. Other investors include Easton Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures and DN Capital. The company says it'll use the money to expand its relationships with publishers and continue to "extend its global operations in support of a growing base of customers in North America, Europe and Asia."

UPDATE: So I've found out that Kontera was not previously known as eZula, though some former eZula executives founded Kontera. They are completely different companies, Kontera tells me.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search Headlines & Links: July 5, 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...

  • June 2006 Search News Recap Posted
    The latest edition of my monthly Search Engine Report newsletter is now online, recapping top stories in search from the past month. You can read it online or receive it via email for free by signing up here. If you're a Search Engine Watch member, the latest edition of Search Engine Update newsletter has also been posted. That newsletter carries more items than the Search Engine Report newsletter and goes out twice per month....
  • Daily SearchCast, July 5, 2006: Google's Ranking Criteria Categories Exposed?; Lawsuit Over Rankings Might Go Ahead; Google's Not-So-Killer Products; Windows Live Local Click-To-Call & More!
    Today's search podcast covers Google's categories of ranking criteria accidentally exposed?; SEO tools to try; is Google a flop unless all of its products are winners?; Windows Live Local gets click-to-call and more! Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ. Below are links to items discussed:...
  • Report: Advertisers Lost $800 Million To Click Fraud Last Year
    The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a click fraud study that claims 14.6 percent of all clicks and $800 million worth of fraudulent clicks were charged to advertisers....
  • New Search Patent Applications: July 5, 2006 - Google Coming to a Shopping Mall Near You
    Google files patents for shopping offline with online assistance, a secondary map in Google Maps, and an updated review aggregator. Yahoo adds a patent application for search results PPC advertising, and managing blog content. Microsoft looks to anchor text to help train a machine learning classification system when user behavior data isn't available. AOL details a method of filtering search results using ontologies and expert domains for queries. IBM explains differences in how images can be indexed, and presents a method based upon the semantic meanings of pictures. Become, Inc., describes how different links can be assigned different values while...
  • Interactive Review Of SEOBook's SEO Firefox Extension
    Aaron Wall over at SEO Book released a Firefox extension for SEOs. The Firefox extension can be viewed here, it allows you to see on the Google and Yahoo search result pages the PageRank, the age, the links, the .edu links the .gov links, the del.icio.us numbers and Technorati rank, the Alexa rank a cached link and much more, right on the page. I decided it would be fun to do an other video cast. You can view the video cast by reading more....
  • Microsoft Running Out Of Room In Redmond
    A New York Times article looks into how Microsoft is running out of room in Redmond. The company is adding 12,000 new employees, which requires them to expand the headquarters 3.1 million square feet, more than a third of its current size. They will be adding fourteen new buildings and leases to fit all these new employees. The problem is, there is not enough room for them to expand at this pace....
  • Google's Spam Score Details Shown?
    Peter Da Vanzo spotted a DigitalPoint thread that found clues as to how Google scores spam results behind the scenes. Now, honestly, I have no idea if this is about spam or something else, it is just that the information posted in the forum, seems to appear like a spam score report by Google. How did it come about? The user was presented with this information after clicking on a cache URL in the Google results. The user was shocked to see the following information revealed to him....
  • SEOMoz's Keyword Difficulty Tool
    Rand posted an update to a tool named keyword difficulty tool. The tool's name is pretty descriptive enough, it tells you how competitive a keyword is to rank for. There is great detail on how it works here and here....
  • Yahoo Launches New Home Page Design In UK & Ireland
    Personal Computer World in the UK reports that Yahoo has finally released the new home page redesign that has been in beta since mid-February -- at least in the UK. The new design is visible for all at http://uk.yahoo.com/ and is described "as the biggest redesign in its history, and promised that the new homepages would focus on search, content, community and personalisation." Danny confirms that his Yahoo home page has switched to the beta version, and he is based in the UK, of course. I am based in New York, and my Yahoo home page has remained the same....
  • Google To Launch Book Search Service In China
    The People's Daily Online reports that Google will be launching an on-line book search service in China. Google signed agreements with publishing houses, instead of libraries (as Baidu has), including publishers named Tsinghua University Press and the Children's Publishing House. Google said that the books would be available on-line, "provide search links and grant free access to a segment of each work, but readers would have to pay to read the full content." Google plans on taking a 30 percent commission from the profit on selling books online....
  • Google Warns U.S. Legislators On Anti-Trust Complaints Over Net Neutrality
    The Washington Post reports that Google has warned the United States, that if telecoms abuse net neutrality principles it backs, through a new law that might go through, it could consider an anti-trust action. If you want all the details, check out the Washington Post....
  • Windows Live Local Integrates 'Call For Free' Into All Business Listings
    The intrepid Gary Price called my attention to the quiet integration of "click to call" functionality into Windows Live Local over the weekend. I couldn't determine whether this was homegrown or whether Microsoft was working with a partner such as eStara or Ingenio to offer the service....

Other Things We Read, Didn't Blog But You Might Want To Read...

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:03 PM | Permalink

June 2006 Search News Recap Posted

The latest edition of my monthly Search Engine Report newsletter is now online, recapping top stories in search from the past month. You can read it online or receive it via email for free by signing up here.

If you're a Search Engine Watch member, the latest edition of Search Engine Update newsletter has also been posted. That newsletter carries more items than the Search Engine Report newsletter and goes out twice per month.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:51 PM | Permalink

Daily SearchCast, July 5, 2006: Google's Ranking Criteria Categories Exposed?; Lawsuit Over Rankings Might Go Ahead; Google's Not-So-Killer Products; Windows Live Local Click-To-Call & More!

Today's search podcast covers Google's categories of ranking criteria accidentally exposed?; SEO tools to try; is Google a flop unless all of its products are winners?; Windows Live Local gets click-to-call and more!

Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ.

Below are links to items discussed:

  • Hamburg, The Ukraine Football Team & Seeing The World Cup
  • Hamburg Fan Fest & Germany V. Argentina
  • Google's Spam Score Details Shown?
    Peter Da Vanzo spotted a DigitalPoint thread that found clues as to how Google scores spam results behind the scenes. Now, honestly, I have no idea if this is about spam or something else, it is just that the information posted in the forum, seems to appear like a spam score report by Google. How did it come about? The user was presented with this information after clicking on a cache URL in the Google results. The user was shocked to see the following information revealed to him....
  • Report a Content Violation
  • KinderStart.com Case May Proceed To Court?
    News.com reports that the KinderStart.com case may proceed to court, based on this past Friday's hearing. Kinderstart.com initially sued Google for a site penalty that downgraded the site's rankings in the Google search results. Kinderstart.com claims Google violated antitrust laws, "What Google is trying to do is take out the competition," Kinderstart.com's lawyer said. The judge gave KinderStart.com's lawyers until September 29th to make revisions to the complaint. The judge said, "You can't just file a blanket lawsuit and say, 'We think we're going to find some stuff.'" Also see news brief at ComputerWorld....
  • SEOMoz's Keyword Difficulty Tool
    Rand posted an update to a tool named keyword difficulty tool. The tool's name is pretty descriptive enough, it tells you how competitive a keyword is to rank for. There is great detail on how it works here and here....
  • Interactive Review Of SEOBook's SEO Firefox Extension
    Aaron Wall over at SEO Book released a Firefox extension for SEOs. The Firefox extension can be viewed here, it allows you to see on the Google and Yahoo search result pages the PageRank, the age, the links, the .edu links the .gov links, the del.icio.us numbers and Technorati rank, the Alexa rank a cached link and much more, right on the page. I decided it would be fun to do an other video cast. You can view the video cast by reading more....
  • Google Warns U.S. Legislators On Anti-Trust Complaints Over Net Neutrality
    The Washington Post reports that Google has warned the United States, that if telecoms abuse net neutrality principles it backs, through a new law that might go through, it could consider an anti-trust action. If you want all the details, check out the Washington Post....
  • Yahoo China To Be Sued For Linking To Sites Selling Pirated Music
    Spotted via TechCrunch, Bloomberg reports that Yahoo China is to be sued for linking to sites that sell pirated music. The article claims "about 90 percent of all recordings in China are illegal, with sales of pirated music worth about $400 million annually," according to the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry. A new law in China that came into effect on July 1 "fines distributors of illegally copied music, movies and other material over the Internet as much as 100,000 yuan ($12,500)."...
  • Ending Click Fraud with Pay-Per-Percentage
    In Pay-Per-Percentage vs. PPC, Shimon Sandler points out an interesting new paper from the folks at Microsoft Research - Pay-Per-Percentage of Impressions: An Advertising Method that is Highly Robust to Fraud (pdf) As Shimon notes, the idea is that this type of advertising approach would be "immune to both click fraud and impression fraud," and would use something called "pre-fix match" instead of broad match....
  • Windows Live Local Integrates 'Call For Free' Into All Business Listings
    The intrepid Gary Price called my attention to the quiet integration of "click to call" functionality into Windows Live Local over the weekend. I couldn't determine whether this was homegrown or whether Microsoft was working with a partner such as eStara or Ingenio to offer the service....
  • Microsoft Running Out Of Room In Redmond
    A New York Times article looks into how Microsoft is running out of room in Redmond. The company is adding 12,000 new employees, which requires them to expand the headquarters 3.1 million square feet, more than a third of its current size. They will be adding fourteen new buildings and leases to fit all these new employees. The problem is, there is not enough room for them to expand at this pace....
  • New York Times Looks At Google's Hardware & Infrastructure
    A New York Times article has a detailed analysis of Google's infrastructure and discussion with Urs Hölzle, senior vice president for operations at Google. Here are some of the key points I pulled from that article. + Google tends builds from ground up versus buying. + Google's computing costs are half those of other large Internet companies and a tenth those of traditional corporate technology users. + Critics call Google's philosophy "unnecessary and inefficient." + "Google is reducing cost while maintaining performance by shifting the burden of reliability from hardware to software — individual hardware components can fail, but software...
  • Google's Non Search Products A Flop
    BusinessWeek reports that when Google launches a new non-search product, the competition "shivers," Google has yet to lead in market share for any of those non-search products. Google's Gtalk is currently ranked number ten with two percent market share, Google Finance is the "40th-most-visited finance site," and Gmail "is the system of choice for only about one-quarter the number of people who use MSN and Yahoo e-mail." So with all these product launches, is Google a threat? Read more at BusinessWeek....
  • Google To Launch Book Search Service In China
    The People's Daily Online reports that Google will be launching an on-line book search service in China. Google signed agreements with publishing houses, instead of libraries (as Baidu has), including publishers named Tsinghua University Press and the Children's Publishing House. Google said that the books would be available on-line, "provide search links and grant free access to a segment of each work, but readers would have to pay to read the full content." Google plans on taking a 30 percent commission from the profit on selling books online....
  • Yahoo Launches New Home Page Design In UK & Ireland
    Personal Computer World in the UK reports that Yahoo has finally released out of beta, the new home page redesign that has been in beta since mid-February. The new design, is visible for all at http://uk.yahoo.com/ and is described "as the biggest redesign in its history, and promised that the new homepages would focus on search, content, community and personalisation." Danny confirms that his Yahoo home page has switched to the beta version, and he is based in the UK, of course. I am based in New York, and my Yahoo home page has remained the same....

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:13 PM | Permalink

Report: Advertisers Lost $800 Million To Click Fraud Last Year

The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a click fraud study that claims 14.6 percent of all clicks and $800 million worth of fraudulent clicks were charged to advertisers.

The study conducted by Outsell Inc., a market researcher in Burlingame, seems to have been a survey of "407 online advertisers representing a cross-section of U.S. business."

I do not know if this data is based exclusively on reports from these advertisers, or if advertisers were asked to guess the figures. The study claims that 75 percent of all advertisers say they are a victim of click fraud, 37 percent have or will reduce their PPC spend, $500 million was lost directly due to Google or Yahoo and of the 407, seven percent asked for refunds averaging $9,507 each. The full report is available for purchase at OutSell.

Postscript From Danny. I've now reviewed a copy of the report. Note that:

  • The study involved 407 advertisers, all US-based, targeting mainly business and consumer markets, all working full-time. Together, they are said to control about $1 billion in ad spending.
     
  • Outsell says the cross section can be extrapolated. However, some degree of advertising is done by individuals who might be doing things like arbitrage (buying search traffic at low prices to send clicks to other contextual ads worth more). People like these and others probably aren't included in the report, yet they have an impact on any estimates.
     
  • 27 percent say click fraud has caused them to reduce online advertising spending (though whether this is search spending; dropping contextual campaigns or something else isn't covered, nor is it covered if they have dropped with particular search engines, such as second or third tier players). Another 10 percent say click fraud is such a concern that they intend to reduce spend. So click fraud is impacting spend on 37 percent of those surveyed.
     
  • In contrast, 31 percent said click fraud was a secondary issue or not an issue to them; 33 percent said it was a serious issue they felts providers are controlling. Combined, that's 64 percent who aren't saying they are impacted.
     
  • Of those 27 percent that have reduced funding, on average, it was cut by 33 percent. But again, whether that was to cut spending on contextual ads (often considered search by advertisers and others, even though it is not) or to cut with particular search engines isn't said other than "the results are relatively evenly split between Google, Yahoo and 'others,'" said the report.
     
  • Advertisers were asked themselves to estimate fraudulent clicks, meaning the amount billed for AFTER and refunds they've received. On average, this was a rate of 14.6 percent.
     
  • The $800 million cited in the San Francisco Chronicle article comes from the report taking that 14.6 percent average and applying it to the entire estimated $5.5 billion search ad spend from 2005. Some problems with this being an accurate stat are:
     
    • Advertisers might be off in their estimates
       
    • The average rate might not be applicable across the entire spend. In some industries, it might be much higher -- while spend in those industries might be a small percentage of overall search ads spend. Or it could be the reverse.
       
  • The $1.3 billion in the reports "Click Fraud Reaches $1.3 Billion, Dictates End Of 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' Era" title comes from taking the $800 million figure and adding to it $500 billion, which comes from taking the $5.5 billion spend times 27 percent of advertisers who said they've reduced spending times the 33 percent average cut they've reported. Again, with all these averages, the actual amount reduced could be more or less. And while that additional $500 million is related to click fraud and thus part of the click fraud "problem," lumping it in makes it sound like $1.3 billion in click fraud is estimated, rather than the $800 million figure.
     
  • The report also reports on the rate people ask for refunds -- 5.4 percent have asked Google; 2.9 percent asked Yahoo and MSN comes next at 1.5 percent. The vast majority of advertisers -- 92.9 percent -- haven't ask for refunds. The report notes this big discrepancy between those who say they've cut budgets because of click fraud (27 percent) or those who have estimated click fraud to be 14.6 percent of spend. It's an important point, because if this much money really is believed to be fraudulently billed by advertisers, why aren't they pushing in larger numbers for repayment? And how come half of them report they do no systematic analysis of click logs. How can estimates of click fraud from this half even be included to make an industry stat, if they've done no analysis of their own?
     
  • As for refunds, Google by far had the best satisfaction rate, with 63 percent saying they were extremely or somewhat satisfied with actions.

Overall, there are some nice stats from the advertisers in this fee-based report. I found those about refund amounts paid and experiences with the search engines more interesting and probably much more accurate than the extrapolation of the overall click fraud rate of 14.6 percent or a figure of $800 million. The report doesn't leave me feeling those two figures are any more accurate than others that have been put out there.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 1:07 PM | Permalink

New Search Patent Applications: July 5, 2006 - Google Coming to a Shopping Mall Near You

Google files patents for shopping offline with online assistance, a secondary map in Google Maps, and an updated review aggregator. Yahoo adds a patent application for search results PPC advertising, and managing blog content. Microsoft looks to anchor text to help train a machine learning classification system when user behavior data isn't available. AOL details a method of filtering search results using ontologies and expert domains for queries. IBM explains differences in how images can be indexed, and presents a method based upon the semantic meanings of pictures. Become, Inc., describes how different links can be assigned different values while using a link-based ranking system.

Google

The title to this first patent filing is a little misleading, in that it encompasses a much broader range of activities than just serving coupons or advertising. It's the first patent filing I've seen that includes island resorts, shopping malls, and chinese restaurants as part of the "Exemplary System Architecture." It's a shopping system that provides information about offline shopping, including real time data, such as waiting times in lines, menu specials, products and services available by price range and in stock availability, walking directions combined with shopping lists, and much more. Imagine shopping kiosks at your local shopping mall that can be used as part of this system, you have part of the broader picture in place.


Generating and/or serving dynamic promotional offers such as coupons and advertisements
Invented by Ashutosh Garg and Allen Romero
US Patent Application 20060143080
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on December 29, 2004

Abstract

A promotional offer may be generated by (i) accepting information concerning at least one of (A) a search query entered, at a client device, by a user, (B) an item or establishment which is the subject of a search result selected by a user using a client device, (C) one or more items or establishments which are elements of a shopping session summary provided to a user via a client device, (ii) determining a promotional offer to serve using at least the accepted search query information, and (iii) determining terms of the promotional offer using at least one of (A) a location of the client device, (B) a distance from the client device to an establishment associated with the promotional offer, and (C) a distance from the client device to an establishment competing with the establishment associated with the promotional offer, (D) an inventory, at an establishment associated with the promotional offer, of the goods which the promotional offer concerns, (E) a capacity, at an establishment associated with the promotional offer, to provide the services which the promotional offer concerns, (F) a level of excess capacity, at an establishment associated with the promotional offer, to provide the services which the promotional offer concerns, (G) a perishability of goods which the promotional offer concerns, and (H) a remaining shelf-life of goods which the promotional offer concerns.


The Google Map team comes out with another patent filing, and this one may have already been implemented in the system. If you've seen a second map within a Google Map that allows for moving a view frame, or helping with zooming in on specific areas, you'll have a sense of what they are describing here.

Secondary map in digital mapping system
Invented by Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen, Bret Steven Taylor, and Lars Eilstrup Rasmussen
US Patent Application 20060139375
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on December 29, 2005


Abstract

Digital mapping techniques are disclosed that provide more flexibility to the user through the use of multiple views of map information, including a secondary map and a main map. The secondary map can provide the user with either a zoomed out or in relative to the main map, or a different type of map view (e.g., satellite images). The secondary map can be turned on and off by the user. The secondary map may include one or more viewing frames that indicate views (e.g., current and alternate views) of the main map. The user can move the main map, viewing frame, or secondary map to achieve desired map views. During such movement, the relationship between the main and secondary maps can be synchronous, partially synchronous, or serial.

Very similar to another patent application from a couple of weeks ago, Method and system for finding and aggregating reviews for a product, and filed on the same day, this patent application adds an inventor and some changes to the title, filing class, and some text within the claims and summary. The drawings and detailed description of the process appear to be substantially the same except for renumbering and some very minor edits.

Method, system and graphical user interface for providing reviews for a product
Invented by Jan Matthias Ruhl, Mayur D. Datar, and Jessica Yoko Wai-min Lee
US Patent Application 20060143158
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on December 14, 2004


Abstract

The embodiments disclosed herein include new, more efficient ways to collect product reviews from the Internet, aggregate reviews for the same product, and provide an aggregated review to end users in a searchable format. One aspect of the invention is a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a plurality of portions of reviews for a product and a search input area for entering search terms to search for reviews of the product that contain the search terms.


Yahoo

This first Yahoo patent application went quickly from filing to publication in four months. This appears to describe the pay-for-performance search advertising process presently in place on Yahoo.

System and method for influencing a position on a search result list generated by a computer network search engine
Invented by Darren J. Davis, Matthew Derer, Johann Garcia, Larry Greco, Tod E. Kurt, Thomas Kwong, Jonathan C. Lee, Ka Luk Lee, Preston Pfarner, and Steve Skovran
Assigned to Overture Services, Inc.
US Patent Application 20060143096
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on February 22, 2006

Abstract

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


Bitmask access for managing blog content
Invented by Vijay S. Ramachandran and Hitesh S. Shah
Assigned to Yahoo
US Patent Application 20060143208
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on December 29, 2004

Abstract

Methods, devices, and systems are directed towards managing a database using moderator determined attributes, and a contributor employable bitmask. In one embodiment, the database is employable for use in managing a weblog (blog). The bitmask is configured to enable contributors of a content item to modify selected options of an attribute for the provided content item. In one embodiment the bitmask is stored in the database and is associated with the content item in the database. By enabling a contributor to directly control options associated with an attribute for the content item, changes to selected attributes of the database's content may be made with minimum interaction with a database administrator. For example, in one embodiment, the contributor may directly control anonymity associated with the provided content item, access to the provided content item, and how the provided content items is displayed.


Microsoft

Machine learning classifiers may rely upon user behavior such as click-throughs and user reviews to help them rank pages in response to queries. This kind of reliance may mean that pages lacking user behavior information may fail to be ranked, and may not be presented to users so that they can gain that type of feedback. This Microsoft patent application describes the use of a second set of training data that doesn't depend upon user interaction, but rather looks at anchor text "to be a surrogate for the missing user feedback data."

System and method for using anchor text as training data for classifier-based search systems
Invented by Harr Chen, Adwait Ratnaparkhi, Sonja S. Knoll, and Hsiao-Wuen Hon
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20060143254
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on December 24, 2004

Abstract

A computer implemented information retrieval system is provided. The system includes a user input configured to receive a user query relative to the corpus. A machine learning classifier is trained with a first set of training data comprising anchor text relative to at least some of the documents in the corpus. A processing unit is adapted to interact with the classifier to obtain search results relative to the query using the machine learning classifier. In some aspects, the classifier is also trained with a second set of training data. A method of integrating a new document into a corpus of documents is also provided. A method of training a machine learning classifier for retrieving documents from a corpus using two distinct types of training data is also provided.


AOL

This next document looks at filtering search results based upon assigned categories for each of the results, comparisons of quality between them, and the use of expert domains for specific queries.


Filtering search results
Invented by Abdur R. Chowdhury and Gregory S. Pass
US Patent Application 20060143159
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on December 29, 2004

Abstract

Search results may be sorted or filtered based on scores assigned to the search results. For example, scores may be assigned to the search results based on characteristics of surrogate representations of the search results, which are relatively short summaries or excerpts of the search result that may be presented in place of the search results themselves, and those assigned scores may be used to sort or filter the search results. In one example of filtering, pairs of search results may be examined to identify significant drops in quality between the search results, which is indicated by a large relative or absolute difference in the scores of the search results. Search results with scores that indicate ranks that are lower than a lower ranked search result of the pair of search results may be eliminated when the difference between the scores assigned to the pair of search results exceeds a maximum allowable difference.


IBM

System and method for measuring image similarity based on semantic meaning
Invented by Aleksandra Mojsilovic, Bernice Rogowitz, and Jose Gomes
Assigned to IBM
US Patent Application 20060143176
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on February 21, 2006


Abstract

A method includes deriving a plurality of semantic categories for representing important semantic cues in images, where each semantic category is modeled through a combination of perceptual features that define the semantics of that category and that discriminate that category from other categories; for each semantic category, forming a set of the perceptual features comprising required features and frequently occurring features; comparing an image to said semantic categories; and classifying said image as belonging to one of said semantic categories if all of the required features and at least one of the frequently occurring features for that semantic category are present in said image. A database contains image information, where the image information includes at least one of already classified images, network locations of already classified images and documents containing already classified images. The database is searched for images matching an input query, comprising, e.g., an image, text, or both.

Become, Inc.

Method for assigning relative quality scores to a collection of linked documents
Invented by Rohit Kaul, Marcin Kadluczka, Yeogirl Yun, and Seong-Gon Kim
Assigned to Become, Inc.
US Patent Application 20060143197
Published on June 29, 2006
Filed on December 23, 2005

Abstract

A method for assigning relative quality scores to a collection of linked documents is presented. The method includes constructing a spring network according to a connectivity graph of a linked database and determining the strength of inter-nodal springs based on the link structure of the network and the displacements on end-nodes. The method may further include computing the displacements of the nodes in a spring network through an iterative process and obtaining the quality scores for documents from the converged displacements of nodes. The method may also include obtaining the relative quality scores for groups of documents. The method may further include assigning topic-specific quality scores to documents in a linked database.

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

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

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

Posted by Bill Slawski at 1:06 PM | Permalink

Interactive Review Of SEOBook's SEO Firefox Extension

Aaron Wall over at SEO Book released a Firefox extension for SEOs. The Firefox extension can be viewed here, it allows you to see on the Google and Yahoo search result pages the PageRank, the age, the links, the .edu links the .gov links, the del.icio.us numbers and Technorati rank, the Alexa rank a cached link and much more, right on the page.

I decided it would be fun to do an other video cast. You can view the video cast by reading more.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Running Out Of Room In Redmond

A New York Times article looks into how Microsoft is running out of room in Redmond. The company is adding 12,000 new employees, which requires them to expand the headquarters 3.1 million square feet, more than a third of its current size. They will be adding fourteen new buildings and leases to fit all these new employees. The problem is, there is not enough room for them to expand at this pace.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:48 AM | Permalink

Google's Spam Score Details Shown?

Peter Da Vanzo spotted a DigitalPoint thread that found clues as to how Google scores spam results behind the scenes. Now, honestly, I have no idea if this is about spam or something else, it is just that the information posted in the forum, seems to appear like a spam score report by Google. How did it come about? The user was presented with this information after clicking on a cache URL in the Google results. The user was shocked to see the following information revealed to him.

pacemaker-alarm-delay-in-ms-overall-sum 2341989 pacemaker-alarm-delay-in-ms-total-count 7776761 cpu-utilization 1.28 cpu-speed 2800000000 timedout-queries_total 14227 num-docinfo_total 10680907 avg-latency-ms_total 3545152552 num-docinfo_total 10680907 num-docinfo-disk_total 2200918 queries_total 1229799558 e_supplemental=150000 –pagerank_cutoff_decrease_per_round=100 –pagerank_cutoff_increase_per_round=500 –parents=12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23 –pass_country_to_leaves –phil_max_doc_activation=0.5 –port_base=32311 –production –rewrite_noncompositional_compounds –rpc_resolve_unreachable_servers –scale_prvec4_to_prvec –sections_to_retrieve=body+url+compactanchors –servlets=ascorer –supplemental_tier_section=body+url+compactanchors –threaded_logging –nouse_compressed_urls –use_domain_match –nouse_experimental_indyrank –use_experimental_spamscore –use_gwd –use_query_classifier –use_spamscore –using_borg

What does it mean? One can guess. And does Google want to assimilate us all? "–using_borg." Threadwatch also has discussion here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:57 AM | Permalink

SEOMoz's Keyword Difficulty Tool

Rand posted an update to a tool named keyword difficulty tool. The tool's name is pretty descriptive enough, it tells you how competitive a keyword is to rank for. There is great detail on how it works here and here.

I did a test on the term "seo blog" for no good reason. After waiting the specified amount of time, I was given a ton of details, which you can read in this pdf document (1.5MB) .

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:11 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Launches New Home Page Design In UK & Ireland

Personal Computer World in the UK reports that Yahoo has finally released the new home page redesign that has been in beta since mid-February -- at least in the UK. The new design is visible for all at http://uk.yahoo.com/ and is described "as the biggest redesign in its history, and promised that the new homepages would focus on search, content, community and personalisation." Danny confirms that his Yahoo home page has switched to the beta version, and he is based in the UK, of course. I am based in New York, and my Yahoo home page has remained the same.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:02 AM | Permalink

Google To Launch Book Search Service In China

The People's Daily Online reports that Google will be launching an on-line book search service in China. Google signed agreements with publishing houses, instead of libraries (as Baidu has), including publishers named Tsinghua University Press and the Children's Publishing House. Google said that the books would be available on-line, "provide search links and grant free access to a segment of each work, but readers would have to pay to read the full content." Google plans on taking a 30 percent commission from the profit on selling books online.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:55 AM | Permalink

Google Warns U.S. Legislators On Anti-Trust Complaints Over Net Neutrality

The Washington Post reports that Google has warned the United States, that if telecoms abuse net neutrality principles it backs, through a new law that might go through, it could consider an anti-trust action. If you want all the details, check out the Washington Post.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:46 AM | Permalink

Windows Live Local Integrates 'Call For Free' Into All Business Listings

The intrepid Gary Price called my attention to the quiet integration of "click to call" functionality into Windows Live Local over the weekend. I couldn't determine whether this was homegrown or whether Microsoft was working with a partner such as eStara or Ingenio to offer the service.

Consumers can click a "call for free" link that appears next to listings. That in turn launches a pop-up window requesting the user's phone number. After the user inputs her number a call is connected with the listed business. Here's a category search for "Hotels, New York" showing the call for free links.

The system will also remember your number so it truly becomes "click to call" the next time you use it. Google was testing a similar system on AdWords months ago, but not on Maps/Local. Now those ads are nowhere in evidence. (There was some anecdotal information at the last SES New York that the Google product was performing fairly well for a couple of advertisers I spoke to.)

YellowPages.com also offers this capability (from Ingenio), but not for every listing. It's an advertiser-only product. Amazon's A9 Yellow Pages offers click to call across the board for all listings (through a partnership with eStara). On A9/Amazon, click to call is not currently monetized to our knowledge.

People often confuse "click to call" (call completion/connection) with "pay per phone call" (an ad model). They may overlap, but they're not synonymous. Microsoft has not introduced pay per phone call. But any click to call infrastructure lays the groundwork for potential pay per phone call advertising scenarios later.

There's real consumer convenience here, especially after the user's phone number is remembered, taking some of the potential friction out of the process of contacting local businesses. And while this offering isn't the first in the market, Microsoft's two chief rivals don't currently offer this capability in their local products. It's not a "must have" but rather a "nice to have" capability at the moment.

Let's see if consumers connect with this.

Postscript from Danny: The call functionality might be from Microsoft's acquisition of Teleo, which we covered here: Microsoft Acquisition To Lead To Pay-Per-Call Ads?

Postscript Number Two from Greg: Local stalwart Citysearch reminds us that the site also offers a service (in selected cases) called "Click2Talk," powered by a company called CIRXIT.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 6:24 AM | Permalink

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