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October 8, 2006 - October 14, 2006

October 13, 2006

Search Headlines & Links: October 13, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog...

  • Google AdSense Launches Multiple Channel Feature
    For those publishers that do a lot of testing and tracking to increase Google AdSense earnings, you will be happy to know you can now track up to five different channels on a single ad unit. You will need to generate new AdSense code in your control panel to begin tracking more channels. The full scoop on the Inside AdSense blog.
  • Google Wins Case Against Maughan Over Search Results Snippets
    Eric Goldman reports that Google has won the Maughan v. Google case where Mark Maughan filed a suit against Google for the content displayed in the snippets area under a search results listing in Google.com. A search on Mark Maughan Accountancy currently shows the number one listing from www.dca.ca.gov/cba/discipline/ma-me.htm. The snippet looks like:...
  • Consumer Satisfaction Doesn't Equal Market Share
    Earlier this week J.D. Power and Associates released the findings of its "2006 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study." The study, based on a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. residential Internet users, found that Yahoo Messenger ranked the highest among IM clients and that – and this is something of a surprise – InfoSpace's Dogpile had the highest rankings among search engines....
  • Yahoo To Hold 3rd Quarter Earnings Conference Call 10/17
    Yahoo will hold their third-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET. The live Webcast of Yahoo's Q3 2006 earnings conference call can be accessed here. The Webcast will be archived within 24 hours of the end of the call and will be available through the same link above....
  • Upload Videos To Google's Picasa
    Philipp Lenssen reports that you can upload your videos to Google's Picasa web albums if you wanted to. Philipp links to this sample video of a kid doing chin ups. As an FYI, you can now upload videos to Google Video, YouTube (soon to be owned by Google) and now Google's Picasa. Options, options and more options -- too much?...
  • Stanford University Keeps Yahoo's $1M After Strong Criticism
    Mercury News updates us that despite the fact that Stanford University criticized Yahoo for helping China, and Danny pointing out they may accept the $1M was again criticized, Stanford will be keeping the $1 million grant. The director of the fellowship program said they are "considering holding a forum to engage Yahoo and other media companies about operating in repressive countries."...
  • Google News Mobile In Japan
    Reuters reports Google has launched a news portal for the Japanese mobile phone market. The news portal has about 30 news outlets including Asahi newspaper and state-run NHK....
  • Doritos & Yahoo's Consumer Generated Super Bowl Commercial
    Yahoo Video along with Doritos launched Crash the Super Bowl, a site where consumers can send them homemade Super Bowl commercials, with a chance to make it to prime time. Doritos will then select 5 finalists from all submissions. Then users will be allowed to determine which one ad will air during the Super Bowl. All five finalists will receive $10,000 and a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl viewing party. Entries are accepted between Wednesday, October 11 and Monday, December 4. Voting begins for site visitors on Friday, January 5 and ends on Saturday, January 19....
  • Watch Some Of The Yahoo TV Commercials
    I posted some of the Yahoo TV commercials at Search Engine Roundtable, if you want to check them out, here is a list of those that were posted to YouTube. - Yahoo Answers Commercial - Yahoo Email Commercial - Yahoo Music Playlist Commercial - Yahoo Music Frequalizer Commercial - Yahoo Music UFO Commercial - Yahoo Commercial...
  • Search Forums Roundup: Oct. 13, 2006
    Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion - Yahoo PPC Management Crash - SEO: What Skills Are Crucial? - Hired An SEO Company & Now Feel Ripped Off - When Are SEO Firms Going To Offer Link Baiting Services? and more....
  • Time Warner: YouTube Copyright Negotiations To Be "Kicked Up" To Google
    Google faces copyright fight over YouTube from The Guardian cover how chair and CEO of Time Warner Dick Parsons said his company plans to go after YouTube for copyright violations. It's still talk rather than legal actions: Mr Parsons told the Guardian: "You can assume we're in negotiations with YouTube and that those negotiations will be kicked up to the Google level in the hope that we can get to some acceptable position." I'm sure it will get kicked up. And it shouldn't be hard to get the right people connected given that the AOL part of Time Warner already...
  • Selling Information in a Free Web World, Part Two
    Today's SearchDay article, The Ongoing Struggle of Free vs. Fee, Part Two, continues the coverage of the ASIDIC Fall Meeting and what the traditional information industry needs to do to survive in the world of increasingly free content available on the web....
  • Google And Palm Launch Maps For Smartphones
    I'll resist the "maps in the palm of your hand" jokes here. But Google and Palm announced the launch of Google Maps for Treo smartphones. The site indicates that currently the application supports the Treo 600, 650 and 700 models. But I've seen reports that also say the new 680 is being supported, and so I would assume is the forthcoming 750. Maps on a smartphone makes much more sense than a tiny Google map on a tiny mobile screen. The Google Blog has more information....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 3:15 PM | Permalink

Google AdSense Launches Multiple Channel Feature

For those publishers that do a lot of testing and tracking to increase Google AdSense earnings, you will be happy to know you can now track up to five different channels on a single ad unit. You will need to generate new AdSense code in your control panel to begin tracking more channels. The full scoop on the Inside AdSense blog.

Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 2:59 PM | Permalink

Google Wins Case Against Maughan Over Search Results Snippets

Eric Goldman reports that Google has won the Maughan v. Google case where Mark Maughan filed a suit against Google for the content displayed in the snippets area under a search results listing in Google.com. A search on Mark Maughan Accountancy currently shows the number one listing from www.dca.ca.gov/cba/discipline/ma-me.htm. The snippet looks like:

Maughan-Google

The complaint was that a search like the above and other variations of it "generates a list of websites 'suggesting' he was disciplined by the California Board of Accountancy for 'gross negligence' and accepting a contingent fee for the preparation of tax returns, which he says are 'veritable scarlet letters in the accounting world'."

Google won the case, and was also rewarded $23,000 in attorneys' fees and costs.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:20 AM | Permalink

Consumer Satisfaction Doesn't Equal Market Share

Earlier this week J.D. Power and Associates released the findings of its "2006 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study." The study, based on a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. residential Internet users, found that Yahoo Messenger ranked the highest among IM clients and that – and this is something of a surprise – InfoSpace's Dogpile had the highest rankings among search engines.

Here are the rankings of IM clients in terms of customer satisfaction:

1. Yahoo! Messenger
2. MSN Messenger
3. Windows Messenger
4. Instant Message Average
5. Google Talk
6. Trillian
7. AIM/AOL Instant Messenger

Compare that to U.S. IM market share (per Nielsen//Netratings):

1. AOL
2. MSN
3. Yahoo
4. Google

The J.D. Power report also said that U.S. residential IM usage was flat vs. 2005, at 36%. Yet the survey found that "among customers who report using IM on a regular or occasional basis, nearly 70 percent report that to some degree, instant messaging has replaced the use of traditional telephones." There are implications here for traditional telephony that are striking and worth further exploration.

Probably more interesting to readers of this blog are the search-engine findings. The survey reported that 75% of residential Internet subscribers used multiple search engines.

Here's the market-share breakdown that J.D. Power found:

1. Google: 51% (up 8 points from 2005)
2. Yahoo: 17% (down 4 points)
3. AOL: 9% (down 1 point)

The release doesn't report on the respective shares of Ask or MSN/Windows Live. Presumably they constitute the remaining 23% of usage or something approaching that.

Compare comScore August search market share data:

1. Google Sites: 44%
2. Yahoo: 28.7%
3. MSN: 12.5%
4. AOL: 5.6%
5. Ask: 5.5%

Here are the J.D. Power survey's customer satisfaction findings. Little used Dogpile was ranked number one:

1. Dogpile
2. Ask.com
3. Google
4. Yahoo! Search
5. AOL Search
6. MSN Search
7. Internet Explorer (treated as a search engine in the survey)

I don't have any insight into the survey methodology so we have to take the results at face value. But 10,000+ respondents is a very large sample. A disconnect is the difference between search engine market share and the satisfaction ratings. Based on these findings one would think that if Ask and (especially) Dogpile could gain broader awareness and visibility they might be able to gain some share.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Yahoo To Hold 3rd Quarter Earnings Conference Call 10/17

Yahoo will hold their third-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET. The live Webcast of Yahoo's Q3 2006 earnings conference call can be accessed here. The Webcast will be archived within 24 hours of the end of the call and will be available through the same link above.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Upload Videos To Google's Picasa

Philipp Lenssen reports that you can upload your videos to Google's Picasa web albums if you wanted to. Philipp links to this sample video of a kid doing chin ups. As an FYI, you can now upload videos to Google Video, YouTube (soon to be owned by Google) and now Google's Picasa. Options, options and more options -- too much?

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:58 AM | Permalink

Stanford University Keeps Yahoo's $1M After Strong Criticism

Mercury News updates us that despite the fact that Stanford University criticized Yahoo for helping China, and Danny pointing out they may accept the $1M was again criticized, Stanford will be keeping the $1 million grant. The director of the fellowship program said they are "considering holding a forum to engage Yahoo and other media companies about operating in repressive countries."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Google News Mobile In Japan

Reuters reports Google has launched a news portal for the Japanese mobile phone market. The news portal has about 30 news outlets including Asahi newspaper and state-run NHK.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:22 AM | Permalink

Doritos & Yahoo's Consumer Generated Super Bowl Commercial

Yahoo Video along with Doritos launched Crash the Super Bowl, a site where consumers can send them homemade Super Bowl commercials, with a chance to make it to prime time. Doritos will then select 5 finalists from all submissions. Then users will be allowed to determine which one ad will air during the Super Bowl. All five finalists will receive $10,000 and a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl viewing party. Entries are accepted between Wednesday, October 11 and Monday, December 4. Voting begins for site visitors on Friday, January 5 and ends on Saturday, January 19.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:08 AM | Permalink

Watch Some Of The Yahoo TV Commercials

I posted some of the Yahoo TV commercials at Search Engine Roundtable, if you want to check them out, here is a list of those that were posted to YouTube.

- Yahoo Answers Commercial
- Yahoo Email Commercial
- Yahoo Music Playlist Commercial
- Yahoo Music Frequalizer Commercial
- Yahoo Music UFO Commercial
- Yahoo Commercial

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:50 AM | Permalink

Search Forums Roundup: Oct. 13, 2006

Today's SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week's hot topics from search engine forums across the web: Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion - Yahoo PPC Management Crash - SEO: What Skills Are Crucial? - Hired An SEO Company & Now Feel Ripped Off - When Are SEO Firms Going To Offer Link Baiting Services? and more.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:54 AM | Permalink

Time Warner: YouTube Copyright Negotiations To Be "Kicked Up" To Google

Google faces copyright fight over YouTube from The Guardian cover how chair and CEO of Time Warner Dick Parsons said his company plans to go after YouTube for copyright violations. It's still talk rather than legal actions:

Mr Parsons told the Guardian: "You can assume we're in negotiations with YouTube and that those negotiations will be kicked up to the Google level in the hope that we can get to some acceptable position."

I'm sure it will get kicked up. And it shouldn't be hard to get the right people connected given that the AOL part of Time Warner already has an existing distribution deal with Google. Of course, if that fails, it should be interesting to see if Time Warner sues a copy that has a five percent ownership stake in AOL. Related coverage and commentary can be found via Techmeme, here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:35 AM | Permalink

October 12, 2006

Selling Information in a Free Web World, Part Two

Today's SearchDay article, The Ongoing Struggle of Free vs. Fee, Part Two, continues the coverage of the ASIDIC Fall Meeting and what the traditional information industry needs to do to survive in the world of increasingly free content available on the web.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:46 PM | Permalink

Google And Palm Launch Maps For Smartphones

I'll resist the "maps in the palm of your hand" jokes here. But Google and Palm announced the launch of Google Maps for Treo smartphones. The site indicates that currently the application supports the Treo 600, 650 and 700 models. But I've seen reports that also say the new 680 is being supported, and so I would assume is the forthcoming 750.

Maps on a smartphone makes much more sense than a tiny Google map on a tiny mobile screen. The Google Blog has more information.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 4:33 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: October 12, 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...

  • New Interview on Belgian Press vs. Google News (Microsoft Next?)
    Sean Daly, from Groklaw, interviewed Margaret Boribon of Copiepresse on September 28th about their copyright lawsuit against Google, which targets the use of Belgian news in Google News, and cached copies of those articles. He has posted their discussion, in English and French, as well as some commentary and analysis of the litigation, including some late breaking news involving demands made by Copiepresse for MSN, and a potential new plaintiff. I've written a brief synopsis of some of the points she raises in the interview at SEO by the Sea. Danny also talked with Margaret Boribon earlier in September....
  • Google's Blogspot.com Down, Blogger Content Inaccessible
    It seems like most of the morning, Google's Blogspot service that hosts Blogger blogs has been down. For example, I have been trying to access any of the various official Google blogs such as the main one here, and they all time out or return a 500 server error. The same is true for the Google Press Blog, as well as any site using the blogspot.com domain, it seems. FYI - it seems that www.blogger.com is also down....
  • How To Make Custom Search Engine With Live Search
    The Live Search blog posted today tips on how to build a custom search engine that pulls pages back from sites you select. It seems very similar to when MSN Search added "Search Macros" at the end of March of this year. Yahoo Search Builder and Eureskter have similar offerings....
  • New Tool Measures Your Blog Juice
    Text Link Ads has released a new fun tool named Blog Juice Calculator. You basically enter in your site/blog URL, and it tells you have juicy your site is. Search Engine Watch is a whooping 8.8, the SEW Blog is an 8.6, my search blog is a 8.3. Patrick Gavin of Text Link Ads told me, "Blog Juice calculates its score from Bloglines RSS subscriber data, Alexa rank, Technorati rank, and Technorati inlinks. It is not a perfectly accurate data tool but is fun to compare your blog to others in your vertical."...
  • Google For Educators & Become A "Google Certified Teacher"
    Google has launched a special Google For Educators site with designed for teachers and educators. The site consolidates many of Google's products in one area, where each product is pitched to educators with special guidance about how it might be used by teachers and educators. If you are an educator, you can become a "Google Certified Teacher" by attending the Google Teacher Academy....
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison Joins Google Book Search Project
    University of Wisconsin-Madison is the next university to join Google's Book Search Project. The University has one of the largest collections of historical documents and books in the US, accounting for about 7.2 million holdings. The University houses the famous Wisconsin Historical Society Library which is also part of this project. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has their release here and Google has their release here and Reuters has their article here....
  • Resources For Finding Statistics For Any Web Site
    Rand over at SEOMoz wrote an excellent post detailing all the different resources publicly available to gather statistical data on pretty much any web site out there. He breaks down the tools into several parts including "Technical Data," "Ownership/Hosting Data," "Statistics/Popularity Data," "Search Engine Indexing Data," "Link Data," "Social Tagging Data," "Third-Party Trust Metrics," "Important Directory & Site Listings," and "Press & Media Mentions." This comprehensive list of resources is bookmark-worthy and I seriously hope Rand keeps this particular post up-to-date....
  • Bug Leaves Advertisers Unable To Change Ads On Yahoo
    As I reported at reported at Search Engine Roundtable twice already, Yahoo has left their search advertising customers out to dry. Advertisers and agencies are reporting they are unable to properly manage their accounts due to a 3+ day old bug in the Yahoo Search Marketing system. Email responses back to Yahoo customers state that Yahoo is aware of the problem but have "no estimated date or time frame for the issue to be resolved." One person emailed Search Engine Watch saying, "Users are unable to view the remaining balance in their accounts, nor are we able to modify or...
  • Ballmer: YouTube Overvalued & Google Transferring Wealth From Content Owners
    The Web According to Ballmer from BusinessWeek has Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer questioning the value of the Google-YouTube deal and oddly warning that Google is transferring wealth away from rights holders. It's an odd statement, since that's what Microsoft wants to do as well....
  • Ask Mobile Search Launches
    Ask.com has launched a mobile search product at m.ask.com or mobile.ask.com. Ask Mobile is optimized for mobile devices and uses Skweezer throughout to improve readability and download speed on your mobile device. Navigating Ask Mobile was a pleasure on my Treo. You click on links, navigate to them, but especially nice is the ability to type in a number that corresponds to the link you want to navigate to....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:46 PM | Permalink

New Interview on Belgian Press vs. Google News (Microsoft Next?)

Sean Daly, from Groklaw, interviewed Margaret Boribon of Copiepresse on September 28th about their copyright lawsuit against Google, which targets the use of Belgian news in Google News, and cached copies of those articles. He has posted their discussion, in English and French, as well as some commentary and analysis of the litigation, including some late breaking news involving demands made by Copiepresse for MSN, and a potential new plaintiff.

I've written a brief synopsis of some of the points she raises in the interview at SEO by the Sea. Danny also talked with Margaret Boribon earlier in September.

Posted by Bill Slawski at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Google's Blogspot.com Down, Blogger Content Inaccessible

It seems like most of the morning, Google's Blogspot service that hosts Blogger blogs has been down. For example, I have been trying to access any of the various official Google blogs such as the main one here, and they all time out or return a 500 server error. The same is true for the Google Press Blog, as well as any site using the blogspot.com domain, it seems. FYI - it seems that www.blogger.com is also down.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:29 AM | Permalink

How To Make Custom Search Engine With Live Search

The Live Search blog posted today tips on how to build a custom search engine that pulls pages back from sites you select. It seems very similar to when MSN Search added "Search Macros" at the end of March of this year. Yahoo Search Builder and Eureskter have similar offerings.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:08 AM | Permalink

New Tool Measures Your Blog Juice

My Blog JuiceText Link Ads has released a new fun tool named Blog Juice Calculator. You basically enter in your site/blog URL, and it tells you have juicy your site is. Search Engine Watch is a whooping 8.8, the SEW Blog is an 8.6, my search blog is a 8.3. Patrick Gavin of Text Link Ads told me, "Blog Juice calculates its score from Bloglines RSS subscriber data, Alexa rank, Technorati rank, and Technorati inlinks. It is not a perfectly accurate data tool but is fun to compare your blog to others in your vertical."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:53 AM | Permalink

Google For Educators & Become A "Google Certified Teacher"

Google Teacher Academy

Google has launched a special Google For Educators site with designed for teachers and educators.

The site consolidates many of Google's products in one area, where each product is pitched to educators with special guidance about how it might be used by teachers and educators.

If you are an educator, you can become a "Google Certified Teacher" by attending the Google Teacher Academy.

What is the Google Teacher Academy?

The Google Teacher Academy is a pilot program designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. The Academy is a one-day experience at Google's Mountain View Headquarters where participants get hands-on experience with Google products and other technologies, receive instructional resources to share with colleagues, and share innovative instructional strategies with other local educators. Upon completion, Academy participants will become Google Certified Teachers.

The full press release is here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:45 AM | Permalink

University of Wisconsin-Madison Joins Google Book Search Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison is the next university to join Google's Book Search Project. The University has one of the largest collections of historical documents and books in the US, accounting for about 7.2 million holdings. The University houses the famous Wisconsin Historical Society Library which is also part of this project. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has their release here and Google has their release here and Reuters has their article here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:35 AM | Permalink

Resources For Finding Statistics For Any Web Site

Rand over at SEOMoz wrote an excellent post detailing all the different resources publicly available to gather statistical data on pretty much any web site out there. He breaks down the tools into several parts including "Technical Data," "Ownership/Hosting Data," "Statistics/Popularity Data," "Search Engine Indexing Data," "Link Data," "Social Tagging Data," "Third-Party Trust Metrics," "Important Directory & Site Listings," and "Press & Media Mentions." This comprehensive list of resources is bookmark-worthy and I seriously hope Rand keeps this particular post up-to-date.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:26 AM | Permalink

Bug Leaves Advertisers Unable To Change Ads On Yahoo

As I reported at reported at Search Engine Roundtable twice already, Yahoo has left their search advertising customers out to dry.

Advertisers and agencies are reporting they are unable to properly manage their accounts due to a 3+ day old bug in the Yahoo Search Marketing system.

Email responses back to Yahoo customers state that Yahoo is aware of the problem but have "no estimated date or time frame for the issue to be resolved."

One person emailed Search Engine Watch saying, "Users are unable to view the remaining balance in their accounts, nor are we able to modify or add listings."

Some of the Yahoo reps have been instructing clients to email them so that they can make the necessary changes for them. Just nuts! This must be something very serious for them to not be able to revert back to a previous coding state.

Having the same issue and want to discuss? Join our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Yahoo PPC management crash.


Postscript: Yahoo commented at our forums saying it has been fixed.

We've been experiencing some technical difficulties that were impacting the editorial tools in our search advertising UI but are happy to report that these systems are back up and running. Thanks for your patience.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:16 AM | Permalink

Ballmer: YouTube Overvalued & Google Transferring Wealth From Content Owners

The Web According to Ballmer from BusinessWeek has Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer questioning the value of the Google-YouTube deal and oddly warning that Google is transferring wealth away from rights holders. It's an odd statement, since that's what Microsoft wants to do as well.

First the questioning of the YouTube value:

[You've got to ask] could Google do whatever it is they're hoping to buy without paying $1.6 billion? Is YouTube really some permanent, long-term thing, or is it a fashion?....Right now, there's no business model for YouTube that would justify $1.6 billion.

Though strangely, when BusinessWeek tries to pindown what seems a clear statement that Google overpaid, Ballmer says:

I'm not saying it is overvalued. I'm not trying to say that. It depends on a set of factors. I'm not saying I wouldn't write a check for that amount of money. I might.

And back to the controversial statement about Google's relations with content:

And what about the rights holders? At the end of the day, a lot of the content that's up there is owned by somebody else.

The truth is what Google is doing now is transferring the wealth out of the hands of rights holders into Google. So media companies around the world are all threatened by Google. Why? Because basically Google is telling you how much of your ad revenue you get to keep. They better get some competition. Us. Yahoo! (YHOO). Somebody better break through or you can short all media stocks right now. As long as there are two, you can hold onto media stocks. Google understands that. And that's one reason why they're willing to lose money up front.

Microsoft has its own video sharing service up, Soapbox. It has a question answering service, Q&A. It has an entire search engine that crawls the web like Google, Windows Live. Microsoft has plans for contextual placement of ads on pages, similar to AdSense. It's specific to MSN content now, but that will inevitably change. All of these things leverage the content of others in order to make money from Microsoft. So if these actions leverage wealth away from content owners, Microsoft is just as guilty of it as Google.

Frankly, all Ballmer seems to be saying is content owners would be better off if Microsoft was a strong third participant in ad game. Sure -- but let's not kid ourselves. Microsoft gets a lot better off by that as well, and it didn't jump into the game out of some desire to counter-balance the power of Google. It's in it to make as much money as it can, as well.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:42 AM | Permalink

Ask Mobile Search Launches

Ask.com Mobile Home Page

Ask.com has launched a mobile search product at m.ask.com or mobile.ask.com. Ask Mobile is optimized for mobile devices and uses Skweezer throughout to improve readability and download speed on your mobile device.

Navigating Ask Mobile was a pleasure on my Treo. You click on links, navigate to them, but especially nice is the ability to type in a number that corresponds to the link you want to navigate to.

For example, pressing 1 takes me to web search. If I search on [football] as an example, you can then see the smart answers at the top of the results and then five results listed out.

Ask.com Mobile Search Results

Typing 1 while on that page will direct me to the first result, through Skweezer. Press 9 will give me more options and pressing 0 will take me home.

My main complaint that this was expected in "sometime in 2005" and it is already 10 months into 2006.

Here is a break down of features:

- Web Search:
-- Explained above
-- Stores recent searches
-- Many smart answers enabled
-- Squeezer enabled
-- Zoom features (search refinements)
-- 5 results per page

- Directions:
-- Driving Directions
-- Walking Directions
-- List View
-- Turn by turn view (nice when walking)
-- Maps (explained later)
-- Find nearby feature
-- Sent to phone via SMS

- Maps
-- Street Views
-- Aerial Views (very cool for mobile - example)
Ask Mobile Maps
-- Zoom in or out
-- Sent to phone via SMS
-- Find nearby feature

- Images
-- 3 image results per page

- Business Listings
-- similar to maps and directions find nearby business feature

- Weather
-- Not full weather functionality but the most important
-- Type weather 10010 or your zip code into web search and you get a weather smart answer

- Bloglines link
- Area Codes
- Currency Conversion
- Horoscope
- Time Zones

Here is the official release from Ask.com

Search On The Go With New Ask Mobile Search

Ask Mobile Optimizes Search for Mobile Devices

NEW YORK, October 12, 2006 – Ask.com®, a wholly-owned business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) and the fastest growing search engine on the Web, today introduced Ask Mobile (http://mobile.ask.com), a new service for searching the Web from mobile devices. Designed to minimize keystrokes, increase navigability on small displays and accelerate page loads, Ask Mobile offers a special interface and search tools to help searchers find what they are looking for faster. The announcement was made at DigitalLife, a consumer event in New York City dedicated to educating consumers on what the digital lifestyle means in every aspect of life - at work, home and play.

“Mobile is an increasingly important access point for searchers,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. “The new Ask Mobile makes it easy for users of Web-enabled cell phones, PDAs and other mobile devices to take advantage of the world-class relevance and industry-touted search tools offered by Ask.com.”

Key Features

Special Interface for Mobile Users
Ask Mobile offers links to key search categories directly from the home page, making it easier to navigate to relevant results. The design saves significant keystrokes for many searches; for example, looking for the weather in the 94114 zip code requires 50 percent fewer keystrokes on Ask Mobile compared to mobile products offered by other major search engines. Fewer keystrokes is an extremely important concept when considering the difficulty of typing on mobile devices and the absence of full-sized keyboards.

“Ask Mobile is designed specifically for search on mobile devices, instead of shoehorning a PC interface into a mobile product,” said Doug Leeds, vice president of product management for Ask.com. “Extensive testing showed that, by eliminating the search box from the home page and instead providing links to key search services, users were more successful in getting to what they were looking for, significantly increasing their satisfaction.”

Ask Mobile utilizes Skweezer technology that "skweezes" Web pages to present content in a format that is easier to view and navigate on small displays and increases download speed. With the Skweezer technology, Ask Mobile allows more access to Web content by allowing pages to load that would otherwise be too memory-intensive for most mobile devices.

Search Services
Powered by Ask.com’s proprietary ExpertRank algorithmic search technology, Ask Mobile provides users with highly-relevant search results, bringing authoritative sites within their topic community to the top of the results page, rather than simply ranking sites by their link popularity on the Web at large.

Ask Mobile provides direct access to important mobile search categories on the home page, including Web Search, Directions, Images, Business Listings, Maps, Weather, Bloglines™, Area Codes, Currency Conversion, Horoscope and Time Zones. Additional services, such as sport scores and movie times, will follow the initial rollout.

To see how Ask Mobile works, consider the following examples:

- Web: Try “Eisenhower” or “Angel Island.” Note Recent Search and ability to Narrow or Expand queries.
- Directions: Try “94114 & 94607.” Note ability to select List or Turn-by-Turn options, Satellite or Aerial views and Send to Phone.

- Images: Try “polar bears” or “Jessica Alba.”
- Business Listings: Try “Starbucks & 10036” or “Chinese & 94114.” Note autodial directly from listings, Street and Aerial views of maps with overlaid location pins for matching listings and Zoom and Navigation buttons.

- Maps: Try “San Francisco.” Note the unique ability to select Driving Direction, as well as Walking Directions, navigation features and option to send maps and directions to mobile devices.

- Weather: Try “10036.”
- Bloglines: Quick access to the Mobile version of Bloglines, the world’s number one online RSS aggregator.
- Area Codes: Try “Miami, Fla.”
- Currency Conversion: Try “100 EUR & RUB.”
- Horoscopes: Try “Leo.”
- Time Zones: Try “Monaco.”

Instinctive Search Tools
Ask.com has been touted by press and industry pundits for its search tools and features, which take search beyond the traditional “blue links”, offering searchers a better way to find what they are looking for. Some of these features and tools are available on Ask Mobile, including Smart Answers, which provide shortcuts to answers and tools at the top of the search results page and Zoom Related Search, which provides conceptually-related suggestions to Narrow or Expand queries.

Availability
Ask Mobile is available immediately at http://mobile.ask.com. Users accessing www.ask.com from mobile devices will be automatically recognized and redirected to Ask Mobile.

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:01 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2006

Search Headlines & Links: October 11, 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...

  • Selling Information in a Free Web World
    The web has disrupted virtually every business model that relied on packaging and selling information. But is the information found on the web "good enough" to seriously compete with services that sell authoritative, reliable information, especially when it comes to "crucial" content used for making consequential decisions? In today's SearchDay article, The Ongoing Struggle of Free vs. Fee, SEW Managing Editor Elisabeth Osmeloski and guest writer Todd Malicoat report from the ASIDIC Fall Meeting on this contentious issue facing the traditional information industry....
  • Yahoo In The (PR) Doldrums
    The NY Times has an article today highlighting a range of perceived problems at Yahoo. This is not the kind of publicity you want to see if you're on the PR team. While it's true that Google has momentum and Yahoo may need a kind of "shot in the arm," what people forget is that Yahoo is the largest site on the Internet with the most monthly uniques....
  • Google Master Plan Hacked (OK, Erased)
    Several Google offices now have "master plans" written on dry erase boards, but the original one at the Googleplex is probably best known. Googlers and others have added to it over time about things Google might do. Now Robert Scoble reports the board has been erased! "Master Plan 2.0" is apparently being drawn up as we speak....
  • Google Office? How About Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Now Launched
    Google's taken its Writely online word processor, combined it with the Google Spreadsheets product released in June and put the two out in a combined new service called Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Visit the site, and you can create a text document or spreadsheet depending on your needs. Why not call it Google Office? Google told me they felt that name already had obvious connotations of another product out there [IE, Microsoft Office], and they wanted to underscore that this was a different creature....
  • Google's "False & Deceptive" Search Ads
    Ben Edelman's False and Deceptive Pay-Per-Click Ads analysis looks at specific ads on Google.com that seem to violate Google's editorial guidelines and perhaps US laws over "free" services being offered....
  • Url.com - Results Ranked By Users
    The ability to rank or rate results delivered by search engines is slowly becoming more commonplace, and I'm noticing that one or two multi/meta search engines are either incorporating this functionality into search or indeed making a specific feature of it, such as the new URL.com....
  • Cool New Real Estate Tools
    The real estate vertical is one of the most interesting online segments for several reasons. Among them are the tools that have been developed amid intensifying competition. Two relatively new ones are Rentometer from iiProperty, a company that helps manage real-estate investments and rental properties, and Mapvine from a company called Rentvine....
  • Yahoo Hurting While Google Healthier Than Ever
    The NY Times has an article named Yahoo’s Growth Being Eroded by New Rivals (free version available at (IHT.com). The article goes through how Yahoo is suffering and lagging behind its competitors. (1) They made a bid at YouTube but those deals broke down, according to the article, and Google "swooped" them up. (2) The new Yahoo search ad system, Panama, is over a year delayed. This "delay has sucked up the company’s engineering resources and prevented it from developing new advertising products."...
  • Weather Reports: Yahoo Search Update & Google Status Report
    We received two search "weather reports" last night, the first from the Yahoo Search Blog that announced that an "index update" that has begun rolling out last night. The other from Matt Cutts blog that informed us of Google's "update on search quality/infrastructure on Google going into the fall."...
  • MySpace Threatens YouTube After Google's Buyout
    A Wall Street Journal article shows how the folks over at News Corp., the owners of MySpace.com, have threatened to cut "off the MySpace links to YouTube" because YouTube didn't respond to News Corp's email request to have an "opportunity to participate in the sale process." Google with YouTube and News Corp. with MySpace are to meet this week in LA to "discuss new ways of working together." The Wall Street Journal explains that News Corp. is threatened by the acquisition of YouTube by Google, making YouTube a much more powerful competitor to the MySpace property....
  • Yahoo To Support The NOODP Tag; Won't Prevent Display Of Yahoo Directory Title
    Last night, I spoke with Tim Mayer of Yahoo about supporting the NOODP tag at Yahoo. In short, the NOODP tag allows webmasters to tell the search engine not to use the ODP's title in the web search results. MSN was the first to implement the standard, and then Google followed. Tim Mayer said that Yahoo will be supporting the NOODP tag starting next week or the week after. But the tag will not prevent the Yahoo Directory title from displaying in the Yahoo search results....
  • Will Voice-Enabled Mobile Search Kill Directory Assistance?
    Local media research firm The Kelsey Group just forecast "portal-backed wireless voice search [will] reach 1.45 billion queries in 2010" and cause "a significant disruption of the directory assistance market." On one level, this is self-evident. Because of increasing competition and free alternatives, consumer-pays wireless directory assistance (DA) will eventually go away, unless it becomes incredibly valuable and useful. Cingular is trying to do just that with help from Tellme....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:00 PM | Permalink

Selling Information in a Free Web World

The web has disrupted virtually every business model that relied on packaging and selling information. But is the information found on the web "good enough" to seriously compete with services that sell authoritative, reliable information, especially when it comes to "crucial" content used for making consequential decisions? In today's SearchDay article, The Ongoing Struggle of Free vs. Fee, SEW Managing Editor Elisabeth Osmeloski and guest writer Todd Malicoat report from the ASIDIC Fall Meeting on this contentious issue facing the traditional information industry.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:38 PM | Permalink

Google Master Plan Hacked (OK, Erased)

Google Master Plan

Several Google offices now have "master plans" written on dry erase boards, but the original one at the Googleplex is probably best known. Googlers and others have added to it over time about things Google might do. Now Robert Scoble reports the board has been erased! "Master Plan 2.0" is apparently being drawn up as we speak.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:46 AM | Permalink

Google Office? How About Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Now Launched

Google Docs & Spreadsheets Logo

Google's taken its Writely online word processor, combined it with the Google Spreadsheets product released in June and put the two out in a combined new service called Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Visit the site, and you can create a text document or spreadsheet depending on your needs. Why not call it Google Office? Google told me they felt that name already had obvious connotations of another product out there [IE, Microsoft Office], and they wanted to underscore that this was a different creature.

Google also explained to me that these products aren't likely to match many of the features that mature software-based word processors or spreadsheets have. This came up when I noted in playing with Google Spreadsheets that sorting was too rudimentary for me. Perhaps that will change, but the main point is that these online tools are not meant as or expected to wholescale replace existing products. That doesn't mean they aren't useful. Those with less intensive needs will likely find them helpful, especially if you have to share and interact with others.

How about that name? A bit clunky? Google said they were happy with it being descriptive and that no one would have any misconceptions about what's offered.

Love the name Writely? Wish it well. That name is now retired. Google Spreadsheets also sort of goes away, graduating from Google Labs and losing its standalone identity as it becomes part of the new service.

Interestingly, Google Docs & Spreadsheets hasn't been added to the Google Apps For Your Domain program launched in August.

Want some reviews? Techmeme recaps plenty of people talking about them out there.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:27 AM | Permalink

Google's "False & Deceptive" Search Ads

Ben Edelman's False and Deceptive Pay-Per-Click Ads analysis looks at specific ads on Google.com that seem to violate Google's editorial guidelines and perhaps US laws over "free" services being offered.

Edelman reviews ads that use the words "free" or make other claims that are said to be false.

He looks at "charging for software that's actually free" here, then he looks at "the "completely free" ringtones that aren't" here, and then reviews some "ads impersonating famous and well-known sites" here.

Finally, Edelman reviews the law, ethics, and incentives Google is faced with specific to these ads. He views Google and the search companies as the ones that really profit from such ads and suggests that Google "expand the policy to prevent these scams."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:55 AM | Permalink

Url.com - Results Ranked By Users

The ability to rank or rate results delivered by search engines is slowly becoming more commonplace, and I'm noticing that one or two multi/meta search engines are either incorporating this functionality into search or indeed making a specific feature of it, such as the new URL.com.

I wrote about Jatalla on my own weblog at the beginning of September and was less than complimentary about it, since it had indexed very few pages (it has to be the only internet search engine that doesn't return any results for the search 'porn'; I was getting desperate to see some results, indeed any results by that point!)

However, since then we have seen the arrival of URL.com, which is an interesting and memorable domain name, though not necessarily one that I'd associate with a search engine.

Their tag line is 'search with many' and relates less to the search engines used and more to the users. Basically it's a search engine that pulls results from Google, Yahoo and MSN, ranks the results on the screen according to position and allows users to rank or comment on what they see. On the whole it does the job reasonably well, and is worth taking a look at.

Users will get the most out of the search engine if they spend the few seconds it takes to get an account, though this does mean that others will be able to see what your interests are, though this can be easily overcome by choosing a John Doe account name.

Searches ran reasonably quickly, although I noticed once or twice that one or other of the three was slow to respond, leading to a less than accurate set of results, though of course this is a problem inherent to this type of search engine. Rather more worrying however was the fact that I noticed that sometimes a page would be returned as being in fifth position in the Yahoo results for example, when it was actually first. This really is a fundamental flaw and should be addressed quickly.

However, users can click on the result that they want to view and the page is pulled into a URL.com frame, at the bottom of which the searcher can vote for the result ('good result' or 'not so good' and can also comment on the page. It's then possible to either close the frame and go directly to the website page in question, or back to the results page. If other users run the same search they will be able to see that particular individuals have commented on and/or liked/disliked the result. If other people comment on the page these are emailed to other commentators as well, hence the 'search with many' aspect of the site.

This function is easier displayed than described, so try a search for 'search engine watch'. Pages with positive votes will show up more than pages with negative votes, with the idea being the URL.com community will police what appears on their screens.

This is useful and interesting, but of course it's also open to fraudulent use. While this doesn't appear to have happened with the results yet I'm fairly confident that it won't be long before people with grudges against certain sites, or who want to obtain a commercial benefit from boosting their own sites get involved. One could always argue that the power of the many will overcome the comments of the few (that almost sounds like a quote from Mr Spock), but I'm not entirely convinced that will necessarily be the case. Interestingly there's nothing in the site documentation that I could find that addresses this issue, but I can see so many legal issues being raised with this it's painful.

All said and done however, it's a nice optomistic idea that works well - at the moment. If nothing else, it's a quick and easily memorable URL to allow searchers to get access to 3 of the major search engines.

Posted by Phil Bradley at 9:47 AM | Permalink

Cool New Real Estate Tools

The real estate vertical is one of the most interesting online segments for several reasons. Among them are the tools that have been developed amid intensifying competition.

Two relatively new ones are Rentometer from iiProperty, a company that helps manage real-estate investments and rental properties, and Mapvine from a company called Rentvine.

Mapvine is a free tool that enables anyone to place map-based listings (rentals, store locations, etc.) on their sites without any technical knowledge or expertise.

Rentometer allows you to compare what you're paying to average rents in your area. For example, before my wife and I moved from San Francisco, CA to where we live currently we were paying approximately $1375 a month in rent (over four years ago). Today that looks like an incredible deal.

Rentometer also shows you the highest rents by zip and by city.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 9:41 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Hurting While Google Healthier Than Ever

The NY Times has an article named Yahoo’s Growth Being Eroded by New Rivals (free version available at (IHT.com). The article goes through how Yahoo is suffering and lagging behind its competitors. (1) They made a bid at YouTube but those deals broke down, according to the article, and Google "swooped" them up. (2) The new Yahoo search ad system, Panama, is over a year delayed. This "delay has sucked up the company’s engineering resources and prevented it from developing new advertising products."

Based on my coverage of Yahoo over the past year, it seems like webmasters, SEOs, and industry folks have become less and less interested with the company.

The LA Times has an article this morning that goes on the same theme. If you can't get to the article, try going through Google News to gain free access, it worked for me.

Postscript From Greg Sterling:

This is not the kind of publicity you want to see if you're on the PR team. While it's true that Google has momentum and Yahoo may need a kind of "shot in the arm," what people forget is that Yahoo is the largest site on the Internet with the most monthly uniques.

It also has a bunch of market-leading properties including mail, finance and local (among others). Mail is also the number one mobile site.

Google, though a very dynamic and powerful company with lots of momentum, is not without its challenges and vulnerabilities. If anything the YouTube acquisition was an admission of some of those. Though, by the same token, Google now has great opportunity with YouTube.

I'm not sure, from where I sit, how many problems identified in the Saul Hansell Times piece are real and how many are simply perceived. But perception does influence reality.

Yahoo is a little like a strong sports team that happens to be in a bit of a slump right now.


Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:40 AM | Permalink

Weather Reports: Yahoo Search Update & Google Status Report

We received two search "weather reports" last night, the first from the Yahoo Search Blog that announced that an "index update" that has begun rolling out last night. The other from Matt Cutts blog that informed us of Google's "update on search quality/infrastructure on Google going into the fall."

Yahoo told us to expect "some changes in ranking along with shuffling of the pages that are included in the index" but based on my tracking of the search forums, either there is not enough shuffling or Yahoo isn't sending enough traffic these days for SEOs to care about it. So keep an eye out for that.

Matt Cutts basically gave a summary of what happened since his last Google weather report and what to expect in the short-term future. He mentioned Big Daddy, their crawl caching proxy, the new supplemental index, the site: command update, and much more. He also posted on smaller issues later in the night on, as a continuation to his weather report.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:25 AM | Permalink

MySpace Threatens YouTube After Google's Buyout

A Wall Street Journal article shows how the folks over at News Corp., the owners of MySpace.com, have threatened to cut "off the MySpace links to YouTube" because YouTube didn't respond to News Corp's email request to have an "opportunity to participate in the sale process." Google with YouTube and News Corp. with MySpace are to meet this week in LA to "discuss new ways of working together." The Wall Street Journal explains that News Corp. is threatened by the acquisition of YouTube by Google, making YouTube a much more powerful competitor to the MySpace property.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:44 AM | Permalink

Yahoo To Support The NOODP Tag; Won't Prevent Display Of Yahoo Directory Title

Last night, I spoke with Tim Mayer of Yahoo about supporting the NOODP tag at Yahoo. In short, the NOODP tag allows webmasters to tell the search engine not to use the ODP's title in the web search results. MSN was the first to implement the standard, and then Google followed. Tim Mayer said that Yahoo will be supporting the NOODP tag starting next week or the week after. But the tag will not prevent the Yahoo Directory title from displaying in the Yahoo search results.

Tim Mayer explained that Yahoo uses an algorithm to figure out when to use the title provided by (a) the webmaster, (b) the ODP directory or (c) Yahoo Directory. He said that since the NOODP is a standard already, they will add support for it. But they did not want to create a new meta tag to exclude the Yahoo Directory, because they use algorithms to best determine when to use which title. He said it doesn't mean they will not create a new tag in the future, but the NOODP tag that will be released next week will only prevent the ODP title/description from displaying.

Danny and I feel that the NOODP tag should not just tell Yahoo to not display the ODP title but also be used to tell Yahoo to not use the Yahoo Directory title. Danny clearly showed me how Yahoo's algorithms to determine when to use what title is not working a 100%.

A search on tony knowles shows the same thing it did back when he wrote; "you'll see that tonyknowles.com is given a description by Yahoo about his senate attempt. That was correct at the time, but since then, Knowles has changed the web site over for his gubernatorial attempt."

So something needs to be done here as well.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:28 AM | Permalink

October 10, 2006

Search Headlines & Links: October 10, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog...

  • Google Blog: Please Get Descriptive With Your Headlines!
    A public rant, and I'm sorry -- but I've had it with the Official Google Blog having post headlines that give people no idea what the post is about. First some recent examples, then why this is bad in general....
  • Justin Uberti, AOL's Top AIM Developer, Hired By Google
    Steve Bryant reports that Justin Uberti, who has been with AOL for about 10 years and working on AIM for almost 9 years, has been hired by Google to work in the Kirkland, WA office. Justin posted this news on his old blog and announces the launch of his new blog at juberti.blogspot.com, where he has links to the Google Blog, Google Talk Blog and Google Video blog - which may be signs as to what he will be working on at Google....
  • Maharashtra Farmers Fight Government With Google Earth
    IBN Live reports that Maharashtra farmers are using Google Earth to fight back against a government ruling that they would take 25,000 acres away from them to build a Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone. The government told the farmers that "only a small portion of the earmarked land is fertile and that some parts of it is submerged by salty creek water." But Google Earth came to the rescue of the farmers, where they were able "to prove to the authorities that the land is fertile," said Arun Shivkar an SEZ activist. No wonder the Maharashtra state government in India...
  • Google To Set Up R&D Office In South Korea
    The Associated Press reports that Google is setting up a research and development center in South Korea. The details of the size of the office were not disclosed. Robert A. Eustace, Google's senior vice president, said "South Korean government's strong encouragement persuaded the company to make the investment." DNS India adds that Google also has research centers in Britain, Israel, Norway, Japan, Switzerland, India, Russia and the Americas....
  • Court Issues Notice To Google For Allegedly Spreading Hate In India Via Orkut
    The Times of India reports that Google is in hot water over Orkut once again, this time for allegedly spreading hatred for India. The article says, "The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to issue notice to Google for the alleged spread of hatred about India by its social network service Orkut." The problem is over a "We Hate India" community in Orkut that posted a picture a burning Indian flag....
  • Yahoo Time Capsule Project Launched
    Yahoo has created the Yahoo Time Capsule, what it calls the "first-ever electronic anthropology project" to document human life in 2006. You have about 29 more days to contribute to the time capsule, until November 8th, to be exact....
  • Sizing Up Search Engine Instant Answers
    The major search services have all be increasing their efforts to deliver focused "answers" to many types of queries. They each take a different approach to this process, with names such as Ask's Smart Answers, Yahoo's Shortcuts, Google's Onebox results and Microsoft's Instant Answers. In today's SearchDay article, A Closer Look at Ask's Smart Answers, SEW correspondent Brian A. Smith kicks off a four-part series that takes an in-depth look at each of these programs, illustrating the unique approaches offered by the major search engines....
  • Recapping Coverage Of Google's Acquisition Of YouTube
    I don't have a ton to say about the Google acquisition of YouTube. That's because to me, it's more an eyeball landgrab than a search development. There's no doubt people search for video on YouTube, and getting the leading property will help Google. But the searching isn't the deep dive video search involving transcripts linked to video clips or other technological advances you might think Google would want in a more in a true search deal. This, to me, is basically YouTube as a hot property that Google hasn't been able to replicate with its own Google Video....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:14 PM | Permalink

Will Voice-Enabled Mobile Search Kill Directory Assistance?

Local media research firm The Kelsey Group just forecast "portal-backed wireless voice search [will] reach 1.45 billion queries in 2010" and cause "a significant disruption of the directory assistance market." On one level, this is self-evident. Because of increasing competition and free alternatives, consumer-pays wireless directory assistance (DA) will eventually go away, unless it becomes incredibly valuable and useful. Cingular is trying to do just that with help from Tellme.

I don't have the report referenced in the release so I can't comment on the forecast methodology itself or, more generally, its analysis. But I can comment on the general issues of usability and the mobile space in general.

Like other traditional local media, directory assistance (if I can use the term "media") is under pressure. According to Opus Research, worldwide DA revenues (wireless and wireline) are roughly $13 billion. But free directory assistance and its various cousins (e.g., 1800-San Diego, 4Info, UpSnap, 1800-Free-411), SMS, WAP-based search and mobile applications will chip away at consumer-pays wireless DA to the point where it's got very limited usage. The only question is: how long will that take?

In my mind the more interesting questions surround the usability and interface issues in the larger context of mobile-local search. This is something we've posted about multiple times in the past.

Voice has the capacity to be a much more efficient and user-friendly interface than a keypad on mobile devices (especially if you're not on a smartphone). But voice-driven mobile search must work. Deep Nishar of Google previously said to me that he didn't think that voice was "the key" to driving mobile usage. There are issues of background noise, accents and so on that impact query "disambiguation." In addition, the DA databases used to support voice-based mobile search can be inaccurate (just like local listings online.)

DA has been a surrogate for mobile-local search, since it has been the only game in town, so to speak, until recently. Now, as mentioned, there are a range of mobile alternatives, most are not great, to find local information while on the go. Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and InfoSpace all have people working, to varying degrees, on voice interfaces. Nuance, Tellme and CallGenie are voice infrastructure companies that can voice-enable mobile applications for carriers or direct-to-consumer applications.

Right now, voice is not "the killer app" for mobile. But it could well accelerate usage of mobile data services and mobile local search if it works well. There will probably be a range of applications and user experiences that gain traction with mobile users, chiefly because of the range of devices out there and their capabilities and limitations. The optimal mobile interface and user experience will involve some combination of "modalities," perhaps with voice as an option but certainly the ability to use the keypad to enter text and save listings and/or browse content.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Google Blog: Please Get Descriptive With Your Headlines!

A public rant, and I'm sorry -- but I've had it with the Official Google Blog having post headlines that give people no idea what the post is about. First some recent examples, then why this is bad in general. (Note: Be sure to see my postscript below)

Here are some recent entries that leave you guessing:

  • Greetings, Earthlings!: Gives you no idea this is about Googlers taking part in a 24 hour bike race.
     
  • Inside Macs at Google: Google's got a new blog about how it supports Macs, but the headline makes you think it's about Macs in use at Google.
     
  • Got blog? Will ping: Hehe, but what's it mean? How about, "Google Blog Search, Now With Ping Support."
     
  • The new Groups experience: Which groups experience? Yahoo Groups? Get the word Google in there and maybe highlight a feature or two.
     
  • Yes, you can have a pony: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What on earth does that headline mean? It gives no clue that you can now put Google Gadgets on your own pages.
     
  • Now anyone can Talk: Or dance. Or sing. Or whatever. Make it clear. "Google Talk Now Open, Gmail Not Required."
     
  • Your inbox for the web: No, nothing to do with Gmail. It's about Google Reader getting cool new features. Pity you have no idea from the headline.

Honestly, I love a witty headline. I never ever ever ever want Good Morning Silicon Valley to give me a headline the explicitly tells me what a story is about (nor do they intend to). But GMSV's headlines work because they know their audience is aware of the stories they are commenting on. The headlines make sense in that context. The Official Google Blog isn't GMSV. They do need to explain what on earth is going on clearly in their blog headlines.

I'll give you one big reason. Every day, we round up headlines of stories we haven't posted separately about. Here's yesterday's recap. Today, I want to mention things like the Google bike race or the new Mac blog in the headlines. But the headlines Google provides are so lame that I either need to rewrite them or point at someone else who is writing about what Google posted. Save me the middleman. Save the confusion. Post with clear headlines, please.

Postscript: In retrospect, I regret not having contacted Google directly about this before posting. I generally like to get a first shot to correct problems with private criticism, and I should have sent a message over to Karen Wickre who acts as managing editor of the blog. My apologies, Karen!

On a positive note, Karen did see my plea and told me Google has heard some complaints about non-descriptive post titles. However, other readers like the distinctive and unstiff Google style. And since they are writing about Google products, Google doesn't necessarily feel it needs to spell out every product name, such as saying "Google Groups" rather than Groups, for example. After all, Karen said, Google Blog readers will assume they're talking about Google Groups rather than Yahoo Groups.

Regardless, Karen tells me she's inclined to move towards more descriptive titles to help readers and those seeking information from the blog.

FYI, I sparked off some other posts on blog writing tips. Good Blog Writing Style from Philipp at Google Blogoscoped has lots of advice I think anyone will find helpful. Over at InsideGoogle, Nathan's The Inverted Pyramid For Bloggers has more tips and a plea that people don't have to entirely mirror a newspaper-style structure. I agree and commented:

Honestly, I doubt most blog posts get long enough that you need to do an hourglass. Nor do I think most authors need to think hmm inverted or hourglass?

I think you do need to consider that your opening paragraph and headline give people some idea about clicking through, especially if you do partial feeds.

But that's it. If you’ve given the reader a descriptive headline and summary, go hourglass, inverted pyramid, feature style (anecdote leading to a summary “nut” paragraph with a story to follow) or whatever floats your boat — and whatever you think your readers will like. But unless you know they love you so much, that opening paragraph and headline is crucial.

For more on that, see Full Feeds Petition? How About A Copyright Infringement Petition? at my personal blog Daggle. It gets more into tips to especially consider about opening paragraphs and headlines.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:49 AM | Permalink

Justin Uberti, AOL's Top AIM Developer, Hired By Google

Steve Bryant reports that Justin Uberti, who has been with AOL for about 10 years and working on AIM for almost 9 years, has been hired by Google to work in the Kirkland, WA office. Justin posted this news on his old blog and announces the launch of his new blog at juberti.blogspot.com, where he has links to the Google Blog, Google Talk Blog and Google Video blog - which may be signs as to what he will be working on at Google.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:57 AM | Permalink

Maharashtra Farmers Fight Government With Google Earth

IBN Live reports that Maharashtra farmers are using Google Earth to fight back against a government ruling that they would take 25,000 acres away from them to build a Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone. The government told the farmers that "only a small portion of the earmarked land is fertile and that some parts of it is submerged by salty creek water." But Google Earth came to the rescue of the farmers, where they were able "to prove to the authorities that the land is fertile," said Arun Shivkar an SEZ activist. No wonder the Maharashtra state government in India