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November 1, 2006

November 1, 2006

The Interestingness of Social Networks

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

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

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

Posted by Bill Slawski at 6:10 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: November 1, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog...

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

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 3:59 PM | Permalink

Watch Full Length Current & Classic NHL Games on Google Video

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

Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 2:31 PM | Permalink

Video from Search Engine Strategies AdSense Booth

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

Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 1:46 PM | Permalink

Ask.com To Power Lycos Search & Search Ads

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

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

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

Ask.com Selected to Power LYCOS Network Search

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:51 PM | Permalink

100 Million Sites = Search Wins

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

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

Posted by Greg Sterling at 12:24 PM | Permalink

Zotspot Wants To Share The Search Wealth

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

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

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

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

Posted by Greg Sterling at 10:07 AM | Permalink

Yahoo's Tim Converse Colors SEOs

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:12 AM | Permalink

New adCenter Blog & adCenter Lab Features

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

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:04 AM | Permalink

New Conference: "Elite Retreat" With ShoeMoney & SEOBook

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:53 AM | Permalink

Google Click Fraud Settlement Payments Received

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:45 AM | Permalink

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:38 AM | Permalink

Update On Google's 2nd Publication Ad Test

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:31 AM | Permalink

Quick Access to Cool Yahoo Features

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

Posted by Chris Sherman at 3:45 AM | Permalink

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