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November 19, 2006 - November 25, 2006

November 24, 2006

Google Sending Out AdSense Holiday Gifts

It is that time of the year again. We have our first report of a Google Adsense holiday gift from WebmasterWorld. The gift appears to be a 3.6 inch TFT digital photo frame. No pictures of the frame yet, but I hope someone emails one to me.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:13 AM | Permalink

Google Video France Sued For Copyright Infringement

Reuters reports Google France was sued by Flach Film, a French film producer, for copyright infringement. They claim their video, "The World According to Bush," was published on Google Video France, and viewed more 50,000 times, before Google removed the video. The French film producer estimates $648,700 in prejudice but Google said "our terms and conditions specify that users (Internet surfers) don't have permission to use videos which they don't own the rights to."

Google has put away $200M for copyright case legal issues with the YouTube acquisition.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:05 AM | Permalink

Google To Go To Belgium Court Finally

The AP reports that Google is finally going to show up in court to present their side of the case in the Belgium copyright suit. Google has never showed up to fight the publishers and papers in Belgium the first time the case was heard.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:58 AM | Permalink

Google Blog Results Search Creep

Andy Boyd found Google testing blog search results at the bottom of the Google search results. He posted a screen capture here, as you can see, it is fairly similar to how they have integrated news archive results into Google search.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:52 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Image Search Bug Showed Sex Images For Innocent Search

Yesterday, on Thanksgiving, The Register reported that a search at Yahoo Images for franchise returned very offensive and disturbing images. I will not describe the images, but I saw them myself and as soon as I saw it, I emailed my contacts at Yahoo. Soon after the images were pulled from the search results. It seems to me that someone figured out a way to easily insert pornographic images into Yahoo images for a search term even with safe search on. The Register has blurred and censored screen captures of the first line of results.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:47 AM | Permalink

Extended Indented Google Results Bug?

Philipp Lenssen spotted listings with more than one indented results for a search on get fuzzy. The first two results were from comics.com and the two other indented results were from Yahoo News. All these results were under the first listing, so we had three indented results showing under the top listing. Typically, there is only one indented result and no more. I cannot replicate this, it seems like a weird bug that may have been fixed. Philipp has a screen capture of it in action.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:42 AM | Permalink

November 22, 2006

Google Book Search Catches Victorian Plagiarists

We tend to assume that plagiarism is a reasonably modern day phenomena but a fascinating article from Paul Collins "Dead Plagiarists Society" illustrates that is not always the case. In fact it would appear that Victorian authors stole work from earlier authors who in turn had stolen it from even earlier ones, and the article gives some nice examples of this.

More importantly, it provides a fascinating use for Google Book Search, which I'd certainly not considered before, and it's actually a rather interesting experiment - take a partial sentence, plug it into book search and add words onto the end, and very quickly you arrive at a short number of results, allowing researchers to get a very clear view of the 'history' of a small passage of text. This in turn could then be expanded to provide an insight into a particular authors reading and research habits. Consequently we can all start to play literary detective quickly and easily; now where did I put my Sherlock Holmes?

Posted by Phil Bradley at 7:46 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: Nov. 22, 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...

  • Thanksgiving Programming Note
  • Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States, and Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating! Barry and I will be off the blog because of the holiday, so there will be no postings from us or a daily search headlines recap. Barry may be back to do light postings and/or headlines on Friday, unless he takes my advice to relax and take that day off as well! I'll be back on Monday....
  • Mid-November 2006 Search News Recap Posted
    If you're a Search Engine Watch member, the latest edition of Search Engine Update newsletter has been posted. It recaps top stories in search from the first part of this month....
  • SEM Certification & Training Courses
    The move toward offering certification and training in search marketing is accelerating. Here's a rundown on some new courses and developments I've heard of recently....
  • Google Finance's Untrusted Links & Spotting Nofollow
    For several months, I've been using the Search Status plug-in for Firefox to highlight links that are flagged with the nofollow attribute, a way for site owners to say they don't vouch for or necessarily trust a link. You see the web in a entirely new light after discovering how often and where people are saying "I don't trust this." And today, I finally noticed it happening over on Google Finance. The image above show how Google Finance looks when links with nofollow are highlighted in red, for the page on Google stock price. All the news stories --...
  • Search Popularity Stats, Sliced & Diced
    Catch up time on search engine popularity stats. comScore and NetRatings put out October 2006 figures this week, plus Hitwise released those earlier this month. Google's still tops, Yahoo still strong, Microsoft is still dropping and Ask surpasses AOL's search share, according to comScore. Below, the trend from all of them over the past year, plus my long-promised compare-and-contrast charts....
  • Baidu Wins Copyright Case Against Music Companies
    Melanie Colburn writes that Music Labels Lose Copyright Suit Against Baidu, which started back when Five Music Companies Sue Baidu in September of 2005. Baidu was previously ordered to stop these music downloads but it appears the ruling was overturn because all Baidu is providing are links to 3rd party sites that facilitate the music downloads, whereas Baidu does not participate in the downloads themselves. More details at the BBC News....
  • Link Exchanges Are Spam Links According To Microsoft
    The other day I reported that Microsoft Banning Sites from Live.com For Link Exchanges, where I uncovered an email sent to a Webmaster. The email stated that a particular site was removed from the Live.com Search index because the site was "acquiring links through posting to or exchanging links with sites unrelated to your site content." The email also added that these types of links are "spam links," and is the reason the site was delisted from the index....
  • Google Says AdWords Not Basing Keyword Prices On Conversion Metrics
    I reported this morning at SERoundtable that AdWordsAdvisor Denies Google Uses Conversion Tracking & Analytics To Determine Minimum Bids. Yes, Google has come out on the Internet to make it clear to everyone that Google is not using data from their conversion tracking scripts of Google Analytics to determine the minimum price of keywords. This was a recent rumor that began with the new AdWords algorithm coming into play....
  • Social Search Manipulation: Case Study
    Niall Kennedy has one of the most thorough write-ups on why search spam exists with his article "The Spam Farms of the Social Web." The article explains how he stumbled upon a spam site, researched the site to death, guesstimates on how much money they can make and services that help you make it rank well. This includes a look at blogs, digg, del.icio.us, other social sites, link building tactics, directory inclusion, content writing, and more....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:00 PM | Permalink

Thanksgiving Programming Note

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States, and Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating! Barry and I will be off the blog because of the holiday, so there will be no postings from us or a daily search headlines recap. Barry may be back to do light postings and/or headlines on Friday, unless he takes my advice to relax and take that day off as well! I'll be back on Monday.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:47 PM | Permalink

Mid-November 2006 Search News Recap Posted

If you're a Search Engine Watch member, the latest edition of Search Engine Update newsletter has been posted. It recaps top stories in search from the first part of this month.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:17 PM | Permalink

SEM Certification & Training Courses

The move toward offering certification and training in search marketing is accelerating. Here's a rundown on some new courses and developments I've heard of recently.

  • Kalena Jordan's Search Engine College has launched "Certification Pathways," a bundle of courses designed to get people up to speed in the space.
     
  • Wondering if you should even be in search marketing? SEMPO's got a webinar designed to help, Starting a Career in Search Marketing, happening on November 30 at Noon Eastern time.
     
  • SEMPO is also offering the SEMPO Institute, a distance learning program designed to provide search engine training. The group says it will go live in January 2007 with a course on fundamentals, followed by an advanced SEO and advanced paid search curriculum. Do the training, and you get a certificate.
     
  • My DMA Offering Search Marketing Certification Program post from September covers how the DMA was going to offer their own training and certification course. Why We Need Search Standards from iMedia Connection provides a bit of an update on that. Courses are to launch in January -- more information can be found here.
     
  • Incisive is offering training courses following the SES Chicago 2006 show. This page outlines what's being offered. You can attend these classes in addition to the show (more info on the entire show here) or separately, if you want.
     
  • Training courses from Bruce Clay aren't new, but he's been offering them longer and more consistently than anyone I can think of. So you might want to check those out here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:58 PM | Permalink

Google Finance's Untrusted Links & Spotting Nofollow

Google Finance Closeup, Nov. 21, 2006: Nofollow Links Highlighted

For several months, I've been using the Search Status plug-in for Firefox to highlight links that are flagged with the nofollow attribute, a way for site owners to say they don't vouch for or necessarily trust a link. You see the web in a entirely new light after discovering how often and where people are saying "I don't trust this." And today, I finally noticed it happening over on Google Finance.

The image above show how Google Finance looks when links with nofollow are highlighted in red, for the page on Google stock price. All the news stories -- which come from Google News -- are flagged as effectively untrustworthy. But if they are untrustworthy, why are they in Google News to begin with?

Down below (see the whole page here), Google Blog Search results are also flagged that way also. Google Blog Search is effectively open to anyone, so I can understand the use of nofollow there more. But it still feels kind of odd, for this entire swath of the page to be considered untrustworthy in some way -- even if that way is invisible to virtually all visitors to Google Finance.

FYI, this isn't a new change. I did a search and found others talking about it earlier this year when Google Finance launched.

Go get Search Status and select the "Highlight Nofollow Links" option. Believe me, it's an eye-opening experience.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:51 PM | Permalink

Search Popularity Stats, Sliced & Diced

Catch up time on search engine popularity stats. comScore and NetRatings put out October 2006 figures this week, plus Hitwise released those earlier this month. Google's still tops, Yahoo still strong, Microsoft is still dropping and Ask surpasses AOL's search share, according to comScore. Below, the trend from all of them over the past year, plus my long-promised compare-and-contrast charts.

First, let's do a compare-and-contrast table with the basic figures from each service. These show the estimated share of the number of searches that happened in the United States in October 2006.

Month

comScore

NetRatings

Hitwise

Google

45.4%

49.6%

60.9%

Yahoo

28.2%

23.9%

22.3%

Microsoft

11.7%

8.8%

10.6%

Ask

5.8%

2.8%

4.3%

AOL

5.4%

6.2%

0.5%

Others

3.5%

8.7%

1.2%

Across the board, all the services put Google in the lead, Yahoo second and Microsoft's Windows Live third (sorry, I still say MSN on the chart). Two of the services put Ask over AOL in the fourth place spot. More analysis on all this in the service trend charts, below.

Here's comScore figures over the past year:

comScore Search Popularity, Oct 2005-Oct 2006

Remember that Google drop back in July, when lots of people started freaking out about the demise of the Big G. I warned not to focus on month-to-month changes. Since then, Google's recovered according to comScore and keeps going.

Yahoo's seen declines since July, but not enough to send up the alarm bells. They are well within the usual ranges that I've discussed are the things to watch. That range is the 25 to 30 percent slice of the chart.

In contrast, Microsoft continues on its long, steady drop in popularity. It will especially be interesting to see the figures in the next few months, as IE7 rolls out and potentially gives Microsoft Live Search a bump. Or not. My Searching Via Internet Explorer 7 & The Battle To Be The Default Search Engine article talks more about the changes in IE7 that might help drive traffic.

Unnoticed, as far as I can tell, is the fact that in September, Ask overtook AOL for the fourth slot in the search engine share battle. That's a big deal. In fact, according to comScore, AOL is on track to plunge out of the 5 to 10 percent band it has occupied over the past year. Ask is hanging in there.

Of course, the traffic for Ask isn't just for Ask.com. It's for the combination of sites that Ask owns or controls, including places like Excite, iWon, MyWay.com and My Web Search. Still, as a network, Ask remains controlling a significant chunk of the search space.

That's what comScore says. Now let's see how it looks at NetRatings:

NetRatings Search Popularity, Oct 2005-Oct 2006

Basically, NetRatings shows status quo. Google and Yahoo keep ticking along at the same levels. So does Ask. AOL hangs in roughly the same general range. It's Microsoft Windows Live (MSN on the chart) that catches my eye most with consistent decline.

Also note that with NetRatings, AOL is well above Ask. That's because NetRatings is only reporting the share for Ask.com. If other Ask-owned properties were combined, then the Ask figure would be higher. Much of that traffic instead flows into the "Other" line.

Next to Hitwise:

Hitwise Search Popularity, Oct 2005-Oct 2006

Hitwise doesn't go back as far as NetRatings and comScore, so it's harder to feel confident about trends. But the trends are similar to comScore, a slight Google rise, Yahoo holding steady, Ask above AOL and that decline of MSN.

Now back to what I promised ages ago, the old-style comparison charts I used to do. Here are all three services together, showing share score for October 2006:

Search Popularity,Oct 2006

Now let me explain what I think is unique in charting the figures this way. Usually, you'd see a comparison using a bar chart. Shares for Google from all three services would be shown as three bars next to each other, then the same for Yahoo and so on.

I like doing these as line charts, because it makes the gaps more noticeable and gives you a trend as well.

For example, you can see how all the services rate Google tops, though the amount Google is above the others may vary. Conclusion? While Google's exact popularity is uncertain, it's clearly more popular than anyone else, the services agree.

Notice that with Yahoo, they all agree it is in second place and the general range of popularity is closer (roughly between 25 to 30 percent). For MSN (Windows Live), the all come together. When you hit AOL, Hitwise is the big player that's way off the mark from the other two. I've covered this before, that I don't think Hitwise is getting accurate information about AOL that causes this. But seeing the two big skews -- that Hitwise puts Google so high above the others and AOL so low -- makes me think that if AOL was counted correctly, then Hitwise would be reflecting the same general trend as the others.

Now let's trend each of the major search engines using figures from all three services. Here's Google:

Google Search Popularity, Oct 2005-Oct 2006

Fair to say, Google's pretty much continuing to grow, despite the hiccups you might see from time-to-time on various services.

Here's Yahoo:

Yahoo Search Popularity, Oct 2005-Oct 2006

Generally, I think it's fair to say that Yahoo had a spike in popularity earlier this year but has settled down more to its usual levels. That's not bad. It has healthy, long-term traffic. What remains to be seen is if it can grow that traffic more in the long term.

Here's Microsoft:

Live Search Popularity, Oct 2005-Oct 2006

Slice it how you want, no one is reporting a pretty picture for Microsoft. Unlike Yahoo, they haven't held share. It's drop, drop, drop.

Here's AOL, which similar to Microsoft, shows drops:

AOL Search Popularity, Oct 2005-Oct 2006

I'm sorry I don't have the similar chart for Ask. I'll try to add it later, but I shut my spreadsheet (argh) before saving my comparison numbers, so I have some more copy and pasting to do to get that chart back.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Baidu Wins Copyright Case Against Music Companies

Melanie Colburn writes that Music Labels Lose Copyright Suit Against Baidu, which started back when Five Music Companies Sue Baidu in September of 2005. Baidu was previously ordered to stop these music downloads but it appears the ruling was overturned because all Baidu is providing are links to 3rd party sites that facilitate the music downloads, whereas Baidu does not participate in the downloads themselves. More details at the BBC News.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:37 AM | Permalink

Link Exchanges Are Spam Links According To Microsoft

The other day I reported that Microsoft Banning Sites from Live.com For Link Exchanges, where I uncovered an email sent to a Webmaster. The email stated that a particular site was removed from the Live.com Search index because the site was "acquiring links through posting to or exchanging links with sites unrelated to your site content." The email also added that these types of links are "spam links," and is the reason the site was delisted from the index.

It struck me that this is why Google and Yahoo remain very vague when telling Webmasters why their sites are deindexed or penalized. Simply, people may look at this email and figure that exchanges links with your friends is a bad thing. If you have a personal blog about your life and you wanted to link to your dad's dental practice web site, there is nothing wrong with that. But if you do run huge link exchanges, then you need to be worried. The email sent to this Webmaster might not be clear enough to explain the difference, and get other Webmasters worried.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:28 AM | Permalink

Google Says AdWords Not Basing Keyword Prices On Conversion Metrics

I reported this morning at SERoundtable that AdWordsAdvisor Denies Google Uses Conversion Tracking & Analytics To Determine Minimum Bids. Yes, Google has come out on the Internet to make it clear to everyone that Google is not using data from their conversion tracking scripts of Google Analytics to determine the minimum price of keywords. This was a recent rumor that began with the new AdWords algorithm coming into play.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:20 AM | Permalink

Social Search Manipulation: Case Study

Niall Kennedy has one of the most thorough write-ups on why search spam exists with his article "The Spam Farms of the Social Web." The article explains how he stumbled upon a spam site, researched the site to death, guesstimates on how much money they can make and services that help you make it rank well. This includes a look at blogs, digg, del.icio.us, other social sites, link building tactics, directory inclusion, content writing, and more.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:54 AM | Permalink

November 21, 2006

Search Headlines & Links: Nov. 21, 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...

  • Tracking All The Official Google Blogs
    It can seem like Google adds a new official blog every week, which is a pain if you want to keep up with the official statements. Who wants to manually subscribe to each one? Well, you don't have to. Google tells me there's a feed they generate out of Google Reader that you can try here. An OPML file that shows all the blogs that are part of that combined feed can be found here. Unfortunately, you still can't go to a single page from Google itself and read all the latest posts from the various Google blogs. That...
  • Web Increasingly Used For Local Service Business Searches
    Local online marketing firm WebVisible conducted an online survey this past August regarding Internet usage to find a local service business. The survey used Nielsen//NetRatings' online panel and asked about behavior within the past 90 days. Among more than 2,800 consumer responses, 70% had used the Internet to search for a local service business in the past three months. (Roughly 78% of the US adult population is online.) Almost 90% found search to be “somewhat effective” or “very effective” in finding local services in their area. And 68% said they would most likely use the phone number on the website...
  • New Sitemaps For Google News
    Is your site included in Google News? Is your site in English? If so, you just got new support from Google Sitemaps. You can submit your news articles for inclusion and also monitor crawling stats. More from Google in Introducing Sitemaps for Google News....
  • Google Breaks $500 Per Share
    For fun, my MSN Direct watch is set to show the stock prices of all the major search engines. It only works in the US, and I wish I were there now to capture a screen from it showing Google having broken the $500 per share mark. AP has a longer story on it here. It's around $503 when I looked just now. No doubt Safa Rashtchy at Piper Jaffray is keeping his fingers crossed (along with thousands of Googlers) that it will keep going. Earlier this year, Safa predicted a $600 price point by the end of 2006....
  • Steve Berkowitz Of Microsoft (Windows Live) News.com Interview
    News.com has an extensive interview with Microsoft's Steve Berkowitz, who formerly worked at Ask.com. He goes over the current market, Microsoft's advantages and challenges, and how they want to compete with Google....
  • Answers.com Integrates Yahoo Answers Into Content
    Answers.com announced that they have integrated Yahoo Answers directly into their content. So if you do a search at Answers.com, you should see at the bottom right portion of the page, a box for Yahoo Answers results that match on those keywords. Gary Price has more sample searches and expert opinion on this integration....
  • Google Beats Microsoft, Yahoo As College Grad Choice
    Online Recruitment reports on a CollegeGrad.com poll showing Google is the most desired place for technology students to work for. The poll asked 1,600 respondents in October "Who would you rather work for?" The results: Google - 49% Microsoft - 29% Yahoo - 12% IBM - 10%...
  • Can Developers & API Save Yahoo From Its Peanut Butter Crisis
    Danny reported yesterday on the internal Yahoo memo that called for Yahoo to make cut backs due to them spreading out the Yahoo resources like peanut butter. In reaction to that Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo wrote Yahoo's Peanut Butter APIs which is strongly supported by News.com's Yahoo seeks geek credibility. Jeremy argues that APIs are part of the solution to the problem of being "everything to everyone." The News.com article explains that this is part of Yahoo's appeal. I tend to agree with Jeremy's argument, but as he said, "Brad is very right about some things and terribly wrong about...
  • Norway Upset With Google News Over Copyright Laws
    Pandia reports that Google News is in trouble again over copyright laws overseas. Google News Norway was launched and publishers are upset that Google is placing copyrighted images in the Google News home page. Mediebedriftenes Landsforening, an association of Norwegian media companies, claims Google "cannot make use of photographs without a proper agreement." This form of syndication is in "violation with Norwegian copyright law," says Dagens Næringsliv....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:47 PM | Permalink

Tracking All The Official Google Blogs

It can seem like Google adds a new official blog every week, which is a pain if you want to keep up with the official statements. Who wants to manually subscribe to each one? Well, you don't have to. Google tells me there's a feed they generate out of Google Reader that you can try here. An OPML file that shows all the blogs that are part of that combined feed can be found here. Unfortunately, you still can't go to a single page from Google itself and read all the latest posts from the various Google blogs. That may come, the company told me, but for now the feed and OPML files are all that's made available. Don't get me wrong, though -- I love having them!

Postscript: Google tells me there is a single page with all the posts you can read here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:07 PM | Permalink

Web Increasingly Used For Local Service Business Searches

Local online marketing firm WebVisible conducted an online survey this past August regarding Internet usage to find a local service business. The survey used Nielsen//NetRatings' online panel and asked about behavior within the past 90 days. Among more than 2,800 consumer responses, 70% had used the Internet to search for a local service business and 46% did so in the past three months. (Roughly 78% of the US adult population is online.) Almost 90% found search to be “somewhat effective” or “very effective” in finding local services in their area. And 68% said they would most likely use the phone number on the website to contact a vendor.

This means that people are using the Internet to find local service businesses in significant numbers and are pretty happy with the experience. Also interesting is the traditional method used to contact these local businesses – the telephone (PPCall opportunity).

There's more interesting data in the survey and I'll be doing a longer write-up after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 12:29 PM | Permalink

New Sitemaps For Google News

Is your site included in Google News? Is your site in English? If so, you just got new support from Google Sitemaps. You can submit your news articles for inclusion and also monitor crawling stats. More from Google in Introducing Sitemaps for Google News.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:11 PM | Permalink

Google Breaks $500 Per Share

For fun, my MSN Direct watch is set to show the stock prices of all the major search engines. It only works in the US, and I wish I were there now to capture a screen from it showing Google having broken the $500 per share mark. AP has a longer story on it here. It's around $503 when I looked just now.

No doubt Safa Rashtchy at Piper Jaffray is keeping his fingers crossed (along with thousands of Googlers) that it will keep going. Earlier this year, Safa predicted a $600 price point by the end of 2006.

That's still much to go but far closer than the $2,000 that analyst Mark Stahlman predicted a few days later However, I don't believe Stahlman gave a time when that would happen.

Given that Google's cofounders are big fans of Berkshire Hathaway -- which I believe has never split its stock -- it's possible that inflation alone could help Google get into that range, assuming they also avoid splits. Berkshire's class B stock is at $3,588, currently.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:06 AM | Permalink

Steve Berkowitz Of Microsoft (Windows Live) News.com Interview

News.com has an extensive interview with Microsoft's Steve Berkowitz, who formerly worked at Ask.com. He goes over the current market, Microsoft's advantages and challenges, and how they want to compete with Google.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:47 AM | Permalink

Answers.com Integrates Yahoo Answers Into Content

Answers.com announced that they have integrated Yahoo Answers directly into their content. So if you do a search at Answers.com, you should see at the bottom right portion of the page, a box for Yahoo Answers results that match on those keywords. Gary Price has more sample searches and expert opinion on this integration.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:38 AM | Permalink

Google Beats Microsoft, Yahoo As College Grad Choice

Online Recruitment reports on a CollegeGrad.com poll showing Google is the most desired place for technology students to work for. The poll asked 1,600 respondents in October "Who would you rather work for?" The results:

  • Google - 49%
  • Microsoft - 29%
  • Yahoo - 12%
  • IBM - 10%

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:30 AM | Permalink

Can Developers & API Save Yahoo From Its Peanut Butter Crisis

Danny reported yesterday on the internal Yahoo memo that called for Yahoo to make cut backs due to them spreading out the Yahoo resources like peanut butter. In reaction to that Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo wrote Yahoo's Peanut Butter APIs which is strongly supported by News.com's Yahoo seeks geek credibility. Jeremy argues that APIs are part of the solution to the problem of being "everything to everyone." The News.com article explains that this is part of Yahoo's appeal. I tend to agree with Jeremy's argument, but as he said, "Brad is very right about some things and terribly wrong about others." It is also important to note, as Danny IMed me, "Hey Yahoo! Microsoft Is Jelly To Your Peanut Butter. Make A Sandwich!" More details on that here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:15 AM | Permalink

Norway Upset With Google News Over Copyright Laws

Pandia reports that Google News is in trouble again over copyright laws overseas. Google News Norway was launched and publishers are upset that Google is placing copyrighted images in the Google News home page. Mediebedriftenes Landsforening, an association of Norwegian media companies, claims Google "cannot make use of photographs without a proper agreement." This form of syndication is in "violation with Norwegian copyright law," says Dagens Næringsliv.

Google is also in trouble over copyright issues in Belgium (also see here and in Australia.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:04 AM | Permalink

A Closer Look at Google's News Archive Search

Google launched its News Archive Search with little fanfare in September, and I found it to be an interesting, useful service. Spend some time playing around with it, though, and you'll find some cool features—and some rough edges, especially if you're accustomed to using fee-based online services such as Factiva or LexisNexis. Guest writer Mary Ellen Bates takes a closer look at the news archives in today's SearchDay article, Google As News Archivist.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 2:54 AM | Permalink

November 20, 2006

Search Headlines & Links: Nov. 20, 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 Compliance Manager from Yahoo Publisher Network
    Yahoo Publisher Network has launched a new feature that alerts publishers to any compliancy issues within their account, such as URLs that contain content in direct violation of the YPN Terms. These alerts would show up on the homepage of a publisher's YPN account, meaning publishers don't need to worry about compliancy emails going astray. For full details and screenshots of the new compliance manager interface, visit JenSense....
  • Verizon Spins Off Idearc
    Idearc is the newly spun off parent of local search provider SuperPages.com. The company started trading today on the NYSE. The SuperPages brand, which survives the spin-off, will continue to publish Verizon yellow pages. SuperPages has been the most progressive of the incumbent YP sites in embracing new business models (PPClick/Call) and consumer trends (ratings and reviews). Indeed, SuperPages sees itself not as a “yellow pages” per se but as a local search and shopping resource. Let’s see how far the company pushes that metaphor now that it's on its own....
  • Yahoo Integrates Answers Into Search Results
    Yahoo has finally officially integrated Yahoo Answers into the Yahoo Search results, according to an email we received from the company. We reported back a month and a half ago that Yahoo Tests Enhanced Yahoo Answers Integration In Search Results but now everyone can see it for themselves by conducting a search for vacation ideas. If you do not see it, I have posted a screen capture below of the before and after....
  • Yahoo Strikes Deal With 176 Newspapers
    The New York Times reports that Yahoo has struck a deal with 176 newspapers, consisting of a 7 newspaper chains to "share content, advertising and technology." The first part of the deal will promote Yahoo's HotJobs site, where newspapers will post the local jobs to HotJobs and use HotJobs's technology on their local newspaper site for classifieds listings. Then Yahoo wants to make these newspapers content more accessible within Yahoo's search index, local news and other search services. Greg Sterling has more information at his blog. Postscript From Danny: As a reminder, Google cut a deal for its Google News...
  • Google Testing Map Quick Link Under Search Results
    Threadwatch screen captured Google testing out placing a link to Google maps results directly below the search result's description and above the url of that result. It is a limited test, and I am not able to reproduce it, but Matt Cutts of Google has confirmed this as a real test. As long as it is useful to the query and the searcher, I am happy with it also....
  • Yahoo Exec Releases Jerry Maguire-Style Reform Memo
    Over the weekend, an email from Yahoo senior vice president Brad Garlinghouse was released by the Wall Street Journal covering how Garlinghouse fears Yahoo's resources are spread too thinly (like peanut butter on a sandwich) and that massive reforms, along with firings, are needed. Some excerpts:...
  • Search Forums Roundup: Nov. 17, 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: Hack Your Competition Out of Organic Search - MSN And Yahoo Join Google With Sitemaps - How Local Search And SEM Relates - What to Look for When Purchasing Links? - What Tools Does An SEO Guru Use? and more....

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 3:56 PM | Permalink

New Compliance Manager from Yahoo Publisher Network

Yahoo Publisher Network has launched a new feature that alerts publishers to any compliancy issues within their account, such as URLs that contain content in direct violation of the YPN Terms. These alerts would show up on the homepage of a publisher's YPN account, meaning publishers don't need to worry about compliancy emails going astray. For full details and screenshots of the new compliance manager interface, visit JenSense.

Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Verizon Spins Off Idearc

Idearc is the newly spun off parent of local search provider SuperPages.com. The company started trading today on the NYSE. The SuperPages brand, which survives the spin-off, will continue to publish Verizon yellow pages. SuperPages has been the most progressive of the incumbent YP sites in embracing new business models (PPClick/Call) and consumer trends (ratings and reviews). Indeed, SuperPages sees itself not as a “yellow pages” per se but as a local search and shopping resource. Let’s see how far the company pushes that metaphor now that it's on its own.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 9:49 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Integrates Answers Into Search Results

Yahoo has finally officially integrated Yahoo Answers into the Yahoo Search results, according to an email we received from the company. We reported back a month and a half ago that Yahoo Tests Enhanced Yahoo Answers Integration In Search Results but now everyone can see it for themselves by conducting a search for vacation ideas.

If you do not see it, I have posted a screen capture below of the before and after.

yahoo-vacation-results

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:15 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Strikes Deal With 176 Newspapers

The New York Times reports that Yahoo has struck a deal with 176 newspapers, consisting of a 7 newspaper chains to "share content, advertising and technology." The first part of the deal will promote Yahoo's HotJobs site, where newspapers will post the local jobs to HotJobs and use HotJobs's technology on their local newspaper site for classifieds listings. Then Yahoo wants to make these newspapers content more accessible within Yahoo's search index, local news and other search services.

Greg Sterling has more information at his blog.

Postscript From Danny: As a reminder, Google cut a deal for its Google News Archive with many news organizations in September. The Yahoo deal looks far more extensive in terms of integration with Yahoo.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:04 AM | Permalink

Google Testing Map Quick Link Under Search Results

Threadwatch screen captured Google testing out placing a link to Google maps results directly below the search result's description and above the url of that result. It is a limited test, and I am not able to reproduce it, but Matt Cutts of Google has confirmed this as a real test. As long as it is useful to the query and the searcher, I am happy with it also.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:57 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Exec Releases Jerry Maguire-Style Reform Memo

Over the weekend, an email from Yahoo senior vice president Brad Garlinghouse was released by the Wall Street Journal covering how Garlinghouse fears Yahoo's resources are spread too thinly (like peanut butter on a sandwich) and that massive reforms, along with firings, are needed. Some excerpts:

I proudly bleed purple and, yellow everyday! And like so many people here, I love this company

But all is not well. Last Thursday's NY Times article was a blessing in the disguise of a painful public flogging. While it lacked accurate details, its conclusions rang true, and thus was a much needed wake up call. But also a call to action. A clear statement with which I, and far too many Yahoo's, agreed. And thankfully a reminder. A reminder that the measure of any person is not in how many times he or she falls down - but rather the spirit and resolve used to get back up. The same is now true of our Company.

It's time for us to get back up....

We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything -- to everyone. We've known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don't talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn't to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics.

Our inclination and proclivity to repeatedly hire leaders from outside the company results in disparate visions of what winning looks like -- rather than a leadership team rallying around a single cohesive strategy.

I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular.

I hate peanut butter. We all should....

We lack clarity of ownership and accountability. The most painful manifestation of this is the massive redundancy that exists throughout the organization. We now operate in an organizational structure -- admittedly created with the best of intentions -- that has become overly bureaucratic. For far too many employees, there is another person with dramatically similar and overlapping responsibilities. This slows us down and burdens the company with unnecessary costs.

Equally problematic, at what point in the organization does someone really OWN the success of their product or service or feature? Product, marketing, engineering, corporate strategy, financial operations... there are so many people in charge (or believe that they are in charge) that it's not clear if anyone is in charge. This forces decisions to be pushed up - rather than down. It forces decisions by committee or consensus and discourages the innovators from breaking the mold... thinking outside the box....

We lack decisiveness. Combine a lack of focus with unclear ownership, and the result is that decisions are either not made or are made when it is already too late. Without a clear and focused vision, and without complete clarity of ownership, we lack a macro perspective to guide our decisions and visibility into who should make those decisions. We are repeatedly stymied by challenging and hairy decisions. We are held hostage by our analysis paralysis.

We end up with competing (or redundant) initiatives and synergistic opportunities living in the different silos of our company.

• YME vs. Musicmatch

• Flickr vs. Photos

• YMG video vs. Search video

• Deli.cio.us vs. myweb....

We have lost our passion to win. Far too many employees are "phoning" it in, lacking the passion and commitment to be a part of the solution. We sit idly by while -- at all levels -- employees are enabled to "hang around". Where is the accountability? Moreover, our compensation systems don't align to our overall success. Weak performers that have been around for years are rewarded. And many of our top performers aren't adequately recognized for their efforts.

As a result, the employees that we really need to stay (leaders, risk-takers, innovators, passionate) become discouraged and leave. Unfortunately many who opt to stay are not the ones who will lead us through the dramatic change that is needed....

There are three pillars to my plan:

1. Focus the vision.

2. Restore accountability and clarity of ownership.

3. Execute a radical reorganization....

1. Focus the vision

a) We need to boldly and definitively declare what we are and what we are not.

b) We need to exit (sell?) non core businesses and eliminate duplicative projects and businesses....

2. Restore accountability and clarity of ownership

a) Existing business owners must be held accountable for where we find ourselves today -- heads must roll,

b) We must thoughtfully create senior roles that have holistic accountability for a particular line of business (a variant of a GM structure that will work with Yahoo!'s new focus)

c) We must redesign our performance and incentive systems....

3. Execute a radical reorganization

a) The current business unit structure must go away.

b) We must dramatically decentralize and eliminate as much of the matrix as possible.

c) We must reduce our headcount by 15-20%.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:31 AM | Permalink

Americans Aren't Blinded by Science Online

The internet is second only to television as a source of science information for most Americans, according to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the Exploratorium, an online science site. More on the study, another in a series of excellent investigations into searcher and internet user behavior, in today's SearchDay article, How We Use the Internet for Science Research.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 2:20 AM | Permalink

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