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March 5, 2008

March 5, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 5, 2008

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 6:45 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Launches Fire Eagle: Location Sharing

Yahoo has joined the companies working on helping people stay connected through location technology, the company announced today. They have launched Fire Eagle - as a sub domain of Yahoo.net.

An information page explains the beta here:

"Fire Eagle shares your location information with services and applications that you choose. This location information is obtained from the web or your mobile device.

Information Collection and Use Practices

* Fire Eagle collects your current location information from location-enabled devices or services that you authorize. The specificity of the location data collected by Fire Eagle (e.g., city, street, latitude/longitude, etc.) depends on the authorized device or service that you link with Fire Eagle.
o You can view the service(s) or device(s) updating your location, the location indicated, and the time passed since collection at the “My Locations” tab.
* Fire Eagle shares your location information with application(s) that you authorize to obtain your information from the Fire Eagle database.
o If you authorize an application to obtain your location data from the Fire Eagle database, you may go to the “My Applications” tab and choose the specificity of location data available to the application from the drop-down list.
o In approximately 45 days, you will be sent an email to reauthorize the sharing of your location data with your Fire Eagle enabled application(s). If you do not respond to this email within 10 days, authorization will be automatically revoked; however, you can later reauthorize your application(s) to interact with Fire Eagle’s location database.

Practices Regarding Your Ability to Update or Delete Information

* If you want to prevent all applications from reading your location from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Hide Me.” Your current location will continue to be stored by Fire Eagle.
* If you want to prevent a single application from reading your location or providing the Fire Eagle database with your location, go to the “My Applications” tab and delete the application.
* If you want to remove previously stored location data from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Delete my location info.” The “Delete my location info” action will have no effect on information you previously authorized Fire Eagle to share with Fire Eagle enabled applications.

Other

* When you use Fire Eagle, you are subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service."


Posted by Frank Watson at 6:33 PM | Permalink

Discovery's Science Channel Has Good New Series On Internet

Former editor and writer for Wired John Heileman shares his insights into the development of the Internet. This is no softball show praising Al Gore and the people who came after him.

The series gives it to you "warts and all" and does not hold back the punches on how things have developed so far. The last show I watched discussed the development of search and told how Excite turned down the chance to buy Google foe a million dollars.

Browser wars, the bubble have all been topics so far. The show can also be seen online.

"Download: The True Story of the Internet is about a revolution -- the technological, cultural, commercial and social revolution that has radically changed our lives," is how the Discovery describes it.

It makes for a great history lesson for people new to the industry and answers some of the urban myths surrounding our industry as well. Put the time aside and watch them, you will be glad you did.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:47 PM | Permalink

Health Vertical: License and Be Found

MindsiteAnother health vertical, Mindsite, was quietly reported in the Seattle PI venture blog yesterday. Founder David Eraker explained that "information is often ridiculously watered down, locked up behind expensive subscriptions, editorially corrupted, biased, or not credible."

Mindsite focuses on mental health, and has licensed American Psychiatric Association information that was previously unavailable on the open web. There’s a social dimension planned here as well, where people share treatments and what’s worked for them. This mental health vertical could become another useful, ad-based destination.

In this case, I think the odds are stacked against making this site a home run because it follows the “license and be found" model. You need traffic, stat. How will anyone find Mindsite among other specialized health sites, portals and search engines?

The competition here is fierce and very well optimized. First, there are the largest health portals like WebMD, Mayo Clinic, and Revolution Health. In addition, there are health resources at places like iVillage, About.com and even Yahoo. Any of them could make this same licensing deal (assuming it’s not exclusive), and knock out sites like Mindsite.

Then there are many health search engines to consider. Remember a year-plus ago when Healthline, Kosmix, Healia and Medstory were all the rage? All these search engines refine sources and aim to produce credible results. They essentially compete with these smaller verticals, at least for traffic.

Getting noticed is hard work. Look at the challenges faced by relatively deep-pocketed Revolution Health which, as a newcomer, isn’t optimized well yet. They compensate by making seemingly large keyword buys to drive visitor traffic. While Mindsite is focused on mental health, that’s a broad subject area too -- and hardly a shoo-in for optimization.

Mindsite is a textbook example of where verticals sit today, with search, content and social attributes as basic requirements for launch. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like a game changer.

Posted by Deborah Richman at 3:49 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Research Unveils Three New Search Projects

Yesterday at TechFest, Microsoft Research unveiled three projects designed to enhance a user's search experience. Two projects, SearchTogether and CoSearch, are aimed at collaborative search while SearchBar assists the individual searcher.

SearchTogether is a free Internet Explorer plugin that allows groups of people searching on multiple computers in different countries to collaborate their searches. The plugin will be available for download later this Spring and installs a sidebar on the IE web browser. SearchTogether’s features include group query histories, split searching, page-level rating and commenting, automatically-generated shared summaries, peek-and-follow browsing, and integrated chat.

CoSearch enables collaborative search while users are gathered around a single computer. This is facilitated by the use of multiple mice or cell phones. For example, a person might use their cell phone to maneuver a cursor on the screen and transfer data to their phone, while another user may use a mouse to follow links on the same page at the same time.

Searchbar is an advanced search history tool that operates as a sidebar in a user’s web browser. Users can save searches in order to return to them later and pick up where they left off. SearchBar organizes the searches in a hierarchical tree format. Users can write notes to themselves to remind them of future searches or any other information they wish to remember about their search queries.

Microsoft's projects are comparable to recent efforts by Google and social media startups to personalize and socialize search. But Microsoft could take the lead on such efforts because these projects offer users increased control of their own research efforts. With the ability to easily keep personal accounts of search queries and share and receive results from people they know, instead of being purely subject to algorithms and the opinions of a broad audience.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:18 PM | Permalink

YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook: Most Popular Social Media Sites in UK

Facebook lives! Reports of Facebook UK's death? Greatly exaggerated.

Rocketing up the charts in today’s Nielsen social search Top 10 is Facebook, up 712 percent year-over-year. Facebook leapfrogged 15 places in the most popular social media site rankings, winning third place with 8.5 million UK visitors.

social%20media%20UK%20jan%2008.jpg

YouTube, Facebook and Slide top the list of the most popular and fastest growing social media Web sites in the UK, according to Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company. Nielsen's data, released today, proves that reports of social media's demise in the UK may be unfounded.

In the UK, 20.8 million people (63 percent of Britons online) visited at least one of the ten most popular social media sites in January 2008. That's a 21 percent increase over last January (17.1 million).

YouTube has replaced Wikipedia as the UK's most popular social media Web site.

Biggest Winners: Facebook and social networking add-on tool, Slide.

biggest%20loser.jpg
Biggest Losers: Friends Reunited and Google Video.


Facebook and Slide broke into the Top 10 by ousting Friends Reunited and Google Video (falling to 16 and 14, respectively, compared to January 2007).

Prediction: Google will retire the Google Video brand and roll it into YouTube by the end of 2008. Both are video search engines. Universal search makes Google Video as a standalone property obsolete.

RIP Google Video: the first Top 20 Web property buried six feet under the World Wide Web?

We'll be tracking whether UK cable TV (MTV Two) can drive traffic and registrations to a social media site. MySpace (News Corp) and MTV (Viacom) will launch a weekly TV music video countdown show (MySpace Chart) only on the U.K. network MTV Two, not to be confused with MTV 2 in the US.

Think TRL with a social twist.

MySpacers and MTV site visitors will be able to vote next week on the top videos ( mtv.co.uk/myspacechart) on MySpace and MTV Two's dedicated landing page.

My Space Chart launch date: March 16. Mark you calendars and start tracking on comScore, Hitwise, and Nielsen.

A complete list of the current MTV Two UK chart toppers after the jump:

The MTV TWO Chart:

Arcade Fire - Black Mirror
Cage The Elephant - In One Ear
Does It Offend You Yeah - Let's Make Out
Editors - Push Your Head Towards The Air
Elbow - Grounds For Divorce
Foals - Cassius
Furtureheads - Beginning Of The Twist
Guillemots - Get Over It
Hard Fi - I Shall Overcome
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor
I Was A Cub Scout - Pink Squares
Jack Penate - Have I Been A Fool
Jimmy Eat World - Always Be
Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong - Lonely Buoy
Kaiser Chiefs - Heat Dies Down
Kids In Glass Houses - Easy Tiger
Late Of The Pier - Bears Are Coming
Look See Proof - Do You Think Its right
Make Model - The LSB
MGMT - Time To Pretend
Mystery Jets Ft. Laura Marling - Young Love
One Night Only - Just For Tonight
Panic At The Disco - Nine In The Afternoon
Radiohead - Nude
Red Jump Suit Apparatus - Face Down
REM - Supernatural Superserious
Supergrass - Bad Blood
The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Foerver
The Cribs - I'm A Realist
The Enemy - This Song Is About You
The Kooks - Always Where I Need To Be
The Metros - Education
The Teenagers - Love No
The Wombats - Moving To New York
Vampire Weekend - A Punk
We Are Scientists - After Hours
Young Knives - Up All Night

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:55 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Fires Back

Yahoo retaliated in the ongoing saga of Microsoft's hostile takeover attempt today by extending the deadline for nominations of its board of directors to some future date 10 days after it announces the date of its annual meeting.

Yahoo is taking its time making that decision, since if there's no annual meeting, there can be no vote by shareholders, bolstered by Microsoft, to replace Yahoo's existing board with a more Microsoft-friendly one. By postponing the possible house-cleaning of the current board, Yahoo also makes it more likely that it can reach a peaceful accord with Microsoft on an acquisition, or find another suitor willing to step in.

The plan could backfire on Yahoo if shareholders see this move as disenfranchising them from the decision to accept Microsoft's offer. Yahoo needs to hold its annual meeting within 13 months of its last one, which took place on June 12, 2007.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:43 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Desperately Seeking Suitor: Time Warner

aolyahoo.jpg

Yahooo's desperately seeking a suitor. With a Microsoft proxy battle expected soon, Time Warner's emerging as a white knight for the Sunnyvale search engine. Or as a delaying tactic to put off the Yahoo annual shareholder meeting.

Talks between Yahoo and the AOL unit of Time Warner have escalated. Finding an alternative to Microsoft's unwelcome bid remains Yahoo's focus, according to reports this morning in The Wall St. Journal (subscription) and The New York Times.

The deal discussed would combine Time Warner's AOL Internet unit with Yahoo, as we reported on February 1st. Reports of the Yahoo Time Warner AOL talks first emerged on February 10th.

AOL%20Time%20Warner%20Yahoo.jpg

What are the chances? Still a longshot since the buyout by Microsoft is almost inevitable.

The clock's ticking on Microsoft's rejected Feb. 1 offer. At an almost $45 billion value, Yahoo spurned it as undervaluing the company. Now it's worth $41.2 billion.

Who supports the AOL-Yahoo combo? Google, naturally, with a 5 percent stake in Yahoo.

Facebook, with Microsoft as an investor, remains on the sidelines. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hired Google's Sheryl Sandberg yesterday. That brilliant move makes the game more interesting.

For a more in-depth look at Facebook, Google and Yahoo, check out former Yahoo exec Erik Qualman's SEW Experts Brand Equity columns:

Social media and online commerce: Birth of Socialommerce

Why Search is still prehistoric

Why Search is still prehistoric, part 2

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:29 AM | Permalink

Google: The Spy Who Loved Me

spy-who-loved-me.jpg


Dr. Hal Varian, Google's chief economist and occasional Freakonomics Blog guest blogger, posted "Why data matters" on the official Google blog, cross-posted on the Google Public Policy Blog.

Varian explains that Web search algorithms are improved by the "wisdom of the crowds" drawn from the "logs of billions of previous search queries." That makes the general public - and government officials - nervous about privacy.

Varian tutors us in PageRank simplified and discusses link building in an ideal world - one where The New York Times and The Wall St. Journal, for example, would link to other sites generously:

"If I have six links pointing to me from sites such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the House of Representatives, that carries more weight than 20 links from my old college buddies who happen to have web pages."

The House of Representatives? Sounds more like Charlie Wilson's War.

SEOs, contact your local Congressional Representative for paid links - paid for with your hard-earned tax dollars.

The reality: when Dr. Varian was interviewed, The New York Times Freakonomics Blog linked to Google.org, Google green energy, Dr. Varian's position auction paper (pdf); BBC News on Moore's Law; Paul Seabright (Professor of Economics, University of Toulouse, France); Dr. Varian's NY Times energy article; another Freakonomics blog post; WebMD, Revolution Health, and Paul Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering, University of Cambridge.

That's the way major media outlets and journalists typically link: to each other; to corporate sites; to universities. It's an elite, exclusive club. Nick Carr's "digital elite."

That isn't to say Dr. Varian can't tell a good story. He reveals how Larry and Sergey trying to license their PageRank algorithm to "some of the newly formed web search engines."

No names named. None of the nascent search engines were interested. Since they couldn't sell their algorithm, Brin and Page decided to start a search engine themselves. (Note to VCs: Don't try this business model at home.)

Google has since added more than 200 additional "signals" to the algorithms that determine the relevance of websites to a user's query. We are the signals.

All the background info leads to one conclusion: Google needs your data. Google wants you to take a leap of faith. Google must store and analyze search logs. They want us to believe, "Nobody does it better."

Reminds me of Radiohead via Carly Simon:

"But like heaven above me, the spy who loved me/Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight. And nobody does it better/Sometimes I wish someone would/Nobody does it quite the way you do/Why'd you have to be so good."

Dr. Varian suggests readers "Watch our videos to see exactly what data we store in our logs."

Not everyone has time - or the inclination - to watch Google videos on YouTube.

What worries me: Google doesn't understand us any better than we understand the mathematical formulas of search engine algorithms.

Search Engine WarGames won't be fought between humans and machines.

Nick Carr put it best: "The erosion of the middle class may well accelerate, as the divide widens between a relatively small group of extraordinarily wealthy people - the digital elite - and a very large set of people who face eroding fortunes and a persistent struggle to make ends meet. In the YouTube economy, everyone is free to play, but only a few reap the rewards."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:20 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?

ComScore's recent data showing flat paid search growth for Google led many in the media to declare that the paid search sky was falling. But the rush to judgment was wrong, and there are other factors involved. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?," Kevin Ryan outlines the saga of misread numbers, media's desire to show failure that isn't there, and the fickleness of financial markets.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

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