Search Engine News Blog - January 2003
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Search engine news web log for January 2003. For more recent search engine news, go to our Daily Search Engine News Blog. Webmasters
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Highlighted Headings = important entries >> = the point where a news item from our Search Light newsletter continues. >> = regular entries and commentary Now, on with the blog...
31 January 2003 >> Chris Sherman's SearchDay takes a look at experimental search engine eBizSearch, calling it a Niche Search Engine for eBusiness.
>> MSN's online publication Slate posts a hilarious piece on the SearchKing vs Google lawsuit, called Google-Opoly: The Game No one But Google Can Play. Memorable quote from the article: "More than anything, the suit proves that when you pit the questionable virtue of an Internet parasite against the dubious integrity of an Internet monopolist, you're left with a case that makes everyone just a little bit nauseous".
>> According to the Financial Express, AltaVista is setting up a subsidiary of their search firm in India, to coincide with the launch of their Hindi web site. Now residents of India can access irrelevant search results in their own language. Hooray!
>> After many months of procrastination and various hosting issues, the new domain for our SEO business has been launched at www.webrank.biz. Our old domains and email will still alias to the new one, but we recommend you update those bookmarks.
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Why Cloaking is Always a Bad Idea - Jill Whalen's latest article has created a bit of a storm in a teacup about "acceptable" vs "unacceptable" cloaking. A few of the industry heavy-weights, including Danny Sullivan, join in this interesting thread.
30 January 2003 >> Well our Research Report Search Engine Compatibility and the Top 100 Australian Public Company Web Sites seems to have struck a chord with search engines. Representatives from both LookSmart and FAST Search have purchased a copy in the past 24 hours. Now how about the rest of you?
>> Winners of the 2002 Search Engine Watch Awards were announced this week. Once again, Google scooped the pool, taking out nine of the twelve award categories. Judges Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman made the controversial decision of disqualifying Dogpile from winning Best Meta Search Engine, due to their non-disclosure of paid listings: "We decided that Dogpile (and some other meta search engines) would be ineligible to win because we feel they do a poor job of delineating and disclosing paid listings from editorial matches". MetaCrawler, Excite, WebCrawler, Ixquick and Mamma were also ruled ineligible for this award for the same reason. Although Dogpile gained the majority 18 percent of the vote in this category, the award was given instead to Vivismo and Copernic who attracted 11 and 10 percent of the vote, respectively. Congratulations to all the winners!
>> I received an email today from a webmaster who had read my article about last year's search engine predictions. He had some predictions of his own to share about the future of Pay Per Click search engines. I thought some of you might be interested: --------- Hi Kalena I would like to predict the downfall of PPC in its present form for 2003/2004. The reason being that search engines are
becoming more and more like the TV ads, as the months roll on. ---------- So what do you think readers? Has Nick got it right? Are the "big boys" muscling in on your PPC territory, or is Nick just having bad luck? Is the end of PPC nigh? Email me your thoughts. Personally, I think Nick should forget the overrated single word keywords and focus on less generic, less competitive, less expensive and more targeted keyword phrases.
>> Ammon Johns responded to my blog entry below about his interview and the analogies between his comments and Teoma's new Subject-Specific Popularity algorithm based on community clustering (discussed below). Ammon reminded me that Teoma have always boasted the 'cluster assessment' part of the algorithm - more commonly associated with the Hilltop Theory - right since version 1 of their engine. He also pointed me towards Teoma's origins in Discoweb and IBM's CLEVER Project (link warning: Academics On Board!).
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : URL pointing - Many webmasters get confused about whether search engines penalize for having multiple domains *pointing* to the same site content. This thread clarifies the issue for those confused.
29 January 2003 >> According to this forum thread, LookSmart have ended their widely criticized relationship with Ezula/TopText. Some background for those of you unfamiliar with this issue: In 2001, LookSmart partnered with Ezula, which saw the inclusion of LookSmart directories in Ezula's cross-linking program TopText iLookUp (see the Ezula press release). TopText works in a similar way to Microsoft Smart Tags in that it automatically generates links to other websites in the Internet browsers of persons who download Ezula, often without the user's knowledge. Looking at Scumware, there have been suggestions that LookSmart's partnership with the Ezula/TopText plugin produced false PPC clicks due to the way TopText siphons off traffic from other sites. With no way to track clicks and no effective accountability measures in place in LookSmart's Pay Per Click campaigns, people were understandably suspicious that their clicks were not "genuine" and instead came from TopText and affiliate links. The cessation of the Ezula/LookSmart relationship is welcome news for LookSmart advertisers. No news on whether LookSmart is still partnering with Gator though.
>> Still on the LookSmart front, today they released their Q4 results, boasting revenue growth of 65%. Thanks to Rob Clough for the tip.
>> A big wave of thanks to fellow search industry bloggers Gary Jensen and Kimberly Krause for linking to our blog this week. I read your stuff every day - keep up the good work guys!
>> Speaking of Gary, his blog today picked up the news that Overture UK will be increasing the minimum bid for PPC campaigns from £0.05 to £0.10 from February 6. Can you say "advertiser backlash?"
>> A particularly nasty email scam caught my attention this week. A company calling themselves DirectoryListings.biz has been emailing companies in the U.K. and Australia, posing as Yahoo and asking companies to "renew" their Yahoo Directory listings for up to 3 years via their firm. The email asks persons to respond by email initially and then fax through their payment details. The company has no connection with Yahoo whatsoever and is scamming money, so DON'T BE FOOLED! Thankfully, Yahoo is aware of the problem and will be dealing with it via legal channels. Which leads me to...
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : How's this for trying it on? - The forum thread that alerted me to the Yahoo scam. A copy of the scam email is posted, as well as recommended actions for persons receiving it.
28 January 2003 >> Yesterday I found the site Ask Down Under. Australia's version of Google Answers, perhaps?
>> According to OneStat, Yahoo's global usage share has risen from 20.6 percent to 22.1 percent the last 2 months. Yahoo's global usage share has not reached such an all time high since April 2002. Could this be something to do with the increased relevancy of their search results thanks to Google blending? Gee, ya think?
>> There have been some developments in the infamous SearchKing vs Google lawsuit. on January 13, Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange denied SearchKing's motion for a preliminary injunction. Strike one for SearchKing. Two more and they're oooooouuuuuuuuttt!
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : SearchKing Update - Not surprisingly, talk of the town today is the lawsuit and how the injunction denial impacts the case.
27 January 2003 >> Rumor has it that significant changes are ahead for LookSmart, given the Yahoo/Inktomi deal. We hope to bring you the scoop very soon.
>> Ask Jeeves has entered the PPC game with the introduction of the Ask Jeeves Keyword Network.
>> The first 2003 edition of our search engine newsletter The Search Light was released over the weekend. A print version is also available. If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please email me. You can subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email address into the subscription box at the bottom of this page.
>> Respected web site visibility and SEO expert Shari Thurow has launched a new site and a companion book called Search Engine Visibility. According to the blurb, the book teaches you how to build web sites that please both the search engines and your target audience, all with search-engine approved techniques and strategies. Congrats Shari!
>> Search Engine Blogger Peter de Vanzo has posted another in his series of interviews with movers and shakers in the search engine world. This time it's Ammon Johns in the interview chair. Ammon is a fascinating guy - I was blown away by some of the concepts he discussed, especially theme-based search analysis for his "ultimate" search engine. I drew analogies between it and Teoma's new Subject-Specific Popularity algorithm based on community clustering (discussed below).
>> Got your dancing shoes on? It looks like Google has begun their monthly "dance" (the industry's nickname for Google's database update).
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : DOS Attack! Who? Why? - Discussion about the weekend's massive attack on MS SQL servers by an aggressive worm virus, possibly originating from Microsoft Headquarters.
24 January 2003 >> Not content to trust their solid popularity, Google have put some clever copywriters to work and created an advertising campaign based around the concept of taking a Google Tour. The campaign showcases all the popular features of Google including the Google Toolbar, Google Groups, Google News, Google Catalogs, Google Images and of course Froogle, Google's new shopping search engine. Google promotes the Tour via a prominent link on their home page, as well as a link at the bottom of every search result page under the heading "Shameless Self-Promotion".
>> Gary Price, guest editor at Search Day while Chris Sherman is on vacation, has reviewed a gem of a web site called What's On When. Another one of those "wish I'd thought of it" web sites, What's On When showcases thousands of events and happenings taking place around the world via a searchable database. Damn! If only I'd seen this site yesterday, I could've made it over to Port Lincoln in time for Australia's Tunarama festival. I just love a good tuna throwing competition.
>> According to an article on Yahoo's TechWeb, Careerbuilder.com has chosen FAST Search and Transfer over Google for scalable search technology to expand its online recruitment and job-finding service. CareerBuilder's chief technology officer Eric Presley said FAST was chosen because they wanted a search technology "that would automatically return matches from pay-for-position clients rather than only returning results based on traditional search-term relevancy".
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : PageRank is a crock? - The obsession over Google PageRank gets dissected, chewed up and spat out.
23 January 2003 >> Domainz Limited, New Zealand's first domain registrar has announced they will be hiking up their domain pricing for .co.nz domains by 25 percent starting next month. While the once-off Name Holder Fee has now been abolished, domain renewal fees will increase from NZD 49.50 to NZD 61.87. They have also introduced free basic website redirection and email forwarding services under the banner 'Domainz Ad-oNZ'. Big deal. You would think the fact that Domainz no longer have a monopoly on NZ domain registration would cause a price drop rather than a price increase, but go figure. With other NZ registrars now available, I for one will be looking elsewhere when it comes time to renew my NZ domains.
>>
According to a press
release received in my in-tray this morning, new generation French
meta-search engine KartOO,
has just signed a two-year agreement with Overture to provide Overture pay per
click listings on the left hand side of KartOO's search results page.
Also of interest is the fact that last week, KartOO received the award of "Best
Search Engine 2002" by Computer Shopper Magazine. Shame they choose
to program the site in Flash.
>> This week, my fellow ihelpyou search engine forum moderators and I were discussing the merits of trusted feed. (For those of you unfamiliar with trusted feed, it is basically a service provided to larger web sites by search engines such as AltaVista, Inktomi and others for the supply of bulk URL's for indexing via XML technology). We were discussing in particular the issue of how closely trusted feed content is moderated for spam techniques. Our concern was that some SEO operators with a reputation for spamming mislead their clients by proclaiming themselves as "partners" of particular search engines based solely on their trusted feed purchase arrangement with engines. In an article about Overture UK accreditation linked via his newsletter today, I noticed that Danny Sullivan has weighed in on this topic, commenting: "To some degree, we have had pseudo-accreditation for some time, through paid inclusion programs. Anyone involved in giving a search engine a "trusted feed," for example, has some legitimacy in telling their clients that they have a partnership and some approval from a particular search engine. Indeed, some people who only use the very basic flat-fee paid inclusion submit options will proudly display themselves as "partners" of a particular search engine, in hopes of gaining legitimacy with would-be clients. There's been good and bad to all of this. For example, it's good that some SEM firms have dropped certain bad tactics as they've dived into paid inclusion as partners, so as not to lose out on a new and major source of revenue. In fact, it's amazing to see some firms that might have been tagged as spammers in the past now embraced by search engines offering paid inclusion. However, its bad that the programs can also give some firms that should be avoided an indirect blessing." Interesting to see Danny shares our concerns. The last sentence above reflects my opinion exactly. In fact I can think of one particular SEO from Australia with a well-established reputation for spamming, to whom this applies in spades. Perhaps it's time for closely monitored trusted feed accreditation?
>> An article on CNET follows the reversal of fortunes currently occurring for AOL and Yahoo.
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : dynamic pages? - Takes a look at whether Google is able to index .php pages and other dynamic URL's.
22 January 2003 FAST Reveals Fresh New Features Peter Gorman of FAST's Corporate Communications emailed late yesterday to let me know that FAST had unveiled several new features to further improve the end-user search experience for users of AlltheWeb.com™. The new features are outlined below and include automatic language mapping, browser integration shortcuts, Boolean search, and an enhanced query language guide. Automatic Language Mapping AllTheWeb now automatically detects what country a search query comes from and provides search results in the user’s local language as well as in English. Additionally, users can override the default language (English) with one of 49 other languages. Search Tools One of the more interesting new features is AllTheWeb Search Tools. Users can now download special tools which integrate AllTheWeb searches more fully with their preferred browser. Once downloaded, users can initiate searches at ATW from any site, by simply entering “atw” before the query terms in the browser’s address bar or by clicking the ATW button. For example, if a user was browsing a news site and wanted more information on a particular sporting event they were reading about (e.g. the Australian Open), they could conduct an instant search on AllTheWeb by simply typing "atw Australian Open" into the address field of their browser OR by highlighting the term "Australian Open" in the page they are browsing and clicking on the AlltheWeb button located in the links menu of the browser header. Supported Internet browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Apple Sherlock 3, Mozilla, and Opera. Boolean Search Advanced Search users can now search AlltheWeb using Boolean operators including “and”, “or”, “andnot”. In addition, AlltheWeb offers a “rank” operator allowing users to give preference to results that include a specified term. Query Language Guide AlltheWeb now includes a new query language "cheat sheet" to help users improve their search results through the use of advanced features such as “+” and “-“, Boolean operators, and query keywords such as “site:” and “filetype:”.
Popular search site Teoma also re-invented itself this week, launching an advanced version of its technology called Version 2.0. Changes to Teoma (which incidentally, means "expert" in Gaelic), include improved relevance, new search tools and advanced functionality. Improved search relevance is key to this upgrade, with Teoma referring to their breakthrough relevancy formula as Subject-Specific PopularitySM. Instead of ranking results based upon the sites with the most links leading to them, Teoma analyzes the Web as it is organically organized, in naturally-occurring communities that are about or related to the same subject, to determine which sites are most relevant. Teoma claims to have the only search technology that can locate communities on the Web within their specific subject areas, as they actually exist. To determine the authority and the overall quality and relevance of a site's content, Teoma uses Subject-Specific Popularity to rank a site based on the number of same-subject pages that reference it, not just general popularity of the site in question. I liken it to Google PageRank™ only based on subject clustering - very, very impressive! I wasn't the only one impressed by the new technology. In a recent test performed by Search Engine Watch, Teoma's relevance grade was raised to an "A" following the integration of Teoma 2.0. According to statistics given to Search Engine Guide by Ask Jeeves, the number of times a Teoma user picks a search result has increased by 22 percent and site abandonment has decreased by 28 percent as a result of Version 2.0 integration. Other changes heralded by the new version of Teoma include more community-based search, web-based spell check, dynamic descriptions, advanced search tools and an expanded index. In an interview with Search Day, Paul Gardi - Vice President of Teoma's parent company Ask Jeeves - calls the release of Teoma 2.0 "an evolutionary change, not a revolutionary change". I think he's just being humble. Watch out Google, here comes a serious contender for your crown...
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Tricks to get you banned - Poor old forum mod Barry is having a hard time from jealous competitors using every spam trick in the book to try and get his site banned. The lengths some people go to!
21 January 2003 >> Notice a few changes around here? Yep, I finally took the time to clean up some ugly code and implement some neat CSS to get my site back to W3 validation standards. A huge thank you goes out to Edward Lewis, CSS maestro and the genius behind SEOConsultants.com for providing a CSS file, page templates and mini-tutorial for no reward apart from the sheer joy of coding (-;
>> Steve Winkler, a guest writer at Pandia notes in his latest article 2003 Search Engine Marketing Buyers Guide, that "the proper choice of SEM providers should all but eliminate the risk of failure". We couldn't agree more.
Time to Rate Last Year's Search Engine Predictions Those
of you who are long time subscribers to our newsletter The
Search Light will remember my article from way back in December 2001 titled Search
Engine Predictions for 2002. It’s
time to take a look at that article and the grand predictions I made for the
search industry to determine whether I’m a “Nostradamus” or a “NoSuchLuckus”. Here were my personal predictions for 2002: Continued...
>> Meanwhile, I'd like to know YOUR predictions for the industry in 2003. Think Google will go public? Think Yahoo will go belly up? Think LookSmart will go to hell? (-; Let me know what you REALLY think. Email your predictions and the best ones will be featured here next week.
>> BidRank has just released Bid RankPlus Version 3 of their excellent keyword bid management software. BidRank Plus now includes support for FindWhat, Kanoodle, Espotting UK, ah-ha, BrainFox, Espotting France, Espotting Germany, Espotting Italy, Espotting Spain, SearchFeed, Sprinks and Xuppa. BidRank for Overture is a separate product, supporting Overture US, Overture UK, Overture France and Overture Germany only. Be sure to mention Coupon Code WR007 to obtain a 5% discount when purchasing.
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : SMBmeta, future of SEO? hum... - The gang debunk a "new" technology purported to be the next big thing in SEO by claiming it is nothing but trusted feed in disguise. 20 January 2003 >> As expected, web search firm Inktomi Corp. has reported a major revenue loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2002. The company reported revenue of USD 13.8 million for the quarter, compared with USD 33 million for the same period the previous year. However the company managed to narrow its net loss by 95 percent after an internal re-focus on one core business: enterprise search.
>> Apparently, Yahoo is looking for an opening in the European ISP market. Broadband Internet access and subscription services have played a key role in the company's renewed success in the United States as it seeks to lessen its dependence on Internet advertising.
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Please Help!!! - Don't let the extraneous exclamation marks fool you, this is a great thread. It follows the woes of a webmaster of a golfing site, who has allegedly had his content hijacked and submitted to Google by another site-owner using a different domain. Consequently, the imposter domain shows up in Google when you do a search for the *real* domain. Very strange!
17 January 2003 >> It seems Yahoo is turning a profit. For the third consecutive quarter, Yahoo has reported a tidy profit, thanks to a 51 percent growth in revenue. The company reported a net profit of over USD 46 million for the period ending December 31, 2002. With the upcoming purchase of Inktomi due for completion by May, we wonder if Yahoo can keep up the profit trend next quarter.
>> Time for a little end of week humor. Go to this site, press Control A and scroll down to the bottom of the page. See the hidden text? Yep - it seems even SPAM is guilty of spamming - priceless! All the chopped pork and ham you could want. Thanks to Chris D for the laugh.
>> With the recent announcement that AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case will step down from his post in May, speculation is rife about whether the shuffle will result in a re-focus for the troubled company. There are even suggestions that the company may look at spinning off their AOL division as a way to re-energize.
>> ZDNet reports that rising search star FAST and Europe's number one pay-per-click company Espotting Media have teamed up to challenge US rivals in the European market. Under terms of the deal, Espotting will sell FAST's web search results alongside its commercial results, and FAST will showcase Espotting listings on its public Web site, AlltheWeb.com.
>> According to the latest Search Engine Showdown figures, Google has taken a strong lead over FAST/AllTheWeb in the search engine size race. Google now indexes over 3 billion web pages to FAST's 2.1 billion. Even more surprising is that AltaVista has snuck up to 1.7 billion pages, pipping at the post WiseNut's 1.5 billion indexed pages. Thanks to Pandia for the heads up.
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Search Engines Get "Gatored" - A look at Gator's latest attempt to hijack visitors from one site to another and a discussion about whether it will attract more lawsuits. The common theme of this thread? "Gator blows chunks".
16 January 2003 Gator Risks Lawsuit With New Product Apparently, search engines are now getting "Gatored". The much maligned Gator online advertising network has launched a new paid search product called Search Scout. The software triggers a pop-under window when Gator users search on Google, Yahoo and similar search sites. The window lists pay per click search results on competing search services. Tests confirm that Gator is using paid results from Overture, Terra Lycos and FindWhat.com for Search Scout. All three engines have confirmed that they are currently undertaking ad testing with Gator. Gator's latest action is attracting a lot of criticism for taking away revenue from the original search sites. It is also an action that could get them into more legal hot water, according to search engine guru Danny Sullivan: "The biggest issue is probably going to be the legal one," he said in an interview with CNET. "You would imagine that Google would not be too happy about this, and they might jump into a lawsuit." Gator gained infamy
18 months ago for its ability to install 3rd party ad software on computers
without the user's express knowledge. Gator delivers pop-up ads to people who
download their online wallet software. Unfortunately many persons downloading
the software don't realize they are agreeing to receive ads in exchange for
its use. The resulting controversy prompted a number of lawsuits.
>> Think your site statistics are safe? Think again. Yesterday I discovered to my horror that my web site statistics were publicly available - out there for anyone (including my competitors) to check out and scrutinize. I felt completely violated! How did this happen? Well I use WebTrends for my site stats and because these are password protected, I thought nothing of it. What I didn't realize was that my site hosting firm provides free web site statistics with all hosting packages - a package entirely different and separate to WebTrends. What's more, the stats are non-password protected by default, meaning that they were available to anyone smart enough to type in mydomain.com/stats! I'd never even looked for them so had no idea they were out there. A forum thread alerted me to the problem and apparently it is very common. So common in fact that certain stats detectives spend all their time hunting for and analyzing the statistics of other people's web sites. So beware of the problem - ask your web hosts if you have site statistics and if you do and they are Internet based, make sure you password-protect the folder your stats are located in. Also remember that if you click on a referral URL in your stats, you will alert the originator of the referral via their own stats, so always cut and paste the URL into a new window.
>> The Search Engine Watch Awards are on again, so make sure you cast your vote. Categories include:
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Is This Spam? Please Give Us Your Opinion - Centers around a sample web page, the search engine optimization tactics it employs and arguments from both sides as to whether it SHOULD or SHOULDN'T be considered spam. The kicker? It's finally revealed that the page is a replica of one found on usability expert Jakob Nielsen's site.
15 January 2003 >> MakeMeTop™, the highly successful UK-based SEO company run by my forum friend Barry Lloyd, has become one of the first search engine marketing companies (SEMs) to be accredited by Overture™, the leading provider of pay-per-click search results. The accreditation scheme, launched initially in the UK is designed to indicate those SEMs who fully adhere to Overture’s list of best practices. Congratulations Barry!
>>
Andrew Goodman has written an article that scored a few chuckles round here. Differentiation
Can Be Brutal in the Web Search Business takes a look at how search
engines differentiate themselves in the market. Andrew has devised some clever
"slogans" that encompass each engine's particular market niche. I
particularly like AltaVista's: “Once, we were the world’s leading
search engine. Then we were a portal. Now, we’re yesterday’s search
engine.” and his suggested slogan for the Library of
Congress “Explore the Web” page: “We’re the frickin Library
of Congress.”
>> FAST has done a deal with science publisher Elsevier to provide their Data Search (a scalable Enterprise search platform) solution, as well as web search facilities for a range of Elsevier's extensive products. The five year contract will see Elsevier use FAST technology to make their extensive store of scientific, technical and medical publications easily searchable.
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Ban... - Another thread of Ben Hur proportions, but well worth the read. It follows the plight of a certain webmaster (Mark) who inexplicably found his site penalized in Google without understanding why. Many of SEO's heavyweights weigh in on the issue, including (we think!) Google reps in disguise and Danny Sullivan himself. Luckily for Mark, the tale has now resolved happily, thanks to the input of ihelpyou forum members. This thread raised a lot of eyebrows - find out why!
14 January 2003 >> Yahoo and Inktomi have now filed Antitrust Papers, bringing them one step closer to finalizing their purchase arrangement, due for completion by May 31.
>> Andrew Gerhart takes a look at that chicken and egg concept - SEO and the launch of a new site - in his article Taking Time for Search Engine Optimization: Is it Worth Delaying Your Site's Launch?
>> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Duplicate Content - For those of you wondering how search engines treat duplicate site content.
13 January 2003 >> Wow - Time flies when you're having fun. And when you're making a six hour mercy dash to visit a relative in Dunedin Hospital. So much for that relaxing holiday we had planned. Oh well! You know I just couldn't wait to get back to work today. Seems I'm not the only one who missed out on a holiday this festive season. There have been loads of developments in this crazy search industry:
Google Responds to Search King Lawsuit Back in October of 2002, we reported in this blog how portal developer Bob Massa of Search King filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the search engine "arbitrarily and purposefully devalued his companies' and his customers' web sites, causing his business to suffer financially". Well Google has finally lodged an official response to the filing, which can be read here (PDF document). Reading through the document gives the distinct impression that this case has very little chance of making it to court. A choice extract from Google's response: "This is a meritless lawsuit... whose only articulated legal basis is unsupported by any facts". Meanwhile, a very detailed, well-thought out and unbiased opinion of the whole saga, posted by James Grimmelmann, can be read on the LawMeme site.
Ask Jeeves Goes Banner Free in 2003 Ask Jeeves is the latest search engine to dump banner ads and pop-ups, making the announcement earlier this month. "We're focused on creating a more satisfying search experience for both our users and our advertisers," said Steve Berkowitz, president of Ask Jeeves Web Properties. "Improvements we're making to our technology and design supports our mission of delivering a contextually relevant and effective experience for all." The search engine will now be concentrating on attracting search engine marketers as advertisers via their Branded Response and Premier Listings. Branded Response helps marketers reach a highly targeted audience on Ask Jeeves' results page while generating brand awareness through the use of graphics. This type of advertising is unique to Ask Jeeves and is claimed to achieve click-rates as high as 25 percent. Premier Listings are keyword targeted, pay-per-click text-based ads that appear under the heading "featured sponsor" at the top of Ask Jeeves' results page.
>> Winners of the Pandia Search Engine Awards 2002 are in and guess what? This blog rated a "Look out for..." mention under the category of Best Search Engine Weblog. No prizes for guessing who took out the Best All Round Search Site Award. Thanks Pandia and congratulations to all the winners.
>> Seems we have a New Zealander to thank in part for Froogle (Google's new shopping search engine). New Zealand expat Craig Nevill-Manning, Google employee in CA, Stanford uni buddy of Sergey and Larry, is from good old Waikato and was an important part of the Froogle development team. Here's an interesting article from the New Zealand Herald about Nevill-Manning and Froogle's humble beginnings.
>> Apparently, Overture is Gleeful over the Yahoo-Inktomi deal.
>> More local search industry gossip - it seems Danny Sullivan happened to see the recent Christchurch Press article about a certain local SEO company with a questionable reputation and their wildly inaccurate claims that duplicate web pages and mirror sites aren't really search engine spam. Danny made his opinion known in the latest issue of his Search Engine Report newsletter: "A tour operator complains that a marketing company uses duplicate pages and sites, while the marketing company defends itself by saying if the content matches the search term, that's not spam. Um, not really. If you are doing things search engines specifically warn against doing, then regardless of how relevant you think your content is, the search engines may still view your techniques as spamming them". Thanks to Gary Jensen of NZBase for the heads up.
>> Finally today, we've decided to scrap our >> Weird Stuff People Search For in favor of a more interesting >> Cool Forum Thread of the Day. As a moderator in the ihelpyouservices search engine forums, I come across a huge number of intriguing and useful threads in my daily troll and I thought I'd share the best ones with blog readers each day. Without further ado, here's the first for 2003: >> Cool Forum Thread of the Day : Oklahoma City Internet Company Files Lawsuit Against Google. A warning here - this thread is not for the faint-hearted. An extremely long thread but one that has provoked intelligent and educated discussion about the whole Search King vs Google lawsuit issue (with a few silly rants thrown in for good measure). Please note that links to articles on major news portals often expire quickly. These articles are generally archived by the publication, so if you find that a link from our Blog has expired, conduct a search on the linked site using the article headline and you should find the related information. Blog Archives January 2003 If you've got any search engine news or gossip (especially gossip!) you think is worthy of our blog, feel free to email it to me. The juicier the better! I'll acknowledge all sources and even provide a link to your site if relevant. Enter your email address below to subscribe to our FREE search engine newsletter The Search Light. Every few weeks, we will send you our HTML newsletter with Blog highlights, articles about search engine marketing, FAQ's and tips on how to improve your search engine ranking, as well a the latest news from the search engine industry. (Please do not use an auto responder email address to subscribe with!) Click
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