Smart and Personal Google
Published by Picturesque on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 at 1:39 PM.
Google is testing a search service that tries to learn about you and your habits in order to personalize your searches. You enter information about yourself, including hobbies, interests, etc. This information is stored in a cookie on your computer instead of on Google's server. (Of course if multiple people use the same login or no login on a computer, this messes things up a bit.)
This reminds me of Amazon trying to guess what books I like. Books I bought as a gift now affect future books that are shoved in my face. I have no interest in the book I bought nor the ones now showing in my Amazon visits. (Great for buying more gifts for the same person I suppose.) Hopefully Google's service is a bit smarter and ignores the infrequent, odd ball searches.
As we've been telling our customers, Google is profiling and is doing so for a reason. Here's proof of how that data can be used. Continue to watch who links to you and who you link to. Are they in a related category? Do they complement your site? Are people coming to your site interested in the other site? Avoid listing sites just because they are cute, fun or created by a friend. In the long run, this will harm your rankings. It's not about quantity; it's quality.
This reminds me of Amazon trying to guess what books I like. Books I bought as a gift now affect future books that are shoved in my face. I have no interest in the book I bought nor the ones now showing in my Amazon visits. (Great for buying more gifts for the same person I suppose.) Hopefully Google's service is a bit smarter and ignores the infrequent, odd ball searches.
As we've been telling our customers, Google is profiling and is doing so for a reason. Here's proof of how that data can be used. Continue to watch who links to you and who you link to. Are they in a related category? Do they complement your site? Are people coming to your site interested in the other site? Avoid listing sites just because they are cute, fun or created by a friend. In the long run, this will harm your rankings. It's not about quantity; it's quality.
Microsoft Blog Search Engine
Published by Picturesque on Monday, March 29, 2004 at 12:36 PM.
The Microsoft PR machine continues to release one tidbit at a time regarding their new search engine services they plan to roll out. This recent tidbit announces that they will offer a blog search engine to help locate useful blog information. This site is an example of a blog site.
Our only comment is that Microsoft seems to like to announce one feature at a time to appear in more news articles. It would be much easier to just announce it all at once, but that's marketing.
Our only comment is that Microsoft seems to like to announce one feature at a time to appear in more news articles. It would be much easier to just announce it all at once, but that's marketing.
Microsoft Blog Search Engine
Published by Picturesque on at 12:33 PM.
The Microsoft PR machine continues to release one tidbit at a time regarding their new search engine services they plan to roll out. This recent tidbit announces that they will offer a blog search engine to help locate useful blog information. This site is an example of a blog site.
Our only comment is that Microsoft seems to like to announce one feature at a time to appear in more news articles. It would be much easier to just announce it all at once, but that's marketing.
Our only comment is that Microsoft seems to like to announce one feature at a time to appear in more news articles. It would be much easier to just announce it all at once, but that's marketing.
AlltheWeb is now powered by Yahoo!
Published by Picturesque on Friday, March 26, 2004 at 11:43 AM.
AlltheWeb is now powered by the new Yahoo! search engine. No one expected Yahoo! to maintain four different search engines so this was inevitable. It does mark an end to the great Fast search engine that pre-Google searchers came to rely on. The technology that drove Fast rivaled Google. It is certain that the Fast technology lives on in the new Yahoo!, but one can't help but shed a tear over the passing of a great engine. Tears over.... back to work.
Lycos introduces their toolbar
Published by Picturesque on Monday, March 22, 2004 at 1:18 PM.
Not to be left out of the toolbar race, Lycos is giving away their new advanced toolbar. Lycos already has a toolbar that lets you search their HotBot site, but the new toolbar also lets you search your harddrive and offers some other useful tools. It does seem to have an impressive set of features that make it worth looking at provided you have Windows IE 5.5 or better running on Windows 98 or better. Mac and Linux users will have to suffer.
Microsoft's PR machine is in high gear
Published by Picturesque on at 1:15 PM.
As with most Microsoft events, the PR is worth more than the finished product. Yet again they have announced some "juicy tidbit" about their upcoming search engine. Just bring it on and let us use it.
Yahoo! adds page ranking
Published by Picturesque on at 1:13 PM.
A new page rank indicator called Yahoo! Web Rank has been added to the Yahoo! Companion toolbar. Although it may appear similar to Google's page ranking, there is a marked difference. Google ranks pages based upon recipricol links or popularity of a site. Yahoo! is ranking based upon the number of visits to a web site by people who have the Yahoo! toolbar installed. This makes the Yahoo! score less than meaningful for professional SEO measurement. It also introduces a feature not desired by many surfers.... a program that logs where you surf and sends that information to a database. Can anyone say George Orwell?
New Google Local
Published by Picturesque on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 3:50 PM.
Google has added a new search that limits results to a specific geography. This includes business listings, maps, directions, ect. Still not convinced you should have your address on most all of your web pages? This should make you run to your web site and make certain. Have your address information in clear text (not a picture) so Google can read it. Check other directories as well such as superpages.com to make certain your information is correct.
More Mergers. Now it's Ask Jeeves
Published by Picturesque on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 at 1:08 PM.
It's the same old story. Search engines being bought up by another search engine. This time Ask Jeeves has snapped up Iwon and Excite, doubling the amount of search traffic that Ask Jeeves had prior. Of course they only had 3.5% of the traffic, so this isn't a remarkable figure. Great news for Ask Jeeves. This should make the others stand up and take notice.
Earlier Ask Jeeves announced discontinuation of it's ad program called Index Express. This service was geared for larger advertisers. The services for customers submitting more than 1,000 pages will remain, but the XML data feed service is no longer. Many doubted that the service was producing any real results.
Earlier Ask Jeeves announced discontinuation of it's ad program called Index Express. This service was geared for larger advertisers. The services for customers submitting more than 1,000 pages will remain, but the XML data feed service is no longer. Many doubted that the service was producing any real results.
Pay to Be In Yahoo!/Overture and Pay and Pay and Pay...
Published by Picturesque on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 at 11:05 AM.
The new Yahoo!/Overture paid listing program is not for mom and pop sites, but for those with a larger ad budget. Basically you pay for each page you want listed. This can add up quickly if you have a site with 100 pages. Additionally they will charge you everytime someone clicks on a link to your site. The cost is 15 to 30 cents depending upon the category you are in. Of course they will continue to list for free those sites that have excellent content. The rules haven't changed that much have they. Just have a meaningful site with beneficial content and make certain it follows standards. Save money and build the site correctly.
It should also be noted that this Yahoo!/Overture program is a test program. Don't jump on board unless you like to gamble.
It should also be noted that this Yahoo!/Overture program is a test program. Don't jump on board unless you like to gamble.
