Countering Microsoft FUD - Linux Kernel to be Re-Written (Saturday, January 15, 01:43 AM EST)

Stick that in yer pipe and smoke it Billy boy!

IBM, Intel, the Open Source Development Labs, and other industry lights are planning to announce that a consortium has been created that will rewrite the components in the Linux kernel that have been alleged tread on other people's IP - or at least the 27 Microsoft patents that Linux is supposed to infringe. The aim? To rob Microsoft of the ability to scare customers off of Linux by saying that the operating system is a patent infringer, informed sources say. "Operation Open Gates" as they are calling it is reportedly going to be unveiled on January 25.

SEO Counter Offensives - Walmart on the Rampage (Saturday, January 15, 12:17 AM EST)

Threadwatch member stuntdubl has an interesting take on this clickz article about how Wal-Mart are going after their own bad publicity using Search to counter critics. From the clickz piece:

Wal-Mart is answering critics of its labor policies with an extensive print ad campaign that points people to newly launched Web site walmartfacts.com. The effort is accompanied by a paid search campaign on Yahoo!'s Overture.

"For too long, others have had free rein to say things about our company that just aren't true," said Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott in a statement. "Our associates are tired of it and we've decided it's time to draw our own line in the sand."

Stuntdubl said:

It's kind of scary when the corporate folks get a hold of an internet marketing consultant and actually listen to them. Someone must have showed the CEO the horrible publicity that Wal-mart bashing websites are providing them with. So apparantely they are goin' after some of the negative serps with a search engine optimization counter offensive. This makes me want to coin a new phrase - Information arms race. Sounds cool, huh?

Well, yeah it is dude :)

We recently had that knob Ken Lay ex of Enron buying up adwords to whine his story to the world also.

Looks like Search, paid or not, is becoming a PR battleground...

The Great Internet Mystery - Winer Talking to......? (Friday, January 14, 10:30 PM EST)

Dave Winer is in contact with either Bill Gates or Steve Jobs according to Todd
- he won't say who but the surmise is an understandable one right?

Read this:

Last night I got an email from someone I've been wanting to hear from for a long time. There's a problem on the Internet, a big one, that only one entity can solve. The email outlined the solution and asked what I thought of it, and asked me not to say what it is publicly. I can live with that. I just want to mark this moment. A milestone. Real cooperation. I immediately implemented the feature on one of my sites. The same message was sent to a bunch of other people by the same person. I hope they did the same. When this is announced users everywhere will smile

So, WTF is all that about then?

eBay Hikes Fees 60% - Users go Beserk (Friday, January 14, 10:13 PM EST)

Apparently eBay store sellers are going nuts over some increases in fees due to kick in on the Feb 18th

Among other things, the cost of a monthly subscription for a basic eBay Store will go up 60 percent to $15.95. The cost of 10-day listings will double to 40 cents, and final value fees that are assessed when a sale closes also will rise.

Sellers complained that the fee increases will take a bigger chunk of their sales take. Some said it may force them to raise their own prices amid a weak economy, and others asked for feedback on other companies, such as Overstock.com, that may be alternatives to eBay.

How can Newspapers Survive Online? (Saturday, January 15, 12:34 AM EST)

There are about 35 Newspapers in the US that currently charge for their content - among them the Wall Street Journal. This strikes me, and from what i read around the web, many many others as a fundamentally wrong approach. The WSJ is a no go zone for me, i wont link to it becuase not everyone here will have a paid subscription and i can find good stuff elsewhere. Follow the title link above for the full post.

Froogle Security Hole Gives out Gmail Account Details (Friday, January 14, 04:54 PM EST)

By embedding JavaScript in a URL pointing to Froogle, a hacker can gain access to the user’s Gmail account. The JavaScript redirects the browser to a malicious web site, where the hacker can read the user’s cookie, which contains personal information, such as purchase history, user name and password for Google services.

Maybe a wave of Google exploits to come out of the wood work.

Filangy - Another New Engine that Sounds like a Venereal Disease (Friday, January 14, 04:47 PM EST)

Remember kids, always use a condom, if you don't, you might catch Clusty or Filangy!

What goes through these peoples minds?

from the Battelle's site threadlinked above:

a Nutch-based personal search engine that watches where you go and creates your own web index of sites you've seen (and incorporates general web search as well). It's still in early beta, you have to sign up to use it.

Is there a "search engine industry"? (Friday, January 14, 04:40 PM EST)

Via Peter's SearchEngineBlog: Does Seth Godin think because he's found a new SEO blog that Search is now a legitimate industry? Maybe he should be reading searchbrains.com

MSN Running before it can Walk with a Feb 1st Launch? (Friday, January 14, 02:36 PM EST)

Well, i caught the rumour that MSN would be taking its beta search to the public side on Feb 1st at the SEW forums and now Danny Suillivan has added some substance to it by cobbling together a few of the clues in his blog post threadlinked above.

Running before they can Walk?

This seems way to early to me. I haven't played around with it much personally but i hear an awful lot that suggests it's nowhere near ready for public consumption. Still, this would fit with the way M$ release their software right? Knock it out early, patch it when the complaints start to come in...

What do you think?

Should Search Engines return to Hand Checking Results? (Friday, January 14, 03:04 PM EST)

SE's have to Return to Directories and Hand Checking

So it is now obvious everyone will soon be autogenerating content and auto link building. What do the search engines do to keep their indexs clean and with good quality? Hand checking!

If I go to google and search on "viagra" let us be honest what I should be seeing are:

• the manufacturer
• the largest sellers (not affiliates)
• some quality research papers from established sources

How do google make this happen? Hand checks.

I propose that soon, if it is not already been done, the se's will have teams of people who's jobs it is is to investigate an industry and make sure that the major players all show up for the main searches in an arena. For 5 term searches let the rest fight it out.

DougS

RubberStamped.org - Peter Davanzo's New Directory - Needed? (Friday, January 14, 10:37 AM EST)

I've been sitting on this for a while, but with all the recent hoohah about directories and the enormous proliferation of the directory as a half baked scheme to attract links or throw out an ill conceived biz model the timing just hasn't seemed right.

The timing will probably never be right though - remember, links are BAD!

Enter RubberStamped.org

Peter of SearchEngineBlog reads here so im hoping he'll spot this and come answer a few rough but well intentioned questions from yours truly and any of the good boys and girls at Threadwatch who want to chime in.

Here goes:

• Why another directory?
• What's different about this one?
• What have you done to avoid indexing pitfalls suffered by other directories recently?
• The term rubber stamped, in the US can mean "to pass without inspection" and has connotations of footprints and tracks - is this not a poor choice for a directory name?
• When and how will this be actively promoted?

There, that should give you sweaty palms for a bit Peter :) it's friday afterall so instead of lounging around and posting to the RubberStamped blog you can tell us a bit more about the new project...

I'll end though, in case it didnt come across, that if i had to support, or wish well any directory project, an offering from the likes of Peter would be it. Good luck with it mate..

Seth Godin Awakens From Long Slumber...Discovers Something Called Search Marketing (Saturday, January 15, 12:01 AM EST)
Appears there are more and more people catching on to how effective search marketing is as an effective advertising medium. Some later than others. Seth Godin just discovered this today. My guess is that Seth woke up today and took...

Does Having Validated XHTML/HTML Help With Higher Rankings? (Friday, January 14, 11:37 PM EST)
This has been discussed in length on a number of forums lately and results in some interesting arguments whether or not validated HTML goes to help boost your rankings in Google. HTML Validation is conducted to check for errors using...

Google Mini: Google Search Appliance (Friday, January 14, 04:49 PM EST)
Most of you know about the Google Mini Search Appliance by now. I have been waiting for threads to start on the topic. Basically, the same day Apple introduced the Apple Mini (which is really cool by the way), Google...

::: THE PULSE OF THE SEARCH MARKETING COMMUNITY ::: (Friday, January 14, 02:02 PM EST)
Ben (Phoenix) and I were messing around with a slogan for this site. Ben came up with ::: THE PULSE OF THE SEARCH MARKETING COMMUNITY ::: I think it really represents this site well. "community" = the forums "pulse" =...

Duplicate Content Penalty Not a 30 60 90 Day Time Span (Friday, January 14, 01:36 PM EST)
A day or so ago, Ben wrote an entry summarizing a thread at SEW Forums named Duplicate Content Penalty Timespan, where a member told others that he believes that there is a set time span dependent on the number of...

Google AdWords Allows the Sale of "Low Priced Women" (Friday, January 14, 01:29 PM EST)
It seems as if Google AdWords is allowing (unknowingly) for companies such as eBay to purchase ads (unknowingly) for the "sale of women". Do a search in Google on Women for Sale and look towards the ads on the right....

SEO Project Management Software Tools (Thursday, January 13, 10:41 PM EST)
A thread on Highrankings today asked about available SEO project management applications that can help manage a wide variety SEO clients and projects. I had spent 6 months last year developing a web-based SEO project management tool that is currently...

Google Directory Updated (Thursday, January 13, 08:34 PM EST)
Reports at SEO Chat Forums that the Google Directory has been updated. Hard to know exactly which ODP index they are using. PageRank has reportedly updated in the index as well....

Title Tags Causes Blindness (Thursday, January 13, 08:27 PM EST)
The title attribute is used by SEOs to try to do anything to rank higher and more importantly as a method to describe to a disabled person what a link is about. But some people over use them. Take a...

MSN Search to Launch Beta February One (Thursday, January 13, 07:49 PM EST)
According to a Moderator at Search Engine Watch, MSN Search Out of Beta Feb. 1. He said he "was told by a high level Microsoft employee that the beta search will go live on Feb 1." We will see, I...

Yahoo & MSN Closing in on Google (Thursday, January 13, 03:29 PM EST)
Chris Sherman wrote an interesting article on how Yahoo & MSN Closing the Google Gap based on a study was conducted by Keynote. "A new study says that Yahoo and MSN Search have made significant improvements in user satisfaction, narrowing...

On the Search Financial Front... (Friday, January 14, 05:43 PM EST)
Ask Jeeves stock upgraded. LookSmart has a brutal quarter. Online ad spending to increase 30% in 2005. Google should buy Technorati. WPP to open 47 search offices. I have been offered at least 5 SEO related jobs in the last 6 months.

Seth Godin on the Search Industry (Friday, January 14, 05:20 PM EST)
Seth Godin makes another post about the search industry, the search industry remains disappointed in Seth...

MSN Search Launch Rumors, Blog Comment Spam, Google Duplicate Content Penalties, Random Google News (Thursday, January 13, 05:30 AM EST)
MSN Search is rumored to launch on Feb 1. Blog comment spam really mangled my blog for about a day when I swapped over to the new MT core. Information about the Google duplicate content penalty. Google launched a mini search appliance, they may be losing some of their edge over their competitors, and Marissa Mayer gave a lecture about Google.

How Not to Pick / Name a Site / Domain Name (Wednesday, January 12, 11:42 PM EST)
Recently I have saw a few domain names I did not much like. Examples of how not to chose a domain name and links to good company and domain name tips.

Fractal Spam, Overture Direct Traffic Center Rant, SEM Cares (or do they?), Google Subdomain Chatter (Wednesday, January 12, 03:08 PM EST)
Orion talks about fractal spam. Sebastian rants about the Overture direct traffic center. SEM Cares is launched. Rumours about Google dropping some subdomains in competitive keyword landscapes.

Yahoo! Desktop Search, Free Blogging Guide, MSN Search RSS & Clustering, Marketing to Children, UseNet Archives, MicroSoft IE Security Exploit, Free Google Scraper, MacWorld (Wednesday, January 12, 12:48 AM EST)
Yahoo! Desktop Search: beta release Beginner's Guide to Business Blogging: Recently some people have been emailing me asking "how do I blog?" Not sure that I know the answer other than maybe saying be yourself and use a human voice...

Google Site Flavored Search (Monday, January 10, 01:10 PM EST)
ChrisG reviews Google Site Flavored Search.

SEMPO: Nails In the Coffin (Sunday, January 09, 01:25 PM EST)
SEMPO founder Barbara Coll has a chat with Ian McAnerin about the newly founded SMA-NA.

Jon Kleinberg, Title Attribute Test, Making Friends (Sunday, January 09, 11:07 AM EST)
Brief mention of Jon Kleinberg. Fathom performs a link title attribute test. Creating and creatively using ads / ad space. MSN Beta to ramp up scalability testing. Directory development tips. Another Las Vegas SEO firm. Making friends in the SEO community.

Dealing With Google's New Affiliate-Linking Policy (Friday, January 14, 11:26 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: ClickZ - How does Google's new affiliate link policy affect you?...

Google hacking expected to boom in 2005 (Friday, January 14, 11:03 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: ZDNet - CyberTrust is warning that all Internet-connected devices, even Web cams, must be treated as a potential security threat....

Will Technorati die? (Friday, January 14, 10:29 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: Geeking with Greg - Technorati has huge amounts of oh-so-tasty data. They're swimming in an ocean of information. If they can surface the right data to the right people, bubble up the news people need, then they'd have something...

Shaping a Standout Shopping Aid (Friday, January 14, 10:11 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: BusinessWeek - PriceGrabber.com's CEO discusses the advantages of his price-comparison site for smaller vendors and its edge in competing for buyers. (Found via Organized Shopping Blog)...

Caveat beta, Google fans (Friday, January 14, 09:45 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: ZDNet - Part of the deal with public betas is that the users accept some problems in return for helping create the finished product, but if that product is never finished then why bother? It also lets Google off...

More Seth Godin Cluelessness On Search Marketing (Friday, January 14, 08:55 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: Search Engine Watch - Search is so obviously huge media outlet. Geez, search engines have been among the top web sites people have used since, well, back when Godin used to work for Yahoo! It's like saying millions of...

We are seeing a rollout of MSN new search (Friday, January 14, 08:38 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: Webmaster World - "If bugs are fixed, we will see it full time this weekend. Only the announcement and press blitz will come on the first."...

Search Engine Spread, Google vs MSN vs Yahoo (Friday, January 14, 08:34 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: High Rankings Forum - "I've always felt that we did not get enough traffic from MSN, and it seems no matter what I do, it never improves. ...This really bothers me when I think about every computer being sold...

Hundreds of retailers spend $50K-plus a month on paid search, SEM firm says (Friday, January 14, 04:38 PM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: InternetRetailer.com - Paid search just keeps getting more popular with online marketers. Approximately 350 to 500 U.S. retailers are now each spending $50,000 or more per month on pay-per-click, paid-search programs, in keyword campaigns that represent anywhere from 3,000...

An evening with Google's Marissa Mayer (Friday, January 14, 02:28 AM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: alan.blog-city.com - "Last night I went to the BayCHI lecture at PARC given by Marissa Mayer (Product Manager for Google). A very well attended (standing room only session), Marissa took us through a presentation geared around the user experience...

Google: No penalty for stock options (Friday, January 14, 02:13 AM EST)
(Direct Link) Source: News.com - Google has settled with federal and state regulators over allegations the company violated securities laws in the handling of its stock options....

Microsoft to launch RSS aggregator (Thursday, January 13, 12:30 AM EST)
Microsoft to launch RSS aggregator MSN is expected to begin quietly testing RSS aggregation and blog search Tuesday evening US Pacific Time. Reports indicate that the new service has been developed in partnership with Moreover Technologies, a will include aggregation and search to MyMSN. “RSS is getting a lot of traction and ...

Microsoft Aims to Block AdSense (Thursday, January 13, 12:27 AM EST)
Microsoft Aims to Block AdSense Don't titles rule! 'Extremely Critical' Flaw Threatens Internet Explorer Users was announced a few days ago. In that article, it tells users that "Microsoft is recommending that users turn off the "Drag and drop or copy and paste files" option in Internet Explorer and set security ...

MSN Search Beta to Begin Roll Out to Production (Wednesday, January 12, 02:00 AM EST)
MSN Search Beta to Begin Roll Out to Production In a recent post over at the MSN Search Blog named Beta Ramp-Up, Oshoma Momoh, General Manager, MSN Search Program Management tells us that MSN will "begin turning up the dial and direct more of our users to the Beta." Some have ...

Yahoo! Desktop Search Beta is out (Tuesday, January 11, 04:15 PM EST)
Yahoo! Desktop Search Beta is out The drama continues with Yahoo! rolling out their own version based on X1 technology in the newly created and already flooded Desktop Search market. Google has made everyone and I repeat everyone to standup and take notice. So much so that even unknown brands in ...

Bill Gates claims nearly 1 million users for MSN Spaces (Saturday, January 08, 05:25 AM EST)
Bill Gates claims nearly 1 million users for MSN Spaces In an interview with News.com, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has claimed that MSN Spaces has “close to a million people", an amazing figure given the short length of time since the launch of the English speaking service, but he indicates that ...

The Power Of The “Niche” - Choosing Keywords People Actually Use (Saturday, January 08, 05:21 AM EST)
The Power Of The "Niche" - Choosing Keywords People Actually Use Keywords and keyphrases are the search words and terms Internet surfers use to find the products, services or information they are looking for. Choosing the right keywords and phrases for your search engine optimization (SEO) program is critical to its success. ...

The Search Engine Showdown (Saturday, January 08, 05:18 AM EST)
The Search Engine Showdown If you're anything like me, you have a favorite search engine and you're loyal to it. You never use any others (which made this research difficult for yours truly), insist yours is the be-all and end-all and you even go so far as to deny any shortcomings ...

Google off the hook with the SEC (Friday, January 14, 03:28 PM EST)
Google was successful in settling with the SEC and federal and state regulators over allegations the company may have violated securities laws in the management of its employee stock options....

Are Google apps in permanent beta? (Friday, January 14, 05:45 AM EST)
From December's security concerns over Google's Desktop Search feature, there now appears to be a new flaw surfacing in Gmail, Google's new email system....

Online ad spending slated to grow by 30 percent in 2005 (Thursday, January 13, 05:40 AM EST)
According to a study of media planners and buyers conducted recently by Deutsche Bank, Online marketers and Internet advertisers are expected to boost their overall Internet advertising spending by as much as 30 percent this year....

Microsoft to start testing RSS aggregator (Thursday, January 13, 05:37 AM EST)
Microsoft's MSN is slated to begin testing its new RSS aggregation and blog search technology Tuesday evening (PST)....

Gmail security flaw opens up access to others' emails (Thursday, January 13, 05:37 AM EST)
Warning: Wrongly formatted email addresses within Google's Gmail have been found to enable access to emails sent by other users on Google's network. A problem with Google's email service, Gmail, let any user query the company's servers for information on...

RSS feeds and MSN Search (Wednesday, January 12, 06:48 PM EST)
MSN Search has been experimenting with RSS Search results on their live servers and their testing was discovered by Greg Linden, Gary Price & many others....

Apple wants to put Google in the second spot (Wednesday, January 12, 05:29 AM EST)
In an effort to catch up with certain desktop search applications from Google and MSN, Apple President Steve Jobs has highlighted the company's new Spotlight search technology to be soon introduced....

Online advertising gaining venture capitalists' interest (Tuesday, January 11, 06:46 PM EST)
Online marketing and Internet advertising continue to attract substantial venture capital dollars....

Using Google to search for security holes in websites (Tuesday, January 11, 07:22 AM EST)
SiteDigger 2.0 searches for information about a site's security features by sending specific queries to Google's database. Known as Google hacking, such queries can turn up easily exploitable security holes and some sensitive information, including such things as credit card...

Google fixes Kraft Foods technical glitch (Monday, January 10, 08:11 AM EST)
Web searches that wrongly implied that Kraft Foods was an alleged sponsor of a white supremacist website flagged important alarm signals recently about the potential risks of certain online advertising mediums....

Microsoft claims it has 1 million users for MSN Spaces (Monday, January 10, 07:23 AM EST)
Bill Gates claims that MSN Spaces has close to a million users....

Chatter: MSN to Launch Search Beta Feb 1 (Friday, January 14, 02:34 PM EST)
Online chatter among search geeks indicates Microsoft may be ready to go live with its MSN search beta at the beginning of February. One search marketer said he was told by a high level Microsoft...

[summary]

Hundreds of Retailers Spending $50,000 or More a Month in Search (Friday, January 14, 01:28 PM EST)
search engine marketing firm Efficient Frontier estimates that between 350 and 500 American retailers are now spending more than $50,000 per month on search campaigns, according to Internet Retailer....

[summary]

TripAdvisor to 'the Nunnery' (Friday, January 14, 01:00 PM EST)
TripAdvisor, falling in line with industry wags who predicted it would choose the same agency used by fellow IAC siblings Lending Tree and Match.com, selected Mullen to run its $5-$10 million...

[summary]

Wal-Mart Addresses PR Storm with Site, Search Campaign (Friday, January 14, 01:00 PM EST)
Wal-Mart launched an anti-anti-Wal-Mart site at walmartfacts.com to counter the growing internet chatter about its labor practices, according to ClickZ. Faced with many class action suits and a...

[summary]

Newspapers See Big Online Ad Gains, Still Not Enough to Make Difference (Friday, January 14, 01:00 PM EST)
Merrill Lynch said newspaper ad growth will likely have slowed in Q4 2004, according to MediaPost, despite spectacular double-digit ad growth across digital newspaper divisions. The revenues, said...

[summary]

NetIQ to Jumbo Shrimp (Friday, January 14, 01:00 PM EST)
BtoB Online reports that NetIQ hired JumboShrimp Advertising to run a rebranding campaign, along with ongoing demand marketing and marketing support. The agency is currently developing a...

[summary]

LookSmart Paints Grim Picture, Rejiggers Sales Group (Friday, January 14, 12:42 PM EST)
In a move not uncommon for firms with new CEO's, LookSmart issued lower financial guidance for this past quarter and announced it would shake up management, according to ClickZ. LookSmart hired CEO...

[summary]

Tech Rags to Ride Again, Advertisers Wanted (Friday, January 14, 12:41 PM EST)
Mercury News ran an analysis of the bevy of new tech titles coming out in recent weeks, many of them rehashed versions of bubble-borne titles, like Red Herring. This time around, most seem to be...

[summary]

Havas Media Hires OMD Digital Exec (Friday, January 14, 12:01 PM EST)
Havas Media named Jill Griffin to be senior VP and group account director for both its New York and San Francisco offices, according to AdWeek [link unavailable]. She will oversee the online...

[summary]

AMA Launches Net Radio Show (Friday, January 14, 10:56 AM EST)
The American Marketing Association launched an internet radio show, according to Dana VanDen Heuvel's blog. The program will launch January 19 and archives will be available on the site. [summary]

[summary]

Microsoft Security Settings Disable AdSense (Friday, January 14, 10:00 AM EST)
A Webmaster World thread pointed out by SearchEngineWatch indicates that setting Microsoft's security settings to "high" disables Google AdSense placements on any pages served from that computer....

[summary]

Apple’s Spotlight aims to put Google in the shade (Wednesday, January 12, 02:39 PM EST)
In a bid to catch up with desktop search applications from MSN and Google, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has highlighted the firm's forthcoming search technology, dubbed Spotlight. via Computer Active

Google Limits Affiliate Listings (Monday, January 10, 06:13 PM EST)
Google will change its policy on paid listings from affiliates to reduce duplicative listings for the same merchant's Web pages, the search giant said Friday. Google said it would look for ads that direct to the same Internet address. If two or more direct to the same address, Google will display ...

Yahoo Launches Local Search BETA (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)

Lycos Sells to Korean Internet Portal (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)

Google Launches Bidding Site (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)

Search Engine Marketing Organization Cops Criticism (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)

MSN Previews New Search Engine (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)

Out of the Office Next Week (Friday, January 14, 09:58 PM EST)
I'll be out of the office next week, taking a quick break before the conference circuit starts ramping up. Ben, Jason, Garrett (and maybe Heather), will be stopping by each day to make sure none of our readers miss any major search engine news. Norm

Seeing MSN Search Beta at Main Search Site (Friday, January 14, 09:12 PM EST)
Not big news, as we knew this was coming, but thought you might like to know that a number of us at WebSourced are seeing the MSN Search Beta results from the main site. Now excuse me, I'm off to steal Aaron's tags. ;-) Thanks Rick!

Data Reveals 74% of Businesses Not Currently Working with an SEM Firm (Friday, January 14, 07:09 PM EST)
If you missed the Jupiter Webevent we sponsored yesterday, you missed some very revealing data. From those polled, 74% are either implementing an in-house SEM campaign or have not even begun an SEM campaign. For those of us in the SEM industry, that's

Seth Godin Discovers the Search Engine Industry (Friday, January 14, 06:39 PM EST)
We're all saved! Just when we thought that perhaps the search industry was a figment of our collective imaginations, Seth Godin confirms there is a search engine industry. I'll be sleeping well tonight. ;-) Update: Have you ever seen Danny Sulliv

And Ask Jeeves Too! (Friday, January 14, 06:35 PM EST)
Ok, so if we're going to give Yahoo some love, let's give Ask Jeeves some love as well. As for Ask Jeeves, Rashtchy [of Piper Jaffray] disputed some assertions that the company to also-ran status, behind Google and Yahoo. "Ask Jeeves is not only re

Time to Buy Yahoo Stock? (Friday, January 14, 06:31 PM EST)
According to Forbes, Piper Jaffray are gaga over Yahoo's prospects, especially revenue from search. Piper Jaffray said Yahoo! also gained share in the fourth quarter "and is likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the impressive growth in sear

WebSourced Parent, CGI Holding Corporation, Acquires MarketSmart Advertising (Friday, January 14, 04:43 PM EST)
It's a done deal. I'd brag about all the great things were going to do, but I know you'd just throw eggs. ;-)

Jeff's World - SEMCares, Corporate Giving and Why I Don’t Care (Friday, January 14, 03:49 PM EST)
I've made my thoughts clear on the practice of using non-profits, organizations and the recent tsunami to garner free publicity. Today, resident SEM cynic critic, "Jeff", offers reasons why we should all go full steam ahead and selfishly promote ourse

Google May be the Favored Tool of Hackers in 2005 (Friday, January 14, 03:26 PM EST)
ZDNet predicts that Google will be increasingly used by hackers, looking to find their way into your computer. One expert suggests... "Using robots.txt and other techniques to prevent indexing is a best practice for non-public systems and the variou

Should Google Buy Technorati? (Friday, January 14, 03:08 PM EST)
Russell Shaw of The Industry Standard thinks Google should buy blog-tracker Technorati. Not a bad idea. As blogs continue to grow, they'll be a demand for services like Technorati and Feedster. I visit both each day and have RSS feeds coming in from bo

Not Looking Good at LookSmart (Friday, January 14, 02:54 PM EST)
Things are not looking too optimistic over at LookSmart as they lower their revenue guidance for Q4 of 2004.

Is Google Watching Your Library Visits? (Sunday, January 09, 06:28 PM EST)
Google-Watch: Appeal to the American Library Association. Google-Watch points out the frightening possibility that Google's personally identifiable cookie could allow the FBI to see what books you read using Google Library. Other problems with the Google Library project include the fact that the agreements are not available and possibly contain restrictive requirements about how the library can used the scanned copies of the books....

Google Grammar: Old News Made New (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Much blog ink today devoted to grammar requirements in Google AdWords. The fuss is resulting from a first-person account on CNET of a pulled ad (which used "check em out" instead of "check them out"). So now the world knows that Google has strict style rules regarding English usage, but the implementation is not new. Advertisers have wrestled with the grammar rules for years, and not only because Internet usage style differs more distinctly every day from offline style

Google Follows Apple? Introducing the Google Mini (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
No, Google is not making digital music players. but Google has been in the hardware business for years, cranking out the Google Appliance, probably the most under-recognized aspect of its business. Google has long sought to be a major player in the enterprise market, helping companies solve their intranet searching needs. That market is largely software driven, so the Google Appliance has leveraged the Google brand clout for whatever success it has gained. Now, Google is aiming at small

Open-source, Ad-Free, and Possibly Illegal Google Clone (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Daniel Brandt seems to regard Google as a corporate crominal, and stealing back as the solution. Google, according to Brandt has built a commercial empire upon scraping free content from the internet and assigning relevant advertising to it. So, turning the tables, Brandt has used a loophole in the Google API to create an ad-free Google; in other words, he is scraping the scraper. He expcts to be sued, and even seems to hope for it. Brandt's point is not entirely capricious. Google does

Google on 60 Minutes: Transcript (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Here is the transcript of the recent 60 Minutes piece on Google that is receiving so much criticism. It's not that the segment was a puff piece, in my opinion, but that it was primarily a backgrounder for people who haven't been paying attention--the basic audience for 60 Minutes, I guess. Plus, who doesn't want to follow a camera into the Googleplex?

Google Employee Worth Revealed (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
New securities regulations now require disclosure of stock transactions at public companies, in hierarchical levels below that of top executives. That means that anyone can now see the insider buys and sells of company stock by common employees. Apparently this intrusive spotlight has created some tension inside Google, where, as this article speculates, a new millionnaire might be sharing a cubicle with a new employee worth very little (in stock terms).

Google's Auction-Style IPO Might Have Been Influential After All (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
The financial information company Morningstar is (finally) going public, and has announced its intention to operate an auction-style IPO with W.R. Hambrecht as the lead underwriter. W.R. Hambrecht developed level-playing-field IPO mechanisms long before Google ever dreamed of getting all Nasdaq on us. Observers have criticized Google for its IPO method on several fronts, noting that the company failed to capture a tremendous amount of money that flowed into the stock after it went public. Fair

Affiliates Demoted in AdWords (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
The rumor of Google making some sort of change to AdWords policy regarding affiliates has proved true. A new policy limits displays of AdWords ads run by affiliates, and leading to the same landing page to a single ad per search results page. This will largely solve the affiliate glut that pushes non-affiliate ads off the page. Several results that change the nature of affiliate marketing on Google should follow: First, competition for that single affiliate slot wi increase, and the per-click

Google-Scraped Dictionary (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Google Blogoscoped has a work in progress: a dictionary scraped from Google's define operator, and the translation tool. Translations are complete for the letter "A." Naturally, the thing searches for words, as well as listing them in alpha order.

Page and Brin Make Business Week "Great Innovators" List (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Not much to say beyond that--here is the article. Business Week is celebrating its 75th anniversary by profiling great business innovators of the past 75 years. The profiles aren't deep; just quick backgrounders.

Displaying Sponsored Links Only (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Thanks to reader Tom for pointing out something I wasn't aware of: If you want to display only the sponsored links (AdWords ads) in Google for any keyword, use this dedicated engine.

Battelle's Most Important prediction (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Among John Battelle's 17 predictions for 2005 (one of which is the revelation that he will start a new media-technology business), the most important, in my opinion, is this: 12. By the end of the year, there will be no question that search is a media business, and that the major players in search are major players in the content business. This point might be driven home by the introduction of media-content searching (Yahoo! has already started down this path with its video search engine,

Exalead gets a 1 billion document index (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
European Exalead is preparing an even larger index.

MSN Search tests RSS feeds (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
MSN is alphatesting the possibility of displaying search results through RSS feeds.

Yahoo's new desktop search software (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Yahoo! Desktop Search lets you search your own computer.

FexIT -- business oriented search service (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Iceland has given us a new online business portal and search service.

MSN's gradual transfer to new search engine (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
MSN is giving regular searchers some taste of its new search engine technology.

Answers.com -- new free reference search service (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
GuruNet launches free search engine

Gigablast now indexes 1 billion pages (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
The Gigablast search engine is growing

Google to establish charity foundation (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Google plans to establish a foundation this year based on 1 percent of its stock.

Everything I know about web marketing I learned from my gas station (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
How do you design a site and a search engine strategy that actually sells?

Blinkx desktop search for Mac (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Next week you may download Blinkx for the Mac.

Everything I know about web marketing I learned from my local gas station (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
How do you design a site and a search engine strategy that actually sells?

In violent agreement! (Friday, January 14, 07:24 PM EST)
Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Watch writes, “Search marketing is more than buying ads -- SEO is the search world's equivalent to public relations. It also doesn't mean that you have to link spam, comment spam or content spam. Content-driven...

Mob justice (Friday, January 14, 02:10 AM EST)
One of the side effects of the massively many-to-many publishing model that is the blogosphere is the following math:1. controversy is fun to write2. controversy is fun to read3. piling on is safe and fun4. undoing 1, 2 and 3...

No one knows you're a dog (Friday, January 14, 02:03 AM EST)
Well, it turns out that Think Secret - Mac Insider News, the site that was sued by Apple for leaking its big secrets, is run by Nicholas M. Ciarelli, a 19 year old Harvard student. He started the site when...

My oversight (Wednesday, January 12, 08:32 PM EST)
But you, my loyal readers, were quick to clarify: You can also find good Search Engine juice at: Search Engine Watch: Tips About Internet Search Engines & Search Engine Submission....

How to Sell Anything To Anyone (Wednesday, January 12, 08:21 PM EST)
...in just one easy step. Make something people want to buy. Five years ago, when I first got to Yahoo, I was excited. All my life I'd been selling media... sometimes I failed slowly, other times I barely succeeded. I...

Is there a "search engine industry"? (Wednesday, January 12, 11:37 AM EST)
There is now. If this is a brand new form of effective media, somebody ought to be telling us what's new, what's working and what's absurd. Check out: SearchViews....

Speaking of Apple (Wednesday, January 12, 02:34 AM EST)
What is it about Apple that makes pundits want to talk about it all the time? I know I do. Why is it so unique? Why is Steve Jobs singular among CEOs, not commonplace? I have no clue. I do...

It's about going to the edges (Tuesday, January 11, 10:24 PM EST)
My friend Rich talks about how my friend Jack (and his ace Aaron) went all the way to the edge in delighting a customer. It is patently stupid to send a Christmas card. Christmas cards are invisible. This is not....

The myth of the CMO (Tuesday, January 11, 06:39 PM EST)
I feel sorry for Judy Verses. She's the Chief Marketing Officer of Verizon, a brand that is justifiably reviled by millions of people. Is Verizon disdained, mistrusted and avoided because Judy's not doing a great job? Of course not. She's...

The HughTrain (Tuesday, January 11, 01:33 PM EST)
It's possible (unlikely, but possible) that you haven't come across gapingvoid. If you haven't, it's worth a click. Hugh's blog is awfully different from mine (for one thing, he works harder and is more prolific) but it's certain that it...

Re-ignited browser wars? (Friday, January 14, 10:34 PM EST)
Yahoo! Search blog reports some interesting FireFox Buzz Index numbers over the past few months and ends the post with, "Re-ignited browser wars? Stay tuned..."

MSN Search Allegedly Going Live Feb (Friday, January 14, 04:08 PM EST)
On SearchEngineWatch Forums AssieWebmaster posts that the new MSN Search Beta should go live in Feb. MSN Search Out of Beta Feb. 1 This info is catching buzz elsewhere: SEOScoop, Threadwatch, SE Lowdown, SEW Blog

RSS Feed Submission Tools & Resources (Friday, January 14, 03:54 PM EST)
Danny Sullivan lists some useful RSS Feed Submission Tools blog marketing resouces

Frozen SEO & Tagging with Technorati (Friday, January 14, 01:22 PM EST)
TopRank is in Minneapolis and today it's COLD. As in really, really cold - currently -16 below zero. That's not the coldest it's been here, I remember -40 below zero once, but cold enough to definitley stay inside. All the better for SEO! Technorati has begun providing links to blogs/feeds via tags. An alternative to categories, it allows you to associate a topic name to a tag with each post.

Google Facts (Thursday, January 13, 07:35 PM EST)
Some interesting Google facts from a BayCHI lecture at PARC given by Marissa Mayer (Product Manager for Google) as posted by Alan Williamson. "A very well attended (standing room only session), Marissa took us through a presentation geared around the user experience at Google and the efforts/lengths they go to." Some interesting facts came out: 1. The prime reason the Google home page is

Yahoo & MSN Gaining on Google (Thursday, January 13, 03:49 PM EST)
The Yahoo! and MSN search engines are closing the gap with Google by improving the search experience for consumers and that will lead to increased usage for those sites, according to a new study conducted by Keynote Systems - From Business Wire

Search Wars about to Begin (Thursday, January 13, 03:47 PM EST)
2005 report from eMarketer previews the coming fight between AOL, MSN, Yahoo! and Google for supremacy in the multi-billion dollar paid-search advertising market. FromeMarketer

Google Mini (Thursday, January 13, 12:16 PM EST)
Google has recently launched the "Mini" a smaller version of it's Google Search Appliance which will be able to index upp to 50,000 documents. The Mini will sell for about $5,000 and will be available at Google Store. From Reuters.com

Search Engine Referral Market Share (Wednesday, January 12, 07:44 PM EST)
Here's recent search engine info as a percent of referring traffic: Search Engine December October Google 44.96% 44.11% Yahoo! Websites 17.21% 15.02% MSN 12.04% 14.57% AOL 3.49% 3.83% Dogpile 0.93% 1.02% Ask Jeeves 0.90% 1.10% Alta Vista 0.56% .64% Other 19.91% 19.71% Source: NetApplications makers of Hitslink.com

Apple Spotlight desktop search (Wednesday, January 12, 02:40 PM EST)
Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be more desktop search releases, ZDNet UK News reports that at Macworld Steve Jobs gets bold and describes Apple's new built-in search functionality "Spotlight" as better than Google and Microsoft. Obviously he hasn't used Yahoo desktop search because it's been working fantastically for me. Much faster and easier to use than Google or Blinkx so far. I

MyMSN introduces RSS aggregation (Wednesday, January 12, 02:29 PM EST)
"MSN product manager Brooke Richardson said the addition of RSS aggregation made sense, given the December launch of MSN Spaces, Microsoft's free blog-creation service. As with many blog services, MSN Spaces blogs generate RSS feeds. The next logical step, she said, was to offer a way for people to subscribe to those and other feeds." From SiliconBeat

Wal-Mart Search Engine Optimization Counter Offensive - Information arms race (Friday, January 14, 04:35 PM EST)
It's kind of scary when the corporate folks get a hold of an internet marketing consultant and actually listen to them. Someone must have showed the CEO the horrible publicity that Wal-mart bashing websites are providing them with. So apparantely they are goin' after some of the negative serps with a search engine optimization counter offensive. This makes me want to coin a new phrase - Information arms race. Sounds cool, huh? Basically, everyone is trying to provide folks with THEIR version of information whether it be a definition (there is no search spam;)...a story (OJ is innocent), or what is the right way to do something (DON'T fall for search engine submission services). Information arms race...SEO's tryin' to climb over each other in the serps. I think this phrase should catch on well.
Wal-Mart Answers Critics with Web Site, Ads

Reasons to join the Digital Point ad coop (Monday, January 10, 03:21 AM EST)
One repeat and one new reason why you should join Digital Point's free coop advertising exchange network: My ESL site is still #9 for "English as a second language" on Google. That's the old reason. The new reason is that...

Even Small Businesses Can Gain Valuable Search Traffic (Thursday, January 13, 05:57 PM EST)
Yes, there may be gazillions of sites competing for the search phrases related to your client's site, but that's what keyword research is for. What you want to do is carefully research your client's niche, then find the hundreds of...

105 Real-life Marketing Lessons from Marketing Sherpa (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
For another year running Marketing Sherpa has compiled a list of real-life marketing stories in a FREE downloadble PDF, called Marketing Wisdom 2005. As the marketing blurb says, "[Marketing Wisdom 2005] Includes 105 real-life marketing lessons learned from MarketingSherpa readers including the folks at Timberland, Pacific Shaving, and ING...

Robert Scoble, PR Firms and the Blog Business Summit (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
From the 24-25th January the Blog Busines Summit will take place in Seattle. One of the most prolific bloggers Robert Scoble will be giving the keynote address, with the subject The Blog Advantage. There are a number of interesting sessions going on with subjects including: Blog Business Models: What...

Fighting Comment Spam (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Over the past few months I have received on this site, and on another blog of mine Mad About Madrid, a huge amount of comment and trackback spam. Comment spam is a technique used by certain webmasters and owners of websites to develop links from blogs (often with a high...

Bill Gates gets quizzed by Gizmodo (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Here's an interesting interview that I came across via Marcomblog. It appears that the the guys at Gizmodo, the gadgets blog, were contacted by Microsoft and asked if they'd like to interview Bill Gates. Guess what they said? !! In an interview between Joel Johnson and Bill Gates - G-Money...

Search Engine Marketing Resolutions (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
A New Year! and why don´t we start with some New Year resolutions? These are some of the tips I saw on Shari Thurow´s interesting article SEM New Year´s Resolutions on the Clickz site. Resolution 1: I will stop focusing on positioning as an SEO benchmark.Resolution 2: I will use...

Merry Christmas (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year...

British eCommerce Success Story (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia, has an written interesting article on his blog Internet Media Comentary about a British artist who has created a phenomenally successful online business. Entitled Internet Commerce Success Story, this is a brief overview of the business:For those who will not read the article let...

Real-time Keyword Suggestions from Google Select (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
According to 4WebResults Google is testing a new tool called "Google Suggest". The tool sounds really  cool as it will throw up keyword suggestions as you type in the words. As Tom says in New Internet Tool Offers Suggestions in Real Time - "Google Suggest": "this is the perfect...

Help Inc.com Build the 2005 Entrepreneurs' List (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
This year (2004) Inc.com published their 25 Entrepreneurs We Love list. They are now inviting people to submit entries for their 2005 list. All you need do is go to their Entrepreneurs We Love page; check your candidate meets their criteria and submit the details....

Blogging till the Cows Come Home (Saturday, January 15, 07:55 AM EST)
Rick Bruner has got an interesting post on his blog, Business Blog Consulting, about the blog marketing exploits of organic dairy seller, Stonyfield Farm. Stoneyfield produces quality dairy products, such as yoghurt, which strictly adhere to organic principles - no artificial sweetners, flavourings or additives here. The company decided...

Google Betas... (Friday, January 14, 01:11 PM EST)
It looks like we are not the only ones who complain about Google leaving their products on beta for a long time. A comment on ZDNet UK this week talks exactly about this phenomenon. It seems that taking products out...

Another Desktp Search Tool (Wednesday, January 12, 01:05 PM EST)
Yahoo! has launched another desktop search tool (in beta) yesterday and they are joining Google in their 'battle' against Microsoft and the power of the Desktop search. Microsoft's moves at the moment seem slow but I must say rather confident....

IBM makes 500 patents available to Opens Source Developers (Tuesday, January 11, 02:05 PM EST)
The opening of the 500 patents to open source developers by IBM is certainly a gesture that opens 2005 with a sense of freedom and optimism. 'It is a small but significant measure for a company with major efforts to...

YDS: A Mixed Review (Wednesday, January 12, 02:26 PM EST)

After letting Yahoo! Desktop Search spend the night indexing my computer, the problems that bedeviled me yesterday are in the past. Yahoo! has adapted its recent acquisition, X1, into a full-screen desktop tool that indexes and searches nearly the entire contents of a computer—about 200 different file types. Clearly a power application, in contrast to Google’s lissome, slim, and user-friendly desktop searcher, YDS would seem to own a clear upper hand in the smoking desktop search race. Yet, while I will continue experimenting with YDS, it will not sway me from other alternatives.

The main prolem with YDS on my machine is the cumbersome, and possibly buggy, indexing. As I mentioned yesterday, the lack of dialogue explaining what the program is doing causes anxiety from the start. (YDS does divulge its activity in the Tools -> Options panel if the user thinks to open it.) The program’s thoroughness requires hours to index a well-stocked machine, and there is nothing wrong with requiring a time investment for a searcher of this power. But please—a little more communication.

Indexing difficulties become more intense when files are added to the machine. By default, YDS indexes on a set (and configuable) schedule, and does so during breaks in computer activity. However, it seems to lack updating intelligence, and, in my tests, refused to follow instructions. I added a single file to my local machine, downloaded from my server. YDS could not find it immediately, as it was between indexing cycles. When I initiated a manual update, YDS began crunching through the entire computer, and the progress indicator (which does appear during a manual update) showed that the update would take over 1.5 hours. Yet I had added only a single file since the all-night initial indexing. When I used More Indexing Options to narrow the index update to the folder in which I had placed the file, YDS ignored this instruction and began the laborious scan once again. I checked More Indexing Options, and my instruction had been wiped clear; YDS was set to index the whole machine.

By contrast: Google Desktop Search, which was running throughout this test, indexed and found the downloaded file immediately.

On the plus side, the preview pane (with its embedded media player—an outstanding feature) makes finding documents a snap. I could have used it earlier this week when searching for a particular Word file that had the same title (though not filename) as several others. Using Google Desktop Search, I had to open each file in turn until I found the right one. In YDS, moving down the list shows the files at a glance. Great stuff. The auto-complete feature, by which typed keywords complete into found files before you finish typing, is also convenient.

If Yahoo! makes the indexing smarter and more obedient, I will ditch Google Desktop Search in a second. But until then, YDS is too lumbering for my impatient temperament.

Yahoo! Desktop Search, First Glimpse (Tuesday, January 11, 11:16 PM EST)

Yahoo! Desktop Search Beta is available for download. I’ll have a more comprehensive review if this thing ever finishes indexing my computer. YDS handles 200 file types, making it far more thorough than Google’s product, but also making it slow to crawl a file-heavy machine. It’s not an easy beta to figure out, and one thing it definitely needs is some kind of dialogue box informing the user of what’s happening. I stared at it for a half hour, wondering if it was finished indexing—the hard drive churned intermittently. YDS showed 28 music files on my system, out of the 30+ gigabytes of music tracks actually there. (Hey, there’s an embedded media player! It’s RealPlayer.) It was tying my computer in knots, making it impossible to do anything else, and I finally rebooted—with great difficulty, I might add. This thing is either not ready or I’ve flubbed its operation somehow. I’m eager to figure out which, and will post details as they transpire.

PC Magazine gave YDS a good review.

Yahoo! Picks for 2004 (Monday, January 10, 09:32 PM EST)

As it has annually since 1996, Yahoo! offers selected best-of picks of Web sites. Look here to see the 25 crea-of-the-cream. There are several addictive, quirky sites. I mistakenly visited The Scribbler (look at June 14), and spent (well, wasted) a delightful hour with the interactive auto-drawing screen.

Domains of choice (Saturday, January 15, 04:13 AM EST)

Honey, we shrunk the Google (Thursday, January 13, 09:41 AM EST)