The Pandia Post 18 - part 2, Search Engine News

Below find selected news items from our Search Engine World column. This section of the site is updated several times a week. You may also get these stories in you mailbox on a weekly basis by subscribing to our Search Engine World newsletter (http://www.pandia.com/post/)

Kelkoo tests new shopping search engine

It seems Internet users are slowly starting to trust well known Internet stores, meaning that Internet shopping is finally becoming what the dot com entrepreneurs hoped it would be: a business adventure.

However, in the same way Internet users find it hard to find relevant information on the Web, they are also struggling to find the best bargain. In comes the shopping search engines.

Traditionally, this part of the market has been dominated by so-called comparison shopping search engines, i.e. online facilities that gather data from a selected group of online shops and compare products and prices.

Last year, however, Google launched a more general shopping search engine that allows a broader search for products, services and vendors. It combines data delivered by merchants with information gathered from the Google Web database.

Froogle, as it is called, is still in its beta testing phase, and it remains to be seen how efficient and successful it will become. That hasn't stopped the other shopping search engines from taking notice, however.

Kelkoo, one of the major European players in the comparison shopping field is now testing its own shopping search engine, preparing for the coming battle with Google.

You may test a preliminary version of this new service at the British and French versions of Kelkoo. Kelkoo is asking for user feedback. Pandia will come back with a review shortly.

New Pandia Metasearch

Some of our regular users will have noticed already: Pandia is testing a new metasearch engine.

A metasearch engine is a search facility that lets you gather results from several search engines at once. In this way you can get the best of all worlds, and a broader mix of search listings.

The new metasearch engine, which has been named after our all-in-one search engine gateway, adds several new features to the toolbox:

With a click you may hide the summary or page description, hide the source or group results according to site. Moreover, each result page has a form for advanced searching near the end, with menus letting you select type of search (Web, news, actions, music files etc), country of origin (based on domain), language, Boolean match and more.

Pandia Powersearch also supports regular Boolean expressions, including phrase search ("-"), AND/+, OR, and NOT/-. See the help file for more information.

The new metasearch engine is powered by CurryGuide, a division of the British Highfield Business Corporation.

Impatient searchers

Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University has found that users typically visit only the first three results from a search query.

Moreover, when they have reached a Web page, one in five searchers stays for 60 seconds or less. 40 percent of searchers will have left the pages within three minutes.

"People make instantaneous judgments about whether to stay on a site, and if a site doesn't the give the right impression, users will bypass it," says Dr. Jim Jansen, assistant professor in Penn Stateís information sciences and technology. "A page has to be well-designed, easy to load and relevant to a searcher's needs."

54 percent of the users viewed only one page of results in each session. 19 percent went on to the second page, and no more than 10 percent looked at the third page of results.

About 55 percent of users took a look at one result only. More than 80 percent stopped after looking at three of the listed Web pages.

"For site developers, if you want to be looked at, it is absolutely critical that the abstract be crystal clear about the purpose of your Web site," Jansen says. "Eight out of 10 times, the abstract dissuades people from going to the site."

The report, which has been done by Jansen and professor Amanda Spink, was recently presented at at the 2003 International Conference on Internet Computing in Las Vegas, Nevada.

HotBot announces search toolbar

The toolbar concept is becoming increasingly popular. Search engine marketers all over the world is using the Google toolbar to search the Web and check their Page Rank. Alexa has a toolbar that lets you search the Web as well as getting additional information about the sites you are visiting.

Toolbars are normally integrated into the Web browser (normally Internet Explorer) or into the operating system itself.

HotBot, owned by Lycos, is now launching a new toolbar based on the open source "Dave's Deskbar".

The HotBot Quick-Search Deskbar gives searchers access to more than 200 search sites, many of them inaccessible by Web crawlers. This set includes dictionaries, as well as news and weather services. Moreover it includes commands that let you launch utilities like instant messenger, e-mail, calculators and more.

HotBot's version -- like Dave's original toolbar -- is installed directly into your Windows Explorer Taskbar.

Press release
See also: Search Engine Watch.

Google refines its toolbar

At the same time as HotBot is releasing a new search "deskbar", Google is preparing a new version of its popular toolbar.

It includes all the old features: direct access to the Google search engine, search limited to the site you are visiting, PageRank info and more.

The new version adds a popup blocker (for getting rid of those pesky popup ads), autofill for filling out Web forms, and a feature called "BlogThis" that lets you create a weblog post pointing to the page you are visiting.

The mark 2.0 of the Google toolbar is still in its beta phase, but you may test it if you want to.

The Google toolbar requires Windows 95 or higher with Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.

By the way, metasearch engine Dogpile has also presented a new tool of this kind.

Sources: GoogleGuy at Webmaster World and Search Engine Watch.

Sell More: 4 steps to better conversion rates

Yes, you may use search engines to get more visitors. But that is only the beginning. You must also encourage them to becoming buying visitors.

Steve Winkler looks at search engine marketing and conversion rates.

Vanity on the search engines

Number one on the search engines has become the equivalent of a Super Bowl ad, Pandia guest writer Andy Beal says in this article. Your company's very presence signals you are the best in your industry.

Read more about the search engine vanity phenomenon.

FindWhat buys Espotting

The American pay-per-click (PPC) text ad company FindWhat is to buy the European PPC search network Espotting for US$163m.

FindWhat claims that the combined group would service approximately 40,000 advertisers and generate combined revenues of more than US$140m in 2003.

Although FindWhat lags behind the American PPC giants Overture and Google, the company is growing. And indeed, by acquiring Espotting, which is one of the leading PPC search engines in Europe, the company does gain momentum.

The main problem remains though: Many of the largest search sites and portals on both sides of the Atlantic are owned by competitors.

Source: netimperative.

MSN is preparing a new search engine

The new "MSNBOT" has started indexing Web sites all over the Web, and it is now official: Microsoft is preparing the introduction of a new search engine.

Read what Pandia has to say about MSN and the new search engine robot.

Tips and techniques for making your site accessible

Pandia Guest Writer Alex Horstmann takes a look at Web design and accessibility needs of the blind and other disadvantaged Internet surfers.

Pandia discusses the similarities between designing for the search engines and people with disabilities.

AOL adds new image search

AOL has added image search to its online services. It's based on the Google image search engine, and functions very much in the same way.

The result pages present scaled down versions of the pictures themselves, and a click on a picture brings up a split screen, with the original Web page in the lower part, and some information on where the picture has been found in the upper frame.

A click on the sized down picture in the upper frame brings forth the picture in its original size (as in Google), although sometimes we are presented with an Adobe GoLive LassoStudio logo only.

The filter for offensive content is permanently on. Resourceshelf reports that AOL is only using a small proportion of the Google image database, and active users of this service will therefore prefer to stay with the original.

GoogleGuy answers

The Webmaster World discussion forum on search engines and Internet marketing is unique in one respect: One of the most active participants is actually a representative for Google, and a very outspoken one as well.

He is now answering some interesting questions over at Webmaster World.

Pandia does some reading.

Search Engine Optimization Basics Part 4 – Meta Tags

As part of the continued series "Getting Back To Search Engine Optimization Basics", Pandia Guest Writer Andy Beal takes a closer look at meta description and meta keywords tags.

Do you still need them and what benefits do they bring?

Open Directory introduces abuse report system

There has been complaints about editors using the Open Directory (ODP) to forward their own interests only. Now ODP meta editors are introducing an abuse report system in order to defend the directory's quality and integrity.

Searchers find it hard to distinguish between regular and paid results

Consumer Webwatch will shortly present a report that concludes that searchers find it hard to distinguish between paid pay-per-click text ads and regular search results.

Pandia takes a closer look at the debate on "sponsored links".

Nothing Sticking? Don't Stop Throwing it Against the Wall!

If over 50% of the market knows that Google is a good place to look, but you can't be found on Google, then there must be something seriously wrong with your marketing strategy.

Special guest writer Tom Roeder takes a look at the importance of search engine marketing.

Click here to read his article!

AlltheWeb with more neat search engine tricks

AlltheWeb is turning their search form into an advanced calculator. Now you may also use it to convert various measures, including weight, speed and time. You may even use it for your cooking!

There are also other new search engine syntax tricks.

Read our article on AlltheWeb's new features.

Google remains the No. 1 search engine in the World.

The Web statistics software provider OneStat.com reports that Google now has a global average usage share of 55.2 percent.

According to OneStat the seven largest search engines on the Web are:

Given that Google actually powers most of the various national incarnations of Yahoo! and AOL, between 70 and 80 percent of all search results are fetched from the Google database.

All numbers are an average of the last 2 months. Research is based on a sample of 2 million visitors divided into 20,000 visitors of 100 countries each day. There are no major changes compared to the previous measurement.

OneStat press release.

Pandia adds free search engine marketing tutorial

Pandia has added a new feature to its search engine resource center: a beginners' guide to search engine marketing. This is the place to get started if you want to know more about how to achieve higher rankings in search engines.

The tutorial covers topics like how to find the keyword phrases people are using when they search for sites like yours, how to optimize webpages and sites, how to submit sites and check rankings and much more.

The new tutorial also includes extracts from the Lost Apocrypha of Search Engine Marketing. Find out for yourself!

The Pandia Post is our free bimonthly newsletter on Internet searching, search engines, ranking and optimization. We will give you useful tips on how to search the Web and get higher rankings, as well as information on the development of Pandia.

Pandia Search World is a short weekly news update on searching and search engine marketing. And yes, it is free as well!

The Pandia Post Newsletter No. 18, July 2003 - Part 2

Search Engine World News