Pandia Post 21/2 |
   |
Pandia Post 21/2 |
| |
|
 |  | |
Ujiko, new search site based on Yahoo!(May 2 2004) Resourceshelf reports that Kartoo has launched a new search site based on the Yahoo search engine database.
When you click on one of the search listings, the relevant link is actually stored by UJIKO on your own computer. The next time you search for this particular search query the pages you already have visited will appear among the first. You may also grade a particular site by giving it a specific number of points (hearts). The more hearts, the higher it will rank the next time you search for this query. The Heart button also allows you to edit a special Ujiko form for a site. You can change its URL, title and description. This information will replace the one given by the search engine for later queries.You can also use the heart function to organize results into folders. Furthermore Ujiko lets you build personalized filters. You can ban sites from a specific domains, selected URLs, or sites that includes specific words. French Ujiko Google is going public(April 30 2004) The rumor mill has been going for quite some time, but it is now clear: Google has filed for an IPO, meaning that Google stock will reach the stock market. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Google reported that it expects to raise as much as US$ 2.7 billion from its public offering. (To be exact: the exact value of its planned offering is US$2,718,281,828 dollars, which is identical to the mathematical constant e. Another example of Californian humor, we suppose) Here are some other interesting data from the filing: Google generated revenues of US$ 961.9 million with a a net profit of US$ 106.5 million in 2003. The company reports that it has been profitable since 2001. In a letter attached to the filing Google founders Brin and Pages point out that "Many companies have suffered from unreasonable speculation, small initial share float, and boom-bust cycles that hurt them and their investors in the long run." The solution? "We believe that an auction-based IPO will minimize these problems." The online auction replaces the traditional allocation administered by banks. CNN Google sets $2.7 billion IPO Search engine optimization and web accessibility(April 29 2004) Web accessibility is just beginning to gain popularity among Internet marketing professionals. We're witnessing an industry that is gradually paying attention to the needs of wider and more diverse audiences. Guest writer Carmen Mardiros writes about the relationship between search engine optimization and the art of designing web pages for people with disabilities. The Apotheosis of Google.(April 27 2004) Google has given birth to a brand new religion that refuses to be taken seriously. Pandia has more about the Universal Church of Google. New Yahoo! shortcuts(April 25 2004) A shortcut is an element in the search engine query syntax that lets you limit your search to a specific database or service. Hence, if you are looking for information on a word, you may search for define alchemy to get a dictionary definition, alchemy facts to get an encyclopedia article or synonym alchemy to get a -- well -- synonym. Pandia presents the shortcuts available at the new Yahoo! search engine. Pandia cloned by copyright thief(April 25 2004) What do you do when someone copies all the content of your site over to another domain? That is exactly what happened to Pandia this week. Read our article about site theft and copyright infringement. Yahoo! dumps Google(February 18 2004) It has finally happened. US Yahoo! is no longer using the Google database for its default search results. Instead it is presenting results from a database gathered by Yahoo! Search Technology, which has results from the Inktomi search engine at its core. Yahoo! has apparently also learned from the search teams it acquired when buying Overture -- i.e. the teams behind the AltaVista and AlltheWeb search engines -- although the three search engines have not been merged into one -- at least not yet. Search Engine Watch reports that the Yahoo! search engine will index the full text of web pages, up to a 500K limit. In comparison Google will index no more than 101K. The Yahoo! search engine does, like Google, also include PDF and Microsoft Office documents. Like Inktomi before it, the Yahoo! search engine, will index the keywords metatag. To what extent this information influence the ranking of pages is unknown, but the effect is probably small. To search the new search engine more easily, go to the Yahoo! Search page. Yahoo!s image search continues to be powered by Google, although we expect it to be replaced by the AlltheWeb index search engine in due time. Most of the non-US Yahoo! sites will switch to Yahoo! Search within a couple of weeks. Search Engine Watch: Birth of a New Machine. Google adds email(April 1 2004) Google is testing a new free email service called Gmail. This makes it totally clear that Google is becoming a full fledged portal like Yahoo!. Unlike services like Yahoo! Mail and MSN's Hotmail, Google will give away a lot of storage. Users can keep as much as 1 gigabyte worth of email messages and appendixes. The idea is that you should be able to keep all your mail, in order to use Google's search technology to search for your own stored information. Google will finance the new service by presenting relevant text ads. There will be no pop-ups and no banners. The inspiration for Gmail came from a Google user complaining about the poor quality of existing email services Larry Page, Google co-founder, says. "She kvetched about spending all her time filing messages or trying to find them. And when she's not doing that, she has to delete email like crazy to stay under the obligatory four megabyte limit. So she asked, 'Can't you people fix this?'" Google is currently testing the new service, using Google employees and specially invited outsiders. The service will be launched as soon as the system is stable. And no, this is not an April Fool's joke! The real Google joke can be found in the article "Google Copernicus Center is hiring", where Google announces a new research center on the moon. The researchers will for instance study what happens to PageRank in the proximity of a black hole. (Thanks to sharpie_79) Gmail press release. Why Google's Gmail should be allowed to serve ads(April 16 2004) The Web is awash with news items on Google violating the privacy of the common man, reading their mail and acting like "big brother". Google's new email service is not a threat to our privacy, Pandia argues in this article. Amazon launches A9 search engine(April 16 2004) Online superstore has launched their new search engine, A9, powered by Google, Alexa and Amazon's own database. AltaVista bites the dust(April 1 2004) Yahoo! has now pulled the plug on the the AltaVista search engine. The AltaVista search site is from now on powered by Yahoo's new search technology. This follows a similar move regarding the AlltheWeb search engine and site (see below). Yahoo! has apparently decided to keep the AltaVista and AlltheWeb brands for the time being, using them to explore alternative interfaces and ways of presenting search results. AltaVista was once a pioneer in the development of advanced search engine technology, and was one of the dominating search sites before the rise of Google. The AltaVista site continues to support advanced Boolean searching. Google gets personal(March 31 2004) Google is testing a new personalized search feature in its "Google Labs" section. You are asked to create a personal profile that tells Google something about your interests. When selecting relevant categories (e.g. Arts/Cinema, Computers or Health) you will be given the opportunity to check various subcategories that interests you (e.g. Architecture, Art History). When ordering search result listings Google will take your interests into consideration and rank pages related to your "life world" a bit higher than others. At the top of each personalized page of results Google presents a special slide bar, if the search query is relevant to the interests listed. When you move the slider to the right, Google will recalculate and rearrange the results, giving more emphasis to your profile information. The personal information is stored in a cookie on your (not Google's) computer. According to Google Your browser must be Internet Explorer 5 , Netscape or Mozilla 1.4 (or newer). Searches are limited to English and the browser and computer languages should be set for English. You need to have both JavaScript and cookies enabled. So what's next in personalized searching? According to many experts the next step will be a search engine that learns from your searching habits. If you tend to click on science fiction sites when searching for Babylon, the search engine will from thereon guess that you are looking for sites on the Babylon 5 TV series, not archeological, historical or biblical Web sites. Google Personalized Web Search: Frequently Asked Questions Microsoft is preparing a blog search engine(March 29 2004) Microsoft is developing a "blogbot" that will spider high quality web logs for information. There will be a new site presenting selected blog entries similar to the present MSN Newsbot. "We will look at credibility and popularity to get people the information they're looking for," says Karen Redetzki, a product manager for MSN. "There are some blogs that may not be relevant to people. Those blogs we may never index." There are already several search engines that gather headlines from blogs, including the popular Daypop search engine. Microsoft to build search site for blogs (Search Engine Journal) AlltheWeb powered by Yahoo!(March 26 2004) It has finally happened. The AlltheWeb search site is now powered by the new Yahoo! search engine. This means that that the Fast search engine that was born in Trondheim in Norway has come to an end. For searchers this is a sad day, as the AlltheWeb search engine was one of the very best on the Web, in many respects an equal to Google. That being said, it would make no sense for Yahoo! to keep as many as four search engines (Yahoo!, Inktomi, AlltheWeb and AltaVista). By merging the technologies into the new Yahoo! search engine, they will -- hopefully -- be able to get the best out of all of them. By the way, the Norwegian Fast search technology company is still going strong, selling search solutions to companies and Web sites. Fast sold its Web search unit to Overture (now owned by Yahoo!) last year. The death of AltaVista and AlltheWeb(March 1 2004) Pandia is sad to announce that the AltaVista and AlltheWeb search engines will cease to exist in the very near future. The sites will remain, but their search technology will be replaced by the new Yahoo! search engine. Read more about Yahoo's latest move. Yahoo! buys Kelkoo(March 26 2004, update March 28) Reuters reports that Yahoo! will buy the European shopping search engine Kelkoo for some 475 million Euro. Kelkoo is Europe's leading comparison shopping portal, with national versions targeting ten European countries. In European online shopping, only Ebay and Amazon is ahead of Kelkoo. The current company is based on the 2000 merger between the French Kelkoo and Norwegian Zoomit. Kelkoo is currently developing its search technology, refining a shopping search engine that goes beyond simple price comparisons and allows a broader search for products, services and vendors. The Kelkoo sites will remain separate properties for the foreseeable future. According to CNET Yahoo! will not lay off staff at Kelkoo, which will become a subsidiary of Yahoo. Kelkoo Chief Executive and founder Pierre Chappaz will continue to run the company. Lycos gives away new advanced toolbar(March 22 2004) Ok. A toolbar is a an extra set of buttons and forms added to your web browser (normally Explorer for Windows). A deskbar is a set of buttons and forms added to the desktop of your operating system (normally Windows). Obviously both kinds of software are suited for search tools. Google, for instance, has both a toolbar and a deskbar that let you fill in search queries. Lycos already has a HotBot deskbar. Now Lycos is presenting a toolbar that not only lets you search the Net using the HotBot search site; it also allows you to search the files of your own computer. The toolbar will look for information in the folders of the Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express mail programs, and will go through the content of your Microsoft Office, PDF, RTF, and text files, as well as your browser history file. There is also a pop-up ad blocker and a RSS news reader and searcher, and you may add your favorite sites to the toolbar. Pandia is impressed. You do need Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 running on Windows 98 or greater to use it, however. We are using Macs, and will have to stick to other tools for the time being. Lycos HotBot Offers Free DeskTop Toolbar (Information Today) Yahoo's new SmartView local search(March 10 2004) Yahoo! has added a new feature to its Yahoo! Maps site. Yahoo! Maps lets you search for maps over specific geographical areas and is especially useful for finding your way around in cities.
A "Web Search" link allows users to search for additional information regarding a particular shop, office, cinema etc. Yahoo! reports that users may also retrieve a map when searching for a particular address using the regular Yahoo! Search form. Given that map searches are limited to the US and Canada, we have not been able to test the service in Norway. Many webmasters are impressed, although some reports that the accuracy of the data seems to vary a lot. The new service fits in nicely with Yahoo!/Overture's plan to launch a local search pay per click advertising program later this spring. This new program will let advertisers define a geographic area in which their listings will appear in search results. Yahoo!/Overture will determine the location of the searchers by asking them for the relevant data through a registration process. And indeed, in order to get the best out of Yahoo! Maps you do have to register. Yahoo Press Release Google adds local search(March 18 2004) Google has launched a new feature called Google Local giving searchers access to neighborhood business listings, maps, directions, and related web pages. Read more about Google Local search. Ask Jeeves buys Excite(March 5 2004) Excite was once one of the major search engines. It was powered by its own search engine technology, and was not just a portal shell using the technology of others. Ask Jeeves has now decided to buy Excite from Interactive Search and use the portal for promoting its own search engine technology. Ask Jeeves owns and uses the Teoma search engine. Ask Jeeves will also acquire Interactive Search's iWon site, a peculiar "sweepstakes" search portal where users may win prizes for using its services. Included are also sites like My Way, My Search, My Web Search and MaxOnline. According to the news.com.au network Excite and iWon processed 700 million search requests during the fourth quarter, more or less the same as the 680 million search queries handled by Ask Jeeves. "We believe we are going from 3.5% of market share to a little over 7%," says Steve Sordello, chief financial officer of Ask Jeeves to SmartMoney. Ask Jeeves has for a long time been the smallest among the search engine giants. Now its competitors must take it much more seriously. See also Information Week and SmartMoney. Yahoo's new paid inclusion program(March 1 2004) Yahoo! and Overture's new paid inclusion program has led some webmasters to doubt the credibility of its search engine results. Pandia discusses the pro and cons of the Site Match paid inclusion program.
Free search engine newsletters from Pandia
You should also add the bimonthly Pandia Post newsletter to your list. It includes feature articles on search engines, searching and SE marketing. Enter your email address below and click on "Subscribe". For search engine marketers, we also highly recommend the Planet Ocean Search Engine News newsletter. Planet Ocean gives you an insiders view of SE development and search engine promotion techniques (cf. Pandia review).
| ||||
|
Home with News SE Blogs and Sites Search tools: Powersearch All-in-One Metasearch Newsfinder Shopping Search Radio Search People Search Kids & Teens On Web Searching: Search Tutorial Search Trends On Search Ranking: SE Marketing Tutorial SE Optimization Gateway On Enterprise Search On Pandia: Search this Site Pandia FAQ Store |
| | |
|
All-in-one lists of tools: Search engine optimization | Search engines and tools | People and email addresses | News search Pandia is a registered service mark of P&S Koch, Oslo, Norway. All other company and product names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. © P&S Koch 1998-2012. Comments or questions? Go to our contact page. |
This very stylish site requires Flash installed in order to work.
SmartView adds clickable icons to the maps: gateways to additional information on the relevant locations, including addresses and phone numbers, pricing, user ratings (for hotels), website addresses and links to driving directions.
