Pandia Post No. 22 2004 Recent news and articles

(August 6 2004) Microsoft is doing it, Google is doing it, Apple is doing it. Now also Yahoo! is preparing a "total search" desktop appliance merging the search capabilities of their search engine with at tool aimed at finding files, emails and documents on your own computer and network.

All of these companies believe that they need to control your desktop in order to keep you as a searcher, because in the end one search form is all you need. We are not so sure about that. The success of Google proves that a large number of searchers is willing to use several services if that's what it takes to get relevant, high quality, search results.

Yahoo! will apparently also let you use the desktop search tool to search its personalized online services, including e-mail, calendar, and picture hosting. You can rest assured that the other actors will deliver similar features. Google is developing GMail and has bought an online photo service. Apple already has its combination of iLife software and .mac online services, and they can all be reached by using next year's Spotlight search tool.

Microsoft's desktop tool may also be ready next year, although the total integration of search and operative system will have to wait until the next incarnation of Windows, Longhorn, which is expected in 2006. Yahoo! has not indicated when their tool will be ready.

See also InfoWorld: Yahoo to take on Microsoft in desktop search. See also Pandia's article on The Google Puffin desktop appliance.

Yahoo! expands local search

(August 5 2004) In March Yahoo! 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.

That service is still there, but Yahoo! has gone one step further by adding a regular local search search engine for the U.S. and Canada. They have a somewhat similar service at the Australian Yahoo! site.

There are two search forms, one for your regular search query and one for entering the geographical destination (city, state, US zip-code). There is a"Save Locations" feature that makes Yahoo! remember where you live. There is also a link to Yahoo's Maps site that brings up maps of the places listed in the results.

Yahoo! Local Search is not a finished product, but this beta version certainly looks promising,

US version of MSNBC Newsbot

(July 27 2004) MSN has launched a beta version of its US Newsbot service. The service has been available for some time in the UK and other countries. The MSNBC Newsbot is an news service very much like Google news, and gathers news from over 4,800 online sources -- most of them selected by the Moreover news service -- and presents them on a special "news front page". The selection is done automatically by a computer, not by human editors.

Newsbot will remember the stories you have clicked on and will try to adapt selection of the headlines to your preferences. Hence the MSNBC "front page" will ultimately be tailored to your own taste and interests. In order to be able to do this, MSNBC apparently makes use of cookies. MSN identify you by your computer, and not your name or any other personal information. If you want to see what Newsbot would look like if the company did not track which stories you had clicked on, you can delete the items in your history file.

At the moment there are separate sites for Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland (French and German),United Kingdom, Latin America, United States (English and Spanish), South Africa, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

For more information, see MSNBC on Newsbot which also contains a list of links to MSNBC Newsbots in other countries. See also Resourceshelf post and Search Engine Watch.

Google to launch audio and video search feature?

(July 15 2004) The New York Post reports that Google is planning to include technology that enables you to search the Net for audio and video clips.

This was apparently revealed during a talk that Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page had with investors and media executives.

Both AltaVista and AlltheWeb (owned by Yahoo!) and AOL already offer search for audio and video clips. As more and more web surfers have sufficient bandwidth to enjoy multimedia online, it might be necessary for Google move in the same direction to keep their position as market leader.

The main problem with online audio file search engines has been that so many of the files available online are illegal MP3 files. Any company providing access to such files risks angering the record companies. However, the establishment of new paid services like the Apple Music Store should make it possible to make a "legal" search engine worth while.

Also, Google recently bought the company Picasa and so got their hands on technology that lets the user administer and exchange digital photos.

This technology will be used to facilitate the publication of photos in Google's web log service Blogger. But it can easily play a role if Google decides to launch a multimedia feature.

Apple to add total search

(June 30 2004) Microsoft is, as Pandia has previously reported, planning to add what we call "total search" to their next incarnation of the Windows operating system, codenamed "Longhorn", which should be ready in 2006.

"Total search" allows you to use the same search form and search technology to search the Web as well as your own network and hard drive.

The Apple Macintosh computer already has a program that lets you do something similar, called Sherlock.

However, Sherlock is to be replaced by a new feature called Spotlight in the next version of the Mac OS. This version is known as "Tiger" by insiders. Apple goes for cats, Microsoft likes cattle.

Spotlight will be able to search the content of any kind of data file.

Apple will apparently add a new search form to the upper right hand corner of the desktop. Tiger should be ready next year, well ahead of Longhorn.

Source: The International Herald Tribune.

Yahoo! and AlltheWeb add suggested searches

(June 26 2004) Gary Price reports that Yahoo! has added a new feature to its search engine results: search term suggestions. In this way Yahoo! helps you with alternative search queries that might give more targeted results.

This is no way a new invention, but it is good to see that one of the major search engines make use of it. Yahoo! has implemented a similar feature at its AlltheWeb search sites (which is now powered by the same search engine as Yahoo!).

To get alternative search phrases at Yahoo! you make use of the list of "related searches" below the search form. Search Engine Lowdown has provided the following link to an example page including such related results.

Click on "Show all" at the end of the list to get a complete presentation of related searches. The list of related searches does not appear for more complex queries.

The AlltheWeb "Refine your search" feature is a little bit more advanced. First of all AlltheWeb will give you more alternatives right away. Moreover, there is a + button that lets you add the alternative keywords to your present query and a - button that lets you subtract them.

These features will obviously help searchers getting more targeted search queries. They can also be used by search engine marketers looking for alternative keyword phrases for which to optimize their pages.

Get your own Google!

(June 19 2004) Google just goes on innovating. This time they have extended their Adsense program to include free, branded versions of the Google search engine.

This means that you can set up a Google search form on your own site. The search form will generate search engine result pages with your logo and color scheme, hosted by Google.

These search result pages will include Google Adwords, i.e. pay per click text ads. Any sites taking part in the program gets a slice of this revenue.

The service has been favorably received by many webmasters, although there are complaints about sloppy search form HTML-coding and the limited ability to control the design of the search engine results pages and the search box.

Is there any point in adding such a search form to your website? Probably not. Most searchers go to dedicated search engine sites and portals to search the web in general, not to content or business sites.

However, there is another way of putting it to use. If your site is indexed by Google, you may also use this search form as a site search engine. The ads served will in general be very relevant to the content of your site, leading to higher click through rates and more revenue.

We have made our own Google search engine, although this one will probably not be a permanent Pandia feature.

Search Engine Watch launches discussion forum

(June 3 2004) Search Engine Watch is probably the most influential site on search engines, well edited by SE expert Danny Sullivan. So, when Search Engine Watch launches their own search engine discussion forums, search engine enthusiasts should take notice.

Our initial question is whether the Net needs yet another forum for Web search and search engine marketing discussions. There are so many of them, including the world leader Webmaster World. It is probably a silly question. We prefer different pubs and different cafes, and each of the forums have their special atmosphere. New forums will die if people don't show up.

The new forum is still in its beta test phase, and the number of interventions are not yet comparable to some of the larger forums. However, Danny has managed to recruit some good moderators, so this is definitely a forum to keep an eye on.

The forum is organized like most forums of this kind. There are separate sections for search engines, marketing strategies and general search engines. All of the major search engines have their own sub forums.

Search Engine Watch Forums

New online search engine optimization college

(May 20 2004) Kalena Jordan, the editor of the highly recommended High Search Engine Ranking blog, has launched a new online search engine marketing college.

Search Engine College is an online training institution offering instructor-led short online courses, online classes and downloadable self-study courses in search engine optimization.

"I was constantly being asked the same questions by webmasters about how to make their sites search engine friendly", says Kalena. "I was also asked if I knew of any online institutions that offered courses in search engine optimization. I didn't, so my industry colleagues and I decided to create one."

Kalena & Co is targeting marketing executives and small business owners responsible for promoting their company's web site , as well as students or unemployed persons wanting to become search engine optimization experts.