Pandia Search Engine Weblog December2002

(December 25 2002) It has been an exciting year search engine wise, and 2002 is not yet over.

Yahoo! recently decided to start using Google results by default instead of listings from its own directory. The idea was clearly that high quality search results will bring back visitors, and the number of visitors is -- ultimately -- what makes a search portal tick. For all practical purposes all Yahoo! sites now default to Google results, the only exception being that in some listings the page description is replaced by the Yahoo! directory description.

Many observers have, however, suspected that this was not the end of the story. It wasn't. Yahoo! has now decided to buy another International search engine, Iktomi. Inktomi provides search results to sites like MSN.com and (partly) to Hotbot.com.

"Yahoo!'s vast reach and its unmatched breadth and depth of services, combined with Inktomi's outstanding engineering expertise and leading search technology, will help us achieve our goal of providing users with the most comprehensive, relevant and highest quality search solutions on the Web," said Terry Semel, Yahoo! chairman and CEO.

This is, of course, the kind of thing CEOs are expected to say in press releases. What he fails to say anything about, however, is how Inktomi data will be used on the Yahoo! sites.

We suspect that Yahoo! may go for a mix of Inktomi and Google results, effectively turning Yahoo! into a metasearch engine. However, Yahoo! may also decide to drop Google in favor of Inktomi.

This will make life more interesting for search engine optimizers, who were beginning to despair over a search world totally dominated by Google.

Fast has improved the quality of search results

(December 19 2002) As Webmasters already have realized, Fast has changed their search engine algorithm - and for the better. Search results have improved, giving Fast powered search sites (AlltheWeb, Lycos and others) a stronger position vis a vis Google.

Fast reports that it has added the use of the proximity of search terms within a document to its ranking algorithm. Apart from this, the algorithm remains -- as always -- a closely guarded secret.

Fast has also added Microsoft Word documents to the formats covered in Web search results. Each Word document is labeled (MS Word) next to the title on a search results page, and searchers may also restrict searches to Word documents only by using an option on the page for advanced searching at AlltheWeb.

Teoma included in more metasearch engines

(December 18 2002) The Teoma search engine, which is owned by Ask Jeeves, will now supply search results to the Excite, Dogpile and WebCrawler metasearch engines.

These are all owned by Infospace, which also owns the Metacrawler search site. Metacraler already contains data from Teoma.

Metasearch engines are search engines that collect results from a large number of search engines and merge them into one list of results. These services were originally unpopular amongst the regular search engines, as they often made use of their bandwidth without paying for it.

These days search engines make deals with metasearch companies in order to make them include their engine on the list of sources.

This is partly because of direct payment, but also because the search engine companies use metasearch inclusion as an argument in support for their paid inclusion services.

Hence, if you pay Teoma to get more pages included in their index, these are more likely to show up on Infospace sites.

Press release.
See also the Pandia metasearch engine

Brand new version of HotBot.com

(December 16 2002) Terra Lycos has launched new version of HotBot. The new HotBot.com lets searchers decide whether to use one of four search engines when doing a search: FAST, Google, Inktomi or Teoma.

Searchers may build a custom home page that includes the advanced search filters they want, their prefered formatting, or they may apply CSS-skins in the same way as on Fast's AlltheWeb search engine.

Among the advanced features available are:

On the other hand, it seems no longer possible to use advanced Boolean expressions, as in the "old" Inktomi-based HotBot.

Resourceshelf has a more detailed review.

Copywriting: Key to Search Engine Visibility and Conversions

(December 16 2002) High rankings in search engines can bring you lots of targeted traffic, but will you be ready to convert those leads when they get there?

Paul J. Bruemmer takes a look at search engine and visitor friendly copywriting.

Google tests new shopping site

(December 15 2002) Google is testing a new shopping site called Froogle. (For those of you who are not that familiar with the English language, "Frugal" means "thrifty". They do definitely have a sense of humor, these Californians).

Froogle uses the standard Google's search technology for locating stores that sell goods or services and tries to take you to the relevant purchase page.

If you are already listed in Google and you have optimized your pages for Google, chances are that your site will be well represented in Froogle results as well.

Froogle also includes product information submitted electronically by merchants. However, this beta release of Froogle only supports U.S. online stores with English-language websites and products priced in U.S. dollars.

Google underlines that Froogle's search results are generated automatically, i.e. you cannot nuy your way to the top. You may buy text ads to appear on the same page, however.

Read what Google has to say about Froogle and the special options for merchants.

Is a Yahoo.com listing worth the money?

(December 1 2002) Yahoo.com (ie.e the American version of the Yahoo! directory) is one of the most important search destinations on the Web. A listing in this directory of hand-picked sites could bring in a lot of visitors, meaning business for companies and influence for informational sites.

Recently Yahoo.com switched their default search listings (i.e. the results that are presented when you use the regular search form) from Yahoo! directory results to results that are more or less identical to the results found by the Google search engine. No wonder, really, as the new Yahoo! search is powered by Google.

Suddenly Webmasters that had paid an annual fee of nearly 300 US dollars found that their listings were buried deep down in regular results. Yes, their listings can still be found on the relevant category pages. You will, for instance, find Pandia in the "How to search the Web" category. However, only a fraction of Yahoo! users click their way down the category hierarchy in order to find sites. Most of them use the search form and go straight for the regular Web site results.

This is why some search engine optimization experts, Pandia included, now question the value of a Yahoo! listing.

"Honestly," the SEO experts from Planet Ocean exclaimed, "Yahoo can't be serious! ...We can't imagine what possessed them to render their own directory inconsequential by providing a disincentive for new businesses to get listed and an impetus for existing customers to exit en-masse when their listings come due for renewal starting in January 2003."

You could argue that you get value for your money if you get a sufficient number of visits from the relevant category page. One visitor every day from this page will cost you some 80 cents a day. If you get more, the price per click through will be lower.

However, the best way of getting good results in the regular search results will be to optimize your site for Google. A Yahoo! listing may boost your Google ranking somewhat, but in most cases you will probably be able to get decent results without a Yahoo! entry (you should try to get a Open Directory listing, though).

So what is a webmaster to do? We would recommend that you stay away from Yahoo! if you have a tight budget. If you already have Yahoo! listings, you should renew them if you weblog clearly proves that your links on the Yahoo! category pages bring in sufficient traffic. If not, you should seriously consider dropping your Yahoo! listing and concentrate on improving your Google rankings instead.

If you have a more generous budget, you may consider keeping your listings in order to retain the effect they have on your sites' link popularity. We are not sure if it's worth the money, though.

However, we asked SEO expert Paul J. Bruemmer for a second opinion.

Click here to read Bruemmer's article!

Espotting launching in Scandinavia

(December 15 2002) The European pay-per-click search engine, Espotting Media, has launched new services in Scandinavia. Sweden and Denmark were covered this week, while the Norwegian version will launch in the spring of 2003. Espotting text ads will appear on FAST (AlltheWeb), Yahoo Sweden and Denmark and Lycos.

Go to Espotting Sweden, Norway or Denmark.

AgentWebRanking 2.6

(December 15 2002) The French search engine ranking program, AgentWebRanking, has also presented a new version, the AgentWebRanking Business Editon. The Business Editon will replace the previous freeware "Light" version.

AgentWebRanking checks your rankings in the search engines by emulating a regular Web browser. For more information, see the AgentWebRanking home page.

New Google Labs features

Google has added two new features to its experimental Labs section: Google Viewer and Google Webquotes.

The Google Viewer presents search results as a continuous scrolling slide show of Web page snap shots, as each Web page is opened in a special frame. You may control the presentation by using buttons for "stop", "forward","back" etc. Each page is combined with a text presentation.

Google WebQuotes adds comments from other Web sites to your search result listings. According to Google this offers "a convenient way to get a third party's opinion about each of the returns for your search, providing you with more information about that site's credibility and reputation."

It's actually quite impressive! Click here to see what the world has to say about Pandia.

Search Engine Commando adds domain monitor

The Search Engine Commando search engine submission and ranking software will add a domain monitor to its next version, version 3.1.

Search Engine Commando will automatically monitor any number of domain names for changes to their registration records, and send emails of each change.

The feature can be used for preventing unauthorized transfers and for keeping an eye on domains that are about to expire. It should work for nearly all domain names (TLD and ccTLD) around the world, according to the SEC team.

The new version should be ready by next week, and owners of Search Engine Commando 3.0 will get the update for free.

Search Engine Commando home page.

My introduction to search engine optimization

(December 8 2002) Pandia has asked a newcomer to the search engine promotion industry, Michelle Stoltz, to give us a fresh view of the ins and outs of optimization and marketing.

"I was under the impression that search engine optimization involved some seriously strenuous hard coding (visions of Java programming)," she says, "but instead it involves a combination of things that are all interrelated; how to make the Website easier to navigate around for a potential user, while at the same time being visually appealing with good, growing content and still be spider friendly."

Click here to read the first part of her SEO diary.

Upcoming search engine conferences

(December 1 2002, update December 8) Nothing compares to direct communication face to face, even in this digital age. That is why we at Pandia are happy to offer an overview of upcoming search engine conferences and workshops once in a while.

Click here to read about the latest conferences and workshops on searching and search engine marketing.

AlltheWeb skin contest

(December 6 2002) The Norwegian search engine AlltheWeb has announced the winners of their Alchemist design contest.

CSS-savvy coders were asked to come up with new alternative AlltheWeb home page designs (cf. our article on the use of cascading style sheets at AlltheWeb).

Do take a look! If you are using this high quality search engine regularly, you may even consider switching to one of these new lay outs.

The first price winner is Reuven Cohen, the man behind the "RetroActive" design. We also admire Steve Mulder's "Medieval Manuscript".

BT LookSmart to close

(December 5 2002) LookSmart has announced that they and their British partner, the BT Group (formerly British Telecommunications, plc), have agreed to close their joint venture, BT LookSmart, which operates in the United Kingdom and Japan.

LookSmart will continue to operate independently in both markets and will integrate parts of BT LookSmart into the regular LookSmart services.

"This sensible resolution of the joint venture and related debt significantly strengthens LookSmart's balance sheet," says Dianne Dubois, chief financial officer of LookSmart. "The company is now substantially debt free and continuing to record strong growth driven by LookSmart's listings business."

Please note: The links on archived search engine news pages will not be updated!

Search Engine News Weblog Archive December 2002

Yahoo! buys Inktomi