Search Engine News Weblog Archive June 2002

Below find older entries to the Pandia search engine news weblog 2002.

For the latest search engine news, go to the Pandia Search World page or the Pandia Search Central home page.

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Nipponese Overture

(June 28 2002) Pay per click search engine Overture has opened office in Tokyo, Webmaster World reports. Overture Japan will apparently start offering their services in late 2002 or early 2003. Among the main sites using Overture text ads will be Goo and Lycos Japan.

BizTech has a story on the case (not that we understand a word of it!).

Jeeves' World Cup stunt

(June 26 2002) Clearly inspired by Google's many holiday logos, Ask Jeeves has introduced a special soccer World Cup logo.

It's preposterous, of course. Jeeves would never have let himself be talked into playing soccer. Polo, maybe. Cricket? Certainly! But never, ever, a game like football. Jeeves is definitely a club person, not a pub person.

We wonder what P.G. Wodehouse would have said ;)

Overture introduces auto bidding

(June 26 2002) Pay per click giant Overture has replied to the challenge made by Espotting and Google's pay per click text ad services by introducing a new bidding system.

On Overture advertisers bid for the top position in search engine results. However, the competitors may change their bids at any time, meaning that advertisers will have to follow the development day by day, if not hour by hour.

One common problem is that one advertiser may outbid the No. 1 advertiser for a certain query by a few cents, only to find that the competitor lowers his or her bid right after. Advertiser No. 1 is therefore paying much more than necessary to keep his or her position.

Overture is now following Google and the European pay per click search engine Espotting in introducing an automatic bidding system.

With this new feature advertisers will always get the highest position for their bid without paying more than 1 cent above the bid of the next highest competitor. Auto bidding allows you to set the maximum you're willing to pay for each click.

A tutorial can be found at the Overture site.

The new system has been received with mixed feelings in the search engine optimization community.

Teoma toolbar is ready

(June 25 2002) The new Teoma browser search toolbar is ready for downloading.

It includes several features, including a search form for using the Teoma search engine, a dictionary search, and a function that lets you highlight your search terms as they appear on the page.

You may also email any web page with a click of a button.

The toolbar requires Internet Explorer for Windows.

Lycos Europe is considering selling Nettavisen

(June 25 2002) Lycos Europe is considering selling the Norwegian news and search portal Nettavisen.

"Several companies have contacted us with the intention of buying Nettavisen," Lycos Europe's Johann Grabisch says to the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

Yet another search engine marketing directory

(June 24 2002) INT Media, the company behind Search Engine Watch, is launching a new search engine marketers directory on July 16. A listing in SEMlist.com is free to all SEO companies.

Teoma to launch search engine toolbar

(June 23 2002) According to Gary Price Teoma/Ask Jeeves will present a new search engine toolbar.

This is a piece of software that adds a separate toolbar to the Web browser, giving you direct access to a search form, as well as various other functions.

The most well known search toolbar is probably the one made by Google. The Teoma toolbar will allow users to e-mail any web page and message to a friend or colleague.

BTLookSmart launches pay per click service

(June 21 2002) LookSmart's British sibling has launched a new pay-per-click program allowing companies to bid for top placement in search directory results.

Unlike the American version, BidSmart is an auction based system, where the company that is willing to pay the most for a certain search query gets the highest result listing. Minimum bid amount is 5 pence.

See BidSmart FAQ and press release.

Upcoming search engine conferences

(June 21 2002, updated June 23) Do you want to learn more about Web searching and search engine marketing? Meet the experts face to face on one of the upcoming search engine conferences.

Espotting launching in Spain

(June 20 2002) European pay per click search engine Espotting has opened a Spanish service. Spanish Espotting will deliver paid text ads to Yahoo! Europe and others. Espotting is to open in Italy in September.

Google at AOL.co.uk

(June 20 2002) The Google/AOL deal, where Google replaces Inktomi as AOL's main search engine results provider, is beginning to take effect. The British version of AOL is now presenting listings from Google.

Fast has the largest index

(June 18 2002) Fast has announced a new and larger search engine database, counting more than 2 billion Web pages. This makes it the largest index of its kind.

Pandia has more.

SEO Best Practices for Web Site Design

(June 18 2002) Most designers and webmasters know the importance of building a site that will attract search-engine traffic, but not all of them are proficient in search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, guest writer Paul J. Bruemmer argues.

FAST is negotiating with Yahoo! and MSN

(June 15 2002) The Norwegian site Hegnar Online reports that Fast is one of the three "finalists" negotiating with Yahoo! on becoming Yahoo!'s next search engine results provider. Today Yahoo! delivers listings from Google if it cannot find relevant results in its own search directory database. Yahoo! will decide on July 1st.

Knut Magne Risvik of Fast reckons that Google and Fast are the ony real alternatives, probably meaning that Yahoo! no longer considers using Inktomi an option.

Microsoft is also considering finding a new search engine results provider for MSN.com, one of the major portals on the Web. Fast has for long time longed to take this account away from Inktomi. MSN will decide later this year.

See also: Webmaster World discussion.

Yahoo! Express launched in Denmark

(June 15 2002) Yahoo! has launched a pay for inclusion service for the Danish version of Yahoo!. Unlike the subscription system used by the American version of Yahoo!, the Danes only ask for a one time fee of 1500,- Danish kroner.

Overture and Lycos Europe

(June 15 2002) According to a new two year agreement between Overture and Terra Lycos Europe, Overture will deliver pay per click search results to the Lycos sites in the UK, Germany and France.

Overture listings will appear on Lycos UK beginning in the third quarter of 2002, and on Lycos's properties in Germany and France beginning in the first quarter of 2003.

"Dashing, Jeeves!"

(June 15 2002) The American version of Ask Jeeves has followed its British sibling and adopted a simpler and more easy to use interface.

"An exceedingly smooth bit of work, and a credit to you, Jeeves," Wooster said. "This is topping!"

"We strive to satisfy, Sir," Jeeves replied.

FAST reaches 2 billion documents

(June 14 2002) As promised to Pandia last year Fast has now finally got a database of over 2 billion Web pages and documents.

Does it matter? Well, the size does not necessarily improve the quality and relevance of search results as such, but if you are looking for a particular topic demanding a very precise search query, a larger index may indeed bring more relevant results.

TopDog software controversy

(June 12 2002, updated June 14) The well known search engine analyzer/submitter software TopDog of DC Micro Development, Inc. is allegedly being pirated.

Pandia has more.

FAST gets extended deal with Scandinavia Online

(June 10 2002) Scandinavia Online (SOL) is the leading Internet portal network in Northern Europe. SOL has extended its relationship with FAST that now provides worldwide web search results to all SOL portal properties, which service over 7.5 million unique monthly users. Read FAST's press release.

Google pirates

(June 9 2002) Voelspriet tells the story of some 1250 Google pirates on the Net. These pirates want to steal a piece of Google's immense popularity by including "google" or something very similar in their domain name. See for instance googl.com.

"We evaluate potential infringements on a case-by-case basis," Nate Tyler of Google says. "For a few examples of legal action we have taken, you may search the decisions available at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrpdec.htm.''

Yahoo! redesign

(June 9 2002) CNET reports that Yahoo! is working on a redesign of its home page, mainly because of pressure from advertisers who want a larger piece of the front page real estate.

It seems, however, that Yahoo! will also use this opportunity to simplify the main design, while at the same time keeping much of the present look and feel.

Google the Giant

(June 6 2002) Google is twice as popular as Yahoo!, according to recent research.

Pandia has more on the recent OneStat.com survey.

Google prize winner

(June 4 2002) Search Engine Watch reports that Google has awarded $10,000 prize to a programmer for a program that lets users to search for web pages within a specified geographic area.

The search function has not been integrated into Google.

Google document search

(June 4 2002) Voelspriet has added a special Google document search page letting you search for special document types (PDF, Word, Excel etc.) using separate forms. Just in case you cannot remember that search syntax.

Overture and Espotting expand in Europe

(May 31 2002) fantoMaster reports that pay-per-click search engine giants Overture and Espotting are expanding their operations in Europe. Espotting will launch a Spanish operation in June, while Overture will launch a French service in the third quarter of 2002.

Go to weblog search engine news entries for 2001
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Go to news messages for 1999.
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