Pandia Search Engine Weblog May 2002

(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.

New SEO Consultants Directory

(May 29 2002) June 1st will see the birth of the SEO Consultants Directory, a Vertical Portal venture conceptualized and developed by Edward Lewis and his team at pageoneresults.

The goal is to provide "a targeted industry specific Vortal that contains a database of select Internet Marketing Professionals from around the world."

Search engine optimization companies that fulfill the requirements can be listed for free.

Traffick Monthly to close

(May 29 2002) Andrew Goodman of Traffick, "the portal of portals", has decided to close his Traffick Monthly newsletter on search engines and portals.

You may still have a chance to read some of his thoughts, though, as the publication will live on until December. It will then be replaced by new subscription based quarterly update called Page Zero Advisor. He will continue to publish articles on the Traffick web site.

Readers buying his report 21 Ways to Maximize ROI on Google AdWords Select before July 1st, will get a three-year subscription to the new newsletter, Goodman says.

FAST Data Search 3.0

(May 29 2002) Fast has released a new version of its search engine for companies.

The product is based on the technology used in the AllTheWeb search engine and is used by companies like Reuters, Reed Elsevier, and eBay for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, database OLTP systems, portals and more.

See press release and a very interesting Webmaster World discussion.

Amazon catalog search

(May 28 2002) Google recently launched a test version of its catalog search engine with an index generated from scanned catalog pages.

The huge online books-and-everything-else-store Amazon is now testing its own mail-order catalog service. The service is in the beta stage, but according to Amazon everything works, so you can start placing phone orders from the catalogs now.

To order goods customers must call the catalogs' phone numbers, which are listed by Amazon. Featured catalogs include home furnishings retailer French Country Living and jewelry sellers Cartier and Tiffany & Co.

To search for catalog items enter the name of the item in the search box you find on most pages. Amazon will highlight the words you searched for on relevant catalog pages. You can also browse Amazon categories like Arts & Hobbies and Lifestyle & Gifts.

Internet.com has more.
See also Amazon on the catalog service.

Euroseek resurrected

(May 25 2002) European searchers and webmasters should be aware of the fact that the Euroseek site has reappeared as a new European search directory. Additional search results are provided by Google.

Fast in trouble

(May 25 2002) The Norwegian search engine company Fast may be loosing an important part of its income, as the European Internet service provider KPNQwest has filed for protection under Dutch bankruptcy laws.

Pandia is not too worried, though.

Submitting your site for free

(May 25 2002) There are still some search engines and directories that accept free search engine submissions.

Guest Writer Paul Bruemmer gives you the facts on free search listings.

New Netscape Search

(May 22 2002, update May 23) As the first of the AOL Time Warner websites Netscape has started using Google as default search engine. At the moment the searcher is first presented with two Google AdWords tect ads properly maked "Sponsored Links".

At the top of the regular search results Netscape will include a few relevant links from AOL sites like CNN and Times. AOL.com is pected to switch to Google search results this summer

As Gary Price has noted, Netscape does not use the full Google database, nor is it possible to search for special file formats like pdf.

According to AOL Web Properties the site now has "a streamlined design and integration of relevant editorial content from AOL Time Warner properties". There is little about it that is streamlined, however. The word that springs to mind is cluttered. Fortunatley, this changes ones you get to the search results, which are presented in a clean, neat manner -- just the way we like it!

Google experiments

(May 21 2002)Do you want to know where Google is heading? Visit Google Labs, Google's technology playground where the company is testing -- we quote -- "a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time".

There is for instance a Google Glossary for find definitions for words, phrases and acronyms. Google Sets will automatically create sets of related items or terms based on a few examples. They are testing a voice based telephone search and a feature that lets you use keyboard shortcuts to navigate search results.

On academic search directories

(May 20 2002) There are definitely useful search directories out there beyond the realm of Yahoo!, the ODP and LookSmart.

Pandia takes a look at academic Web directories edited by librarians and researchers.

AllTheWeb includes PDF files

(May 20 2002) Virtual Acquisition reports that AllTheWeb -- following Google -- now includes Adobe Acrobat PDF-files in search results.

This is especially good news for researchers and librarians, as much of the scholarly and scientific material available on the Web is distibuted by the use of PDF-files.

There is at the moment no specific syntax that can limit a search to PDF-files only.

Yahoo! has now also started listing PDF-files in its search directory.

Google hires Dilbert...

(May 20 2002) Google announced today that the company has hired the well known Internet Business Counsultant Innovation, Marketing and Branding Company Dilbert.com, a division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, to redesign its front page and logo.

The face lift is a work in progress and can be seen on Google right now. Dilbert.com spokesman, Scott Adams, refuses to speak to Pandia about the matter.

Watch out, body builders, the nerds are taking over the world!

(And yes, there is -- of course -- merchandise...)

...while Mama can't wait

(May 20 2002) Intasys Corporation has redesigned its well known metasearch engine Mama.com. They have removed much of the clutter, giving the home page a cleaner and leaner look.

According to Mama, the new homepage is 35% faster, making load-time more manageable -- users with 56k modems will be able to load the page in only two seconds.

"This lightening up of the page was a necessity as search engine users become more discriminating, being more likely to go elsewhere than to wait for a slow page," the company says. "Avoiding superfluous images, such as curved headers and icons, and focusing more on pure html played a large part in the reduction."

We like the new look, and the site has certainly become more user friendly. On some of the result pages the sky scraper banner ad on the right hand side overlap the useful list of "related searches", though, but this may be due to the fact that we are using a Mac.

Mama continue to mix unmarked paid tet ads and regular search results.

RealNames to close

(May 13 2002) Gary Price reports that RealNames is to close. RealNames offered website owners to register so-called "Internet keywords", which Web users could enter in the browser address field instead of the regular URL. For a while you could just enter the word "Pandia" in the Microsoft Internet Explorer address field, and the browser would bring you here.

According to The Washington Post Microsoft has decided not to renew its exclusive contract with RealNames, forcing the company to close. The keywords will apparently continue to function until the end of June.

According to RealName founder Keith Teare Microsoft's reason for not renewing the deal is that they do not believe in "Naming", they believe in "search".

On his home page he writes that "So far as I can see this is a classic case of 'not invented here'. Microsoft dislike the product because they cannot control it."

He has added scribes notes of a recent meeting between Microsoft and RealNames, held in Redmond on Tuesday 7 May 2002.

The RealNames Internet keywords were not very well known, and few surfers actually used them.

Salvador Google

(May 10 2002) Google has great fun introducing holiday variations of its front page logo. On May 10 you could enjoy the Google tribute to surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

Google has a page full of older holiday logos. Apparently they are all designed by one of their employees, Dennis Hwang (Hwang Jung-moak), a 23-year-old computer artist from Korea. Korea Herald has more about him (thanks to Giacomo at Webmaster World for this link). See also AP News.

How Much Is Your Search Engine Marketing Budget?

(May 9 2002) Pandia guest writer Paul J. Bruemmer claims that many marketers are in the dark about marketing budgets and particularly about search engine marketing (SEM) allocations. Read his article.

Google launches i-Mode search engine

(May 8 2002) i-Mode is a Japanese system that gives you Internet access on your mobile phone, and it has -- unlike WAP in Europe -- been a huge success. Google has now developed a Web search engine for i-Mode compatible cellular phones.

Google says the search engine can translate a traditional webpage (HTML document) into a format that is readable. This means that it takes out most of the graphics, reformats the text and divides the webpage into parts that can be presented by the phone.

Webmaster World has more.

AllTheWeb plans new design

(May 8 2002) Fast is developing a new interface for the AllTheWeb search engine, and the very first alterations can be seen now. The changes are so far mainly cosmetic (although useful). Try out the "Narrow your search" feature, which suggests alternative and more narrow search queries.

AltaVista expands multimedia index

(May 7 2002) AltaVista reports that since January 1, 2002, the number of searches on their multimedia index have increased by 31 percent.

In response, the company has increased the size of its image,audio and video index by 73 percent. Moreover, they have commenced integrating all news images directly into the index itself - so that breaking news photos, maps, charts, etc. are immediately searchable.

AltaVista will continue to expand this index, also by including more file types.

A new issue of the Pandia Post out now!

(May 6 2002) The Pandia Post newsletter takes a look at the latest developments in the world of search engines and Internet searching:

BBC launches new search site

(May 3 2002) BBC has launched a new search engine based on the Google database. What makes it different from Google is the lack of advertising (there are neither banners nor text ads). Moreover, BBCi Search claims to be using "family friendly" search technology to detect and block offensive material.

BBC notes that the company will add "BBCi recommends" sites that benefit a UK audience, educate and entertain or are genuinely useful, are the best at what they do, are accurate and reliable sources of information, cover their subject area thoroughly and imaginatively, contain up-to-date information, and are easy to use and fast to load.

You may limit your search to UK sites only, and click on tabs to search the BBC sites or BBC News. The new search engine is part of the new version of the bbc.co.uk site renamed BBCi.

According to the Guardian pay-per-click search engines like Espotting and Overture are not amused. They will not benefit from having an ad-free publicly owned search engine competing with commercial search sites listing their text ads.

AOL to use the Google search engine

(May 1 2002) Another victory for Google. AOL, the largest Internet service provider in the world, will start using the Google search engine database and Google's pay per click text ads instead of Overture and Inktomi.

Pandia has more on the new Google/AOL deal.

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

Search Engine News Weblog Archive May 2002

Overture and Espotting expand in Europe