Pandia Search Engine Weblog June 2003

(June 28 2003) Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University has found that users typically visit only the first three results from a search query.

Moreover, when they have reached a Web page, one in five searchers stays for 60 seconds or less. 40 percent of searchers will have left the pages within three minutes.

"People make instantaneous judgments about whether to stay on a site, and if a site doesn't the give the right impression, users will bypass it," says Dr. Jim Jansen, assistant professor in Penn Stateís information sciences and technology. "A page has to be well-designed, easy to load and relevant to a searcher's needs."

54 percent of the users viewed only one page of results in each session. 19 percent went on to the second page, and no more than 10 percent looked at the third page of results.

About 55 percent of users took a look at one result only. More than 80 percent stopped after looking at three of the listed Web pages.

"For site developers, if you want to be looked at, it is absolutely critical that the abstract be crystal clear about the purpose of your Web site," Jansen says. "Eight out of 10 times, the abstract dissuades people from going to the site."

The report, which has been done by Jansen and professor Amanda Spink, was recently presented at at the 2003 International Conference on Internet Computing in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Overture to launch ContentMatch

(June 26 2003) Google is actively promoting its AdWords pay per click text ads beyond the sphere of search engines. Their latest effort is targeting smaller, but content rich, sites. Pandia is currently testing the new AdSense program (see right column for an example).

Pay per click giant Overture will not be left behind. On June 27 it will launch its new ContentMach program, adding Overture text ads to the feature sections of sites like the MSN. Only the highest bidders will be included, although advertisers may opt out from this service.

Overture says that charges on all Content Match clicks will automatically be discounted by 20 percent until September 21, 2003.

Google refines its toolbar

(June 26 2003) This week HotBot released its new search "deskbar" (see below). Now we are told that Google is preparing a new version of its popular toolbar.

It includes all the old features: direct access to the Google search engine, search limited to the site you are visiting, PageRank info and more.

The new version adds a popup blocker (for getting rid of those pesky popup ads), autofill for filling out Web forms, and a feature called "BlogThis" that lets you create a weblog post pointing to the page you are visiting.

The mark 2.0 of the Google toolbar is still in its beta phase, but you may test it if you want to.

The Google toolbar requires Windows 95 or higher with Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.

By the way, HotBot and Google are not the only ones launching new toolbars this week. Metasearch engine Dogpile has also presented a new tool of this kind.

Sources: GoogleGuy at Webmaster World and Search Engine Watch.

HotBot announces search toolbar

(June 24 2003) The toolbar concept is becoming increasingly popular. Search engine marketers all over the world is using the Google toolbar to search the Web and check their Page Rank. Alexa has a toolbar that lets you search the Web as well as getting additional information about the sites you are visiting.

Toolbars are normally integrated into the Web browser (normally Internet Explorer) or into the operating system itself.

HotBot, owned by Lycos, is now launching a new toolbar based on the open source "Dave's Deskbar".

The HotBot Quick-Search Deskbar gives searchers access to more than 200 search sites, many of them inaccessible by Web crawlers. This set includes dictionaries, as well as news and weather services. Moreover it includes commands that let you launch utilities like instant messenger, e-mail, calculators and more.

HotBot's version -- like Dave's original toolbar -- is installed directly into your Windows Explorer Taskbar.

Press release
See also: Search Engine Watch.

Sell More: 4 steps to better conversion rates

(June 23 2003) Yes, you may use search engines to get more visitors. But that is only the beginning. You must also encourage them to becoming buying visitors.

Steve Winkler looks at search engine marketing and conversion rates.

Vanity on the search engines

(June 20 2003) Number one on the search engines has become the equivalent of a Super Bowl ad, Pandia guest writer Andy Beal says in this article. Your company's very presence signals you are the best in your industry.

Read more about the search engine vanity phenomenon.

FindWhat buys Espotting

(June 18 2003) The American pay-per-click (PPC) text ad company FindWhat is to buy the European PPC search network Espotting for US$163m.

FindWhat claims that the combined group would service approximately 40,000 advertisers and generate combined revenues of more than US$140m in 2003.

FindWhat.com chairman and CEO Craig Pisaris-Henderson says that the company believes this "changes the landscape of the paid listings industry, creating a new international leader."

Although FindWhat lags behind the American PPC giants Overture and Google, the company is growing. And indeed, by acquiring Espotting, which is one of the leading PPC search engines in Europe, the company does gain momentum.

The main problem remains though: Many of the largest search sites and portals on both sides of the Atlantic are owned by competitors.

Source: netimperative.

MSN is preparing a new search engine

(June 18 2003) Given that the new "MSNBOT" has started indexing Web sites all over the Web, it is a good guess that Microsoft is preparing the introduction of a new search engine.

Read what Pandia has to say about MSN and the new search engine robot.

Tips and techniques for making your site accessible

(June 18 2003) Pandia Guest Writer Alex Horstmann takes a look at Web design and accessibility needs of the blind and other disadvantaged Internet surfers.

Pandia discusses the similarities between designing for the search engines and people with disabilities.

Fast acquires AltaVista enterprise search business

(June 18 2003) When Overture acquired both Fast's Web Search unit with its AlltheWeb search engine and the AltaVista search engine, the company laid the foundation for what can become one of the Net's most important search engines.

However, the Norwegian company Fast is still alive and kicking. It is now focusing on delivering search technologies to companies, which they may use for their Web sites, intranets and databases.

Here is an interesting swap: Fast is now acquiring the AltaVista enterprise search business from Overture!

According to Fast AltaVista’s customers will get uninterrupted support and maintenance on their current platform and "an opportunity to migrate to FAST Data Search".

There are no plans to integrate the AltaVista enterprise search technology with FAST Data Search, so it is a fair guess that Fast will ultimately abandon the AltaVista technology.

This is what Fast calls a consolidation of the enterprise search market, meaning that there will be fewer competitors.

The AltaVista image database grows from 400 to 540 million files

AltaVista has enlarged its multimedia index significantly. It now contains some 540 million image files and 11 million video and audio files (including MP3).

To access the multimedia search engine click on the "Image," "MP3 / Audio," or "Video" tabs at the AltaVista home page.

"With our launch of the largest multimedia resource on the Web, AltaVista is once again raising the standard for Internet users' search experience," says Jim Barnett, president of Web search at Overture. "We are committed to delivering innovative, new search technologies that build upon our long heritage of leadership in Web search."

That's all very well. But we would like to know whether this new index will be merged with the AlltheWeb multimedia databases.

Bookmarking the English language version of Google

(June 14 2003) Google has started using automatic redirect scripts directing non-US users to the relevant national versions of the Google site.

For us in Norway this is indeed a nuisance, not only because some of us would like to refer to the English language version, but also because some of the functionality is missing. English speaking users living abroad may also find it hard to use the version found in -- let's say -- a Japanese Internet cafe.

In order to help users out with this problem, Google has added a link to the US version on the front page. However, this does not solve the problem of bookmarking the US site, as the URL (www.google.com) is the same.

There is a way around this problem. Non-US citizens who want to bookmark the original version of google.com, may use the following URLs:

Websearch: http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en
Image search: http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en

And if you are interested, this is what it looks like in Norwegian: http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=no. Replace "no" with another country code to get other national versions.

AOL adds new image search

(June 14 2003) AOL has added image search to its online services. It's based on the Google image search engine, and functions very much in the same way.

The result pages present scaled down versions of the pictures themselves, and a click on a picture brings up a split screen, with the original Web page in the lower part, and some information on where the picture has been found in the upper frame.

A click on the sized down picture in the upper frame brings forth the picture in its original size (as in Google), although sometimes we are presented with an Adobe GoLive LassoStudio logo only.

The filter for offensive content is permanently on. Resourceshelf reports that AOL is only using a small proportion of the Google image database, and active users of this service will therefore prefer to stay with the original.

GoogleGuy answers

(June 12 2003) The Webmaster World discussion forum on search engines and Internet marketing is unique in one respect: One of the most active participants is actually a representative for Google, and a very outspoken one as well.

He is now answering some interesting questions over at Webmaster World.

Pandia does some reading.

New search engine patents

Gary Price has put up a list of 19 US search engine oriented patents or patents applications awarded since April 15, 2003 at his ResourceShelfPLUS site. What it shows is that "information retrieval research" is not limited to the search engine companies.

Microsoft, which -- mind you -- does not own the search engine powering its own MSN portal, is developing a system for detecting duplicate documents in Web crawls, presumably in order to be able to filter out identical sites from search results and stop the use of related spam techniques.

Amazon has developed a system for search query auto completion, meaning that the site will try to guess what you are searching for and complete popular queries for you.

There are also patents from Apple, Time Warner and IBM.

Old timer AltaVista, now part of the Overture conglomerate, has patented a "method of ranking a plurality of pages identified during a search of a linked database". It is actually a new variant of the search engines' common attempt to identify authoritative sites and important "hubs". Links from such sites count more in the algorithm determining the order of search results.

See ResourceShelfPLUS for more patents and applications.

Google text ads on European Tripod

(June 6 2003) Google is to distribute Google AdWords pay per click text ads on Lycos Tripod sites. Tripod is Lycos Europe's service for free homepage building, and includes some four million member pages the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The UK and German sites got their text ads on June 3.

According to Google these pages generate approximately 450 million to 500 million page views per month.

The Google AdWords text ads presented on the Google search site are generated on the basis of the search query. In the Tripod case, however, there is no search query, and Google will have to analyze the content on the page on the fly, before it generates the relevant ads.

The ads appear in a 140 pixel wide frame on the right-hand side of each member page.

Does it work? Well, most of the time, but not always. Take a look at the "Virtual Kingdom" Tripod page, for instance. There is no connection between the content of the site and the content of the ads.

But then again, even we find it hard to determine what this site is about. It seems that Google has found no relevant ads has determined to fill the right hand column with ads for charities.

AlltheWeb corrects misspellings

AlltheWeb is now following up with its own spell checker.

When relevant AlltheWeb will add a link over the search results asking -- for instance -- "Did you mean Mississippi" if you searched for Misisippi. Click on the corrected version and you will get a new and hopefully more relevant set of results.

Lycos and Infoseek Japan tie the knot

(June 4 2003) Infoseek Japan and Lycos Japan have decided to merge their portals into one on the 1st of September this year. The main reason is apparently to get a stronger position vis-a-vis the Japanese version of Yahoo!, which is doing very well at the moment.

Services that are now offered by the Lycos portal will be transferred to the Infoseek site. Both sites are owned by Rakuten Inc., Japan's biggest Internet shopping mall operator.

Lycos is powered by AlltheWeb in most countries. In Japan, however, the search engine used has been Wisenut, owned by the LookSmart company. Wisenut is now loosing its foothold in Japan, as the new unified portal will be powered by Infoseek.

Search engine old timers will remember the American Infoseek, and the Japanese version is indeed an offshoot of that search engine. However, today it is purely a Japanese endeavor.

Sources: The Japan Times and Webmaster World.

Search Engine Optimization Basics Part 4 – Meta Tags

(June 3 2003)

As part of the continued series "Getting Back To Search Engine Optimization Basics", Pandia Guest Writer Andy Beal takes a closer look at meta description and meta keywords tags.

Do you still need them and what benefits do they bring?

Google wins over SearchKing in PageRank case

(June 2 2003) Last year Searchking sued Google for reducing the PageRank of may of its member sites. Now the court has dismissed the case.

Pandia has more about the SearchKing/Google controversy.

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

Search Engine News Weblog Archive June 2003

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