Search Engine News Weblog Archive November 2003

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

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

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Google the Giant

(November 26 2003) OneStat.com has released new statistics that confirm that Google is the largest search site in the world.

Google's global usage share has reached has increased from 55.2 percent to 56.1 percent since OneStat's previous report.

According to OneStat the seven largest search engines on the web are:

1. Google 56.1%
2. Yahoo 21.5%
3. MSN Search 9.4%
4. AOL Search 3.7%
5. Terra Lycos 2.3%
6. Altavista 1.9%
7. AskJeeves 1.6%

It should be added that at the present time Yahoo! is actually using the Google index for their regular search results, bringing Google's coverage up to 77 percent. Then add the searchers visiting AOL, another Google-powered portal.

The figures are based on statistics gathered from user of OneStat's web site analysis software, i.e. on a sample of 2 million visitors divided into 20,000 visitors of 100 countries each day. Given that OneStat might not sell equally well in all countries, readers should be warned that the figures may not be totally representative for a global web audience.

Webmaster World announces PubConference VI

(November 25 2003) The Webmaster World search engine discussion forum is arranging another pub conference, this time in Orlando, Florida, on February 26 to 28 2004.

Pandia has more about this search engine marketing learning event.

MSN is testing a new search service for news

(November 18 2003) Microsoft is testing a new news service -- clearly an answer to Google news search.

It has been developed in co-operation with Moreover, the company that the delivers the news headlines you find in the right hand column of this page.

The new feature is called Newsbot, and MSN is so far testing British, French, Italian, and Spanish versions.

Like Google, MSN Newsbot generates the selection of headlines on the "front page" automatically. Pictures are often included.

You can personalize the news site based on your interests, so that the Newsbot selects stories from news sources and topics you have been interested in in the past.

It is to early to deliver any judgment on the quality of the new service, these are -- after all -- beta versions.

MSN is clearly investing much money in its new search adventure, which may pay off. However, apart from the personalization feature, there is not much new to the Newsbot site. The motto is clearly: "Why innovate, when Google can do that for you!"

On the other hand. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, and if you are good at doing it, you may actually deliver high quality products and services and win the market.

Microsoft copied the Apple Macintosh OS interface when replacing MS DOS with Windows. A very wise move, indeed! If the new Microsoft search engine is as good as Google's when it is launched maybe sometimes next year, MSN may actually take the search engine throne away from Google. That's a big "if", however.

MSN about Newsbot

Search Engine Optimization Basics Part 6 – Content

(November 13 2003) As part of the continued series "Getting Back To Search Engine Optimization Basics", Andy Beal takes a closer look at how to optimize the regular content of webpages.

Previous articles in this series include the importance of search engine marketing (SEM), effective keyword research, title tag formats, meta tag use, as well as search engine submissions.

Read the latest article!

Google Acquires Sprinks -- Consequences for Advertisers

(November 12 2003) A few weeks ago, pay per click (PPC) giant, Google, purchased Sprinks. Sprinks advertisements, which were distributed over the About.com media network, will be now be replaced by Google Adwords advertisements within the next month.

Special Guest Writer Ilana Grunberg takes a look at Sprinks, the advantages of Google Adwords, and discusses what will happen to Sprinks accounts.

The Google Deskbar

(November 7 2003)Google launches a test version of a search tool for the Windows taskbar.

Is it a search tool, a thesaurus or a calculator? Pandia has the answer.

Microsoft to buy Google?

(November 4 2003) It seems Microsoft has been talking to Google. Whether the ultimate aim has been to take over the search engine company remains unclear, but seems very likely.

Microsoft is after all in the process of building their own search engine. Taking over the main competitor would save them a lot of time and effort.

Nevertheless, we believe Google's owners and investors will find it more profiting (and more fun!) to remain independent. Indeed, Google is currently preparing a public offering of stocks.

Silicon.com has more.
See also the New York Times article that started the rumor mill.

Read search engine news items for October 2003

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