Pandia Search Engine Weblog April 2004

(April 30 2004) The rumor mill has been going for quite some time, but it is now clear: Google has filed for an IPO, meaning that Google stock will reach the stock market.

In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Google reported that it expects to raise as much as US$ 2.7 billion from its public offering. (To be exact: the exact value of its planned offering is US$2,718,281,828 dollars, which is identical to the mathematical constant e. Another example of Californian humor, we suppose)

Here are some other interesting data from the filing: Google generated revenues of US$ 961.9 million with a a net profit of US$ 106.5 million in 2003. The company reports that it has been profitable since 2001.

In a letter attached to the filing Google founders Brin and Pages point out that "Many companies have suffered from unreasonable speculation, small initial share float, and boom-bust cycles that hurt them and their investors in the long run."

The solution? "We believe that an auction-based IPO will minimize these problems." The online auction replaces the traditional allocation administered by banks.

CNN Google sets $2.7 billion IPO
Filing documents
Webmaster World Discussion
Google press release

Search engine optimization and web accessibility

(April 29 2004) Web accessibility is just beginning to gain popularity among Internet marketing professionals. We're witnessing an industry that is gradually paying attention to the needs of wider and more diverse audiences.

Guest writer Carmen Mardiros writes about the relationship between search engine optimization and the art of designing web pages for people with disabilities.

The Apotheosis of Google.

(April 27 2004) Google has given birth to a brand new religion that refuses to be taken seriously.

Pandia has more about the Universal Church of Google.

New Yahoo! shortcuts

(April 25 2004) A shortcut is an element in the search engine query syntax that lets you limit your search to a specific database or service. Hence, if you are looking for information on a word, you may search for define alchemy to get a dictionary definition, alchemy facts to get an encyclopedia article or synonym alchemy to get a -- well -- synonym.

Pandia presents the shortcuts available at the new Yahoo! search engine.

Pandia cloned by copyright thief

(April 25 2004) What do you do when someone copies all the content of your site over to another domain? That is exactly what happened to Pandia this week.

Read our article about site theft and copyright infringement.

Why Google's Gmail should be allowed to serve ads

(April 16 2004) The Web is awash with news items on Google violating the privacy of the common man, reading their mail and acting like "big brother".

Google's new email service is not a threat to our privacy, Pandia argues in this article.

Amazon launches A9 search engine

(April 16 2004) Online superstore has launched their new search engine, A9, powered by Google, Alexa and Amazon's own database.

Pandia has more about A9.

Webtrends to acquire WebPosition Gold

(April 10 2004) High Search Engine Rankings reports that NetIQ, the owner and distributor of WebTrends web analytics software, has announced the purchase of WebPosition, the search engine optimization software arm of FirstPlace Software.

Webtrends is mainly used for analyzing visitor behavior, i.e.. how many people visit what pages at what time etc. Webposition Gold, on the other hand is used to manage and track search engine optimization campaigns.

The two task are closely related, and it would certainly make sense to combine the two technologies in a larger package.

In a press release Brent Winters, president and chief executive officer at FirstPlace Software, points out that "the complementary nature of our products and our positions as industry leaders created an opportunity to make a substantial and unique contribution to our mutual customers. The combined product offering should leverage our strengths to take Search Engine Optimization to the next level."

Google adds email

(April 1 2004) Google is testing a new free email service called Gmail. This makes it totally clear that Google is becoming a full fledged portal like Yahoo!.

Unlike services like Yahoo! Mail and MSN's Hotmail, Google will give away a lot of storage. Users can keep as much as 1 gigabyte worth of email messages and appendixes. The idea is that you should be able to keep all your mail, in order to use Google's search technology to search for your own stored information.

Google will finance the new service by presenting relevant text ads. There will be no pop-ups and no banners.

The inspiration for Gmail came from a Google user complaining about the poor quality of existing email services Larry Page, Google co-founder, says. "She kvetched about spending all her time filing messages or trying to find them. And when she's not doing that, she has to delete email like crazy to stay under the obligatory four megabyte limit. So she asked, 'Can't you people fix this?'"

Google is currently testing the new service, using Google employees and specially invited outsiders. The service will be launched as soon as the system is stable.

And no, this is not an April Fool's joke! The real Google joke can be found in the article "Google Copernicus Center is hiring", where Google announces a new research center on the moon. The researchers will for instance study what happens to PageRank in the proximity of a black hole. (Thanks to sharpie_79)

Gmail press release.
Gmail FAQ
Search Engine Watch: Google Launches Gmail, Free Email Service

AltaVista bites the dust

(April 1 2004) Yahoo! has now pulled the plug on the the AltaVista search engine. The AltaVista search site is from now on powered by Yahoo's new search technology. This follows a similar move regarding the AlltheWeb search engine and site (see below).

Yahoo! has apparently decided to keep the AltaVista and AlltheWeb brands for the time being, using them to explore alternative interfaces and ways of presenting search results.

AltaVista was once a pioneer in the development of advanced search engine technology, and was one of the dominating search sites before the rise of Google.

The AltaVista site continues to support advanced Boolean searching.

New version of ClickTracks search engine optimization software

(April 1 2004) An important part of search engine optimization is finding out how your optimization work influence your Web traffic. Does it really bring in more visitors from the search engines, and -- if so -- where do they go?

There are several site statistics software packages on the market, one of them ClickTracks.

The ClickTracks team has now launched a new version of their software.

Among the new features included are a "What's Changed report" that alerts you to unusual activity since your last session, a "Before and After label" that generates a report that compares activity before and after an event (e.g. a campaign) and a new way of determining a visitor's country of origin.

For a list of search engine optimization software, see the Pandia Search Engine Optimization Gateway.

ClickTracks press release.

Enterprise search innovation conference

(April 1 2004) Fast Search & Transfer (yes, that is the Norwegian company that originally developed the AlltheWeb search engine) recently arranged a special search engine technology conference at the Waldorf in New York City.

Among the participants were companies like CareerBuilder.com, IBM.com, IBM Japan, Rakuten, LexisNexis, Reuters and Virgilio, which were all presented with the "FAST Thinking Award" for the most innovative applications of enterprise search technology.

The award is clearly a publicity stunt made by Fast to promote their own products. Still, the conference documents the growing interest in the so-called enterprise search market, i.e. information processing technology for companies and institutions.

"For many organizations, enterprise search is still synonymous with intranet or Web site search, and is often viewed as 'point solutions' within an organization," said John M. Lervik, FAST's chief executive officer. However, as he pointed out there are other ways of utilizing the new search technologies.

The trend is now to make search solutions that can harvest information from all kinds of computer based data, including regular databases, word processor files and spreadsheets, and whether these are on your own computer or network or on the internet.

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

Search Engine News Weblog Archive April 2004

Google is going public