Pandia Search Engine Weblog March 2004

(March 31 2004) Google is testing a new personalized search feature in its "Google Labs" section.

You are asked to create a personal profile that tells Google something about your interests. When selecting relevant categories (e.g. Arts/Cinema, Computers or Health) you will be given the opportunity to check various subcategories that interests you (e.g. Architecture, Art History).

When ordering search result listings Google will take your interests into consideration and rank pages related to your "life world" a bit higher than others.

At the top of each personalized page of results Google presents a special slide bar, if the search query is relevant to the interests listed. When you move the slider to the right, Google will recalculate and rearrange the results, giving more emphasis to your profile information.

The personal information is stored in a cookie on your (not Google's) computer. According to Google Your browser must be Internet Explorer 5 , Netscape or Mozilla 1.4 (or newer). Searches are limited to English and the browser and computer languages should be set for English. You need to have both JavaScript and cookies enabled.

So what's next in personalized searching? According to many experts the next step will be a search engine that learns from your searching habits. If you tend to click on science fiction sites when searching for Babylon, the search engine will from thereon guess that you are looking for sites on the Babylon 5 TV series, not archeological, historical or biblical Web sites. Google Personalized Web Search: Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft is preparing a blog search engine

(March 29 2004) Microsoft is developing a "blogbot" that will spider high quality web logs for information. There will be a new site presenting selected blog entries similar to the present MSN Newsbot.

"We will look at credibility and popularity to get people the information they're looking for," says Karen Redetzki, a product manager for MSN. "There are some blogs that may not be relevant to people. Those blogs we may never index."

There are already several search engines that gather headlines from blogs, including the popular Daypop search engine.

Microsoft to build search site for blogs (Search Engine Journal)
Microsoft to create search site for Weblogs (Mercury News)

New design for Google

(March 29 2004) Google has redesigned its web site. The changes are not that radical. The home page continue remains as uncluttered as ever and the Google logo is the same.

One important difference is that the Google shopping site, Froogle, has got its own link on the home page (although Froogle remains in beta).

On the other hand, you will have to click on the new "more.." link to get access to the Google directory. Nor are there any links to relevant directory categories on the regular search result pages any more. Whether this means that Google will put less emphasis on the directory, which is powered by DMOZ/The Open Directory, remains to be seen.

Google has also removed the boxes around the Google AdWords text ads. They are still clearly marked as ads, however, and presented in a separate column to the right.

AlltheWeb powered by Yahoo!

(March 26 2004) It has finally happened. The AlltheWeb search site is now powered by the new Yahoo! search engine.

This means that that the Fast search engine that was born in Trondheim in Norway has come to an end. For searchers this is a sad day, as the AlltheWeb search engine was one of the very best on the Web, in many respects an equal to Google.

That being said, it would make no sense for Yahoo! to keep as many as four search engines (Yahoo!, Inktomi, AlltheWeb and AltaVista). By merging the technologies into the new Yahoo! search engine, they will -- hopefully -- be able to get the best out of all of them.

By the way, the Norwegian Fast search technology company is still going strong, selling search solutions to companies and Web sites. Fast sold its Web search unit to Overture (now owned by Yahoo!) last year.

Webmaster World discussion.

Yahoo! buys Kelkoo

(March 26 2004, update March 28) Reuters reports that Yahoo! will buy the European shopping search engine Kelkoo for some 475 million Euro.

Kelkoo is Europe's leading comparison shopping portal, with national versions targeting ten European countries. In European online shopping, only Ebay and Amazon is ahead of Kelkoo. The current company is based on the 2000 merger between the French Kelkoo and Norwegian Zoomit.

Kelkoo is currently developing its search technology, refining a shopping search engine that goes beyond simple price comparisons and allows a broader search for products, services and vendors.

The Kelkoo sites will remain separate properties for the foreseeable future. According to CNET Yahoo! will not lay off staff at Kelkoo, which will become a subsidiary of Yahoo. Kelkoo Chief Executive and founder Pierre Chappaz will continue to run the company.

Eurekster Discusses Social Networking and Search Engine Technology

(March 25 2004) Although Eurekster may technically still be in Beta testing (launched in January of this year), there is no doubt that the offspring of SLI Systems and RealContacts is making major advancements in combining social networking with search engine technology.

Andy Beal talks to Eurekster's Grant Ryan on the future of social searching and the new Eurekster search engine.

Lycos gives away new advanced toolbar

(March 22 2004) Ok. A toolbar is a an extra set of buttons and forms added to your web browser (normally Explorer for Windows). A deskbar is a set of buttons and forms added to the desktop of your operating system (normally Windows).

Obviously both kinds of software are suited for search tools. Google, for instance, has both a toolbar and a deskbar that let you fill in search queries.

Lycos already has a HotBot deskbar. Now Lycos is presenting a toolbar that not only lets you search the Net using the HotBot search site; it also allows you to search the files of your own computer.

The toolbar will look for information in the folders of the Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express mail programs, and will go through the content of your Microsoft Office, PDF, RTF, and text files, as well as your browser history file.

There is also a pop-up ad blocker and a RSS news reader and searcher, and you may add your favorite sites to the toolbar.

Pandia is impressed. You do need Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 running on Windows 98 or greater to use it, however. We are using Macs, and will have to stick to other tools for the time being.

Lycos HotBot Offers Free DeskTop Toolbar (Information Today)
HotBot Desktop toolbar download page.

MSN may launch new search engine in July

(March 21 2004, update March 26 2004) According to Reuters, Microsoft's MSN will launch its new search engine in July this year.

Reuter's Reed Stevenson reports that Karen Redetzki, an MSN product manager, tells him that "July's launch will reflect results driven by a revamped search engine with better algorithms, the underlying logic involved in sifting through information."

If this is true, MSN will launch its search engine much earlier than most search engine experts have expected.

Reuters article: Microsoft's MSN plans new search engine in July

March 26: It is now clear that MSN will not make use of its new search engine technology from July onwards. In July MSN will present a new site design. The new search engine will not be ready for quite some while yet.

Yahoo! adds page rank indicator

(March 21 2004) Among webmasters and search engine optimization experts Google is famous for its Page Rank indicator, a measurement of a web page's "popularity".

Page Rank or PR is calculated on the basis of the number and types of sites that links to a particular page. The more important, popular or authoritative a site is, the more weight a link from that site will have.

Page Rank is definitely not the only factor influencing the ranking of a page in search engine results, but it is important. In order to find the Page Rank of a page, you will have to install the Google Toolbar for the Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Yahoo is now betatesting its own popularity rank indicator -- the Yahoo! Web Rank value. However, this one is not calculated on the basis of the interlinkages with other sites and pages, but on the surfing habits on the Yahoo! Companion toolbar users. The more toolbar users visit a page, the higher the Yahoo! Web Rank.

This is how Yahoo tells the tale:

"To help determine a site's Yahoo! Web Rank value, the Yahoo! Companion Toolbar collects anonymous URL data about sites visited by Toolbar users who have enabled the Yahoo! Web Rank feature and sends this information back to Yahoo!. The Toolbar does not collect personally identifiable information about you (e.g., your name, phone number, email address, etc.)."

The Web Rank indicator is in its testing stages, an the testing group is now full. You may download the toolbar (Windows only), but you will not be able to access the indicator.

The limited number of toolbar users, makes this a dangerous tool for Yahoo! They can clearly not make the Web Rank value an important indicator when determining search result rankings, at least not until they have established a large and representative toolbar user base.

It will be useful as a tool for finding unlisted -- but popular -- sites, however. And indeed, Yahoo points out that the toolbar will help Yahoo! "discover new public sites faster and incorporate those sites into the Yahoo! Search index resulting in more comprehensive search results."

Yahoo Companion toolbar help page.

Google adds local search

(March 18 2004) Google has launched a new feature called Google Local giving searchers access to neighborhood business listings, maps, directions, and related web pages.

Read more about Google Local search.

Yahoo's new SmartView local search

(March 10 2004) Yahoo! has added a new feature to its Yahoo! Maps site. Yahoo! Maps lets you search for maps over specific geographical areas and is especially useful for finding your way around in cities.

SmartView adds clickable icons to the maps: gateways to additional information on the relevant locations, including addresses and phone numbers, pricing, user ratings (for hotels), website addresses and links to driving directions.

A "Web Search" link allows users to search for additional information regarding a particular shop, office, cinema etc.

Yahoo! reports that users may also retrieve a map when searching for a particular address using the regular Yahoo! Search form.

Given that map searches are limited to the US and Canada, we have not been able to test the service in Norway. Many webmasters are impressed, although some reports that the accuracy of the data seems to vary a lot.

The new service fits in nicely with Yahoo!/Overture's plan to launch a local search pay per click advertising program later this spring. This new program will let advertisers define a geographic area in which their listings will appear in search results.

Yahoo!/Overture will determine the location of the searchers by asking them for the relevant data through a registration process. And indeed, in order to get the best out of Yahoo! Maps you do have to register.

Yahoo Press Release
Overture to Introduce Local Search Ad Program (DMNEWS)

Ask Jeeves buys Excite

(March 5 2004) Excite was once one of the major search engines. It was powered by its own search engine technology, and was not just a portal shell using the technology of others.

Ask Jeeves has now decided to buy Excite from Interactive Search and use the portal for promoting its own search engine technology. Ask Jeeves owns and uses the Teoma search engine.

Ask Jeeves will also acquire Interactive Search's iWon site, a peculiar "sweepstakes" search portal where users may win prizes for using its services. Included are also sites like My Way, My Search, My Web Search and MaxOnline.

According to the news.com.au network Excite and iWon processed 700 million search requests during the fourth quarter, more or less the same as the 680 million search queries handled by Ask Jeeves. "We believe we are going from 3.5% of market share to a little over 7%," says Steve Sordello, chief financial officer of Ask Jeeves to SmartMoney.

Ask Jeeves has for a long time been the smallest among the search engine giants. Now its competitors must take it much more seriously.

See also Information Week and SmartMoney.

Ask Jeeves drops paid inclusion for large customers

(March 3 2004) Just as Yahoo! is introducing its new paid inclusion program (i.e. a service where you can pay to get a fast and updated listing in the search engine database), search engine Ask Jeeves has announced that it will abandon its Index Express program.

Ask Jeeves is not criticizing Yahoo! for launching its new Site Match program, but the timing of the announcement may indicate that Ask Jeeves hopes to benefit from the recent criticism of Yahoo! (See our article on Yahoo! paid inclusion.)

According to CNET Ask Jeeves believes that one particular type of paid inclusion may negatively sway search results -- producing more commercial and irrelevant lists of Web sites.

This applies to the kind of paid inclusion where customers submit a large number of webpages for inclusion by the use of XML feeds or database files.

It has been argued that though paying customers are not giving a direct boost in rankings, they do get access to information and services that may help them facilitate better positions in search result listings. By using XML feeds they may also more easily influence the way the search engine interprets what a webpage is about.

It turns out that Ask Jeeves' Teoma search engine finds it hard to integrate normal search results fetched by spiders indexing webpages, and data delivered by paying customers.

Then again, the success of websites taking part in such schemes may also be caused by the fact that these paying customers make more use of search engine optimization expertise, and that they produce a much larger number of webpages than non-commercial information sites.

It should be noted that it will be possible to pay to get included in the Ask Jeeves/Teoma database, also in the future. Its "Site Submit" service, -- i.e. its program for customers that submit less than 1000 pages -- will remain.

Search Engine News Weblog Archive March 2004

Google gets personal