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AOL's
Tegic, IBM Team On Mobile Java
A bundle with the Tegic T9 predictive text software and the IBM WebSphere Everyplace
Micro Environment will debut as T9 Run later in 2006.
Congress:
NSA Requests? Yahoo: No Comment
During the Congressional smackdown on search engine companies over their business
practices in China, one Congressman raised the issue of surveillance with Yahoo.
Microsoft
Opens Office Live Test
The beta version of Office Live provides its small business testers with a free
top-level domain name, website design tools, site hosting, and email with its
Basics configuration.
Google
Seeks Beta Employees
A job posting for technical solutions specialists via a temp agency could be a
sign that Google is trying to rein in its employee expenses.
Congress
Sounds Off Against Search
MSN, Yahoo, Google, and networking company Cisco all sent staffers to be part
of a House Subcommittee hearing on their business practices in China.
DoubleClick
Dumps Email Marketing Unit
Alliance Data Systems Corp. has purchased the email marketing unit for $90 million,
and gains access to DoubleClick email clients like AOL and Proctor & Gamble.
Oracle
Has MySQL By The Throat
By following last November's purchase of InnoDB with the recent acquisition of
Sleepycat Software, all Larry Ellison has to do is squeeze hard to kill corporate
usage of MySQL.
State
Department Forms Net Freedom Force
The Global Internet Freedom Task Force formed by the US State Department will
focus on forming a foreign policy response to governmental threats to Internet
freedom.
MSN
AdCenter Goes To The Blogs
There is not a great deal of news yet on the MSN adCenter blog, though the team
there promises to discuss the latest goings-on with the newest competitor to AdWords
and Overture.
Google
Makes Measure Map A Statistic
The Measure Map team has joined Google, bringing their blog stat/web analytics
to the search advertising company and asking bloggers to request an invitation...
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What started out as an apparent debunking of an A-list blogger conspiracy has
evolved into a made-up word shedding light on the search world. Microsoft's controversial
employee blogger, Robert Scoble, invited readers to use the word ‘brrreeeport"
on their blogs as a way to get "Z-list" blogs noticed, while testing
the reach of the various search engines.
Editor's Note: So many questions: What do you think of Scoble's
experiment? Does it shed any insight on to how search engines work? What do you
think is the best blog engine? Are search engines lying about their results like
Scoble suggests? Is there an exclusive group of "A-list bloggers?" Join our discussion
in WebProWorld.
Scoble's snarky experiment was in response to the notion of the supposed Blog
Club, where A-list bloggers only link to each other and thereby keeping lesser-known
bloggers out of the loop of recognition in typical Critical
Theory style.
The invention of the word "brrreeeport" and the invitation to put on a person's blog created a vacuum to Technorati's blog listings and popular tags. Very soon, the term was listed at the top of Technorati's most searched word. Two days later, "brrreeeport" is out ranking searches for information on the Dick Cheney hunting accident, and is third on the list of tags.
The original purpose of the experiment worked. Technorati returns some 487 results for the word, leading searchers to blogs they may have never encountered. But the memetic results led to another exploration of the efficacy of various search engines.
At the time this article was written, a search on Technorati returns 487 results; Google's Blog Search: 452; Feedster: 569. On that information alone, it would appear that Google Blog search is missing an element the other blog engines aren't. But the more interesting question Scoble brings up on Wednesday, when he compares results of Google, MSN, and Yahoo!
Google's main page (as of present) says it found 22,400 results for the word. Scrolling through, however, there are only 353 results after similar entries are omitted. Re-searching with omitted results included returns only 979 results, as the other 21,000 are apparently inaccessible.
Scoble calls this an example of "lies that are going on on search engines." Scoble reports that MSN returns over 1, 369 entries (though my results continue to say 221), and Yahoo! returns over 1,010. The varying numbers does bring up an interesting question as to the veracity of any given search engine's reach.
One thing's for certain, many are taking advantage of the memetic appeal of the word, "brrreeeport." Bloggers have committed to throwing the word onto their blog posts. Even the famous New York City gay and lesbian publication The Village Voice has thrown it into a headline for an unrelated music review.
There are even sponsored links for the word on Google and Yahoo!'s SERPs. On Yahoo!'s system though, it's not the exact word, but ads served up based on similar keywords.
Whatever the deeper implications, the immediate benefit was for Z-list bloggers who otherwise may have never been found. Someone's even reserved the brrreeeport domain.
About
the Author:
Jason is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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AOL Search Best At Conversions
 By
David Utter
With a 6.17 percent rate, AOL Search fared best among search engines when it came
to converting visitors into customers in January.
The web analytics firm WebSideStory produced a study of median order conversion rates for the big four search engines in January. AOL Search rated best at turning users into customers, with MSN Search running a close second with a 6.03 percent conversion rate.
Yahoo trailed the duo with a 4.07 conversion rate, while Google's 3.83 percent likely reflects its users' nature as more information seeking than looking to buy, the company said in a statement. Demographics seem to play a role here:
"With portals rich in content and services, AOL, MSN and Yahoo may tend to appeal toward a more buyer friendly demographic. Google, meanwhile, may appeal to more browsers - those with less of an intent to buy."
"All of this suggests search engine marketers may want to consider demographics in allocating their budgets," (senior digital marketing consultant for WebSideStory Ali) Behnam said.
WebSideStory touted its product, HBX Analytics, as playing a role in those conversions. The study's sample is comprised of clients using the company's products to best improve their search marketing and optimization.
"Our clients are steeped in web analytics best practices and are not buying search engine traffic that does not deliver," said Jeff Lunsford, chairman and CEO of WebSideStory. "In addition, they understand how to convert visitors into buyers once they arrive at the site."
About
the Author:
David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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Bigdaddy Visible On A Number Of DCs
The Bigdaddy "update" (more like changeover) seems to be Google's latest
attempt to filter out search engine spam, something that should always be applauded
(It's important to note that reducing spam results is not the sole reason for
the Bigdaddy changeover. For more about the reasons behind such a move, read the
Matt Cutts Q and A).
The poster below and many others, I'm sure, have noticed differences in Google
SERPs, which they are attributing to the Bigdaddy changeover. Has anyone else
noticed these improvements? Make sure to share your thoughts with the rest of
the WPW crowd.
|| Chris||
Bigdaddy and Number of Query Results Returned
Has anyone else notice that the number of results returned for a Google search query has increased dramatically on all DC's showing the Big Daddy update?
In most cases I have seen the number of search results returned for a given query double, triple, or even quadruple.
I don't think that the number of actual pages in the Google index has increased. Instead, I think that this infrastructure change allows G to return more results for any given query. I also notice that I can dig much deeper into the SERP results for any given search phrase.
So far I do not see any indication that this is making it tougher to optimize for a phrase because of the increased number of competing pages. After all, a poorly optimized page is still a poorly optimized page.
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WebPro Question: |
Could anyone explain the Google Sandbox theory to me?
- joesnow
Comment
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Meet the Members: |
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brian.mark
Rating: Moderator
Joined: 07.09.04
Location:
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Website: toolbarn.com
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