Via Slashdot, What's the Best Q&A Site? from MIT Technology Review tests several question and answer search engine services. They reviewed and ranked AnswerBag, Askville, Live QnA, Wondir, Yahoo Answers and Yedda. So how did they rank? Out of a total 12 points, Yahoo Answers scored 11 points, coming out tops. Here's the rundown: Yahoo Answers (11 points) Live QnA (7 points) Askville (6 points) AnswerBag (4 points) Wondir (4 points) Yedda Answers (4 points) Hitwise posted figures and data to show market share of the different Q&A search engines. Yahoo Answers with 96% Answerbag w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search Engines: Answer Search Engines | Stats: Relevancy | Yahoo: Answers

Chris Winfield over at 10e20 has compiled a list of the top 101 stories in the search industry for the past year. He orders the stories in descending priority order, and most of the stories link to external sources. Here are the top five: (5) Google & Yahoo & Microsoft supporting the Sitemaps.org protocol (4) The Big Daddy Google Infrastructure change (3) Social search and media optimization and how it can be leveraged for SEOs (2) Danny Sullivan leaving Search Engine Watch for this fine blog (1) Google Buys YouTube for $1.65 Billion [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Search & Society: General | Search Marketing: General | SEM Industry: General

Search bloggers around the globe are celebrating the holiday season by giving the gift of competitive intelligence. From sharing their most popular posts to giving up all of their precious web statistics - a community of search bloggers are sharing more than they ever have. First we have Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim with a post on his top 10 posts for 2006. Andy's number one post of the year was Dr. Google Sends Pain Relief, which is no surprise. Adam Lasnik of Google made a name for himself and helped out Andy's new blog by sending Andy a bottle of pain reliever for his AdWords woes. Ran [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | SEM Industry: Community | Stats: General

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: Google To Invest In China Based Video Download Site Google to invest in Chinese video Web site at the Chicago Tribune describes that within a month, we will learn more about a Google investment in Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Ltd. Xunlei is a Chinese video download company and Google may be hoping that their investment will help... Using Google Code Search To Find Vulnerable Sites ShoeMoney wrote a detailed write up on how hackers can easily use G [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Google to invest in Chinese video Web site at the Chicago Tribune describes that within a month, we will learn more about a Google investment in Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Ltd. Xunlei is a Chinese video download company and Google may be hoping that their investment will help them grow market share in China. The investment follows on a partnership with China Mobile on mobile search last week. Both come at the same time Google also said they wouldn't be seeking local partners to grow market share. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Outside US | Google: Partnerships | Google: YouTube & Video

ShoeMoney wrote a detailed write up on how hackers can easily use Google Code Search to quickly find sites that are vulnerable to being hacked. ShoeMoney shows XSS exploits, SQL injection exploits and more. ShoeMoney wasn't the first to spot this. SEO Egghead wrote about some examples on October 5th. Is Google to blame? I don't think so. Postscript From Danny: Finding security exploits via Google or other search engines is pretty old news, going back for years. Below, a recap of some of these issues plus how you need to watch what your systems are spitting out for Google and other search [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Code Search | Legal: Security

As many of you know, Google (as other search engines) gave out holiday gifts, including a digital picture frame, a iPod Shuffle and other schwag. One person who got the iPod Shuffle gave us a behind the scenes look at the gift, literally. On the back of the iPod Shuffle, the engraved message reads "ooGleg thanks you! [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Marketing

Last Friday, BusinessWeek release the Tech Hot Growth 50 for 2006. Google ranked number four on the list, behind Amkor Technology (1), Apple (2), and AT&T (3); Google (GOOG), meanwhile, has claimed billions in advertising dollars by devising the technology to put information from around the Web at anyone's disposal in a matter of seconds. Its growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. A mere eight years old, Google is approaching $10 billion in revenues, with growth over the past 12 months still at a torrid 77%. That helped it place No. 4 on BusinessWeek.com's ranking. More details on Goo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues

Via Nathan Weinberg, Steve Rubel finds that you can now customize the news on your Google Mobile News page. A new link that reads "» Customize this page" takes you to a page where you can add keyword specific searches to your mobile news page, you can also add or remove news categories on that page, finally, you can order the categories on the page. I have more screen captures here... [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: News | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Engines: News Search Engines

MySupermarket is one of those sites that you sometimes look at and immediately think 'I'll be coming back here on a regular basis'. The concept is very simple - you choose one of 4 UK supermarkets from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Ocado and you shop for your groceries. All the groceries are shown in illustrated form on the page as well as being described, together with any discounts or special offers the supermarket has on offer. At the top of the screen the system keeps a tally of how much you have spent and provides a comparison with the prices from the three other supermarkets. When you h [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Search Engines: Shopping Search Engines

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: Google Testing Video Ads "In Stream" AdWeek reports that Google is testing video ads at Beet.tv for AllState. The reports indicate that about a week ago, Beet.tv has 15 second Google ads for AllState in their videos. The ads linked to www.allstate.com/google with a special landing page for those users. The ads "were sold at $15 per thousand views, with... Ask.com Top Searches of 2006 Ask.com sent us their top searches for 2006 by category. Categories in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

AdWeek reports that Google is testing video ads at Beet.tv for AllState. The reports indicate that about a week ago, Beet.tv has 15 second Google ads for AllState in their videos. The ads linked to www.allstate.com/google with a special landing page for those users. The ads "were sold at $15 per thousand views, with the money split between Beet.tv and Google." This is not the first time Google tested out video ads, they did before with MTV around mid-August of 2006. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: AdWords | Google: YouTube & Video

Ask.com sent us their top searches for 2006 by category. Categories include news, celebrity, health, entertainment, images, and sports. Top News Searches: 1. President Bush 2. War in Iraq 3. Bird Flu 4. Iran 5. Gas Prices 6. North Korea 7. Britney Spears 8. Israel / Palestine 9. Wall Street 10. World Cup Top Celebrity Searches: 1. Chris Brown 2. Britney Spears 3. Steve Irwin 4. Shakira 5. Jessica Simpson 6. Angelina Jolie 7. Paris Hilton 8. 50 Cent 9. Zac Efron 10. Taylor Hicks Top Health Searches: 1. Pregnancy 2. Bird Flu 3. Stem Cell Research 4. Diabetes 5. E. coli 6. Depression 7. AIDS [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Other | Channel: Strategy | Stats: Search Behavior

Microsoft Ad Push Is All About You at the Wall Street Journal has a nice overview of how Microsoft's behavioral targeting ad software works, nothing ground breaking, but a nice overview. I'll quote a piece of the article for you: Here's how it works: If someone types in "compare car prices" on Live Search, Microsoft's computers note that the person is probably considering buying a vehicle. The computers then check with the list of Hotmail accounts to see if they have any information on the person. If they do, and an auto maker has paid Microsoft to target this type of person, the computer wi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Legal: Privacy | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads: Behavioral Targeting | Search Features: Search History & Personalization

Forbes reports that China Mobile and Google will be launching a mobile search service in 2007. The details are very fuzzy right now, all we know is that a China Mobile representative said something to the effect that they "begun developing their joint mobile search product for launch in 2007." This comes a week after Google partnered with Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom and surprisingly also after Google just said they wouldn't be seeking local partners to grow market share in China. Postscript January 4, 2006: Google posted the press release just today. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Outside US | Search Engines: China Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

Why Yahoo's Panama Won't Be Enough at BusinessWeek looks at Yahoo's troubles over the past year and wonders if Yahoo's new ad platform, code named Panama, the answer to those problems. As we wrote in the past, Panama has boosted Yahoo's 2007 outlook with some analysts. But should it? That is the question BusinessWeek asks. There is no doubt in my mind that Panama will give Yahoo the infrastructure to continue to expand their ad network outside of the search mix and into other verticals, but the main question is, will they be accepted in those other areas? [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Search Ads

This morning I posted a screen shot of the quality score in AdWords, showing a rating of Great, OK and Poor. The quality score does not show all that much, but it does show more than before. Plus, Google has set up some more documentation on what the quality score column means. The help page says that this is a "customizable column that is disabled by default for new accounts," but I do not see a way to activate it for my account - so I suspect it is still a limited user test. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords

Judge dismisses lawsuit against Google at BusinessWeek covers a patent infringement case against Google over AdSense and Google Toolbar's AutoLink feature being tossed out. The case was brought by HyperPhrase Inc. against Google. The judge dismissed the infringement claims, calling the AdSense claims "nonsense" and finding that AutoLink "performs a completely different function in a different way to achieve a different result." [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: AdSense | Google: Legal | Google: Toolbar | Legal: Patents

Founder of Wikipedia plans search engine to rival Google by The Times unveils a new search engine named Wikiasari. The new search engine has investment backing from Amazon and others of over $4 million in capital. The "exclusive screen capture" Techcrunch has nothing to do with this new engine, according to the Wikia group. But this search engine seems to be based on community involvement. With a provisional launch in the first quarter of 2007, it will be interesting to see how quickly a search engine with real community trust evolves. What makes this engine different? "Essentially, if [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Search Wikia

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: Danny, I and the rest of the Search Engine Land crew would like to wish you all a Happy Holidays! From Search Engine Land: Some Of Digg's Ban Domain List The 10e20 blog complies a list of the sites they know are banned from Digg.com. There has been a recent wave of Digg bans, and reportedly, once your banned, you cannot get back in. Here is a current list of banned sites as per 10e20's post. A Google Holiday Update Or Data Refresh Google Data Refresh - Rankings Fluctuations Bef [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap