Early information retrieval systems were fairly basic programs designed to essentially to find a match between search terms in a query and those same words appearing in documents. As search has evolved, however, simple keyword-based matching is only one of dozens of factors used to find relevant documents related to a searcher’s query. Because searchers […]
Google is constantly testing new user interface layouts that are presented to a randomly selected group of searchers. Each experiment sparks off a round of screenshots and sometimes hacks on how others can try out what’s new. Now Google is making it easy for those who want to live their search lives on the edge. […]
After months of testing, Google is rolling out new ways to navigate within its search results and between different Google properties. Here’s an illustrated guide to the old and new. Let’s start with the home page. How it currently looks, for someone who is logged in:
Google is undertaking the most radical change to its search results ever, introducing a “Universal Search” system that will blend listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines among those it gathers from crawling web pages. The new system officially rolls out today for anyone using Google.com and searching in English. Not everyone will see it […]
Court ends ruling halting Google sex thumbnails from Reuters covers the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifting a preliminary injunction against Google over showing thumbnail images. In February 2006, a lower court ruled in favor of Perfect 10, which claimed Google violated copyright law by displaying thumbnails of images from its web site.
It’s Searchology Day today at Google, where the company is devoting time to look at the past, present and future of search at Google. There will be a number of significant announcements coming out of the event. Want to keep up? Stay tuned to this page. We’ll keep it updated with a summary of major […]
If your goal is to make Google richer with no gain for your yourself, then stop reading. You don’t need to worry about landing pages or conversions. But if your goal is to grow your own business using search, then you must pay as much—or more—attention to converting traffic into leads as you do to […]
Brad Geddes reports a new way to preview your mobile Google ads, without risking the cost of clicking on them. To preview the mobile ads go to: https://www.google.com/m/adpreview.
Danny recently reported Google that Google gained a new, unofficial tag line. Now Yahoo has come out pushing a new mission statement: To connect people to their passions, communities, and the world’s knowledge. The statement is for Yahoo’s new Yahoo Network Division. Jeff Weiner, the EVP who leads the division, explains in detail what this […]
Although Microsoft might disagree, Yahoo was really the company that kicked off the dynamic mapping arms race back in March of 2004 with the introduction of a feature called “SmartView” ( a version of it still exists on Yahoo Maps “dial-up” presentation). SmartView enabled users of Yahoo Maps to conduct map-based searches using category buttons […]
I reported this morning at Search Engine Roundtable that Microsoft will soon be offering individual and agency level accreditation programs for adCenter advertisers. I am not sure of the exact date, but I expect it some time in 2007. Both Yahoo and Google offer accreditation programs for their advertisers.
Both the Google Book Search Blog and the Google Librarian Central Blog have announced that University of Lausanne in Switzerland has joined the Google Book Search Library Project. The university will digitize books not only in French but also in English, German, Latin, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and other languages.
The LiveSide Blog reports that Microsoft has launched a new site named Live Search Club, where you can play games to earn rewards. Some of the prizes you can win include ringtones, earphones, T-shirts, Microsoft Office, Xbox and many other prizes.
When it comes to leveraging social media marketing for your link building campaigns, it seems that most of us focus on Digg and Digg alone. The problem with this is that you’re putting all your eggs in one basket. If for some reason the content doesn’t get popular on Digg, then you’re out of luck, […]
Tomorrow is "Searchology" at Google, a day devoted for Google to discuss future plans in search. We’ll be covering news here on Search Engine Land as it comes out. But can’t wait for our write-up? Just tune-in to the webcast. It begins at 9:30 Pacific time tomorrow, May 16. The webcast is here. From the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
Seemingly in parallel with the land grab going on online, mobile M&A is heating up. Earlier this month, Microsoft acquired EU ad firm ScreenTonic and prior to that voice services and directory provider Tellme. Today, mobile ad network Third Screen Media went to AOL and will become a subsidiary of Advertising.com. Microsoft had been seen […]
On Friday I received a briefing on Ask Mobile (with GPS) and a demo phone with the application pre-installed. I now have three mobile devices that I’m carrying: a traditional cellphone, a Windows Mobile device and the Ask Mobile demo phone. It’s quite a challenge to physically manage all these devices as I walk and […]
Yahoo has appointed Blake Jorgensen as its new chief financial officer. Jorgensen was the co-founder of Thomas Weisel Partners, a company he helped start in 1998. He takes over from Susan Decker, who has been jointly serving as CFO and as head of the new Advertiser & Publisher Group, formed as part of Yahoo’s December […]
ChaCha, which combines traditional algorithmic search with human-assisted search, has announced a video distribution deal with Blinkx. ChaCha’s new video search will be entirely powered by Blinkx and potentially incorporated into ChaCha’s live search sessions. ChaCha uses chat functionality to enable a staff of paid, expert guides to interact with searchers in real time. This […]
IAC to spend $100 mln on Ask brand in 2007: Diller from the Washington Post reports that Ask.com is going spend $100 million on branding Ask.com this year. IAC chairman Barry Diller, whose company owns Ask.com, said We have a number of ways to tell people about Ask, its tools, and why it should be […]
Today, Yahoo has begun rolling out unlimited email capacity worldwide. On March 28th, we reported they were offering unlimited email storage in the US. Now this is going worldwide. Not everyone will have unlimited capacity today but over the next coming months, they will, a Yahoo spokesperson told me.
Behold the noble savage. This mythical creature, an invention of 18th-century romantic philosophers, coexisted peacefully with his environment, uncorrupted by civilization. My advice to you as a paid search advertiser this week is: be as “corrupted” as possible, if corrupted means recognizing that peaceful coexistence is nearly impossible. You’ll be measured and graded on your […]
Pipl is a people search engine that tries to be a little different. Rather than just go off and hunt for email addresses, this tries to search through the deep/invisible/hidden web to return content that other search engines are going to miss. The interface is simple – type in first name, last name, city, state […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
Yahoo launched a big “green” initiative today, including a contest and two related websites — green.yahoo.com and better.yahoo.com/planet — helping to build consumer-user awareness about global warming and energy conservation, etc. It’s a laudable effort but one that takes on a different cast when viewed in the competitive world of search. In that context, TechCrunch […]
Lerach Coughlin, a law firm with a reputation for going after companies who have allegedly engaged in financial shenanigans, has filed a class action lawsuit against Yahoo, charging "Yahoo and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934." Essentially, the suit claims that Yahoo’s search advertising technology was […]
The recent Google update, known to some of us as the “Google shuffle”, had a number of people freaked out. Seeing your site’s ranking suddenly change is a reality we all face. Sometimes the changes are legitimate, reflecting a shift in the algorithm, or in the inbound link profile of your site or your competitor’s […]
Automotive, Recruitment and Real Estate are three especially lucrative and important local advertising categories. They have been historically dominated by print newspapers, to the tune of about $17 billion last year in the U.S. But the Internet is gaining rapidly. A new report from Borrell Associates estimates that advertising in the Automotive category is now […]
Google may use games to analyse net users from The Guardian reports that Google is considering the idea of using gaming behavior to display targeted ads to that user. Privacy advocates are already voicing their distaste for the idea of gleaning information on users based on their gaming behaviors. To me, this is just like […]
Matt Cutts of Google has updated his blog post How to report paid links this weekend. The update has a lot more detail on Google’s view of paid links. Let me summarize for you the new additions to the post.
YouTube’s New Inline Ads: Screenshots from NewTeeVee has screen captures of the inline ads in YouTube that we have been anticipating for a while. The ads display at the bottom of the video, much like a text ad, but has a play button. When you click the play button on the ad, it overlays the […]
Last weekend was apparently a big weekend when it came to weddings and search. Both big names in search got hitched — Gary Price and Sergey Brin. No, not to each other (not that there would be anything wrong with that, of course!). ResourceShelf editor and Ask.com search evangelist Gary Price tied the knot near […]
This is a special message for our SearchCap newsletter readers and anyone who visits Search Engine Land, regarding Search Engine Land’s first conference: Search Marketing Expo Advanced. It happens in Seattle this June 4th and 5th. In this post, I wanted to highlight some of the special sessions we’re doing at the show. You&A With […]
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have broken the story early. Ask has launched a new GPS-powered mobile application that contains content from Citysearch and Evite (and other IAC properties in the future). In my quick demo of the phone I was impressed with its many features and capabilities. But the most interesting and impressive […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.
Sherlock, get out your magnifying glass. Clues have been scattered everywhere and there is a mystery to be solved. This is no Whodunnit; Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs, Inc., is clearly the mastermind. While there are no bodies on the ground yet, Calacanis has marked July 14, 2007 as the day that SEOs will supposedly […]
Real estate search site Trulia has redesigned, creating a new presentation on search results pages with more advanced property filters. But beyond this it has added “Trulia Voices,” a new community area for people to ask open-ended questions and discuss neighborhoods, schools, etc. Competitor Zillow recently also added community (Zillow Q&A), which is tied to […]
John Battelle has posted a screen capture from a presentation given by Gary Flake of Microsoft showing a new approach to search ads. The search ads on the Live.com search results have a little icon next to them, when you mouse over those icons, up comes a larger image or flash or interactive based ad. […]