Welcome To Search Engine Land!

It’s official. Search Engine Land has now formally launched. I know, I know – we’ve been posting for over a week here. But now our new design is (mostly) in place, so it’s time to declare ourselves fully operational. For those who are interested, here’s some more background about the site, our name, our look, our goals and content.

Why the name Search Engine Land? Hey, have you tried to find any free domain names that use the words "search engine" in them lately? There aren’t a lot of good ones left. But we needed those words — bulky as they are — as part of our name to underscore that this site is firmly about search engines.

By search engines, I mean that we cover ways people search for information, primarily through online search engines but also through the growing other methods of seeking knowledge and answers.

That coverage includes the way sites are found on search engines, either through natural search engine optimization methods or through search advertising opportunities. The combination of these two areas is search engine marketing, and it’s a key focus for us here.

Key focus, but not the only focus. We don’t intend to lose sight of the fact that there’s a huge audience that wants to know how to search better. Our coverage remit is to cover the tools and tips that will help you search better, as well as watching over search marketing issues.

I also liked the name Search Engine Land because I used it back in 1997 as the headline of an article I did about how search engines were turning themselves into destinations.

The idea of search engines as places we visit always stuck with me. When I saw the domain name was available, I immediately felt it was a good name to go with. It offers many possibilities and meanings. In particular:

• Search Engine Land as a place in general, where you can keep up with what’s happening in the search space.
   
• Search Engine Land as a community, where people can meet, talk, discuss and network.
   
• Search Engine Land as an entire new world revolving around the important tools of search engines, a world that continues to grow and be shaped, with such a huge impact on society and our daily lives.

What you see so far is us covering the news aspect of Search Engine Land. Throughout the day, the Search Engine Land team will keep you updated on what’s happening across the web in terms of search. We’ll reference original content from others, plus we’ll be producing our own original content on topics of interest.

You can keep checking back throughout the day to keep up with the news, if you want to. However, there are easier ways. We have a feed that will ping you any time we post. We have a daily newsletter that will send you a recap of the day’s news. We have a monthly newsletter that will recap an entire month. Plus we have two other feeds as alternatives to those newsletters, if you simply hate email. You’ll find all of these options listed on our Search Engine Land Feeds & Newsletters page.

Want to advertise? We’d love to hear from you for future opportunities. Our founding sponsorships have already sold out, and we have some special thanks to those who stepped up to back the site before we even had traffic:

• Ask.com
• Google
• Ingenio
• Microsoft adCenter
• Text Link Ads
• Yahoo Search Marketing

I’ve covered content, but what about community? You can comment on any blog post. However, in the next month or so, we expect to upgrade things so that it is easier to comment and connect with others. I’ll fill you in more as that develops. For the moment, just know that we’re working on it.

As for our design, Mike Rundle of BusinessLogs has put together the look you now see on the site. So far, the feedback has been pretty positive. We’d love to hear more, so feel free to comment below. I asked Mike to get us a fast, clean look, and I personally love what he’s done.

Just a heads up that we have some more tweaks we’re still making. There are some additional links to archived articles that will be coming along and other things we’ll be tidying up. If someone comments about something we’re working on, I’ll respond that it is on the list. Questions about anything else? Fire away!

That’s about it. Once again, welcome to Search Engine Land. We’re all jazzed to be serving you with search news going forward!