Recent Industry News

Company Releases E-Commerce Site Search Solution
9/30/04

Source: WebProNews

Mercado Software released CSN 2.5, the new version of its Commerce Search and Navigation solution.

Many of the major revenue-generating retailers currently power their online retail sites with CSN's best-in-class solution of Intuitive Search and Dynamic Browse coupled with comprehensive merchandising capabilities. CSN 2.5 takes Mercado's product to the next level by providing online shoppers with increased relevancy of search results while at the same time equipping internet retailers with buyers' behavior data essential for the implementation of successful merchandising strategies.

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PPC Influencing Voters
9/29/04

Source: WebProNews

As always, politicians are attempting to do everything they can to get their messages out to prospective voters in a timely manner and on a limited budget.

Web savvy candidates are using pay per click advertising to efficiently drive prospective voters to their campaign web sites.

"As more prospective voters turn to the web for election coverage and their daily news, it only makes sense that campaign ad budgets will follow," declared Ed Kohler, President of Haystack In A Needle, a web marketing firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Dogpile Web Search Toolbar Now Offers Olympics Coverage Via RSS
8/18/04

Source: WebProNews

The Olympics RSS feed covers the latest breaking news on medals, events, competitors and more and is immediately available to all users who download the Dogpile Toolbar.

The Dogpile Toolbar is a compact, yet powerful, application that resides within the Web browser and provides convenient access to a variety of useful features from anywhere on the Internet. The Toolbar includes a scrolling content ticker feature that makes accessing syndicated XML content easier by streaming a user's personalized list of feeds directly within their Web browser. Clicking on any headline within the ticker takes users directly to the full story on the content publisher's Web site.
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How To Increase Content When You Have Nothing Left To Say
8/18/04

Source: WebProNews
Once upon a time in a search engine long ago, content was king and little else mattered. Then along came the links in an attempt overthrew the king - now everything is messed.

Back links are very important in placing well in the SERP's especially for highly competitive keywords, however content is still the king, and without it your sites are as good as lost! So what is a site owner to do when you've expressed and said all there is to say and are left with only a 5 page website?
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Yahoo To Keep Site Match
8/12/04

Infotrieve Releases ArticleFinder EXtreme
8/11/04

Source: WebProNews
Infotrieve, Inc., announced today the launch of its new federated search solution, ArticleFinder eXtreme (AFX), designed to deliver cost savings to special libraries by leveraging their existing resources. AFX can be integrated into Infotrieve's Virtual Library technology platform, allowing users to simultaneously search their library's holdings, subscription and public databases.
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StepUp.com Unveils Local Shopping Engine
8/11/04

Let's (Google) Dance!
8/9/04

To find hotels near you for the your next convention, visit Hotels At A Discount.

Fallout From The MyDoom Search Engine Attack
7/29/04

MSNBC Launches Newsbot Beta Powered By MSN Search
7/27/04

Ask Jeeves & Google Continue Their Relationship
7/26/04

Source: WebProNews
Ask Jeeves, Inc. announced today that they have extended their relationship with Google as a provider of sponsored advertising links on Ask Jeeves' global search and portal brands through 2007.
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Google, Other Engines Hit by Worm Variant
7/26/04

For more information regarding the MyDoom worm and how to remove it, visit Secure Resolutions.

How Search Has Evolved:
Part II Of 'Back In The Day'
7/19/04

Feedster Introduces New Look, New Search Options, Sponsored Ads
7/16/04

Source: WebProNews
Subscription news search engine Feedster introduced an improved version of its web presence, complete with enhanced search features, a new, more streamlined look, and sponsored listings. The sponsored listings, which appear on Feedster's SERPs, are being provided by Overture.
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Microsoft Purchases Email Search Engine Lookout
7/16/04

Source: WebProNews
MSN, Internet portal of Microsoft, has announced that they have acquired the email search tool company, Lookout. The software MSN purchased has the ability to search for files and desktop data within Microsoft email client, Outlook.
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Back In The Day: Old School Search
7/16/04

Source: WebProNews
Before we can determine where we're going we must know where we began. Instead of exploring the entire complex history of search, let's glimpse into the past of today's most popular search engines and try to guess what the future may hold.
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IAB Study Finds Contextual Advertising Effective At Branding
7/15/04

Source: WebProNews
A study conducted by Nielsen//Netratings and IAB has found that high-ranking advertisements on SERPs can be an effective tool for branding products. IAB commissioned N//N to conduct the survey, called the Internet Search Brand Effectiveness Research.
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Paid Inclusion Going the Way of the Dodo
7/9/04

Source: ISEDB.COM
Late last week, Ask Jeeves announced it was going to cease its paid submission program and allow webmasters to submit sites to its database for free. The announcement was quickly followed by the release of MSN's new search tool that also does not charge fees for inclusion. Of the four major search engines, only Yahoo continues to charge webmasters fees to submit their sites, however even Yahoo is reconsidering its paid-inclusion plans. (Google has never charged for inclusion in its database).
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Netease and Google Forge Strategic Partnership
7/6/04

Telstra Prepared To Launch Sensis Search Engine
7/6/04

Source: WebProNews
The Australian-based Telstra Corporation is expected to launch a search engine built around their Sensis property, a Yellow and White pages-based service. This move is seen as defensive strategy against Google and Yahoo.
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Microsoft Gives Facelift To MSN Search
7/1/04

Source: WebProNews
MSN has rolled out a new look for their search engine. MSN Search is now featuring a newly designed home page, as well as redesigned search results pages. Not only equipped with a new look, Microsoft has also altered the method in which they deliver information to the user.
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Google Improves Ad Relevancy For AdWords Service
6/30/04

Source: WebProNews
Search engine Google sent customers an email yesterday that outlined changes to their ad relevancy algorithms. These changes are being made in order to improve the targeting of ads and members' ROI.

The motivation behind the algorithm changes is, according to Google, "designed to provide the most relevant, targeted ads possible." By improving relevancy, Google believes this will help users find services that are being search for, and therefore, increase AdWords "stickiness".
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Macintosh Prepared To Introduce Desktop Search
6/30/04

Source: WebProNews
Steve Jobs, CEO of Macintosh, revealed a new file search technology for the upcoming update of Mac's operating system. The search feature, called Spotlight, will allow Mac users to search for files, words, concepts and documents they have stored on their hard drive. Spotlight is based on the search technology used by iTunes.
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Google’s Text Only Cached Pages Raises Issues With Alt Text
6/30/04

Source: WebProNews
There have been many discussions in the SEO world over the usefulness of alt tags that accompany images. It is generally accepted that Google primarily indexes alt tags as long as the images have a link. If there is no link on the image, the alt text is ignored.

However, a new development in the way that Google caches webpages has raised this question again. As reported by Search Engine RoundTable, Google has begun offering links to text only cache pages.
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Does Title Tag Placement Matter In Regards To SEO
6/29/04

Source: WebProNews
In SEO, it's generally the case that you can ask 10 different experts the same question and almost always get 10 different answers. A general consensus in this industry is a rarity. However, there is a sense of agreement concerning the importance of title tags. But, among programmers and designers, there is some confusion on whether or not the placement of these tags is important in regards to search engine results.
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Microsoft Promises 'Ten Times Better' Search
6/28/04

Source: WebProNews
In a move that comes as no surprise to industry experts who've long been predicting a search engine battle between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, Bill Gates announced at a Sydney media briefing that Microsoft plans to increase its search capability in July.
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Why Can't Google Read My Mind? A Look At Personalized Search
6/28/04

Source: WebProNews
Several top search engines, including Google and Yahoo, are competing to make personalized search a reality. How long will it be before search engines are able to "understand" - and, more importantly, how will personalized search affect your business?

As search engines gain a grasp on human language, Search Engine Watch forum member Mikkel deMib Svendsen could see a shift of importance from getting links from high-ranked sites in Google to getting links from sites with truly similar content.
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Google Update Causes PageRank Mania
6/25/04

Source: WebProNews
Google updated PageRank and backlinks Tuesday night, at approximately 8:30 PM (EST), SERoundtable announced Wednesday. While there is no specific time period between updates, Google in the past has updated PageRank on average every 3-6 weeks. As of Tuesday it had been approximately three weeks since the last update and anxious WebProWorld members had even started a thread predicting the next update when they began to notice changes.
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AOL Acquires Advertising.com
6/24/04

Source: SearchEngineJournal.com
Advertising.com (formerly TeknoSurf), a darling of the online targeted advertising industry, is being bought by AOL. Cheers to Advertising.com, they filed IPO not too long ago and if you want anyone to acquire your company, it’s a money bags like AOL.
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Is Google Going Open Source?
6/22/04

Source: WebProNews
Not quite, but, the number one search engine is planning on releasing SOME of its code to the public, according to The Age, an Australian news site. News of this came as Google reps are visiting Melbourne, with the idea of opening a research and development center.
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Making Text Graphics Available As Text For SEO Purposes
6/22/04

Source: WebProNews
With the exception of alt tags and file names, optimizing images for search engine purposes has always been a difficult task. This task may have become easier thanks to dynamic text replacement technique developed, in part, by Stewart Rosenberger.
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Google Invests In Chinese Search Engine Baidu
6/15/04

Source: WebProNews
Google is heading a group of investors that are committing nearly $100 million to China's largest search engine, Baidu.com. Although Google is part of the investing group, Robin Li, Baidu's chief executive, said in an Associated Press article, "Google does not have a controlling stake."
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PageRank Mania Revisited
6/14/04

Source: ISEDB.COM
Every day there are numerous forum posts asking how to increase PageRank, and every day I and the other moderators ask the posters the same questions:

Why do you link to the sites you link to? Is it because they're useful and informative and might be worthwhile to your site visitors? Or is it because you hope you'll get a reciprocal link, which just might boost your PageRank? Perhaps it's some combination of these things, or other reasons altogether.
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Link Structure Beats Google's Network Filter
6/11/04

Source: WebProNews
If you run a network of sites then there's a new algorithmic speculation you need to be aware of - the network filter... Some believe this filter looks for "unnatural" linking structures, that is, linking structures that wouldn't occur in the wilds of the web as people discover and link to content. Barry says the filter may be triggered if, "you have 20 Web sites and all 20 link to each other on every page."
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Source: ISEDB.COM
Ask Jeeves is in a class all to themselves, literally. As the only truly independent algorithmic search engine driving more than 5% of search traffic, Ask Jeeves is in a unique position. While they are not playing in the same league as the Big-Three (Google, Yahoo and MSN), they are competing on the same field. In order to compete with the Big-Three, Ask.Com has made several intelligent moves, the most recent being their entrance into the world of Desktop search and a filing with the Securities Exchange Commission that will allow them to raise about $400-Million through a special "shelf" stock issuance.
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Ranking Well In Non-US Searches
6/8/04

Source: WebProNews
The US-based search engine Google has found a base of operations for its excursion into the European market. Google has decided to make its European headquarters in Dublin. The area is a former Gasworks site that is located in the dock area of the city.
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Yahoo! on Track to Launch China Auctions
4/13/04