Personalized Search & Privacy

Google is using YouTube to post videos that explain how, when, and why they collect information about searches, and how you can protect your privacy while using our search engine.

In the first video, you can learn about some of the information collected eg. IP addresses, cookies, and search queries and how they this information is used to improve your search experience as well as prevent against fraud and other abuses.

Google's search algorithms are designed to take your personal preferences into account, including the things you search for and the sites you visit. They provided the example about the Louvre in Paris. You are more likely to get results about the French capital than about Paris Hilton.

In the second video the are offering a closer look at personalization and the privacy tools available when you choose to personalize your search. Personalization has been an area that raises concerns about privacy, and Google wants you to understand how they personalize search results while protecting your privacy with tools such as “pause” and “remove” buttons designed to help put you in control of personalization.

How To Speed Up Your Web Site

In a recent book published by O'Reilly called High Performance Web Sites, author Steve Sounders, Chief Performance Yahoo!, outlines tips, tricks and best practices to increase the speed of your web site. He outlines 14 specific rules that will cut 20% to 25% off response time when users request a page. According to the author even highly optimized pages, such as Yahoo! Search and the Yahoo! Front Page, were able to benefit from these surprisingly simple performance guidelines.

The book explains how you can optimize the performance of the Ajax, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, and images that you've already built into your site -- adjustments that are critical for any rich web application. The book focuses heavily on the display time taken up on the browser side and by the communication between server and browser as opposed to focusing on tuning web servers, databases, and hardware.

Here are some of the tips and tricks;

* Make Fewer HTTP Requests

* Use a Content Delivery Network

* Add an Expires Header

* Gzip Components

* Put Stylesheets at the Top

* Put Scripts at the Bottom

* Avoid CSS Expressions

* Make JavaScript and CSS External

* Reduce DNS Lookups

* Minify JavaScript

* Avoid Redirects

* Remove Duplicates Scripts

* Configure ETags

* Make Ajax Cacheable

Google Launchs Link Sharing Service

Google has launched a link sharing service called Google Shared Stuff. It is very similar to the bookmarking service (Google Bookmarks) released in 2005 and Delicious.

The service allows you to add links to your “shared stuff page” by adding a bookmarklet to your web browser’s “Links” or “Bookmarks” bar or by clicking this Share button, which currently only seems to be available on Google Video but is likely to be made available for embedding on any website.

Upon clicking the icon, a popup allows you to choose whether you want to share a thumbnail image and article preview taken from the website or just the link.

Click here to try Shared Stuff.

Yahoo's Casualties in Search War

Semel maybe out but so are 10 of Yahoo's 26 executives (see then and now). A 40% turnover in executive management in one year is pretty high. I guess the battle against Google is taking its toll. Semel, who didn't know what email was before he arrived at Yahoo has left behind a trail of destruction. The vacancies are being filled by Susan Deckers' friends according to sources. Susan, who takes over as President of Yahoo, is famous for saying that "Yahoo's goal is not to be number one in search". Besides losing all this "talent" in a short time, the company is losing millions in severance compensation. Several employees said that Farzeed Nazem, CTO, spent more time filing papers with the SEC over stock options purchases and sales during his 11 year hibernation. The WSJ says it reinforces doubts about Panama when the guy overseeing the global rollout leaves smack in the middle of it. A senior Yahooligan (Yahoo employee) described Panama as larger than the Titanic and that it will help Yahoo capture more search advertising dollars.

Here is the list of executives jumping ship:
Terry Semel, CEO
Susan Decker, CFO
Lars Rabbe, CIO
Dan Rosensweig, COO
Farzeed Nazem, CTO
Chris Castro, CCO
Lloyd Braun, President, Yahoo! Media
John Marcom, VP International, Yahoo!
Phu Hoang, VP Engineering
Daniel Finnigan, VP Classifieds

At the annual shareholder meeting Jerry Yang had nothing to say about Yahoo's business but human rights. Yesterday, he released a statement saying "Terry has given Yahoo! six of its best years".

Yahoo, hosting the Titanic party at its campus in Sunnyvale, CA.

Yahoo Focused On The Past

Angry shareholders voted down proposals to tie executive pay to competitive performance and challenged the company's human rights policies in China at their annual meeting. The meeting was focused on the past three years and a little about the how the company intends to respond to Google's growing dominance.

"I am going to sell all my shares!" said Dotty Webber of Sunnyvale, CA. "He was talking about macaroni and cheese and how people like to eat it. There was nothing about their internet strategy. I went to the Google meeting and Eric Schmidt talked about how Google plans to help the world with the internet."

There was very little said about search, online advertising or Panama. Little to no mention about the acquisitions such as RightMedia or inroads Microsoft is making. No mention about the growing influence of MySpace among brand advertisers or the lock YouTube has on online video. "I don't see much change going forward, the performance of the past three years is set to repeat itself", said Eric Jackson, President, Jackson Leadership Systems. Jackson is a shareholder activist and has a even launched a campaign on YouTube against Terry Semel.

There was more talk about the human rights violations in China and Yahoo's efforts to change that. "They see this as a problem and are looking into it", said Patrick Doherty, Comptroller, The City of New York. A memorandum was issued outlining Jerry Yang's view on human rights to all.

"Search Is History", says Yahoo!

As the company realizes that it can no longer compete with Google, it is saying the future of web search is history. Yahoo says the model for getting information via the browser is outdated. In the future relevant information will be delivered directly to readers. "The future of the web is about personalization. Where search was dominant, now the web is about 'me.' It's about weaving the web together in a way that is smart and personalized for the user," said Tapan Bhat, VP, Yahoo!'s Personalised Home Page.

Interestingly, iGoogle is about personalization and Google has been making alot of noise of about it. Suddenly, it has become the core focus at Yahoo. Yahoo has been losing market share to Google in search and has been recasting itself as a company not focused on search. In fact Susan Decker, CFO, Yahoo has said previously that "Our goal is not to be number one is search". "They've realised they can't compete with Google on search." said Deborah Schultz, a Silicon Valley-based marketing consultant.

Search continues to gain wider adoption as an enabler for online commerce and soon may become the platform for commerce. Billions of dollar are being channeled into search as major marketers and brand advertisers see the efficiency of the medium. The river of money is finding its way mostly to Google. In fact the company does more in reveune in a single quarter than Yahoo does in a year. The entire Searchnomics conference is focused on the importance of search to web sites and online businesses.


On Tuesday June 12, 2007, Yahoo holds it annual shareholder meeting. Yahoo's Terry Semel was the highest paid CEO in 2006, with total compensation of $71.7 million, according to the AP. That is two times more than the $27 million in total compensation for the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, baseball's highest-paid player, and higher than the typical pay A-list stars like Brad Pitt who earn $20 million a movie, plus 20 percent of the gross box office take.

There is even talk that Microsoft may buy the company. That would give Semel a graceful exit. However, the word is that the company is not attractive enough to any single major buyer to advance their product line, not at that price. Jeff Clavier, a venture capitalist at SoftTech, said: "The problem with Yahoo! is that they're trying to be all things to all people but they don't do any one thing particularly well."

All this is making investors, partners and customers very nervous. Several advertisers and partners are moving to Google; Friendster, a social networking site, moved to Google from Yahoo to better monetize its user base with Google's larger ad platform and deeper inventory. If this trend continues, Yahoo maybe history before search is.

82% of Experts Say Web Analytics Misunderstood

According to a survey of over 1000 web analytics professionals, consultants and end-users:
- 82% said web analytics was largely misunderstood within their organisations
- 56% found web analytics difficult

Most respondents had at least two years of experience with the relevant technologies and approximately 25% had over five years experience.

The survey was conducted by Web measurement guru Eric T. Peterson and Jim Sterne, co-founder and chairman of the Web Analytics Association.

According to Mr. Peterson only 8 percent of companies worldwide are taking a process-oriented approach towards web analytics. "In my experience, process is the key to both success and achieving positive and recurring return on investment from web analytics technology and staff", he said.

Mr. Peterson will be the opening speaker on web analytics at the up coming Searchnomics conference, Brett Crosby from Google and Avinash Kaushik and John Squire from Coremetrics will also be speaking at Searchnomics.

Search Conferences

Some of you might find this listing of search conferences useful. It is a listing of the conferences Google Webmaster Team will be speaking at. Searchnomic is on the list. Shashi Thakur will be speaking on Search Engine Friendly Design and Greg Grothaus will be speaking on Search & Dynamic Web Sites and SEO for Web 2.0.

Yahoo's CTO, Farzad Nazem, Resigns

Farzad Nazem, Yahoo's CTO for the past 11 years has called it quits. Couple of weeks ago Susan Decker quit as Yahoo's CFO. An SEC, filing outlines that Farzad will not we able to work for a competitor such as Google or Microsoft for 3 years nor can he solicit or contract Yahoo employees.

Yahoo CFO Out: Goal Not To Be No. 1 In Search

Susan Decker, the former CFO of Yahoo has been replaced by Blake Jorgensen. He will begin his new job on June 4, 2007. Susan was famous for saying that "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search." and that is precisely the plan the company has been sticking to. Here is the press release from Yahoo.

Google searches web's dark side

One in 10 web pages contains malicious code that could infect a user's PC. Researchers at Google scrutinized 4.5 million pages to and 10% or 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads", sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user's knowledge, and a further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer.

Drive-by downloads are an increasingly common way to infect a computer or steal sensitive information. They usually consist of malicious programs that automatically install when a user visits a booby-trapped website.

"To entice users to install malware, adversaries employ social engineering," wrote Google researcher Niels Provos.

"The user is presented with links that promise access to 'interesting' pages with explicit pornographic content, copyrighted software or media. A common example are sites that display thumbnails to adult videos."

Some downloads, alter bookmarks, install unwanted toolbars or change the start page of a browser. However, increasingly, criminals are using drive-bys to install keyloggers that steal login and password information.

Other pieces of malicious code hijack a computer turning it into a "bot", a remotely controlled PC.

Drive-by downloads represent a shift away from traditional methods of infecting a computer, such as spam and email attachments.

The vast majority exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install themselves.

Google will start to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious.
Google, part of the StopBadware coalition, already warns users if they are about to visit a potentially harmful website, displaying a message that reads "this site may harm your computer" next to the search results.

"Marking pages with a label allows users to avoid exposure to such sites and results in fewer users being infected," the researchers wrote. This is similar to the browser install produced by McAfee called SiteAdvisor, which alters users to spyware, spam, viruses and online scams. SiteAdvisor, alerts users of web site's safety by assigning color codes next to the severity of the threat posted. However, the constant pop-up that alerts users of a sites threat level can get annoying and time consuming.

The Google report also identified the other methods by which criminals inject malicious code on to innocent web pages.

1. Spam email - are a common way to infect a computer. It found that the code was often contained in those parts of the website not designed or controlled by the website owner, such as banner adverts and widgets.

2. Widgets - are small programs that may, for example, display a calendar on a web page or a web traffic counter. These are often downloaded from third-party sites. The rise of web 2.0 and user-generated content gave criminals other channels, or vectors, of attack, it found. For example, postings in blogs and forums that contain links to images or other content could unwittingly infect a user.

You're a Nobody Unless You Google Well

If your name does not come up on Google you are nobody according to an article published by the Wall Street Journal.

Today, employers frequently Google their candidate prior to even calling. Interviewers often search to see if what a candidate say on their resume could be verified online. More than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by executive networking firm ExecuNet. Nearly 40% of individuals have used search engines to look up friends or acquaintances with whom they'd lost touch, according to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Microsoft Corp.'s MSN unit.

Parents to be are turning to Google to find unique names for their children. They explain they want their children to stand out. Google, John Smith and you will get 209,000,000 searchresults and as people flood the web this is going to be a growing problem.

To increase visibility musicians are turning to unique sites like Gruuve where they can be found. Eg. a search for "U2" on Google is getting very noise but a search for "U2" on Gruuve brings us the band.

For web professionals WebGuild is building its own version on an online directory. People in the web profession can add themselves to the directory and use it as an online biography which they could provide to reporters, employers, for speaking engagements and more.

Google Analytics Gets New Look

Google announced a redesign of the popular Google Analytics application. The new redesign will make the analysis even more accessible and easy to use while improving the data reporting capabilities of the Web site usage monitoring service.

Products like Google Analytics continue to rise in importance as companies strive to understand how people arrive at their Web sites and what they do once they are there.

Knowing that helps webmasters make their sites more effective tools for displaying online ads, providing sales leads, and generating e-commerce transactions.

According to Brett Crosby, Senior Manager, Google Analytics, "The overall goal of this upgrade is to make the product more intuitive to use and its data clearer and easier to digest so that it can be used effectively to make business decisions."

Brett will be giving an indepth workings of the product at the upcoming Searchnomics Conference as part of his talk on Using Analytics To Improve Your Marketing Efforts.

Sir Martin Says Google Is Frienemy

I was at "The Future of Advertising Conference" at Stanford and Sir Martin Sorrell, Chairman, WPP, the largest advertising holding company shared some interesting stats about the advertising business.

1. WPP has a market share of approximately 25% of the global ad business, annual billings of $60 Billion and yet only $200 M of that is with Google.
2. Google's revenues are approximately $11 Billion and at $200 M, WPP is one of Google's largest customers. So Google's tail is very very long and they are just getting started.
3. He went on to say that Google is a FRIENEMY - Google is your friend in the short term and enemy in the long term. His reasoning was Google wants access to large advertising account, that they do not have relationships with and that is where the friendship begins.
4. There was little mention of Microsoft or Yahoo and it understandable as their respective foot prints in this space is still considered baby steps.

On May 16, 2007, the WebGuild will be having an event of The Future of Online Advertising with all the heavy weights including Google. The panel will share insight into the future of online advertising from several perspectives of paramount importance to web professionals, seos, sems or search engine marketers, web analytics professionals, online merchants, venture capitals, entrepreneurs and anyone that uses a website to acquire customers, service customers or monetize customers. There are still a few spots left. If you miss this then there is always Searchnomics, which delves deep into search advertising and search & marketplaces and must attend for all web professinal.

In Search of Traffic

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on why website owners need to harness the power of Search Engines and deploy SEM and SEO strategies to find customers.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are often shoppers' first stops when they're looking for a product on the Web and thus it is crucial for websites to show up prominently in search-engine results.

The is the focus of the upcoming Searchnomics 2007 Conference aimed at web and internet marketing professionals. Search has become the enabler for business. It is the most efficient medium connecting business and customers. Searchnomics is where the leaders of the search industry meet to share cutting-edge knowledge, best practices, and trends in:

• Search Engine Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Design and Development
• Branding and Promotion
• Web Analytics
• New Innovations and Opportunites

The article is only available via paid subscription. Here is the link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117769688676085058.html?mod=wsj_right_click

Local Search Marketplace

Local.com has launched "Local Promote" a service for small businesses.

The service allows small businesses to establish a Web presence with a landing page on Local.com, in addition to various distribution, pay-per-click and featured placement options.

The free basic version includes the ability for businesses to post and update business name, description and contact info. This will make it easier for lots of small business to form a Web presence.

Local.com is one of several companies along with Google Maps, Krillion, Gruuve and others that are enabling the "Webification" of the the local search marketplace. These services enable local business to establish a web presence easily and essentially expand the addressable market of online advertisers.

Once there, they are hoped to evolve into paid marketers, whether that be a subscription service like Local Promote, featured placement or paid search on Google.

Search Engine Awards Launched to Recognize Industry Leadership

There is now an award for the best search engine web site. This is the very first award of its kind to recognize leadership, outstanding achievement, and innovation in the search engine industry.

Entry is open to all search engine websites and there is no cost for participation. The winners will be decided by a panel of judges comprised of industry professionals and nominations received for each search website. Search engines websites are encouraged to have their users vote for their favorite search engine website.

To submit your entry please visit http://www.webguild.org/meetings/2007/searchnomics/search_awards.php.

For more information vist http://www.sys-con.com/read/367042.htm.

Google's New Search Page on IE

I rarely use Microsoft IE, so today when I searched using IE the Google search results page on IE was different to the search results page on Firefox. I guess Google is doing a browser detect and displaying different looks on the different browsers. I would like to hear everyone comments on this.

Google search results on IE



Google search results on Firefox

Google DoubleClick

Google has announced its intention to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. On March 29, 2007, I wrote that DoubleClick and Performics were being shopped and that Microsoft was one of the suitors. I also said that Microsoft would not end up buying DoubleClick and that it would be a better fit for Google.

Google's is the leader in search advertising. DoubleClick the leader in display ads. Display advertising accounts for almost half of the online ad market. Via a DoubleClick acquisition Google would become a dominant player in display ads and extend its reach with advertisers, ad networks, agencies and publishers.

Also, Google would gain key capabilities in the production, brokering and distribution of online ads. DoubleClick brings a network that runs ads across multiple advertising venues, such as AOL and Yahoo, providing Google with deep penetration into the overall online advertising market.

Google reported "Our goal is to make advertising on the internet work better: better for users with less intrusive ads and better privacy protection, better for advertisers with greater accountability and effectiveness, and better for publishers with improved monetization and cleaner site integration."

Google coming to a TV near you!

Google is entering the $65 billion U.S. TV-as-sales market. Google has announced the creation of an automated platform for ads running on EchoStar DISH Network's 125 networks. Google will gain access to DISH ad inventory from across all channels and dayparts; Google's platform will then allow it to sell that inventory and provide measurement on those buys.

The buying of DISH Network ads will work much like AdWords and use a web-based auction system. The real-time reporting allows advertisers to see how their ads performed on a second-by-second basis and adjust creative or daypart scheduling accordingly. Data will be pulled anonymously from the four million DISH boxes currently in use.

According to Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, this will allow for the ads delivered to be more relevant and therefore more valuable to the viewer and advertisers. Google will start by selling 30-second spots for broadcast networks, cable programmers and operators.

As part of the effort, Google is also launching a SpotRunner-esque program allowing advertisers to create TV ads on the fly. That toolset could attract some smaller companies that haven't tried TV advertising because of the high cost of creating those ads.

Advertisers can upload their TV commercials, bid on desired time and channel, and choose national area coverage. They can also choose to target by age demographic. The ads will be attached at the satellite operator level, not on the subscriber's set-top box.

The system is scheduled to start in May, and will sell ad space only on cable networks, including ESPN, CNN, Discovery, Lifetime, Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. There are no national broadcast channels or local affiliates involved in the deal yet.

Television experts say the deal is a stepping stone to greater advertising control, but that Google really needs to sign an ad deal with one of the major cable networks, which are known for their ability to target ads sometimes as narrowly as neighborhood level.

Google is also reportedly planning to launch a marketplace that matches up marketers who don’t have experience creating ads with agencies that do.

Google to offer Search via Toilets

Google today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)™, a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.

"We've got that whole organizing-the-world's-information thing more or less under control," said Google Co-founder and President Larry Page, a longtime supporter of so-called "dark porcelain" research and development. "What's interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you."

For years, data carriers have confronted the "last hundred yards" problem for delivering data from local networks into individual homes. Now Google has successfully devised a "last hundred smelly yards" solution that takes advantage of preexisting plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities. "There's actually a thriving little underground community that's been studying this exact solution for a long time," says Page. "And today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and - splat - right onto your PC."

Users who sign up online for the TiSP system will receive a full home self-installation kit, which includes a spindle of fiber-optic cable, a TiSP wireless router, installation CD and setup guide. Home installation is a simple matter of GFlushing™ the fiber-optic cable down to the nearest TiSP Access Node, then plugging the other end into the network port of your Google-provided TiSP wireless router. Within sixty minutes, the Access Node's crack team of Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) should have your internet connection up and running.

"I couldn't be more excited about, and am only slightly grossed out by, this remarkable new product," said Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. "I firmly believe TiSP will be a breakthrough product, particularly for those users who, like Larry himself, do much of their best thinking in the bathroom."

For more information please visit http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html.

DoubleClick/Performics Shopping

Rumors are circulating that DoubleClick is up for grabs and Microsoft might be interested. The price tag is $2.5 Billion (Microsoft rarelyl buys anything more than $1 Billion). If the rumor is true then the DoubleClick acquisition by Microsoft will represent a key piece in the dinosaur's battle against Google.

DoubleClick is the owner of Performics the largest search marketing company in terms of revenue. A big share of their business is with Google. The acquisition would make more sense for Google, which has a lock on search ad dollars to expand its on-line display ad business.

Here is why I think that the deal will not happen;
1) Microsoft does not have the traffic to channel the ad inventory.
2) Microsoft has no experience in the online ad industry and it is clueless when it comes to operating one.

Click Fraud Rates Less Than 0.02%

Google reported that the rate of click fraud for which advertisers seek a refund represents less than 0.02% of all clicks. The company reported "every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million/year in potential revenue foregone", thus is in the interest of Google to reduce this rate.

On the other hand ClickForensics puts the click fraud rate at 14.2%. However ClickForensics' rate is an overall average of click fraud across the search industry. The rate of click fraud across different ad industry sectors and different search providers varies widely. Those buying expensive keywords as triggers for their search ads, for example, are more likely to be targeted by click fraudsters than other advertisers. Also the second and third tier search engines with do not have Google's technology to detect nor correct these problems.


Also, ClickForensics and others that build their business model around this issue are not about to say that they are in a small and declining market. Then, there are others with inferior technology that are utilizing this issue as part of their marketing strategy.

The bottom line is search marketing is the most effective medium to reach customers and even if the rate of errors is 14% it is better than displace where there is little relevance and metrics.

Yahoo's New Ranking Model

Yahoo has officially roll-outed out its ranking model which is a major component "Panama", Yahoo's new initiative to complete and stay relevant in the online marketing space. With Panama both bid amount and ad quality will now determine an ad’s rank in search results.

The new ranking model is designed to help both search users and advertisers by generating better results, users will receive higher quality search ads. When users engage with these higher quality search ads, advertisers will receive more interested, valuable potential customers. We hope this further encourages you—our advertising customers—to continuously improve the quality of your search ads for users.

Check Out "Checkout"

Google Checkout icon will be updated to better image to the Google Checkout buttons used by merchants on their website. The new image will help shoppers to more easily identify Google Checkout merchants. It will also be appear on the shopping cart on ads in the Google advertising network.

Google Checkout helps users find convenient, secure places to shop through tight integration with AdWords, the advertisements on the Google search results pages. Merchants who decide to offer Google Checkout as a checkout option on their sites are identified by a shopping cart when their ads are displayed on Google.

Publishers Take Control FAST

FAST has introduced a new product called AdMomentum. AdMomentum provides, publishers with a private-label contextual advertising platform, eliminating the need for third-party services and enabling them to better monetize their content and serve their clients (advertisers).

AdMomentum is targeted at online media companies, retailers and telecommunications service providers. It enables them to better sell locally and nationally, to both their audiences and advertisers. Publishers can grow their revenues and reverse the tide of ad dollars that are going to third-party services.

“Publishers want to maintain control of their revenue, serving their advertisers and audiences more effectively, and this has been difficult to do with third-party platforms." said John M. Lervik, CEO of FAST.

“Online ad revenue drives the digital economy, and no one has a lock on that revenue stream today,” said Sue Feldman, IDC's Vice President for Search and Digital Marketplace Technologies. “Online advertising – particularly contextual advertising – continues to soar. IDC believes that large publishers and ad networks can seize a significant share of this revenue and AdMomentum provides this infrastructure for publishers to manage and monetize their online content. It's a digital marketplace in a box."

"Contextual advertising continues to drive the advertising economy, and publishers everywhere are looking for ways to deliver more qualified leads to their advertisers," said Stephen Baker, CEO of Search at Reed Business.

“To meet the needs of our customers, we have to meet the needs of their customers – the readers and advertisers that support their businesses,” said Dylan Fuller, Senior Product Director at FAST. “There’s a reason why contextual advertising has done so well with readers and advertisers, and now publishers will be able to make the experience even better. They know their customers better than anyone else, and with the right tools they can better serve them.”

Paid Search nears $10B

According to "The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006" report, paid search campaigns in North America reached $9.5 billion in 2006. About 86% of that spending ($8 billion) went to pay-per-click ads. Spending for organic search engine optimization topped 12% (about $1 billion). Paid inclusion declined to about 1% ($94 million), and SEM technology platforms accounted for 1.3% ($122 million) of the search spend in 2006. SEM spending is expected to double by 2011 to $18.6 billion.

The data was based on spending trends by agencies and in-house advertisers. The SEM programs surveyed include paid placement, paid inclusion, organic search engine optimization (SEO) and SEM technology platforms.

SEM continues to poach budget from other marketing channels, especially offline marketing programs. "SEM is bringing results and is helping to fuel the Internet-based economy which in turn is driving SEM spending," said Kevin Lee of Did-It.

More than 75% of search advertisers polled say search engine optimization is their preferred venue, rather than paid search ads. One new development for search advertisers is that they prefer to grow direct sales from campaigns rather than brand awareness. Roughly 58% of search marketers wanted direct sales while 57% wanted to grow their brand awareness.

"We have moved from the first wave of adoption of search-based marketing to the myriad of small and medium sized businesses, many of them startups, using SEM as a fundamental part of their business," said Kevin Lee.

Google Adwords led the pack for search ad providers with roughly 96% of advertisers using their platform. About 75% say they also purchased pay-per-click ads through Yahoo, and 68% say they also bought MSN search ads in 2006.

Google Earth gets Local

Google Earth will now incorporate local advertisements. The move will let advertisers place local ads in the form of map markers around the site as clickable links. Logos and contacts details will help users find the exact location of a certain business.

"If you've created Local Business Ads in you AdWords accounts, they'll now appear on Google Earth in addition to Google Maps," Google wrote in an email to customers.

"Advertising a hotel in Lake Louise? A neighbourhood cafe in Paris? Google Earth users across the globe can zoom in on your business. Don't forget to add a customised icon to make your ad stand out," the company added.

Google Earth was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole. It is now available under three different licenses - Google Earth, Google Earth plus, and Google Earth Professional.

Google Earth, Google Local and Froogle will be a lethal combination for marketers. It will be a one stop ad purchasing and delivery system.

Search Engine Friendly Design, Part II

This is an addition to my January 14, 2007 post on Search Engine Friendly Design. I found some additional tips that might be useful on HighRankings.

Best Search Websites 2007

Submit and rate your favorite search websites
Click here.

If you can't find the site you are looking for or if it is not on the list please submit it.

Rating Criteria
Accessibility:
Weak - contents are accessed by scrolling through site's pages
Acceptable - contents are made more accessible via a simple search engine or other finding aid
Strong - site incorporates its own search engine with sophisticated search capabilities

Content:
Weak - site consists primarily of links to other sites, some of which are broken or not useful
Acceptable - some unique material; links to other sites are annotated, up to date, and useful
Strong - contains material unique to this site; goes into sufficient depth for research purposes; is accurate and up to date

Authority:
Weak - site's creator is not identified or lacks the credentials or training to present material of value to serious researchers
Acceptable - site's creator is clearly identified and can reasonably claim the authority to present research quality material
Strong - individual or organization maintaining site is recognized as an authority in this subject area

Navigation:
Weak - site is not organized into manageable segments or is confusing to navigate
Acceptable - site is well organized and navigation is clear and consistent
Strong - material is presented in manageable units; access to contents is logical and intuitive

Design:
Weak - site is bland or else so loaded with graphics and features that it is torture to wait for the connection
Acceptable - graphics contribute to the material being presented and enhance the aesthetics of the site
Strong - site loads quickly when initial connection is made; graphics are well-integrated into the design

Accessibility:
Weak - contents are accessed by scrolling through site's pages
Acceptable - contents are made more accessible via a simple search engine or other finding aid
Strong - site incorporates its own search engine with sophisticated search capabilities

Wikipedia founder to launch search engine

Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia, is planning to enter the search engine market with a user-based search recommendations engine.

He said that the human judgment is better than any computer search algorithm. “Essentially, if you consider one of the basic tasks of a search engine, it is to make a decision: ‘this page is good, this page sucks’. It usually only takes a second to figure out if the page is good, so the key here is building a community of trust that can do that.”

Mr. Wales said the technology will be similar to the that he perfected at Wikipedia. The venture will be called Wikiasari. The commercial venture will be developed by Wikia, also founded by Mr. Wales. The venture will be backed by Amazon.com.

In my opinion this is very similar to StumbleUpon where a community of users generate recommendations to web sites based on the users likes, similarity and relevance. This phenomenon is also know as social search. For more on StumbleUpon and social search visit WebGuild Social Search

Another twist to user generated search engines, is the Google Custom Search Engine (which I wrote about in October), which allows users to have control over what shows up in their search index.

The Google Custom Search Engine enables users to restrict searches to specific pages and websites, offering them the possibility to customize searches. They can choose which pages will be included in their search index, how the pages are arranged in order of priority and what the final page will look like. They can even decide if other users can contribute to the index. The user has total control over the search process. The big idea is to sift the relevant information from the irrelevant, in contrast to generic search engines that make no discriminations. To try out the Google Custome Search Engine please check out the top right hand corner of this page.

Advanced Search Marketing

At WebGuild's Advanced Search Marketing yesterday Barbara Coll, Jessie Stricchiola andMassimo Burgio shared their thoughts on a range of topics such as landing page optimization, organic search, paid listings, a little bit on click, web analytics and tools. The event was filled with very rich and practical learning tips and advice. Please listen to the podcast to learn more.

Here are 7 top takes away that I picked up on;
1. Make use of your title tag
2. Get a good web analytics tool that integrates with your content management system
3. Move offline content online
4. Pay the $300 and get into Yahoo directory
5. Use the Google Webmaster SEO tips
6. Have realistic goals for measuring your success
7. Add contact info on homepage

Also, Jessie shared some interesting tools and plugins for Firefox.

One of Firefox plugins "SEOpen" enables you to view some very useful and frequented sites with a single click. Here are some site that are expressed linked.
Yahoo Backlinks
Pages in Yahoo Index

Google Backlinks
Google Cache
Pages in Google index
Google Translate to English
Google Related
PageRank Check
MSN Backlinks
Pages in MSN Index
Alexa Overview
Alexa Traffic
Alexa Related

Alexa Backlinks
"Mass Check" multiple sources at once
Check DMOZ Inclusion
Keyword Density
Page Size Checker
HTML Validator
Server Header Viewer
Wayback Machine
Check robots.txt
Whois Info

AOL's FullView is a Mashup

This morning I took AOL search engine with the new "FullView" feature for a spin. The interface has a slick clean look and it is nicely integrated with Google search results. Further, the site also integrates multimedia, news and other content from AOL and its partners.

The search engine more like a mashup than a search engine. It integrated the relevant search results from the Google, AOL and partner sites. This helps the user discover more information relevant to the user's search query by including stock charts, videos, images, news, local results and other tidbits specific to the user's query.

For example, a search for "Google" presents ten standard web search results powered by Google, included on the right hand side is the delayed stock quote for Google and an image of the stock chart. Also, included are relevent news headlines about Google and from "AOL Inside".

Neat Features
"Click to Expand" link opens additional results from "AOL Inside". Floating boxes helps users link faster to relevant results, limit search results or get additional informations that is specific to the user's query.

"Search On History" icon on mousing over displays a list of your most recent searches. From this box, you can clear your search history, turn search history off, or click through to a full page where you can manage your search history. It has many other neat features view your search query.

I enjoyed using this however I am not sure if these feature will make me switch to AOL Search.

Google's Custom Search Engine

Google's just announced the launch of their Custom Search Engine service. The service makes it easy to add a customized search engine to your website or blog.

See the top right-hand side (channel) with "Google Custom Search" for a quick implementation of this service.

This service lets user choose the order and display of search results by specifying Google or non-Google vertical search engines to show at the top of Google search results.

How to Create your own Search Engine
Go to www.google.com/coop/cse to get started. There you can find a control panel with FAQs and other information about the service. The control panel is very user friendly and simple to use. I created this search engine in 30 seconds.

Step 1 - specify sites you want to include or exclude from your search engine.
Step 2 - you can enter sites in any order and you can add and delete sites as you wish
Step 3 - do a quick test - you can customize the look and fine and other refinements later
Step 4 - click "Code" - copy and paste the code to your web site or blog
Step 5 - now you are ready to gruuve

You can also add collaboration and money making tools to your search engine.