IndustryThe Search Engine Update – Number 178 – August 2, 2004

The Search Engine Update - Number 178 - August 2, 2004

Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan recap of top search engine stories from late July 2004.

In This Issue

+ Search Engine Watch News
+ Search Engine Strategies Begins In San Jose!
+ Search Engine Watch Member Articles
+ Search Engine Watch Articles
+ Search Engine Articles
+ Search Engine Resources
+ About The Newsletter

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Search Engine Watch News
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Hello Everyone–

I’m happy to announce that Search Engine Watch has added another person to our team: Gary Price, who has begun as our new news editor.

Gary will be well known to many of you who have followed his insightful comments about search via his ResourceShelf.com blog. Gary will continue his commentaries on information and library science over there. But for Search Engine Watch, he’ll be helping us keep you all abreast of the many news stories that appear across the web related to search.

In other news, the comScore Media Metrix Search Engine Ratings page has been updated with figures showing top search engines in the United States for May 2004.

The Who Powers Whom? Search Providers Chart and the Search Engine Results Chart have been updated to reflect recent changes in the search industry in terms of partnerships.

Links to all these pages can be found via the URL below:

Search Engine Watch What’s New
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2148821

A new RSS / web feed has been added for the Search Engine Watch Forums site. It will keep you updated as to any new threads that have been created. You’ll find the link in the left-hand column of the forum site at http://forums.searchenginewatch.com, or here is the direct link to it: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/icom_includes/feeds/special/sew_forum.xml.

Don’t forget, you can also take SearchDay through a web feed — the URL is at the bottom of the SEW home page, or use this direct URL: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/sew.xml

Finally, I’m currently traveling and so didn’t have a chance to print out this edition of the newsletter to check for any typos. So please forgive any that may have slipped through my on screen proofing.

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Search Engine Strategies Begins In San Jose!

Search Engine Strategies begins today in San Jose, with over 60 sessions ranging from the fundamentals of search engine marketing to tracks looking at the business aspects of search engine marketing and getting inside the minds of searchers. There’s also a free expo hall filled with search vendors. Full details about all that’s offered and registration information can be found here:

Search Engine Strategies San Jose: August 2-5, 2004
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/summer04/

Too late to make San Jose? SES comes to Stockholm from October 27-28 and Chicago from December 13-16. Basic information about these shows can be found via the URL below:

Search Engine Strategies
http://searchenginestrategies.com/

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Search Engine Watch Member Articles
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Search Can Provide Brand Lift, Study Finds
The Search Engine Update, Aug. 1, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3388891

For search engines and search engine marketers, a holy grail has been figuring out how to attract the big money spent on branding into search. Now a new study gives both parties ammunition to say search can build branding.

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New Data On How Paid Ranking Translates Into Traffic
The Search Engine Update, Aug. 1, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3388901

A new study from Atlas DMT tries suggests that top rankings do indeed equal lots of clickthrough and traffic, at least in terms of paid listings.

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Search Engine Marketing and Branding Challenges
SearchDay, Jul. 28, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/articles/article.php/3386991

Search engines are recognized as one of the best ways to generate qualified leads online. What about branding aspects? Should search engine marketing be considered as part of a brand-building campaign? This version of this story for Search Engine Watch members provides a case study detailing how a diversified manufacturer of consumer and business products successfully used a search marketing campaign to increase brand awareness for both the company itself and its products.

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Search Engine Watch Articles
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Here’s a recap of major articles and some interesting forum discussions from Search Engine Watch since the last newsletter:

Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, July 30, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3388141

Links to this week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: SEMPO Under Fire – Mike Grehan Stirs Up SEMPO Controversy – What Does SEMPO Mean To You? – Overture to Launch Bid Management Tool – Google’s IPO Pricing – Could a Virus Shut down Google?

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Google Adds Date Back To Cache
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 29, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=833

Hurray! Google finally has restored showing a date as part of its page cache feature, making it easy to know exactly when a page was last spidered. Let’s hope the other major search engines follow to make it easy to measure freshness with similar date reporting.

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Google Banned On…Google?
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 29, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=827

Google loses all of its own pages on its own web site for about a day.

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Lost Per Click: Search Advertising & Click Fraud
SearchDay, Jul. 29, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3387581

Click fraud — the practice of clicking on a text advertisement served by a search engine for the sole purpose of forcing the advertiser to pay for the click — is emerging as an important concern for search engine marketers.

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Mike Grehan Stirs Up SEMPO Controversy
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 27, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=775

Revelations that SEMPO’s president has been paid a stipend since May, along with the appointment of a new European board member, have raised issues that the search marketing organization needs to improve its member communication and focus. Much discussion here, sparked by Mike Grehan’s criticism of the group in this article: Who Needs SEMPO: http://www.netimperative.com/cmn/viewdoc.jsp?cat=all&docid=BEP1_Feature_0000067540. Also good discussions in other forum threads, such as What Does SEMPO Mean To You?, http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=7143&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=105, Sempo Under Fire, http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8234, SEMPO Article by Mike Grehan, http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum5/5022.htm

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New Web Search History Timeline
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 27, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=767

Marketwatch.com releases a timeline of major events in the web search business dating back to 1995. Take a look back in time & discuss the changes of the industry here.

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Affiliate Marketing and SEM
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 27, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=735

Members discuss the pros and cons of having affliate programs, and creating rules for affiliates, including the issue of bidding on trademarked terms.

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MSN Previews Personalized News Search
SearchDay, Jul. 27, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3386371

NewsBot, the personalized news search and aggregation service that MSN has been testing in a number of countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa has gone live in the United States.

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Google’s IPO Pricing
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 26, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=751

Google announces details about its auction style IPO and expected starting prices of stocks

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The Older You Are, The More You Want Personalized Search
SearchDay, Jul. 26, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3385131

Those aged 50 and older want personalized search more than younger age ranges, a new survey has found.

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Search Engine Forums Spotlight
SearchDay, Jul. 23, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3385271

Links to this week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Advertisers Look Elsewhere as Search Engine Ad Space Dries Up – Change To Link Bomb Sign Of New Link Analysis Shift? – Forrester Gives Nod To Yahoo Search – New Tool for Website Comparisons – Using Background Graphics to Hide Text – Following the Ratings – Ask Jeeves Moving Up.

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Overture Announces New Bid Management Tool
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 23, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=733

Overture is rolling out its own bid management program for advertisers to manage prices automatically, and looking at adding other new features.

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The Future of Search
SearchDay, Jul. 22, 2004
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3384481

Representatives from the world’s biggest search engine companies sat down with Danny Sullivan and several hundred of his closest friends to talk about the future of search and information retrieval.

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Change To Link Bomb Sign Of New Link Analysis Shift?
Search Engine Watch Forums, July 22, 2004
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=700

The link bomb “out of touch executive” no longer brings up the Google corporate management page, something that’s happened for the past several months. A sign of Google tampering with results in its own favor or instead, perhaps a change in how it measures links? This thread investigates and explores.

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Want to receive new Search Engine Watch articles every day? Sign-up for SearchDay, the free daily newsletter from Search Engine Watch. Also keep up with news and discussion via the Search Engine Watch Forums. Links to both are below.

SearchDay
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/

Search Engine Watch Forums
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/

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Search Engine Articles
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Buying Brand Keywords: A Case Study
ClickZ, July 30, 2004
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/strat/article.php/3387751

Buying your own brand name leads to great conversion.

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Microsoft puts multisearch tool on show
News.com, July 29, 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-5289463.html

Microsoft demos a new unified desktop and web search tool for financial analysts.

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Google Sparks AOL Ad Rebound
DM News, July 29, 2004
http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=29947

Ad sales are up after three years of decline, and AOL thanks Google for helping to make it so.

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S.Korea’s Daum say may buy Lycos, but no deal yet
Reuters, July 29, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=MTFH61108_2004-07-29_03-18-02_SEO62853_NEWSML

We’re talking, but we haven’t actually bought Lycos, says Daum.

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How to Stop Click Fraud (Or at Least Get a Refund)
MarketingSherpa.com, July 28, 2004
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2775

Case study on how a firm identified clickfraud in order to get refunds and to deter it.

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Google’s Ad Technology Tussle
InternetNews.com, July 28, 2004
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3387211

Good look at the latest in the patent fight between Overture and Google involving Overture’s claimed patent on paid listings. One key issue in the case is what “search results” is defined as. And did Overture wait too long to file for its patent?

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Overture tool broadens ad analysis
News.com, July 28, 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5286765.html

Overture has launched a bid management feature called Search Optimizer to its existing conversion tracking tool, but the bid management only works for Overture listings. Those with Google AdWords accounts will still need to seek another solution.

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iProspect Announces Patent In Response To Overture Product Launch
MediaPost, July 28, 2004
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=261698

iProspect has applied for a patent on its bid management system, on the heels of Overture announcing its own. Forget the Overture tool, however. There have long been bid management tools offered by other companies. Presumably, some of those other firms may have also sought patents.

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Get Into Yahoo for Free Part II
Search Engine Guide, July 28, 2004
http://www.searchengineguide.com/dowdell/2004/0728_jd1.html

Got a personal blog? Then you might expect a speedy and free admission to the Yahoo Directory.

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Online Ad Spending Poised to Surpass Magazines, Yellow Pages
MediaPost, July 28, 2004
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsId=261680

Online ad spend will meet print ad spend in 2007, then surpass it in 2008, Jupiter Research estimates. The prime driver? Search, and more money being paid for existing inventory, rather than in growth: http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=29942

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Google, other engines hit by worm variant
News.com, July 26, 2004
http://news.com.com/2100-1023_3-5283750.html

An internet virus that generated search requests slowed down or made Google inaccessible to many users, and other search engines had trouble, as well.

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Google’s challenge of Froogles.com name rejected
AP, July 23, 2004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/9229401.htm

The Froogles.com shopping site, which began before Google’s Froogle shopping search engine, gets to keep its name.

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Ask Jeeves, Google extend ad links deal
News.com, July 26, 2004
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5283755.html

Ask Jeeves extends its agreement to carry Google’s paid listings through 2007. Some discussion here: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=752

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Making Your eBay Store Search-Savvy, Part Two
ecommerce-guide.com, July 22, 2004
http://ecommerce.internet.com/how/customers/article/0,,10363_3385011,00.html

Experiences in getting a small merchant site listed with major shopping search engines. Applicable even to those who aren’t eBay store owners.

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Google Accused of Elderly Discrimination
Forbes, July 23, 2004
http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2004/07/23/ap1469166.html

Google’s former director of operations claims he was fired because he didn’t fit into the company’s youth culture, with stats saying just 2 percent of the company is over 40 years old. Google denies the claim.

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SEO Consultants Directory To Launch Peer Review Network
SEO Consultants Directory, July 7, 2004
http://www.seoconsultants.com/press/2004/07/

This long-standing guide to SEO firms that have been reviewed and approved according to its own criteria will now allow approved firms to participate in approving of other firms, as a means to expand the guide.

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Search Engine Resources
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Honest SEO
http://www.honestseo.com

New site designed to help consumers educate themselves before selecting an SEM firm.

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Informati
http://www.informiti.com/

New meta search site that lets you meta search several major search engines at once or allows you to search just major sites, paid listings, “pure” listings (Yahoo gets dropped from this category, apparently because of its paid inclusion) and human listings from the Open Directory.

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Thanks!
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Special thanks reader submissions and

+ Search Engine Guide, http://searchengineguide.com
+ Search Engine Lowdown, http://searchenginelowdown.com
+ Searchblog, http://battellemedia.com
+ Search Engine Roundtable Weblog, http://www.seroundtable.com
+ SEObook.com, http://www.seobook.com
+ ResourceShelf.com, http://www.resourceshelf.com
+ ResearchBuzz, http://www.researchbuzz.com
+ The Unofficial Google Weblog, http://google.weblogsinc.com
+ Google Blogoscoped, http://blog.outer-court.com

for some of the items listed in this newsletter.

=============================
About The Search Engine Update
=============================

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