Highlights from the SEW Blog: May 15, 2006
Featured posts from the Search Engine Watch blog, as well as our customary search headlines from around the web.
Featured posts from the Search Engine Watch blog, as well as our customary search headlines from around the web.
Featured posts from the Search Engine Watch blog, as well as our customary search headlines from around the web. If you’re not familiar with our blog, click on any of the links below, or visit the blog’s home page at http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/.
5% Of Search Results Lead To “Dangerous Sites”
Andy Beal reports on a Wall Street Journal article that claims 9% of paid search ads lead to “dangerous sites.” Three-percent of organic results lead to risky sites, in comparison to the PPC ads. So on average, the article shows that “roughly 5% of the search results on average were risky sites.” The SiteAdvisor study estimates a searcher will click to an “unsafe site from a search engine once every 15 days.” Risky sites are defined as sites that can “infect consumers’ personal computers or expose them to nuisances such as spam email.”
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Semel To Microsoft: “You Have No Chance”
The Financial Times has an article with a quote from Yahoo’s CEO, Terry Semel, saying “My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance.” Ouch! Semel continues by stating that “the search business has been formed,” in response to rumors that Yahoo and Microsoft were to partner or merge. Semel did say that he did discuss with Microsoft the possibility of Microsoft “co-owning some” of Yahoo’s search. But Semel said that it would not be a wise move to sell “your right arm while keeping your left.” Microsoft just does not seem to be getting much love these days. Jeff Javis also has some blogging of his talk here.
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“Online Seller Advantage Program” Taps Yahoo for Buyer, Seller Data
Prudential Real Estate is offering a new program as part of its existing marketing relationship with Yahoo Real Estate called the “Online Seller Advantage program” (OSA). It’s designed to let sellers’ agents convey market information to their clients (“real-time updates”) via email. Sellers will be able to receive a range of consumer-related and competitive market data.
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Google Commission Woes In Sweden, Australia
Over the past few months, Google’s been trying to reduce or eliminate commission on its ad products in countries where they are offered (North America, notably, has never had them). Now there are some news reports that the plans aren’t well received Down Under and in Sweden.
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Advertiser Files Complaint To Block Google Click Fraud Settlement
One Google advertiser is making a very formal rejection of the proposed Google click fraud settlement — he’s filed a complaint to try and block the agreement, and this before notifications from Google have even gone out.
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Google Destination Guides: Not Much There — Yet
A part of Google Co-op, “Destination Guides” was promoted as “Google City Guides” at Google Press Day today. And while everything about Co-op has been officially qualified as a “work in progress,” this is something of a disappointment—as are many of the content areas and the general user-experience of Co-op.
Danny has a more complete write up of Co-op here. Co-op is an ambitious project, not unlike Base, to create verticals, add structured and user-generated content and make the search experience more personalized. If you want to create your own “vertical search engine,” which is one of the aims of this project, it’s also somewhat confusing.
The concept is cool, the experience not—yet.
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My Big Fat Google Press Day 2006 Round-Up
We’ve blogged a number of items out of Google Press Day today. I wanted to recap them below, along with coverage from across the web that’s beginning to flow in. I’ll likely update this page over the next day, as well. New items will be posted below old stuff and flagged, or we’ll do postscripts, to help those who keep checking back. Let’s go!
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Google Co-op: Add Your Own Vertical Search To Google
Google said it would have a health-related announcement at today’s Google Press Day — but no, it’s not Google Health. Instead, it’s Google Co-op, a way for people to create specialized search engines by tapping into the main Google index or the option for searchers to pick preferred vertical search providers to show up in Google OneBox results. Yes, health information is one of the new features — but this is more than Google Health. This is Google making a giant and somewhat perplexing leap into mass tagging.
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NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication’s search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.