Mar 03
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 3, 2008
in Search Engine Land
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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:


  • Yahoo Search March ‘08 Weather Report
    Yahoo Search sent me a note that tomorrow they will be rolling out a new update. Yahoo made “some changes to their crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms,” Yahoo told me. The update is expected to be a quick one but you may notice “ranking changes and page shuffling in the…

  • Ask.com Calls Teoma Rumors False
    Friday I reported that IAC Ready To Drop Ask.com Search Technology & Partner With Google? based on an Silicon Valley Insider tip. Just an hour ago, I recevied an official statement from Ask.com saying the rumors are false. Nicholas Graham a spokesperson from Ask.com, told me: I wanted to get…

  • Danny Sullivan Tackles Search 3.0 and 4.0 in SMX West Keynote
    I thought I’d gracefully retired from the Danny Sullivan Keynote Review business. Comparing Danny to Edward R. Murrow, assessing how the attendance stretched the room capacity… ahh, they were good times. Then I awoke to find myself in a large hall at the Santa Clara Conference Center. It wasn’t…

  • Compete Sold For $75 Million To Taylor Nelson Sofres
    Andrew Girdwood found that Compete.com was purchased by Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) for $75 million. TNS’s release explained Compete.com’s 2007 revenue was “$14.9 million, over 50 per cent higher than in the previous year.” TNS will pay in deferred cash payments throughout now and 2010, up to a maximum of…

  • InsideTrip Seeks To Add More Depth And Dimension To Travel Search
    Entering the already competitive and crowded market for travel search, InsideTrip is betting it’s bringing enough value to the market to gain consumer awareness and usage. The site offers a metasearch engine (like Kayak or Farechase) for airfares. But it also has compiled public data on a range of other…

  • comScore Paid Search Data & How The Sky Might Not Be Falling
    Last week comScore came out with a report that showed a 7% sequential decline vs. December 2007 in paid search ad clicks. Plus they showed an 8% drop in the number of clicks per Google searcher from December 2007. The report set shock-waves through Wall Street and caused the stock…

  • Mobile 411: A Leading Indicator For Mobile Search
    There are roughly 250 million cell phone users in the United States and more than ten times that figure around the globe. Approximately 42 million (or so) people use the “mobile Internet,” in the US, with varying degrees of frequency. The number of people texting constitutes at least 100…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Microhoo

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

SMX Conference

Video, Music & Image Search

Web Analytics

Other Items

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

Mar 03
Yahoo Search March ‘08 Weather Report
in Search Engine Land
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Yahoo Search sent me a note that tomorrow they will be rolling out a new update. Yahoo told me that they made “some changes to their crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms.”

The update is expected to be a quick one, but you may notice “ranking changes and page shuffling in the index,” according to Yahoo. I personally did not see any changes as of yet, nor did I see any reports of changes in the forums. Yahoo has a post at the Yahoo Search Blog.

Mar 03
Ask.com Calls Dumping Teoma Search Technology Rumors False
in Search Engine Land
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Last week, IAC Ready To Drop Ask.com Search Technology & Partner With Google? covered rumors that Ask might be dumping its own “Teoma” search technology. Just an hour ago, I received an official statement from Ask.com saying the rumor is false.

Nicholas Graham, a spokesperson from Ask.com, told me:

I wanted to get back to you about the false rumors flying about regarding Teoma. Bottom line: they are just flat-out not true. Our Teoma technology will continue to power search engine results on Ask.com. That’s really all there is to it. I hope that helps to clarify things.

That is a pretty strong no, if I have to say so myself.

Mar 03
Danny Sullivan Tackles Search 3.0 And 4.0 In SMX West Keynote
in Search Engine Land
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Paid<br /> Search - A Column From Search Engine Land height="100" hspace="5" vspace="3" width="100">

I thought I’d gracefully retired from the Danny Sullivan Keynote Review business. Comparing Danny to Edward R. Murrow, assessing how the attendance stretched the room capacity… ahh, they were good times. Then I awoke to find myself in a large hall at the Santa Clara Conference Center. It wasn’t a dream! Turns out I was only a bit sleepy because that O’Hare blizzard delay caused me to land in San Jose at 3:00 a.m. on this day, February 26th, 2008. It was now 9:01 a.m., and a fresh Sullivan keynote was beginning at SMX West. There I was, sitting over to the right-hand side of the room (Danny’s left) near where Matt Cutts was hiding. Laptop open, battery charged. Danny speaks. As if this were liveblogging, which it isn’t, I now switch to the present tense.

Click to continue reading…

Mar 03
Compete Sold For $75 Million To Taylor Nelson Sofres
in Search Engine Land
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Andrew Girdwood notes that Compete.com was purchased by Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) for $75 million.

TNS’s release reports that Compete.com’s 2007 revenue was “$14.9 million, over 50 per cent higher than in the previous year.” TNS will pay in deferred cash payments throughout now and 2010, up to a maximum of $75 million.

Click to continue reading…

Mar 03
InsideTrip Seeks To Add More Depth And Dimension To Travel Search
in Search Engine Land
Comments Off

Entering the already competitive and crowded market for travel search, InsideTrip is betting it’s bringing enough value to the market to gain consumer awareness and usage. The site offers a metasearch engine (like Kayak or Farechase) for airfares. But it also has compiled public data on a range of other factors such as aircraft type and age, security wait time, routing quality, lost bags rank, and other criteria. These create a proprietary “overall trip quality” score.

Click to continue reading…

Mar 03
comScore Paid Search Data & How The Sky Might Not Be Falling
in Search Engine Land
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Last week comScore came out with a report that showed a 7% sequential decline vs. December 2007 in paid search ad clicks. Plus, they showed an 8% drop in the number of clicks per Google searcher from December 2007. The report set shock-waves through Wall Street and caused the stock to drop and drove concerns about a recession.

James Lamberti of comScore spoke about the concerns on the Searchscape panel at SMX West. He expressed that after careful analysis, the data does not directly support evidence of a recession or a weaker Google.

Click to continue reading…

Mar 03
Mobile 411: A Leading Indicator For Mobile Search
in Search Engine Land
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Locals Only - A Column From Search Engine LandThere are roughly 250 million cell phone users in the United States and more than ten times that figure around the globe. Approximately 42 million (or so) people use the “mobile Internet” in the US, with varying degrees of frequency. The number of people texting constitutes at least 100 million more on top of that. And even though the “mobile Internet” is in its infancy, there’s a high degree of confidence that it will become a lucrative ad medium.

Click to continue reading…