Below, a recap of stories posted today to the Search
Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we’ve spotted but not blogged
separately:
From The SEW Blog…
Selling
Information in a Free Web World
The web has disrupted virtually every business model that relied on packaging
and selling information. But is the information found on the web “good enough”
to seriously compete with services that sell authoritative, reliable
information, especially when it comes to “crucial” content used for making
consequential decisions? In today’s SearchDay article, The Ongoing Struggle of
Free vs. Fee, SEW Managing Editor Elisabeth Osmeloski and guest writer Todd
Malicoat report from the ASIDIC Fall Meeting on this contentious issue facing
the traditional information industry….
Yahoo In
The (PR) Doldrums
The NY Times has an article today highlighting a range of perceived problems
at Yahoo. This is not the kind of publicity you want to see if you’re on the
PR team. While it’s true that Google has momentum and Yahoo may need a kind of
“shot in the arm,” what people forget is that Yahoo is the largest site on the
Internet with the most monthly uniques….
Google
Master Plan Hacked (OK, Erased)
Several Google offices now have “master plans” written on dry erase boards,
but the original one at the Googleplex is probably best known. Googlers and
others have added to it over time about things Google might do. Now Robert
Scoble reports the board has been erased! “Master Plan 2.0” is apparently
being drawn up as we speak….
Google
Office? How About Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Now Launched
Google’s taken its Writely online word processor, combined it with the Google
Spreadsheets product released in June and put the two out in a combined new
service called Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Visit the site, and you can create
a text document or spreadsheet depending on your needs. Why not call it Google
Office? Google told me they felt that name already had obvious connotations of
another product out there [IE, Microsoft Office], and they wanted to
underscore that this was a different creature….
Google’s
“False & Deceptive” Search Ads
Ben Edelman’s False and Deceptive Pay-Per-Click Ads analysis looks at specific
ads on Google.com that seem to violate Google’s editorial guidelines and
perhaps US laws over “free” services being offered….
Url.com
– Results Ranked By Users
The ability to rank or rate results delivered by search engines is slowly
becoming more commonplace, and I’m noticing that one or two multi/meta search
engines are either incorporating this functionality into search or indeed
making a specific feature of it, such as the new URL.com….
Cool New
Real Estate Tools
The real estate vertical is one of the most interesting online segments for
several reasons. Among them are the tools that have been developed amid
intensifying competition. Two relatively new ones are Rentometer from
iiProperty, a company that helps manage real-estate investments and rental
properties, and Mapvine from a company called Rentvine….
Yahoo
Hurting While Google Healthier Than Ever
The NY Times has an article named Yahoo’s Growth Being Eroded by New Rivals
(free version available at (IHT.com). The article goes through how Yahoo is
suffering and lagging behind its competitors. (1) They made a bid at YouTube
but those deals broke down, according to the article, and Google “swooped”
them up. (2) The new Yahoo search ad system, Panama, is over a year delayed.
This “delay has sucked up the company’s engineering resources and prevented it
from developing new advertising products.”…
Weather
Reports: Yahoo Search Update & Google Status Report
We received two search “weather reports” last night, the first from the Yahoo
Search Blog that announced that an “index update” that has begun rolling out
last night. The other from Matt Cutts blog that informed us of Google’s
“update on search quality/infrastructure on Google going into the fall.”…
MySpace
Threatens YouTube After Google’s Buyout
A Wall Street Journal article shows how the folks over at News Corp., the
owners of MySpace.com, have threatened to cut “off the MySpace links to
YouTube” because YouTube didn’t respond to News Corp’s email request to have
an “opportunity to participate in the sale process.” Google with YouTube and
News Corp. with MySpace are to meet this week in LA to “discuss new ways of
working together.” The Wall Street Journal explains that News Corp. is
threatened by the acquisition of YouTube by Google, making YouTube a much more
powerful competitor to the MySpace property….
Yahoo To
Support The NOODP Tag; Won’t Prevent Display Of Yahoo Directory Title
Last night, I spoke with Tim Mayer of Yahoo about supporting the NOODP tag at
Yahoo. In short, the NOODP tag allows webmasters to tell the search engine not
to use the ODP’s title in the web search results. MSN was the first to
implement the standard, and then Google followed. Tim Mayer said that Yahoo
will be supporting the NOODP tag starting next week or the week after. But the
tag will not prevent the Yahoo Directory title from displaying in the Yahoo
search results….
Will
Voice-Enabled Mobile Search Kill Directory Assistance?
Local media research firm The Kelsey Group just forecast “portal-backed
wireless voice search [will] reach 1.45 billion queries in 2010” and cause “a
significant disruption of the directory assistance market.” On one level, this
is self-evident. Because of increasing competition and free alternatives,
consumer-pays wireless directory assistance (DA) will eventually go away,
unless it becomes incredibly valuable and useful. Cingular is trying to do
just that with help from Tellme….
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