Google to be Featured on 60 Minutes

Search Engine Watch's blog mentions an upcoming 60 Minutes piece about Google to be aired this Sunday.

Google and Overture Define Click Fraud

I don't think there's really much confusion about what click fraud is, but it is becoming more of an issue as it becomes more prevalent and/or more web marketers become aware of it. So I guess it's a good time to get some input from the two big guys in paid search. Overture and Google explain their definitions of click fraud in a Clickz article.

Google Zeitgeist 2004 Year-End

What do people search for these days? Well, who better to ask than the search engine braintrust itself: Google. Google has released their 2004 Zeitgeist, which shows top keyword searches for the past 12 months.

It's always interesting and often amusing to see what people are searching for online. They even have a cool intereactive zeitgeist this year that uses a nice flash presentation to show some of the top keyword search trends of the year, broken out by month. It also includes world events that triggered high search volume for certain keywords each month.

Here's google's explanation of the year-end Zeitgeist:

"Based on billions of searches conducted by Google users around the world, the 2004 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year's major events and trends. We hope you enjoy this aggregate look at what people wanted to know more about this year. "

WebPosition Finds Amazon Tops Search Engine Rankings

I didn't really need WebPosition to tell me Amazon is all over the search results in just about every keyword category, but in case anyone hadn't noticed, they recently did a ranking study and Amazon came out on top among major retailers. It can't have anything to do with all the thousands of links they have pointing to them from their affiliates, could it?

IBM has a search strategy. Who knew?

Not wanting to be left behind on the coolest tech trend, IBM has quietly entered the search game. This is an excerpt from the article:

"I.B.M. says that its tools will make possible a further search approach, that of "discovery systems" that will extract the underlying meaning from stored material no matter how it is structured (databases, e-mail files, audio recordings, pictures or video files) or even what language it is in."

Read the article from The New York Times

Searching the Search Engines for..."search engine"

Who's the top search engine? Well, why not ask the search engines themselves?Gord Hotchkiss's MediaPost article takes a look at which search engines show up when you search on the keywords "search engine" at the major search engines. Even though Google ranks itself 5th, it came out on top according to Gord's complicated GordRank algorithm. Gord is quick to point out that Microsoft's MSN search is virtually non-existent in the search results, including its own. It does appear for related terms like "search" and "web search", although those terms are searched on a lot less than "search engine." In fact, I thought it was interesting that the new Beta search is showing up #3 in a search for "web search"

I guess we didn't need GordRank to confirm that Google is the King of Search...One other interesting tidbit--I noticed that according to the Overture Keyword Tool, "google search" and "google search engine" were searched on over 1 million times, combined. That's more than "search", "web search", "job search", "people search", "yahoo search" and over 10 times as much as "msn search". Yeah, I guess a few people are using that little search engine called Google.

Rice University Find Security Flaw in Google Desktop Search

Two Rice University grad students discovered a technical flaw in Google's desktop search that allowed third parties to fool dektop search into thining it was connecting to Google's server to allow access contents of a users' files under certain circumstances. Google was made aware of the flaw and has since fixed the problem.

For more info visit Computer Security Lab: Rice University

Yahoo! Video Search Beta

Check out Yahoo! Video Search Beta

Google Trademark Issues Remain Unresolved

more about the Google/Geico lawsuit from Clickz

Google Wins Trademark Ad Lawsuit

Major news on the Google/Geico lawsuit:

"U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected a claim by auto insurance giant Geico Corp., which argued that Google should not be allowed to sell ads to rival insurance companies that appear whenever Geico's name is typed into the Google search box. "

Forbes.com

I have to say I agree with Judge Brinkema. I like the ruling.

I also noticed that Google seems to have implemented a realtime trademark and spell check tool that catches potential trademark infringement as you submit your ad, rather than sending you an email later on like they used to. I'm not sure if they implemented this new system as a response to the lawsuit (they now allow you to bid on trademarked terms, but not use them in your ad), or if I just hadn't triggered the system before today. Today was the first time I'd seen it. If they suspect a trademarked term is being used in the ad, they give you the option to change it or request an exception for that ad. Your ad will be placed in "pending" status until it is reviewed and either rejected or accepted.

Lycos Releases 2004 Web's Most Wanted

Janet Jackson tops the list of Web's Most Wanted - a list from Lycos of the top 50 searches for the past year.

Search Engine Strategies Chicago

I didn't make it to SES this year, but Search Engine Roundtable has a nice running commentary on what's going on there as it happens.

Search Engine News :: Search Engine Lowdown: Exclusive - First Look at Ask Jeeves Desktop Search

Andy Beal gives a sneak peek into Ask Jeeves' soon-to-be-released desktop search

Generic Search Terms Drive Most Buying

Comscore came out with a new study showing a large percentage of purchases resulting from generic keyword searches. My experience with clients has shown that the truth to that can vary significantly depending on the industry, and of course their brand-name recognition among their market. A very interesting study nonetheless.

Article from Clickz

Press Release from ComScore

Geico vs. Google - Day 1

Yahoo! News - Judge Hears Geico, Google Trademark Case

Google's New Search Suggestion Tool

The ever-innovative Google has recently launched a new lab feature called Google Suggest, that basically gives suggestions based on similar searches. As you start typing in your search keywords, it provides a dropdown with suggested searches along with the number of results for each. Cool tool for searching and also a cool research tool for search engine marketers. I wish it showed number of searches per month instead of the number of results, though. That would be a cool tool.

This new beta feature was announced on Google's blog a couple days ago.

Yahoo Desktop Search Comes In January, Ask & MSN Later This Month

We knew it wouldn't be long in the "me too" world of search engines before the rest of the search engines followed Google's lead with a desktop search utility. Danny Sullivan reports that Yahoo's will be out in January and MSN and Ask will be later this month. Only time will tell if MSN's desktop search is ready for primetime by the end of the month. Remember, this is Microsoft we're talking about, so an extension of that deadline is to be expected. AOL also has a desktop search tool (powered by Copernic) that is in currently in beta.

Here's a timeline for the release of desktop search by each search engine:
* October 14: Google Desktop released
* December 15: Ask Jeeves desktop search due for release
* December 31: MSN desktop search due for release by this date or earlier
* January 31: Yahoo desktop search due for release by this date or earlier
* Sometime In 2005: AOL's combined browser and desktop search should be out at some point

Read more on Danny's blog

Meta Tags and Trademark Issues

Stuffing your competitors' name and associated keywords into your meta tags hasn't been much of an issue since most search engines ignore keyword meta tags these days, but apparently there's a new meta tag lawsuit going on. It appears to be more of an issue of two litigious rivals that look for any possible reason to sue each other.

In case you're considering it, using competitors' trademarked terms in your meta tags is still a bad idea, and won't work most of the time, anyway.

Read more from Law.com

Blingo - another prize search engine

Blingo is the post-dotcom bubble version of iWon, giving away stuff like ipods and gift certificates instead of a million bucks. The prize is smaller, but so is the competition. I mean, how many people are actually searching on blingo?

I just checked and I guess people are still winning prizes on iwon.com, including some pretty large cash sums (compared to blingo), but still a far cry from the good old days of million dollar winners. There seems to be a market for prize-giveaway search engines. It worries me a little bit as a paid search marketer who is getting searches/clicks by "gamers", but it is a way to get customer loyalty and people referring friends. It's a a way to differentiate when you can't provide better search technology (or you just use someone else's anyway).

Yahoo Bolsters Local Search Business Listings

"Yahoo has quietly expanded its local business listings and rolled out a service that gives businesses control over their listings in Yahoo Local through a new content inclusion program."

From Chris Sherman at SearchEngineWatch

Search Engines and the SEO Business

Shari Thurow weighs in on Lycos and Ask Jeeves' recent announcement about entering the SEO bizSearch Engines and the SEO Business in today's Clickz column. Shari points out a few of the major issues regarding this controversial development. She gives Lycos and Ask the benefit of the doubt and says she's neutral on this issue for the time being, which I'm sure is a minority view amoung SEOs. Even though few details are known about how this new service will work, most SEOs can't come to grips with a search engine offering SEO services.

Google CFO is Worried About Click Fraud

According to a report from CNN, Google's CFO is very concerned about click fraud. His concern isn't the fraud itself as much as it is that advertisers are requesting (and being given) refunds for fraudulent cilcks. Google is actually a lot better at catching click fraud than most PPC search engines, but they are still vulnerable and are starting to worry about the long-term viability of their business model. In the CNN article, Jessie Stricchiola from Alchemist Media complains that Google has been stubborn about working with advertisers regarding click fraud, but the fact is, Google is probably the best of all the PPC search enines at filtering out fraudulent clicks in the first place. Anyway, I'm glad Google is finally owning up to the fact that there is a serious problem with fraudulent clicks. I still think the PPC search engines won't ever be able to eliminate click fraud as long as they continue to syndicate their results to all their rinky-dink partners/affiliates.

Shopping Search Around the World

I guess us Yanks aren't the only ones using shopping search engines these days.

Read it from SearchEngineWatch

Overture Settles Trademark Dispute with Geico

As Google prepares to go to court over this same issue, Overture decided to settle with the pesky insurance company.

Report from MediaPost

Singingfish Relaunches Under New AOL Strategy

Multimedia search engine, SingingFish.com, is new and improved, as AOL tries to use the search engine to attract non-AOL customers.

Article on Clickz