SEO:Search

Cindy Krum with Blue Moon Works opened up the final session of SES New York with an overwhelming chart comparing adoption of the Web in comparison to mobile adoption. In terms of why we should care about mobile Web listings, consider overall mobile population and ability to targeting…

Trends in Mobile Search

…(credit report is required to get a cell phone and GPS and cellular network pinpoint location). For the skeptics in the audience, Krum reminded us of a variety of compelling reasons to get engaged in mobile search, not least of which is the fact that users are expecting if not demanding immediate information, resulting in action. More specific to mobile search engines, she outlined the big three players status with mobile search, and each engines respective carriers. In an example search for NYC Hilton, Google and Live provide very similar results (universal search results style listings) whereas Yahoo! provides most standardized search results (which are less useful) and a little surprising considering the keynote from earlier in the day. Krum makes the following recommendations to improve mobile listings:

• Test results on mobile device simulators
• Optimize existing site for mobile (multiple external CSS and transcoding)
• Write compelling optimized META data
• Submit mobile site map
• Monitor your mobile search listings (not worrying as much about click-through)
• Optimize for portal/universal results (get rated/reviewed)
• Included action-oriented content: address, phone, map, hours of operation, logo, pictures and link to review

Krum then displayed a very detailed slide outlining mobile specifications by search engine. When asked, she recommended redirecting your .mobi site to main site to reduce maintenance and increase link juice.

Next up, Farhan Memon with AOL Search provided an overview of AOLs Desktop search and how the same content is integrated into mobile search. AOLs focus is currently on personalizing the search experience based on device browser as well as launching a client application and in the near future, SMS. One nugget: while Windows Mobile users are a smaller subset of the overall subscriber-base, they are power-users, justifying a personalized experience. Memon shared recent eMarketer research on what mobile users are looking for, including maps, directions, weather, local information, news, entertainment and so on. Unfortunately, less than 2 percent of search results are currently localized. AOL currently categorizes searches and comparing desktop with mobile searches by topic, and the themes generally overlap, but mobile topics are skewed younger (i.e. MySpace, MocoSpace, games, etc.). Research shows that AOLs Top Pick featuring mobile sites has generated significantly greater click-through. When comparing long-tail search terms between desktop and local, there is a direct correlation (virtually identical) yet queries mobile queries continue to increase in volume throughout the day, peaking at night and on holidays. In terms of how AOL is monetizing mobile search, options range from sponsored links (CPC vs. Jumptap and PPC via Ingenio) as well as advertorial (CPM via Thumbplay) and display (CPM via Third Screen Media). The big challenge in monetizing mobile is working through the moving parts: device, category, advertiser and revenue model. Memon indicated that moving the search box up higher in the display increased queries 11 percent. Additionally, AOL offers a distributed bookmark from desktop request to SMS. He left us with the observation that carriers will control less and less while users will get increasing levels of control of their mobile environment.

The third presenter was Matt Tengler with JumpTap. He started by explaining their business model, which is essentially a white-label mobile search and advertising platform that launched with 10 carriers and now generates 12M monthly queries a month. One interesting observation is that the difference between full keyboard vs. standard keypad phones differs very little. Another interesting observation is that once carriers opened up off-portal content, the search volume rapidly increased. The hot topic of discussion within the mobile industry is whether or not companies should design specifically for mobile. Tenglers response was we will absolutely need to design for mobile in the future, but it may be similar to developing for international users (slow). The adoption is starting to gain significant momentum, however, as mobile usage is increasing and revenue models are maturing. Big brands have already jumped on board: MLB.com, Lexus, State Farm, Amazon, Facebook, Edmunds, etc. Another hot topic is WAP vs. client applications. While WAP is relatively easy to syndicate, client apps are much richer and generate more activity (the answer is to do both). Additional insights include the fact that the search box is challenging to find on phones currently, but that will change in the future (via quick launch keys, embedded navigation and the idle screen). In summary, Tengler emphasized that mobile is poised for rapid growth (really): better phones, applications and content, easier plans, faster networks and accessible search boxes.

Rachel Pasqua with iCrossing rounded out SES NYC with a forward look at the industry. For starters, mobile is all about preferences and portability. According to mMetrics, there are only 32M mobile Web users, the numbers are increasing rapidly. In fact, 46M wireless subscribers used mobile search in Q3 2007, but many skipped the Web and used SMS and voice. Pasqua then outlined the pros and cons of WAP (robust), SMS (ubiquitous), voice (most convenient but inconsistent user experience), bluecasting (blue-tooth proximity marketing), RFID (individually identification enables highly targeted content based on your personal information) and image recognition (bar code identification). As a parting though, Pasqua reminds us to think big by thinking small. And with that, my 4 day coverage of SES New York has concluded. See you at the next conference!

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Tag: SES

The New Face o In-House Search included Ron Belanger as the moderator and Bill Hunt from Global Strategies International, Olivier Lemaignen from Intuit, Marshall D. Simmonds from New York Times, Bill Macaitis from Fox Interactive Media and Brendan Hart from National Geographic Digital Media.

SES: New Face of In-House Search

First up is Bill Hunt to talk about what perspective companies should take when considering bringing search marketing in-house.

What are the best options?

• Outsource - Give everything to the agency
• InSource - Do everything in house. Few companies are actually doing this
• Hybrid - A mix

The hard questions start with: What are the objectives? Can we meet the objectives with this new approach? What level of management support do we have? Can we measure a program to show benefit? What is our bench strength? Can the program scale? Many in-house programs fail to scale.

What is the total cost for each approach? Will the company commit and follow through?

Other questions:

- How supportive is management? Talks about a missed opportunity matrix. Very effective tool for convincing management for budget.

- Can we measure our performance? Do you have the right web analytics tools in place>?

- How scalable can we be? It makes sense to make SEO part of work flow. Figure out all the people that contribute content and train them. The economies of scale cannot be beat.

- What is our bench strength? Show that you cant do it on your own as well as the missed opportunity. What could you do with more skills and more people.

Next up is Olivier Lemaignen from Intuit who talked about the pros and cons of taking things in-house.

1 1/2 years ago Intuit had a few internal people working on paid search. SEO was a mythical thing and they were uncertain of its value. In a 1 1/2 year time frame, SEO is all inhouse and PPC is in part outsourced because of their bid management expertise.

First thing is to hire a team. That means you need to get budget approval, which means executive support. The scope of the teams responsibilities need to be defined. Skills need to be defined as well and that allows you to hire the right team. Next steps are to engage with internal clients and define the right success metrics in order to track results.

Intuit In-House SEM Team Structure

Working with internal clients means setting up different service levels.

Keys to Success:

• Budget autonomy. If you dont you wont be able to execute all the initiatives that you need.
• Executive support.
• Team structure and coverage. Having the right team organized the right way according to business unit needs is critical.
• Tolls and metrics - Branding, traffic, leads and revenue

Combine deep company and business unit expertise with deep SEO expertise.

SEO specializations: linking, new technology, tracking/reporting, searcher experience

PPC specializations: keyword development, ad copy testing, landing page testing, agency management (at least in the case of Intuit)

Holistic thinking is key. Consideration of other company marketing.

Building the in-house team starts with foundational capabilities, business unit knowledge, thought leadership. Identify a matrix of new hires with SEO expertise to mesh with long term employees that have deep company and business unit knowledge.

Scope of the in house team. Six objectives:

• Developing consistent and repeatable processes
• Scalable tools and reporting
• Ensuring coverage for the right businesses
• Coordinating with agencies, web engineering, teams, analytics, copywriters
• Best practices and standards
• Evangelizing and educating SEM across business units, web teams and geographies

BETTER
Budget autonomy, Exec support, Team structure coverage, Tools and metrics, Evangelization/education, Results

Three things the in-house team needs to be known for:

• hought leadership
• Excellence
• Business leadership

Next up is Marshall Simmonds, Chief Search Strategist from the New York Times. Also his own agency called Define.

Organization and structure are important as well as where issues happen during the development cycle.

What can big brands do today?
Organize - Identify a point person, on site SEO manager. Strong communitator and well-schooled SEO.
Engaged team of marketing, etch, research, editorial and even sales.

Analyze - broke down prioritization buckets. Where is the low hanging fruit? Where can small changes have maximum results?

Educate - Ensure the front lines producers and editors plus back end people are all on the same page when it comes to SEO. Its not one size fits all. Its different for each department.

Execute strategy and measure results on an ongoing basis - Metrics saves jobs! Need to tallying up the wins and losses each month. Established baselines so that executives and Wall Street would understand them.

Give feedback to the people doing the actual work as well as feedback to the executives sponsoring the SEM program.

What not to do:

• No login. Dont wall off content.
• Not communicating both suesses and areas of opportunity
• Not checking in with IT. They WILL screw something up, be sure to provide oversight. Must speak to ad sales so they understand the effect of what theyre selling on site SEO
• Just take the meta keywords tag out of the CMS
• Must communicate, educate the people actually performing the work. Each department gets a different checklist. Its even built into the content management system.
• Its important to manage expectations properly. What timeframs and growth rates actually are. With SEO, results wont start for several months.
• A lack of editorial oversight can cause issues. You can automate things like meta description, but title tag should not be automated.

Next up is Bill Macaitis, SVP Online Marketing for FOx Interactive Media. myspace, fox.com, gamespy, etc.

Audience poll: Who wants a bigger staff? Everyone
What % of company site traffic is search? About 30%.

Centralized department and provides search marketing to all FIM sites. They use some 3rd party technology - web analytics. All manpower is in-house and they are ROI driven. Bill emphasizes that internal SEM teams must be revenue generating focused in their communications. Show upper management that when SEM asks for budget, its an investment with a return, not just a cost.

Internal SEM team structure for Fox Interactive

Budget is 10-15% of compensation for ongoing training. Budget covers conferences, certifications, travel, subscriptions and research. The average conference/certification cost is $1600. 3-4 events per year.

New hires spend 3-4 weeks with a dedicated mentor. 1-2 hours a day for ongoing education. Make sure you let them know what theyre accountable for and give them the tools they need to be successful. Leads to results and loyalty.

Training and Learning Mediums: Shows a huge list of blogs, sites, conferences, certification courses, associations, magazines, 3rd party research.

Last up is Brendan Hart VP Marketing Business Intelligence for National Geographic Digital Media.

The changing media landscape - for national geographic.

Goals:

Add content with consumer demand and follow search engine best practices. Optimize strategy based on industry trends. Include a search marketing component to all content. Engage SEO consultants to review work flow and best practices analysis. On site optimization plus directory/link building and some PPC.

Finding your inner search voice.

A matrix of discussion to decision for refining goals and tactics. Evaluate situation, define goals, assess current tactics. Then refine tactics, build the team and get an outside point of view.

Building a Winning Team. Core actions:

- Designate a search evangelist. Get consensus from all levels of the organization. Build consensus amongst those responsible for implementation and building cross-functional support. Execute ongoing training. Build a search program and defining accountability and goals, a search team and define practices for success.

-Many of the audience members indicated running multiple content management systems.-

Bring in an Expert Point of View. Periodically review the search program.

Benchmark and analysis are the first steps to optimization. Operationalizing search allows everyone to contribute.

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Tag: SES

Google updated their charts API, which they first released back in December 2007. First of all, the old limit of 50,000 queries per user per day has been removed (though Google asks you email them if you receive more than 250,000 queries a day so they can better scale this). Also, there are several extended or new features.

Google Charts API Update

Among them are radar charts, sparklines, and maps. The last one is perhaps the most interesting, as it lets you display and color a map. While you can already use the Google Maps API for certain needs, this is a much more minimalist map that might come in handy for illustrations, games, traffic visualization and other things. As usual, generating maps or any other chart type consists of simply formulating a special URL.

I’m interested to understand the business case behind this. Google is essentially saying “You never need to serve another chart again. Feel free to use our processing power and our bandwidth, no matter how huge your requirements are”. There’s got to be something more to this than “we thought it would be cool” (even though it IS incredibly cool).My best guess is that Google gets two benefits: semantic data to crawl, and lots of behavioural/demographic data to help them target their ads better.

Google gets the raw chart data ” the figures, the titles, etc. Google now has an easy way to index that data in their search results, without needing to try to analyse the PNG graphic files. So if you search for “third quarter cheese sales in London” you can be sent straight to the page containing that chart. It’s a small but very useful step towards the semantic web.

Google also gets the behavioural/demographic data. Doubleclick has been doing this for ages with those 1×1 pixel graphics. Google has found a way to do the same thing in a somewhat less evil way, by providing a user benefit. Not only that, Google will have a way to track user behaviour over pages that don’t contain Doubleclick ads, provided the pages contain a chart (or a map, or a gadget, etc).

Yeah, it’s gotta be something like that.

I wonder if it’s also a “first high-traffic test case” for the roll-out of a massive Akamai-like content-distribution system. Something like the “Internet 2″ or similar that appeared on the famous whiteboard? The thing that Google hired Vint Cerf for (they must have hired him for something tangible over and above “internet evangelism”).

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Tag: Google

Nick Carr kicked off day two with a keynote based on his new book, The Big Switch ” Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google. Carr is an established author and technology columnist for publications like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Carr opened with the statement that algorithms…

SES Keynote: Nick Carr, Author of The Big Switch

… and bandwidth are changing the way we do business. He drew parallels between the evolution of electric power, growth of the personal computer in the 80s and todays adoption of virtual and remote computing.  Specifically, he outlined how power changed from a decentralized to centralized model over the past 100 years.  Similarly, PCs forced corporations to restructure in order to address the way people worked in the 80s.  According to recent research, 80 percent of an average corporations server capacity is wasted, while 65 percent of storage capacity is wasted.  Worse yet, 70 percent of IT labor is focused on upkeep, rather than doing business.  As such, IT expenditures as a percentage of capital equipment budgets have climbed from single digits to nearly 50 percent over the past 40 years.  Carr cited the new Google server facility in The Dalles, Oregon, as an example of the new centralized computing model (although he mangled the pronunciation of both the city and my home state).  He also touched on virtual computing (turning hardware processes into software processes) which increases computing power and flexibility.  The drastically increased bandwidth now available has enabled remote computing on a large scale.  The overall moving into the cloud effect means that computing occurs and data is stored in the network itself.  The World Wide Web is now the Worlds largest computer.  Examples of changes in computing include Facebooks data customization interface and Mints software as media (financial management software).  Software is now measured by the quality of the users, level of engagement and monetization, instead of units sold.  Similarly, Carr shared examples of how media is looking more like software, including ABCs Lost Web interface and the centralization of Web properties (top 10 site page views increased from 31 percent to 40 percent from 2001 through 2006). A somewhat frightening aspect of the evolution of centralized computing is the workerless company with examples like Skype (200 employees), YouTube (60 employees), CraigsList (20 employees) and Plentyoffish (1 person).  This is possible through radical automation over cheap infrastructure, outsourcing and user-generated content.  Unfortunately for the general population, as computing power centralizes, so will the concentration of wealth (to the technology elite).  Another key concept Carr introduced was the tremendous personalization and polarization.  His example was from the last election: the polarization of the conservative and liberal blogs (virtually no link relationships between the two).  The last concept Carr introduced was consumers as prey where information about your personal life is widely available online (citing Thelma Arnolds media attention).  Buyers, beware of search and social media! As Carr says, the World Wide Computer both liberates and controls us (cue Apple 1984 TV ad).  The good news in all of this: Search Engine Strategies attendees received a complimentary copy of his new book.  I look forward to reading it.

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Tag: SES

Some of the latest buzz in social media happens to be Yahoos newest social media venture: Yahoo Buzz, which is currently in closed beta. In case you are unfamiliar: this site has been compared to the social media site Digg as far as functionality, but is particularly capturing attention in the social media landscape for Yahoos ability to tap mainstream audiences.

Yahoo Buzz Introduces Social Media to the Masses

But just how effective will this site be in capturing these audiences? A recent article from ReadWriteWeb noted that Yahoo.com has sent approximately 16 million total referrals to just a subset of the publishers in the beta during the first two weeks via Buzzing Now links in the Featured section of the homepage. And yet another Yahoo Buzz review by Muhammad Saleem noted that Salon.com reached over 1 million unique visitors from Yahoo Buzz in just one day.

For the social media marketer, this means there is another site on the horizon that could prove valuable for connecting mass audiences with social media. However, it also means that in this buzz we cannot forget the value of niche sites like Digg, Mixx and StumbleUpon, sites which capture a highly valuable niche of members who are highly involved and highly invested in these communities.

This being said, the real dilemma we have to balance in social media marketing is this: as the emergence of social media sites like Yahoo Buzz garner more participation from mass audiences, clients/marketers are more likely to place more emphasis on participation in social media sites with higher overall traffic than sites that reach smaller niche audiences. Why? Because larger numbers usually suggest a higher ROI, at least in the minds of those who are comfortable with metrics of traditional advertising.

So, for those of you who are reading, Id like to hear your personal views on overall site traffic versus overall site participation and involvement. In your current social media efforts are you involved in social media sites with larger audiences, or do you select niche sites with high levels of involvement? If you use both, which do you derive more value from?

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Tag: Yahoo

Some spammers are claiming to have cracked Gmails captchas”the mix of letters and numbers that only humans are supposed to recognize. If true, email spammers could create thousands of Gmail accounts and use them to send those annoying Viagra and enlargement offers. Not so fast, says Google!

Gmail Captchas Hacked? Not L1kELy!

Brad Taylor, a Google software engineer known informally as the companys spam czar, says that internal evidence shows that the rise in spam originating from Gmail accounts stems not from captcha-busting programs. Instead, he said, spammers are using the old-fashioned mechanical turk trick”an operation where low-paid laborers in third-world countries are enlisted to solve the puzzles, one by one.

You can see it is clearly done by humans, Mr. Taylor said. There are patterns in the rate we find bogus accounts, like at night time and when people get off work, in certain parts of the world.

Im leaning towards believing Taylor on this one. I have a hard enough time getting captcha letters correct, so I doubt spammers have created software that does any better.

More likely, spammers are providing free porn, in exchange for humans helping them crack the captchas.

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Tag: Google, Gmail, Hacker

Google created tons of products in the past. And some of them, they removed again after finding that they didnt work, required too many resources, didnt take off, or were overshadowed by legal concerns. Here are some of the lost Google services and features.

The Lost Features of Google

Whois Searches

Years ago, Google tried allowing you to enter a search like whois example.com to find out who registered example.com. Perhaps this feature was open to abuse by automated screenscraping, or perhaps Google just didnt want to get into the privacy issues connected with this. In any case, its no longer available, though it would be really useful. Jon Gales back in January 2004 on the speed removal commented, This has to be the shortest lived feature of Googles short history. First saw it on the 7th and last saw it on the 9th, Well, the record would be beaten by Google X, further below.

Replacements: You can bookmark this whois.net URL in Firefox; afterwards, open the bookmarks properties via right-clicking it, and in the keyword field, enter whois. Now when you type e.g. whois example.com into the address bar, you will get to an instant result.
(Also, in theory Subscribed Links are made for custom oneboxes, though a directory search for whois doesnt return anything useful. A search in the iGoogle gadget directory is a little more helpful.)

Google X

Google X of 2005 was a variant of the Google homepage showing an animated navigation, much like Mac is doing. It was even disclaimed to be a Mac OS X homage… and perhaps thats what got it into troubled trademark waters. Chikai Ohazamas official announcement of the invention in the Google blog sounded innocent enough …

I gave it to a few friends in the company, who gave it to their friends, some posted it on their blogs, others sent it around on mailing lists, and it eventually made its way to Marissa Mayer, who liked it enough to say, when do you want to put it up on Labs? So after some spit and polish from some enthusiastic Googlers and the keen eye of the UI team, Google X is here. I hope all of you enjoy it ” especially Mac users, who Im sure will appreciate its lineage.

… but on that very same day, Google X vanished again.

Replacements: Perhaps its not a real replacement, but the Google Korea homepage (in the Korean-language version) comes rather close to the original X effect. Added to that, cached copies of the X page are still walking the internet every now and then (and getting cease & desisted by Google every now and then, too).

Google Answers

Google Answers was a paid question & answer service with around 500 researchers worldwide (I also answered there in 2002). Researchers often went to a great length to tackle even low-paid questions, though Google slowly cut off the traffic to the site, perhaps figuring its not scalable or something. After a while, they shut down the service completely, and turned the site into an archive.

Replacements: Uclue.com is a great replacement, with many ex-Google researchers on-board. If you want a free service instead, theres Yahoo Answers (less suited if youre pressed for time and looking for high-quality answers only, but very social).

The Google SOAP API

SOAP itself, that perhaps for many cases somewhat over-complicated data exchange/ interaction format (competing with dozens of other formats), is used by less and less sites. Originally, you were able to sing up for a free key with Google for their SOAP Search API and then query for results. However, the SOAP API was very unstable in its later life-time and today its completely disabled for new sign-ups (though you can continue to use existing keys, if you accept the instability of the API). Part of the reason why Google might have got rid of this service is that it cant place ads on the target site, because your code fully and easily controls just how to display search results… which is what made the service really neat to use, too.

Replacements: Google suggests you use the AJAX Search API for your site search needs, but unfortunately its somewhat inaccessible/ unusable in certain situations (e.g. Im using it on this site, and it wont let you use the browser back button when you enter multiple consecutive queries). Yahoo on the other hand offers a nice option for server-side scripts ” the Yahoo search web services.

Google Related Links

Google related links was started in April 2006, and cancelled in July 2007. Its what Google might think of as a service which, thrown to the wall like spaghetti, didnt stick. What the service did was display a widget box containing tabs like Related, Searches or News. Clicking on a tab showed you a link that was supposed to be contextually relevant to the page the widget was embedded on. Sounds a little bit like AdSense, except nobody got paid for clicks! By now, this service ended… and for all those widgets which may still be included somewhere, a simple Google search box displays instead.

Replacements: Google in 2007 told me, Through our evaluation of the Labs product, we identified the most compelling functionalities of Related Links and integrated them into new and improved products, like the AJAX Search API and AdSense Link Units. Perhaps Google gadgets can also be used to spice up your page (at least those gadgets which can be dropped into a web page, which is not the case with all of them), albeit theyre not context-targetted.

Paid Google Videos

Were not quite sure what were going to get, but we decided wed try this experiment.
(Larry Page while announcing Google Video in 2005)

There are a couple of corpses in Google Videos basement. Like the now discontinued searching for close captions, which was in fact (oddly enough) all the original service ever did. Also at one time, you were able to downloaded DRMified, paid videos in the US. Started in January 2006, the service got the CBS Corporation boss Leslie Moonves excited, as she spoke of the ability to leverage content to a new audience getting exposure to millions of users. NBAs David Stern said Google was nothing short of revolutionizing the way people access media.

Well, the paid videos service was shut down roughly 1 1/2 years later… and, in true DRM tradition, you were then not able to playback all those videos you actually acquired (OK, Google was nice enough to give you a 4 days advance notice and a Checkout voucher… though, under pressure, they later somewhat expanded the time period in which your videos worked, and also offered a real refund).

Curious what Google Video and other services looked like 2 years ago? Check out the video museum.

Replacements: PirateBay.org, perhaps (because paid video services will often send you a DRMed file which you cant use in many contexts).

Google RealNames Support

RealNames were one of those dotcom hype inventions that sounded just to good to fail. Founded in 1997, the idea was that instead of typing long and clumsy addresses with double slashes, people would just enter a keyword into the address bar. Google got on-board too, and integrated the RealNames database into the Google search results; if youd enter a registered RealNames keyword, a kind of onebox would pop up on top of the results. Larry Page back then thought, The addition of Internet Keywords complements our advanced search technology by giving users the option of using company, product and brand names to navigate to specific web pages.

For some reason, the RealNames service didnt take off though ” perhaps no one likes having a single company overtake the address bar to make money. Wikipedia explains the RealNames downfall: RealNames was dependent on maintaining its association with Microsoft that enabled the RealNames service on Microsofts web browser. RealNames shut down operations in 2002 following a decision by Microsoft to redirect the 1 billion page views per calendar quarter that RealNames were resolving from the browser address bar into the MSN search engine. Ouch.

Replacements: Google.coms feeling-lucky button does pretty much the same, but is scalable, and doesnt require people to register anywhere. Also, if what the user entered doesnt seem to be a URL, browsers like Firefox typically connect address bar entries to websites anyway (via Google search, again). Guess that makes Google (and AdWords) the successor to RealNames.

Uncompromising Stance Against Censorship

Googles help entry on censorship over time
Google does not censor results for any search term. The order and content of our results are completely automated; we do not manipulate our search results by hand. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the web to determine the inclusion and ranking of sites in our search results.

Actually, Google early on started self-censoring in countries like Germany or France (at least back in 2003). In 2005, Google started to censor some News sources in China (they never disclosed which), and in 2006 expanded this to web search results as well (again, they never disclosed which). People inside and outside the company were and are divided as to whether or not this compromise, as opposed to trying to push for uncensored results, helps Chinese searchers in the long run. Today, many Google or Google partner services, from book search to maps, are partly censored in Google China (and not always with a disclosure on search results).

Replacements: Going to Yahoo or MSN is no alternative if you prefer uncompromising search engines, as they also self-censor (and often, worse). But if youre in China, you may still be able to use Google.com, or if its inaccessible, be able to try a censorship circumvention tool (though there may be risks attached to do doing so).

Google Local

Business look-up service Google Local isnt really lost ” its merged with Google Maps. To quote Marissa Mayer, this is Googles so-called San Angeles/ Los Diego strategy. You take large products and throw them at the wall merge them together into the biggest possible nucleus ” this, Marissa argues, helps people remember the products a company offers.

Replacements: Google Maps, or one of its many clones.

Google Catalogs

Google Catalogs is a searchable directory of scanned catalog pages. It was always a little quirky, but now seems largely dead… some of the newer catalogs are from 2006, with lots of catalogs from 2002 and beyond still around as well. If you search for iPhone, you get a whooping 2 results… which however are errors in character recognition as well as a completely different product, as the catalogs are from years before Apple actually released the product. The special discount offer if you buy a second Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier by July 31, 2002 might not be that universally useful either.

Replacements: Why use a paper-based catalog if theres Amazon, eBay, and Google Product Search (the former Froogle)? And then, if Google continues to scan as much as they can get their hands on, perhaps one of these days catalogs will move into the Google Book Search project.

Google Directory

Similar to Google Catalogs, this is a bit of a zombie project (not in the sense of shoot its brain, but of half living/ dead). The Google Directory once had a spotlight backlink right from the Google homepage, but today this clone of Open Directory/ dmoz.org data is largely unlinked. It must be one of those rare places where Google.com hosts info on Female Clown Fetishes or Sneezing Fan Fiction.

Replacements: The best replacement for this DMOZ clone is perhaps DMOZ itself, though (search engine optimization aside) interest in any kind of directory has somewhat faded as its hard to scale.

Blogger Pro

I was one of those (few?) people who actually paid to use some of Bloggers premium features back in 2003. Oh well, it got me a hooded sweater with the orange B logo when Google announced all pro features are now available for free.

Replacements: Googles Blogger continues to be occasionally down, I heard (this blog moved from Blogger to a homemade system due to this instability, among other reasons). If you want something more premium, perhaps WordPress, TypePad or Tumblr are for you.

GNS, Google Number Search

Truth be told, I dont know if this feature still exists. But its based on WAP, and as WAP is pretty much dead (for all the right reasons), it may well be discontinued. What did Google Number Search do? According to Google in 2000, GNS is designed to enable users to enter search queries approximately twice as fast as conventional methods. For example, using the new GNS functionality, a user can spell the word super by simply typing a 7 for s, 8 for u, and so on. By pressing only five keys (78737), GNS enables a user to search for the word, super. With conventional input methods, a user would have to press 12 keys (777788733777) for the same word.

Replacements: Well, GNS sounds like a feature that should be built-in to phones, and it pretty much is, at least since a long time. No replacement needed!

GoogleScout

In 1999, Google got rid of its beta and officially launched at www.google.com. The focus of their accompanying press release however wasnt the new address or the official launch… it was GoogleScout! What was that? Well, clicking the link GoogleScout below a search result snippet returned a list of related pages for that URL (if I understand it right, that is… does anyone know of a good video of Google from around 1999/ 2000?).

Replacements: Nowadays, you can click the less extravagantly named Similar pages link, still printed below every result snippet.

Google Deskbar

Google Deskbar (screenshot by Google Tutor) was a search box integrated in your operating system taskbar as part of the Google Desktop installation. There was even a Google Deskbar API, and an official help group along with it. This help group is now a ghost forum, with message subjects ranging from $$$$$$ GET $7000 BY WORKING 2HR A DAY$$$$ to sexy and hot pics.

Replacements: Well, one pointer posted in the Deskbar API forum was actually potentially helpful: SmokeyBox, which the author says is a little application that I created to take the place of the now-defunct Google Deskbar. Also, you can still download Google Desktop itself, which offers somewhat resembling functionality.

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Tag: Google

Over the past couple years it has been impossible to avoid the buzz about images and their increasing role in search; such as universal search which is becoming commonplace among the major search engines. But universal search is only the most prevalent news and only the baby-steps of a new format of search that is about to take over the Internet.

Images are the Natural Evolution of Search

Do I have your interest piqued? I will now lay the foundation of my statement to hopefully get you as excited as I am about this unstoppable search evolution.

Evidence 1) Photosynth
If you have any technology mavens as friends it is likely you saw this incredible video presented by Microsoft at the TED conference last year discussing Photosynth. To quote Microsoft Lab’s Photosynth home page this software

“takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next. In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.”

My jaw still hurts from hitting the ground after my first viewing of Photosynth many months ago. This software made a massive impression on me that has led me to many interesting ideas on the applications for this software; I will leave these thoughts to another time. For now, however, lets just say that the advent of a technology such as Photosynth provided a first glimpse into how images on the web can play a far greater role than ever imagined.

Evidence 2) PicLens by cooliris
PicLens is a fantastic plugin that allows searchers to navigate a 3d gallery of images associated with the topic they are searching. The user can also surf related images by simply clicking on a small play icon that appears on images anywhere in their browser (the icon appears on the image when the user’s mouse hovers over it for a moment). So where does PicLens get its content from? PicLens has complete access to the image caches of: Google, Yahoo, Flickr, SmugMug, Photobucket and DeviantArt.

This free, incredibly useful software is available now and it represents a new way for the masses to think about search; instead of showing information in a ranking format, PicLens makes browsing images as simple as a flick of your mouse (momentum will actually allow the images to move by). Right now PicLens is naturally designed for images but who says it needs to stay that way?

Evidence 3) SearchMe
When my colleague showed me the preview of SearchMe I knew I had the linchpin for this very article. SearchMe is a new search engine in private Beta at the moment but this next generation search engine has finally married image search in a manner that will get many tongues wagging.

As the video below outlines in detail SearchMe allows searchers to type in a search and then define the intended topic of their search in order to provide the most relevant results. Once the user selects their topic they are provided with a slick but simple page showing pictures of each resulting web page that can be scanned through in a manner similar to PicLens.

Now these are not images in a classic sense, since they are actually just screenshots of the existing web pages, however, the technology is extremely similar and it seems natural that the final version of SearchMe’s image search option would utilize the same technology.

Tying it all Together
What is the one thing that all of these concepts have in common? The answer is marvelously simple; they all focus on the simple concept that a picture is worth a thousand words. Why show a snippet of content in a search engine result page when a complete image could say so much more about the destination?

Are You Excited Yet?
So are we on the same page now? Are you as fascinated as I am with the next generation of search? If not, you had better get on board quickly; there is no doubt in my mind that image-based searching is the natural evolution of search. Don’t get me wrong, on page content will still play a large role in algorithms but the days of top 10 results are numbered.

What Will this Mean to SEO?
Basically a few existing elements of search engine optimization will become more important:

1. Web pages will have to be designed with a tighter focus on usability and simplicity for screenshots to appear interesting/relevant enough to click on.
2. Images will always need to be appropriately tagged and described.
3. Web site images will have to be picked with more care from stock photography sites in order to capture the eyes of image-surfing prospects.
4. SEOs will find it useful to include sales-oriented information in images but not at the expense of the image.
5. Content around images and the overall page text must be extremely relevant to the image and the description and tags that are attributed to it.

In short, the evolution of search will continue to do what it has always done; make us all work harder to provide better quality content. One thing is for certain… the evolution of search just makes search engine optimization services more interesting and necessary in order to maintain search success in multiple search environments.

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UPDATE: Google CEO Eric Schmidt has now confirmed the acquisition. His statement reads, in part: An immediate task well undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business. This will involve determining the right staffing levels…

EU Approves Google’s DoubleClick Purchase

…for all functions and will ensure that we have the right people assigned to the right responsibilities within Google. We plan to complete this process in the U.S. by early April.

Outside the U.S., the steps we will propose are subject to consultation with employee representatives where applicable, and of course any decisions will be made in accordance with local law. The exact timing of the process outside the U.S. will vary based on the needs and requirements of each region.

As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason well strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees.

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As we reported last week, the EU has give the green light for Google to acquire ad network DoubleClick.

According to Reuters:

The Commissions in-depth market investigation found that Google and DoubleClick were not exerting major competitive constraints on each others activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment, the Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said in a statement.

Even though Microsoft and Yahoo were among the companies that lodged objections to the acquisition, youve got to think they can now leverage this approval for their own needs”should Microsoft end up acquiring Yahoo.

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Google TV Ads hasnt exactly gotten off to a flying start and things could look even more bleak with news the countrys six largest cable companies are joining forces to provide a competing service. According to the NYT executives from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox Communications…

Cable Companies Build a Canoe to Battle Googles Battleship

…Charter Communications and Bright House Networksare making plans for a jointly owned company that would allow national advertisers to buy customized ads and interactive ads across the companies systems.

Theyve anted-up $150 million to fund the project and hope to increase their $5 billion in local cable advertising to $15 billion.

Of course, like all cool projects, theyve come-up with a code name for their initiative

code-named Project Canoe to emphasize that the companies must all work together

Alternatively, its named “Project Canoe” because they hope to force Google up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

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Tag: Cable, Google

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