The Optimizer - Weekly SEO News

You can find more of Google's history here.

Labels: backlinks, google, history, search

To recap, Tafiti (which means "do research" in Swahili) is an experimental front end for Windows Live Search which enables users to gather information across multiple search queries and sessions as well as visualize, store and share the gathered results.

Labels: live, search, tafiti

Expanding on our coverage of Google's Knol encyclopedia, there arises a critical but subtle difference between Knol and its most immediately recognizable sibling, Wikipedia:

In contrast to Wikipedia's contribution system, which is overseen and moderated by anonymous committee, Knol's articles will not be continuously editable. In theory, Wikipedia's model should have been superior, allowing information to be continuously updated and accurized; however, as anyone who's ever spent much time browsing Wikipedia can attest, the theory often fails when put into practice.
Knol's model of data collection fits with the more traditional, more professional and more authoritative model, where the data is collected from expert sources, fact-checked and verified. Rather than being the end of Wikipedia, however, Knol may very well improve and reinforce the accuracy and verity of Wikipedia's articles by providing easily found, higher quality source and reference material.

Labels: google, knol, search

Batman... Superman... Spiderman... all these men are well known round the world for deeds of heroism surpassing the ordinary -- or even the physically possible. Recently, however, Londoners were treated to sightings of real

Labels: charity, google

As some of you may know, and many may not, the folks over at Google keep a clinically interested eye on the searches that pass most often through their wise and loving hands. In point of fact, doing so has become something of an institution at the search titan, so much so that it's heralded, near year's end, with a global search popularity tally known as the Google Zeitgeist.

This year's Top 10 winners -- and losers -- according to global search popularity are:

WINNERS:

1. iPhone
   
2. Badoo
   
3. Facebook
   
4. dailymotion
   
5. youtube
   
6. webkinz
   
7. ebuddy
   
8. second life
   
9. hi5
   
10. club penguin

LOSERS:

1. world cup
   
2. mozart
   
3. fifa
   
4. rebelde
   
5. kazaa
   
6. xanga
   
7. webdetente
   
8. sudoku
   
9. shakira
   
10. mp3
    

What does this tell us? Well, there are a multitude of conclusions we could reach from these results, really. Consumer electronics buzz is up, so is social networking. Sports are down, along with classical composers and peer-to-peer file sharing sites. No big surprises there, but here's a holiday gift surprise for you:

Taken from the Google, Inc. Zeitgeist web site is this handy hint for heftier result pages:

"Operator: Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to "fill in the blank" by adding an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished. Then hit the Enter key or click the Google search button to see you results."

Happy searching, and happy holidays until we meet again.

Labels: google, search

FOLLOW-UP Post: Google Knol Encyclopedia Not Wikipedia

Labels: google, search

Sometimes product team surveys pose more questions than just those meant to be answered by the participants. Surveys like this one, which contain the usual questions relating currently implemented vertical search engines contained in Live Search, such as Health, Video and Shopping, but also alludes to possible functions to come:

• searching online to plan for a trip or vacation
• searching online for news
• what tools could a search engine provide to enhance the look and feel of the initial search page and the layout of the results page?

A travel vertical search engine would be intriguing, especially if combined with the new image and video search, which would provide stunning, powerful results.

A real time news search would be no less startling. Though news search is available, the current incarnation dates back to MSN Search and just isn't up to the same game as, for example, Google News, which is itself by no means perfect. If Microsoft can put a News search in place that's on par with the rest of Live Search, they stand a good chance of one-upping Google... at least, for awhile.

The next Live Search update is projected for early '08, so it's a case of wait and see. But what we see so far makes us think the short wait will be worth it.

Labels: google, live, msn, search

Matt Cutts has some good advice over at his blog on paid links and PageRank, and why the two do not blend.

Where monetized linking is permitted, the basic things to have in mind for any reciprocal or monetized relationship with a web site or contributor are:

• Legitimate, honest and ethical
• Professional in their presentation
• Knowledgeable in your industry as well as their own

The problem, as Google tends to see it, seems to be that maintaining these standards is problematic, when an effort to do so is even put forth. Matt gives an example involving a search for clean and unbiased information on a serious medical issue, then goes on to show how paid links corrupt the results with advertising litter. He sums it all up rather nicely with the following, "If you put your user hat back on, I hope you'll agree that you wouldn't want a serious medical search for brain tumor treatments to be affected by inaccurate or uninformed posts. In fact, if you stumbled across these entries on the web, you might not know whether someone got paid for writing these posts. In the same way that a regular surfer would want disclosure to know if a post were paid, all the major search engines also want to make sure that paid posts are adequately disclosed to search engines as well. Google's documentation for webmasters gives examples of how to do that. I believe the vast majority of our users don't want our organic search results for something as serious as brain tumors to be affected by links in paid posts."

I agree wholeheartedly. There's nothing more irritating for the end-user than to be dragged off course during serious research by advertising copy - not to mention poorly constructed and thinly-veiled advertising copy - or worse, half-formed opinion posing as educated scholarly review.

Keeping your links clean and ethical means not only keeping your PageRank but keeping your readers' trust.

Labels: advertising, google, links, matt cutts, pagerank

Another new kid on the Search block is strutting his stuff, and he goes by the name Hakia. Hakia, with results and sponsors powered by Ask.com, integrates an interesting new feature into the end-user experience: Community. Say, doesn't that look familiar?



After searching a question, phrase or keyword, the user's results appear along with a linked icon reading, "Meet Others Who Asked The Same Query." Clicking this icon after a search currently invites the user to start or participate in a forum topic regarding the query, allowing users to create communities based around popular topics.

Does this make Hakia's search results inherently better? Not any better than Ask.com's. What it does do, both for the showrunners at Hakia and for webmasters, is use community (the C word rises again!) to create loyalty both to the products under discussion and to the search engine which hosts the discussion.

Will it pay off for Hakia? I'd put my money on yes. Will it benefit the user? I'm giving good odds on that, too, but time alone will tell. Stay tuned.

Labels: community, hakia, search, search engine