SEARCH ENGINES & PORTALS
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Search Engine Watch
Information and news about search engines, as well as tips on increasing your standings with the major search engines and indexes.
ARTICLES
A Year After Big Furor, a Lycos Lovefest
18 months ago, the stock market rejected a proposed merger between USA Networks and Lycos; after the recent AOL/Time Warner (proposed) merger, it looks like Lycos was on the track. With a reach of 30 million users, Lycos is still a Web force. (2/11/2000 at The Boston Globe)
About.com That Labor Lawsuit ...
Leon Greenberg, the lawyer who filed suit against AOL on behalf of its unpaid volunteers, is representing current and former About.com guides who say they weren't paid what they were owed by the company. (6/12/2002 at Wired News)
AltaVista Gives Away Search Engine
AltaVista is launching a network of affiliates which will use the portal's search engine software, and get paid for users referred to AltaVista. (2/1/2000 at ZDNet)
America Online's Entry Could Change China Game
America Online is expected to announce a deal with Legend Holdings, China's largest computer maker; analysts expect a wave of consolidation througout China's Net portal market. (6/4/2001 at The Industry Standard)
AOL Members File Suit, Media File Errors
In general, the media failed to accurately describe the class of AOL users who are part of the lawsuit regarding the service's pop-up ads, and the pop-up ads themselves. (6/29/2000 at The Industry Standard)
AOL Settles Charges, Pays $3.5 Million Fine
AOL has agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine for improper accounting in 1995 and 1996, in which it reported profits for quarters in which it did not make a profit. (5/15/2000 at Excite News)
AOL Zips Past Yahoo in Advertising Sales
Ad sales at America Online continue to climb, while ad sales at Yahoo continue to decline. (4/27/2001 at Upside)
Ask a Librarian, Not Jeeves
The Library of Congress and its partner libraries are setting up a service to allow Internet users to query librarians from around the world; they hope to provide better information than the self-styled experts who publish on the Internet. (11/24/2000 at Wired News)
At Home Says It Will Seek Chapter 11 Protection
At Home, which does business as Excite@Home, has filed for bankruptcy protection; it says it has enough cash to continue operations through the bankruptcy proceedings. (9/29/2001 at The New York Times)
Cyber-Europe Has Problems of Its Own
A look at the failure of World Online International, a Dutch ISP and portal that hoped to provide a pan-European onramp to the Internet; after the resignation of founder Nina Brink, it was sold at bargain rates to Tiscali, an Italy-based independent ISP. (3/15/2001 at Business Week)
Deja.com Vu!
Deja.com, the "portal" which started out as a Usenet archive, has brought its Usenet archive search to the front of its site again. (12/13/2000 at Slashdot.org)
Diving Into the Deep Web
A number of startups are looking into searching online databases, which hold information that normal search engines can't access. (9/4/2000 at The Industry Standard)
Donrey's Hawaii.com Purchase a Smart, Albeit Expensive Move
The newspaper company that owns the lasvegas.com domain name has bought the hawaii.com domain name; though expensive, the purchase was probably worth it. (4/12/2000 at Editor & Publisher Interactive)
The Effects of September 11 on the Leading Search Engine
An examination of how Google altered its website to deal with people's news needs on September 11th and following, in the wake of the terrorist attacks. (10/3/2001 at First Monday)
Finding Disaster Coverage At Search Engines
An analysis of how well search engines and portals provided news and links related to the WTC and Pentagon attacks, hours after they occurred. (9/11/2001 at Search Engine Watch)
Google Restores Church Links
Google, which removed links to the xenu.net websites after receiving a letter from the Church of Scientology alleging xenu.net violated the DMCA, has reinstated the links. (3/22/2002 at Wired News)
Google Restores Deja View
Google has placed the 500 million Usenet messages it purchased from Deja.com online in Google Groups; some Net users are embarassed at the now-available messages which they posted in the "distant" past. (4/27/2001 at Wired News)
Google Searches For Dollars
Search engine Google has gained both critical accolades and consumer acceptance; now, to make a profit, it will have to squeeze money from advertisers and from sites that license its technology. (3/15/2001 at Forbes)
Google Unveils More of the Invisible Web
By indexing many non-HTML files - such as PDFs, Microsoft Word files, and more - Google is expanding search capabilities to areas previously ignored by other search engines. (10/31/2001 at Search Engine Watch)
How to Find Anything Online
Useful websites for online research - beyond just search engines. (10/6/2000 at Web Review)
IM User Safety Top Priority
America Online says the reason it is dragging its feet on interoperability between its instant-messaging client and other IM clients is to protect its users' privacy. (6/27/2000 at CNNfn)
In Rewritten Internet Fables, the Late Bird Gets the Worm
IWon.com, a small privately-held Internet firm, bought and continues to operate web portal Excite.com for under $10 million; three years ago, Excite was valued at $6.7 billion. (12/27/2001 at The New York Times)
Internet Portals Find International Markets Tough to Tame
U.S. portals like Yahoo, Terra Lycos, and AOL are having trouble expanding overseas, due to local competition, language barriers, and lower Internet penetration outside the U.S. (3/1/2001 at USA Today)
Looking at Web Portals
Planning to build a portal? Learn how to define your portal, determine what software and services you can use to build it, and a look at the future of portals. (12/14/1999 at builder.com)
Media Giants Break Into the Net
A long, detailed article on how media companies - TV networks and Hollywood brands - are succeeding and failing in building online portals. (1/24/2000 at Upside)
Meta Search Or Meta Ads?
An examination of meta search engines, specifically their proportion of paid search results to unpaid ones. (5/23/2001 at Search Engine Watch)
More Online Search Engines Shifting Gears
Major search engines are changing the rules by which they list sites; several now require payment for high placement or for being listed at all. (12/18/2000 at The Record Online)
A New Model for AOL May Influence Cable's Future
In its partnership with AT&T/ComCast, America Online hopes to profit from a new business model, and may change the face of cable TV. (8/26/2002 at The New York Times)
New Tools Fine-Tune Web Searches
The latest search-engine innovators hope to make Internet information retrieval more efficient by using link popularity, human guides, and other strategies. (2/9/2000 at SF Gate)
Nine Latin American Papers to Launch Net Portal
Nine major Latin American newspapers plan to jointly launch an online portal "within a very brief time." (2/10/2000 at Fox News)
The Portal Race Is Over -- The Race For Online Marketing Dollars Is Just Beginning
A Forrester report predicts that portals will lose major advertising revenue to vertical portals and affiliate networks within the next five years. (1/28/2000 at Forrester Research, Inc.)
Quepasa Says Si to Asset-Sale Plan
The once-promising Spanish-language portal Quepasa will sell its assets and distribute the proceeds to its investors, rather than remain in business. (12/27/2000 at The Industry Standard)
The Search Engine as Cyborg
Web search engines are increasingly using human judgement to determine relevant results for searchers; but information retrieval experts caution that this introduces human mistakes into the process. (6/29/2000 at The New York Times)
Search Engine War Brewing - Study
According to StatMarket, Yahoo is the most-used search site in the US, followed by MSN; globally, Yahoo is first, Google is second, and MSN is third. (5/30/2001 at NewsBytes)
Search Engine Watch Top Stories of 2002
"The editors of Search Engine Watch looked back over the stories we wrote last year, and selected a dozen that we felt were the most notable or important for 2002." (1/7/2003 at Search Engine Watch)
Search Firms Argue Whether Bigger is Better
Inktomi has announced that it has indexed 1 billion web pages (out of an estimated 1.5 billion total on the Web); but it throws out more than four-fifths of the pages for being irrelevant. (1/18/2000 at The Industry Standard)
Search Sites Brush up on People Skills
As the Web grows, search engines have a hard time keeping up. Some continue to rely on spidering software; others, on human catalogers. (1/24/2000 at USA Today)
Six Steps to Internet Age Free Publicity; Danny Sullivan on Lycos Security "Hole"
Using press releases to make your information show up in press releases more often; and a perspective on the Lycos search engine security problem. (8/2/2001 at WebReference.com)
Surplus Of Search Engine Marketing Reports
A look at three recent reports on search engine optimization: MarketingSherpa's guide to search engine marketing firms, CyberAtlas's survey of search engine optimization strategies, and iProspect's examination of technology use on Fortune 100 sites. (10/2/2001 at Search Engine Watch)
That's Mr. Search Engine to You
A number of sites that put professionals to work making web searches for site visitors are gaining in popularity; at least one regular search engine is incorporating live search help on its site. (3/10/2000 at Wired News)
The Little Engine That Could Beat Google
Search engine AlltheWeb.com claims it indexes 2.1 billion web pages, compared to Google's 2.07 billion; it's one of several search engines trying to beat the most-used search engine on the web. (6/17/2002 at News.com)
The Search Is on
Surveys indicate that search engines are the most frequent avenue through which users find resources online; but some of them rank paid listings higher than unpaid without telling their customers, or don't distinguish between ads and search results. (7/8/2002 at NUA Internet Surveys)
Toll Booths at the Portals' Gates
Portal companies like Terra Lycos and Yahoo are adding for-fee services, hoping to make up for lost advertising revenue. (4/23/2001 at Business Week)
The Top Searches of 2002
Links to various search engines' listings of the top searches of 2002. (12/30/2002 at Search Engine Watch)
U.S. Networks Retool Web Strategies
Most television networks are rethinking their web presences, and moving away from the portal model. (4/25/2001 at Excite News)
Under Scrutiny, AOL Agrees to Change Ads
America Online has agreed to alter its broadcast advertising, which up until now has touted AOL's dedication to "your security and privacy." (4/20/2001 at InternetNews.com)
The Weakest Link
Why is NBCi folding, when Altavista is clearly a weaker portal? (4/25/2001 at ClickZ Network)
What Will the New Lycos Look Like?
Analysts disagree over the difficulty involved in integrating Lycos, an American dot-com, and Terra Networks, the Spanish corporation that plans to purchase it. (5/18/2000 at News.com)
Yahoo May Rent Office Tools
Judging from a survey on their website, Yahoo is considering supplying online office tools (word processors, spreadsheets, etc.) to users for a price. (9/28/2001 at ZDNet)
Yahoo's Switch to Google Won't Sink Inktomi
Yahoo's switch to Google from Inktomi is expected to be a marketing plus for Google and minus for Inktomi, but won't have a direct effect on revenue. (6/29/2000 at The Industry Standard)
`Google Effect' Reduces Need for Many Domains
With good search engines quickly and accurately getting web users to the websites they want, domain-name speculation and registering multiple domains for different projects becomes less useful. (1/12/2002 at Siliconvalley.com)
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