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| The Axandra newsletter archive - 29 June 2004 |
| Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.
This week, we'll show you how you can automatically be informed by email when Google visits your web site.
In the news: Yahoo is testing search term suggestions, Overture unveils Local Match and a major Internet attack is under way.
Table of contents:
We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your web site. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.
Best regards,
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| 1. Facts of the week: The Googlebot came to call |
Do you want to be automatically informed by email when Google's spider visits your web site?
A search engine spider is an automated software program that locates and collects data from web pages for inclusion in a search engine's database. The name of Google's spider is "Googlebot".
If you have a web site that allows you to use PHP code then your web pages can inform you when Google's spider has indexed them.
Ask your web space provider if you can use PHP code on your site. If you can, add the following piece of code at the very beginning of your web page HTML code, before the doctype declaration and before the <html> tag:
<?php
$email = "you@example.com";
if(eregi("googlebot",$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']))
{
mail($email, "The Googlebot came to call",
"Google has visited: ".$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
}
?>
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(Source: V. M. Marshalls weblog)
This little piece of PHP code recognizes Googlebot if it visits the web page, and it informs you by email when Googlebot has been there.
Of course, you have to replace "you@example.com" with your own email address. The web page must end with .php and you must be allowed to use PHP on your web site.
Note that a visit of the Googlebot doesn't mean that Google will index your web site. Google will decide later if the visited page is suitable for its database.
You can also use this code with other search engine spiders. To be informed by email when Yahoo's spider visits your web pages, replace "googlebot" in the example with "yahoo! Slurp":
<?php
$email = "you@example.com";
if(eregi("yahoo! Slurp",$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']))
{
mail($email, "The Yahoo bot came to call",
"Yahoo has visited: ".$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
}
?>
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You can also do this with other search engine spiders. You can get a list of search engine spider names here.
To invite Google, Yahoo and other major search engines to visit your web site, you have to submit your web site to these search engines. You can either do this manually or you can use IBP to submit your web site to all important search engines.
IBP not only helps you to submit your web site to search engines, it also helps you to optimize your pages so that search engines rank your web pages higher.
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| 2. Search engine news of the week |
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AskJeeves drops remaining paid inclusion program
"AskJeeves is retiring its Site Submit paid inclusion program. The move, coming several months after the company dropped its Index Express XML-based inclusion offering, marks a complete withdrawal from the practice of allowing companies to pay for guaranteed indexing. [...]
AskJeeves has also expanded e-mail storage on its three portal brands, which it picked up through the acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings. Users of My Way, Excite and iWon's basic e-mail offerings will now be given 125 megabytes of storage.
Overture unveils LocalMatch
"Local Match enables businesses to increase sales by precisely targeting customers searching on the Internet for local products and services whether your business has a Web site or not.
You select keywords that apply to your business and write a description that accurately describes the products or services you offer. Then, you choose a geographic area (0.5-to 100-mile radius around your location) in which your ad will be seen."
Yahoo is testing search term suggestions
"Yahoo is now offering search term refinements on results pages. You'll find the suggestions labeled 'Also try' the top of the page. Clicking these links will run a new search. More suggestions are often available by clicking the 'more' and/or 'show all' links."
Editor's note: This feature is not always available. It seems that Yahoo is still testing the feature.
IBM develops corporate search technology
"IBM has developed new software that searches corporate networks, desktop computers, company Intranets and the Internet to extract information. It can find information in databases, spreadsheets, Word documents, newsgroups, e-mail messages, audio files and images, and Web sites, for example."
Major Internet attack under way
"Security experts say Russian hackers are using a sophisticated attack to compromise major E-commerce Web sites, which then infect visitors with hacker tools designed to steal passwords and financial data, and possibly spew spam. [...]
NetSec wouldn't disclose the names of the E-commerce sites under attack, citing legal fears, but Frasnelli said infected sites include a major auction site, an auto-pricing site, and search-engine sites. 'We all know these sites,' he says."
Editor's note: Further information can be found here.
Search engine newslets
- The French version of Netscape Search not supports thumbshots.
- The Indian company Aftek Infosys acquired 56% of the new German search engine Seekport.
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Behind the scenes at Yahoo labs
"Dr. Gary Flake is Principal Scientist & Head of Yahoo! Research Labs. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about the daily work of researchers at Yahoo Labs, and what they're doing to make search better."
Google Spawn: The culture surrounding Google
"Just a few years back, the word Google existed as the name of a cartoon character (Barney Google) and possibly among the random phonemes mumbled by toddlers. Today, one would be hard-pressed to find a person who hasn't heard of the search engine that bears this name.'"
Gates vows to take on Google
"Mr Gates said in Sydney that Microsoft was poised to put more smarts into its search tools. Promising to make search '10 times better than it is today', Mr Gates said the rate of improvement in search as Microsoft competed with Google would be 'highly beneficial to consumers'."
The Next Google? Not!
"However, then you stumble across a pure play in this dynamic hotbed like LookSmart, trading for just a couple of bucks, and you might find yourself rubbing your eyes as the Pavlovian drool kicks in. Can it be? No. It can't."
Outsourcing controversy brings more business for India
"The controversy in the United States over outsourcing work in India has led to more business for the country from America and elsewhere as it has highlighted it's low cost and expertise, media reports said. [...]
Companies like Accenture Ltd., Unisys Corp., Triology Inc. and Google Ltd are significantly expanding back office, call centre and research and development operations in India."
Yahoo and Google battle for hearts of Chinese Internet users
"While Google's search technology has sometimes run afoul of China's censor system, the new alliance with Baidu probably means that it will more closely toe the Communist Party's Internet policies.
And Yahoo has always been keen to follow the dictates of Chinese Internet censorship - when it entered the Chinese Internet market a couple of years back, it voluntarily signed a pledge to keep its Chinese website free of material that might be deemed 'politically offensive.' The document includes promises to avoid 'disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability.'"
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Lure search engine spiders to your web site
To get search engine spiders to your web site, you have to lure them. You can either do this by submitting your web site to search engines or you can do it by getting many links from other web sites.
Google's spider prefers web sites that it finds through links on other web sites. It thinks that a web site must be more important than other pages if many related web sites link to it.
To get many links from related web sites to your site, try our software tool ARELIS. ARELIS is the popular link building tool that helps you to build a network of high quality links that point to your site.
You'll get targeted traffic from your link partners and search engine spiders will find your web site through the links on other sites so that you'll get better search engine rankings.
Want to be mentioned in this newsletter?
Just send us some words about your successes with IBP or ARELIS and you might get featured in this newsletter along with your web site address.
Tip: Do you need a web hosting company that supports PHP?
Take a look at the web hosting companies listed in the Active Webmasters Directory. The web hosts listed there offer good features (including PHP support) at reasonable prices.
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You may publish one of the articles above on your Web site. However, you must not change the contents in any way. Also, you must keep all links and you must add the following two lines with a link to www.Axandra.com: "Copyright by Axandra.com. Web site promotion software."
All product names, copyrights and trademarks mentioned in this newsletter are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.
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Copyright © 2005 Axandra / Voget Selbach Enterprises GmbH
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