| The Axandra newsletter archive - 20 January 2004 |
| Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.
This week, we're informing you about possible future search engine ranking algorithms. How will Google rank web sites like yours in the future? Google's new patents might give a clue. In the news: Yahoo drops Google, Google thinks about an email ad service and offer a new "domain park" service. Meta search engine DogPile received good ratings from a PC magazine, a new search engine is online and more. 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, |
| 1. The ranking algorithms of the search engines in the near future |
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Last week, we took a look at the most innovative search engines in 2003 and which patents have been issued to the search engine companies in 2003.
These patents allow us to predict some of the future search engine ranking algorithms. Now that the patents have been issued, the innovations can finally be used. What will Google do? Google has been issued patent no. 6,526,440 which is very interesting. It says (in non-technical terms) that the search engine may return a set of web pages and re-ranks them by evaluating the number of links between the web pages in the set. For example, a user searches for "kitchen chairs" and Google finds 30 good results in its database. Now the top ranked web page will be the one that has the most links from the other 29 web pages. (This is just an example, Google may evaluate more than 30 results, or it could look at the quality of the links in the set instead of the quantity.) This means that it might be worthwhile exchanging links with other top ranked web pages for your keywords in the future. Patent no. 6,615,209 allows Google to compare two web pages for similarity by comparing only those parts of the web pages that are related to the search term. This could mean that doorway pages might be more easily detected than before. (We've always warned against using doorway pages.) Microsoft's plans In the description of patent no. 6,525,748 Microsoft explains that "sitemaps may also be utilized by web crawler programs to build an index of web pages available at the server site." Some months ago, we recommended using sitemaps to improve your search engine rankings. Now they could become even more important to get most of your web pages indexed. Microsoft's patent number 6,513,031 describes a way to return search results that are based on a user profile. For example, if you have a daughter called Mercedes then Microsoft's search engine may return not only search results for the Daimler-Chryler car model. Yahoo!'s interesting patent Yahoo! has been issued an interesting patent. The search engine tracks purchases of the search engine user so that future search results can be based on the number of sales on a web site. But how should Yahoo! be able to track purchases on foreign web sites? This method will probably only work when buying at Yahoo stores. If you like this kind of information, please recommend our newsletter to your friends and clients. |
| 2. Search engine news of the week |
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Yahoo, Google primed for search war "Yahoo [...] said it will drop search partner Google during the first quarter of 2004 in favor of its own technology, opening a new phase in the battle for Web search dominance. The announcement from Yahoo CEO Terry Semel marks the first time the company has publicly disclosed a specific timeline for replacing Google, a move that has been widely expected since Yahoo announced plans to acquire search provider Inktomi for $235 million in December 2002. Inktomi has developed so-called algorithmic search technology similar to Google's that indexes Web pages and ranks them based on search terms. Analysts said the shift means that, overnight, Web search will change from a near monopoly situation to a two-horse race. "
"Google Inc. [...] is developing a service that could dramatically extend the reach of its lucrative keyword-based advertising by linking such ads to email, people familiar with the matter said [...] Adding an email service would provide a potential boost to Google as its technology lead in the search market seems destined to narrow and it prepares to answer to growth-hungry shareholders, analysts said." "Domain Park allows domain name registrars and large domain name holders to unlock the value in their parked page inventory. Domain Park delivers targeted, conceptually related keywords and advertisements to parked domain name pages by using Google's semantic technology to understand the meaning of each domain name."
"The Dogpile Toolbar took top honors in the Browser Toolbar Plug-Ins category to win the 'PC World Best Bet Award' in that category. PC World reviewers mentioned the wide array of useful features offered by the Dogpile Toolbar, such as Web search, white and yellow pages, pop-up blocker, and the ability to highlight search terms in a page, as key factors leading to the decision. Additionally, Dogpile was the first runner-up in the Search Engines category, behind category winner Google."
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| 3. Articles of the week |
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People gaga over Google IPO prospects "To get a sense for the level of hype surrounding the possibility Google will go public this spring, there's at least one surefire way: Google it. [...] Meanwhile, other companies are catching up in the race for the best search technology. Everybody's really, really close [...] Google is still perceived to be the leader. But their competition can be as good or better than them on many queries. [...] That they've accomplished in five years is nothing short of remarkable. The question is whether they have what it takes to create the next act."
"Losing the Yahoo account, Google is no longer the sole superpower in search. [...] Even though those losses don't directly affect Google's bottom line, the company -- and investors -- should take the change as a reminder that Google isn't impervious to shifts in the business."
"Microsoft may be unlawfully wielding its desktop dominance to put the squeeze on search engines and on document formats like Adobe Acrobat, the state of Massachusetts claimed on Friday." "It was only a matter of time. We've all talked about it, we've all wondered when it would happen. Either a new search engine or an old classic was going to fight its way into the mainstream of search and present a real challenge to Google. Well, that day is finally here. [...] It must not be forgotten that MSN, one of the largest portal sites on the Internet will also begin to rely on Inktomi for its primary search results this year." |
| 4. Recommended resources |
| "The submission software is next to none"
Our web site promotion and search engine submission software tool IBP becomes the most popular web site promotion tool on the market. No wonder: IBP offers 7 professional web site promotion tools in one inexpensive package and we're continually adding great new features. The next IBP version is planned for the first quarter 2004. As always, it will be a free update for current IBP users. This is what a customer wrote to us recently:
Benjamin A. Dodoo, PrescribeForYou.com If you haven't done it yet, download the free IBP Lite now and see for yourself.
Our freeware tool Link Popularity Check has received another 5 out of 5 rating from a software site. This time, ShareUp.com gave our software tool its top rating. All Axandra software products have received numerous 5 out of 5 ratings from many software sites. It's our goal to make every Axandra product the best product in its market.
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. |
| 5. Previous articles |
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