Search Engine News :: Optimise Web Sites for Organic Search

Friday, April 16, 2004

FreePint Newsletter 158 - Search engines and time management: " 'Searching for success: an update on search engine developments' By Duncan Parry

You've probably seen press coverage of recent news in the search engine industry. Yahoo! stopped using Google to power its 'organic' search results (those labelled 'Web Results') and switched to its own technology. Microsoft
is belatedly entering the search industry too; building search technology for its global network of MSN
websites. And Ask Jeeves purchased Interactive Search Holdings which includes iWon and Excite in March. So what are the main developments at the search engines, and how do they affect you as a searcher or website owner?"

Great brief paragraph for major engines & concludes:
The concentration of a large percentage of the search advertising market in the hands of three global companies - Google, Yahoo! and (to a lesser scale) FindWhat - could raise fears of them monopolising parts of the web and raising advertising prices. Whilst minimum bid prices have risen in the past, the three companies are still competing hard for advertisers and for contracts to supply results to search engines. Contracts may well change as search engines and ISPs are tempted by better deals or wish to stop using Overture now that it is owned by competitor, Yahoo!. Microsoft's search technology (and whatever advertising it offers) will further stimulate competition, and Internet Yellow Pages websites like SuperPages are competing in local search advertising, with their own advertising programmes. Now, two of the three search indexes accept URL submissions for free (links below); an improvement on last year when Inktomi did not. Ask is now the odd man out.

Local search is coming to a search engine near you (especially in the US, where the engines rollout technologies first). Personalisation and other developments should offer more relevant results, for example allowing the engines to understand the context of ambiguous keywords in web pages (Bill Gates cites the ambiguity of the word of "chips" as
an example - computer chips, wood chips, Mr Chips or oven chips?).

Expect more consolidation and innovation in the search industry...see A( for Amazon application of personalisation to search...BTW totaltravel does ok in A9....