June 30, 2004
In
This Issue:
1. Here Comes Microsoft
2. In the News - Yahoo and Overture news
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Can We Learn About Our Web Site Users?
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Here Comes Microsoft
The search engine industry is apparently about to get more crowded.
Microsoft chairman Bill
Gates told media in Australia this week
that changes at MSN's search engine should start appearing very
soon.
"In July, the format of the site will change -- and so will
the quality of what you get -- and the way it'll look is dramatically
improved," Gates is quoted as saying. He also added that
MSN's will introduce its own algorithmic search engine "later
this year." At the moment, MSN search is using Yahoo's search
engine very heavily, with Inktomi and Overture and a couple other
providers
sprinkled into the mix, too. It's an odd mix they have going
right now. If Gates is to be believed, this will change by year's
end
and MSN will have its own unique search engine. And like so many
others, Gates says the future of search is all about improving "local
search" and "personalized search."
When that happens, it may or may not be a very good search engine,
but it will be an important one. It'll be the default search
engine on MSN.com, which is the default home page for the millions
of
PC users who buy a Windows machine and don't know how to change
the home page setting in Internet Explorer. These folks will
use MSN Search because it's the most convenient option and
they don't
know any better. if it actually does turn out to be a good
search engine, too, then even more people will start to use it.
You may want to keep an eye on your web site stats over the
coming months -- pay attention to how many referrals you
get now from
Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search. And compare those numbers
with what you see about 2-3 months after the new MSN search engine
debuts.
_________________
In The News
Yahoo on Personalized Search
Speaking of the future of search, Yahoo
CEO Terry Semel spoke about personalized search to the AP this past week.
"We've probably just finished phase one as an industry.
Initially, the great need was to amass all of the information and
to provide
it in the most efficient and effective way so that users could
access that information. What we are going to see, in phase two,
will be much more specific. The same information could be presented
taking into account your location, so that if you are looking
for a plumber or a pizza parlor it doesn't turn out to be 3,000
miles
away from where you are searching but rather several miles from
your house."
Yahoo Shows Suggested Searches
Yahoo brought back an old feature to its search engine recently.
When you do a search, they're again showing "Related" searches
that may help you dig down into the specific information you're
looking for. For example, do a search
for "digital camera" and
Yahoo shows related searches such as "digital camera review" and "sony
digital camera", among others. At the end of the list is a "More..." link
to get more ideas, and on the second click there's a "Show
All..." link to see Yahoo's complete list of related searches.
How does this help you, the business owner? Do a search related
to your product or service, and see what related searches Yahoo
comes up with. Is your web site optimized to rank well for those
searches, too? That's how it helps you -- more information about
what people are actually searching for on the web.
Overture Introduces Local Match Advertising
If you use pay-per-click advertising on Google, Yahoo, or other
search engines, you know that some ad services allow you to target
your advertising locally. With Google AdWords, for example, a Tri-Cities
doctor could advertise and have his/her ad appear only when a Tri-Cities
resident is using Google.
Overture's new Local Match service also offers geographically
targeted advertising, but in a different way: Rather than targeting
ads
based on the location of the surfer, ads are targeted based on
the geographical search terms. So, someone in California searching
for "Tri-Cities doctors" might see the ad from the doctor
here in town. As you can imagine, there are pros and cons to that
method. Overture's program also has several other differences with
Google's targeted AdWords options. We'll be looking more into this
in the coming weeks ourselves, and we'll report back anything of
note here in the newsletter.
Overture: Local Match
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time to read.
These are just some of the headlines we've posted
to OWTweb.com in recent
days.
Internet Explorer is just too risky
June 29, 2004 - Business Week
Search engines rethink paid inclusion
June 24, 2004 - News.com
Critics say paid inclusion can blur the lines between editorial
content and advertising.
Google best online brand
June 24, 2004 - eMarketer
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hi Matt,
We currently use the web administration part of our web site
to get monthly usage statistics such as top 10 pages visited, top
10 entry pages, top 10 referrers, etc.
We also use a web based form that people can use to request
info (or they can use e-mail). When they request info, we
can capture
that they
used our site, but what about the people that don't request
info- is there a way to learn some details about who is visiting
our
site but don't request info? Maybe by using cookies or some
other recording method -- without making someone log into our
site?
John
Hi John --
There's no way to learn anything about your site visitors other
than the IP address they come from, the browser they used,
the pages they visited, etc. And if it were possible to
get more
information about them secretly (their email address, for
example), it would
be an invasion of privacy.
Even with those things you can learn about your visitors,
the data is imperfect. An IP address can sometimes be
traced to
learn the
location of the user's Internet provider. But AOL users,
for example, will all come from an AOL IP address, which
would
be traceable
to their Virginia headquarters. In other words, if your
competition across town uses AOL to access the Internet,
tracing that
IP address will make you think the person is a visitor
from Virginia. (Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
I promise to not use the newsletter as a sales tool for Apple
very often, but you PC folks are really missing out. For the purpose
of better SEO, we've been doing a lot of web sites that are more
text-based than graphical over the past year (see owtweb.com as
an example), and it's striking to me how poorly PCs render text.
I was lamenting this not long ago while working on a client project,
and saw a similar frustration expressed by Jeffrey
Zeldman, a well-known
web developer. He wrote:
"Every time I design a website in Photoshop, I leave the
body text non-antialiased, because ugly, pixilated text is what
most computer
users will see. I wish they could see what I see when I use OS
X. Even Amazon looks pretty because of the Mac's superior text
handling."
So true. The web is really a much more attractive place than
you've seen on your PC. See you next week! Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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