July 28, 2004
In
This Issue:
1. Who's Winning the Search War?
2. In the News - MSN News, Google's IPO, OneStat.com Metrics
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - What to do with multiple domains?
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Who's Winning the Search War?
We're still in the early stages of the so-called "search
war" -- you know, that battle going on between Google and
Yahoo right now, with Microsoft in rapid development of its own
search engine so it can join the fight. It'll be a long time before
any real winners are crowned, and in all likelihood there are enough
searchers and searches to go around so that all three engines can
thrive.
But we can get a look at who's winning right now thanks to one
of my favorite resources, SearchEngineWatch.com, where Danny
Sullivan has recently updated the "search engine ratings" charts
provided by comScore Media Metrix (which measures web traffic kinda
like Nielsen measures TV ratings).
comScore Media Metrix Search Engine Ratings
As you can see from the first chart, Google is still leading
the way over Yahoo. MSN and AOL are 3rd and 4th, respectively,
but
keep in mind that MSN's current search results are from Yahoo,
and AOL's are from Google. Down further on the page is the
chart that I feel is the most important -- where searches are
broken
down by "search providers." Google has its own search
engine, of course, but it also powers AOL Search, Netscape Search,
and the Excite Network (iWon.com and others). Likewise, Yahoo provides
results to several other smaller search sites. Those factors are
taken into account in the search providers chart.
In the end, Google is winning the overall battle, powering
54% of searches to Yahoo's 41%. But maybe the real message
here is
that the Internet is, at this moment, a two search engine
race. If you have a web site that ranks well in Google and Yahoo,
you've got 95% of searches covered. 95%!!! Of course, ranking
well in
both Google and Yahoo can be quite a challenge these days
given
the differences in their algorithms ... a
subject we've discussed in prior newsletters and will no doubt discuss again down
the road.
One last thing ... if you want to learn about which search
engines provide results to which other search sites, Search
Engine Watch
has also updated it's Who Powers Whom? chart within the
past week.
Who Powers Whom? Search Providers Chart
_________________
In The News
MSN's News Search
Speaking of search wars and competition, MSN has just launched
a beta of its NEWSBOT service. NewsBot is MSN's try at competing
with the success of Google News. Both are fully automated news
aggregation sites; headlines and stories they show are determined
by an algorithm, not by human editors. Unlike Google News, MSN's
Newsbot keeps track of the articles you read and uses that knowledge
to try to offer you more articles relevant to your interests.
MSN Newsbot (beta)
Google News
Google's IPO Inches Closer
It's 1999 all over again. Google anticipates that its upcoming
IPO will price shares between $108 and $135. Ouch. In related
news, it appears Google may be using its own web site to
offer a "virtual
roadshow" for the IPO. The site will accept investor registrations
in the next couple days.
Google IPO web site
Searchers Being More Complex?
Onestat.com, a web analytics company, reports that web searchers
are using more 3-word and 4-word searches than 1- and
2-word searches. As of February, those 1- and 2-word searches
made up more than
half of all web searches according to Onestat.com.
As of
July, that number is down to 46%. If you're a numbers
geek, here's
the full story and chart.
http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox32.html
_________________
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.
Blogging breaks out into big business
July 26, 2004 - Silicon.com
Long heralded as a way for the masses to wrest the internet back
from corporate control, the web log has emerged as the hottest
new enterprise tool.
The older you are, the more you want personalized search
July 26, 2004 - Search Engine Watch
So many pages, such feeble search
July 16, 2004 - Business Week
The challenge for the computer industry is to make major strides
in dealing with information overload -- both by improving
search and coming up with more powerful tools for managing
information.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Matt,
A few years ago we registered four domains and we have our web
site using all four domains right now. I just heard from a peer
in our industry that this is a bad idea, and can hurt our search
engine rankings. Is that true? Why would it matter how many domains
we have?
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer --
Yes, having more than one active domain for the same web site
can hurt your search engine rankings. By "active", I mean
if you can view the web site from all your domains. That's a potential
problem because, in theory, all four of your domains could rank
in the Top 10 of the SERPs for a certain search term. And when
one site essentially takes up 40% of the first page of SERPs, that
lessens the quality for searchers. That's why SEs don't like it.
The solution is something your web host should be able to do
quite easily. Choose one domain as your main domain. Take all
the others
and do what's called a "301 redirect". This has to be
done at the server level; you can't do it at the web site level.
With a 301 redirect, anyone typing in one of the other domains
will be instantly redirected to the main domain. And domains that
are 301'd will not clutter the SERPs.
Search engines recognize that companies often want or need
to use multiple domains (to take into account misspellings
of the
domain
name, for example), and this is how the SEs prefer you handle
owning and using your domains.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
Sometimes I really struggle to find something to say here in
the "Wrapping It Up" section. Maybe we'll just drop the "Wrapping
It Up" section altogether in some newsletters, and call it
something else when the content calls for another name. I have
this idea, in newsletters where there are no vacation or other
announcements, to just mention the URL of a web site that I think
is worth looking at. Taking a look at well-designed web sites is
one way I get inspiration for new projects, and maybe you business
owners out there will get ideas for your own sites, too. Here's
one I really like:
Ryder Cup 2004
The colors, the layout, the typeface choices, the wonderful content
wonderfully presented. Great web site.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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