January 27,
2005
In
This Issue:
1. Searchers: Satisfied and Confused
2. In the News - MSN Search, Google Video / Browser?
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Cold Fusion filenames
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Searchers: Satisfied and Confused
It's not "dazed and confused," but close. A recent
survey by the Pew Internet & American Life project of 2,200
adults suggests that web searchers are satisfied with their search
ability and the searches they perform. But nearly two-thirds don't
know the difference between paid and unpaid results.
It's an interesting, but not unfamiliar situation. I'd say it's
comparable to traditional media, such as TV and newspapers. Most
of us like TV to some degree, but how many TV watchers understand
the difference between regular programming and paid infomercials?
How many understand why the star of their favorite show is holding
a Pepsi instead of a Coke?
The question in the search world, though, is are the search engines
doing enough to clearly indicate what are paid results and what
aren't? Google, Yahoo, and MSN all try to separate paid advertisements
from regular search results, some doing it better than others.
But Yahoo offers a program called SiteMatch where you can pay
to have your pages reviewed for inclusion in Yahoo's "regular" SERPs.
Yahoo says SiteMatch sites don't get boosted in the SERPs, but
it's a claim that doesn't stand well on its own because SiteMatch
sites also get crawled more frequently than regular listings, meaning
those webmasters can make changes that will help their rankings
more quickly.
Yet, when you search on Yahoo, you have no way of knowing which
sites in the SERPs are paying for the benefits of SiteMatch
and which aren't. No wonder searchers are satisfied and confused....
_________________
In The News
MSN Search Unwrapped
MSN's long-awaited search engine has taken another step toward
reality, and a huge step at that. The beta version of MSN Search
is now public, replacing the previous MSN Search which was just
repackaged Yahoo results. So, technically, we now have three "main" algorithmic
search engines -- Google, Yahoo, and MSN -- even if one is still
in beta development. Two years ago we had one -- Google. You can
be sure we'll be using this space in the coming weeks and months
to examine MSN's search engine and what it means for web site owners.
What you can, and should do starting now is watch your web site
log files or your web stats system. Are you getting more traffic
from MSN Search? Less from the other search engines? Having three
search engines sending you traffic means you have more opportunities
to be found, but it also means you'll have to work harder at
optimizing your site for success in three different engines.
MSN Search (beta)
Google Video Search
We mentioned back in newsletter #36 that Google was said to be
working on a video search tool. And now it's official, with
the launch this week of Google Video Beta. But unlike video
search engines offered by Yahoo and others that seek out video
files
on the web, Google's video search tool is designed to find
information
in TV programs. Your search query is compared to the transcripts
and closed captioning text of all the programs in Google's
archives, which come from a limited number of networks at the
moment.
Proving that ideas are born in strange places, Google Video
was born when an employee couldn't find any information on
the web
about a cheese factory he wanted to visit while in Wisconsin,
and he figured that some travel show must've done a show
about Wisconsin,
and maybe this cheese factory in particular. Now you know.
Google Video Beta
Google Browser (reprise)
Back in newsletter #29 we mentioned that Google had hired
away some of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser developers
and
had registered a domain, growser.com. That's when rumors
of a Google
web browser started, and they continued this week with
news that Google has hired the lead engineer who worked on
the Firefox web browser.
That's not all. There's already speculation now that
it's not just a browser Google is planning, but perhaps
an entire
operating
system
to compete with Windows. And maybe even a Google computer.
Adding to the mystery: a Google employee recently posted
on his blog
this reaction to a presentation from the Google Products
Team showing
what's in store for 2005: "If you guys thought gmail and google
groups were cool, you ain't seen nothing yet!"
_________________
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.
Will video search pay off?
January 26, 2005 - InternetNews.com
Planning ahead for an effective redesign
January 24, 2005 - Search Engine Guide
Security concerns prompt Internet Explorer defections
January 23, 2005 - Reuters
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Matt,
Our site is done mostly in Cold Fusion, so the pages have names
that end with <.cfm?id=XXXX>. Is there any reason why a
site done in CFM would be less likely to rank well than a site
done in HTML?
David
Hi David --
Generally speaking, I'd say no. Google has half-jokingly said
in the past that you can name your pages with any extension
you want,
and as long as you've got the right Content-Type meta you'll
be fine. If you want proof of that, look at almost any OWT
client. We use our own proprietary database language and the "pages" use
.src as the extension. To my knowledge, no one else uses that as
a file extension, but our clients have no trouble ranking well
in all the search engines.
However, dynamic sites do pose some unique issues that are
probably better addressed in a more formal (and lengthy) article.
I'll
make a note to work on that for the future. But what you'll
want to
keep foremost in your mind is this:
1) Avoid session IDs. Using sessions IDs is a good way to discourage
crawlers from spidering your pages.
2) This is one I haven't personally verified, but I've seen
it recommended by people I respect -- keep your variables to
fewer
than 10 digits. Your <.cfm?id=XXXX> example would be fine,
if those four Xs represent four digits. But if end up with URLs
like <.cfm?id=45673456732334> with more than 10 digits, that's
another no-no.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
That's all for this week. Running low on questions for the Q&A,
so please fire away if there's anything on your mind about search
engines, web development, doing business online, etc. Send to the
address above!
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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