June 29,
2005
In This Issue:
1. Ranking Well in the Future
2. In the News - MyWeb 2.0, Google Video/Earth
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - HTML Editor
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Ranking Well in the Future
I mentioned a couple newsletters ago that Yahoo
had moved its "My Web" personalization
tool out into the main SERPs on Yahoo Search.
When you do a search, the results you get now
include links to "Save" or "Block"
each web page listed. Yahoo's Tim Mayer spoke
more about this at a recent search conference
sponsored by WebmasterWorld.com,
saying in a nutshell:
- Link popularity (the currently dominant method
of determining a page's value) has gone as
far as it can go.
- Google's "PageRank" method has
become heavily manipulated (by link schemes,
etc.)
- Personalization, the blocking and saving
of pages, will give a lot of signals for future
relevancy.
- He (Tim) would rather the system rely on
user-specific criteria such as which pages
the user likes and trusts.
What Tim is saying, essentially, is that endorsements
will come less from page-to-page linking, and
more from user (i.e. - searcher) behavior. All
of which sounds very good, just as the idea of
link-based endorsements sounded good all those
years ago when Larry Page created his PageRank
methodology. But just like PageRank, Yahoo's "MyWeb"
system of blocking and saving pages is also open
for manipulation. What's to stop Company ABC from
sending its employees out to Yahoo to spend a
few hours every week running searches on Yahoo,
then clicking "block" on its main competitor's
listings? And to find their own listings and choose
"save", marking themselves as a trusted
site?
Don't think anyone would bother with such things?
I promise you they already are! They're used to
be a search engine called DirectHit, and the idea
they had was to move pages up and down the SERPs
based on how often someone clicked on the link.
I remember many years ago encouraging clients
to go to DirectHit and click on their own link
a couple times a day to help themselves move up.
DirectHit was rendered useless by too many people
doing exactly that, and spending all day, every
day doing it. That's the risk Yahoo takes in relying
on manual user "voting" to influence
its SERPs.
That said, if that's the path they see search
taking in the coming months and years, where does
it leave you, the business and web site owner?
One of two places, I'd say. Either you can start
hiring people to "save" your own site
in the SERPs and "block" your competitors.
Or you can devote your time and energy to making
sure your web site is of such great quality and
value that Joe and Jane Surfer will do the saving
for you. You can guess which one I'd vote for!
The move to relying on user endorsements to influence
search rankings, while open to manipulation, also
puts the burden on site owners to create the best
web site possible, the kind searchers will want
to endorse.
_________________
In The News
Yahoo's MyWeb 2.0
And on a very related note, Yahoo has just this
morning announced MyWeb 2.0 which takes the personalized
search idea to new levels, but frankly I just
don't see it catching on anytime soon. The idea
behind 2.0 is to allow community-based searching,
but you have to get all your friends to create
such a community and then upload and tag all their
bookmarks, and so on. No one has time for all
that. In any case, Search Engine Watch as a comprehensive
overview.
Yahoo
Integrates Personal & Social Search with MyWeb
2.0
Google Video and Google Earth
The Google folks sure have been busy, haven't
they? This week they launched video playback on
their Google Video Search system. as well as geographic
search via Google Earth, a downloadable program
similar to Google Maps, but with more options.
John Battelle has some good thoughts about Google
Video, offering several reasons why this is "the
start of something big." As for Google Earth,
you PC users will have to tell me what you think
since it's not ready for the Mac yet. Sigh.
Battle's Searchblog: Google
Video
Google Earth
Updated Search Engine Ratings
Over at Search Engine Watch, Danny Sullivan has
updated the latest Nielsen NetRatings search engine
ratings chart. The stats for May won't come as
much of a surprise: Google leading the way, with
Yahoo and MSN the only others offering any competition.
What might be most noteworthy is that MSN has
made no real progress since launching their own
search engine several months ago.
Nielsen
NetRatings Search Engine Ratings
_________________
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.
Why
you don't rank on search engines
June 27, 2005 - ClickZ.com
There are two main reasons your site doesn't rank
well on the search engines: Your business model
is flawed or ill-conceived. And your Web site
is garbage.
51%
of online adults use search engines for shopping
June 22, 2005 - Internet Retailer
Of 1,047 adults using search engines for shopping,
80% use it to compare prices, the study found.
Men are more likely than women to research products
online.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hey Matt,
Dreamweaver or Go Live? Or something else?
Mark
Hi Mark --
If you're asking which we use here at OWT, I'd
say both. I'm a Dreamweaver guy. Don prefers Go
Live. But in reality, many of our projects involve
database language that a lot of editors don't
like, so we do a lot of raw/hand coding, as well.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
Hope business is treating you well -- remember
to send in questions for the newsletter. I'm about
out of Q&A material!
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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