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SE and Web News:
Search Engine and web news.
August 2003:
Google finally got around to another "Google Dance" (term meaning the re-ranking of sites) toward the middle of the month. While the 'dance' seemed to take place over the 10th, 11th, and 12th, it wasn't until the end of August that PR (page rank) changed much. There are many complaints (as there always are and always will be) that a lot of the "back links" got dropped, and many sites got shifted into the 3, 4, 5 range regardless of content. It appears that the once monthly "Google Dance" has now gone to once every other month, and the entire sorting out process can run from 2 - 3 weeks. There have been rumors that Google is now working on new algorithms which will better reflect the freshness and newness of a page, and still contain the relevant information that surfers are looking for.
July 2003:
Yahoo has announced yet another big breaking news story in the Search Engine World. They have come to terms with Overture, and are buying that database company. With this acquisition, along with the Inktomi purchase in April, it will position them very strongly in the battle for King of the search engines. With number one Google, and the announcement that Microsoft and MSN plans on putting more focus on the SE market, we may be looking at a 3-way showdown in the near future. In a side note: Overture recently purchase AllTheWeb, while this didn't make front page headlines, it is a major note. ATW is a huge resource, and often provided results that others did not. They also consider double the amount of "backlinks" as any other engine, so I do consider them (ATW) a fantastic search resource. Here's how it all shakes out.
My Views:
My personal outlook on this is that we have not seen the end of the "Search Engine Shake Up" on the web. I mentioned in articles back in April, that the Yahoo / Inktomi news seemed to me to be a pre-cursor to more breaking news. With Microsoft looking to 'get in the game', and the sudden loss of 'primary partnership' with Overture - I won't be surprised to see MS look long and hard at ask.com / Tehoma, and or Excite / iWon. It's even possible they will just gobble up findwhat.com as an entree. The search engine world is consolidating. Sure, everyone and their brother has their own engine, but 98% of the real search traffic is split between the top half dozen partnerships.All this noise is important because webmasters use search engines to promote their clients, their services, and to prove how good they really are, and the rules are changing rapidly.
Google: Still number one
Yahoo: Now owns Overture, Altavista, Alltheweb (along with Fast a/k/a fastsearch.com), Lycos, Infospace, and Inktomi
MSN: Owns Looksmart
Ask: Owns Tehoma
Excite: Owns iWonSEO Tips
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In other news: Microsoft announced at the end of June its plans to re-enter the anti-virus field. They are said to be in negotiations with several companies in an effort to purchase the technology to get back into the anti-virus market some time in early 2004.
June 2003:
June was a tough month for webmasters who rely on the Google search rankings for their website traffic. In addition to the normal couple days where the rankings are sorted out and populated to the Google servers (often referred to as the Google dance) there was the introduction of some new algorithms (the first in over a year).
Although content is still the primary yardstick for high rankings in the Google system, the new algorithms were to place a stronger weight to the other sites which linked to your web-site. Somewhere along the line of implementing the new system, some of the old style deceptions (such as keyword spamming and hidden text) found their way into the results in that pages that normally would not make the first 100 pages of any search engine were now making the top 3 or 4 rankings overall in Google. Webmasters who had painstakingly gone by the Google bible, suddenly found their top rated sites drop to 5 or 10 pages deep in the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages), after consistently ranking within the top 10.
Google immediately saw that their results were not what they wanted them to be and started working on a remedy for the errors. As of late June it is believed that most (if not all) the errors have been corrected, and quality webmasters will once again see their pages at the top of the rankings.
In other news: Oracle is attempting a takeover bid of PeopleSoft. Normally acquisitions in the computer and Internet industry are by mutual agreement and partnerships, however, this bit of news could have far reaching effects. Hostile takeovers may become a wave of the future.
more Searh Engine news: (archives) ...
Recap:
A brief history:
2 young kids started this whole "Search" concept back in 1994 when as college students, they started keeping track of sites (before we had bookmarks and favorites). They sorted them into categories, got really popular, and Yahoo was born.Through the mid-late 1990's there was an explosion of search engines, everyone was getting on the web, and buying websites. Altavista, Excite, Lycos were all chasing after all the traffic that Yahoo was getting.
Then in the late 90's Google came along, and really put together a good ranking algorithm. They shot to the top of the charts in search engines, webmasters started to take note of all the traffic that was had through these "search resources", and flocked to the se folks to get listed.
Next, Google saw some $$$ here, and started to offer a "paid sponsorship" thing to get listed at the top of pages. A whole bunch of folks saw the money to be had, and jumped on the "pay for inclusion" bandwagon, (but too many of them forgot to keep the free submission stuff). EVERYONE was a search engine now .... BUT!
Then we had the dot.com crash, and the bottom fell out of the the whole Internet thing. Now all these folks who had bunches of time and money invested in a 'business' saw it was either sink or swim, and they all stared to "swim for shore". The consolidation began. Disney bought go.com, Excite merged with iWon, then MSN snapped up Looksmart. I forget who ended up getting snap.com way back when, but that was a big one too. and the really big databases like Tehoma, Overture, dmoz, etc. started to supply results to folks who wanted to stay alive.
Now you have the second round of "Consolidations" taking place. Google is getting WAY over their share of the market (between 70% - 80% of the market depending on the sources your read).
Google does Netscape / AOL, and that's a big piece of the pie, plus the fact they are the choice of most searchers.
Yahoo says "Hey, we were THE search engine, and is trying to recapture their market with Inktomi, Overture, Alltheweb (which I think in results anyway will be as important as any other acquisition), Altavista etc.That leaves MSN and Looksmart (I think they're missing the boat with the pay for results thing myself). They want to be a big player too. Then again, Microsoft always does. Gates and crew have this vision that they are the only company in the computer world! Surprised they haven't gone after the hardware market yet. I figure they'll play some heavy handed dealings before it's all said and done.
That really only leaves ask.com (the fast search technology) and Excite with its iWon.
We know where Ted Turner is putting his money (AOL / Time Warner always goes with Google). Gates has the $$$, where will he spend it? Develop his own (that would be a first - they usually 'buy' technology, i.e. the purchase of CP/M and making it DOS, and downloading public domain BASIC to implement it. I'm not sure Bill has done anything of note since he wrote the program that allowed you to save files to a floppy disk (1976) - and what gets me, he was the first to write a paper on "warez" or piracy back in 74 or 75. But I digress.
So.......... we have:
Google: AOL, Netscape, and Turner
Yahoo: now they have Inktomi, Overture, ATW, Altavista, Lycos, et. all.
and MSN / Looksmart: They are loading their guns (seems I mentioned that a loooooong time ago when I joined this forum).Excite / iWon and ask.com / Tehoma may be sitting ducks, but they are not lame ducks in my opinion. Who's gonna bag 'em?
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