The search engine business searches go to first is Google, which 66 percent of the respondents say they use most. The other top search engines among the business community include Yahoo (15.25 percent) and MSN (7.8 percent).
Google: 66.37%
Yahoo: 15.25%
MSN: 7.8%
AOL/Netscape: 4.16%
Lycos: 0.55%
AltaVista: 1.55%
FastSearch: 0.35%
Excite: 0.70%
Hotbot: 0.30%
iWon: 1.21%
To an even greater extent than the online public at large which uses Google about 23% of the time , the business community overwhelmingly uses Google to conduct its searches. Yahoo (at 15.25%) and MSN (at 7.8%) combined only represents 23% of use.
The survey of business users and their search behavior conducted by WebAdvantage.net, a search engine marketing and interactive agency, also reveals that members of the business community rely more heavily on organic search results than paid search listings.
The survey, which was conducted between October 1st and 31st, polled 475 respondents and has an overall margin of error of 2.6 percent. A white paper with survey results can be accessed at
http://www.webadvantage.net/news.cfm?news_category_id=1&&news_item_id=140&&a=2
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Open-Source Search Engine : Nutch
A group of international developers are working together to produce an open source search engine that may rival the commercial search bandits. From the Nutch project’s site:
Nutch is a nascent effort to implement an open-source web search engine.
Web search is a basic requirement for internet navigation, yet the number of web search engines is decreasing. Today’s oligopoly could soon be a monopoly, with a single company controlling nearly all web search for its commercial gain. That would not be good for users of the internet.
Nutch provides a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines. Only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias. (Or at least their bias is public.) All existing major search engines have proprietary ranking formulas, and will not explain why a given page ranks as it does. Additionally, some search engines determine which sites to index based on payments, rather than on the merits of the sites themselves. Nutch, on the other hand, has nothing to hide and no motive to bias its results or its crawler in any way other than to try to give each user the best results possible.
Nutch aims to enable anyone to easily and cost-effectively deploy a world-class web search engine. This is a substantial challenge.
Nutch will definately be worth keeping an eye on.
Nutch is a nascent effort to implement an open-source web search engine.
Web search is a basic requirement for internet navigation, yet the number of web search engines is decreasing. Today’s oligopoly could soon be a monopoly, with a single company controlling nearly all web search for its commercial gain. That would not be good for users of the internet.
Nutch provides a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines. Only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias. (Or at least their bias is public.) All existing major search engines have proprietary ranking formulas, and will not explain why a given page ranks as it does. Additionally, some search engines determine which sites to index based on payments, rather than on the merits of the sites themselves. Nutch, on the other hand, has nothing to hide and no motive to bias its results or its crawler in any way other than to try to give each user the best results possible.
Nutch aims to enable anyone to easily and cost-effectively deploy a world-class web search engine. This is a substantial challenge.
Nutch will definately be worth keeping an eye on.
Search Advertising Blocker Threatens WebMasters in Addition to Search Engines
First we had spam filters, then pop-up blockers, and recently spyware removal tools have become popular. Time to add one more to the list which has the potential to hurt the search engine marketing industry even more than a Google update, search engine sponsored listing blocking.
The InterMute, Inc. company announced today the latest version of its best selling Internet ad blocking software which gives users the option to block paid or sponsored Search Engine results, the fastest growing segment of the online advertising industry.
There may be some credence behind the need for more regulation of the search advertising industry, according to a recent study, nearly half of those surveyed among the business community state that they do not recognize the difference between paid search listings and unpaid.
While some search engines, Google for example, make an effort to differentiate its ads from its organic search results. Other search engines like MSN search do not do so good of a job, cloaking paid results with organic.
Intermute’s AdSubtract Pro with search engine advertising blocker has the potential to start a worrisome trend which could put a large dent in the search advertising industry.
Their new feature, dubbed New Search Sanity, lets the user block paid or "sponsored" listings from showing up on the most popular search engines including, Google, Yahoo, Overture, MSN, AOL, AltaVista, AllTheWeb and LookSmart. The tool even has the power to block contextual advertising, such as Google’s AdSense.
The ability to block AdSense ads will put AdSubtract Pro in the sites of webmasters, since AdSense dollars go to the owners of the sites it is advertised on.
The InterMute, Inc. company announced today the latest version of its best selling Internet ad blocking software which gives users the option to block paid or sponsored Search Engine results, the fastest growing segment of the online advertising industry.
There may be some credence behind the need for more regulation of the search advertising industry, according to a recent study, nearly half of those surveyed among the business community state that they do not recognize the difference between paid search listings and unpaid.
While some search engines, Google for example, make an effort to differentiate its ads from its organic search results. Other search engines like MSN search do not do so good of a job, cloaking paid results with organic.
Intermute’s AdSubtract Pro with search engine advertising blocker has the potential to start a worrisome trend which could put a large dent in the search advertising industry.
Their new feature, dubbed New Search Sanity, lets the user block paid or "sponsored" listings from showing up on the most popular search engines including, Google, Yahoo, Overture, MSN, AOL, AltaVista, AllTheWeb and LookSmart. The tool even has the power to block contextual advertising, such as Google’s AdSense.
The ability to block AdSense ads will put AdSubtract Pro in the sites of webmasters, since AdSense dollars go to the owners of the sites it is advertised on.
Saturday, December 6, 2003
Hotrate Reborn as Illumirate
IllumiRate.com -- lighting your way through the web
I asked Barbara York the new owner why the name IllumiRate. Here is her response: "First, one of the platforms for the directory is the fact our editors' assess many of the sites we add. Therefore, I wanted to keep the "Rate" portion of the name.
Don't know if you had a chance to see our logo, but I think the candle that stands in for the first "I" in our name pretty much explains the concept.
IllumiRate is a "turn" on the word "illuminate" -- thus the slogan "Lighting your way through the Web".
Have you been "illumiRated"? Browsing this directory is an "IllumiRating" experience? For editors: Become a member of the "IllumiRate Nation"!
There are all sorts of phrases that could be used in connection with upping the power, high-voltage, etc., and other "light" connotations that are possible with the name.
Finally, having been a student at William & Mary, and an overall huge fan of the Williamsburg, VA, area, I have a soft spot in my heart for the holiday Grand Illumination celebration. Thus, when having a huge brainstorming session in my kitchen, we all came up with the name "IllumiRate".
Hope this better explains my objectives when choosing "IllumiRate" as our directory's new moniker. :-)
BTW, we do have a direct free submit for sites to be added to our waiting list at http://www.illumirate.com/IllumiRate/add_your_site.cfm."
I asked Barbara York the new owner why the name IllumiRate. Here is her response: "First, one of the platforms for the directory is the fact our editors' assess many of the sites we add. Therefore, I wanted to keep the "Rate" portion of the name.
Don't know if you had a chance to see our logo, but I think the candle that stands in for the first "I" in our name pretty much explains the concept.
IllumiRate is a "turn" on the word "illuminate" -- thus the slogan "Lighting your way through the Web".
Have you been "illumiRated"? Browsing this directory is an "IllumiRating" experience? For editors: Become a member of the "IllumiRate Nation"!
There are all sorts of phrases that could be used in connection with upping the power, high-voltage, etc., and other "light" connotations that are possible with the name.
Finally, having been a student at William & Mary, and an overall huge fan of the Williamsburg, VA, area, I have a soft spot in my heart for the holiday Grand Illumination celebration. Thus, when having a huge brainstorming session in my kitchen, we all came up with the name "IllumiRate".
Hope this better explains my objectives when choosing "IllumiRate" as our directory's new moniker. :-)
BTW, we do have a direct free submit for sites to be added to our waiting list at http://www.illumirate.com/IllumiRate/add_your_site.cfm."
Monday, December 1, 2003
Directory For Sale
About a month after splitting up the GoGuides.Org Directory is now on sale with a minimum bid of $10,000. On their home page it reads "Notice: GoGuides.Org is for sale! If you think you have what it takes to run one of the fastest growing and most popular human edited directories on the net then this opportunity is for you. Offers will be accepted till 12-3-03. If the minimum reserve price is not met the directory will not be sold. If the directory is sold the buyer must agree to continue running all advertisement, all listings, and agree to continue developing this directory as a spam free community. Minimum Bid Price: $10,000.00 US Dollars. All offers must accompany a 20% down payment of the bid amount via paypal to be considered legitimate. For more information contact us at teamsupport@goguides.org with your offered bid."
by Aaron Wall of Search Marketing Info
by Aaron Wall of Search Marketing Info
Thursday, November 27, 2003
CNET Search Show Best Conversions for Consumer Electronics Sites
In a independent study of millions of visits to Web sites selling consumer electronics and gift items, WebSideStory, Inc. ( www.WebSideStory.com ), today announced that from May-October 2003, visitors from CNET.com’s search engine had the best visit-to-order conversion ratio. CNET’s conversion ratio was 28% higher than the conversion rate from the next most efficient search engine.
CNET topped the list with 1.64 % of all visitors converting to immediate orders, followed by AOL (1.28 percent), Overture (1.25 percent) and iWon (1.15 percent), according to the new study by WebSideStory’s StatMarket ( www.StatMarket.com ), a leading authority on global Internet user trends. The data for the study is based on more than 10 million search engine visits to prominent e-commerce sites, which sell a broad range of gifts and electronics products and services.
These sites use WebSideStory’s HitBox Web analytics services. “StatMarket has always been a leading source of reliable data on the quantity of visitors that search engines refer to other sites globally,” said Geoff Johnston, vice president product marketing for StatMarket. “This new study focuses on the quality of the visitors the search sites are delivering.”
The data on visitors to electronics related sites is part of a larger study on visit-to-order conversion ratios from search engines to e-commerce sites overall. The full study from StatMarket analyzes more than 29 million visits from hundreds of search engines worldwide to dozens of prominent e-commerce sites. The search engine visits include those generated by both paid search keywords and organic listings. All orders resulting from search engine visits were generated in the same session. The study does not include shopping-specific search engines.
Search Engine Gifts/Electronics Sites
Order Conversion Ratio
CNET 1.64%
AOL 1.28%
Overture 1.25%
iWon 1.15%
LookSmart 1.14%
MSN 1.04%
Yahoo 1.01%
Netscape 0.93%
Lycos 0.92%
Google 0.85%
CNET topped the list with 1.64 % of all visitors converting to immediate orders, followed by AOL (1.28 percent), Overture (1.25 percent) and iWon (1.15 percent), according to the new study by WebSideStory’s StatMarket ( www.StatMarket.com ), a leading authority on global Internet user trends. The data for the study is based on more than 10 million search engine visits to prominent e-commerce sites, which sell a broad range of gifts and electronics products and services.
These sites use WebSideStory’s HitBox Web analytics services. “StatMarket has always been a leading source of reliable data on the quantity of visitors that search engines refer to other sites globally,” said Geoff Johnston, vice president product marketing for StatMarket. “This new study focuses on the quality of the visitors the search sites are delivering.”
The data on visitors to electronics related sites is part of a larger study on visit-to-order conversion ratios from search engines to e-commerce sites overall. The full study from StatMarket analyzes more than 29 million visits from hundreds of search engines worldwide to dozens of prominent e-commerce sites. The search engine visits include those generated by both paid search keywords and organic listings. All orders resulting from search engine visits were generated in the same session. The study does not include shopping-specific search engines.
Search Engine Gifts/Electronics Sites
Order Conversion Ratio
CNET 1.64%
AOL 1.28%
Overture 1.25%
iWon 1.15%
LookSmart 1.14%
MSN 1.04%
Yahoo 1.01%
Netscape 0.93%
Lycos 0.92%
Google 0.85%
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