See you at SES!
The Traffick Team won't be blogging much, if at all, the week of Aug. 18 due to the big shindig known as Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, CA. If you're coming, feel free to stop by the Traffick booth and say "hi" (the Traffick booth being wherever Andrew and I are standing at that particular moment). If you're not coming, I have nothing more to say to you.
Andrew's session titled "Writing Search Engine Ads" will be on Tuesday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. So come on by, and hear Dr. AdWords tell 'em how it's done!
Posted by Cory
| | Permalink
Yahoo "Might" Continue AltaVista
Here's one of those semi-interesting articles that says something "might" happen. This time it's from ComputerWeekly, and they claim that Yahoo might not pull AV off life support, because:
"We believe that the AltaVista brand is still very strong, and has come to attract a particular type of user, and it is entirely possible that we may keep the AltaVista site to serve a particular niche of users," said Yahoo senior vice president for engineering Phu Hoang.
Hmm, just who is this "particular niche" of users, I wonder? Could it be, people who are insane and have never heard of Google or Teoma? Or, maybe it's just webmasters who still check their rankings in AV on the off chance that some old computer geek die-hard fan of the original "good" search engine might be searching?
Hoang does slightly clarify the point about keeping AV around for a while, but this point was made already back when the Yahoo deal was announced:
"I think that there may be opportunity for us to try new search features and new capabilities that are a little bit on the edge, that we are not yet ready to show up in the mainstream."
So, basically, an admission that no one uses AV anymore, so why not knock yourself out?
Posted by Cory
| | Permalink
MSN Search "Tests" Could Impact LookSmart's Bottom Line, Company Admits
Dow Jones Business News reports that LookSmart shares plunged 20% Friday in light of the company's second-quarter report, which admitted that changes at MSN Search could affect LookSmart's revenues from the current search partnership, and might also affect MSN's decision to renew its contract with LookSmart in the future.
Amongst other things, LookSmart said:
"Based on our discussions with Microsoft, it is likely that the licensing portion of the agreement will be renewed, but that it will result in less licensing revenue than under the current agreement."
A recent contract with Lycos to become the featured search partner would soften the blow of any loss in Microsoft revenue, but only slightly. MSN referrals account for more than half of LookSmart's revenue.
Posted by Andrew
| | Permalink
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Google + Math Functions = Hint of Bigger Things to Come?
When I first heard about Google following AlltheWeb's footsteps by integrating math functions into its search box, I was nonplussed. But, after thinking about it a bit more, I think this is a development worthy of highlighting.
When you read through the list of available tools offered by Google's simple, little search box, you begin to see a bigger picture developing, one in which you can save enormous amounts of time by utilizing a central place to find ALL kinds of information, whatever the context.
I mean, when Google can tell you what you really want to know when you search on "half a cup in teaspoons," that's impressive. This type of near-artificial intelligence opens new doors of possibility that I think only hint at what's to come in the search engine space.
If search technology continues to improve, and if the Internet does become as ubiquitous as it seems to be doing, then search engines will not only slay the yellow pages, but they will become, IMHO, the most important sources of technology in history. No kidding!
Posted by Cory
| | Permalink
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
T-Online Bombshell Shows the Portal Wars Rage On Globally
CNET's Stefanie Olsen reports that T-Online, Germany's leading Internet Service Provider and largest web property, has abruptly ended its sponsored listings contract with Overture Services, opting to sign a long-term agreement with Google for search and sponsored listings instead.
My first reaction to this announcement was to wonder whether the change was prompted by the fact that FAST Search, which currently powers web index listings for T-Online, is no longer perceived to be "European" since its acquisition by Pasadena-based Overture.
But the real story is Yahoo's takeover of Overture (and thus FAST Search as well). T-Online makes no bones about it. "We see Yahoo as one of our main competitors in several fields, so we've drawn on our change-of-control clause to terminate the contract," says a spokesman.
This type of situation is likely to continue to crop up in Europe, where strong indigenous ISP's and portals like T-Online and Wanadoo are in a tight race for market share against "global" (read: US) portals MSN, Yahoo, and AOL.
Much has been made of the fact that Google is losing contracts because it's seen as a competitor to some of the companies that it wants to partner with. But now that Yahoo controls Google's main competition, the same logic applies... perhaps even more so, since Yahoo competes in a number of channels whereas Google (in spite of its influence) is still, at the end of the day, a search engine.
Posted by Andrew
| | Permalink
"C'mon, Ted, it'll be fun. We're young, profitable, and best of all, you're allowed to run around the halls screaming 'Yahoo!'"
Michael Liedtke of the Associated Press duly notes (Yahoo! stalked Overture for over a year) that Overture CEO Ted Meisel will get a "raise" on his $290,000 Overture salary - to about $375,000 - when he becomes a VP at Yahoo.
The same public filings that Liedtke used to garner this info show that Meisel was compensated a bit better than that: he cashed in close to $10 million worth of Overture stock in 2002. Six figure salary? Ho hum.
Posted by Andrew
| | Permalink
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
I also tried to test the effectiveness of my car's air bags by removing them and then driving into a brick wall...
Check out this poor fellow. He stopped all online advertising for three months because he thought that would be the easiest way to test its effectiveness.
http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=9923
Well anyway, he found out retroactively that his online ads had been pretty darn effective, as without them, online sales plunged 45%.
All for the lack of some verrry basic tracking technology costing all of $20-100 per month.
Posted by Andrew
| | Permalink
Monday, August 11, 2003
Google Bans eBay Keywords
eBay has asked Google to stop using its “trademarked terms” as keywords, and Google has complied. This means advertisers can no longer make any use of eBay-related terms in their ads or keywords.
While this has sparked some debate over what “reasonable” rights to trademark use are, it’s amazing that more companies haven’t made the same request of Google and other sponsored listing providers. Lots of sites are bidding on company names, and many of their ads aren’t exactly complimentary.
Posted by Adam
| | Permalink
Jeeves, What's the Point of All This?
So Ask Jeeves is coming out with a new offline ad campaign under the direction of its "agency of record," Chiat/Day, and in the process, tried to garner a little free PR by shopping the story to journalists last week.
The point of this, we're told, is to emphasize the quality of the Teoma-powered search at Ask.com, and, well, to explain that this is about finding what you need, as opposed to asking questions and getting answers. According to Jeeves' marketing people, the goal is to get the site's total search market share of 3% a little closer to Jeeves' 11% reach figure. In other words, 11% of searchers are using Ask Jeeves at least once a month... but it isn't their engine of choice and they don't search there frequently.
Should they? Sure they should. Teoma is comparable to Google in many ways. But it strikes me that trying to get consumers to think of Ask Jeeves as a really good search engine, as opposed to a place to ask questions, is an insurmountable task. Most people by now are pretty well focused on Google as the #1 brand in search. If you ask them about Jeeves, they're likely to respond... "oh, yes, isn't that the one with the butler, the one that gives you answers to questions?" You could probably spend $100 million on ads without making a dent in that basic assumption around Jeeves' positioning.
So why are they burning their cash in this manner? What is it about some Internet companies that they seem to dislike having too much cash in the bank?
One supposes that Jeeves, rather than being positioned for a new place in consumers' hearts and minds, is actually being positioned for acquisition on favorable terms. That's the norm in the search business (and many other technologies as well), it seems. For all but the leading players, profitable quarters are assumed to be a temporary aberration, and management teams have frequent nightmares of being trapped in maze-like cubicle farms from which escape is impossible, and where all the walls have handwriting on them.
Related Traffick article: Differentiation Can Be Brutal in the Web Search Business
Posted by Andrew
| | Permalink
Sunday, August 10, 2003
3-2-1 Contact
There had been a database problem affecting our web-based contact form for the past few weeks, but the issue has finally been solved! So, if you tried to reach us lately but couldn't, please accept our apologies. But, it's back in action now, so feel free to contact us about... whatever!
Posted by Cory
| | Permalink
