Reverse Engineering Search Engine Algorithms (Search Guild)
“I know that the new Google filter is based on the idea to
remove commercial sites. Commercial sites sometimes
achieve top web rankings by being over optimized.”

“How do I lower my optimization levels? If I know how to
optimize, then I must also know how to un optimize.”

“Understand optimization results are not immediate, and high
rankings can take months to be reflected across the web."

“It is not in your best interest to try and fool search engines.
Even if you can fool search engines today, that does not
mean that tomorrows algorithm will not catch you.
Recently Google bit many webmasters in the rear.”

What is Google worth? (CNET News)
“The case for an IPO”
”Amit notes that Google's incentive to go public is no different from that
of other companies. "The IPO is to raise money and give liquidity to
Google's investors; it would be a means of giving investors a return.
Of course, it leads one to ask, 'Do they need more money?”

“Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN are two big competitors, and both
have deep pockets and a diversified range of businesses.
They can invest in technology and marketing.
As an independent company, Google must come up
with a budget to compete effectively. Being publicly held
will deter potential advances from Microsoft and Yahoo."

Search 101 - Understanding Search Engines (Web Search)
SEO 101 - Submission of Web Sites to the Search Engines (Web Search)

Predictions for 2004 - The State of Search 2004 (Step Forth)
“Google will issue an IPO in March (odds = 99%) via the Dutch Auction format. (odds = 50%)
Google will make billions on the IPO and will purchase the financially strapped Calgary Flames Hockey club, move them to the Silicone Valley and rename them the Silicone Flameouts. (odds = 5%)”

“Non-Spammy results will be found at Google very soon. (odds = 10%)”

10 Things I Bet You Didn't Know about Google (Michael Feldman)
Via Puzzlepieces (Fagan Finder)

What Future for Search? (Search Engine Guide)
“As the popularity of SEM (search engine marketing) has increased,
it is clear that some search channels are allocating an ever-increasing
amount of their search real estate to paid listings, pushing the unpaid
stuff further down the page."

"It certainly can't be right that portals and SE's (search engines) should be
able to deliver listings that are deceptively labelled or in the very least,
are not clearly demarcated as 'sponsored ads' or 'paid placement'."

"People like to think that it is they who are 'searching the web' and that
the results shown are based on a set of objective targets algorithmically
derived from what they put in to an engine, and not from what some
advertiser with a fat wallet wanted them to see."

Future Search (ClickZ)
"Imagine a world where you type something into a search engine and
the result is a uniquely indexed, real-time display of links generated
just for you. Alongside them are, of course, superbly targeted paid listings
as tempting, if not more so, than the algorithmic results."

"How about a "my" version of search results? Setting aside the privacy and
security headaches involved in getting users to register, then keeping track
of their preferences, it's an interesting concept. One could at least ask users
whether they're male or female. Direct Hit reportedly did testing with
personalized results back in 1999 and found, in a search for "flowers," men
wanted to buy and send flowers, while women wanted to order flower seeds or plants."

VeriSign Becomes Big Search Engine Player (Computer Business Review)
"Numbers revealed yesterday show that in the space of seven days
it has gone from being a domain name registration and resolution
company to a search engine firm - one of the top ten web sites
in the world in terms of numbers of users reached."

"Site Finder is all about capturing error traffic and trying to turn it
into revenue by diverting users to sponsored search engine listings.
Or, as VeriSign puts it: "To improve web navigation for internet users."

"VeriSign's implementation is more cynical than the norm.
Rather than give the user the choice of algorithmic or sponsored results,
it presents 15 revenue-generating sponsored results, with algorithmic
results appearing only halfway down the second page."

"All this said, it would be rather hard for VeriSign to grow Site Finder
revenue in future - assuming of course the service is not forced off
the air by a combination of legal action, government intervention,
technical problems, and sheer bad karma."

Study: Overture Better Than Google (Internet News)
"The competitive analysis, reported in "Paid Listing Vendor Constellation:
Ranking the Leaders," said that Overture outpaced Google with a strong
feature set and the best management interface."

"But when you start asking marketers about ease of use, size of the
feature set and customer service, those are all areas where Overture
does an outstanding job and Google falls behind."

Growth in Google's revenue engine seen slowing (Reuters)
“That came amid a boom in Web-search advertising, an area in which U.S. companies
spent $927 million last year, a year-over-year increase of 210 percent, according
to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Such growth can't be sustained," said David Hallerman, an analyst at eMarketer Inc.
He expects U.S. spending on Web-search advertising to grow this year by 50 percent,
at the most, then level off by mid-decade.”
[Via ResourceShelf]

Information technology office warns spyware may lurk on your PC (UTSA)
“That innocent-looking toolbar that you added to your
Internet browser may not be so innocent.”

“Somewhe in the install process, you clicked "I Agree"
to the 7,000-word Terms of Use and End User Licensing
Agreement. You have essentially agreed to allow the
software to monitor every Web site that you visit.”

“All in all, spyware knows who you are and what you do with your PC.”

"Ghosts in Our Machines: Background and Policy Proposals on the "Spyware" Problem" (Center for Democracy & Technology – CDT - Report) [pdf]
“CDT today released a report addressing the growing problem
of so-called "spyware" programs, which range from targeted
advertising programs to more invasive key stroke loggers and
screen capture utilities that can be used to steal passwords and aid identity theft.

The report examines types of spyware; suggests policy solutions to the problem,
including legislation and better enforcement of current laws; and offers tips to
consumers who want to take steps to avoid spyware on their computers.

In conjunction with the report, CDT has begun a campaign on its website
calling on Internet users to send in their experiences with specific
"spyware" products, so that CDT can collect the most egregious
cases and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.”

Spyware Protection and Removal (Firewall Guide)
"On this page, we offer links to articles, software reviews
and resources to help you fight spyware."

Spyware Detection (Spyware Removal Guide)

New Survey Results: 80% of Consumers Hate Flash Intros (Marketing Sherpa)
“A few sample comments:
* "Flash sucks. If I want a movie, I'll go to the theater.
I just want quick information,"
* "When searching the Web, my most immediate concern
is generally time, how quick can I find/do it.
This leaves little room for animation."

“If your site is designed entirely in Flash, you might want
to rethink it. And sites using Flash navigation that require
users to move the curser in order to see their options
are shooting themselves in the foot.”

Why Search Engines Hate Flash (Bloofusion Knowledge Series:)
“If there's text in the Flash animation, most search engines
won't be able to index that text; likewise, if there are links
to other web sites or pages embedded in Flash, search engines
can't follow those links as well. Thus, if you build your entire
site on Flash, it will not be visible to search engines at all.”

“Macromedia, the inventor of Flash, is working closely with
search engines to help them index Flash content- with some
success: FAST (AllTheWeb.com and others) and Google are
known to, at least partially, index Flash sites.”

“Thus, to ensure high search engine traffic:
* Don't use Flash for navigation bars, since search engine
spiders wouldn't be able to follow links to deeper content
(unless you have some other means of HTML navigation like a sitemap).
* Don't embed text that is relevant to your site in Flash (of course,
unless you have an alternative HTML version).
* Use Flash for what it's really good for: fancy logo animations
or interactive advertising or demos.”

Why Flash Will Never Die (Search-This)
“HTML / CSS will never be able to do what Flash does - NEVER.”

“With Flash, you no longer need to worry about which browsers
your page will render correctly in and which will choke on it.
Your page renders the same way – correctly -- in all browsers.”

“In Flash you simply place the object on your canvas where you want it
and move on. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we're free at last!”

Flash’s Weaknesses

* Plug-In Required
* Video Woes
* Search Engine Issues
* Lack of Screen Reader Support
* Print Problems

“The Future is Bright for Flash

Remember my original statement,
"HTML / CSS will never be able to do what Flash does - NEVER"
Yet, it's quite possible that in the future Flash will be able to do what HTML and CSS does.”

Google No. 1 search site in the world according to OneStat.com (Pressi.com)
“The 7 largest search engines on the web are:
1. Google 56.1%
2. Yahoo 21.5%
3. MSN Search 9.4%
4. AOL Search 3.7%
5. Terra Lycos 2.3
6. Altavista 1.9%
7. Askjeeves 1.6%”

Google puts coders to the test (Mercury News)
”Jimmy Mardell, 25, of Stockholm, Sweden, was announced
the winner Friday of Google's second annual Code Jam.
He beat out more than 5,000 of the world's top
programmers who signed up to compete in Google's
contest to solve coding problems on deadline.”

“Second place went to Canada's Christopher Hendrie, 27,
a computer scientist at a company called Bioinformatics Solutions.
He'll spend his $5,000 check on gadgets for his KLR 650 motorbike, he said.”

“Third was Eugene Vasilchenko, who earned his master's degree in
computer science from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.”

“Fourth was Tomasz Czajka, from Warsaw, Poland.”

QUESTION: WHERE THE HECK ARE THE US CODERS?

Articles I - Daniel Bazac - wrote:

Search the Web More Efficiently: Tips, Techniques and Strategies
The Meta Search Engines: A Web Searcher's Best Friends
Search Engine Spamming Sucks! (Part 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Why Dot-Coms Fail - a Webmaster's Perspective

My website is Web Design in New York and my email address is nyisn@hotmail.com .

Weblogs I read (Part I):

ResourceShelf (Gary Price)
Search Engine Report (Danny Sullivan)
Search Engine Guide - Search Engine News and Search Engine Marketing News (Robert Clough)
Internet Search Engine Database - ISEDB (Tariq Ali)
Pandia Search World (Per and Susanne Koch)
Search Engine News Blog (Kalena Jordan)
Search Engine Lowdown (Andy Beal)
Burden of Truth (Art Saturn)
Search Engine Journal (Loren Baker)
SEO2Go (Detlev Johnson & Heather Lloyd-Martin)
Big Blog (Jonathan Hedley)
Search Engine Blog (Peter Da Vanzo)
Microdoc News (Elwyn Jenkins)
Getting Personal (Steven M. Cohen)
ABAKUS SEO Blog (Alan Webb)

Weblogs I read (Part II):

ChriSEO (Chris Ridings)
Rank for Sales (Serge Thibodeau)
Serge Thibodeau (Serge Thibodeau)
beSpacific (Sabrina I. Pacifici)
Search Engine Showdown News (Greg R. Notess)
Research Buzz (Tara Calishain)
Web Search Blog (Jennifer Laycock)
Search Day (Chris Sherman)
Internet News - 1 and 2 (Gwen Harris)
Traffick (Andrew Goodman)
cre8pc.com. (Kim Krause)
Axandra (Andre Voget)
Search Visibility Report
CENTERNET.dk
Promotion Data (Cyrus)
Search Engine Position
fantomNews (Ralph Tegtmeier)
Search Engine Workshops Blog (Robin Nobles)

Weblogs I read (Part III):

Search Engine Style (Jon Swenson)
Webmaster T (Terry Van Horne)
Step Forth (Jim Hedger)
The Virtual Chase (Genie Tyburski)
another search engine marketing blog
Jill Whalen Exposed (Jill Whalen)
SageRock (Sage Lewis)
Blog.org (David Brake)
Webjectives
Web Advantage
Tip of the Month (Mary Ellen Bates)
LIS News
LLRX - Law Library Resource Xchange
Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large (Walt Crawford)
Ex Libris (Marylaine Block)
Irish Eyes (Bernie Goldbach)
Web-Cite Exposure
Feeling Blog-ish
SEO wobber
NZ BASE (Gary Jensen)
Search Engine Roundtable
JD (J.D. Lasica)
Noo Meeja Ads
Library Stuff
Market Leap
Search Engine Marketing Web Log
Meta 4 creations
e-marketing-news (Mike Grehan)
Marketing Column Search Engines and Search Engine Optimization (Michael Wong)
Nielsen Technical Services Blog (Christian Nielsen)
Keyword Blog (Henrik Flensborg)
david galbraith
Marcus P. Zillman
Phil Bradley's Blog
Fagan Finder
Robin Good’ Sharewood Tidings
realSEO
search engine
Search Ethos (Christina Buu-Hoan)

Weblogs I read - Google Weblogs:

Google Weblog (Aaron Swartz)
Aaron Wall: Search Engine Marketing (Aaron Wall)
GOOGLE FAN (Robert Skelton)
google-blog.dirson.com
News on Google - Microdoc News (Elwyn Jenkins)
ALL ABOUT GOOGLE - AXANDRA (Andre Voget)
Google Guy Says (Mark Carey)
Ovidiu Predescu's Weblog (Ovidiu Predescu)
Google News - Webmaster World Forum
gabeanderson.com: Google Galore
Google Watch (Daniel Brandt)
Simon Willison: Google
Google Press Center
Watching Google Like A Hawk
Outer Court - Google Blogoscoped (Philipp Lenssen)
Googler.Blogs.Com

Weblogs I read – International Weblogs (Part I)

Weblogs in French:
Abondance/1ère Position
Indicateur
Moteurzine
Yooda
Intelligence-Center/1ère Position
DSI (Marc Duval)
ENFIN
Web Rank Info
Abondance
Sam Mag
inFLUX
elanceur
Maxhoo
Memoclic
BRANCHEZ-VOUS!

Weblogs in German:
Web-Stalker Magazin
Suchmaschinen Tricks
KSO
mk-tools.de
@-web
Suchfibel
Suchmaschinen und mehr
Suchmaschinenoptimierung (ISCP)
WEB.DE
googletracker.de
a_i_d
Dr. Web Weblog
netbib
Handakte WebLAWg

Weblogs in Spanish:
Metodos de busca
google.dirson.com
.: snit :.
Trucos de google

Weblogs I read – International Weblogs (Part II)

Weblogs in Italian:
Web News
Submission.it
SEMS
Motoricerca.info
Mauro Lupi's blog
Web Marketing
Bibliopolis News
I Segreti dei Motori di Ricerca
Paolo's weblog (Paolo Valdemarin)

Weblogs in Dutch:
Zoekprof
Voelspriet
Zoekmachine-Optimalisatie.be

Weblogs in Danish:
Internetsgning

Weblogs in Swedish:
INTERNET BRUS

Weblogs in Romanian:
ASTRAL

Google unveils browser-free Web search (CNN)
“Internet search engine Google has unveiled free software that lets people
search the Web quickly, without launching a Web browser."

Let Google belong to the world - not to Microsoft (Guardian, The Observer - UK)
“For most of us, internet chronology divides into two periods - BG (before Google)
and AG. Nobody who used Google ever went back to anything else. At a click,
all the other search engines were dumped on the rubbish heap of history.”

“For there was a time when a company called Netscape was overwhelmingly
the market leader in the web browser business - and we know what happened
to Netscape. Netscape went public without a strategy for dealing with Microsoft's
ruthlessness. The original investors made fortunes, but the company perished,
and the world is a less diverse - and therefore a poorer - place.”

“Google should belong to the world and not to the banks and pension funds
who will cave in to Microsoft.”

A Way for Search Engines to Improve (Site Pro News)
“Click popularity is calculated by measuring the number of clicks
each web site receives from a search engine's results page.
The theory is that the more often the search result is clicked,
the more popular the web site must be. For many engines the
click through calculation ends there. But for the search engines
that have enabled toolbars, the possibilities are enormous.”

Google's toolbar is spyware (Google Watch)
"This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially
has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect to
Google (which is many times a day). Any software that updates
automatically presents a massive security risk."

Association of Independent Information Professionals Selects
Google Toolbar For AIIP Technology Award (PR Newswire)
"AIIP wishes to recognize Google for adding value to its search engine
with the Google Toolbar. AIIP members are committed to delivering value added
information products and services, therefore we appreciate technology that
helps us meet and exceed customer needs," said AIIP president, Cynthia Shamel"

Complete overview of major search engine toolbars (Axandra)
Alexa
AltaVista
Ask Jeeves
Dogpile
Google
HotBot
Lycos.de
Mini Jeeves
Teoma
Yahoo!

Study: Overture Better Than Google (Internet News)
“The competitive analysis, reported in "Paid Listing Vendor Constellation:
Ranking the Leaders," said that Overture outpaced Google with a strong
feature set and the best management interface.”

“But when you start asking marketers about ease of use, size of the
feature set and customer service, those are all areas where Overture
does an outstanding job and Google falls behind."

It's in the algorithms (The e-Content Institute)
“A search war is looming that will see search engines emerge
sporting fancy new algorithms that customize search results
for each and every individual searcher. That is, they will if
mathematicians can overcome the personalization dilemma and
develop search engines that deliver more relevant, customized search
results based on our individual needs, interests and search patterns,
rather than the group consensus approach taken by Google.”

The Gator Corporation Announces Name Change to Claria Corporation (PR Newswire)
“The Gator Corporation, the leader in online behavioral marketing, today announced
a corporate name change to Claria Corporation [ http://www.claria.com ].

Protecting Your Search Engine Placement (Entrepreneur.com)
“But according to Market Position, a whopping five million
pages are added to the Internet every single day.
So if you plan to outrank your growing competition,
you need to keep constant tabs on changes to
how the search engines rank Web sites.”

“However, you should also know that statistics
show that most Web surfers never search beyond
the top 30 results they receive! So getting ranked
43rd in Google is almost as bad as not getting ranked at all.”

Leader: Microsoft to buy Google? Joking aside… (Silicon.com)
"And then there’s the question of whether the world wants a Microsoft-owned Google.
In today’s Devil’s Advocate column, Martin Brampton makes the point that owning
Google isn’t just about owning the best and most commercially promising
search engine. It’s about owning an opinion-influencing tool."

Top 20 definitions of blogging (Wordbiz Report - Debbie Weil)
“What is a blog? Why blog? Who should blog (journalists,
marketers, CEOs, techies, educators, scientists, hobbyists)?
Should blogging be pure or can you make money with a blog?
Will blogging change everything?”

How Good Is Google? (CFO.com)
“All told, 75% of referrals to websites now originate
from Google's algorithms. That is power.”