----------------------------------------------------------------- SearchReturn Discussion List "Understanding Internet Search Technology" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator: Published by: Disa Johnson SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- April 27, 2006 SearchReturn Issue #058 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SEND POSTS: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Refer a friend: http://www.searchreturn.com/subscribe.shtml ----------------------------------------------------------------- .....IN THIS DIGEST..... // -- FEATURED POST -- // "Overly Broad Use Of The Term Spam" ~ Mike Moran // -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- // "AdWords Quality Affect" "Google Sitemaps Notice" "Yahoo Resurrects Babel Fish" "SideStep Launches Activity Search" "Microsoft Live UI" "IE7 Includes Questionable Addons" ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- FEATURED POST -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- Topic ==> Overly Broad Use Of The Term Spam From: Mike Moran I was at The Search Engine Meeting this week, which attracted about 150 people to discuss search technology. I was talking about Web site search and gave advice about sprucing up your content to improve your results, mentioning that this would help you with Google and other Internet search engines as well. Well. The next day, Steve Arnold mentioned my speech a half dozen times, saying that I was advocating spamming. He is talking as though anything any search marketer does to attract search traffic is spam. I wrote a blog entry on this incident: http://www.searchreturn.com/digest/refs058.shtml I am wondering if there is a larger problem brewing here. Should we be taking steps in our professional organizations to protect the reputations of ethical search marketers? If people start using the term spam as broadly as Steve does, it ceases to have any meaning and it gets harder to draw ethical lines. What do you think? Mike Distinguished Engineer and Manager of Web Experience ibm.com, Sales & Distribution Co-author of IBM Press book, "Search Engine Marketing, Inc." http://www.mikemoran.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> AdWords Quality Affect http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/04/ads-quality-and-you.html Essentials: Starting today, Google will be implementing an expanded and contracted ad publishing quality affect designed to show fewer ads on queries for which users might prefer not to see them. Google will show a wide selection of ads for queries such as [car insurance] or [flowers] when possible. For queries detected as having more information gathering intent, Google will show fewer ads. If you watch your keyword performance closely, you should notice changes over the next few weeks. The impact of this change will vary from advertiser to advertiser. A reduction of impressions on information gathering queries may increase CTR and your AdRank would improve in that case. The opposite can be true if you experience fewer clicks when your impressions decline in number. Tip provided: If you notice a decline in impressions or clicks on keywords, ensure that your most important terms are specifically entered as keywords rather than relying on broad or phrase match. If you notice an unwanted increase in impressions or clicks for keywords, negative keywords can finely tune your targeting. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Google Sitemaps Notice http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/notifying-webmasters-of-penalties/ Essentials: Matt Cutts and his team that ensure Google Search quality have been working closely with the Sitemaps team over the last several weeks. Matt has become a familiar name to webmasters which is part of his desire to better interact with the webmaster community. In partnership with Sitemaps, additional information is available to Sitemaps users regarding the status of their site (specifically if there is an indexing problem). Sitemaps has been improved in a variety of ways, but in keeping with Google having already started to notify webmasters when they have a spam problem, notification is now available via Sitemaps with links to the Reinclusion Request form. Only sites that violate the quality guidelines (and have a site Google otherwise would want in the index) qualify for being notified. Matt details how it works in his post. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Yahoo Resurrects Babel Fish http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000295.html Essentials: An old friend, formerly available through Altavista, has returned with additional capabilities. You can translate a block of text up to 150 words, and conduct search based on translated text. By entering URLs, you can translate Web page text. Thirty-eight language pair choices are available. In the past, Babel Fish has been used to expose cloaking including the famed outting of Green Flash by Greg Boser. Babel Fish can be added to the Yahoo! Toolbar, and enhancements include translations back and forth between simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese and a French and German Search Translator feature that searches queries across the entire Web in multiple languages returning results with one multi-lingual page. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> SideStep Launches Activity Search http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060427-035308 Essentials: Activity Search provides real-time search for local activities, giving users a scoop on what events might interest them during idle or travel time. With filtering options for duration and city, you can narrow the result set to suit your schedule. Activity Search is an obviously useful companion with flight and hotel search offered by SideStep. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Microsoft Live UI http://www.live.com/#q=SearchReturn Essentials: Microsoft's Live.com is testing interesting results display. You can only find the features discussed here after a query, and we've included one in the link above. Perhaps best viewed by the software maker's IE browser, a slider on the top right toggles between three positions that change the result display to show: - Only titles and site URLs - Titles, site URLs and descriptions - Titles, site URLs, descriptions and site-search field links. Using Live.com features may feel a bit clunky at times. For example, scrolling the result set doesn't snap tightly as it auto-advances through listings. The features are interesting to note, as we watch Microsoft trying to differentiate itself from competition by innovating the way results are displayed to search users. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> IE7 Includes Questionable Addons http://www.ieaddons.com/default.aspx?cid=2&scid=70 Essentials: The IE7 Beta "Tools" menu provides access to "Addons" for extending the browser. You can locate and manage various Addons (which are akin to FireFox extensions and Opera widgets). Although Microsoft is supposed to have carefully screened Addons before making them widely available, two questionable ones are for sale through the interface. In the Developer Tools category you will currently find: Alexa Booster and Doorway Page Wizard Professional. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stay Tuned. Got feedback?: http://www.searchreturn.com/feedback.shtml Archives: http://www.searchreturn.com/digest-archive.shtml Alternate formats: http://www.searchreturn.com/info-formats.shtml Manage Subscriptions: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/manage-subs.shtml Problems unsubscribing? Contact the postmaster: mailto:postmaster@searchreturn.com Information on how to sponsor this publication: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/advertise.shtml Published by SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com Website Membership: http://www.searchreturn.com/register.shtml The contents of the digest do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SearchReturn or Disa Johnson. SearchReturn and Disa Johnson make no warranties, either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the contents of the SearchReturn Digest. Copyright 2006 Disa Johnson. All Rights Reserved. -----------------------------------------------------------------