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SearchReturn Discussion List
"Understanding Internet Search Technology"
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Moderator: Published by:
Detlef Johnson SearchReturn
http://www.searchreturn.com
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July 20, 2006 SearchReturn Issue #078
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.....IN THIS DIGEST.....
// -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- //
"Gangs Of Clicksters"
"Microsoft Enterprise Search"
"Page Quality Score"
"Google Search For The Visually Impaired"
"Google Resists The Semantic Web"
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// -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- //
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==> Gangs Of Clicksters
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060718-090349
Essentials: A guideline-breaking partnership between AdSense for
domains owners, and underground gangs of clicksters are profiting
by a notion of the Paid To Read (PTR) phenomenon. The profits are
split between the publisher and organized gangs of Web users who
even have discussion forums about what they're up to. These
networks will click and load pages from search advertising,
feigning interest before moving on and so on until exhausted.
The funny thing is their fear that the more people discover their
ploy, the more people will join further divide the revenue. As
time goes on, these gangsters will increasingly make less money
for their work. Despite discussion forums on the topic, this
incentivises them to be quiet; not content to be quieted by their
guilty conscience - or anything like that.
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==> Microsoft Enterprise Search
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060714-093632
Essentials: Microsoft's Kevin Turner fired a shot across the bow
of the Google search juggernaut by declaring that Microsoft owns
enterprise search. Danny rightly argues that Microsoft is not a
player, and he details the enterprise search space with some
notes and a little historical perspective, referring to the real
leaders in the area. Microsoft is simply not doing anything
interesting with enterprise search yet, but this could be an
outward indication of internal motivation to get going.
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==> Page Quality Score
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060714-083818
Essentials: Recently Google declared a Page Quality Score in the
Adwords platform that would add a factor for ad rankings. Google
calculates ad ranking by bid amount, click-thru rate and now the
inherent quality of the landing page as determined by Google. The
result of this has shown to be higher prices for some advertisers
particularly those of an affiliate nature.
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==> Yahoo! Stock Is Hit Hard
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/technology/19yahoo.html
Essentials: Shares of Yahoo! dipped frightingly low in its
largest single day plummeting ever on news that earnings were
weak, and investors are nervous about the success of Google.
According to The New York Times, experts report that Google earns
40% more per query than Yahoo!, who at one time dominated the
search space now ruled by Google.
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==> Google Search For The Visually Impaired
http://news.techwhack.com/4090/search-engine-for-the-blind/
Essentials: It has long been known that search engines will favor
pages when they detect good usability factors, such as limiting
rankings of pages with excessive linking. Continuing this work,
Google is working on perfecting search for the blind and visually
impaired by analyzing the simplicity of page layout and labeling
of information that perform well in screen readers.
"You get a lot of conflicting signals," reports T.V. Raman of
Google, a scientist formerly with IBM Research. This is
particularly true when too much information is packed into pages,
and graphics are used. Photos should have captions and such
labels would not be used to stuff keywords.
With eight million visually impaired (just in the US), and an
additional three million color blind, the audience is
significant. Target was recently sued by screen reader users for
lacking ALT attributes of images that displayed sale price
information that went generally unnoticed by visually impaired
users.
Raman went on to say that Google would ideally better detect and
measure accessibility so as to provide custom personalized
search taking into account specific disabilities such as color-
blindness, poor visibility or complete blindness. Also, a "less
busy interface" for search was noted for senior citizens.
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==> Google Resists The Semantic Web
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6095705.html
Essentials: Peter Norvig complained during Q&A at a panel
discussion (where Tim Berners-Lee was present), that Google's
point of view is publisher incompetence and abuse of Meta data
labeling has caused their resistance to Semantic Web development.
Danny Sullivan argues similarly and it is certainly cause for
concern. However, abuse may be thwarted by rigid document
validity. A stuffed document could become invalid by failing
clever Resource Description Format (RDF) rules during the parser
test. It's one possibility we can think of.
Also noted by Lee, is the Semantic Web is meant for identifying
the original information, and therefore becomes trusted by virtue
of the information source, rather than relying on information
alone such as with the Web (and search) today. Lee hinted that
Google could "do wonderful things" with a widely used Semantic
Web considering achievements with the hectic Web as it is.
We believe Google's plans to develop accessible Web search would
go much faster, and custom personalized search would be
immediately at hand with a Semantic Web. The possibilities become
even more endless and useful than the original Web. It looks like
to be useful at all, however, the Semantic Web needs adoption by
companies such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.
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Copyright 2006 Detlef Johnson. All Rights Reserved.
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