----------------------------------------------------------------- SearchReturn Discussion List "Understanding Internet Search Technology" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator: Published by: Detlef Johnson SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- July 20, 2006 SearchReturn Issue #078 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SEND POSTS: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Refer a friend: http://www.searchreturn.com/subscribe.shtml ----------------------------------------------------------------- .....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" ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Detlef Johnson. SearchReturn and Detlef Johnson make no warranties, either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the contents of the SearchReturn Digest. Copyright 2006 Detlef Johnson. All Rights Reserved. -----------------------------------------------------------------