Google Makes the Public Announcement :: IPO in February
(Internet Search Engine Database - ISEDB)
“Big questions about this IPO remain to be answered and in many cases remain to be asked.
Why is Google doing this at this time?
How will this effect the current version of Google?
How will a Google IPO effect the rest of the technology world?
Will Google's announcement effect SEO strategies in the near to mid-term future?”

CORRECTION - GOOGLE IPO STORY EXAGGERATED (Internet Search Engine Database)
“Major retraction and apologies folks. I just got off the phone with
Google's Communications Director, David Krane. It seems that the
rumours of Google's pending IPO have been greatly exaggerated by
hundreds of writers, including myself, who are following Google.”

“Here's the story as we see it today. Google has NOT made a formal
announcement regarding the issuance of an IPO. I made a foolish
mistake in reporting this based on articles from several sources,
all of which named and unnamed sources as their informants.”

UK.gov websites under fire (again) (The Register)

“Even after the appropriate government website is found,
its ability to provide the right information and usable
services was found to be far from reliable.

According to Martin Greenwood, programme manager
for Socitm Insight, the study demonstrates that web
managers need to get their collective act together and
try harder to understand what information people actually need…”

The Web: Search engines still evolving (UPI)
"The Web was designed for data on one end, and a person on the other end,"
Steven Cherry, senior associate editor at the IEEE Spectrum Magazine, a leading
computer science journal, told UPI. "But that doesn't work so well," he added.”

Why Do I Need To Hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Company? (Search Engine Guide)
"There are many benefits to hiring a professional SEO company.
A SEO company knows what search engines are looking for.
Each search engine has their own set of rules, algorithms, regulations,
etc., that they apply to web sites that become part of their indices or databases."

In Google 7 degrees Celsius + 5 degrees Celsius = 285.15 degrees Celsius.
How the heck is that?

An Internet that's smart enough to defend itself (International Herald Tribune)
“A consortium of university and industrial scientists has created
a computer network designed to test a new generation of tools that may
one day lead to a smarter, more secure Internet that can spot problems
like congestion and viruses before they affect individual computers.”

comScore Media Metrix Announces Top 50 U.S. Internet Property
Rankings For September 2003 (Yahoo! Finance)
”U.S. Internet Population Breaks the 150 Million Mark”

U.S. POPClock Projection (U.S. Census Bureau)
“According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the
United States, projected to 10/25/2003 at 11:50:46 AM EDT is 292,424,473”

Search engine Google mulls IPO in early 2004 (Yahoo! News)
“Google is considering holding a massive online auction of shares early
next year in an initial public offering that investment bankers predict
could value the Internet search-engine company at 15-25 billion dollars.”

Google Further 'Defines' Search (Internet.com – Silicon Valley)
“Users type the work "define," then a space, and the word or
phrase they want defined into the Google.com search pane.
If Google has seen a definition on the Web, it retrieves and
display it on a results page. The commands "what is" and "definition" also work.”

The State of the Search Engine Industry (Search Engine Watch)
“Panelist Greg Notess, editor of Search Engine Showdown said,
"A lot of users have just assumed that people paid to get into
the results. They're largely unaware of the paid elements."

“[Danny] Sullivan wants specialty database and
search engines that "read my mind," he said.”

NEW [AUSTRALIAN] SEARCH ENGINE [MOOTER] EYES GOOGLE (B&T - Australia)

“Mooters chief executive Lisel Capper said Mooter’s advantage
was that it offered a more intelligent and “humanised” approach
to finding information on the net.”

“…Mooter displayed simple clusters of information instead of
giving long lists of results. As users search Mooter is able to
skew the results based on the user’s actions or underlying
intentions and pushes the most relevant results nearer to the top.

"Our value proposition is simple—we have simply built a powerful,
smarter search engine that enables users to do more, in less time
and with considerably less hassle," Capper said.”

Australian Mooter takes on Google (ZD Net - UK)
Search engine revs up (Herald Sun – Australia)

New Internet Speed Record Set by Euro - U.S. Labs (Reuters)

“Two major scientific research centers said on Wednesday they had
set a new world speed record for sending data across the Internet,
equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD film in seven seconds.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, said the feat, doubling
the previous top speed, was achieved in a nearly 30-minute transmission over
7,000 kms of network between Geneva and a partner body in California.”

The Future of Search (Always On)
“To succeed in the Internet advertising business over the
next few years, you need a superb search engine, even if the
search lasts just a few seconds before the user is off to a different site.”

Researchers hope to improve Web searches (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
"Spokesmen for Google and Alta Vista were mum on that
prospect, and some industry analysts were skeptical."

FCC Commissioner Declares Internet Is At Risk (beSpacific)

“THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE INTERNET?”

“The Internet ..."may be dying because entrenched interests
are positioning themselves to control the Internet’s choke-points
and they are lobbying the FCC to aid and abet them.

The founders’ vision of the Internet is being exchanged for
a constricted and distorted view of technology development,
entrepreneurship and consumer preferences."

What's In A (Search Engine's) Name? (Search Engine Watch)
“What's a Google? Should you be wary of Inktomi?
Here's a look at the origins and meanings of the major search engines' names.”

Are search engines confusing surfers? (ZD Net)
“The Federal Trade Commission remains concerned that consumers
may not be able to tell when search results are advertiser-sponsored,
thanks to sometimes-unclear disclosure on the part of search companies.”

Searchers find it hard to distinguish between regular and paid results (Pandia)
FTC Recommends Disclosure To Search Engines (Search Engine Watch)
The US Federal Trade Commission criticize search engines for unmarked text ads (Pandia)
FTC wants paid search to shape up (CNET News)
Nader Group Bashes Search Engine Ad Practices (PC World)
Paid results have finally become "Sponsored Links" (Pandia)
FTC letter to search engine companies (FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION)
Complaint Requesting Investigation of Various Internet Search Engine Companies
for Paid Placement and Paid Inclusion Programs (FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION)
Commercial Alert Files Complaint Against Search Engines for Deceptive Ads (Commercial Alert)

Yahoo! and Overture Announce Completion of Acquisition (Overture Services Inc.)
“Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company,
and Overture Services Inc. (Nasdaq:OVER), a global leader in
commercial search services on the Internet, today announced
the completion of Yahoo!'s acquisition of Overture. As a result of
the merger, Overture is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo!.”

Yahoo doubles earnings in Q3 (San Francisco Business Times)
"Internet portal Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) saw its earnings
per share double during the third fiscal quarter, while net revenue
rose 43 percent, and net income jumped 126 percent."

Amazon.com Evolves to Compete with Google (Naharnet)
“Online retailing giant Amazon.com Inc. is betting it can muscle into
one of e-commerce's most profitable niches — search engines.

Seattle-based Amazon.com has set up a new Silicon Valley startup
called "A9" that will develop a commercial search engine and potentially
put the company on a collision course with another Internet icon, Google.”

Getting personal with Google (SunSpot.net)
“Michael Schrage calls it his "Google Rule": Before meeting a
business acquaintance for the first time, he uses the search
engine to familiarize himself with the person's work, which
often makes the rendezvous go more smoothly.”

“Because the information is usually public, no one has yet
confronted him about how he gets it. But that's not to say the
subject of "Googling" hasn't made for any uncomfortable moments.”

Is Your Site Being Hacked Without Your Knowledge? (Help Net Security)
Hackers manage to successfully break into systems much more often than you might realise.
Just ask any member of a penetration testing team. These people hack for a living,
with the explicit permission of the companies whose systems they are targeting, in order to
highlight weaknesses. And in around three quarters of all cases, they manage to break
through even the most secure e-commerce sites and firewalls.

New Worm Hijacks Users' Browsers (Internet Week)
“Vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser have been
exploited again, security experts said on Thursday, this time by a
Trojan horse that redirected traffic from more than 100 popular
Web sites to an IP address designated by the attacker.”

Understanding search engines and how they work (Rank for Sales)
“Let’s clear the misconceptions first”

Google Beta Testing Feature to Monitor Frequent Users
"Do you search with Google a hundred times a day?
Do you reach for Google before the phonebook, the
dictionary or the newspaper? Do you think, just maybe,
you're a Google frequent searcher? Now you can know for sure.
The Google search counter is accurate, easy to administer and
precisely calibrated for your computing environment.
It provides clear and instantaneous results showing exactly
how often you use Google. For information on how the search
counter works, read on."
Source: beSpacific: Search Engines Archives
Read also Google Testing Frequent Searcher Program (Search Engine Watch)

Submit to 809,000 Engines and Sites, $59 (RegisterEverywhere.com)
“Guaranteed listing in major search engines in three days.”

2,903,087+ search engines submission for only $39 (World Submission Center)

JUST DON'T DO IT!

Search Engine Comparison: Download Size (Outer Court blog)
“Here's a quick size comparison of Search Engines,
Meta-Search Engines, and Search-based Portals:”

Will Yahoo Hold On To AltaVista? (PC World)
"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," Phu Hoang, Yahoo's senior vice president for
engineering, told IDG News Service. “

"I think that there may be opportunity for us to try (on AltaVista)
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."

"Palo Alto, California-based AltaVista was acquired by Overture in
April of this year. Overture also acquired in April the Web search
unit of Oslo-based Fast Search & Transfer, or FAST, a developer
of enterprise search and real-time filtering technologies.�

Teen's Web Browser Wows Top Geeks (Wired.com)
“A 16-year-old Irish student has startled the Internet world
by creating a new Web browser that may -- or may not –
be able to goose browsing times by 600 percent. “

“But the speed claims for the browser -- which comes with
120 search engines, all the major media players, a DVD player,
and an HTML and WAP editor built in -- have drawn criticism
because no one has yet been able to clock it. “

Big Changes for Search Engines (Wired News)
“Fast, smart, personalized to suit every user's needs. And pretty.
That's what the search engine of the near future will be.”

“Expect, for example, to be able to sift through search results
graphically, or to personalize Google results.”

Nutch - The Open Source Search Engine

Let's go Nutch... (Guardian- UK)
“Some of the net's self-appointed guardians have announced Nutch,
an open source project to develop search engine technology to rival Google.
At this point, they don't plan to set up a competing site: indexing several billion
web pages and doing thousands of searches a second is a non-trivial task.
However, Nutch technology could be used by any company that wanted
to invest the time and money required.”
An Open Source Search Engine (Search Engine Wwatch)
“All search engines are biased” (Cyber India Online)
An Open-Source Search Engine Takes Shape (Tech News World)
Project searches for open source niche (ZD Net)
Nutch: An Open Source Search Engine (Slashdot)
Open Source search engine cuts commercialism (GEEK.com)