US-CERT (The United States-Computer Emergency Readiness Team)
“The National Cyber Alert System provides timely information about
current and emerging threats and vulnerabilities as well as advice
about protecting your computer and networks.”
Cyber Alert system catches on (FCW)
New DHS cyber alert system under fire (Computer World)
[Via beSpacific ]

The Future of Search Engine Technology (Search Engine Guide)
“I believe that the search results we receive in just a couple of years
from now could make current search engine technology look as archaic
and cumbersome as picking up a Yellow Pages book is today.”

“Search engine technology is still most definitely in its infancy;
how it grows will very much depend upon how much information
and privacy the average search engine user is willing to give up.
Personally, if I can view search results that more closely match
my desired results, I'm willing to give up the name of my favorite
pet, my place of birth and my mother's maiden name!”

Google stuff

Google blocked from asking Whois (ZD News)
Google to set up in Zurich (Swiss Info)
Report: Google Gets Audit OK for IPO (DM News)
Google CEO: "An IPO is not on my agenda" (Silicon.com)
Bill Gates Admits "Google Kicked Our Butts" (Search Engine Journal)

The most innovative US search engines in 2003 (Axandra)
“There are several methods to estimate the level of innovation in
the search engine market. We have picked a method that is verifiable
in an objective way: the number of issued patents.

We searched the US Patent & Trademark Office for patents that
have been issued to search engine companies in 2003.
Some of the companies have been issued many more patents
than listed below (e.g. Microsoft) but we tried to include only
those patents that involve search technologies.

Here are the most innovate US search engines in 2003:”

New e-mail worm breaks infection records (Info World)
E-mail carrying the Mydoom virus now accounts for one in every 12 messages

Update: Fast-Spreading Worm Spells Doom (PC World)
Mydoom, Novarg, and Mimail.R--it's all the same pest, and it's probably in your inbox.

Mydoom Sets Speed Records (PC World)
New worm is spreading faster than Sobig.F, experts say.

Virus mobilises Kazaa army against SCO (vnunet.com)

Big List of Blog Search Engines (Ari Paparo Dot Com)
“Following are all the blog search engines, directories, and web-based RSS
aggregators I could find, along with brief instructions on getting your site listed.”

2RSS
Bligz
Blogarama
Blogdex
Blogdigger
Bloghop
Bloglines
Blogmatrix
Blogrunner
Blogsearchengine
Blogstreet
Blogvision
Blogwise
Bloogz
Boogieblog
Daypop
Eatonweb
Fastbuzz
Feedster
Get Linked
Globeofblogs
LocalFeeds.com/
GeoURL
Memigo
NewsIsFree
Pepys
Popdex
RDF Ticker
Rootblog
Sindic8
Technorati
Waypath
Zopto

International Blog Search Engines (Ari Paparo Dot Com)

Canada: BlogsCanada
Germany: B|Logs, RSS Verzeichnis, Blogbot.de, Blogg.de, (We)Blogcheckup
The Netherlands: Izigo.NL
UK: UKBlogs Aggregator
Spain: Weblogabout

'Bagle' Virus Threat Upgraded (internetnews.com)
“The mass-mailing W32/BAGLE-A worm, also known as Bagle
or Beagle, includes a backdoor component which listens on
TCP port 6777 and lets an attacker execute arbitrary programs
on infected systems, anti-virus experts warned on Tuesday.”

“The Bagle virus arrives as a .EXE attachment with a random
name and with the word "hi" in the subject line. If an unsuspecting
user executes the attachment, the worm copies itself to the Windows
system folder with instructions to run at logon.”

“Upon execution, the Bagle virus uses its own SMTP
engine to send itself to addresses harvested from files
on the hard disk and spoofs the "From" field in e-mails it sends.”

Inktomi is back in the Mix (About.com)
How To Optimize For Inktomi In 2004 (Web Pro News)

Yahoo! Establishes Yahoo! Research Labs to Advance &
Enhance Technology Innovation (Yahoo! Finance)
“R&D Organization to Focus on Developing New Technologies in
Search and Other Core Yahoo! Businesses”

Yahoo! Announces Yahoo! Labs (Yahoo! Research Labs)
“Our goal is to cultivate knowledge, solve fundamental technology problems
and translate theory into application so that our partners, advertisers and
consumers can maximize the social and economic potential of the Internet.”

”Whether developing novel algorithms or employing existing technologies in new ways,
we strive to help Yahoo! pioneer the next online revolution and the next and the next”

Search Engine Wars - Innovate To Survive in 2004 (Search Engine Guide)
“After being blind-sided by the Google Florida update, many webmasters and SEO's
were reeling from the results. The message is clear: you can't rely on just one
search engine for all of your traffic.”

“Keep your eye on search engine news. Google was an up and coming engine
a few years ago, you never know what will happen in the industry so stay on
your toes.

Continue to promote your website through links in topical directory listings.
Search for websites that contain topics related to yours. Link when it "makes sense".
Don't forget traditional means of marketing your website: print ads, brochures,
magazine articles and more may help to make a difference.

One of the best ways to promote yourself online and increase your link popularity
is to write articles on your subject. Find websites that accept free content and
submit your ezine, articles or newsletters to those websites to build your link popularity.

Newsletters, forums, FAQ's, blogs and tips on your subject are all viable means
to inform your visitors and bring in new traffic to your website. Don't forget to
archive your newsletters and articles on your website, which works to build your
site size and increase link popularity through your authoritative knowledge of your subject.
You aren't a writer? Consider working with a copywriter to help build your good content.”

Search engine predictions for 2004 (Rank for $ales)
“Google won’t have a choice but to go public in 2004.
The reason for this is because of a little-known SEC rule
in the US that forces American companies to issue quarterly
statements once their number of employee-shareholders
have surpassed a certain threshold.”

“I feel that the search engine optimization firms that are serious,
that have always and consistently produced good results for all
its clients and the ones that constantly keep up with all the many
changes in technology and new developments are the ones that
will thrive in 2004. And the others, the ones that resort to unethical
practices or to techniques that are forbidden by the search engines will disappear.”

Fast Web browser to be commercialized (The Register)
“The controversial winner of last year's Esat BT Young Scientist competition,
Adnan Osmani, says his 'mega-browser' will be ready for commercialisation soon.”

Search Engine Wars Keep Google and Yahoo Going (Web Advantage)
“The biggest rumor of the year, eclipsing speculation about Google's
anticipated IPO, is the news that Yahoo! is likely to dump Google as
their main listing provider in place of Inktomi.”

“In other news this week, Yahoo! has displaced Google as the leading
search engine of choice starting in November 2003, according to figures
released by analytics firm Nielsen/NetRatings. Traffic on the Yahoo! network
was measured at 86.8 million unique visits in November to the 53.3 million
unique visits at Google. Coupled with Semel's pronouncements, the future
does not look a certain for Google as it just eight short weeks ago. Today,
Google continues to drive over 75% of all search traffic but when Yahoo!
switches to Inktomi, that number will decrease to below 50%, a significant
drop in daily viewers.”

Search Engine Year in Review – 2003 (CPU Review)
“The following is a brief overview of the year’s
search engine events, along with our thoughts on the
significance of the news as it relates to online businesses.”

Goofresh (BuzzToolbox Blog)
“Google offers a date-based syntax, but you can only access it
via the advanced search, which limits your time options, or the
daterange: syntax, which uses Julian dates and is a bit difficult to use.

Goofresh is a way to search for sites added today, yesterday,
within the last seven days, or last 30 days.”

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 .

Delivering the goods (Guardian Unlimited)
“For example, Google almost certainly knows more about you than you
would tell your mother. Did you ever search for information about
Aids, cancer, mental illnesses or bomb-making equipment?
Google knows, because it has put a unique reference number in a
permanent cookie on your hard drive (which doesn't expire until 2038).
It also knows your internet (IP) address.”

“If you add the Google Toolbar to your Windows browser, then it can send
Google information about the pages you view, and Google can update the
Toolbar code automatically, without asking you.”

“And it isn't "spyware" because Google isn't collecting information to sell,
just to provide you with better searches.

Google's toolbar is spyware (Google Watch, Daniel Brandt)
"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."

What Is Search Engine Optimization? by Jill Whalen (Internet Search Engine Database)
“I know some optimizers who can get high rankings simply through
the power of links. Doesn't even matter what it says on their pages –
with the right links and link text they can do amazing things.
Is this search engine optimization? Sure, if it gets high rankings for the site.”

“If you've previously read anything I've written, you probably know that
my particular method for optimizing pages involves rewriting or editing
the visible copy that people read when they browse the site.”

GOOGLE STUFF

Google has add some new Features (Geek News Center)
Google Fans Fill Web With Buzz Over IPO (Yahoo! News)
Google Names Banks for Expected IPO (WHIR)
Why I wouldn't buy Google (chriSEO)
Going Deeper than Google (Fortune)
Hello, you've been Googled (STL today)

Special Report: How To Prosper With The New Google (SEO Search Labs) [PDF, 100k]

Where the Net Is Heading in 2004 (Business Week)

Looking Back in 2003 With the Year Of Lists (Fimoculous)
AWESOME!

Yahoo! to drop Google as main search engine (Wall Street Journal)
“Yahoo! Inc. is expected to drop Google as the primary search technology
on its site within a few months, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday”

Search Engine Strategies 2004 – Conference & Expo
The Premier Event for Search Engine Marketing & Optimization
March 1-4, 2004 • Hilton New York • NYC

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003 (Jakob Nielsen)
“Sites are getting better at using minimalist design, maintaining archives,
and offering comprehensive services. However, these advances entail their
own usability problems, as several prominent mistakes from 2003 show.”

That Would Be Sir Tim (Berners-Lee) (internetnews.com)
“Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with the creation of the World Wide Web,
will be anointed a knight by Queen Elizabeth.”

“Berners-Lee is a British citizen who lives in the U.S. and serves as
director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which he also
helped found. He will be officially made a Knight Commander of the
British Empire (KBE). The rank of Knight Commander is the second
most senior rank of the order of the British Empire.”

2003 Year-End Google Zeitgeist - Search patterns, trends, and surprises
“The 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on
the year's major events and hottest trends based on more than
55 billion searches conducted over the past year by Google users
from around the world. Whether you are tracking the global
progression of the latest news or learning about healthy searches
in Japan, the 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist enables you to look at the
past year through the collective eyes of the world on the Internet.”

Web surfers lose their searching breadcrumbs (CBC - Canada)
“Many people have mastered using search engines to find a web page,
but finding a site for the second time is a growing problem, researchers say.”

“But often people fail to use the tricks when they want to revisit a web page.
Instead, they rely on their ability to find it all over again.”

“The "find it again" tricks include:
* Send the link in an e-mail to yourself, or send it to others and look for the URL in your sent mail.
* Print out the web page and file it at the office.
* Save the web page as a file with your other documents.
* Bookmark the page.
* Write down the URL with comments.
* Paste the URL into another document.
* Make a note in a digital calendar system.”

“The problem is compounded because people save fragments of information in
e-mails, hard-copy files and web references, which are organized separately.

The team is now patenting techniques to bring these tools together to overcome the problem.”

The "Secret System" of Search Engine Advertising (Search Engine Watch)
“Search advertising generally falls into three categories: paid placement,
paid inclusion, and the latest addition to the family, contextual ads.”

“With paid placement, advertisers are guaranteed a high placement or top position
in search results, usually in relation to specific keywords or a broad range of words.”

“With paid inclusion, a site owner pays a fee to be included in a search engine's editorial listings.”

“Contextual ads are new partner program that brings content-targeted advertising to the Web.
Ads are targeted to the content of the page by a participating site, instead of on search results.”

Search Engine Giant Yahoo! Reveals the Year's Top Searches (CPU Review)
Top Yahoo! Searches 2003 (Yahoo!)
Top Terms - What Were We Looking for on the Web in 2003? (ABC News)
The Top 10 Web Searches in 2003 (Pak Tribune)
The Year in Searches and the Best (and Worst) of 2003 (New York Times)
Top Searches of 2003 (Slashdot)
Top Terms of 2003 (broadband)

Bungled Search Engine Optimization - Cleaning Up the Mess (Search Engine Watch)
“Shari Thurow described a "mess" she had to clean up for a large medical
portal site, MedicineNet.com. MedicineNet is an online health care media
publishing company with over 22,000 pages of content. They are the
publishers of Webster's New World Medical Dictionary from Wiley.
The site receives over 1.5 million unique visitors per month.

"Actually, when MedicineNet first came to me, I had a difficult time
believing that their site had been banned in Google; the content was
too good," she said. "Most of the time, a site will disappear from the
search engines due to a technical reason, such as a spider requesting
pages from a server during the time a server is being rebooted or upgraded."

What she found was that MedicineNet had actually been banned at
Google due to the optimization strategies from previous marketing firms.
"These other firms purchased over 90 different domain names and tried
to get all of these domains listed in the directories, even though these
new domains had identical content to the main MedicineNet site," she said.
"Well, Google discovered this due to the cross-linking structure, and sure
enough, the site was banned."

To get MedicineNet back in Google, Thurow fixed the problems and
communicated to Google that MedicineNet had followed all of the guidelines
for inclusion into their index. She then asked that the site be respidered.”