Big Brother hiding in a search engine? Don't be silly (The Australian)
“The latest product to earn the Orwellian tag is Gmail –a new, free email service from Google that scans
the content of correspondence in order to load it with related advertising.”

“The fine print in Gmail's contracts also warns that the company will keep all email data on file even after
customers have closed their accounts. Just in case.”

"It's outrageous," came the en masse cry. "Even worse, it's ORWELLIAN."

“The [Australian] federal Government's new anti-spam legislation means that Google –which is currently operating
Gmail on a trial basis – could be fined up to $1 million if its new data harvesting techniques affect Australian email users.”

Exploring Search Engine Overlap (Search Engine Watch)
“Think all search engines provide essentially the same results? Think again. A new comparison
tool shows that the major search engines have surprisingly little overlap, even for popular search terms.”

“The new Thumbshots Ranking Tool allows you to perform your own comparisons, and displays
the results visually, making it easy to see both the rankings and comparative positions of pages in
search engine results. URLs are represented by small circles, and these circles are connected by a line if
the page appears in both engines you're testing. Mouse over a circle and the full URL of the page is displayed.”

Pandia cloned by copyright thief (Pandia)
Thief copies the content of Pandia over to new site.
“This morning we received a mail from a friendly pay-per-click search engine warning us
about a website more or less identical to Pandia's own.

The owner of the cloned site had signed up to a large number of pay-per-click search engines,
and was clearly trying to generate paid search traffic through this "new" search oriented site.
He or she had also included Google Adwords text ads.

He or she had copied nearly all of our pages and files, including the Pandia logos and names,
and -- would you believe it -- our own copyright notice.

Now, what's the point in doing this?”

Google to consider Gmail changes (news.com)
“Google spokesman David Krane said the company plans to listen closely to the responses of
test users and other interested parties during a three- to six-month test period.”

"The reaction so far has been very favorable from people who have tested and used it," Krane said.

Why Do People Find You "Creepy" and "Annoying"? (ClickZ)
“Eric: Have any of you heard about Google's new offering, Gmail? Essentially,
Google will give you a free e-mail account with 1GB of storage space instead
of the usual tiny amount in most free e-mail accounts. But they're going to
show text ads like on the search engine in the e-mails. They'll pick an ad to
show based on the content of the e-mail.
Mother 1: Eew. That's creepy!
Mother 3: Totally creepy!
Mother 4: I don't like that at all!
Mother 2: I wouldn't use that!”

Legislator seeks to block Gmail (news.com)
"State Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from the Bay Area city of Fremont, said
Thursday that it should be illegal for a company to scan the text of its customers'
e-mail correspondence and display relevant advertising--even if customers explicitly
agree to the practice in exchange for a gigabyte of storage."

"Telling people that their most intimate and private e-mail thoughts to doctors, friends,
lovers and family members are just another direct-marketing commodity isn't the way
to promote e-commerce," Figueroa said in a statement, which called Gmail customers'
correspondence "a direct-marketing opportunity for Google."

Review of Yahoo! Search (Search Engine Showdown)
“Greg Notess reviews the new Yahoo Search, which differs greatly from the
former subject directory and search feature powered by Google. The new search
engine contains a large, fresh database. It makes available cached copies of
Web pages and provides links to a subject directory. However, it no longer
supports truncation and indexes only the first 500 Kb of a document.”
Via The Virtual Chase - TVC Alert

Yahoo Search Shortcuts (Web Pro News)
“I've used Google shortcuts for a long time - you know, like "links:www.webpronews.com"
to find out how many pages link to yours, and "define:guttural" to find definitions.”

“I learned today that Yahoo has search sortcuts too, and there are some striking
differences between what Google and Yahoo offer.”

Google seen announcing IPO plan within days-WSJ (Forbes)
“Within days, Internet search firm Google Inc. is expected to announce
it will carry out an initial public share offering, the Wall Street Journal
reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.”

”The announcement is related to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
rule that says a private company must make public more information about its
business once its passes a certain size in terms of assets and number of shareholders,
the Journal said.”

”Google, which has enough assets and shareholders to trigger the rule, is expected
to make those disclosures as early as next week, the Journal said.”

MozDex - Open Source Search Engine Launches

”About us
mozDex is a search engine seeded from the dmoz.org directory. mozDex uses
open source search technologies to create an open and fair index.

Our goal is to index the entire web in html content. We want to be able to provide
a powerful and open search service to the community. While we do offer paid inclusions
to help us pay for the service, we pride ourselves on fair and honest results.

Please remember that this current system is in BETA - This is NOT the final index and
there WILL be missing pages and documents - However anything added to this index
such as urls submitted or anything already included will be carried over to the
production index once it is available.”

”Search Philosophy

Some people may say that providing the insight into the results will offer cheaters
a better way to get higher ranks, but our view is it allows us to openly discover and
communicate new methods and algorithms that give a better view and representation
that is less Fallible to cheaters.”

Internet Technology Vulnerable to Hackers (Associated Press)

“Researchers uncovered a serious flaw in the underlying technology for nearly all Internet
traffic, a discovery that led to an urgent and secretive international effort to prevent
global disruptions of Web surfinge, e-mails and instant messages.”

“The British government announced the vulnerability in core Internet technology on Tuesday.
Left unaddressed, experts said, it could allow hackers to knock computers offline and broadly
disrupt vital traffic-directing devices, called routers, that coordinate the flow of data among
distant groups of computers.”

“The Homeland Security Department issued its own cyberalert hours later that attacks
"could affect a large segment of the Internet community." It said normal Internet
operations probably would resume after such attacks stopped.”

“Watson predicted that hackers would understand how to begin launching attacks
"within five minutes of walking out of that meeting."

No More Hats: High Risk Vs. Low Risk SEO (Web Pro News)

“There are seo techniques that can get your site banned from Google if you're
caught or one of your competitors notices and turns you in for spamming.

These techniques, commonly referred to as "black hat" techniques, are the topic
of many forum threads, and have brought ruin to many an unsuspecting optimizer.”

Yahoo's Back! (Web Pro News)

“Last year, Yahoo bought the AltaVista, Fast, and Inktomi search engines.
The new Yahoo results are none of these. Many people are saying that the
results come from a new Inktomi because the results are similar; but the results
are also similar to all the other search engines out there. In comparing these engines,
it seems to me that Yahoo's results are from a brand new engine. Maybe they took
parts and ideas from all the search engines they bought - maybe they even took
the best parts - , but whatever they did, the result is something completely new.”

“I will be comparing Google and Yahoo for the terms "music", "art prints and posters",
"Bahamas real estate", "mosquito nets", and "liposuction".

“And The Winner Is...”

Rule may compel Google to open books (Mercury News)

“Privately held Google appears to have triggered a provision of the 1934
Securities and Exchange Act that requires it to disclose closely guarded
financial details by the end of the month.

The filing, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, would reveal
so much about the secretive firm that many experts believe Google might
take the next logical step and file for an initial stock offering, reaping the
financial rewards that go along with having to open its books.

``It's a terrible place to be in because you get all the disadvantages of
being a public company and none of the advantages,'' said Scott Spector,
an attorney with Fenwick & West in Palo Alto. ``I can't imagine the company
wanting to be in that situation.''

Google officials have been tight-lipped about the reporting requirement and
possible plans for an IPO, and they declined to comment for this story.”

Search Engine Marketing Firm iProspect Survey Confirms Search Engine Loyalty Exists;
Over 87 Percent of Web Users Trust Specific Search Engines With Their Queries (Business Wire)
“WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 2004—iProspect (R), the Original(R) Search Engine Marketing Firm
( www.iprospect.com ), today announced that results from a recent survey indicate that 56.7 percent of Internet users
use the same search engine or directory when they are looking for information, and another 30.5 percent of Web users
have a few specific search engines they use regularly. A small amount of Web users, 12.8 percent, said they use a different
search engine each time, depending on what they are looking for at that moment. This shows that search engine loyalty truly
exists across a vast (87.2) majority of Web users.”
Via Search Engine Lowdown

Favorite Google Staff Tricks and Tips (Unsolved Mysteries)
Awesome!

FTC to shine light on spyware (News.com)
“The issue will get a high-profile hearing next week, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
plans to convene a workshop on the dangers of spyware. In a common scenario, such programs
might bombard victims with unwanted ads or, more rarely, allow hackers to snoop on Web surfing
activities and steal confidential data such as passwords to online bank accounts.”

“The debates over spyware and adware have the potential to become as divisive as the ongoing
battle over commercial e-mail. Outraged consumers who see their computers routinely captured by
streams of pop-up windows and other hijackers, or discover their personal information being sent
to outside companies, are ready to embrace draconian solutions.”

“Many critics are sympathetic to this issue. The Center for Democracy and Technology, a public
interest group that has taken the lead in highlighting fraudulent techniques among spyware and
adware companies, is putting together a coalition of consumer groups, technology companies that
will present a list of "worst-case scenarios" to the FTC.”

Do you have Spyware or Adware on your Computer? Probably! (simpleguy.us)
“Do you have a problem with multiple pop ups, even on sites that shouldn't?
Are you bombarded with screens filled with XXX photos and links, even though
you have not visited an adult site? If so, your computer could be infected with
a program called Adware, or more commonly known as Spyware.”

“But there are the other variety which will send you these offers via popups.
For example, if you download Kazaa, it comes with spyware which will pop up
ads based upon the type of site you happen to be surfing. The Gator program is
another example of spyware, which is a program that will ask to be downloaded
when you surf particular sites. Both of these generate additional money for Kazaa
and the people who put Gator on their sites.”

“Other Spyware lurks silently behind the scenes, stealthily tracking each and every
page you visit, and sending that information back to the spyware's owner. It can
tell what bank website's you surfed to, what your interests and hobbies are, and if
you happen to visit any sites with adult-only content. It will then use this information
together with your email address, and spam you with email related to your surfing habits.

You will never know you even have it, until you do a search for it with one of the anti-spyware
programs available.”

FREE spyware checkers: Lavasoft (ad-aware), Spybot (Search and Destroy) and Kephyr (Bazooka)

Amazon’s A9 Search Engine Launches (Search Engine Journal)
“Amazon has staked its plot in the search engine neighborhood by knocking on the doors of
Yahoo, MSN, and even Google with its A9 Search Engine, now open to the public in beta.

Not a shopping engine and not an Internet powered bookmobile, Amazon is taking a serious
move by actually offering a true personalized search engine, albeit powered by Google.

A test search on A9 returns three different groups of search results are given in a tab format,
web search results, open book search results, and open search history –
a personalized search function which requires member registration.”

Amazon risks privacy concerns with new search website (PC Pro - UK)

“As mentioned, no self-respecting search engine these days is without its own toolbar.
The a9 version, apart from collecting identifiable data about your searches, also blocks
pop-ups and provides a 'diary' where you can comment on pages you have visited.

Given the uproar which accompanied Google's announcement that its forthcoming
Gmail service will 'read' subscribers emails and deliver contextual ads to the service,
one wonders what privacy groups will make of the a9.com service given that Amazon
can identify its customers far more than any anonymous browser based mail service
could hope to do. Amazon will argue that it already follows you around its e-commerce
site already so what is the difference in extending it to its search engine?

Whether potential searchers agree with this fine distinction remains to be seen.”

Inside the Searcher's Mind: It's a Jungle in Here! (Search Engine Guide)

“At Enquiro, we decided to try to peel back the shroud that covers common search behavior. We wanted to see
just how people searched, and ask them what went through their minds during the search process.”

“For instance, women tended to scan all organic results and read titles and descriptions more carefully than men.
An organic listing in the number 8 position on Google might not have been seen by almost half the men in the group,
but would have been seen by the majority of the women.”

US senator in bid to block Google Gmail (Financial Times)
“In an interview with Reuters, Senator Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from Fremont California,
said she objected to the way in which Gmail, which planned to offer up to 100 times
the storage provided by rivals Microsoft and Yahoo, scanned e-mails for content,
inserting advertising in personal messages.

"We think it's an absolute invasion of privacy. It's like have a massive billboard
in the middle of your home," she told Reuters.”

Google GMail Targeted by Privacy and Civil Liberty Groups (Search Engine Journal)
“Still, Internet privacy hounds are barking. The World Privacy Forum and 27 other privacy and civil
liberties organizations have written a letter calling upon Google to suspend its Gmail service until
the privacy issues are adequately addressed.

The letter also calls upon Google to clarify its written information policies regarding data
retention and data sharing among its business units.”

Germans garotte Google Gmail over privacy (The Register)
“Google may have to rethink its new free email service Gmail announced a week ago.
The company is offering a whopping 1Gb of free storage, but scans the content of
incoming email and seeds it with targeted ads.”

A First Look At Google's Gmail (Forbes)
“Google invited us [Forbes] to experiment with the early version of the service,
and taking into account that it remains under construction, we have a few
preliminary observations.”

“Google insists quite clearly in its privacy policy that "No human reads your mail
to target ads or other information without your consent." The process by which it
pushes ads at its users is fully automated. Fears about privacy problems inherent
with the Gmail service are, in our opinion, overblown.”

'Exporting America' (Writers Write)
“Gartner, a research and analysis firm, has said one of every 10 jobs at information
technology companies and at companies that provide IT services will move overseas
by the end of this year. That means more unemployed Americans. It also raises some
disturbing issues. Credit cards, medical records and tax records are being handled in
third world countries that have no privacy laws at all.”

”As for the long-term results of this jobs migration? Well, for starters, MIT's Engineering
program enrollment is down by 30%. Enrollment in computer programming classes at
colleges has decreased by a similar amount. So in twenty years, America won't even
have the expertise to program a computer or engineer a space shuttle.”

Claria (Gator) Files IPO on Wake of Search Engine Advertising Boom (Search Engine Journal)
“One darkside to Claria and its IPO is the controversy surrounding the Gator Wallet
and recent adware legislation. Claria’s business model is based on installing its
software on computer desktops and browsers using questionsable methods such
as bundling with downloads such as Kazaa. The adware then serves ads, pop up
windows, and sponsored search results over targeted web sites and search results,
usually over sites which compete with Claria advertisers.”

“Recent legislation on the state level may hurt such a business model. For example,
a recently enacted statute in Utah will, upon coming into effect on May 3, 2004, will
prohibit Claria from providing their adware products and services in that state.

Now, Utah may not be the most populated state in the Union, but imagine if
similar legistation was passed in California or New York.”

Read also German court: Pop-ups need permission (CNET)
“When users clicked to Hertz's Web site, those that had Claria's adware installed would
see pop-ups from Hertz competitors and other businesses, said Richard Broome, a
Hertz spokesman.”

“In making its ruling, the court ordered Claria to immediately halt the placement of
software-controlled automatic advertisements on Hertz's Web site without the Hertz's
permission. Claria could face a fine of up to $302,325, or six months in jail, for each
violation of the order.”

How to report spam to Google, Yahoo and others (Axandra)
“A real nuisance for search engines are webmasters that try to deceive them to obtain high rankings (called "spamming").

The following techniques are usually considered spam by the search engines:
* cloaking (the server returns different web pages for search engine crawler programs and for web browsers)
* cybersquatting (using domains that resemble common domain names to get traffic from users that make a typo, for example, www.gogle.com)
* doorway pages or multiple domains with identical or nearly identical content
* invisible text (text in the same color as the background color)
* offensive content (e.g. hate views or offering illegal services)
* overuse of keywords
* overuse of tiny text
* submitting to inappropriate categories (on directories)
* using deceptive or misleading links
* using irrelevant keywords in the title and in the meta tags

What can you do if you discover other web sites getting better search engine rankings
than you because they use one of the spam techniques above?”

You can also read my article
Search Engine Spamming Sucks!

German court: Pop-ups need permission (CNET)
“A European court has issued a preliminary injunction against Claria--formerly known as Gator—
that prohibits the company's pop-up and pop-under ads from appearing over a German
rental car Web site without the agency's permission.”

“The injunction, announced Friday by plaintiff Hertz Autovermietung , the German division of Hertz,
is the latest victory for companies that oppose the unauthorized use of pop-ups on their sites.”

"Gator's unsolicited pop-up ads constitute an unwarranted intrusion that disrupts Hertz's
ability to do business with online customers," Remy Keijzer, Hertz's general manager in
Germany, said in a statement.

“When users clicked to Hertz's Web site, those that had Claria's adware installed would
see pop-ups from Hertz competitors and other businesses, said Richard Broome, a
Hertz spokesman.”

“In making its ruling, the court ordered Claria to immediately halt the placement of
software-controlled automatic advertisements on Hertz's Web site without the Hertz's
permission. Claria could face a fine of up to $302,325, or six months in jail, for each
violation of the order.

Claria declined to comment.”

Gator Checker (SearchGuild)

Gator Advertisements and Targeting (Harvard)

Via SearchGuild - Test your website for possible scumware invasion

SEO stuff

Understanding the SEO Industry (Internet Search Engine Database, ISEDB)
Understanding Search Engine Optimization and Business Growth (Top Site Listing)
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization (Store Builder, UK)
INSIDER'S SECRETS OF 2004 SEARCH ENGINE STRATEGIES (Web Advantage)
Planning a Search Engine Marketing Campaign (Search Engine Journal)
The 10 Commandments to Successful SEO (Search Guild)
The 10 steps to get into the SEO “Hall of Shame” (Search Guild)
Ten Tips to the Top of the Search Engines (Search Engine Guide)
27 Quick Tips To Top Search Engine Rankings (Mike's Marketing Tools)
The Kill Secrets Of Ranking High With Major Search Engines (Promote News)
SEO Myths & Rumours Exposed! (Web Pro News)
Search Engine Positioning Top 7 SEO myths (Rank for Sales)
The Myth of "Guaranteed #1 Ranking" in Search Engine Marketing (Biz Message)
New Trends in Search Engines and SEO (Internet Search Engine Database, ISEDB)
The Failure Of The SEO System (Promote News)
Titles and Search Engine Marketing (ClickZ)
A Marketers Guide to Search Engine Marketing and Staying Alive in 2004 (Part 1 and 2)
Report: Search Engine Marketing 2004 Growth 'Slips' (TECHNOLOGY MARKETING)
The Evolution of a Search Engine Marketer (High Rankings Advisor)
Search Engine Marketing Recap of 2003 (High Rankings Advisor)
2004 Search Engine Predictions From SEO Professionals (Web Pro World)
Reverse Engineering Search Engine Algorithms (Search Guild)
The SEO Vent (Search Guild)
SEO Strategy For Producing Remarkable Results (Search Guild)
Playing Hide and Seek with Search Engines (About.com)
Where is the search engine industry heading? (Internet Search Engine Database, ISEDB)
Search Engine Update / Crash Course (Biz Web e-Gazette)
Finding Search Engine Optimization Professionals (Search Engine Watch)
Search Engine Marketing Blogs (Search Marketing Info)
SEMA7 (Search Engine Marketing Association 7, France)

UK lobby says Google mail may violate privacy laws (Forbes)
“A new Google email service that stores messages where users cannot delete them may
violate Europe's privacy laws, a citizens' group said on Monday after lodging a complaint
with UK authorities.”

"Residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them
from your mailbox or after the termination of your account," Google's Gmail says in its
privacy and terms of use sections.

Google will also scan users' emails in order to paste appropriate advertising into messages.
It may also link together "cookies", which contain personal information, from both email
and Web use records.”

Google's `Gmail' raises concerns (The Miami Herald)
“Google officials, including co-founder Larry Page, said such concerns are unfounded,
noting that company computers, not people, will be analyzing the e-mail messages and
matching them to ads in a database. The company posted a privacy policy on its Web site
Wednesday night that promises that ``No human reads your mail to target ads or other
information without your consent.''
But many potential customers are not convinced, calling the new program ``creepy'' and ``scary.''

Google Gmail Privacy Issue Overblown? (Web Pro News)
“Some privacy activists have compared this practice to your phone company listening to
your phone conversation and cutting in to pitch products based on your discussion.”

Google free email (aka GMAIL) privacy concerns (theunofficialyahooweblog)
“According to this silly article a lot of folks are starting to get concerned about Google
New free email service because it contains targeted ads.”

Google Tops, But Yahoo Switch Success So Far (Search Engine Watch)
“Google Has Biggest Slice Of Referral Pie
On Tuesday, March 23, 2004, WebSideStory examined a sample of over 25 million visits
and found that Google had the top share of search referrals, 40.9 percent.
It was followed by Yahoo at 27.4 percent, then MSN at 19.6 percent:”
Via Phil Bradley's Blog

Technorati Tracks Two Million Blogs (Sifry's Alerts)
“At 4:35AM PST today [April 1st], Technorati broke the 2 Million weblogs tracked milestone.
The blogosphere continues to expand at an amazing pace, with about 12,000 new weblogs
being created every day. We're tracking over 150,000 weblog updates every day, and growing.”
Via Blogzine

AlltheWeb powered by Yahoo! (Pandia)
“(March 26 2004) It has finally happened. The AlltheWeb search site is now powered by
the new Yahoo! search engine. This means that that the Fast search engine that was born
in Trondheim in Norway has come to an end. For searchers this is a sad day, as the AlltheWeb
search engine was one of the very best on the Web, in many respects an equal to Google.

That being said, it would make no sense for Yahoo! to keep as many as four search engines
(Yahoo!, Inktomi, AlltheWeb and AltaVista). By merging the technologies into the new Yahoo!
search engine, they will -- hopefully -- be able to get the best out of all of them.

By the way, the Norwegian Fast search technology company is still going strong,
selling search solutions to companies and Web sites. Fast sold its Web search
unit to Overture (now owned by Yahoo!) last year.”


AltaVista bites the dust (Pandia)
“(April 1 2004) Yahoo! has now pulled the plug on the the AltaVista search engine.
The AltaVista search site is from now on powered by Yahoo's new search technology.
This follows a similar move regarding the AlltheWeb search engine and site (see below).

Yahoo! has apparently decided to keep the AltaVista and AlltheWeb brands for the time
being, using them to explore alternative interfaces and ways of presenting search results.

AltaVista was once a pioneer in the development of advanced search engine technology,
and was one of the dominating search sites before the rise of Google.

The AltaVista site continues to support advanced Boolean searching.”

Future search efforts will make Google look like 8-tracks (USA Today)
“There is no hotter topic in technology than Google.
Cover of Newsweek. Cover of Wired. IPO fever.”
“But, you know, much as I couldn't live without it, Google stinks.”

Google's Gmail 'Not a hoax' (PC Pro - UK)
“Well, it's 2 April and the story which had the entire Internet buzzing yesterday,
seems to be true. Google will be launching its own email service with 1GB of storage
and the ability to search all past emails. To pay for this, Google will automatically
scan emails for keywords and place contextual ads in the client.”

“The perception of Google as Big Brother is likely to be biggest threat to the
success of the service - assuming Google has tied up all the relevant patents
and other IP claims. In theory, the Google cookie can not only store your search
habits, your geographical location, it could even work out how much you spend
online through tracking invoices.”

YAHOO'S SEARCH RESULTS MEAN NOTHING, ...NOTHING AT ALL!
(alt.internet.search-engines newsgroups)
“I [Sam Tous] just received the below email from Yahoo. I am in shock what they
told me. It appears the $299 that Yahoo charges to get into their
search engine is a complete waste of money. They told me to spend even
more using Overture. I already spend over $1000/month. Evidently some
morons, so called "Editors" are the ones who say which sites get top
placement. Gee, you think those idiots are on the take. There is not a
chance in hell those "Editors" are not being bribed.

Yahoo is a JOKE.

Their search results are determine, evidently, by morons at best, and
outright bribery of these so called "Editors" at worst. Yahoo is not a
search engine. What does that mean? How can they have relevant results
if they don't look at keywords, text or meta tags?”

[Follows the email Sam Tous received from Yahoo!]

“Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Express.

Yahoo! is a web directory, not a keyword-driven search engine (e.g.
Alta Vista, Hotbot, Infoseek). As a directory, we use a hierarchy of
categories to organize sites. We do not read META tags or keywords. We
do not spider or crawl pages. All sites are cataloged by editors.

If you want your site to appear near the top of Yahoo! Search results
for particular queries, we recommend taking advantage of the Sponsor
Results program.”