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To Blog or Not to Blog: Are Blogs Becoming More Popular than Forums, Newsletters & Ezines? (Site Pro News)

“Blogging is hot, and seems to be becoming hotter each month. Although blogging originally was dismissed by many successful publishers and other online "gurus", the truth is that now, a few years after the "blogging trend" began, there are actually more blogs and more bloggers online than ever before. Blogging, obviously, is "here to stay"!”

Blogs Are Great for Search Engine Ranking
(Search Engine Journal)

“Blogs have had a profound effect on communications and marketing since their development and early adoption but are still a mystery to many”

“Google sees and treats these online journals as websites. Due to the text-based nature of blogs, they are a perfect, spider-friendly environment and can be used very effectively to enhance search engine rankings.”

Blog Search Engines (Search Engine Journal)

“When searching for blogs or marketing your own blog, one must always take blog search engines and directories into account. Some blog search engines search databases of thousands of blogs, while some search through their own directory listings. If you own a blog, you’re going to want to submit to multiple blog search engines and directories in order to build traffic and links to your blog.”

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80% US home PCs have spyware: study
(The Age, Australia)

“A survey of of 329 dial-up and broadband adult computer users by the US National Cyber Security Alliance and America Online has found that 80 percent of home computers were infected with spyware or adware of some kind.”

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Search Memories (Search Engine Watch)

“Veterans of AltaVista, Excite and Infoseek reminisce about the early days of web search, and opine about Google, then and now.

A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, August 2-5, 2004, San Jose, CA.”

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Experience a Whole New Way to Search the Web with Exalead's New Service (Yahoo! Finance)

“PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2004--After focusing on the Enterprise market with its Exalead Corporate product range, Exalead is now announcing an Internet search engine that provides a whole new search experience. Initially, one billion Web pages are being made available on its Website www.exalead.com.

The Answer Search natural language search engine (Pandia)

“The Norwegian company Stochasto is getting ready to launch their natural language search engine, Answer Search, in English.

KaZaZZ in Your Face (Search Engine Lowdown)

“KaZaZZ today get's a mention. not because of any significant announcement, but purely because of the high number of announcements they have been releasing lately. So here you go KaZaZZ, you win by attrition!

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Survival in wild we(b)st - The Evolving business of SEO (ISEDB)

Survival in wild we(b)st - The SEO Saga

“The SEO world feels somewhat messy and unsettled right now. This is natural as the concept of search is changing so rapidly. The emerging landscape of search will be very different than it is today and I suspect there is going to be a shake-down in the coming year in which many of the insto-seo shops that have proliferated in the past year will be forced out of a market they can no longer compete in.

This is a sad reality from a human standpoint as many of these shops are honest SEO practices but the environment we work in is about to super-size very rapidly. Without a strong reputation and extraordinary references, the happy-go-lucky days of most micro-sized SEO boutique firms is unfortunately ending.”

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A Closer Look At Privacy & Desktop Search
(Search Engine Watch)

“The anticipated popularity of Google's new desktop search tool means that soon it will be commonplace for everyone to search their computers as easily, comprehensively and quickly as they search the web.

After all, several of Google's competitors already are working on desktop search offerings of their own. So even if you don't use Google's tool, chances are, you'll use someone else's.”

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When Client/SEM Communications Break Down (ClickZ)

“Would you issue a press release without conferring with your PR agency? Would you stop taking an important medication without first checking with your physician?

Of course not. You engage professionals to guide you. You pay them for their counsel.

Why, then, do some companies make changes to their Web sites without first consulting the search engine marketing (SEM) firms they hired? The answer has eluded me for nearly 10 years.

Part of the answer may be a breakdown in communication. Three major types of communication breakdowns can reduce an SEM firm's effectiveness in delivering results.”

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Google IPO has doubled after 60 days
(Investor's Business Daily)

“NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- As Google Inc.'s stock price approaches $200 per share, the company continues to set new milestones in the market for initial public offerings.

With revenue and cash flow targets exceeding estimates, Google turned in a quarter of online advertising gains, sending the share price up 15 percent on Friday to close at $172.43, more than double its $85 IPO price”

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Is your boss Googling you? (CNET News.com)

“Almost one in four Net surfers has searched online for information about someone at work or a business contact, according to a new survey released Thursday.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive for search engine Dogpile, said about 23 percent of adult Internet users in the United States have searched online for their clients or customers, workers or potential employees, and supervisors or prospective managers.”

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Primetime Live Poll: American Sex Survey (ABC News)

Off-topic, but interesting.

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Study: Fortune 100 Lack SEO (ClickZ)

“The number of Fortune 100 companies who deploy effective search engine optimization (SEO) techniques has tripled in the last two years, but only a scant few have well-optimized sites, according to analysis from Oneupweb.

The 2004 study of the first 100 companies in Fortune Magazine's Fortune 500 list revealed that only nine had definitive, ethical optimization campaigns — up from just three in 2002 — indicating that this powerful group may be missing out on valuable online market share.”

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Google holds coding contest (Silicon Valley)

“The winner -- Sergio Sancho of Argentina -- took home $10,000 and a chance to impress Google engineers and perhaps land a job with the world's most famous search engine.

The contest is both a recruiting tool for Google and a way for the company to nurture programmers it will need to draw on as it continues to grow.”

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Google Desktop Search: Spyware? (p2pnet.net)

"Users of the Google Desktop Search software beware – it indexes your files across all users on your PC, bypassing user protections. The Google cache feature allows all users to browse the contents of messages and files it has indexed, irrespective of who is logged in.

'This is not a bug, rather a feature,' says Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products. 'Google Desktop Search is not intended to be used on computers that are shared with more than one person'.

Google Desktop privacy branded 'unacceptable' (The Register)

“Google's Desktop represents a privacy disaster just waiting to happen, a rival has warned. David Burns, Copernic CEO, says users should know that the giant ad broker intends to mix public and private queries in the future, leveraging its key moneyspinning product: contextual advertising.

"If you lined people and said, 'Stick your hand up if you want Google to know what pictures you have, and what MP3 files you have,' I don't think many would.”

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Getting Noticed By The Search Engines (Web pro News)

“You've got a web site; and you want to attract lots of people to visit it so you can grow your business. But you're only getting a handful of visitors currently.

What is the first thing to do to help people find your site?”

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Web Accessibility: Ensuring Access for All (FreePint)

“Web Accessibility is a subject whose importance has quietly grown in recent years.

This results, in part, from the effects of legislation in the UK and the USA, but also from the policies and initiatives of organizations including the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) and others.

Advances in technology, particularly the advent of PDAs, have also played a part. However, despite its increasing importance, web accessibility remains a subject that at best is relatively poorly understood by many information professionals, and at worst attracts some wholly wrong misconceptions.

What follows is an attempt to clarify the issue, discussing the implications of accessibility for both web designers and web users in general.”

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Google Desktop Search Launched (Search Engine Watch)

“Google has released a new Google Desktop Search tool today that allows people to scan their computers for information in the same way they use Google to search the web.”

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Web 2.0 - Blogs Continue to Grow
(Search Engine Lowdown)

According to Technorati founder David Silfry there are currently 4.1 million blogs around the world with a new blog created every 7.4 seconds.

He told the Web 2.0 audience that Technorati is able to track all of these blogs and most new blog posts appear at Technorati within 7 minutes.

However, nearly half of all blogs are abandonded after just 6 months with 45% falling idle shortly after being started.”

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SE Friendly Design Can Be Good Design
(Search Engine Watch blog)

“Search engine friendly design doesn't mean bad design. Shari Thurow steps back to talk a bit about ensuring that good design remains part of your SEO effort.

From ClickZ: The 'Design' Part of Search-Friendly Design

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Google - Paid inclusion? (Search Engine Watch Forums)

“Get to the bottom of the myth and rumors surrounding the separation between Google Ads and editorial results.”

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MSN’s Search Engine Preview is Back
(Search Engine Journal)

“At the end of July I reviewed MSN’s first tech preview for their new search engine. I wasn’t impressed.”

“Now there’s another preview available at http://techpreview.search.msn.com/ and the relevancy is much better.”

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3 Deadly Search Engine Marketing Sins (Web Pro News)

“My inbox this week provided glaring examples of three all too common rookie search engine marketing mistakes. What you could call three deadly search engine marketing sins.

1. Inadequate Keyword Research
2. Site Bloat
3. Too Few Links”

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Naivety About PC Risks (TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase)

“(3 Oct) A survey conducted by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) finds that many computer users fail to understand security risks.

Only sixty percent of those surveyed "recalled when they last updated anti-virus, firewall and operating system software on their PC." Thirty percent "believed they had more chance of getting struck by lightning, ... or winning the lottery than they did of falling victim to a computer security problem."

Statistics actually show people have a "0.0000102% chance of being hit by lightning" while they have a 70% chance "of falling victim to a computer virus, phishing attack, malicious hack attempt" or other PC security problem.

A similar survey of IT professionals found almost opposite results. Confidence in network security slipped this year--from 90% to 83%, but respondents said "they're doing a better job of enforcing their security policies." Eighty-two percent "of CIOs say e-mail is a significant security threat." The complete survey is a fee-based download.

SEE, Security and Privacy: Do You Feel More Secure Than Last Year?
CIO Insight, 1 September 2004

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Google dampens browser speculation (silicon.com)

Investor says search giant won't release web browser

“Google board member and investor John Doerr said that despite speculation, the search giant would not enter the web browser market, but he predicted others would.”

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Web 2.0 Conference Unveils New Search Engine
(Web Hosting News)

“During the Web 2.0 (www.web2con.com) conference held on Hotel Nikko San Francisco on Tuesday, Gross unveiled search-engine Snap ( www.snap.com) , which has combined terabytes of click-stream data and advertising conversions rates to remodel search-result relevancy.

Gross said that Snap, available in a public beta, is focused on "search productivity" by letting users control the way results are sorted, by including user feedback into relevancy and by opening the inner workings of the engine.”

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Spyware Bill Passes House (PC World)

Congress to try for SPY ACT law by year's end.

“The House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday [October 05, 2004] aimed at making spyware illegal, and the bill could be made law as soon as this week, according to one congressman. "[I will] try to put a bill on the president's desk so he can sign this year," says Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Since Congress could adjourn as soon as Friday, Barton says he will try to garner support from senators this week to move the bill, or a similar version, through the Senate. "Stranger things have happened," Barton says optimistically.

The bill, dubbed the SPY ACT (Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass), outlaws computer technology that downloads programs onto users' computers without their permission.

The bill, which passed with a whopping 399-1 vote, also makes it illegal to hijack control of a user's computer, expose users to pop-up ads that can't be closed, modify a user's personal settings, and download personal information without permission.”

“A similar but not identical bill dealing with spyware is also moving through the Senate. The bill, dubbed the Spy Block Act (Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge), passed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on September 22.”

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Search engines develop personal touches for Web surfers (USA Today)

“Internet search firms are developing personalization tools — ways to easily track and store Internet searches — to make online research easier and more productive.

On Tuesday, No. 3 search engine Ask Jeeves introduces the most advanced personalized search features to date. Users can save Web searches and create online directories of favorites for easier tracking."

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Search upstart launches new site with sights set on Google (North County Times)

“Online search engine upstart Vivisimo Inc. is setting out to convince the masses that Google Inc.'s vaunted technology isn't the most efficient way to find things on the Internet.

The little-known Pittsburgh company is taking aim at Google and other industry leaders like Yahoo Inc. with a new search engine called Clusty.com, scheduled to debut Thursday [September 30, 2004] after four years of fine tuning.”

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Mozilla could form base of a Google browser (ZDNet UK)

“Analysts agree that it would be of little benefit for Google to create a browser from scratch, but it could add value by adding components onto the open-source browser Mozilla”

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Get Top Search-Engine Ranking Using Keyword Strategies (Web Pro News)

“Keywords and META tags can dramatically improve your search-engine ranking. Your prospects use keywords and key phrases to find you in the search engines.

They give your web pages a chance to come up in the search results when your prospects type in words into a search engine that match the keywords in your META tags and web content.”