Webmaster & Search Events

Search Engine Expert Directory

Third Google Crap Backlink update in a row,

We recently had the third Worst backlink update in google history, They started showing randomized and low Pagerank ( PR ) backlinks from the end of Jun 23rd 2004, From that day they has been 3 backlink updates and all of them are crap, Google mission to tackle link mongers is appreciable, But making themselves look funny in this process is the worst part IMO,

I personally like google to remove the link: command instead of a massive attempt to mess up with link mongers/SEOs and webmasters,

This post is not an attempt to criticize google but to show my personal frustration answering my SEO clients who keep asking me where are my backlinks,

Significant traffic change reported by WMW guys,

Recently a lot of webmasters in WMW forums reported a significant loss of traffic from google, Also they faced major drop in keyword rankings, Here is a brief post by a guy who started that thread,

Possible reasons speculated by the poster:

1. Are they affiliate sites with many links to the affiliate host.
2. Do they have satelite domains which they cross link/one way link with sites particularly on the same ip c-block.
3. Are the drop in serps keyword specific or site wide.
4. Are some inbound links on mass from single domains. For example, a great number links from a footer link on a major site.
5. Have changes been made to keyword density recently.
6. Is there a distinction in ranking between major and minor terms.
7. Has there been any PR changes or backward link changes.

Read a long 5 page thread here (webmasterworld.com/forum3/25465.htm ) if you are interested,

Ask Jeeves Launches Japanese-Language Search

Ask Jeeves has launched a beta version of a new Japanese-language search engine. Based on the Emeryville-Calif. search vendor's Ask.com search portal, Ask.jp was developed by Ask Jeeves Japan Co. Ltd, a joint venture of Ask Jeeves and Japan-based transcosmos.

With the launch, Ask Jeeves joins Google and Yahoo as one of only three search portals in Japan that provide their own search technology.
Source: Yahoo News

MSN search revamp their service

Talking about efforts to revamp their MSN Search service, Microsoft executives point out that many people search the Web not for sites, per se, but rather for specific pieces of information, and answers to questions. That, they say, is the thinking behind the proposed Answerbot, one of three supplementary search services discussed during an MSN presentation at an online advertising conference earlier this year.
As explained at the time, the Answerbot service is still under development and much further away from launch than the other two services, Newsbot and Blogbot

Seekport european search engine takes on Google, Yahoo and other top search engine gaints

Google rules the world today but there is serious competition coming up for the search engine in European markets especially the non-English speaking ones. Not too happy with the US-centric search engines are the Germans and they are looking for alternatives that would be more relevant to them, says Ranjit Dhuru, chairman and CEO of Aftek Infosys. Source: financialexpress.com

Online Consumers Happiest With Google

In a study done recently google out ranks their rival Yahoo by a big margin,

INC.com reports -

Customer satisfaction in three areas of e-business jumped an aggregate 1.5 percent over the past year and 5.6 percent since 2002, according to the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Led by market leader and now public company Google, search engines garnered the highest average satisfaction levels in the e-business category, scoring an 80 out of 100, a 17.6 percent increase over the past two years, outdistancing the other two e-business subcategories: portals (71) and news and information sites (75).

"Google retains its status as the industry leader with a stellar score of 82, not surprising for a site that has entered the lexicon as a verb," said online satisfaction expert and study sponsor Larry Freed in a statement. "Google has not rested on its laurels, but instead has taken the stance of aggressive innovator."

Yahoo's New Search Blog,

Yahoo the top rival for Google has launched a blog recently, it is really great to see both the top search players come out with a blog, Google Blog was launched before some days and now we have the yahoo blog,

visit Yahoo Blog here: http://www.ysearchblog.com

what is Google going to do with $1.8 billion?

There is an interesting Forum discussion thread going on in webmaster world one of the leading seo marketing forum in the world, People there started speculating what google will do will all the money they get from their Stock, This IPO has brought some good money into google and we are yet to see Google's future plans on what they are going to do with all their money,

Ok Here are some pick from what people want from google from that thread.... - my comments are added as well,

1. Hire more PhDs(Search algorithm scientists) to find spammers. This is a point even I stress upon I hate Spammers winning in google and i would like Google to fight bad unethical practices more vigorously,

2. New Google directory: I would love to see one, I hate these Dmoz volunteers taking control of the whole directory and never accept many many quality site submissions, Instead we see lots of starter sites with only 3 or 4 pages accepted, That is too weird cant understand what criteria they use to accept site submissions but sometimes it looks pretty ridiculous, I wish Google comes out with an excellent human edited directory, But with real people who are paid to do their work, I wish Dmoz is dropped by Google soon,

3. Google branded browser based on Firefox or a G-branded IM client. Good ask from google, But I personally feel Internet Explorer is much more comfortable and adaptable than any other browsers, Many applications are built around the compatibility of Internet Explorer and it makes it difficult to use other browsers which lack in compatibility, Regarding I am client I would like to see one from Google, I personally use Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, AOL, Indiatimes messengers. I don't mind using an other one especially from google which I love,

4. ISP business - I don't want Google to get into ISP services just because it has a potential risk of loosing their Branding,

5. Google Auctions - Already lots of auction sites out there, Cant sit out to see an other one from Google,

6. Overture acquisition - Silly As if Yahoo is ready to sell it,

7. RSS desktop version MyGoogle - Good ask, wish Google comes out with something like this,

8. Google SEO - LOL, i had a Giggle on this, If Google is out into SEO business there are 1000s of companies willing to spend millions of dollars to them, But what happens their results will be completely corrupted and all junk sites will be on top, Anyway funny wish to google,

9. semantic web -- Ahh that will be great, Google moving into semantic understanding of queries, it is going to be one difficult job to achieve this, hope to see something like this coming soon,

10. A better search engine - SteveB an experienced poster in webmasterworld suggested this, I think steve has to say this to yahoo, Google does some great job improving their Algorithm, They are constantly working on it but yahoo on the other hand sits of Onpage factor analysis and pushing lots of junk sites on top, I wish Google takes care of them selves to build a better search engine, I appreciate all their efforts towards it,

Recent Google Bug - Homepage dropped due to Duplicate content,

There was a recent bug reported by some webmasterworld guys regarding homepages of sites dropped from the index, Many sites out there lost their homepage due to some kind of duplicate content penalty, Google Guy who is mostly regarded as an important representative of Google replies to it, Here is his response:

Hey bakedjake, I think I've found your problem. There's no penalties or anything like that; it's because you're splitting your internal linkage between two different root pages. Suppose your domain is yourdomain.com. Do the search [site:yourdomain.com inurl:https]. See those 912 https results? Click on the cached page for the first one. Now mouseover the link in the top left. Instead of pointing to http://www.yourdomain.com/, notice that it points to All the https cached pages that I checked link to the index.asp version of your home page, and there were enough of your internal pages doing that that you convinced us that was the canonical root page for your domain. That's why when you do the search [yourdomain] you see as the first result.
So your hundreds of internal https pages pointing to a different location is clouding the water some. If you fix them to all point to the same location (http://www.yourdomain.com/) then we'll crawl all those pages in a little while, and you should be fine shortly afterwards.
I guess the takehome message for non-bakedjake members is to doublecheck your internal linkage. I'd pick a canonical root page like and just stick with that by making sure any internal pages point there instead of to other versions of your root page.

Yahoo! Search to power OptusNet users

Australia's second largest telco, Optus, says Yahoo! Search would from now on power search requests from OptusNet users.
Optus said that under an agreement signed with Yahoo! Australia and New Zealand, Yahoo! Search Technology would power web search results on the OptusNet dialup and broadband portals.
The telco said the agreement ended its three-year relationship with Sensis/Looksmart.
It said that each month there were four million search requests from OptusNet users.

Source - The Age:

New ASCII image generation tool - Using Google images

I just found this excellent ASCII image generation tool, it is really exciting, It gives an opportunity to view some top people images all generated with small character containing their names, This tool is really amazing, it fetches images from the google database and rearranges with characters,
Check it out your self,http://c6.org/toogle

Here are 2 image searches for the phrases "sergey brin" and "Larry Page" Google founders

SEC OK's Google IPO - Google on its way to trade as early as Thursday

The Securities and Exchange Commission granted final approval Wednesday to the paperwork required for Google Inc.'s initial public offering, paving the way for the Internet search giant to set a price for its shares and begin selling them after several stumbles and a last-minute downward revision on the size of the offering.

AnooX -- New Search Engine released, Anoox Not for Profit Search Engine

According to Anoox,

The goal of AnooX.com is two fold:
1. To deliver the most accurate search results. We are doing this by utilizing an innovative and Patent Pending search engine design, which is based on combination of machine power for gathering information, plus real majority based voting power to deliver the final best results.

2. To deliver cost of advertising which is 90% or more lower than similar costs of advertising at Yahoo™ , Google™ , and like publicly traded for profit companies. Thus enabling businesses worldwide to increase sales & success by being able to advertise effectively online and at much lower costs than they currently can.

AnooX will be operated as a not-for-profit company, which means we will drive to have the lowest prices without regard to profits and in fact we will share our profit (if any) on an Annual basis with the users*, advertisers and others helping AnooX.

Google IPO - Notice of revised date to have the registration statement declared effective

Google sent the following Mail to people who registered to bid before the IPO price is determined,

Please be advised that the prospectus for the offering of Google's Class A common stock will be amended to change the estimated offering price range and the number of shares to be sold in the offering. The offering price is now expected to be between $85 and $95 per share. As originally planned, Google expects to sell 14,142,135 shares of Class A common stock in the offering. However, in view of this new price range, the selling shareholders are reducing the shares they expect to sell to approximately 5.5 million shares, yielding a total offering of approximately 19.6 million shares. In addition, the selling shareholders have granted the underwriters the right to purchase approximately 2.9 million additional shares of Class A common stock at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments.

Google and the underwriters requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission declare the registration statement effective on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 at 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). Holders of bidder IDs will be sent a notice of effectiveness once the registration statement has been declared effective. Google and the underwriters expect to close the auction when the registration statement is declared effective.
Google plans to file an amendment to the registration statement Wednesday morning. Holders of bidder IDs will be sent a notice of amendment to the registration statement when it is filed, at which time you will be able to obtain a copy of the updated prospectus from "http://www.ipo.google.com/data/prospectus.html". If you have submitted a bid, you should access that prospectus and carefully reconsider your bid(s). Please note that placing a bid does not guarantee that you will be allocated shares in the offering, if it is completed.

A registration statement relating to Google's Class A common stock has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. Google's Class A common stock may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of Google's Class A common stock in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state. No offer to buy shares of Google's Class A common stock can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until the registration statement has become effective, and any such offer may be withdrawn or revoked, without obligation or commitment of any kind, at any time until the notice of acceptance is sent after the effective date.

Google Slashes IPO Price Range - IPO Price range reduced by Google,

In a Surprising move by Google, The IPO range price was reduced by Google from 108$-135$ to 85$-95$,

According to the reuters article:

Google Inc., the Web search engine, on Wednesday slashed the price range on its eagerly awaited initial public offering to between $85 and $95 per share from $108 to $135 per share.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=6004505

Google's IPO delayed

Google Inc.'s initial public offering has been delayed while the company awaits final approval of its paperwork by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Regulators made no decision Tuesday as Google had requested, said John Heine, an SEC spokesman. The Internet search company had requested that its registration statement be made effective at 4 p.m. EDT to clear the way for shares to begin trading as early as Wednesday morning.

Yahoo offers domain registration services at $9.95 per year

Yahoo one of the Giant internet companies is now enterning into the domain registration service industry, they are competing with big names like godaddy, network solutions etc, Yahoo already offers free/paid web hosting, web design services, email services and many more, Now their venture into domain registration market is an important improvement, previously they were offering domain registration at 35$ per year which is way higher than the current price,

Small businesses will be benefited a lot from their exciting offer from yahoo,

MSN New beta search engine review now closed,

MSN Tecnincal review of their beta search is now closed, MSN is testing their bot and their search product for a long time, They recently gave a glimpse of their new index which will be going live soon, Many search engine optimization experts were seriously analysing their sites and their client sites on how well they were performing in the new MSN beta search, MSN search as we all know is the third most important search engine only next to google search engine and yahoo search engine, People have noticed considerable amount of search engine traffic from MSN alone, MSN search has attracted people who specifically target product search and MSN is known to send well targeted visitors to a site, Unfortunately testing is closed, Now we just have to wait till they bring their search product live, We hope to see it pretty soon,
Following message is displayed on the techreview search page,

"Thank you very much to all of those that tried our service and sent us feedback. We will make improvements based on the suggestions we received. Once we are ready, we will release another preview of our new algorithmic search engine.
On a related note, we have a site that has previews and betas of upcoming MSN technologies: The MSN Sandbox. Visit the MSN Sandbox and try out our new MSN product ideas.
Thanks,MSN Search Team"

I checked some of my client sites in MSN search, Some of my clients are performing extremely well in the new MSN search engine, I just love to see the search engine bring their index online,

Google seeks OK to sell shares

Google has signaled that its share auction is nearly complete, asking the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to begin selling 25.7 million shares of stock starting late this afternoon.

Venture capitalists and Google watchers said yesterday's request, coming on the first business day after the bidding opened, suggested the Web search provider's much-anticipated auction already may be oversubscribed at a price in the target range of $108 to $130 a share. That would fetch Google between $2.8 billion and $3.3 billion, the biggest initial public offering ever for an Internet company.

Tactics of 'Google Guys' Test IPO Law's Limits

Playboy magazine issue is still burning hot, AN other related news on the Google guys controversy,

The "Google Guys, America's Newest Billionaires" -- as company founders Sergey Brin, 30, and Larry Page, 31, are described in the new issue of Playboy magazine -- may be engineers by training, but they are proving to be skilled at marketing too.
Having built one of the world's best-known Internet search engines through free publicity and word of mouth, they have generated global attention for their ongoing $3 billion electronic auction of stock by granting an exclusive interview with Playboy.

Auction for Shares In Google's IPO Could End Today

Google Inc.'s initial public offering took a major step forward as the company notified investors that today may be their last chance to submit, withdraw or change bids in the unusual $3 billion electronic auction for stock in the Internet giant.

Google Could Make Its Market Debut Wednesday

The Web search company said on Monday it has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to declare its registration statement effective on Tuesday at 4 p.m. EDT

Google and the underwriters have requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission declare the registration statement pertaining to Google's initial public offering of Class A common stock effective on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 at 4:00 p.m.

Google (GOOG) on Monday said that it has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to declare its IPO effective on Aug. 17 at 4 p.m. Eastern, which could see the search company's shares trading the next day.

Source: CBS market watch

Google's Funny logos - Google Olmypic logos, Google Athens 2004 Logos

Google has a good sense of humour as we all know, They had the Pigeon rank, Lunar search etc, Now they have some nicely designed google logos on their search page, These logos are designed with The olympics in sight, Right now they displayed 5 logos which is posted below, More Google logos will be posted here as google shows them on their homepage,

Google olympic logo 2

Passing Parade: Google Hype Vs. History

The Google IPO has attracted almost as much media attention as the Normandy invasion did in June 1944. Both had casualties. At least we know the assault on the French beaches 60 years ago was successful.

From the beginning, Google created a carnival atmosphere in announcing it was going public through a Dutch auction. That raised a few eyebrows and created a lot of confusion. A Dutch auction is just that: An auction with stock going to the highest bidder. In theory, all investors are equal. Anybody with a few dollars, a dream and a high enough bid can buy into an IPO at its offering price -- in theory, that is. But as the Google IPO unfolded, some investors were more equal than others. First came a requirement buried in the pages of the prospectus. A potential bidder had to be an "accredited investor." That meant the average man or woman on the Street would not be qualified to bid on Google's IPO, unless his or individual financial status was pretty darn sound.

Article Doesn't Stop Google IPO; Playboy Piece Added to Prospectus

In Google's defense, Sergey Brin and Larry Page gave the interview four months ago, shortly before the company announced plans to go public. But the timing of the publication raises questions about whether the pair violated "quiet period" rules for companies planning an IPO.

Google went ahead with the start of its controversial stock auction as planned yesterday.
But the row over the founders' interview with Playboy magazine refused to go away. The company was forced to take the unprecedented step of amending its prospectus to include a copy of the article -- believed to be the first time a Playboy item has become part of the Securities and Exchange Commission record.
Google also had to clear up several errors made by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the piece.

Search engine startup gets funds

An Overland Park startup that is developing new technology to challenge search engine giants Google and Yahoo has lined up $3 million in financing from investors.

Kozoru Inc. is working to develop new search engine technology that would allow Internet searchers to ask a question in plain language and get an answer — rather than hundreds of Web sites — in return.

Yahoo Posts Security Patch

Yahoo has posted a security patch for a flaw in its instant-messaging software that could make a computer system vulnerable to crashes and attacks while a user surfs the Web.

The patch, which was posted on the company's site Thursday, plugs a hole in Yahoo's use of portable network graphics, a bitmapped graphics file format endorsed by the Internet-standards body World Wide Web Consortium.
Yahoo learned of the problem through a notice issued last week by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The flaw enables portable network graphics to execute malicious code when an image is loaded into the system.
Source:http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=29100205&tid=5979

Google IPO bids get under way Firm puts contents of Playboy interview in official filing

Google Inc. avoided a possible delay to its stock offering Friday by officially disclosing the contents of an interview its founders gave to Playboy magazine.

The Mountain View Internet search firm incorporated the entire text of the controversial interview into a filing it made with securities regulators, clearing the way for the company to start its $3 billion IPO auction. Meanwhile, the 28 banks and brokerage firms that Google is using to conduct the auction began taking bids for the auction Friday morning. The filing satisfied objections that the Securities and Exchange Commission had raised about misleading statements in the story, according to published reports.

"It's unlikely the SEC would have given the go-ahead if they hadn't made this disclosure," said Bruce Deming, a securities attorney with the San Francisco law firm Farella Braun & Martel, which is not involved in the IPO.

An SEO company named - Internet Advancement told to refund clients

The state attorney general said yesterday Redmond-based Internet Advancement must pay penalties for failing to get its customers top placement on major search engines.

Internet Advancement, which also goes by 4GreatBuys.com, must refund customers, pay $24,432 to the state for costs incurred and a civil penalty of $25,000.
The company had promised to get its customers ranked in the top 10 to 20 results on the search engines for $980 to $1,500 in set-up fees and monthly fees of $79.80 to $89.95.

Google Search engine IPO - Auction to Open on Friday, August 13

Google IPO - Auction to Open on Friday, August 13, 2004Pricing of IPO Expected to be Announced During the Week of August 16, 2004
August 12, 2004

Please be advised that Google and its underwriters expect to open the auction for the shares of Google's Class A common stock at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Friday, August 13, 2004. You must already have a bidder ID if you intend to submit a bid in the auction for Google's Class A common stock.
Google and its underwriters expect to announce the initial public offering price for Google's Class A common stock during the week of August 16, 2004.

Search engine optimization Blog

Welcome to the new search engine optimization blog, This blog will keep you updated on the latest development in search engine and search engine optimization industry,