Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

Wikia Search Previews Monday

2008 is off to an auspicious start: Jimmy Wales will preview Wikia, the new social, community-driven search engine, on Monday. According to CNET, the Wikia search engine has been conceived in a true Web 2.0 environment, with full transparency and openness to feedback, powered by open-source algorithms. Users will contribute ranking suggestions and be allowed to edit search results.

"The desire to collaborate and support a transparent and open platform for search is clearly deeply exciting to both open source and businesses," Wales said in a statement in July. "Look for other exciting announcements in the coming months as we collectively work to free the judgment of information from invisible rules inside an algorithmic black box."

(Yes...that was a dig to Google, Yahoo! and others who keep their algorithms guarded by Ninjas and heavily armed militia.)

I can't wait to see the previews - or how Wikia shakes up SEM as we know it.

Survey: Users Prefer Yahoo to Google

University of Michigan's American Cosumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) results reveal that users prefer Yahoo to Google. (Well, come on - it is prettier!) From Reuters:

Data from the University of Michigan American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed Yahoo had seen its customer satisfaction score rise 3.9 percent from a year ago to 79 out of 100 points, while Google's rating fell about 3.7 percent to 78 points.

Google Buys Feedburner

Rumors have circulated for weeks, and now the headlines: Google has acquired Feedburner, the quintessential RSS tool.

Microsoft Acquires...?

The New York Post has me confused this morning. In one article (dated May 1), they suggest that Microsoft will try to stay ahead of Yahoo/RightMedia and GoogleClick with an acquisition of 24/7 Real Media...but in another article (today), state that MS has "intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!." We'll keep an eye on that one.

Thanks to Logic+Emotion for the logo!

UPDATE: Here's a Reuters Report on the MicroHoo rumours

Search the Web with K-Fed - Tabloid Star Launches Vanity Search Engine

I thought iWon was an original approach to search a few years back...but now we have the vanity engine. And who better to kickoff the trend than fledging rap star and tabloid darling, Kevin Federline.

Yes, fresh off the Britney Spears gravy train, K-Fed launched his own search engine las week. (Ya gotta hand it to the guy - he's innovative with his income sources!)

Powered by Yahoo and offered through Prodege (which, I thought was a fundraising tool utilizing search?), Search With Kevin offers prizes for searchers, including CDs, T-shirts and autographed photos. 

The editors of MediaPost's Search Insider have vastly different opinions on Kevin's foray into search. Gord Hotchkiss seemed dangerously close to vomiting on his keyboard. David Berkowitz may have actually won an 8x10 of K-Fed.

I have to side with Berkowitz in his overall view of Prodege's offering (which, as Hotchkiss points out, has been used to promote Wynonna Judd, Andrew Dice Clay and Meatloaf) - Let the market decide. If there really is a place for vanity search -- and I'm sure there is -- the fan base will be there.

And frankly, I think the interface on Search With Kevin is really nice -- if you don't mind Kevin Federline's mug topping the SERPs. I may just make it my homepage, if only because I truly enjoy freaking out my co-workers.

Google, Yahoo, MSN - Like Any MEDIA COMPANY - Can Block Ads

According to Forbes.com, a judge ruled on Monday that Google and its competitors have the same right as any media company to block ads they feel are inappropriate or offensive to customers or partners.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Farnan dismissed a suit filed last May in Delaware by would-be advertiser Christopher Langdon, who claimed Google, Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) infringed upon his rights to free speech by refusing to publish his ads. The ads in question promoted Langdon's Web sites, which criticize some North Carolina politicians and the Chinese government.

"Search engines have a First Amendment right to reject ads as part of their protected right to speak or not," Farnan wrote.

The legal opinion will help search engines in future litigation, wrote Eric Goldman, director of Santa Clara University School of Law's High Tech Law Institute. "It's an emphatic and helpful win for the search engines."

The ruling allows the search engine to refuse an advertiser for any reason -- without the need to site any specific rule or regulation they might be violating. 

301 Redirects - From SE Watch/SE Roundtable

There are a few people on the DG team who can relate to this "headache" -- What happens when your client has changed URLs?  How long will it take for the Google PageRank to pass on? Search Engine Watch addresses this (via SE Roundtable):

(From the original post at Search Engine Rountable...)

In a Google Groups thread Adam says:

301s pass PR and related signals appropriately. Usually takes a couple of weeks for things to smooth out, though.

I was a bit shocked by the statement of just "a couple of weeks" for 301s to "pass PR and related signals appropriately." I always thought it was a couple months or more.

SEW points out that Google may index the page within a few weeks, but that it take MUCH longer to recoup the PageRank. Link building like a rockstar seems to be the best method for speeding things along. SEW also points to the common "trick" of using a 302 error instead of a 301: "This causes Google to keep the listing of the previous page within its index, and often in the same position within the rankings."

Ultimately, post author Chris Boggs recommends riding out the 301 -- on the off-season, business-permitting. His best advice is to understand that this is a laborious process, and to plan for it in advance by using paid search and other marketing channels.

Google Wants Brands; Brands Don't Seem to Want Google (or at least, their agencies don't...)

In a nutshell, it's not that they don't WANT to work with Google, it's that Google doesn't necessarily play well with others technologically:

Read more from the ClickZ article.

Marketers complain that Google won't allow them to deliver ads using third party management firms such as DoubleClick and Atlas. These platforms and others like them have helped consolidate serving and reporting for display campaigns that can run on hundreds of individual sites....

As a result, he said, using Google for brand campaigns results is a waste of time and energy. "Google has built this closed loop world, which I think is only a short term prospect for them," he said. "They need to open it up."

Brand agencies haven't really warmed up to the idea of including Google in their campaigns at this point, and this technology issue is delaying the process. Google released a statement saying that while they allow third-party tracking, they don't offer third-party serving "at this time."

Sounds like they're ready to relinquish a little bit of control to gain a little bit of the Madison Avenue pie. As ClickZ points out, they've spent a good part of the last 12 months grooming themselves for this market -- including the lease of their posh Manhattan space -- so they're going to need to kow-tow to the agencies a bit if they're going to ultimately snag the branding business.

Marketing View: Looking back at 006 and ahead to 007

2006 was a big year for the Web. The 10th anniversary of our industry saw the beginnings of Web 2.0 realization with the wildfire adoption of YouTube and the continued astronomical growth of MySpace, CraigsList and Wikipedia. We saw many more (TOO many) original podcasts, and a lot more people relying on their mobile devices. And we saw the introduction of the addictive SecondLife. And...

• We saw more Google domination, some - if not quite enough - forward-thinking (and a reorg) by Yahoo, and a new face for Microsoft's Web presence.
• We saw Microsoft lose to Apple in the public eye (Zune v. iPod) and Google lose control of the Web-at-large to MySpace, now the most-visited site online.
• We saw big agencies fail miserably in Web 2.0. (And we're watching one of them screw up again in 007... which, admittedly, I'm enjoying a little too much.) (...and let's not forget LonelyGirl15, while on the topic.)

So what else can we expect to see in 2007?

Well, for starters, eMarketer predicts (via MediaWeek) that the ad spend for us will exceed $20 Billion.  A nice (if not spectacular) leap. But with the changing face of Web marketing...where will all that money go? What changes will we see in the market?

• We'll see wider Web 2.0 adoption, to be sure. As big as MySpace has grown in the last year, the majority of the world (while they may finally know what a "blog" is) hasn't gotten on board with the user-generated content thing. There will be more MySpaces and FaceBooks and YouTubes popping up this year, and they'll gain and broader adoption across a user base who can both vote AND drink legally. (And maybe even a few AARP members!) ...a CraigsList for people who don't want to buy stuff, perhaps?

We'll also see more agencies attempting to leverage Web 2.0 -- and many of them failing spectacularly. (I'll be waiting with baited keyboard!) A few will get it right, and they'll probably be smaller shops.

...and for greater insight on this, see Randy Morin's excellent Web 2.0 predictions. We agree on some points, disagree on others...but he's a lot smarter than me, so listen to Randy.

• We'll see a lot more mobile, too. With Blackberry back and hotter than ever, the mobile Internet is gaining popularity. All it needs is a price drop in the service (how about INCLUDED with your mobile service, folks??), and I think mobile Web adoption will get the shot in the arm it needs.

And I know all you agencies have been getting ready to serve the growing demand for mobile sites and services, of course!

• And we'll see the Web get more vertical, and more local. This was something we saw beginning in 2006, but I think we'll get even more vertical this year. I predict that a lot of those 30-somethings who don't fit into MySpace of FaceBook (and who can't find enough stickiness to hang out on LinkedIn) will find some more specialized communities to get involved in and voice their opinions. And I have a feeling net-entrepreneurs will be scrambling to create communities to meet the demand.

• Look for more in the way of vertical search, too. Yahoo's jumped on this one, but I think you'll see more of it and richer versions of it this year.


• One final prediction: Pay-per-call will become a household name for marketers in 007. With a lot of silence around all those VoIP purchases made in '05, I suspect this will be the year we hear a lot more about that particular channel.

See also, John Battelle's predictions, which include the buyout of AOL...but surprisingly, nothing on local search or verticalization. And eMarketer's, which jibe with mine somewhat in their prediction of a $1billion ad spend on social networks - more than double the 2006 spend.

Finally, I have to point you all to David Berkowitz's touching (without a hint of irony, I swear!) look at 2006. Excellent article.

I guess I should add, as I close this, that these predictions are solely mine and if you disagree or find them offensive, yell at me, not DigitalGrit. And DigitalGritters, if you disagree, use comments to correct me or add predictions of your own. I'm sure I'll be adding (and revising) these predictions myself!

Yahoo/HotJobs in deal with local newspapers

Yahoo's struck a deal with seven major newspaper publishing groups will use its technology to sell ads and offer search on the Web sites of over 150 daily papers across 38 states. Ads placed in these papers will also appear on Yahoo HotJobs.

According to Reuters:

Yahoo aims to expand its reach into local markets, viewed as a key growth channel for the newspaper industry as it faces circulation declines and a migration of readers to the Internet and other media...

..."We believe the local segment is largely untapped and provides significant opportunities to expand audience engagement and subsequently grow local advertising," Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel said.

Local search is just getting hotter by the day. If you haven't started thinking about this as part of your marketing plan, START.