The Pandia Post Newsletter No. 14
SEO Special
July 2002
Content:
EDITORIAL
An issue devoted to search engine optimization
Welcome to another issue of the Post, your newsletter for search engines, Web searching and search engine optimization.
This is an issue mainly devoted to search engine optimization and marketing.
We know that a large proportion of our readers primarily look to Pandia for information on how to search the Web and search resources. Do not worry, we have not forgotten you, and will be back with more search oriented content in the next issue.
That being said, we must add that learning about how search engines and directories work also makes you a better searcher. If you know how a search directory like Yahoo! is built, you know what to expect and where to look for information.
The searcher & researcher in you may also want to take a look at the following recent articles at Pandia:
AltaVista launches Prisma
AltaVista has launched Prisma, a new search technology helping searchers refine their searches.
The search engine scans the text of the top 50 of the regular search results and then selects the 12 most frequently occurring words (called "Prisma terms"). AltaVista then presents these new search terms in a box right above the regular search results.
All these search terms are in one way or the other related to the search term entered by the searcher, and they are generated by the search engine on the fly.
When a searcher clicks on one of these terms, it is automatically added to the original search query, and a new search takes place. The new search query is visible in the search field.
More at http://www.pandia.com/sw-2002/22-altavista.html
Fast has the largest Web page index
Fast has announced a new and larger search engine database, counting more than 2 billion Web pages. This makes it the largest index of its kind.
Note the word "Web pages". Last year Google announced that it had broken the 3 billion documents barrier. However, only 2 billion of these were Web pages, and not all of them fully indexed, which is why Fast may claim it is in the lead.
Go to http://www.pandia.com/sw-2002/20-fast.html
Alternative Academic Search Directories
Yahoo!, The Open Directory and LookSmart dominates the Web search directory scene. There are, however, a few other high quality directories searchers should be aware of.
Read about LII, InfoMine, The Resource Discovery Network and Academic Info at http://www.pandia.com/sw-2002/16-directories.html
Pandia Search World
Remember: If you want to stay up to date on search engine developments, visit our Search World page at http://www.pandia.com/searchworld. There you will also find a form that lets you subscribe to the Search World newsletter. This short (and free) newsletter is distributed every time we post another original search engine news article (on average once a week).
Per & Susanne Koch
editors
