Here are the latest news headlines and articles from Pandia Search World. Go to www.pandia.com/searchworld for the online version of this news service.
Pandia Search Engine News is now powered by Wordpress 2.1
(Jan 28 2007) In the summer of 2005 we switched from hand-coding our search news column to publishing it using the free Wordpress blog software.
Although we found it quite a hassle to install the package (mainly due to our need to adapt the template to our special needs), it was worth the effort. The amount of time needed to write and publish an article was reduced significantly.
We were also able to offer you a wider variety of RSS feeds.
Unfortunately, search engine spammers have found ways of spamming Wordpress blogs. One way is to automatically enter article comments with links to spammy sites.
That problem is manageable, due to plug ins that sort our spam comments.
Anyway, we have not activated the comment function, as we feel that we do not have the time needed to follow up comments in the way you deserve.
That being said, there is a new and much more serious spam technique that had us worried. Some black hat SEOs may now hack into a Wordpress blog, insert invisible links into the templates, and leave without a word.
That's right. The webmaster may not even notice that her code now includes a large number of links to the more shady parts of cyberspace.
When the search engines find out they may (1) reduce the site's ranking as it is linking to "bad neighborhoods" or (2) ban the site altogether.
The only way to avoid this is to stick closely to the safety precautions prescribed by your web host and always upgrade to the latest version of your blog or content management software.
So this week we finally sat down and upgraded our Wordpress installation to version 2.1. We were prepared to spend hours to make it work. It took us some 20 minutes, and the new installation worked right away.
What does this mean for our readers?
The new version of Wordpress has a cache feature, This means that it keeps a fast loading copy of the most visited pages. In other words: the server does not have to render the page every time someone visits a new page, the end result being that our news pages load much faster than before.
There are also other new features we may make use of at a later stage. We will let you know when we do so!.
Google Video becomes generic video search engine
Google Video will become a generic search engine for finding video content online.
When Google bought YouTube, many wondered about what Google would do about the old Google Video service. It doesn’t make much sense to have two services for the uploading and distribution of video clips now, does it?
Google is now doing the sensible thing, turning Google Video into a generic video search engine on line with Google News for new articles and Google Blog for blog content.
Google reports that:
When affiliate marketing meets search engine optimization
Many sites relies on affiliate marketing to pay their bills. Pandia discusses search engine optimization with Play65, a company running a backgammon affiliate program.
“Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting web businesses in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts.” So says the Wikipedia.
Indeed it is. In return for bringing a paying customer to their web pages, most affiliate sites are willing to pay you, the webmaster, a certain percentage of the price. Variants include pay per click, pay per lead (registrants), or fixed commissions for each sale.
B2B Firms Get Niche Targeting With Vertical Search Engines
Instead of fighting the Google and Yahoo wars, B2B firms should find better results by searching for and submitting sites to Vertical Search Engines and Directories.
By Pandia Guest Writer Jason Prescott
Business and professional users searching for work-related information on the web are having a hard time finding needed data through general search engines like Google and Yahoo.
A 2006 study by Outsell reported a 31.9 percent failure rate among business users when researching topics on major search engines.
more…
Norwegian authorities investigate Google on privacy issues
The Norwegian Data Inspectorate is overseeing Google as part of a larger investigation of Norwegian search engines. Sesam and Kvasir have already been visited by the institution. The Directorate is concerned about the amount of data stored by the search engines.
Centiare, a new kind of wiki
Centiare is a directory which is shaped like a wiki but doesn’t quite behave like one. It is powered by MediaWiki, the same collaboration and editing software that is used by Wikipedia and a host of other wikis. Yet Centiare chooses not to utilize some of the collaboration possibilities: When you have set up a directory page, only you can edit it.
Wiki but not a wiki
You can set up directory pages about yourself or your business, and no other users can edit it. These “user-owned” listings can be commercial, non-profit, government or personal. The listings are not intended to be neutral or objective — you are encouraged to express what the people at Centiare call an advocate points-of-view and include links to your products, artwork, blogs etc.
So by most definitions, this directory part of Centiare is not a wiki. It is an interesting new kind of directory, though, but we foresee a lot of problems. The fact that anyone can write about any company, and not only their own, is bound to cause conflict, even if companies that can prove that they are the “rightful owners” of the company listed, may ask to get editorial control of the relevant article.
Wikipedia links loose their effect on ranking?
All outbound links from the English language Wikipedia Site now include the nofollow attribute, meaning that these links should no longer count in the search engines’ search result algorithms.
Search Engine Journal reports that as of now are all outbound links from the English Wikipedia Site using the nofollow attribute, no exceptions.
The nofollow tag was developed by Google to stop the increasing amount of comment spam in blogs and online discussion forum.
Search engine reading
Here are some of the articles Pandia found interesting during the last week:
Google's Policy On No Follow And Reviews
Google is being extremely hypocritical about the nofollow tag (webpronews Jan 25 2007)
Beyond Google: Social Media Engines First, Other Search Engines Second
Danny Sullivan on the rise of the social media search engines in SEM (Jan 24 2007)
Death Of A Spammer?
It has become much harder to spam the search engines (GoogleWiser.Com Jan 25 2007)
Yahoo Earnings Beat Estimates
Yahoo reported fourth-quarter profits of $269 million (Red Orbit Jan 24 2007)
Google Image Search Redesigned
Users are forced to hover their mouse over the image to retrieve the size, file type and domain. (SE Watch Jan 24 2007)
BBC talking to Google about providing video on YouTube
Herald Tribune Jan 22 2007.
Yahoo! To Launch New Search Marketing Ranking Model in the U.S. On February 5
All Yahoo! search marketing ads in the U.S. will be ranked by quality in addition to keyword bid price. (Press release Jan 23 2007)
MIVA MC Makes Spammers Happy
PPC search engine MIVA has launched their new Monetization Center for publishers (SearchViews Jan 18 2007)
Google Blots Out British Bases
British military bases in Iraq are no longer visible using the Google Earth Web site (Redorbit Jan 20 2007)
Google Will Let You Read Books Online
Google will let publishers sell online access (Google OS Jan 21 2007)
Google Moving Into In-Game Advertising; In Talks To Buy AdScape Media
It has been in talks to buy a small in-game advertising firm AdScape Media (paidContent Jan 20 2007)
Telcos Target Google in ‘Neutrality’ Fight
The message? Google is bad, and wants to control the Internet to keep its cash pile growing. (GigaOM Jan 20 2007)
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