Home > News and Views > Newsletter > April 2007

Google integrate news results, Yahoo index update, Google Checkout in UK, Reporting Paid Links, Google track every page visit

1. Google update?

   • Since the introduction of everflux, Google datapushes are much harder to spot and, as always, what constitute an 'update' at Google is open to interpretation, but it does look like April has seen change.
   • It is impossible to state exactly what has changed within the algorithm, but it appears that 'fresher' sites, both in terms of content and links, are benefiting. The assumption from this could be that more emphasis is being placed on implicit user behaviour.

2. Google moves into TV

   • Google have announced a trial of TV ads. Reports indicate that the service will be pricing the adverts on a cost per thousand basis and for this the ability of the company to accurately measure the viewership of individual programmes will be critical to its success.
   • The system would also allow advertisers to target more niche markets as they would have a detailed view on who was watching what program.

3. Yahoo! update

   • Yahoo! updated their index on the 3rd April.
   • As usual, you may see some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index throughout this process.

4. Msn UK pre-filled search results pulled

   • After pre-populating the search bar last month, for UK users, MSN have reversed the decision, following negative feedback. By their own admission, the move was universally hated.

5. Yahoo! allow users to create custom search engines

   • Yahoo! have started testing a custom search engine called Yahoo! Alpha, bringing them into competition with Google in this area. It also looks like they intend to monetize it, very possibly to share revenue with search engine creators and/or users.

6. Google beat Microsoft to claim DoubleClick

   • Google have announced that they have acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

7. Google Checkout arrives in the UK

   • Google have announced that Google Checkout has arrived in the UK. This is the first country outside of the US that it is live in.

8. Utah have passed a law banning keyword advertising.

   • Rep. Dan Eastman, the Utah legislator who sponsored the law, believes competitive keyword advertising is the equivalent of corporate identity theft, causing searchers to be (in his words) 'carjacked' and 'shanghaied' by advertisers. He also takes a swipe at the EFF, dismissing its critique of the law as 'criticism from the fringes.

9. Google gets long term deal to place ads on Clear Channel radio stations

   • The deal will give Google access to just under an estimated 5 percent of the advertising time.

10. Matt Cutts asking for reports of paid links

    • Having previously stated that 'Google is going to be looking at paid links more closely in the future.', Matt Cutts openly asked webmasters and SEOs to send him details of paid links and a means so to do:

    "I'd like to get a few paid link reports anyway because I'm excited about trying some ideas here at Google to augment our existing algorithms. Google may provide a special form for paid link reports at some point, but in the mean time, here's a couple of ways that anyone can use to report paid links". . .

11. New Ask algorithm coming soon

    • Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com, has confirmed that Ask.com is working on Edison. Edison is the code name behind merging of Ask.com's two different search technologies, Teoma and Direct Hit.

12. Firefox increase market share

    • Firefox are now close to a 25% market share in Europe. Companies who do not build sites with cross-browser compatibility need to readdress their model.

13. Google apps get PowerPoint presentations support

    • Google have announced that they are working on presentations support for their Docs & Spreadsheets package, moving them even further into Microsoft territory.

14. Yahoo! reply to Google's shopping carts.

    • Following on from Google's shopping cart icons on adsense, Yahoo! have announced they will now display shopping cart icons for search result ads that support PayPal.

15. a>Google picks for you!

    • Google have launched two new recommendation features, a Recommendations tab which gives recommendations based upon other people with a similar search history's activities. This includes searches, groups, gadgets, videos, pages and news.
    • The second is 'search without searching' where Google recommends 50 pages per day.

16. Google's new toolbar feature to track every page you visit

    • Google have launched a new feature, which requires the Google toolbar, that keeps a record of all pages you visit, even when you don't visit them via Google's search results. More information can be found in Google's help topic on the feature. Privacy advocates are, predictably, already up in arms about this new feature.

17. Ask launches contextual advertising network

    • Ask have announced that they will be launching a contextual advertising network on May 21st which competes directly against Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network. It will initially launch within IAC's network of sites, followed by a network of trusted third party publishers, but will eventually be rolled out to be available on other third party sites.

18. Google passes Microsoft for most visited sites in the world

    • According to comScore, Google had a million visitors more than Microsoft in March 2007. Google had 528 million unique visitors, while Microsoft had 527 million visitors in March.
    • (It should be noted that comScore's worldwide figures are property figures, (IE, they include traffic to all sites owned by Google, rather than just Google.com, versus traffic to all sites owned by Microsoft, rather than Microsoft.com).

19. Google To Integrate News With Web Results

    • Google will be changing the way that news results are integrated with web results if your search terms are relevant to current news events. Rather than showing news results in the OneBox format, at the top of the page, they will be blended into the regular search results. (This appears to be live in the US only for now).

20. Survey finds high demand for search and local search within mobile users

    • A recent study of mobile users aged over 16 has revealed some interesting trends. While only 30% of mobile users access the internet, of those people, a massive 75% used search. The main types of information that they were interested in is maps and directions, weather forecasts, and local information.