The Axandra newsletter archive - 19 August 2003
Welcome to a new issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

This week, we're introducing you to a new promising search engine and we're telling you why Google is now able to answer questions such as "What is the speed of light?".

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this issue and that it helps you to get more out of your web site. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Nutch - an open source Google rival?
Although web search is one of the most important requirements for Internet navigation, the number of search engines is decreasing. More and more search engines are closing their doors and those that remain merge or have close relationships.

All existing major search engines have proprietary ranking formulas and they do not explain why a certain web page ranks as it does. Search engine results are often biased and some search engines determine which sites to index based on payments rather than the merits of the sites themselves.

Even Google has a tendency to prefer commercial shopping listings and they ban web sites they don't like from their index.

Today's search engine oligopoly could soon be a monopoly and a single search engine company would control nearly all web searches for its commercial gain. That would not be good for Internet users and webmasters.

That's where Nutch comes in. Nutch is a nascent effort to implement an open-source web search engine.

Nutch aims to provide a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines on an open source basis. Its idea is that only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias.

"All of the existing search engines have secret methods for deciding which documents are the best documents," said lead architect Doug Cutting, "Search is something that's a basic need for users of the Internet. People have the right to know how their search engine works, so they can trust it."

Nutch wants to promote public access to search technology without commercial bias by providing free high-quality search software and its source code to the public and by facilitating ongoing research and development of search technology in a public forum.

A public demo isn't available yet but the idea behind this project looks very promising. The Nutch board of directors includes popular people like Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly computer books), Peter Savich (Overture research) and Mitchell Kapor (co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation).

If Nutch succeeded, web surfers and webmasters would benefit from unbiased search results and more choice. That would definitely help improving the quality of the search results.

If you want to find out more about Nutch or if you want to support this new project, visit http://www.nutch.org/docs/faq.html.

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2. Search engine news of the week
Google adds calculator functionality to its search engine

    Google added a feature to its search tool that allows visitors to calculate mathematical equations. It can compute basic arithmetic like 22*9+74, more complicated equations and it can handle unit conversions like 150 miles in kilometers.

    You can also enter numbers as words, for example "seven plus nine minus four" and it answers questions such as "What is the speed of light?".

    Yahoo/Overture-owned AllTheWeb.com has offered similar capabilities in its search engine for months.



Google and AltaVista release toolbars

    "The first major update to Google's popular Internet Explorer toolbar kills pop-ups and adds a feature for bloggers [...]

    The toolbar enables users to directly search any page on the Web, and send a rating of that page back to Google for use in its indexing. It is able to block pop-up ads, automatically fill out Web forms, and link the page being browsed to the user's Web log. Users can also limit their toolbar searches to a particular country."

    In related news, Overture released a toolbar for its AltaVista search engine. It contains features for web search, conversion, zip code search, currency exchange, dictionary lookup, weather and for translation.



Overture unveils new ad features

    "Overture is to unleash a number of new tools and features on its PPC search advertising service over the weekend, stepping up the heat on its number one rival Google. [...]

    One of the most significant features to be added is broad and phrase matching [...] Other new features include a listing on/off button that lets you advertisers pause individual listings, Conversion Counter, an account performance tracking tool, and Intraday reporting, which updates account statistics several times a day."



Overture licenses contextual ad technology

    "Contextual ad technology provider Quigo Technologies announced [...] that it inked a licensing deal with Overture Services. With the deal, Overture will use Quigo's AdSonar to back up its own homegrown technology that powers its Content Match contextual ad product."



Google announces corporate search customers

    "Google [...] said pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., the US Army and the city of San Diego are among the new paying users of Google's enterprise search appliance, which is a hardware and software product.

    Other customers include Xerox Corp, Hitachi Data Systems, Nextel Communications Inc., Procter & Gamble Co, Discovery Communications, the San Diego Union-Tribune, PBS.org, Cisco Systems Inc. and Boeing Co."


Overture a better buy than expected?

    "Yahoo's acquisition of paid search company Overture Services may [...] contribute an additional 5 cents per share to Yahoo's earnings per share in 2004"



Yahoo to offer blogging service?

    "Yahoo! [...] is considering blogging, as a possible service to its wide customer base in the near future.



Search engine newslets

    New Lookup directory: http://www.melissadata.com/Lookups/index.htm

    SearchEngineShowdown.com reports that the search engine Gigablast.com now indexed PDF documents.

    "Paid inclusion provider LookSmart believes the re-jiggering of search by key partner Microsoft's MSN might result in the search company losing significant revenues, according to a regulatory filing."

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3. Articles of the week
"Google Gone Wild"

    "At first, I wasn't so sure. Now, however, I'm convinced that Google's ultimate plan is to drive every other company out of business and take over the world. [...] Slowly, step by step, inch by inch (1 foot = 12 inches), Google is becoming more and more relevant in our Web-surfing lives."



"Will Yahoo Hold On To AltaVista?"

    "Yahoo may continue with the AltaVista Web site after it completes its acquisition of Overture Services [...]

    'We believe that the AltaVista brand is still very strong, and has come to attract a particular type of user, and it is entirely possible that we may keep the AltaVista site to serve a particular niche of users,' Phu Hoang, Yahoo's senior vice president for engineering, told IDG News Service."



"Counter-Googling"

    "With consumers disclosing their most intimate secrets online (voluntarily!), Google has essentially created a 'domestic database', i.e. a world-wide database loaded with your customers' details and profiles, with a depth of information your company's database can only dream of.

    So instead of consumers Googling you before they buy your services, you should Google THEM, and instantly get more personal information than you'd ever be able to capture with traditional 1:1 in an entire life-time."

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4. Recommended resources
Until open source search engines like Nutch prevail (see the article above) :-), we have to live with the biased results of the current search engines.

But how do you get a high ranking on these search engines? That's where the software tool IBP comes in. It analyzes the top 10 results for any given keyword on the search engine of your choice and it tells you to how to change your web page so that you achieve a similar ranking.

For example, tell IBP that you want to have a top 10 ranking on Google for the search phrase "real estate florida" and IBP will analyze the current top 10 results on Google for that search term. You'll get an easy to read checklist
report that tells you how to optimize your web site for a high ranking on Google for the search phrase "real estate florida". Test the free Lite edition now.

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5. Previous articles

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