Yahoo skinning process
Tuesday, June 28th, 2005Just noticed that profiles of Yahoo users got a new skin similar to 360.
To see this use http://profiles.yahoo.com/id , where id=yahoo id
Archive for June, 2005
On spiders and search engines
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005On the last few days when analyzing the logs of a site I have seen 2 interesting spiders:
First is Google AdSense and authentificates itself as a spider. Usually after it comes Googlebot. What is more curious is that the site didn’t had AdSense
The second authentificates itself as a user and it’s eating a lot of pages. Apparently it’s origin is http://beta.exalead.com/search/C=0/?2u=3. This seem to be a new search engine with some very good features.
- results clustering
- audio/video search
- clean interface apparently ajax based (can anyone figure for wahat are the boxes below the serach box on the main page?Personalization?)
- multiple ways to see the results
- filtering results based on GeoIP(?)
It seems that they started digging from DMOZ like Google. From the amount the pages I have seen on that site they seem prepared to ingest a large amount of data.
While writing this post I found this on their site:
Bred from the prestigious Ecole des Mines in Paris, the founding members of Exalead cut their teeth on the first generation of Web search engines. Since the creation of Exalead in 2000, they have concentrated their efforts on facilitating access to their client’s information bases for all users: Employees, customers, suppliers, and the general public.
It has also been mentioned on Search Engine Watch
You can spot the spiders if you look in visitors after: ng21.exabot.com
Pretty good european job. Waiting for the Desktop Beta
Yahoo Dance :)
Tuesday, June 21st, 2005Yahoo just announced on their blog a new update of their index:
This is our second weather report. We will be making changes to the index tonight so you should be seeing more of your pages in the index as well as some fluctuations in the rankings of results from previous searches.
Let’s play the “Conspiracy Game” and read between the the lines….
We will see this:
It promises to be hot, humid and rainy down on Bourbon Street
If we are playing the game we will see the threat….but we are not paranoid …aren’t we?
Yahoo aims again at Skype
Friday, June 17th, 2005Check this out :
Xten joins the Yahoo! Messenger arsenal: now what? OK, here’s what by ZDNet’s Russell Shaw — Now this is getting real interesting.Late yesterday, Xten Networks, which makes VoIP-enabled softphones, said that Yahoo! has licenced the Xten eyeBeam software development kit to deliver SIP-based VoIP in Yahoo! Messenger.Yahoo! Messenger director (now that sounds like a fun job) Frazier Miller said that the app will be for PC-to-PC calling.Earlier this week if you remember (or even [...]
Well they seem pretty decided to conquer VoIP market.
The only big mistake they can do now is to make a subscription service from the Pc to Pc calls.
That’s the third aquisition this week…..
Yahoo gets serious with VoIP
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005Eventhough latest IM product is VoIP enabled the quality is not always the best. To compensate this they made another quick move and:
Barely a month after launching its own VoIP enabled IM beta product, the company snapped up DialPad, a VoIP company that sells PC2PC and PC2Phone services to consumers. “What we saw in DialPad was quick way to add PC2Phone and inbound calls,” says Joanna Stevens, Yahoo’s VP of Corporate Communications. Yahoo will integrate Dialpad’s services with its new IM product.
Advancedippipeline asks themselves:
How long until Microsoft and Google react?
I don’t say anything about Microsoft because they have MSN Messenger. But Google…ahem. Err with what to react? With a Hello?
Important SEM Resource
Sunday, June 12th, 2005Accidentally I have found a pretty good resource on search engine marketing. The site is called Marketing Experiments
Their motto is quite self explanatory for what you can find inside:
Research + Testing = Results, Discover what really works
Their mission statement comes to clearify their goals:
“MarketingExperiments.Com is an online laboratory with a simple (but not easy) five-word mission statement: To discover what really works. We test every conceivable marketing method on the Internet. We publish the results in the Marketing Experiments Journal (110,000+ subscribers).”
The most important aspect (maybe) is that their research papers are free now
I personally think that this is a must for every SEM consultant 
Ooops…Black Hat SEO on big houses
Sunday, June 12th, 2005Jeremy spotted an article that shows that Financial Times is using the black arts to get higher rankings
The hidden links can be found on pages such as ‘FT.com / Your money / Money guides’ . The hidden link is under the list of six partner sites that include The New York Times and Investors Chronicle in the bottom right hand side of the screen.
Tisk tisk tisk…..shame shame shame
The problem is that a smaller site would get banned from Google ASAP….but FT will say it’s not their fault and everything will be solved with an apology letter. Blah
P.S.
that is 1st grade link hidding BTW
Yahoo Browser?
Sunday, June 12th, 2005
Everyone has heard the rumors on the Gbrowser but no official comments from Google.
Again Yahoo seems to make a step further further than their competitors:
Yahoo Inc., owner of the most-visited Web site, may consider developing its own Internet browser to help attract more users and advertisers toits Web sites, Chief Executive Officer Terry Semel said.
“You could look to Yahoo to do most everything that makes sense on the Internet going forward,” Semel said Friday in an interview in New York. Developing a browser may make sense “at some point in time,” he said.
Corelate that piece of info with:
However, a Yahoo spokesperson told ZDNet Australia on Tuesday( 16 March 2005) that the company would not launch any new products or services in the future without ensuring that they work on both IE and Firefox.
And with the fact that 3 months later:
Yahoo has quietly updated its Instant Messenger software to be fully compatible with Firefox, almost three months after the company pledged to do so.
And you will see on what Yahoo research labs are working and why they love Foxes…errrrrrr Deers
That proves once again how Yahoo has a good and very clear strategy while Google lacks one
Google cheat sheet
Sunday, June 12th, 2005Spotted via Yahoo! News comes Google Cheat Sheet.
This reference document is part of a site that seems to be a good presentation of how Google works. Recomended for novice and adavanced users
I’ll use it for sure on my next presentation of search engines
Google’s Value
Wednesday, June 8th, 2005After its shares hit an all-time high on the New York markets on Tuesday, Google is now worth $80bn (£44bn).
Hmmmm a litlle weird but expected
