The JWTSC SEO Group March 2005 Newsletter

Google has produced an updated version of its desktop search. It will now be able to search the full text of pdf files and the metadata of multi-media files.

Until now, the product could only index the names of such files. But the new version will indexing the entire content, including such data as song and artist names in music files.

The search is also now considered a finished product. "We've taken the product out of beta because now we have all the file types and features that were high on the list of user requests," said product manager Nikhil Bhatla, adding that by removing the beta tag, Google is hoping more users will feel encouraged to download and install the product.

Competition is fierce among desktop search - a market that only really starting existing a few months ago. It is viewed as an important area of the overall search engine market, because increasingly users expect to be able to find information on their PCs in the same way they find information on the Internet.

Although it isn't clear yet how search engine vendors will make money from these tools, most of which are free, it is generally agreed that a user who becomes loyal to a desktop search product is highly likely to extend that loyalty to the tool maker's Internet search engine. In recent years, the market for online ads that search engines serve up with their query results has exploded. However, a big challenge for search engine vendors is to find ways to foster loyalty among their users. Studies have shown users feel little attachment to particular engines.

Google introduced its desktop product in October of last year, joining Lycos and several smaller, niche players, such as Copernic, X1 and Blinkx. However, Google beat big search engine providers such as Microsoft, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo and AOL all of which have subsequently released their own test versions of desktop search tools. Yahoo partnered with X1 and AOL with Copernic for their respective desktop search entries.

Other improvements in the Google desktop tool, which is free, are support for the Mozilla's Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail application and for AOL's Netscape browser and e-mail application. Previously, the product supported only Internet Explorer browser and Outlook/Outlook Express.

Google is also releasing an API tool kit for developers to create plug-in applications that extend the product. The software development kit is available at http://desktop.google.com, along with documentation, sample code and some plug-ins that have already been built.

One such plug-in lets users index instant messaging (IM) conversations from Cerulean Studios' popular Trillian IM application; the original version of the product only indexed IM sessions from AOL's AIM service. Another plug-in available Monday will be one to search the metadata of music files acquired from Apple's iTunes music store.

Soon, a third-party developer will create a plug-in that, using speech-to-text technology, will allow the product to transcribe the content of audio and video files and make it searchable, thus deepening the indexing capabilities of those files beyond metadata, Bhatla said.

Although this desktop search tool is designed for use by consumers, Google continues to work hard at developing a version that is appropriate for the workplace, he said. However, this new version does have one enterprise feature: It recognizes Microsoft group policy parameters on a PC and cancels its own installation if the parameters state that the Google desktop tool can't be run on that machine.

Overture Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo Inc. announced that it will be re-branded Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions. Through Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions, advertisers of all sizes will enjoy convenient access to the industry's most comprehensive suite of search marketing and related products and services. The group will also continue to enhance and expand Yahoo!’s network of sponsored search distribution sites.

In conjunction with Overture's re-branding, Yahoo! will launch a new Advertising Solutions Center in the

U.S.

, through which businesses can plan and buy Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions products. In addition, the new center will offer marketers information about Yahoo!s customized, creative media solutions, providing them access to the largest set of search marketing and brand advertising solutions on the web.

"Our mission is to be essential to marketers of all types around the world," said Ted Meisel, Senior Vice President, Yahoo! Inc. "Unifying all of our search marketing and related products under one banner and one common approach reflects our commitment to integrate and simplify online advertising, allowing businesses of all sizes to take advantage of the Yahoo! search marketing solutions that best fit their marketing goals."

Overture will formally change its brand in the

U.S.

early next quarter. After the

U.S.

re-branding is complete, Overture's international markets will be re-branded at a later date -- except for

Japan

and

Korea

, where the Overture brand will be maintained. Several products within the suite will be re-named once Overture assumes the Yahoo! brand in the

U.S.

Lycos used to be one of the Norwegian company Fast's loyal customers. Since Yahoo! took over Fast's AlltheWeb search engine, Lycos has been powered by Yahoo's search technology.

Now Lycos has announced that it will replace Yahoo! with the Ask Jeeves/Teoma search engine. Ask Jeeves also syndicates its search technologies and advertising products to other Web sites, including, InfoSpace, BellSouth, Mamma.com and CNET Networks.

Adam Sciroco, an executive at Lycos, which is a unit of South Korean Web site operator Daum Communications Corp. said that Ask Jeeves technology was already being used on other Lycos Web properties. "The decision to switch (came) because we felt that the relationship with Jeeves provided us with a broad web search solution (and) gave us the flexibility and the ability to differentiate our products later this year," he said.

This only proves that the search engine duopoly -- where Google and Yahoo! split the search engine world between them -- is over. MSN has its own search engine. Ask Jeeves is moving up, and there are new companies, like Gigablast, trying to become the next Google.

Over a dozen consecutive quarters of this intensifying heat is melting the ice cap that formed a glass ceiling between search engine marketers and mainstream advertising consciousness. Long-term revenue streams are now flooding as the melting ice cap sends buckets of liquid capital flowing into all regions of the sector.

Changes to an environment are often signaled by several seemingly unconnected events, the effects of which only become fully apparent as they unfold. The list of seemingly unconnected events grows longer every day. For months astute observers have noted the very real effects these events have on how search results are provided. An example would be the effect of Blogs both on popular culture and Google results. Another is the growing adoption of broadband in the

United States

. Other examples include, Yahoo's growing relationship with Hollywood, Google's global goals, MSN's declaration of tech-war, Ask's recent acquisitions, and this week's purchase of About.com by the New York Times. With search engine related items hitting the financial news on a daily basis, multi-billion dollar revenue projections and the sudden realization of what were once science-fiction fantasies, a shift in corporate group-think was inevitable. One day, the print-addled ad-execs on Madison Avenue woke up, smelled the silicone and went to the bank.

This shift in corporate consciousness has, to a large degree, caused and affected the evolution of the search engine environment. Over the past three years, various concepts of search have moved in from the peripheries towards the middle on the radar screens of corporate marketers. Being creatures of habit and working from their power base, they went where the money was.

Until recently, the largest advertisers appeared to define search as the PPC (pay-per-click) offerings of Google's Adwords and Overture, and the myriad of smaller pay-per-click programs. Unlike the technically challenging and unpredictable world of organic SEO, PPC programs give marketing departments’ solid numbers to base budget estimates and outcome projections on. PPC programs with their massive contextual distribution networks caught the attention of corporate marketers and their investments in PPC have sustained and driven both Google and Overture's bottom lines.

The effect of reliance on PPC has had a positive effect on the business of search, allowing both Google and Yahoo to post record profits on astronomical revenues in the last quarter. Investment in the search sector is also driven by the success of PPC/ad-delivery programs. That bulk of money is being pumped back into innovation and acquisitions with both giants and their smaller rivals expected to release dozens of new features in the coming months.

Corporate reliance on PPC has had a negative effect on growth in the search sector as well. With more attention being paid to paid listings, many large corporations neglected their websites' organic placements. Numerous studies have shown that most online traffic is generated by the organic or unpaid listings and that “actual sales” tend to stem from a holistic branding approach to search engine marketing. Reliance on one form of search-advertising has almost certainly inhibited online sales for many larger corporate sites, a situation which places their confidence in search-advertising models at risk. A lowering of advertiser confidence may be evidenced by a slight decline in the number of ad-purchases and keyword cost-bids in January though post-Christmas budget-shock might be an invisible factor.

For the past few weeks search engine journalists have written about the lack of corporate interest in organic placements and the perils of ignoring the free listings. Another study released today by Nick Hynes of UK SEM shop, The Search Works notes that over two thirds of FTSE100 (UK version of Fortune100) companies do not appear in the Top20 under keyword phrases relevant to their industries. Similar results can be found when searching for Fortune100 companies at Google, Yahoo and MSN. This prompting is starting to have an effect with an increase in corporate awareness about the importance of organic placements. If corporate advertisers find a profitable balance between organic and paid search marketing, this balance will form the basis of optimal search-marketing campaigns for the coming years, thus providing both advertisers and the SEMs who serve them a sense of solid ground in the midst of the rapidly changing environment.

Ultimately, the effects on the environment have been very positive for most of the SEO/SEM sector. Established SEM shops tend to be coping quite well with the sudden changes and are happily netting increasing volumes of big and small fish. They are hiring and training new SEOs and retraining older staff in SEM technique in order to keep up. Several independent SEOs are even turning work away as they are simply too busy to take on new clients. Conventional wisdom says that the organic SEO shops that learn to combine organic and PPC services (either directly or with a third party) will not only survive the changes in our working environment but will be in a position to provide a much more comprehensive service to their clients.

Today's bottom line for both corporate advertisers and the SEMs who serve them is simple; learn, adapt, evolve, integrate skill-sets and thrive in the ever-expanding world of search. As the floods come in, don't be afraid to get your feet wet.