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My 2 featured articles for the week ending April 9:

Archived blogs for the week of April 4, 2005

819 - Apr. 8, 2005 - 10.47 AM EST

EMAX Alive in a deal with Google

EMAX Alive has begun an advertising program with Google to market its new ISP, http://www.eMaxAlive.com.

eMax Alive's ISP service is priced to compete nationally at $14.95/month and to compete with other popular dial-up ISPs that do not offer content filtering.

eMaxAlive is excited about the instant messaging and chat program Trillian by http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ Trillian is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC.

eMaxAlive.com directly competes with AOL, Netscape, Netzero and MSN. eMaxAlive.com can be found in the United States and throughout Canada.

EMAX Alive is offering video production services through EMAX Studios. For further information regarding these services please review http://www.emaxcorp.com/studios.html and email us at info@emaxcorp.com for pricing on a specific production need.

Posted on Businessblog™

818 - Apr. 8, 2005 - 10.14 AM EST

Flash Web sites and Google

One important question on everyone's mind is whether Google can index and add Web pages to its database if those Web pages were written using the Flash animation format.

Google never had any problems indexing regular 'static' pages, such as those written in HTML, SHTML, PHP or ASP. However, Flash files have always represented problems for all search engines, and not just Google.

"Flash is a self-contained unit," said workshop leader Gregory Cox, owner of the Leyline Web site promotion consultancy in Ventura, Calif.

"The way search engine spiders work, they collect text--what I call 'Google food.' With Flash, there's no text to index." Cox acknowledged reports in the search optimization industry that Google was, in fact, capable of combing through Flash movies for keywords.

(Google, which typically keeps mum on its indexing techniques, was not immediately available to comment for this report.)

But that doesn't put Flash sites on equal footing with their static page competitors, Cox cautioned.

Posted on Businessblog™

817 - Apr. 7, 2005 - 2.01 PM EST

Google doubles the capacity of its search appliance

The Google Mini-Appliance, which is designed for small and mid-size businesses, can now index up to 100,000 documents or unique URLs.

This actually is double its previous capacity. The company also reduced the price to US$2,995, from US$4,995 when the product first came out in January.

Despite being best known for its public search engine, the company has also been plugging away at corporate-focused search.

To that end, Google sells search appliances, which combine hardware and software to index documents on a company's internal or external Web sites. The new Google Mini's greater capacity and lower price are designed to make the entry-level search appliance more attractive to smaller businesses.

Posted on Businessblog™

816 - Apr. 7, 2005 - 8.32 AM EST

AlmondNet to distribute Lycos' paid listings

Lycos is to distribute search listings from its advertisers through AlmondNet's new ad system that shows advertisements to users based on their previous search history.

New York-based AlmondNet plans to distribute Lycos' Adbuyer paid listings in banner ads, targeting them based on users' previous search behavior.

AlmondNet has struck deals with undisclosed ISPs and adware companies to collect non-personally identifiable search behavior through cookies. The search data is then used by AlmondNet's Post-Search broker network, which buys low-priced run-of-site inventory from publishers, to display graphical ads tied to previous search behavior.

For example, a user who searched for "health insurance" on Google might later see a banner ad on a weather site reading, "Looking for health insurance? Click here for low-cost options."

"Forty percent of online advertising spending goes to search engines, but people spend less than 5 percent of their time on search engines," said Roy Shkedi, CEO of AlmondNet. "Something doesn't.

Posted on Businessblog™

815 - Apr. 6, 2005 - 2.27 PM EST

Internet ad spending is increasing

According to a new study conducted by Deutsche Bank, Internet and online ad spending continues to grow at a higher rate of growth in the first quarter of 2005.

Released today, the survey reveals that Internet marketers spent more money on Internet advertising in the first quarter of this year than the last quarter of 2004.

For the report, 108 media executives were questioned in March about their clients' experiences with Internet advertising in the first quarter, and expectations for the second quarter. This survey, which was conducted online by InsightExpress using members of the MediaPost advisory panel, is the second of an ongoing series of quarterly studies of media professionals by MediaPost and Deutsche Bank.

More than two out of three--71 percent--of executives surveyed said that their clients' spending increased from the last quarter of 2004, while an additional 16 percent reported that budgets were flat. Almost half of all survey respondents (44 percent) said marketers increased spending by at least 11 percent--including 7 percent who reported increases of more than 30 percent.

The strong results indicate that online advertising continues to experience a resurgence, despite recent declines in the stock prices of companies including Yahoo! and Google. "All things really do point to a very healthy industry, notwithstanding what we tend to watch--which is the stock prices," said Jeetil Patel, a Deutsche Bank senior analyst.

Posted on Businessblog™

814 - Apr. 6, 2005 - 8.15 AM EST

Satellite images added to Google Maps

Wishing to beat competitors Ask Jeeves, Yahoo and many others, Google has integrated satellite technology to its existing mapping service.

The new satellite feature allows consumers to get an aerial photo snapshot of the location for which they are searching.

People can enter an address and click on the "Satellite" link to view an area, zoom in or see neighboring locations by moving the cursor.

"Thinking about spending time at the shore this summer? Search for hotels with Google Local and check out the 'beach' in 'beachfront,'" John Hanke, general manager of Google's Keyhole unit, wrote in a blog.

Posted on Businessblog™

813 - Apr. 5, 2005 - 10.55 AM EST

Google now offers stock quotes

Google just added real-time stock quotes and taxi lookup services to its line-up of free offerings.

Adding to its existing 20-minute-delayed stock quotes, Google last week started making real-time stock quotes available both through its Web site and through SMS sent to 46645.

"As a Google user, it always bugged me to have to go to other Web sites to get stock quotes," Katie Stanton, a Google business product manager, wrote in the company's corporate blog. "Now we get a direct feed of market data, so all you have to do is type in a ticker symbol like INDU or SUNW and the search results will include the latest exchange and real-time ECN quote, intraday chart, volume and market cap."

ECNs, or Electronic Communication Networks, are private financial trading systems that together process about a quarter of the Nasdaq's volume, according to Yahoo. ECN quotes may differ slightly from official stock market quotes. Yahoo offers free ECN quotes but charges $9.95 per month for streamed actual quotes through its MarketTracker service.

Posted on Businessblog™

812 - Apr. 5, 2005 - 10.05 AM EST

Ask Jeeves launches Ask Jeeves Espana

Currently available at http://es.ask.com , the search service is expected to formally launch this summer at www.askjeeves.es.

Ask Jeeves Espana, is based on the Company's flagship consumer search site Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com), and follows Ask Jeeves' expansion into the United Kingdom and Japan.

It is the first in a series of international growth initiatives to be announced by the Company this year.

"International expansion is an important component to our corporate growth strategy," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask Jeeves Inc. "We believe the Ask Jeeves brand has a tremendous opportunity to succeed in Europe because it offers the only differentiated world-class search experience to consumers."

Posted on Businessblog™

811 - Apr. 4, 2005 - 5.44 PM EST

Search multiple hotel sites with FareChase

Yahoo is testing FareChase, a search product to offer consumers the opportunity to search multiple hotel sites. It's an expansion of its travel search offering announced in August 2004.

The hotel beta also provides features and tools that help make choosing a hotel easier, such as hotel photos, user ratings and reviews, interactive maps that display hotels and attractions, and other useful travel content, says Yahoo.

Posted on Businessblog™

810 - Apr. 4, 2005 - 3.36 PM EST

Google introduces Cross-Channel Conversion Tracker

Google introduces "Cross-Channel Conversion Tracker", a feature for AdWords advertisers that allow them to track their ad campaigns for both Google and other advertising programs, using the same interface.

Google sets up a network of tracking URLs that advertisers use in their non-Google campaign (Google's page on the new feature specifically mentions its arch competitor Overture). Google then keeps tabs on conversions across the entire campaign.

Posted on Businessblog™

809 - Apr. 4, 2005 - 12.40 PM EST

AOL wants to share its technology?

AOL helped the US discover the Internet, but millions have learned to surf the Web without it, and the world's biggest Internet service provider is reinventing itself, in the hope of becoming more competitive again.

AOL still makes money getting people online via dial-up modems for $23.90 a month. That market is shrinking fast, though, as subscribers defect to faster broadband connections or cheaper dial-up services.

The so-called walled garden that AOL created for its members in the 1990s — a private network of Web sites reachable only if you have proprietary AOL software — also is becoming harder to sell. Jamie Stein, a 27-year-old Hollywood script consultant, dropped his membership after discovering how much was available free on the open Web. Like many, he feels he outgrew AOL.

"It seems like the layman's way to explore the Internet," Stein said recently. "At this point, it's becoming less and less of a necessity."

But AOL has a plan, which executives at corporate headquarters here describe as one of the biggest strategic shifts in the company's history. It's to move many services once reserved for paying members — including music, a search engine, video clips and shopping sites — onto the open Web to attract more visitors and advertisers.

The moment of truth will come this summer, when the company expects to release a revamped AOL.com homepage, a flashy version of its instant messaging program and a new Web-based e-mail service. AOL executives hope the homepage will become a starting point for Web surfers much as Yahoo.com and MSN.com are now — sites that draw more visitors and reap higher profits than AOL.

Posted on Businessblog™

808 - Apr. 4, 2005 - 9.25 AM EST

Vertical search engines cater to specific interests

Wishing to provide searchers with more relevant information, a number of companies are launching search engines that are uniquely focused on very narrow topics.

Job seekers, shoppers and teens all have new search engines devoted to their interests. So do people who want to find where someone else works.

Driving the search industry's niche evolution is the reality that the general purpose search engines of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN fail to find relevant links for many queries. The theory is that vertical search engines, as they are often called, will be more effective in connecting users with the information they want.

"There are times when you are looking for something discrete and, from an efficiency standpoint, a vertical search engine may help you find what is essential to you," said David Hills, chief executive for LookSmart, a San Francisco company that introduced five vertical search engines last week.

They include Teenja.com for teens, 24HourScholar.com for college students and GoBelle.com for moms on the go. Much of the information they offer comes from articles culled from FindArticles, a LookSmart Web site.

Vertical search isn't new. Such Web sites have existed for years to help users find people, shop, read blog entries and get business information.

What's happening now is a dramatic acceleration in the number of engines rolling out, according to Internet industry analysts and executives. During the past six months, many new engines covering a broad spectrum of subjects have premiered.

Many of them are by small startups like Indeed.com, a Web site for scanning job boards. Another, Answers.com, created by GuruNet, is for reference material. Become.com is for shopping. Ziggs.com helps locate professionals.

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2005. All rights reserved.

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