The Blogging Journalist

Competitive Intelligence Among Search Bloggers

Barry Schwartz over at Danny Sullivan's recently launched Search Engine Land reported December 28, 2006, that "Search bloggers around the globe are celebrating the holiday season by giving the gift of competitive intelligence. From sharing their most popular posts to giving up all of their precious web statistics - a community of search bloggers are sharing more than they ever have."

To read more, please see "Search Bloggers On Their Most Popular Posts & Stats For 2006."

What Google Myths?

On December 27, 2006, Ionut Alex.Chitu over at the unofficial Google Operating System blog addressed what he calls "Google Myths."

"I've heard many inaccurate things about Google this year, and most of them are spread by word of mouth," he wrote. "Maybe Google should do a better job at explaining things that may seem trivial to computer experts, but difficult understand for other people."

It's as simple as that, sir. You can't take anything for granted when it comes to how information is disseminated and digested. Forget the A-listers, it's the common people you want to understand what you are doing.

Some Sex Bloggers Say Google Has Demoted Them

Xeni Jardin over at Boing Boing reported December 27, 2006, that, "A number of bloggers who cover topics related to human sexuality say they've suddenly disappeared (or at least been deeply demoted) in Google search results."

 "Popular "indie" blogs that deal with nonfiction sex ed or indie alt-erotica fare (Tiny Nibbles, Comstock Films, ErosBlog, and others) have suddenly vanished to much lower ranking in relevant search results -- even when you have Google's adult filter turned off," Jardin wrote. "And in practical effect, being buried is just as bad as being filtered out entirely."

To read the entire post, see "Google "disappears" sex blogs? Something's broken. 

By the way, I found the article and the resulting comments interesting and informative. I've always been fascinated by the Google bots, the Google Dance, and algorithms for ranking sites.

Interestingly, on December 27, 2006, Ionut Alex.Chitu over at the unofficial Google Operating System blog adressed the issue of ranking in a post headlined "Google Myths."

"Google uses the links from other pages the determine the importance of a page, and those links were placed by humans," he wrote. "Google also monitors user's clicks to determine if the search results are relevant."

Technorati tags: Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing, Google Bots, Google Dance, Google "disappears" sex blogs?

In This Corner Yahoo, In The Opposite Corner Google

Google and Yahoo are going at it over the design of an ad for IE7 on their respective sites. In the corner for Yahoo is Jeremy Zawodny. In the opposite corner is Google's Matt Cutts. In the middle are numerous tech bloggers.

Zawodny started it when he proclaimed on December 11, 2006: "Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo." Cutts responded with a post headlined "IE7 promo page" and a references to Google page layouts Yahoo allegedly used "without attribution."

Cutts said, "I was going to read some Penny Arcade, but Robert Scoble invoked me." Scoble, a VP at PodTech and a former Microsoft technical evangelist, said "There’s a whole lot of copying going on…Yahoo copies Google.

If you are interested in this inconsequential spat, TechMeme, which I read daily, has tracked blog posts surrounding it. So has Tailrank.  However, one of the best accounts I've read is WebProNews staff writer David A. Utter's December 12, 2006, post headlined "Yahoo, Google Bloggers Snipe Over Copying."

Technorati tags: Google, Yahoo, Jeremy Zawodny, Matt Cutts, Robert Scoble, Scobleizer, IE7, IE7 Promo Page, Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo, David A. Utter, WebProNews

NOTE: This post can also be found at The Technology Free Press, my tech blog.

Search Engines Will Be Highlighted In Frontline's Special On News

Danny Sullivan, writing from his new home over at Search Engine Land, reported December 1, 2006, that, "Next month, PBS's Frontline will have a special on the current state of news reporting. Both Google and Yahoo will be taking part in the extensive series," he noted.

For more, see "Frontline Special On News To Include Search Engines."

By the way, Danny, who founded the authoritative Search Engine Watch in 1997, is no longer at that blog. On November 30, 2006, he wrote a gracious departure statement headlined "Goodbye Search Engine Watch & Best Wishes!"

However, he will continue to participate in Search Engine Watch's Search Engine Strategies conferences, which he once staged six times a year in various parts of the U.S.

Jennifer Laycock: 'The Politicos Still Don't Get It'

Jennifer Laycock, editor of Search Engine Guide, published an August 23, 2006 post that analyzes "plans by political consultants to increase Web spending in 2008."

It's obvious that she's very savvy about how to use search engine marketing in political campaigns. See "The Politicos Still Don't Get It.

Topix.Net News Search Adds Features

Tolles over at Topix.net announced yesterday (August 7, 2006"  that, Topix "just launched a totally new version of the Topix.net News Search - adding an index of news and blog results going back over a year, and providing a click-o-gram (interactive histogram) of news results giving people a view from the past few minutes all the way back to over a year ago.

"Also," Tolles added, "for the true search geek, we're giving you case sensitive search on those results - enabling searches for news about "IT" that were not previously possible. This is all on top our 50,000 sources of main stream news and blogs, and providing news not only about national topics, but local stories for 50,000 cities and towns across the world."

"You can't get this across the street. :-)" Tolles joked.

To read more of this informative post, see "Biggest Index, Most Sources, Best News Search – Our Dial Goes to 11."