Bookmark LinkingIsGood.com on del.icio.us
Search Engine Detective using the Pandia search engine
The Pandia Search Engine Detective is Pandia's resource section for search engine intelligence. Here we list the best search engine oriented sites and blogs on the Internet.
Check it out, personally I dont see what all the fuss is about.
Creating your own Search Engine with great ease with Rollyo
This looks like an interesting concept, dunno if it will work. Here is what they say about their product.
Rollyo offers the ability to search the content of a list of specified websites, allowing you to narrow down the results to pages from websites that you already know and trust
Goto Rollyo's website to Roll one off for free.
Your new homepage with Added Google, Yahoo and MSN
Earlier this year I made a free online portal for people to check news and browse their favourite search engine without having to leave pages. Its had great press and has alot of visitors each day. Feel free to add homper to your homepage.
Update: Added Homper to the site - having minor problems with RSS feed check back soon.
Find out what city an IP is from and more tools
This is a great tool and is always updated. You can find out alot about a single IP address. With extra tools like Spam checker, you can see if you have been added to a spam database. Validators, email tests, and more. Check out this great free online resource. Tracking IP addresses is great as you can see where your visitors are coming from or if its a Google Spider.
Who links to you or me - Free online tool to check you incoming links and more
www.wholinks2me.com is a very simple online tool that shows your incoming links from Google, Msn and Yahoo!. It also give tells you your total links, Google Page Rank and Alexa rank.
Googles new ‘Rate this tool’
Whilst I was adding the new sitemaps xml file for Linkingisgood.com, I noticed something different on the right hand side. Its a new tool from Google to rate their services. They will probably be adding this for other future Google applications. Its good that they are listening to public, a great step in the right direction.
Google Updating Backlinks
Google Updating Backlinks
According to a WebmasterWorld thread there is currently a Google backlink update going on at some chosen Google data centers; 64.233.187.104 and 64.233.187.99. Google, unlike Yahoo, has a tendency of showing only a sample of the sites which link to a specific site when the link:url search command is used.
Although Google also updated its PageRank about a month ago, the backlink update may lead to another Google PageRank update.
If you use Google to check the backlinks of your sites or those of your competitors, this update can be quite valuable. As for search rankings, it is yet to be seen if such backlink updates will have an influence, positive or negative.
Yahoo Search Index Update
Yahoo Search Index Update
Like Google’s backlink update, Yahoo also updated its search technology today with a Yahoo Search Index Update. The announcement was made on the Yahoo Search Blog, which also includes an invitation to join in the Yahoo Site Explorer Forum.
As usual, you’ll see some changes in ranking along with what is in the index. We’ve heard webmasters like you love the communication, such as weather reports from us. We are trying to connect with you more directly and enrich our interaction even further through Site Explorer.
Please authenticate your site in Site Explorer and join the conversation on the Site Explorer forum.
Yahoo News Drops Blog Search
Yahoo News Drops Blog Search
In what almost marks the one year anniversary of Yahoo adding blog search to its Yahoo News search results, Yahoo has mysteriously taken its blog search area out of the news game.
Besides the deletion of blog search results from Yahoo News (not to be confused with blogs indexed in the Yahoo News index, which is different than the Yahoo Blog Search index), Yahoo has also changed the title and description of their news search page, more or less confirming their new direction and lending possibility to the launch of a new and different Yahoo Blog Search offering. Amit Agarwal explains:
The older version from Yahoo Cache - this page shows Yahoo News and Blog Search in the title of the Yahoo! news search homepage.
The latest version from Google Cache - this page shows Yahoo News search homepage with no references to Blog Search as noted by Joe Beaulaurier.
So, what does Yahoo have up its blog search sleeve? Chances are that given the early success of MyYahoo Feeds and other Yahoo blog oriented offerings which hit the market earlier than most of their competition, Yahoo has not done very much since to launch an all emcompassing blog reader (such as Google Reader) & search offering, which should be integrated into the overall Yahoo experience (in a similar way that Ask.com has with Bloglines).
Google & eBay Partner for ‘Click to Call’
Google & eBay Partner for ‘Click to Call’
The WSJ (sub req’d) and NY Times (reg. req’d) are reporting this morning on a deal in which Google will distribute ads on eBay’s pages outside the US. eBay has a similar deal with Yahoo! domestically. This is something of a surprise given that eBay aggressively courted Google rivals in the US as an apparent move to counter increasing Google’s market power.
From the Journal:
Under the deal announced Monday, eBay and Google will begin testing the advertising arrangements in early 2007. The accord also calls for the companies to cooperate in developing “click to call” initiatives, which allow consumers to call merchants and advertisers directly using connections displayed in the ads.
The companies said they reached a multiyear agreement and will share advertising revenue on certain components of the deal. Other terms weren’t disclosed. EBay said the deal won’t affect its 2006 or 2007 financial results.
The power of “the market” seems to have won out, however, over eBay’s desire to not cede too much power to Google. Google’s search market share is more commanding outside the US and eBay seems to have bowed to that in the quest to generate more ad revenue.
From the NY Times:
“Google is very strong in every country outside of the United States,” said Meg Whitman, eBay’s chief executive, in an interview Sunday night. “We felt this arrangement of assets made sense.”
Outside the US — although there is Miva (the old ESpotting) — it appears that Google may have been the only choice with sufficient scale and advertiser volume. One has to see this as something of a blow to Yahoo! given the domestic partnership.
Perhaps most interesting about the deal is the “click to call” aspect. Again, from the Times:
As part of their deal, eBay and Google will build a “click to call” advertising system that will use both Skype and the much-smaller Google Talk. Ads on Google and products listed on eBay will have a click-to-call link that will allow users to have a conversation with the advertiser or product seller.
The companies expect that merchants will pay a fee — which Google and eBay will split — for each call they receive; this aspect of the deal involves both the United States and other countries.
I’m going to be investigating further but what’s most interesting to me about this is the fact that it represents a big plunge for Google into pay-per-phone call (PPCall). Without getting into the distinctions between “click to call” and PPCall, this is an advertising initiative. It’s also interesting that this is being rolled out on a large scale outside the US first for Google.
Google beta tested a “click to call” system (as a precursor to PPCall) with certain advertisers last year and then the test disappeared. In the US, Windows Live Local has integrated a “call for free” click to call capability. That’s not currently PPCall but will probably become that eventually.
Skype and Google Talk are part of the “calling infrastructure” but the idea is to connect buyers and sellers over the phone and use that as an ad vehicle, charging for each call connected. Google will apparently supply the advertisers here and eBay will take a piece of any call revenue generated.
One question is: will this relationship on calls come back to the US somehow (calls were allegedly part of the Yahoo!-eBay partnership)? And does this also mean that Google be introducing PPCall in the US market any time soon?
As I’ve said before the PPCall market would break open if Google or Yahoo! entered it in a real way.
Source: www.searchenginejournal.com
