Interview with Chris Ridings -Jan 31, 2003
SearchEngineBlog.com

Chris Ridings of supportforums.org gives his thoughts on PageRank, the SearchKing Lawsuit and "cowboy" search engine optimizers.

This is a great interview with one of the most knowledgeable analysts in the search engine industry.

Also not to be overlooked is another great effort by Peter De Vanzo of searchengineblog.com for snagging another industry expert to interview.

Google-Opoly: The Game No One but Google Can Play -Jan 31, 2003
Slate

A look at the SearchKing vs Google lawsuit. Not much new ground is covered here but there are links to a few legal analyses of the case.

It is interesting to see things from the perspective of someone involved in the legal field as opposed to those in the field of search engine analysis and optimization.

Google Synth -Jan 31, 2003
GoogleSynth

What a clever program! GoogleSynth takes two images and combines them into one for some sometimes cool and sometimes strange results.

 GoogleSynth uses Google's image search and a database of 62,000 words to randomly grab two images and them combine them based on the features the user has selected.

Be sure to take a look.

New Google Countries - Jan 28, 2003
Axandra.com

Google Has added two new countries to its ever growing list of search sites:

Google Peru

Google Puerto Rico

A Google Win in SearchKing Case - Jan 27, 2003
Google Weblog

In SearchKing v. Google the judge has denied SearchKing's request for preliminary injunction.

In other words, SearchKing asked for their old PageRank to be reinstated while the trial was being held, and the judge said no.

Links to the full story are also provided. This is going to be an interesting case. Be sure to check back for the latest updates.

Rainbow Rowell: This is your brain on Google
- Jan 24, 2003

If you are a die hard fan of Google, you should be able to identify with everything in here.

Likewise, for those who can't understand why your friend is hooked on Google, you owe it to yourself to give this article a read.

Credit goes to Jonathan at CodingTheWeb.com for bringing this to my attention. Great find!

City Ogles Google Impact -Jan 24, 2003
InformationWeek

Google's search technology makes lives easier for an entire city.

Employees for the city government in San Diego, California are using Google's technology to be more productive and improve their overall work experience.

According to the city's E-government manager, Bill Cull, they were able to have the system up and running in 30 minutes and with employee's existing knowledge of Google it was a sure fit for the city.

Google PageRank - Democracy or Corporate Muscle? - Jan 23, 2003

Well, here is another article on PageRank. I can't say I agree with everything the author says but then again everyone seems to have their own take on PageRank.

The article is still a good read and the author makes some interesting suggestions on how Google could improve things. Google isn't perfect but it's still the best.

Is Googling Ok? - Jan 23, 2003


The idea of privacy is changing as a result of the Internet explosion. So much information that might otherwise be locked away in a file room is now accessible on the web.

With the power of Google, people can go "googling" or searching for information on you and your personal life.

The problem is people share names and it can be very difficult to determine where one identity ends and another begins.

You will need to sign up for a free account to access this article. Sorry, the New York Times have their rules :-)

Take A Tour of Google - Jan 21, 2003
Google

Google now has a new feature on their homepage that allows you to take a "tour" of Google. This is a neat way to get a quick run down of all the different services Google has to offer. It looks like they want to educate the general public that they have more to offer than the basic search engine.

With revived competition from Yahoo! and other up and coming search engines like Teoma and Wisenut, it's a sure bet they want people to start taking advantage of their other service offerings like Froogle and Google News.

Keep track of new search results - Jan 21, 2003
Googlert

Credit searchengineblog.com for this one. Googlert is a new utility built around the Google API that lets you stay informed on new search results for whatever terms or phrases you want to keep tabs on.

This is a cool idea. If you are anything like me, you often search on the same phrases repeatedly to find any new information on that topic. Googlert should be a great time saver for the information hungry :-)

Google Cache Saves Website From Disk Crash
-Jan 15, 2003
Wired

This is interesting. I like to use the Google cache feature to view web pages that are no longer around but I never thought to use it as a way to restore a website that had been deleted or lost from a server crash. Google never ceases to amaze me :-)

This guy has Froogle wrong - Jan 14, 2003
BusinessWeek

The author of this article claims Froogle does not return relevant results and has a long way to go to compete with the likes of NextTag and PriceGrabber.com

I completely disagree with some of his conclusions.

For instance, he claims by searching on "digital voice recorders", in an attempt to find an Olympus DS 330, only a few name brand recorders were returned, none by Sony, there were few stores he would feel comfortable shopping with, and some products not even related to digital voice recorders were included in the results.

Curious at how irrelevant the results seemed, I entered the same phrase, "digital voice recorders", with quotes and without and got completely different results.

All of the results on the first page were digital voice recorders.

Name brands like Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, RCA were all present from big name stores like Target, OfficeMax, Buy.com, and K-mart. The results were slightly different with and without quotes, but by using quotes, the exact model of voice recorder he was looking for turned up.

I don't know when this article was originally written, and perhaps Google "tweaked" Froogle in the meantime but I think it is strange that Business Week would run with something that was so far off.

Google's Gaggle of Problems - Jan 14, 2003
BusinessWeek

Being at the top can be lonely, and Google faces many new challenges as we enter 2003.

The recent news that Yahoo! purchased Inktomi is definitely interesting but Google also faces competition in the business world.

Last year Google launched its corporate search appliance targeting the lower and of the corporate search market. In October of last year, Verity, the king of the high-end business search market, purchased Inktomi's corporate search assets and instantly began to encroach on Google's niche of low cost corporate search solutions.

Adding more to the mix, Overture secured rights to be the exclusive search provider to CNN and CNN's other online properties which receive more than 30 million unique visitors a month.

Google is still in good shape but with increased competition in key business areas and the rumblings of an IPO sometime this year, 2003 could be very interesting.

Google moves to quash search-fix lawsuit
-Jan 13, 2003

ZDNet

While Search King has continued its crusade to fight the mighty search giant, Google has quickly filed a motion to dismiss the case. Google claims that PageRank is simply their opinion on how important a page is and that they are protected under the First Amendment. They further claim that Search King's practice of selling text links on popular sites in hopes of getting higher placement in search results damaged the quality of search results.

Assessing the Net results - Jan 10, 2003
MSNBC

Yahoo! may have purchased Inktomi to reposition itself as a credible search engine, but is it too little too late? Back in the dot.com days Yahoo! became more interested in being everything to all users instead of focusing on giving people what they wanted: The ability to find information quickly and easily.  Web-based e-mail, calendars, and shopping seemed great until they woke up one day to find hot shot startup Google the master of search. They have been playing catch-up ever since. Google remains one of the few profitable companies of the dot.com era and is the fourth most popular destination on the Internet. Yahoo may be running a race they can't possibly win.

The Google SearchKing Saga Continues
- Jan 08,2003

The battle between Google and Internet company SearchKing rages on.  SearchKing has posted Google's response to their lawsuit and is charging $20 bucks for the curious to sneak a peek.  I'm not exactly sure what I think of this.  On the one hand it doesn't see ethical but on the other I sure am curious :-)  If the above link doesn't work try this one (SearchKing Cache) If you are unfamiliar with the case links to background articles are given.

Apple's New Browser Integrates
Google Toolbar - Jan 07, 2003
News.com.au

Apple's new browser Safari, not only integrates the Google Toolbar but claims to be able to render webpages three times faster than Internet Explorer and even has the ability to block pop-ups!

Ga-ga over Google - Jan 04, 2003
The Age

Google tracks and stores every search query that comes through its system. This isn't earth shattering news, but it is interesting how similar people's thought patterns are the world over. The Google Zeitgeist was born out of the popularity of Britney Spears and on April 22, 2001 people all over the us wanted to know Carol Brady's maiden name. Strange but true. The commercial value of this data cannot be denied. The rumblings of a Google IPO may not be that far fetched.

Google Cache Luck! - Jan 03, 2003
SupporForums.org

Ever wondered how Google stores all of those cached websites? Cris of SupportForums.org discusses the possibilities of random filename generation and the likelihood of your cached page being overwritten by another. Great observation!

Predictions for 2003
SupportForums.org
2003-01-02 15:32:38
SupportForums.org is one of my favorite sites to visit for the latest search engine news and industry happenings. In this article Cris writes about his predictions for the upcoming year and the possible changes Google will face thanks to the Yahoo/Inktomi deal.