Saturday, February 11, 2006
Jovial Jeeves will retire at the end of February
He has been the face of Ask Jeeves for almost a decade but now the once portly valet Jeeves is hangin up his boots at the end of February. Apparently the decision was taken to axe Jeeves in September 2005 but the reaction of users has been gauged since.
Full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4701474.stm
Personally I'll be slighly sad to see him go, I think Ask Jeeves is one of the more impersonal search engines and Jeeves was a big part of this factor. Oh well I wonder where he will be spending his retirement. Maybe he will immigrate to Ireland and spend his time downing Guinness in his local.
Full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4701474.stm
Personally I'll be slighly sad to see him go, I think Ask Jeeves is one of the more impersonal search engines and Jeeves was a big part of this factor. Oh well I wonder where he will be spending his retirement. Maybe he will immigrate to Ireland and spend his time downing Guinness in his local.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Europe to tackle large Search Engines with Quaero
It is just in the embryonic stages but it seems that Europe is ramping up efforts to enter the search engine world with their offering Quaero. Billed as a "set of tools for translating, identifying and indexing images, sound and text" and spearheaded by French and German technicians, it hopes to take search power out of US hands and firmly into the hands of Europeans.
French President Jacques Chirac recently said in an address "We must meet the global challenge of the American giants Google and Yahoo,", "Today the new geography of knowledge and cultures is being drawn. Tomorrow, that which is not available online runs the risk of being invisible to the world,"
In my opinion it's very ambitious and it remains to be seen how much of the market they can pull back from the big 3. It is off to a bad start though, they don't have the quaero.com domain registered, however it could be that they will go with quaero.eu
Article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011100531.html
French President Jacques Chirac recently said in an address "We must meet the global challenge of the American giants Google and Yahoo,", "Today the new geography of knowledge and cultures is being drawn. Tomorrow, that which is not available online runs the risk of being invisible to the world,"
In my opinion it's very ambitious and it remains to be seen how much of the market they can pull back from the big 3. It is off to a bad start though, they don't have the quaero.com domain registered, however it could be that they will go with quaero.eu
Article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011100531.html
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Google's Long Tail
Here is a very interesting theory about Google's strategy in general to reach out and empower anyone who could possibly become a publisher. The end product would be a new base to generate cash flow from.
It is always a clever strategy to avoid alienating a potential audience. Google perform this quite well in my opinion.
| Quote: |
| To me it's obvious that The Big G is all about the Long T - the Long Tail that is. They recognize that they win best by aggregating services for the niches and then building enough of a base to generate cash flow. It's all very smart and it's indicative of why Google will dominate all of its competitors - including AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft. Those guys all have a short tail focus (e.g. securing big brand name advertisers). It's too difficult to walk away from this revenue stream to aggregate niches. |
It is always a clever strategy to avoid alienating a potential audience. Google perform this quite well in my opinion.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Google to buy 5% of AOL for $1 billion and other treats
Microsoft had been courting AOL now for quite sometime but it looks to have been hype in order to get a great deal from Google. AOL have now got that great deal. It will see Google pay $1 billion for a 5% stake. The deal will strengthen the advertising partnership between Google and their biggest customer by allowing AOL to sell advertising on behalf of Google and also will see AOL image advertisements incorporated into Google's search results pages. These image advertisements will be the first time Google have allowed this. Google's stock price rose on the news.
Full story here: http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13426237.htm
Full story here: http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13426237.htm
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Google Analytics is Live (well sort of)
A few months have passed now since Google acquired Urchin, one of the more successful web analytics companies. Now Google have launched their own web analytics service incorporating Urchin's software. And best of all it's totally free!
Google Analytics looks like it will be a major thorn in the side of web analytics companies everywhere who charge for their services. Google Analytics looks to be very comprehensive and provides many ways to track how successful your website is performing. All you need is a Google account and you can sign up for free today.
At the time of writing I have installed the tracking code for the service on one of my sites and I am waiting for "data to be collected" according to Google Analytics. They point out that there is a 12 hour wait before I can view my data in their reports but it has been 48 hours already. Seems like they were not prepared for the number of signups to the service initially and their server are having problems. However I will wait because the reports look excellent.
Are you going to use Google Analytics?
Google Analytics looks like it will be a major thorn in the side of web analytics companies everywhere who charge for their services. Google Analytics looks to be very comprehensive and provides many ways to track how successful your website is performing. All you need is a Google account and you can sign up for free today.
At the time of writing I have installed the tracking code for the service on one of my sites and I am waiting for "data to be collected" according to Google Analytics. They point out that there is a 12 hour wait before I can view my data in their reports but it has been 48 hours already. Seems like they were not prepared for the number of signups to the service initially and their server are having problems. However I will wait because the reports look excellent.
Are you going to use Google Analytics?
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Jagger2 has started
If you are following the current Google update Jagger with bated breath and sleepless nights then you may be interested to hear the second phase of the update "Jagger2" is now underway. GoogleGuy confirmed it earlier. The update should be rolling out from the 66.102.9.x group of datacenters.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Update Jagger
In case you haven't heard or realised Google is in the middle of an update right now that started on the 22nd of September. Matt Cutts of Google has confirmed it here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/update-jagger-contacting-google/ and WebMasterWorld has named it Update Jagger. According to Matt the update is in phase 1 right now with 1, possibly 2 more index updates to happen yet so if you are having bad luck with your rankings fear not because it's not over yet.
Anybody have any horror stories or success?
Anybody have any horror stories or success?
