Conducted by Greg Aldea

Academy of Web Specialists

Take search engine marketing training!

Grega: I’m a pro SEO... and have my own business.

Grega: HI Ldebord! OK... looks like the gangs all here..again.. if you have anything to add along the way please do!!

Burgwald: This is a gang?

Grega: You may have heard that yahoo has renewed it’s contract with Google.

Anyway, you may have heard that yahoo has not only renewed its contract, but is using googles results on its main page.. this is the first time that yahoo's directory results do not come up in some way for a specified search. This is a significant change from yahoo's program to subordinate its own human edited directory with googles Search database.

Burke: ?

Grega: Yes Burke? .. you have a question?

Burke: Why are they doing this as I read in Robin’s stuff ... Yahoo as about 3 or 4 more % in capture audience than Google?

Grega: Not sure of their reasons Burke.. can only project a reason.

Burke: Are they having trouble getting people with the rates they charge?

Grega: I wouldnt think so.. could be that googles results are more relevant to the search terms used.

Burgwald: Could be qualified people.

Grega: Could be.

Burgwald: Lack there of.

Burke: A directory/category would only project so far, as "words" would be more accurate ,,,, don't know,, just a guess.

Burgwald: Good way to cut over head.

Grega: This change by yahoo now makes all the major search engines powered by a spider based search this for us means that your web had better be spider friendly. Any other questions on yahoo/google?

Burgwald: Where can I find info on spider friendly?

ACWS TRANSCRIBER: Where else-ACWS!

Grega: Hmm… my first thought is to go through your info from your class.

Burke: Yahoo is in with Overture I read too now huh ?

Grega: Yes, ok.. next..we are starting to see SE's that are using “artificial intelligence”.

Burke: Explain a bit more Grega.

Grega: There is now a patented technology that uses artificial intelligence to search for context and meaning, much like a human. According to the CEO of Dolphin Search Inc.

Burke: Are any SE's using this now ?

Grega: Just Dolphin Search Inc., this company is financed by venture capital and teamed up with Lexis Nexis to market the Dolphin Search Technology.

The CEO is saying that "we have taught computers to read language with much greater understanding than they did before": this is still a new venture and as more info shows up I will keep you informed,next...on a lighter note..

Inktomi sold off its enterprise search business to Verity Inc.

Inktomi is now back down to 'bare bones' as it was when it was founded in 1996.

Burke: ?

Grega: The sale price was $25M in June of 2000, Inktomie bought Ultraseek Corp from Disney for $344.7M, so it looks like they lost their pants in that transaction-yes Burke?

Burke: Were they next to bankrupt is that why they sold for so low a $?, sounds like it !!

Grega: Very well could be..I dont think that Inktomi is making a lot of $$$; it is quite a steal for Verity Inc.

Burke: I’d say so ! - yep.

Grega: It got technology for search, categorization and XML handling, with the sale... Inktomi stated that 'this divestiture will make it immediately cash flow positive and profitable .... before interest, tax depreciation and amortization.

Inktomi's plan is to focus exclusively on web search. the market the company was founded to address... and plans to make some technology upgrade announcements shortly - next is AV... Altavista as you may have seen.. have created a new interface. Although they are having some problems, if you are using Netscape as your browser, the link hovercolor and active link colors don’t work with Netscape.

AV is attempting to get back the millions of users they lost in the last 2 yrs.. mostly to Google.

Along with the regular results, you are offered a button labeled "more precision".. which will search for pages based on natural language questions. They will also update its list of the most popular search terms every 24 hrs and use the info to freshen its database.

They also have more PDF files in their database, a new news search feature that lets you sort by topic or region. or date and time. It includes links to over 4 million news articles in English and German. AV claims that 50 % of its results are refreshed daily - that’s quite a claim.. any questions?

Burke: ?

Grega: Yes?

Burke: To your knowledge, are SE's gone through in 24 or 48 hours? I’m talking in regards to refreshing here of course ? That is most SE's ?

Grega: A couple of them, if you pay for inclusion, will spider your site every 24 hrs, the others... NO. Google spiders once a month generally. Any other questions? Well.. thanks to you all for stopping by.. have a safe and happy holiday.. and we will see you all next month!