Google - Froogle makes the starting lineup on Google's home page. In case you're wondering, Google's Froogle feature is designed to help online shoppers find and sort consumer items by product and price. The Froogle home page itself, after being in test mode for about a year, also got a redesign that sets its layout on par with Google's other primary search offerings.
Google's made a subtle change to the layout on their search results page. They've replaced the Image-link Tabs they previously used connecting to Groups, Images, and News with plain ole text-links. We suspect that by removing what little clutter the tabs contributed, they'll increase the clicks on their FroogleNew! link.
March 29th, Google labs launched another new tool they call Web Alerts. The service notifies you when Google discovers new information based on a specific search query. You can sign up for Web Alerts at: http://www.google.com/webalerts.
Overture - Overture SITE MATCH = Guaranteed Listings in Yahoo! It's almost that simple. The problem is that, while your listing in Yahoo is guaranteed when you pay to enlist in Overture's SITE MATCH, your positioning is NOT. That means that paying to be listed might just get you nothing more than position #599 on Yahoo's 30th page of it's WEB RESULTS! ...and we seriously doubt that will make you happy.
To add insult to injury, your competitor might be getting listed for free and hold a Top Ten position. That might just make you (and your wallet) even more unhappy. So the trick is to get listed for free in Yahoo's WEB RESULTS and gain first page positioning.
Ask Jeeves / Teoma - accepts submissions to their engine via a paid inclusion program called Site Submit available at http://ask.ineedhits.com/sitesubmit.asp
MSN - MSN Signs Deal Keeping LookSmart On Life Support. MSN has once again renewed their intravenous feeding of LookSmart's bottom line by occasionally displaying their directory results. Based on the LookSmart press release this month announcing an agreement between MSN and LookSmart, it appears we may be seeing more of the LookSmart directory listings at MSN for a while longer – perhaps until MSN Search gets its own engine up and running.
ODP / DMOZ - Google's link to the ODP directory has been relegated to a more obscure page making it even more unlikely their site visitors will make use of it.
Yahoo - Yahoo added a new beta search toolbar and local search function, but that is "no big news". For starters, Yahoo is now, for the first time ever, a pure search engine! Ok, technically they are a directory too, ...and a pay-per-click engine that mixes in paid inclusion results with free "organic" listings – but their default search results are being driven in part by their own Yahoo! Search Technology (old Inktomi) database. And, that is a free crawler; meaning that you do not have to pay to be listed!
The short of it is that Yahoo wants your wallet. But, you should NOT have to give it to them to get listed in their search results. Many companies are paying for listings they could very likely be getting for free by simply letting Yahoo's free crawler find their site's pages. The new Yahoo strategy we outline in our update article and UFA Book (see links mentioned above) detail this fact while making solid recommendations on exactly who, when and why to give Yahoo (through Overture) your money – or not!
