Yahoo! intros content separation tag
Yahoo! has introduced a new tag that lets site owners make their core content more visible in search results.
The robots-nocontent tag allows webmasters to define areas of a page that are merely navigational elements or other secondary constructs that should be ignored by search spiders.
Yell.com redesigns homepage
Yell.com has today unveiled a new look for its homepage, and has opted for a cleaner, more streamlined version.
This is how it looks:
Google inks partnership for better govt. info access
Google is working with US state governments to make online information more easily accessible to citizens.
The search site partnered with Arizona, Utah, California and Virginia so that "information that previously did not appear in a casual Google search will now appear when searching for results on relevant topics ranging from education to health to property records or regulations", Reuters reported and Google announced.
On-site Search – is it only about search?
Your on-site search tool should act like a human, not like an advanced search engine, writes Tal Rubenczyk.
Feature filtering - what is it and why do you need it?
Providing effective feature filtering - allowing users to narrow search results and / or navigate through a website by selecting multiple product features - can make a big difference to customer experience.
Many people will only use the search option on an e-commerce site as a last resort, and most prefer to navigate through a site using links, because this requires less mental effort.
Ask.com admits to secret anti-Google campaign
Ask.com has launched a guerrilla-style marketing campaign designed to encourage British internet users to broaden their choice of search engine.
In the last couple of weeks, posters featuring a megaphone, a link to information-revolution.org and the slogan "stop the information monopoly" began appearing on tube trains, lamp posts and elsewhere. They warn libertarians about Google's 75% UK market share, although the name of the organisation behind the campaign was not disclosed.
Microsoft attacks Google's 'cavalier' ad billions
Microsoft is expected to publicly criticise rival Google's "cavalier" approach to copyright in a speech to the publishing industry today.According to an advance copy of an address due to be delivered by associate general counsel Thomas Rubin to the American Association of Publishers, and obtained by the Financial Times, Rubin will say: "Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people's content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue and IPOs.
Yahoo! launches Panama in quest for relevance
Yahoo late last night flipped the switch on a new search marketing system it hopes will help it close the gap on sector leader Google.
Codenamed "Panama", the new model gives sponsored ads higher billing based on keyword matches to page content. In the old approach, ads were ordered only by which marketers bid most.
A new user interface and dashboard was already being tested by customers before Yahoo! yesterday launched what senior engineer Awa Awadallah called the "quality-ordering marketplace".
Find the Gap.com (oh, actually you can't)
After almost three years of weak sales Gap CEO Paul Pressler has stepped down to enjoy more than £7m worth of severance pay. Why is the 3,100-store company suffering? One look at Gap’s website tells you all you need to know.
With just 107 words of readable text on its homepage, the Gap site is far too fond of pretty pictures for its own good. Being image-heavy isn’t always such a big problem, especially in these broadband-enabled times, but Gap has failed to strike the right balance between pictures and prose.
The main consequence for Gap is rubbish search engine visibility. Is it any wonder that the firm sales are in freefall?
Searchers tempted to check out Checkout
Google is ramping up its Checkout online payments service with a promotion campaign ahead of a rumoured imminent major development.The PayPal-esque conduit for customer-merchant transactions launched last June after its rival inked an exclusive deal to facilitate Yahoo! customers' payments.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
