MSN Search Campaign

Not content with its massive television, Internet, and radio advertising blitz to promote its newly released proprietary search engine MSN Search, MSN apparently has released a viral campaign, “MSN Found,” to promote the search site.

The ad features six fictional characters, each with their own Web log. They are Reggie, a DJ from London; Tad, a surfer from Venice Beach; Karen, a dog breeder from Sandusky, Ohio; Swing, a hotel concierge from Tokyo; Cy a security guard and conspiracy theorist from Chicago; and Denise, the owner of the new True dating service.

The viral’s main site, www.msnfound.com, collects all the blogs together, along with pictures of the authors. Each of the authors has a unique shtick.

Google Shift In Algorithm

RUMORS ARE FLYING ON SEARCH engine-related message boards, forums, and Web sites that Google had done its first major algorithm change of the new year--sending some companies' natural rankings up, and wiping others out almost completely. Google would neither confirm nor deny that there was a major algorithm update, but a company spokesperson said that Google is constantly updating its algorithm to improve service.

Industry professionals, however, had little doubt that the algorithm is changing. "There's some buzz going back several weeks," said Peter Hershberg, a managing partner for New York-based search engine marketing firm Reprise Media. "Several companies have indicated that their rankings have either gotten better or worse."

According to Hershberg, the update appears to be focused on distinguishing between the quality of different links, which the algorithm generally tabulates to determine order in the organic rankings. "It would appear as though Google is making distinction of quality of links. All links are not equal, and they're giving some links more credence than others," he said. "Lots of attention is being given to site content and anchor text." Anchor text refers to the hyperlinked text that directs a user to the linked URL.

He said that the new formula appears to give more weight to sites that have content, not just sponsored links and a navigation bar. And Google apparently now evaluates the anchor text to determine if it's related to the site content, or is just the same word over and over again--in which case the site's rank would fall.

Gmail Moves To Next Stage

Social networking is out and straight invitations are in at Google's free e-mail service, but the official line is that the shift does not signal an end to Gmail's beta status.

Google is giving more people the chance to sign up for Gmail, but the search giant insists the move does not signify an impending full-scale launch of the free e-mail service, which has been in beta since it launched on April 1 last year.

Yahoo To Buy Indiatimes

Internet search engine Yahoo is in talks to acquire a minority stake in Indiatimes, the online operation of the privately owned Bennett Coleman Ltd, which owns the Times of India newspaper.

A senior executive at Bennett Coleman confirmed negotiations were taking place but added that the group was also talking to private equity funds. "An Internet initiative requires plenty of investment and since we hope to take our portal to the Nasdaq, we will require support," the executive said. He said negotiations could be completed within a month.

Senior Yahoo executives were in India last week to review the company's domestic operations but declined to comment on a potential investment in Indiatimes.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta

Microsoft will be launching a beta version of Internet Explorer 7 this summer. The new release will only work with Windows XP SP2 and will apparently add new antispyware features.

Yahoo Toolbar for Firefox

Yahoo has released a public beta of a Yahoo Toolbar for Firefox.

Google Adwords To Appear On AOL

Advertisers using Google's AdWords service will now be able to appear on the search results pages of AOL Europe following a newly expanded deal between the two Internet giants. Google previously provided search results for AOL. The value of the new deal has not been disclosed but it covers AOL's network of sites in the UK, France and Germany, which between them have some 6.3m users.

N.Y. Times Buys About.com

The New York Times Company reached a deal to buy About.com from Primedia for $410 million. News of the deal follows a week of rumors About.com was for sale, and coveted by The Times, along with several other bidders.

The purchase adds an alternative content model to the New York Times Company's online news properties, NYTimes.com and Boston.com. In a statement, the company said it was motivated by About's profitability and growth, and said the purchase would diversify the company's online advertising base. About.com will operate as a separate business division.

Yahoo Expansion

US internet portal Yahoo is to set up its European operations headquarters in Dublin in a significant expansion of its operations in Ireland.

The move, which is being backed by IDA Ireland, will create almost 400 new jobs over five years. The activities will involve financial, web hosting and customer support.

Yahoo Firefox Toolbar

Yahoo released a beta version of the Yahoo! Toolbar for the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser. The free tool, available on Thursday, adds similar functions to those available for the Internet Explorer browser.

Google Maps

In its latest play in the ongoing search wars, Google on Tuesday quietly launched a beta site for a new map service.

Google Maps offers maps, driving directions and the ability to search for local businesses. The search giant appears to be working with TeleAtlas for the mapping products.

Answers.com

Since last month, Google has been gradually switching over its search term definition links to GuruNet's Answers.com site from Google's old standby, Dictionary.com. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning, GuruNet CEO Robert Rosenschein said Google's transition to Answers.com was complete.

"It now appears we're getting all of that traffic and Dictionary.com is getting none," Rosenschein said.

Dictionary.com is owned and operated by Lexico Publishing Group, a privately held company in Los Angeles. Lexico issued Google a free, nonexclusive license to link to its dictionary definitions in April 2000.

MSN Search

MSN launched its new Search in India, the first-ever search engine built from the ground up by Microsoft. MSN Search will help consumers search more quickly and get precise answers. Now available in 25 markets and 10 languages, the new MSN Search service delivers better results in one click. A collection of tools gives people greater control in targeting and refining searches to get instant, accurate answers to specific questions.

MSN India today unveiled top Searches by Indians at an event attended by celebrity author and columnist Shobhaa De and co-hosted by popular radio jockey and television anchor Anish Trivedi. Shobhaa De and Anish Trivedi revealed the top searches made by Indians across the globe. The event also saw a recording of Megastar Shahrukh Khan receiving his award for "MSN Search Personality of the Year- 2004".

Y!Q Contextual Search Tool

Yahoo has rolled out a nifty new tool that lets you use content you're viewing as the basis of a search query, providing results that are difficult to get otherwise without using advanced search commands.

The new tool, called simply Y!Q, lets you use all or part of a web page you're viewing as the source of a search query. Simply highlight relevant portions of text on the page and run a "related search," and Y!Q analyzes the page, extracts the most relevant concepts and uses those as inputs.

Google Domain Registrar

Google is now an ICANN-accredited registrar of domain names, providing it with yet another potential line of expansion. The fast-growing search provider is approved to sell names in seven top-level domains (TLDs) including .com, .net, .org, .biz., info, .name and .pro.
Google's registrar status, first noted by LexText, is likely to prompt speculation about its ambitions in web hosting and blogging. Google operates Blogger, the free blog hosting service with a huge user base. Cheap or free domain names could prove useful to Google in the notoriously price-sensitive blog hosting sector, where most bloggers use subdomains (i.e. myblog.bloghost.com) rather than full domain names (www.myblog.com).

MSN Search Online

It's official. Nearly two years after announcing it would develop its own search technology, MSN Search began feeding the general public results found through its own internally developed search engine. The rollout has happened worldwide, including on the main MSN Search Site.