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Wired Webguerilla Redefines SE Spam

Arguably the only reall interesting line in this Wired News internview with SEO veteran Greg Boser aka Webguerilla isn't his take on search engines being highly prone to external manipulation (we's sort of guessed that already, didn't we :-) - it's his definition of "search engine spam" as: "It's any site that ranks above mine." This isn't just a funny tort - it neatly sums up the prevaling holier-than-thou attitude amongst the "white hat" crowd. No need to mention names here, but if you'd like to read up the interview itself, this is the link: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=wir02 [2005-03-17.2]

France Killing Google's AdWords?

Business Week reports that Google lost its appeal in a Versailles (France) court: they were ordered to pay Euro 75,000 (appr. USD 100,600) in damages to two French travel companies, Luteciel and Viaticum, whose trademarks they infringed. So what happened? Google users searching for the companies' registered trademarks (e. g. "Bourse des Vols" or "Flights Mart") were offered ads for the plaintiffs' competitors such as easyJet, the price breaker airline. A lower court had ordered Google in October 2003 to stop showing rival "sponsored links" for searches targeting the companies' trademarks. The same court later fined them when they failed to comply in time. It was this original ruling that Google appealed against. Of course, for a corporation as well funded as Google the fine constitutes mere peanuts. However, the case raises a number of other issues which may turn out to be far more serious in the long term. Google's ongoing AutoLinks practice aside (which may yet provoke a host of similar suits expectably not restricted to France), this AdWords focused case could well set an annoying precedent. True, French courts don't rule the world any more than American courts do (though both may sometimes act as though they did), but a decision of this quality will certainly have its repercussions across the European Union at least and possibly in a lot of other jurisdictions. Gone are the days when US corporations were able to scoff in mirth at the "toothless tiger" across the pond: look at what happened to Boing, at the EU's successful enforcement of their local VAT regulations for all companies selling stuff to Europe over the Internet - not to mention the legal nightmare Microsoft is currently experiencing with Brussels. With a market or no less than 300 million of the world's most affluent consumers, the pipers may be paid well, but their paymasters are increasingly calling the tune, too. What's even more interesting is the fact that Google's displaying third party ads in combo with trademarked search terms was expressly ruled "trademark counterfeiting" by the court. If this exemplary case should set in motion an avalanche of litigation, Google's AdWords revenue is in for a major bashing soon. Find the Business Week article here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=bwe03 [2005-03-17.1]

fantomaster.com Goes VoIP: U. S. Phone Numbers

To better cater to our U. S. and Canadian clients we have enlisted the services of Luxembourg based Voice over IP provider Skype. Not only do they offer free phone calls Skype-to-Skype, both their SkypeOut (Skype-to-landline) and SkypeIn (landline-to-Skype) programs are highly reliable and very competitively priced. And with over 85 million downloads they are well set to become the world's largest underpublished telecomm provider. The upshot being that we now have U. S. phone numbers for direct calls available. For Sales, Marketing and Customer Support, call: (650) 557-2088. For Tech Support + Development, call: (650) 557-2104. And in case you've noticed, of course it's a mere coincidence that the area code is identical to Google's ... watch it, 'plex! :-) You can check out Skype's services here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=sky00 As for hardware, we're using smart Danish Olympia's cordless hybrid tool DualPhone which allows both VoIP and regular landline connections. Here's their site: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=dua00 [2005-03-16.2]

Boosting Blog Traffic from Search Engines

Robert Clough's bespoke SearchEngineGuide offers this great article by Tinu Abayomi-Paul offers 5 easy-to-implement tips on how to increase search engine generated traffic to your blog site. A must read for all bloggers and those planning on joining the blogosphere soon! http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=seg03 [2005-03-16.1]

Oilman on Blog Spam, Click Fraud and Everything

Notorious former "black hat" SEO Todd "Oilman" Friesen was interviewed on the Chris Pirillo Show in New York recently - a very enlightening talk offering an overview of the current state of search engine optimization and all the issues involved ranging from generic search engine spam via blog comment spam to RSS feeds as the latest spamming target, click fraud, page hijacking, etc. Well worth listening to - kudos, Oilman, and keep it up! Here's the WMA version: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=cps01 Find the MP3 version here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=cps02 Finally, check out Oilman's site here, it's kinda cool: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=oil00 [2005-03-14.1]

Validity of Keyword Traffic Stats in Question

Search engine optimization and marketing agencies as well as commercial web marketers in general focus strongly on tools presenting overall traffic data for their targeted keywords and search phrases. The data they tend to rely on primarily is offered either by Overture or by Wordtracker and it is essential to any serious PPC and SEO/SEM campaign worth its salt. However - how reliable are these figures? Not very much, it seems, judging from this highly interesting thread on the SearchEngineWatch forum - at the very best, the results seem to be being skewed inordinately by the very people who have to rely on them for their bread and butter: a highly paradox - and potentially costly - situation with no easy solution in sight. Check out the full thread here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=sew16 [2005-03-13.1]

Google Banning Itself For Cloaking?

In a somewhat belated response to the recent discovery that Google is blatantly cloaking to influence its own search results, Googleguy, the search engines inofficial (and, hence, patently deniable) forum rep on Webmasterworld forum explains their rationale and announces that the offending pages have been removed, "To be consistent with our guidelines". Of course, what's really interesting isn't the lame excuses Google reps are flaunting after having been found out in their efforts to ward of what is essentially a PR desaster - it's the fact that even mighty Google with all their hyped super duper power technology saw no other possibility of manipulation their search applications' result than resorting to (low power, UserAgent based) cloaking. So let's reiterate that it's not a question of morals or ethics, it's a technological issue. (And yes, regular patrons of fantomNews will recall that that's been our position right from day one.) As Nick Wilson of Threadwatch, where the discovery was first posted, rightly points out: "their unofficial rep chooses a safe haven to make his excuses [...] I assume he's joking, funniest thing i've read in a long time heh ..." Well, we all know that he probably isn't, making it even funnier. Read the WMW forum thread here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=wmf10 And do read Nick's take too: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=tw03 [2005-03-09.3]

Slashdotters Just Don't Get It

In an amazing take on the recent storm in a teacup resulting from Google having been caught out cloaking, the Good Geeks at Slashdot have proven themselves utterly clueless at what the whole story was about in the first place. Review their thread here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=sd01 [2005-03-09.2]

The End of Automatic Rank Checkers?

In a forum thread at Webmasterworld, inofficial Google rep Googleguy announces that rank checking will now require manual entry of a code. Unless you're using rank checker software Google can't detect, this effectively marks the end of automatic rank checking. Quote: "If you're using WebPosition or other software that sends queries to Google from a program, I'm not surprised if you're going over a threshold where your queries are on the radar. [...] If you avoid sending queries to Google from a program, you'll be as right as rain." Read the WMW forum thread here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=wmf09 [2005-03-09.1]

It's Top or Flop - How Rankings Matter

SearchEngine Watch associate editor Chris Sherman posted an interesting piece on a study conducted by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it and eye tracking firm Eyetools, examining the eye movements of users viewing Google SERPs. The offhand result is hardly surprising: it's either a top ranking, or you're out, period. However, it does confirm what had previously been proven by other, similar studies. Higher ranking results were viewed more often, whether they're "organic" or sponsored. Here's an overview of the first ten rankings' respective visibility, measured by users' eye movements: Rank 1: 100%. Rank 2: 100%. Rank 3: 100%. Rank 4: 85%. Rank 5: 60%. Rank 6: 50%. Rank 7: 50%. Rank 8: 30%. Rank 9: 30%. Rank 10: 20%. AdWords listings' visibility on the right side of the page starts off at 50% for position 1 and drops to a measly 10% for anything below position 4. One of the most interesting finds of all: searchers still continue to favor organic listings over paid search listings, unless the latter are at the top of the SERPs. There's more, so by all means read the full article "A New F-Word for Google Search Results" here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=sew15 And here is where you can review the original study summary: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=enq01 [2005-03-08.1]

AutoBlink - Cutting Google Down to Size

Microsoft tried this approach with their infamous "Smart Tags" feature back in 2001 - and had to retract it following an avalanche of protests. After all, webmasters rightly resented their content being tampered with by outside parties solely interested in serving their own commercial agenda. Now, Google is trying to get away with it, too. But why should they? Their new Beta Toolbar includes a feature called "AutoLink". The toolbar scans through the current Web page and links any addresses or ISBN numbers to Google's services. Meaning that they will mix your site's content to competitors' sales links - without asking your permission, of course. (But then again there's some consistency in this, for when has Google ever asked web site owners' permission for anything including displaying their copyright protected content within a different context via their Cached Page function ...) Well, here's a way to level the playing field again. This cute script will stop the toolbar from placing a link in the Web page. Check it out here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=abl01 Alternatively, try this one: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=abl02 And here is a whole pile of solutions (JavaScript and other) that will help you disable Google's Autolink feature: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=tw02 [2005-03-07.5]

Petition Against Google's Autolink

Here's a petition to sign against the Google toolbar's Autolink feature with its potential to wreck just about any commercial site's business: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=gop01 [2005-03-07.4]

Google Caught Cloaking and Keyword Stuffing

This interesting thread documents how Google was caught out violating their own guidelines in an attempt to rank better within its own results. Cloaking, keyword stuffing - it's all there! http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=tw01 [2005-03-07.3]

Lycos Switches to AskJeeves Powered Engine

Lycos has announced that it will be switching over from Yahoo! powered search results to AskJeeves' engine, prompting a rise of the latter's shares by 2.1% on Nasdaq. Search veterans may recall the days when Lycos was a full fledged search engine in their own right until they licensed FAST's technology and index. After Yahoo! acquired Overture which had bought out FAST's Alltheweb engine shortly before, Lycos was powered by Yahoo! Now, what we're seeing is an upgrading of AskJeeves whose Teoma engine has always been every SEO's darling because of their highly relevant theme based results. Read more about this recent switch here: http://fantomaster.com/fn.cgi?ln=reu01 [2005-03-07.2]

Yahoo! to Rebrand Overture

In its second rebranding since its inception, PPC pioneer Overture is to be renamed "Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions" from Spring. Old hands will remember that Overture originally started off as GoTo and even won a court case against Disney in defense of that name. Later they went on to rebrand their setup as, well, Overture, a move widely questioned within the search industry as highly unwise. However, they made their way nicely in spite of all such doubts, acquired both search engine veteran AltaVista and comparatively new, IBM backed contendor FAST/Alltheweb, only to be bought out by Yahoo! who had already taken over ailing Inktomi about half a year before. [2005-03-07.1]