fantomNews - the ultimate know on fantomaster.com! Archives

fantomNews™
Read the latest info on our products and services as well as all things search in our highly popular fantomNews™ weblog.
Check it out here!
fantomNews™
Archive

It's out, it's live, it's free: the newsletter exposing all the tricks of the trade and more – a must read for every webmaster interested in optimizing their search engine ranking and in achieving higher returns in search marketing!
Here's your requested archived issue of our fantomNews™ ezine
======================================================
All the tricks of the search engine trade and more ...
======================================================
vol. 3/issue 013
  __           _             _   _                (TM)
 / _|        _   _          | \ | | _____      _____
/ /_ __ _ ___ | |___  _____ |  \| |/ _ \ \ /\ / / __|
|  _/ _` |   \| / - \/ _ _  \ |\  |  __/\ V  V /\__ \
|_| \ _,_|_|\_|_\___/_| | |_|_| \_|\___| \_/\_/ |___/

======================================================
2002-02-26         ---      Sent by subscription only!
Circulation: 4,751+ very special readers, and growing
======================================================
                     mailto:fantomnews@fantomaster.com
------------------------------------------------------
This newsletter may be freely redistributed by email
in its unedited form. Please do share it with others!
------------------------------------------------------
  ***************************************************
  * Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you *
  * to recognize a mistake when you make it again.  *
  ***************************************************

-------------
IN THIS ISSUE
-------------
  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
= Sponsorship Notice:
  FIND EXPIRED DOMAINS WITH HIGH LINK POPULARITY
  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
= News Flash:
  fantomaster Going Russian * Meet Us In London, Meet Us
  In Amsterdam * 
= fantomTip: "Making More Money By Lowering Your PPC 
              Ranking Bids"
= Marc Smith (msgraph): "Personalized Results: Exploring
              The Future of Google"
= fantomTip:
  Yahoo! Free Submission Backdoor Explored
= Search Engine Index Flux and Rank Checking
= fantomTip:
  Increasing Your AdWords Clickthrough Rate
= Paid Search Engine Inclusion Programs - An Overview
= Paid Search Engine Inclusion Programs - The Details (1)
  Inktomi + AltaVista
  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
= Sponsorship Notice: CORNER EUROPE, CORNER THE WORLD!
  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
= fantomTip:
  Cloaking For Google
= fantomSpot:
  Turbo10 Deep Net PPC Meta Search Engine Launched
= The Search Engine Grapevine: News 'n Stuff
= fantomTip:
  Google PageRank Simulator
= Classified Ads
= fantomTip 
  Lycos' New "Fast Forward" Function Losing Referrer
= Guest Columnist:
  Eric Lander, "Optimizing For Inktomi"
= How to Be Featured as our Guest Columnist
= fantomAd:
  "Spying On the Spiders: Our Landmark Online Service"
= fantomTip:
  "I found this service, I thinks is a disgrace..."
  A New Spam-The-Engines Service
= Spider IPs: Lots of New AltaVista Detected
= Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sponsorship Notice
------------------
Find Expired Domains With High Link Popularity and
Yahoo! Listings
------------------------------------------------------
Now in version 1.09, this cool program helps you search 
millions of expired domains and check their respective 
link popularity with AltaVista, Google, HotBot, MSN,
Alltheweb - and, just as importantly, whether any of
those is still listed in Yahoo! Such sites can guarantee
lots of traffic off the cuff.
Another very nifty feature is their "Record of Traffic"
button: This checks the Alexa traffic database to
determine how popular those expired domains are with
this browser plug-in's users. 
Simply register expired domains with high link popularity
and build a site to your requirements. 
OnSnap links are an excellent affordable source of
consistent, pre-existing traffic which would otherwise
be wasted.
Download a free 30 day demo version here:
< http://www.fantomaster.com/tj.cgi?ln=os1 >
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++news flash+++news flash+++news flash+++news flash++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
fantomaster Going Russian * Meet Us In London, Meet Us
In Amsterdam *
------------------------------------------------------
(rt) Here's good news for our Russian speaking
subscribers: Ukrainian webmaster Igor Burtsev of
webmasterpro.com.ua has honored us with translating the
first of hopefully several of our articles: "How to Use
Invisible Text Without Being Penalized by the Search
Engines" (you've seen it here first!). Find the Russian
version at: 
< http://www.webmasterpro.com.ua/articles/article1.html > 

Meet us at one or both of two search engine optimization
events in Europe this year where the fantomaster crew
is scheduled for the speakers' panel:
1. London UK (2002-04-23 to 2002-04-24)
   "Search Engine Strategies". For details see:
   < http://seminars.internet.com/sew/london02/ >
2. Amsterdam NL (2002-09-24 to 2002-09-25 still tentative)
  "Search Engine Marketing Tactics".
  For details (when available), please contact:
  < mailto:semamsterdam@fantomaster.com >
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++news flash+++news flash+++news flash+++news flash++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
fantomTip 
Making More Money By Lowering Your PPC Ranking Bids
------------------------------------------------------
(rt) Pay-per-click (PPC) search engines are gaining in
importance dramatically: the Overture (formerly GoTo)
paid search results are featured on most major search
engines now (e.g. MSN, AOL, AltaVista, Lycos, etc.),
while well visited meta search engines like Dogpile and
Mamma have resorted to biasing their findings towards
several competing PPC engines. In Europe, ESpotting has
effectively cornered the market. 

Welcome though the traffic generated by paid rankings
may be, it can also cost you a bundle. Let's take a
fairly common search phrase like "search engine
placement services". According to Overture's Search
Term Suggestion Tool, this particular phrase generated
exactly 7208 unique hits in December 2001. Let's also
assume for simplicity's sake that approximately 40% of
the searchers clicked on the #1 ranking, with 35&
clicking on the #2 rank and another 25% on the URL
featured on #3. 

At time of writing these were the bids for positions
#1 through 4: 
- Position #1 = $4.38 per click 
- Position #2 = $4.37 per click 
- Position #3 = $4.33 per click 
- Position #4 = $3.97 per click 

This would have generated the following advertising
costs for #1-3 bidders (traffic figures rounded): 

Traffic total - 7208 
- Position #1 (40%) = 2883 x 4.38 = $12,627.54 
- Position #2 (35%) = 2522 x 4.37 = $11,021.14 
- Position #3 (25%) = 1802 x 4.33 = $ 7,802.66 

If we stay focused on positions #1-3, what's
interesting here is: 
a) the difference per bid between pos. #2 and 3 
b) the difference per bid between pos. #3 and 4 

Analyzing these bid gaps is quite revealing. As we can
see, web site #2 has overbid #3 by $0.04, where $0.01
would have sufficed. So they are actually paying $0.03
more per click than required to stay on position #2. At
a traffic score of 2522 this seemingly minute
difference of only $0.03 amounts to an overpayment of
$75.66 per month for this single search phrase alone.
(Obviously, this assumes a static bidding structure for
the whole month - real life fluctuations may and
probably will differ in either direction.) 

Even more dramatic is the overpayment by site #3 in
relation to #4: at $0.36 per hit (again, $0.01 would
have sufficed to hold their position) and at 1802
clicks December overpayment is a stiff $630.70! (Again:
this is for only one keyword.) 

In a more structured overview:

Overpayment 
----------- 
- by Position #2 in relation to #3 ($0.03) = $  75.66 
- by Position #3 in relation to #4 ($0.35) = $ 630.70 

A second example for search term "florida real estate".
Here, bids per click are lower, but December 2001
traffic was exponentially higher at a stately 40533. 

Bids at time of writing were: 
----------------------------- 
- Position #1 = $0.91 per click 
- Position #2 = $0.90 per click 
- Position #3 = $0.65 per click 
- Position #4 = $0.55 per click 

Traffic costs 
------------- 
Traffic total - 40533 
- Position #1 (40%) = 16.213 x 0.91 = $14,753.83 
- Position #2 (35%) = 14.186 x 0.90 = $12,767.40 
- Position #3 (25%) = 10.133 x 0.65 = $ 6,586.45 

Overpayment 
----------- 
- by Position #2 in relation to #3 ($0.24) = $3,404.64 
- by Position #3 in relation to #4 ($0.09) = $  929.97 

For overpayment read: this is money misspent that could
have been saved or devoted elsewhere to boost the
overall marketing effort!

Seeing that many large sites are bidding for hundreds
if not thousands of search phrases, it doesn't take an
Einstein to figure that all this may aggregate to a
serious waste of money! Of course, monitoring and
modifying tons of ever changing bids manually can be a
daunting chore, especially in view of PPC engines'
typically cludgy bid management interfaces. Luckily, it's
exactly this number crunching type of task where IT based
automation is at its best. 

DON'T OVERPAY YOUR BIDS - GET MANAGED!
--------------------------------------
The unequivocal message is obvious: don't overpay your
bids! Get a good bid management software (client based,
onetime fee) or service (web based, monthly fee) to
take care of your PPC money, especially one which will
help you save bucks and breath by minimizing bid gaps
on a regular basis! 

One client based solution we can strongly recommend is
BidRight. This nifty Overture-approved Windows bid
manager also covers other major PPC engines like
FindWhat, Kanoodle and Espotting. 

BidRight's primary feature is its automated bidding
ability. This not only keeps you on top of your
competition, it saves you valuable time. You can let
BidRight begin the bidding process for all your keyword
listings either manually or automatically in predefined
timed intervals for each individual keyword listing.
This allows you to give priority to your most
competitive keyword listings by having them update more
frequently than your lesser priority keywords. 

TARGET RANK: BidRight allows you to set the target rank
for each individual keyword listing. You want to always
be #1? No problem. Simply combine a target rank of "1"
with a given interval, and you will always stay on top. 

MAXIMUM BID: You can set a maximum bid for each
individual keyword listing. BidRight will never raise
your bid higher than your maximum bid regardless of the
target rank chosen. 

MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS: Do you use multiple PPC accounts?
Maybe you're managing several different accounts for
other people? BidRight allows you to assign account
parameters for each individual keyword listing. 

GAP SURFING: BidRight's "Gap Surfing" is a particularly
cool feature. It gives you the most bang for your buck.
The program finds the "smartest" position from a range of
ranks that you predetermine. 

No monthly fees, no dependency on third party servers -
full CSV functionality, automatic drop back rank when
max bid has been reached. With PPC engines gaining in
importance every day, this is the best solution money
can buy. 

PLUS - A 5% DISCOUNT FOR OUR SUBSCRIBERS! 
----------------------------------------- 
If you want to buy the program, make sure to enter this
COUPON CODE for an exclusive 5% discount: 
f020122 
Check it out here:
< http://www.fantomaster.com/tj.cgi?ln=br0 >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
Marc Smith (msgraph):
"Personalized Results: Exploring The Future Of Google"
------------------------------------------------------
(The following is an abstract of a recently published
paper of some 10,000 words speculating in a highly
educated manner on what may be forthcoming by way of
new developments of the Google search engine. While
fairly technical, it is highly recommended to all those
of our readers involved in professional SEO work.)
Abstract reprinted by permission.
-------------------------------------------------------
ABSTRACT 

In the past year, Google has received wide press
recognition and praise for the quality relevant results
that they serve to web surfers. 

One of the major reasons for this success is due to
their PageRank Technology 
< http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/brin98anatomy.html >
developed by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. PageRank is
a technology that scores web pages by how "important"
they are in relation to other web pages. 

Another major reason is that Google does not over-
populate, or flood, their search results pages with two
or three third-party databases like various other
popular search engines. With the exception of data
collected from the Open Directory Project 
< http://www.dmoz.org/ >, Google can claim that their
results, both advertised and crawled, are their own. 
Google is now in the position to take their search
engine to another level that can make them soar even
higher than their competitors. A lot of speculation has
arisen in regards to what lies ahead in Google's
future. A few of the speculations are how and when
Google will display personalized results. 

The basis of this paper is to examine a few of the
methods that Google might employ in their system of
providing personalized results. The reason why these
methods are examined in great detail is because last
year Google acquired a company, Outride,Inc., who
researched heavily into personalizing data. Throughout
this paper, I will examine some of the research,
people, and technology behind Outride's past projects
and software systems. We shall never know how Google
will implement it with their search system, but at
least we can look into the various possible uses that
this technology can offer. 

Make sure to read the full text here: 
< http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum34/289.htm >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
fantomTip 
Yahoo! Free Submission Backdoor Explored
------------------------------------------------------
(rt) Seems that Joe Petrow's struck a "negative
goldmine", as it were, at least from Yahoo!'s paid
submission service's standpoint. He's created a
backdoor which can help you save that notorious $299-
just-to-see-if-we-refuse-you fee. 
What his site does is let you try to sign up for one of
Yahoo!'s paid-only business categories. Many other
Yahoo! categories offer both, paid and free submission
as an option, but not all. This tool targets the ones
not offering free submission only. 
Then, you enter the Yahoo! paid submission URL
into Joe's form, whereupon his script will redirect you
to the still-existent free submission backdoor. (You
cannot use that backdoor by yourself easily as it
requires some specific referrer data in the header
which your tread-of-the-mill web browser won't
furnish.) Still no guarantee of being included, though.
Kudos to you, Joe - and more of the same! :-) 
Check it out here (and do it fast before they close that
door): 
< http://www.joepetrow.com/?PAGE=yahoofree >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
Search Engine Index Flux and Rank Checking
------------------------------------------------------
(rt) As so many other search engine optimization
agents, we, too, have found all ranking checkers we
tested, including the market leaders, to be highly
inaccurate at times, though not consistently so, which
of course only makes matters worse. And which is why we
finally resorted to writing our own server based,
customized solution.
However, when determining a web site's search engine
ranking, there's another fairly important issue to
consider as well: search engine index flux.
Take Google as an example: depending on whether you
check rankings on "google.com", "www.google.com",
"www2.google.com" and "www3.google.com" *and* depending
on which phase in their ongoing reindexing run you
happen to hit, results may differ dramatically. (This
applies to linkage checks, too, btw.) There's actually
only a fairly short phase in any given calendar month
when results on both "google.com" and "www.google.com"
will be consistent.  The situation is quite similar with
AltaVista, Inktomi and other contenders.
Traffic load, load balancing measures, indexing runs
spread across hundreds if not thousands of web servers
(Google is famed to work with 10,000+ Linux boxes!),
ongoing ranking jobs, time of day, etc. are all factors
which may skew results or make them fairly unreliable,
especially in a scenario where you may have to
illustrate a given ranking when presenting your
services to potential clients.
This is something SEO clients should be educated about
very early on in the process to avoid possible loss of
credibility and confidence.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
fantomTip 
Increasing Your AdWords Clickthrough Rate
-----------------------------------------
(rt) Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen has an excellent
article on how he managed to increase his Google AdWords
clickthrough rate by 55% to 310%. Expectably, it's the
wording that does it. However, American and European
search behavior and reactions can differ considerably,
too. A must read if you want to leverage your marketing
buck on Google. 
More info: 
< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010902.html > 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
Paid Search Engine Inclusion Programs - An Overview
------------------------------------------------------
(rt) Search engine and directory pay-for-inclusion
(PFI) programs - as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC)
models -have been around and making their mark ever
since Yahoo! introduced its own in December 1999.
Today, several major players have gone this way to rev
up their revenues. This can get confusing (and,
obviously, costly), so here's a current overview as per
2002-02-23 for your orientation. 

Search Engines
==============

FAST/Alltheweb
--------------
(Forthcoming)
    First URL: n/a
     Next URL: n/a
 10 pages/yr.: n/a
   Time Frame: n/a
     Exposure: FAST/Alltheweb, Looksmart, Lycos, 
               PepeSearch, Scandinavia Online, Sinohome,
               Tiscali, T-Motion, T-Online
       Signup: (info queue)
< http://www.fastsearch.com/products/internet/
partnersite_start.asp >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 

AltaVista
---------
    First URL: $ 39
     Next URL: $ 29
 10 pages/yr.: $600
   Time Frame: 6 months
     Exposure: AltaVista, Fireball
       Signup:
< http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/express_incl >

AskJeeves/Teoma
----------------
    First URL: $ 30
     Next URL: $ 18
  10 pages/yr: $192
   Time Frame: 12 months
     Exposure: AskJeeves, Teoma, iLor
       Signup:
< http://ask.ineedhits.com/ >

Inktomi
-------
    First URL: $ 39
     Next URL: $ 25
  10 pages/yr: $264
   Time Frame: 12 months
     Exposure: AOLSearch, Bluewin (CH), HotBot, iWon, Looksmart,
               MSN, Overture
       Signup: Currently 4 agencies available -
Ineedhits
< http://ink.ineedhits.com/ >
Outrider
< http://www.outrider.com/ >
Position Technologies
< http://positiontech.com/inktomi/enroll.cfm >
Verisign

(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 

Lycos
-----
   Membership: $ 18
      Any URL: $ 12
  10 pages/yr: $138
   Time Frame: 12 months
     Exposure: Lycos network
       Signup:
< http://searchservices.lycos.com/searchservices/
select_registration_step1.asp?rug=y >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 


Directories
===========

Looksmart
---------
   One Domain: $299
   Time Frame: one time fee
     Exposure: Looksmart, AltaVista, CNN, GOeureka,
               iWon, Juno, MSN, TimeWarner, 370+ ISPs
       Signup:
< http://listings.looksmart.com/?synd=none&chan=lshomebus >
   Workaround: Join Zeal as an editor
< http://zeal.com/users/build_directory.jhtml >

Yahoo!
------
   One Domain: $299 (Adult content sites: $600)
   Time Frame: 12 months
     Exposure: Yahoo!
       Signup: Go to relevant category and click on
               "Suggest a Site" link
   Workaround: Try Joe Petrow's site (no guarantees!) -
< http://www.joepetrow.com/?PAGE=yahoofree >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
Paid Search Engine Inclusion Programs - The Details (1)
Inktomi + AltaVista
------------------------------------------------------
(bro) Following our overview of current paid search
engine inclusion (PFI) programs, we will now take a
closer look at the technical procedures involved,
spidering activity, quality of service, etc. This first
instalment deals with Inktomi and AltaVista, more will
follow in a later article.

Inktomi
-------
Inktomi's current submission partners are:
ineedhits.com, Outrider, Position Technologies and
VeriSign.

Outrider is PositionTech's London based partner.
Personnel connections exist between PositionTech and
Outrider via Detlef Johnson, the former Supervisor
Search Engine Optimization Services with Outrider, now
functioning as VP of Technology with PositionTech.

We registered new domains with all four partners and
tracked the ensuing spider visits.

ineedhits.com
=============
The Inktomi spider arrived the day following
page submission:

#UA Mozilla/3.0 (Slurp/si; slurp@inktomi.com;
 http://www.inktomi.com/slurp.html)
j6002.inktomi.com
209.185.141.249

Regularly, this spider will crawl your pages every
second day. However, we detected exceptions from the
rule. E.g. following the turn of the month, the spider
took 4 days to come back.

Beyond the pages registered for paid inclusion, the
domain URL (e.g. http://www.domain.com/ ) was spidered.

This will normally occur every 5 days, with the site's
robots.txt file being crawled as well.

However, the domain URL hasn't to date been included in
the Inktomi index.

About two weeks following paid submission, this Inktomi
spider started to fetch the pages in irregular intervals:

#UA Mozilla/5.0 (Slurp/cat; slurp@inktomi.com;
 http://www.inktomi.com/slurp.html)
wm3018.inktomi.com
216.35.116.103

Beyond Spidering
----------------
Spider visits apart, what's important for the
submitting webmaster is, of course, the PFI partners'
Management Area or control center.

In ineedhits.com's "Subscription Management Area" you
will see your URLs's current status.

The "Click-thru hits report" displays the number of
hits and the search terms which generated them. You can
click on the links to either AOL, HotBot or MSN to see
the pertinent search results page. According to
ineedhits.com: "Click-Thru reports currently only
reflect a small percentage of the entire click-thrus
Inktomi Search Partners refer to your URL."

This is no exaggeration: in our case, only about 75% of
hits and keywords actually generated were displayed in
this report. Obviously, this calls for some serious
improvement.

Outrider
========
About 1 to 2 hours after submission, our site was
visited by the PositionTech spider:

#UA Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT)
169.207.238.180

It was a one-hit affair only: we haven't seen this
spider visit our site again since.

Another two hours later, the Inktomi crawling cycle
commended with a visit from this spider:

#UA Mozilla/3.0 (Slurp/si; slurp@inktomi.com;
 http://www.inktomi.com/slurp.html)
j6002.inktomi.com
209.185.141.249

Following this, the spider started visiting the site in
the same rhythm as with ineedhits.com.

Beyond Spidering
----------------
In Outrider's "Account Service" section you will see
your URLs's current status and the number of generated
clicks. According to Outrider: "Click-Thru reports
reflect less then half of all traffic generated by
Inktomi."
This can be confirmed on our part: on average, less
than 50% of generated clicks were reported.

PositionTech
============
The PositionTech spider arrived one hour after
submission:

#UA Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT)
169.207.238.180

Another hour later, the Inktomi spider cropped up:

#UA Mozilla/3.0 (Slurp/si; slurp@inktomi.com;
 http://www.inktomi.com/slurp.html)
j6002.inktomi.com
209.185.141.249

Ensuing spider behavior was identical to submissions
via ineedhits.com and Outrider.

Beyond Spidering
----------------
In PositionTech's subscribers area you will see your
URLs's current status and the number of generated
clicks as well as the keywords entered by visitors. In
our case, only 40% of actually generated hits and
keywords were displayed.
Here, there is no pointer to the fact that not all
clicks will be correctly displayed. This calls for
improvement.
Click-thru data can also be checkd in a graphical view.

A very nifty feature exclusively offered by
PositionTech is their "Pure Web Search" function. Under
URL < http://169.207.238.189/search/ > a search form
for pure Inktomi is offered. Search results are
uncluttered by "enhancements" such as Overture PPC
links, ODP stuff, ads, etc. This URL is accessible to
the general public (at least, currently).

VeriSign
========
One day after submission, the Inktomi spider arrived:

#UA Mozilla/3.0 (Slurp/si; slurp@inktomi.com;
 http://www.inktomi.com/slurp.html)
j6002.inktomi.com
209.185.141.249

Ensuing spider behavior was identical to submissions
via the other partners.

Beyond Spidering
----------------
In VeriSign's subscribers area you will see your
URLs's current status and the number of generated
clicks as well as the keywords entered by visitors.
However, this did not work in our case. Although our
access log files registered several hits, VeriSign
did not display so much as a single one of them.

Inktomi PFI Summary
===================
* Pricing is identical, regardless of submission
partner.
* Submitting your pages to any of the partners will
trigger the Inktomi spider, which will then crawl your
pages following its own rhythm, independent of chosen
submission partner. Partners do seem to hold a certain
influence on commencement of the spidering cycle,
though.
* With PositionTech and Outrider it took a mere 1-2
hours for the first Inktomi spider to arrive. They are
also the only submission partners checking sites with
their own (shared) spider.
* Inktomi seems to have devoted a single spider for
crawling pages under the PFI program.
* Crawled pages will normally show up in the Inktomi
index about one day after spidering.
* PositionTech's subscribers area control center offers
the most comprehensive functionality, making it the
superior service.

However, seeing that no submission partner will
currently process 100% of generated hits, a systematic
analysis of your own server traffic logs cannot be
discarded.

AltaVista's infoSpider
======================
Paid inclusion for AltaVista is handled by their
independent partner infoSpider.

Shortly after submission, a spider will check the
submitted URL:

#UA infoSpider URL Checker
208.185.243.149.proboost.com
208.185.243.149

Four days after, the first AltaVista spider arrived on
site:

#UA Scooter-3.0.3
scooter2.sv.av.com
209.73.162.172

Pages were included in AltaVista's index the following
day.

The spidering cycle is determined by AltaVista's index
runs for paid inclusions, which is about once per week.

The AltaVista spider(s) will visit submitted pages one,
two or three days prior to this index run. There is
currently no regular, predictable rhythm discernible as
with Inktomi.

AltaVista has devoted at least one other spider to
crawling PFI pages:

#UA Scooter-3.2
scooter3.sv.av.com
209.73.162.143	

Beyond Spidering
----------------
In infoSpider's Service section, you can check on your
URLs' current status. No hits and keywords data is
being offered.

Compared to Inktomi's PFI program, AltaVista's refresh
cycles are considerably longer, and the service area
offered features only very basic functionality.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sponsorship Notice
------------------
Corner Europe, Corner the World!
------------------------------------------------------
With a market range of more than 300 million people,
Europe has become the States' #1 contender in the field
of emarketing. 
Sign up with Europe's #1 PPC engine, covering Yahoo!,
HotBot, AltaVista, AskJeeves, Looksmart, Lycos,
Fireball, Nomade, Tiscali, and more. Tap half a billion
search requests a month here: 
< http://www.fantomaster.com/tj.cgi?ln=es0 >
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

------------------------------------------------------
fantomTip:
Cloaking For Google
------------------------------------------------------
(rt) Don't cloak for Google - they don't like it! :-)
However, if you must cloak for Google whatever the
reason, take great care: 

a) Do not to use their proprietary NOARCHIVE tag as
there's been some indication recently that this may
either raise a red flag or lead to proactive rank
demotion. Even if this assumption should prove to be
faulty, using the tag may well work as a dead giveaway
in case they do opt for a major ip delivery witchhunt some
day, as well they may, at least when considering their
public stance against the "bad boys of cloaking" ...

b) Of course, you'd normally want to use the NOARCHIVE
tag to prevent your cloaked page to be displayed for
every man and his dog to see via Google's cache
function. So in lieu of that tag you should implement a
cache buster (JavaScript) on every phantom page
redirecting human viewers to the target URL.
Note that this won't provide you with 100% security -
if someone turns off their JS functionality in their
browser, they will still be able to see your cloaked
page in all its glory! However, it's the next best
option to being stigmatized by Google for using their
own tag.

c) Finally, make dead sure you're using the very best
and most comprehensive database of search engine
spiders available - miss one spider, and five will give
you twenty that you're out. 
Not so much because they will ban you for cloaking
(which happens very rarely in actual practice, much
hyped as it may be) but because the spider will report
the redirection and more often than not will index the
unoptimized target URL instead, meaning that either
your cloaked site (shadow domain) or your phantom page
won't get indexed at all, which of course beats the
whole point of cloaking.

At the risk of stating the obvious, we recommend our
own fantomas spiderSpy(TM) botBase, available here:
< http://fantomaster.com/fasvsspy01.html >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
fantomSpot: Featured SE Site
"Turbo10 Deep Net PPC Meta Search Engine Launched"
-------------------------------------------------------
(rt) London, UK based Fleetwood Internet Solutions
Limited announced the launch of their Turbo10 meta
search engine. 
From their press release: 
"Traditional search engines are just scratching the
surface of the vast information reservoir because the
majority use crawlers to index the Web. But a plethora
of information lies in searchable databases that just
can't be accessed by crawlers. 
Turbo10 has created unique search engine adapter
technology, called the Turbo10 Trawler to connect to
the Deep Net - a vast array of specialist databases
that range from business associations, universities,
libraries, and government departments. 
For example, Turbo10's users can now search the
Australasian Legal Information Institute 
< http://www.austlii.org >. AustLII is one of the largest
sources of Australasian legal materials on the Net,
with over 1.5 million searchable legal documents. 
The Trawler connects in real-time, so unlike
crawler-based engines, we search in the present not the
past. The Turbo10 Trawler can query up to 10 different
databases. 
Turbo10 has started to divide resources into topic-
specific collections such as: Legal, Reference, News,
Sport, and Finance. Each collection combines a
selection of traditional search engines and Deep Net
engines to broaden the search. 
In addition to connecting to the Deep Net - Turbo10
makes browsing faster with its Search-o-meter™ and
Turbo10 Topics™. The Turbo10 Search-o-Meter™ enables a
searcher to quickly flick through the results without
the need to scroll down. 
Turbo10 Topics™ is a new search engine clustering
technique that helps you 'home in' quickly on a
relevant topic. For example, if you search on 'salsa',
Turbo10's algorithm identifies 'dancing' and 'recipes'
as two distinct topics." 
Here's another neat feature: if you're maintaining a
searchable database of your own, you can add your own
deep net engine to the Turbo10 collection via the
online submission form. This service is free. 
They also offer PPC bid-for-rankings service. Minimum
deposit is GBP 25.00 (approx. $37.00) which is held
against clicks. Bids start at GBP 0.03 (appr. $0.04.)
These results will also be displayed on Dogpile (UK).
Their interface is quite innovative. Forward and
backward buttons make horizontal scrolling a breeze (no
vertical scrolling required), but what's particularly
cute is their pull down menu sorting option: sort
results by relevance, by sources or by speed. This, of
course, is any SEO artist's nightmare, and it does
raise the question how they will treat paid bids, but
from the searcher's point of view it is surely a great
help we haven't seen anywhere else up till now. 
Check them out here: 
< http://turbo10.com/ >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
The Search Engine Grapevine: News 'n Stuff
------------------------------------------------------
For latest search engine news, our siteFlash and a
sneak preview of the next issue of fantomNews, go here:
< http://fantomaster.com/fanews0.html >
Grapevine news only (large print version):
< http://fantomaster.com/fafngrapevine0.html >
------------------------------------------------------

Lycos InSite Paid Submission Service Goes Live
----------------------------------------------
The Lycos InSite pay-for-inclusion (PFI) service has
finally gone live. In a twist not found on other,
similar programs, Lycos requires a $18 yearly
membership fee, after which you will have to pay $12
per URL to be included in the Lycos web index under the
InSite Select version. Pages are spidered every 48
hours which should give you ample leeway for your
optimization efforts. 
It's unclear as yet, however, how this will tie in with
FAST/Alltheweb currently powering Lycos and FAST's own
PartnerSite PFI program which is still dormant. 
The Lycos InSite Pro program includes all features of
InSite Select plus remotely hosted site search. This
works with a search box you place on your site, after
which users can start searching your pages. The results
page is personalized and you can customize your site
search results by adding your own logo and choosing
your site color. Pricing for this comes at $189.00 per
month (1-250 pages) or  $279.00 per month (251-500
pages). 
Seeing that you can get a rather similar, highly
reliable service for free from the likes of Atomz,
we're frankly rather underwhelmed when reviewing this
fee. 
Will it be worth the expense? Well, at 40 million
monthly users, the Lycos network is no mean player in
the search engine world. Moreover, the InSite Select
program is very competitive when you compare it with
Inktomi, AskJeeves/Teoma and, worst, AltaVista. We for
our part have found Lycos searchers to offer pretty good
conversion rates on most of our sites, but of course
your mileage may (and probably will) vary. 
Signup page: 
< http://searchservices.lycos.com/searchservices/
select_overview.asp >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 

Search Engines - An E-Commerce Anachronism?
-------------------------------------------
In his succint op-ed piece Mark W. Vigoroso of
EcommerceTimes takes a shrewd and sobering look at the
declining role of search engines in online commerce.
Recommended reading. 
Find full text article here: 
< http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16440.html >

Yahoo! Shopping Directory Stuffing
----------------------------------
Some Yahoo! merchants are using multiple identities
and shopping sites to present essentially the same
products, a practice Yahoo! finds "negligible". 
More info: 
News.com 02/22/2002
< http://news.com.com/2100-1017-842630.html >

ixquick Launches AdWords Lookalike Program
------------------------------------------
Pandia reports that ixquick, the self-proclaimed
"world's most powerful metasearch engine" has launched
its Spotlight ads program, offering a combination of
search term related text and graphics ads. Depending on
popularity, ads will cost between $25 and $500 per
year. Similar to Google's AdWords, text and graphics
can be modified throughout the year. If you choose your
search terms wisely, costs are not at all prohibitive. 
Included extra benefits are: 
Up to 6 ads appear in the Spotlight per search term. If
your term is embedded within a larger search term, and
fewer than six have been rented, your ad may also
appear. So renting "music" may also win free placements
on "great music", "cool music", and more. 
Here's a demo (graphics file): 
< http://s1.ixquick.com/spotlight/graphics/spotlight.jpg > 
You can check your search terms' cost here: 
< http://s1.ixquick.com/spotlight/topterms.html > 
Signup is here: 
< http://s1.ixquick.com/spotlight/register.html > 
Source: 
< http://www.pandia.com/searchworld/index.html >

Google Offers PPC AdWords
-------------------------
In a widely expected move, Google has introduced a PPC
service for its AdWords program, which used to be CPM
(by impression only). Rankings of paid ads amongst each
other will still be determined by click popularity.

iLor Drops Google, Adopts AskJeeves/Teoma
-----------------------------------------
In what may well prove to be a first precedent of major
portals shopping around for Google competitors, iLor
has announced they will drop Google search results in
favor of AskJeeves/Teoma. 
From their press release: 
"As of February 18, 2002, iLOR Search will stop
presenting search results presented by Google and will
begin presenting search results provided by Ask Jeeves.
iLOR Search will continue to provide our LORlinks tools
on every search result, and will continue to provide
the same quality experience that users have come to
expect from iLOR. iLOR is pleased to be partnering with
Ask Jeeves, and now utilizes results based on Ask
Jeeves' 'Click Popularity' technology and Related
Search tools. iLOR is in good company, since this
technology is currently employed by sites such as MSN,
Lycos, and iWon. Later this year, iLOR will begin
employing Ask Jeeves Teoma's search technology. This
exciting, new technology will keep iLOR Search on the
leading edge of the Internet Search experience, and
will provide iLOR users with the latest, most effective
tools with which to do their research." 
Seems that the all-pervasive We-Love-Google movement is
finally grinding to a halt. 
More info: 
< http://www.ilor.com/HL_nogoogle.htm >

AskJeeves And Teoma Going For Paid Inclusion
--------------------------------------------
AskJeeves (of Ask.com) and newly acquired Teoma have
launched the beta version of their pay-for-inclusion
(PFI) program via Australian Inktomi partner ineedhits.
Pricing is $30 for the first URL, $18 for URLs 2-1000,
good for one year. 
Or more: if you sign up during the beta phase, your
listings will stay on for 15 months instead of 12.
Refresh of web pages will be every 7 days, similar to
AltaVista's PFI program. 
Of course, this will probably not stop AskJeeves from
displaying Overture's Top5 PPC above the Teoma powered 
results, which does seem to miss the point somewhat... 
More info: 
< http://ask.ineedhits.com/ >

Web Surfers Leaving Search Engines In Droves
--------------------------------------------
According to a recently released study by
WebSideStory's Statmarket, surfers are increasingly
favoring direct navigation and bookmarks over search
engines and web links, arriving at sites by direct
navigation and bookmarks at a rate of 53%, up from 48%
one year ago. Seems that year long branding efforts are
finally beginning to take hold. 
More info: 
< http://websidestory.com/cgi-bin/wss.cgi?
corporate&news&press_1_168 >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 

Understanding and Building Google PageRank
------------------------------------------
Check out this excellent primer on Google's
all-important ranking algorithm here: 
< http://www.searchengineguide.com/orbidex/2002/
0207_orb1.html >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 

Espotting Live On Yahoo.de, Expands In Europe
---------------------------------------------
Espotting, the UK based PPC service, has announced
several partnership deals with major European search
engines and online portals, extending its coverage
to half a billion search requests a month across Europe. 
Partnerships include: 
(Germany) 
* Fireball; 
* Hotbot; 
* Lycos Search; 
* Yahoo DE (launching 2002-02-06); 
(France) 
* AltaVista; 
* Lycos Europe; 
* Club Internet; 
* HotBot FR; 
* Nomade; 
* Tiscali; 
* Yahoo.fr; 
(Italy) 
* Yahoo IT (launching 2002-04-01); 
(UK) 
* AskJeeves; 
* easyEverything; 
* Looksmart UK; 
* Pricerunner; 
* searchengine.com; 
* UK Online; 
* UK Plus; 
* Yahoo UK + Ireland; 
and more ... 
So check out Espotting here: 
< http://www.fantomaster.com/tj.cgi?ln=es0 >

For an overview of the current state-of-competition
between Espotting, Overture and Google in both Europe
and North America, see Pandia's exhaustive article at: 
< http://www.pandia.com/sw-2002/04-overture.html >

Google Miffed By "Tiny Time Bombs"
----------------------------------
Apparently worried about losing its pseudo non-
commercial baby face image, Google has posted a page
where it takes a strong stance against cybersquatters
and spyware presenting Google search results with 
pop-up and pop-under ads. This seems to have led to tons
of complaints by users who were unaware of Google's
innocence in this matter. 
Interestingly enough, while they do make mention of 
music-sharing programs such as BearShare or AudioGalaxy
(terming them "tiny time bombs"), they have omitted to
specifically target the broad spectrum of "scumware"
like eZula. TopText and others. Maybe their legal staff
were simply worried about the implications? 
After all, Google having turned the search engine
behemoth it has, it is a reasonable assumption that
some sharks will be only too happy to sue them under
whatever pretext, preferably immediately before their
going public on Nasdaq which, as the grapevine will
have it, is bound to be one of Google's next public
moves. 
Check out their statement here: 
< http://www.google.com/help/nopopupads.html > 
More on scumware: 
< http://scumware.com/ >

FindWhat Hitting At Overture In Patent Rumpus
---------------------------------------------
No holds barred, PPC search engine FindWhat is
challenging two critical patents its rival Overture
filed with the U.S. Patent Office when still sporting
the name GoTo. Claiming that the patents were obtained
illegally, FindWhat is seeking an injunction to have
them declared invalid by a federal court. 
More info: 
< http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi
?article_id=18734 >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 

Northern Light Public Search Pulled? Not Quite ...
--------------------------------------------------
In spite of their announcements to the contrary,
Northern Light's public search function is still
available - if you know how to access it. 
Take the following example, the search phrase being
"backup server" (without the quotes): 
< http://www.northernlight.com/nlquery.fcg?cb=0&qr=
backup+server&orl=2%3A1&search.x=0&search.y=0 >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 
This will give you their just-as-in-old-days search
results display.
By contrast, compare it to the results shown when
entered on their standard index page: 
< http://www.northernlight.com/nlquery.fcg?cb=0&pu=not+
authoraffiliat%3Alynch&qr=backup+server&si=SOURCE%5E%3D1
&orl=&search.x=39&search.y=11 >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!)
Easter egg delight aside, what this implies is that NL
doesn't seem to have invested a terrible lot of effort
into securing its database access ...

Moreover, some sites are still displaying NL results
for everyone to check! See: 
< http://www.qbsearch.com/ > (Meta engine)
< http://www.metor.com/ > (Meta engine)
< http://www.nlresearch.com >
Thanks to Tara Tara Calishain of ResearchBuzz for the
latter tip. Find her site here: 
 < http://www.researchbuzz.com/ >

FAST PartnerSite Program: More Details Revealed
-----------------------------------------------
FAST/Alltheweb have revealed more details of their soon
to be launched paid submission "PartnerSite" program.
They are also offering an opportunity to participate in
their forthcoming beta test. No definitive pricing
given yet, though the grapevine has it that fees will
be in the $100 per month range. 
Check it out here: 
< http://www.fastsearch.com/products/internet/
partnersite_start.asp >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!)

LookSmart Launches Marketing Partner Program
--------------------------------------------
In an effort to increase the number of paid listings
in LookSmart's databases, the company has announced the
launch of a reseller program. Their new "Search Targeted
Marketing Partner Program" will enable certified 
resellers to submit large quantities of their customers'
URLs directly into the LookSmart Featured Listings index
via an XML feed. 
More info: 
< http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020123/sfw056_1.html >

Overture Goes German
--------------------
Partnering with T-Online, Germany's #1 ISP, Overture
has announced the launch of their German operation
within Q1 of 2002. They are also expecting to cover
the Swiss and Austrian market though it is as yet
unclear whom they will cooperate up with to reach
these surfers. 
In any case, T-Online will extend Overture's coverage
to some 50% of the German Internet population which,
together with Switzerland and Austria, constitutes
Europe's largest, nearing 10 million online buyers
according to Jupiter Media Metrix Report. Keywords
can be both in German and English. 
Obviously trying to capitalize on their current client
base, they are offering US and UK based (or English
biased) customers two service models, to wit: 
Full Serve Plus  Let Overture's statt develop up to
100 search listings in German or English, including a
title and description, for your site for 50 Euro
(cost after 2/28/02 will be 99 Euro). 
Full Serve  Overture's staff will develop up to 20
search listings in German or English, including a title
and description, for your site for 25 Euro (cost after
2/28/02 will be 49 Euro). 
Some inconsistency here, though: Overture offers you a
EUR 49 discount if you sign up before 2002-02-28. It is
unclear, however, whether they will actually credit your
account with the difference (after all, some EUR 24) if
you happen to sign up for the "Full Serve" program. 
More info: 
By email: < mailto:kundenservice@de.overture.com > 
Previous press releases on the subject (in German): 
< http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?
ticker=OVER&script=403&item_id='407' >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!)

Incubator Buys Out Northern Light
---------------------------------
divine, an incubator firm recently turned software 
specialist, has acquired Northern Light for an undisclosed
sum. According to the company's CEO Andrew Flipowski,
divin plans to utilize Northern Light's technology as a
tool across its applications, hoping to ensure their
clients a competitive advantge. 
More info: 
< http://boston.internet.com/news/article/0,1928,
2001_958791,00.html >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!)

Norhern Light: Still Accepting Submissions
------------------------------------------
Though they canned their public search on 2002-01-16,
Northern Light is still accepting submissions, even though
you can no longer track your rankings. 
Check it out here: 
< http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurl_help.html >

MSN Beats Yahoo!
----------------
Citing data from Jupiter Media Metrix, MSN announced it
has turned the world's #1 search engine with 36.6 million
unique users in November 2001, thereby surpassing Yahoo!
(31.9 million uniques). It has also demoted Yahoo! to 
second rank on an international scale, notably in Australia,
Canada, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. 
More info: 
< http://www.ananova.com/business/story/sm_492178.html?
menu=business.latestheadlines >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!)

Northern Light In Cahoots With CIA
----------------------------------
Northern Light is teaming up with the CIA's In-Q-Tel
organization to provide the agency with search
technology focusing on automated parsing of documents
in various languages. 
More info: 
< http://boston.internet.com/news/article/0,1928,2001_
950381,00.html > 
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 
Also available here: 
< http://library.northernlight.com/
FD20020108100000108.html > 
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 
For the ordinary webmaster this may have some serious
implications: when announcing their pulling out of the
publicly accessible search engine business, NL also
stated that they will continue to maintain and update
its index of 350+ million web pages. 
In other words: your site will continue to be spidered,
but it will be the CIA and other undisclosed clients
who will reap the benefit of accessing NL's SERP, not
you nor the public. This is parasitical in the extreme
and it also constitutes a potential security risk in
these times of clobbered civil liberties and wartime
politics. 
So webmasters beware! You may want to consider blocking
Northern Light spiders from accessing your site in future
if you're unhappy with feeding Big Brother with clues and
pointers you will have absolutely no control over.

Google Opens German Office
--------------------------
Google has opened an offline office in Hamburg, Germany
to promote their advertising structure. From their press
release: 
"Our new office in Hamburg will allow us to provide
local customer support and better service to
advertising clients in Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland. This latest opening brings the number of
Google sales offices outside the U.S. to four (London,
Tokyo, and Toronto being the others)."

Kartoo English Version Launched
-------------------------------
Graphical meta search engine Kartoo offers a slightly
different approach to web search, displaying a map of
relationships between search results. Cute. 
Check it out here: 
< http://www.kartoo.com/kartooen.html >

AltaVista Publishes Search Trends
---------------------------------
"AltaVista's Search Trends is intended to bring users
timely analysis that reflects aspects of search
behavior." The first analysis presents the impact of
Sep 11 on search terms frequency: searches for "Anthrax"
outnumber those for "cancer" and "heart disease". But -
"Harry Potter" has also dwarfed "Osama bin Laden".
Similar to Google's "Zeitgeist" feature, it's a useful
if somewhat haphazard source of information. 
More info: 
< http://www.altavista.com/sites/about/trends >

Looksmart Goes PPC
------------------
Looksmart's newly introduced "Site Promote" service
offers paid listings at a rate of $20-30 per month. What
this money will give you is a position within their new
"Featured Listings" section above the regular search
results. No position guaranteed, however, and no more
than 133 to 200 click-throughs per month included. Also,
lots of other restrictions apply. So: buyer, beware! 
More info: 
< http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/01/
12-looksmart.html > 
(Unwrap link text before clicking!) 
Full length article (requires paid subscription): 
< http://searchenginewatch.com/subscribers/articles/
0112-looksmart.html?source=0112-looksmart >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
fantomTip 
Google PageRank Simulator
-------------------------
(rt) Illustrating Google's PageRank (PR) process, this
calculator is intended as an aid for strategic in-site
linking: you can dramatically influence your site's
PR (and, hence, its ranking on Google) by generating
enough pages and crosslinking them shrewdly. 
Check it out here: 
< http://www.nri-ltd.com/pagerank.asp >
More info, including instructions: 
< http://www.nri-ltd.com/pagerank.html >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
Classified Ads
------------------------------------------------------
Inquire here for ad rates: 
< mailto:fnads@fantomaster.com >
------------------------------------------------------
                                                   [14]
EXCELLENT DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION PRICES & MORE!
A2Z Site Solutions offers .com, .net, .org at
$9.95/year to $7.95/year. The .biz, .info and .ws
domain names start at $15.95/year to $14.50/year. 
Stop by: http://www.a2zsitesolutions.net/
~~~~~~~~
Learn why meta tags alone won't get you in the
top 10 - and what you can do about it. Read the
industry's most subscribed newsletter and book on how
to win the search engine wars!
< http://www.searchenginehelp.com/fantomaster >
~~~~~~~~
THE USED BOOKS PARADISE
Looking for used books, out of print books,
rare books, discount books, antique books?
Check out the world's largest repository:
< http://verygoodbook.com/vgused_t1.html >
Win $100 in books by signing up for the used books
newsletter, too!
~~~~~~~~
The Globalnomads Campfire Site
Unlocking Freedom - the smarter way! All things
offshore: anonymous banking, offshore incorporation,
tips & trick's for the PT's life, and more.
< http://globalnomads.com >
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

======================================================
fantomTip 
Lycos' New "Fast Forward" Function Losing Referrer
--------------------------------------------------
(bro) Lycos has added "Fast Forward" functionality to
its GUI: under each search result, this option is now
displayed. If you click it, Lycos will open a search
bar in your browser window (IE only). In the right part
of the newly compartmentalized window you will see the
targeted site. 
Under Netscape 6 this does not happen: the full screen
is displayed immediately. Not so under Opera: here, the
IE search bar's content is displayed first, offering
"Sponsored Links" and a list of URLs (title tag content
only). To get the full search results page, you will
have to click on "Full Screen". 
Search engine optimization agents beware: this hit will
lose the referrer variable in the process. Thus, the
search term entered will not show up in your access
logs! 
Check it out here: 
< http://search.lycos.com/main/default.asp? >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
Guest Columnist
Eric Lander: "Understanding and Optimizing for Inktomi"
------------------------------------------------------
Intro:
Eric Lander is the Senior Project Manager of Top Site
Listings, a division of Orbidex Inc.
Holding degrees and certifications in Multimedia Design
Technology and Web Site Management, Lander is also an
active participant within the Webmasterworld.com
forums.
Visit his site: < http://www.topsitelistings.com >
You can contact him at:
< mailto:eric@topsitelistings.com >
-------------------------------------------------------

One of the most valuable pay-per-inclusion options
available to web site optimization specialists as well
as growing online businesses, is an inclusion to the
Inktomi search engine.

What is Inktomi? Despite the odd name, Inktomi is
simply one of the most powerful search engines
available. Inktomi itself is not a standalone search
engine portal site like Google or AltaVista. It is
however, an engine that is used on a number of other
popular search portals including (but not limited to)
the following:

• AOL
• LookSmart
• MSN
• HotBot
• ICQ
• iWon
• Corporate Yahoo!
• TerraLycos.com (aka: Lycos)

How Do I Get My Site in Inktomi?
--------------------------------
You can get your website into Inktomi through one of
two ways. You can ask any one of their partners' sites
to include your URL, or, you can contact Position
Technologies for more reliable (paid) inclusions. (See
< http://www.positiontech.com > for more information.)

How Quickly Can One Notice Inktomi Optimization?
------------------------------------------------
Inktomi sorts through its indexes to provide those
searching with results that are accurate and up-to-
date. In many cases, it is not uncommon to have
Inktomi's user agent, "Slurp" accessing your site's
URL's as often as every 48 hours.
Since Inktomi comes around so often and reviews a URL's
contents, it also serves as a great tool to watch how
well your new optimization can plans work. With newer
results pages for most keywords updating every few
days, fine tuning an Inktomi optimization campaign can
become a very efficient process - and create some
serious results quickly.

Analyzing How Inktomi Provides Search Results
---------------------------------------------
While no one can perfectly describe how the Inktomi
search algorithms really work, a lot of information can
be acquired through a number or resources. When
compiled, this information becomes very helpful when
optimizing for Inktomi's purposes.
First and foremost, are the primary factors. In this
case, primary factors are considered to be the most
influential attributes of a URL that will have an
effect on the optimization results.
While many search engines have completely abandoned the
usage of META tags, Inktomi has not.

Analyzing a Search Example Result
---------------------------------
If you are to search within their database
(Use this site for direct Inktomi access: 
< http://169.207.238.189/search/ >), you will see that
the listings appear in the following format:

[Example Search for "loans"]

Countrywide Home Loans - Real Estate Mortgage Lender -
Equity Loan Mortgages Nations largest independent loan
lender. Real estate mortgages. Pre-qualify for maximum
mortgage home equity loans. Current interest rates
online. Countrywide.
http://www.countrywide.com/

If you were to visit the URL that is listed within the
above search example, and review the source code, you
would find the following:

< TITLE>Countrywide Home Loans - Real Estate Mortgage
Lender - Equity Loan Mortgages

< META name="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Nations largest
independent loan lender. Real estate mortgages. Pre-
qualify for maximum mortgage home equity loans. Current
interest rates online. Countrywide." >

< META name="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Countrywide Home Loans,
Countrywide Mortgages, Real Estate Mortgage Lender,
Equity Loan Mortgages, Home Equity Lender, Real Estate
Loans, Online Mortgage Lender, Home Equity Loans, Real
Estate Equity, Home Loans, Real Estate Mortgages,
Interest Rates, Mortgage Calculator, Online Loan
Applications, Online Mortgage Rates, Best Loan Rates,
Lowest Rates, Closing Costs, Home Mortgages, Online
Loan Rates" >

In order to better understand how these listings are
generated and displayed for users, one must begin to
dissect the rather simple process-to see where search
results come from.

First off, the title of the link result is "Countrywide
Home Loans - Real Estate Mortgage Lender - Equity Loan
Mortgages". If you look closely at the page's source
code - you will see that exact same line of text within
their title tag too. No, this is not a coincidence; it
is simply the standard for establishing a title for an
Inktomi search result.

Next on the list to dissect, is the description of the
web site provided by Inktomi by those searching. Again,
and certainly not surprising - all of this data is
easily found within the document heading, under the
META -Description tag.

Of course, the URL listed at the bottom of the listing
is simply the URL that is indexed.

Factors that Affect Ranking While the primary factors
in establishing an Inktomi result are very straight
forward and simple, some secondary factors exist as
well. They are listed below, with their relationship to
search results:

• Link Popularity
Both private and public research
shows that Inktomi factors in Link Popularity, or, the
amount of links that do not exist on the same domain
name that point to the target (listed) URL. The more
links that are established, the more popular the page
is seen through Inktomi - and thus, is given an
advantage.

• Keyword Density, Relevancy, and Importance
Residing in both your document text as well as within
your META tags, are the keywords you are looking to
target. While these would seem to be the most important
factor of any optimization campaign - it is not as
important for Inktomi as it may seem.
It has been researched within WebMasterWorld often, and
recently - and the general consensus is that the
keyword density of a page should fall somewhere between
5 and 10 per cent for any given page.

• Content
Equally as important keyword density, relevancy, and
importance is the content itself. With an elementary
algorithm like that used at Inktomi, playing your way
to prominent rankings can become fairly easy. While
Inktomi is an easy engine to understand and see working
though, they do claim rewards for sites that offer
unique and targeted content.
Interestingly enough, smaller pages (those with minimal
amounts of content) often appear more prominently than
other, more lengthy pages. Despite the claims that
content will dictate some affects on Inktomi -simply
offer about 300 words of text on your page - and you
will at least fit in with the norm.

How to Get Optimized for Inktomi
--------------------------------
Once you have a site that features unique content, and
you have decided upon what keywords will yield the most
qualified site visitors for that site's purpose - make
sure that Inktomi knows that you exist.
Of course, the best way to proceed in that direction is
to know that your site will in fact be spidered every
48 - 72 hours by Slurp, Inktomi's spidering bot. In
order to know it will be coming around, subscribe to
have the most resourceful URL's spidered through
Position Technologies -positiontech.com

Once it has been spidered, make sure to check back
within the Inktomi Pure Search available at 
< http://169.207.238.189/search/ > and monitor ranking
for all of your keywords as well as other possible
searches that would result in your URL being displayed.

Tune the META tags and page titles over time, but do so
carefully. Thankfully, no matter how much you change -
you can always refer back to what worked. Use the fact
that Inktomi updates so often to your advantage to
maximize clickthroughs, and be sure to find your URL
listed within affiliated partners of Inktomi. Often,
they use click-popularity in sorting their results.

Good luck, and of course - If you have any questions
about the materials within this publication or the rest
of Top Site Listings, simply email us at
< mailto:topsites@orbidex.com >.

This article is available in HTML format at:
< http://www.topsitelistings.com/searchengines/
inktomi_optimization.htm >
(Unwrap link text before clicking!)

---
© Copyright 2002 Top Site Listings, a Division of
Orbidex Inc. All Rights Reserved

-----------------------------------------
How to Be Featured as Our Guest Columnist
-----------------------------------------
While we welcome all pertinent contributions, we
strongly suggest you read our "Article Submission
Authors Guidelines" before submitting an article. You
can request them by email from here:
< fnsubmissionguide@fantomaster.com >

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
fantomAd
--------
Spying on the spiders: our landmark online service!

Featuring the world's most comprehensive database of
search engine IPs (spiders and others), the fantomas
spiderSpy(TM) is an inexorable prerequisite for
professional SE research, spider development, cloaking
technology and more.
While the database is still very much in its initial
expansion phase, it features literally thousands of
spiders, being updated every 6 hours.
Take advantage of our current ultra cool introductory
price and sign up for the service at an annual fee
way below what we will very soon have to charge for
a mere month's access!
See which search engines are currently featured:
< http://fantomaster.com/fasvsspy01.html >
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

======================================================
fantomTip:
"I found this service, I thinks is a disgrace..."
A New Spam-The-Engines-Service
------------------------------------------------------
(rt) How would you like a FREE online service willing
to oversubmit your competitors' web pages to the search
engines to oblivion? Unethical to the rim, and proud of
it? Working on the principle of "do it to them before
they do it to you"?
Well, you're in luck! Here's what this new site says:
"We take the URL and submit it repeatedly to the 6 top
search engines (for a 4 week period). This is consider
as spamming, which will result in the offending WEB
site being removed from the index." (Spelling retained
verbatim.) 
But not to worry - it's a spoof, and an educative one at
that. Enter some bogus URL and see what happens! 
So for some comic relief, check it out here: 
< http://www.geocities.com/spamtheengines/ >

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


======================================================
Spider IPs: Lots of New AltaVista Detected
------------------------------------------------------
(bro) Here's a verified list of AltaVista spiders from
      a new IP range:

#UA Scooter-3.2
scooter9.sv.av.com
64.152.75.4
#UA Scooter/1.0
64.152.75.7
#UA Scooter-3.2.JT
indexmaint1.sv.av.com
64.152.75.8
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter11.sv.av.com
64.152.75.24
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter12.sv.av.com
64.152.75.33
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter13.sv.av.com
64.152.75.44
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter14.sv.av.com
64.152.75.54
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter15.sv.av.com
64.152.75.64
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter16.sv.av.com
64.152.75.74
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter17.sv.av.com
64.152.75.84
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter18.sv.av.com
64.152.75.94
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter19.sv.av.com
64.152.75.104
#UA Scooter-3.2.DIL
scooter20.sv.av.com
64.152.75.114

Source: fantomas spiderSpy(TM) botBase
< http://fantomaster.com/fasvsspy01.html >
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

-----------
fN Archives
-----------
Review or download previous issues of fN here:
< http://fantomaster.com/fantomnews.html#previous >
For a contents list of all fN issues check:
< http://fantomaster.com/fantomnews.html#content >
Archived issues of the fantomFlash Bulletin:
< http://fantomaster.com/fantomnews.html#fflash >

--------------------------
Articles Reprinting Rights
--------------------------
Free fN articles for reprinting and/or presentation on
your web site are available here (please check the
republication terms!):
< http://fantomaster.com/faarticles0.html >

--------
Ad Rates
--------
Inquire here for Media Data and Rates:
mailto:fnads@fantomaster.com

----------------
How to Subscribe
----------------
Simply go to:
< http://fantomaster.com/fanews0.html >
and click the submit button,
giving your email address - that's all!
------------------
How to Unsubscribe
------------------
You must be kidding! :-)
Sorry to miss you ...
Simply go to:
< http://fantomaster.com/fanews0.html >
and click the "unsubscribe" radio button after
entering your email address

******************************************************
      Publishers: fantomaster.com
 Editor-in-Chief: Ralph Tegtmeier M.A. (rt)
Technical Editor: Dr. D. Brockhausen (bro)
                 < http://brocon.com >
Marketing Editor: Lee Traupel (wbi)
                 < http://intelective.com >
Editors:
G. Jentzsch (gj), M. Preuss (mp), A. Schmid (as),
A. Walker (aw)
mailto:fantomNews@fantomaster.com
   URL:< http://www.fantomaster.com >
------------------------
List of Guest Columnists
------------------------
Gabe Weinberg (vol. 1/issue 001)
Linda Cox (vol. 1/issue 002+ vol. 2/issue 011)
Robert Woodhead (vol. 1/issues 003+004)
Lee Traupel (vol. 1/issue 005)
Robin Nobles (vol. 2/issues 009+010)
Phil Stark (vol. 2/issue 010)
David Dimas (vol. 2/issue 012)
David Gikandi (vol. 2/issue 012)
Eric Lander (vol. 3/issue 013)
******************************************************
The ultimate stealth - the full control
Software and services webmasters have been dreaming of
for years!
Top search engine positioning, automated key word
density generation, search bot reference list,
killer admin applications, and more:
< http://www.fantomaster.com >
******************************************************
(c) copyright 2002 by fantomaster.com
    All rights reserved.
======================================================
fantOon