Archive: March, 2006

Russian search engine Yandex is set to IPO sometime in the very near future, reports say. Yandex is Russia’s most popular search engine, with 62 percent of the market share.

According to the Moscow Times, Yandex “has hired Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank to advise on the listing, which could take place on Nasdaq…

Investors say the Russian media business has strong potential, given the fast growth in advertising on the Russian Internet.”

Thanks to Nick Wilsdon from multilingual-search.com for the information.

There’s a new search engine on the block. Created by Ash Nashed and Rafael Cosentino, Congoo search allows users to view web content normally hidden by subscription barriers, for free.

Special arrangements between Congoo and nearly 300 top media sources grant users limited access (between 4 and 15 articles per month) to premium content free of charge. Some of these publishers include: information newspapers, professional journals, wire services and investment analyst sites.

The system works via Congoo’s downloadable toolbar, Netpass (currently in beta). The incentive for publishers is marketing. Publishers can distribute their articles through the Congoo channel to showcase what they have to offer and gain interest.

Google just released another product. Google Finance, a financial information site, is now live. Yahoo! and MSN have offered a similar service for some time now.

Here are some of Google Finance’s features at a glance:

• Company Search – search for information about stocks, mutual funds, public and private companies
• Interactive Financial Charts – allows you to click and drag to view various time periods and zoom in
• Financial News –clustered by Google News, users can sort financial news by date and relevance
• Financial Blogs
• Discussion Groups – moderated to help maintain spam levels
• Create your own stocks and mutual funds Portfolio
• Related Companies Feature – shows which companies have, or have had associations with one another
• Recent Quotes – Keeps track of the latest stocks and mutual funds you’ve searched on

How many lawsuits are there going to be against Google this year? It never seems to end. An article by Barry at Search Engine Watch, which leads back to Reuters, reports that parental advice site KinderStart.com is suing Google for banishing it in the rankings.

KinderStart claims it was pushed way down in Google rankings in March, 2005 without warning, and argues that this created a 70 percent dip in audience levels. KinderSmart alleges this drop caused an 80 percent decrease in revenues.

The company is seeking damages, as well as information about Google’s patented ranking system, a secret the search engine giant keeps well guarded.

More information about the lawsuit can be downloaded here.

This lawsuit seems a little ridiculous to me. If you’re punished by Google in the rankings there is a reason. Google gives plenty of warning about best practices on its site, found here, and it also gives advance warning about changes it will make to its system and services.