Archive: July, 2008

When the new search engine Cuil opened its site to public use on Monday, two curious things happened. The first was an enormous surge to try out the newest and potentially neatest search technology. The second was the crash of Cuil’s servers which were crushed under the unexpected weight of so many surfers.

The mass interest in Cuil (rhymes with “cool”) was more than the usual Monday morning meanderings as a means of procrastination. It is indicative of a massive wish for something different, an alternative to Google. That wish is expressed in headlines using phrases ranging from the terribly over-used “Google Killer Emerges” to the highly assumptive, “New Competitor for Google”.

It’s not that the Internet, web marketers or the media dislike Google. Every reasonable person recognizes that Google is the greatest information index in human history. Google’s existence and its excellence is a historic accomplishment.

Cuil was so popular on Monday morning its servers buckled under the load. Embarrassing as the downtime might be, it is almost understandable. People very much wanted Cuil to live up to its hype. Cuil did not anticipate the market’s want for something different.

A long Google update is finally ending. Several months ago, webmasters and SEOs began noticing strange micro-fluctuations in Google search results (SERPs). This period of “bounciness” went beyond the generally expected flux in search results sometimes burying Top10 web-pages in the 50’s range and temporarily elevating pages many would not expect to see the back-light of day. As the update rolled forward, more flux was noted though compared with previous Google updates, this one was extremely subtle.

Google index updates are very different than they used to be. A few years ago, whenever Google was making even a minor change in its ranking algorithms, search engine results would be topsy-turvy for weeks. Updates of that period were commonly called, “The Google Dance”, (thus the annual SES San Jose party sponsored by Google is also called The Google Dance).

Today, Google is constantly performing minor updates as its ranking algorithms have become far more complex, often specific to unique pages. When webmasters and SEOs actually notice that something is happening in or around Google’s SERPs, that something is likely larger than normal.

We had a ring-side commentator’s view of the Yahoo! situation on Webcology yesterday when we were joined by San Jose Mercury News columnist Chris O’Brien.

The 30-minute interview covers a lot of ground. The goal was to get a deeper look into the intricacies surrounding this story and there are few better independent sources than experienced journalists. Chris has covered the business side of the Valley for years. He has a detailed understanding of corporate mergers and the forces that compel them. Chris has spent the last six months working to help his readers figure out the twists and turns of Microsoft’s attempted take-over of Yahoo!

We start with a basic background and move quickly into the public and back-room maneuverings that have made this saga one of the most fascinating tech/business stories of all time. To hear the interview, please click on the WebmasterRadio.fm podcast widget below.

Webmaster Radio
	Google Yahoo Ad Deal Inside Story Show: Webcology

Rounding out the hour, we have a live report from the SMX Local and Mobile conference currently underway in San Francisco. Speaker and panel moderator Cindy Krum joined us in what was then the opening hours of the show to discuss the impact of mobile search and connections between mobile and local.

Microhoo’s over. Really… It’s Dead. Dead as a doornail. Deader than Marley’s ghost. Kauptnick. Nothing to see here. Move along folks. Nothing is on the table anymore and Microhoo is a memory. That’s the word from Ballmer, the talk of dead horses.

“Yahoo for us was always a tactic, not a strategy,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at today’s Microsoft annual financial analyst meeting. If the deal had happened, the combined R&D, virtual real estate and search infrastructure might have provided a propellant for Microsoft in its bid to challenge Google. It didn’t and now Microsoft is moving on.

As it stands, Ballmer appears to recognize that Yahoo! is very much weakened, which might have been part of the point in the first place when Microsoft leveled its initial take-over offer. Buying Yahoo! would have cost Microsoft over $40billion, monies the firm now has to invest in a game that Ballmer characterizes as a “two horse race”.

He appears to be content with damaging his competitor if he couldn’t outright take them. The two horses Ballmer refers to are Google and Microsoft with Yahoo! being either a hobbled horse or a lame duck. And so it goes…