It always blows my mind to see the countless amount of search engines that are placed online on annual basis. Millions are spent on research and development on tools however; they seem to lack the marketing support to compete with the big boys and receive attention by users of internet.
I try to test all of them out when I have the time. When I am finished testing out the bells and whistles on each tool, I think to myself, “Well, this is nice but when is the ordinary “Joe” or “Jane” going to use this feature?”
Is the market for search engines saturated with enough tools? Only time will tell.
Related Article: Keeping an eye on search engine innovation
Individuals that cannot live without Google will be happy to know that they can now “Google On The Go”. Google has introduced a mobile search applications for hand held devices.
If you are reading this post, you are probably a true believer of the internet as a platform to discover information and communicate. It is an amazing tool.
According a recent study conducted by Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, 12.75% of surveyed households in the U.S. say they not interested in anything on the Internet.
I wonder if they know what they are missing.
Podcasts are just another platform to obtain information electronically. Audio and video podcasts allow users to download information to listen or view at a later point of time.
Apparently, users of the internet are not adopting podcasts as forecasted. The number of users in America only increase by 2% within the last year, according to Edison Media Research.
I believe that there should be a day where webmasters should take the initative to clean up the web to rid ourselves of broken links to pages on the web. Well, add fake webpages to the list.
According Microsoft, there are millions of fake webpages on the internet meant to fool search engines during the spidering process of online pages. As a result, overcoming information overload will become more of a challenge in the future.
The article, “How To Spy On Google” published at Forbes.com provides a great example of how internet intelligence or competitive intelligence skills and intuition can work together to confirm a rumor or gut feeling. Companies that are proactive in terms of finding out the truth behind a possible move by a competitors or rumours within the industry will be able to address any potential threats coming from around the corner.
Well, it was just matter of time before my cynism toward the Web 2.0 was going to a matter of discussion and I did not have to look very far. My colleague, Ianik, has taken issue with one of my rants, especially, My Rant - Web 2.0 As A Valid Information Source. I kind of threw Wikipedia under the bus with the legions of people who use it as a point of reference. Perhaps, I was little firm with my contention however; I would like to get point across again.
I’m not saying that Wikipedia is bad for internet users and its should not be consulted. My point is that as information gathers, we have to be more vilgilant in terms of where we collect information from, especially if we are unfamiliar the credited sources.
If you think about it, isn’t the web just one huge collection of links? Without links, navigating the web would be impossible. With that being said, individuals often forget that the web can be searched by not only by keywords, but by hyperlink.
You may ask, why would anyone search the web by a hyperlink? One possible reason…marketing intelligence.
A gadget like LinkPopularity can assist you in identifying where competitors are marketing their products and/or services online. I invite you to enter your competitors’ URL into the tool and see the number of hits you will receive from Google, MSN, Yahoo…
Many casual internet users are familiar with Google and Yahoo however it seems that other engines such MSN and Ask.com often gets ignored. According to Nielsen / Net Rating, Ask.com has only 2.0% of the market share of the search engine market in the United States. Needless to say, the small share is no reflection of the quality of the services and results that Ask.com provides.
I encourage you to take a look at the interview with Gary Price, director of online information resources at Ask.com on Search Engine Watch.
