SearchDay: Has Mobile Local Search Finally Arrived? (Search Engine Watch)

Sur le même thème que "SearchDay: Has Mobile Local Search Finally Arrived? (Search Engine Watch)"

Search Engine Segment on Local TV

Last night I put on my "tech expert" hat again (I'm not sure if it's shrinking or my head is expanding) on another hard hitting segment on 207, our local evening news program here in Maine. Rob Caldwell interviewed me on the topic of search engines: how they work, how to do better searches, and how small businesses--so prevalent here in Maine--can rank higher at Google and Yahoo. Nothing cutting edge here for seasoned pros, but if you'd like some basic information on how to rank higher, watch the search engine segment now. (Windows Media Player required.) Rich Brooks The Camera Puts on 10 Pounds [lien] [EN]

Garmin Comes to Samsung, Mobile Gets a Nuvi and Google Local Search Upgrade [Cellphones]

Two bits of news have come out of the Garmin camp today—the first of which involves Samsung phones getting their own navigation software based on the Garmin Mobile(TM) XT platform. The software will be available on smartphones like the i780 in Europe and elsewhere starting sometime in the next few months. Futhermore, Garmin Mobile users will be treated to upgrades including a new Nuvi-like interface and the addition of Google Local search starting in July. Press releases are available after the break. Garmin(R) Provides Navigator for Samsung Mobile Phones OLATHE, KA UNITED STATES LAS VEGAS, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, announced today that select Samsung mobile phones will have the benefit of Garmin's intuitive turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation directly on the phone. Samsung Mobile Navigator by Garmin is based on the popular Garmin Mobile(TM) XT navigation software, and Samsung phones with this navigation capability are expected to be available in Europe and other parts of the world in several months. Garmin will display the Samsung i780 and other examples of its mobile phone navigation solutions April 1-3, 2008, at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061026/CGTH082LOGO) "Garmin is pleased to offer Samsung users a rich navigation experience with the same intuitive user interface found on other Garmin personal navigation devices," said Roger Jollis, Garmin's director of OEM & mobile marketing. "Garmin's on-board and off-board phone navigation solutions are now available on over 500 different handsets, including Samsung mobile phones." "We are pleased to provide Garmin's advanced navigation feature on Samsung's i780 and other Windows Mobile based smartphones recently introduced to the European market. As navigation features become rapidly popular among various mobile features, Samsung is continuously investing to provide the best of experience to our consumers," said YongBae Lee, vice president of mobile communication division, Samsung Electronics, of Samsung Electronics. Marketed in major European countries, the Samsung i780 has a sleek design packed with the latest in business and consumer features including global positioning system (GPS) navigation, fast HSDPA and EDGE connectivity, Bluetooth, 802.11b and g wireless capabilities, full touch screen with stylus, QWERTY key pad, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional operating system, 2.0-megapixel camera and front camera for video calls. The i780 also delivers full Internet browsing, MP3 music and FM radio. The Garmin navigation software is on a plug-and-play microSD card, and once a customer loads the card into the phone, the software automatically installs. Customers may then use their phone to receive voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions to their destination. A 3D moving map on the phone's display shows the user exactly where they are, and if a turn is missed along the way, Samsung Mobile Navigator by Garmin automatically calculates a new route. Users may key in a specific street address or search millions of points of interest (POI) — places like hotels, restaurants, shopping, and tourist attractions. Customers can also dial the POI's phone number automatically — for reservations, hours of operation, or other information. Those using Samsung Mobile Navigator by Garmin also have access to Garmin Online(TM), a free and subscription based online service that offers dynamic content such as traffic, weather forecasts and safety cameras. Garmin Online content varies by region. Garmin Mobile(TM) Application to Offer New Features on BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile Smartphones OLATHE, KA UNITED STATES LAS VEGAS, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, announced today upgrades to Garmin Mobile that include a new user-friendly interface and Google Local(TM) search. These upgrades will be available on a variety of handsets and platforms including BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones. These new features are in addition to a long list of rich features and real-time content included with Garmin Mobile's current subscription based service that includes turn-by-turn, voice prompted directions, as well as traffic, weather conditions and forecasts, fuel prices and more. Garmin will display the Garmin Mobile enhancements at its CTIA Wireless trade show booth (#6639) in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 1-3, 2008. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061026/CGTH082LOGO) When the new Garmin Mobile application is launched, customers will first notice the new nuvi-like interface, with "Where To?" and "View Map" icons on the smartphone display. Once "Where To?" is selected, colorful icons such as "Address," "Recent Finds," "Food and Hotel" and "Google Local" streamline the number of keystrokes required before selecting a destination and receiving turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions. If a turn is missed en route, Garmin Mobile automatically recalculates the route based on the user's current location. Garmin Mobile has an extensive points of interest database — places like hotels, restaurants, ATMs, gas stations, airports, and more — thanks to the over six-million integrated points of interest and Google Local search. Garmin Mobile is also integrated with the phone's address book so that users can navigate directly to a contact's address stored on their smartphone. The Google Local search capability lets users harness points of interest information via the World Wide Web. It allows users to look for locations by typing in key word searches as they would if they were on their desktop computer. If looking for a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi access, simply type the phrase in the search box and a list of venues will appear based on proximity to the user's current location. In addition, Garmin has created a "quick search" feature that lets users search Google Local via categories — such as food, lodging, fuel, and more — rather than typing a word or phrase into the Google Local search box. Detailed information can be displayed including descriptions, business address & phone numbers, and a user-contributed rating, where applicable. Once the user selects a location, they can save the destination to their favorites folder, call the destination, or navigate to it with Garmin's intuitive turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions. In addition to navigation, Garmin Mobile includes free access to constantly-updating information like real-time traffic, fuel prices, weather forecasts, and more. Since Garmin Mobile is a subscription based solution, mapping data is stored on Garmin's servers, not on the device itself. Therefore, customers have the advantage of the most up-to-date mapping information available directly from Garmin's servers. In order to access Garmin's network, the smartphone must have a data plan for network access. [PRNewswire and PRNewswire] [lien] [EN]

Search Engine Notes at the Maine SEO Blog

Last week Nicki Hicks and Cybele Brooks from flyte attended the Search Marketing Expo in NYC. Three days of intensive education on search marketing, local search, mobile search, incoming links and new trends in search engine optimization. Nicki has transcribed most of her notes into a series of posts at flyte's Maine SEO blog: · Ask the SEOs · External Linking Tactics · CSS, Ajax, Web 2.0 and SEO · Personalized and Customized Search · Internal Linking Tactics · Search and Reputation Management · Paid Search Fundamentals · What's New with Local Search Marketing? · Search and the iPhone Now these are just session notes...sometimes "you had to be there." If you have more questions or wonder how to apply this to your own site be sure to contact Nicki directly for more help. And, if you haven't yet subscribed to the Maine SEO blog RSS feed, now's your chance! Rich Brooks SEO for Small Business [lien] [EN]

'(Stomping The Search Engines 2) ***Watch Video***

http://www.webseospecialistinnyc.com/staff.html Call Carrie 573-321-3462 Skype:Carrie.Bevill stomping the search engines 2,search engine optimization,search engine marketing,search engine placement,search engine position Auteur : myspacemrktpro Tags : stomping the search engines 2 engine optimization marketing placement position Envoyé : 17 novembre 2008 Note :0.0 Votes :0 [lien] [EN]

Citysearch Learns to Coexist With Search Engines

Citysearch is one of the oldest names on the Web, founded by Bill Gross of Idealab on the clear-headed idea that the Internet should supplant Yellow Pages and newspaper listings as the best way for people to look up local businesses and for those businesses to advertise. But finding the right model has been elusive, and the company has reinvented itself almost annually. For the last 10 years, it has been controlled by various companies run by Barry Diller; now it is part of IAC/InterActiveCorp. With search engines, especially Google, aggregating information about local businesses, some have wondered whether specialized sites like Citysearch have a role. Over the last year, the company has come up with a business model that accepts, rather than fights the decentralized nature of the Web today, including the power of search engines and social networks. It is weaving its content throughout these other sites. Lots of sites talk about various forms of syndication, but what is particularly interesting about Citysearch is how its advertisements from local businesses can follow its content, so it can profit no matter where someone sees a Citysearch listing. On Wednesday, Citysearch introduced a beta version of a new site design that furthers this decentralized approach. It is changing the underlying architecture of the site from being focused on 150 metropolitan areas to 75,000 towns and neighborhoods of big cities. (The beta only has 20,000 of those set up so far.) In time, the company hopes that users will use this structure to enter reviews that can fill out its database for areas the site doesn’t cover well now. And this, of course, will make pages for all those areas that will show up in search engines. It also is using a very nice implementation of Facebook Connect. You can sign in using your Facebook account (linking it to your existing Citysearch account if you have one). This does two things: Reviews you write on Citysearch get published to your Facebook newsfeed. Also, if you have other Facebook friends who use Citysearch, you can see their reviews highlighted when you use the site. To my mind, this is a much more useful experience for users than trying to fit elaborate sites like Citysearch into applications that live hidden in Facebook. The company is giving up control here. It no longer holds the list of users and the store of data about them. But it may well get more in return. Users of Facebook and other social networks will see more links to Citysearch reviews on their friends’ profiles and newsfeeds. More important, by making it easy to sign in, without having to set up an account, Citysearch hopes to encourage more people to write reviews. Citysearch has 4 million registered users, compared with Facebook’s 120 million users (almost all of whom are registered). Also, reviews linked to Facebook accounts may be less likely to be faked by business owners. Citysearch will add similar links to MySpace and OpenSocial next year. User reviews are important to Citysearch, but it has a different approach than Yelp, the local entertainment start-up that has started to catch on in some big cities. Yelp highlights user reviews but gives very little voice to the businesses. Citysearch’s new design presents information in three parallel columns: from the owner, from Citysearch staff writers and from users. (Actually, in most cases, the site may not have all three sources, so it will show as many of these columns as it can.) “We wanted to create a conversation about reviews,” said Jay Herratti, who has been chief executive of Citysearch for a year and a half. “In many cases, the reviews have become so loud that they drove out everything else.” Of course, giving a business owner a voice is part of the way Citysearch makes money. Only paying customers have the right to put up their own descriptions of their establishments. They can also post a video tour as well. When users search for something, say an Italian restaurant in Chicago, the paying clients are listed first (marked as “sponsored results”). The advertisers pay a set fee every time a user acts on the information, whether by clicking on their listing, watching a video, making a reservation or calling them. (The company increasingly assigns advertisers special phone numbers so that these calls can be tracked.) The price per click ranges from 50 cents to about $20 depending, on the type of business, Mr. Herratti said. It averages about $1. One thing the company has built over the last 13 years is a sales force that can call on small business owners, something that is harder for other sites to duplicate. Interestingly, Citysearch has turned these advertising relationships into a specialized ad network. It places these sponsored listings on other sites with business listings (such as AOL’s Mapquest), including some direct rivals (like Local.com), splitting the revenue when customers click to contact a business. It is this approach to advertising that can allow Citysearch to be comfortable losing control of its experience to search engines, social networks and even competitors. And unlike Yelp, Citysearch allows its reviews to be listed on Google Local, which is shaping up to be one of its most potent rivals. “I want my content and my advertisements everywhere on the Web,” Mr. Herratti said. [lien] [EN]

ChaCha, the lonely search engine, waits for a text message [Search]

Hoosier-powered search engine ChaCha has unveiled a feature developed with the help of $2 million in Indiana state funds: mobile-phone-based searches. Scott Jones, the serial entrepreneur behind... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] [lien] [EN]

Searchme: 'Cover Flow' Search Engine [Web]

Searchme is a new search engine with an obvious inspiration for its unique UI—Apple's Cover Flow. But that doesn't mean that Searchme is any less intriguing. Previewing webpages visually and filtering categories dynamically, we don't see the service usurping Google any time soon, but you might want to try out their private beta all the same. For a walk-through, hit this video complete with one of the worst voice-overs we've heard in our lives—and we did a short stint in local cable production. [searchme via techcrunch] [lien] [EN]

Visual Search Engine Coming to iPhone in June [Magic]

Evolution Robotics ViPR visual search technology is coming to the iPhone this June. ViPR allows you to take a photo of any movie, CD or book, send it to a server, and automagically get an email back loaded with information and links pointing to YouTube videos or iTunes Music Store links. It will also be deployed in Japan on KDDI's au camera phones this Spring. As you will see in the iPhone demo after the jump, it works incredibly well, even when the object is partially occluded: It seems like the perfect software for the laziest people in the world, but it's one of those "oh wow" things that will make everyone smile when using it. Breakthrough Visual Search Engine for Mobile Phones Takes Off Big in Japan Pasadena, CA & Tokyo, Japan - April 17, 2008 - Evolution Robotics Inc., a leading robotics technology company, in partnership with Bandai Networks Co. Ltd, Japan's leading mobile content provider, announced today that KDDI Corporation is including the "ER Search" visual search engine on its new Spring 2008 "au™" line of camera phones, and has made it available for download for any KDDI customer with a prior "au" camera phone. This launch marks a dramatic expansion in the market for mobile visual search, which will enable millions of consumers in Japan alone to do online searches by taking pictures of everyday objects with their camera phone. The deployment of this technology in the mass market also opens up an entirely new range of categories of services for mobile marketing, which is already projected to grow to $24 Billion worldwide by 2013. (Source: ABI Research) ER Search is a mobile search engine operated by Bandai Networks and powered by Evolution Robotics' ViPR visual pattern recognition system. It works essentially like using a traditional search engine, but without having to type any text or go through complicated menus. Instead, users simply snap a picture of something they're interested in and immediately get back relevant content, all in the palm of the hands. As an example, KDDI customers will be able to take a picture of a music CD that would return links relating to the artist, hear clips from the album and purchase songs to download on their phone. If they are shopping for wine in a store, they can take a picture of the wine label and get expert reviews and recommendations on the spot. Or, if they are browsing through a catalog and see an item they'd like to buy, they can order it immediately by snapping a picture of the item on the page. "ER Search is an entirely new way for connecting consumers with content and companies," said Satoshi Oshita, CEO of Bandai Networks. "Because ER Search runs on mobile phones, searches happen when and where the customer is, as soon as they see something that they're interested in. Additionally, the fact that a customer simply has to click a picture of a product or advertisement, makes the search process far easier and immediate than anything that has been available before." "We are very pleased to be working with Bandai Networks and are excited to see the momentum building in the Japanese market," said Paolo Pirjanian, President and CEO of Evolution Robotics. "Our mission is to take aerospace-grade technologies and make them affordable for mass market applications, and ER Search is a great example. We see this as just the start of a growing market for visual search in Asia and other parts of the globe and are actively working with our partners to expand the range of services that can benefit consumers and companies alike." Bandai Networks had already deployed ER Search on over one million phones in Japan in 2007. With this deployment with KDDI, the number of users with access to ER Search will expand by millions more in a very short time, making it even more compelling for companies and advertisers to participate in the service. About ViPR The ViPR technology easily supports user-generated content so that users can take new pictures of objects, images, videos or even locations and tag them with links and content to expand the database. That content will then show up in the results returned to other users who take similar pictures, thus creating a robust world-wide visual database for communities to develop and access. (A video demonstration of Evolution Robotics' visual search technology running on Apple's iPhone can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/user/EvolutionRobotics) ER Search's versatility rests in Evolution Robotics' breakthrough ViPR visual recognition technology. ViPR is able to learn new objects and images on the fly (such as the cover art on a music CD), without the need for any special encoding such as barcodes or watermarks. Just as significant, ViPR performs well on low cost components such as the cameras used on most mobile phones today, even when lighting and other visual conditions are poor. For the music search application alone, Bandai Networks has over 150,000 music CD covers already indexed in their database. Other mobile marketing and mobile commerce applications include providing content and links for print ads, book covers, DVDs, product packaging, movie posters, retail displays, business signs, etc. Even animation, streaming video or images from live TV can be supported. [Evolution via Mobile Whack] [lien] [EN]

A new search engine appears: will you use it?

Tonight a new search engine showed up. Techcrunch has the details. So do tons of other blogs. Search engine guru Danny Sullivan has a great post about the new engine, Cuil, (pronounced “cool”). I wasn’t pre-briefed or anything. Like I said last week I’m trying to get out of the PR game and try to get back to what made me like blogging: sharing information with other users. So, has anyone figured out a good way to quickly test search engines? I haven’t. Everyone has their own search terms that they use to judge whether or not an engine is interesting. I remember when I was trying to convince my dad to move from Alta Vista to Google he had a bunch of very specific scientific searches he’d do. He used to love showing me that Alta Vista had more and better results. I kept at it. After about two years he switched to Google too. Today isn’t like back in the Alta Vista days. Back then there was porn and spam that was showing up in my result sets. Google doesn’t have those problems and usually works for almost anything I search for. When it doesn’t work, I try some of the other engines, or just refactor my search and it almost always works. I can’t remember the last time I was totally stymied by Google. But, what’s great about the blogosphere is that everyone gets to participate. Look at TechCrunch’s early searches and the comments that are coming in. I, too, think that Cuil is going to face an uphill battle based on my early searches. On the other hand, let’s give Cuil the benefit of the doubt. Let’s say it actually was a better search engine. I still doubt many people would switch. Why? Distribution. Huh? Well, my Firefox browser has Google built into it. Most people have no idea how to switch it. Most people, on our tests, really don’t understand much of anything except that that little box probably now goes to Google. The Google. It’s so pervasive of an expectation at this point that many people type URLs into that box. Or, type the word “Yahoo” into that box so they can get to their email and other Yahoo services. Is Cuil going to be able to get into this game? No way, no how. On mobile phones it’s worse. My iPhone has Google built in. No way that Cuil is going to be able to rip out Google and replace that with its own engine. So, why is Cuil here? I think it’s a play for Microsoft money. Microsoft needs to get back into the search game, so will continue buying companies to try to get back into the search game. Yahoo, if run by management that’s rational, will probably start doing the same thing. Look at Powerset. They cashed out early to Microsoft. Cuil probably will do the same thing if it brings enough to the table. Just for fun, though, and to get back to being a user, let’s try one search: Barack Obama’s technology policy I put that into all the search engines without any quotes, just to see which one does the best job. Here’s the result set: Cuil (gave an error, couldn’t find any results) Google. (best of the three) Yahoo. (close to Google, but not quite there) Microsoft. (by far the worst of the big three, didn’t bring the technology policy up as the first result). Anyway, I did a bunch of other searches on Cuil and they are trying to be different, that’s for sure, but I didn’t see enough of a need to try it out further. How about you? Possibly related posts: (automatically generated) · Former Employees of Google Prepare Rival Search Engine - NYTimes.com · Why Cuil Is No Threat to Google · Are You Searching For Another Search Engine? · Week in review: top stories from the News Desk [lien] [EN]

BusinessWeek's new online strategy: search-engine spam [Media]

BusinessWeek has tried it all -- comments, blogs, podcasts. But with its latest online strategy, it's really giving up on the idea of serving up quality content. Instead, its new site, Business Exchange, will specialize in gaming Google. Sort through the gobbledygook about "aggregation" and "verticals" and "user-generated content," and you arrive at this vision for the site: Roger W. Neal, senior vice president and general manager of BusinessWeek Digital, said that as Business Exchange pages work their way up through search engine results, the site should double BusinessWeek's traffic on the Web within two years, allowing it to sell more ads. There you have it, bluntly, from a senior BusinessWeek executive: Business Exchange is a search-engine spam trap, meant to capture Google users on their way to actual information. What makes the plan brilliant: In the short term, ad salespeople will sell these pages at BusinessWeek.com rates, raking in a fortune on throwaway content. In the long term, though, BusinessWeek risks turning all of its online inventory into junk by association. (Photo by Chester Higgins/The New York Times) [lien] [EN]

The challenges of local search

Gib Olander works for Localeze, which helps local businesses excel in search engines. He wrote a column for MediaPost that does a great job outlining the challenges and semantics of local search. For example, people don’t just search for “Oakland plumber” but “Oakland leaky faucet.” Or a golfer may search for “PING [...] [lien] [EN]

Internet on Verge of Exploding: YouTube Now World's No. 2 Search Engine [YouTube]

Productivity is dead, the internet is going to explode. According to ComScore's August 2008 search engine rankings, YouTube is now the number two search engine in the world, surpassing Yahoo. YouTube fetched over 2.6 billion search queries that month, trumping Yahoo's 2.4 billion—though Google itself still reigns supreme with 7.6 billion queries (together, Google and YouTube field 10.2 billion). That's a hell of a lot of video, just on YouTube. And I don't even wanna know how many of those were looking for Rick Astley's magnum opus. [TG Daily] Read More: PBS and YouTube Want You to Play Michael Moore on Election Day, Star Trek Original Series Now Warping on YouTube, Three New Ways to Watch YouTube: Lights Out, Theater View and Super HD, Sling.com Beta Enhancements, Like Your TV Shacked Up with Hulu [lien] [EN]

Martín Álvarez, W3C Spain Office, gives a talk entitled: "Web Standards and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)"

Martín Álvarez gives an invited talk entitled "Estándares Web y SEO (Web Standards and SEO (Search Engine Optimization))" at the "Search Congress Barcelona 9" on Friday0 January , in Barcelona, Spain. [lien] [EN]