Exploiting Universal Search - Part 5: Five Problems with Universal Search

Whilst I’ve been extolling the virtues of Universal Search in this series of articles, it’s only fair to wrap up the series by looking at the problems Universal Search is posing for webmasters and what might be cause for concern. So, to that end, here are my top 5 Universal Search gripes. Someone needs to tell my Google that I’m in the UK! It seems as though Universal Search doesn’t really care about where the searcher is searching from unless he or she stipulates an actual location or postcode in the search query. For example, when I search for ‘credit cards’, Universal Search augments the search results with news items embedded within the natural search results. When I do this from our Smithfield offices in London I get this news item: “Loan waiver to take care of borrowings under Kisan Credit Card” – The Hindu The problem here is that... Read full article

Top Search Stories – March 2008

Google launches free ad management service Google has recently launched a free ad-serving service called Ad Manager. The new service works by serving ads on unsold spots on publishers web sites, with Google earning commission from the revenue. As well as facilitating the placement of ads on web sites, Ad Manager aims to provide reports on how successful ads are in reaching consumers. The new technology will be available to publishers for free so that more publishers will use the technology, thus increasing Google’s revenue. Ad Manager allows publishers to sell their own advertising. They can opt in to Google’s AdSense to fill any slots that remain unsold. The news of the new service follows Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, which was approved earlier this month (see below). Popularity of travel websites soars According to a recent report by internet measurement firm ComScore, travel and career websites achieved the greatest increase... Read full article