What is real information online? Can search engines see truth?

It's amazing the amount of information online at your fingertips! It's something that boggles the mind when you can find out anything about everything with just a few keystrokes. But as this article states from the TheJournalNews.com, is the information correct or true?

The cold truth is there is nothing to say that what you're reading is true. Now I'm not talking about reliable news sources, most of those are true. But what about people writing authoritative arrticles which are really an editorial with an axe to grind? It would be difficult to take what's in those web pages as true, or at least you should check sources before using it in a writing or research work.

Search engines are great at finding information, but they can't differentiate between what is true and what is not true. For the search engine algorithm, it's weighing many factors for relevancy, "truth" is not one of those algorithm factors. So when people search, what they find may or may not be true and that's where this human factor comes in. People must judge for themselves if what they're reading has credibility or if what they see is true. That's one new twist in all this avalanche of information with search engines.

Websites these days can look perfectly fine, have an air of legitimacy, and be totally truth starved. That's what we have to look forward to in the future if we're not careful. Things to look for when getting buying online is to check to make sure it's real. Look for a real address, never a PO Box number. Make sure that the phone rings to a real company or entity. Make sure that who you're dealing with is who they say they are.

As far as research goes, searcher beware. There are many half truths. If I was still doing research papers in school, I would subscribe to a service like GuruNet.com for a nominal fee. That way I know I would be getting real, factual information.

Real web marketing for higher rankings, RealWebMarketing.com

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Searching for video, a new challenge.

It seems like the next big challenge for search engines is to be able to index video and audio files. It's not like indexing web pages which have the information in a text form that a search engine spider can digest. Video or audio files need to be identified externally, they don't have any text to describe themselves. Yahoo is giving this a try and it makes so much sense to make this kind of search available. There is so much information locked up in a video presentation compared to the written word. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, except to maybe the average search engine.

Now, I don't think you're going to be blown away by what you find when you search Yahoo for video. I just tried the word "marketing" and got everything from a drum solo video to some strange woman with a weird name. But it really doesn't matter, it's a good first try into something that is greatly needed in search. It seems as if search engine companies are trying to deliver the entire human experience in a searchable format.

Web marketing for real results, RealWebMarketing.com

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What are search engines for anyway?

Evidently, they're here to find out more about today's cultural icons like Britney Spears. According to an article at SFGate.com, people's most common searches are all the pop culture drivel of the day. This doesn't mean this is all anyone is searching for when using a search engine, it just means that a lot of people have superficial thoughts and the first thing that pops into their head, they search on it. Unfortunately, most people have some real cultural garbage on the brain.

I think this search engine tally on people's most common searches reveals much about us as a culture. I think the younger generation is behind this search for banality mostly. It reflects the MTV life with some of these dubious personalities. And the other thing you can glean from it is that it's mostly young men doing a lot of searching for women, but that's natural isn't it? Men searching for women. But what makes it unnatural is these are men searching for women they have no shot at. How about shutting off the computer and trying to meet real women out in the world? Chances are they better looking than some of the ones they search for so often.

Now, how do I relate this to web marketing? Well if you're trying to get meaningful high rankings, then associating yourself with cultural garbage won't get you interested visitors, only surfers. Most companies will look past these kinds of stats to what they really have for a visitor. Unless you're selling a product or service to young men, then these common terms mean nothing. In fact, they do mean nothing to almost anyone. Raw huge internet traffic doesn't make for good business unless you're trying to get 1 out of 500,000 to buy something, like a spammer does.

Meaningful web marketing for better online results, RealWebMarketing.com

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Local search and local newspapers.

I found this article which talks about the effect of local search on local newspaper advertising. It's a nice overview and makes some points about the trend into online ads. I think there is a clear move to online ads but the article suggests that newspaper advertising still has legs to stand on. In other words, they believe that local internet ads will not be replacing newspapers anytime soon, but I disagree.

Newspaper ads are geared for more or less a mass audience of readers. I would say that is the case from early in the 20th century. Why do so many newspaper ads talk about specials and sales? To entice people who wouldn't otherwise be interested to call or stop in to the store advertising. Internet advertising on the other hand, gives very specific targets to the buyer you want to have visit. Newspapers sometimes do that, but not very well. I believe that some of the figures they have in the article will change even more drastically over the next 2-3 years as more advertisers discover the value of good internet advertising.

Marketing for the real web, RealWebMarketing.com

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Merry Christmas and some thoughts on Jesus Christ.

As we celebrate Christmas this year I hope we all come away with the knowledge that God loves us. Jesus Christ came to deliver us from sin. It's amazing that God would come to us in the form of a little baby and that little baby Jesus would be the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the of each of us who believes!

As John 1:10-14 says:

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I have experienced this salvation and I hope you will too. Don't miss out on this full life, something our culture or world can never deliver. If you have a question or would like to know more about who Jesus is, please e-mail me.

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What does all this book scanning and archiving mean for search?

There's been a lot of articles lately about Google Print, or scanning of libraries for online availability. So far, all I hear is what people think about it. Most say that they like it or believe that it's a good move for educational institutions. But what's the deeper issue and what is Google's motivation for doing such a program.

First of all, Google is no longer a company that is doing things for the betterment of humanity without a payday on it. On that you can be sure. Everything is for profit and that just fine. But don't think that just because they're doing something like library scanning and indexing that it's done for general good. Because Google is a public company now, everything is done for profit. So what's the profit motive here?

I think that there must be an agreement between these school libraries and Google where Google offers to do this for free but will charge for book research on the back end. I'm sure the schools will get a small fee for every book viewed online as well. But the majority of the money will go to Google and they will have a control over many of the electronic assets from there on. It's a good strategy for Google in the long term. What it might mean is that Google will have control of electronic books from several major libraries making them a super library from which many people who do research will be glad to pay.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have access to such things, but does it make sense to sell out information cheaply to large corporations. In some ways, I think these educational institutions are doing just that. It all sounds so good getting something like this getting done for nothing, but at what price in the future? Should these libraries be selling something as valuable as their information so cheap?

I'm also thinking about Google as an entity that could be more intrusive into our lives that we want it to be in the future. I hope that there are other companies looking at doing what Google is doing. The only way to have monopolistic control of something is to encourage competition. To that end, our government should be providing tax incentives to bring more competition to the table. But I'm sure they'll be too late someday and have an inquiry as to why certain search entities have too much control of information.

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A perspective on Google's scanning of library content.

This article by Suzanne Fields makes some nice connections between the past and present with the free flow of information.

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George Gilder's telecomputer is coming closer and closer.

Years ago, probably about 1986 I read a book by George Gilder and for the life of me I can't remember the title, but it talked about the convergence of TV & the computer. He saw that the future of technology would marry video and the functions of the computer calling it the "telecomputer". If you've never read any of Gilder's material, it's worth the time to take a look at what this futurist was saying back then and how it might affect us all in the future.

Now with video becoming more on demand thanks to advanced computing, the ability to find the video you're looking for is coming. Blinkx, one of the latest in a crop of upstart search engines will be offering searchable video called BlinkxTV. My guess is that closed captioning has something to do with this. If the search engine can take that kind of text content and offer it as a search term, then it's more than just a deaf person's helper. I'm only guessing that's how it might be done unless they associate keywords with them. But that would seem unlikely. The telecomputer as Gilder described so many years ago is finally coming to pass.

Marketing the real web way, RealWebMarketing.com

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Why use the Google Deskbar?

I'm not sure that many people use it, but the Google Deskbar is an option for doing searching without opening a browser. It stays resident and offer a mini-viewer for the results. For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would use this tool. Right now, if you have the Google Toolbar, you have all the functions of a Deskbar. Launching a mini-viewer is nothing more that a small browser window, so what's the difference?

I think it brings up the issue of progressive stages of software development. When one version of something is started, it is rarely abandoned. It should be in the case of Deskbar. It has been superceded by better tools from Google itself. If anyone even uses Deskbar anymore. I would be surprised, but why doesn't Google give it the boot?

Software can be just like government programs, once they start, they never really end!

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Microsoft Desktop search released via MSN toolbar.

All of a sudden everyone has a desktop search tool including the one company that should have had it in the first place, Microsoft. It must be that it was never that difficult to do in the first place. Evidently, this is something that Microsoft could have done years ago but got caught with their pants down again.

What makes the Microsoft desktop search more interesting than the others is that they's incorporated into the MSN toolbar itself instead of another stand alone application. It's makes sense to have the toolbar be a point of search not only for the web but also for the desktop space. It will also search Outlook e-mails too. For those of us who don't use or don't like Outlook bloatware, it doesn't matter at all to us.

This has been the best move that Microsoft has made yet making the ubiquitous toolbar the point of contact for all types of search. These toolbars continue to be one of the most important and overused aspects of search. With massive distribution of these toolbars already in place, it makes it easy to upgrade. But I still question the clamor of desktop search from the general public. I don't think there is any and you can't grade the popularity or use of software from how many times it's been downloaded.

Real for the web marketing world, RealWebMarketing.com

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Some philosophical differences between Google and Yahoo.

Here's a good article from the Associated Press that has some information on the more general or philosphical differences between Google and Yahoo. I was surprised to learn that Yahoo still had a lot of Google shares that were worth a substantial amount. It's a nice read that shows how each entity differs at the way they're penetrating the market.

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Content providers charging search engines?

This article in the India Times talks about an interesting turn of events in the future where content providers charge back to search engines. It's know of hard to distill it down to plain english so it would be good to read the article.

I'm sure this one is above my head because I don't know how content provider is going to be able to chargeback a search engine or why they would want anyone to. I'm open for opinions on this one. I believe that search engines will continue to drive traffic, but the major new trend will be repackaging of search engine results and creating a new kind of search portal. Many of the meta search engines are doing this already but none has done this concept better than A9.com. That's where this is all going as search results become a commodity.

Reality in web marketing, RealWebMarketing.com

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AskJeeves entering the desktop search race.

Soon AskJeeves.com will be entering the desktop search race with everyone else. I'm sure most of these tools are primarily the same and return the same basic results. This desktop search race that every search engine is engaged is being thrown at the general public in a hurried fashion. No search engine wants to be left behind including AskJeeves. In the article referenced in the link above, there is an interesting quote:

Mehdi and Reade agree that the desktop search market is just getting off the ground, with few people using the available tools. "It's early in the game," Reade said. "It's no good trying to monetize something people don't use."

At least the guys at AskJeeves are honest about the whole desktop search tool phenomena. They know that there isn't a tidal wave of demand for this type of product. And with all the concerns about what it indexes and the lack of privacy, then it only emphasizes the shortcomings of this market segment.

AskJeeves isn't going to include paid ads from Google into the results in desktop search, I'm surprised that they do it at all. Which makes me think, why hasn't AskJeeves done their own paid advertising for websites? They would get a better revenue stream than using Google ads anyway. It makes no sense to me. They almost make it sound like they are more pure as a search engine, which may be what they want to portray.

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Google scanning library books, not a new idea.

For many years, lots of people have wished that whole libraries were scanned into an electronic format. Well, the future is now as Google begins to take on this task with a test with a couple of major university libraries. It's a good step and something that has value for people who want to find true information. For years now, the internet has been taken over by commercial interests from the previous educational stature it had early on. I think that this is the solution that everyone was looking for originally. I'm surprised that Adobe didn't try to do this years ago as they had a good format in Adobe PDF. It would have been easy for them and could have given them a serious advantage in this new area of search.

There are ways I like to see the internet when looking for background information or just want an education. For that kind of search, these scanned in books would be ideal for any type of student or educational institution. If that was available, it would mean that you could avoid commercial content altogether if you wanted to. This might help delineate the difference between the commerce of the internet and a research function. It serves both, but many times they're thrown together because search engines are still not all that sophisticated.

Right now, for the educational portion of any search I might do I use GuruNet. It gives me all the information, pure information that is not commercial. Hopefully more tools will come into the market like this Google scanning library books, it's sorely needed to balance the internet.

It's real marketing for the web, RealWebMarketing.com

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Desktop search for Yahoo in January

Like almost everyone else these days, Yahoo is going to have a desktop search tool. Yahoo is doing everything it can to keep up to Google in the search engine race. It should be interesting if there is any reason to use the Yahoo desktop search compared to Google's version. It would be great if Yahoo came out with something that is more private. They license the technology, from an article in the Daily Times of Pakistan:

The product, licensed from a pioneering startup named X1 Technologies, seeks to cure a common computer-induced headache by making it as quick and easy to find digital information offline as it has become online. With just 20 employees, X1 has established itself as a trailblazer in desktop search since starting three years ago. The private Pasadena-based company has been charging $74.95 for its search software and plans to continue to license its products to businesses even as Yahoo distributes a version for free.

So even this company, X1 is offering a licensed version that they are distributing too. What makes me wonder about desktop search is it really something everyone wants? Before all these alternatives came out, did you ever hear anyone clamoring for this type of tool? I'll guess you didn't. The reason why is I think that search engines have overestimated the market for this. It still floors me that with some of the security issues, people will use the product.

The reality of marketing on the web, RealWebMarketing.com

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Blingo, a win a prize search engine.

The avalanche of new search engines continues with new entry #243, Blingo. In this case, it looks like regular Google-like search results but you have the chance to win a prize and in some cases, some pretty good ones. I didn't know whether to put this in search engine news here or in my web marketing blog, I wasn't sure what it was. Is it a search engine or is it really just a marketing gimmick to get people to use it? I guess from a marketing standpoint it makes some sense. If all things are equal as far as results go, why not take a chance? I think that's what most people might be thinking and that makes for effective web marketing.



I do like the look of the search engine but in this case, web marketing and a boost in popularity through prize giveaways may be leveraged for some ad sales later on. I tried the search myself and didn't win a prize and it looks like the results are coming right from Google, whether they are or not, I don't know right now.

I think that Blingo comes under the category of meta-search engines which simply pull results from several search engines and gives them a little twist. This is a trend which will continue and probably get even more abused. Pretty soon, you'll be having little Bobby Richter's search engine, where he also lets you bid on the answers to last week's test at Kokomo Elementary, or something that ridiculous.

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Blog spamming, another avenue of frustration.

Here's an article regarding blog spam, which seem to be the next thing in the spam wars. As is stated in the article, spammers post comments to blogs to get the search engines to find it. This is okay if the comment left on a blog was legitimate. But in the case of spamming, it's usually some garbage, but they make sure the have a link back to what they have to offer.

One way to prevent this type of spam is to not allow comments on a blog, which is unfortunate. I like the fact that readers sometimes leave a comment regarding something of interest in our blogs. It seems as though spam is ruining everything that we use online and it's only getting worse. Soon mobile phone users will have spam too if they don't already.

Wouldn't it be nice to have an internet that wasn't full of the creepiest among us?

Real as web marketing gets, RealWebMarketing.com

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A new search engine backed by the Chinese government?

Here's an article about the new Accoona search engine that was launched with Bill Clinton's little help. It claims to give more relevant results than Google, but what I find interesting is the line, approved by the Chinese government. Wow, think about that, a search engine approved by the Chinese government. This has censorship control written all over it. What pukes me out is that a former American President would be duped into promoting this search engine. Any search engine backed by Communist China is a joke.

Not to be outdone by all the other search engines that have the look and feel of Google, Accoona too is going to look like Google. I'm getting to the point where I hope Google kills all these search engines, only because they're not very original.

Real marketing for the web, RealWebMarketing.com

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