Drunk Men’s Web Indexing Analysis
April 25, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to Drunk Men’s Web robot analysis. You can find the article here. The data come from 2005 and 2006 and may not be spot on for 2009. The main point of the write up is that the Google does more with its approach to Web crawling. The payoff from PageRank appears to be a way to get around the need to index certain sites as thoroughly as Yahoo. Microsoft’s Web robot does not appear to be on a par with either Google or Yahoo.
Stephen Arnold, April 25, 2009
Wall of Shame: Yahoo’s Digital Barrier
April 21, 2009
Short honk: Bloomberg.com’s “Yahoo’s Balogh Works on Tearing Down Wall of Shame” stopped me. Brian Womack’s article here said, “Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz said last month that she created a “wall of shame” for products she isn’t happy with. She’s counting on her top technology executive to fix them. Ari Balogh, recruited as chief technology officer last year, added product-management duties in February after a reshuffling of the Sunnyvale, California-based company. Balogh now needs to chart the future of Yahoo’s more than 50 products – – from e-mail to online dating to the search engine.” I loathe the extra clicks I have to perform to see my email. I don’t think too many products is the sole issue. This addled goose believes that Yahoo’s user interface is old, wonky, and annoying. More than cosmetics are needed at Yahoo. With silos and heterogeneous infrastructure, cosmetics may be what Yahoo has time and money to do.
Stephen Arnold, April 21, 2009
End Game for Microsoft Yahoo
April 18, 2009
What a week for Microsoft search. I heard from three different sources that the Fast ESP technology will run on Windows, not Linux or the other forbidden operating systems. Then I read a Reuters’ “analysis” of the Microsoft Yahoo Web search chit chat. Written by Thomson Reuters’ Alexei Oreskovic, the headline was: “ Yahoo and Microsoft Approach Endgame on Search.” With Google’s search share north of 60 percent, I wondered whose game it was. Mr. Oreskovic wrote:
For that reason, running ads with Google is generally considered a “no-brainer.” But a combined Microsoft-Yahoo with nearly 30 percent search market share could provide a large enough audience to also be worthwhile.
My thoughts were:
- What if Google’s share were higher? Closing the gap becomes more expensive and may be less attractive to advertisers
- What if the costs of mashing up multiple search services sky rockets so that the anticipated financial upside become a ski jump into unexpected cost overruns
- What if the technology does not deliver what users want?
I love analyses that evoke more questions than the mavens’ explication answers.
Stephen Arnold, April 19, 2009
More Yahoo Crazy Math: Microsoft Yahoo Analytics
April 15, 2009
Silicon Alley Insider’s “Yahoo Could Save $1+ Billion per Year Outsourcing Search to Microsoft” was one of those Web write ups that went into my “Classics” folder. The author (Dan Frommer) summarized one of the pundits who analyzes the heck out of Web outfits. That analysis provided the fodder for this stallion of a column. The gist of the argument is that Yahoo could save money by paying Microsoft to run its search system. Yahoo has had a go at this. Before the meltdown or financial missteps of Fast Search & Transfer, Yahoo was relying on Fast Search and its data centers to provide support to the Yahoo search wizards and wizardettes, according to my sources. The financial pundit seized upon a similar idea, swapped out Fast Search for Microsoft, and presto we have a hot new angle on Yahoo.
What this story triggered in my mind were these thoughts:
- Not much has changed at Yahoo in the search department. When a financial analyst realizes that Yahoo’s investment in search is sucking up its oxygen, it may be too late to resuscitate the purple beastie
- Microsoft has plumbing, but I wonder if that plumbing can handle the demands of Yahoo’s spider which gobbles more of my Web site’s content than any other indexing system that hits it. With talk about chips as a solution to Microsoft’s performance problems, is this porting of Yahoo to the Microsoft infrastructure affordable, possible, practical, or even doable?
- As Google’s share of the Web search market creeps toward 70 or 80 percent, Microsoft and Yahoo have to do more than team up. The companies–on their own or in some sort of tie up–have to leapfrog over Googzilla. A direct clash is likely to leave both Microsoft and Yahoo battered and not much better off than each company is at the present time.
In fact, the word “time” is interesting. I think “time” for Microsoft and Yahoo with regards to Google is running out. Quickly. In Web search.
Stephen Arnold, April 15, 2009
Yahoo Takes a One, Two Punch
April 10, 2009
The Wall Street Journal here and Search Engine Land here reported that Yahoo lost some toolbar deals. The idea is that a PC comes bundled with crapware. When the consumer fires up the new computer, the crapware delivers toolbars, antivirus, and other quasi-useful applications. I have heard that toolbar peddlers pay big bucks (sometimes upfront and sometimes based on a quota) to get on new PCs. To lose a deal can be a problem, but I am not sure if the problem is a big one. Anyway, the WSJ and SEL suggest that Yahoo could lose search share because it lost a deal with Hewlett Packard and Acer. Yahoo has other problems that may affect traffic. Are these one, two punches soft or hard? Too soon to tell.
Stephen Arnold, April 10, 2009
A New Direction for Yahoo: Social Networking
April 8, 2009
Okay, Yahoo is a portal. Yahoo is a Web search company. Yahoo is a tools company. Yahoo is an advertising system. Now Yahoo is on the scent of social networking. Will this new direction, reported by Alexei Oreskovic here make a difference in the company’s fortunes? You will have to read the full text story “Yahoo to Beef Up Social Networking Features” to find out. The social networking buzz has been building. I recall doing a project for a large and somewhat confused company in 2003. The purpose of the project was to dig through Yahoo’s patents and technical papers for clues about the Yahooligans’ social network capabilities. There was not much to see. Now social networking is all the rage and Yahoo is ready to jump on the bandwagon. In my opinion the move is better late than never, but late is late.
Mr. Oreskovic wrote:
Developing the social transformation on a large scale won’t be easy, particularly given Yahoo’s spotty product development track record in recent years, analysts say, though Bartz’s recent internal management reorganization should help. Yahoo still needs to figure out how to turn on the new social features without triggering an avalanche of information onto its users, many of whom already receive frequent updates about their friends’ activities on services like Facebook and Twitter and may not necessarily want another such feed.
In my opinion, the digital opportunities permit quite a few players. Then one or two emerge as black holes that suck users and money into them. The secondary and tertiary players, in effect, go nowhere. The PR machines keep grinding which helps to some extent, but the big money goes to into those black holes. Right now, Yahoo is a red dwarf. If it becomes a black hole, it may remain a small one.
If Yahoo focused on search, I think there are a number of opportunities to do a better job making certain types of real time content more accessible. Who wants another Facebook.com page to manage? Not this goose.
Stephen Arnold, April 8, 2009
Hitwise Says Search Frustrate Users
March 29, 2009
Hitwise is a Web consultancy. Web consultancies with analytics get a double boost. Hitwise has big ideas and data to make most assertions have the ring of truth. These were the thoughts that went through my goosely brain when I read Australian IT’s “Searches Frustrate Surfers” here.
The main point of this article was:
According to Mr Tancer {Hitwise executive], people were using more and more words in their search queries because they were dissatisfied with the results. He said one of the problems facing search engines was the amount of content that did not have a link pointing to it — the method Google and others use to find and rank sites.
I agree. Search is difficult, complicated, and deeply dissatisfying. The issue is, “What’s the fix?” The GOOG is on the search without search track. Microsoft is investing in a down economy. Yahoo is a beached whale. We know the problem. Any suggestions from the consulting or data side of the Hitwise house?
I don’t have too many problems with search, so the addled goose is not a good judge of such matters derived from statistical estimates of traffic. On system accounts for about two thirds or more of search traffic, so it must be doing something semi-right in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, March 29, 2009
Simploos Search
March 29, 2009
I learned about a new search system the other day. I don’t have too much data, but I wanted to mention it to my two or three readers. No point in sitting on what may be the first Chrome-centric rendering engine I have come across. The company offering the new service is Simploos.com here. If you get an error message, just click on continue. The system should work. We think this is a Flash related issue, but I haven’t heard back from the company yet. The figure below shows the interface for a query on my favorite subject, “Beyond Search”.
© Simploos 2009
My files suggest that the thumb nail preview was a feature introduced by the company Girafa. I wrote about it in my original Technology from Harrod’s Creek column for Information World Review in the 1998-1999 time frame. Girafa is still around, and you can see what the company is now doing by clicking here.
You see the thumbnails of the top hits from either a Google or Yahoo search. When you click on a thumbnail, the system displays the splash page of the site. The first hit on Googzilla for the phrase “beyond search” is this Web log. You can set various options and use either Google or Yahoo search results.
Our working hypothesis is that the Google-centric implementation uses Chrome under the covers. Yahoo appears to be using Yahoo’s technology.
The young goslings found the approach fresh and interesting. The older goslings found the screen refresh during scrolling somewhat distracting. For some types of queries, the graphic approach is useful. You can limit the results to those in Spanish which is a nice touch. There’s an advanced search section which is interesting to use as well. Give it a test drive and keep in mind that this implementation is a beta. We’ve noticed minor changes as we used the system over a span of three days. The addled goose emits a gentle, happy quack. A big honk to the person who alerted us to this system as well.
Stephen Arnold,
Yahoo: To Catch a Google
March 27, 2009
Yahoo wants to leverage its technology and serve its users. To improve on both points, Yahoo—according to PaidContent.org here—has tested 141 versions of its home page. Advertisers may wonder if 141 variants are necessary. I would be happy if I could read the text and get to my email without the unnecessary news display. My view: too much clutter and unnecessary cycles. Improving search would be helpful too.
Stephen Arnold, March 27, 2009
Web Search Scoreboard
March 14, 2009
I got a lot of grief at a conference last year when I said, “Google has won the search game.” The conference organizer was annoyed because sponsors don’t want to hear that their money was wasted. Too bad. The stats about market share have understated Google’s dominance of Web search. I have seen data that pegs Google’s share at 80 percent and higher as long as 18 months ago. Believe me. The source of the data was solid and based on counts, not samples. Well, now the samples are reporting that the GOOG’s market share is in the 60 to 70 percent range. Imagine my surprise when I read ” Microsoft U.S. Search Share Hits 12-Month Low” here. The angle is not that Google has won. ComputerWorld’s approach was that Microsoft has not just lost share but Microsoft is falling further behind despite its effort to close the gap. The ComputerWorld story supports my assertion that Google has won. Game over. Search is a digital service that is a natural monopoly. What’s amazing is that Microsoft thinks it can gain traction by buying or integrating Yahoo’s search service. In my opinion, Google will continue to operate like a giant magnet, pulling traffic to itself. A leapfrog play is needed, not a me too play.
Stephen Arnold, March 14, 2009
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