Fun New(er) Beta Search Engines!

In the last year the search engine selection, at least among the larger players has vastly diminished. This year Yahoo decided to no longer be a unique search engine and is now completely powered by Bing results (both organic and paid listings) and recently Ask.com waved their white flag and have basically announced they are no longer going to compete in the search space and be a search engine. That basically leaves us with two large players left - Google and Bing.

But....all is not lost! There are some new players coming on the scene and while they may not topple the Google and Bings of the world, they do offer us some new and unique opportunities within the search space. Below is a list of 3 of the new(er) search engines available. I decided to let their descriptions from their own 'About Us' pages doing the taking for each one. I recommend that you try them all and see what you take is on them.



Using BweezyWeb, Bweezy makes web search faster than ever by allowing the user to open multiple search results in the original browser window without having to leave the search page. All the user has to do is click a button next to the search result, causing an embedded BweezyWindow with the desired website to open up on the page. This allows you to immediately see whether that search result is what you're looking for. No more having to open a bunch of tabs or windows! The Bweezywindow can also be maximized and minimized, allowing the user to check each search result out in either full screen or half screen - either horizontally or vertically - and if desired, use the Bweezywindow as a browser window.

Search Engine Link - Bweezy



slash the web!

blekko is a better way to search the web by using slashtags. slashtags search only the sites you want and cut out the spam sites. use friends, experts, community or your own slashtags to slash in what you want and slash out what you don't.

web search bill of rights:

1. Search shall be open
2. Search results shall involve people
3. Ranking data shall not be kept secret
4. Web data shall be readily available
5. There is no one-size-fits-all for search
6. Advanced search shall be accessible
7. Search engine tools shall be open to all
8. Search & community go hand-in-hand
9. Spam does not belong in search results
10. Privacy of searchers shall not be violated

Search Engine Link - blekko





48ers was created to help you search for what's happening right now.

We trawl conversations from all the major social networks across the web to bring back nuggets of information to help you:

* Discover what people are saying about your company or brand
* Find out what other people think of the TV shows you're watching
* Be the first to find out about breaking news stories
* Tap into the public mood about the latest sporting events

Search Engine Link - 48ers

The Ongoing Failure That is Ask.com

Ask.com just cannot seem to get things right. It's search traffic volume rarely changes, but it's focus seems to change with the wind and it has seen a lot of change as of late with most of it not being considered good. Here is a hit list of fun items over the last year:

- A new look and feel with a new direction as more of a Q&A engine (haven't we done this before?)



- Barry Diller say he sees no value in it - TechCrunch article, Barry Diller: Ask.com Has No Value Inside Of IAC. Somebody get him a muzzle before he further devalues his 1.85 billion dollar investment, please!


- The guy who created the search algorithm leaves - Ask.com’s Founder Of Search Technology Leaves: Apostolos Gerasoulis



- The rise and fall of Ask Deals (a lot of Brady Bunch, but little actual substance)



- The return of 'Jeeves' in the U.K. only (what, is 'Jeeves' not good enough for everyone else?)




.....and now they just sent a message out to all self service credit card advertisers that reads:

Ask Sponsored Listings will be discontinuing the self-service credit card channel on September 30th, 2010.

When the self-serve credit card channel is discontinued, your advertising account will be permanently closed. As a result, your ads will not longer be in distribution and your account will become inaccessible.

Please review the timeline below as this outlines the account deactivation process.

September 1st, 2010 - The Client Services Team will disable the auto refill feature on all accounts. This will prevent any future credit card charges to your account.

Mid September - The Client Services Team will begin deactivating self service credit card advertising accounts and processing refunds for their remaining balances*. When your account is deactivated, you will be given "Reporting-only" access which will allow you to run click reports until September 30th.

September 30th, 2010 - The self-service credit card channel will be discontinued and access to the advertising console will be removed.

*Please note: The refund process can take up to 90 days, but this deadline may be extended.


So, where does this leave us? It leaves us a new interface, lack of confidence from the owner, loss of our technology lead, failed product extensions, a revival of a lost icon (in the U.K.) and now......the end of self service paid ads. Why not just drop another nail in the coffin and also get rid of one of your revenue sources - well it sounds like a good idea, right?

All I can say is that Ask.com once had a chance to be bigger and better than it is today, but I think that time has long passed us by.

Some Amazing Stats About Facebook

Miniwatts Marketing Group just released some fun new data:

* There are 6,845,609,960 humans
* There are 1,966,514,816 Internet users
* There are 517,760,460 Facebook users

Put another way:

* About 7% of the world's humans are on Facebook
* About 26% of Internet users are on Facebook

For all the stats check out - Internet World Stats

20% of Best of the Web Directory (BOTW) Listings for a Limited Time!

My favorite web directory is at it again with a special and not well known promo code until the end of October. This code is for 20% off any of their directory submission services - US and UK web directory listing submissions and blog directory submissions. All the details are below:

Code: SAVE20

Link: Best of the Web Discount Link (use code on checkout)

Good luck and happy submitting!

GroupM Search Study Reveals Advertisers Could See CPC Increase Up To 78% With Yahoo & Microsoft Search Alliance Transition

GroupM just released an incredible study and analysis on the potential impact on pay-per-click campaigns running in Yahoo, Bing or both during and after the search alliance process which show increased costs as much as 78%!

All I can saw is wow. One of the things that I really appreciated about Yahoo and Bing, to a lesser extent was the cost savings on a CPC basis over Google, but with these potential increases much of that advantage is now erased and it will be interesting to see how this play outs for advertisers.

You can read all about it and the methodology at the link below:

Financial Implications of the Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance White Paper

Google Instant Search vs. Bing Seamless Search

Bing beat Google to Instant Search functionality by introducing it way back in 2009.

Click here to see - Bing Instant Search

Okay, well Bing (or Microsoft) did not actually produce an Instant Search function, but some kid with too much time on his hands took your browser and Bing's AJAX APIs and created basically the same thing to some extent.

What is all the hype with Instant Search? Really nothing. The idea is to shave time off your search queries, but to date it has only made my ADD more advanced and actually take me longer to get to what I was actually trying to find (sidetracked by too many interesting, not relevant results that kept popping-up along the way).

So, what I do find interesting is what I am coining Bing's upcoming Seamless Search. This interface is a work of art that is functional, while Google's Instant Search is just an annoyance. Check out the video below to seem a glimpse of Bing's Seamless Search functionality in action:



I think the interface war is going to heat up and make for an interesting 2011, now Bing just needs to make sure that it's results are equal or better than Google's otherwise all this eye candy means nothing.

6 Best FREE Web Directory Submission Software and Services

Online Free Web Directory Submission Service:


EasySubmits - http://easysubmits.com/
- Great service that updates directories often and allows you to check back to see if your submission was accepted, but it lacks the ability to have multiple titles and descriptions for rotation (can be done manually, but it is very time consuming). Great for beginners.


Free Web Directory Submission Software/Scripts:


digiXMAS Directory Submitte - http://www.digixmas.com/directory-submitter.php
- Limited features in FREE mode like only 150 directories (out of 2,000+ available in paid version), but overall a good piece of software.

Fast Directory Submitter - http://www.fastdirectorysubmitter.com/
- Another great piece of software that limits the submissions in FREE mode to just 150 (out of 1,700+ available in paid version).

SubmissionGate - http://www.med-sites.com/SubmitterGate/directory_submitter_software.asp
- Great software, but limited to 60 web directories in FREE version.

Free Directory Submission Software - http://www.imguru.biz/internet-marketing-downloads/view.download/4/46.html
- Free, easy to use, but some limitations. Overall a good product to get started.

Submit'emNow 3.0 - http://www.submitemnow.com/
- Great, completely free directory submission software. A bit dated, but still very usable.