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Google announced early this morning that they have updated their Site Search product to provide for on demand indexing of your site. What this means is that if you are using Google’s Site Search feature to provide visitors to your web site with a tool to search your site, you can always keep that on site search tool up to date. It is important to note that this new tool does NOT provide on demand indexing for your site in Google’s general index.

Nonetheless, this is a very cool tool, so let’s walk through a quick scenario. Imagine that you have a site where you have added a substantial amount of new content. Perhaps you have added 100 pages of new articles and data to the site. Prior to this announcement, you would have had to wait for the Googlebot to come along and find those changes, and for them to be incorporated in the index before your Site Search would be able to search on that new content.

Now, with today’s announcement, you can go into the configuration screen for your Site Search, request on demand indexing, and a fresh crawl will be done of your entire site. This data is then made available to users who use Site Search on your site, in real time.

This is a really neat enhancement, ensuring that you can always offer users a full and robust search function on your site, even immediately after you have made massive changes.

Last night I spoke with Nitin Mangtani, the lead product manager for Google Enterprise Search, and he indicated that the new functionality would not be possible without Google’s cloud computing architecture. Basically, the index for your Site Search is unique in nature.

If there was only one copy of that index (perhaps on a Google server near your web site’s hosting location), people all over the world would have to access that server (causing potentially large latencies) to get the data from that index. The cloud computing architecture used by Google results in your unique index being distributed across the globe, and eliminates those latencies.

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YouTube has begun placing click-to-buy links beneath videos. This is the beginning of a greater plan to offer YouTube as an e-commerce platform to interested companies.

Amazon, iTunes, EMI Music and Electronic Arts are among the first to get a crack at the new feature, which is currently only available in the United States.

Memo to Viacom: Instead of suing Google and YouTube, which is costing you undoubtedly large sums of money in legal fees, you might try advertising on the wildly popular online video network instead.

In Google’s quest to make sure its search advertising deal with Yahoo goes through, it has added yet another defense to its arsenal: a new facts site. If it sounds political, that’s because it is. The Department of Justice opened an official investigation into the deal months ago. It turns out that when the largest search engine teams up with the second largest search engine to combine advertising, it raises antitrust issues!

On the homepage, Google doesn’t waste any time getting to the three major talking points it touts in support of the deal:

• This is a non-exclusive deal that will strengthen Yahoo!.
• Ad prices will continue to be set by competitive auction.
• The deal is win-win for consumers, advertisers and publishers: more and better ads.

On the right hand side is a link to an in-the-tank New York Times article that drinks extremely potent Kool-aid by practically copying and pasting a previous Google blog post supporting the deal.

Underneath that are quotes from rather large advertisers who also support the deal.

But those who have the most to lose from the deal are small businesses and web entrepreneurs who, rightly or wrongly, have built their success on Google. They fear a sharp increase in prices once the deal goes through.

Google assures that hardly anything will change, save for Adsense ads showing up on Yahoo. They also point to their relationship with Ask.com as proof that the marketplace will remain competitive.

But Ask, despite its slight growth, is not Yahoo. And when it comes to politicking, people have been burned far too often by broken promises. Plus, websites have also been burned by changing algorithms and vague policies.

Right now, in the midst of a significant economic prices, people are looking for stability. And they’re not finding it in huge companies with enormous, quick growth. The housing market is certainly different from the search market, but with sensitive emotions running high, Google just seems insensitive right now, another characteristic of companies “too big to fail.”

I don’t know what they hope is the outcome of this site. Do they hope for a groundswell of support and grassroots letter writing campaigns on their behalf? I just don’t see that happening.

Google needs to continue its lobbying and legal advocacy with the Department of Justice. But unless Google wants to suddenly become more transparent on their algorithms and site penalties, then they should just leave the little guy alone in this effort.

Yahoo has redesigned the SearchMonkey template. The new design features deep links horizontally underneath the title. The reason for the change is that testing showed the new format was more easily scanned by users and increased the click-through rate for app developers.

Here’s a before and after shot:

What do you think of the change? Give your impression in the comments.

Related Reading:
Delving into the SearchMonkey
Yahoo’s SearchMonkey Launches Public Gallery
Yahoo Sets Yelp, LinkedIn, and Yahoo Local SearchMonkey Apps to ‘Default On’

Canadian Business Magazine has an excellent Q&A with Google’s Tim Armstrong. Here are some choice excerpts that show where Google’s headed and why.

Canadian Business: What are some other emerging trends you’re seeing in Internet advertising?

Tim Armstrong: Social networking will be a big part of online advertising in the future. There’s also going to be a lot more analytics beneath Internet advertising. It’s still hard to measure how different types of online ads and targeting techniques affect a consumer’s perception of a brand. We’re also excited about mobile opportunities.

CB: How big could mobile advertising become for Google?

TA: It will vary depending on the country. For example, in some developing countries, the infrastructure is being built more for cellphone access than stationary computer connections, and some people are skipping the computer generation altogether. We’ve done a lot of mobile testing in Japan, which has done a nice job of building high bandwidth access for cellphone users. I don’t think one mobile search will eliminate one computer search or interaction on the web. Consumers have different needs when they’re using those devices.

CB: How will the advertising industry change in the future?

TA: Advertising over the last 50 years has been about coming up with a big idea, planning around it for a year, then launching a six-month or year-long campaign for a product or service. In the future, advertisers will come up with 10, 100 or 1,000 creative messages for their products and services, then run, test and optimize them in real time. Campaigns won’t be based on a time schedule, but on consumer behavior patterns.

The team at Live Search as announced the addition of a deep links feature to its search results. Similar to Google’s Sitelinks, the feature lists prominent internal links for the #1 result on certain searches.

I did a comparison of this feature for both Live Search and Yahoo. My first search is for the “State Department.”

As you can see, Live Search lists the deep links in a single column, indented underneath the home page of the State Department’s website.

While Google lists more results in 2 columns, and offers a search within a search box underneath the Sitelinks.

Next, I did a search for Starbucks. Live Search listed a paid search link, followed by local listings and then served up the first organic results with deep links. It’s pretty far down on the page, especially since the closest Starbucks to me is not one of the three local listings provided by Live Search. Also, it provides Related Searches on the Sidebar, one of which is a search for a link provided in the deep links.

Google had a much more simple results page for Starbucks. The paid search ads are only on the sidebar and you get to the corporate Starbucks website right away.

For the most part, Google seems to turn up more Sitelinks than Live Search. Also, Google provides Sitelinks for sites that Live Search doesn’t. Searches for both “Search Engine Watch” and “Nike” both returned Sitelinks in Google but no deep links in Live Search.

Related Reading:
Google Sitelinks: New Name For Those Links Under The Top Listings
Google Revamps Sitelinks

Of all the App Engine apps in all the developer joints in all the Google universe, Google walks into a land mine: HuddleChat.

There’s only one problem: HuddleChat is a dead ringer for 37signals Campfire, the leading web-based group chat for business.

Why would Google endorse an app that’s the spitting image of one of the world’s most popular business chat products? Google prides itself on UI design. When we logged into Google’s App Engine poster boy, HuddleChat, we were surprised to find a Campfire carbon copy.

“We’re flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product,” said Jason Fried, 37signals CEO and co-founder. “We’re just disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout. We thought that would be beneath Google, but maybe its time to reevaluate what they stand for.”

How important is the Google App Engine product preview launch? Let’s see:

Google’s first-quarter earnings call will be on April 17, after market close.

Wall St. expects Google revenue to disappoint based on comScore CTR data.

App Engine marks the first full-frontal Google assault on Amazon.

The success of Google App Engine depends on developer trust in Google.

So it would seem either Salar Kamangar, Vice President, Product Management had no clue HuddleChat was an “Attack of the Clones” app or he gave the greenlight for a product launch knowing many in the developer community would likely view Google App Engine as a Xerox machine for copycat product developers.

We’ve asked Google and Salar for a statement. We’ll keep you posted.

The reaction in the developer community seems to be astonishment: calling Google’s choice “obviously ethically wrong” and a “straight-up copy.” One blogger wrote, “OMG, the Clone feature in Google App Engine is amazing. Turned Campfire into Huddle, a la peanut butter sandwiches.”

Or in the case of Google’s Campfire One, S’mores.

It’s Day 3 at SES New York 2008 and today the folks from Pan Communications have found more than 80 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference.

I’ve looked through the news articles and blog posts from Wednesday, March 19, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 3 of the event. It’s getting much harder – particularly after returning from the WebmasterRadio.FM SearchBash, which was still going strong when I left.

1. Mahalo adds user reviews to search site
Elinor Mills of CNET News.com says, “Mahalo is adding user reviews to its human-powered search site in a new feature dubbed ‘My Mahalo.’ So, when you search for books, movies, music, places, and products, a box appears on the right with reviews and comments from people in your Mahalo social network, as well as an average rating for whatever is being reviewed. Underneath the results is a section for user-recommended links related to the search and user reviews from other Mahalo users, as well as a link to discuss the page with others.”

2. Jason Calacanis gives product demo of My Mahalo at SES New York
John Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Jason Calacanis, the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, who gave a product demo of My Mahalo, which was unveiled at SES New York today.

3. SES Keynote: Search Has Changed Everything…And So Can You by Gordon McLeod
Kent Lewis of Search Marketing Standard says, “Wednesday morning at SES kicked off with a keynote by Gordon McLeod from Wall Street Journal Digital Network entitled “Search Has Changed Everything…And So Can You.” McLeod initially outlined the size and shape of the current WSJ network of financial news sites, then took us back to the 1996 WSJ.com site, which had 50,000 subscribers and four firewalls.”

4. Uncovering the Real Universal Search
Kevin Ryan of Search Engine Watch says, “Ever wonder just how fast universal search is being adopted? How about the number of searchers that include a universal result? Perhaps more importantly, what’s the real impact of search result multiplicity?
You asked, and we found out. This week’s SES New York saw many new things, but Tuesday’s Orion Panel on universal search finally shed some light on the biggest change in search since Idealab launched paid listings.

5. Google Transformation from Just Search to Destination
Om Malik of GigaOM says, “Almost a year ago, writing for GigaOM, Robert Young posted a piece that billed Google as a media company and eventually more a destination in the classic media sense. Some statistics released by comScore at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York support Young’s assertions.”

6. Web Analytics Tips – SES New York Style
Mel Carson of the adCenter Analytics Blog says, “I’m at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 conference in New York, working the Microsoft booth, meeting customers, spreading the word about adCenterCommunity.com and going to as many of the sessions as I can. For any of your not familiar with the conference it has a global footprint and is totally dedicated to search engine marketing, both PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO (search engine optimisation).”

7. SES New York: Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization (SMO)
Andrew R H Girdwood says, “Rookie mistake! I didn’t get to the room early enough for the popular Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization (SMO) track and all the power sources for my laptop are already in use. No batteries left. No choice… I’ll have to try and take notes by hand.”

8. Search Engine Strategies Expo

Mike Corso of Cool Site of the Day says, “Big day yesterday. I was interviewed at the Search Engine Strategies trade show in New York City (see clip below). Also, tune into WebmasterRadio.fm for an interview I did with them at SES as well.”

9. SES NY: SEM Blitz On Small Business
David A. Utter of WebProNews says, “You have to spend money to make money, but sometimes the best way to market a business means spending common sense.”

10. Link Building Basics Session at SES NY
Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal says, “Allan Dick of Vintage Tub and Bath is moderating the session on Link Building with Debra Mastaler, Dixon Jones and Degrelle.”