ArticleSnatch Blog

You are browsing the archives of search algorithm.

The major Microsoft Live Search announcement scheduled for tomorrow will be the official launch of a new product: Microsoft Live Search Cash Back.

The program in partnership with eBay and its PayPal unit will offer cash back to consumers who search on Microsoft Live and make a purchase. The announcement will be made in conjunction with a taped message from eBay CEO John Donahoe. The technology is based on the acquisition of Jellyfish by Microsoft in September, 2007.

The announcement is expected to be made by Satya Nadella, SVP Search, portal & Advertising Platform Group, Microsoft, prior to Bill Gates’ presentation on “Connecting the Future.” The goal is to differentiate Microsoft’s vertical search experience for users while leveraging improvements in the core search algorithm.

Microsoft believes the Live Search Cash Back program will align the interests of consumers and the search engine, putting Microsoft “on the same side as the consumer.”

The job of Live Search will be to match the most relevant products with the most relevant consumers.

Microsoft will likely offer advertisers a CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) model rather than a traditional search engine Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, said in a taped interview that the program would help overcome the barriers of first-time buyers of shoes online.

A Barnes & Noble executive stated that clickthrough rates and purchases had increased through the use of the Jellyfish pilot program.

The following message is posted on the Jellyfish.com Web site:

“As part of our pledge to save you money on the products you buy, our Cash Back rewards service is currently offline to perform necessary service upgrades and enhancements. Jellyfish Account holders will receive an e-mail notification when our Cash Back service is up and running again. Thanks for your patience.

Using Jellyfish, consumers could compare prices of products from a number of online stores. Retailers paid Jellyfish fees to feature products. A portion of that fee was refunded to consumers who bought through the Jellyfish site.

Jellyfish also offered “Smack Auctions.” During each Smack show, Jellyfish would auction off new products in a unique price dropping format. Every second that ticks off the clock, Jellyfish would drop the price of the product, until the deal sold out.

Jellyfish founder Brian Wiegand is agroup manager at Microsoft. Last year, ye stated, Microsoft is “investing heavily in shopping and e-commerce.”

Microsoft closed the deal on Sept. 27, 2007 but didn’t announce it until Oct. 2, 2007.

This isn’t the first foray of Microsoft into the world of search engine incentives.

Microsoft Live Club is an ongoing experiment with incentivizing searchers but never on the Live Search Cash Back scale. For example, Microsoft Live Search Club lets users play games. A completed gives earns tickets toward prizes, such as Zune accessories, song downloads and ringtones.

Microsoft’s official statement on the announcement:

On Wednesday, we will be announcing a major new initiative that our search teams have been driving. We are getting better and better with our core algorithmic search, and at the same time, we are investing to differentiate in vertical experiences and to disrupt the current model. You’ll hear more about our plans Wednesday.

In an effort to improve access to job seekers and assist recruiters, Yahoo announced today the launch of “R.E.A.L., a patent pending search ranking system that is based on Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location,” a company press release detailed.

Yahoo explained the process thus:

R.E.A.L. is an industry-first search algorithm that builds on an innovative set of principles derived from Yahoo!’s research in Web search technology. Leveraging Yahoo!’s behavioral targeting and search optimization strengths to rank job listings based on user engagement, R.E.A.L. has moved Yahoo! HotJobs’ job search rankings beyond the traditional category-based, date-sorted experience. With the launch of R.E.A.L., “applies” per job listing have increased by 25 percent, a key success metric for recruiters.

“R.E.A.L. is a key pillar in our strategy to deliver the best in performance and value for recruitment advertisers,” said Jeff Kinder, senior vice president and general manager, Yahoo! HotJobs. “Yahoo! has shown that relevance matters in search results, and it’s powerful to apply Yahoo!’s search technology to HotJobs and see immediate and significant performance improvements. We believe Yahoo! HotJobs has a distinct advantage as online recruitment evolves and insights and technology play increasingly important roles.”

The principles of R.E.A.L. are described in a newly released “Playbook” for recruiters, a compilation of best practices for posting, editing and managing job listings, designed to deliver optimal quality and performance. By aligning the goals of recruiters and job candidates, R.E.A.L. creates an indispensable experience that is defined by four critical characteristics of high-performance job listings:

R - Relevance: Matching text in job titles and descriptions to the keywords candidates use

E - Engagement: Measuring how well candidates respond to the job listing

A - Availability: Determining that the positions displayed are still unfilled

L - Location: Showing jobs in a location of interest to the candidate

These four characteristics are part of an insights-driven search algorithm that will continually improve on itself.

“We’ve started following the principles of R.E.A.L. and have already seen a significant increase in the number of applies per job listing,” said Kathryn Jordan, chief financial officer, Fishpond Recruiting. “By applying Yahoo! HotJobs’ best practices, we’ve not only expanded our candidate pool but we’re seeing matches with high-quality candidates that are far more relevant to our job openings.”

R.E.A.L. also benefits Yahoo!’s Newspaper Consortium partners who have implemented Yahoo! HotJobs as their exclusive online recruitment solution. R.E.A.L. includes location-based job searching features which enhance the ability to narrow or broaden relevant job search results by zip code, city, nearby cities, full metro areas, or entire states. The Newspaper Consortium now reaches 30 percent of all U.S. daily newspapers, and Yahoo! HotJobs has launched co-branded career sites serving more than 425 newspapers with strong local presences.

As part of its effort to be the “must buy” solution for recruitment advertisers, Yahoo! HotJobs has increased job candidate traffic by more than 50 percent over the last year while competitors remained largely flat. As a result, Yahoo! HotJobs has become the fastest growing Web site among the leading job boards and has surpassed Monster.com in the U.S.(1)

For more information about R.E.A.L., please visit http://hotjobsresources.com/ and click on the ‘Library’ section.

Ask.com will stop trying to compete directly with Google as a mainstream search engine, and will instead focus on targeting niches where it feels it can prosper, based on the way users are searching with Ask.com now. Reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal quote new CEO Jim Safka saying “We are reorienting the company around where we can grow,” and “If we can do a better job of understanding who these customers are and answering their questions, we will grow.”

Safka took over as CEO in January, edging out popular Ask.com boss Jim Lanzone.

A total of 40 layoffs were made, across multiple departments. That 8-percent cut was designed to eliminate several areas of overlap, including some competing technologies, Safka told the WSJ. He also told the WSJ that one core audience Ask.com would focus on might be women over 30, asking questions about entertainment and health topics. Building out products for that group might include more community-generated answers.

Late last week, rumors were flying that Ask.com would get rid of its Teoma search algorithm and outsource search to Google. An Ask.com spokesperson told SEW at the time those rumors were “just plain false,” adding that “There are no plans to ‘pull the plug’ on Teoma, our core search engine technology.”

UPDATE: Gary Price, director of online information resources, evangelist of Ask.com, friend to librarians, former SEW news editor, and all-around great guy, was one of the 40 employees laid off today, he announced on his ResourceShelf blog. “Earlier this afternoon I learned that Ask.com is taking the company in a new and different direction and I will not be a part of it,” he writes. “It’s time to move forward and on to another full time job. Where it will be and what I will do is TBD but I am looking forward to seeing what’s out there and where I might be able to contribute.”

I’ve no doubt Gary will land on his feet, but we wish him the best of luck just the same. With the exit of Price, and the news that Jim Lanzone will be gone by August, Ask.com has most definitely moved away from “the little engine that could,” with lots of personality, to just another IAC site in Barry Diller’s empire. It’s a sad day for Ask.com, and a sad day for searchers.

Google News now slices and dices local news by zip code.

Before passing judgment on the new Google News feature — launched on the Google News blog under “All News Is Local” - Google asks users to provide feedback. As usual, Google calls the launch an experiment.

The results? As you can see from a news search for “90210″ the SERP (search engine results page) the Google News search algorithm ranks the zip code high. The deceased “90210″ TV show ranks first. The keyword 90210 is in the title tag. Plus,

The Google News experiment may present a challenge for search engine optimization professionals who specialize in SEO PR. It’s more likely, though, that Marketwire’s new Social Media 2.0 press release product will have more of an impact on the way corporations - including newspapers - disseminate news and information.

At this early stage, geotargeting news by typing in a city name Typing in “Beverly Hills” in Google News doesn’t deliver better results, favor local news sources, or aggregate local news.

This Google experiment? Google Local News search may not be canceled like the 90210 TV series but it’s not ready for primetime.

Notify the SEC.
Analyst blogger Robert Scoble predicts the demise of Google within four years. He boldly outlines a Future Search engine combination of Facebook-Techmeme-Mahalo technology that will spell doom for Google. The Naked Conversationalist has become the Naked Shorter.
In a video worthy of the best linkbait, Scoble predicts SEOs — those reviled search [...]

Latest in my interview series is a discussion I had with Udi Manber, Google’s VP of Search Quality. For me, it was a great opportunity to speak with Udi, and learn more about some of the thinking about key parts of Google’s strategy. I first saw Udi speak at the announcement of the [...]

When American Internet users want answers they turn to Wikipedia. More than a third of adults (36%) look to the user-generated encyclopedia according to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
On an average winter day in 2007, 8 percent of online Americans visited Wikipedia. Even with the controversy over the accuracy [...]