ArticleSnatch Blog

One of the joys of running a site that is driven by a database is expanding a site to the point where it is causing the database server to crash on a regular basis due to the traffic you receive. This is exactly what happened with our article directory.

The first thing we did was identify the problem, which we disabled the pages that were causing the problem. Then we worked to move the database from one server to a new server that also runs a newer version of MySql. As mentioned before we host with Mosso and have the database on a cluster (a group of servers). One cluster runs the mysql and another cluster runs the php, and a SAN stores the data. As a result, each server has its own job in the piece of the puzzle of putting together a page view on ArticleSnatch.

Fortunately during the time that it took to move the site from one cluster to another, we only had downtime with the tag pages and the search result pages. The rest of the site remained unaffected for the most part. Fortunately now that it is moved, everything works again, and it is a lot faster. We have implemented several code improvements to increase performance of the site and will continue to make more improvements over the next few weeks.

If you have suggestions for improvements, features, comments, or something you would like to see removed from the site, please feel free to use the contact form and let us know. We love to hear from our users.

Ask.com will take its research with privacy advocates at the Center for Democracy & Technology into a new product for their search engine.

The AskEraser product offers a straightforward way of keeping one’s search history from being retained by Ask. AskEraser will arrive in the wake of a number of privacy-related events related to search, such as Google’s proposed purchase of DoubleClick.

Search information can reveal a lot about an individual, even if that data has been anonymized, as was demonstrated after AOL posted thousands of search records to the Internet. AskEraser will give Ask searchers the option to prevent this retention from taking place.

“Anonymous user data can be very useful to enhance search products for all users, and we’re committed to being open and transparent about how such information is used,” Ask CEO Jim Lanzone said in a statement.

“But we also understand that there are some who are interested in new tools that will help protect their privacy further, and we will give them that control on Ask.com.”

People will be able to turn on AskEraser, and see their privacy status noted on search result pages as a reminder the service is active.

Once AskEraser debuts by the end of the year in the US and the UK, Ask plans to implement it globally in early 2008. Further, a new data retention standard will be implemented at that time.

Ask plans to disassociate search history from individual’s IP addresses or cookies after an 18-month period, as part of that new policy.

Ask, Search Engine, Privacy

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AdWords clients may see an invitation to join the beta test of Google’s pay per action (PPA) advertising appear in their accounts.

Pay per action advertising allows the advertiser to define a conversion for which it will pay Google. The company just began rolling this beta test of PPA out to customers beyond the United States.

Google will manage the rollout at a measured pace, something they have done more and more since their launch of Google Analytics. Demand proved so great for the service that Google had to shutdown new account applications for some time.

As the invitations to try out PPA begin to move through Google’s system, certain AdWords clients will get the chance to participate, according to Google’s Inside AdWords blog:

…advertisers who use AdWords conversion tracking and receive more than 500 conversions from their cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) campaigns in the most recent 30-day period will be invited to join this beta test, on a rolling basis.

PPA ads will appear on publisher sites in the Google content network. Publishers are free to choose the PPA ads most relevant to their site and run them in new ad units.

Google mentions its content network, consisting of participants in AdSense, but doesn’t mention search. The Google search result pages would be the most desirable place for an advertiser’s PPA campaign to appear, though it seems that for now the beta test won’t extend into that part of Google.

Google, AdWords, PPA

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Yahoo and eBay announced the Yahoo PayPal Checkout Program, which users of Yahoo Search will encounter as little blue shopping cart icons in the search results.

Merchants who participate in the Program will be able to offer PayPal’s Express Checkout as a payment process. PayPal touts this as their fastest checkout solution; its presence in Yahoo search result pages will let searchers quickly find PayPal merchants and make purchases directly from those SERPs.

Yahoo hinted that customers who buy from merchants offering the new Checkout Program will receive incentives to use both Yahoo Search and PayPal. On the Yahoo Search blog, Tim Mayer said: “There’s peace of mind knowing my credit card info isn’t being scattered across multiple merchants.”

Rich Riley, senior VP for Yahoo Online Channel & Small Business Services, wrote more about the new partnership at the Yahoo Search Marketing blog:

As an advertiser, this is great news for you. The blue shopping cart icon that will appear next to your ad not only helps the ad stand out, it also lets customers know which merchants offer PayPal Express Checkout, from the brand known for security.

There is no cost for merchants to join the program, Riley noted. Merchants will have incentives to participate in the Checkout Program; PayPal Express Checkout process will be free through the end of 2007, and merchants will receive a $100 credit in a Yahoo Sponsored Search account (read all the fine print, folks.)

The deal gives PayPal an outlet to compete with Google Checkout, a payment processing program that’s also highlighted in Google’s SERPs with little blue shopping carts. PayPal has a much more established brand as an online payment processor, which could tip some customers over to Yahoo Search for shopping-related queries.

Yahoo, PayPal, Checkout Program

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