Grounded In Reality

In what could be seen as ‘user generated search results,’ Yahoo is adding a service to its search capabilities called Buzz. Users will be given the option to vote on articles; promoting news they like or demoting news they dislike, that will directly affect what appears on the coveted page 1 of search. An excerpt from an article yesterday on NYTimes.com:

“Yahoo is combining users’ votes with information it gathers from its Internet search service, so that when search traffic spikes for an item or topic, it will get more ‘buzz.’ Yahoo editors, not computer programs, will decide whether an item will be placed on the portal’s front page, which receives more than 90 million visitors in the United States each month.”

BusinessWeek.com also weighed in with a story this morning clarfiying more specifics on how users will interact with Buzz:

“More than 100 major news sites have agreed to place Yahoo “Buzz Up” buttons next to their articles and other content. The partners include Gannett’s (GCI) USA Today, News Corp.’s (NWS) Wall Street Journal, and Time Warner’s (TWX) Entertainment Weekly. A click on the button is tallied as a user endorsement and sent to Yahoo’s Buzz page. Those with the highest scores are considered for placement on Yahoo’s front page. But Yahoo is retaining some editorial control: An internal team will have final say over the stories featured on the main home page. Yahoo says this is to guard against articles deemed lewd, violent, or capable of exposing the company to legal liability…”

Can a service like this really work? What are the implications for businesses that (as a result of Buzz) appear at the top of search results? A demonstration by Yahoo proved to have a surprisingly weighty outcome. An excerpt from the aforementioned NYTimes.com article states:

“In a test of the service this year, Yahoo linked from its front page to content from Esquire magazine for just three hours. In that brief period, traffic to the Esquire.com site, which already allows users of Digg and Reddit to vote on its stories, doubled for the month.”

So the real question is: Will online customer relations now be a company’s SEO strategy?

Services like this one just further implicate that companies must take an interest in what is being said about their brand online. The example above shows a positive spike for Esquire, but what if there were an article about a brand or service that wasn’t so popular? Could developments like these keep your client forever buried in search results?

It has been 36 hours since the Technorati refresh and my team has been generally pleased with the new, speedy Technorati.  Here are some observations:

• Use search.technorati.com (or s.technorati.com) for a targeted blog-only search and, more importantly, to have the ability to filter by authority.  The authority filter, which has been removed from the general user interface, is a useful tool to narrow down the universe of blog posts to the most influential bloggers.
• The authority filter can also be exposed when using Advanced Search.
• Text and image ads are taking up more real estate—an opportunity for clients to execute smart keyword and banner ad buys, particularly when there is a spike in the news or search volume.
• To perform a keyword search within a select group of blogs: Sign into your Technorati account, create a list of Favorites, and use the search function to find posts (from a pre-defined list of blogs) that contain your keywords.  This is not a new functionality, but I noticed that I can no longer force an RSS feed for this search.  I’ll need to look for a workaround.

Lastly, check out the Technorati Kitchen for new stuff that the Technorati team is cooking up, particularly microformats.

On the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal, I’m told that, ” You’re a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well.” (Techmeme link.)  Highlights from the article:

• About 7% of all searches are for a person’s name, estimates search engine Ask.com.
• More than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by executive networking firm ExecuNet.
• Nearly 40% of individuals have used search engines to look up friends or acquaintances with whom they’d lost touch, according to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Microsoft Corp.’s MSN unit.

In terms of people search tools, Spock (glowing review by O’Reilly) and ZoomInfo will eat Google’s lunch if it doesn’t care to focus on vertical, people search results.

For working professionals, it is worth asking if your clients (current and potential)  expect to see their name and/or business appear in Google.  If not, why not?  If so, here six easy, inexpensive (many free) ways to quickly establish an online presence: Start a blog, create a Squidoo lens, upload Flickr photos, create a professional LinkedIn profile (yes, it shows up in Google), register a unique domain, and optimize your Web site. (In case you’re wondering, I’ve walked the talk for a nonprofit that I’m volunteering with.)

For my PR brethren, which keywords do/should your clients (high profile individuals and brand) own, and how much time and resource is spent working towards that goal?

In terms of naming a child, I find it rather short sighted for parents to overly concern themselves with the Google results  of their child’s name.  Must be the fear of Google in the air.

Addendum: Fortunately for me, if you are a headhunting “Wilson Tan” on Google, I’m #11 and #13 associated with Paul’s post and my post on this GCI Digital Media blog.  Not too shabby though certainly room for improvement to find myself online.

### 

Update: Michael Arrington reports that Technorati has launched a CEO search.  Dave Sifry notes that he will remain with the company in a product role.

###

Though many of my clients are surprised to learn that blog search engines exist, they warm up quickly to the concept, particularly when I encourage them to think of it as Google for blogs instead of the Web in general.

My colleagues tend to cut to the chase and inquire about which one to use–the context being “just tell me which one is the best available.” My response: A combination of Technorati and Google Blog Search ought to suffice for most clients.

As a heavy user of both engines, I have qualitative experience to account for Google Blog Search’s increased accuracy and timeliness of results. Plus, the fact that most of my clients are more comfortable and familiar with the Google user interface means that I need to pre-empt and manage their expectations of results from a Google Blog Search.

However, Google’s advancements beg the question of why and how Technorati, the ‘granddaddy of blog search,’ would give up its mantle to Google. Because corporations are hungry for data about the online chatter pertinent to their brands, one would think that it is in Technorati’s advantage to monetize their data. Two speculations for Technorati taking their eyes off the ball:

1. Online ad sales, Google’s forte, is a natural extension to monetizing this live data stream but it is not in Technorati’s DNA to execute.
2. Though still championing cool new technologies such as microformats, the reality of running a sustainable business is hitting home, thus inevitably causing a pause in the business and a slow down in commitment and dedication to improving the tool.

David Sifry’s State of the Live Web, April 2007, report was well received but came with speculations about a pending sale, fueled by this statement:

“Sifry says Technorati is now very much a media company, and that the growth in social media and use of the blog search engine’s tagged media pages has contributed to this growth.”

That said, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Tantek, CTO, Technorati, and his team for the free tool and for the good work of enabling my clients to search and make sense of the “live web.”