The Rank Magic Blog

Using a Game to Label Images

March 26, 2007 ::: There's an interesting game online that provides an innovative way to label images with descriptive terms that make them easier to find online.

The game randomly pairs players who've logged on to its Web site. Both players see the same image, selected from a large database, but they can't communicate directly. Each player types in words that describe the image. When the words match, both players earn points and move to the next image. Each round lasts 150 seconds and displays up to 15 images. Each player hopes that their thoughts are in sync with the player they're playing with—all the better to rise on the list of top players.

The game's inventor, computer scientist Luis von Ahn of Carnegie Mellon University points out that the game is an innovative way to label images with descriptive terms that would make them easier to find online. If you've ever looked for an image in Google Images, you may know that most images aren't labeled in a way that makes them easy to find.

Science News has an extensive article on this as well as other related games.

Life Is Cheap On The Web

March 20, 2007 ::: Symantec said in its latest Internet Security Threat Report, for the period of July through December 2006, that the access to essential details about a person's identity could be had for a low price of $14.

The myriad threats posed by online criminals became worse as they have started to organize in ways that would make the old Mafia proud. Bugsy Siegel had nothing on the crooks working in concert to steal financial information.

<More from SecurityProNews.com>

Privacy Group Lauds Google Position

March 16, 2007 ::: Google collects and stores data from each query. It holds information such as the search term itself, the unique address of the PC being used, known as the IP address, and details of how a user makes searches, such as the browser used and previous queries to Google.

Privacy bodies have welcomed Google's decision to anonymize personal data it receives from users' web searches. The firm previously held information about searches for an indefinite period but will now anonymize it after 18 to 24 months.

<full story here>

A Brief History of SEO

(With apologies to Prof. Stephen Hawking)

March 12, 2007 :::  In the early days of search engine optimization (SEO), things were simple. Meta tags ruled the scene and changing your meta tags could mean top rankings. Some webmasters still seem to think that in order to get good rankings, you merely need to stick enough keywords into your meta tags. Sadly for them, that hasn't worked since the mid-1990s.

Later, as search engines made their ranking algorithms more sophisticated, SEO became a game of content optimization, where it was necessary to worry about header tags, bold tags, keyword stuffing, hidden text, sticking keywords in to "noframe" sections of the code, and many more such techniques. Some of those tactics were legitimate and some were considered search engine spam. The search engines got wise and punished web sites employing spammy techniques and rewarded sites using only legitimate (or "ethical") ones.

After awhile, it became a rush for the highest link popularity or Google PageRank. And again, the search engines adjusted their ranking algorithms to reduce the value of thousands of low quality links from link farms and unrelated web sites.

Now, SEO has become a complex discipline and those who practice it have had to diversify their tactics and skill sets. To be successful now, an SEO consultant needs to have skills in many more areas than in the past: creativity with technology, marketing skills, writing skills, and more. As the search engine's become increasingly sophisticated, over-reliance on any single tactic hinders a web site from achieving the rankings that are earned by a well rounded approach to SEO. With the introduction of latent semantic indexing, it's not as critical as it used to be to meet artificial keyword density levels, and related terms are assuming increased importance in the copy on a web page.

Now, diversity of skills and moderation in the use of individual techniques seem to hold the best potential for achieving top rankings.

Don't Destroy Your Copy For the Sake of Keyword Density

March 8, 2007 ::: One of the worst things to ever happen to web sites was the discovery of keyword density. According to copywriting expert Karon Thackton, "the mere introduction of this concept led to the mutilation and destruction of innocent copy all across the globe. Without any regard to flow or customer experience, website owners around the world began shoving keyphrases into their copy like wild men. The results have been disastrous! Otherwise wonderful content has been utterly destroyed."

One common mistake Karon  points out is that many web site owners replace every single instance of a generic key term with one of their chosen keyword phrases. In moderation, that's OK, but often they get carried away with tragic results.

Here's an example Karon cites:

Looks like they want to get rankings for "Spanish villas". But copy like that will drive actual humans away immediately! Top rankings in all the search engines do you no good at all if your web site turns people off and nobody buys from you. Writing interesting and compelling copy for your potential customer is far more important than slightly higher search engine rankings.

Karon's full article has some terrific concrete tips on how to include keywords without destroying your copy.

MSN Partners With SuperPages.com for Local Ads

March 5, 2007  ::: MSN's local search engine began a few weeks ago to include three local search ads, provided by Verizon's SuperPages.com, for every search result. The ads are a mix of pay-per-click, pay-per-call, and fixed-rate pricing; all are sold by Verizon's local sales teams.

Local results for SuperPages' ads appear at the top of the results pages for MSN Local Search – which MSN launched last June. MSN Search (now known as Live Search at www.live.com) doesn't provide local results automatically, but if you qualify a search with a location (such as pizza East Hanover NJ or pizza 07936) the local results will be shown at the very top, above the natural search engine results.

These listings come from SuperPages.com's list of local advertisers for the given locale and are then selected by an MSN-developed algorithm. Pay-per-click and pay-per-call ads are selected first, and if there are not enough pay-per-performance ads available, the remaining units are populated with fixed-rate ads. Interestingly enough, some of these results appear to be for businesses without web sites. In those cases, there's no web site link, but only an address and phone number.

In the past, Rank Magic has advised clients that SuperPages ads are usually overpriced for the value they bring, and we've advised against spending money there.

We are reconsidering that now for clients who can benefit from local search on MSN.

Google Dominates the International Search Landscape

March 1, 2007  ::: What is the most popular search engine in the UK? In Europe? In the world? According to representatives from major ratings and traffic analysis services, the answers to these questions are: Google, Google, and Google. Major points raised in the full item on Search Engine Watch:

• Despite Google's dominance, it is important to understand searcher behaviour doesn't take place in isolation - around two-thirds of searchers visit at least two search brands.

• In the UK, search engines are the largest category, traffic-wise, overtaking adult Web sites in October 2006.

• Based on click through activity from August 1, 2006, to January 20, 2007, Google had a 71.6% share of the global search engine market, an 80.2% share of the UK search engine market, and a 78.4% share of the French search engine market.