July 2002 Search Engine News
July 29, 2002 :: Wither Lycos or Without Lycos.
As of Monday July 29, former search engine giant Lycos is struggling for it's
next breath. Lycos has undergone several changes over the past three years
as ownership of the popular search engine changed.
Currently, the largest owner is Madrid based Telefonica. Telefonica
has been hit hard by the double whammy of the massive downturn in Internet
advertising, and a slump in the Spanish broadband access market. Together,
these loses would hurt any company but, coupled with the potential loss
of a $675Million advertising contract with the beleaguered German media
giant Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann accounts for just over 40% of parent company
Terra Lycos's advertising revenues. Rumour has Bertelsmann pulling it's
advertising in the next week.
For Telefonica to survive the loss of this revenue, analysts expect
they will have to sell off as many Internet properties as possible. With
a solid history of losing money, Lycos is seen to be the first choice
for them to sell. Failing any takers, Telefonica will close Lycos. We'll
keep you posted.
July 27, 2002 :: One-quarter
of households use the Internet for work-related business
In 2001, about one-quarter of households that reported regular
home use indicated that at least one member used the Internet for work-related
business. This was the case for nearly 1.5 million households, up from
just over 1 million in 2000.
About 900,000 households reported that at least one household member regularly
used the Internet at home for self-employment activities.
Almost one-fifth of regular home use in 2001 was by employees taking advantage
of the Internet to work scheduled hours at home.
Internet used from
home as a tool for formal education
Almost half (2.75 million) of the regular users from home
had at least one household member in 2001 who used the Internet as
a tool for formal education or training. The bulk of this group went
online to do research for projects or assignments, or to solve academic
problems.
Statistics
Canada - July 25, 2002
July 27, 2002 :: Search
Engines Become Indispensable Utilities for American Internet Users
"85% of American internet users have used an online
search engine to find information on the Web. Only sending or reading
email outranks search-engine queries as an online activity."
"Search engines have become an indispensable utility for Internet users.
More than eight in ten American Internet users have gone to search engines to
find information on the Web. More than one in four U.S. Internet users - about
33 million adults - present queries on search engines on a typical day. Topics
can range from the ridiculous ("How many times does my name come up on Google?")
to the sublime ("Where was Buddha born?") to the heartbreaking ("My
mom has breast cancer - I need information fast"). But the strategies are
similar for all these questions - type keywords into a search engine and go from
there."
The
Pew Internet and American Life Project, July 2002
July 15, 2002 :: MSYahoo?
Rumour has Microsoft negotiating the
purchase of Yahoo! While we have yet to read speculation on a purchase
price, several sources have confirmed the negations are real and ongoing.
The earliest estimate of a successful sale puts Yahoo in Microsoft's
hands by November 2002. As soon as we get more information we will post
it to NEWSBYTES
July 15, 2002 :: Inktomi Shrinks Staff Yet
Grows Bigger
The search engine design and database company Inktomi announced staff cuts
of 42% on July 16. Most of the cuts come from the R&D department of their
Enterprise search engine division. As this is the sector Inktomi believes will
be one of their greatest successes in coming years, we were curious to know
why the cuts were made. This morning, Inktomi announced their $12Million purchase
of Quiver Inc. in order to acquire categorization and taxonomy software and
strengthen its Enterprise search division.
July 2, 2002 :: FTC Ruling to Force Paid Placement
Notices on Search Tools
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today recommended search engines that
mix paid results in with un-paid submissions should notify users whenever paid
links are displayed. Several search tools such as AOL, MSN, AltaVista and Lycos
show preferred or sponsored listings in premium space near the top of the search
results.
The ruling came in response to a complaint filed by Commercial
Alert, a non-profit consumer advocacy group founded and backed
by Green Party presidential
candidate Ralph Nader. Executive director of Commercial Alert, Gary
Ruskin, said his group is "defending the advertising-editorial
line from the aggressive commercialism of corporate advertisers."
The FTC will send the letter to AltaVista, AOL Time Warner, Direct Hit
Technologies, iWon, LookSmart, Microsoft and Terra Lycos. "When
the search engines show that ads are ads, we're hoping consumers will
flee these search engines," Ruskin said.
Not all search engines that display paid ads were named in the suit.
Commercial Alert had words of praise for Google,
noting that Google's paid listings are very well marked either by highlighting
the link or through the Google AdWords program.
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