LetsBuyIt Blog

Maybe you noticed it? On Saturday between 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm, if you tried to do online shopping, like me, via the world leader of search engines, probably just gave up.  I was shopping for a new umbrella, but all I kept getting was a message that read “This site may harm your computer.”  I couldn’t get onto any websites that Google’s search engine returned!  Was it hacking? An attack?  It turns out, it was a bug simply due to human error!
Embedded in its search engine, Google has a “blacklist” of sites considered potentially dangerous.  This list is updated manually.  As the list was begin updated, it seems that the “/” present in all url links was added to the list, so that access to all websites was blocked.
What a blunder! But it seems impact was limited. Some sites did note a net decrease in traffic, but nothing catastrophic. And Google immediately issued a public apology on behalf of the entire company.  Don’t scare us like that again Google!  We need you!

Image: www.hpkmedia.com

We are reading a lot of stories about the new search engines lately and after Cuil claimed that it wants to be the new competitor of Google we found it was time to test it. We searched Letsbuyit.com on three different often mentioned search engines namely SearchCloud, Cuil, Searchme and Google to see how relevant/useful/advantageous the results are for us in 2008:

SearchCloud

The fact you need to click twice to execute a search is a negative point. Secondly we find that the search result only returned articles about us from 2001, which didn’t really impress us. Unfortunately we are not convinced that this is the future despite offering that grid function (whatever that is for?!)

Source: SearchCloud Screenshot

Cuil

If Cuil wants to be the new competitor of Google.com then we hope for Cuil that they have endless updates up their sleeve because to get Google down on their knees because of Cuil is rather unrealistic as of now! The page set-up is definitely interesting because you receive so much preview text however the order and relevancy to Letsbuyit 2008 is not obvious and the summary text for letsbuyit.com is very out-of-date! Maybe they have indexed trillions of pages but for Letsbuyit definitely not the most current nor relevant!

Source: Cuil Screenshot

SearchMe

The visual search engine SearchMe definitely gave us the most up-to-date results with the screen-shots of our latest website and blog design, which means that their indexing is up to scratch! We still like it the best because it is most relevant to our 2007/08 relaunch. To compare visual search engines with text-based search engines is questionable, we agree, but still our most favorable search engine result!

Source: Searchme Screenshot

Google.com

Google did quite well with the pages shown on the first page but still too many articles about the former Letsbuyit.com of 2001. Also not very favorable for us yet and definitely improvable!

Source: Google Screenshot

Our Conclusion is that in order to have the most favorable Search Engine Ranking without having a website is to create your own search engine and beat Google at its game .

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, an independent council of the European Commission, has decided that Search Engines like Google and Yahoo can no longer safe user-specific information for 18 months but need to delete or make user data anonymous after only six months. The Search Engines would need to revise their datamining procedures drastically to comply with such a law in case the European Commission follows the advice of the council and passes such Act.

While more product information, market research and detailed business information is available online than ever, general search engines do not always provide the detail, context and semantic benefits needed to find the right business information fast. New vertical search engines are targeting the business consumer, or the “pro-sumer,” and delivering ever more targeted results to the B2B searcher.

Search-driven online marketing is increasingly leveling the playing field for smaller companies to compete against the big boys when it comes to reaching new customers and markets online.

B2B search provides a way for small, local advertisers to find the customers and other businesses that are actually looking for the services and products they provide. Any business can refine their procurement processes and expand their distribution opportunities by better exploiting the new breeds of semantic-based business search and associated advertising.

Have you heard about ZoomInfo?

ZoomInfo is the premier business information search engine, with profiles on more than 35 million people and 3.8 million companies. ZoomInfo delivers a single site for quick and easy access to in-depth information on industries, companies, people, products, services and jobs.