Yahoo Launches Alpha, Do It Yourself Metasearch Engine

Yahoo has quietly launched on Thursday a new search engine, called “Alpha”. Still in its Beta phase and currently hosted on its Yahoo Australian domain, the Metasearch engine allows users to customize their search engine results pulled from multiple websites via RSS, like Flickr Photos, Wikipedia, and YouTube. You can take it for a test drive by clicking here.

Alpha also displays all the web searched results onto one page using Ajax. For readers who are not familiar with the Ajax-Web 2.0 hype, click here to read all about it.

Under the hood

With its simple interface featuring only two tabs, the “change my layout” tab includes a feature that allows users the ability to rearrange search results box locations, using a simple drag-and-drop user interface.

The second tab “add custom info source”, includes three text boxes that allows users to enter the name of the website, RSS feed URL, and a query feature to filter the website searched source for specific keywords. This is a useful feature for anyone who is only interested, for example, in Bungee Jumping from a particular website that supports RSS.

Also on the second tab, it displays two privacy options, which asks users to choose whether they want their customized search engine to be shared with others, with two options public or private. Users can also choose how their web results should be displayed, choosing from web listing or image only display. Although unimpressed with its lack of new concepts and foresight, Yahoo still deserves a bronze medal for its effort.

However it’s slow in reacting to Google’s recently launched similar website, oh yes, you guessed it, another custom search engine called “Co-op”, which allows users to also customize their search results using the same method as Yahoo’s Alpha. Another social custom search engine that’s also worth mentioning, a website called Rollyo, also uses a very similar method.

Somehow Yahoo’s past successful ideas usually prevailed in competing with Google through acquisitions and not through innovations. With that said, the internet search engine giant is clearly aiming and trying very hard to capitalize on the latest craze of social networks, and custom search engines.

“Whilst aggregating feeds on one page is nothing new, we wanted to take a federated search concept one step further. With this beta, we have introduced personalisation elements that not only allow users to customise their view, but also to add their favourite search service”, said Brett Poole, Alpha Lead Developer and Member of Yahoo7 Search Team, Yahoo Australia.

Alpha uses search results presentation method, called OpenSearch format, a method that allows search engines to aggregate RSS and Atom, Metadata feeds into search results from any website that supports RSS as a minimum requirement for results to be pulled and filtered.

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Source : caribjournal.com

Kes Phelps Launches Back Link Building Service

Kes Phelps, 33, from Norwich UK, adds Back Link Building to the range of SEO services provided by his consultancy - Kes Phelps SEO & SEM Services. The service is designed for businesses seeking to outsource all, or part of their off-page optimisation strategy.

In the words of Kes Phelps - "I always included link building as part of any search engine optimisation strategy, but have found recently that many clients just need help with this aspect of SEO."

Specifically the service includes content syndication, directory submissions, community participation, link partner procurement, asking for links, competitor link analysis and creation of link-worthy content.

As an increasing number of online businesses realise the importance and power of effective link building, Kes Phelps found he was being asked more and more about this kind of service. "The problem most online businesses face is that whilst link building is essential to build and maintain traffic and rankings, it's also one of the most time consuming and laborious disciplines in SEO."

It was this demand that prompted Kes Phelps to offer link building as a stand alone service to his clients in addition to his existing services. The service focuses on using ethical strategies and the latest link building techniques to increase traffic, search engine rankings and the return on his clients' investment. Clients can either hire Kes Phelps to handle their entire link building strategy, or use the service as a resource to compliment their existing campaign.

Additional services include SEO strategy management, code optimisation, content optimisation, analytics and reporting and consultancy.

Source : prweb.com

Search Mania: Search Engine Strategies (SES) to Offer Search Engine Marketing Training Workshops Throughout 2007 Conference Series

Incisive Media, parent company of the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference and expo series (http://www.searchenginestratgies.com/), today announced that it has expanded the content and focus of each SES event by offering an additional day dedicated to intensive training on search engine marketing and search engine optimization. Next up is SES New York, which runs April 10-13, 2007, at the Hilton New York, where six half–day classes will be conducted on Monday, April 9.

Incisive’s decision to expand search training and offer sessions with most every event comes after overwhelming response to the first ever search training classes at the San Jose and Chicago 2006 conferences. Created to provide attendees with guided, hands-on exposure that puts theory into practice in a highly interactive environment, the training sessions became an immediate hit with attendees, gaining Incisive a completely new source of revenue. Attendees — ranging from consultants, site designers, website owners, executive management and in-house marketing professionals ─ often realize that they cannot afford to miss the chance to work with experts in the field and experience firsthand the latest developments in search engine strategy.
During the New York training, search experts including Shari Thurow, Matt Bailey, Jennifer Laycock, Debra Mastaler, Amanda Watlington, Greg Jarboe, Nan Dawkins and Rob Key will demystify such topics as link building tactics, viral marketing and the use of analytics to increase search effectiveness, among others.

“We’ve truly tapped into a pent-up demand with our search training classes at SES events,” said Matt McGowan, VP Marketing with Incisive Media. “Marketers want to do more than get their feet wet. They want to — and in fact need to with the growing importance of search — get into the trenches with one-on-one advice and hands-on demonstration.”

The training classes can be taken in addition to the SES NY conference or independently. Visit http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/ny07/training.html to view the training class schedule. Full–day registration cost: $1,345. Half–day registration cost: $745. Seats are limited in order to provide personal training. To register or with questions, email the SES Registration Department at registration@incisivemedia.com, or call (203) 295-0050.

To learn more and to sign up for email alerts or RSS feed for Search Engine Strategies New York and other upcoming conferences in the series, visit http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/.

Source : businesswire.com