A Look at Ask Jeeves and Teoma

Written by Robin Nobles


Recently, Jim Lanzone, Vice President of Product Management with Ask Jeeves, attended a chat session with students fromrepparttar Academy, and he answered a lot of very interesting questions about Ask Jeeves' Web properties.

So, let's look at this interview with Jim, and learn more about Ask Jeeves and their relatively new search engine onrepparttar 128017 block, Teoma.

As Vice President of Product Management, Jim overseasrepparttar 128018 strategy, features, Web design, and product development for all of Ask Jeeves' properties, including Ask.com, Teoma, and Ask Jeeves for Kids at AJKids.com. Ask Jeeves is a top twenty Web property and is amongrepparttar 128019 most recognized Internet brands worldwide.

Jim began by giving some background information about Ask Jeeves and Teoma.

"Ask Jeeves is one ofrepparttar 128020 leading search engines onrepparttar 128021 Web, with more than 16 million unique users per month. We also recently launched a new search engine called Teoma (Gaelic for "expert," in case you were wondering).

"Both Ask.com and Teoma.com are powered by Teoma's search technology. The difference betweenrepparttar 128022 two sites lies inrepparttar 128023 design andrepparttar 128024 features.

"Here's an easy way to think about it: Ask is for `Passengers' (people who want help searching) and Teoma.com is for `Drivers' (people who don't).

"Our company makes money by serving advertisements that are triggered byrepparttar 128025 searches people conduct on our sites. There are three main types of advertisements: Graphical (e.g., banner ads), Paid Placement (Sponsored Links), and a new program called "Paid Inclusion" (pay to be entered into our search index)."

Is free submission still an option?

Question: Can you still submit to Ask Jeeves if you have a site that answers questions, like we have been able to do inrepparttar 128026 past for free, or do you have to go through pay inclusion to get into either index?

Jim: "Well, yes, if you want to submit, you need to pay. It takes special attention, and therefore resources, for us to take a site rather than simply crawlrepparttar 128027 Web as usual. But there are special benefits to paying!

"Our editorial staff is much smaller thanrepparttar 128028 old days, andrepparttar 128029 `questions' for Jeeves (what we callrepparttar 128030 `Knowledge Base' internally) are not emphasized as much as they used to be, sorepparttar 128031 exposure will be more limited...and it may take our editors quite a while to get to your site."

So, you can still submit your site to Ask Jeeves for free, but it will probably take a while for your site to make it intorepparttar 128032 index.

Jim: "Forrepparttar 128033 search index, there is no free submit (for Teoma)."

Question: Compared to, for example,repparttar 128034 free add URL in Google,repparttar 128035 one for Ask Jeeves makes you jump through hoops.

Jim: "That's because it's quite an old program that was developed for our editors to review."

Remember that Ask Jeeves was established to answer questions, so you have to "prove" that your site does, in fact, very effectively answerrepparttar 128036 question you're going after - which is a lot more detailed than a simple submission at Google.

What about pay inclusion?

If you submit to Ask Jeeves' and Teoma's pay inclusion program, your site will get visibility at both sites. The pay inclusion program is now out of beta, sorepparttar 128037 subscription period is 12 months.

Benefits of their pay inclusion program include:

* Your page will be indexed within 7 days. * Your page will be refreshed every 7 days. * Your page remains inrepparttar 128038 index for 12 months.

Cost?

$30 forrepparttar 128039 first URL, and $18 each for 2 through 1000 URL's. For larger numbers of pages, you can use their batch processing facility.

Visit http://ask.ineedhits.com/ for more information.

Question: The Direct Hit site has been taken down, and traffic is being redirected to Teoma. What aboutrepparttar 128040 Direct Hit results that were being shown in engines like HotBot? Are those now Teoma results?

Jim: "Yes, we still have Direct Hit on HotBot, as well as BellSouth and InfoSpace. DirectHit.com is redirected to Teoma. But some partners still haverepparttar 128041 old DH "pop" (popularity) results. MSN still hasrepparttar 128042 Direct Hit results.

"We will be merging pop intorepparttar 128043 Teoma technology sometime inrepparttar 128044 near future, but some partners still want it as a "one-off," and we are open to providing it."

Question: Teoma does crawl sites on its own? Is that correct?

Jim: "Yes, that's correct. Its index is currently featured on both Ask.com and Teoma.com."

Question: A Web site with good link popularity then would not needrepparttar 128045 Ask Jeeves/Teoma paid inclusion program?

Jim: "For a major site, that is probably true. However, for smaller sites, or sites that refresh their content frequently (or have many dynamic pages that are difficult for search engines to crawl), paid inclusion is still a great option if you really wantrepparttar 128046 traffic. Paid inclusion sites are spidered weekly. Other sites are spidered monthly, currently."

Question: When paying for inclusion for Ask Jeeves and Teoma, arerepparttar 128047 results shared with other partners? If so who?

Jim: "Currently, no. However, we're aggressively pursuing partnerships that will extend our reach considerably. Not able to say who just yet, butrepparttar 128048 usual suspects."

Question: In your FAQ's for Ask Jeeves/Teoma's pay inclusion program (http://ask.ineedhits.com/faq.asp), it states that you can't change URL's. Why?

Jim: "Because it's considered a new submission. We're not able to put enough resources against it yet."

Portal Marketing

Written by Shannan Hearne-Fortner


The goal of every good marketing campaign is to reach its "target market". Whether that be new or existing customers, entire or niche markets, to promoterepparttar company as a whole or a specific product;repparttar 128016 measurement of a marketing campaign's success is how wellrepparttar 128017 target market is reached. And how wellrepparttar 128018 target market responds.

Advertisers spend tremendous amounts of time, money, and effort determining demographics of target markets to best aim their ad campaigns. Sometimes more market research is performed thanrepparttar 128019 entire timerepparttar 128020 product being prepared for market spent in research and development.

Large market survey companies have evolved to assist advertisers in this process. Many pay participants for their opinions to gain wide and valid data regarding responses to products and their advertising messages.

Atrepparttar 128021 same time, publishers, broadcasters, cable companies and a whole other host of folks who sell advertising time or space perform similar demographic research to better assist advertisers in reaching their "target markets". They note which shows are most watched, which columns are most read, which drive times are most listened to. They record which population segments are receiving these audio, video, and printed messages.

All this information is combined to provide a better opportunity for advertisers to get their targeted marketing message to their target market.

Onrepparttar 128022 internet, there is an additional way to target your marketing message. The internet has changed numerous facets ofrepparttar 128023 marketing world. Thanks torepparttar 128024 speed with which information can be gathered and then re-distributed,repparttar 128025 internet has even changedrepparttar 128026 way we view marketing information. Whole new terms for marketing and advertising have evolved: spam, mass email, pop up and pop under windows, exit windows, banner exchanges, and more. Do you notice that all these terms have a negative connotation torepparttar 128027 internet user? Not so withrepparttar 128028 topic of today's article.

Portal Marketing isrepparttar 128029 development of advertising messages which are displayed to very targeted groups of internet users.

First, you have to understand what a portal website is. Portals are webpages that serve as mini-directories on very targeted subjects. Portals may be made up of specific groups of web sites who are paying for their advertising or listing onrepparttar 128030 portal site, or they may be made up of web sites added byrepparttar 128031 portal owner because he or she felt they were of value to other internet users interested inrepparttar 128032 portal's topic. Or they might be made up of a combination of both.

Portals do not attempt to cataloguerepparttar 128033 entire internet. Portals are much likerepparttar 128034 hub or center of a wagon wheel. They are a jumping off point for links or spokes to numerous web resources on a like subject.

So what does that mean forrepparttar 128035 advertiser?

Portal sites are very targeted sites to disseminate your marketing message. They are recognized as valuable resources torepparttar 128036 demographic groups you are trying to reach. They are ranked high in numerous search engines because they do a fantastic job of playingrepparttar 128037 link popularity game. They also are only too happy to have you marketing within their walls.

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