1. Check informational images for alternative text Place cursor over an informational image, for example, organisation logo. Does a yellow box appear with a brief, accurate description of image? For users whose browsers do not support images, this alternative text is what they will see (or hear) in place of image.

2. Check decorative images for alternative text Place cursor over a decorative image that does not have any function other than to look nice. Does a yellow box appear with a description of image? It should not. There is no reason for users whose browsers do not support images to know that this image is there, as it serves no purpose.

Be careful though as this is not a foolproof test. If a yellow box does not appear, this could mean one of two things:

•The alternative text of image is assigned a null value, which means that it will be ignored by browsers that do not support images. This is ideal scenario. •The alternative text of image is simply not set at all, which means that users whose browsers do not support images will be alerted to its existence but will be unable to find out what purpose it carries – something which is very frustrating! This is certainly not desired outcome.

Why did AskJeeves shut down their Index Express service? To get to bottom of that I spoke today with Jim Lanzone, VP of product management at AskJeeves. First I should mention that he very carefully noted he does not believe there is a 'dark underbelly' to monetary search engine inclusion models. He noted Yahoo!, Looksmart, and many others when he emphasized that. When we concentrated on topic of cancelled Index Express service he explained that AskJeeves came to this decision based on two elements; first was technical and attributed to significant testing of their paid inclusion model, second was entirely monetary. The testing revealed that the differences between a page submitted via a trusted feed (xml feeds via Index Express customers) and a page indexed by Ask spider were so significant that attributing proper relevance was very difficult. As a result, users, advertisers and Ask technicians alike were finding Index Express submitted pages ranking in odd places; sometimes ranking inordinately high or low. The second reason focuses on what is likely shareholder's bottom line; model was “not a very good monetization vehicle."

Will AskJeeves database take a big hit with this change? This is difficult to say but considering that Jim Lanzone said 30,000 of 2 Billion pages indexed in Ask were Index Express pages there could be a miniscule drop in Ask's database size. Other than that I cannot foresee any significant negative impact. In fact, I only see a brilliant move here since paid inclusion models will undeniably be under FTC and SEO microscope for next few months, what with Yahoo!'s 6 web properties adapting to it with gusto.

Note: It is important that our readers understand that paid submission process at Ask Jeeves is still active and recommended by staff at StepForth. According to Jim Lanzone, sites that are submitted via Site Submit will be indexed within one week and then repeatedly 2 times per week. Considering that sites which do not pay submit may not be found or may only be indexed sporadically, this appears to be a very worthwhile service.

An Inside Glimpse of AskJeeves