Time to Rate Last Year's Search Engine Predictions

Written by Kalena Jordan


Those of you who are long time subscribers to our newsletter The Search Light (http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/free_newsletter.htm) will remember my article from way back in December 2001 titled Search Engine Predictions for 2002 (http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/Search_Engine_Predictions_For_2002.htm).

It's time to take a look at that article andrepparttar grand predictions I made forrepparttar 124923 search industry to determine whether I'm a "Nostradamus" or a "NoSuchLuckus".

Here were my personal predictions for 2002:

1. Increase in Pay For Performance (PFP) Options

My first prediction forrepparttar 124924 year 2002 related to pay for performance options: "I see this trend increasing, withrepparttar 124925 major engines and directories expanding onrepparttar 124926 range of PFP options they provide, whether in-house or outsourced".

Looks like I was right onrepparttar 124927 money with this one. Byrepparttar 124928 end of 2002, all but one ofrepparttar 124929 major search engines and directories had a pay for performance option available. Paid inclusion services in particular proved to be a popular addition to search engines in 2002, with Lycos, FAST / AllTheWeb and Ask Jeeves / Teoma each introducing a paid inclusion product forrepparttar 124930 first time. Pay per click services also gained in popularity in 2002, with Google introducing their AdWords Select Pay Per Click product in February 2002 (that recently!) and Overture spreading their market reach via major partnerships with AOL Europe in January, MSN in February and September, InfoSeek in March, Yahoo in April, CNET and AltaVista in May, Lycos Europe in June, Yahoo Japan in November, CNN and Freeserve in December.

The popularity of Google's AdWords grew quickly throughoutrepparttar 124931 year, with AdWords becoming a major competitor to Overture, helped along by new partnerships with Earthlink in February, AOL in May, Ask Jeeves / Teoma and AT&T in July, InfoSpace in September and Yahoo Japan in November. In fact, AdWords became such a threat to Overture that they filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google in April 2002. I believerepparttar 124932 outcome is still pending on that one. Smaller PPC engines began to gain more market share in 2002, with eSpotting, FindWhat, Kanoodle and Ah-Ha each finding a market niche.

And who could forget LookSmart's disastrous entry torepparttar 124933 realm of pay per click in April 2002? The deceptive nature of LookSmart's announcement and their decision to force existing Express Directory Submission customers to rollover intorepparttar 124934 new PPC system instead of "grandfathering" their listings demonstrated a complete lack of market understanding and for some, forever etchedrepparttar 124935 LookSmart brand withrepparttar 124936 word "untrustworthy". It seems LookSmart are still paying for their mistake months later, with a reduced market share and a devastated reputation.

As predicted, search engine optimizers have had to embrace this trend towards Pay for Performance and integrate it within their traditional site optimization services in order to offer clients balanced, measurable and successful search engine marketing campaigns. As a result,repparttar 124937 term SEO has become increasingly eroded byrepparttar 124938 more logical term SEM (Search Engine Marketer).

Score: Nostradamus

2. Increase in Paid Submissions

My original article predicted: "I believe we'll see other engines and directories introduce a fee for submission to their commercial categories. I think Google could berepparttar 124939 first of these".

Whilerepparttar 124940 fairly new JoeAnt and GoGuides directories both introduced paid submission services late in 2002, they don't really counteractrepparttar 124941 fact that LookSmart dropped their directory submission option in favor of PPC and (thankfully), Google have refrained from introducing a Paid Submission service. So much for THAT prediction! Score: NoSuchLuckus

3. Crackdown on Spammers

My prediction here was: "With engines like Google leadingrepparttar 124942 way inrepparttar 124943 crackdown on search engine spammers, other engines should follow suit in 2002. As a result, there should be far less spammers and more relevant results acrossrepparttar 124944 search engines by this time next year."

Other search engines have indeed followed Google's lead against spam in 2002, by introducing more sophisticated search algorithms, (such as AltaVista's revamped algorithm consisting of 100+ ranking determining factors), by incorporating more spam filtration methods (such as those capable of detecting invisible text and hidden links), by providing spam reporting facilities and by boosting site relevancy factors such as link popularity when measuring sites against search queries.

Google still leadsrepparttar 124945 War Against Spam, with their dreaded PageRank site penalty scheme and their crystal clear anti-spam stance publicized via their Webmaster Guidelines (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html). The result has been a victory for searchers - more relevant searches, less bacon and ham. Even those search engines and directories renowned for providing irrelevant results recognized what Google had known for years:repparttar 124946 need to keep searchers satisfied. Yahoo in particular got back to basics byrepparttar 124947 end of 2002, partnering with Google to combine Google search results with their own directory listings instead of serving them up separately.

Score: Nostradamus

4. Growth ofrepparttar 124948 SEO Industry

Back then I said: "Withrepparttar 124949 importance of search engines finally sinking in,repparttar 124950 need for quality SEO services is booming inrepparttar 124951 U.S. andrepparttar 124952 U.K. I predict this solid demand will continue in 2002, especially in newly developing markets such as Australia/New Zealand and Europe".

No longer a niche market, SEO/SEM has indeed become mainstream overrepparttar 124953 past 12 months and is now recognized as a vital part ofrepparttar 124954 marketing mix in bothrepparttar 124955 U.S. andrepparttar 124956 U.K. Thankfully, search engine marketing has also become increasingly in demand in European, Asian and Australasian markets with scores of new specialist SEM firms springing up regularly and more media coverage than ever before.

Online Resources for Innovators--http://www.newideatrade.com/inventions.htm

Written by Neil Armand


Small businesses, independent innovators, authors, and artists often find it difficult to locate useful sources of information and services pertaining to intellectual property industry. A number of online forums, including Patentcafe.com, NewIdeaTrade.com, and Inventioncity.com now provide innovators a wide range of free tools and resources.

At http://www.newideatrade.com/inventions.htm innovators can find detailed information on how to obtain a patent and a list of patent/copyright offices and intellectual property associations aroundrepparttar world. They can also review a sample non-disclosure agreement that can be used when someone with an unpatented idea or invention wants to show it to another party, and wants that party to not disclose any ofrepparttar 124922 information. The forum also lists several free tools and resources that help innovators promote their websites.

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