Overture buys Altavista to get into the destination site game

Posted by | search engines | No Comments

With the majority of their revenue coming from two partners who have destination sites and therefore can beat Overture down on revenue split (or ‘cost of traffic’ as Overture call it in SEC filings), Overture needs a destination site, but Google is way ahead of Altavista in terms of users. This consolidation is bad news for FAST, Microsoft could possibly buy them for MSN, but if inclined to buy at all they may look at AskJeeves. So what does the search space look like now: Google Syndicated and destination site search, paid listings (adwords) and relevance ranked search. Yahoo Syndicated (Inktomi) and destination site search, paid listings (they are probably thinking of building their own) and relevance ranked search. MSN Destination site search Overture Syndicated and destination site search (Altavista), paid listings and relevance ranked search. Possible acquisition targets: AskJeeves (Microsoft); FAST (Microsoft); Espotting (Overture or Google) Is this Overture’s…

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Blogger and Google, publish and subscribe

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The two most important things on the web are publishing and searching. Three and a half years ago when I stepped off the plane at SFO with my carpetbag, I had two meetings lined up, one with Autonomy and one with Evan Williams from Pyra, a search behemoth and a tiny publishing (actually collaboration software) startup. Pyra was more exciting. Evan and Meg Hourihan had developed a product that was designed for people who needed to update websites often and easily. To do this they had to produce a beautifully elegant piece of software. Blogger along with Manila seemed to point to something profound, what happens when the web becomes two-way. Weblog publishing tools allow you to create embedded meaning within documents and they embed that meaning where it is relevant – in the nugget of information that is published as opposed to a web page. RSS syndication and the…

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Zoos offer Valentine’s sex tours

Posted by | trivia | No Comments

“Among the highlights are commentated explanations of penguin procreation – along the lines of “Mr and Mrs Penguin then get it on together” – and an indiscreet peek at the zoo’s elephant “members,” according to Chan.” I’ve heard they even have some educated fleas. NEWS.com.au | Zoo offers Valentine’s sex tours (February 15, 2003)

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A Clear Channel radio station gets excited about war.

Posted by | politics | No Comments

“As it becomes evident something is approaching, the entire news staff will be placed on standby, even when you’re not working. In your off hours listen to KFBK, KGO, and KCBS, watch CNN, MSNBC. Not only will this help keep you posted on war and possible attacks you will find some terrific story ideas. News immersion. Watch, listen, read!” Internalmemos.com

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