Top 10 Search Engine Happenings Early 2006

• Mar. 31, 2006

As the first quarter of 2006 nears an end, I thought that we needed yet another Top 10 list. I mean after all, you can never have enough Top 10 lists… just ask David Letterman and he’ll tell you. We all know that with any Top 10 list, the rankings can be biased and open into interpretation. Therefore I took a poll around the Enquiro environment to determine what the most prevalent stories of the year in the world of search engines have been.

So without further ado here are the Top 10 Search Engine Happenings for the first quarter of 2006:

10. Google and Verizon Super Pages Deal

9. Yahoo Testing New Look for Home Page

8. Google Buys 3 Patents:

• #20060058019 Method and system for dynamically modifying the appearance of browser screens on a client device
• #20060059043 Method and system to provide wireless access at a reduced rate
• #20060059044 Method and system to provide advertisements based on wireless access points

To sum things up, Google can potentially have three systems in place to: reduce wireless rates, technology to serve up ads based on your geographical location and lastly modify browsers to maybe display ads/logos of companies which subsidize the network costs (making the lowering of wireless rates possible??)

7. MSN rolling out adCenter

6. Google Offering Free Software Bundle dubbed Google Pack

5. Microsoft Rolling out Windows Live Local

4. Google Buying 5% stake in AOL

3. The Rebranding of Ask Jeeves to Ask (anyone else miss the butler?)

2. Google Rolling out Big Daddy Infrastructure

And now for the number one piece of Search Engine News during the first quarter of 2006 (drum roll please):

1. Google Refusing to Hand Over Search Data to Feds

This really is big news as Google’s refusal to hand over search data to the DOJ helps preserve the freedoms and liberties that we have grown accustomed to in North America. Whether you like Google or hate them, the fact that they continue to follow their motto of “Don’t Be Evil” is impressive.

Here are the also-rans that didn’t quite make the Top Ten.

Honorable Mentions:

• Ask Jeeves Adds their New Image Search
• Yahoo Launching Yahoo Answers
• Google Launch of Music Search
• Yahoo Purchase of Social Book marking site Del.icio.us
• Being Able to purchase and sell on Google Base
• Yahoo Reducing Length of their PPC Ads
• Microsoft facing severe daily ($3.4 Million per day) fines from EU associated with the European Unions anti-competition rules.

It was a pretty busy quarter to start 2006. Let’s see where the rest of the year takes us. One thing is for certain that change is inevitable in the world of search engines.

Jody Nimetz, MCP, MCSE
Search Success Strategist
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing