AllTheWeb Adds Functionality and Overture

• May. 14, 2002

Anyone visiting AllTheWeb lately will have noticed a few changes on the site - From the graphical layout to the functionality and choices of search.

Very noticeable in a prominent location at the top of a search results page are Overture listings, displacing the Beta Topics. The Topics are apparently now out of Beta, were renamed Fast Topics, and have been relegated to the right hand side of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Yes, AllTheWeb is the newest domino to succumb to the influence of Overture's prominence as a paid listings provider. As says Jami, who claims in this discussion forum to head up product marketing for AllTheWeb:

"AllTheWeb is, and will continue to be, the technology showcase for Fast. The newest, most advanced search features are on display here and we will continue to add new features going forward. All these features are available in our products that we sell to to our customers - portals and companies with large data search problems.

At the same time, AllTheWeb is a cost center for Fast and we need to reimburse the cost of the site to the extent that we can. That's why you now see the Overture links."

This new development has caused cries of bloody murder, or, at least, sellout! to ring out in the search engine discussion forums. However, with so much publicity over Overture's placement on search engines now, the everyday user is more likely to recognize these Sponsored Links as the advertising they are and according them the appropriate amount of attention.

The entire Overture listings catalog for any given search phrase can be viewed by clicking the "MORE" link at the top of the Sponsored Links section title.

The Fast Topics section has also been demystified. The search engine determines by your key phrase if there is an appropriate category in Open Directory to name as a topic group which it will then list. If there isn't an appropriate Open Directory category, the search engine will create its own category listing, using Open Directory category nomenclature as a model to follow.

Found also on the right of the SERP, below the Fast Topics is the Narrow Your Search box. As says the moderator of this AllTheWeb forum:

"Then FAST adds a Narrow Your Search box, offering additional words associated with the search phrase. This function apparently draws from completely different sources than the Topics. Are users queries analyzed for the associations?"

Advanced search allows a user to search for top level domains, IPs and blocks of IPs. Special Features include the ability to use special keywords in your search string to filter out results such as finding pages that contain your search phrase in the title tag, for example. (From a positioning perspective, it underlines the importance of ensuring every component of your site's pages is well-optimized for your chosen key phrases.)

All-in-all, a comprehensive effort to display Fast's technology to their target market of portals and companies looking for in-house information/data search solutions.

More information:

Webmaster World
Overture on Fast (AlltheWeb)

Webmaster World
New advanced features at Alltheweb

Petra Leinemann
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning
Specialists