Category Archives: search

How is the ODP being used today?

Posted on March 3, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

One of my tasks lately has been looking at the Open Directory Project, also known as DMOZ.org. The ODP was started back in the late 90s as an alternative to the Yahoo! directory by Rich Skrenta. It sits between a … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, search, yahoo | 5 Comments

Searching vs. browsing

Posted on February 7, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I picked up a copy of The Wall Street Journal on Saturday and did something I hadn’t done in many years – look at the stock tables. I’d been on vacation for a week without my laptop and I wanted … Continue reading →

Posted in search, web 2, web 2.0 | 4 Comments

Yahoo! Search knows what you mean

Posted on January 16, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was looking through the referrer data for this blog and noticed an entry from Yahoo search for “redisgn my screen on yahoo”. I tried the search to see why the blog would come up – it looks like Yahoo! … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, search, yahoo | Comments Off

Adapting online newspapers to a search/Web 2.0 world

Posted on January 3, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve written earlier about troubles facing the newspaper industry as well as some ideas for improving online newspapers. Here are a few more ideas. Make sure your pages are crawlable. Most newspaper sites do just fine at this when it … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, newspapers, search, seo, web 2.0 | 10 Comments

Making the most of search engine traffic

Posted on December 17, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

News organizations are actively playing the SEO/SEM game. If you do a search for “Iraq War“, “taco bell“, “litvinenko“, you will get both organic results and sponsored links from major news sites. The sites take different approaches to where they … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, google, search, seo | 3 Comments

Lots of free stuff from AOL

Posted on November 16, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

David Pogue in The Times has a great roundup today of many of the new freebies from AOL. He mentions three of my favorites – My eAddress, XM Radio and AOL Search – but not AIM Phoneline. I have to … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, email, search, web 2, web 2.0 | Comments Off

Google’s Custom Search – a take on social search?

Posted on October 31, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve been playing with Google’s Custom Search engine lately. In short, it lets you build custom search engines around a given topic. You can create your own search engine around toys, HDTV, restaurants, travel Web site — whatever interests you. … Continue reading →

Posted in google, personalization, search | 5 Comments

Want more ads with your Gmail?

Posted on October 4, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was in my Gmail account and noticed a new addition to the Sponsored Links that appear along side the email: the option to get more sponsored links. Clicking any of the links under “More about…” gets you a page … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, email, google, search | 3 Comments

New AOL Search beta

Posted on September 20, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

The AOL Search team has been working hard to launch a new search product. A sneak peek is available. The redesign does two big things: Reorganizes the left side, allowing more search results above the fold. Adds a right rail … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, search | 20 Comments