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Your Weekly Step Forth into the World of Search Engines |
News
From StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc.
Wednesday, March 26th, 2003
Dear valued subscribers,
Welcome to StepForth’s weekly search engine update. This update is a weekly news summary designed to bring our subscribers up to speed on the constantly evolving search engine marketplace.
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| Highlight of the Week: Personal Privacy and Search Engines | |
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"The news and Viewpoint portions of the Almanac, including the Police Calls columns, appear on the Almanac's Web site, www.AlmanacNews.com where they will remain part of a permanent record of the newspaper, and are likely to be included in search engines, such as Google and Yahoo." This warning appears in the Menlo Park CA local newspaper. We found it while looking for interesting stories to write about for this edition of the StepForth weekly. We also found the names and addresses of persons arrested for various crimes included in some of the police notes. Those charged have not been tried or convicted. Nevertheless, their names and home addresses are available on the Internet in connection with a crime they may or may not have committed. That got our staff thinking about search engines, personal privacy and how to best protect the private information of our clients. We live in extremely interesting times. Never before in human history was so much known about so many by, well, so many. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo don’t actually know what is accurate and what is not accurate or what is proper and what is not proper; they simply return information based on user requests. Search engines, being computer-based ‘bots, have absolutely no respect for the minute details of our social contract such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. They’ve never needed to until recently. Though this must pose ethical questions for the engineers at the major search engines, our staff was unable to think of any way to avoid private information being spidered and made available by search engines. Regardless of propriety, search engine spiders will continue to do their job of searching and indexing everything that is placed in the public domain, and this will often include information that, in another medium would be considered private. Attempting to filter that sort of information would likely lead to large swaths of other relevant information being blocked as well, a phenomena that had prevented Adult Check filters from being installed in public libraries across North America. Rather, the burden of preventing private information from being broadcast by search engines, for the time being at least, must remain in the hands of the website designers and webmasters themselves. A common rule relating to search engines and the Internet is to
assume that anything put online WILL end up being listed by a search
engine. This includes names, dates, phone numbers, home addresses,
and accusations. There are legal, and ethical issues to consider
whenever personal information is posted. There are specific meta
tags that can be applied within the <head> … </head> section
of the source code, however these tags will prevent spiders from
indexing everything found on that page or site. The best way to
protect private information is to avoid posting it unless absolutely
necessary. |
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| Major Players Update | |
Psssst… Do you want a great stock tip? Well, we can’t offer you one today but we can tell you that Google is not going to put forth an IPO this year. "That's a lot of work, and I'm lazy," co-founder Sergey Brin joked Tuesday. "It requires filling out a lot of forms. The S1, in particular, seems like a really long one," he said, referring to the form required by the government to start the IPO process. "Thus far, laziness has won out," he added. "There are so many other things for us to do." There are several other reasons for Brin to be cautious about an IPO. As a private company, Google does not need to reveal it’s financial records or share future plans with external shareholders, allowing Google to continue to be innovative and stay ahead of the competition. |
AllTheWeb continues to offer innovative and rapid results in its bid to become the next Google. After being purchased from FAST by Overture, AllTheWeb has improved its look, usability and ultimately, the quality of results. We have noted several interesting difference between how Google and AllTheWeb view websites and link-densities. As the growing and somewhat inevitable backlash against the behemoth Google continues, we believe that AllTheWeb is poised to grow very quickly this year and will tend to be the main alternative to the giant Google. For a fun experiment, open both Google and AllTheWeb at the same time and conduct search based on the same keyword phrases. You may find the results most interesting. |
| In the Client Spotlight this Week: Parris Concierge - Toronto Concierge | |
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You want the most out of your life - and Parris Concierge, your full-service Toronto Concierge, is ready to assist with all your day-to-day needs. With today’s busy lifestyle, everyone finds it difficult to balance work, family life, and recreation. Save time by allowing their professional assistants to take care of the details - everything from running errands, making travel arrangements and reservations, to planning weddings! Full corporate concierge service is also available. Check out Parris Concierge at www.parrisconcierge.com - Toronto Concierge |
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| Weekly Quick Tip: Branding only works if you are already Branded | |
Some products are so well known; their brand name has become synonymous with every similar make and model. Kleenex, ‘Fridge, or Google are the best examples of this tendency. What if your company name is not widely known? For instance, a business selling WIDGETS that has been in a family for generations and bears the family name may be well known locally by that name but will not be known in other communities. Chances are, the family name will not be a part of a search engine query either. In order to be visible on search engines, it is important to use commonly used keyword phrases within the title and body text of the website. When designing a site or planning for the design of a site, keep in mind that, unless your company name is extremely well known, your company name is often unknown outside your local community and may hinder more than help search engine placements. |
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| The Net Reality: Trade Your Digital Files for Metal Files Kids; You’re Going to Jail. | |
In a bid to eliminate peer to peer file sharing, a Republican congressman, John Carter (R-Texas) proposes sending a small number of people to jail for up to three years. " What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code," Carter said, "If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent." Peer to peer file sharing allows people to download music, movies and other digital files without charge across vast networks. Napster, the most infamous example of peer to peer software was closed down after years of litigation with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Since then, dozens of other services have sprung up including Kazaa, Direct Connect and WinMX. Citing a growing problem at American Universities, Carter believes that making an example of a few will have a major effect on the masses, however some college administrators and civil libertarians might beg to differ. “I can't see turning millions of college students into criminals," said Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University. "We'd have to build a lot of new prisons to hold the lawbreakers engaged in piracy of copyrighted materials." We’ll all have
to wait and watch for any action on the part of the US Congress
and courts. In the meantime, Texas officials might
think about applying for a search warrant to examine Rep. Carter’s
kid’s computers. Just a thought. |
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