Thanks to competition and technological leaps forward, 2003 will keep search engines and marketers interested in using search on their toes. Search engines are expanding their range of products and services, from Google's e-commerce search product Froogle to the development of concepts such as trusted feeds (see panel, p44). And the deregulation of directory enquiries should lead to some interesting activity online from directory services old and new (see panel below for major players).
While Froogle (www.froogle.google.com) is only available in the US at present, it looks likely that it will launch in the UK soon. "During the beta stage of Froogle, we will collect feedback from users to determine the next steps for the service and explore localisation opportunities following the evaluation," says a spokesperson for Google. Its service allows users to search for specific products, and the information is gathered both by spiders and e-commerce sites submitting their electronic catalogue to Google in the form of a data feed.
There are no paid-for placement opportunities, and while marketers using Google's AdWords keyword advertising product can also have their ads appear on Froogle, there are no opportunities to buy keyword ads that run only on Froogle. This means the service is particularly suited to SMEs, giving them a chance to compete with big-name stores online on a level playing field. Kate Burns, head of sales at Google UK, says this will be one of the areas her team will focus on this year.
"One of the challenges for the search engine industry, and indeed the online advertising industry as a whole, this year will be trying to widen the net and capture SMEs, which we need to do by developing products that are simple and easy to use and don't use jargon," she says.
"Small companies tend to see search engine marketing as a mysterious beast that will take a lot of money and require a lot of resources, and we need to communicate to them how easy it is."
According to Burns, this year will see more search engine marketing activity from sectors such as FMCG, entertainment and pharmaceuticals - traditionally big-budget marketers, but without a focus on search engines at present.
"We need to start breaking the walls down there," she says.
Google is also trialling another product in the US, the Google Viewer (http://labs.google.com/gviewer.html). Rather than presenting results in linear form, it presents them as a slide-show, with images from the site as well as the text listings.
Other search engines have experimented with different ways of presenting listings. French 'metasearch engine' KartOO, for example, which has a deal with Espotting, presents results as linked balls, giving a solar system effect of options. But it remains to be seen whether either this or the Google Viewer will grab the imagination of users.
Chris Martin, vice-president of production and technology at Ask Jeeves UK and Ireland, agrees that the biggest challenge facing the search industry in 2003 is to find different and more relevant ways to present results.
"When someone puts in a single word query, we need to find out what they are actually trying to find out, to understand the context of the query," he says.
"It is important to provide options for users so they can refine their query, rather than just come back with a list of results. The Teoma search engine technology that we bought last year is helping us to refine search results into narrower categories and that might be something we bring on to Ask Jeeves this year."
Another change in the search engine market in 2003 will be the absence of BTLookSmart, following the decision of both BT and LookSmart to dissolve the joint venture, citing "evolving strategies". However, Robert Goldberg, senior vice-president of sales, marketing and international operations at LookSmart, says the company will continue to run an office in the UK.
"There are natural inefficiencies in a joint venture that we are now looking to eliminate," he explains. "It will actually be easier now for companies in the UK to do business with us on an international basis, which wasn't so straightforward before."
Consolidation is a major theme in the plans of many in the industry this year. According to Chrys Philalithes, marketing director at Espotting Media, Espotting's New Year's resolutions e include "media consolidation in an otherwise fragmented media industry, which, coupled with European expansion, facilitates pan-European buys."
The image of search engine marketing has certainly improved in the eyes of marketers. Thanks to companies such as Google and BTLook-Smart launching keyword advertising products, it has become less of a techie art and more about familiar marketing principals. And this is something which Dave Turner, director of European operations at search marketing agency Position Technologies and previously responsible for search marketing at digital agency Outrider, believes will develop during 2003.
"With the introduction of paid-for results, the industry has become less reliant on the 'black art' image that had developed and search marketing has to some extent become a media buy," he says. "As this trend will continue throughout 2003, it places the emphasis on driving traffic to a site, rather than on how many top ten positions have been obtained."
Turner also believes that the best thing that could happen in 2003 for the search engine industry would be for the main players to work together to educate marketers and further improve the image of search engine marketing. "A joining together of search engines and search marketers to form a professional association would be a tremendous boost to the credibility of the industry," he concludes.
MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE DIRECTORY ENQUIRIES SECTOR AND HOW MARKETERS CAN MAKE THE MOST OF THEM
Web address www.yell.com
Parent company: The Yell Group
History: BT launched a Yellow Pages web site (www.yell.co.uk) in 1996 and relaunched it as Yell.com in 2000. In 2001, BT spun off its business directory products as Yell, then sold it for £2.14 billion to Apax Partners & Co Ventures and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. A revamped site launched at the end of 2002.
Vital stats: Yell.com holds listings on about 1.7 million UK businesses across 2,350 classifications. Yell.com receives 38 million page impressions a month (November 2002).
Media: Traditional paper-based directories, online, WAP and Sky Active. A database of 100,000 companies can be accessed via SMS.
Types of listing: Enhanced listings appear at the top of search results. Companies can also add a link to their web site for additional cost.
Cost of listing: Generic listings are free; enhanced listings cost £109 a year; web links cost £249.
How to be listed: To be listed for free in Yellow Pages and on Yell.com, call 0800 555 444 or go to the advertise with us area on www.yellgroup.com.
Cost of searching: Online searching is free. Use of the Sky Active service costs 5p a minute. Yell.com by Text costs 25p plus the cost of sending a text message.
Web address www.192.com
Parent company: i-CD Publishing
History: 192.com launched as a skeleton site in the US in 1997, and as a fully fledged site in 1999. It was the first site to license the BT Directory Enquiry database. It holds a database of 1.8 million trading companies and Dun & Bradstreet's company profile database.
Vital stats: The site holds 17 million listings - business and individual - from the Directory Enquiry database, along with 40 million listings from the electoral roll. It attracts four to five million searches a month and up to 60,000 new registered users.
Media: Online and CD-ROM. 192.com also offers bespoke services for intranets and extranets. Suited to PDAs, as it has visual material such as maps and aerial photographs. Developing mobile applications.
Types of listing: 192.com does not give businesses the chance to push themselves through enhanced lists.
Cost of listing: Listing is free.
How to be listed: Businesses cannot deal directly with 192.com to ensure they are represented; however, they can get listed with Dun & Bradstreet via its web site (www.dandb.com), and should then appear on 192.com.
Cost of searching: 192.com runs a system of search credits, with most searches costing one credit and more advanced searches costing up to five. It offers various subscription packages, including £19.99 for 100 searches; a monthly package costing £14.95 for 100 searches that must be used in the month; and a package of £34.95 for 250 searches.
Web address www.scoot.co.uk
Parent company: BT
History: Scoot launched online in 1996. It bought classified ads business Loot in a deal worth £189.8m in June 2000 and sold it in August 2001 to the Daily Mail & General Trust for £45m. Scoot was acquired by BT in August 2002 for £5m.
Vital stats: Scoot has listings for 1.6 million companies, including 19,000 paid-for listings.
Media: Own site, via BT's Directory Enquiries site at www.bt.com/118500, via iTV on ntl and via mobile phone to Vodafone users through the 333 short access code. It is also available by dialling 0900 2 192 192 or 118 500.
Types of listing: Enhanced listings are available across all channels; they include information on opening times, payment methods, maps and descriptions of the company. Firms can allow consumers to send details to their mobile via SMS or contact them directly via fax or email.
Cost of listing: Bulk listings are free; enhanced listings cost £450.
How to be listed: Call Scoot on 020 8587 5148.
Cost of searching: Searching is free; Vodafone service costs 60p a minute.
Web address www.bt.com/118500
Parent company: BT
History: Launched on 10 December 2002 following Oftel's decision to open up 192 services to competition.
Vital stats: The web site receives an average of 2.33 million page impressions a week.
Media: Own site and at www.scoot.co.uk, via the phone at BT Directory Enquirires on 118 500 and Scoot on 0900 2 192 192 and via ntl cable TV. Vodafone mobile users can call short access code 333.
Types of listing: Enhanced listings are available and include information on opening times, payment methods, maps and descriptions of companies.
Cost of listing: Bulk listings, which include name, address and telephone number, are free. Enhanced listings cost £450.
How to be listed: To be listed, call 020 8587 5148.
Cost of searching: Searches are free, but are limited to 10 a day.
Web address www.thomson-directories.co.uk
Parent company: SEAT Pagine Gaille
History: Thomson Yellow Pages, jointly owned by The Thomson Corporation and Dun & Bradstreet, introduced Yellow Pages to the UK in 1966 as sales agents for the Post Office. In 1980, the company set up Thomson Directories as an independent directory publisher and piloted local directories in six regions, rolling out nationally in 1981. U S WEST acquired Thomson Directories in 1994. In June 1997, it sold the company to a 3i-backed consortium that included members of the Thomson management team. In July 1999, a company formed by Apax Partners & Co bought Thomson Directories. In August 2000, it was acquired by SEAT Pagine Gaille.
Vital stats: Thomson holds listings on 2.3 million businesses.
Media: Printed directories, online through ThomsonLocal.com and the UK Business Finder network, as well as partners such as Ask Jeeves and Infospace. A new product, WebFinder.com, launched this year.
Types of listing: Prioritised listings in the Business Finder, keyword advertising in the WebFinder
Cost of listing: Varies, contact 01252 555555 for details
How to be listed: Call Thomson Directories on 01252 555 555 or email on comments@thomweb.co.uk. Free listings take four to eight weeks to appear on ThomWeb once verified.
Cost of searching: Free.
TRUSTED FEEDS BENEFIT BOTH SEARCH ENGINES AND SEOS
"It's a win-win situation: the search engine gets more content, the user gets more relevant results and direct access to databases and SEO companies get their clients indexed." According to Karl Gregory, international marketing director at AltaVista, this is why trusted feeds are a good thing.
It is rare for both search engines and SEOs to see themselves on the same side. To put it bluntly, SEOs want to get representation for their clients' sites on a search engine, while the search engine wants to make money out of providing the most relevant searches to its users.
But the idea of SEOs and major web sites becoming trusted feed, or paid-for inclusion, partners - supplying optimised content direct to a search engine - unites the two aims.
And it is generating revenue for the search engines. In its fourth financial quarter of 2002, ending September 30, Inktomi reported that it earned $5.9 million (£3.7m) from paid inclusion, the first time it broke out such numbers. Inktomi has more than 1,000 Index Connect subscribers and more than 100,000 subscribers to search submit.
Naturally, David White, chief executive of search engine marketing agency Weboptimiser, one of Inktomi's authorised resellers, approves of the idea which sees search engines signing deals with partners - typically SEOs or large advertisers and web sites - to boost the relevancy of their search results.
And the SEO's clients can gain as well, so White has another reason to be happy. "Large dynamic sites can not only optimise their entire content quickly, they can also enhance the user experience while paying a fixed cost-per-click rate." For certain web sites, this is significant. Traditionally database-driven sites, such as travel, shopping auctions and share trading, have been difficult to optimise for search engines, mainly because of the number of pages and constantly updated site content.
One Weboptimiser client hoping to capitalise on making its database available via trusted feeds is industrial computer manufacturer Fairchild. According to White, Fairchild's site (www.fairchild.co.uk) should benefit from going through a trusted feed. "Currently its database is based on Microsoft Access - a product that is fine for single users and a local area network.
But when we looked at its site log file, the most common page was an error page, which came from its database (Access) not performing - more than 60 per cent of searches failed. In addition, traffic was poor.
"We will do two things: improve the site search by replacing its database system and build in a system for fast data updates that links directly into trusted feed." In early 2001, trusted feeds were launched by both AltaVista and Inktomi in the US and then Europe. Fast also has a trusted feed service.
"Paid-for inclusion is a way of sites guaranteeing inclusion," says Dennis Buchheim, director of Inktomi search marketing solutions. "But it does not guarantee a ranking - that depends on the relevancy of the content."
Yet although the search engines get a guaranteed revenue, which is effectively paid for on a cost-per-click basis from its trusted feed partners, both Inktomi and AltaVista say they refuse partners if they don't measure up to their standards. Unethical search optimisation practices, such as cloaking, are frowned upon. "User experience," says AltaVista's Gregory, "is paramount."
- Philip Smith.
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