Search Engine Optimization

UPDATE: Read a full Recap of Wikia launch at our second blog.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced on Wednesday, Jan 2nd he will launch an open source, community driven search engine. The launch is scheduled for today, Monday January 7th.

Jim is projecting on having 50 to 100 million indexed websites to start with, which will be filtered and influenced by search enthusiasts around the world.

“This is the public launch of a full-scale, high quality search engine,” he says. “We’re looking at every point in the process to see where we can push the editorial control out into the community.” – Jim Whales.

He ackoledges Wikia as a new Google and Yahoo rival and points out the importance of political openness, with no secret algorithms.

The software for Wikia search is open source and will be subject to modification by open source community.

“I’m glad Wikia is happening, if only because somebody needs to keep Google nervous.” – Jim Whales.

Though he recognizes that Wikia will not become serious competitor in the near future.

Possible Implications of Wikia Search Engine.

One thing that scares me is the “democracy” of such a search engine. Wikipedia has been extensively exposed as a censorship shield for political powerhouses around the world, with numerous articles deleted and edited by shady people with CIA, DARPA and Pentagon I.P. addresses.

So far Google and Yahoo! are very moderate and fair when it comes to politics and do not censor touchy subjects. Could this change with Wikia Search?

SEO aspect.

Wikia Search will definitely gain dedicated user base, however in the case of becoming popular what will happen to SEO industry? Search Engine Optimization relies on back engineering known algorithms, as with Wikia search, humans will have the upper hand.

Google and Yahoo! aren’t going to let it flow easily, but Wikia search definitely has good shot in search industry.

It would be wise to start participating in Wikia Search editing as soon as it launches, since “respect” is not gained over night.

Wikia Search

Yellow Book is recognizing the importance of SEO and adjusting it’s business to the market.

Yesterday I caught a funny commercial on CNN(video link below). It goes:

3 Advertisers: We need more customers.

Ask the ad guru.

Ad Guru: The first path, Yellow Book.

3 Advertisers: Excellent, Yellow Book. What about the internet?

Ad Guru: The second path, YellowBook.com.

3 Advertisers: What if people look on search engines?

Ad Guru: The third path, trust Yellow Book to place your ad on powerful search engines across the internet. The path begins with Yellow Book.

Then they show a graph titled: “Customers”, sliding down to the bottom and then skyrocketing up off the charts.

3 Advertisers: Business is off the charts

With 3 guys dancing and 3 yellow balloons flying around, while at the bottom we see the caption:

Yellow Book

1-800-YB-YELLOW

Wherever you look – Yellow Book.

So what is so unique about the commercial? Lets go back to the 6th line:

Ad Guru: The third path, trust yellow book to place your ad on powerful search engines across the internet.

So what? You ask.

The big guys are being hurt and search engine optimization is shaping the way they do business. Though they did not exactly state: SEO, Yellow Book recognized it as an important asset to their business.

The truth is simple – people rather Google then do Yellow Pages search. Its faster, it’s more intuitive and there are more choices. I believe their revenues will be going down.

Overall industry is catching on to SEO. Yellow Book commercial is one stage in a long chain of events that indicates that businesses are recognizing the importance of search visibility. More execs will be waking up to the power of SEO and the riddle of “why do bigs guys don’t get SEO” will evaporate as they eventually will come by themselves.

You can the watch the commercial over here.

A good reminder from WebMaster World forums to update the Copyright year from 2007 to 2008, as the 2007 will not look good in the eyes of potential customers.