GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Google Introduces 2 New Search Features For Smaller Sites

Google has unleashed two new features that are aimed at smaller Web sites and could change the search habits of millions of people.

First, the Mountain View search engine announced Friday a "site-flavored" Google search. It delivers results customized to reflect the content of a given Web site.

For instance, the owner of a computer Web site can place a Google search box on the site that returns only computer-hardware-related results. A search for the word "mouse" would get results related to the computer device, not the animal.

Google also unveiled a separate feature that lets owners of smaller Web sites put a Google search box on their site in return for a cut of advertising proceeds. Each time users click on ads running beside the search results from the box, the site operator gets a few cents. Until now, both Google and Yahoo have only allowed much larger Web sites to use this feature.

The second feature does not allow the personalized results offered by the site-flavored search. However, Web-site operators can use both features if they download two different search boxes, according to Susan Wojcicki, Google's director of product management.

Both features aim to do the same thing -- give incentives to Web-site publishers to funnel traffic to Google. And by doing so, Google can make more money -- and users get easier searches.

"It's self-serving," said Charlene Li, analyst with Forrester Research who was one of a small group of experts given a preview of the releases. "But it's a very smart thing for them to do."

Google's move could give it an edge in the broader fight among search engines for affiliate Web sites.

Google and its main competitor, Yahoo, first sought to sign up allies among the bigger sites, including MSN and AOL. They then moved to sign up the big Internet service providers, such as EarthLink. Next, they sought alliances with the bigger publishers, including Dow Jones or Knight Ridder. Now, it's for all the rest.

"This is the new move, to say `Let's pick up all the smaller businesses,' " said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, who also got a sneak preview.

The site-flavored search is clever because it lets others do all the work for Google. It allows users to search for specialized needs, say pet information at a pet Web site, or wines at a wine Web site. But Google keeps control because it still delivers its own results; they're merely refined according to categories defined by the Open Directory Project. (The ODP is a human-edited directory maintained by volunteer editors.)

For the time being, though, the site-flavored search will remain free of advertising, according to Google's Wojcicki. It is still in a testing phase, and available at http://labs.google.com.

However, the other search-box feature could easily tap $100 million or more in advertising revenues, according to analyst Li.

Yahoo will likely want to respond soon by offering its own site-flavored search. A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment.

But it isn't clear that Yahoo will respond to the feature giving smaller Web sites a search box and ad revenues. Yahoo has avoided courting smaller Web sites because it believes their user traffic is inferior. Users of smaller sites generally click on fewer ads, or make fewer actual purchases even when they do click on ads, according to Yahoo's internal studies.

"Our biggest concern is to have quality traffic for our advertisers," said Jennifer Stevens, spokeswoman for Overture, the Yahoo subsidiary that manages ad campaigns beside Yahoo search results.

Google's strategy is to get more users, so that advertisers get more overall traffic.

Google has another advantage in unveiling the offerings for small Web sites. It has already built relationships with small Web sites, mainly through its AdSense program. That service gives Web sites a way to list ads related to the content.

It can leverage that program with the latest offering. Google has an automated way of signing up these Web sites into their program, and sending checks to these sites for their cut of the advertising dollars generated. Web site owners simply go to www.google .com/adsense to sign up.

Creating such a campaign from scratch could be work for Yahoo.

Ironically, it was Yahoo's subsidiary, Overture, which led an early move during 1999 and 2000 to sign up small Web sites, offering them a search box as a way of drumming up more business. But Overture dropped that offering in 2002, focusing its efforts instead on the bigger sites. Also, advertising dollars to be garnered from smaller sites dried up after the Internet bubble burst in 2000.