Fast, Yahoo Roll Out New Options For Search Ads
Friday, February 9, 2007
Continuing the endless quest for an alternative to Google, Fast Search & Transfer and Yahoo rolled out new search advertising platforms last week, each hoping they had the answer. Yahoo introduced the final piece of its Panama project, a new search marketing ranking model that takes ad performance into account when calculating where an ad will be placed on a page. Previously, Yahoo awarded the best page position to the advertiser willing to pay the most for a given search keyword. But as Google made clear with its recent report of 67% year-over-year quarterly revenue growth, ads that not only pay well but play well--ads that get lots of clicks--return better results for everyone involved in making them happen....
Can natural language search bring down Google?
Upstart search engine Powerset has just secured an exclusive license for natural language processing technology from Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. It's a move that some are claiming will allow the small firm to someday challenge Google.
Steve Newcomb, one of Powerset's founders, characterizes the PARC technology as "the most sophisticated natural language technology known to man" and claims that it will give his company a major advantage over keyword-based search engines like Google.
The company has been operating quietly so far, but has recently been profiled twice in the New York Times and other major media outlets as it gears up for a private beta release of its flagship search engine. The company has not yet made details of the deal available, but the Times is reporting that PARC gets an equity stake in Powerset, while Powerset gets access to its technology and to researcher Ronald Kaplan, a leader in the field of natural language processing.
