A random muse ~ thoughts and observances from around the web.
Explore search engines and directories; discover which directories are worthwhile and which to avoid.
eWebPages Web Directory has finally launched and is doing well.
We’ve received a nice number of quality submissions to populate the categories. We appreciate their support!
eWebPages Web Directory is a professionally edited, searchable, general web directory.
Google has decided to follow MSN’s lead and allow webmasters more control of the ODP site titles and description snippet displayed in their search results.
Google’s creation of sites’ titles and descriptions (or “snippets”) is completely automated and takes into account both the content of a page as well as references to it that appear on the web. While we’re unable to manually change titles or snippets for individual sites, please be assured that we’re always working to make them as relevant as possible. One source we use to generate snippets is the Open Directory Project. You can direct us not to use this as a source by adding a meta tag to your pages.
Every so often you read a discussion at one of the webmaster forums regarding the benefits of a Yahoo Directory listing and the advantages or disadvantages in Google.
The first complaint I always hear is the pricing – a $299.00 annually recurring fee for review. As Yahoo’s directory is professionally edited, unlike the Open Directory Project which is edited by volunteers, it’s not surprising that there is a fee.
In order to maintain a listing in their directory, your site is subject to an annual review, and someone is paid to review your site. From checking our log files, it appears that Yahoo editors perform a much more thorough review than the volunteers at the Open Directory Project.
Personally, I can live with the fee if I can’t get a site accepted for free. Yes, Yahoo does add sites for free.
Google has secured yet another toolbar agreement, this time with Adobe Systems, Inc. The agreement to bundle Google’s Toolbar with Adobe’s Shockwave Player downloads was announced this past Wednesday.
The Google Toolbar will be offered as part of the Macromedia Shockwave Player installation process for Internet Explorer. It was also noted that under the terms of the agreement, the toolbar would also be offered as part of other Adobe product installations in the future.
Google has long been the preferred search engine and has slightly widened it’s seemingly insurmountable lead over rivals Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN Search again.
In May, Google served up 59.3 percent of the search queries, followed by Yahoo in second with 22 percent, and MSN Search in third with just 12.1 percent.