Travel meta search engines fuel global competition

Travel meta search engines like Sidestep, Mobissimo, and Kayak offer travelers the opportunity to book online directly on the travel providers' web sites and often avoid paying service fees, which are usually charged by travel search engines. dt

ASBTA Survey: Meta Travel Search Engines Favored

ASBTA As Travel Companies Bypass the Middle Man, Small Business Travelers Can Absorb the Benefits - Direct Booking via Meta Search Engines Offers Major Travel Providers and Small Business Travelers Money Saving Opportunities read more

Yahoo buys out stakes globally

In an effort to compete with Google globally, Yahoo has bought stakes in its operations in Germany, Britain, France and South Korea. Yahoo's global business rose 50 percent, to $228.5 million, compared with a 40 percent rise in U.S. sales, to $703.6 million. The search engines' global battle continues and the stakes are high. dt

Yahoo steps up battle overseas with Google
By Dan Bilefsky International Herald Tribune

PARIS A move by Yahoo to buy out the stakes it does not already own in its British, German, French and South Korean units is aimed at reducing its dependence on the U.S. market and better competing with its archrival among Internet search engines, Google.

Yahoo announced on Monday that it would pay $500 million to buy out the stakes.

Searching for news grows globally

News search engines are attracting the attention of search engine marketers as news search grows globally. dt

77% of all Internet users get their news online
By: Sally Falkow & Doug Hay

The news search landscape is changing so fast that half of what we knew a year ago about search engine optimization and marketing is now obsolete, reports Greg Jarboe, a regular presenter at the international Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in the United States. The growth of searching in the 'vertical' channels like news or images was one of the new trends highlighted at the San Jose SES in August.

The growth of 'news search' has only come about in the last few years with the establishment of search engines that specifically index news stories and press releases. read more

A UK search engine goes for sale on eBay

I'm sure when you read that jux2 sold on ebay for $101,000 last month you just knew that copycat sellers would be right behind. Well you were right! Here's one from the UK called UKWizz, a search engine plus associated directory. "UKWizz is a spidering search engine focusing on the UK Internet." The starting bid is $15,000.00 but no bidders in 8 hours so far. Bidding ends on November 11th. dt

Bill Gates visits Israel to take on Google

Bill Gates made a quick stop in Israel no doubt to show how serious he is about his global aspirations and to show Israel that Google isn't the only game in town. You might remember that one of his prior execs, who Google snatched up, went to open Google's new office there. Don't know what he really accomplished but it was an interesting move none the less. dt

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem----October 30 ….He came, he saw, but did he conquer?
Bill Gates, the Microsoft CEO, made his first trek to Israel, but his media presence was upstaged by a terror bombing in Hadera. In addition, most likely due to Gates strict security contingent, his schedule was not broadcast by the Government Press Office which usually provides the schedules of visiting heads of state and celebrities. read more

Search Engine Strategies to hold its first conference in China

Search Engine Strategies SES will hold its first conference in China next March 17 & 18th in Nanjing. The city of Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu Province and is located about 5 hours west of Shanghai. The search scene in China is heating up with Baidu the current leader holding the lead at 37%, Google at 23% and Yahoo with 21%. China has more than 100 million internet users with growth expected to top 120 million by the end of 2005. If you’ve ever thought about adding China to the mix, you don’t want to miss this one.

China now upset with Google

First it was Taiwan and now China is upset with Google for changing the name on Google's map service from Taiwan a province of China to just Taiwan. China is important to Google as they struggle to gain users in one of the fastest growing internet user bases in the world. China's internet users reached 103 million and is expected to reach 120 million by years end. dt

The Age

San Francisco --- Google's popular online mapping service has become entangled in a long-running territorial dispute between China and Taiwan.

Until recently, Google's maps described Taiwan as a "province of China." That sparked protests from Taiwan's government, which has considered its island an independent state since ending a civil war with China more than a half-century ago. read more