SEO News 2003

• Google's Florida update is still causing havoc in December, though some of the listings that were dropped from the top 10 have reappeared, though in less prominent spots.
• On November 16, Google implemented its Florida update and hundreds of thousands of sites were seemingly dropped just before the biggest holiday shopping season of the year.
• Google announces in October that it will make its first Initial Public Offering (IPO) sometime in 2004, probably in the spring or summer.
• MSN has dropped Australian search directory LookSmart as a results provider. MSN's move was predictable as it has let its ambition be known to take over Google as the number 1 search provider.
• Contextual advertising campaigns are getting lower than expected results according to the search engine marketing firms. This information has both Google and Overture reeling for better answers.
• Yahoo is coming close to closing a deal to buy out Overture. Talks began in May 2002 and have resumed in the past quarter due to Overture's recent losses.
• MSN announced that it is creating its own database for search results. MSNBot is already crawling the Internet and indexing websites. This will eventually lead to autonomy for MSN.
• Google has made it known that it is tweaking its algorithms for clustering, ranking and SPAM filtering which is affecting search engine rankings. Google expects to be finished with its enhancements by the end of July.
• Now that Overture has acquired AltaVista and AlltheWeb it is now announcing in May that it is laying off 100 people from the AltaVista division.
• MSN announced a major expansion of services and plans to triple its staff. The stock prices of Overture, Inktomi and LookSmart fell on this announcement.
• Google announces that it will not be offering an IPO this year. AlltheWeb, after being bought by Overture has a new look.
• Overture announces in February its plan to acquire AltaVista, which will be finalized this coming April.
• Yahoo posted a net-profit of $42Million, or 8 cents a share in the last quarter of 2002. Over the last quarter, Yahoo’s sales came in at approximately $285 Million.

SEO News 2002