Elixir Systems (www.elixirsystems.com), a privately held company in the search engine optimization and search engine placement field, announced on October 18 that they are moving into a new corporate headquarters. The new offices, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, will handle all corporate operations and will create an environment that will allow the company to continually expand its business and services.
Chicago-based Info.com (www.info.com) announced on October 18 the launch of a new meta-search engine that queries and combines results from Google and 13 other leading search engines and online directories, including Teoma, AltaVista, Fast, Overture, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves and Yahoo. Info.com's search platform also has links to specialized databases for comparative shopping, weather, phone listings and auctions.
LibraryJournal.com (www.libraryjournal.com) announced on October 15 that Elsevier Science (www.elsevier.com) is throwing down the gauntlet to Google users, challenging them to switch to its Scirus search engine (www.scirus.com) when surfing the web for scientific information. In addition to searching more than 167 million science-specific web pages, Scirus covers 18 million full-text articles and abstracts from journal sources that include Medline, ScienceDirect, BioMed Central and pre-print archives. Elsevier says that Scirus includes more coverage of proprietary and Open Access Initiative sources than any other free search engine.
San Francisco, California-based LookSmart (www.looksmart.com), a leader in commercial search services and a developer of innovative web search solutions, and the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, announced on October 15 that the branded web search property developed for Cal Athletics by LookSmart, CalBearsSearch.com (www.calbearssearch.com), will launch "Cal Bears Search & Win," a unique contest that challenges participants to complete a "search puzzle" by finding answers to Cal-specific questions on CalBearsSearch.com. The contest, open to the general public, will be announced during the Homecoming match-up between Cal and UCLA on October 16.
icrossing (www.icrossing.com), a leading search engine marketing firm serving its clients with Natural Search Optimization, Paid Search Management, Search Analytics and Search Intelligence, announced on October 14 that it was selected by Discovery Communications (http://corporate.discovery.com), a leading global real-world media and entertainment company that operates 19 television brands including Discovery Channel, to provide search engine marketing services for its website Discoverystore.com (http://Discoverystore.com).
Wotbox (www.wotbox.com), a UK-based independent search engine mainly known for its advanced geo-targeting technology and for displaying a flag of the country of origin next to each result on its search pages, announced on October 15 the release of a new site submission program for webmasters. The service allows users to have their websites instantly added to Wotbox's index, meaning the pages will be searchable within minutes.
America Online (www.aol.com) announced on October 15 that it is testing a new search engine that scans for files on a PC's hard drive, mirroring a similar product unveiled on October 14 by the search engine giant Google (www.google.com). AOL's desktop search was not developed in-house but is powered by a third-party's technology, and is currently being offered as a feature within a test version of a standalone Web browser that AOL is developing.
The search engine giant Google (www.google.com) announced at the Digital Life conference in New York on October 14 the launch of a new desktop search software that will simultaneously search the Web and an array of files on a computer hard drive. Called Google Desktop Search (http://desktop.google.com), the software is a 400-kilobyte file that Microsoft Windows users can download to their computers. The software is accessible through a Web browser and the “Desktop” link that is automatically added to the Google home page www.google.com.
Addict3d.org (http://addict3d.org) announced on October 13 that the search engine giant Google has soft-launched the networking site Orkut.com created by one of its engineers, thus edging into the social networking space popularized by Friendster (www.friendster.com).
Search engine giant Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) announced on October 13 that Kelkoo's Pierre Chappaz is the new president of its European operations. Yahoo said that it has hired Chappaz to head Yahoo! Europe. Chappaz is the founder and CEO of Kelkoo (www.kelkoo.com), which he established in 1999, and developed into Europe's leading shopping search engine. It was acquired by Yahoo in April 2004.
