by Dan Dixon, Web Reach Consulting

The latest news from the search industry in one healthy dose.  Stay up to date -- check back next month for more quick hitters.

Google Caffeine

In another sign that real-time search is becoming more viable every day, Google reworked their algorithm, and branded it Caffeine.  The speedy new architecture is said to provide 50% fresher results than the old version by updating the search index on a continual basis and from a more globalized index.  The Caffeine index is now larger than ever before, and the result is fresher information for searchers and a new wrinkle for search marketers.  But once again Google has retained their core value – continually adding fresh content to benefit SEO has and will be an age-old SEO standard..

Google Wave

Google made its Wave collaboration platform available to the general public on May 18.  Google Wave is a collaboration platform that provides a communication medium applicable to practical business applications (read more at the Google Wave Blog).

Business: Co-workers at companies large and small are using Wave, from writing software code at Lyn and Line and coordinating ad campaigns at Clear Channel Radio, to international project communications for Deloitte's As One project.

Education: University students and professors worldwide have used waves within and beyond the classroom to collaborate on Latin poetry translations, write academic research papers and even build new functionality with Wave's APIs. An ICT teacher also enjoyed having her 5th-graders do their class research in Wave.

Creative collaboration: From virtual art classes to writing the Complete Guide to Google Wave itself, waves make it easier for groups to review and critique multimedia content like images and videos. (We've heard that Wave is fun for gaming, too.)

Organizations and conferences: The Debatewise Global Youth panel explored climate change across 100 countries and waves at eComm (Emerging Communication Conference),LCA 2010 conference and HASTAC 2010 helped track speaking sessions. We are using waves in the same manner at today's Google I/O conference.

Journalism: Mashable used Wave to interview journalists on the future of journalism, and The Seattle Times experimented with a public Wave to develop their Pulitzer Prize-winning news coverage.

 

Yahoo/Associated Content

Yahoo bought Associated Content on May 18 for $100m.  Yahoo expects the acquisition to boost content delivery to its 600 million-plus users.   Associated Content boasts 60,000 topics from 380,000 freelance contributors. This marks a return to a potential growth strategy for Yahoo in contrast to recent strategic cuts and restructuring, including the sales of GeoCitites and the decision to make Bing their search result provider.  Yahoo plans to expand the Associated Content platform around the world to grow their consumer base.  The acquisition also provides opportunities for contributors to make better profit margins through new income-generating opportunities.


AOL/Bebo

AOL has unloaded Bebo in a sale to Criterion Capital Partners, to save the struggling social media platform from being shut down.  AOL, focusing more on content, has been unable to grow their $850 million investment from 2008.  Criterion Capital Partners, a merchant banking and financial advisory firm based in San Francisco, specializes in rebuilding companies and sees opportunity in the user base and technical infrastructure that Bebo possesses.  Nevertheless, while it was popular with younger generations in Europe, growth has faded and Bebo has become a black sheep in AOL’s new content-focused strategy.  It will be interesting to see if Bebo can rebound under Criterion’s guidance to close some of the gap on the industry frontrunners.