MSN found the Costa Rica plant 4 days later (96 hours)

http://search.msn.com

Yahoo! is still looking.

I’ve created a page on this blog called - race you there - same concept as my Costa Rica race.

The difference is the string is not on the home page. So I do expect it to take longer for each of the engines to find it.

This will be interesting. I still predict Google in 1st place.

I watched The Island last night.? In the film the duo had to use an information booth.? The booth was powered by MSN Search!

Gee, MSN, are you the future?

I find this interesting because Microsoft is still trying to buy market share.? Would they do better if they had spent those dollars on product development?? This is the striking difference between Google and MSN.? Google earns it.? MSN buys it.

BTW ?�� MSN is still searching for my plant. So is Yahoo!

I noticed Google returning my obsucre KW phrase in 48 hours and 31 mins after I posted it.

Wow!

Think about it. I run an obsurce blog that has no PR… how did Google pull that off?

It will be interesting to see how long it takes MSN and Yahoo! to catch it.

In this mornings post I planted costa rica 849-674-2415 to see how long it would take Google to find it.

Why not let Yahoo! and MSN play along too?

Here’s the links:

Google
Yahoo!
MSN

This is going to be a race. Lets see who gets to it first. I’ll check frequently and will post updates.

As I fell asleep last night I started to dream what the perfect search might be like. I also envisioned sitting in front of Sergey, Larry, and Eric with my laptop which contained the perfect search tool.

My dream went like this.

In my presentation I told the trio that I had the perfect search ability in my laptop. My search was in fact a search personality that was equivalent to a PHD with substantial experience in any field I happened to be searching about. My ?�?searcher?�� could also answer my question in 0.001 seconds. The answer he would give me would be equivalent as if I had hired a real life researcher with a PHD in that field to spend any amount of time to get that answer for me. The answer might be the work of 10 years worth of research. Yet, my ?�?searcher?�� on my laptop could churn out the same answer within 0.001 seconds.

My searcher could also understand natural language. And customize the results to my query. For example I might ask a question like this:

Query: ?�?Show me all flights inbound for LAX?��
Results: Opens a digital globe of the earth with plane icons scatter around showing me the real time position.

Reality ?�� this is possible with Google Earth and a layer.

Query: ?�?What is the size of my lot??��
Result: Your lot measures 120 meters on the north side, 115 meters on the west side, 80 meters on the east side, and 90 meters on the south side. The lot is .5 acres in size. Would you like to know more about your lot?

The above example assumes a lot of things. One ?�� when you say lot, the searcher has to know you are talking about the lot your house sits on. Two ?�� it has to have access to dimensional information. Three ?�� it has to be able to draw conclusions from things that are not already given.

Lets try another:
Query: ?�?When do my parents go on their trip??��
Result: They leave tomorrow from LAX at 10:45 AM on American Airlines flight #141 scheduled to arrive in Liberia, Costa Rica at 5:55 PM local time. They have seat assignments 14 F and 14 E. Do you want to know more about their holiday?

Um, is that too much information? My parents would want me to know these things regardless. Every trip they go on I get a complete itinerary of what where and who. So, it is clearly OK for me to know this. Would they be OK if I could get that information from a few key strokes?

In a sense, if my parents maintained a travel blog, I probably could get all of that information today if they posted it on their blog and Google knew how to get that information for me. If that information was available though, currently I would have to ask my question in a very different way. I might know they are going to Costa Rica but little else. So I could search my mom?��s phone number, because that is on the blog, and Costa Rica. I know from experience if Google has crawled the page Google should return it as the first result.

As an experiment. Lets put a made up cell phone number here. Then we will search Google daily until this blog is returned for ?�?Costa Rica?�� plus the cell phone number. Ok ?�� the cell is 849-674-2415. I just Googled that and there are no results for 849-674-2415.? This is the search term: [costa rica 849-674-2415] currently no results.
To sum it up. A perfect search would be made up several things, but to me the most key are:
1) Understand my questions as I intended it to be understood
2) Be able to find any and all information
3) Be able to draw conclusions based on the information available.

Does all of this seem far fetched? Maybe today. But Google is seeking engineers interested in AI.

I want to make a distinction about white, black and grey hats and a scammer.

Many people in the SEO industries will try to game the SEs.? Typically they might not play by the rules of the search engine.? These SEO/SEMs are know as black hats.

On the other end of the spectrum we have white hat SEO/SEMs.? These are individuals that play by the rules.

In the middle we have grey hat SEO/SEMs.? They are the people that play both sides.

Then we have scammers.? These are people that can be white, grey or black, it does not matter.? What makes them a scammer is they take advantage of their clients and lie to them.? Any color of hat can take advantage of the client and I don’t think anyone is more prone to it then others.? You see, the scammers are trading on an information advantage over their client and will do their best to keep the client in the dark.

The example that best illustrates what I am talking about is selling PPC results as organic results.? The scammer will contact the client and offer them #1 on Google, MSN and Yahoo!.? Once the scammer has the contract they will simply sign the client up for PPC (Google AdWords & Yahoo Search Marketing.) A very white hat thing to do. But the client is not told the truth about the PPC - a very scammer thing to do.

But thanks to Tim Kennedy it is easier now.? He provides a text file which can be imported into excel.? Thanks Tim!

As any reputable SEO/SEM knows there are few guarantees in this business. The SEO/SEMs are dealing with third parties who do not offer us guarantees. An SEO/SEM can take the risk of no results, but they certainly cannot guarantee worth while rankings to appear.

I have a distinct distaste for the scammers of the 21st century. I like to expose them and bust them every chance I get. Since that is one of the things I and Skygle are passionate about, I will expose them every chance I get.

Here are the top warnings signs:

1. Offer to build doorway pages. A doorway page is simply a page stuffed with KWs that?��s only purpose is to rank in the SERPs and in turn drive traffic back to the main page of the site. Typically a doorway page is void of any substance. A doorway page is still a doorway page by any other name. Some SEOs have taken to renaming doorway pages to terms such as ?�?traffic pages?�� or ?�?robot generated pages.?��
2. Guarantee results. It is fine for the SEM/SEO to take the risk of not getting results and offering a money back guarantee. In fact, that is their endorsement for their belief in their system and abilities. If the guarantee is to be in the top 10 of Google, Yahoo! or MSN inside of a week and it is NOT PPC, then this is a big red flag. And you should not give this firm any more of your precious time.
3. We?��ve got a secret. In the world of SEO/SEM there are really no secrets. We all do things a little differently, but as for a secret that will deliver amazing results, trust me, it does not exist.
4. We?��ve got a special relationship with the engines. This can be the truth stretched and twisted into something else it is not. SEM/SEOs do not have special relationships with the SEs. Most of us that have attended a conference have meet the top brass at Google, MSN and Yahoo! But we certainly don?��t have a special relationship that would give our client sites an edge up on the competition.

Here?��s a screen shot of a spam e-mail I received yesterday. It is from http://www.jetranking.com/ - amazing how a site that performs amazing feats for its clients can do so poorly for itself. Check out the info on it at Google. info:www.jetranking.com

A client of mine received a spam e-mail from Verica.? The quote below was taken from this page http://rankedinthetopfive.com/VIP/

Our turnkey VIP package with full-strength coverage. We’ll help you to obtain top positions - often ranked in the top three. Approved listings appear within just a few days and some are listed right away. 6 months VIP package, technical support and advise. 100,000 verifiable REAL visitors, analysis & statictics.

• Keywords Analysis
• Submission Reports
• Hand Submission
• Website Optimization
• Doorway Pages
• 100,000 REAL visitors

Um, not quite sure a reputable SEOF would be offering doorway pages or promising 100,000 real visitors.

Lets tackle the 100,000 visitors first. If a client of mine should ask me how much traffic will they get after using my companies services I usually say ?�?the right amount for your site.?��? You see, some sites can only every tap into 50 visitors a day.? Other sites need several thousand a day or several million a day.? It should be a big warning sign to clients that they are offering 100,000 visitors.

Doorway pages are clearly against the quality guidelines of the SEs. This is a bad thing to do and if caught, can land your page/site permanently banned.

The other interesting thing about Verica is they?��ve got no PR.? Which indicated one of two things.

1. Their site is brand new
2. They?��ve been penalized.

I?��m betting on #2.

http://www.rankedinthetopfive.com/