http://ping.fm/HInZL – Latest blog post on Semantic search in Real Estate

http://www.reayel.com/ – The new Real Estate web 3.0 widget; Semantic search meets real estate

Welcome to Donate Search – support a good cause

Welcome to Donate Search – support a good cause

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Ad Blocking – An old problem with a new solution.

By Dylan Rosario
Forward: Today advertising is critical to the internet industry. Search engines, ad networks, and publishers are scrambling to respond, even as the masses are beginning to rebel against their ever present selling of goods and services. Publishers and webmasters alike, look to advertising as a principal source of revenue. The proliferation of ad blocking technology presents a serious problem for a young and thriving industry. This document is the first in a series of white papers that will debate the issues surrounding online ad blocking. This paper will introduce a historical view of the online ad industry, what it means to the web, and what it needs to be addressed now, rather than later.

Expect Notning and be prepared to try again

Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed -  Alexander Pope

So its been a while since I wrote here.  Lots of updates and some really cool and exciting changes in the world of Dylan Rosario.

Starting over

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940)

Search Taxonomies equal Semantic Mecca

“The perfect search engine,” said Google co-founder Larry Page, “would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.” How to define ‘want’ in search? It is intent. Simply, Larry is stating that search engines must be capable of predicting intent. How can intent be best anticipated, and discovered through Search? Is it important to improve search services to address user intent better? Is there more than
“one way” to do so?

Intent:
Broder, a highly respected and knowledgeable IBM engineer in the scientific analysis community[1] states that user intent, in regards to Information Retrieval (IR) and specifically web search, classifies under three taxonomies, informational, transactional, navigational. Informational is defined as the intent to acquire some information assumed to be present on one or more web pages. (e.g. search terms “how do i bake
a cake” or “origin of the species”).

Search or Die

Open letter to the publishers of the world.

Introduction:
I would like to take you, if you are willing to journey with me, on a
‘transcendental’ journey. It may change the way you perceive yourself,
your brand, the Internet, and in the end, hopefully bring enlightenment
and pleasure for you. You may find this journey fundamentally changes your
business philosophies about the net, or you may choose to cling to what
you are familiar with, in how you interact with your web users. So be it.
That is your free will, your choice. But perhaps, you may decide to
reinvigorate your perceptions about what is possible on the net. You may
seize a new opportunity that I am about to explain. This journey may seem
long in words, but it is laid out to provide you a step by step path for
understanding. Let our journey, together, begin.

PATH OF NO RETURN:
the “old school” search box

When a typical web user has visited your site, browsed around, clicked on
a couple things, read a few articles, or purchased some items and finally
was completely done with their experience on your site, what did they do?
If they wanted to try going elsewhere on the net they may have clicked a
hyperlink and departed, clicked out through the bookmark in their browser,
or ’searched’ themselves away from your website through a search engine
box you embedded. Perhaps, you have one of those Google search boxes
integrated into your website that says “search the web” or “search this
site”. Whether or not your site has one, you’re probably very familiar
with these search boxes.

“An alternative to the Google monopoly”

“An alternative to the Google monopoly”

Online ad networks are a dime a dozen. But adUup founder Dylan Rosario — whose Seattle startup just closed a $500,000 seed financing deal — believes he has a new twist on the concept.

The idea is to add a new metasearch engine to the Web sites of small publishers and blogs, creating what Rosario calls “an alternative to the Google monopoly.” Beginning this week, adUup plans to have its new fleeQ search box installed on the Web sites of some of its 300 publishing partners.

A visitor to a Web site that has fleeQ enabled who decided to conduct a search would see results in a separate box that overlays a sponsor’s Web page. For example, a search for “sandals” or “high heels” could produce results from various properties — Amazon.com, Google, Yahoo or eBay. Those search results would “float” over the Web page of a publishing partner in the adUup network. In this case, that could be an online retailer that specialized in selling shoes.

AdUup handles the advertising around the search results, including video ads and a sponsored “skin” that wraps around the results. It also serves up the Web page of the publishing partner, which resides in the background. That technology is patent-pending, according to Rosario.

“The fleeQ product is for publishers to earn traffic and revenue from the searches that they are giving away to the big search engines for free,” says Rosario.

In the end, Rosario believes that he can offer small publishers a larger cut of the ad revenue by agreeing to install the search tool and participating in the ad network. He plans to pay out as much as 70 percent of the advertising revenue to larger publishers who sign up, which he believes is much higher than what Google or Yahoo offers. At the same time, Rosario said a publisher could choose to receive traffic rather than a split on the ad revenue.

adUup and fleeQ are certainly big ideas, with Rosario looking to swing for the fences. The company already employs 20 people, with plans to more than triple by early next year. To get there, he is looking to raise $15 million in a first round of funding, some of which would be used for an acquisition.

The 32-year-old entrepreneur says investors and advertisers have been receptive to the concept, noting that much of the ad inventory running through fleeQ has already been pre-sold. He’s also been meeting with the creators of social networking companies to see if they are interested in deploying the ad framework on behalf of their users.

The next phase for adUup is to integrate video ads into the search results, with Rosario saying they offer one of the first technologies to bring 30-second television spots online in a contextual way.

“The great thing is as you mouse over (the ad), you can watch the video and as you mouse away, it goes away. It is totally up to the consumer if they want to watch the video. It is not shoved down their throat,” he says.

Because of its focus on video ads, Rosario says he views Comcast as a bigger potential competitior than Google, even though the search giant has been experimenting with video ads as well.

Rosario has some experience in the online advertising arena, co-founding the pop-under advertising network ExitExchange.com in 1999. That company, which holds a patent on pop-under advertising technology, grew to more than 100,000 affiliate Web sites. He’s also worked as a senior architect at IBM.

Posted by document.writeln(showE2(“johncook”,”seattlepi.com”,”John Cook”))John Cook John Cook at June 26, 2008 2:54 p.m.

Of fairy tales and reality checks

hello

A question in my mind in 2006 was, how do I assist smaller companies in marketing and branding online in the face of the dynamics of the internet? Looking around me I saw problems left and right. It was increasingly difficult (if not impossible) for a smaller company to achieve any level of recognition online, and even more difficult if you don’t have a creative angle, or some edgy message. The fact that most of those smaller companies were likely to be forever adrift in vast seas of online information seemed untenable.

Companies who cannot achieve some level of Internet /famedom/ must compete at a level often tilted unfairly in an opponent’s direction. You might wonder why I say ‘opponent’. It is because; online a company is in competition with every other company website out there. There are always a finite number of individuals (browsers) to go around on the web any given time, any given day and plenty of savvy, deep-pocketed competition for their attention.