• by Masha Geller , August 21, 2003

While the East Coast was stuck in the dark last weekend, California-based Overture was in the process of launching one of the most significant system upgrades in company history, which set off a flurry of activity in the search marketing arena.

The company introduced two new matching options: Phrase Match and Broad Match, which do not require web users' search requests to exactly match advertiser's purchased keywords.

With Phrase Match, Overture's director of product development John Slade explained, an advertiser's ad will appear if a consumer query contains any part of the advertiser's keyphrase - for example, an advertiser who owns "Hawaii vacation" will be matched to "family Hawaii vacations." With Broad match, Slade says, the process goes a step further, only needing a keyword to appear somewhere in the query -- the "Hawaii vacation" advertiser's listing would come up in searches for "Hawaii beach vacations."

Additionally, Overture now offers advertisers the option of excluding certain words, has enhanced the interface to allow advertisers to track conversions, and if that wasn't enough, the company yesterday launched what is quite possibly the world's largest search index of approximately 3.2 billion documents. The index was developed by the former Web search unit of Fast Search and Transfer (FAST), which Overture acquired in April.

In addition to increasing the size of the index by over 1 billion documents, the launch features several significant relevance enhancements that will improve the ranking of URLs.

"Increasing the index size while also working to improve relevance offers consumers and Overture's syndicated partners the best of both worlds," said Greg Notess, a search engine expert and editor of SearchEngineShowdown.com. "The enlarged index helps users find even more of what is available on the Web and demonstrates Overture's commitment to continuing to improve their Web search products."

Overture's index is entering a crowded field.

Nielsen//NetRatings also announced yesterday that it has enhanced its search engine reporting to better reflect the web user's experience. The Nielsen//NetRatings NetView syndicated audience measurement service is refined and improved by reassigning pages that are delivered by default when a user enters a non-existent URL, otherwise known as a Domain AutoSearch error page.

The AutoSearch feature in Microsoft Internet Explorer helps users find the content they are seeking more quickly by integrating the search process directly into the browser address bar. When a non-existent URL is entered, users receive a Domain AutoSearch error page served by their preferred search engine. This automatic error page states that the URL does not exist and is typically the result of a mistyped URL. It is not a user-requested search and it does not provide a search of web-based content. Reassigning these pages out of the NetView search category creates a more accurate understanding of user-directed search activity, better reflecting actual online user behavior and the total volume of search engine use.

"Responding to our clients' needs, we recognized the importance of advancing the industry's understanding of search engine use," said Sean Kaldor, vice president of corporate marketing and business development, NetRatings.

And Nielsen//NetRatings isn't alone. Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service, also announced earlier this week that its new Search Terms tool for the U.S. market, which is based on the Internet usage of more than 10 million U.S. Internet users, is now available. The Hitwise Search Terms tool reports on which keywords surfers use across 50,000 websites, and 160 industries.

Unlike other services that offer this information for a single search engine, or results based on a small sample of Internet users, Hitwise provides search term data across the top 70 global search engines based on the behavior of 25 million global internet users.

"As more and more marketers use website search engine optimization and paid keyword campaigns to create brand awareness and generate sales, having detailed information on how customers use search engines is critical," said Chris Maher, General Manager of Hitwise, North America.