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Posted 9/21/2004 12:15 AM     Updated 9/21/2004 3:14 AM
Today's Top Money Stories

Search engines develop personal touches for Web surfers
Call it humanizing the Web.

Internet search firms are developing personalization tools — ways to easily track and store Internet searches — to make online research easier and more productive.

On Tuesday, No. 3 search engine Ask Jeeves introduces the most advanced personalized search features to date. Users can save Web searches and create online directories of favorites for easier tracking.

That comes on the heels of last week's official rollout of A9, the new search engine from e-commerce pioneer Amazon.com, which also offers personalization tools. Search-giant Google is testing personalization "based on your interests" at its Labs.google.com site.

  Search personalization tools

Computer users traditionally have used Web browser "bookmarks" to remember sites they've visited. But with the vast proliferation of Web sites — way too many for bookmarks to handle — "People just search to find what they're looking for," says Danny Sullivan, the editor of Web site SearchEngineWatch.

Personal search tools are the first step toward the larger goal of desktop search — a way to track e-mails, photos, MP3 music files, documents and Web pages both online and on your computer's hard drive.

Ask Jeeves Senior Vice President Jim Lanzone says it will introduce some form of desktop search by the end of the year. Microsoft says it will begin testing desktop search in 2006.

Both Ask Jeeves and A9 recommend that users register when they first use personalization tools, which allows you to keep track of search favorites on any Internet-connected computer.

On Ask Jeeves, users click "save" to keep sites in online folders. Saved searches at A9 can be dragged and dropped to an online bookmark; an online "diary" tab lets users add details about each site. Google asks users to identify their interests to tailor the search engine to specific tastes.

That approach is similar to how Amazon.com offers books and products based on a customer's prior purchases.

For instance, by telling Google of an interest in medicine, jazz and art history, the personalized Google site's results for Chicago are two hospitals and the Jazz Institute of Chicago.

Traditional Google offers the city's Web site, a local newspaper and university.

"This is where search is eventually headed," says Sullivan. "Everything will be personalized to make you feel like you have a more personal relationship with the Web site."

Search marketing — those little text-based ads that pop up next to search results — is booming.

According to figures released Monday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, search advertising grew 97% in the second quarter over the same period last year, with revenue of $947 million.

Search represented 40% of the second quarter's overall $2.3 billion in Internet advertising.

Ask Jeeves is the sixth-most-visited Web site, with 38.8 million visitors in August, according to measurement firm ComScore Media Metrix. It is the third-most-popular search engine, a category dominated by Google and Yahoo.

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