The Year in Search 2006

The first thing that you will do when you read this list is say “This list isn’t just about search!” And you will be right. 2006 was a year that saw the definition of search expand. Search to me has become an all-encompassing word. Search is information. Search is media. Search is social interaction. Search is life.

MySpace, YouTube and Wikipedia made their way into the conversations of housewives in Indiana and CEOs on Wall Street. Google’s mantra of “Do No Evil” was questioned over and over. Microsoft and Ask begged to be noticed. Yahoo! just begged for the year to end and 2007 to arrive.

Successful marketers adapted to the ever-changing landscape and saw search as more than algorithms. They embraced social networks and looked to capitalize on their surging popularity. SEO’s cousin SMO was born.

2006 was an event-filled year to say the least..

101. Google offers domain registrations (12/14)

100. Ms. Dewey puts the sexy back in search

99. A proliferation of new, free tools led by SEO for Firefox, SEOmoz’s Page Strength Tool and Performancing for Bloggers

98. Google opens larger New York City office (10/3)Stephen Colbert vs. Wikipedia

97. Stephen Colbert vs. Wikipedia (8/2)

96. Tom Brady vs. Yahoo! (12/7)

95. Google vs. Belgium Newspapers

94. Google Pack released (1/6) but Trillian is dumped (5/19)

93. Secret to getting billions of pages indexed in Google revealed (6/17)

92. Google Reader users can share their feeds (3/24)

91. Google Base Accepts Payments (2/27), and eBay Express follows

90. Google shows off new toys: Google Page Creator and Google Notebook
Dell Google Homepage
89. CarPhone Warehouse purchases AOL UK (10/11)

88. Google and Dell create personalized homepage (1/7)

87. Amazon launches their own CPC program ClickRiver Ads (11/5)

86. Yahoo & IBM team up on corporate search (12/13)

85. Adam Lasnik is hired by Google as Search Evangelist (5/12) which was predicted over a year ago

84. Yahoo! and Ask embark on huge traditional ad campaigns but still remain at 2 & 4 respectively in searchers

83. RH Donnelley buys Local Launch (9/7), MediaWhiz acquires Text Link Ads (11/7)

82. Lycos Teams with Ask for Ads (11/1)

81. DMOZ editor corruption exposed (publicly) (8/18)

80. Google Buys dMarc Radio Advertising (1/17), then launches Partnership Initiative with Newspapers (11/6) and Radio (11/7)

79. Yahoo partners with newspapers to offer job marketing content (11/20)

78. UTube sues YouTube (11/1) and then begins selling ringtone, poker and sex ads (12/13)

77. SEO is put down by Jason Calacanis, Ted Leonsis and Bill Pasternak/Kevin Lee - leading to some interesting contests and fact-based retorts about the Half-Truths of Talking Frogs

76. Web reaches 100,000,000 site milestone (11/1)

75. Start-ups score big names: Robert Scoble Leaves Microsoft for PodTech (6/10) and Tim Converse leaves Yahoo for Powerset (12/18)

74. Orkut’s Brazilian Popularity Soars (4/10)

Udi Manber 73. The revolving door at SearchEngineWatch - Gary Price leaves SearchEngineWatch for Ask (2/9) and Barry Schwartz takes his place (2/9) but then leaves with Danny to Search Engine Land (11/20)

72. Corporate search engine personnel moves - Steve Berkowitz leaves Ask for MSN (4/22), Udi Manber Leaves Amazon for Google (2/8) and the Microsoft “Brain Drain” has Managers Leaving to Google (7/1)

71. Corporate moves in the SEO world - Todd Malicoat leaves WeBuildPages (3/30), Andy Beal leaves Fortune Interactive (8/4), Mike Grehan leaves MarketSmart (8/3) followed by Garrett French (10/30) and Jake Baillie Leaves TrueLocal (12/22)

70. Florida spammer is fined $11 billion dollars

69. Google launches Book Search (8/30)

68. Google acquires Writely (3/6) and then JotSpot (10/31)

67. Microsoft launches Live Spaces social network (8/3)

66. Yahoo! launches new Video site (5/31)

65. Microsoft announces plans for July 2008 transitioning out of Bill Gates (6/15)

64. Google Sitemaps becomes Webmaster Central (8/8)

63. Conde Nast acquires Reddit

62. Wal-Mart (10/9) and Sony (12/12) learn that the blogosphere is very transparent

61. Google acquires Measure Map blog analytics software (2/15)
techmeme
60. Microsoft acquires web analytics firm DeepMetrix (5/3)

59. Google opens Online Video Store (1/7)

58. Tracking Memes - led by Techmeme, Tailrank & Megite

57. Though Shall Not Google - Google is declared a verb (7/6) but Google doesn’t like it (12/26)

56. Yahoo acquires Bix.com (11/16)

55. Google announces Google Checkout (6/29), competes with eBay-owned Paypal (7/6)

54. Yahoo settles click fraud suit (6/28)

53. Google launches Docs & Spreadsheets (10/10)

52. Sponsored blog posting services ReviewMe, PayPerPost & Blogvertise make a splash and lead to the FTC ‘encouraging’ disclosures from bloggers (12/20)

51. Google agrees to censor results in China (1/24)

50. Microsoft Small Business Directory stops accepting new submissions (11/15)

49. Australia suggests that permission be granted to index web pages (11/2)

48. Google Bombing as a political tactic (7/19)

47. Foreign search engines threaten Google’s international presence: Baidu in China and Japan (12/4), Quaero in France and Theseus in Germany (12/21)

Google Trends 46. Wikipedia founder announces plans to launch search engine (12/23)

45. Google launches Google Trends (5/10)

44. Google News Comes out of Beta (1/23)

43. Netscape launches Digg-like site (6/14), Jason Calacanis lures users with money (7/18) but leaves Netscape shortly thereafter (11/17) for a position at Sequoia Capital (12/5)

42. Yahoo and eBay join to fight the Google and Microsoft giants (5/26)

41. Yahoo launches Search Builder (8/7)

40. Google CSE (Custom Search Engine) announced (10/23)

39. Google begins notifying webmasters of penalties (4/26)

38. Socially-governed video search sites launched: StumbleVideo (12/13), Digg (12/18), Megite (12/26), and Tailrank (12/26)

37. Microsoft launches Internet Explorer 7 (10/18) and Mozilla launches Firefox 2 (10/24)

36. Yahoo focuses on integrating social components in brand websites (12/1)

35. Time Magazine names YOU ‘Person of the Year‘

Christine Dolce 34. AskCity Launches (12/4)

33. The rise of Internet Celebrities: LonelyGirl15, Christine Dolce, and Ze Frank proving that sometimes you don’t have to even be real to be famous online

32. Microsoft signs ad deal with Facebook (8/23) but perhaps the bigger story is the non-acquisition of Facebook by Yahoo! (9/21)

31. The Arbitrage Debate Rages

30. KinderStart sues Google over PageRank and traffic (3/18) but the lawsuit is dismissed (7/13)

29. Google will not give in to the DOJ’s search request out of privacy concerns (2/18) but the DOJ says it is not a privacy issue (2/27). Google is forced to give up data (3/14), but not all of it (3/17)AOL Searcher

28. AOL leaks user search data (8/7) leading us to AOL Searcher No. 4417749 (8/9)

27. 90% of all email now spam

26. Microsoft launches adCenter and drops Yahoo! Search Marketing ads (5/4)

25. Social networks are the most searched for terms of the year on Google, followed by wikis and video, together totaling 60% of the Top 10 (12/18)

24. MySpace auctions off search business (6/14) and Google wins the auction - resulting in a 3-year $1-billion dollar deal (8/7)

23. Widgets take off - led by YouTube and MyBlogLog

22. AOL goes free (8/2) and begins to focus on SEO (11/3)

21. Google shuts down Answers (11/28) while Yahoo! integrates their own Answers into the SERPs (a rare up moment in Yahoo’s year)

20. Yahoo announces Panama Search Advertising System (4/6), which is delayed and results in profit dips for Yahoo but it then launches in October (10/19)

19. Google tops $500 a share (11/21)

18. Local search continues to gain momentum (9/28)

17. Click fraud findings are addressed (7/21) and online giants join the fight (8/4) but does click fraud threaten the foundation of online ads? (10/21)

16. Google says click fraud worries are overblown (8/9) despite the $90 million click fraud settlement (7/28) and Google’s claim that their click fraud rate is less than 2% (12/11)

15. Microsoft introduces new search engine (3/8) and then redirects search.msn.com to Live.com (9/14)

14. MySpace traffic tops Yahoo’s in November (12/19)

13. The Butler is Dead - AskJeeves rebrands itself to Ask.com (2/20)

12. Link Baiting and what Paris Hilton can teach us

11. Two Words - Quality Score

10. nofollow concerns (7/7) leads to some high profile sites changing their no-follow policiesThe Peanut Butter Manifesto

9. Digg updates their algorithm (9/8), changes their look (12/18) and bans lots of legit sites in the process (12/21)

8. Google’s ‘minus thirty’ penalty

7. Congress bans Internet gambling (10/2)

6. The Peanut Butter Manifesto (11/18) and Yahoo reorganizing its operations (12/5)

5. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft support Universal Sitemaps Standard (11/16)

4. Google rolls out BigDaddy (1/4)

Danny Sullivan 3. Social Media Optimization and its dark side

2. Danny Sullivan leaves Search Engine Watch (8/29) launches Search Engine Land (12/11) and the Search Marketing Expo conference and Search Marketing Now webcasts (12/5)

And the biggest story of the year? Well I was going to pull a Time Magazine and say that you were the biggest story of the year but I changed my mind in about two seconds flat on that. So unless you are Chad Hurley or Steve Chen - you’ll have to wait until 2007…
Google YouTube

1. Google Buys YouTube for $1.65 Billion (10/9)


A big thanks to Tamar and Patrick for their contributions to this list.

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