Teoma 2.0 Officially Unveiled

[robertclough]

Source: Company Press Release

Snippets:

Teoma 2.0 launches with improved relevance, new search tools and advanced functionalities.

Since January 2002, Teoma’s reach has grown 175 percent to become the third-most widely used search technology in North America, behind Google and Inktomi, to more than 25 percent of the Web (Nielsen//NetRatings).

In Q4 2002, after upgrading to Teoma 2.0, the number of times a user picked a search result on Ask Jeeves increased 22 percent, while site abandonment decreased by 28 percent.

Teoma’s proprietary Spell Check technology identifies query misspellings and offers corrections that help improve the relevance and precision of search results.

Dynamic Descriptions enhance search results and the visual relevance of a page by showing the context of search terms as they actually appear on the referenced Web pages.

Teoma’s Advanced Search tools allow searchers to refine a query using specific criteria such as exact phrase, page location, geographic region, domain and site, date, search within results, and word filter. Users can also search using 10 western languages

Over the past year, Teoma has grown its index more than 500 percent. With the release of Teoma 2.0, Teoma has crawled more than one billion Web pages and indexed more than 500 million URLs.

Index growth will be a primary focus for Teoma moving forward, including a major increase in size planned for spring and summer of 2003.

[ihelpyou]

I'm not seeing any free indexing. Do they plan on just indexing if you pay them? Could be a reason they only have 500M in the index.

[WebSavvy]

They just emailed the the press release Robert. Thought someone may like to read it. :)




Teoma 2.0 Launches with Improved Relevance, New Search Tools
and Advanced Functionalities

Teoma's Reach Grew to 25 Percent of the Web in 2002; Now
Third-Most Disseminated Search Technology in North America

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Jan. 21, 2003 -- Teoma's search technology, which has grown to a 25 percent unduplicated reach of North American Web users in less than two years (Nielsen//NetRatings), today unveiled Teoma 2.0, the next generation of its Web-wide search engine. Teoma adds authority to search results through its breakthrough approach, known as Subject-Specific Popularity(SM). Building on this community-based technology, Teoma 2.0 advancements include significantly improved relevance, powerful new search tools and advanced search functionalities. Teoma is owned and operated by Ask Jeeves®, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASKJ).

"Teoma's revolutionary approach to organizing and analyzing the Web is built on a completely different premise than any other search engine on the market," said Paul Gardi, general manager of Teoma. "The statistical improvements we're seeing in relevance as we grow, proven by blind taste-tests on partner sites, are an exciting hint at what the future holds for this sophisticated technology."

Since January 2002, Teoma's unduplicated reach has grown by 175 percent, from nine percent to 25 percent, making it the third-most widely used search technology in North America, behind Google and Inktomi. Teoma syndicates its search technology to some of the Internet's most popular Web properties, including Ask Jeeves (Ask.com® and Ask.co.uk), Excite, InfoSpace and HotBot.

"Our rapid growth is a credit to the power and potential of the core technology, which is just beginning to be unleashed," added Gardi. "Teoma's community-based approach provides us with the keys to unlocking relevance at a deeper level than any other technology. This will be a core focus for us in 2003." Teoma 2.0 advancements include:


-- Improved Relevance

Improvements in Teoma's relevance are most dramatically illustrated by increases in user statistics on popular search site Ask Jeeves (Ask.com). Since integrating Teoma's search results into Ask Jeeves one year ago, the number of times a user picks a search result has increased by 42 percent. Additionally, site abandonment has decreased by 48 percent on Ask Jeeves over the same time period. In Q4 2002 alone, after upgrading to Teoma 2.0, user pick-rate on Ask Jeeves increased by 22 percent, while site abandonment decreased by 28 percent. Further support for Teoma's improved elevance comes from a recent test performed by respected industry publication Search Engine Watch; Teoma's relevance grade was raised to an "A"
following the integration of Teoma 2.0. Google, Yahoo and MSN were the only other engines to receive this score.

-- Better Communities

Like real-life social networks, the Web is organized into clusters
of local communities. Communities are groups of Web pages that are about or related to the same subject. Teoma is the only search technology that can view these communities as they naturally occur on the Web (displayed under the heading "Refine" on Teoma.com). This unique method allows Teoma to generate more finely tuned search results, exposing dimensions of the Web that have previously gone unseen by other engines. In other words, Teoma's community-based approach reveals a 3-D image of the Web, providing it with more information about a particular Web page than other engines, which only have a one-dimensional view of the Web. This wealth of information allows Teoma to add a new level of relevance to search results, known as authority. Authority represents a level of expertise or knowledge to a Web page as validated by the other Web pages about the same subject.

-- Web-Based Spell Check

Teoma's proprietary Spell Check technology identifies query
misspellings and offers corrections that help improve the relevance and precision of search results. The Spell Check technology, developed by Teoma's team of scientists, leverages the real-time content of the Web to determine the correct spelling of a word. Teoma's Spell Check technology is available on Teoma.com and Ask Jeeves (Ask.com and Ask.co.uk).

-- Dynamic Descriptions

Dynamic Descriptions(SM) enhance search results and the visual
relevance of a page by showing the context of search terms as they actually appear on the referenced Web pages. This feature provides searchers with valuable information that helps them quickly determine the relevance of a Web page in association with their query.

-- Advanced Search Tools

Teoma's Advanced Search Tools allow searchers to refine a query using specific criteria such as by exact phrase, page location, geographic region, domain and site, date, search within results and word filter. Users can also search using ten Western languages, including Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. A link to Teoma's Advanced Search Tools can be found next to the search box on Teoma.com. Additional Advanced Search tools will be released over the course of 2003.

-- Expanded Index

Over the past year, Teoma has grown its index by more than 500 per-cent. With the release of Teoma 2.0, Teoma has crawled more than one billion Web pages and indexed more than 500 million URLs. Teoma takes a deliberate approach to developing its index in order to minimize spam and duplicates within its database. Despite having a smaller index than other search engines, Teoma can already claim industry-leading relevance, as indicated by the partner statistics above. Teoma will continue to grow its index, including major size increases planned for spring and summer of 2003.

"Teoma 2.0 represents the next evolution of the Teoma technology, but it in no way signifies the end of our development period," said Apostolos Gerasoulis, Ph.D., founder of Teoma and vice president of research and development for Ask Jeeves. "I am extremely proud of the improvements in both relevance and scalability we are seeing from Teoma. It is particularly impressive because we are only just now starting to realize the full potential of our algorithms and approach. Over the next few months, our relevance will only improve as we leverage the true power of this technology."

About Ask Jeeves Web Properties

Through advanced technologies, Ask Jeeves Web Properties provide consumers with authoritative and fast ways to find relevant answers to their everyday searches. Ask Jeeves delivers its search technologies and services through its own Web sites at Ask Jeeves (Ask.com) and Teoma (Teoma.com). The Ask Jeeves Keyword Network(SM), the Company's advertising services network, provides advertisers with innovative, targeted and effective tools for reaching a broad base of highly valuable customers. Ask Jeeves Web Properties also syndicates its
technologies to portals, infomediaries, and content and destination sites to help companies increase e-commerce and advertising revenue through powerful search.

About Ask Jeeves, Inc.

Ask Jeeves is a leading provider of intuitive, intelligent question
answering technologies and services. Ask Jeeves' solutions enable companies to convert online shoppers to buyers, reduce support costs, understand customer preferences and improve customer retention. Ask Jeeves also syndicates its solutions to portals, infomediaries, and content and destination sites to help companies increase e-commerce and advertising revenue. Ask Jeeves Web Properties deploys its solutions on Ask Jeeves (Ask.com) and Teoma(SM) (Teoma.com) to provide consumers
with real-time access to information, products and services, and to
help companies target and acquire qualified prospects. For more
information, visit www.Ask.com, www.Teoma.com or
www.JeevesSolutions.com, or call 510-985-7400.

NOTE: Ask Jeeves and Ask.com are registered trademarks of Ask Jeeves, Inc. Ask Jeeves Keyword Network, Subject-Specific Popularity, Dynamic Descriptions, and Teoma are service marks and trademarks of Ask Jeeves, Inc. Other marks may be the property of their respective owners.


-0-
Contacts:
Ask Jeeves, Inc.
Alexa Rudin
+1-212-807-9741 ext. 129
alexa@askjeeves.com

Dotted Line Communications
Darcy Mullin
+1-310-821-3246
darcy@dottedlinecomm.com

[Matt B]

Interesting. I have seen more AJ results in my SE referrers than usual. It seems to depend on the type of business and industry that my client is in.
Overall, however, I have certainly noticed more action from AJ. They were not even on the referral chart a few months ago, but they seem to be around the fourth to fifth highest referrer.

[foghorn]

Teoma will never be of major importance as long as the only listings they have are those that have paid to get in.

Lots and lots of good sites with tons of information are missing in Teoma. Noncommercial sites aren't going to pay to get into Teoma or any other search engine. So, they're not in Teoma. You have to go to Google to find them. And that's why people use Google, and not Teoma.

[sytemaker]

Originally posted by foghorn
Teoma will never be of major importance as long as the only listings they have are those that have paid to get in.

Lots and lots of good sites with tons of information are missing in Teoma. Noncommercial sites aren't going to pay to get into Teoma or any other search engine. So, they're not in Teoma. You have to go to Google to find them. And that's why people use Google, and not Teoma.

There are plenty of sites that don't pay in their index. Like most search engines that only do paid submissions. There aren't enough sites paying to make it a worthwhile search engine otherwise. I don't believe they have 500 million paying customers.

[Dan0]

You don't have to pay them, if you promote your site effectively. Teoma crawls the web just like everyone else. If there are enough links to your site, it will be found, crawled, and included.

I only have one site that isn't listed in Teoma, and that's my article archive, because I am not really promoting it on the web. No links, no listing. They might find it by accident, but if I want to get it indexed, I know how to do that.

Lots and lots of sites, period, are not in Teoma, because they haven't crawled nearly as much of the web as Inktomi and Google. They're also very slow in updating. It's not because they're evil, it's because indexing the entire contents of the world wide web is very hard to do.

If their algorithm requires your site to have incoming links before it can be ranked, there's really no point in crawling it if they don't have any links. If they crawl every link they find, there's really no point in having a free submission form.

Originally posted by foghorn
Teoma will never be of major importance as long as the only listings they have are those that have paid to get in.

Lots and lots of good sites with tons of information are missing in Teoma. Noncommercial sites aren't going to pay to get into Teoma or any other search engine. So, they're not in Teoma. You have to go to Google to find them. And that's why people use Google, and not Teoma.

[Kal]

I saw this yesterday and was very impressed! They have really improved the relevancy of their results. So much so that SEW gave them an "A" in the Perfect Page test.

Their Subject Specific Popularity algorithm is extremely interesting. Version 2.0 overall is a very impressive upgrade Well done Teoma! :thumb:. I did a short piece on the upgrade features in my blog (http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/TeomaLaunchesVersion2.htm) today if anyone's interested.

If they keep this up, I think they will be a strong competitor for FAST and Google.

[Dan0]

Let's see, "search engine optimization" is a good test search... here are at least 6 signs that Teoma has become the best search on the planet.

1. Jill has 2 of the top 10 sites. She only has 1 of the top 10 on Google. Both sites definitely belong in the top ten.*
2. The "suggested refinements" actually have something to do with this subject. Altavista does this really well, but their search results are useless. Google has good results, but they don't suggest refinements at all, unless you type "Britney Speers" or something like that.
3. Doug's old website isn't listed in the top 10. Technically, it's fallen to #11 on Google but it took them too long. Teoma's superior algorithm instantly recognizes it as a spammy doorway page linking to more doorway pages with 2 year old information.
4. Bruce Clay isn't listed in the top 10. Not that his site is irrelevant, but I'm still mad at him. Teoma's "PoeticJusticeRank" formula has clearly worked properly in this case.
5. The tired old article from Webmonkey isn't #1, like it is on Google. That is far from the best resource on the subject. Plus it says right in the article, "don't buy the snake oil," which is clearly wrong. Everyone should buy snake oil today!
6. Teoma has no (none, zero) submission firms listed in the top 10, and only one (paid inclusion from PositionTech) in the top 30 results. Google has two in the top ten. When I ask about optimization, I don't want a sales pitch for submission.


*Actually, Jill's newsletter should appear in the top ten results for all searches just in case someone accidentally mis-spells her name by typing "industrial widgets" (the correct spelling is J-I-L-L). Maybe they'll fix that in version 2.1.

[ihelpyou]

What are you talking about "old" site? That's the only site I have right now and it does great! :)

Question? How many of those top ten on Teoma "has" paid them? That's the question I have.

Same question goes for "Fast" search. What kind of boost does a page get if it "pays" for inclusion? Same question. I have strong doubts that ALL pages that are in the index are getting the same considerations whether paid for or not. Same question goes for Inktomi and AltaVista as well.

This PFI stuff is for the birds. They need to "designate" the paid and the free, otherwise, sooner or later the FTC will come down on them.

[Dan0]

How many of those top ten on Teoma "has" paid them?
Since Jill represents 20% of the top 10 (and 15% of the top 20), maybe she can help us out. Jill, did you pay Teoma or did you just let them find you? I'll bet you a nickel that JK didn't pay to get Spider Food listed, either.

I don't think Teoma's results are full of pay-to-play sites, unlike a "certain search engine" whose name I won't mention but it rhymes with Maltavista.
What are you talking about "old" site?
According to your old site, "The Google search engine has been getting lots of extra press lately. Google signed a contract with Yahoo to be the secondary search engine of the Yahoo directory based search engine."

Someday, when I grow up, I want to be so good at SEO that I can go two years without updating my site.

[ihelpyou]

LOL. So I have not updated any of those se pages lately. My front page is the one I need ranked anyway.

I guess I should delete that paragraph though. :)

[Kal]

Originally posted by ihelpyou
This PFI stuff is for the birds. They need to "designate" the paid and the free, otherwise, sooner or later the FTC will come down on them. What what WHAT? You really think PFI sites need to be denoted as such? I completely disagree. You're not paying for a higher ranking or an advert or a banner or a side box, you are only paying for a speedier review and regular indexing. Yahoo don't have to denote their Directory listings as ads and they accept 10 x the amount of $ each year for site reviews and inclusion.

[Matt B]

Originally posted by Dan0
Someday, when I grow up, I want to be so good at SEO that I can go two years without updating my site.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I think we all aspire to that level of procrastination. :D

[ihelpyou]

Yes I do Kal. That's exactly what I think. :)

They simply do not fully disclose to their visitors that 'this' listing is paid and 'this' listing did not pay. It's a very slippery slope.



LOL Yeah. It kind of makes other's points about a SEO not working on their own sites. The way I see it though, why change if it works?

[Dan0]

Frankly, I think disclosing that would make sense anyway. A lot of the top results are going to be PFI anyway, and they don't have to give them any special treatment, as long as they can get Doug to tell everyone that they do.

A widespread belief among SEOs that PFI can influence rankings is all it will take to drive their PFI revenues up.

[foghorn]

I understand that that not every site in Teoma pays. But merely having links to a site isn't enough to get in, at least not what I would consider a reasonable amount of links and a reasonable amount of time.

I have one site with 28 incoming links. It has been listed #1 in Google for various keyword phrases for 10 months, as well as high ranking in FAST, Alta Vista, DMOZ, and MSN. So, I guess the best you could say is that Teoma is very inefficient. I never submit anything to Google, and yet it finds links and spiders my new sites in one or two months - always.

[Dan0]

Yup, Teoma is slow. I wouldn't say 28 links was a whole lot.

The thing is, a free submit page isn't going to speed them up. Their algorithm requires incoming links in order to rank your page, just like Google's does.

Google has a couple more years experience crawling and indexing, and a couple hundred more R&D people working on how to do that quickly.