Presenting NowRelevant Search Engine

On September 6, I read about a new search engine and blogged about it on RedGage, but not everyone who reads my blog also reads my RedGage posts, so I wanted to spread the word about this search engine to you, too.  By the way, if you would like to join a site that pays you for various types of your content (blogs, photos, videos, documents, and links), please join RedGage through through my link and I will help you on that site, as I do for everyone who signs up through my link.  I've been on RedGage for about six months, and enjoy the community and its talent.  The remainder of this post is almost completely identical to the text I wrote on September 6 for RedGage.

You may think, "We don't need another search engine," and I might agree—I already have ten bookmarked—but what makes this one useful is that it produces only recent content, the freshest material.  The searcher can select how many days should be searched, up to the past 14 days.  To test it, and compare it with other major search engines, I searched for a topic in today's news (on September 6, that is)—jobs bill—and displayed the results.  When listed content didn't show a date, I went to the article itself and included its publication date in brackets.  Hyperlinks and other variations in search text have been ignored, and results are displayed in a smaller italicized font to set them apart from my comments.  Also, only the first few items found by each search engine are presented.

Here are the first of the search results found by NowRelevant.com when a time frame of the past five days is selected:

jobs...
http://www.thehealthystyle.org/health-insurance-reform-from-easytoinsureme-health-insurance...
Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:53:00 GMT Diatribes of Jay: Missing the Point, Again and Again.  The President is about to announce a $50 billion “jobs bill,” which will fund an “infrastructure bank” to invest in our decaying infrastructure and put people back to work....http://jaydiatribe.blogspot.com/2010/09/missing-point-again-and-again.html

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:46:51 GMT
Obama in Jobs Speech Pushes Small Business Measures - Stocks To ...
With Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner at his side, Obama stumped for his proposed small business jobs-creation bill, saying when asked by a reporter that he will offer...
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2010/09/03/obama-in-jobs-speech-pushes-small-bu...

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:17:13 GMT
National Small Business Association President Urges Senate Action ...
“There is a jobs bill sitting in the Senate that they're going to be taking up in a week and a half that will free up a lot of credit for small business.” Obama has accused...
http://senatus.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/national-small-business-association-president-urges...

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:14:02 GMT
Back to the Small Business Bill « The Washington Independent
They have held it up since July, although the bill is one it's easy to imagine a Republican Congress putting together and passing. McConnell said the small-business jobs...
http://washingtonindependent.com/96654/back-to-the-small-business-bill

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:17:00 GMT
Could Wind Energy Bill 2010 Actually Solve Tier 5 Unemployment ...
The democrats passing a "green jobs" bill is a quasi-legal kickback to their political donation contributers (sic). I'm all for individuals taking their own hard earned...
http://business-and-finance-1357.blogspot.com/2010/09/could-wind-energy-bill-2010-actually....

Portions of their results are shown in light gray, as shown.  True to their word, NowRelevant has found very recent content, and nothing older than three days appears at the beginning of their search results.  Perhaps "jobs bill" is such a current topic of discussion and concern that other search engines will yield similarly fresh content.  Let's see. 

I searched "jobs bill" with Google, Google Advanced Search, Bing, and Yahoo!  Here are the first results of each:


Google

1. News for jobs bill
•  [Sept 5, 2010] NSBA president endorses Obama's jobs bill - 1 day ago
They oppose the bill because they say it doesn't do enough to encourage small businesses to create jobs. McCracken also said it is the "wrong time" to allow ...
CNN Political Ticker (blog) - 53 related articles »
•  Obama Speaks on Monthly Unemployment Numbers - POPDECAY - 658 related articles »
•  Lupica: Americans just want more J-O-B-S - New York Daily News - 5 related articles »

2. President Obama signs $26 billion jobs bill to aid state payrolls
Aug 11, 2010 ... President Obama approved a final spurt of spending Tuesday to shore up the sluggish recovery, signing into law a $26 billion plan to save ...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/.../AR2010081004201.html

3. FOXNews.com - Senate Passes Jobs Bill Offering Tax Breaks for New ...
Feb 24, 2010 ... Republicans and some Democrats were unhappy that Reid brought the jobs bill to the floor after abruptly dumping about $70 billion worth of ...
www.foxnews.com/.../senate-vote-jobs-passage-likely/?... - Cached

4. Obama Urges House to Pass Jobs Bill - US News and World Report
Aug 10, 2010 ... Democrats say the bill will save an estimated 140000 teaching jobs.
politics.usnews.com/.../obama-urges-house-to-pass-jobs-bill.html - Cached

5. House Passes $26 Billion US Jobs Bill | USA | English
[Aug 10, 2010] The US House of Representatives met in an emergency session on Tuesday to pass a $26 billion bill aimed at saving the jobs of more than 300000 teachers, ...
www.voanews.com/.../House-Passes-26-Billion-US-Jobs-Bill-100385794.html - Cached

6. House approves jobs bill: Do states deserve $26 billion more ...
Aug 10, 2010 ... The House of Representatives cut short its August recess to return to Washington and pass a state jobs bill Tuesday. Supporters say the bill ...
www.csmonitor.com/.../House-approves-jobs-bill-Do-states-deserve-26-billion-more-stimulus - Cached


August 11 is the date of the newest item at the beginning of the search results produced by Google--not exactly fresh content.  However, Google does offer options within Advanced Search, including how far to look back, so I searched Google for "jobs bill" content from the past week:


Google Advanced Search

Kansas City Star President Obama asks congress to pass small business jobs bill - 3 days ago
[Sept 3, 2010] (NECN/CNN) - President Barack Obama requested congress to pass his small business jobs bill. He says the legislation is being blocked by key republicans. ...
NECN - 1790 related articles »
Obama Calls for Action on Small Business Jobs Bill - U.S. News & World Report - 1167 related articles »
NSBA president endorses Obama's jobs bill - CNN Political Ticker (blog) - 33 related articles »

New Jobs Bill Proposed | FDL News Desk
[Sept 1, 2010] 5 days ago - Until now, the Administration has seemed oddly content with the weakening economic picture and the lack of jobs. They've pushed the small business lending ...
news.firedoglake.com/2010/09/01/new-jobs-bill-proposed/ - Cached

Small Business Jobs Bill: No 'Itty Bitty' Thing | The White House
[Sept 3, 2010] 3 days ago - Small Business Jobs Bill: No 'Itty Bitty' Thing. Posted by SBA Administrator Karen Mills on September 03, 2010 at 10:04 AM EDT ...
www.whitehouse.gov/.../small-business-jobs-bill-no-itty-bitty-thing - Cached

MORE ON OBAMA'S SMALL BUSINESS "JOBS" BILL - Nealz Nuze on boortz.com
[Aug 31, 2010] 6 days ago - This web site, for Neal Boortz, features Neal's Nuze, Libertarian views, Talk Radio, and online radio. It is a Cox Radio site representing The Talkmaster, ...
boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/.../more-on-obamas-small-business.html - Cached

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive ...
[Sept 5, 2010] 1 day ago - Agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts would NOT win their approval of the jobs bill he now wants passed. He made this mistake during the health care reform ...
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/.../nsba-president-endorses-obamas-jobs-bill/

These results were much better, of course, in terms of recent content, although it took another step to set Google Advanced Search parameters.


Bing

Senate easily approves jobs bill; House passes health-insurance ...
Feb 25, 2010 • The Senate easily approved a $15 billion jobs bill Wednesday that would give tax breaks to companies for hiring new employees, one of two legislative victories that ...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022402258.html • Cached page

Jobs Bill Squeaks Through Despite Dem Defections
[Dec 16, 2009] Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) muscled a $154 billion jobs bill through the House on Wednesday evening just before Congress departed for a holiday recess. With the vote in serious ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/house-jobs-bill_n_395107.html • Cached page

Senate jobs bill vote expected Wednesday - CNN.com
[Feb 23, 2010] While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, indicated that a vote on the Senate jobs bill could come at any time, it is now expected to take place Wednesday.
www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/23/reid.jobs.bill/index.html?section=cnn_latest • Cached page

Senator Reid tees up 2010 jobs bill - TheHill.com
[Nov 11, 2009] Senate Democrats will take up a new job-creation bill in the wake of the 10.2 percent unemployment rate.
thehill.com/homenews/senate/67299-reid-tees-up-2010-jobs-bill • Cached page

Jobs Bill
[Undated: page of Frequently Asked Questions] - Is this bill is (sic) full of earmarks and “pork projects?” The bill I sent to the Senate has zero earmarks- not a single one. There are no dollars for pork projects, no special ...
baucus.senate.gov/JOBS.html • Cached page

Senate Approves $15 Billion Jobs Bill - NYTimes.com
Feb 24, 2010 · Though modest in scope, the bill was hailed by Democrats as evidence that the parties could work together.
www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/us/politics/25jobs.html


Among initial results, Bing did not find one for the most recent jobs bill that is being discussed today.  February 25, 2010 is the "newest" entry.  No wonder most of the dates were not prominently displayed!  Bing does offer Advanced Search options. Parameters of search terms, site/domain, country/region, and language can be added, but I've not found anywhere to specify recent content.


Yahoo! Search

Of course, Yahoo! search results are going to be the same as those produced by Bing (because Bing powers Yahoo! Search), except that in the presentation, Yahoo! inserts "News Results" (which presents the only recent content) after the third item:  

Senate easily approves jobs bill; House passes health ...
[Feb 24, 2010] The Senate easily approved a $15 billion jobs bill Wednesday that would give tax breaks to companies for hiring new employees, one of two legislative victories ...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/​article/2010/02/24/... - Cached.

Jobs Bill Squeaks Through Despite Dem Defections
[Dec 16, 2009] Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) muscled a $154 billion jobs bill through the House on Wednesday evening just before Congress departed for a holiday recess. With the ... ( 5977 Comments )
www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/house-jobs-bill_n... - Cached

Senate jobs bill vote expected Wednesday - CNN.com
[Feb 23, 2010] While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, indicated that a vote on the Senate jobs bill could come at any time, it is now expected to take place Wednesday.
www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/23/reid.jobs.bill/index... - Cached

Jobs Bill - News Results
[Sept 3, 2010] Jobs bill may help schools The Times-Journal - Sep 03 10:33pm
[Sept 5, 2010] NSBA president endorses Obama's jobs bill, presses for tax cut extension CNN
Political Ticker - Sep 05 07:57am
[Sept 6, 2010] Gubernatorial Candidate Bill white stops in Tyler Monday KETK 56 Tyler - 2 hours ago

Senator Reid tees up 2010 jobs bill - TheHill.com
[Nov 11, 2009] Senate Democrats will take up a new job-creation bill in the wake of the 10.2 percent unemployment rate.
thehill.com/.../senate/67299-reid-tees-up-2010-jobs-bill - Cached

Jobs Bill
[Undated: page of Frequently Asked Questions] Is this bill is (sic) full of earmarks and “pork projects?” The bill I sent to the Senate has zero earmarks- not a single one. There are no dollars for pork projects, no ...
baucus.senate.gov/JOBS.html - Cached

In sum, I have found NowRelevant to be the quickest way to search for content that hasn't aged. The content it produces is complementary to that of Google Advanced Search.  NowRelevant is the newest member of my search engine tools.

Google AdSense for Search--Upgrading to the New and Improved Search Engine

A recent article in WebProNews reported that Google will be retiring its current version of AdSense for Search in just a few months, and a new, enhanced version is now available. Rather than hang onto the old, I decided to perform the upgrade now. Let’s go through the steps together.

Sign into your Google AdSense account using the old interface. To verify that you have the old version: see on the upper right, after the time of your last log in, “Try the new AdSense interface (beta)” in red type. Instead, if you see “Return to old AdSense interface,” obviously you have the new interface. I couldn’t find the right place to proceed with the new interface, so if you have it, click to return to the old version.

In the old interface, click on the second tab, “AdSense Setup” and go down to the second product and click:

AdSense for Search Improved!
“Offer your users site search or web search while earning revenue from ads relevant to their search terms.”

For Search Type, I chose “Only sites I select” and entered this blog’s URL to the box “Selected sites.” I skipped the “Optional Keywords,” thinking that they’re already listed at the bottom of each post.

“More options” defaults were quickly verified: English language, West European Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, United States for country, and clicked “Automatically create a new channel” so the drop down box says “No channel selected.” Safe search applies to web searches, not searches of this site, but I made sure it was checked anyway because I never want to see or endorse “sites and web pages containing adult themed and explicit sexual content.” Continue.

I selected the search box with the watermark and kept the text box length at 31 characters. Continue.

As I write, I’ve been walking through this process again (this time adding a permitted second custom search box) so I can avoid any errors of recall. Now that we're at the point where there’s a choice for the opening of search results, I think but am not certain I chose “Google in the same window.” I recall reading somewhere that Blogger doesn’t allow search results to be displayed in the site itself. Unfortunately, I cannot check where search results will be displayed by going to the newly installed box, doing a search and seeing what happens because I think this violates the Terms of Service.

For “Ad Location” I chose “top and right” (this particular Blogger template doesn't allow ads or gadgets on the left side) and think I didn’t change the palettes from that which was displayed. Next, continue to “Get Search Code.” Be sure to check the box after reading the additional terms, and enter a name for your new search engine. Mine wasn’t very creative—“Our Own Search Engine”—but the given name doesn’t display.

Next, click “Submit and Get Code.” (This time, for hours I repeatedly got “The page at https://www.google.com/ says: Error while trying to save your AdSense for Search settings. Please try again later.”)* Anyway, the instructions are to copy and paste the personalized code in the page where you want the search engine to display.

Back in Blogger, from the dashboard I went to “Design” and then “Edit HTML” and checked “Expand Widget Templates”—until I realized I had no clue where to find the correct place in the code to paste the search engine code so that it would appear where I wanted it, along the right column of the blog, near the top. So, under “Design” I went to “Page Elements” and clicked an “Add a Gadget” box along the right column. From there, I chose “HTML/Java Script,” pasted the search engine code into the large box, left the “Title” box blank, and saved it.  That works fine, but later I went back and added a title for clarity: "Search this Blog."

Because I didn’t want the search box at the very top of the list, while still in “Page Elements” I moved the new search box by clicking and holding it, moving it underneath the next box in line, and releasing the mouse button when the box was in the new place, second in the column. A blank “Add a Gadget” box cannot be moved out of its position; only after a gadget has been added to the box. Click the orange button “Save,” which is in line with “Add and Arrange Page Elements” and to the right of blue “Preview” and “Clear Edits” buttons.

Go ahead and “Preview” or “View” (which is located up on the dashboard) the blog, and you’ll see the new search box right where you placed it. Here, notice my two new AdSense for Search boxes: "Search this Blog" and "Search the Web."  If only all website changes could be completed this easily!

~~
* Eventually, the code went through and I added it to an HTML/JavaScript gadget. Another roadblock:

 "We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request. When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:
• Describe what you were doing when you got this error.
• Provide the following error code and additional information:  bX-2myth2
Additional information:
blogID: 975288774251564062
host: www.blogger.com
uri: /rearrange

"This information will help us to track down your specific problem and fix it! We apologize for the inconvenience.

"See if anyone else is having the same problem: Search the Blogger Help Group for bX-2myth2.  If you don't get any results for that search, you can start a new topic. Please make sure to mention bX-2myth2 in your message."

I looked through Blogger support and learned that there’s no particular meaning to Blogger error codes--didn't we all suspect this?-- and that clearing the cache might help. To do this in Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > General > Browsing History > Delete and then check "Temporary
Internet files" and "Cookies."

After this, I closed and reopened the browser and repeated the steps for a new web search box.  Success.  However, as you can see, there’s no watermark in the search box, and nothing to show that it’s powered by Google.

Backlinks, Dofollow and Nofollow Links, and Search Engine Optimization

A backlink for website (A) is made when (A)'s URL is posted on another website (B).

A better, more valuable backlink for (A) is made on (B) when the content of website (B) is related to the content of (A), rather than when a backlink for (A) is made on website (C), which has content that is unrelated to (A).


Application:
I posted the link to the website of a friend's new book, Behind the Lines in Greece (which is about a military unit that operated in Greece during World War II) in two places on Facebook: on my wall and on a World War II group page. The link I posted on the WW II group page is much more valuable than the one I posted on my wall--and also more valuable than the one I just made here by making the title of his book a hyperlink, or backlink, to his website.

Thus, in this example, the book's webpage corresponds to (A), the WW II group on Facebook is a (B) because it has content related to (A), and both my Facebook profile page and this blog's page are (C's) because they have contents unrelated to (A).



An even better backlink for (A) is a dofollow link made on website (B), which has content relevant to (A).

The very best backlinks are a series of dofollow backlinks, where each site is relevant to (A), in this example, webpages (B), (D) and (E):
(A) backlinked on (B),
(B) is backlinked on (D), and
(D) is backlinked on (E).


More elaborate links could be made into a web: (A) backlinked to (D), (B) backlinked to (E), etc. Make one-way backlinks: don't backlink pages to each other, i.e. don't backlink (A) to (B) and (B) to (A).




Let's unpack that.

1. Links (or hyperlinks or backlinks) drive traffic to your website. Someone clicks on a link and is taken to your website.

2. Links may look alike, but they are not all the same: they may be dofollow links or nofollow links; although either could be changed into the other by the webmaster, i.e., a dofollow link may be, after a set period of time, changed to a nofollow link.

3. Dofollow backlinks are helpful: they are noticed by search engines. In other words, making backlinks with dofollow links helps your site receive better rankings --nearer to the beginning of the list-- in search engines' results.

4. Nofollow backlinks are neutral: they bring traffic to your page, but they are not noticed by search engines, so they do not help with search engine optimization.



Why is search engine optimization important?

Traffic arrives at your site from three paths, when someone:
1. uses search engines, chooses your site from the list of results and clicks on your site,
2. clicks a hyperlink (dofollow or nofollow) on a website that links to your site (arrives on your site through a backlink), or
3. types your page's URL in the address bar of his browser.

Most traffic comes through search engine results, and the least comes from those who have typed into their browser's address bar the URL of your site. Because most of your traffic comes from search engines, you want to enhance your website's importance and optimize its position in search engine results (i.e., bring it closer to the beginning of the list of search results). Do this by making valuable dofollow backlinks to relevant sites.

Many people do not look past page one of search engine results, so it is important to get your website near the beginning of the list, on page one, to drive more traffic to your site. More traffic means that more people go to your site, and so the number of views will increase faster. A website presented at the end of the search engine's list will be seen by very few people, and thus will drive very little, if any, traffic to your site.


Let's go back to the example application above, where the book's webpage corresponds to (A), the WW II group on Facebook is a (B), and both my Facebook profile page and this blog's page are (C's).

When I speak of value or importance of a backlink, I mean that search engines give more weight, more importance, to websites that have backlinks from other pages with similar content. The result is that search engines rank website (A), backlinked by (B), higher in search results than if that website (A) were backlinked only by (C), an unrelated page.



Most articles on the web have no backlinks, so any backlink is good (helpful), backlinks from related websites are better, and a series of dofollow backlinks from related websites is the best.

RedGage, SheToldMe, Snipsly, YouSayToo, and this blog on Blogger are a few sites that provide dofollow links; Xomba is one site that has nofollow links.

How do I know if a backlink is a dofollow link rather than a nofollow link? I use SEO Toolbar, which is a browser plug-in for Firefox. Find it here. After installing the toolbar, click on the nofollow link icon and all nofollow links on the webpage are highlighted in red.

Multiple Search Engine Submissions

I came across a website, AddMe.com, that submits a site's URL to 20 search engines for free, so I submitted this blog's URL late last night. The 20 search engines are: Google, Gheto Search, FeedPlex, Web Squash, AnnoX, Scrub the Web, Burf, Big Finder, Fyber Search, Exact Seek, Info Tiger, Focus Look, WalHello, Jayde, Entireweb, Tower Search, Mix Cat, Search Sight, e-site Secrets, and What u Seek. I've not heard of nineteen of these search engines. For a price, I could choose AddMe's Professional Search Engine Submission and the URL would be submitted monthly for one year to hundreds of search engines.

Today, my in-box was flooded with replies, confirmations, and potential confirmations, dependent upon whether or not I allow the search engine to advertise on this blog. AnooX requires a link on my website, but I've been unable to upload the image that is to accompany the hyperlink, so that probably will disqualify my URL submission. This URL has been registered successfully with ScrubTheWeb, FyberSearch, and whatUseek. As I had mentioned, I'd already recently submitted this URL to Google. Four out of 16. I began to read all the requirements (demands) for listing my blog with the rest of these sites, and was overwhelmed. For the tip of the iceburg, both WebSquash and eSiteSecrets require that I accept their advertising.

A large part of my afternoon -- time I'll never get back -- has been spent reading the reply e-mails, offers of various search engine optimization (SEO) tools, newsletters, additional services available, terms of service for listing my URL, and trying to fulfill some of the requirements, but I had to stop! This blog could, no, WOULD become overloaded with more than a dozen different advertisers. I don't want that, and I doubt that you, the reader, want to see that, either. This is not a time saver! AddMe seems to be more trouble that it’s worth. What would have happened if I'd decided to have my URL submitted to hundreds of search engines?

Trying to publish this earlier, I learned that copying and pasting from a Word document introduces meta tags that prevent the publication of the post. Always something!

Search Engines, AdSense Analytics and Facebook

If no traffic is driven to my pages, there will be no earnings. To help speed up the process by which the search engine "finds" my articles, I have previously added the URL of each article to Google. I just did the same with Bing.

AdSense Analytics are available for anyone who has an AdSense account and wants to sign up, so I did. However, Analytics are only be available for this blog and for Snipsly; not for Xomba, SheToldMe, or RedGage because those sites provide space to write WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) but don't allow the writer to see or edit the HTML code that is behind WYSIWYG. From now on, when writing for Snipsly, I'll need to add my Google Analytics tracking code.

To receive up-to-the-minute announcements via Facebook, I found (and clicked "like" to become a fan of) Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Xomba, Kontera, and RedGage. RedGage doesn't seem to have much activity, so may not be sending helpful updates. Snipsly and SheToldMe are absent. There's supposed to be a way to link one's Facebook account with RedGage, but I've not be able to do that. Has anyone had success with this? I uploaded four photos of my African violets to RedGage. Take a look!