Thursday, September 22, 2005

Search Engine Blogs by Loren Baker searchenginejournal.com: "Over the past year Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves; the un-argued big four in search, have launched their own blogs.

What started as a a way to say hello to their users has now transformed into a cult of transparency and communications. Along with a dash of geek-speak, crisis management and pro-active posting, these blogs have also begun to outshine the traditional forms of press and public relations, as the press and public has become as non-traditional and non-linear as the blogosphere itself.

The new public relations model of the search blog brings with it a change in attitude and information. No longer are journalists and bloggers pitched as often by Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN by the boilerplate press release, which is usually as damn interesting as reading mattress tags.

Instead, the new form of communication is an oxymoron; mass intimacy. Instead of one of our favorite PR reps contacting us with those old releases, we’re now contacted via email or IM with a link to the newest blog post....

Google Blog lately with the latest taking the unorthodox approach of crisis management in responding to a lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild against Google Print. Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google acknowledged the lawsuit by the well respected Guild and basically laid down Google’s line of defense to the suit by listing four different case law rulings Google claims supports its Google Print actions. In a case which could get as dirty as a Maryland Gubernatorial Campaign, Google has quickly stated its case to the public and to the Authors Guild in a passive-aggressive manner, via the Google Blog....

To back up the importance of the Yahoo Search Blog to Yahoo’s press relations, the ‘former’ (?) head Yahoo Search relations person at Fleishman is now at Yahoo calling the shots for the Yahoo Search Blog. That’s a quite impressive statement for their future blog and PR plans..."

Perfect example email: "Back to PR. I received an email the other day from Darcy Cobb of Dotted Line Communications, who represents Ask Jeeves. Darcy’s email, unlike her others, had a short summary of the integration of IAC’s Gift.com into Ask’s Smart Answers units and then a link to the blog. No fluff, no press release, no quote to cut and paste, just a link to the Ask Jeeves Blog. This, Darcy, was a perfect email.

I’m not a Public Relations specialist but I do pay attention to the PR industry (via Peter Shankman’s YoungPRPros) and its trends and do truly feel that the Search Blogs used by the big four search engines are a successful model for some companies, especially tech friendly ones to follow. One of the greatest aspects of reading these entries, along with the non-official search blogs of Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo and Google’s Matt Cutts, is that I already feel like I sort of know these people before having the chance run in with them at the bar at a search conference or wherever. Such a feeling of company to journalist relations is quite priceless. Like I said, Mass Intimacy."

Google

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