Web Search is constantly evolving. First generation search analyzed words on the page to rank content, second generation search tapped into link analysis and today search is becoming more personalized and specialized. By combining horizontal search, where the user searches a wide spectrum of material, and vertical search, where the user searches only through one topic area, the search engines are blending listings from their news, video, images, maps and other databases together onto one page. Google’s new Universal Search unifies all these different offerings by including links, where appropriate, to the standard Web results. All those listings, which were previously available only through the One Box displays and weren’t utilized by most users, limiting the scope of their results, are presented now on one page. The move ensures that the users receive all relevant content, by expanding the number of databases they are searching behind the scenes.

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If you are pushing your marketing dollar to the limit, you will be glad to know that there are sources of free traffic on the internet. For example, you could become an editor for Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a user edited online encyclopedia that often lists reputable companies that offer a product along with its description. As an editor, you could add information to the listing as well as adding yourself to that list of providers. If you need to reach a local audience, you can post your product or service for free on Craig’s List, which is one of the most popular sites on the internet. Google Product Search, previously known as Froogle, offers free product listings similar to an e-bay listing, and even allows you to direct searchers to your website. Perhaps you could try giving expert answers to questions asked in a forum or message board. This will give you an opportunity to drop your business name along with your expert advice.

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In the past few months, Google has been launching free services left and right.

On July 3rd, Google announced that Feedburner Stats PRO, a feed-analytics program now owned by Google, is completely free for everyone.

Feedburner is a distribution service, specifically for Blogs and RSS feeds. Feedburner’s web-based tools help bloggers across the internet promote and develop their content quickly and extremely easily.

As of July 3rd, you can now view advanced statistics and analytics for all of your feeds for Free. This is a big announcement, as it will no doubt help blog and RSS feed publishers target the right audiences, and the exact groups of people who want to read or view a publisher’s material. Previously, Feedburner’s Stats PRO and MyBrand services were available for a monthly fee of USD $5.00.

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