E.T. Project Progress Report

I’ve had a great deal of difficulty finding information about search engines that I find either useful or interesting. My initial analysis of the fact that search really hasn’t changed is fairly accurate. The only information that I have really found indicating any noticeable improvement in the concept of search was the development of Google’s page ranking system which is related to their search algorithm patent. While this development was significant, and to a large extent the reason that Google began to gain significant dominance over Yahoo!, who was the early leader in internet search, it seems that this would make for both a rather dry, and dated analysis of an emerging technology. From the search marketing perspective, my findings have been relatively benign with the context of technology. While there is certainly an abundance of articles relating to search and keyword advertising, the vast majority of this focuses on the ROI/planning side of marketing, with little respect for the technologies related.

This has left me in a bit of a quandary as to the best way to proceed with my project. I have found several interesting and valuable articles related to contextual/location related advertising and search; however, almost everything I have found comes from media sources, such as news and magazine articles, rather than academic sources. Much like the search dilemma this leaves the majority of my available information lacking much in the way of technological detail; however, the background of the technology, I believe, is sufficient to work with.
Additionally, I have been considering a bit of a shift in focus from search marketing to viral/social marketing and the concepts of market mavens and social networking analysis. I know that early on you mentioned this as an area that I might consider, my concern at that time was that I had worked on a similar project for my internet marketing class with Prof. MacDonald, and I wasn’t certain that I would be able to approach those ideas in a sufficiently different manner to justify a new project entirely.

I welcome any thoughts or ideas regarding my direction here.