Search engine war spreads to weblogs

Weblogs, Internet diaries, are gaining more than just curious readers.



Search engines and Internet portals are viewing the posted photographs and notes as gateways to higher customer base and revenue.



Until recently the Internet companies had regarded weblogs as a feature of multimember club services, such as Daum Communication Co.`s "cafe" services (http://cafe.daum.net), which seemed to be the standard for creating and sharing content on the Internet.



But the runaway success of SK Communications Co.`s Cyworld weblog services (http://cyworld.nate.com) convinced the industry that weblog writers, or bloggers, are growing exponentially and can attract large audiences.



Cyworld`s membership increased more than three-fold last year to about 11 million, from 3 million in 2003.



"Weblogs are changing the way people obtain information from the Internet," said Lee Seok-young, an official at the weblog service division at NHN Corp., the operator of Korea`s most popular search engine Naver (www.naver.com).



"Since bloggers tend to gather around specific topics or interests, it provides an easier route for search engine users to get specific and keyword-relevant information," said Lee.



The biggest attraction to weblogs, he said, is its technical convenience. No mastery of Web design or file transfer protocols is necessary to create content for a weblog.



To defend its customer base, Daum Communications, the country`s largest e-mail services provider, introduced its "Planet" weblog services (http://planet.daum.net) in August last year, attempting to extend the popularity of its Cafe online club services, which has more than 34 million registered users.



Planet took a lot from Cyworld`s playbook, including the function that allows users to interconnect personal sites and develop them into online communities.



It also allows subscribers to connect their weblogs with their existing Daum e-mail accounts and Cafe services through a single log-in process.



According to Daum officials, Planet has gathered more than 6 million registered users as of December.



The company plans to launch an upgraded version of its weblog services by the end of this month, eventually connecting them with its voice-over-Internet protocol services slated to begin in February.



"Daum subscribers have already enjoyed online community offerings through Cafe services. This cohesiveness gives us an edge in the customer loyalty in the new competition surrounding weblogs," said Daum`s Min Yoon-jeong, an official at the company`s Planet service division.



NHN, which started weblog services in 2003, recently upped its offering by allowing users to create their own newspaper or magazine with up-to-date information provided by Web sites.



The company hopes the content generated from weblogs, news sites and other sources will increase search traffic by providing information from a larger pool of data in customized format.



Naver, the largest search engine with more than 57 percent of overall traffic, is including weblog content in search results.



Company officials say about 5.5 million of Naver`s 15 million registered users are active bloggers.



NHN already has enjoyed success by utilizing user-created content with Naver`s question-and-answer type search engine "Knowledge Search." It allows users to answer and edit search results, is becoming the industry standard here.



NHN said its will launch a new version of weblog services around March, strengthening the integration with its search services.



Yahoo! Korea, which has around 3 million bloggers, also plans to connect its weblog services with search and local information services, including online shopping. Company officials declined to provide details.



With the Internet business sector relying more on search services to sustain growth, weblogs also are helping generate advertising revenue for portal operators.



Advertisers pay the operators a fee for pasting their links to search results. Each time someone visits a linked page, the advertiser pays the search engine company an additional fee.



This year, the search-related advertisement is expected to be around 640 billion won ($615 million), prompting portals to look for ways to develop advanced and personalized products to enhance search relevance and coverage. That has heightened their effort in facilitating weblogs.



Portals such as Yahoo! Korea, Daum and Empas (www.empas.co.kr) raced to roll out peer-to-peer type search engines last year, similar models to Naver`s Knowledge Search.



User-created content is also an integral part in local search, which enables users to locate a business or service by typing in a business description or street address.



Industry watchers are high on the commercial potential of weblogs, in part because they make it easier to target advertisements to different segments of consumers since bloggers tend to group around similar interests.



The concept is similar to the profit model of search engines, where the operators allow advertisers to bid to place their links on top of the search-result pages according to the subject keyword.



"Weblogs is an ideal model for to channel advertisements, since it provides easier ways for businesses and potential consumers to interact. Target advertising will become the business model regarding weblogs, since their increasing popularity will make it harder for portals to charge subscribers for downloading software," said Kim Kyung-yun from Yahoo! Korea`s weblog development team.



However, integrating weblog content with search is proving to be a difficult challenge.



With Naver controlling nearly 60 percent of search traffic, most Internet companies are reluctant to share their networks for user-created content, fearing the further loss of traffic and customers.



The lack of a comprehensive data-pool keeps companies from creating weblog-specific search engines or developing keyword algorithms for weblog content.



Portals are currently settling for alternative ways to earn money through weblogs.



The most conventional idea is setting up membership-only weblogs that promote certain products and charging the advertisers to sponsor them.



The method is catching on rapidly among the companies in consumer electronics, fashion and other industry sectors that rely heavily on getting an early analysis of the market.



"It would take some time before portals could fully connect weblog content with search-related advertisement," said Yahoo! Korea`s Kim.



(thkim@heraldm.com)



By Kim Tong-hyung