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Dear Michael,
When you're searching for a gift on the internet, where
do you go first? A search engine or a directory? Do
you know the difference? This month is a discussion
about the differences and the advantages of one over
the other.
Next, we have a review of Birthday Express, a website
that sells birthday supplies, including kits for themed
parties. We used them successfully this past month
for our son's first birthday. We also reveal the winner
of July's contest.
Finally, we unveil our newest website, Gift Baskets and
More. Both this issue's featured product and July's
prize are items we sell. Check them out and send a gift
to someone you care about!
| Shopping Tip of the Month - Directories vs. Search Engines |
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Have you ever used Yahoo! to find what you're looking
for? Did you know that Yahoo! is not a search engine?
It seems to work like a search engine, but it's not... it's
a directory. Directories are similar to search engines,
but there are some differences. One difference is that
a search engine returns results based on the contents
of the website. A directory returns results based on
information submitted about the website.
For an example, search on "Outdoor Patio Furniture" in
Google and look at the
result called "Cedar Wood Outdoor Patio Furniture".
That's our website, outdoor-patio-furniture.com.
Google lists it so high because their program (called a
spider or a crawler) looked at our website's contents
and counted how many other websites point to us, and
decided that we're the fifth (as of 8/14/02) most
relevant website for that search. We might not really
be the 5th most relevant, but Google's spider thinks we
are because of our content and popularity.
Now type in the same search "Outdoor Patio Furniture"
in DMOZ, and look for our
website. We're number 52 out of 55 possible sites!
Suddenly we don't look so good. Why? The reason is
because we asked to be listed under adirondack
furniture, and you didn't type that in. What you should
notice is that every result has -- in order of
importance -- a directory location, description and web
address. Our web address has all three words you
typed, but that's least important. Our website contains
the words you typed all over the place, but DMOZ
doesn't know that because it doesn't spider the
website. Furthermore, in a directory named A:B:C, C is
the most important term, followed by B, then A. Since
I'm listed in Shopping: Home and Garden: Patio:
Furniture: Adirondack, that makes
Adirondack the most important word to
my website and you didn't type it. Furthermore, you
typed the word Outdoor first, and
outdoor isn't in my directory path. Now, type
in "Adirondack Patio Furniture" and suddenly we're
website #2. See how that works?
Which one should you use? It depends. If you're
looking for an article then use a search engine, because
directories have no idea what's inside of an article. On
the other hand, if you're looking for a product, either
one will return websites that sell it. However, a
directory will primarily return websites that specialize in
your product while search engines will return websites
that sell your product, discuss your product, review
your product, or even just mention it. On the other
hand, the Yahoo! directory returns mostly websites
that have paid $300 to be considered for inclusion, and
websites thar are run on a tight budget often have the
better deals, making search engines (like Google) worth
a look.
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| Shopping Review - Birthday Express |
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We recently celebrated our son's 1st birthday. He's our
first child and the first grandson on both sides of the
family, so we did like you'd expect and threw a huge
party for him. Our theme was Curious George, and we
bought most of the party supplies over the web.
We thought Curious George party supplies might be
hard to find, so we looked it up in Google. (Search
on "Curious George Party Supplies" in Yahoo! and you'll
notice that the results come from Google, because no
one in Yahoo!'s directory specializes in only that. In
those cases, Yahoo! works like a search engine!)
After a lot of searching, we went with Birthday Express
and were quite pleased with everything. We ordered
the deluxe party kit for 8 which included plates,
spoons, forks, knives, napkins, cups, placemats,
invitations, thank-yous, balloons, streamers, curling
ribbon, table centerpiece, favor boxes + favors, and
birthday candles: all for about $50. We also ordered
extra invitations and thank yous, pinata fillers, and
extra favors. The ordering was easy and everything
arrived within 10 days of our order.
The other thing we ordered online was a pinata. There
are lots of pinatas on the web... but no Curious George
pinatas. We found one website that listed one, and it
was discontinued. So, we went with a huge number 1
instead, from
Planet Pinata. The selection there is limited, but
we wanted a huge number 1 and this website had the
biggest "1" we could find (I feel sorry for my brother-in-
law who worked the pully we rigged). Again, ordering
was easy and it came within 10 days.
We highly recommend Birthday Express! »
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| Monthly Contest Update |
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Our winner for this month is Tracy L Schafer. She's
chosen to receive the Gourmet Delights gift basket.
When asked what she was going to do with it, she
replied, "I will use the gift basket to raise my spirits. (I
am going through a bitter divorce)".
Congratulations on winning the gift basket Tracy. In
your tough times, we're glad to bring you some cheer!
Click here to enter the next contest »
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| Gift Baskets and More |
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We have officially opened our new website, Gift Baskets
and More. In addition to a beautiful selection of gift
baskets, we also have other features we hope you'll
find useful.
The first is called, "Can't find it?" Go to this page if
you're looking for a gift basket (or any gift for that
matter) that we don't carry. We list several other gift
websites for you to check out. If you still can't find it,
we provide access to a service where you describe
what you want, and up to 5 venders will contact you,
bidding for your business.
The other service is called "Gift Emergency!" This is
where you need a gift sent somewhere... today. One
of our partners provides this great service, and we're
happy to bring it to you!
The products we have are not all we plan to sell.
We've also lined up a distributorship for yet another line
of gift baskets, as well as several sets of designer
plates which are absolutely beautiful. So keep your
eye out!
Visit our new store! »
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| Product Highlight - Hole in One |
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Do guys like gift baskets? Not generally. But if they
golf, they'll like this! Includes a divot tool/spike
wrench, wood tees, golfers fortune cookies, trail mix
and more.
Send that golfer a gift basket today!
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Please visit our sponsors...
New products from The Sharper Image
Fabulous gifts from 223 Collectibles.com!
Unique, personalized gifts under $25!
Allpets.com...Creating a better lifestyle for pets!
Gardener's Supply Company
The Best Toys for High-Tech Junkies
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