It's a simple matter these days to build and host a Web site. What's less simple is getting others -- potential customers, readers and other users -- to find your site among the millions of others already out there. In this column I'll discuss Japanese search engines, particularly how best to use Japanese and other search engines to promote your business, Weblog or hobby site online.
Its been nearly a decade since NTT launched the first directory-based search engine for the Japanese Internet, Nihon no Shinchaku Jouhou (What's New in Japan). Three years later, in 1996, Yahoo Japan ( www.yahoo.co.jp ) launched its own directory service here, and before long secured the No. 1 position among Japanese Web portals.
Around the same time, foreign players such as InfoSeek ( www.infoseek.co.jp ) and Excite ( www.excite.co.jp ) joined the fray, competing with domestic newcomers such as Goo ( www.goo.ne.jp ) and Fresheye ( www.fresheye.co.jp ). None of them, however, could match the popularity of Yahoo.