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Stories Discussed In The Show

• Searching Via Internet Explorer 7 & The Battle To Be The Default Search Engine
  Now that Internet Explorer 7 has been released in final format, I wanted to look at how search is being handled within the browser. There's been lots of discussion and worries about this in the past. Speculation time is over; reality is here. In this article, how the IE7 search box works, how you can change it and how Google and Yahoo's toolbars behave within it to try and maintain their default status, once gained. The biggest difference with Internet Explorer 7 is the one that's been most discussed, a visible search box built into the "chrome." In the picture...
• More On Instant Answers, from Microsoft
  Part two of our four-part series on "instant answers" provided by Ask's Smart Answers, Yahoo's Shortcuts, Google's OneBox results and Microsoft's Instant Answers is featured in today's SearchDay article, A Closer Look At Microsoft's Instant Answers. SEW correspondent Brian A. Smith offers an in-depth look at, appropriately enough, the Microsoft's Instant Answers featured on its newly launched live.com search engine....
• Display Your adCenter Ads On Microsoft's Content Ads Network
  The adCenter Blog has an open invitation to register for U.S. Content Ads. So if you are an adCenter advertiser and you want your ads to be found on Microsoft's contextual network, you can apply for an invite here. Note, this is not for publishers to sign up with Content Ads, but for advertisers to sign up to place their existing ads on Content Ads. I have already begun testing Content Ads myself. More details on content ads here....
• Google AdWords Releases Website Optimizer for Advertisers
  Google AdWords has released a new tool for advertisers to enable them to easily test conversions on varying landing pages, headlines and ad copies. The tool then shows advertisers the testing results, including graphs, allowing them to chose the best converting ad options for their campaigns. Interested advertisers can sign up for the beta here, although only a small number of advertisers will be accepted. You can also learn more on the Inside AdWords blog....
• Click Fraud Dropping Amongst Google & Yahoo
  News.com reports on a new Click Fraud Index study that shows the click fraud rate dropping from 12.8 percent to 11.9 percent in the 3rd quarter amongst top-tier PPC engines. Second-tier engines have realized an increase in click fraud with 23.2 percent from 20.3 percent. Overall, click fraud is down at 13.8 percent from 14.1 percent, quarter to quarter....
• United Press International Selling PageRank
  Threadwatch reports that the United Press International is selling links based on PageRank values. If you visit the advertising section, specifically for text links you will clearly see UPI marketing those text links to manipulate rankings and not for direct traffic building purposes like this: The benefits they list include "increasing Page Rank" and "improving search engine results." Plus UPI listed out pages, with their current PageRank values and backlink counts for marketing reasons. I have posted a screen capture at Flickr to document the full page it before Google removes all value from the links on this site. :-)...
• Google Hires Pizzella Of GSA's FirstGov
  FCW.com reports that Google hired M.J. Pizzella to work at Google's Herndon, VA office to "help Google better understand and solve the government’s technology needs." Pizzella worked as the associate administrator of GSA's Office of Citizen Services and Communications and was directly responsible for government's official search engine, FirstGov's most recent redesign. Her title at Google is senior business development manager at Google Enterprise....
• Verizon Announces SuperPages Spin Off, To Be Called "Idearc"
  Ending several months of speculation Verizon announced yesterday that its SuperPages unit would be spun off as a separate company, to be called, somewhat awkwardly, "Idearc Inc." According to a BusinessWeek article the name is a combination of "idea" and "arc," words that Verizon told the magazine "symbolize how the directory business connects buyers and sellers."...
• Amazon Askville, Google Blogoscoped
• San Francisco Local Politics Derail Free WiFi Project, Davis Freeberg
• Heading to the X Prize Cup, Official Google Blog
• How to Get Into News Search Engines, Search Engine Journal
• Teen Content Dominates Google, Micro Persuasion
• Ask.com Using Paid Search On Google As Promotion
  I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Ask.com Advertises on Google.com To Promote Search Quality of Engine. A search on Raccoon brings up an AdWords ad that is marketing Ask.com's search results. Specifically, if you click on the ad, you are taken to a search for the same keyword, Raccoon at Ask.com. That search result sports a nice Ask Smart Answer. It is nice to see Ask.com using paid search in this fashion to promote their own search engine....