SEO IS like rocket science, if you don't know it, and deserves more respect. Germany and France decide to split on the Quaero search research project; search's long tail can be super valuable; vote for your favorite search blog; can we have an interactive Matt Cutts provide webmaster support and MattPasses for urgent needs? And more, in this last show of the year. Daily SearchCast returns to regular programming on Monday, January 8.
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- Yes Virginia,
SEO Is Rocket Science - Defending Search Engine Optimization Once Again
Like Greg Boser, I saw the articles and counter-articles emerge from Did-It's swing at search engine optimization back in October, rolled my eyes and moved on. The argument's been done before, done to death. But Greg's got his back up now, and he provides an excellent read in The Half-Truths of Talking Frogs. I'll highlight part of his post defending SEO plus jump in along with him.... - Why Did Google
Stop Supporting The SOAP API?
Earlier this week, Google dropped some support for the SOAP API, finally making a formal announcement about it here. New sign-ups aren't allowed, but the API calls will continue to be served. Why did they drop sign-ups? Google doesn't explain, and so others are speculating. Techdirt feels they did this for business reasons over technical reasons. John Battelle quotes Tim Bray's thoughts, where Bray explains that without the SOAP API, Google is forcing: you to hand over part of your web page to Google so that Google can display the search box and show the results the way they want... - Germany Leaves
Quaero To France, To Start Theseus Search Project
Threadwatch points to a PC Advisor report that the euro search engine project Quaero between France and Germany is now being split up. France will continue developing Quaero to help counter American-based search giants like Google and Yahoo. Germany is to start their own search technology project called Theseus. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology spokesperson said, "We will still see cooperation but in another form, such as workgroups. But the consortium between the German and French governments is over."... - Yahoo China
Wins Suit Against Hongyi's Qihoo For Unfair Competition
Reuters reports Yahoo China has won a lawsuit brought against Qihoo search engine for unfair competition. The lawsuit first came to light back in September. The court found that "Qihoo's 360safe software prompted users to de-install the Yahoo Toolbar by making users believe the toolbar was malware -- software that users download unknowingly and is difficult to remove."... - Taiwan's
Chunghwa Telecom Signs Mobile Deal With Google
Chunghwa Telecom, Google Sign Agreement from the Associated Press reports Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom has signed a mobile deal with Google. Google will provide mobile web search services to Chunghwa's user base starting this January. According to the story, Chunghwa Telecom is the largest phone company by revenue in Taiwan, with 840,000 3G users and is aiming for 1.5 million in 2007. They have 8 million mobile phone subscribers to-date.... - New Delicious
Tagometer Badge
Yahoo's Delicious has rolled out a new Tagometer allowing people to better bookmark your pages plus see how they have been tagged. In addition, it shows the number of others who have save a page -- reminiscent of Digg's Digg Count button.... - Less Cutting and Pasting – More Maps and Local in Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo Local Blog
- Screaming About
The Search Tail
Over the years, I've done many introduction to search marketing sessions where I talk about the value of having good, descriptive pages. Those let you tap into the search tail, the "onesies and twosies" terms, as I've called them, that might come up only once in a month. Add all those up, and they can outweigh or be as important as the top terms you deliberately target. Today, I had to chuckle at one particular query that brought us a visitor that illustrates the search tail concept:... - What does a link campaign look like for Local?, Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local
- Search Patents
Filings from 12-20-06 - Reranking on Information Redundancy and on Searcher
Affinities
Some processes covered in patents granted last week by the US Patent and Trademark Office: Microsoft reranking results based upon redundancy of information, Ask reranking pages based upon affinities between searchers, Hewlett-Packard creating queries for searchers to investigate from scanned documents, and; Exalead forming dynamic query refinements from words found in documents located within search results. A number of new patent applications were published also, which involve search in some manner. Microsoft describes targeted contextual advertising in alerts, and debuts two versions of a way to transform large screen web pages to smaller sizes for handheld devices. Nokia echoes Microsoft... - Unleashing the Fury on Keyword Research Tools, SEOmoz
- Search Blog
Awards By Search Engine Journal
Loren Barker's Search Engine Journal is running his annual Search Blog Awards contest. You can vote for your favorite blog over here. The categories available for you to vote for include:... - Privacy Breached by Phone Book, Wall Street Journal
- The hypocrisy of digg and spam, Online Marketing Blog
- Wish List:
Interactive Help From Google's Matt Cutts & MattPasses
I've been making up a Google wish list to update from my earlier one this year. Pandia just came out their own wish list, as did David Wallace more generally. And for whatever reason, it came to me. I want an interactive Matt Cutts to provide Google webmaster assistance. Think Ms Dewey meets Matt Cutts. Plus, I also want MattPasses to be issued for fast support.... - New multimedia guide about the Google content network, Google AdWords Blog
- Search Engine Optimization for . . . Jesus!!!, SEO BlackHat
- YPN SNOW Chistmas Card, SEO News Blog
- Holiday Gadgets, Official Google Gadgets Blog
- Google Holiday Gift - iPod Shuffle, Shimon Sandler
- Google Decorates Its Ads For The Holidays, Again, InsideGoogle
