Daily SearchCast, Jan. 3, 2008: Revisiting Search In 2007, Google Challengers And More!

Today's big episode covers all the developments over the past week, starting off with a recap of search in 2007, the 2007 paid links war, challengers to Google, Traffic Power's CEO on the wrong side of the law, what if Google was broken up in an anti-trust suit and more. PROGRAMMING NOTE: The Daily SearchCast next returns on Wednesday, January 9 and then resumes its regular Monday to Thursday schedule.

Tune-in by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:00am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Monday through Thursday (see instructions here), through iTunes via this link or in other ways listed here. You can also listen on our Digg podcasts channel.

Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ. See below for links to more information about stories discussed.

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Stories Discussed In The Show

  • Search Year 2007: Search News, In Review
    Each month, I compile Search Month -- a recap of all the stories that have happened relating to search, categorized by topic. I thought it would be fun to take all the Search Months over the past year and produce this edition of Search Year 2007. It was far more...
  • Search Engine Land Stats: 2007, In Review
    As promised, now that a full calendar year has gone by, it's time to look at some key stats about how Search Engine Land has grown in various ways over the year. Let's dive in!...
  • The 2007 Paid Links War, In Review
    The paid links debate is back, this time about whether Google wants all links in a paid post to have a nofollow attribute. Below, a look at the latest round, plus a recap of this year's "War On Paid Links" by Google and where the other search engines stand on...
  • The Google Challengers: 2008 Edition
    Rich Skrenta -- who aside from creating the first computer virus is more notable to search as a cofounder of the Open Directory Project and the Topix news search engine -- has announced he's founded a search start-up. A stealth one, as TechCrunch puts it. Don't we already have several...
  • Don't Miss SMX West - Register Now and Save
    Here are five compelling reasons to sign up for Search Marketing Expo - SMX West today: Content: The SMX West agenda is jam-packed with sessions that will make you a better marketer: 3 days, 5 tracks, more than 50 sessions. It all happens February 26-28 in Santa Clara, CA. The...
  • Comparing Search Popularity Ratings Services: June To Nov. 2007
    I've now compiled the latest search popularity stats from Nielsen, comScore, Hitwise, and Compete. That means it's time to put them all together, to see what a "panel" of ratings services agree on -- and don't agree on -- in terms of search engine popularity....
  • How SEO Has Evolved Over The Years
    As I write this on New Year's day, I can't help but reflect on how SEO has changed during the more than 12 years since I first started optimizing websites. I was browsing through my hard-drive looking for a document I had saved that had various article ideas in...
  • Google's Algorithm Awarding New Pages?
    Google Artificially Promotes Recent Web Pages from Google Operating System reports that Google has been recently showing a bit too much love to new or very recent pages indexed by Google. Ionut Alex Chitu example was that Google's New Years logo promoted a search for January 1 tcp/ip, which then...
  • ChaCha Goes Mobile With TextChaCha
    Social search engine ChaCha, which has struggled to gain traction and usage on the desktop, is introducing a new text-based mobile service called "textChaCha" (short code: 242242). The same human "guides" who provide assisted search on ChaCha.com answer potentially any question from mobile users. Accordingly it's broader and more flexible...
  • WhatsOpen Aims To Disseminate Local Business Hours Data Across Platforms
    Local search site WhatsOpen was rumored to be the first application for the Google Android mobile platform. Now the site has launched in public beta, including an Android application. The site is launching simultaneously in the US, Europe and China, on mobile platforms (Android, iPhone) and on Facebook, MySpace and...
  • Google AdSense Launches Newbie Central
    Google AdSense has announced the launch of Newbie Central, a location for new publishers to go and get started with AdSense. The glorified help page gives instructions on how to sign up with AdSense, when to expect payment, information on ad implementation techniques, reporting tips, other AdSense products and much...
  • Pew/Internet Study Finds Most Americans Get Their Answers From The Internet
    A PEW/Internet and American Life study out today finds that the place Americans turn to most for answers is the internet. The study, which surveyed 2,796 Americans, found that 76% have internet access and that 58% turn to the internet when they have questions about things like health, school, careers,...
  • Baidu's CFO Dies In Holiday Accident
    Baidu.com says CFO killed in China accident from the AFP reports Shawn Wang, Baidu's CFO, died on December 27. Wang was in a fatal accident during a holiday vacation in China. He joined Baidu in 2004 and helped Baidu with their extremely successful IPO and NASDAQ listing....
  • Baidu Beats Music Labels In Music Copyright Case Again
    Beijing court sides with Baidu in music piracy case from the AFP reports that Baidu has won a copyright case in a Beijing appeals court against the music labels. The court upheld the decision that Baidu is not guilty of property rights infringement for displaying links to web sites that...
  • Traffic Power's CEO Jailed Over Alleged Foreclosure Scams
    SEO Company CEO Arrested, Jailed: Accused of Foreclosure Scam from Search Engine Watch reports Traffic Power's CEO, Matt Marlon, was jailed for allegedly committing foreclosure fraud. The news comes from Las Vegas's News 3 station, which reports Matt Marlon was arrested for allegedly conning homeowners faced with foreclosure to give...
  • Ask Sponsored Listings Gives Click Fraud Reimbursements
    Scott Hendison received an email about a click fraud settlement by Ask Sponsored Listings. If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media and/or ASK Jeeves from August 2005 and now, you are entitled to some form of reimbursement for click fraud or other invalid or improper clicks. The...
  • My Love/Hate Relationship With Facebook Ads: 10 Ways They Could Improve
    Last month I began running a campaign on Facebook's new ad network. After hearing the hype, I couldn't resist playing around with it as soon as I had a reason to. At first I was somewhat frustrated because I wasn't getting any page views or clicks. It took some time...
  • Yahoo's Chief Performance Expert, Souders, Joining Google
    Steve Souders, Yahoo's Chief Performance expert and writer of the Firefox add-on YSlow, announced on his site he is joining Google on January 7, 2008. It is not clear exactly what Souders will be doing at Google. It appears that he will be working with Dion Almaer, who is working...
  • Techmeme: Facebook disabled my account (Robert Scoble/Scobleizer), Techmeme
  • Google The Stealth Social Network?
    Google's plan to socialize its various applications continues. Google Operating System has spotted code in Gmail that may lead to a Facebook-style news feed of status updates from your Gmail contacts. More about this and Google's continued "stealth social network" moves below....
  • Deconstructing Google: Chapter 4, After The Google Breakup
    Previous chapters have covered how the growth of Google and fears of how it was reshaping the communication landscape led to the application of existing anti-trust laws along with new ones to force a Google breakup in 2010. This chapter looks at the immediate aftermath: the "Baby Googles" or "Googlets"...
  • Goodbye, Yahoo Picks
    Children, gather round. When I was a boy, we didn't have Digg. We didn't have Slashdot. When we wanted a big traffic rush, we had to walk eight miles in the snow to Yahoo Picks -- Yahoo Picks Of The Week & Picks Of The Day -- and we liked...

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