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Upcoming Seminars: Big Brand Search Engine Optimization: Managing Large Campaigns

Stories Discussed In The Show

• Dell Support Or Lack Thereof: My Dell Hell Experience, Daggle
• SMX Social: Just What Did Calacanis Say About SEO & More Recaps
  At our SMX Social Media Marketing conference this week, we had a great panel on the future of human powered search. Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, Jimmy Wales of Wikia Search, and Steven Marder of Eurekster all took part. Jason had some remarks on SEO that set off the usual wave...
• SMX Social: Mahalo To Do Microformats, Search Wikia Adds Alpha 0.2 Features & More
  News from the first day of our SMX Social Media Marketing conference. Mahalo is now doing microformats as a way to enhance its search results and allow local businesses to be added to your address book. Wikia Search has gone to "Alpha 0.2" with new features. And other conference coverage,...
• Tools For Engaging In Social Media
  We all know Social Media Marketing can be pretty time consuming. There are numerous social media communities, each requiring you to sign up, make a profile, and participate, in order to have any success with them. So it is only natural that you would like to have some helpful...
• Google Paper: Better Image Search Though VisualRank / Image Rank
  A Google Prototype for a Precision Image Search from the New York Times covers a new research paper (PDF format) from Google that about a way of ranking images based on analyzing "visual links" between them....
• Yahoo Paper: Finding The Local "Center" Of Search Queries
  A new research paper from Yahoo and Cornell University -- with search legend Jon Kleinberg as one of the coauthors -- provides a fascinating look at how a search query such as "red sox" or "hurricane deal" can be centered around a physical location -- including one that changes...
• Microsoft Paper: Improving Search Results By Mining Web Surfing Activity
  A new research paper from Microsoft looks at how surfing behavior -- as logged by a search toolbar -- can be used to improve search results....
• WWW2008: Search Research Paper Roundup
  A variety of interesting research papers on search have come out of WWW2008, the 17th International World Wide Web Conference. Some I've blogged already. Below is a rundown on those and some other papers that may be of interest. For the attention-challenged, I've also included my now patented "Twitter"...
• Google AdSense Ads May Become More Behaviorally Targeted
  Bill Slawski analyzed a newly published patent application by Google named Rendering Advertisements with Documents Having One or More Topics Using User Topic Interest Information. In short, the patent application documents methods Google can use to make Google's contextual ads, AdSense, more behaviorally relevant to the user based on Google...
• Stay Tuned: Will Microsoft Sweeten The Deal?
  The NY Post is reporting that despite public statements from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and CFO Chris Liddell that the offer on the table is final and that Microsoft might "walk away" from Yahoo, there may in fact be a new and improved offer to Jerry Yang and his fellow...
• Yahoo Q1: 9 Percent Growth Overall, 19 Percent In US Segment, International Down 11 Percent
  Yahoo just released Q1 earnings. Here's the top-line: Revenues were $1,818 million for the first quarter of 2008, a 9 percent increase compared to $1,672 million for the same period of 2007. US segment revenues were $1.3 billion, a 19 percent increase compared to $1.1 billion for the same period...
• MicroHoo: High Stakes Game Of "Chicken" Now In Progress
  Yahoo's generally solid quarter yesterday helps make the case that the company is worth more than the current value of Microsoft's bid. In advance of the earnings call yesterday, however, Steve Ballmer said that the company was not prepared to offer any more than what it already had put on...
• MicroHoo: Let The Proxy Fight Begin!
  The Seattle PI is suggesting that the fight for control of Yahoo's board, which Microsoft had previously threatened, may begin in earnest this weekend. Conversations with institutional shareholders have already been taking place. The three week deadline set by Steve Ballmer for Yahoo to come to the table will expire...
• US Justice Department Scrutinizing GooHoo Paid Search Test
  According to Reuters the US Justice Department is taking a look at the paid search partnership test between Google and Yahoo. According to the article, there are antitrust concerns raised by the test and its implications and the Justice Department has "initiated an investigation" of it....
• Microsoft Dips In Compete's Revised March 08 Search Figures
  When I did my Ratings Service Faceoff: Search Share Compared, June 2007 To March 2008 post last week, I noted that Microsoft had an odd increase according to Compete for March 2008. The company now says this was due to Live Search Club traffic that it shouldn't have counted. Microsoft's...
• Ratings Service Faceoff: Search Share Compared, June 2007 To March 2008
  I've now compiled the latest search popularity stats from Hitwise, Compete, comScore and Nielsen Online. That means it's time to put them all together once again, to see what a "panel" of ratings services agree on -- and don't agree on -- in terms of search engine popularity....
• Microsoft Buys Travel Search Site Farecast
  Travel search site Farecast was rumored to be a takeover target recently and the CEO has confirmed that the site has indeed been acquired by Microsoft. TechCrunch, citing John Cook at the Seattle PI, says the deal was worth something in the $100-$115 million range....
• New Google CIO: Morgan Stanley's Benjamin Fried
  News.com reports that Benjamin Fried, a Morgan Stanley managing director, has been pegged to fill the chief information officer spot that opened up when Douglas Merrill left earlier this month. Google's confirmed the move....
• Click Fraud Rate Declines Slightly, Says Click Forensics
  Click Forensics released their statistics on the click fraud rate for the first quarter of 2008, showing a click fraud rate of 16.3 percent. That number is down from the previous quarter, which was 16.6 percent. Compared to a year ago, when the click fraud rate was 14.8 percent, we...
• Yahoo Adds Click Filter Report
  Yahoo announced a new reporting feature in the search marketing portal that enables advertisers to see which clicks Yahoo has deemed to be invalid. The report is named the "Click Filter Report" and is available by clicking the “Reports” tab, then selecting “Click Filter” under the “Traffic Quality Reports” section...
• Google AdWords Tests Display URL Above Ad Description
  The Get Elastic Blog noticed Google testing displaying the AdWords URLs above the ad description. Typically, the AdWords URLs are displayed below the ad description. Here is a compare and contrast picture:...
• Google Sued For Undesired AdSense Inclusion
  Google is being sued by a man represented by a law firm that has successfully sued Google several times in the past. The firm is Kabateck Brown Kellner and the man is David Almeida, a local businessman from Massachusetts who claims that Google's sign up process for AdWords wrongly conceals...
• US Court Orders Advertiser To Use Negative Keywords In Trademark Case
  Eric Goldman reports that a US District Judge in Florida ordered an advertiser using a trademark term to use the negative keyword option, to ensure that they would no longer bid on that term in the future. The judge ordered the defendant to stop using the word "ORION" in their...
• US Court Learns SEO, Decides META Keywords Don't Matter
  Court Says Keyword Metatags Don't Matter--Standard Process v. Banks by Eric Goldman uncovers a recent case between Standard Process, Inc. v. Banks that shows that the court has ruled that the META keywords tag is "immaterial." Goldman said this is the first time the courts ruled based on knowledge of...
• Link Development Tool Shortcuts for Firefox
  A few weeks back I did a post on my blog about creating Firefox quick search bookmarks. I was surprised at how well received it was, though I think people were most pleased with the fact that I had created a download of a very small selection of the...
• Sitelinks On A Google Minus 60 Result: What Does It Mean?
  Last week, I covered an interesting observation at a Google Groups thread, where some individuals noticed Google Sitelinks showing up for a site in the 60th position. At the end of the thread, I noted that Googler, JohnMu, told the webmaster that he may want to join the -60 penalty...
• Video: Details On Setting Your Site's Geographic Target In Google Webmaster Tools
  Google launched the set geographic target feature in October of last year. Since then, many webmasters began experimenting with it and I have personally not seen too many complaints about it, which is always a good thing. Google's Webmaster Central team said they have been receiving some questions on the...
• Google Product Search Gets More Useful
  I've personally never found Google Product search all that useful, but hopefully that will change now. Google Operating System reports that Google Product Search has undergone a redesign, of some sort. In the past, Google Product Search just showed you results but did not group stores offering to sell the...
• Google Gets Whois Answers In Search Results
  Looks like Google's gained a new direct answer service, whois information for domains. Enter a query like whois searchengineland.com, and you'll be told when the domain was registered and expires, along with a link to more information from the Domain Tools site. Here's a screenshot:...
• Yahoo Search Circle Allows Users To Easily Expand & Narrow Results On Map
  Yahoo just announced that it has added a nifty tool to Local (called "search circle") that allows uses to alter the geographic scope of results by expanding or narrowing a circle on the map. The circle can also be dragged to a particular area easily, allowing for more efficient neighborhood...
• YOS: Rewiring Yahoo From The Inside Out
  Yahoo's relatively new CTO Ari Balogh expanded upon Yahoo's "open" initiatives in a keynote speech to the Web2.0 conference yesterday. There's a very extensive discussion, including a video of the keynote, on the TechCrunch site (additional coverage in Search Engine Journal). The SearchMonkey beta is the first step in executing...
• Yahoo! Launches SearchMonkey Developer Tool in Limited Preview
  Today, Yahoo! is providing a "limited preview" of a tool that enables developers to create SearchMonkey applications. Yahoo! CTO Ari Balogh will be unveiling the tool at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco today, and more details are available in the Yahoo! Search Blog. Yahoo! first announced SearchMonkey in February...
• Google Opens Developer "Sandbox" For iGoogle
  iGoogle is one of the most interesting products at the search engine. Reportedly the fastest growing of Google's offerings it's a personal start page or dashboard, but with potential to evolve into something more. Today Google announced "a sandbox for developers that helps them build richer gadgets for iGoogle, which...
• Live Search News: MSNBot, Products Launches And Deep Links Appear
  Microsoft's MSNBot is doing more crawling these days and is alerting webmasters accordingly to revisit robots.txt files. More detail can be found on the Live Search Webmaster blog. In other news, Live Search blogs officially talked about its version of sitelinks that first appeared back in September (and see here)....
• Live Search News: MSNBot, Products Launches And Deep Links Appear
  Microsoft's MSNBot is doing more crawling these days and is alerting webmasters accordingly to revisit robots.txt files. More detail can be found on the Live Search Webmaster blog. In other news, Live Search blogs officially talked about its version of sitelinks that first appeared back in September (and see here)....
• Microsoft Adds RSS To Live Search News
  The Live Search Blog announced the much requested addition of RSS to Live Search News. A little over a week ago, Microsoft launched Live Search News and one of the biggest feature requests off the bat was an RSS option. 9 days later, Microsoft has added the RSS icon to...
• SMX Advanced: Looking For Pitches & Register Soon!
  Double-duty with this post about our SMX Advanced search marketing conference happening June 3 & 4 in Seattle. First, some of our session coordinators are still looking for some good pitches. Second -- with more than half our tickets sold, consider this early warning that if you don't register soon,...
• SMX Local & Mobile In SF; Best Rate If You Act Now
  Believe it or not, July is just around the corner. And so is SMX Local & Mobile, the event that prepares internet marketers for the emerging opportunities of local and mobile search. Register today at the pre-agenda rate of just $995. That’s $400 off the rate procrastinators will get by...
• Google Named Top Global Brand -- Again
  Millward Brown, a unit of mega ad agency WPP, has named Google the world's top brand in its annual "Top 100 Most Powerful Brands" survey (report available here). The Guardian UK also covers the study. Millward Brown calculates the ranking based on corporate earnings, consumer survey data, projected future growth...
• The Midwest Earthquake & Search Engine Responses
  So the Midwest of the US was rocked by an unusual 5.2 earthquake. Looking at Google Trends, which shows popular recent queries, I can see people immediately hit the search engines with queries like illinois earthquake, chicago earthquake and midwest earthquake. So how did the search engines do? Especially...
• And Now, 'Google Me' The Movie
  Everyone has searched on his/her own name and some people even have real-time news alerts tied to their names. Now a new online documentary takes this vanity search phenomenon to a new level with Google Me the Movie. Part time actor Jim Killeen discovered there were six other Jim Killeens...