Daily SearchCast, May 15, 2008: Icahn Goes For Yahoo; Google Gets High; Ask.com Lives! (UPDATED WITH CORRECT FILE)

Carl Icahn makes his move on Yahoo. Google hits a new popularity high. Ask says they ain't dead! Plus more! PROGRAMMING NOTE: The Daily SearchCast next returns on Thursday, May 22.

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Stories Discussed In The Show

  • Icahn To Make Yahoo Move; Google Worries Yahoo Will Learn From Ad Deal
    More rumors about yesterday's news that Carl Icahn may want to take control of Yahoo. He apparently plans to nominate 10 directors to replace Yahoo's board later today, reports the Wall Street Journal, using an unnamed source. But Microsoft might no longer be interested in Yahoo. Plus, that Google-Yahoo ad...
  • Carl Icahn Makes His Move To Oust Yahoo Board, Which Has "Completely Botched" Microsoft Merger Talks
    As Danny reported earlier, Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is making a proxy move to oust the Yahoo board in an effort to reignite takeover talks with Microsoft. Just a few minutes ago a press release was issued by Icahn explaining his intentions and rationale....
  • Hitwise: Google Again Hits New High; Microsoft & Yahoo Again New Lows
    Hitwise released the latest statistics for search engine share in the United States for April 2008. Google has again hit a new high, jumping up 0.65% from the prior month's high, to 68% of the US search market. Microsoft and Yahoo hit all-time lows -- though Yahoo, at least,...
  • Ask.com Buying Dictionary.com Parent
    In a move that is interesting and perhaps even surprising for several reasons, IAC/Ask is buying Lexico Publishing Group, which owns and operates "iconic" domains Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. These sites get most of their traffic through direct navigation and will increase Ask's reach by 145 million unduplicated users (or...
  • Ask.com: We're Not Dead, Forbes
  • Google & Other Search Engines Dominate Traffic Drivers To Wikipedia
    When writing about Powerset this week, I covered how its hopes to gain Wikipedia users was complicated by the fact that Wikipedia itself gets so many people from search, rather than direct navigation. New stats (PDF) from Nielsen Online reaffirm this -- four of the five top referring sites to...
  • Supercharge Your URLs For Maximum SEO Impact
    When optimizing URLs for high rankings, little attention is given to optimizing the URL for maximum clickthrough. Yet the URL undeniably affects searcher clickthrough rates in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), as demonstrated by MarketingSherpa in their eyetracking study published in the 2008 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide. Specifically,...
  • Eight Keyword Research Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
    One of the reasons search marketing is so effective is that it delivers information on products and services to people who are actively seeking them out. People enter search terms into a search engine and the engine provides sites and ads that are relevant to the terms. This arrangement...
  • What Are Your Search Questions For Microsoft President Kevin Johnson?
    In about three weeks, I'll be asking Microsoft president Kevin Johnson, who oversees the Windows and Online Services division, questions relating to search as part of his keynote at our SMX Advanced search marketing conference in Seattle, June 3-4. I want your help! What questions would you like to see...
  • All New SMX Local & Mobile Agenda Now Up
    This year’s SMX Local & Mobile conference features two jam-packed days of cutting edge sessions, enlightening keynotes and stimulating networking opportunities. See the agenda here for this event, which will be held July 24-25 in San Francisco. SMX Local & Mobile is the only event 100% dedicated to getting internet...
  • How Search Engine Redirect Users To Country-Specific Sites
    Yahoo just started redirecting people in the UK who are trying to reach Yahoo.com instead to its Yahoo UK web site, something that Google has done for a long time. With the change, this seemed a good time to revisit how all the major search engines may intercept people trying...
  • Google Maps Adds "More" Button For Displaying Videos, Pictures, Wikipedia & More Content
    Google's LatLong Blog announced new ways of finding more content on Google Maps, including geo-tagged YouTube videos, pictures from Panoramio and localized Wikipedia content. We already covered the Google Maps Explore feature, but let me take you through similar content by way of the new "More" button. Lets travel to...

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