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Stories Discussed In The Show

• Microsoft "Cashback" Program Aims To Lure Commercial Shoppers With Rebates, Marketers With CPA Model
  Microsoft has invested heavily in Live Search and seen its search relevance and results improve but so far not its market share. The company believes its core search results are as good as what you'll find on Google or Yahoo. But its share is flat-to-declining, depending on which of the...
• Playing With Live Search Cashback
  Microsoft launched Live Search Cashback and Greg will have a more detailed post on his pre-briefing. But I wanted to take you through the experience of using Cashback as a searcher. It has been a rainy week here in New York, and I figured I would start my search and...
• Hey Microsoft: Bribing Searchers Is Fine; Frustrating Them Is Not!
  I've got no problem if Microsoft wants to "bribe" searchers to use its search engine. Even Google has done the same. But the Live Search Cashback program rolled out today seems a pretty inept way to do it, far more likely to disappoint and frustrate than woo searchers....
• New Windows Live Mobile Search Ads Beta, Homepage That Emphasizes Social Networking
  Microsoft this week has done a number of things in the mobile space, in addition to its introduction of the Live Search Cashback program on the desktop (which presumably will extend to mobile search/shopping). Windows Live launched a new homepage for mobile and the company introduced graphical ads and paid...
• MicroHoo Act III: Microsoft Looks For A Piece Of Yahoo, Yahoo Offers A Bland Response, Facebook Wants Its Independence
  Yahoo responded late last night to Microsoft's statement that it had proposed a new deal but something less than a full acquisition. The Yahoo response was boilerplate and bland and betrayed nothing about Yahoo's potential receptiveness to a scaled-back deal. The speculation and rumor is that Microsoft wants to buy...
• Today's MicroHoo Roundup: Google Considers Its Response, Google Says It Would "Hire" Yang, Icahn Might Be Thwarted By Slimmed-Down MicroHoo & MSN Reorgs
  Yesterday at Google HQ in Mountain View, during the Q&A session following the discussion of Google Health, a reporter sneaked in a question about Microsoft-Yahoo. Marissa Mayer declined to answer the question, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Brin and Page were mulling their collective response to the new...
• Potential Google Paid Search Deal With Yahoo Faces Anti-Trust Scrutiny
  The NY Times covers the issue of whether Google's potential paid search deal with Yahoo can survive anti-trust scrutiny. The bottom line involves analysis of how the deal might impact the marketplace and whether it would reduce competition and lead to higher prices for search marketers....
• Nielsen: Google Hits New Search Share High
  Another ratings service shows Google hitting an all-time high for search share in the United States. This is according to April 2008 search share stats from Nielsen Online that were released (PDF) today. Last week, Hitwise also reported Google hitting a new record. Microsoft also dips below the 10...
• Display Stumbles As Search Remains Strong
  The NY Times has a wide ranging article that discusses online ad trends and the apparent weakening of the display segment, which is roughly 21 percent of online ad spending. The article discusses how marketers are looking for measurable results and concrete audiences and in that context niche networks/sites are...
• The "Google Factory Tour": Display Ads Coming In Image Search, Google Health Live
  I'm at the "Google Factory Tour," which is presenting bloggers and the press with an update on the state of search and search-related product development at Google. Apparently there are going to be some updates on Google Health later. The first announcement today, however, is about the integration of image...
• Screen Shots Of Google Health
  Greg Sterling is now at Google, for the Google Factory tour and the news is already buzzing about the US launch of Google Health. Greg may swing by and postscript with some of the details he learned from Google's presentation, until then, let me share with you screen captures of...
• US Congressman Quizzes Google Again On Privacy
  Lawmaker questions Google over privacy practices from Reuters reports Texas Rep. Joe Barton from the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee quizzed Google on how they will integrate DoubleClick's data with their own. Some questions posed include how user data from DoubleClick would be merged into Google's data,...
• US Senator, Lieberman, Asks For Al-Qaeda Content To Be Removed From YouTube
  US Senator, Joe Lieberman, asked Google's Eric Schmidt to remove terrorist videos, including those of Al-Qaeda, to be removed from YouTube. In response, Google has removed some of these videos. Lieberman, in his role as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs explained "Islamist terrorist...
• A Deeper Look At Google's Search Quality Efforts
  Udi Manber, VP Engineering, Search Quality at Google wrote a fairly long post at the Google Blog on introducing search quality to the public. In short, Udi explains the various teams within the search quality group and explains what each team does. I will highlight below the parts I personally...
• A Webmaster View Of Google's Latest Search Quality
  Since Google posted on how their search quality stuff works, I figured I take the webmaster view and tell you what webmasters and SEOs have been seeing from Google's search quality as of late. As many of you know, my other search blog, the Search Engine Roundtable, covers webmaster and...
• Doing A Fake Story For Linkbait? Disclose -- Or Face The Wrath Of Google
  Link baiting entered a new area last week when Lyndon Antcliff had success with a fake story being picked up by some mainstream media sites as well as social news sites. Controversy erupted over the tactic, and now it likely will go into a second cycle after Google's Matt Cutts...
• You Can Search Techmeme
  You can now search for past Techmeme articles directly on the site or at http://techmeme.com/search/. Techmeme's founder, Gabe Rivera, announced the new feature today at his blog. He explained that the Techmeme search engine only searches full headlines on Techmeme, in reverse chronological order but not "discussions" listed under the...
• Google Feeling Green: Testing Green Color Scheme
  iCrossing reported noticing that Google is showing a green user interface within the Google Directory search results and also, in some occasions, for main Google web search results. The most shocking green interface is when you look compare the typical blue bar to a green bar, when Google is showing...
• Bienvenido To Search Engine Land En Español!
  We're very happy to announce Search Engine Land en Español, which is being produced by our SMX Madrid partners OME. It has launched to coincide with the opening of the first SMX Madrid show tomorrow. On the site, you'll find selected articles from Search Engine Land which have been translated...
• Google Announces Doodle 4 Google Winners
  And the winner of the "Doodle 4 Google" competition is... Grace (Suryung) Moon, a 6th grader from Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley, California. She designed the Google logo, "Up in the Clouds," which she said, "expresses a world in the sky." The logo is now featured on Google's...