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Upcoming Seminars: SEO and Conversion Rates: Hand-in-hand - RX for Large Paid Search Advertising Campaigns: Anatomy of an Enterprise Solution - Big Brand Search Engine Optimization: Managing Large Campaigns

Stories Discussed In The Show

• PubCon Vegas ‘08 - Day Three Coverage
  The third day of the sessions at PubCon is now complete. If you missed the sessions, do not worry, here is live blogging and coverage from several search and Internet marketing blogs across the web.
• Jerry Yang Stepping Down As CEO; Resuming Chief Yahoo Role
  Yahoo has announced that Jerry Yang, Yahoo's founder and current CEO, will be stepping down from the CEO role after Yahoo finds a successor. Jerry will resume his former role of Chief Yahoo when the new CEO comes in. All Things Digital has posted the email Jerry sent out to the company; I will include the email below.
• The New Yahoo CEO: Let The Speculation Games Begin
  Wait, they already have. PaidContent posted a fairly comprehensive roundup yesterday of possible successors to outgoing Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. (Yahoo is up in early trading on the news of Yang's resignation, which was received favorably by most financial analysts.) PaidContent also poses the question: will the board go with a tech executive or a media executive? The answer is that Yahoo needs someone comfortable in both worlds.
• Citing Risk, Google Ends Yahoo Paid Search Deal
  Only days after the two companies submitted a modified proposal to try and win the favor of anti-trust regulators, Google has unilaterally decided to discontinue its paid-search agreement with Yahoo, citing “a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners.”
• Microsoft Says It’s Open To Search-Only Deal With Yahoo
  Coming just 24 hours after the resignation of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is saying publicly that Redmond is "open" to a "search collaboration" with Yahoo but not a total acquisition of the Sunnyvale company. The Wall Street Journal and Seattle PI report on the remarks, made during a Microsoft shareholder meeting. Meanwhile, Valleywag says that Yahoo has lost Sean Suchter, a key search executive, to Microsoft.
• Search Biz: MSFT Spends On Lobbyists To Save On Yahoo; Google Book Deal Gets Tentative OK; WSJ Says ‘Extinction’ Threatens Yellow Pages & More
  By almost doubling its spending on lobbying, Microsoft managed to kill the Google-Yahoo ad deal and may also have saved itself millions of dollars on a Yahoo buyout. That's the case made by Declan McCullough today on CNET. McCullough explains that Microsoft spent about $12-$14 million per year on lobbyists between 2005 and 2007, but so far in 2008 that figure has soared to almost $25 million. And if the new Yahoo CEO goes back to the negotiation table with Microsoft, that could save MSFT a lot of money:
• Search Biz: Yahoo & AOL, Again?; IAB On Ad Revenues; Debating Google’s Evilness & More
  Does anyone want to dance with Yahoo? Well, Bloomberg is reporting that Yahoo is continuing to talk with Time Warner about buying AOL. The report says the two companies have met "in the past few weeks," and are discussing a plan where AOL's advertising business would be given to Yahoo in exchange for Time Warner receiving a stake in the combined company. Spokespersons for both Yahoo and Time Warner declined to comment on the report.
• Microsoft Does MSN Toolbar Distribution Deal With Java
  Continuing on with its strategy to build search share by gaining distribution partners, Microsoft has landed a deal to have its MSN Toolbar offered to anyone in the United States who downloads Java for Internet Explorer.
• Microsoft Trumpets Cashback Successes
  Microsoft Live Search Cashback launched with great expectation in some quarters that it would grow Microsoft's search share dramatically. That, so far, has failed to happen. But Microsoft says it is making progress toward its own more realistic goal of growing commercial search traffic over the long term, highlighting some new figures it says show progress in that area.
• Win A New Car! Live Search Offers Canadian Searchers Prizes With “Big Ticket Search”
  Ars Technica reports Microsoft is now trying a new way to incentivizes searches, this time in Canada. Microsoft launched Big Ticket Search to influence Canadians to search using Live Search. Canadians can win wide range of prizes, ranging from 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer SE to gift certificates. Every time a Canadian searches at Big Ticket Search, they have a chance to win one of the 1,488 prizes being offered. The prizes include:
• Yahoo Wins T-Mobile “Default Search” Business
  Yahoo's oneSearch will be the "default" search engine on T-Mobile's new Web2Go portal. Yahoo has such a relationship with T-Mobile in Europe already. In the US, Yahoo also provides mobile search to AT&T. Verizon and Google are battling for similar "default" status on Verizon handsets. Both Google and Microsoft have a relationship with Sprint.
• Verizon Wireless Moves Closer to Choosing Microsoft As Default Search Provider
  Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was trying to “steal away” an almost-done default search deal between Google and Verizon Wireless that would have given Google a high-profile presence on Verizon handsets. Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the US with more than 80 million subscribers (post Alltel acquisition). Reuters now reports that Verizon is “closer” to choosing Microsoft as default search vendor to replace Google.
• Video: Google Mobile iPhone App With Voice Recognition Now Available
  The Google Mobile Blog announced that the Google Mobile iPhone App, now with voice search, is finally live as an update in the iTunes App store. So I downloaded this morning and decided to offer you a video demonstration of how it works. Before showing you that, let me link you to some of the coverage we have seen so far. Matt Cutts of Google has not only one, but two useful posts demonstrating the features. Waxy shows the behind the scenes on how it works. Plus you can see more coverage at Techmeme.
• Yahoo Brings “Glue Pages” To The US
  Yahoo has announced that Glue Pages are now live in the US market. Barry wrote about Glue when it first appeared in India. Glue Pages are essentially structured search results, pulling content on particular queries or topics from a range of sources: Wikipedia, news, Yahoo Answers, image search, blogs (in some cases) and video. There are also paid search ads on the page. The sources change with the particular topic and not all topics are available, although the Yahoo Search Blog says more will be added over time.
• Google SearchWiki Launches, Lets You Build Your Own Search Results Page
  Google will announce today the launch of SearchWiki, a major addition to its user interface that allows users to edit search results. When using SearchWiki, you can re-order, remove, or add web pages to the search results for any query. You can also add notes to specific listings. You have to be logged in to a Google account so that the changes you make will be saved and shown the next time you run the same search. "This is a way for search to adapt to a more interactive experience," says Google Product Manager Cedric Dupont. "We ran a bunch of experiments, and the response was overwhelmingly positive from our users. They asked for this feature."
• Google To Change Product Development Steps; Means Major Changes To “20% Time”
  Google looks to users' needs from the Australian IT reports that Google's Stuart Smith, their new strategic planning director of Google's Creative Lab in New York, is seeking to change how Google develops its products. Instead of Googler's developing things they personally find useful, Google seems like they may change that process to see what audiences really want. Says Stuart Smith: "What typically happens is it is just a load of engineers producing a load of things and then refining until it finds an audience." What Smith wants to see is for Google "to look at audiences and understand audiences and say 'perhaps there is a need over here -- let's meet that need'." In short, it seems to me that Google wants to change its product development philosophy, which is famous for coming up with ideas like Google Reader, Gmail, AdSense and tons of other popular products. Yes, these mostly came from Google's "twenty-percent time."
• Google Institutes ‘Unofficial Hiring Freeze’
  I’m struck that people always seem interested in stories that appear to reveal Google as “an ordinary company,” subject to the same rules and economic pressures as others. That’s partly schadenfreude, partly about Google as internet bellwether and partly about Google’s own self-promoted uniqueness and related curiosity about how long it can be sustained. But Google is a company that ultimately, like other companies, is about earning money and not immune from the pressures of the recession we’re now in. Accordingly, the company is looking for cost savings and has recently tightened controls over its free food and a few other perks. There is also, apparently, a de facto hiring freeze now in place at Google.
• Search Biz: Wall St. Flips On GOOG; Google Canning Slackers & More
  When Google went public in August, 2004, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin made no secret of the company's disdain for how the Wall St. system of analyst ratings and recommendations works. They wrote a letter saying they had no interest in trying to manage analysts expectations and keep Wall St. happy on a quarterly basis. You can imagine how they're feeling this week as Wall St. keeps changing its mind on how Google will fare in the slowing economy.
• Google Kills Lively
  The Google Blog announced they will be discontinuing Lively, Google's Virtual World project. In short, they said that Lively is simply "not going to pay off" and that they will be closing it down by the end of December.
• Drill, Baby, Drill: Google Finance Gets Ads; Google News Testing Them
  In my Ad Age column last month, I joked about Google taking a "drill, baby, drill" approach in rolling out more ads everywhere on its properties. Now the latest ad reservoir to be tapped: Google Finance, as announced today on the Google Blog. You'll find a new box as shown above sporting ads on the Google Finance home page, as well as ads that are running along the sides of internal pages:
• YouTube Formally Introduces ‘Sponsored Videos’
  YouTube is formally announcing “sponsored videos.” This is an evolution and expansion of what was has been informally running under the heading “promoted videos.” The effort seeks to marry Google AdWords bidding and targeting with YouTube video content. Accordingly, it’s an auction marketplace but somewhat simplified vs. AdWords. And while there apparently will be a view from AdWords of sponsored videos the two marketplaces are largely separate — for now.
• Google AdWords Testing New User Interface
  The Google AdWords blog took the proactive approach and blogged about a beta test they are running on a small group of AdWords users. The beta is a new user interface for the AdWords management console.
• Google’s New Search-Based Keyword Tool Tells You What Keywords You’re Missing
  Google released a new keyword tool tonight, named the Search-Based Keyword Tool. This tool goes beyond what the other Google tools provide and tells you what keywords you are currently missing out on based on search query data from your site's content. I spoke with Google's Baris Gultekin, Business Product Manager about the tool. Baris explained that the value in this tool is that it gives advertisers a look at keywords that they are currently not advertising for, that might bring in a positive ROI. For example, a site that sells watches can use this tool to find a popular model or brand that they are currently not advertising for. Beyond the advertisers point of view, you can use this as a nice competitive analysis tool. You can see data about which keywords are relevant to any site on the Internet -- so, if you are getting into a new line of business and want keyword data, just plug in the site's domain and click go. Let me take you through some screen captures of the tool.
• Yahoo! BOSS Adds Key Terms Feature
  In July Yahoo! launched their BOSS API, which enables you to "build your own search service". Today, they've expanded the functionality of that API by adding a Key Terms feature. The technology used in Key Terms is the same used for Search Assist, which provides search suggestions and enables searchers to explore concepts related to the query. Yahoo! says they're adding this feature in response to developers' requests for greater access to "deep infrastructure assets". The Key Terms feature uses term frequency and positional and contextual heuristics to return ordered lists that describe a web page. Each result returned for a query includes associated metadata of up to 20 terms that describe that result. In the blog post announcing the feature, Yahoo! uses a sample query of [obama] to illustrate that the first result, change.gov, includes key terms metadata such as Vice President-elect, President-elect, American, and lobbyists.
• Microsoft Live Search Releases New “Silk Road” API With Ad Support
  Microsoft today released version 2.0 of its Live Search API, also called "Silk Road," that offers support for multiple data exchange protocols, access to more search resources and the ability for developers to pull in ads to help monetize search applications they build.
• “Googlers” & “Proctoids” Swap Jobs To Learn From One Another
  A New Odd Couple: Google, P&G Swap Workers to Spur Innovation from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google and Procter & Gamble are engaging in employee swapping. Google is known to have a very relaxed and free work environment, while P&G is known to have a very strict and rigid environment. P&G's employees often are referred to as "Proctoids" because of the rigid work atmosphere. So the two companies are teaming up to learn from each other. Or that is how it appears. Two-dozen employees from each company have swapped jobs, sitting in on training programs and staff meetings to learn how each company runs. Is it about learning new management styles from each other? I am not sure.
• Google Hosting Time-Life Photo Archive, 10 Million Unpublished Images Now Live
  TimeWarner and Google have announced that starting today Google will make available millions of images from the Life Magazine photo archive. The vast majority (97 percent) of these images have never been seen by the public (they were sitting around in physical envelopes). These are hard-copy photographs that have been or are being scanned by Google and will be hosted by Google. They will show up in Google.com and Google Image search results. All these photos are available in high-resolution (5 and 6 megapixels). The images will be free to use for "personal and research purposes" but will be digitally watermarked to prevent unauthorized or unlicensed commercial uses. There are links to appropriate contacts for those who want to use the images commercially.
• Google’s Site Search Gets Faster; Yahoo’s Goes Away
  Google has upgraded its Site Search tool to give users more control over the frequency that Google spiders a site. But, if you think this is something that will help your site's performance on Google.com search results, it won't. Site Search is Google's on-site tool for individual websites; you use it to add a search engine to your own website. The new feature, On-Demand Indexing, lets site owners tell Google to index their site by clicking a button, rather than waiting for Google to do it on its own schedule.
• Google Offers SEO Starter Guide
  Google is getting into the SEO consulting business. Well, not quite. But, Google is now formally offering an “SEO Starter Guide” with practical advice for webmasters about improving search engine visibility and increasing traffic to a web site. It comes in the form of a 22-page PDF announced today on the Webmaster Central blog and at the PubCon show in Las Vegas. According to the Google reps at PubCon, this is the same guide Google uses internally for its own sites (YouTube, etc.).
• Search Biz: Google Gets NYC Directions Wrong; Google’s Privacy Headaches; Wal-Mart Doesn’t Want Your Links
  From the "How Not To Promote Yourself" file: Google is advertising its Google Maps service on the New York subway system with a few well-placed ads that give directions between points of interest in the city. Only the directions they're giving aren't always right. As AdAge points out, one ad tries to help people find their way from Grand Central Station to Madison Square Garden ... but the directions actually send you to Times Square. D'oh! Not exactly how you inspire confidence in the accuracy of your maps service there, G.
• Argentina Forcing Google & Yahoo To Censor Search Results
  In response to court orders, Yahoo and Google are censoring search results in Argentina about a variety of celebrities, including public officials, models, actors, and sports stars. According to an in depth article on OpenNet Initiative, this has been going on since 2006 and more than 100 people have succeeded in getting Google and Yahoo to filter search results in Argentina.Who’s Got The Flu? Google Flu Trends Reveal State-By-State Activity
  Wondering if it’s just you or if others have the flu, too? Google’s announced a new tool that tells you. Google Flu Trends allows you to see flu activity across the United States. How’s Google doing this? Is it now indexing actual human beings, in the way it does web pages? Nah. Turns out that when you’re sick with the flu, you search for that word and other flu-related topics. Google can tell which areas are seeing a spike in flu-related searching, and from that, trends can be plotted.
• Jeeves Returns To Ask Jeeves; Ask.com Still Shuns Him
  Try it, go to askjeeves.com, notice how it redirects you to ask.com and then shows you the old Jeeves character.
• A Small Business Search Marketing Thanksgiving From A-Z
  Thanksgiving is almost here, and as the McGee family sits down at a table full of turkey, stuffing, and potatoes next week, we'll do our regular Thanksgiving tradition: From A-Z, each family member takes a letter and shares something s/he's thankful for this year. In that same spirit, here's a list of things that small businesses can be thankful for -- one for each letter of the alphabet -- this Thanksgiving. These are things that can make the difficult challenge of online marketing a little easier for any small business.