Highlights from the SEW Blog: Feb. 5, 2007

By Kevin Newcomb, Search Engine Watch, Feb 5, 2007

Featured posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web.

From the SEW blog:

Organic Search

• More Users to See Personalized Google Results
  Google has just increased the prominence of its personalization tools, including its personalized homepage and personalized search options. Beginning today, they will be turned on by default for all new users with a Google account, and some personalization options will be auto-enabled for users with existing accounts.
• Yahoo Site Explorer Gets Updates
  Yahoo has updated its tool for webmasters that shares what Yahoo knows about your site in terms of indexed pages and links.
• Plan Your SEO for the Long Haul
  Most SEO firms can be divided into two camps -- short-term "algorithm chasers" or far-sighted SEO practitioners who build keyword-focused, search-friendly, user-friendly Web sites.

Paid Search

• Google Shares Tips on Addressing Click Quality Concerns
  Google Click Quality team member Julian puts a kinder, gentler face on the mystery team by sharing a bit about what his job entails, and talking about some of the more common advertiser concerns.
• Yahoo Gives Tips To Improve Quality Score
  In advance of Monday's implementation of its new ranking algorithm, Yahoo is sharing tips with advertisers to create ads that will work well in the new system.
• KeywordDiscovery offers free search term suggestion tool
  Trellian follows Wordtracker's lead in offering a free version of their popular keyword research tools to fill the gap left by a faltering free tool from Yahoo.
• Affiliates and PPC
  Are affiliates the cause of high PPC search ad costs for merchants? Many merchants are taking steps to prevent affiliate arbitrage.
• Miva Gets Vertical
  Miva has added a vertical offering to its pay-per-click ad network in the U.S. and U.K.
• Google Refutes Click Fraud Numbers, Once Again
  In response to the latest click fraud report from Click Forensics, Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder has responded in a two-part post on his personal blog.
• Wordtracker launches free keyword suggestion tool
  While Yahoo is experiencing problems with their free keyword tool, Wordtracker has seized the moment to release a free version of its popular tool.
• Click Fraud Numbers Up, Content Networks Near 20%
  A Click Forensics report found 2006 click fraud numbers reached 14.2% overall and 19.2 for clicks from search engine content networks. High-spend terms (clicks of $2 or more) averaged 20.9% click fraud.
• Yahoo Keyword Tool Not Dead Yet
  Earlier reports that Yahoo's keyword research tool is being discontinued are not true, according to a Yahoo spokesperson. Apparently, issues with the Keyword Selector Tool being inaccessible are due to volume, and the tool is not in danger of disappearing.
• Keyword Research Industry Still Lacks a Clear Choice
  Keyword phrase research is perhaps the most important part of any search engine marketing campaign. Unfortunately, the majority of the available services are lacking when it comes to bet-the-farm-on-it certainty of search numbers and predictions.

Link Issues

• Can Mainstream Media’s Adoption of RSS and Web 2.0 Spur Consumer Adoption?
  A number of prominent mainstream media publications that have added Web 2.0 buttons to their pages. Is this the beginning of mass adoption?

Analytics & ROI

• Search Seen as Most Effective by Marketers
  According to the latest study from eMarketer, paid search ads were reported as the most effective tactic by 49 percent of marketers, and SEO jumped up from 33 percent to 45 percent in 2006.
• ComScore, FM Team Up for Analytics Research
  ComScore Networks has teamed up with John Battelle's Federated Media (FM) Publishing for a research and development initiative to come up with a way to measure audiences of blogs and community-driven sites.
• Make ROI Your New Year's Resolution
  Search marketers who blame Google's latest algorithm shift or quality score update for their traffic woes are like brick and mortar store owners blaming the city for their poor customer traffic, says Bryan Eisenberg in today's SearchDay.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• A New Local Search Product From Yahoo
  Yahoo is testing a new local search product in Bangalore and New Delhi. Known as OurCity, it is a city guide-like product that brings together a bunch of Yahoo social media products like Del.icio.us, Upcoming, and Flickr.
• MTV Networks Demands YouTube & Google Remove Unauthorized Videos
  MTVNetworks and its parent company Viacom issued a "takedown order" to Google demanding the removal of its protected content from YouTube.
• MTV/YouTube Spat Growing for Months?
  Even before Google bought YouTube, there were rumblings of secret deals with content owners to create rev-share deals to avoid this kind of legal action. Apparently Viacom was not one of the providers that reached an acceptable agreement.
• blinkx Launches Video Widget for Integrating Video Into Websites
  Right now this is a neat feature for enhancing blogs and Web sites with video content, but it sure looks and feels like a base for offering contextual advertising for video.
• A Look at the Next Generation of Search?
  Today's SearchDay looks at the five companies chosen to present at the AlwaysOn Media conference in the "CEO Showcase" session in search.
• SuperPages.com Combines Local Search with Social Networking
  SuperPages.com has launched a Reviewer of the Week program, intended to add the trust garnered from social networking and reviews to their local content.
• A Look at Yahoo's Local Ad Options
  Patricia Hursh digs into Yahoo's local search advertising options, post-Panama.
• Retailers Should Focus on SEO, Shopping Search
  Retailers should move beyond their traditional paid search campaigns and pay attention to SEO and shopping search engines, according to a new study from TrafficLeader.
• Searchforvideo.com Adds Drop Down Search Functionality
  The online video clip directory, which aggregates and indexes references to video clips but does not host or stream online video content, has added drop-down search functionality to select individual online video publishers.
• Midomi a New Entrant in the Growing Voice Search Market
  The just launched Midomi search engine combines voice search with a social network. Anyone with a microphone hooked to their computer can search or add to the database by singing, humming or whistling their favorite tune.
• YouTube Video Creators to Share Ad Revenues
  YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley has confirmed for the BBC that YouTube expects to roll out an ad model that includes revenue-sharing for video creators who upload their content to YouTube.

SEM Industry Issues

• Google, AOL Report Earnings
  Google had another good quarter...AOL, not so much.
• A Tale of Two Summits
  New York this week was home to both the SIIA and AlwaysOn Media conferences.
• Live From NAA: Local Search Takes Center Stage
  The general chatter in and around the Newspaper Association of America Marketing Convention in Las Vegas this week has a palpable air of online strategy development.
• More Search Share Numbers
  Nielsen/NetRatings released its December search share numbers, and Hitwise adds in January search volume numbers.
• SEMPO Names Board of Directors Nominees
  There are 37 nominees for the SEMPO board of directors, which will be narrowed to 13 by members next month.
• Google Fights for Its Trademark
  Google has sued serial trademark litigant and self-styled "intellectual property entrepreneur" Leo Stoller for false advertising, unfair competition and RICO violations for claiming that Stoller owns the Google trademark.

Search Headlines

NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication's search facility to search for the headline.

• A Long-Delayed Ad System Has Yahoo Crossing Its Fingers
• The Science of Search Engine Rankings, ClickZ
• 3 Steps to Customized Landing Pages
• Google is Not My Mother, and Should Kill Personalized Search, Graywolf's SEO blog
• Google Testing Left Side Tabs?Online Marketing Blog
• Things Yahoo Doesn't Want You To Know, Search Marketing Gurus
• Guillaume's Round-Up of SEOmoz's Best SEO Training Posts - Part 1, SEOmoz
• Marketing through online communities, Pronet Advertising
• What Your SEO Strategist Won’t Tell You, 15 Digital Marketing
• Evolution of a Search Engine, Google Blogoscoped
• Pixsta Visual Search For Shopping Sites, Read/Write Web
• Wasting Link Authority on Ineffective Internal Link Structure, SEO Book
• Google, Fox Renegotiating and Extending Advertising Deal, TechCrunch
• Quality Standards, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog
• Are User-Generated Web Sites Breaking The Search Engines’ Algorithms?, Search Insider
• AdSense increases publisher earnings to $250 for new AdSense referrals, JenSense