Highlights from the SEW Blog: Feb. 12, 2007

By Kevin Newcomb , February 12, 2007

We've collected all the search marketing news from selected 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

• Jason Calacanis Hates SEOs, But Loves What SEOs Do
  The fundamental problem here is the definition of SEO. Calacanis extols the value of clean page design, great content, and solid Web design. Guess what? So does every reputable SEO firm.
• Think Like a Search Engineer
  Understanding the way search engineers think can help you decide whether or not a new idea is worth trying. Knowing when you are taking risks, or making the decision to avoid them, can help scale your search engine marketing strategy to new heights.
• What Personalization Means to SEOs
  Has the reliance on rankings held back search marketers and their clients from doing some more advanced marketing?
• Google Clarifies Some Webmaster Guidelines
  Google has made some minor changes to its Webmaster guidelines, which appear to be aimed at clarifying policies rather than substantially changing them.
• Diller Sings Praises of SEO
  Speaking at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit in New York today, IAC's Barry Diller grumbled about a lot of things, but not SEO.

Search Advertising

• New Search Ad Management Tools Launched
  New search ad management platforms from ChannelAdvisor and iProspect launched this week.
• Yahoo Ad Ranking System Now Live
  Today's the day, as any search marketer not living under a rock for the past few months knows. Yahoo's flipping the switch on its new ad ranking model, so that bid price is no longer the sole factor in determining ad positions.
• FAST AdMomentum: Private-Label Contextual Advertising
  FAST launched a private-label contextual advertising platform for online media companies, retailers and telecommunications service providers, offering a way to monetize traffic to their sites.

Linking Issues

• Don't take the (link) bait
  At its core, marketing your web site is about building trust, building a good reputation, and effective marketing techniques. The term "bait" makes the whole thing sound like a game, when marketing your web site needs to be serious business.
• Google Enhances Its "Link:" Command at Webmaster Central
  Google's enhancement of its "Link:" operator allows researchers to discover many of the links that Google has indexed as pointing to a particular URL.
• Linkbait Rules As Linkbait -- Masterful
  Andy Hagans has successfully baited links from several search marketing blogs with his Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing.
• Google Adds Link Tools
  Google's Webmaster Tools now include in-depth reporting of inbound links to a user's site. The tool gives verified site owners a much more complete look at links than the existing link: operator.

Analytics & ROI

• Stone Temple Interview with Jim Sterne
  The Web analytics luminary shares his tips for new marketers, rules for success, and thoughts on the state of the industry.
• Nielsen to Acquire Remaining Shares of NetRatings
  The Nielsen Company, formerly VNU, plans to acquire the remaining interest in NetRatings for about $327 million. Nielsen has owned 60 percent of the company since 1998.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Has Powerset Found Its Edge?
  Semantic search startup Powerset has licensed some natural language search technology developed at PARC.
• Yahoo Adds Narrow Search Builder Template
  Yahoo today made some design enhancements to its Search Builder custom search engine.
• Mywaves Adds Personalized Mobile Video Search
  Video delivered to your phone based on keyword search is the essence of the new offering.
• Eurekster Adds Community Features
  Personalized/social search provider Eurekster has launched several new community-based features to its swicki platform.
• Niched or Vertical Approach Popular in Chinese Search
  In the last 30 days, both Yahoo and MSN have announced vertical initiatives into the Chinese market.
• All The Code -- New Search Engine for Programmers
  The source code search engine for the Java language has lots of development of its own ahead.
• Krillion Joins the Online Shopping Space
  Today, Krillion launched with a focus on local search for big box retailers. More specifically, it is going after buyers for "considered purchase" items.
• Graywolf Owns Local Search This Week
  Michael Gray, aka Graywolf, plans to post 20 interviews with local search marketers this week.
• European Telecoms Giants Planning Mobile Search Engine?
  According to a U.K. newspaper report this weekend, a consortium of European providers are teaming up to build a mobile-phone search engine.

Social Media

• Facebook on the Rise
  Partnerships with Comcast and Jobster could help the social networking site take on MySpace.
• Yahoo Launches Pipes, an RSS Remixing Tool
  Yahoo has unveiled a new data manipulation/mashup platform called Yahoo Pipes, "a hosted service that lets you remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment."
• Lycos Jumps Into the Social Mix
  Lycos MIX, a new bookmarking tool, lets users pull video clips from a variety of different sources across the Web.
• Will Splinter Communities Work?
  Web publishers are scrambling to provide their own outlets for user-generated content. This could be interesting to search marketers, especially if we’re able to reach bloggers or amateur video makers within more defined and splintered communities.

SEM for Small Businesses

• Video Advertising Gets Local
  If you bring in targeting capabilities and content volumes possible with IPTV and Web-delivered video, a compounding factor could be more favorable economies and a "long tail" effect of available ad inventory.

In-House & Big Brand SEM

• Super Bowl Advertisers Missed Opportunities
  How did Super Bowl TV advertisers integrate search into their media plan? Most of them did some search marketing, but very few did enough.
• Super Bowl Ads – Where’s the URL?
  There have been some good reviews of this year's always-anticipated Super Bowl ad crop, but the “URL visibility factor” did not rank so well.

SEM Industry Issues

• SEMPO Releases North American Search Report
  SEMPO has released its latest "State of Search Engine Marketing 2006" report.
• A Newcomer's Guide to SES?
  A guide for newbies to search industry events: which type of attendee are you?

More from the SEW Blog

• Is Google Radio Sinking? DMarc Founders Depart
  The founders of DMarc are leaving Google amidst reports of tension over Google's approach to radio ad sales.
• Google Hoping Smiles Are Contagious
  Google plans to wallpaper its office walls with pictures of smiling Google advertisers.
• Building Your Own Search Engine
  Google's core technology assets go beyond search engine algorithms to include massively deployed server networks operating in close harmony.
• Welcome New SEW Bloggers
  A warm welcome to our two new Search Engine Watch blog correspondents, Eric Enge and Grant Crowell.
• Miva Cutting Work Force By 20%
  Miva announced today it has a restructuring plan that calls for a 20% reduction in its workforce.
• Rand Fishkin, the SUPER Man
  Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz comes clean with a super secret... he was "that guy" who wanted to propose to his girlfriend during a Super Bowl commercial. She said yes.
• What’s Serendipity?
  When you find a story you wouldn’t have normally read, that’s called serendipity in the newspaper world. The WSJ says serendipity is alive and well at online newspapers too.

Search Headlines

We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You'll find more news from around the Web below.

• Improving Ad Quality, Part II, Yahoo Search Marketing Blog
• 7 Rules for Landing Page Optimization, Optimize and Prophesize
• Large Search Engines Have Only 30% Of Search Query Traffic, David Ogletree
• Google Using Search Engine Scrapers to Improve Search Engine Relevancy, SEO Book
• Open Season on Search Marketing, Biznology
• Web Analytics, SEO, and Site Usability, ClickZ
• The gradual building of context, Web Analytics Demystified
• Sure Fire Headline FOR Google AdWords Boosts ROI by 200+%, MindValley Labs
• Nine Reasons You Should Be Using and Watching Facebook, Sugarrae
• Digg Rock Stars, TechCrunch
• Google Potential Deal To Buy AdScape Hits Snag; Looking At Others, paidContent
• Little Known Way To Determine How Much To Advertise, Rimm-Kaufman Group
• The Most Measurable Medium? Yeah, Keep Telling Yourself That, ClickZ
• What If We Don't Get Digital Advertising to Scale?, ClickZ

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