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

• SEW Experts: Google PageRank: Simplified
  Google's PageRank may be the single most divisive element in the search optimization game.
• SEW Experts: SEOs, Don't Just Do Something, Sit There!
  The Internet has changed everything for everyone. If you don't believe and act on that, you won't survive, plain and simple.

Search Advertising

• Google to Test Video Ads on SERPs
  Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of search products and user experience, said that just as video ads are not effective on pages of text-based search results, text ads are not effective on search results with more multimedia elements, like Google's universal search results.
• SEW Experts: Google AdWords Targeting: Expect More, Pay Less
  Google AdWords placement-targeted campaigns on the content network can be a useful tool, if you can find the sites that support it.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• SEW Experts: The Great Nofollow Link Debate of '08
  What started as a way to stop comment spam three years ago has turned into one of the most controversial topics in search.
• YouTube New Features - A Marketer's Perspective
  It's been an interesting week for YouTube this week--especially for those of us working in SMO or SMM (social media marketing), who spend our days marketing clients through YouTube videos.

Analytics & ROI

• SEW Experts: Landing Page Optimization Defined for SEM
  Search marketers need to be concerned about landing page optimization because it can multiply the impact of your search marketing campaigns.

Local & Mobile Search

• AOL to Distribute Citysearch Content, Ads
  Amidst all the secret talks of mergers and deals between the top search players, AOL and IAC have agreed to a distribution deal.
• Yahoo OneSearch T-Mobile vs Google vs Nokia
  The players change partners as the mobile phone is fast becoming the gateway to the Internet, Wireless Web and local search.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• SEW Experts: Universal Pictures: Optimizing Video for Search
  We hear a lot about universal search and how it will keep SEO professionals on their toes with constantly evolving ranking algorithms. So how can local online advertisers take advantage of universal search?
• Largest Legal Vertical Search Engine Launches: Public Library of Law
  The world's largest legal vertical search engine launched today in a partnership with legal research provider Fastcase.

Small Business/Big Brand SEM

• SEW Experts: High Performance SEO Requires Fast Load Times
  Many large companies assume that site speed isn't very important to the overall user experience, but they'd be wrong.
• You Must Be 21 to View This Site: Yahoo Searchlight Award
  The third annual Yahoo Searchlight Award winner: "Partay" the whitest boys in the room hip-hop video promoting the responsible consumption of Smirnoff Raw Tea by search marketing firm Outrider.

In-House & Outsourcing

• SEW Experts: Search Engine Marketing Career Development
  Why would anyone want to become an SEM professional? Well, it's a hot, growing, in-demand field, and everyone wants a piece of it.
• SEW Experts: SEO Outsourcing: Don't! Until You Read This
  One basic rule in life: it's difficult to buy things you don't understand. SEO can be difficult to understand, especially for marketing folks who'd rather put the search budget into PPC campaigns.

SEM Industry Issues

• Microsoft Shuffles Execs, Berkowitz to Exit
  Microsoft packed a number of promotions and departures into the press release. Most notable among them is the departure of Steve Berkowitz, who left Ask.com to join Microsoft nearly two years ago.
• Yahoo Mails Letter to Shareholders: Full Text
  Yahoo mailed a letter to shareholders outlining the reasons the Board believes Microsoft's proposal significantly undervalues Yahoo and isn't in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders.
• Yahoo Layoffs Top 1,000 Employees in U.S.
  Yahoo layoffs may top 1,000 employees before the U.S. mass layoff ends.
• UK search marketing survey goes live
  Online publisher E-consultancy in conjunction with search agency Neutralize (*\*) are conducting follow up research to last year's UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report.
• SEW Experts: The Search Monopoly Transforms
  Google, Yahoo, and MSN have been going at it like cats and dogs in the press. Much of the hype surrounding the three tech powerhouses coming together in the United States centers around a monopoly discussion.
• SEW Experts: Microsoft Responds to Yahoo: a Micro, Who Cares?
  Who wins or loses the Microhoo battle won't change the mission of most search marketers: helping clients or employers acquire leads and customers, and generating online sales.
• Microsoft Won't Take "No" for an Answer
  Microsoft made it clear that it would continue with its plans to acquire Yahoo, one way or another.
• Israeli Town Suing Google
  Google is being sued by a northern Israeli town because Google Maps claims it was built on an old Arab village.
• What's it Really Like to Work at Google?
  Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik shares what it's like to work at Google, hang out with the beautiful people, dream in color, and manufacture atomic-powered ideas from intellectual metal.
• Another AOL Exec Leaves
  AOL says aloha to strategic ad exec Dave Morgan, founder of AOL-acquired Tacoda.
• Yahoo Formally Rejects Microsoft Bid
  The board believes that Microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo.
• AOL Yahoo Talk Merger - Microsoft Rebuked
  The i-banks are advising Yahoo on mergers with media and technology firms that might snatch Yang & Co. from the jaws of Microsoft.
• Yahoo Board Escapes MS Bear Hug: Yahoo Jitsu!
  Rumors are rife that Yahoo may tag out in search, tapping its former tag team partner, Google, to crush Microsoft.

Searching/Search Technologies

• Adult Films Vivid Asks Google, Yahoo to Protect Kids
  Vivid CEO Steven Hirsch, speaking at Yale University, will call on Google and Yahoo to take measures to keep explicit material from children, according to a company press release.

More from the SEW Blog

• Seven reasons to slip over to Islington for SES London
  So, why would you want to slip over to Islington for a few days to attend Search Engine Strategies London? Let me give you seven serious reasons.
• Win a Free Pass to SES New York with the SES Affiliate Program
  If you're planning on going, you probably want to tell your clients, readers, and friends. To make that worth your while, we've teamed up with Pepperjam Network to create the Search Engine Strategies Affiliate Program.
• Tag your Photobucket , Picasa and Flickr photos: SES London 2008
  If you're going to Search Engine Strategies London next week, bring your camera or cameraphone, and don't forget to tag them with "SES London 2008."
• YouTube Channel launched for SES London 2008
  The television writers strike drove a record number of restive viewers to the Internet in December.
• Find Your Dream Job with the New SEW Job Boards
  If you're reading Search Engine Watch, it's likely that your skills are in demand, or soon will be, if you're just starting out. To help you make the most of your search marketing skills, we've launched the Search Engine Watch Job Board.
• The adventure of going to SES London for the first time
  About half of the attendees at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 Conference & Expo in London will be going to the event for the first time.
• Doodle 4 Google: Artsy-Craftsy March Madness
  Google pits kindergarteners against high school seniors in a Darwinian graphic arts contest to design a Google logo.

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.

• Data-Driven Marketing, ClickZ Experts
• A Big Roundup Of Link Building Tools, Search Engine Land
• Virtual Blight & The Ten Commandments For Online Marketers, Search Engine Land
• Yahoo Makes Big Customer Satisfaction Gains In Search, Search Engine Land
• A Chat with Analytics Guru Jim Sterne, SEM Clubhouse
• SES London 2008 Interview - Piers Stobbs, Endless Plain
• Pre-SES London interviews: Piers Stobbs, comScore, SEMPO Global Search Blog
• On Leaving Yahoo, Brad Horowitz
• How to Build a Bad Ass Brand in 5 Easy Steps, SEO Chicks
• Should You Really Care What Bloggers Are Saying About Your Business?, Search Engine Guide
• Make the Most of SEO Competitive Research : Evaluating the Competition, Search Engine Journal
• The Fallacy of SEO Celebrity, Online Marketing Blog
• The Desire for Fame in the SEO World, SEOmoz
• Mike Blumenthal on the Local Search Market & Strategies for Local SEO, SEOmoz
• Increasing the Value of Conference Moderators, Dan Perry

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