IndustryThe Search Engine Update – Number 235 – Dec. 19, 2006

The Search Engine Update - Number 235 - Dec. 19, 2006

Search Engine Watch's recap of top search engine stories, featuring exclusive content for members during the month of December 2006.

Managing Editor, Search Engine Watch

Copyright (c) 2006 Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC

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In This Issue
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+ Upcoming Search Engine Strategies Events
+ Greetings & Introductions – Meet the new SEW Staff
+ Top Stories from December
+ More From The Search Engine Watch Blog
+ Our Search Newsletters & Feeds
+ About The Newsletter

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Upcoming Search Engine Strategies Events
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Not really an “SES” Event, but it is what I like to call a “taste of SES”, as our fourth SEW Live! event continues its tour to alternative cities. I will be hosting our next Search Engine Watch LIVE! event, to be held at the Adams Mark Hotel in Dallas, Texas, on January 25, 2007. This informal, afternoon event features local speakers from the Search Engine Strategies series, and other special guests, dicussing the hottest topics in search marketing.

In addition, a morning training session has been added, focusing on strategies for Keyword Research with Christine Churchill of Key Relevance and Dan Thies of SEO Research Labs, as workshop leaders.

See the SEW Live! in Dallas web site for full details. Aside from Dallas, here are other upcoming SES events:

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Greetings & Introductions – Meet the new SEW Staff
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In our last issue, Danny Sullivan said goodbye, and so I am now saying hello to all of our loyal readers. Some of you may know me already, from either the SES circuit, or from the Search Engine Watch discussion forums, where I have acted as an Admin for over 2 years. Since April 2006, I have been the Managing Editor of Search Engine Watch, working behind the scenes under Danny’s direction, and taking care of day to day site operations. As we move foward into the new year and a new direction, you will likely be reading a lot more from me, here in the newsletters and on the SEW blog. You may also read more about me here.

During SES Chicago, Rebecca Lieb was named editor-in-chief of the ClickZ Network, which includes Search Engine Watch, and in her new role, she will now be responsible for the editorial direction of Search Engine Watch. Rebecca and I have already been working closely together to assemble a new staff of search correspondents, and are actively working on plans for the site in 2007. So far, our initial efforts have been met with an enthusiatic response from the search community. Rebecca posted her thoughts on her role as editor-in-chief, and a little bit about the direction of Search Engine Watch going forward.

As I just mentioned, we have been putting together a new staff of blog correspondents to bring you search news as it happens and these search experts will provide critical insights on happenings within the search industry. To help coordinate this effort, Kevin Newcomb joins us from ClickZ, as the daily news editor for both sites, and he will be putting together the SearchDay newsletter starting in January 2007.

I would also like to take a moment to introduce a few of the experts, and their respective topic areas, who have already joined us on the SEW Blog:

  • Chris Boggs: Organic Search & Industry News
  • Michael Boland: Local Search
  • Greg Jarboe: News Search
  • Debby Richman: Social & Behavioral Marketing
  • Frank Watson: Paid Search
  • Amanda Watlington: Multimedia Search

You can read more about the new staff members on this page, and check it for future additions, as we are continuing to build our staff and coverage areas.

Finally, at the end of the year, we also say goodbye to Chris Sherman, currently Executive Editor of Search Engine Watch, and producer of the daily SearchDay newsletter. We wish Chris all the best, although he will still be involved with the planning of Search Engine Strategies shows during 2007, as is Danny Sullivan.

We look foward to continuing the members’ only newletter, and we are committed to delivering insightful, exclusive articles by search industry experts on a regular basis. As always, we value your feedback! Please send your comments, questions or concerns to [email protected].

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Top Stories from December
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Below is a recap of major articles from our daily SearchDay newsletter and important Search Engine Watch Blog postings since the last newsletter. Want to receive these stories daily or via RSS/feed? See the Search Engine Watch Newsletters & Web Feeds page for sign-up instructions.

=== Dec. 5, 2006 ===

Next-Gen Keyword Research Tools Part 1 of 2 by Christine Churchill: Keyword research tools have evolved dramatically over the past decade, and now offer feature-rich options that no serious search marketer can live without. Today and tomorrow SearchDay takes an in-depth look at two of the best next-generation keyword research tools on the market.

=== Dec. 6, 2006 ===

Keyword Research from Hitwise Part 2 of 2 by Christine Churchill: Ever wanted to spy deep inside a competitors search marketing campaign? A competitive intelligence tool from Hitwise shows you exactly which search terms are driving the most traffic to your competitors’ web sites.

Major Corporate Reorganization at Yahoo! – Yahoo announced a sweeping reorganization, creating three operating groups and shuffling top execs. As of January 1, the company will realign its operations into two customer-facing groups, one for audiences, and one for advertisers and publishers. A third operating group will focus on technology. See also:

=== Dec. 7, 2006 ===

Study: Search Driving Offline Conversions for Local Service Businesses New research suggests that internet users are increasingly relying on search to find local service businesses, potentially taking mind-share away from traditional print yellow pages and classified advertising.

Botnets and Click Fraud and Terrorists, Oh My! – Webmaster Radio’s Jim Hedger caused quite a stir with his exposé on botnets, click fraud, and terrorists profiting from Google’s AdWords program.

=== Dec. 10, 2006 ===

Forbes.com Reports on Search Arbitrage – Forbes did an article on search arbitrage Friday featuring interviews of Jeremy Shoemaker and Michael Gray. Shoemaker said he had made $2 million over the past two years arbitraging Google.

=== Dec. 11, 2006 ===

Google Says Click Fraud Makes Up Less Than 2% of Invalid Clicks – Google’s click fraud guru Shuman Ghosemajumder says click fraud makes up less than 2% of all “invalid clicks”, which means the actual click fraud rate is more likely just a fraction of one percent.

=== Dec. 12, 2006 ===

Geeking out on Statistics Finding reliable statistics on the web isn’t always easy, but a massive central data source called Nationmaster.com offers a handy way to search multiple stats repositories.

Yahoo “Panama” Platform Opens to US Advertisers – An earlier-than-expected launch in October for existing Yahoo advertisers has apparently gone well, since Yahoo today opened up the platform to new U.S. advertisers. The move will still be optional, and does not yet include the new ranking algorithm, which will be put in place in the first quarter.

Va. Pushing For Sex Predator Register Email, IM Info – In a move that could help keep track of sex predators’ whereabouts on the web, Virginia legislators will vote on a bill in the New Year that will require sex offenders to register all email and IM names they use online.

=== Dec. 13, 2006 ===

Shopping Search, Via Mobile Phone: Many popular shopping sites offer mobile versions of their search tools, which can be especially useful for those always on the go.

Ho, Ho, Ho – Holiday Shopping Search Skyrockets – This year’s Cyber Monday numbers shattered the record books, with significant increases of online shopping site visits and a reported $600 in online retail sales, up about 42% over last year. But to call it the biggest online shopping day of the year may be premature.

=== Dec. 14, 2006 ===

Nayio Gives New Meaning to “Hum Me a Few Bars . . .” – Navio has launched a new search tool which will guide consumers to songs even when they don’t remember the words.

New social search engine, Decipho, launched today

=== Dec. 15, 2006 ===

Google Apps Gets a “D”For Domain Registration, that is. Google announced today that Google Apps for Your Domain now offers domain name registration services via eNom and GoDaddy.com, as part of the website management services offered by Google.

=== Dec. 18, 2006 ===

Keyword Research Best Practices – Correspondent Chris Boggs makes some observations on a thread at Search Engine Watch forums by Paid Search Guru Ian McAnerin. A member had asked Forum visitors which industries they “would not touch with a 10 foot SEO pole?”

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More From The SEW Blog
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Below are posts from the Search Engine Watch Blog since the last newsletter and not mentioned above. Want to keep up on daily news from the blog? Visit the home page or subscribe to the blog feed. Note that references to “I” may becoming from any of the Search Engine Watch staff who post to the blog.

=== Dec. 18, 2006 ===

2006 Top Searches – Following Yahoo’s release on December 4 of its top searches for 2006, last week AOL, Lycos and MSN Live released their top searches for the year 2006.

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=== Dec. 15, 2006 ===

Yahoo!’s Overture Korea Renews With Top Korean Engine Naver – Yahoo! announced it has resigned their agreement to provde Naver, Korea’s leading search portal, with their sponsored search listings.

Jaxtr Providing Phone Links To Social Networks – Jaxtr launched a phone application that connects people at social networks and blogs without needing to download a desktop application.

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=== Dec. 14, 2006 ===

Microsoft Improves Monthly Budgeting in adCenter – Microsoft has tweaked the monthly budgeting settings in adCenter to spread a campaign’s impressions more evenly across a month.

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=== Dec. 13, 2006 ===

Blogger declares page view stats are dead – Steve Rubel, a senior VP in Edelman’s Me2Revolution practice as well as the author of the popular Micro Persuasion blog, also writes a column for Advertising Age.

Yahoo! Organic Rankings Update Confirmed – Yahoo! has been updating its organic search results database since Sunday night and states they will complete the process by the end of today, December 13, 2006. Initial feedback is naturally louder on the negative side, but the topic is being discussed in various areas, including the Yahoo! Search Blog announcement from Tim Mayer.

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=== Dec. 12, 2006 ===

Search Results Getting Safer – McAfee’s SiteAdvisor monitors the changes in search results and measures the level of what they call “dangerous” sites in all the major engines.

Mamma.com Launches New Video Search Engine – Mamma.com has launched a Video Search engine in Beta format.

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=== Dec. 11, 2006 ===

Ingenio Grows its Mobile Pay-per-Call Network – Pay-per-call provider Ingenio has added JumpTap, the mobile search provider behind Alltel and other carriers, to its ad network. It now has five mobile partners, including AOL and Microsoft.

US State Dept. Uses Google When CIA Says No – When the CIA refused to share the information with the State Department, a junior Foreign Services agent was assigned the task of using Google to make a list of possible names.

Berkowitz Tells NYT about Microsoft’s Challenges – Steve Berkowitz, former CEO of Ask.com and now senior VP of Microsoft’s Online Services Group, overseeing Windows Live and MSN speaks with the New York Times.

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=== Dec. 10, 2006 ===

WhoToTalkTo.com: Job Search Engine With a Twist – This method of growing a job listings site reflects the growing use of social networking. How the experiment works in this niche should be interesting to watch.

November Search Trend Data Released by Compete.com – Compete.com, a new search popularity tool bar and measurement service, similar to Alexa, released their data for November 2006.

Baidu Starts Chinese Blog Search Engine

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=== Dec. 5, 2006 ===

SimplyHired Teams With New York Post, Launches Resume Post Service – SimplyHired, a vertical search engine focused on employment, has partnered with the New York Post to supplement that publications job listings.

Avenue A | Razorfish Releases “Actionable Analytics” Report – The report discusses in detail the topics of media analytics as well as web site analytics and CRM issues.

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=== Dec. 1, 2006 ===

SEW on “The Alternative” Webmaster Radio Show with Jim Hedger – Get the archived Mp3 file here.

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Our Search Newsletters & Feeds
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News each day, throughout the day, alerts of new discussion threads from our Search Engine Watch Forums and more — we have a newsletter or feed that covers all of these. See our Search Engine Newsletters & Web Feeds for a full rundown on everything we offer, as well as special buttons to let you subscribe via news readers such as Rojo, My MSN, Bloglines, Feedster, Newsgator, Pluck and My Yahoo. Thanks to FeedBurner for providing our feed tracking and management services!

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About The Search Engine Update
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The Search Engine Update is a twice-monthly update of search engine news. It is available only to Search Engine Watch members. Please note that long URLs may break into two lines in some mail readers. Cut and paste, should this occur.

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