No Yahoo Re-org This Week; 'Creepy' Google; Google Buys BlindType & More [Search News Roundup]
Yahoo, which has been bleeding executives lately, won’t announce a new organizational structure this week, and has lost two more execs, All Things Digital reports.
Gone are SVP of Media Products and Solutions Jeff Kinder and SVP for Cloud Computing Shelton Shugar. CEO Carol Bartz reportedly met with senior leaders Friday and promised changes to stabilize the company.
One of Yahoo’s soon-to-be-departed execs, Hilary Schneider, will stay on after her resignation takes effect Dec. 31 to provide transitional services until April 29, for which she’ll receive a $420,000 lump payment.
With this exodus of talent, criticism is mounting from advertisers confused about Yahoo’s strategy.
“I am not sure what Yahoo wants to be,” Edward Montes, exec VP of Havas Digital, told Advertising Age. “What is it doing with RMX, Associated Content, News, Finance, Mail, Mobile? There is not too much in the way of information on anything.”
Here’s a roundup of this morning’s other top search headlines and tips from around the Web, sorted by category.
Search Industry
Schmidt: Google gets ‘right up to the creepy line’ – The Hill
Google CEO Eric Schmidt: “There is what I call the creepy line. The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.” Here’s the full video:
Google’s Add / Submit URL Form Goes Offline – Search Engine Roundtable
Engineers working to restore it, though Google’s spiders generally discover new URLs just fine if you have a link from a page that is regularly crawled.
Google Instant and Special Characters – Google Operating System
Google Suggest isn’t very helpful if your query includes symbols like # or $.
Google Chrome Only Browser to Show Measurable Growth This Year – Mashable
IE is down slightly; Firefox and Safari are stagnant; Chrome continues incremental growth.
Official: Bing xRank Is Dead – Search Engine Land
Service tracked most popular search queries on Bing (and Live Search previously), and had special sections broken out for celebrities, musicians, politicians, and bloggers.
What Can Search Predict? – Yahoo Search Blog
What people are searching for today can be predictive of what they will do in the near future.
Search Advertising
Google, Yahoo, AOL Join Self-Regulation Push for Behavioral Ads – ClickZ
More than 50 of the largest Web ad firms will take part in a potentially far-reaching program launching today.
Pharma Marketers Scared to Test Google Ads, So Google Does – ClickZ
For heavily regulated pharma ads, Google says low CTR is a good thing.
Social Media Marketing
Facebook Introduces Lifetime Budgets For Ad Campaigns – All Facebook
Instead of putting an amount to spend per day, you put in a lifetime budget to spend across the finite lifetime of the campaign.
Twitter Boosts Profile of Promoted Trends Ad – ClickZ
Ad unit moves to the top of the site’s trending topics list.
Social Media Isn’t Free – ClickZ
Seven social media marketing expenses to consider and five social media marketing metrics to monitor.
Link Building
3 Things Link Building has Taught Me about Life & Vice Versa – Search Engine Journal
Jennifer Van Iderstyne discusses how the business of getting links is like the business of trying to live a decent life.
Local & Mobile Search
Google Acquires Impressive Touchscreen Keyboard Startup BlindType – TechCrunch
BlindType’s technology allows you to type on touch screens without even looking at them. Here’s a demo:
Microsoft sues Motorola over Google Android – Seattle Times
In a federal court lawsuit, Microsoft alleges nine counts of patent infringement.
How Google Might Automatically Insert Links to Google Maps in Web Pages – SEO by the Sea
A recently published patent application from Google describes how it might identify location information on web pages, verify the locations found on those pages, and insert links to maps after finding and verifying them.
Google Pulls Dead Body Images From Street View Brazil – Search Engine Land
Google removes images that showed dead bodies on local streets.
Car Home for Android Gets Personal – Google Mobile Blog
Google releases a new version of Car Home for Android (only for Nexus One and Motorola Droid).
SMB Search Marketing
Small Business Essentials Series: Writing Convincing Ad Copy – adCenter Blog
The importance of brand, products, incentives, and a call to action when designing ad copy.
International Search
Using Search Advertising in an Integrated Media Plan – ClickZ
Here’s how SEM can amplify your marketing message across offline and online channels.
SES Chicago
Get Search and Social Smart with Content Marketing at SES Chicago 2010 – TopRank Online Marketing Blog
Lee Odden previews SES Chicago, plus gives a sneak preview of his Day 2 presentation on Content Marketing Optimization.
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