Search Headlines & Links: Mar. 8, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day’s search marketing news? Here we’ve collected today’s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

• Google Enhances its Local Business Center
  Google has added a few new features to its Local Business Center, the place where businesses can enter information to show up on Google Maps.
• Payne to Leave Microsoft?
  Christopher Payne, VP of Microsoft’s Windows Live Search group, is reportedly leaving Microsoft after 14 years to start his own company.
• AskCity Adds Search-Enabled Drawing Tools
  Ask.com is adding new tools to its AskCity local search product, which allow a searcher to define a geographic search area by drawing on a map.
• Flixfind.com – A Directory of Movie-Related Sites
  When you tire of all the user-generated movies on YouTube and want 90 minutes of pure escapism, nothing beats a trip to the movies.
• Call for Case Studies
  Do you have a great SEO case study story that you would like to tell? We’d like to publish a few here on SEW.
• Beware of Averages
  Too many marketers spend their time adjusting to what they see as the average visitor, instead of going beneath the surface to find out what’s really going on.
• AP, Microsoft Joint Venture Video Platform
  The Associated Press is launching a new Microsoft-powered video platform to help its news affiliates better monetize their online video content.
• Is Amazon Hedging Search Engine Bets?
  Amazon seems eager to find an alternative to its dependence on mainstream search providers, investing venture capital in Jimmy Wales’ Wikia.
• Wikipedia To Check Poster Credentials. Are Employees Next?
  Perhaps Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia should have started their credential-checking plan a bit sooner. If they had, the now infamous “Essjay,” aka Ryan Jordan, may not have been able to claim he was a professor of theology instead of a 24-year old college dropout.
• The Future of Search is for the Nimble
  The complexity of search and its constant changes is more conducive to small business adapting quicker, according to Christine Churchill.
• Online Ad Spending Reaches New Heights
  The IAB reports that online ad revenue for Q4 2006 reached a new height, climbing 32 percent to nearly $4.8 billion, with 2006 full-year revenue estimated at $16.8 billion.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

• Microsoft Research Focused on Search, Silicon Valley Watcher
• Top Questions to Ask a Potential Paid Search Vendor, SEO’Brien
• Paid Search: Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth?, Search Matters
• Using Paid Search? Here’s How You Can Maximize the Impact of Your Ads., 10e20
• Dear Marketing: Why Do You Hate Me? Love, Usability, Cre8pc
• Simply Successful Secrets, Today is that Day
• Not Trapping Users’ Data = GOOD, Matt Cutts
• Q&A With Omniture’s CEO, ClickZ
• No Ads, No Video Search, Marketing Shift
• My Yahoo Gets Web 2.0 Makeover, Read/Write Web
• A Lesson Learned From the Pasternack SEO Contest, Search Insider