Below, a recap of stories posted yesterday to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:
From The SEW Blog...
- Search
Engine Strategies Latino, Miami, Florida - Day One
Day one of the first ever Search Engine Strategies Latino edition is pretty much complete. The networking cocktail is taking place now, there is a Google party tonight and also some Yahoo boat thing. I have managed to cover the Landscape & Tactics tracks, so here is the roundup. + The Opportunity: Tapping Into US Hispanics & Latin America Via Search + Search Landscape: US Hispanics + Search Landscape: Latin America + The Challenges Of Search Marketing To US Hispanics & Latin Americans I also took pictures of the sessions and outside of the hotel, you can see them here.... - Kayak
Launches $10m Ad Campaign - Includes TV
Kayak, the travel search engine, today launched a $10m advertising campaign with a HUGE offline component. The TV commercials are fun, creative, and potentially viral. It's no coincidence that the spots can also be found on Kayak.com and YouTube. This is either a brilliant move by the company or a sign that Bubble 2.0 is here. You decide after checking out the commercials and then reading my interview with Kayak CMO Dean Harris and my thoughts on the campaign. Kayak is also running a contest encouraging the creation of user generated ads in the same style as the official Kayak... - Yahoo
Buys Land In Santa Clara
The San Jose Business Journal reports that Yahoo has purchased 42.5 acres in Santa Clara. The price of the land was not disclosed, but we do know they bought it from San Francisco's TMG Partners. Yahoo's CFO, Sue Decker, said: "We see this as an attractive asset that provides attractive additional capacity and flexibility for Yahoo's future. We are planning for future growth and will analyze several different scenarios over the coming year regarding the development of the property."... - Judge
Orders Google To Disclose Advertiser's Information
Out-Law reports that Google was ordered by Justice Rimer to hand over the information on an advertiser to Helen Grant for copyright infringement. Helen Grant "complained that a Google advert led to a service which she claimed violated her copyright in a forthcoming book." A search brought up a site named Realityunlocked.com, "which offered a free download of an earlier draft of the book, and that the site violated the Trust's copyright." Google asked Grant to take the issue to court, this way Google does not have to worry about the privacy issues with handing over the information.... - Matt
Cutts Of Google Comments On Recent Listings Issues
Last week we reported that Google may have revealed the spam scores to the world. Well, Matt Cutts came back from vacation and he confirmed the data "was real." He promised not to "comment on what any of it means" but at least we know Google is part of the borg. Just kidding. I doubt we will see a treasure like that again, but if we do, it would be interesting to see if Google does add "extra settings for fun," such as ?initial_time_travel_wormhole=?Wednesday, December 31 1969 11:11 pm."... - Google
Binary Search Not Only Finds Malware But Also Shows Signs Of More
PCWorld reports that Google's binary search feature came in handy to locate "thousands of malicious Web sites, as well as several legitimate sites that have been hacked." The feature reads executable files and can locate some malicious code within those files. It was used to help find malicious sites and programs by a security vendor named Websense. The article also explains that binary search may be a sign that "Google may be thinking about becoming a file searching service."... - Eric
Schmidt Claims The PPC Model is "Self-Correcting" In Terms Of Click Fraud
Donna Bogatin reports that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt claims that click fraud is "self-correcting." Meaning, Eventually, the price that the advertiser is willing to pay for the conversion will decline, because the advertiser will realize that these are bad clicks, in other words, the value of the ad declines, so over some amount of time, the system is in-fact, self-correcting. In fact, there is a perfect economic solution which is to let it happen. So the "let it happen" quote, in terms of Eric Schmidt saying let click fraud happen, has been buzzing through the blogging community. Schmidt writes off... - Yahoo
Trip Planner Released From Beta
Yahoo is taking is community-travel site Trip Planner out of beta. The site has reached a kind of content critical mass and Yahoo has added some cool features in this general release:Trip Journals (blogging; photos can be imported from Flickr) Map-Based Search (You can drag the map and zoom to areas within countries for more specific options) Yahoo! Search Integration There are also a travel recommendations engine based on travel search history, as well as clipping and tagging functionality In addition to being a useful travel site, with rich user-generated content, in many ways it?s the most impressive expression to... - Click
Packages Draw Local Advertisers Into Search
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports on the "bundle of clicks" search distribution packages that all the major yellow pages publishers in the U.S. are now selling to their local advertisers. Here's an amazing quote from Simon Greenman, SVP of digital products at R.H. Donnelly, "Our strategy is to connect our customers with their customers wherever they may be." That's a radical statement for a yellow pages executive to make because he's not asserting that print yellow pages is the best lead generation vehicle "and we also have Internet." He's saying Donnelly is "agnostic."... - The
Changing Face of Local
This ClickZ article discusses a new JupiterResearch report called "Local Advertising: Blending Categories to Compete Effectively." The article doesn't go into great detail about the findings or conclusions from the report. But based solely on my reading of coverage in the article it appears to make two relatively straightforward observations about local: Search engines/portals could steal traffic and potential ad revenues from yellow pages and other stand-alone local sites that seek to cater to traditional directory advertisers The local product definition is changing and categories are merging as the distinctions between classifieds, service listings, local retail and user-generated content and... - New
Landing Page Quality Score Announced for Google AdWords Advertisers
The Google AdWords blog has announced new changes that will be seen next week that will result in some advertisers faced with higher minimum bids to keep their campaigns running on AdWords, as a result in changes being made to the landing page quality score algorithm. While a small number of advertisers will be affected, AdWords is targeting those landing pages that offer a poor user experience to those who click the ads.... -
SuperPages For Sale
Verizon has formally filed with the SEC to sell its directory unit, which contains the print yellow pages and online yellow pages/local search businesses. A likely sale could bring as much as $15 billion. And because AT&T does not look like it's going to spin off its directory business, SuperPages could fetch a significant premium.... -
Specialty Search Roundup #6
Another week and another set of specialty databases and "research" news for your review. These items have been posted to ResourceShelf during the past week or so. They have also tossed in non-searchable but useful (and fun) reference newsletter and a link to a new mobile version of Reuters for the U.S. Finally, don't forget that The World eBook Fair is now underway offering free, full text and downloadable access (PDF files) to more than 300,000 titles. Why now? This summer Project Gutenberg celebrates its 35th anniversary. The World eBook Fair lasts through August 4th....
Other Things We Read, Didn't Blog But You Might Want To Read...
- Google testing GDrive (Codename Platypus), Geekness
- MSN Search Updates Algorithm on Weekend, Search Engine Roundtable
- Ringtone Spam In Google News, InsideGoogle
- Yahoo! Answers and Vertical Search Big Winners from UK Homepage Redesign, Hitwise Blog
- The Plot To Hijack Your Computer, BusinessWeek
- Fortune Interactive Upgrades SEMLogic, Releases Demo Video, Marketing Pilgrim
- Tips for Non-U.S. Sites: Inside Google Sitemaps
- Payment Schedule Update, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog
- Google - cult or corporation? The Register
- Google Earth worries ISRO chief, wants dialogue, Hindustan Times
- Tech Firms Go Mining for Megawatts, Washington Post
- Web Firms Press Visions of 'Social Search', ABC News
- Will Google still rule as net advertising grows?, The Business Online
- AOL moves to pure advertising model, what about shareholder Google?, C|Net
- Yahoo Packs Its Bags, Forbes
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