Featured 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:
- Citysearch Bolstering Local Ad Sales Teams
Citysearch is pulling out the big guns to compete in the local search ad arena. The IAC-owned company just opened a new sales office in Atlanta, and expects to have 180 people in the new location by June, in inside, outside and national sales. - Wikipedia External Links Now "Nofollow"
A new SEO contest has led Wikipedia to reverse a decision made just over a year ago and return to its policy of applying rel="nofollow" to all outbound links. - SEMPO Launches Training Program
A new Web-based SEM training program is open for enrollment. The first course, "Fundamentals of Search Marketing," provides a high-level understanding of search marketing essentials in a 14-lesson course. - Dave Pasternak Sticks to His Guns
The Did-it co-founder continues to bash SEO, comparing it to baking a cake. Paid search, on the other hand, is hard work. - Google Tests Video AdSense
A test of AdSense video distribution and sponsorship with a small group of publishers will begin over the next few weeks. - Future of Search: The European View
Yahoo's Richard Firminger predicts 2007 will see advertisers and search companies respond to consumers becoming more demanding and sophisticated in how they use search engines. - Search Is The Ticket, For Movie Distributors
There's a correlation between search expertise and how movies are delivered and sold online. - It's Elementary, My Dear Watson
Intellext and AOL launched the AOL@SCHOOL desktop sidebar, designed to help K-12 elementary school students with their homework, but without having to search the open Web for the answers. - Yahoo Announces New Content Match Products
Yahoo announced today that it will be adding to the areas where and the methods how content ads will be served. - WhitePages.com Expands People Search
Expanding further from its phone directory roots, WhitePages.com has added third-party results from Web search, public records, and professional profiles, and a fledgling e-mail search product. - Yahoo To Add Quality Score To Panama Feb. 5th
Starting next month, Yahoo will begin using the new "Panama" ranking algorithm for U.S. ads, which will incorporate quality in addition to keyword bid price. - Brand Advertisers Not Warming Up to Google
It seems many brand advertisers are not happy with Google's attempts to appease them. Google's overtures to brand advertisers are being resisted by Madison Avenue brands for a simple reason: Google insists on trafficking and reporting all the ads itself. - Google Video Searches Integrate YouTube Content
Since closing its acquisition of YouTube in November, Google has not done much to integrate or lay out its plan to differentiate Google Video and YouTube. That changed today, when Google started showing YouTube video results in the Google Video search index. - The Blogosphere Sounds Off on Hyper-Local
The Web has commoditized national news. The only way to differentiate it is to have a specific angle of coverage at which you excel, unique voices that demand a premium, or to leverage a position that can't be replicated by aggregators: local. - AdSense Launches Ad Placement
Publishers can allow advertisers to select channels inside their sites and get more specific in their selection of pages. - Microsoft Still Hopeful, But Not Happy With Search Share
"Advertising revenue grew 20 percent over the quarter and we're happy with that," said Chris Liddell, Microsoft's CFO. "On the search side, we lost market share, and we’re clearly not happy with that." - Googlebombs Defused
It seems that Google's Web spam team is sick and tired of the practice of linking an unflattering phrase to a person's name to make a (usually political) statement.
Search Headlines
NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication's search facility to search for the headline.
- Panama Migration: Industry Feedback, Traffick
- Search Personalization Will Not Kill SEO, SEO Book
- YouTube to share ad revenue with original video uploaders, JenSense
- Video Search Catches Up With Video Tagging, ClickZ
- SEM Shops, Market Valuation, and "Strategy", Traffick
- Email Still a Key to Link Building, SEO Book
- The Search Tax: Are Search Engines Leeches?, ClickZ
- A Link Is Not A Vote, It’s A Pointer, Search Engine Journal
- Q&A With Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products & User Experience, Search Engine Land
- Ex-Yahoo Exec now Pageflakes CEO, GigaOM
- Search engines require text, SEO Buzz Box
- Cherry-picking search engines, SEO Theory
- SEM Seven Year Itch - Part Three, Net Profit
- A Few Questions For Joe Kraus, Searchblog
- Google, Brands and the Bottom, Screenwerk
- Amazon Quietly Launches Amapedia, a Wikipedia For Products, Read/Write Web
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