IndustryThe Search Engine Report – Number 113

The Search Engine Report - Number 113

Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan recaps top search engine stories from March 2006.

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THE SEARCH ENGINE REPORT
April 4, 2006 – Number 113

By Danny Sullivan
Editor-In-Chief, Search Engine Watch
Copyright (c) 2006 Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC

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In This Issue
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+ SES: Forward Planning & SEW Live!
+ Elisabeth Osmeloski Named SEW’s Managing Editor
+ Top Stories
+ More From The Search Engine Watch Blog
+ Daily SearchCast: Search News Via Podcast
+ Our Search Newsletters & Feeds
+ About The Newsletter

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Elisabeth Osmeloski Named SEW’s Managing Editor
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I’m happy to announce that Elisabeth Osmeloski, our hard-working SEW Forums editor, is now taking on the expanded role of being Search Engine Watch’s managing editor.

Elisabeth will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations of the SEW Forums, as she’s been doing since they launched in June 2004. However, she’ll now be helping me revitalize and maintain the Search Engine Watch site overall.

In particular, we’re looking to ensure we keep more of our primer material fresh to help those new to search marketing, while also making changes to ensure that the many things SEW offers — forum discussions, archived information, current news, original coverage — is more easily accessible to those coming to the site.

It’s great to have Elisabeth coming on in the new role! Elisabeth’s promotion hasn’t yet been posted to our staff page, but that will happen shortly.

I should also mention that Chris Sherman and I had title changes last month. Chris, formerly SEW’s associate editor, became the site’s executive editor. He continues to carry on with overseeing SearchDay and working with me on the site’s overall editorial direction and coverage. My title shifted from editor to editor-in-chief, and I continue to be responsible for the site overall.

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SES: Forward Planning & SEW Live!
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Missed SES New York, SES China or SES Germany this year? Not to worry — we have more events coming up in the next few months!

April sees SES Japan, SES Italy and SES Toronto happening. Chris and I can’t make every show, so we won’t be at the first two. But we will be in Toronto. Chris has organized that event, and I’ll be doing a keynote for it. Also just announced is Jim Lanzone, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Ask, to keynote SES Italy.

In May, our Search Engine Watch Live! event happens in Seattle. This is a low-cost, half-day information and networking event. We have two panels and lots of time for search marketers in the area to talk informally. I’ll be there, as will SEW managing editor Elisabeth Osmeloski who is organizing the event. Local guest speakers from the greater Seattle-area include Jennifer Slegg, Rand Fishkin and Heather Lloyd Martin. More details are available here.

At the end of May, May 31 through June 2, SES London happens. It’s our longest-running non-US event and the first to expand to three days. Then in July, SES Latino happens in Miami, our first event targeting the US Hispanic and Latin American market.

August sees our regular SES event return to the US. SES San Jose happens early in the month, and my timeline on when you can expect that agenda is posted here.

Doing forward planning beyond this? See the Search Engine Strategies site and also keep an eye on the Search Engine Strategies Blog. News of our SES Local Edition event in Denver this September and our SES Multimedia Edition event in LA in October will be up shortly.

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Top Stories
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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.

=== Apr. 4, 2006 ===

AdWords Adds Position Preference Feature; Opt-Out For Positions You Don’t Like – News from our Search Engine Watch Forums that Google is rolling out a new “Position Preference” feature allowing advertisers more ability to control where exactly their ads will appear. It’s important to understand that the feature doesn’t guarantee or spot or helps get you a better chance at one. Instead, think of it as “opt out” for positions you don’t want.

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Putting Search in the Ad Mix – Search advertising used to be an afterthought, but now search has become a fundamental part of the overall advertising strategy of most major brands. The longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members goes into more detail, with specific tips and suggestions from each of the experts profiled in this article.

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The Thrill & Danger Of Measuring Relevancy Through Ego Searches – Last week, you may recall that Ask got a rave review from the Wall Street Journal. Robert Scoble saw that, then did an ego search for himself and decided Ask doesn’t measure up based on that. Fair criticism? Sure, to some degree. But then again, it’s easy to take a single search for anything and show that any of the “leaders” in search have problems, as well. See also Ask.com Gets Good Mossberg Review in WSJ.

=== Apr. 3, 2006 ===

AOL Enhances Mobile Search, Announces Study Results – AOL has added several new features to its mobile search service, and has also released the findings of a recent mobile lifestyle survey. See also: MSN Local Adds Send To Mobile Phone Feature.

=== Mar. 31, 2006 ===

Google’s New Local Business Ads – Google has launched Local Business Ads, a new feature that lets advertisers put their ads — complete with logos — on maps within Google Local as well as elsewhere on Google. See also: How To Add Your Local Business Ad In Google AdWords.

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Search Engines Forum Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Who Cares If Google’s A Portal – Local Search Still Not Cutting the Mustard – Private Search Engines Explored – Anyone Checking Out ecomXpo? – XHTML and SEO – Ask and PPC Advertising, and more.

=== Mar. 30, 2006 ===

Trademark Protection, Copyright and Search Engines – What do you do when someone is playing fast and loose with your intellectual property online? A panel of legal experts offer suggestions for a range of potential scenarios.

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The Google Portal – Last week’s launch of Google Finance revived the entire “Is Google A Portal” question. I previously wrote in my article on how I saw Google Finance as being closer to Google’s search mission than some other products it has launched. Still, Google’s got plenty of other things that firmly put them into the “stealth portal” or “Portal 2.0” category for me. But does it matter if Google’s a portal? One reader recently asked me this. Maybe not; maybe so, especially given their own denials. A further look at that, plus some related commentary around the web.

=== Mar. 29, 2006 ===

Ask.com’s New Motto: Be Evil? – Coverage of Danny Sullivan’s keynote conversation with Barry Diller at Search Engine Strategies conference, continued from yesterday’s Danny Sullivan Asks Barry Diller article.

=== Mar. 28, 2006 ===

The Latest Click Fraud Roundup – Google might be about to settle a click fraud case, but the issue remains very much in the minds of the major media. A summary of some pieces. If you’re a Search Engine Watch member, the longer version of this post goes into more depth to review both of those, along with some other click fraud articles out there. See also:

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Searching BG, Before Google, And The Need To Search Better – Just when you think stupid articles that assume we couldn’t search BG — Before Google — have come to an end, the New York Times gives us another one. An opinion piece by Edward Tenner, explains how Google and its rivals today have made searching too easy and thus people aren’t leaning about proper searching strategies. I agree with Tenner in the end, but he takes a convoluted and mistaken argument to get there.

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Google Recipes! Google Careers! Google Confusion! The UI Madness Continues – Item 3 on my 25 Things I Hate About Google list was “Stop confusing people. Pick a user interface and go with it!” The past few days only prove my point, as I’ve seen everything from Google Recipes to Google Careers being reported as new features while others play with their cookies in order to get a green bar vertical search implementation.

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Official Google Blog Deleted, Blogger Registers googleblog.blogspot.com – Google accidentally deletes its own official company blog, allowing someone else to register the address for themselves through the Blogger service. All’s back in order now.

=== Mar. 24, 2006 ===

Google Tests New Image Ads In Google Local – Google Local tests more ads within maps, this time ones that contain an advertiser’s logo.

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Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Google Sued by KinderStart for Penalizing Site – Gold Membership for Overture Members – Is Yahoo Ousting Small & Medium-Sized Businesses? – Do Ugly Sites Earn More With AdSense? – Determining the Size of the Keyword Tail – Zeal To Shut Down, and more.

=== Mar. 23, 2006 ===

Supplemental Index Issues “Gone”; Welcome Big Daddy Index – Over the past month or so, Google has been having some issues with supplemental pages. Google says those should be going away as its “BigDaddy” infrastructure comes online.

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Targeting Search Ads By Demographics & Behavior – The days of targeting searchers only via keywords are coming to an end. Now search engines are giving you the ability to target searchers by age, gender and other demographics.

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Google’s 2006 Q1 Earnings Conference Call Scheduled On April 20th – Google has posted the schedule for the 2006 first-quarter earnings conference call. The conference call is to take place on April 20, 2006 at 1:30 PM PT. See also:

=== Mar. 22, 2006 ===

Google Doesn’t Have To Hand Over Search Logs To Justice Department – The judge in the case of the US Department Of Justice versus Google has ruled that Google does NOT have to provide the DOJ with query logs. Google calls it a victory, and I agree. Google will have to provide a list of web site URLs, however. See also:

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Google Jumps Into Social Tagging With New Google Reader Feature – The Google Reader Blog has announced that you can now share the content you read with your friends, family, colleagues and others. This is a big move for Google, what seems to be the first time they’ve allowed people to both tag and importantly share that tagged content with others.

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Google Enhances Keyword Tool; Adds Global Trend Graphs – Google AdWords announced that they have added “global trends” to the Keyword Tool. Global trends shows the search volume of a particular keyword phrase, charted over a 12 month historical period. To access this data, you can go here and then enter your keyword phrases. Then click the “Get More Keywords”, after the page loads, on the right side, select from the “Show columns” drop down menu, the “Global search volume trends” option. You will then see this data charted for you.

=== Mar. 21, 2006 ===

Google Launches Google Finance – At long last, Google has launched its own Google Finance service. For years, those seeking specialty financial information via Google have been sent to competitors such as Yahoo and MSN. Now Google’s providing financial information directly to its own users. See also:

=== Mar. 20, 2006 ===

Paul Flaherty, A Founder Of AltaVista, Passes Away – Sad news that Paul Flaherty, one of the founders of AltaVista, passed away on Friday on a heart attack.

=== Mar. 17, 2006 ===

Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Google Considers European Retail Push – Using Link Farms as a Weapon? – What Do You Love & Hate About Google – How I Made a Million in 3 Months – What Is A ‘Poison Keyword?’ – Is a Site’s Age a Factor? and more.

=== Mar. 15, 2006 ===

Finding the Values of U.S. Homes – Talking about the ‘real estate bubble’ is a popular parlor game these days. Now you can find your own estimates for how over-or-under valued your neighborhood is thanks to a new web site called Zillow.

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No Credit Card Merchant Account? No Problem! How I Can Now Get Paid With Google Payments – Google is now allowing select Google Base users to use Google Payments as a substitute to a merchant account. The best way to describe Google Payments is calling it a PayPal alternative.

=== Mar. 14, 2006 ===

Winning a Search Advertising Bid War – Your pay-per-click campaign is advancing steadily until suddenly, the ranking officer at some joker’s company launches a surprise attack, overruns your position, and pins you down in a bloody bidding war. What do you do? Pull back? Hunker down? Or counter-attack? The longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members offers specific strategies and tactics for engaging in and winning a search engine advertising bid war, including powerful approaches such as ROI-based bidding, bid jamming, bid surfing, and bid shadowing.

=== Mar. 13, 2006 ===

25 Things I Hate About Google – Google’s purchase of Writely sort of drove me over the edge last week. When I saw the news confirmed, I exclaimed out loud to myself, “Oh, give me a break.” A break from what, freakishly talking to myself? No, a break from Google going in yet another direction when there is so much stuff they haven’t finished, gotten right or need to fix.

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25 Things I Love About Google – Love, hate. Love, hate. When it comes to Google, I did the “hate” side of my love/hate relationship over in my 25 Things I Hate About Google article. In this article, I’m all about the love. How do I love Google? Let me count the 25 ways into my heart.

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Google Partnering With Publishers To Sell Online Books – Google gave me the heads-up late Friday that a new feature allowing publishers to sell online versions of their books through Google Book Search was about to go live. The experiment will allow publishers to sell access to their books online. Publishers set a price, then consumers can buy and read the book online.

=== Mar. 10, 2006 ===

Search Engine Forums Spotlight – Links to the week’s topics from search engine forums across the web: Microsoft’s Windows Live Search Opens; Bye-Bye MSN Search? – Demographics Added to AdWords – It’s Illegal And Unethical And They Know It! – Click Fraud Issue Growing – MSN AdCenter Primer for New Users, and more.

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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 Danny Sullivan, Gary Price, Jennifer Slegg or Chris Sherman, all of whom post to the blog.

=== Apr. 4, 2006 ===

Ballbug Tracks Baseball Buzz; Introduced By Memeorandum.com – Gabe Rivera from memeorandum.com announces Ballbug.com, which summarizes baseball news from across the web.

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Stupid Newspaper Publishers, Search Engines Are Your Friends – I left newspaper reporting about ten years ago because it was clear the industry had no idea how to transition to an online world, and I didn’t want to be stuck behind. Today’s Chicago Tribune article, Papers, Web sites in scrape on stories, just tells me things don’t appear to have improved much. Search engines, including Google, get a fresh dose of being leeches for using content….[MORE”

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Google Related Links Now Out; Challenges Yahoo’s Year-Old Y!Q LinksGoogle Related Links is a new service that puts a little box on your page where Google analyzes the content to show related searches, news and web pages to your visitors….[MORE”

=== Apr. 3, 2006 ===

Just How Accurate Is The Google Zeitgeist? Accuracy of Google Zeitgeist over at our Search Engine Watch Forums is a nice “what gives” about some oddities in the international version of the Google Zeitgeist, where it gives you a rundown on search behavior in various countries. For instance, why is viagra so hot in Singapore — and why do links from the Zeitgeist actually bring up Google South Africa?….[MORE”

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Review Of Online Feed Reading Services The State of Online Feed Readers over at TechCrunch has Frank Gruber taking a look at several online feed reading services, along with a big hunking chart o’ features….[MORE”

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Nofollow Not Meant For Every External LinkNoFollow Nastiness – a Big Boo for Google! is a nice look at Threadwatch on how some people are making use of the nofollow attribute as a way to prevent link love from going to resources that many might say deserve it….[MORE”

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April Fool’s Day 2006 & Search – A round-up of Saturday’s April Fool’s Madness in the search world….[MORE”

=== Mar. 30, 2006 ===

Dulance Dies, While StreetPrices Has Cool Product Tree View – The Dulance shopping search engine seems to be gone while long-standing StreetPrices might e worth another look….[MORE”

=== Mar. 29, 2006 ===

Yahoo Search Index Update & Increased Slurp Activity Expected – The Yahoo blog announced yesterday that there was a new index update this past weekend….[MORE”

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Matt Cutts Offers Q & A On Recent Google Questions – Matt Cutts posted a blog entry yesterday answering some of the questions he have received over and over again in regards to the “Big Daddy” update, supplemental results issues, the RK value and some other questions. Here are some pulled from Matt’s blog….[MORE”

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MSN Live Search Adds “Search Macros” – The MSN Search Blog last night announced that they have released a new search feature named “Search Macros.” Search Macros are methods of building an advanced search query and saving that query for later in your search bar….[MORE”

=== Mar. 28, 2006 ===

Ballmer: My Kids Are Banned From Google – I’ve got to hand it to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. He believes in his products enough to demand family loyalty. In an interview with Fortune, he tells the magazine his kids can’t use Google….[MORE”

=== Mar. 28, 2006 ===

Infospace Launches Local Search Beta; Local.com Gets Pay-Per-Call – Infospace has released a new Infospace Local Search site that’s in beta. You’ll find it here, with a rundown from Gary Price on features here and coverage of the deal from ClickZ in Local.com and InfoSpace Jockey for Local Search Traffic. The ClickZ article also covers Local.com gaining pay-per-call ads.

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Speed Dating Meets The SEO Business World With Speed Pitches – Chris Ridings of SearchGuild.com and Denise Russell (aka Gurtie) have launched SpeedPitches.com, a service that enables SEOs and prospective SEO clients to be pitched by SEO companies, ummm, really quickly. This concept is similar to Speed Dating, a service that places singles in a room….[MORE”

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Google Lands Sponsored Links Deal With Verizon SuperPages – ClickZ reports that Google has landed a dead with Verizon SuperPages.com to provide some backfill sponsored results for SuperPages.com….[MORE”

=== Mar. 27, 2006 ===

San Francisco’s Mayor & The Google Guys Via Valleywag, “S.F. mayor’s friendship with Google founders” from the San Francisco Chronicle looks at questions of propriety over San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom accepting rides on a private jet with Google’s cofounders along with campaign contributions he’s received from individual Googlers and “hang out” time with Larry Page. Nothing illegal is said to have happened, but with Google now pitching to win a contract to give San Francisco wifi, there are concerns the Chronicle says about relationships being too “chummy.”

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Feed Rinse; Filter Your RSS Feeds – Traffick reviews this cool service that filters your RSS feeds for the content you want to read. The tool is named Feed Rinse and it enables you to filter by; keywords, tags, author, site, profanity, and more. This seems like a neat tool that you may want to try out. Traffick believes one of the larger companies may buy them shortly… Yahoo? Ask? Maybe Google?

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Ask TV Commercial Blitz Hits US Air Waves – I reported yesterday, that the Ask blog has posted two of their US based TV commercials for your viewing pleasure. The two commercials try to show how the current method of searching is out of date, and that you should use Ask.com to get a more sophisticated and efficient method of searching the Web. You can view the commercials yourself by clicking here. I would love for you to share your thoughts; we have a forum thread under the title Ask’s TV Commercials.

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Some Of Google’s Most Expensive Keywords Via Xooglers, “Updated: Highest Paying AdSense Keywords” from CyberWyre has a nice of some of the some expensive keyword phrases you can buy at Google (probably at Yahoo also). $54.33 for mesothelioma lawyers tops the list….[MORE”

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Yahoo Updates Search Toolbar; Tabbed Browsing in IE & Delicious Tags – The Yahoo Search Blog announced that they have updated the Yahoo Toolbar. For IE users, you can use the toolbar to enable tabbed browsing in IE 5 or 6. For Firefox users, they have added for bookmarks, mail alerts, and AntiSpy for all countries that Yahoo supports (and no list of these is given). In addition to those updates, they are now giving users the ability to tag content with del.icio.us directly from the browser….[MORE”

=== Mar. 24, 2006 ===

Do Aerial Maps Violate Our Privacy? These Maps Are Nice to Look at, but Not Smart from the LA Times revisits the entire “do aerial maps show too much” issue. Past stories on this topic have tended to look at how various countries are concerned that sensitive areas are displayed. This reporter takes a different angle, about whether maps show too much about our own homes. So do you have a privacy right for your house not to be displayed?….[MORE”

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Search National Archives and Records Administration Web Pages With Web Harvest – Gary Price reports on a new search engine named Web Harvest that enables you to search governmental and military Web pages. The FAQ says that the harvest collection contains about “75 million web pages and represents about 50,000 “.gov” and “.mil” unrestricted federal web sites active between 10/14/04 and 11/19/04.” The search technology is currently using NUTCH and NUTCHWAX, open source solutions.

=== Mar. 23, 2006 ===

Some New Video Search & Sharing Sites – Searchforvideo is a relatively new web-wide video search site you might want to check out, while Guba and VideoEgg are two other video sites that will be of interest to those who want to share video or see what others have contributed….[MORE”

=== Mar. 22, 2006 ===

SEMPO Board Elects 2006 Officers – ClickZ reports that SEMPO’s new board of directors has elected the 2006 SEMPO officers. The new chairperson is Gordon Hotchkiss from Enquiro, Dana Todd from SiteLab remains the President, Jeffrey Pruitt from iCrossing is the new Vice President, Sara Holoubek takes over as the Treasurer and the new Secretary is Dave Williams from 360i.

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LookSmart’s Zeal Directory To Close – Once a potential rival to the Open Directory, LookSmart had decided to close its volunteer-driven Zeal directory at the end of this month. LookSmart acquired the service in 2000. Though the Zeal site itself is still accepting registrations, here’s the closure message LookSmart’s sent out….[MORE”

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Social Bookmarking Made Easy By SocializerSocializer is an automated social bookmarking service that helps you get people to send a link to your page to a number of social bookmarking sites….[MORE”

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A Deeper Look At Personalized News Search Engines – Mark Glaser at MediaShift wrote a great review named Your Guide to Personalized News Sites. He reviews the history of personalized news sites, and discusses many of the new free options people have to search news with a personal touch.

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ShopLocal Wins In Crawling Case Against Cairo – Apparently, ShopLocal.com wasn’t happy with rival local shopping search service Cairo for hitting its listings. ShopLocal took Cairo to court, and Cairo has now agreed not to make further “robotic or other automated” visits to ShopLocal’s site, ShopLocal says….[MORE”

=== Mar. 21, 2006 ===

Google Base Creeping Into Main Search Results Page – GoodROI shows us an example of a search that brings up a Google Base search box, right at the top of the main search results at Google.com….[MORE”

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Congoo Offers (Free) Subscription Based Content For Free – Elinor Mills reports at News.com that Congoo released a search service enabling people to search newspapers, magazines and other periodicals that are typically fee-based subscription content….[MORE”

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Gary Price Interviewed; Ask’s New Butler? – Library Journal has an interview with Gary Price, of Ask.com and formerly the News Editor of Search Engine Watch. The interview goes through Gary’s new role at Ask.com, his continued work at Resource Shelf and many other topics. When I saw Jim Lanzone, from Ask.com, at SES NYC a month ago, I told him that Gary is the closest thing to Jeeves that I know. So in reality, the loss of the Jeeves character has been fulfilled by the real deal, Gary Price.

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Amazon Changes “Did You Mean?” Result For “Abortion” Query – Wired News reports that Amazon has changed the way to handles the search query “abortion.” In that past, Amazon would place a message at the top of the search results of a query on abortion; stating, “Did you mean adoption?” The message was completely algorithmic, based on related searches for adoption and abortion. They are recently changed the page to not show this message, but you should still notice “related searches” for alternatives to abortion queries at Amazon.com

=== Mar. 20, 2006 ===

Yahoo Launches Local News Beta – Yahoo News has launched a local beta version with coverage for local areas in the US….[MORE”

=== Mar. 17, 2006 ===

Reports from Search Engine Strategies China – A rundown on coverage from the SES China event that happened this month….[MORE”. See also:

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MSN Search Link Operators Explored – Rand Fishkin explores the MSN Search link operator. With this advanced search command, you can find out who links to Matt Cutts, SEO Book, SEO Consultants, but not SEOmoz.org; (linkdomain:mattcutts.com linkdomain:seobook.com linkdomain:seoconsultants.com) (-linkdomain:seomoz.org). This is pretty powerful stuff, check out SEOMoz.org for more information on this.

=== Mar. 16, 2006 ===

Using Search Engines For Test Taking – The School Library Journal has an article named “Cheating via Google?” The article explores the use of search engines in the classroom and during test taking….[MORE”

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Google News Prank Confirmed; News Source Removed From News Index – I Newswire, a free press release distribution service, has been removed from the Google News index after releasing a false press release submitted by a teenager….[MORE”

=== Mar. 15, 2006 ===

College Basketball & Pro Baseball Historical Newspaper Articles Search – If you are a basketball or baseball fan, you will love two new searchable archives….[MORE”

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SEM Salaries Revisited – ClickZ has a nice two part article, the second part being on SEM Salaries. The article shows that an entry-level SEM position salary can range from $30,000 to $45,000 or about $10 per hour for part-time help….[MORE”

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Google Desktop 3 Leaves Beta, Gains Quick Search Feature – The Google blog announced last night that Google Desktop is out of beta, finally. In addition, Google has added a feature named quick search box that pops up a search box in the center of your screen when you hit your control button two times in a row. Quick Search “enables you to search the web and your local computer.” If you do not want this feature, you can turn it off in your Google Desktop preferences area.

=== Mar. 14, 2006 ===

Google Idol: Vote For The Next Google Video Music Star – Philipp Lenssen finds a new site named Google Idol that utilizes Google Video to pin singer versus singer….[MORE”

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Getting Relisted In The Shopping Search Engines Too Easy? – Thomas Hawk has been following an online retailer named PriceRitePhoto that has been allegedly ripping off its customers. Thomas reports that even though PriceRitePhoto has been delisted after its abusive bait and switch tactics, it has been re-listed at both Yahoo Shopping, PriceGrabber and MSN Shopping. Thomas is upset with these shopping search engines for not screening past fraudulent retailers more closely. He notes that he has received a response from Yahoo that they will remove this retailer once again for being in “violation of Yahoo’s Terms of Service.” He has not heard from PriceGrabber or MSN as of yet.

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Ultimate Googling with Advanced Dork Firefox Extension – Search Engine Journal covers at new Firefox extension named Advanced Dork that enables advanced Google searches with a right click on your mouse….[MORE”

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Microsoft to Launch Video Service Under Windows Live Video – TechWeb reports that Microsoft is going to launch a video service to challenge Google Video during April of this year. The service is most likely going to be named “Windows Live Video”, like all the new Windows Live This or Windows Live That type of services they announced. MSN currently has live video streams of “variety of news, entertainment and sports from content partners.” This new service, I would venture, would be more like upload your video and share it with friends. Expect a tight integration with MSN’s other services, in particular MSN Spaces.

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Memorandum Launches WeSmirch Gossip Tracker – I love Memeorandum’s tech page, which consolidates breaking tech news stories in an easy to digest manner. Now Memeorandum’s technology is powering the new site WeSmirch, which gives you gossip in an orderly fashion. Hey, Charlize Theron is single again! Jennifer Aniston doesn’t want pity! Isaac Hayes is quitting South Park! By the way, WeSmirch remains a proud member of the Memorandum family. It just doesn’t use that domain because, “celebritygossip.memeorandum.com is just too awesome a name for the world to handle at this time,” says the service.

=== Mar. 13, 2006 ===

SEO Tools Bonanza from SEOValley & SEO Book – Search Engine Journal reports on SEO/SEM related tools from SEOValley and SEO Book. SEOValley has 22 different SEM related tools, including and SEO book has 23 tools, most with the source code available for reuse. Loren Baker’s favorite tool of the 45 listed at those two sites is SEO Book’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

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Google Releases Google Talk for Blackberry – Nathan Weinberg reports that Google Talk is now officially supported on Blackberry devices. The 18 page PDF user guide goes through all the features of Google Talk for Blackberry. Nathan reports that “it works in real time, and you can stay signed in and receive messages while using other Blackberry apps.” More information at Blackberry’s Web site.

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Google Mars Launches – Google launched Google Mars this morning and has posted it at Google Labs. Google has plotted points by Regions, Mountains, Plains
Spacecraft, Canyons, Ridges, Stories, Dunes, and Craters….[MORE”

=== Mar. 10, 2006 ===

Brazil Asks Google To Help Orkut To Stop Organizing Organized Crime – Poor old Orkut, Google’s social networking service. First it’s knocked for only being popular in Brazil. Then it’s knocked for being a haven Al-Qaeda sympathizers. Now it’s back to Brazil, where “Google Brasil summoned on chat room complaint” from Reuters covers how the Brazilian public ministry is asking Google to explain what it is doing to curb organized crime activities allegedly being committed or planned within Orkut. The story notes that 73 percent of Orkut’s users are apparently Brazilian. The story makes mention of child pornography in Orkut. The service has also been dinged for drug sales, with ten arrests made in Brazil last July.

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Richest People in Search – Gary Price reports on a Forbes richest people list for 2006. Gary pulled out those on the list that run the major search engines. So how do they rank?….[MORE”

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Will Local Search Engines Replace National Search Engines for Local Search? – ClickZ reports “about half the panelists believe local search engines will replace national search engines like Yahoo, Google and MSN when it comes to specific market needs,” according to Borrell Associates’s “2006 Local Search Advertising” report….[MORE”

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‘Drafting’ and ‘Hijacking’ in Paid Search – A ClickZ article named Paid Search Spawns ‘Drafting’ and ‘Hijacking’ Strategies discusses the differences of ‘drafting’ and ‘hikacking’ tactics and its legal/ethical consequences….[MORE”

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Didn’t Get That Wedding Gift? Blame The Search Engines! – Search engines are appearing to be indexing gift registries and ranking them well enough to be found by unsuspecting online consumers. This causes the registry to show that people have ordered an item or two that the bride and groom have never received. I wrote up the long-winded story here but let me explain in short….[MORE”

=== Mar. 9, 2006 ===

Google to Partner with Wikipedia? – Garett Rogers reports that Google and the Wikipedia may be in some sort of partnership. March 6th, Google registered “googlereference.net/org/info and googlereferencepages.com/net/org/info“, which can imply Google starting, what Garett is calling “Google Reference.”….[MORE”

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Daily SearchCast: Search News Via Podcast
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Want to keep up with the latest in search news while you’re on the go? Try our podcast, The Daily SearchCast. It’s a 10-15 minute recap of the previous day’s news. How to tune-in?

  • Subscribe to our main SEW Blog feed, and you’ll receive the podcasts automatically when we alert readers to them each day.
  • Subscribe to our special podcast feed, and you’ll receive an alert only about new podcasts that we’ve posted.
  • Tune into WebmasterRadio.FM, where we go out live at 11:30am Eastern and then repeat at 2pm Eastern. The show archive at WebmasterRadio is here.
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Here are the last two days’ worth of shows:

You can find all shows from previous days listed on the Daily SearchCast home page. Just select any file to download it and listed on your computer or digital audio device.

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