We've collected all the search marketing news from selected 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:
Organic Search
- Presidential Candidates Need Some Help with their Reputations
The majority of U.S. Presidential candidates have a negative reputation on search engines, according to a new study by Marketing Pilgrim. - SEW Experts: Five Fundamental Questions of Keyword Research
Mark Jackson reviews five fundamental questions to ask of your site when performing keyword research.
Search Advertising
- Yahoo Upgrades Panama's Tools
The keyword selector tool is offering suggestions, copying and moving keywords amongst groups, and an improved help section have been added to Panama's features. - AdSense Rolls Out Referrals 2.0
Beyond the text and image ads AdSense offers - the release of Referrals 2.0 now incorporates products that you can sell on your site. - Search Ad Sellers Should Help CTRs More
Where are Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask and others when you really need them? We think that they ought to be helping their customers even more actively. - Marchex Launches Content-Rich Direct-Navigation Strategy
Marchex today launched 100,000 local and vertical Web sites, all with unique content. - How Do You React to a Media Blitz?
Should you up your search budgets and add keywords during an external media blitz? Not always. - Quigo To Serve Time Inc. Contextual Ads
Quigo has signed a multi-year with Time Inc. to provide contextual ads for sites like CNNMoney.com, Time.com, People.com and SI.com. - Yahoo Combining Search And Display
Yahoo has announced it is combining search and display under one department. Heading up this newly formed division of North American Sales is David Karnstedt.
Linking Issues & Social Media
- 9 Tips for Getting Started with Link Building
Putting together a strategy for getting links to a site is one of the hardest parts of SEO. - SEW Experts: 7 Ways to Promote Your Content as Link Bait
Justilien Gaspard offers seven ways to promote a new site project for links and exposure. If your site is already established, these links can help raise your rankings.
Analytics & ROI
- 'Short Tail' Analytics: Getting to the Meat
SEO and web analytics company Engine Ready reminds us that while the 'long tail' is not something to forget about, the 'short tail' of search provides the majority of your conversions. - 10 Cool Things to Do with IndexTools
Over the course of his Web Analytics Shootout, Eric Enge found IndexTools Web Analytics to be a powerful tool available at a relatively low price. - SEW Experts: Can Google Analytics Be Evil?
Tony Wright, like many search marketers, has recommended that clients stay away from Google Analytics in the past. Should he change his tune?
Local & Mobile Search
- Google Maps Gets Click-and-Drag Functionality
Users of Google Maps can now change their destination and route by clicking and dragging. - Ingenio Data Attempts to Crack the Code on Mobile Usage
Pay-per-call provider Ingenio and market research firm Harris Interactive released results of a survey today that shows interesting data around consumer preferences for mobile devices and advertising. - Skrenta Steps Down at Topix
Rich Skrenta, CEO of news aggregator and local search site Topix since its launch five years ago, is stepping down from his position. - Local.com Gets Location-based Search Patent
The local search space is becoming a patent battleground. Local.com has been awarded the third local search patent to surface in the last month.
Vertical & Specialty Search
- Spock - The People Search Engine
Spock provides a remarkably clean and efficient people search engine. - SEW Experts: Video Search Optimization Tech Tips – Knowing the 4 P’s
Grant Crowell explains the technical aspects of video optimization and viral linking. - Testing the Kid-Friendly Search Engines
Are kid-friendly search engines worth using, or are they better served by the major engines? - MySpaceTV – Look Who’s Chasing YouTube
This feature should in fact attract new users to MySpace and expand its reach for quality video content and viewers. - SEW Experts: ZoomInfo – People Finder and Company Intelligence Tool
Eric Enge checks out Zoominfo, a tool you can use to find a long lost buddy or to get business intelligence when your company is small and data is hard to come by. - blinkx launches contextual online video search ad platform
The video search engine's new advertising platform, AdHoc, is billed as "the first contextually relevant video advertising platform." - Interview with blinkx on new video search distribution partnerships with Lycos, InfoSpace, and Real
Grant Crowell conducts an audio interview with the founder and CEO of blinkx, Suranga Chandratillake.
Small Business/Big Brand SEM
- SEW Experts: Using WordPress to Manage Your Web Site Content – Part 1
Carrie Hill tells you how easy it can be to use WordPress to build or maintain your Web site or blog.
In-House & Outsourcing
- SEW Experts: Stop In-house SEO Disasters Now!
Kevin Ryan pens an ode to the in-house SEO practitioner, with a few best practices and a guide to identifying problematic personalities.
SEM Industry Issues
- SEMPO Institute Adds Advanced Search Advertising Course
Joining the Fundamentals of Search Marketing and Advanced SEO courses is an Advanced Search Advertising course. - Search Engine Marketing Council
The special interest group within the Direct Marketing Association is working to provide educational programs to direct marketers. - Yahoo Keeps Creating its Own Troubles
Finding a way to keep and build its search share and build out its display ads and other properties in the face of growing competition is enough of a challenge. But a bigger problem may be its propensity to shoot itself in the foot with recent media relations efforts.
Searching/Search Technologies
- WSJ's Mossberg Likes Ask3D
Wall Street Journal columnist and All Things Digital organizer Walt Mossberg compared Google's Universal Search with Ask.com's Ask3D, and found Ask3D to be a better way of presenting search results. - Powerset Meets the Press
Powerset, the most talked about semantic search engine that no one has seen, is slowly opening its doors to scrutiny. - Human Input and Algorithmic Search
The subject of human edited search is hot again, perhaps because we're all getting a bit more sophisticated about the challenges faced by search.
More from the SEW Blog
- Google Not Added to Microsoft Antitrust Case
Google's attempt to be added to the list of plaintiffs in the Microsoft antitrust trial was ignored by the U.S. District Judge. - Google Earth Outreach Non-Profit Initiative Launches
At the Googleplex East this afternoon, Google introduced Google Earth Outreach, a new program designed to help nonprofit organizations. - ThreadWatch Closing on Friday
ThreadWatch, one of the first major industry blogs, is ceasing operations this week. - Google Apps Adds Mail Migration
Google now offers a way that users can migrate existing email data from an IMAP server into their Gmail accounts on Google Apps. - Google May Stop GMail in Germany Over Privacy Issues
The German government's proposal to monitor and record email usage in their country has Google threatening to stop Gmail service to the country.
Search Headlines
We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You'll find more news from around the Web below.
- So, You Really Want to Integrate Search?, Out of my Gord
- 5 Basic SEO Rules For Launching A New Website, Search Marketing Gurus
- Help Google help you - the Google webmaster guidelines, SEOish
- When Is The Right Time To Consider Social Media?, Search Engine Guide
- Vanessa Fox’s Last Google Interview?, Stone Temple blog
- Google, "Sicko" Opinions & Issues With Playing Ad Agency, Search Engine Land
- Four Recent AdWords Changes You May Have Missed, SEOmoz
- Does Search Disrupt the Business World?, SEO Book
- New CNN.com Goes Live - Google and Yahoo Both Search Providers, Read/Write Web
- How to make Google analytics better for tracking AdWords, Distilled
- Can She Turn Yahoo Into, Well, Google?, NY Times
- London Bombs: The Big Fat Search Failure, Search Engine Land
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