Daily SearchCast, July 27, 2005

The first edition of The Daily SearchCast is
now available (MP3 file). In it, I did a rundown
of the past day’s search news accompanied by guest host Daron Babin. FYI, I was on a cordless headset that introduced a bit of static at times. I’ll be on a corded phone
when doing it today. Topics included developments in paid search, employee relations, feed news, partnerships &
deals and gadgets & tips. Below are the stories that were discussed that have more information:

Paid Search:

• New Ask Jeeves Paid Listings Program Said To Come August 1 covers how Ask
  is rumored to have an improved paid listings system about to come out.
• Complaints Over Yahoo’s Direct Traffic Center covers how some say Yahoo’s
  ad management center needs to improve.

Employee Relations:

• Former Google Exec Files Suit Over Alleged Pregnancy Discrimination on
  Google getting accused of discriminating against an exec who became pregnant and Google statement that the case is “without merit” and that it will “vigorously” defend against
  it.
• Google’s Brin On Keeping The Googlers Happy on the new Fast Company
  article that has Sergey Brin saying he still thinks Google is a great place to work and that those joining is hopefully can still share in the wealth.

Feed News:

• RSS Search & Add Option Now Available For Google Personalized Home Page on
  how Google’s personalized home page now lets you add feeds for reading and provides a rudimentary feed discovery search service. Just be sure you aren’t using the
  CustomizeGoogle extension for Firefox!
• Feeds, Flickr, and Alerts Come to Yahoo 360 on Yahoo letting you add RSS
  feeds to your Yahoo 360 home page or be alerted to changes on your blog there, plus the ability to have your Flickr photos show up.

Partnerships, Deals & Business Stuff:

• Yahoo Search Takes To The Air With Connexion By Boeing Wi-Fi Partnership
  on Yahoo getting a deal to be the preferred search engine of the skies — or at least some of them.
• Yahoo and Motorola Announce Partnership has the two teaming up to get
  Yahoo content and services into mobile devices made by Motorola.
• Yahoo Acquired VerdiSoft Mobile Sync Company covers a previously
  unannounced deal by Yahoo to acquire a company that syncs data to mobile devices.
• SuperPages To Buy Ads For Advertisers On Google & Yahoo on how SuperPages
  needs to go to Yahoo and Google to spend the money it’s advertisers want to spend, since it doesn’t have enough inventory.
• State of the UK Search Marketing Industry has Chris Sherman looking at a
  new guide to UK search marketing firms.

Gadgets & Tips:

• Goodman Revisits AdWords Changes & Importance Of Clickthrough covers a
  revisit by Andrew Goodman of Traffick about recent changes to Google’s AdWords AdRank system with an eye toward what marketers should consider.
• When Not to Use Search Engines from SearchDay covers when and why to “just
  say no” to search engines, when seeking information. There are good alternatives.
• Amazon’s A9 Adds Online Calculator on Amazon getting a calculator —
  allowing you to do math within the search box, similar to what other services have had for years.
• litefeeds: A New RSS/XML Aggregator for the Mobile Web from Gary covering
  a new service to get RSS into your PDA or smart phones
• Real-Time Tracking of the Space Shuttle; View Imagery of Earth Taken by
  Astronauts from Gary covers how to keep track of the space shuttle Discovery, now currently safely in orbit.