Search Headlines & Links: July 24, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted from June 21st through today to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we’ve spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog…

• Become.com Launches Search Zoom Filtering Feature
  No longer do you have to weed through hundreds or thousands of search results to find a discussion forum or product specs for Aston Martin’s Vanquish. With Become, you can search for ‘Aston Martin Vanquish’ or any other product and then filter by Product Reveiws, Buying Guides, Discussion Forums, and Product Details. As Jon Glick, Become’s Sr. Director of Product Search told me, “users can see what type of listing it is before going into it.” I think this is an extremely useful feature. My original search results for ‘Aston Martin Vanquish’ (yes, I’m obsessed) contained 171, 573 results vs….
• Google And Yahoo: Consistency Or Wow?
  An article over at the New York Times ‘In the race with Google, it’s consistency vs ‘wow” discusses the differing approaches of Google and Yahoo to the introduction of new technology and resources. The fact that Google hasn’t added some of the basics to its mapping service in comparison to the Yahoo and AOL offerings is the starting point for an indepth discussion on how both engines (MSN, AOL and Ask get very short shrift) are trying to increase their user base….
• Only 11 Percent Of Searchers Use One Word Queries
  OneStat.com published a report detailing that only 11.4 percent of searchers use one-word queries, two-word queries 28.9% leads the bunch, followed by three-word queries at 27.85%, four-word queries with 17.1%, five-word with 8.25% and six-word queries with 3.7%. The report also breaks down number of queries used by country; Canadians are more likely to search with four-word queries, Germans use two-word queries 40% of the time and then 28% use one-word queries. OneStat’s research was “based on a sample of 2 million visitors divided into 20,000 visitors of 100 countries each day.” More details at OneStat.com….
• Google Base Becomes More eBay Like With Rich Text Feature
  The Google Base blog announced Friday that Google Base’s editor now has the ability to add rich text. Next time you log into Google Base to add or update your listings manually, you should see a WYSIWYG editor. It does not appear those who do bulk uploads, can pass along rich text. It’s important to note, however, that at this time, we’re not enabling any scripting, data input controls, or frames. Also, HTML descriptions are only available for single item posts….
• Judge Hears Objections To Google’s Click Fraud Settlement
  Associate Press reports that now that the independent report is out, a judge will consider the fifty-plus objections to the Lane’s Gifts v. Google settlement. The judge will hear out advertisers today and tomorrow before finalizing that settlement….
• SEOMoz Spills The Beans On Pricing An SEO Campaign
  Rand posted a blog entry named How to Price an SEO Campaign. He actually broke down his pricing methodology for everyone to see. I have personally never seen this done to this extent before in this industry. SEOs and SEMs can learn a lot about how to price their campaigns and proposals by Rand’s post. Rand breaks down a consulting contract versus an implementation contact. His post is very detailed and can give many SEMs an idea on how to improve their contracts. Check out Rand’s post here….
• Google Test Expandable “More” Link
  Philipp Lenssen reports Google is testing an expandable box that opens with options, when you click on the “more” link from the Google.com home page. The more link currently takes people to the more google products page, but this link, is a little DHTML popup that has links to these products directly on the page. The pop up cannot possibly have all of the products listed, so they have a link to “even more” products that probably links to the page. A screen shot is at Philipp’s site….
• Tracking Packages
  The MSN Search weblog has now announced that it is possible to use the system for tracking packages, or more specifically, packages from FedEx, DHL, UPS and USPS. Searchers can simply enter a tracking ID and some other tracking keywords and the Package Tracking Instant Answer will correctly construct the link. An example given is ‘Where is UPS tracking number?’ Additionally you could use the RSS feed for the search to really keep up to date on where your package has gone. Google has had this feature for a while now, although it doesn’t have an option for DHL….
• GoDaddy Launches Private Label Domain Park Program
  GoDaddy has long placed ads on registered domains that customers have parked at GoDaddy. Now, GoDaddy is allowing webmasters of sign up for a paid monthly subscription to CashParking, that would see webmasters get a share of the profits made from all clicks on the parked domain….
• Independent Report: Google Click Fraud Detection Practices Are “Reasonable”
  The Google Blog just posted the independent study on their click fraud detection practices that shows Google makes reasonable efforts to detect click fraud. The report was part of an agreement of the Lane’s Gifts v. Google settlement and was performed by Dr. Alexander Tuzhilin, Professor of Information Systems at NYU. Obviously Google is pretty happy about this report and I didn’t have time to go through the full 47 page report, but if you have time, I bet you as Search Engine Marketer can learn a ton about the AdWords system. Possibly, Danny will dig into this deeper next…
• Search Forums Roundup: July 21, 2006
  Today’s SearchDay, Search Engine Forums Spotlight, features our weekly links to this week’s hot topics from search engine forums across the web: Google Maps + Reviews In Main Search Results – Yahoo Panama Release Delayed – Microsoft: MSN – Strider Search Defender – Buying Brand Name Keywords On Adwords, and more….
• More 3D Maps, an iTunes Video Podcast Directory, .CA Goes Mobile & Wildfires Database: Specialty Search Wrap Up
  This weeks specialty search wrap up from Resource Shelf includes more 3D mapping tools, a iTunes video podcast directory, the Canadian government mobile edition, a resource for locating primary sources with international news and a wildfires and forest fire real time database….
• Microsoft’s MSN Revenue Declined 3% Year Over Year
  ClickZ reports that MSN’s revenue declined 3 percent year-over-year. CFO Chris Liddell makes it clear that Microsoft adCenter will be funded well, stating, “it’s not far off that we’re going to have 100 percent of our business on adCenter.” Microsoft plans on spending $500 million on adCenter, Windows Live, MSN Search and other online services this year. Next quarter results should be interesting….
• Google Finance Leaks Version Two Information
  Garett Rogers stumbled upon a link in Google Finance at the top right corner that said “v2 (test)” in red font. The link points to http://0.frontend-live.sfe.scrooge.hs.borg.google.com/finance, which seems to not be accessible from my location, or outside of Google’s network. Notice the sign of the borg again? borg.google.com from before. So, now we have rumors that Google is going to be launching a version two of Google Finance soon. Maybe it includes stock indices from other worlds? :)…
• Site Diagnostics Tab Added to Google AdSense Console
  Google has added a new tab, a tab they have been beta testing for a couple months, named Site Diagnostics. What this tool does is show you which pages the AdSense crawler is having problems getting to. Why would they crawler have a problem getting to those pages? The several possible reasons include a robots.txt file blocking then, password protected pages, server down or slow and other reasons explained in the AdSense help pages. I have posted screen captures at the Search Engine Roundtable….
• Google Adds RSS To Google Base Results
  I wrote about Google adding drop down menus to some search results at the Search Engine Roundtable last night and then discovered something new. At least I think it is new. If you go to a Google Base landing page, like this one for Clinical trials results, you may notice a new button at the top right of the page. The button is an RSS feed icon, that links to RSS results for that query refinement in Google Base. I personally have never seen that feature there before, I asked a few people and they haven’t either – so I…

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

• Is Google an AdWords Hypocrite?, eWeek
• Do Google Ads belong on a company desktop?, News.com
• Technorati turns 3, rolls out a major update, David Sifry
• The MBA Route to Google, Business Week
• Ask.com monkeys around with ads, USA Today
• Huge Drops in Google Image Search Referrals Over Weekend, Search Engine Roundtable
• Who are the most influential authorities on ?blog marketing??, Onalytica Blog
• How I Learned to Stop Guessing and Use Analytics, Official Google Enterprise Blog
• Google vs. Yahoo: A case of different strokes, International Herald Tribune
• So Many Ways to Say A9, Amazon.com?s Web Engine, Resource Shelf
• How to use Google to get a girl and get laid, Damien Mulley
• Scheduled Down Time, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog
• Improving Your Google AdWords Quality Score, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google to Keep Investing in Japan, Seeking Alpha
• Business.com’s “No Follow” Policy Revision, Threadwatch.org
• Google pays the price of common usage, Guardian Unlimited
• Sitemaps Hmmm, David Naylor
• Google AdSense for Radio soon, Google Health not yet, News.com
• Aged Links, V7N? Blog
• The Chris Pirillo Show Interviews Andy Beal, Marketing Pilgrim
• SEOs Are Powerful: They Can Blackmail You, Search Engine Roundtable
• Ten Ways to Take a Break from Tedious SEO Work, SEOMoz
• Your wish is our command, Official Google Reader Blog
• Top 100 Digg Users Control 56% of Digg’s HomePage Content, SEOMoz
• Sherman: Search Inflation Likely, Media Post