Search Headlines & Links: July 27, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog…

  • Daily
    SearchCast, July 27, 2006: Daily SearchCast’s First Birthday!; Microsoft Hires
    10,000; Baidu Cuts HP Deal; Google Ranking Changes; Google: The Musical &
    More!
    Today’s search podcast covers the Daily SearchCast podcast celebrating its
    first birthday; Microsoft’s record breaking army of new hires; Baidu getting
    on HP computers in China; Google rankings shifting around; a musical about
    Google and more!
  • Google
    Click Fraud Settlement Approved
    Download fileJust got word from Google that the settlement in the class action
    lawsuit over click fraud has been approved. I’m dashing out, so this is just a
    short post to give you a heads-up. So far, I haven’t seen any news stories on
    it. Settlement is here (PDF file), the $30 million in attorney fees is
    approved, apparently around 500 companies choosing to opt-out. I’ll postscript
    more tomorrow or do a fresh post when stories appear. Google statement: We’re
    pleased Judge Griffin has affirmed the settlement as appropriate and fair to
    advertisers. We look forward to continuing to manage…
  • Google
    The Musical Coming Soon
    Philipp Lenssen spots a new musical named Google: The Musical. The musical is
    being hosted at the Rarig Center on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities
    campus. The dates of the musical include; Friday on August 4th at 5:30 pm,
    Tuesday on August 8th at 7:00 pm, Thursday on August 10th at 10:00 pm, Friday
    on August 11th at 8:30 pm, and Sunday on August 13th at 1:00 pm. What to
    expect?…
  • Changes
    Spotted In Google Search Results
    I reported this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google Search
    Results Shifting Again. What folks in the forums are finding is that some, but
    not all, of the pre June 27th results are coming back to the way they were.
    They are also finding that the Google site command search is again working on
    those datacenters that have the new results. There is a lot of commotion going
    on in the forums about these changes that began this morning….
  • Baidu To
    Be Default Engine On All HP Computers Ship To China
    Philipp Lenssen reports that Baidu, the popular Chinese search engine, will be
    the default search engine on all new HP’s shipped to China after October 2006.
    As Philipp notes, this is bad for Google who has been pushing hard into the
    Chinese market. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that Baidu’s
    second-quarter earnings were very high, “but didn’t meet some investors’
    higher expectations.”…
  • French
    Court Preventing Greenpeace France From Displaying Crop Data On Google Maps
    BoingBoing spotted an interesting case where a French court ordered Greenpeace
    France to remove a site using the Google Maps tool to display “locations of
    commercial, genetically engineered corn fields in France.” Greenpeace France
    overlaid an X in the spot of those corn fields. They have removed the site,
    but plan on appealing the order. “Greenpeace argues the online maps should not
    be censored because an EU law requires the French government to make the crop
    site information public anyway,” Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing writes….
  • Yahoo
    Partners With British Telecom For Yahoo Local UK
    Revolution Magazine reports that Yahoo has partnered with British Telecom to
    share the “Phone Book” data. Yahoo will add 120,000 businesses who advertise
    in The Phone Book from BT within the Yahoo Local UK platform. This helps BT
    offer an additional service to their Phone Book customers and gives Yahoo
    access to some more data and marketing opportunities they may have not had
    otherwise….

  • Microsoft Hires Over Ten Thousand Employees In Past Year
    The Seattle Pi reports that Microsoft has broke their own hiring records, by
    hiring 10,081 new employees worldwide over the past fiscal year. The article
    takes the angle that the hires were in order to compete with Google. Now
    Microsoft has 71,553 people worldwide as of June 30, 2006. Wow!…
  • Yahoo
    Launches Visual Link Map Tool Named Webzari
    The Yahoo Search Blog announced a new tool developed by the Yahoo Korea team
    named Webzari. Webzari is a tool that visually maps the data from Yahoo Site
    Explorer. It takes a site’s inlinks, and maps them in planets on a map. Check
    out Search Engine Watch’s map which is kinda hard to read, but you can also
    check out Search Engine Roundtable which has easier to read planets. Notice,
    when you mouse over the planets, it shows you the location of the server
    linking to you, and if you click on it shows you more. Very cool interface.
    Check…
  • What
    Drives Searchers to Buy Cars?
    The automotive industry is the largest player in the search world, in both
    natural search engine optimization and in the paid search arena. Until
    recently, auto manufacturers weren’t a major presence in search results, with
    most search marketing campaigns conducted by independent aggregators who
    focused on providing quotes, helping consumers locate dealers and so on.
    Recently, however, the major manufacturers have begun to flex their search
    muscles, much to the consternation of aggregators, who are feeling crowded. A
    new study from Yahoo and comScore looked at searcher behavior in the
    automotive sector, analyzing activity, user preferences, and how purchases
    were…
  • Study
    Reveals Changing Web
    A report of a new study over on WebSiteOptimization.com has some interesting
    research showing how users ineract with web sites, revealing an “F-shaped”
    eyetracking patterns similar to the results Enquiro found looking at earch
    results. From the study: A new browser study revealed a shift in how we
    interact with the Web. University of Hamburg researchers found the Web moving
    from static hypertext information to dynamic interactive services. Clickstream
    heatmaps and web page statistics show rapid interaction over smaller areas of
    the screen. The authors recommend that web developers create concise,
    flexible, and fast loading web pages to keep pace…

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