Want a snapshot of the day’s search marketing news? Here we’ve collected today’s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:
From the SEW Blog:
- Google Helping State Government Sites Get Indexed
Google has teamed up with four state governments – Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia – to make public information on their Web sites more searchable. - Yahoo to Acquire Right Media
While many people are spinning this as a defensive move sparked by Google’s planned acquisition of DoubleClick, it’s really more of an offensive strike. - Google and DoubleClick’s Integration Hurdles
There’s just no way that a conflict of interest would not arise, or at least the appearance of a conflict, which would be just as bad for Google. - Utah Legislators Doing Research — After They Passed the Law
After passing a misguided Trademark Protection Act that will ban advertisers from using the trademarked terms of their competitors to target ads to Utah users, Utah legislators are now apparently talking to the companies involved and realizing they may have made a mistake. - NoFollow, or MightFollow?
Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal has asked Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com to explain just what nofollow really means to them. - Yahoo Is Better: Or That’s What They Are Branding
Following their push to build niched portals, Yahoo announced the start of a new campaign: “Be A Better …” - Adam Lasnik Interview
Google’s spam fighter provided Eric Enge with some insight into Google’s thinking on paid links, what their objectives are, and how they view Nofollow. - Google, Yahoo Respond to Click Quality Council Guidelines
The search engines are taking the issued under advisement, while pointing out that they have already begun to address many of the items on the list. - Yahoo Search VP Leaves for VC Firm
Yahoo’s VP of consumer Web search Andrew Braccia has left Yahoo for the greener pastures of venture capital. - Google News adds button to Google Finance
It appears that this new button is designed to boost traffic to Google Finance, which lags Yahoo Finance by a wide margin. - PBS Content Now Searchable on blinkx
Video search engine blinkx has added PBS streaming
video content to its index. - Yes, Virginia, there is a natural and paid search synergy
Does running a natural search campaign and a paid search campaign together create more value than running them in a non-integrated manner? In other words, does one plus one equal three? - Yahoo, Comcast Partner on Display Ads
Yahoo and Comcast announced today that they will partner for displaying advertising on the Comcast website. - Ebay: Now Portable
eBay’s new widgets let any seller take their listing “to go” and plant it on a blog or website.
Headlines & News from Elsewhere:
- Google Base Patent Applications: Searching, Labeling, and Ranking User Generated Data, SEO by the Sea
- IAB Call for Audits: Transparency or Conspiracy?, ClickZ
- Localization and SERP Relevancy, ClickZ
- Yahoo! Publisher Network Earnings & Relevancy Forcing Publishers to Revisit Google AdSense?, Search Engine Roundtable
- Brand keyword conversions are not a given, Think About Search
- Should We Still Worry About Click Fraud?, Biznology
- The Paid Link Blog Meme, Graywolf SEO Blog
- FAST Launches ‘FASTMedia’ for Publishers, Screenwerk
- Monitoring Social Media Traffic on a site, Web Metrics Guru
- Web Analytics Tools Comparison: A Recommendation, Occam’s Razor
- From The Isn’t It Ironic Dept: Google Product Search’s Results Show Up In Google, Search Engine Land
- Five Blunders with Social News and Bookmarking, Online Marketing Blog
- Strange Microsoft Adcenter Update to Terms & Conditions, SEM Clubhouse
- Web Reporting or Web Analytics?, ClickZ
- Pros and Cons of Google and DoubleClick, ClickZ
- The Gadget Cloud at iGoogle – Does SEO Mean Anything?, Finding the Sweet Spot
- Google Files Response To Viacom Lawsuit; Denies Claims; Seeks Jury Trial, paidContent
- Jason Calacanis’ next venture, Valleywag
- Supreme Court ruling makes “obvious” patents harder to defend, Ars Technica
- How Google, Yahoo & Ask.com Treat the No Follow Link Attribute, Search Engine Journal
- Linkbait, Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exagerated, Graywolf’s SEO Blog
- What Makes an Ideal SEO Client?, Online Marketing Blog
- Stumbleupon vs Digg – Voyeurs vs Sheep, Venture Skills
- Understanding your results, Search Engine Tigers
- Google – NBC: Very Dumb Idea, John Battelle
- Google Maps has a new Onebox Display, Small Business SEM
- The Parable Of The White Hat & The Black Hat, Blue Hat SEO
- Yahoo! is 404, Yodel Anecdotal
- How Not To Build Links, Link Building Blog
- The Pangs of Two Becoming One, NY Times
- Search: Is one of these eight search engines the next Google? (Hint: No.), Valleywag
- Utah Legislators Realizing They Screwed Up By Banning Keyword Advertising, Technology and Marketing Law