Highlights from the SEW Blog: August 13, 2007

Featured posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web.

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

  • Matt Cutts Shares SEO Tips for Bloggers
    Matt Cutts, the Google engineer and public face of the search engine’s spam-fighting team, has posted some SEO tips for bloggers that he first shared in a WordCamp 2007 presentation last month.
  • Google Statement on Custom Search Blog Incident
    The hard part of this is that most people who get caught in this net by accident won’t have the access and credibility that the Google Custom Search Blog team had to get their issue addressed.
  • Implications of Google Custom Search Blog Deletion
    Google classified its own blog as spam, and deleted it from their system. It’s frightening because it shows you how fragile Spam detection algorithms are.
  • SEW Experts: The Site Map: Gateway to Optimization
    Mark Jackson reviews a vital piece of on-site optimization, for both users and spiders.

Search Advertising

  • Google Makes Changes to Ads Quality Calculation
    Google is planning on rolling out a change in the way it calculates the ad placement, which may make it easier for some AdWords advertisers whose ads are on the cusp of earning the top spot on Google’s search results pages to break through.
  • Implications of Google’s New Bid Calculations
    Frank Watson thinks Google’s announced changes to the PPC cost calculations seem a little like a magic show and the expected audience is novice search advertisers.
  • SEW Experts: Microsoft adCenter Could Win the Search Battle
    Tony Wright explains why he thinks Microsoft adCenter can win the search wars — if it can scale the audience.
  • AdWords Editor 4.0 Released With New Features
    Google announced Friday the release of AdWords Editor 4.0. This version has a number of new features and many upgrades to the existing features.

Linking Issues & Social Media

  • Fit or Fat — It’s Up To Your Network?
    Researchers have now scientifically proven the effect of social networks — providing hard data about how “unstated” interests are shared among participants.
  • Google Ranking Comments By Subjects of News Stories
    Google is allowing the subjects of news articles to have their comments ranked in with the news items they are being written about.
  • SEW Experts: Reverse Engineering Linking Patterns to Create Link Equity
    Justilien Gaspard tells you how to get quality links from trusted sites in a round about manner, creating trusted linking neighborhoods.
  • Hearst to Acquire Social Shopping Site Kaboodle
    Newspaper and magazine giant Hearst Corp. has agreed to acquire social shopping site Kaboodle. It will fit into the Hearst Interactive Media and Hearst Magazines Digital Media units.

Analytics & ROI

  • SEW Experts: SEO Site Design Improves User Experience and Site Performance
    Eric Enge shows you the value of improving the user experience by implementing SEO in your site design while testing design elements with analytics.

Local & Mobile Search

  • Marchex to Acquire Pay-per-Call Provider
    Marchex announced plans to acquire pay-per-call provider VoiceStar, which it hopes to use to bring call-based ad services to its direct-navigation network.
  • SEW Experts: Yellow Pages and Search
    Kevin Ryan explains that yellow pages directories and search engines are hopelessly intertwined as directories feed search queries and search queries feed directories. A new spin on the old book might just connect the dots.
  • Google Hiring Independents To Collect Business Info For Maps
    The Google Local Business Referral Program is an initiative to gather contact, business hours and other information on businesses for listings in Google Maps – where Google is using independent contractors to gather their information.
  • SEW Experts: Don’t Be a Local Yokel II – Enhancing Your Yahoo Local Listing
    Carrie Hill tells you how to enhance your local listings in Yahoo! Local to bring more traffic to your site.

Vertical & Specialty Search

  • SEW Experts: Choosing Partnerships for Your Video Search Marketing
    Grant Crowell tells you how to select and work with a professional video production partner as well as the importance of choosing a video host for displaying your videos.
  • Spock Launches Today
    The long awaited public unveiling of Spock, the people search engine, takes place today.

In-House & Outsourcing

  • SEW Experts: Don’t Be An SEO Alien
    Rob Kerry has some practical advice for in-house SEOs, and it doesn’t have to do with following Best Practices.
  • Beating Google at the Hiring Game
    A recruiter shares with Forbes some ways that Google’s high standards and lengthy hiring process can actually be seen as vulnerabilities to be exploited by other companies trying to hire the limited talent available.

SEM Industry Issues

  • Microsoft’s aQuantive Acquisition to Close Soon
    Microsoft’s intended acquisition of aQuantive moved a step closer to completion when the shareholders of aQuantive approved the acquisition yesterday.
  • Others Join YouTube, Google Copyright Lawsuit
    More companies have joined Viacom in the lawsuit against Google and YouTube for copyright infringement.
  • Online Advertising to Surpass Newspaper Advertising by 2011
    The 2007 annual research report on the media sector by media analysts Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) forecasts online advertising will surpass newspaper advertising by 2011.
  • Is an Ask-Microsoft Partnership on the Horizon?
    Ask.com and parent IAC have been cozying up to Microsoft lately, leading to the question of what will become of the current 5-year-old partnership Ask.com has with Google once it comes up for renewal at the end of the year.

Searching/Search Technologies

  • Former Google Answers Researcher Discusses Demise
    A former Google Answers Researcher gives his opinion on why Google dropped the project, suggesting its developers simply lost interest.
  • Bill Slawski Uncovers Possible Barter System Patent At Microsoft
    Microsoft has applied for a bunch of patents covering click fraud, and what could be the groundwork for a barter system between publishers and advertisers.
  • Google Indexing Near Real Time
    Matt Cutts updates us about how quickly Google updates its index. He relates a bit of the history of indexing speed, and then provides some examples to show that Google is now doing “Minty Fresh Indexing.”
  • Yahoo Continues Search Suggestions Rollout
    Yahoo has been on a search refinement kick lately, which continued on Friday with the release of Search Suggest for Yahoo Toolbar for Internet Explorer.

More from the SEW Blog

  • Sina Announces Google Partnership Deal
    Sina, the Chinese portal, announced details of their partnership with Google to provide search and advertising for them.
  • Yahoo Signs Deal With Reality Programming Company
    Yes it is Rocket Science – at least that is the name of the reality programming company Yahoo just signed a production deal with.
  • Rebecca Lieb Interview
    Eric Enge interviews Rebecca Lieb, Editor in Chief of the ClickZ network, which includes Search Engine Watch.

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.

TaggedAdWordsSearchEngineWatchSEOs
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