Search Headlines & Links: June 21, 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…

  • Mid-June
    2006 Search News Recap Posted
    If you’re a Search Engine Watch member (thanks for your support!), the latest
    edition of Search Engine Update newsletter has been posted. It recaps top
    stories in search from the first part of this month….
  • Daily
    SearchCast, June 21, 2006: Can Search Build Brands?; Microsoft Execs Surprise
    Departure; What Search Engine Do Those At Search Engines Use & More!
  • Today’s search podcast covers issues on if search can build brand;
    Microsoft loses a key exec; do people at Google really only search with
    Google? and more!
  • Google
    AdSense Tests CPA Ads, Commission Based Ads
  • Philipp Lenssen reports that some AdSense publishers were invited to
    partake in AdSense ads that pay based on action, like an affiliate network.
    These CPA (cost per action) invites were first detailed at SeekingAlpha.com
    and the ads do not compete with the contextual network, they run on a separate
    network named the Content Referral network. Jennifer may have more details
    later on this news, but in the meantime you can read my coverage from the
    forum buzz….
  • The
    Search & Branding Tug-Of-War, Again
    “Cannes Lions Diary: Search under scrutiny” from the Financial Times at the
    Cannes Lions Advertising Festival covers what we’ve seen before, traditional
    ad buyers worried that search is going to rob their budgets while search
    engines planning to do that theft try to distract with a “search is a brand
    thing” message….

  • Nielsen//NetRatings Stats Keep Google On Top In May 2006
    Last month, Nielsen/NetRatings had Google hitting the 50 percent mark of
    percentage of searches handled in the United States (when rounded up from
    49.8%). This month, Google slips back down very slightly to 49 percent. I’ve
    warned before that you should be wary of month-to-month changes. That said,
    here’s the rundown, which gives Yahoo a percentage gain to Google’s loss:…
  • Martin
    Taylor, VP Of Windows Live & MSN Marketing Leaves Microsoft
    ClickZ reports on a Bloomberg story about Martin Taylor, the vice president of
    Windows Live and MSN marketing group has left MSN. Reportedly, Taylor was good
    friends with CEO Steve Ballmer and was a possible candidate in the future for
    that position. The ClickZ article says, “The wording of the Microsoft
    statement seems to imply the company, and not Taylor, made “the difficult
    decision to part ways.”” But why then would Taylor just be appointed the VP
    position and credited with being the “a go-to guy for problem areas,” in late
    March? I dunno. Interesting and I wonder what type…

  • Microsoft Employees Use Google More Than MSN?
    Philipp Lenssen reported on a Andrew Hitchcock post that detailed search
    engine usage by search engine firm. It appears that Microsoft employees prefer
    Google to MSN Search when searching the web. At Microsoft 66.31 percent use
    Google, 19.65 percent use MSN and 10.18 percent use Yahoo. Yahoo employees
    aren’t afraid to use Google search either, with 29.80 percent of searches
    conducted on Google and 68.87 percent on Yahoo Search. Google employees seem
    to be 100 percent loyal to Google search, based on the data….
  • Chinese
    Authorities Temporarily Shut Down Two Large Chinese Portals
    PaidContent reports that two of the largest Chinese portals have been
    temporarily shut down by the Chinese authorities for not passing a “an
    on-the-spot censorship test.” The chief editors of Sina.com and Sohu.com “were
    summoned to the State Council Information Office,” that morning. While on the
    topic of Chinese censorship, take a look at the list Philipp compiled of
    Censored Domains in Google.cn….

  • InfoSpace Rebrands, Upgrades Local Search Site
    InfoSpace, which also owns and operates the Dogpile metasearch engine, has
    cleaned up its interface and yesterday rebranded its local search engine as “Infospacefindit.”
    The chief purpose behind the rebranding according to the company is to create
    consistency between its mobile and online local search platforms. In addition,
    the online platform is moving from one that more resembles an Internet yellow
    pages product to a local search engine. The company has struggled to gain
    market share in local search online but has a very strong position in
    mobile….
  • Mashups
    and Other Fun with Flickr
    A big part of the appeal of Flickr, Yahoo’s photo sharing service, is its ease
    of use. It’s not only easy to upload and work with your own images, but it’s
    also a snap to search for and play around with images uploaded by others?in
    relatively sophisticated ways, if you take advantage of the Flickr API to
    create mashups that combine images with other applications. In today’s
    SearchDay article, Hacking Flickr I review a new book that’s part of the
    O’Reilly Hacks series that shows you how to take maximum advantage of Flickr’s
    capabilities….
  • Zillow
    Announces ‘Zillow Labs’
    Everybody’s going “Web2.0.” Real estate vertical search engine and valuation
    site Zillow.com has launched Zillow Labs, “a sandbox where developers and
    others can try out new, cutting-edge projects. You can help by testing them,
    then sharing your suggestions, comments and even your own tools.” Right now
    the tools include a Firefox plug-in, a Google Toolbar button and a search box
    you can add to your site….
  • Don’t
    Vote For Us As Best Search Marketing Blog At MarketingSherpa!
    That’s right. We don’t want your vote in the “Blogs On Search Marketing” or
    “Best Podcast” categories of MarketingSherpa’s awards, happening right now. We
    couldn’t take them if we wanted to, since we didn’t make the short list. Then
    again, neither did John Battelle’s blog, nor Threadwatch, nor Matt Cutts, nor
    many of the others we list in our blog roll. I guess either:…
  • Google
    CEO Eric Schmidt In Featured Session At SES San Jose 2006
    I’m very pleased to announce that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt will be in a
    featured session at our upcoming Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 show
    this August. “A Conversation With Eric Schmidt” will happen from 10am to
    10:45am on August 9, the third day of our four day show. During the session,
    I’ll be talking with Eric about how Google is growing and dealing with
    challenges and issues in search, especially given its stature as the leader in
    the space. Eric’s session hasn’t yet been posted to the conference agenda, but
    that will change shortly. You’ll find full…

Other Things We Read, Didn’t Blog But You Might Want To Read…

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