Search Headlines & Links: July 5, 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…

  • June
    2006 Search News Recap Posted
    The latest edition of my monthly Search Engine Report newsletter is now
    online, recapping top stories in search from the past month. You can read it
    online or receive it via email for free by signing up here. If you’re a Search
    Engine Watch member, the latest edition of Search Engine Update newsletter has
    also been posted. That newsletter carries more items than the Search Engine
    Report newsletter and goes out twice per month….
  • Daily
    SearchCast, July 5, 2006: Google’s Ranking Criteria Categories Exposed?;
    Lawsuit Over Rankings Might Go Ahead; Google’s Not-So-Killer Products; Windows
    Live Local Click-To-Call & More!
    Today’s search podcast covers Google’s categories of ranking criteria
    accidentally exposed?; SEO tools to try; is Google a flop unless all of its
    products are winners?; Windows Live Local gets click-to-call and more! Tune-in
    by listening to this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern
    and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or
    through iTunes via this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained
    here) or though our Yahoo Podcasts channel. Need more help tuning in live or
    finding the chat room? See the Daily SearchCast FAQ. Below are links to items
    discussed:…
  • Report:
    Advertisers Lost $800 Million To Click Fraud Last Year
    The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a click fraud study that claims 14.6
    percent of all clicks and $800 million worth of fraudulent clicks were charged
    to advertisers….
  • New
    Search Patent Applications: July 5, 2006 – Google Coming to a Shopping Mall
    Near You
    Google files patents for shopping offline with online assistance, a secondary
    map in Google Maps, and an updated review aggregator. Yahoo adds a patent
    application for search results PPC advertising, and managing blog content.
    Microsoft looks to anchor text to help train a machine learning classification
    system when user behavior data isn’t available. AOL details a method of
    filtering search results using ontologies and expert domains for queries. IBM
    explains differences in how images can be indexed, and presents a method based
    upon the semantic meanings of pictures. Become, Inc., describes how different
    links can be assigned different values while…

  • Interactive Review Of SEOBook’s SEO Firefox Extension
    Aaron Wall over at SEO Book released a Firefox extension for SEOs. The Firefox
    extension can be viewed here, it allows you to see on the Google and Yahoo
    search result pages the PageRank, the age, the links, the .edu links the .gov
    links, the del.icio.us numbers and Technorati rank, the Alexa rank a cached
    link and much more, right on the page. I decided it would be fun to do an
    other video cast. You can view the video cast by reading more….

  • Microsoft Running Out Of Room In Redmond
    A New York Times article looks into how Microsoft is running out of room in
    Redmond. The company is adding 12,000 new employees, which requires them to
    expand the headquarters 3.1 million square feet, more than a third of its
    current size. They will be adding fourteen new buildings and leases to fit all
    these new employees. The problem is, there is not enough room for them to
    expand at this pace….
  • Google’s
    Spam Score Details Shown?
    Peter Da Vanzo spotted a DigitalPoint thread that found clues as to how Google
    scores spam results behind the scenes. Now, honestly, I have no idea if this
    is about spam or something else, it is just that the information posted in the
    forum, seems to appear like a spam score report by Google. How did it come
    about? The user was presented with this information after clicking on a cache
    URL in the Google results. The user was shocked to see the following
    information revealed to him….
  • SEOMoz’s
    Keyword Difficulty Tool
    Rand posted an update to a tool named keyword difficulty tool. The tool’s name
    is pretty descriptive enough, it tells you how competitive a keyword is to
    rank for. There is great detail on how it works here and here….
  • Yahoo
    Launches New Home Page Design In UK & Ireland
    Personal Computer World in the UK reports that Yahoo has finally released the
    new home page redesign that has been in beta since mid-February — at least in
    the UK. The new design is visible for all at https://uk.yahoo.com/ and is
    described "as the biggest redesign in its history, and promised that the new
    homepages would focus on search, content, community and personalisation."
    Danny confirms that his Yahoo home page has switched to the beta version, and
    he is based in the UK, of course. I am based in New York, and my Yahoo home
    page has remained the same….
  • Google
    To Launch Book Search Service In China
    The People’s Daily Online reports that Google will be launching an on-line
    book search service in China. Google signed agreements with publishing houses,
    instead of libraries (as Baidu has), including publishers named Tsinghua
    University Press and the Children’s Publishing House. Google said that the
    books would be available on-line, "provide search links and grant free access
    to a segment of each work, but readers would have to pay to read the full
    content." Google plans on taking a 30 percent commission from the profit on
    selling books online….
  • Google
    Warns U.S. Legislators On Anti-Trust Complaints Over Net Neutrality
    The Washington Post reports that Google has warned the United States, that if
    telecoms abuse net neutrality principles it backs, through a new law that
    might go through, it could consider an anti-trust action. If you want all the
    details, check out the Washington Post….
  • Windows
    Live Local Integrates ‘Call For Free’ Into All Business Listings
    The intrepid Gary Price called my attention to the quiet integration of "click
    to call" functionality into Windows Live Local over the weekend. I couldn’t
    determine whether this was homegrown or whether Microsoft was working with a
    partner such as eStara or Ingenio to offer the service….

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

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