Search Headlines & Links: July 10, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog…

  • Search
    Engine Strategies Latino, Miami, Florida – Day One
    Day one of the first ever Search Engine Strategies Latino edition is pretty
    much complete. The networking cocktail is taking place now, there is a Google
    party tonight and also some Yahoo boat thing. I have managed to cover the
    Landscape & Tactics tracks, so here is the roundup. + The Opportunity: Tapping
    Into US Hispanics & Latin America Via Search + Search Landscape: US Hispanics
    + Search Landscape: Latin America + The Challenges Of Search Marketing To US
    Hispanics & Latin Americans I also took pictures of the sessions and outside
    of the hotel, you can see them here….
  • Kayak
    Launches $10m Ad Campaign – Includes TV
    Kayak, the travel search engine, today launched a $10m advertising campaign
    with a HUGE offline component. The TV commercials are fun, creative, and
    potentially viral. It’s no coincidence that the spots can also be found on
    Kayak.com and YouTube. This is either a brilliant move by the company or a
    sign that Bubble 2.0 is here. You decide after checking out the commercials
    and then reading my interview with Kayak CMO Dean Harris and my thoughts on
    the campaign. Kayak is also running a contest encouraging the creation of user
    generated ads in the same style as the official Kayak…
  • Yahoo
    Buys Land In Santa Clara
    The San Jose Business Journal reports that Yahoo has purchased 42.5 acres in
    Santa Clara. The price of the land was not disclosed, but we do know they
    bought it from San Francisco’s TMG Partners. Yahoo’s CFO, Sue Decker, said:
    “We see this as an attractive asset that provides attractive additional
    capacity and flexibility for Yahoo’s future. We are planning for future growth
    and will analyze several different scenarios over the coming year regarding
    the development of the property.”…
  • Judge
    Orders Google To Disclose Advertiser’s Information
    Out-Law reports that Google was ordered by Justice Rimer to hand over the
    information on an advertiser to Helen Grant for copyright infringement. Helen
    Grant “complained that a Google advert led to a service which she claimed
    violated her copyright in a forthcoming book.” A search brought up a site
    named Realityunlocked.com, “which offered a free download of an earlier draft
    of the book, and that the site violated the Trust’s copyright.” Google asked
    Grant to take the issue to court, this way Google does not have to worry about
    the privacy issues with handing over the information….
  • Matt
    Cutts Of Google Comments On Recent Listings Issues
    Last week we reported that Google may have revealed the spam scores to the
    world. Well, Matt Cutts came back from vacation and he confirmed the data “was
    real.” He promised not to “comment on what any of it means” but at least we
    know Google is part of the borg. Just kidding. I doubt we will see a treasure
    like that again, but if we do, it would be interesting to see if Google does
    add “extra settings for fun,” such as ?initial_time_travel_wormhole=?Wednesday,
    December 31 1969 11:11 pm.”…
  • Google
    Binary Search Not Only Finds Malware But Also Shows Signs Of More
    PCWorld reports that Google’s binary search feature came in handy to locate
    “thousands of malicious Web sites, as well as several legitimate sites that
    have been hacked.” The feature reads executable files and can locate some
    malicious code within those files. It was used to help find malicious sites
    and programs by a security vendor named Websense. The article also explains
    that binary search may be a sign that “Google may be thinking about becoming a
    file searching service.”…
  • Eric
    Schmidt Claims The PPC Model is “Self-Correcting” In Terms Of Click Fraud
    Donna Bogatin reports that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt claims that click fraud
    is “self-correcting.” Meaning, Eventually, the price that the advertiser is
    willing to pay for the conversion will decline, because the advertiser will
    realize that these are bad clicks, in other words, the value of the ad
    declines, so over some amount of time, the system is in-fact, self-correcting.
    In fact, there is a perfect economic solution which is to let it happen. So
    the “let it happen” quote, in terms of Eric Schmidt saying let click fraud
    happen, has been buzzing through the blogging community. Schmidt writes off…
  • Yahoo
    Trip Planner Released From Beta
    Yahoo is taking is community-travel site Trip Planner out of beta. The site
    has reached a kind of content critical mass and Yahoo has added some cool
    features in this general release:Trip Journals (blogging; photos can be
    imported from Flickr) Map-Based Search (You can drag the map and zoom to areas
    within countries for more specific options) Yahoo! Search Integration There
    are also a travel recommendations engine based on travel search history, as
    well as clipping and tagging functionality In addition to being a useful
    travel site, with rich user-generated content, in many ways it?s the most
    impressive expression to…
  • Click
    Packages Draw Local Advertisers Into Search
    The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports on the “bundle of
    clicks” search distribution packages that all the major yellow pages
    publishers in the U.S. are now selling to their local advertisers. Here’s an
    amazing quote from Simon Greenman, SVP of digital products at R.H. Donnelly,
    “Our strategy is to connect our customers with their customers wherever they
    may be.” That’s a radical statement for a yellow pages executive to make
    because he’s not asserting that print yellow pages is the best lead generation
    vehicle “and we also have Internet.” He’s saying Donnelly is “agnostic.”…
  • The
    Changing Face of Local
    This ClickZ article discusses a new JupiterResearch report called “Local
    Advertising: Blending Categories to Compete Effectively.” The article doesn’t
    go into great detail about the findings or conclusions from the report. But
    based solely on my reading of coverage in the article it appears to make two
    relatively straightforward observations about local: Search engines/portals
    could steal traffic and potential ad revenues from yellow pages and other
    stand-alone local sites that seek to cater to traditional directory
    advertisers The local product definition is changing and categories are
    merging as the distinctions between classifieds, service listings, local
    retail and user-generated content and…
  • New
    Landing Page Quality Score Announced for Google AdWords Advertisers
    The Google AdWords blog has announced new changes that will be seen next week
    that will result in some advertisers faced with higher minimum bids to keep
    their campaigns running on AdWords, as a result in changes being made to the
    landing page quality score algorithm. While a small number of advertisers will
    be affected, AdWords is targeting those landing pages that offer a poor user
    experience to those who click the ads….

  • SuperPages For Sale
    Verizon has formally filed with the SEC to sell its directory unit, which
    contains the print yellow pages and online yellow pages/local search
    businesses. A likely sale could bring as much as $15 billion. And because AT&T
    does not look like it’s going to spin off its directory business, SuperPages
    could fetch a significant premium….

  • Specialty Search Roundup #6
    Another week and another set of specialty databases and “research” news for
    your review. These items have been posted to ResourceShelf during the past
    week or so. They have also tossed in non-searchable but useful (and fun)
    reference newsletter and a link to a new mobile version of Reuters for the
    U.S. Finally, don’t forget that The World eBook Fair is now underway offering
    free, full text and downloadable access (PDF files) to more than 300,000
    titles. Why now? This summer Project Gutenberg celebrates its 35th
    anniversary. The World eBook Fair lasts through August 4th….

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

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