Search Headlines & Links: Nov. 29, 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…

  • IAC To
    Launch AskCity; Local Info Services Site
    Reuters reports that IAC and Ask.com are launching a new local information
    services site named AskCity on December 4th. The site will combine IAC’s
    portfolio of Ask.com, CitySearch, Evite and TicketMaster by providing
    information and services such as Web search, city guides, maps and event
    listings….
  • Name
    That Search Marketer Game
    David Wallace at SearchRank.com has a game; SEO/SEM Trivia – How Well Do You
    Know It’s Stars? Basically, he took pictures of well-known SEMs and SEOs and
    blacked out some features from the pictures. He then asked you to name the
    person in each picture. I know all but one, I won’t say whom. I will give you
    a hint, I am not in any of those pictures, but I did take one of those
    pictures….
  • Alexa
    Ain’t So Bad, Says Site Search Comparison
    Alexa has come under plenty of fire recently as not being accurate (old hands
    have known better for years), as more and more people are using it to “prove”
    how hot their sites are. Sean Ryan at SLI Systems says lay off the Alexa
    bashing! SLI provides search services for a variety of web sites. Sean plotted
    the amount of searches he sees against the relative Alexa traffic rankings of
    some sites and found there was a correspondence. If you were a high traffic
    Alexa site, you also had a lot of site searches. Interesting, but I’m afraid
    it won’t…
  • A
    Superbowl Marriage Proposal?
    Joe Morin thinks he’s got the next Million Dollar Home page mixed with romance
    going. To wit: someone named JP (to stay secret from his girlfriend) wants to
    make his wedding proposal in a TV commercial during next year’s SuperBowl.
    Joe’s hoping that somehow, search and interactive marketers can make it
    happen. Joe’s post with details is here; the proposal site itself is here.
    Since the ads are all sold already, it’s not a matter of raising money now but
    buzz to perhaps get JP linked up with an existing advertiser that might want
    to feature him. Good luck, JP…
  • Goodbye
    Google Answers
    Wow. Google is shutting down its Google Answers service. The company has
    announced that new questions won’t be accepted after the New Year, though the
    site will continue to let people view the question archives. Killing off the
    service, which never seemed to catch on much, certainly will help Google seem
    like it is focusing efforts toward more needed areas. But it still feels like
    an odd, almost surrendering move in the face of Yahoo Answers being such a
    success….
  • Google
    Audio Ads Sign-Up Page Live
    Google Audio Ads now appears to be opening to sign-ups, sort of. Googlaxy.com
    sent me a heads-up about three new URLS that are (somewhat) active:…

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