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…
Follow-Up: School Couldn’t Reach Google Until Injunction Filed
Catawba County Schools in North Carolina obtained an injunction to remove
private material from Google because it had no luck getting action from the
search engine after trying other routes, the district tells me. The school
district also stressed that it didn’t claim that Google had somehow hacked
into its servers. Here’s what Catawba County School’s chief technology officer
Judith Ray emailed me about the situation:…- The SEO
Event Google Calendar
Aaron Wall posted a very useful SEO Event & Conference Calendar using the
Google Calendar platform. The conferences on this calendar include Search
Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld’s PubCon, Ad Tech, Affiliate Summit,
Gnomedex, Search Bash, SEO Roadshow, SXSW Interactive, Webmasters in the Sun
and Web 2.0 Conference. I think I will create something similar at the Search
Engine Roundtable to give people an idea how what conferences you can expect
us to cover (I may update this post when my schedule is posted)….
Cost-Per-Keyword Drops In Q1
MediaPost reports that the cost-per-keyword has dropped from around $30 in the
first quarter of 2006 to “the yearly high of $59 last December.” The data
comes from a DoubleClick study, which also shows that the “cost-per-keyword
was nearly unchanged from the first three months of 2005 to this year’s first
quarter.” The number of clicks (up 24%) and number of keywords did rise from
the year-over-year data….- MSN
Talks Spam Defenses; Takes Weekends Off From Indexing
This morning I uncovered two threads at WebmasterWorld that provide
information on MSN from spam defense to when search indexes get updated. The
first is named MSN Asks Webmasters, What is Spam? where MSNdude provides some
insights into how MSN determines what is spam, what are junk pages and
determining the “hierarchy of spam.” The second is named MSN Won’t Do a Search
Index Update on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays where we see MSNdude posting
that normally MSN will not conduct a search index update on Saturdays and
Sundays, and also they are unlikely to conduct an update on Fridays,… - Google
To Also Lobby In Europe
Pandia covers that Google is looking to hire a “senior European government
affairs and public policy leader,” to lobby in Europe. Google has hired a
lobbying firm in the states a few months back. More details on the story at
Pandia….
Microsoft Promotes adCenter In Full Page New York Times Ad
ClickZ reports that Microsoft has a full-page color ad in this morning’s New
York Times that promotes Microsoft adCenter, Microsoft’s PPC engine. The ad
has a link to msftadcenter.com/nyt that notably prompts you with a few
security warnings on the redirects to the final landing page. The ad headline
reportedly reads “She found your furniture ad on Google.” Then there is an
“image is a little girl and her dollhouse.” The ad continues by explaining the
difference between a customer and a click. The ad also touts a “2006 study by
WebSideStory shows that Microsoft adCenter converts customers at a…- Build
Your Own Matt Cutts
I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable on a funny little web site that
gives you a way to build your own Matt Cutts. To dress up Matt Cutts, go to
the Matt Cutts Doll and drag and drop clothing on top of Matt’s body. Oh, if
you ever wondered if Matt was a briefs or boxers guys, now you know. Too
funny…. - Google
Vs. France Trademark Appeal Ruling Expected Wednesday
The International Herald Tribune reports that a Paris appeals court is
expected to issue judgment on a trademark violation appeals case this
Wednesday. Google is expected to lose this appeal once again, due to how
France has treated Google in the past. Just look at these three selected
stories we covered in the past on Jan 20, 2005, Feb 4, 2005, and Mar 16, 2005.
If Louis Vuitton wins the case, they are expected to push to block the use of
the Louis Vuitton trademarks at other Google local properties. But it is
highly unlikely that they will have as… - Google
Blamed For Indexing Student Test Scores & Social Security Numbers
Google “hacked our website” from The Inquirer points to Blame game from the
Hickory Record, a story about how the Catawba County Schools in North Carolina
has gained a temporary injunction for “Google to remove any information
pertaining to Catawba County Schools Board of Education from its server and
index and alleges conversion and trespass against the corporation.” The school
blames Google for some how getting into a password protected area and indexing
the content. Let me make this clear, Google cannot submit forms or type in
usernames and passwords. Someone at the school must of left an opening for… - France’s
Géoportail Mapping Site: La Demande C’est Fantastique!
The French answer to Google Earth, the indirectly government funded Geoportail,
launched Friday and was immediately overwhelmed with visits from eager French
citoyens (citizens) and other curious would-be users. After several visits to
the site this weekend, I was still unable to get in to see anything. Each time
I tried I encountered this message: “Vous êtes incroyablement nombreux à vous
connecter au Géoportail, portail des territoires et des citoyens depuis sa
mise en ligne.” In my broken French it roughly translates: “An incredible
number of you have connected to Geoportail, portal of the territories and the
citizens, since the…
Other Things We Read, Didn’t Blog But You Might Want To Read…
- Google Penalizing Sites
Running Coop?, Threadwatch - One
Word Wonders: The Future of Branding on the Web, SearchViews - Amid photo-sharing
hype, Shutterfly makes IPO move?, SiliconBeat - Google
Tests Alternative AdSense Pricing Model, Ad Age - Spammer Caught,
SEO BlackHat
Lists & Rankings: Google Guys Place Second on New Business 2.0 List of Fifty
Who Matter in Business, ResourceShelf- Google on the
future of search technology, SEOmoz - Research: Internet
Users Plagued by ‘Banner Blindness’, ClickZ - New Edelman Report
Exposes Seedy Side of Ad Serving, ClickZ - BusinessWeek on Top
Performers in the Tech World, SEOmoz - The SEO Event & Conference
Calendar, SEO Book - Q
& A With Alan Eustace: Engineering Google’s future, Seattle Post
Intelligencer
Yahoo! Answers on search engine optimization, Pandia- New Look, New Name
For Gada.be, TechCrunch - Should Search Engines Help
Searchers Avoid Malicious Sites?, SEO By The Sea - A Big Cloud
of Stock Symbols, ResearchBuzz - Google’s secret IPv6 plans,
Googling Google - Larry Page and Sergey Brin
invest in electric race car, Threadwatch
Yahoo Search Marketing Bot goes wild with 83,000 visits to single page in 24
hours, JenSense
Windows Live Spaces announces features, Niall Kennedy- New
Yahoo!/O’Reilly Buzz Market Release, O’Reilly Radar - Spotlight on
Search – Interview with David McInnis of PRWeb, Search Engine Guide
Snap Speaks: CEO and COO talk CPA and Making it in Mainstream Search,
Search Engine Lowdown
Crash this bash: Sunday Google party in New Orleans, Valleywag- SEO by the Sea First
Anniversary, SEO By The Sea
Google Calendars for Pocket PCs, SEM Weblog
Current List of Google’s Data Centers by IP Address, Search Engine
Roundtable
Valleywag vs TextLinkAds, or: Should Bloggers “Nofollow” Text Ads?, Google
Blogoscoped- Digg.com – Use Them to Get
Visitors to Your Site, Threadwatch (but watch how they don’t convert)
CountZero on SEO Sabotage, SEO BlackHat- Why the MSM Hates
SEO: It Undermines Their Authority, SEO Book - Mpire,
SearchBlog - Furl
Under Heavy Spam Fire, V7N
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