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February 1, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: Feb. 1, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

• A Look at the Next Generation of Search?
  Today's SearchDay looks at the five companies chosen to present at the AlwaysOn Media conference in the "CEO Showcase" session in search.
• SuperPages.com Combines Local Search with Social Networking
  SuperPages.com has launched a Reviewer of the Week program, intended to add the trust garnered from social networking and reviews to their local content.
• Miva Gets Vertical
  Miva has added a vertical offering to its pay-per-click ad network in the U.S. and U.K.
• Google Refutes Click Fraud Numbers, Once Again
  In response to the latest click fraud report from Click Forensics, Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder has responded in a two-part post on his personal blog.
• A Look at Yahoo's Local Ad Options
  Patricia Hursh digs into Yahoo's local search advertising options, post-Panama.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

• 13 New Yahoo Search Marketing Patent Applications, SEO by the Sea
• The Social Fabric of Search, Search Insider
• Google Works on Unified Search Engine, Google Operating System
• Linking The Unlinkable: When Digg Won't Work, Search Engine Land
• New Ad Ranking: Five Best-Practices, Yahoo Search Marketing Blog
• Designing a Search Engine Friendly Web Site, Search Engine Guide
• Save Time, Money And Increase Pay-Per-Click Profits With Web Analytics, SEM Clubhouse
• When SEO disaster strikes, SEO Theory
• After SEO - The 5 Laws of Website Lead Generation, ISEdb
• Calacanis's New Company: 20.com, paidContent
• Don't Get Sidelined at the Big Game, iMedia Connection
• Consumer & Media Strategeries at Microsoft, Jupiter Research
• WTF? It's a new feature!, Sifry's Alerts

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 1, 2007, 10:10 PM | Permalink

A Look at the Next Generation of Search?

I stopped by the AlwaysOn Media conference in New York yesterday, to check out a "next-generation search" session and a panel on keyword advertising. Today's SearchDay looks at the five companies chosen to present in the "CEO Showcase" session in search: Collarity, Eurekster, Mercora, Nexidia, and ZoomInfo.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 1, 2007, 4:41 PM | Permalink

SuperPages.com Combines Local Search with Social Networking

SuperPages.com today launched a Reviewer of the Week program. The intent of this program is to add the trust garnered from social networking and reviews to their local content. Here is how it will work. Registered users will compete with one another to write the most reviews of local businesses in their local area. Each Wednesday, the user posting the most reviews will be identified as the Reviewer of the Week and featured on the home page of SuperPages.com. By adding this competitive twist, SuperPages expects to get more writers and reviewers to generate content. SuperPages.com already has more than 324,000 reviews and listings with consumer-provided content.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on February 1, 2007, 2:14 PM | Permalink

Miva Gets Vertical

Miva has added a vertical offering to its pay-per-click ad network. The Miva Precision Network, launched this week in the U.S. and U.K., promises narrower distribution and delivery of vertical-specific leads.

At launch, the network will span 18 sectors in the U.S.: adult, apparel, automotive, dating, education, electronics, entertainment, finance, health, insurance, mobile, office supplies, pharmaceutical, professional services, real estate, sports/recreation, technology and travel. In the U.K. the network will include 5 sectors: automotive, finance, gambling, health/beauty and recruitment.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 1, 2007, 1:55 PM | Permalink

Google Refutes Click Fraud Numbers, Once Again

In response to the latest click fraud report from Click Forensics, Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder has responded in a two part post on his personal blog.

"On a basic level, these numbers are much higher than what we see at Google, and are not at all representative of the actual statistics of our network," he writes.

He goes on to outline problems with the methodology behind the reports from Click Forensics and others, most seriously the practice of counting page views as clicks, and the fact that even fraudulent clicks that Google detects and removes before the advertiser is charged are counted in click fraud reports.

"The key point here is not that their numbers are 'too high.' The point is that their data collection methods are inherently flawed and any resemblance their numbers could have to reality would be coincidental," Ghosemajumder writes.

He brings up many of the same points he mentioned when he spoke with me about the "Sausage Manifesto" last month (more from Shuman here). It's mission to debunk click fraud reports stepped up in March 2006 after SES NY, and went into full force at SES San Jose in August, when it released a white paper called "How Fictitious Clicks Occur in Third-Party Click Fraud Audit Reports" to specifically address what it calls flaws in the methodology of click fraud auditors like Click Forensics.

Google's Matt Cutts adds his take, with pretty pictures, on his blog.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 1, 2007, 10:31 AM | Permalink

A Look at Yahoo's Local Ad Options

In her latest ClickZ column, Patricia Hursh digs into Yahoo's local search advertising options, post-Panama. She explores Local Sponsored Search, Sponsored Search, Local Basic Listings, Local Enhanced Listings, and Local Featured Listings.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 1, 2007, 10:13 AM | Permalink

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