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March 25, 2007 - March 31, 2007


No Action for Triple X

As widely reported, ICANN Board members rejected the application for a new .xxx top level domain yesterday. After reading through how the board voted and their meeting commentary, I can safely report that the TLD approval process seems broken.

Was there sufficient interest? One of the key criteria for developing any new top level domain is support from the community. There were more than 70,000 pre-registrants for this TLD. Some board members thought this passed the test, while others disagreed.

Would ICANN be liable? Many board members expressed lingering concerns about new content responsibilities or even regulatory functions for ICANN. Yet it wasn't clear this would ever happen, especially across international borders.

What happened with the voting? The results were split, with nine members against this TLD, five for it, and one abstained. Both before and after voting, there was much hand-wringing about the tortured and lengthy review process over the past few years.

If approved, then our landscape would have shifted only slightly. We expected adult sites to operate on these .xxx domains, as well as existing TLDs. Existing filtering efforts would still need to be supported by the search engines, too.

However, we have put this new TLD and any changes to rest for now.

Posted by on March 31, 2007, 4:57 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Mar. 30, 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:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 30, 2007, 11:58 PM | Permalink


Voting Helps Dining Search, But Not Enough

Voting is one of the methods that we all accept for refining search results. While voting helps from a directional standpoint, results won't be perceived as accurate or relevant by everyone who sees them. That's because votes come from a self-selected and thus biased sample.

The WSJ's Numbers Guy provided a stellar example of voting bias just yesterday. He analyzed issues related to Zagat's dining guides. Many diners rely on Zagat, but don't depend on the votes and ratings anymore.

Zagat is a well-known brand that appeals to Baby Boomers, and it provides ratings on local dining options. These handy city guides are based on voter volunteers, and have existed for years off-line.

When Zagat turned to online voting methods, the participation levels rose and biases became more obvious. First, the ratings became inflated. Second, they started to be gamed by restaurants who even asked for votes. Zagat tries to respond and keep their results relevant for diners.

We all know that voting online presents challenges. If a subject is very popular, then brace for spamming opportunities. If a topic is more obscure, then fewer voters can sway results more easily. It seems that both played into Zagat biases.

People still appreciate Zagat guides anyway:

* "It's actually a pretty good guide for a first scan of places to go."
* "The older generation relies on it."
* "It's good for out-of-towners."
* "Something to consider...your mileage may vary."

Yet actions and behaviors may speak louder than votes. One Denver diner put it best, observing that "usually the best sign an eating place is OK, is if there is a line out the door on Friday/Saturday night.”

A New Yorker claims that "a restaurant that is popular and gets many votes does not mean it's better. Remember Al Yeganeh's [which] was the inspiration for Seinfeld's Soup Nazi?"

Keep this dining example in mind, when you are relying on the most popular or highest ranked results. Or when you are checking out results from social sites as well. There has to be some better way to understand what's best for you.

Posted by on March 30, 2007, 8:33 PM | Permalink


Yellowpages.com Launches Text-based Mobile Local Search

Similar to the Starbuck's SMS search tool that we wrote about a few weeks ago, Yellowpages.com today announced text-based local search tool for mobile devices. Any cell phone user can now send a business name or category in a text message to YP411 (97411) to receive the three top listings for that term.

Brands that have tried to launch SMS search tools have received limited traction because of the relatively low adoption of mobile search so far. Starbucks might be able to get away with it because of the power of it's brand (and the addictiveness of its product).

Instead, success with SMS search products will only come from trusted brands that aggregate local search results. Current offerings in this space include GoogleSMS, Yahoo! Local, Superpages On the Go, and now Yellowpages.com (among a few others).

Though this supply outweighs current demand, this is a smart move for Yellowpages.com to get its feet wet with mobile search using by its most user friendly and prevalent form (SMS). This will also tie together nicely with other mobile services Yellowpages.com has rolled out recently, including a send-to-mobile feature that lets business listings be texted to any cellphone number a user specifies. The company also recently developed a version of its Web site that is optimized for mobile screens and WAP browsers.

It also has an enhanced DA product in certain markets, 1-800-YellowPages, which could be the foundation for a wireless voice search product. Together with the SMS product, this could come together as a nice multi-modal mobile search product. By casting all of these lines, AT&T is getting users accustomed to various forms of mobile search while meanwhile buying itself an education in the mobile marketplace.

It is also a nice point of differentiation as an IYP looking to get into the mobile space. All of the aforementioned products represent ways AT&T is trying to find its way around in mobile search by coming at it from many angles. A singular (as opposed to Cingular) product could emerge eventually that is planted on the home screen of AT&T wireless devices. This could be brought to you by Yellowpages.com or perhaps by Yahoo! which has online content partnerships with AT&T.

The development and strategy behind this could be one reason why AT&T wireless (formerly Cingular) like other wireless carriers, has been such a hard nut to crack in terms of allowing innovative third party mobile local search applications onto their devices and networks (this is the one place where they have non- net nutrality).

Still, it's important at this stage to have a SMS based mobile local search product for for non AT&T wireless users (anyone with a text enabled phone). We'll see how it does, and what AT&T really has up it's giant sleeves for mobile search.

Posted by Mike Boland on March 30, 2007, 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)


WebFetch, new meta search engine, launches in UK

E-consultancy reports the launch of WebFetch, a new meta search engine in the UK. In addition to web search results from Google, Yahoo Search, MSN Search, and Ask.com, WebFetch also offers image search, audio search, video search, news search, a business finder, and a people finder. The news search results come from only four sources: Fox News, ABC, Yahoo and Topix.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on March 30, 2007, 8:50 AM | Permalink


ZipLocal Brings Local Search 2.0 to Canada

Today I had the chance to talk to Elaine Kunda, CEO of Toronto based local search site ZipLocal, which launched earlier this week in beta form. The site has grown out of a couple (now-defunct) local search sites including Zip411.net and redToronto.com.

The site is a combination of Citysearch and Yellow Pages, with a lot of neat functionality, and a product road map that could make it much more. There is a healthy dose of AJAX functionality throughout the search and mapping modules, which make for a good user experience.

For example, when typing a term into either of its two search boxes ("what" and "where"), a javascript window appears that offers similar search terms and categories. This is an example of a technology integration that creates an entirely new use case - in this instance, one that combines search and browse.

From the mapping interface, there are lots of other neat AJAX based tools that allow you to do things like get directions and send business information to a cell phone, without leaving the map.

More important than what the site is now, is what it could become. Kunda is very bullish on video integration, user generated content and merchant generated content (akin to the new features in Google's Local Business Center). Ratings and reviews from users will also be integrated, and Kunda has a very clever plan (which I can't talk about yet), for how this content will be structured to aid in searchability and maximum utility for users.

The advertising model combines Google AdWords and premium listings, although it will slowly shift towards exclusivity for the latter. Taking a user-centric approach, Kunda is interested in pulling in as much information as possible from businesses, and she hasn't decided where the "line in the sand" will be between features and placement options for paid vs. unpaid listings.

The revenue model will likely involve featured placements (similar to Citysearch), multimedia upsells, and also some pay-per-click or pay-per-call. And the "line" between paid and unpaid features will be determined as the site gets closer to launching out of beta at an undisclosed point in the future.

For now Kunda is focused on the product road map and trying to generate content, and expand the site's geographic coverage throughout Candada.

“We have a database of 1.3 million business listings. In order for them to be found, they have to have keyword association," says Kunda. "We have this enhanced data for Toronto and Montreal and [unstructured] data for 45 additional cities. We will be expanding and narrowing in on content in each of the cities in the next year.”

Posted by Mike Boland on March 29, 2007, 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)


Search Headlines & Links: Mar. 29, 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:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 29, 2007, 6:12 PM | Permalink


NYT Reviews Google's Offline Media Efforts

The New York Times had a great piece on how Google is doing in their efforts in the offline media world, newspapers, radio etc.

Seems the bigger publishers like NYT are pleased with the efforts to date, while Google is pleased as they are nearly double what they expected, the article stated.

Google is building a TV ad sales team, have radio and print in beta, and their recent purchases for video game advertising, YouTube and other buys show they are building a company that really wants to be an all-emcompassing media company.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 29, 2007, 4:47 PM | Permalink


Google Wants Your SPAM Reports

Stefanie of the Google Search Quality Team in Dublin posted yesterday an Update on SPAM Reporting. She detailes what Google does with the spam reports. Of note is the statement that: "Currently, we investigate every spam report from a registered user". A registered user means someone who files their report using the forms within Webmaster Central (you have to be logged in, so they know who files the report). You can file a report without being logged in, but there is no guarantee that it will be looked at.

There are two things that this tells us:

  1. If you are using practices that are in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines then beware - your competitor may report you. In fact they have every incentive to do so.
  2. Be careful that you don't file frivolous spam reports, expecially while logged in to Webmaster Central. This itself is a spammy activity, and you best believe that they will know who is filing "bad reports", and who is filing good ones.

Of course, this is good news for those webmasters who adhere strictly to the Webmaster Guidelines. After all, it gives them a chance to level the playing field.

Posted by on March 29, 2007, 11:01 AM | Permalink


YouTube Adds New Functionality for Categories

Andy Plesser at Beet.TV reports that You Tube last night introduced new functionality that will let users to organize clips around designated categories. For those managing a large number of clips this will be a welcome addition. Previously, clips whether uploaded to a channel or to a regular account, simply went up in a semi-random order -- usually chronological. Users could organize their clips into playlists, but there was no way to group clips more completely. This change, which I've not yet tested out, will let the user decide how to organize their clips and will improve the user experience. Andy notes that this will make YouTube more Flickr-like.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on March 29, 2007, 9:19 AM | Permalink


Link Checking at Live Search Has Been Disabled

Webmasters observed earlier this week that the link: command at Live search was delivering either a blank page (my experience) or an error. It is not just broken. The link:, linkdomain: and inurl: commands have in fact recently been disabled at Live Search. Eytan Seidman, Lead Program Manager at Live Search notes:

For those of you who use some of the advanced query syntax in our search engine such as link:, linkdomain: and inurl:, you may have noticed that this functionality has been recently turned off. We have been seeing broad use of these features by legitimate users but unfortunately also what appears to be mass automated usage.

The post also notes that Live Search is looking for a way to make it possible for legitimate queries to be made. So, look for further announcements down the road.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on March 29, 2007, 8:44 AM | Permalink


NYIM Throwing SES Charity Event

New York Internet Marketing (NYIM) is throwing a charity event on Monday April 9th from 7-10 pm to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House.

The event is open to everyone, but especially to the attendees of the SES conference in NYC.

Town Tavern 134 W 3rd St & 6th Ave.
3 Hour Open Bar Party for $40 donation at the door
All money goes to Ronald McDonald House Charity
Charity Party is open to everybody
Big thanks to Best Of The Web & Text Link Ads for covering the cost.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 29, 2007, 12:15 AM | Permalink


Local Video Advertising on the Move

After catching my breath after The Kelsey Group's Drilling Down on Local '07 conference (and catching up with other things), it's (finally) time to recap the biggest theme I took away from the show; local video advertising.

Video took center stage, with a palpable difference from past shows in the amount of chatter on and off the stage about local video advertising. Thankfully, a lot of examples of video ads were shown, which was a telling indication that local video ads are actually being created. It's still an early adopter ad medium, but it's happening.

A second example came during a panel of real-life small businesses (a small but telling sample), which all admitted to local video ads currently in production. A bay area roof rack shop owner disclosed that he is working with TurnHere (see examples here) to create a video ad, while a cosmetic dentistry practice in San Jose is working with a smaller video production house to make a short video ad.

TurnHere SVP of Business Development John McWeeny sat on a video panel that I moderated and asserted that the interest in video among the small business segment is growing from his point of view. Selling video ads can also be easier than selling some forms of online performance based advertising to small businesses, making it a nice add on to product bundling by yellow pages sales channels. Yellowpages.com VP of marketing Matt Crowley and Yellow Book CMO Gordon Henry made this claim in separate panel discussions.

"Sales reps get it and advertisers get it. It's something that everyone can relate to," said Henry. This comes down to the belief that video is something that a lot of small businesses "get" compared to online performance-based marketing such as pay-per-click that may be less attractive and more abstract to some small businesses.

The key here though, is that accessibility to online video production and distribution is falling within the grasp of small businesses thanks to companies like TurnHere and Spot Runner, which also had a big presence at the show. Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf demonstrated during a keynote address how the company can drastically undercut ad agencies with new forms of creative and an automated process of customized production and cable buying.

From a user perspective, online video is hot and there is clearly a growing affinity towards it, thanks in part to the popularity of YouTube. Rising broadband adoption, high speed fiber network deployments, and interconnected devices within the home (see Apple TV), will only increase this. Advertiser adoption in creating online video ads or viral video promotion (see example from ShopLocal), is conversely in early adoption, but happening slowly. Business models based on video creation and distribution are meanwhile few in number.

So where does this leave us? All of these factors (user demand, advertisers & distribution models) affect each other's growth and exist in a sort of 3 way chicken and egg scenario. Question marks still surround where and how local videos ads should be distributed and what are users preferences are for watching them (should they show up alongside related online yellow pages listing? exist in their own searchable library of directional local video ads?, etc.).

The bottom line is that a great deal of adoption and development need to happen before video reaches any semblance of mainstream adoption in the local advertising space. But the wheels are in motion.

We'll outline some of the other takeaways from the show in a SearchDay article next week.

Posted by Mike Boland on March 28, 2007, 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)


Online users finish more stories than print readers

According to the Poynter Institute's Eyetrack study released today at the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference, online readers finish news stories more often than those who read in print. When readers chose to read an online story, they usually read an average of 77% of the story, compared to 62% in broadsheets and 57% in tabloids.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on March 28, 2007, 7:56 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Mar. 28, 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:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 28, 2007, 4:56 PM | Permalink


Microsoft Eyeing DoubleClick

According to Crain Business, Microsoft may be acquiring online ads serving platform DoubleClick.

"DoubleClick, which hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to work on a possible sale, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story on Wednesday. DoubleClick has been selling off noncore assets and preparing to cash out since it was taken private in 2005", Crain reported.

UPDATE: Kate Kaye has a look at what this would mean for Microsoft in her ClickZ story, "DoubleClick Sale Could Risk Publisher Exodus."

Posted by Frank Watson on March 28, 2007, 3:19 PM | Permalink


MySpace Making $30 Million Per Month From Advertising

Guess the monster AdSense partner for Google is MySpace. According to a report just released, they are making over $30 million a month in ad revenue - 30-40% of which should be AdSense. Even Jeremy Shoemaker would be impressed by those numbers!

Loren Baker over at SearchEngineJournal has done a really thorough job analysing MySpace's use of Google ads.

Well worth the read. Nice effort Loren!

Posted by Frank Watson on March 28, 2007, 2:46 PM | Permalink


Do You Speak Programmer?

Just because search marketers and programmers happen to speak the same language, doesn't mean they are communicating. In today's SearchDay, "Beware of In-House Communications Breakdowns," in-house SEM Duane Forrester tells his sad tale of mis-communication, and the impact that had on a major project.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 28, 2007, 1:23 PM | Permalink


Slurp's Change of Address

Yahoo's web crawler, affectionately known as Yahoo Slurp, is moving. According to the Yahoo Search Blog, Slurp will move from its domain of inktomisearch.com to crawl.yahoo.net. The crawlers will be switched over in phases over the next few weeks, starting immediately.

Identifying Slurp in robots.txt files will not be affected, as the user-agent name will remain the same, as will the IP addresses of the crawlers. However, any reverse DNS checks for the crawler identity or network access rules to allow inktomisearch.com need to be updated to allow for crawl.yahoo.net.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 28, 2007, 12:49 PM | Permalink


Yahoo News Partners With Major Newspaper Publisher

The McClatchy Company, third largest newspaper publisher in the United States, will provide International news for the Yahoo News platform.

The companies issued a press release today explaining the newly formed partnership.

The release stated:

Yahoo! News and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) announced today that they will team up to offer international news coverage from a range of international geographic regions on Yahoo! News. The project, to be called "Trusted Voices," will offer in-depth perspectives and coverage from McClatchy foreign correspondents based in select regions, including Iraq, the Middle East, China and Latin America. The coverage will include traditional news stories from McClatchy newspapers and will further tap the regional expertise of the correspondents through exclusive blog reports designed to guide readers in understanding the news from these regions.

"The daily blog contributions from the international correspondents, combined with their traditional news reports, will offer our readers an on-the-ground perspective unavailable from traditional news outlets," said Scott Moore, head of news and information, Yahoo! "World News is among the most popular categories on Yahoo! News, and partnering with The McClatchy Company will significantly expand Yahoo!'s coverage of the world's most important regions."

"Trusted Voices" is expected to launch early in the second quarter of 2007, and the scope of the program will be expanded on the basis of early experience. One of the program's first initiatives will be the "Inside Iraq" blog written by native Iraqi staffers based in the McClatchy Baghdad bureau, which has been operating continuously since the U.S. invasion in 2003. McClatchy journalists based there and elsewhere in the region, such as Cairo and Jerusalem, also will contribute stories and blog posts and will advise Yahoo! readers about finding other sources for additional perspectives.

"This project marries Yahoo!'s enormous range of coverage and unmatched audience with unique 'Trusted Voices' from McClatchy who can supply almost personalized guidance for those readers who are searching for more," said Howard Weaver, McClatchy vice president, news.

About McClatchy

The McClatchy Company is the third-largest newspaper company in the United States, with 31 daily newspapers and approximately 50 nondailies. McClatchy-owned newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer, and The (Raleigh) News & Observer. In addition, McClatchy has a robust network of internet assets, including leading local websites in each of its daily newspaper markets, offering users information, comprehensive news, advertising, e-commerce and other services. The company also owns and operates McClatchy Interactive, an interactive operation that provides websites with content, publishing tools and software development; Real Cities the largest national advertising network of local news websites, including more than 140 newspaper websites; and 15 percent of CareerBuilder, the nation's largest online job site. McClatchy also owns 25.6 percent of Classified Ventures, a newspaper industry partnership that offers classified websites such as cars.com and apartments.com. McClatchy is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MNI.

About Yahoo! News

Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com) is the largest news site on the web. Offering consumers news from dozens of news outlets, and a News Search tool that searches more than 8,000 news sources, Yahoo! News is a leading platform for breaking news, offering up-to-the-minute access to every important story happening. Yahoo! News is part of the globally branded Yahoo! network that reaches hundreds of millions of unique visitors each month.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 28, 2007, 12:46 PM | Permalink


Reciprocal Linking Should Still be a Component of Your Web Marketing Strategy

Is reciprocal linking dead? Of course not. What should be history, is the practice of requesting reciprocal links for the purposes of improving search engine rankings (if you are still sending out those link swap request emails, please stop, you are wasting your own time and effort). However, reciprocal linking should still be a part of your web marketing strategy.

As you build your web site you should be looking at building lots of relationships with other site owners, related magazine editors, and other people of interest to your business. Linking out to relevant quality content on other people's sites needs to be part of the mix. It's a tool that can be a part of building a relationship. Done correctly, it can also make your site a better experience for the visitors it receives.

With regard to reciprocal linking, don't ever trade a link with a site that you would not simply link to on it's own, even if they didn't link back to you. If it's good enough for you to link to, then there is no reason why you shouldn't try to get a link back from them. You just need to view the process as part of a larger relationship.

And that's the key. Linking between partners is a common practice. Or, if you link to someone, feel free to let them know that you did. I usually do this without asking anything in return, because we do view it as building a relationship. People often respond when you do this, and when they do, you can get a chance to tell more of your story.

Personally, I believe that this type of cross linking may well help your search rankings (because of the high relevance of the links), but more importantly, it exposes you to the audience of the other site. Some of the other site's visitors may not see what they want there, and come over to your site. And who knows? If they like what they see, they may link to you.

Posted by on March 28, 2007, 12:29 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Mail Turns 10, Offers Unlimited Storage

Happy Birthday Yahoo! mail - you are looking good for 10.

One of the biggest and oldest free email services annouced it will be offering unlimited storage as of May 2007. The former Rocket Mail, bought by Yahoo and relaunched as Yahoo Mail in 1997, has come a long way in 10 years.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 28, 2007, 12:07 PM | Permalink


Practical tips about reputation management

Lee Odden provides several practical tips in an article entitled, "Online Reputation Management Basics," in WebProNews. His three fundamental concepts to deal with search engine reputation management: "Monitor, Optimize and Engage."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on March 28, 2007, 8:36 AM | Permalink


Google Prepping BT Network?

Are Google's moves to expand its footprint into new areas a precursor to launching a behavioral targeting network? That's the prediction of blogger Anil Batra, a Web analytics consultant and former account manager at BT technology provider Revenue Science.

Batra points out that Google's networks of publishers and advertisers could provide a vast amount of visitor behavior data which could be used to target ads across its network. Yahoo and Microsoft have been targeting search ads with user behavior, with varying degrees of success, and AOL has been doing BT with input from searches as well.

While Google does not comment on rumors or speculation about its plans, it's worth noting that the idea is not new, and many people say it's inevitable for Google to make the move to behavioral targeting. Euro RSCG's Anna Papadopoulos summed up the state of BT in search for an October ClickZ column, "Search and Behavioral Targeting: The Coming Storm." Did-it's Kevin Lee predicted the spread of search retargeting in his ClickZ column last June.

Bill Gossman, president and CEO of Revenue Science, has understandably had his eye on Google for awhile, waiting to see when they would become his direct competitor. As Gossman wrote three years ago in a column titled "All That Googles Is Not Gold," search ads are not the highest point of online marketing.

Search ads ignore the majority of Web users that are not actively searching at any given moment, and cater to a direct response model, while big advertisers are looking for more branding opportunities, he wrote. "Search is great and it's helped drive online ad revenue, but it's only one part of the marketing mix. It is not the Holy Grail advertisers and publishers are waiting for," Gossman wrote.

I spoke with Gossman this week, and he said that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a point when he calls Google a "one-trick pony."

"Google's a one-trick pony, even though it's a really talented pony," Gossman said. "But they're limited by their focus on search. They can only monetize users when they're searching, or when they're on a site in Google's network. There's probably 90 percent of the Internet they're not able to touch."

Google's search query data could provide strong signals that could be used in behavioral targeting of text or display ads, an area that Google has not yet been able to conquer. Google's search data is already being used to inform BT at Revenue Science partners like AOL and Fox, Gossman said. And Yahoo and Microsoft are both doing some kinds of BT already.

There are technological hurdles that Google would need to overcome, Gossman said, since Google's infrastructure is all about indexing words, while BT is all about indexing behaviors of people. The difference is in the type of data, the frequency it is seen, and how it is indexed, stored and retrieved, he said.

More difficult to overcome may be the public relations and public policy issues that would likely be raised if Google were to begin widespread use of users' personal data.

One angle that could make sense for Google would be to take a consumer-centric approach to behavioral targeting, according to Omar Tawakol, Chief Advertising Officer of mobile search and advertising firm Medio, and former CMO at Revenue Science.

With companies like Revenue Science and Tacoda taking the publisher-centric approach, and aQuantive and Revenue Science offering an advertiser-centric approach with search retargeting offerings, there is an opportunity for search companies to enter the market -- and be differentiated -- by focusing on the benefits to consumers, Tawakol said.

"There's a position in the market for someone to take a consumer-centric approach to BT. They could say, 'I'm doing this for you. You're going to see ads, they might as well be relevant. And if you don't want to, we won't.' I haven't seen anybody be that proactive," Tawakol said. "I can't say whether Google would do that, but if they did, it would complement their brand. Otherwise, they might have to deal with consumer backlash." One of the benefits of operating a search engine is that you can have a direct conversation with consumers and focus on what benefits them.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 28, 2007, 12:17 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Mar. 27, 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:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 27, 2007, 11:17 PM | Permalink


Watch Bill Gates Fight Larry Page

Neil Patel has been busy recently. First he improves traffic for Jason Calacanis, now he launches a Search Engine SmackDown game where the bigs of search engines battle each other.

Fun little game testing your knowledge of search ziegest and other industry related areas. Thanks mate I needed some distraction today.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 27, 2007, 3:24 PM | Permalink


Data Analysis Must Look Across Channels

Paid search does not exist in a vacuum, and it should not be looked at that way when it comes to data analysis. In today's SearchDay, "Data Mining: The Heart of Analysis, Part 2," iProspect COO John Tawadros discusses the importance of examining the correlations between online and offline channels, and helping all these efforts work in tandem.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 27, 2007, 1:23 PM | Permalink


Sports Search Engine Even Has Gambling Info

2007 is definitely looking like the year of the vertical or niched search engine. We have local search, business search, video search, image search, music search and more.... and now there is a sports search engine!

Enth.com has announced a partnership with Stats LLC - a leading sports statistical data source - and is beta testing its search engine.

The engine can tell you who was the pitcher when Roger Maris hit homerun 61 or how many times Ohio State basketball has covered the spread this season.

And the gambling info may be what makes this engine stick. Or even the stats it can provide fantasy sports people will make it stand alone.

This niche has the right demographic - people with money - let's see if that is enough to keep it going.

Right now it could use a good logo and a lot of functionality help. But I love sports enough to watch its progress.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 27, 2007, 11:30 AM | Permalink


Baidu Launches Japanese Search Engine

Baidu, the Chinese search engine partially owned by Google, has launched Baidu.jp - a Japanese search engine.
Their intentions to expand into the Japanese market were made know last year and the Japanese language search engine was not expected until later in the year.
Baidu intends to eventual expand into other Asian markets as well as Europe and the United States. The engine holds the largest market share in China.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 27, 2007, 11:19 AM | Permalink


Update with Rand Fishkin on SEOMoz's Paid Subscription Model

SEOmoz recently began offering a paid subscription model for value added content on their site. Rand and I put together a Podcast update on how this is working for SEOmoz, and their future plans.

It's notable that SEOmoz already has more than 100 subscribers, and a larger audience of people who are paying do download premium content. These numbers may seem small, but I see them as significant validation regarding the model and the quality of the SEOmoz content.

In addition, we talked at length about the SEO tools provided, both the free versions, and the value added features available for paid subscribers. Tools like the Page Strength Tool, for example, provide great insight into a page, including detailed information on del.icio.us tags, Wikipedia mentions, DMOZ, and other factors. Just having these things be available on the fly to you while in the middle of evaluating the site of a potential client, or while looking at a competitor's site, without having to check all these places one by one, is a great value.

Another thing available for premium members are extensive how to guides. For example, a guide and a walk through of 10 different keyword research tools, and where to brainstorm valuable keyword ideas. Rand and SEOmoz remain committed to generating the same great content for free that they always have. The premium model is designed for those that want even more.

Posted by on March 27, 2007, 11:08 AM | Permalink


The YouTube Video Contest – And the Winners Are . . .

The votes are in and counted for the first ever YouTube Video contest. The contest was designed to honor the best user-generated video of 2006.

The winners are:

Most Creative - OK Go: This music video with a scary treadmill theme also won a Grammy for "Best Short-Form Music Video” and has been viewed by 13 million people.

Most Inspirational - Free Hugs: A heart-warming video showing how folks respond to a free hug.

Best Series – Ask a Ninja: Created by L.A. comedians Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine, this series of ninja answering questions would make Ann Landers or other advice columnists queasy.

Best Comedy – Smosh: The creators Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, aka Smosh, have the number two most-subscribed channel on YouTube.

Best Music – Terranaomi: Terra Naomi, a YouTube success story now with a major record label, began vlogging and broadcasting live acoustic performances from her LA apartment in February 2006. She is the third most subscribed-to musician on YouTube.

Best Commentary – The Winekone: A half-naked man rants.

Most Adorable Video – Kiwi!: This film, Dony Permedi's master's thesis in animation with music Tim Cassell, is about the aspirations of a kiwi bird. Kiwi is the number one most watched Film and Animation video on YouTube with more than six million views.

If you are a fan of consumer-generated video, I recommend giving these winning videos a watch .

Posted by Amanda Watlington on March 27, 2007, 10:15 AM | Permalink


Balihoo Demoing Advertising Industry Search Engine

Balihoo has announced that a demo of its advertising industry vertical search engine is now available. Balihoo's search engine is designed to speed the process of locating media opportunities for media buyers and planners.

The solution is designed to connect media planners and buyers with media owners in a faster and more efficient manner. The product is intended for release in mid-2007.

Posted by on March 27, 2007, 9:14 AM | Permalink


Judge Approves Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement

A judge has approved the proposed settlement reached nine months ago in a class action case brought against Yahoo by Checkmate Strategic Group in June 2005.

"Judge Snyder's final approval of the settlement validates the strength of Yahoo's clickthrough protection systems and our commitment to delivering a quality experience to both our advertisers and our consumers," Reggie Davis, Yahoo's new VP of marketplace quality, said in a statement. "Our commitment does not stop here. Quality is a top priority for Yahoo and we have a clear roadmap for how we're going to create the highest quality search advertising network in the industry."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 27, 2007, 1:15 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Launches Mobile Publishers Services

Yahoo announced it will be offering advertising through its newly formed Mobile Publishers Services.

Yahoo detailed its move into the sale of advertising through its partnerships and oneSearch its mobile search engine.

The Yahoo press release is below:
Yahoo! oneSearch has reinvented the mobile search experience for consumers, and today Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) will open it up to publishers through Yahoo! Mobile Publishers Services. This will extend the range of content consumers will be able to easily discover and access using Yahoo! oneSearch on their mobile phones.

"We believe Yahoo! oneSearch finally gives consumers what they want - instant answers and not just links to Websites," said Marco Boerries, executive vice president of connected life, Yahoo!. "But this is only the beginning. Opening Yahoo! oneSearch to the universe of mobile Internet content and services provided by other publishers will give consumers even more instant answers and information right at their fingertips."

Yahoo! Mobile Publishers Services will allow publishers to include their content in Yahoo! oneSearch. (see press release titled: Yahoo! Launches Yahoo! Mobile Publisher Services) These new services include:

-- Yahoo! Mobile Site Submit - will add to the range of mobile Web sites consumers can search for and find

-- Yahoo! Mobile Media Directory - will make it easier for consumers to find mobile media content, such as ringtones, games, video and applications

-- Yahoo! Mobile Content Engine - will add to the types of content, such as classifieds or real estate listings, that consumers will be able to easily discover on their mobile phone

Yahoo! oneSearch is accessible on more than 85 percent of mobile phones through the mobile Web in the U.S.* and is also available through the gamma version of Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0. It is designed to make searching for and finding information as quick as possible for consumers by providing relevant results right on the page such as news headlines, images, business listings and more as well as easy navigation to other websites.

Yahoo! oneSearch will roll out in additional country and language versions over the coming months. For additional information on Yahoo! oneSearch please visit http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch. To try Yahoo! oneSearch on your mobile phone open your browser and type in m.yahoo.com.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 27, 2007, 12:37 AM | Permalink


Panama Working Better Than Expected?

After Yahoo CEO Terry Semel crowed last week about the success of Panama, a Wall Street analyst now adds to Yahoo's merriment with news of even more success, according to paidContent.org.

UBS AG analyst Ben Schachter told Bloomberg that Panama is "just working quicker and better than people had expected," and it may boost Yahoo's revenue growth from searches to more than 20 percent in the second half of this year, instead of his previous estimate of as little as 15 percent.

Also quoted in the Bloomberg story are search marketers from Did-it, who said clickthrough rates rose 3 percent in February, and Avenue A | Razorfish, who said CTR has risen 10 percent since Panama's debut. If that 10 percent figure holds up across the board, that could mean a boost of about $25 million in Yahoo's sales this quarter, which would exceed Yahoo's timeline of expected results in the second quarter, Piper Jaffray's Safa Rashtchy told Bloomberg.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 27, 2007, 12:25 AM | Permalink


Neil Patel Teaches Jason Calacanis SEO

In response to Jason Calacanis's comments about SEO, Neil Patel has shown Calacanis that even basic SEO actions can improve your traffic.

Great job mate. We look forward to the description of the site improvements.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 27, 2007, 12:19 AM | Permalink


Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Google?

Who's afraid of Google? Not Topix.net's Rich Skrenta, that's for sure. In his Skrentablog yesterday, he outlines 12 tips for up-and-coming search engines who want to take on Google, with a promise for more to come in "How to beat Google, part 1."

Rather than cower under Google's dominance of search and advertising, startups should feel confident that they can stand up and fight, he says. "Grow a spine people! You have a giant growing market with just one dominant competitor, not even any real #2 ... Get a stick and try to knock G's crown off."

Skrenta, co-founder & CEO of news aggregator Topix.net, gives some sage advice to those trying to do so. Among the advice:

  • If you merely duplicate Google's search engine, you will have nothing.
  • You need both a great product and a strong new brand. Both are hard problems.
  • You need to position your product to sub-segment the market and carve out a new niche. Or better, define an entirely new category.
  • Forget interface innovation. The editorial value of search is in the index, not the interface.
  • Forget about asking users to do anything besides typing two words into a box.
  • Your core team will be 2-3 people, not 20. You cannot build something new and different with a big team.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 27, 2007, 12:05 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Mar. 26, 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:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 26, 2007, 11:47 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Directory Links Gone from Search Results

Yahoo has removed the "category" links, derived from the Yahoo Directory, from its previous position in its search results. The move, which Barry Schwartz reported today at Search Engine Roundtable, was confirmed by a Yahoo spokesperson as "part of our ongoing effort to lessen the clutter on the SRP and improve the user experience."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 26, 2007, 11:40 PM | Permalink


Google Finds Less is More

In some cases, less is more. Google is finding that out in respect to the number of ads it shows on certain search results pages. Last week, Robert Scoble shared his cocktail party conversation with an anonymous Googler in a post titled "Did Google turn down the revenue knob?" While fewer ads mean less short-term revenue, the increased relevance leads users to click on ads more, according to the source.

That kind of thinking is not new to search engines. They constantly test the number and position of ads to find the best-performing combination. Sometimes, it turns out that fewer ads are more productive. Google's not alone in this process. Ask.com went through this process very publicly a couple of years ago, and had to explain away the short-term effects to stockholders for several quarters. Every search engine is testing these variables constantly.

Over the weekend, ZDNet's Donna Bogatin went through Google investor call transcripts to find an explanation given in January of the reduction of ads from Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder and president of technology:

In the fourth quarter, we continue to enhance our ad matching by eliminating ads from some of our less commercial queries while showing more ads on commercially-oriented searches. As a result, the percentage of queries that receive ads have gone down by several points, but monetization has improved. These are the kinds of improvements that we make all the time and really improve both the quality and the monetization of our system.

That's also the official response I got from Google, via Nick Fox, senior business product manager for ads quality. "We believe that ads improve the user experience when they're high quality and relevant, so we don't necessarily think that fewer ads is always a good thing. However, we do believe that low quality ads hurt the user experience and work aggressively to ensure that our users don't see low quality ads," he said.

The end result is that, over time, some searches will return fewer ads per query as low-quality ads are weeded out. Usually, revenue is not affected, Fox said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 26, 2007, 11:31 PM | Permalink


What Makes Us Search Online To Buy Offline?

Our online behaviors certainly influence the retail buying cycle. According to a recent National Retail Federation study, a whopping 93% of respondents spend time online first, including 35% who regularly research and another 58% who occasionally research online before buying in person.

What's surprising is that online media aren't the most important influences in triggering an online shopping search. Well over 40% of respondents individually identified TV, magazines and newspapers as the most important triggers. By contrast, just 28% mentioned e-mail ads and only 25% claimed internet ads of any kind!

Other online communications aren't significant influences either. Only 7% of respondents mention blogs, 9% IM, and 8% online communities as triggers to search online. These sources increase slightly among 18-24 year olds, up to 14% blogs, 22% IM and 21% communities.

After respondents finish searching, communications become more personal. About 69% speak to someone face-to-face. Another 53% send emails, 50% pick up their land-lines and 30% make cell calls.

Once again, online interactions fall short. Just 4% blog, 15% IM and 7% participate in communities. Here you see a pick-up among 18-24 year olds, as 9% blog, 38% IM and 21% use communities. Also some 24% of this age group sends text messages.

So while search dominates the retail discussion, everything else we're doing online hasn't made that kind of singular impact among shoppers yet.

See References: National Retail Federation announcement; Big Research's study approach; and MediaPost's summary .

Posted by on March 26, 2007, 11:12 PM | Permalink


SES Munich Coverage Wrap-up

Search Engine Strategies Munich is underway, and not surprisingly, Barry Schwartz has it covered by live-bloggers at Search Engine Roundtable:

Another report on the show comes from Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz, who spoke at the event: SES Munich - Linkbait, Truffles & More Insomnia.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 26, 2007, 10:41 PM | Permalink


Is Google Planning to Expand in Beantown?

It looks like Google's shopping around for space in Boston or nearby Cambridge, according to WebProNews, which spotted some want ads for account reps for its ad sales team.

In addition, rumors among Boston-area real estate agents has Google reportedly looking for 100,000 to 200,000 square feet of space, which would replace the smaller office for sales and engineering groups it currently keeps in Cambridge, according to a Boston Herald story, "Google on search of a Hub: Tech co. fetching multiple results in bid for office space." The Herald story cautions that Google conducted a similar search about a year ago, which ended with no action being taken. A Google spokesperson, of course, declined to comment on rumor or speculation.

The Boston or Cambridge space would give Google a presence close to several universities -- and so tech talent, including Harvard and MIT.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 26, 2007, 3:57 PM | Permalink


Kinetic Results Now Dexterity Media

Dallas-based search and social media marketing firm Kinetic Results has rebranded itself as Dexterity Media, and founding partner Kevin Ryan has left the company.

"We've been working for the last year or so on ways to promote social media, and we think we've got the formula down now," Tony Wright, Dexterity's VP of client services, told SEW. "We've had tremendous demand for these services, and we wanted our name to more closely reflect what we do."

Kinetic, itself founded amidst an exodus from Zunch Communications in October 2005, has shuffled execs once more. Ryan's departure is not directly related to the name change, which was in the works prior to his decision to leave, Wright said. The team at Dexterity is now made up of Giovanni Gallucci, president & COO; Tony Wright, VP of client services; David J. Wilkie, VP of creative; and Anthony Zapata, VP of client strategy.

Over the past year, Dexterity has built up a podcast network, Media Swamp, as well as a social media optimization planner, which helps clients create a framework for social media marketing. Those services will continue to grow under the new direction of the company, without giving up on its search marketing practice, Wright said. All contracts with existing clients will be maintained, he said.

"We'll definitely continue to offer search marketing services. We think social media dovetails nicely with search offerings," he said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 26, 2007, 1:49 PM | Permalink


Microsoft Search Share Troubles

Business Week Online just put out an article about the troubles that Microsoft is having in capturing search market share. According to the story, Microsoft had a search market share in February of 2005 of 14%.

Two years later that share has dropped to 9.6%. In the same time period Google's market share went from 46% to 56%. Clearly things have gone in the wrong direction for Microsoft. The article also details the changes in Microsoft's executive team, and the trouble they had with re branding everything to Live Search.

These have surely contributed to the problems in growing their market share, but I believe the major problem has been the continued excellence in execution by Google. This has just left very little room to capture new users.

I think people should be careful though to not rush to the conclusion that Microsoft is done. All signs are that Microsoft recognizes that there is no more strategic area for them to focus on. In addition, Microsoft is a company with huge cash reserves. While it may be frustrating to have to be patient, they do have the ability to do just that.

In addition, an increasing number of innovative tools are being implemented by Microsoft within the MSN AdCenter Labs. I wrote about one of these recently, the MSN Search Funnels, which allow you to see what terms people search for both before and after your keywords. It's an incredibly cool tool.

This is but one example of innovations from Microsoft that show that they are going to keep pushing new stuff out there. And this really is the key for them - to show technological leadership through the implementation of tools that makes things easier for advertisers, publishers, and most importantly of all, end users. Don't count Microsoft out yet.

Posted by on March 26, 2007, 9:54 AM | Permalink


TV Guide Joins the Video Search Race

When I was growing up, almost every home had a TV Guide sitting on the top of the family TV. Now TV Guide is looking to be on every computer desktop with its own video search engine. It looks like TV Guide is planning to move into Internet video. TV Guide will launch a test version next month of an online video search tool that allows viewers to find clips and full episodes of TV shows now being posted on the Web. The test will be followed by a formal launch in September.

This tool will not aggregate the huge and growing volume of consumer-generated video. Instead it will focus on network and original programming produced by major media companies. Plans call for it to aggregate the Internet video made available from some 60 Web sites from major networks such as ABC and Fox and other video portals such as AOL and Google.

TV Guide will combine metadata based search with its own database of information on television shows to provide relevant results that can be grouped by celebrity, network or genre.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on March 26, 2007, 9:44 AM | Permalink


Idearc Launches TV Campaign

The local search space is heating up, and now one player is moving the fight to TV. Idearc Media, the owner of the Superpages online yellow pages business that spun-off from Verizon in the fall, is beginning a TV campaign to introduce the new brand to consumers and advertisers.

The 10-week run will include buys on more than 15 national cable networks, including ESPN, CNN, Fox News and HGTV. The ads will attempt to tie together the Idearc brand with the print version of the Verizon Yellow Pages and establish Superpages.com as the online yellow pages site of record in the eyes of consumers. At the same time, the ads are an attempt to entice advertisers to spend their ad budget with Idearc.

The ads can be seen on Idearc's site.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 26, 2007, 9:44 AM | Permalink


Bryan Eisenberg Talks about Persuasion Architecture

The latest in my line of interview is a discussion with Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now. Bryan is very well known in the web analytics world, and is the chairman of the Web Analytics Association, and the co-author of Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results and Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing.

Bryan, and his brother Jeffrey, are the leading proponents of "Persuasion Architecture". This is the notion that you need to model and understand your customers, what they want, and figure out how to persuade them to buy what you are selling. Sounds trivial, but it's not. We are emerging from the era when marketing focused on branding and broadcasting simple messages to create desire for their products.

But now there are so many choices available to consumers, and they are in much more control. They don't want to be slammed with marketing brouhaha, they want the answers to their critical questions, and, if it makes sense to them, to be able to buy the product.

It's made more challenging by the fact that your prospective customers are not all at the same stage in the process. Some of them are ready to make an immediate decision, others are still doing research, and others may be at various in-between stages. In a Persuasion Architecture you strive to be successful in addressing the needs of all of these kinds of prospects.

It's a thought provoking concept. Persuade the customer to buy, by serving them. Doing this truly well requires a lot of insight and ongoing optimization to get to optimal results. Yet the upside is tremendous.

Posted by on March 26, 2007, 9:34 AM | Permalink

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