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December 30, 2007 - January 5, 2008


China Limits Video, Audio Podcasts To State Run Sites

The Chinese government will restrict all video and audio content on sites starting next month, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"From next month, only state websites will be allowed to carry film or radio programs, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said," they reported.

In an effort to control video sharing programs, the government makes the operator remove uploaded content.

"The new rules will put many private video providers in China out of business as only websites fully or for the most part in state ownership will be allowed to offer films and other audiovisual products.

It remained immediately unclear, what consequences the regulations would have for international providers such as YouTube, who operate their servers outside China, or the popular China-based Tudou.com website. YouTube has been repeatedly blocked in China in recent months," SMH noted.

With 150 million internet users, China will soon surpass the US as the largest online market. But with the tight restrictions imposed by the government it will be hard for many to develop normal marketing. Though no doubt many will try. How they do will be watched closely.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 5, 2008, 11:14 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 4, 2008

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 January 4, 2008, 6:09 PM | Permalink


InfoSpace Seeks Search Engine Market Share

Now that InfoSpace has cleared away other business lines and staff, they just re-committed to online search. The company aims to grow through white-label distribution, which includes over 100 partners so far. In addition, they seek growth through through consumer traffic -- and that strikes me as quixotic at best.

Remember Dogpile? Last summer, this InfoSpace search destination garnered about 0.3% share or under 26 million searches (per Nielsen, July 2007). The company also reported 6.7 million unique monthly visitors worldwide (per comScore, December 2006).

InfoSpace embraces the current search ecosystem, from both organic and paid perspectives. Dogpile has garnered J.D. Power's top satisfaction award for two years running. It's a nice interface that fetches results from Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and Ask engines simultaneously. Beyond the organic search results, InfoSpace has ensured both Google and Yahoo ad sources through 2011.

Yesterday's strategy release mentions “significant product enhancements” and we'll have to wait to hear more. In the meantime, the company touts the benefits of metasearch and non-duplicated results. In their April 2007 study of 19,000 random queries, over 75% of what each engine returned on page-one results was unique. In addition, the first three results returned for these queries didn't overlap at all. Thus unifying and organizing different results seems to be the core value proposition.

So what will drive consumer demand? Well, InfoSpace appointed a new CMO yesterday to figure this out. Bruce Allenbaugh has held top-spots at bigger companies like Safeco and Nextlink. His experience leading marketing at Avenue A, as it went public, seems most relevant because he's been involved in the Search and Search marketing business before. And since he is from the industry, we'd like to know what attracts Bruce to this role.

InfoSpace has such a storied history! Let's see how they do in differentiating their offerings, and balancing between business partnerships and consumer opportunities.

Posted by on January 4, 2008, 6:30 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Google AdWords 101

The Internet is overflowing with high-level discussion of how to plan a search advertising campaign. But sometimes, a new advertiser needs to know the actual steps of setting up an AdWords campaign and look into the methodology of setting up ads and A/B testing. In today's debut SEM Crossfire column, "Google AdWords 101," Frank Watson, aka AussieWebmaster, gives new advertisers a lesson on how to launch their first ever Google AdWords campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 4, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Win the Right Search Marketing Clients

As a new search marketing firm, what kinds of clients will best fit your business? In today's Business of Search column, "Win the Right Search Marketing Clients," Fionn Downhill breaks down the benefits and drawbacks of working with start-ups and small businesses, mid-sized businesses, and large organizations.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 4, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: New Search Engine Trends, Old SEO Troubles in 2007

With advances such a universal search and the explosion of social media, 2007 was quite a landmark year for search marketers. For all of its breakthroughs, a few bad habits still remain from years past. In today's Outsourced column, "New Search Engine Trends, Old SEO Troubles in 2007," William Flaiz reminds us that it's the human component that matters most, and clients are finally beginning to understand the value of SEO.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 4, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 3, 2008

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 January 3, 2008, 5:30 PM | Permalink


ChaCha launches text service at Sundance Film Festival

ChaCha, a “human-powered search engine”, today announced a new service that allows users to text questions of any kind to 242242 (which is ChaCha on a phone keypad) and receive text answers on their cell phone. The answers are sent by a live person, called a ChaCha guide.

The service is currently available as a free trial and, as part of the launch, ChaCha will be the “Official Text Answers Service of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.” This will allow festival goers to text in questions about screenings, festival events, local restaurants – anything connected with the Sundance Film Festival – and get dynamic, relevant answers from ChaCha guides. As the “virtual information booth,” ChaCha will provide exclusive real-time information about the audience pulse, length of wait lines and other dynamic and relevant information.

I spoke with Brad Bostic, president and co-founder of ChaCha, who said festival goers can even ask questions like “How long is the wait line?” and get answers from ChaCha guides.

ChaCha's new mobile answers service offers answers that people can't easily find otherwise when they have questions on the go. For example, Bostic's daughters asked him yesterday to find the name of the 2008 American Girl doll.

To get a brief answer from his cell phone, Bostic simply texted their question to 242242 as if messaging a friend. Because the questions are being answered by skilled people who are trained to use ChaCha's powerful internal search tools, users don't have to remember any special formatting or rules and questions can be asked even with typical text shortcuts, misspellings and slang.

Within three minutes, he got the answer from a day-old post on a blogger's site: The 2008 American Girl doll's name is Mia, and she's a 10-year-old hockey player-turned figure skater from upstate New York. Oh, and she has long, silky red hair.

With ChaCha, users can ask questions on a variety of topics, including:
• Dynamic information – sports scores, movie times, airline delays, weather, etc.
• Local information – cheapest gas, shopping, recycling, pharmacy locations and more
• Current events – business news updates, stock updates, world news, etc.
• General information – names and phone numbers for local businesses and residences
• Trivia -- movie quotes, song lyrics, celebrity gossip and more

With the world's biggest community of real-time guides in place, ChaCha has put its powerful technology platform to use with mobile devices, Bostic added. On the cell phone, users benefit from the assistance of another knowledgeable human who can do research for them – especially when they don't have the resources, such as a computer, to do the research on their own.

So, what do you want to find out about the films, world premieres, panels, discussions, deals, and, of course, parties at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival? ChaCha is there and, thanks to text alerts, you'll be the first to know whatever is worth knowing.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 3, 2008, 2:00 PM | Permalink


Ask and LookSmart Send Out Click Fraud Settlement Letters

Seems Lane's Gifts are not the only ones getting money back from LookSmart and Ask for click fraud, letters were sent out yesterday for the class action suit that both companies are trying to put behind them.

Both seem to be written by the same law firm and were from the suit lodged in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. LookSmart is dealing with the period between January 1, 2002 and the present; while Ask is covering claims beginning August 1, 2005, when it began licensing LookSmart's technology for its Ask Sponsored Listings product.

Claims must be filed to LookSmart by February 11, 2008 and to Ask by February 2, 2008.

Payment seems to be in advertising credits as opposed to cash. Guess if you have gotten out of the online business you could sell the credits.

Copies of the two letters are below.

LookSmart's letter read:

"If you purchased online advertising from LookSmart between January 1, 2002 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. LookSmart, Ltd. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court's certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.

- The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from LookSmart on or after January 1, 2002.

- The proposed settlement will resolve claims that LookSmart breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.

- If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at LooksmartSettlement.com

To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: LooksmartSettlement.com/claim

Note: You should review the Settlement Notice as soon as possible as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with this proposed settlement. As indicated above, your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is January 29, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 11, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice."


The Ask letter reads:

"If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively "Ask") between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.

You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.

The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court's certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.


The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. on or after August 1, 2005.


The proposed settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.


If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at www.AskSettlement.com.

To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: AskSettlement.com/claim. Each advertiser will be allowed one claim per account."

Posted by Frank Watson on January 3, 2008, 11:19 AM | Permalink


Ask.com introduces voice-activated capabilities to mobile search service

Ask.com has just added voice-activated capabilities to its Ask.com Mobile Directions service. Called "Click to Speak," the new feature lets people speak their location and desired destination to receive directions on their web-enabled mobile devices.

Users of the Directions service on Ask.com Mobile will now see a new "Click to Speak" option. After clicking it, they will be prompted to speak where they are and where they want to go, either by specific address or closest intersection. Then, they'll receive a text message with a link to directions that can be viewed in either a traditional list or a turn-by-turn step format, with an additional option to switch between "Driving" or "Walking" routes.

Click to Speak builds on other features of Ask.com Mobile.

For example, the Ask.com Mobile home page offers links to key mobile categories, minimizing thumb strokes and making it easier to navigate to relevant results.

Its Smart Answers feature provides shortcuts to answers and tools at the top of the search results page and Zoom Related Search provides conceptually-related suggestions to narrow or expand queries.

In addition, Ask.com Mobile works on any mobile web browser so users don't have to worry about which carrier they are signed up with or which mobile device they have.

Finally, Ask.com Mobile doesn't require a download to get started, yet still offers features like street and aerial map views.

However, voice input still doesn't handle wit, irony or humor very well. So, don't try testing the new 'Click to Speak' service by asking it to "open the pod bay doors."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 3, 2008, 11:11 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Search Engine Marketing 21st Century Manifesto

As Web marketers, our time has come. We must stand up to our clients and demand they build sites worth linking to. In today's Link Love column, "Search Engine Marketing 21st Century Manifesto," Sage Lewis explains how to recover from a link building strategy that has been obsessed with the links and completely ignores what we're asking people to link to.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 3, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: SEO.edu: Can You Learn SEO From a Book? - Part 3

Search engines give SEOs the 4 PRs for submitting sites: press releases, product releases, proper rules, and PageRank. But these alone won't solve SEO problems. In today's SEM.EDU column, "SEO.edu: Can You Learn SEO From a Book? - Part 3," Ron Jones takes a look at where to find more information online when things go wrong.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 3, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEO Company CEO Arrested, Jailed: Accused of Foreclosure Scam

trafficpowerCEO.jpg

Traffic Power earned an infamous reputation as a search engine optimization firm, allegedly using "black hat" tactics that may have resulted in bans by Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

Now Traffic Power's CEO is behind bars, jailed for allegedly running a housing foreclosure scam.

Search Engine Watch reader Julie Vazquez tipped us off to the online news story and video by KVBC investigative reporter Mitch Truswell.

Truswell interviewed Carolyn Ellsworth with the Nevada Secretary of State's office, who said at least sixty homeowners thought Marlon -- at times using four different aliases and 45 corporations to allegedly buy homes -- could help save them from foreclosure. But he didn't really buy the house or pay off the mortgage, according to Ellsworth, who told KVBC that Marlon would get the rightful owners out of the house under false pretenses and would, instances, rent the houses to tenants.

KVBC's report invites viewers who recognize Matt Marlon as the person who tried to buy their house or they thought bought their house, to call the Nevada Secretary of State's Securities Division at 702-486-2440.

Matt Cutts confirmed that Google has removed traffic-power.com and domains promoted by Traffic Power from Google's index because of search engine optimization techniques that violated Google webmaster guidelines.

Cutts advises clients or former clients of Traffic Power with site(s) not in Google, to learn what steps to take to be reincluded in Google's index.

In December, Traffic-Power's litigious CEO, Matt Marlon, was profiled by Dave Kesmodel in The Wall St. Journal , while the SEO firm's tactics have been discussed in the Search Engine Watch Forums, Threadwatch and other industry forums.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 2, 2008, 11:25 PM | Permalink


Wikia Search Engine To Launch Test Version Jan. 7

The Jimmy Wales' search engine experiment will launch its test version January 7. The engine - - Wikia - which Wales had stated last year would eventually challenge Google is an open source community driven program.

"Wales says pretending search results come from "some magic algorithm" doesn't help the concept of democracy or transparency, which goes against the characteristics the Web embodies. "All of these things are parts of the puzzle, but it's all going to be released under free license," he says. "The amount of human editorial influence will be much higher than anything we've seen before," CM.com reported.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2008, 8:45 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 2, 2008

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 January 2, 2008, 6:00 PM | Permalink


Which Industries Really Like Sponsored Links

When advertising on destination sites, some industries prefer sponsored text links while others are less focused on them. For text links, about 18% of all ad impressions are from Retailers while another 47% come from Web Media advertisers -- and that makes sense.

However, straight reporting of text link placements doesn't tell the whole story for industries who participate at lower levels. To understand all industry results better, we compared each industry's sponsored text link activity to all online ad units. Here are top-level findings, based on Nielsen Online monthly data:

* HIGHER than median ad levels: Business-to-Business; Entertainment; Public Services; Retail; Web Media
* MEDIAN ad levels: Health; Software; Travel
* LOWER than median ad levels: Automotive; Consumer Goods; Financial; Hardware; Telecom

The pecking order of industries may seem a bit surprising, because it's all volume based -- and without CPC/CPM rates or click throughs entering the picture. While it's true that companies control their overall activity levels, no company or industry controls match rates per se. Those with higher text impressions may simply be "better matched" to the 2,000 destinations tracked by Nielsen.

At this point, the lion's share of text links are served across the whole Google network. It's possible that industry participation levels could shift, especially when advertisers are able to make more placements based on verticals or destinations (i.e. through Quigo, Pulse 360, others).

Other explanations? You could chalk up the preferences due to the nature of these industries and the types of products/services sold, but that's a reach. Or you could say these industries are more “direct marketing” driven, but that doesn't work too well for Entertainment.

Let's start looking at these industry relationships over time. We would like to understand if industry activity levels are stable, dynamic or beginning to change -- based on new text link ad opportunities or other factors.

For those interested in "drilling down" to actual industry percentages, please see the spreadsheet and calculation details below.

Text%20Ad%20Percentages.JPG

How the calculations work: Nielsen Online reports ad placements monthly, based on over 2,000 sites and subsites. They track impressions for five different ad units, namely sponsored text links, flash, rich media, standard images, and standard images with text links. For each type of ad unit, we divided each industry's volume by total volume. Then we calculated industry medians across the five types of ad units.

Posted by on January 2, 2008, 5:45 PM | Permalink


AdSense Adds Newbie Central

In their ongoing efforts to help educate their users the Google AdSense team has added Newbie Central - "the complete resource center for newly approved AdSense publishers," their blog announced today.

The introductory page supplies links to what AdSense must know are the most Frequently Asked Questions. It is a great idea - centralizing these questions.

Earning expectations, ad formats, how to filter ads etc. are all the things new users want to know.

Now if you could just increase the payouts I would really be happy!!!

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2008, 4:39 PM | Permalink


Presidential Candidates in Need of SEO Help

The Range Online Media SEO team completed an audit of the political candidates' sites, and found glaring holes in search strategy on virtually all of the sites of major candidates and minor players on both sides of the aisle. In today's SearchDay, "SEO for President," Range's Herndon Hasty breaks down the biggest search-related issues on the candidates' sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 2, 2008, 11:22 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Vertical Search: B2B Survey Says ... Blazing Hot

A survey gives us a viewpoint into how audiences are thinking. As a result, we can learn their collective mindset. In today's By the Numbers column, "Vertical Search: B2B Survey Says ... Blazing Hot," Eric Enge looks at Convera's recently released Vertical Search Report.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 2, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: 2008 Wish List: Search Engine Hangover Cures

The new year is always a time for looking forward, and while last week's column focused on the old, we kick off the year with a wish list for 2008. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "2008 Wish List: Search Engine Hangover Cures," Kevin Ryan offers abridged, but uncensored cures for pseudo-search engines, link baiting bloggers, and stupid press release tricks.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 2, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Norman Mailer On Google

mailer%20on%20god%282%29.jpg

Norman Mailer died at 84 this year, only months after the publication of his latest book, On God, a brilliant dialogue about God and Good and Evil.

Before Mailer passed away, I planned to interview him about Google and God and whether corporate technology in any human hands can Do No Evil.

Mailer was not a search engine expert. Nor was he a technologist. He was fearless, though.

As a towering literary figure, he took center stage in some of the great debates of the 20th Century. He refused to go quietly when the novel and the printed word lost prominence with the advent of film, television and the Internet.

His personal theology as outlined in On God provides a foundation for understanding technology and its influence on society. If there's sufficient interest among Search Engine Watch readers, we'll revisit the controversial New York Times column by Thomas Friedman, entitled "Is Google God?"

I'll excerpt Mailer's published views on technology and God. I'll try to persuade his co-author, Mike Lennon, to join the Google debate on Mailer's behalf.

Now that Google has won FTC approval of its DoubleClick acquisition, Search Engine Watch will keep an eye on the ways Google dominates the Internet, the search engnine marketing profession, and our professional as well as "private" lives.

We won't have Norman Mailer's wisdom and literary journalism to guide us, but we will have his words and his example.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on December 31, 2007, 2:24 PM | Permalink


Network Neutrality

Back at SES Chicago, one of the keynote speakers, David Isenberg focused his presentation on the issue of Network Neutrality. One of the more interesting aspects of his presentation was how little those of us in the industry think about this issue.

Yet, if the telcos succeed in violating network neutrality, it will blow up the web experience as we know it. The consumer will no longer be in control on the web, and an era of innovation will be sorely impacted. Can you imagine Facebook being successful if the bandwidth to access it is controlled by a telco that is offering a competing service? Or, the telco will not give the service enough bandwidth to work properly unless they pay additional fees?

Additionally, in the current web environment, the consumer has virtually unlimited choice. The biggest challenge that the consumer faces is sifting through all the choices, but with choice, comes power. In a world where the consumer is loaded with power, the companies that want their business must truly compete for it. If the choice starts to become limited, then the power of the consumer will fade with it.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR and I spoke with Mr. Isenberg after his keynote. One thing that we all agreed upon was that the current telco companies are not well adapted to capitalizing on the web as it is, and they view the current web environment as a threat to their continued growth.

Worse still, these companies have large war chests, and the people they are working on selling their story to are the members of congress. Unfortunately, many of those in our congress are not particularly web savvy, so they may not understand the web as it exists today, and how critical that is to the innovation and growth that we are experiencing, and to consumer control (and therefore consumer rights).

Hopefully, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others have their eye on the ball on this one.

Posted by on December 31, 2007, 9:29 AM | Permalink

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