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March 2, 2008 - March 8, 2008


Jason Calacanis TechCrunched in Techmeme: Deathmatch at SES New York

Jason Calacanis has owned the front page of Techmeme--the world's most influential technology and Web 2.0 news aggregator--for the past 18 hours and counting.

Another Civil War in Silicon Valley? Well, it's war anyway--even if not civil.

Aussie Duncan Riley of TechCrunch fame bodyslammed Jason after his Calacanis.com post on how to run a startup. Duncan said "Calacanis Fires People Who Have A Life." So far, 164 comments on TechCrunch about firing anyone who's not a workaholic ...

Jason got up off the canvas, charged his opponent Valleywagged, and parried Duncan's jabs by updating his post, How to save money running a startup by revising his VC deathmatch coda. http://www.calacanis.com/2008/03/07/how-to-save-money-running-a-startup-17-really-good-tips/

By then Duncan had tagged out: Allen Stern delivered a sidekick to Jason's solar plexus that sent him all the way to Starbucks country: Working at Mahalo is Like Prison Except We Gots Better Coffee.

Jason Calacanis "Electrified Cage Deathmatch Bar Room Brawl" at SES New York in the SOLD OUT (Not Paris) Hilton in New York the day after St. Patrick's Day.

Note: See it live! SES On Demand Video will be available to Search Engine Watch members only after the SES New York Deathmatch.

Celebrities on the front row: Kevin Ryan, John Battelle, Andrew Tomkins, Nick Carr, Gordon McLeod and many, many more.

Tickets on sale now!

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Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 8, 2008, 11:50 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: March 7, 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 March 7, 2008, 6:29 PM | Permalink


How to Go Beyond Linkbait : SES NYC

SES NYC is fast approaching. My session with Chris Boggs and Lee Odden titled Beyond Linkbait will cover some interesting ideas.

I spoke to Chris today to get his take on the idea of going beyond linkbait.

One topic he's covering is reciprocal links - good or bad? If done properly, they can still be a good SEO tactic, says Chris. They need to happen naturally and be relevant. He has some great ideas on how to make these links work for SEO and offers examples of what a bad reciprocal link and a good reciprocal link would be.

Chris plans to share a case study about creating content for YouTube or other social media sites that is not intended to produce links directly. "We built a peice of content around a game on a client's site with the intention of building buzz and getting bloggers to write it about it and then link to the client's site where the game is hosted," explained Chris.

They've had over 25 000 views on YouTube and a flood of links and traffic to the client's site.

Sounds like a hard act to follow!

My case study is about The Bounce Test videos and how we took this content and turned it into a serious women's health issue backed by research that got coverage from influential bloggers and mainstream media sites.

See you in New York on the 20th March
.

Posted by on March 7, 2008, 5:28 PM | Permalink


Microsoft in Hot Pursuit of Google

Kawasaki-Ballmer (photo by DBegley) At the Mix08 Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft loudly declared its intentions to increase its share of the search market. Yesterday, Steve Ballmer told a room of 1,500 software developers that the software giant has its eyes set on catching Google.

During a Q&A with Guy Kawasaki, he called search the "killer application" of online advertising which he said will be the next "super big thing" and is the reason for the company's Yahoo offer.

Ballmer lamented the fact that Microsoft did not get an earlier start in the search game, but maintained that they were still the "little engine that could." He even rallied the troops by reenacting his famous "Monkey Boy" routine from 2001, but this time gave it a twist by chanting "Web Developers! Web Developers! Web Developers!"

Earlier in the week, during his keynote address, Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie spoke about how search was driving community-based innovation in the software industry and how the change was affecting online advertising.

"With online advertising projected to grow from $40 billion today to $80 billion over the next three years, advertising is going to continue to be the primary way that we and you monetize services and apps of all kinds of the Web," Ozzie said. "And so in terms of strategically what is Microsoft's role in advertising on the Web, the answer is, in short, to do our part and to use the resources that we have to ensure that there's a vibrant advertising ecosystem on the Web based on a highly competitive ad platform that's attractive to advertisers, publishers, and developers alike."

Ozzie also said these changes are affecting the way companies store information. "Most major enterprises are, today, in the early stages of what will be a very, very significant transition from the use of dedicated application servers to the use of virtualization and commodity hardware for consolidating apps on computing grids and storage grids within their data center. This trend will accelerate as apps are progressively refactored, horizontally refactored to make use of this new virtualization-powered utility computing model. A model that will span from the enterprise data center, and ultimately, into the cloud."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 7, 2008, 11:08 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Maps Announces Updates

Yahoo Maps announced Wednesday that an update was rolled out, which includes several data and style improvements. Gus Maldonado, senior product manager, wrote on the Yahoo Local Maps Blog that users can expect to see lower zoom levels, new neighborhood data for 300 North American cities, and expanded worldwide coverage.

New points of interest have also been added and include schools, rest areas, and ski resorts. Usability was also a focus of the recent update, offering increased city density as well as adjustments to hybrid road and label colors.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 7, 2008, 11:05 AM | Permalink


Pentagon Bans Google Mapping Vehicles from Military Bases

The Pentagon has banned Google from driving their mapping vehicles on military bases after detailed street views of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, appeared on Google Maps. The views have since been taken down by a cooperative Google.

An official at Fort Sam Houston allowed the vehicle on the premises after promises from the driver that no videotaping or photographing would be allowed. Google insists the images were loaded in error and should never have been taken in the first place.

The driver of the vehicle apparently violated Google's own mapping policy which prohibits its vehicles from driving on military bases and private property.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 7, 2008, 10:41 AM | Permalink


Why Digg's Worth $200 Mllion or More to Google

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Digg IPO? No. Digg FSBO. For Sale By Owner. Again.

The auction for social search engine Digg begins when Microsoft and Google make their bid. Both search engines are digging through Digg's financials to see if they can make the numbers work. Microsoft signed a three year advertising deal with Digg last year. Microsoft's guarantees providing the lion's share of Digg's revenue.

Did Steve Ballmer like his Digg advertising deal so much he decided to buy the company? Not at all. So who else might bid? Time Warner. NewsCorp. Round up the usual suspects.

TechCrunch reported this morning that two media titans are in the mix too for the fire sale prices being discussed. Mike Arrington notes this isn't the first time there's been due diligence with Digg. Last year the number was $300 million. This year? Only $200-$225 million.

Microsoft, expected to bid lower, may cancel their advertising deal if they lose out (again) in a bidding war with Google.

Blodget says "a knowledgeable SAI reader" values Digg at $100 million. In any case, Kevin Rose, Digg's co-founder, must know his tech team can't satisfy his customer base with the new Digg voting algorithm that essentially takes the social out of the social search engine.

Google would be able to design a superior Digg voting algorithm for the community; Digg apparently can't.

Arrington observes that Google wouldn't value Digg based on revenues. No surprise there. Google's acquisition of YouTube as a video search engine wasn't valued based on revenue either. Nor was Microsoft's stake in Facebook.

For Google, the acquisition of Digg would have strategic value. Ask Google execs what the near-term future of search looks like and they'll answer "social search."

Digg would be an extension of Google's search engine empire: Digg votes may become one more signal in the Google natural and paid search algorithms. Diggers voting for YouTube. A link is a vote in PageRank. Why wouldn't a Digg vote be one too?

Google may have reduced PageRank for Digg-juiced sites that rose in natural search rankings due to Digg. No company knows the power of Digg better than Google.

It's not about the short-term AdSense revenue all those Diggers would provide. It's about their behavior: what they vote for and why.

Search behavior is the key driver behind Google's acquisitions. The benefits of amassing a higher share of searches on the Internet accrues to Google. No one on Wall St. values a company based on the activities of its members.

But then no company before Google has ever built an empire as a global R&D lab.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 7, 2008, 8:57 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Has Google Already Won?

With the imminent demise of Yahoo and Ask.com, Google seems to have cemented its near-total control of search. The monopolization of our industry is fast becoming a reality, and yet the users of search are oblivious. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Has Google Already Won?," Frank Watson laments the downfall of Ask.com and Yahoo, and what that might mean for Google.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 7, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 1

Now that you know how to win the right search marketing clients, it's time to look at one of the most important areas of your business -- how to make sales. In today's Business of Search column, "Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 1," Fionn Downhill discusses ways a search marketing agency can gather sales leads, and turn those leads into sales.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 7, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Social Media Meets Local Search

Despite the growing traffic to social networks, local search tools for users of those sites are surprisingly few and far between. That doesn't mean you shouldn't stay active in those communities. In today's Vertical Search column, "Social Media Meets Local Search," local search expert Gregg Stewart take a look at emerging local search products/applications on the heavily trafficked social platform/portal sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 7, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


UNC Student Body President Eve Carson Shot, Killed: The Way We Live Now

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UNC Chapel Hill senior Eve Carson was shot and killed early Wednesday morning.

Police are calling the murder a random act of violence. Carson's roommates reported seeing her about 1:30 a.m. at their home the day of the shooting.

We're observing a moment of silence in memory of the UNC student body president murdered yesterday. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Search engine news can wait.

Instead we'll look at how search engines have eliminated the last vestiges of privacy, turned private lives into public figures, and created a global community that can celebrate and honor an ordinary life.

Chapel Hill police said the body of Eve Marie Carson was found lying at the intersection of Hillcrest Road and Hillcrest Circle about a mile from campus at approximately 5 a.m. No identifying information was found at the scene -- no ID card, keys, purse, or wallet.

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Investigators said officers found Eve Carson, a 22-year-old senior from Athens, Ga., after gunshots were reported in the area. Police spokesman Lt. Kevin Gunter told "The News & Observer" of Raleigh that Carson had been shot several times, at least once in the head.

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Police found Carson's vehicle, a blue 2005 Toyota Highlander with Georgia plates, after receiving a tip Thursday afternoon from a witness who spotted it near Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.

Lauren Burk, an 18-year-old Auburn University student from Marietta, Ga., was found wounded by a gunshot on a roadside Tuesday night, about five miles from the school. She died later at a local hospital.

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Her car was found burning in a parking lot on campus.

No one knows whetther the co-ed murders are linked. In the past, the UNC shooting would have been a brief segment on national television news; a CNN pundits' exchange, and the inevitable "48 Hours Mystery" segment.

ABC News, though, has received more than 200 comments online from readers.

USA Today ended its breaking news story with "Here's a Facebook page from her successful campaign (for UNC student body president.) The USA today reporter linked to her inauguration speech video on YouTube, showing her welcoming students back to campus.

The photo of Eve Carson on USAToday.com? An "Image taken from YouTube."

Other TV news sites featured slideshows: "Pictures Of Eve Carson." Links helped searchers put together a better picture of her life:

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Link: Video Of Carson's Inauguration As UNC Student Body President
Link: Message From UNC Chancellor About Carson's Death
Link: Eve Carson Memorial Page On Facebook

Today, with millions of people searching for information on Eve Carson, social search engines provide a way to celebrate a life. I found one photo on FlickR tagged "eve carson." The photo shows "A bagpipe player promoting Eve Carson for student body president."

The most moving photos online show Eve Carson working with impoverished families in Ecuador. Take the time to watch "The Gifts of Poverty," on the Morehead Scholars and Alumni site. You can listen to Eve Carson sharing her experiences in her own voice.

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The multimedia slide show was produced by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The credits: Nancy Donaldson, photography editing; Ray M. Jones, audio editing; Pailin Wedel, audio gathering; and Ashlie White, photography.

People all over the world will be touched by Eve Carson's too-brief life as they search for answers about her death.

The author of Enders Game Orson Scott Card wrote in his sci-fi novel Speaker For The Dead that we would one day celebrate lives by speaking the truth about an ordinary life. To Speak for the dead, one must first unravel the web of secrets surrounding lives. One must speak not only for the dead, but for all humanity.

Eve Carson's Inauguration Speech as UNC Student President

Eve Carson was a Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow, taking part in a four-year leadership development program for undergraduates.

As UNC student body president, she served on the university's Board of Trustees.

The Morehead-Cain provides a full four-year scholarship to the UNC Chapel Hill that includes an annual stipend that covers full tuition and all other normal expenses, including student fees, housing, meals, books, supplies, travel, laptop computers for all entering freshmen; a fully funded, four-year Summer Enrichment Program; and funding to pursue a gap year before starting college.

The total value of the scholarship over the four years is approximately $140,000 for out-of-state residents.

A premed student, Carson majored in political science and biology, taught science at a Chapel Hill elementary schools, studied abroad in Cuba, and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana, according to AP reports.

More than 5,000 students mourned her death at a campus memorial service.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 6, 2008, 10:32 PM | Permalink


AdWords Annouces, Explains Load Time Usage In Quality Score

The Adwords blog just announced the details of the inclusion of page load times in calculating Quality Score. This is an important announcement for all AdWords advertisers as it is a direct impact on your pricing.

We have been discussing it in the forums and was told about the announcement by the Google AdWords Rep who posts on the forums giving Google help.

Their stance is "users have the best experience when they don't have to wait a long time for landing pages to load" and that many possible infractions take added load times. Always looking out for the users.....

The help guide states "we evaluate your load time relative to the average in your server's geographic region."

What that exactly means should be more detailed. What happens if a particular region just has slow times and you are impacted by that? Would finding a slower overall region help fast loading sites? Would moving to a slower region for that matter help a slow site?

Could this create situations that competitors could take advantage of... is there a slow speed hack yet to be created? Is this a Pandora's Box of troubles yet to come?

Posted by Frank Watson on March 6, 2008, 8:20 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: March 6, 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 March 6, 2008, 6:37 PM | Permalink


Free Online March Bootcamp Shows Jenn Slegg Still Queen of Adsense

If you have been making money using Google AdSense for more than a few months chances are really good that you have read or benefited from knowledge shared by Jennifer Slegg. JenSense, her indepth blog on monetizing your website, is without peer - and that includes Inside AdSense!

As part of her launch of her newly changed blog, Jenn is posting a detailed tips for improving your online income - including a free privacy policy template, in light of the changes recently made in AdSense's Terms and Conditions which require all publishers to have one.

AdSense has been slow to share a lot of information about optimizing your income - many times posting suggestions that have been given by many sources beforehand.

Their post yesterday about revenue fluctuations, while somewhat informative - when not trying to suggest they could be due to impression drop off - comes in response to the numerous articles and forum discussions about dropping AdSense income.

Jen I look forward to reading your entries this month.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 6, 2008, 12:46 PM | Permalink


EU Approval of Google's DoubleClick Acquisition is Imminent

The EU is reportedly planning to approve Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising powerhouse DoubleClick. Though the Commission gave itself an April 2 deadline, approval is expected to come as early as next Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.com.

The EU decision comes on the heels of the US Federal Trade Commission's approval this past December. This will come as unwelcome news to Microsoft, which has been complaining about the potential for Google to gain monopoly status in the online advertising market. The company said last year that the acquisition would provide bring 80 percent of the market under Google's control. Last year, Microsoft acquired DoubleClick competitor aQuantive for $6 billion.

Another concern of both Microsoft and EU Commissioners has been the question of privacy with the combination of Google and DoubleClick's massive databases. But with the EU apparently set to approve the acquisition unconditionally, those fears have either been alleviated or will go unanswered for the time being.

The news gave Google a slight boost in stock prices today, which have declined in recent months over reports of a slowdown in growth on clicks for their internet ads.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 6, 2008, 12:00 PM | Permalink


Trackur Offers Easy Online Reputation Management

Last week, Andy Beal released an online reputation management tool called Trackur. It was created for “individuals and companies concerned that they may be the subject of an online conversation, but don't have the time or knowledge needed to set up their own online monitoring tools."

It's also aimed at PR firms that want to add online reputation monitoring to their existing "clipping" services.” Users can be up and running with Trackur in just 5 minutes, which Beal says "removes the hassle out of maintaining dozens of manual reputation searches.”

At first glance, Trackur appears to be a simple RSS aggregator of social media search queries. Indeed, a social media-savvy individual could likely replicate what Trackur does with a bit of time and effort. But not every business has the knowledge, or the desire, to know what they should be tracking. Trackur makes good business sense for those types of users, Beal says.

“We take the hard work out of monitoring social media. We monitor news, blog posts, images, videos – even Twitter! Users can set up multiple searches, use sophisticated filtering to remove items that are not relevant to them, bookmark items, share items, sort items, then subscribe by email or RSS – or just use our beautiful AJAX interface,” Beal says.

All of this sophistication comes at a price. Trackur offers plans from $88-$388 a month, or less than the cost of a venti latte at Starbucks a day. But for small businesses, Trackur is essentially reputation insurance. “A smear against the reputation of a small business can be more detrimental than one against a Fortune 500 firm. Small businesses live and die by referrals and word of mouth. Just a single blog post can hurt the business of a restaurant, attorney, or flower shop,“ says Beal.

Technology alone cannot manage a reputation, so a Google support group and consulting services are in place for those who need help acting on their results. Trackur offers a 14 day free trial of its Standard version so users can experiment with the tool before shelling out the monthly fee.

In the coming weeks, Beal says to expect new features such as trending reports to be rolled out with the tool.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 6, 2008, 11:11 AM | Permalink


Google Serves Up Search Within Search Results

Yesterday, Google announced that it is rolling out its new Search within a Site feature. When searching for specific sites instead of keywords, users are able to conduct a secondary search of those sites within Google results.

For example, if a user searches for "NASA" at Google, the first result returns NASA.gov. Underneath that result is a search box with a submit button with the text "Search nasa.gov."

NASA search

The reason for the update? "Through experimentation, we found that presenting users with a search box as part of the result increases their likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for," wrote Ben Lee, software developer, and Jack Menzel, product manager on the Official Google Blog.

Lee and Menzel also offered insight into how Google is implementing the feature. "This feature will now occur when we detect a high probability that a user wants more refined search results within a specific site. Like the rest of our snippets, the sites that display the site search box are chosen algorithmically based on metrics that measure how useful the search box is to users."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 6, 2008, 10:15 AM | Permalink


Ask.com Stands Behind Search

The reports of Ask.com's death have been exaggerated. Despite widely circulated reports to the contrary, Ask.com remains committed to search, and not just for middle-aged women in the Midwest. In today's SearchDay, "Ask.com Remains Committed to Search," we outline what Ask.com's new strategy really consists of: recognizing the ways their best customers use the site, and building out additional services for those users.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 6, 2008, 6:44 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Has Yahoo Lost Its Yodel?

It seems like only yesterday that Yahoo was the darling of the Web. Is Jerry Yang really ready to throw in the towel and partner with Microsoft? In today's Building Brand Equity column, "Has Yahoo Lost Its Yodel?," Erik Qualman discusses the daunting task ahead if the proposed acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft goes through.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 6, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: SEO Link Building: Budget Stretcher for Online Retail and E-Commerce Sites

Let's face it: most e-commerce sites primarily consist of a shopping cart on steroids. Whether you're selling clothing, car parts, luggage, or even cameras, your approach to link development matters most. In today's Link Building and Social Media column, "SEO Link Building: Budget Stretcher for Online Retail and E-Commerce Sites," Justilien Gaspard takes on the difficult task of link building for e-commerce sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 6, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: March 5, 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 March 5, 2008, 6:45 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Launches Fire Eagle: Location Sharing

Yahoo has joined the companies working on helping people stay connected through location technology, the company announced today. They have launched Fire Eagle - as a sub domain of Yahoo.net.

An information page explains the beta here:

"Fire Eagle shares your location information with services and applications that you choose. This location information is obtained from the web or your mobile device.

Information Collection and Use Practices

* Fire Eagle collects your current location information from location-enabled devices or services that you authorize. The specificity of the location data collected by Fire Eagle (e.g., city, street, latitude/longitude, etc.) depends on the authorized device or service that you link with Fire Eagle.
o You can view the service(s) or device(s) updating your location, the location indicated, and the time passed since collection at the “My Locations” tab.
* Fire Eagle shares your location information with application(s) that you authorize to obtain your information from the Fire Eagle database.
o If you authorize an application to obtain your location data from the Fire Eagle database, you may go to the “My Applications” tab and choose the specificity of location data available to the application from the drop-down list.
o In approximately 45 days, you will be sent an email to reauthorize the sharing of your location data with your Fire Eagle enabled application(s). If you do not respond to this email within 10 days, authorization will be automatically revoked; however, you can later reauthorize your application(s) to interact with Fire Eagle's location database.

Practices Regarding Your Ability to Update or Delete Information

* If you want to prevent all applications from reading your location from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Hide Me.” Your current location will continue to be stored by Fire Eagle.
* If you want to prevent a single application from reading your location or providing the Fire Eagle database with your location, go to the “My Applications” tab and delete the application.
* If you want to remove previously stored location data from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Delete my location info.” The “Delete my location info” action will have no effect on information you previously authorized Fire Eagle to share with Fire Eagle enabled applications.

Other

* When you use Fire Eagle, you are subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service."

Posted by Frank Watson on March 5, 2008, 6:33 PM | Permalink


Discovery's Science Channel Has Good New Series On Internet

Former editor and writer for Wired John Heileman shares his insights into the development of the Internet. This is no softball show praising Al Gore and the people who came after him.

The series gives it to you "warts and all" and does not hold back the punches on how things have developed so far. The last show I watched discussed the development of search and told how Excite turned down the chance to buy Google foe a million dollars.

Browser wars, the bubble have all been topics so far. The show can also be seen online.

"Download: The True Story of the Internet is about a revolution -- the technological, cultural, commercial and social revolution that has radically changed our lives," is how the Discovery describes it.

It makes for a great history lesson for people new to the industry and answers some of the urban myths surrounding our industry as well. Put the time aside and watch them, you will be glad you did.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 5, 2008, 5:47 PM | Permalink


Health Vertical: License and Be Found

MindsiteAnother health vertical, Mindsite, was quietly reported in the Seattle PI venture blog yesterday. Founder David Eraker explained that "information is often ridiculously watered down, locked up behind expensive subscriptions, editorially corrupted, biased, or not credible."

Mindsite focuses on mental health, and has licensed American Psychiatric Association information that was previously unavailable on the open web. There's a social dimension planned here as well, where people share treatments and what's worked for them. This mental health vertical could become another useful, ad-based destination.

In this case, I think the odds are stacked against making this site a home run because it follows the “license and be found" model. You need traffic, stat. How will anyone find Mindsite among other specialized health sites, portals and search engines?

The competition here is fierce and very well optimized. First, there are the largest health portals like WebMD, Mayo Clinic, and Revolution Health. In addition, there are health resources at places like iVillage, About.com and even Yahoo. Any of them could make this same licensing deal (assuming it's not exclusive), and knock out sites like Mindsite.

Then there are many health search engines to consider. Remember a year-plus ago when Healthline, Kosmix, Healia and Medstory were all the rage? All these search engines refine sources and aim to produce credible results. They essentially compete with these smaller verticals, at least for traffic.

Getting noticed is hard work. Look at the challenges faced by relatively deep-pocketed Revolution Health which, as a newcomer, isn't optimized well yet. They compensate by making seemingly large keyword buys to drive visitor traffic. While Mindsite is focused on mental health, that's a broad subject area too -- and hardly a shoo-in for optimization.

Mindsite is a textbook example of where verticals sit today, with search, content and social attributes as basic requirements for launch. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like a game changer.

Posted by on March 5, 2008, 3:49 PM | Permalink


Microsoft Research Unveils Three New Search Projects

Yesterday at TechFest, Microsoft Research unveiled three projects designed to enhance a user's search experience. Two projects, SearchTogether and CoSearch, are aimed at collaborative search while SearchBar assists the individual searcher.

SearchTogether is a free Internet Explorer plugin that allows groups of people searching on multiple computers in different countries to collaborate their searches. The plugin will be available for download later this Spring and installs a sidebar on the IE web browser. SearchTogether's features include group query histories, split searching, page-level rating and commenting, automatically-generated shared summaries, peek-and-follow browsing, and integrated chat.

CoSearch enables collaborative search while users are gathered around a single computer. This is facilitated by the use of multiple mice or cell phones. For example, a person might use their cell phone to maneuver a cursor on the screen and transfer data to their phone, while another user may use a mouse to follow links on the same page at the same time.

Searchbar is an advanced search history tool that operates as a sidebar in a user's web browser. Users can save searches in order to return to them later and pick up where they left off. SearchBar organizes the searches in a hierarchical tree format. Users can write notes to themselves to remind them of future searches or any other information they wish to remember about their search queries.

Microsoft's projects are comparable to recent efforts by Google and social media startups to personalize and socialize search. But Microsoft could take the lead on such efforts because these projects offer users increased control of their own research efforts. With the ability to easily keep personal accounts of search queries and share and receive results from people they know, instead of being purely subject to algorithms and the opinions of a broad audience.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 5, 2008, 12:18 PM | Permalink


YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook: Most Popular Social Media Sites in UK

Facebook lives! Reports of Facebook UK's death? Greatly exaggerated.

Rocketing up the charts in today's Nielsen social search Top 10 is Facebook, up 712 percent year-over-year. Facebook leapfrogged 15 places in the most popular social media site rankings, winning third place with 8.5 million UK visitors.

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YouTube, Facebook and Slide top the list of the most popular and fastest growing social media Web sites in the UK, according to Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company. Nielsen's data, released today, proves that reports of social media's demise in the UK may be unfounded.

In the UK, 20.8 million people (63 percent of Britons online) visited at least one of the ten most popular social media sites in January 2008. That's a 21 percent increase over last January (17.1 million).

YouTube has replaced Wikipedia as the UK's most popular social media Web site.

Biggest Winners: Facebook and social networking add-on tool, Slide.

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Biggest Losers: Friends Reunited and Google Video.


Facebook and Slide broke into the Top 10 by ousting Friends Reunited and Google Video (falling to 16 and 14, respectively, compared to January 2007).

Prediction: Google will retire the Google Video brand and roll it into YouTube by the end of 2008. Both are video search engines. Universal search makes Google Video as a standalone property obsolete.

RIP Google Video: the first Top 20 Web property buried six feet under the World Wide Web?

We'll be tracking whether UK cable TV (MTV Two) can drive traffic and registrations to a social media site. MySpace (News Corp) and MTV (Viacom) will launch a weekly TV music video countdown show (MySpace Chart) only on the U.K. network MTV Two, not to be confused with MTV 2 in the US.

Think TRL with a social twist.

MySpacers and MTV site visitors will be able to vote next week on the top videos ( mtv.co.uk/myspacechart) on MySpace and MTV Two's dedicated landing page.

My Space Chart launch date: March 16. Mark you calendars and start tracking on comScore, Hitwise, and Nielsen.

A complete list of the current MTV Two UK chart toppers after the jump:

The MTV TWO Chart:

Arcade Fire - Black Mirror
Cage The Elephant - In One Ear
Does It Offend You Yeah - Let's Make Out
Editors - Push Your Head Towards The Air
Elbow - Grounds For Divorce
Foals - Cassius
Furtureheads - Beginning Of The Twist
Guillemots - Get Over It
Hard Fi - I Shall Overcome
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor
I Was A Cub Scout - Pink Squares
Jack Penate - Have I Been A Fool
Jimmy Eat World - Always Be
Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong - Lonely Buoy
Kaiser Chiefs - Heat Dies Down
Kids In Glass Houses - Easy Tiger
Late Of The Pier - Bears Are Coming
Look See Proof - Do You Think Its right
Make Model - The LSB
MGMT - Time To Pretend
Mystery Jets Ft. Laura Marling - Young Love
One Night Only - Just For Tonight
Panic At The Disco - Nine In The Afternoon
Radiohead - Nude
Red Jump Suit Apparatus - Face Down
REM - Supernatural Superserious
Supergrass - Bad Blood
The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Foerver
The Cribs - I'm A Realist
The Enemy - This Song Is About You
The Kooks - Always Where I Need To Be
The Metros - Education
The Teenagers - Love No
The Wombats - Moving To New York
Vampire Weekend - A Punk
We Are Scientists - After Hours
Young Knives - Up All Night

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 5, 2008, 9:55 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Fires Back

Yahoo retaliated in the ongoing saga of Microsoft's hostile takeover attempt today by extending the deadline for nominations of its board of directors to some future date 10 days after it announces the date of its annual meeting.

Yahoo is taking its time making that decision, since if there's no annual meeting, there can be no vote by shareholders, bolstered by Microsoft, to replace Yahoo's existing board with a more Microsoft-friendly one. By postponing the possible house-cleaning of the current board, Yahoo also makes it more likely that it can reach a peaceful accord with Microsoft on an acquisition, or find another suitor willing to step in.

The plan could backfire on Yahoo if shareholders see this move as disenfranchising them from the decision to accept Microsoft's offer. Yahoo needs to hold its annual meeting within 13 months of its last one, which took place on June 12, 2007.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 5, 2008, 9:43 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Desperately Seeking Suitor: Time Warner

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Yahooo's desperately seeking a suitor. With a Microsoft proxy battle expected soon, Time Warner's emerging as a white knight for the Sunnyvale search engine. Or as a delaying tactic to put off the Yahoo annual shareholder meeting.

Talks between Yahoo and the AOL unit of Time Warner have escalated. Finding an alternative to Microsoft's unwelcome bid remains Yahoo's focus, according to reports this morning in The Wall St. Journal (subscription) and The New York Times.

The deal discussed would combine Time Warner's AOL Internet unit with Yahoo, as we reported on February 1st. Reports of the Yahoo Time Warner AOL talks first emerged on February 10th.

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What are the chances? Still a longshot since the buyout by Microsoft is almost inevitable.

The clock's ticking on Microsoft's rejected Feb. 1 offer. At an almost $45 billion value, Yahoo spurned it as undervaluing the company. Now it's worth $41.2 billion.

Who supports the AOL-Yahoo combo? Google, naturally, with a 5 percent stake in Yahoo.

Facebook, with Microsoft as an investor, remains on the sidelines. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hired Google's Sheryl Sandberg yesterday. That brilliant move makes the game more interesting.

For a more in-depth look at Facebook, Google and Yahoo, check out former Yahoo exec Erik Qualman's SEW Experts Brand Equity columns:

Social media and online commerce: Birth of Socialommerce

Why Search is still prehistoric

Why Search is still prehistoric, part 2

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 5, 2008, 7:29 AM | Permalink


Google: The Spy Who Loved Me

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Dr. Hal Varian, Google's chief economist and occasional Freakonomics Blog guest blogger, posted "Why data matters" on the official Google blog, cross-posted on the Google Public Policy Blog.

Varian explains that Web search algorithms are improved by the "wisdom of the crowds" drawn from the "logs of billions of previous search queries." That makes the general public - and government officials - nervous about privacy.

Varian tutors us in PageRank simplified and discusses link building in an ideal world - one where The New York Times and The Wall St. Journal, for example, would link to other sites generously:

"If I have six links pointing to me from sites such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the House of Representatives, that carries more weight than 20 links from my old college buddies who happen to have web pages."

The House of Representatives? Sounds more like Charlie Wilson's War.

SEOs, contact your local Congressional Representative for paid links - paid for with your hard-earned tax dollars.

The reality: when Dr. Varian was interviewed, The New York Times Freakonomics Blog linked to Google.org, Google green energy, Dr. Varian's position auction paper (pdf); BBC News on Moore's Law; Paul Seabright (Professor of Economics, University of Toulouse, France); Dr. Varian's NY Times energy article; another Freakonomics blog post; WebMD, Revolution Health, and Paul Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering, University of Cambridge.

That's the way major media outlets and journalists typically link: to each other; to corporate sites; to universities. It's an elite, exclusive club. Nick Carr's "digital elite."

That isn't to say Dr. Varian can't tell a good story. He reveals how Larry and Sergey trying to license their PageRank algorithm to "some of the newly formed web search engines."

No names named. None of the nascent search engines were interested. Since they couldn't sell their algorithm, Brin and Page decided to start a search engine themselves. (Note to VCs: Don't try this business model at home.)

Google has since added more than 200 additional "signals" to the algorithms that determine the relevance of websites to a user's query. We are the signals.

All the background info leads to one conclusion: Google needs your data. Google wants you to take a leap of faith. Google must store and analyze search logs. They want us to believe, "Nobody does it better."

Reminds me of Radiohead via Carly Simon:

"But like heaven above me, the spy who loved me/Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight. And nobody does it better/Sometimes I wish someone would/Nobody does it quite the way you do/Why'd you have to be so good."

Dr. Varian suggests readers "Watch our videos to see exactly what data we store in our logs."

Not everyone has time - or the inclination - to watch Google videos on YouTube.

What worries me: Google doesn't understand us any better than we understand the mathematical formulas of search engine algorithms.

Search Engine WarGames won't be fought between humans and machines.

Nick Carr put it best: "The erosion of the middle class may well accelerate, as the divide widens between a relatively small group of extraordinarily wealthy people - the digital elite - and a very large set of people who face eroding fortunes and a persistent struggle to make ends meet. In the YouTube economy, everyone is free to play, but only a few reap the rewards."

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 5, 2008, 12:20 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?

ComScore's recent data showing flat paid search growth for Google led many in the media to declare that the paid search sky was falling. But the rush to judgment was wrong, and there are other factors involved. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?," Kevin Ryan outlines the saga of misread numbers, media's desire to show failure that isn't there, and the fickleness of financial markets.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 5, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Load Time Impacts Google Quality Score

A member over at WebmasterWorld found that web page load time is now a factor in Google's Qulaity Score for AdWords.

This was started last month and may be the one thing people have been overlooking when examining what impacts their QS numbers.

The big question is does Google set a table or range or is this fastest to slowest for ranking impact?

Discussion of this has been started at the SEW Forums as well.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 4, 2008, 7:34 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: March 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 March 4, 2008, 6:59 PM | Permalink


7 Deadly SEO Questions for Google's Matt Cutts

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Wired? Or Weird? The Matt Cutts Interview on Epicenter in The Wired Blog Network.

The Question is no longer: "Is Google God?"

Wired knows the answer: Matt Cutts is. A god with a little g. Or at least "like" a god. Not just any god. An Internet god.

"Among search geeks and online marketers, Matt Cutts is like an internet god," wrote Betsy Schiffman in her blog post.

Last week when soliciting reader questions, Betsy called Matt one of the most "feared, loathed and revered men on the internet." He was "Google's search stud."

Perhaps it was inevitable that Matt Cutts would be deified. We just thought Wired might have made him a saint first. (cat god = inside joke for Cuttlets)

Nothing against Wired. I love Wired. So much I paid full retail price (less my Barnes & Noble discount) for the print magazine just to read Chris Anderson's "Free-conomics" before it was available free online.

Before readers reach the Q&A they have to hear the porn cookie guy story. Again.

Wired or Tired? You decide.

USA Today reviewed "The Google Story" by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed back in November of 2005:

"Take, for instance, the developer of Google's SafeSearch filter, Matt Cutts, also know as 'porn cookie guy': "Cutts got his moniker by giving out his wife's tempting homemade cookies to Googlers who help him find unwanted porn."

Then there's Porn Flakes, the Google cereal story (via SEL?). Thanks but we'll have our breakfast of champions with attribution, Betsy.

Cereality! Matt got his own cereal box on the Google campus. No mention of Raisin Brin, LarryO's or Porn Flakes?

Danny posted today about Rand's Feb 29 video interview with Matt.

Last week I linked to Eric Enge's phenomenally popular, full text Q&A interview with Matt Cutts.

Today I'll link to Aaron Wall's #1 ranked (in Google for "matt cutts interview") done in 2005.

All Matt Cutts All The Time: our new Search Engine Watch mantra.

So in the interest of fair use, here are the 7 Deadly Questions Wired asked Matt:

1. Does SEO (search-engine optimization) work?
2. Where do you see search in two to five years?
3. What about social search?
4. Will you ever roll out for-fee webmaster tools?
5. On video search, is there a bias toward YouTube videos?
6. If you were to start a web-based business tomorrow, what key things would you do?
7. What's going on with Google bombs -- are you still seeing them?

Continue reading for three Matt Cutts Wired Quotes of the Day:

Wired Magazine sat down with Matt Cutts to ask him reader-submitted questions about the world of search. Cutts answered questions about whether or not SEO really works, the future of search, if Google curries favor to YouTube in their search results and his opininon on social search, among other things.

Some notable quotes from the Q&A Interview include:

On whether SEO works:

Think of it this way: When you put a resume forward, you want it to be as clean as possible. If the resume is sloppy, you're not going to get interviewed for the job. SEO is sort of like tweaking your resume

On the future of Search:

Personalization is also really interesting to me. So if you search for 'diamond,' [the search engine will know] if you're looking for jewelry or baseball.

On possible Google bias towards YouTube:

I've asked around about this issue and the people I've spoken with strongly deny it. We are actively trying to promote diversity and we take that as a high-order goal.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 4, 2008, 6:19 PM | Permalink


Deathknell for Gary Gygax D&D

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Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died on Tuesday morning in his home. The news was reported first in the forums of Troll Lord Games, publishers of Gygax's "Lejendary Adventures and Castles & Crusades" books. His son Ernie Gygax broke the news to the community.

Obviously, Search Engine Watch played a very small role in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.

Yet the Web changed gaming forever and the passing of board games into the digital realm was noted here.

Rolling dice? Replaced by clicking mice.

On November 16, 2005, Zach Rodgers of Search Engine Watch - in the "Midweek Blog Potables" roundup - noted the transition of D&D to an online game.

Zach wrote, "The buzz continues on Dungeons & Dragons' move to the Web. The original RPG (role-playing game) brand joins the online pack. Could be a great comeback story or a tower of suckitude."

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 4, 2008, 4:52 PM | Permalink


Ask.com to Cut 8%, Revamp Search Plans

Ask.com will stop trying to compete directly with Google as a mainstream search engine, and will instead focus on targeting niches where it feels it can prosper, based on the way users are searching with Ask.com now. Reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal quote new CEO Jim Safka saying "We are reorienting the company around where we can grow," and "If we can do a better job of understanding who these customers are and answering their questions, we will grow."

Safka took over as CEO in January, edging out popular Ask.com boss Jim Lanzone.

A total of 40 layoffs were made, across multiple departments. That 8-percent cut was designed to eliminate several areas of overlap, including some competing technologies, Safka told the WSJ. He also told the WSJ that one core audience Ask.com would focus on might be women over 30, asking questions about entertainment and health topics. Building out products for that group might include more community-generated answers.

Late last week, rumors were flying that Ask.com would get rid of its Teoma search algorithm and outsource search to Google. An Ask.com spokesperson told SEW at the time those rumors were "just plain false," adding that "There are no plans to 'pull the plug' on Teoma, our core search engine technology."

UPDATE: Gary Price, director of online information resources, evangelist of Ask.com, friend to librarians, former SEW news editor, and all-around great guy, was one of the 40 employees laid off today, he announced on his ResourceShelf blog. "Earlier this afternoon I learned that Ask.com is taking the company in a new and different direction and I will not be a part of it," he writes. "It's time to move forward and on to another full time job. Where it will be and what I will do is TBD but I am looking forward to seeing what's out there and where I might be able to contribute."

I've no doubt Gary will land on his feet, but we wish him the best of luck just the same. With the exit of Price, and the news that Jim Lanzone will be gone by August, Ask.com has most definitely moved away from "the little engine that could," with lots of personality, to just another IAC site in Barry Diller's empire. It's a sad day for Ask.com, and a sad day for searchers.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on March 4, 2008, 4:20 PM | Permalink


Facebook Hires Sandberg to Make Microsoft's $240 Million Investment Pay Off

A senior executive jilted Google for another search engine - and it's not Yahoo or MSN Live. In the strange bedfellows game in tech, the Google exec will help Microsoft profit from the $15 billion Facebook valuation Microsoft's $240 million investment created.

Facebook has hired Sheryl Sandberg as their new COO. Sandberg leaves Google after six years and a wealth of stock options. Formerly Google's vice president for global online sales and operations, Ms. Sandberg is expected to help solve the Facebook monetization challenge.

If there's any question about her charge at Facebook, the answer lies in the Supernova Conference in San Francisco last year. Ms. Sandberg was featured in a Spotlight solo presentation.

Her topic: "Google cracked the code on monetizing search advertising. Where is advertising heading next?"

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TechCrunch compared Facebook and Google to the Mac and PC (see illustration). We added Sheryl Sandberg to the mix.

TechCrunch reported on a small exodus of Google and YouTube engineers to Facebook back in November of last year. Facebook hired Youtube CFO Gideon Yu, eCommerce Product lead Benjamin Ling and GDrive developer Justin Rosenstein.

Ms. Sandberg was named to The Power 50: The 50 Most Powerful Women in business by Fortune magazine in 2006 and 2007. Currently number 29, there's no question she'll rise higher this year if she succeeds at Facebook.

While Ms. Sandberg will be missed at Google, the company boasts a strong executive bench.

Sandberg's Google team, led by David Fischer who will succeed her, oversees global sales for what the Wall St. Journal estimates is 99 percent of all Google's advertisers.

Senior Google executives have their pick of hot startups and companies transforming themselves into digital enterprises. Some have left the company for private equity firms and other lucrative opportunities. Many more, including Google's vice president of search products Marissa Mayer, are expected to leave within two years or sooner.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 4, 2008, 3:36 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Announces onePlace at CeBIT

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Yahoo took advantage of the CeBIT conference in Hamburg, Germany to announce the forthcoming launch of onePlace, a content management solution developed as part of the company's growing mobile services. The platform works on a system of bookmarking, allowing users to categorize their favorite content (news, videos, images, emails, etc) and then view it with ease on their mobile device.

Dynamic content will be automatically updated, which should appeal to the likes of sports fans, investors, and frequent flyers. A feature called “Pulse” enables users to view the latest changes to their content collections.

The success of onePlace will depend on its ability to aggregate content to meet the demands of the mobile user. Small screens and connectivity issues require mobile content to be organized and presented in a more streamlined manner than for desktop browsers.

The launch of onePlace is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2008. It could coincide with the expected Q2 launch of Yahoo's mobile phone service, oneConnect.

This news comes on the heels of Yahoo's announcement of a partnership with T-Mobile in Europe for its oneSearch mobile offering. Yahoo seems to be staking out its territory in mobile search as Google attempts to grab a piece of the mobile pie by strengthening its ties with Apple and AT&T earlier this year.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 4, 2008, 10:57 AM | Permalink


Spot Runner Buys Weblistic: Local Search on Video Steroids

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Today Spot Runner announced its acquisition of Weblistic, a provider of local online advertising, in an all-stock transition. Spot Runner is an internet-based television ad agency headquartered in Los Angeles. The company says in its press release, “The acquisition of Weblistic will enable Spot Runner to correlate TV and online advertising with phone- and Web-based responses to provide tracking, analysis and results.”

The result promises to be an integrated offering of online, TV, and radio advertising for small businesses in their local markets. Spot Runner's press release cites proprietary iProspect-Jupiter Research study proving the value of TV in search engine marketing:

"TV advertising is the number one impetus for people to search for a particular company or product online, surpassing all other forms of advertising, even word of mouth (iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior Study conducted by Jupiter Research, June 2007)"

The acquisition is part of a greater trend that The Kelsey Group's Michael Boland labeled the "Webification of Small Businesses." This is where B2B companies lure small businesses in with traditional funnel marketing techniques, starting with a free service in the hopes that SMBs will upgrade to premium services in the future.

If you're a small business, you're unlikely to have the in-house resources to handle a broad marketing strategy. Since Spot Runner handles everything from production to placement, adding the coordination of Weblistics online advertising services looks like a win-win for both companies as well as their customers.

Spotrunner was initially dubbed by the media as "Google Adwords for TV." Now that Google TV Ads has broadened its reach, competition will heat up. As Spot Runner chases Google, Google TV Ads may find itself wondering who let the dogs out.

Google doesn't produce TV commercials,but it boasts a network of video production companies to help new TV advertisers. Videos submitted through the system are vetted for quality.

The deal consolidates the local search space further: deep-pocketed Weblistic competitor ReachLocal hired a huge salesforce to sell PPC (paid search) and SEO (search engine optimization) to small and medium-sized enterprises. Merchant Circle relies more on telemarketing to scale SMB customer acquisition. Weblistic found itself squeezed in the middle with a smaller sales force and telemarketing efforts.

The combined Spot Runner and Weblistic teams now face a univeral search challenge as SMBs start optimizing SERPs for blended search and, eventually, video highly-targeted video ads.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 4, 2008, 10:48 AM | Permalink


Virgin Charter Launches Vertical Search Engine

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Sir Riichard Branson launched a new vertical search engine, Virgin Charter, that promises to revolutionize high-end corporate travel and last minute luxury travel.

Scott Duffy, Virgin Charter CEO, said his search engine combines three of the best ideas on the Internet: local search user and seller reviews (eBay); Priceline's auction; and the "simplicity of Expedia."

They're partnering exclusively, though, with Travelocity Business as online business travel agency. Virgin Charter's targeting the $30 billion market for private air travel with an online auction marketplace.

To put the private charter "size of market" in perspective, $30 billion is roughly the total size of the search market. That's one reason why vertical search promises exponential growth in coming years.

Last year JPMorgan Chase predicted search would reach more than $30 billion this year. Search totaled just over $26 billion in 2007. The JP Morgan Chase forecast estimated search could reach $60 billion by 2011.

On the Virgin Charter "Travel 2.0" site, you can submit a trip request (standard vertical search engine data: preferred trip dates, locations, special requests) to charter air operators. The Virgin Charter system sends your request to a network of safety-certified charter carriers.

As with LendingTree and financial services vertical search engines, you compare custom quotes and offers. Charter operators openly compete to win your business, offering detailed quotes based on your request.

Searchers can select based on price, operator, plane type, flyer reviews, and (J.D. Power) quality ratings. On some flights, smoking may be permitted. Some operators may allow pets to travel. No word on whether snakes are allowed on any planes.

Virgin Charter also offers "Hot Deals" - empty legs - inventory that the charter industry traditionally allows to perish. That's great news for the hotel industry. Virgin Charter may create a new class of passenger: the last minute luxury traveler.

An empty leg is the outbound or return flight of a trip that's been partially booked.
Virgin Charter lets searchers bid on an empty leg flight. The charter operator would decide whether to accept the offer or counter. It's like Priceline with humans, a bazaar concept in which buyer and seller might haggle.

Virgin markets empty legs as "the greener way to go" since the plane must fly. Unless of course, it doesn't. Virgin cautions people that an empty leg flight may change or be cancelled since it's based on a trip for another passenger. If that customer changes his originating flight, you're out of luck. Empty legs should be used for last minute travel when your schedule's flexible.

The early adopters? More likely to be the low-end FHM Top 10 or Sci-Fi starlets like Victoria Pratt, Melissa George, Natasha Henstridge or Claudia Black.

Personal assistants to Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and even the Real Housewives of New York City wouldn't dare risk empty leg syndrome.

Pics after the jump.

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Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 4, 2008, 9:56 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Makes Big Push In India

Yahoo "announced the expansion of its India R&D operations with the launch of Yahoo! Labs - Bangalore, its first in India. Dr. Rajeev Rastogi will be vice president and head of the new lab.

Yahoo! Labs - Bangalore "will be a focused on making the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers. Rastogi was appointed to assemble a world-class team of scientists and engineers to focus on new approaches to information extraction and machine learning, multimedia and query processing," Yahoo announced.

"Yahoo! Labs - Bangalore intends to build its world-class team, which is focused on delivering the most valuable insights and leading edge technologies to delight all of our customers worldwide," said Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP and Head of Yahoo! Research. "Rajeev's background and expertise in product development, as well as his deep experience in research will strengthen our leadership in international research and technology and leverage knowledge from across the region," the company press release stated.

Posted by Frank Watson on March 4, 2008, 2:43 AM | Permalink


Gates Talks Smack - Google Talk Crack

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Gates at the Barbarians: "In terms of Google, not to overstate it, but they really don't understand the special needs of business. Today, their economic model is based on consumer search. They have done an incredible job there and obviously we're investing in challenging them in that space ..."

Overheard at the Googleplex ... or not:

Sergey: Say whut?
Larry: None. Bill talk crack just like alwayz.
Sergey: Talk ****, Get Hit.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates talked smack about Google at a press Q&A following the launch of Sharepoint yesterday:

"If you've seen ... the Google tools that have tried to do productivity type things, they really don't have the richness the responsiveness. You can see that relative [to] the success they have had there. Most of these Google products, to be frank, the day they announce them is their best day and then after that ...."

It was not a good day for Marissa Mayer on the Microsoftwatch, as Gates called out Google Talk as, well, a miserable failure:

"I remember there was one called G Talk. I can barely remember the name but it was so, you know, it was going to change the world, and so you know, it's healthy that there are many choices that people have here."

Separately, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer played Bob Barker, saying the price is right -- and the timing -- for Microsoft to buy Yahoo.

"The deal makes sense with the price and structure we announced. We hope it becomes reality," he said at a press conference at CeBIT in Hanover. "There is a lot of merit for Microsoft and Yahoo, for Yahoo shareholders and for Microsoft shareholders, for advertisers and for consumers."

So Jerry, "Come on down!"

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 4, 2008, 1:59 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Small Business Growing? Know When to Let Go

If you're spending more time on search marketing than actually running your business, it might be time to outsource. If you depend upon search to grow your business, and you don't have time to monitor, test, learn and implement search marketing practices, giving up some control to achieve your big-picture goal may be a viable option. In today's Small Business Search Marketing column, "Small Business Growing? Know When to Let Go," Carrie Hill outlines some factors to consider before making the decision to let go of the search marketing reins.

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


Dr. Seuss Created Google - Here's Proof

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Dr. Seuss is the Genius behind Google. Here's proof: Goo Goo + Goggles = Google.

((goo + goo) - goo))+ (goggles - g squared - s) = google.

There you go: a mathematical proof that Dr. Seuss invented Google long before Larry Page and Sergey Brin were even born. Googlewashing Dr. Seuss?

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Today's the 104th birthday of the late, great Dr. Seuss. Yet Larry and Sergey seem determined to cover up the scandal over the true creator of Google.

So who does Google feature in today's Google Doodle? Pa Bell. Alexander Graham Bell, who's posthumously celebrating his 161st birthday.

So Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Great. But it's not like he invented the iPhone or anything.

Besides Bell wisely considered the telephone an intrusion on his scientific work.

He refused to have a telephone in his study, according to Elizabeth MacLeod, author of "Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life."

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The world's people will not be tricked into forgetting Dr. Seuss by the Google. Do No Evil. History will not be whitewashed or green-eggs-and-ham-washed.

Today millions, possibly billions of people (Google naturally won't release the exact number) searched for dr seuss, dr seuss hat, dr. seuss, dr seuss coloring, dr suess, seuss, dr.suess, dr.seuss activities, dr.seuss printables, cat in the hat, dr.seuss games, green eggs and ham, dr. seuss quotes, dr. seuss birthday, dr seuss coloring pages, dr. seuss, cat in the hat, dr seuss biography, and dr seuss pictures.

All because they couldn't find Dr. Seuss on Google.com homepage.

Thanks to Keyword Discovery, we unraveled the mystery.

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Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 3, 2008, 8:13 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: March 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 March 3, 2008, 6:35 PM | Permalink


IM-NY SES Party Bash Info: Vote Which Charity Gets the Cash!

IMNYEach year coinciding with a major SEM conference, The Internet Marketers of NY throw a Manhattan party bash to benefit a deserving charity.

Last year they raised a prodigal sum for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a cause extremely dear to my heart. You see, I survived stage 3B Lymphoma a little less than 3 years ago and this charity helped save my life by providing resources, local support-contacts and critical information.

This year’s March 18th party, again generously sponsored by Best of the Web, coincides with Search Engine Strategies New York 2008. The party, open to the public, is likely be jam-packed with SEM luminaries, local NYC marketing community members, and tons of potential new friends. Everyone is welcome. The bar is open (be careful), munchies delectable and the cover charge is only $40.00, the proceeds of which go to charity.

BOTW is asking the community to vote from a list of possible charity recipients. I’ve been designated as the "advocate" for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Each of the other charities are worthy of support as well. Please go vote for who you want to get the money now.  Full details are available on the voting landing page.

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums

Posted by Marty Weintraub on March 3, 2008, 3:09 PM | Permalink


Does Page Layout Affect SEO?

Bill Slawski is reporting that Yahoo is joining the ranks of MSN and Google in an attempt to incorporate page layout into its web search algorithm. A new patent filed by the search engine examines how to estimate page elements without rendering the web page the way a browser does. As a result, the process for indexing a page could become faster.

The process involves creating object trees based on structural elements contained within the HTML code of a given web page. The goal is to give more weight to the unique content of a page versus the site-wide static content.

In other words, Yahoo wants to pay less attention to sidebars, headers, footers and other elements that are on every page of a site, and focus on the element that is exclusive to a single page. As a result, the links and content within the unique element will be given more weight compared to the static elements.

Slawski concludes that if you develop your own sites, then looking in-depth at the patent may be worth your while:


If you build web pages, and you want an idea of how a search engine might be looking at and weighing the content of your pages, you may want to spend some time with this patent filing.

Considering that Google and Microsoft also have developed methods to segment the contents of web pages, It's not a bad idea to get a sense of how they all might be breaking pages down into parts.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 3, 2008, 3:08 PM | Permalink


Earth Liberation Front (ELF) Burning Down The House?

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The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) allegedly burned down the "Street of Dreams" a multi-million-dollar development in Woodinville, Washington. Explosives found inside luxury houses ignited the blaze near Seattle on Monday morning. Police suspect the anonymous eco-terrorism group set the fires.

The collective groups' members are called Elves or "The Elves." Is an elf an ordinary guy? Were the elves framed? None of the homes were sold according the Seattle Bubble blog.

The Earth Liberation Front is sometimes mistakenly called the Environmental Liberation Front - creating greater confusion for search engine algorithms and searchers' database of intentions. There is no Web site in Google for the ELF.

The FBI classified the Earth Liberation Front as ecoterrorists and the top domestic terror threat in the United States in March 2001. That was before September 11th.

Now Internet search has given rise to Anonymous, the anti-Scientology group that uses viral videos widely available in YouTube and other video search engines to promote their cause.

Nothing's more viral than manmade disasters (California wildfires) and natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, floods). Hold tight we're in for nasty weather.

TV has been criticized for publicizing terrorist acts. TV, though, hires editors and producers to help their talking heads. The Internet? Unfiltered.

YouTube? Not enough editors to even keep copyrighted material offsite.

There has got to be a way.

Environmental Life Force (ELF), AKA the Original ELF, confuses search engine spiders even more. ELF was the first radical environmental group that used explosives, homemade bombs and incendiary devices to defend the environment.

Legolas Greenleaf (Orlando Bloom in Lord of the Rings) was also an elf, as were Arwen and Galadriel in the JRR Tolkien books who fought for the preservation of Middle Earth.

When people search online, they make associations betweeen the images, Web sites, and videos they see. In search, there are no coincidences.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 3, 2008, 2:39 PM | Permalink


Compete Acquired by TNS

Today, London-based market research firm TNS announced its acquisition of web analytics and digital intelligence company, Compete Inc. The price tag comes in at a whopping $75 million dollars with a possible $75 million in additional earn-outs.

Both TNS and Compete are boasting the ability to achieve the unprecedented marriage of online and offline consumer behavior data.

Compete grossed $14.9 million in 2007, a 50% increase over the previous year. Despite the significant growth, the company still lost $4.5 million last year, reportedly due to developing its industry expertise.

According to Morgan Stanley research and Jupiter Research estimates, clickstream data in the U.S. web analytics market is expected to grow from $325 million in 2007 to $500 million in 2009.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 3, 2008, 2:07 PM | Permalink


CNET News Kneecaps GOOGLE: Calls CEO Eric Schmidt "Lame"

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Google had a tough Leap Year week: GOOG stock price nosedived, $15 billion in value evaporated and the Melissa Mayer San Fran mag headline wiped off the Web and replaced by the "Adventures of Marissa."

The gist of the story? The Power and The Glam not The Glory.

Then this weekend, CNET News whacked Google CEO Eric Schmidt in public.

CNET News reporter Elinor Mills apparently felt scorned. After flying cross-country to see Eric Schmidt's Google Health presentation and scheduling a 1:1 interview, Mills found him unwilling to answer questions - questions, that is, unrelated to Google Health (i.e. Microsoft-Yahoo merger, comScore report, Microsoft Health Vault).

So Mills vented her fury in public.

On her blog she wrote: "Give and take with the press is part of being in a position of responsibility at a highly visible public company. (Schmidt) saying everything but the topic at hand is off limits is, well, lame."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt lame? Judge for yourself in Frank Watson's post, "No Brokeback with Google Health" where he embedded Eric Schmidt's Google Health launch video.

Mills had tried a self-described "last-ditch, I-gotta-get-something-good-or-my-editor-is-going-to-kill-me question." She noted that she squeezed in a question about Microsoft's HealthVault and how it differs from Google Health. She reported Schmidt got up from his chair, and said, "That's it."

Mills's editor also called into question Google stonewalling CNET News:

"He certainly has the right to refuse to take questions, but it's unclear what led him to stonewall. Schmidt doesn't seem like a CEO who is afraid to go toe to toe with the press. Perhaps he wanted to make sure the message got out on Google Health, but Elinor had already heard all the details at the Orlando presentation and press conference."

To date her editor has not (as the scorned Mills feared) killed her.

The wisdom of the crowd? Journalist, heal thyself.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on March 3, 2008, 10:56 AM | Permalink


Ad agencies should slide on down to SES New York

Whether you work at one of the top 10 ad agencies on Madison Avenue, or you head up an Internet advertising agency in Silicon Alley, you folks could use “a little churching up.” Slide on down to SES New York, and catch Carol Kruse.

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That's right. Carol Kruse, Vice President of Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca Cola Company, is speaking at the Search Engine Strategies conference, which will be held the week of March 17-20, 2008, at the Hilton New York. She will address what it takes for big brand companies to shift their marketing mix to align with new customer behaviors, putting more ad budget to Search and digital advertising.

Other speakers at SES New York 2008 include:
• Jonathan Ashton, VP of SEO & Web Analytics, Agency.com;
• Paul Beck, Senior Partner, Worldwide, Executive Director, Interactive Marketing & Advertising, Ogilvy;
• Jeff Ferguson, Director of Online Marketing, Napster;
• William Flaiz, Vice President, Search Engine Optimization & Web Analytics, Avenue A | Razorfish;
• Kurt Garbe, Entrepreneur in Residence, Advertising, Adobe Systems;
• Bill Hunt, CEO, Global Strategies International;
• Steven Kaufman, SVP Media Director, Digitas
• Olivier Lemaignen, Group Manager, Global Search Marketing, Intuit;
• Bill Macaitis, VP of Online Marketing & SEO/SEM, Fox Interactive Media;
• Gordon McLeod, President, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network
• Ulli Muenker, Search Marketing Manager, BusinessWeek;
• Pauline Ores, Senior Marketing Manager, Community and Collaboration Strategy, Global Small & Midmarket Business, IBM Corporation;
• Susan Prater, Global Interactive Marketing Manager, Owens Corning;
• Nigel Ravenhill, Program Manager, McAfee;
• Irene Rigos, Senior Ecommerce Manager, Wyndham Hotel Group;
• Michael Sack, Director, SEM technology & Development, Idearc Media Corp.;
• Erica Schmidt, Global Director of Search, Isobar;
• Marshall D. Simmonds, Chief Search Strategist, New York Times / About.com;
• Don Steele, Director of Digital Marketing, Comedy Central;

And, if you look closely at the conference agenda for Search Engine Strategies New York 2008, you'll see 10 Google speakers and eight from Yahoo! And that's not counting Michael Rubenstein, Vice President & General Manager, DoubleClick, because it's acquisition by Google is still pending.

Listen to what they've got to say.

Now, if you're too busy to attend SES NYC 2008, don't feel guilty. I'm confident that another one of the many fine advertising agencies in New York City will be more than happy to pitch in and help the corporate executives from the name brands above understand where the advertising industry is heading.

And, if market demand for magazine ads and television spots prevents you from getting over to Search Engine Strategies NY, don't worry. I'm fairly certain that you'll be able to catch up with what you missed in AdWeek or Advertising Age by reading about some other ad agency in New York has just landed a new client for its managed search engine marketing services.

“You get wise. You get to church.”

If you don't need some "jive-ass preacher" talking to you about Search Advertising 101, then you'll still find lots of other “must attend” sessions at Search Engine Strategies 2008 in the Big Apple. This includes:

Day 1 - Monday, March 17, 2008
• Creating Compelling Ads
• Analytics: Data Into Action
• Auditing Paid Listings and Click Fraud Issues
• Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right


Nick Carr, SES New York 2008, The Big Switch

Day 2 - Tuesday, March 18, 2008
• Nick Carr, author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
• Ads in a Quality Score World
• Orion Panel: Universal Search
• Optimizing Search Marketing Campaigns
• Ad Copy & Landing Page Clinic

Day 3 - Wednesday, March 19, 2008
• Gordon McLeod: Search Has Changed Everything... And So Can You
• Ad Testing: Research & Findings
• Big Brand Search Strategies: Build Connections and Fuel Online Promotions
• Jason Calacanis, Founder & CEO of Mahalo.com, Inc.
• Managing PPC for Multiple Clients
• Ad Exchanges Are Changing Everything

Day 4 - Thursday, March 20, 2008
• Andrew Tomkins, Chief Scientist at Yahoo! Research
• Staffing Up for Search
• SEM Agencies: Working With Ad Agencies
• My Search is Better Than Your Search

Now, I should disclose that SES New York is a client. “A gig like that, you gotta prepare the proper exploitation.”

Besides, "your lazy butts are in this, too." According to The New York Post, “The ad biz may lose its fizz.”

So, slide on down to the Search Engine Strategies conference, and get your four box lunches and a Coke.

Do you see the light?!

Posted by Greg Jarboe on March 3, 2008, 9:06 AM | Permalink


48 Practical Questions to Qualify Prospective Search Marketing Vendors

Don't Get Bamboozled! We've all heard anecdotes regarding the unfortunate results of under-qualified or downright deceptive SEM vendors. Common disasters include set-it-and-forget-it PPC campaigns that suddenly blow through obscene amounts of Content Match cash, organic prominence destroyed by Universal Search, PageRank decimated by obsolete link-farm schemes, declining sales, embarrassing lack of conversion, and other ancient or self-destructive tactics.

The good news is that there's an increasing number of wonderful service providers out there to be discovered. Remember that you may be looking for multiple specialists, as opposed to a single full-service agency.

Search is complicated, increasingly specialized, and there are challenges to vetting prospective SEM agencies. In light of demand, good search marketing firms are rare, and finding a vendor perfectly suited to your needs requires legwork, research, and persistence. Here is a one page questionnaire for initial screenings:

Dear [Prospective SEM Vendor],
Thank you for entering into a dialog with us as we vet potential SEM vendors for [Name of Company]. In order to keep the process as streamlined as possible, please take a few minutes to respond to this questionnaire. Our goal is to not waste your time.

The answers can be as detailed or short as you deem appropriate. We look forward to the process of getting to know your company better. We're happy to read articles on-topic originating from your agency, if you provide the URL in any question's answer. Thank you in advance for your efforts.

Pay Per Click
1. Is anyone in your firm AdWords Qualified or a Yahoo Ambassador?
2. Does your agency have a designated Google or Yahoo rep?
3. What is your agency's revenue model for PPC: percentage of spend, percentage of revenue, monthly fee, hybrid?
4. Do you have a monthly PPC minimum spend or fee?
5. What method does your firm use to manage PPC: by hand, by automation (what tool), hybrid?
6. Do you use our credit card, your agency's or another method? How will you invoice us?
7. What reports do you typically send clients and at what interval?
8. What PPC channels are you experienced with (Google, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, etc...)?
9. How does your agency measure PPC conversion and ROI?
10. Is it in your vocabulary to do multivariate landing page/ad message testing?
11. How much PPC spend-cash do you handle annually?
12. Please submit 2 short PPC case studies highlighting success.
13. Please submit 1 short PPC case study highlighting failure.
14. Please submit 2 PPC client-references.

Organic Optimization
1. What link-building tactics and methods will be employed?
2. Does your agency have a content creation practice, or will you guide us in building out our content?
3. How do you measure organic prominence in light of Personalized Search?
4. What keyword research tools are used?
5. How does your agency measure organic conversion and ROI?
6. What methods are used to mine competitive intelligence about our competitors?
7. What is the billing model for organic-related services? (retainer, hourly, flat monthly fee, etc...)
8. Do you test organic landing page performance with PPC?
9. What steps do you take to insulate clients from becoming too dependent on Google?
10. Please submit 2 short organic case studies highlighting success.
11. Please submit 1 short organic optimization case study highlighting failure.
12. Please submit 2 organic optimization client-references.

Social Media
1. What channels are you currently active in for clients? (StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, etc...)
2. Give examples of how channels might be used to bolster the overall SEM effort?
3. What reputation monitoring tools will be used?
4. What is the frequency and substance of your reputation reporting?
5. What is your experience with open source blogging software like WordPress?
6. What are your typical non-blogging uses of blog-style software?
7. Please submit 2 short social media case studies highlighting success.
8. Please submit 1 short social media case study highlighting failure.

General Vendor Qualifications:
1. How many full-time employees in the agency? What are their roles?
2. What SEM conferences did you attend in the past year, and which do you plan to attend this year? (SES, PubCon, SMX, etc.)
3. What SEM conferences will your staff speak at this year?
4. What trade publications, online or paper, do you write for and on what topics?
5. Please submit 3 links to articles you or your employees have written.
6. What forums is your agency "known" in? (SEW, Sphinn, Cre8asite, etc.)
7. Links to your profile pages please
8. Traditional affiliations (BBB, Chambers of Commerce, etc...)
9. SEMPO member?
10. Does your agency have in-house programmers and designers or do you outsource?
11. If outsourcing, what are your partner-vendors' URLs?
12. What analytics other than Google Analytics are used?
13. Is there an in-house method to measure offline conversions (phone, etc.)
14. What experience does your agency have in local/mobile?

The "correct" answers to a few of these questions will be unique to your application and may be a little out of your personal expertise, one tactic I suggest is to research the questions raised yourself, or even hire a consultant to help you vet potential firms. Typically you'll spend $350+ per hour for help in the evaluation process, an expense you'll find well worth it. Even if you're not totally familiar with the rationale behind the above questions, the SEM firm you're querying will respect the thumbnail-depth of your evaluation process.

Also, you might eliminate questions that don't apply to your company's specific marketing application or outside of your comfort zone. Any agency that's worth its salt will welcome the opportunity to participate in a focused vetting process.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on March 3, 2008, 7:41 AM | Permalink


No Brokeback With Google Health

The launching of Google Health last week and Microsoft's existing HealthVault, offers a serious benefit for access to people's health records thouigh it also opens a Pandora's Box of privacy issues.

Who should control the depository of such information - Microsoft and Google seem to want the job - giving it to the government would not necessarily be a good thing.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt in his keynote presentation at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference (HIMSS) explains the intent of the company's new product..

Posted by Frank Watson on March 3, 2008, 12:12 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Contextual Advertising Best Practices: Banners and Video Ads

Ready to step out of your contextual advertising comfort zone? The world of graphic and video advertising may seem scary at first, but the rewards can be huge. In today's Content Advertising column, "Contextual Advertising Best Practices: Banners and Video Ads," David Szetela outlines some of the non-text ad options for contextual advertising.

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

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