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July 12, 2006

July 12, 2006

NHL Unveils Social Network Ambitions

nhl_trans_logo.gifContinuing its efforts to jazz up the sport after a strike forced a year hiatus, the National Hockey League next season will offer an online social networking community, NHL Connect. The offering, designed by software firm Five Across Connect, is being trialed in beta and will be open to the public next season. On the site, users will be able to: "create rich, multimedia personal profile pages and share interests and ideas with other users in the NHL community, displaying comments, photos, podcasts and video casts, links to new articles and content, friends or colleagues and RSS feeds." Whew. That's a mouthful.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo's Livesearch Added To Firefox

Yahoo launched Livesearch on AllTheWeb back in May. Danny has a detailed post about how it is similar to Lookahead and Google Suggest. Anyway, as we suggested on May 16th, Livesearch capabilities from Yahoo has been added to a new version of Firefox 2.0. You can download the new Firefox here and give it a try. Also you can read more at the Yahoo Search Blog, which has links to more methods of downloads.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 2:52 PM | Permalink

Google Video Launches In UK & Other Countries

Silicon reports that Google Video has launched a localized version in the UK at http://video.google.co.uk/. There are also localized versions in Canada, Deutschland, España, France, Italia, Nederland, and Polska.

Google's Joanna Shields, said in a statement: "By launching Google Video in these new markets we will enable more people in more countries to search for, upload and share video content in more languages."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:43 PM | Permalink

Interactive Review of SEOMoz's Page Strength Tool

Rand posted information about a new tool he launched named the Page Strength Tool. It is pretty cool, and why can't it replace PageRank? :) Anyway, here is my interactive review of the tool, you can find more details about what the tool exactly measures here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:26 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: July 11, 2006

Below, a recap of stories posted yesterday to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with other items we've spotted but not blogged separately:

From The SEW Blog...

  • Daily SearchCast Programming Note
    The Daily SearchCast didn't happen on Tuesday, July 11 due to me being away in Miami for the SES Latino conference. It also won't happen today, Wednesday, July 12. I expect to be back at it on Thursday, July 13....
  • New Search Patent Applications: July 11, 2006 - Google Patent Filings by the Dozen
    Twelve Google patent applications where published this past week, including seven that focus upon geographical information and local search. (1) How good a match ads may be to the content on pages they are served upon through a program like Adsense. (2) A process for improving the targeting of ads. (3) Real time transportation data for travelers. (4) An exploration of ad layouts. (5) An automated advertising approval process. (6) Reasons for location-based businesses to use local area advertising, including an improved pay-per-call process. (7) How the most authoritative local search results are identified. (8) The use of visual gap...
  • SuperPages Upgrades Maps With Microsoft
    I never saw a press release. But today I discovered that SuperPages, which had dynamic mapping almost before anyone else in local (though it was "cludgey"), has upgraded the mapping on its site using the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform. The "new" maps are much nicer and easier to use than the last time I checked, which was admittedly a long time ago. While there is aerial photography, there's no "Birds Eye" view here. YellowPages.com licensed Virtual Earth, including Birds Eye, several months ago....
  • Gabbing, Gossip & Goings On in the SEW Forums...
    In what should become a regular feature here on the SEW blog, here are some highlights from current discussions on the forums: You may think it's the same old story, but Tonerman has posed an an interesting question to the group, Is SEO on Google worth the effort anymore? With a shift in organic results since Big Daddy, can a solid PPC campaign be your best bet? Frustration continues over Google's choice to show DMOZ listings as titles for certain sites in search results. Threads to Watch: Members also share experiences with optimizing websites that use Yahoo Stores. One member...
  • Search Engine Strategies Latino, Miami, Florida - Day Two
    The conference has officially ended, it was a really great event. Huge congrats to Nacho for running this. I am writing this quickly, because they are breaking down the room as I type this. Here are the sessions I covered today. + Translate Or Create: Strategies For Those With English-Language Sites + Domain Issues - Latin American Version + Spanish / Portuguese Language Ad Issues + SEO & Spanish / Portuguese Language Issues Again, pictures of the event tagged with seslatino at Flickr....
  • Google Maps Adds Click To Zoom
    Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal points out that Google Maps has added another way to zoom: double clicking. Of course you can still zoom with the mouse rollerball. Here's the official statement from the Google Maps API Blog. Google Earth and Google Maps are now apparently running off the same platform, which should permit more integration of Earth features into Maps over time....
  • Google Jet Plane Security Threat? And Testing A Sofa In Mountain View
    Josh Gerstein at the New York sun has an update on the suit over Google Jet disclosure. Basically, Google's founders argue that the information given up by aircraft designer can be could put the lives of those on the plane in danger. Google asked for a court order to keep the designer quiet. Well, the judge declined to hear or rule on the case - go figure. Read more about it from Danny's earlier post. Postscript From Danny: The security concerns voiced in the case made me wonder out details getting out about Google Force One compare to Air Force...
  • Windows Live Adds Search/Personalized Toggle & 34 New Markets
    Gary Price points to two Windows Live blog posts including, search/personalized toggle and now in 34 new markets. The first describes how you can now toggle between search and personalized experience. Your last selection will be remembered for your next session. The blog says that this "replaces our old 'hide' option, with a much improved experience in 'search only' mode that is faster and includes search filters." Windows Live also entered 34 new markets including;...
  • Google To Set Up Offices In Michigan
    The NY Times reports (also try Reuters) that Google will house up to 1,000 employees in a new facility in Michigan. The office is to reside in downtown Ann Arbor, "the hometown of the University of Michigan, where Larry Page, one of Google’s founders, earned his undergraduate degree in engineering." The Times reports that the majority of the building will be used for "technology and call center, with about 40,000 square feet needed to house the library digitization project."...
  • Weird Results Counts On Google
    I've written before about Google giving strange results counts and why maybe it's time for them to go. Yesterday, I came across the oddest ones ever, when doing some typical searches to gauge the size of the index....
    Google Drive Revealed?
    Yesterday, Cocaman posted a screen capture of what was named Platypus or GDrive. From the looks of the screen capture it seems like an internal tool used at Google is getting ready for prime time. The page is now offline, of course, but the screen capture read;...

Headlines & News From Elsewhere

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:11 PM | Permalink

Daily SearchCast Programming Note

The Daily SearchCast didn't happen on Tuesday, July 11 due to me being away in Miami for the SES Latino conference. It also won't happen today, Wednesday, July 12. I expect to be back at it on Thursday, July 13.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:03 PM | Permalink

Google Pages & Yahoo Geocities Phishing Attacks

We learn from VNUnet.com that there are phishing scams on Google Pages and we also learn from Slashdot that Yahoo's Geocities has a similar issue. A email goes out telling people they can win a "$500 cash prize, and that the money can be paid automatically if they click on the embedded web link."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:53 AM | Permalink

Martin Child, VP Of Sales & Marketing Leaves Yahoo Search Marketing

Brand Republic reports that Yahoo Search Marketing's vice-president of sales and marketing, Martin Child is leaving to work at Webloyalty. Child has been with Yahoo, Overture, for four and a half years prior to stepping down.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:43 AM | Permalink

TNT Creates Broadband Channel to Promote On-Air Series

S King.jpg TNT just announced it will create an online broadband "channel" to promote its new series "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" From the Stories of Stephen King."

It has the ring of DVD "extras," only for the Web.

Content will include actor and director interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and even feature films related to the content, which TNT will trot out of its library.

The Web site, built and hosted by Veoh, officially launches today -- as does the series.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MySpace More Popular Than Google Or Yahoo

Bill Tancer over at his HitWise blog has data that claims MySpace Moves Into #1 Position for all Internet Sites. This is incredibly important, MySpace.com is more popular that Yahoo Mail, and MySpace's growth of visits has surpassed Google towards the end of May of this year. But as Bill points out, what is most revealing is that the "top search terms driving traffic to all Internet sites" is MySpace and MySpace.com with 1.28%, compared with last years top search term being eBay at .31%. See all the details at HitWise.

Postscript: Yahoo disputes the validity of comparing the MySpace domain to only individual properties in their network, as covered more here, and Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny has some observations as well here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:21 AM | Permalink

ShopLocal Taps Topix for Geotargeted Ads

This isn't search, but it is local. ShopLocal has partnered with news aggregator Topix.net to offer dynamic banner ads that are targeted by ZIP. The program services national advertisers trying to drive consumers into their local stores. An example dynamic skyscraper ad is visible here.

ShopLocal is providing the ad content and Topix provides the local news pages on which the ads appear. Here's the press release. Read a somewhat longer post on my blog.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 7:12 AM | Permalink

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