February 5, 2007

From the SEW Blog:

• Super Bowl Ads – Where’s the URL?
  There have been some good reviews of this year's always-anticipated Super Bowl ad crop, but the “URL visibility factor” did not rank so well.
• Yahoo Ad Ranking System Now Live
  Today's the day, as any search marketer not living under a rock for the past few months knows. Yahoo's flipping the switch on its new ad ranking model, so that bid price is no longer the sole factor in determining ad positions.
• Stone Temple Interview with Jim Sterne
  The Web analytics luminary shares his tips for new marketers, rules for success, and thoughts on the state of the industry.
• Krillion Joins the Online Shopping Space
  Today, Krillion launched with a focus on local search for big box retailers. More specifically, it is going after buyers for "considered purchase" items.
• Graywolf Owns Local Search This Week
  Michael Gray, aka Graywolf, plans to post 20 interviews with local search marketers this week.
• Nielsen to Acquire Remaining Shares of NetRatings
  The Nielsen Company, formerly VNU, plans to acquire the remaining interest in NetRatings for about $327 million. Nielsen has owned 60 percent of the company since 1998.
• FAST AdMomentum: Private-Label Contextual Advertising
  FAST launched a private-label contextual advertising platform for online media companies, retailers and telecommunications service providers, offering a way to monetize traffic to their sites.
• European Telecoms Giants Planning Mobile Search Engine?
  According to a U.K. newspaper report this weekend, a consortium of European providers are teaming up to build a mobile-phone search engine.
• Google Adds Link Tools
  Google's Webmaster Tools now include in-depth reporting of inbound links to a user's site. The tool gives verified site owners a much more complete look at links than the existing link: operator.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

• A Long-Delayed Ad System Has Yahoo Crossing Its Fingers, NY Times
• The Science of Search Engine Rankings, ClickZ
• 3 Steps to Customized Landing Pages, iMedia Connection
• The Links That Can't Be Baited, Search Engine Land
• Things Yahoo Doesn't Want You To Know, Search Marketing Gurus
• Google is Not My Mother, and Should Kill Personalized Search, Graywolf's SEO blog
• AOL's Falco: Consumers Are in Control, iMedia Connection
• 11 Quick and Dirty Ways to Increase Conversions, Convert Up
• 2000 Bloggers Gaming Technorati and Google, Zoli's blog
• Google Testing Left Side Tabs?Online Marketing Blog
• Guillaume's Round-Up of SEOmoz's Best SEO Training Posts - Part 1, SEOmoz
• Marketing through online communities, Pronet Advertising
• Tempest in a Local Teacup, Natural Search Blog
• The Latest Google Flatline, Ask.com blog
• Increasing your StumbleUpon Audience, Link Building Blog
• Update on "My Super Proposal", SearchRank