March 6, 2007

From the SEW Blog:

• Time to Put the Pipe Wrench Away? Semel Says: "We Fixed the Plumbing"
  peaking to a group of investors today, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel said the company spent most of 2006 "fixing the basic plumbing" of the Yahoo Search Marketing platform.
• Google Hires "Analytics Evangelist"
  Web analytics consultant Avinash Kaushik has landed a job as analytics evangelist for Google, working on internal analytics and to spread the analytics gospel to the masses.
• The Intersection of Social Search & Pop Culture
  Tonight marks Week 3 of competition on American Idol, so it's only appropriate to discuss how the scandal surrounding one contestant has influenced results in each search engine.
• Piper Jaffray Report on Search Maps Uncharted Waters
  After reading the recent report from Piper Jaffray, Greg Jarboe has determined that search is not moving sideways, as he had presumed, but beginning a journey into uncharted waters.
• Indian Portal Starts Keyword-Powered Ad Platform
  ByIndia.com will offer a Google-like keyword/ad platform beginning next week.
• Blog Readers Are Loyal and Want to Be Entertained
  Forget about getting that new puppy, if you want loyal, trusting, and eager to be entertained – just write a good blog.
• Umbria Plans Blog Monitoring on the Cheap
  The market intelligence firm will launch a subscription-based "Blog Tribe Analysis" service to monitor online discussions.
• Local.com to Distribute Superpages Ads
  Superpages.com's PPC ads will receive priority placement in the "Featured Sponsors" section of the Local.com site.
• Bloggers, Journalists, and Parasites
  
Are Blogs a parasitic medium? Some think the answer is yes, while others think it a sick joke that traditional journalists would apply such a label to anyone but themselves.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

• Google's Schmidt at Tech Conference Talks on Mergers, Ads, Apple & Arrogance, Search Engine Land
• My.Netscape Being Re-Born as Web 2.0 Personalized Homepage, Read/Write Web
• The Search for a Mobile Advertising Model, Marketing Pilgrim
• 10 Quick Ways to Increase Conversions, Search Engine Guide
• All About Robots, Webmaster Central Blog
• Think like a human; code like a computer, Accessible Web Design
• The Most Valuable Pieces of Copy on the Page, SEM/SEO In-House Blog
• Where are your SMO priorities?, SEO'Brien
• Right Media's Big Ambitions, Business Week
• Ex-Google Answers Researchers Launch Q&A Site, Google Blogoscoped
• No SEO, just people, Improve the Web
• Is It Paid Ad Position or the Paid Ad Copy That Matters?, Search Marketing Gurus
• Why Does Paid Search Work So Well?, Biznology
• More Subsidiary Lists: Amazon.com (A9), IAC/Interactive (Ask.com), Microsoft, Time Warner (AOL) & Yahoo, Resource Shelf
• Local Search Update: Yelp up 91%, Insider Pages up 34% in Past Six Months, Hitwise
• Keyword burnout? Not me., Content Done Better
• Google's Click Fraud Spin, Marketing Shift