Search Headlines & Links: May 24, 2006

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

From The SEW Blog…

• Daily
  SearchCast, May 24, 2006: Windows Live Local Gets UK Images & Easier Map
  Sharing; Is That Site In Your Search Results Safe?; A Spam Detection Tool; A
  Search Marketing Magazine Arrives & More!
  Today’s search podcast covers Windows Live Local getting new UK images and
  easier ability to share mapped points, Microsoft’s many shopping moves, a new
  tool to detect if a site in search results is “safe” or not, Ask’s smart
  answers for stock searching; a tool to help tell if you are spamming search
  engines; a search magazine makes its debut and more! Tune-in by listening to
  this MP3 file, listening via WebmasterRadio at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at
  2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our Odeo channel or through iTunes via
  this link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained here)..
• Mid-May
  2006 Search News Recap Posted
  If you’re a Search Engine Watch member (thank you!), the latest edition of
  Search Engine Update newsletter has been posted. It recaps top stories in
  search from the first part of this month….
• New
  AdWords Layout Being Tested?
  I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable this morning that people are
  noticing a new layout for the AdWords ads on the Google search results page.
  The new layout shows two ads at the top and four ads at the bottom of the
  results. There are currently no signs of ads on the right hand side of the
  page. You can see an image of the ad at my blog by clicking on the image. I
  started a rumor that possibly Google is saving the right hand side for Ask.com
  zoom like features (i.e. refine search, etc.) but that is…
• Larry
  Page Video Interview
  Channel 4 interviewed Larry Page and the video is available by clicking here.
  He discusses that artificial intelligence will play an important role in the
  future of search. He also answers questions about China and privacy concerns.
  Watch the video at Channel 4 News….
• Ask.com
  Shows Off More Smart Answers
  Gary Price, Director of Online Information Resources at Ask.com, writes at the
  Ask.com Blog about some of the stock related smart answers. Gary details how
  Ask.com is able to give you the answer to your query quickly. Some stock
  examples Ask.com gives you include; Stocks AMR, Ticker Symbol Sirius, CSCO,
  Stock Quote Pepsico. But this also works well for more investor researcher
  like questions such as; Market Capitalization KO (Coca-Cola), Outstanding
  Shares Fedex, Price Earnings Ratio GE, or Nike stock. Personally, I have set
  Ask.com to be my homepage months ago. I use it often when I want the quick…
• Yahoo’s
  Annual Meeting Of Stockholders Tomorrow At 1PM (EST)
  Yahoo is hosting the Annual Meeting Of Stockholders tomorrow at 1pm (EST). You
  can enroll for the meeting by clicking here and providing your email address.
  Once enrolled you should receive electronic delivery of the proxy statement,
  annual report, and related materials. More details at the Investor Events
  page….
• Search
  Engines Using Search Ads To Promote Themselves
  In the past week or so, I have been reporting on the different ways search
  engines use search ads to promote their own search engine. I have spotted
  Ask.com bidding on Google for “pimped out search engine,” which is part of
  their marketing speak of the TV commercials. I have also spotted Yahoo using
  Google AdSense to promote Yahoo Search products. Search engines like MSN come
  up in Google AdWords for a search on search engine, MSN and Google come up in
  Yahoo Search for a query on search engine also. But at this time, none of the
  search engines…
• Search
  Marketing Standard Hits The Newsstands
  I reported last week that the new search marketing magazine, the Search
  Marketing Standard was delivered to over 15,000 people. Danny first mentioned
  this magazine back in April, and now it is here. The first issue has a lot of
  nice beginner style articles on SEM as well as some news related coverage from
  the industry. The next issue is expected by the end of August with the cover
  story being “Search Engine Marketing and Web Site Usability – a Winning
  Combination.”…
• 
  Microsoft Talks Shopping
  Last week I briefly introduced three of Microsoft’s e-commerce initiatives:
  MSN Shopping, Windows Live Shopping, and Windows Live Product Search. This
  week I talked with Jim Barr, GM of Microsoft’s Shopping and Marketplaces group
  for a little more insight. Here’s an excerpt: ?Search is very important. Half
  of the shopping starts in search. 15-25% of all searches go to a shopping
  site. MSN search will not win unless we are good at commerce search. That?s a
  strong reason why we invested.? ?Windows Live Product Search goes on the
  presumption that the audience wants to see as much selection as possible….
• Search
  Spam Detection Tool: How White Hat Is Your Web Site?
  Nathan Weinberg spots a tool named Search engine spam detector. The tool looks
  at a particular URL and classifies what elements on the page may raise a spam
  flag at a search engine. So let us test it out on the SEW Blog, shall we?
  :)…
• Google
  Behind Others On Catching TechMeme’s New Name
  SEOMoz reports that Google has been having issues ranking and indexing
  TechMeme.com, the new name for TechMemorandum. Yesterday, Google did not rank
  TechMeme.com for its own name Techmeme, a classic sign of what is called the
  Google Sandbox. Rand also noticed that Techmeme.com was not indexed at all.
  Today, this morning, the new name seems to have been indexed and is now
  ranking #1 for the Techmeme name. This only happened after Adam Lasnik,
  MiniMatt, took a look at Rand’s post and refused to comment on “specific
  sites.” It is also important to note that Ask.com, Yahoo and MSN all…
• Windows
  Live Local Adds Traffic and Sharing
  Yesterday some people spotted Microsoft?s roll out of aerial photography in
  the UK (and Canada). That was part of a set of new enhancements to Windows
  Live Local that were more fully introduced this morning. (TechCrunch does a
  nice run-down.)…
• 
  Leveraging Brand and Non-Brand Search Terms
  New research from search marketing firms 360i and Search Ignite looks at the
  effectiveness of brand vs. non-brand search terms. The findings suggest that
  brand terms are the most effective?but that a careful combination of brand and
  non-brand terms can be nearly equally effective. More on the report and the
  tactical suggestions it offers for search marketers in today’s SearchDay
  article, The Value of Branded vs. Non-Branded Search Terms….
• New
  Search Patent Applications: May 23, 2006 – Yahoo Wallets, Microsoft Answers,
  and Google Phrases
  A number of patent applications published last week proved intriguing. The US
  Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO) filings offered us additions to Google
  phrase searching and predictive queries, some enhancements to interacting with
  ecommerce sites that appear to be from Yahoo, a Microsoft Answers system and a
  page location based bidding process, a link-based ranking system from Oracle,
  and “phone gestures” from V-Enable….
• Google
  Investor Conference Call May 31st
  Google posted the details of the investor conference call today. The
  conference call is to take place on May 31, 2006 at 11:00 AM PT. Google is
  supposedly going to “offer more opportunities for the investment community to
  interact with” Google’s senior management. The Webcast can be accessed live at
  http://investor.google.com/webcast at that time….
• New Tool
  Scandoo Scans for Scumware in Search Results
  The reports of hackers poisoning search results by optimizing landing pages
  that included links to viruses, spyware and other malware alarmed many people.
  Now a free new service called Scandoo serves as a front-end to Ask, Google,
  MSN Search and Yahoo, scanning results for potential nasties. It identifies
  potential threats in real-time without requiring a plug-in or download.
  “Clean” results are labeled with a green checkmark; those with potential
  threats are labeled with a red “X” (see it in action with this search for “warez”).
  More about Scandoo and how it works here….

Other Things We Read, Didn’t Blog But You Might Want To Read…

• The Missing
  Element in Search Engine Marketing – Part 4, Search Engine Guide
• Google’s
  Click Fraud Settlement and You, iMedia Connection
• 
  Fremont new home for Google sales office, Seattle PI
• 
  Inside look at Google Fremont, Seattle PI
• S.F. wants privacy
  on Google-EarthLink Wi-Fi network | News.blog
• 
  San Francisco to push Google on privacy, InfoWorld