Highlights from the SEW Blog: Mar. 12, 2007

We’ve collected all the search marketing news from selected posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web.

From the SEW blog:

Organic Search

• Google to Index Subscription Based Content
  Adam Lasnik posted a comment in the Webmaster Help Google Group indicating Google is working on technology to allow crawling of pages that require a login.

Search Advertising

• PPC Wish Lists, Part 3
  Kevin Lee wraps up his PPC advertisers’ wishlist for search engines in his ClickZ column today.
• More Early Yahoo Panama Results
  As more early results roll in, it appears that Yahoo’s Panama platform is delivering as promised, improving ad performance for big-brand marketers and quality of results for searchers.
• 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.
• Indian Portal Starts Keyword-Powered Ad Platform
  ByIndia.com will offer a Google-like keyword/ad platform beginning next week.

Linking Issues

• The Future of Link Building
  With the rise of personalized search results, webmasters everywhere need to pay more attention to link marketing and Web marketing campaigns.

Analytics & ROI

• Beware of Averages
  Too many marketers spend their time adjusting to what they see as the average visitor, instead of going beneath the surface to find out what’s really going on.
• Podcast with Jim Sterne
  Eric Enge recently sat down with Jim Sterne to record a podcast covering the world of Web analytics.
• 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.
• Googler Criticizes Alexa Data
  Peter Norvig, director of research at Google, has published some stats showing that usage by online marketers is skewing Alexa data.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Wikia Search Plans Progressing
  Jimmy Wales continues to press ahead with his search engine plan, saying that collaborative search technology could transform the power structure of the Internet.
• AskCity Adds Search-Enabled Drawing Tools
  Ask.com is adding new tools to its AskCity local search product, which allow a searcher to define a geographic search area by drawing on a map.
• Flixfind.com – A Directory of Movie-Related Sites
  When you tire of all the user-generated movies on YouTube and want 90 minutes of pure escapism, nothing beats a trip to the movies.
• AP, Microsoft Joint Venture Video Platform
  The Associated Press is launching a new Microsoft-powered video platform to help its news affiliates better monetize their online video content.
• Local Search, IYP Set to Grow
  A new report from the Kelsey Group forecasts print yellow pages, IYP and local search growth over the next five years, showing IYP sites as forceful contenders in the directories game, in part because of their increasing search mettle.
• Yahoo Uses Windows Mobile To Escalate Yahoo Go Reach
  Yahoo! announced this morning a strategic partnership with HTC (High Tech Computer) to preload Yahoo Go on their Windows mobile phones.
• Superpages Adds Virtual Earth Maps
  Superpages.com has upgraded its mapping capabilities by partnering with Microsoft to use its Virtual Earth platform.
• 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.

Social Media

• MySpace Planning Social News Site
  Fox Interactive Media plans to launch MySpace News, a social news site similar to Digg.
• Yahoo Answers Gets Friendly
  Earlier this week, Yahoo launched a beta of the new Answers Network, which adds some social networking features to its Yahoo Answers product.
• Wikipedia To Check Poster Credentials. Are Employees Next?
  Perhaps Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia should have started their credential-checking plan a bit sooner. If they had, the now infamous “Essjay,” aka Ryan Jordan, may not have been able to claim he was a professor of theology instead of a 24-year old college dropout.
• Friendster Drops Yahoo For Google
  Social networking company Friendster has signed an agreement to run Google ads, replacing their previous ad provider Yahoo.
• 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.
• Justin Osmer Interviewed about Live QnA
  Osmer tells Eric Enge that Microsoft has taken a very interesting approach to the QnA product, treating it as an enhancement to search, rather than a destination site.

SEM for Small Businesses

• Google Enhances its Local Business Center
  Google has added a few new features to its Local Business Center, the place where businesses can enter information to show up on Google Maps.
• The Future of Search is for the Nimble
  The complexity of search and its constant changes is more conducive to small business adapting quicker, according to Christine Churchill.

In-House & Big Brand SEM

• Does Site Search Matter For The Mags?
  Site search among the top 50 consumer magazines is lacking, and they may be missing out on the upside traffic and revenue potential for their brands online.

SEM Industry Issues

• Payne to Leave Microsoft?
  Christopher Payne, VP of Microsoft’s Windows Live Search group, is reportedly leaving Microsoft after 14 years to start his own company.
• Online Ad Spending Reaches New Heights
  The IAB reports that online ad revenue for Q4 2006 reached a new height, climbing 32 percent to nearly $4.8 billion, with 2006 full-year revenue estimated at $16.8 billion.
• 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.

More from the SEW Blog

• Freebase: the Next Google-Killer or Over-Hyped Start-Up?
  The New York Times is once again breathlessly heralding the “launch” of a Google-killer. This time it’s Metaweb Technologies’ plans to create a semantic Web database, to be called Freebase, which founder Danny Hillis envisions as “a centralized repository that is more like a digital almanac.”
• Call for Case Studies
  Do you have a great SEO case study story that you would like to tell? We’d like to publish a few here on SEW.
• Is Amazon Hedging Search Engine Bets?
  Amazon seems eager to find an alternative to its dependence on mainstream search providers, investing venture capital in Jimmy Wales’ Wikia.
• 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.
• 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.
• Global Strategies International Acquired by Ogilvy
  Search marketing firm Global Strategies International, led by frequent search event speaker and author Bill Hunt, has been acquired by Neo@Ogilvy.
• Microsoft Chatting For Charity
  In an attempt to increase use of Messenger, Microsoft has launched a charity drive that gives donations when you chat.

Search Headlines

We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You’ll find more news from around the Web below.

• Being Local in Every Community, SEO Theory
• Search Results in Search Results, Matt Cutts
• Not Recognizing the Power of Social Media, Search Marketing Gurus
• Link Building: Measuring Directory Value, Search Engine Journal
• Yahoo Search Builder and Getting More Pages Indexed by Yahoo, Ramblings About SEO
• NotWikiaSari to Revolutionize 5% of Search, Marketing Pilgrim
• Patent: Google Phone Knows What You Want Before You Search, Mad4mobilephones
• Turn of the Century SEO Is Now PPC, eWhisper
• Does Anyone Ever Tell You the Web Won’t Work for Their Business?, 10e20
• Build Community First, Monetize Last, Conversations Monetized
• Upgrading to Microsoft Content Ads & Contextual Advertising on the Microsoft Network, adCenter Blog