Highlights from the SEW Blog: April 30, 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

• David Naylor Launches Robots.txt File Builder
  Many people screw up their robots.txt file and deny the search engine spiders access to their sites. Dave thought it would be a great idea to create a central site where people can have their robots.txt file created and stored to ensure good interaction with the spiders.

Search Advertising

• Google Adding Print Purchasing to AdWords Interface
  To improve their sales numbers for print media, Google is adding a Print Tab to AdWords accounts.
• DoubleClick Takes Ad Exchange on the Road
  Apparently DoubleClick’s new ad exchange is a bit more than vaporware, or a pretty bow to put on the package to entice potential acquirers.
• Click Quality Council Outlines 8 Principles of Click Quality
  The Click Quality Council, an anti-click fraud group created by PPC auditing firm Click Forensics, has issued a set of eight principles it feels are necessary to produce quality clicks.
• Ask to Launch Contextual Ad Network
  Advertisers buying search ads in Ask.com’s Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) program will soon have the option of buying contextually-targeted ads on IAC-owned sites and third-party publishers.
• Google Builds AdWords Storefront for Intel Resellers
  Beginning next week, Intel’s channel partners will be able to plan and buy AdWords campaigns via a custom storefront created by Intel and Google.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• Meet the Newest Link Love Columnist, Sage Lewis
  In his first contribution, Prevention is the Best Medicine: Don’t Let Viral Campaigns Get Sick and Die, Lewis diagnoses problems with the most feverish trend in link building — viral marketing campaigns.

Analytics & ROI

• Want Your Site Featured on Search Engine Watch?
  Eric Enge is looking for case studies to feature in his “By The Numbers” column.
• Unica’s Steve O’Brien on Cross Channel Integration
  Cross channel integration is an area of great focus for Unica, and Steve made some great observations as to why it’s important.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Genie’s Searching For Gamers
  Gaming has become GenieKnows’ lead offering, and is even presented as the default search on their site.
• Active Athletes In The Lead
  Maybe there is a point where verticals can be connected to create critical mass.
• Superpages.com Revises Ad Algorithm
  Using an algorithm that makes it more closely resemble Google’s AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing’s Panama platform, Superpages will begin ranking ads based on criteria like relevance and performance, in addition to bids.
• Images and videos appear at top of Yahoo News results
  Over the past two days, images and videos have started to appear at the top of results pages for relevant queries on Yahoo News.
• NearbyNow in 100 Cities by the Holidays
  Local search company NearbyNow has built a unique model that helps shopping mall retailers bring in foot traffic by putting their product info and inventory online.
• After a Few Financial Hoops, Blinkx Plans to Go Public
  After navigating a series of financial hoops with enterprise search player Autonomy, privately held video search engine Blinkx will wind up as a public company on the London Stock Exchange.
• Yahoo, Gracenote Provide Lyrics For 100,000s of Songs
  Yahoo and Gracenote announced a joint venture that will provide hundreds of thousands of song lyrics through Yahoo Music.

Small Business/Big Brand SEM

• Book review of How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders by Catherine Seda
  Industry and SES veteran Catherine Seda has authored a new book for the small to mid-sized business owner or entrepreneur, providing a roadmap showing how to leverage the Web to boost business performance.
• Local.com Joins the Webification Trend
  Online local search destination Local.com launched a free version of its Local Promote.

In-House & Outsourcing

• Is Zunch Communications’ Bankruptcy a Sign of Things to Come?
  Zunch is spinning this bankruptcy as a part of a larger trend coming to the industry, but others say that’s not the case.
• Today’s Outsourced Column
  Chris Boggs gives An Insider’s View of what life is like at Avenue A/Razorfish, and breaks down some common roles within agency teams.
• Google Changing Tune on Performics?
  Google’s no longer saying it has “no plans” to sell off Performics, once it acquires DoubleClick.

SEM Industry Issues

• Microsoft Ad Revenues Up 23%
  Advertising revenue grew by 23 percent, and the company is actually ahead of last year’s monetization goals for adCenter.
• The Search Neighborhood is Changing
  Greg Jarboe compares the changes in the search industry to gentrification of old neighborhoods, where a working-class area becomes suddenly trendy and all sorts of new folks move in, often pushing out the old inhabitants.

Searching/Search Technologies

• 6% of Web Sites are Real Estate Related
  A February 2007 Netcraft survey says that of the 108 million sites on the web, academics estimate 6% of these are about real estate.
• Microsoft Live Search Loses Another Exec
  Dane Glasgow, general manager for Live Search, is leaving the company to work for various nonprofits and spend more time with his family.

More from the SEW Blog

• The Simpsons on Search
  This YouTube clip shows Marge Simpson googling herself, and engaging in a variety of search-related activities.
• Will Blogs Be The Death Of News?
  Newspaper circulations are at their lowest in nearly 40 years. The number of daily newspapers is also dramatically shrinking. But blogs with news stories and commentary are flourishing.
• IAC Launches Its Own Incubator
  Similar to Yahoo’s Brickhouse, IAC has launched an internal incubator project to find and develop business opportunities.
• iProspect Opens Office in Spain
  SEM agency iProspect recently began accelerating its global expansion plans.
• Google Buys Web Conferencing Software
  Sweden-based Marratech develops downloadable conferencing software for Microsoft and Apple platforms.
• Charlie Rose To Host First Live Online Presidential Debates
  Yahoo along with the Huffington Post and Slate will host two presidential debates during the 2008 campaign.

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.

• How Google, Yahoo & Ask.com Treat the No Follow Link Attribute, Search Engine Journal
• Linkbait, Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exagerated, Graywolf’s SEO Blog
• What Makes an Ideal SEO Client?, Online Marketing Blog
• Stumbleupon vs Digg – Voyeurs vs Sheep, Venture Skills
• Understanding your results, Search Engine Tigers
• Google – NBC: Very Dumb Idea, John Battelle
• Google Maps has a new Onebox Display, Small Business SEM
• The Parable Of The White Hat & The Black Hat, Blue Hat SEO
• Yahoo! is 404, Yodel Anecdotal
• How Not To Build Links, Link Building Blog
• The Pangs of Two Becoming One, NY Times
• Search: Is one of these eight search engines the next Google? (Hint: No.), Valleywag
• Utah Legislators Realizing They Screwed Up By Banning Keyword Advertising, Technology and Marketing Law
• Google Site Operator: an Ode to Thee, Brian White
• The 10 Commandments of Search, SEO Refugee
• Yahoo to Use Query Histories to Improve Search Results?, SEO by the Sea
• Q&A With Google Personalization Gurus Sep Kamvar and Marissa Mayer, Search Engine Land
• The Life Time Value of Links Based on Google Webmaster Central, Search Engine Roundtable
• YouTube Lining Up Summer Ads, Red Herring
• SEMPO SEO Training Levels Up, WebProNews
• Why The Digg Button Gets You Buried, Not Dugg, Pronet Advertising
• Google + Doubleclick = Re-defining Advertising’s Currency, ThoughtShapers