Highlights from the SEW Blog: March 3-7, 2008

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 Serves Up Search Within Search Results
  Yesterday, Google announced that it is rolling out its new Search within a Site feature. When searching for specific sites instead of keywords, users are able to conduct a secondary search of those sites within Google results.
• Ask.com Stands Behind Search
  The reports of Ask.com’s death have been exaggerated. Despite widely circulated reports to the contrary, Ask.com claims to be committed to search, and not just for middle-aged women in the Midwest.
• Does Page Layout Affect SEO?
  Bill Slawski is reporting that Yahoo is joining the ranks of MSN and Google in an attempt to incorporate page layout into its web search algorithm.

Search Advertising

• AdWords Announces, Explains Load Time Usage In Quality Score
  The AdWords blog just announced the details of the inclusion of page load times in calculating Quality Score.
• SEW Experts: The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?
  ComScore’s recent data showing flat paid search growth for Google led many in the media to declare that the paid search sky was falling. But the rush to judgment was wrong, and there are other factors involved.
• SEW Experts: Contextual Advertising Best Practices: Banners and Video Ads
  Ready to step out of your contextual advertising comfort zone? The world of graphic and video advertising may seem scary at first, but the rewards can be huge.

Linking Issues & Social Media

• How to Go Beyond Linkbait : SES NYC
  Reciprocal links – good or bad? If done properly, they can still be a good SEO tactic.
• Why Digg’s Worth $200 Million or More to Google
  Digg IPO? No. Digg FSBO. For Sale By Owner. Again. The auction for social search engine Digg begins when Microsoft and Google make their bid.
• SEW Experts: SEO Link Building: Budget Stretcher for Online Retail and E-Commerce Sites
  Let’s face it: most e-commerce sites primarily consist of a shopping cart on steroids. Whether you’re selling clothing, car parts, luggage, or even cameras, your approach to link development matters most.
• YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook: Most Popular Social Media Sites in UK
  Nielsen’s data, released today, proves that reports of social media’s demise in the UK may be unfounded.
• Facebook Hires Sandberg to Make Microsoft’s $240 Million Investment Pay Off
  In the strange bedfellows game in tech, the Google exec will help Microsoft profit from the $15 billion Facebook valuation Microsoft’s $240 million investment created.

Analytics & ROI

• Compete Acquired by TNS
  Today, London-based market research firm TNS announced its acquisition of web analytics and digital intelligence company, Compete Inc.

Local & Mobile Search

• Yahoo Maps Announces Updates
  Yahoo Maps announced Wednesday that an update was rolled out, which includes several data and style improvements.
• Pentagon Bans Google Mapping Vehicles from Military Bases
  The Pentagon has banned Google from driving their mapping vehicles on military bases after detailed street views of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, appeared on Google Maps.
• SEW Experts: Social Media Meets Local Search
  Despite the growing traffic to social networks, local search tools for users of those sites are surprisingly few and far between. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stay active in those communities.
• Yahoo Announces onePlace at CeBIT
  Yahoo took advantage of the CeBIT conference in Hamburg, Germany to announce the forthcoming launch of onePlace, a content management solution developed as part of the company’s growing mobile services.
• Spot Runner Buys Weblistic: Local Search on Video Steroids
  Today Spot Runner announced its acquisition of Weblistic, a provider of local online advertising, in an all-stock transition.

Vertical & Specialty Search

• Virgin Charter Launches Vertical Search Engine
  Sir Richard Branson launched a new vertical search engine, Virgin Charter, that promises to revolutionize high-end corporate travel and last minute luxury travel.

Small Business/Big Brand SEM

• SEW Experts: Small Business Growing? Know When to Let Go
  If you’re spending more time on search marketing than actually running your business, it might be time to outsource.

In-House & Outsourcing

• 48 Practical Questions to Qualify Prospective Search Marketing Vendors
  Don’t Get Bamboozled! We’ve all heard anecdotes regarding the unfortunate results of under-qualified or downright deceptive SEM vendors.
• SEW Experts: Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency – Part 1
  Now that you know how to win the right search marketing clients, it’s time to look at one of the most important areas of your business — how to make sales.
• Ad agencies should slide on down to SES New York
  Whether you work at one of the top 10 ad agencies on Madison Avenue, or you head up an Internet advertising agency in Silicon Alley, you folks could use “a little churching up.”

SEM Industry Issues

• Microsoft in Hot Pursuit of Google
  At the Mix08 Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft loudly declared its intentions to increase its share of the search market.
• SEW Experts: Has Google Already Won?
  With the imminent demise of Yahoo and Ask.com, Google seems to have cemented its near-total control of search. The monopolization of our industry is fast becoming a reality, and yet the users of search are oblivious.
• EU Approval of Google’s DoubleClick Acquisition is Imminent
  The EU is reportedly planning to approve Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising powerhouse DoubleClick.
• SEW Experts: Has Yahoo Lost Its Yodel?
  It seems like only yesterday that Yahoo was the darling of the Web. Is Jerry Yang really ready to throw in the towel and partner with Microsoft?
• Yahoo Fires Back
  Yahoo is taking its time setting a date for its annual meeting, since if there’s no annual meeting, there can be no vote by shareholders, bolstered by Microsoft, to replace Yahoo’s existing board with a more Microsoft-friendly one.
• Yahoo Desperately Seeking Suitor: Time Warner
  With a Microsoft proxy battle expected soon, Time Warner’s emerging as a white knight for the Sunnyvale search engine. Or as a delaying tactic to put off the Yahoo annual shareholder meeting.
• Ask.com to Cut 8%, Revamp Search Plans
  Ask.com will reportedly stop trying to compete directly with Google as a mainstream search engine, and will instead focus on targeting niches where it feels it can prosper, based on the way users are searching with Ask.com now.

Searching/Search Technologies

• Yahoo Launches Fire Eagle: Location Sharing
  Fire Eagle shares your location information with services and applications that you choose. This location information is obtained from the web or your mobile device.
• Microsoft Research Unveils Three New Search Projects
  Two projects, SearchTogether and CoSearch, are aimed at collaborative search while SearchBar assists the individual searcher.
• Google: The Spy Who Loved Me
  Web search algorithms are improved by the “wisdom of the crowds” drawn from the “logs of billions of previous search queries.”

More from the SEW Blog

• 7 Deadly SEO Questions for Google’s Matt Cutts
  “Among search geeks and online marketers, Matt Cutts is like an internet god.”
• Gates Talks Smack – Google Talk Crack
  “In terms of Google, not to overstate it, but they really don’t understand the special needs of business.”
• Dr. Seuss Created Google – Here’s Proof
  Dr. Seuss is the Genius behind Google. Here’s proof: Goo Goo + Goggles = Google. ((goo + goo) – goo))+ (goggles – g squared – s) = google.
• IM-NY SES Party Bash Info: Vote Which Charity Gets the Cash!
  Each year coinciding with a major SEM conference, The Internet Marketers of New York throw a Manhattan bash to benefit a deserving charity.

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 to Avoid a Crash Landing, ClickZ Experts
• The Future of Advertising: A Conversation With Jeff Einstein, Part 1, ClickZ Experts
• Re-localization Opportunities – Local 2.0, Read/Write Web
• Online Reputation Management: Living Radically Transparent with Andy Beal & Dr. Judy Strauss, Online Marketing Blog
• What Did Ask.com Really Say?, Marketing Pilgrim
• Site Structure – SEOs Going Fishing Without Any Bait, Andy Beard
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective Web Searchers, About.com Web Search
• Headlines Are For Humans, Titles Are For Robots, Barry Welford
• A Call To The Local Searcherati: Embrace Small Business Brief, Convert Offline
• What should you spend on an SEO audit?, SEM In-House
• Questions to Ask When Assessing Web Analytics, Web Analytics Demystified
• Calacanis Kerfuffle, Revenews
• Everything I know about Social Media I saw in a British Pub, SiteLogic
• The Good, The Bad & The Pay-Per-Click Ugly, GrokDotCom
• What killer app will drive brand advertisers online?, Forrester
• Utah Amends Trademark Protection Act (But Only After Some Drama), Technology and Marketing Law