SEO Software

Yahoo! Sponsored Search advertising puts your business where your customers are searching. SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up now and receive a $50 credit toward your first month, or save $50 on assisted setup, our expert starter service.

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Search in Pictures: Ron Paul, Googleville, & Bonfire Night
  In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more....
• Power Searchers Driving Most Of The Query Volume At Google, Yahoo, MSN
  This Compete blog post argues that most of the search query volume at the major search engines is driven by a relatively small number of search engine users: power searchers. According to Compete, "[T]he top 1% of searchers performs a full 13% of all searches in a given month." Breaking...
• Google Earth Adds Millennium Development Goals Layer
  The Google LatLong Blog announced Google Earth has added the "Millennium Development Goals" layer within the "Global Awareness" folder. To access it, open Google Earth, open the "Global Awareness" folder and click the checkbox next to "UNDP: Millennium Development Goals Monitor." Then you should see blue "MDG" icons throughout the...
• How Feedburner Adds Up Subscriber Numbers
  Last Saturday, there was a gasp of collective horror in the blogosphere as FeedBurner subscriber stats plunged for many sites. Today, it's happened again. Don't panic! Your subscribers are probably all still there, with Google Reader to blame for the missing numbers. Below, our comprehensive guide to how FeedBurner compiles...
• Schmidt: Google Will Definitely Participate In The Wireless Spectrum Auction
  This article from Forbes sort of quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt saying, for the first time, that the company would "definitely" participate in the forthcoming 700 MHZ wireless spectrum auction to be held in January. It also says that Google would open that spectrum up to anyone willing to pay...
• Microsoft Tries Search & Win Again?
  Is Live Search bringing back the search and win "Live Search Trial Program?" A Marketwatch article suggests so, even though the page is invalid. Microsoft did run this program back in August. In addition, it has also run the Live Search Club program....
• YouTube Releases Desktop Multi-Video Upload PC Client
  YouTube announced the release of a desktop PC client that allows you to upload multiple videos at one time. The client is available over here and is currently only supported in Windows, but YouTube says a Mac client is coming soon. You can upload 10 minutes in length videos and...
• Coming Soon: Block Domaining Ads From Google?
  In response to popular request, block domain ads looks to be coming, along with other blocking features. I have reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that some AdWords advertisers are now able to block categories of sites, plus they are able to block domain ads and error page ads. Back...
• Chewing Gum, Google Universal Search & Is That A Nude Woman?
  Here's latest Google Universal Search funny, this time for chewing gum. Three images at the top. You've got your gumballs, your Juicy Fruit and your -- um -- naked woman? Yep:...
• Facebook's Hot, At Least As A Top Search Term
  Facebook might not be more popular than sex, but it's getting there -- at least as a rival to sex as something people search on. Below, a look at Facebook's new entry into a top search terms list and related stats, along the way -- including which country searches for...
• LookSmart Reports Poor Earnings & Sells FindArticles To CNET
  Gary Price reports that LookSmart has sold off FindArticles to CNET Networks for $20.5 million. LookSmart published a press release that details the sale is in cash, not in stock. Neil Ashe, CEO of CNET Networks, said:...

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Now you can cancel that order when you have an "oops" moment, Official Google Checkout Blog
• First Look at gOS, Google Blogoscoped

Business Issues

• Barry Diller Still Believes in Synergy, New York Times
• Why are Republicans in Congress targeting Google? Two reasons, News.com

Conferences

• BlogWorld Expo: SEO For Blogging Slides, Vanessa Fox
• Building an Online Community, BruceClay.com
• Corporate & CEO Blogging, BruceClay.com
• The New Media Moguls Roundtable, BruceClay.com
• Firms should seek out SMX London Search Expo, IT Week
• BlogWorld Random Musings, Marketing Pilgrim

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Mobile: GPShopper (GPS) Gets Investment from Secretive NY Investment Bank, ResourceShelf
• Local Search for National Brands, Search Engine Watch
• DOE Energy Efficient Buildings in 3D Google Earth, Google Earth Blog

Link Building

• Third Party Google PageRank Tools Failing?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How To Create User Generated Link Bait, Marketing Pilgrim
• 7 Points of Paid Links v.s. Editorial Links, Stone Temple
• When Link Bait Goes Wrong : How to Prepare for a Good Linking, Search Engine Journal
• Why Google Can't Just "Dump" PageRank, www.seofaststart.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdWords system maintenance on November 10th, Inside AdWords
• Quick update on the Manage Ads feature, Inside AdSense
• Increase AdWords Conversions 300% - Errr, really?, Rimm Kaufman
• Make the Most of Your Financial Services Account, adCenter Blog
• Google AdSense Publishers Earning Per Impression Down Since Channel Bug, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdWordsAdvisor Answers Questions About CPC Site Targeting for Contextual Ads, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Update on New Voting System, Askville Blog
• eNetez Launches Search Engine with Keyboard Free Search, Bill Hartzer
• How we learned to find zune.net, Live Search Blog
• China's Baidu to launch financial news service, Forbes

SEM Industry

• My Recent Visit to the Google Offices in NY, SEM Geek
• Crash This Bash: Google's holiday party, Valleywag

SEO & SEM

• Videos: "Pardon The Fookin' Interruption" (The Complete Trilogy), SEOmoz
• 10 Ways to Make your Website More Popular, SEOptimise
• How The Google Sitelinks Block Feature Works, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft Prepares Industry Focus Research, Keywords, Scott Clark
• On The Link Between Search and Branding, John Battelle's Searchblog
• SEO Engineers Keep Agency on Track, Search Engine Watch
• The SEO Guru Exposes the Worst SEO Sales Advice of All Time, Bob Massa

Social Media

• Blogcosm Challenges Technorati, Techmeme to Parse the Blogosphere, Read/Write Web
• Digg/coRank Acquisition Rumors False, But Digg White Label Business Might Be Coming, TechCrunch
• What's The Glory in Being a Top Stumbler?, SEO Wife
• Block Facebook Beacon, the Idea Shower

Video, Music & Image Search

• Should YouTube play the censor and sentinel?, News.com

Web Analytics

• Use Feedburner Statistics to Interpret Reader Habits, ProBlogger

Other Items

• Congrats to Google scholarship winners, Official Google Blog
• Domain Names: Google Registers a "Typo" Domain for OHA; Other Typo Domains for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, ResourceShelf

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Whiteboard Friday - Dave Naylor in Three Acts (full of UK goodness)
• 10 Ways to Hurt Your Blog’s Brand by Commenting on Other Blogs
• Internet marketing is one big popularity contest, and that’s not a good thing
• Is The Horde At Facebooks Walls?
• When Link Bait Goes Wrong : How to Prepare for a Good Linking
• The Search Mafia
• Recent Press Coverage About Facebook Ads
• 15 Tips To Boost Your Productivity When Blogging
• How Host IP's, Domain Blocking and Geo-location Influence SEO
• Digg's Top 1000 Users
• 50+ Resources for Utilizing StumbleUpon Effectively
• Five Easy Copyblogger Steps to Editing Your Own Work
• TopRank Tool Suggestions For Staying Current with SEO News
• How to Sneak in Into a 1000$+ Conference for Free
• Google Sitelinks On A PR4 1 Year Old Domain
• Three Easy Steps to Test Your Viral Marketing Ideas
• Web Strategy: The Many Forms of Monetization using the Web
• The Sphinn Awards Are Coming!!
• Are We Designing For The Human Experience?
• Alert: Google is Shrinking
• Predatory Jerks Give SEO a Bad Name
• Domain Snatching - How Private Are Your Domain Searches?
• Does McDonalds Pay More than Blogging?
• Google Organizes Less Than 0.02% of the World’s Information
• WP Super Cache: The Ultimate WordPress Caching Plugin
• Why Blogging is like Sex
• Forget UGC, Discover The Secrets Of User-Generated-Linkbait
• Google's OpenSocial Hacked Again
• Facebook Unveils 3 Part Ad System
• 12 Basic Link Building Tactics For Beginners
• How To Buy A #1 Organic Search Ranking On Google
• 5 Web Design Elements to Earn Your Visitors Trust

In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Click to continue reading...

This Compete blog post argues that most of the search query volume at the major search engines is driven by a relatively small number of search engine users: power searchers. According to Compete, "[T]he top 1% of searchers performs a full 13% of all searches in a given month." Breaking this out by engine, Compete says, "70% of search queries in September were performed by 20% of Google searchers. For Yahoo! the concentration increased to 73% and for MSN/Live searchers 75% of the queries were performed by the top 20%."

Click to continue reading...

The Google LatLong Blog announced Google Earth has added the "Millennium Development Goals" layer within the "Global Awareness" folder. To access it, open Google Earth, open the "Global Awareness" folder, and click the checkbox next to "UNDP: Millennium Development Goals Monitor."

Then you should see blue "MDG" icons throughout the map, if you zoom in enough. Here is a screen capture of Venezuela:

Click to continue reading...

Last Saturday, there was a gasp of collective horror in the blogosphere as FeedBurner subscriber stats plunged for many sites. Today, it's happened again. Don't panic! Your subscribers are probably all still there, with Google Reader to blame for the missing numbers. Below, our comprehensive guide to how FeedBurner compiles subscriber stats explains all, today's glitch, and why those occasional plunges happen.

Last weekend's drop of Feedburner subscriber numbers by as much as half was a temporary glitch. Google Reader didn't report figures, and all was back to normal the next day. Today's drop appears to be the same issue. Joost de Valk for example, notes how Google FeedFetcher stats (which report combined Google Reader/iGoogle subscribers) are missing. I see the same.

Click to continue reading...

This article from Forbes sort of quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt saying, for the first time, that the company would "definitely" participate in the forthcoming 700 MHZ wireless spectrum auction to be held in January. It also says that Google would open that spectrum up to anyone willing to pay for it, in defiance of the US FCC's compromise position on Google's request for open networks. Google had previously said it would potentially bid nearly $5 billion for the spectrum licenses, which the FCC has repeatedly described as "beach front property."

Click to continue reading...

Is Live Search bringing back the search and win "Live Search Trial Program?" A Marketwatch article suggests so, even though the page is invalid.

Microsoft did run this program back in August. In addition, it has also run the Live Search Club program.

Click to continue reading...

YouTube announced the release of a desktop PC client that allows you to upload multiple videos at one time. The client is available over here and is currently only supported in Windows, but YouTube says a Mac client is coming soon.

You can upload 10 minutes in length videos and up to 1GB in size files with this new client. You will also have the multifile upload page with this release. It can take up to 30 minutes for the videos to show up on the "my videos" page.

Click to continue reading...

In response to popular request, block domain ads looks to be coming, along with other blocking features.

I have reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that some AdWords advertisers are now able to block categories of sites, plus they are able to block domain ads and error page ads. Back in August, Google told us that AdSense For Domains Opt Out Coming To AdWords Advertisers. It appears that some advertisers are now able to take advantage of that feature.

Click to continue reading...

Here's latest Google Universal Search funny, this time for chewing gum. Three images at the top. You've got your gumballs, your Juicy Fruit, and your -- um -- naked woman? Yep:

Click to continue reading...

Facebook might not be more popular than sex, but it's getting there -- at least as a rival to sex as something people search on. Below, a look at Facebook's new entry into a top search terms list and related stats, along the way -- including which country searches for Facebook the most (hint: how about a donut, eh?).

Click to continue reading...

Gary Price reports that LookSmart has sold off FindArticles to CNET Networks for $20.5 million.

LookSmart published a press release that details the sale is in cash, not in stock. Neil Ashe, CEO of CNET Networks, said:

Click to continue reading...

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Yahoo's Boerries On Android: Google Risks Being Distracted By Technology
  Reuters interviews the head of Yahoo's mobile efforts, Marco Boerries, who emphasizes that Yahoo is building strategic partnerships with carriers and OEMs around the world and argues that Google is probably misguided in introducing Android. Boerries is quoted in the article as saying, "The race is going to be who...
• Send In The Clouds: Google Earth Adds Weather Layer
  The Google Earth Blog reports that Google Earth has restructured the layers and added a new weather layer to the mapping tool. Weather.com and Naval Research Labs' Marine Meteorology Division power the weather layer. The weather layer contains sub-layers with clouds, radar, and weather conditions and forecasts. If you want...
• 10 Useless SEO Worries (Part 2)
  Small businesses are often left in the dark when it comes to which SEO strategies really work and which don't. Online there is an onslaught of information freely available online, much of it contradictory. Small business owners who attempt to perform SEO for themselves are often left wondering. What...
• Live Search Adds "More" Tab To Home Page, Exposes More Vertical Search Tools
  Gary Price spotted that Microsoft has added a new "more" tab to the Live Search home page, exposing some Live Search specialized search engines that haven't been promoted from the home page since last month's relaunch of Live Search....
• Microsoft Willing To Lose Money Online To Fight Google
  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in Japan to promote Windows Live services and was asked about competition from Google and Android. According to this article in the International Herald Tribune, he acknowledged that Google was "ahead" of Microsoft in search. (It's not clear whether that includes online advertising as well)....
• Google AdWords Replaces Site Targeting With Placement Targeting & Offers Bidding Options
  The Inside AdWords Blog announced they are renaming the "site targeting" feature to "placement targeting" because now you can specify the sections of a site that you want your ad to be displayed on. Google also announced that advertisers can now specify if they want to pay on a CPC...
• "What's Open" The First Android App?
  ValleyWag speculates that a local search startup called "What's Open" has written the first Android application. The site has some screenshots, which suggest a fairly familiar local search tool, with a map and some social networking features. The differentiator is likely -- as the name suggests -- data about what...
• How To (Kind Of) Buy A #1 Organic Search Ranking On Google
  Google adamantly denies that payment influences organic search engine rankings. In an ideal world that might be true, but exposure begets exposure. Here are some of the cheapest and fastest ways to get your message to the top of the search results without paying for every click....
• SMX London Only 7 Days Away – Register Today!
  The signs are that SMX London is going to be a absolutely cracking event.” – Multilingual Search World Edition Search Marketing Expo - SMX London kicks off next Thursday, 15 November. Don’t miss your opportunity to attend. Register today! SMX London is for search marketers who want to learn the...
• Top Reason To Register For SMX West Today: Pre-Agenda Price Expires Nov. 9
  Search Marketing Expo - SMX West is coming to the Santa Clara Convention Center in the heart of Silicon Valley, February 26-28, 2008. Register for SMX West today and pay only $995. You get all three days of sessions, networking, and special events - including SMX Bash - that Search...

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail strike out Iran, The Register
• Screenshots of Google Talk's Integration with AIM in Gmail, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Search Engines Are Lousy Investors, Fool.com
• LookSmart (LOOK) Bombs: Bad News for GOOG/YHOO?, Silicon Alley Insider
• LookSmart Sells FindArticles to CNET Networks, ResourceShelf

Conferences

• View the Presentation From My Speech at Blogworld Expo, SEO Book
• Creating Conversations with Your Readers, BruceClay.com
• Survival Tips for Network Bloggers, BruceClay.com
• Want search engine traffic? Pen a blog, News.com
• ad:tech Interactive Marketing Keynote: Platforms, Video Advertising, Online Marketing Blog
• BlogWorld and New Media Expo: Maggie Fox of Social Media Group, WebProNews
• BlogWorld Opening Keynote: Matt Mullenwag, BruceClay.com
• Blogworld Session Summaries: New Media, SEO for Blogs, Marketing Pilgrim

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Calling all PHP/MySQL Developers: Come get your sample code!, Google Maps API Blog
• LiveDeal Adds Yelp Reviews, Screenwerk
• Google Maps at the Gas Station? No, Thanks, Small Business SEM

Link Building

• The Great SEO Lie Exposed, Search Engine Guide
• 12 Basic Link Building Tactics For Beginners : The Ultimate SpiderBait, Search Engine Journal
• Link Building and Brainstorming Content, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• How to Run a Google Adwords Campaign : Basics For Newbies, Search Engine Journal
• 5 More Common PPC Mistakes, PPC Hero
• Adding Color to the Holidays, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog
• Google's Game-Focused Advertising Initiative To Launch This Month, GigaOM
• Answers to your video units questions, Inside AdSense
• 51% of Google AdSense Publishers are Older Than 30 Years Old, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo! Panama - An Interview with Mona Elesseily, SEOmoz
• The Truth Behind Why Google Checks Bounce, Search Engine Roundtable
• AdSense Code Free Changes Take Less Than 10 Minutes to Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft adCenter Upgraded Big Time since adChamps, David Naylor

Searching

• Google 32 Word Search Limit, Googlified
• Google Listing Lest Search Results: No More 1,000 Results?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Comparison Shopping Traffic Increases 56 Percent , Web Analytics World
• The ultimate guide to advanced searching within Yahoo, Google and MSN operators, Hybrid SEM

SEM Industry

• CEO puts fresh face on SEO, Seattle Times
• Web ad spending expected to double by 2011, Reuters

SEO & SEM

• SEO Tips for Bloggers, WebProNews Video
• Google Rankings Influenced By Hosting, Domain Registrar and Geographic Location, Search Engine Journal
• Server Hacked? How To Notify Google to Restore Google Search Rankings, Search Engine Roundtable
• Studying Spider Crawl Rate to Find Your Most Trusted Pages, BlogStorm

Social Media

• Kevin Rose: Digg's Biggest Hypocrite, Techipedia
• Rumormonger: Digg close to a $300 million sale?, Valleywag
• Digg to sell for $300 million? Really?, News.com
• Just Sell Digg Already, Jay, TechCrunch
• OpenSocial: It's the data, stupid, O'Reilly Radar
• Fear Among Facebook Developers - Forbes.com, Forbes
• Official: Facebook Poised to "Take Over The World", Portfolio

Video, Music & Image Search

• Flickr centralizes printing abilities, News.com
• YouTube Now In German, Google Blogoscoped

Other Items

• Families of Chinese Dissidents Speak Out Against Yahoo, Wall Street Journal
• Vote for the kid UK google logo.., SEO Home
• Frequently Updated Internet Domain Counts, IP's by Country, and Other Net Stats, ResourceShelf
• Google.cat, Google Blogoscoped
• Podcast: Facebook's New Ads; Google Advice On AJAX, Google Maps At The Gas Pump , Daily SearchCast

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Google Took Away my Search Results!
• 10 Useless SEO Worries (Part 2)
• Google Sent an Innocent Man to Jail for Three Weeks
• Search Engine Guide Goes Social
• Rumor: Digg close to a $300 million sale?
• The Ultimate Guide To Advanced Searching Within Yahoo, Google And MSN
• Google Acquires Zillow [Video]
• Tamar says Kevin Rose is Digg’s Biggest Hypocrite
• 5 Reasons I Used To Suck At Social Media
• Branding Yourself at 10 MPH
• 15 Ways to Get Exposure for Your New Blog
• Top SEO's Competition (WTF?)
• Sensationalism & Pandering: The Press & The SEO Community
• Are Social Media Sites Heating Up or Overheating?
• Finally: the AdWords Killer May Be Here - Early Results In
• Google gives Ajax Tips
• The 23 Types of Social Media Users
• The 1 Second Film and Marketing Social Media
• One Social Network to Control them ALL! Google Releases Open Social API and Blog
• A Fantastic Analysis of Sites That Make Digg's Frontpage
• Brussels Bangs Fake Bloggers From Behind
• 4 Simple Ways to Grow Your Brand
• Should Copyright Laws be Changed or Removed? - High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum
• Googlebot Just Got The Boot - User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /
• If you are not First, you are Nothing

Reuters interviews the head of Yahoo's mobile efforts, Marco Boerries, who emphasizes that Yahoo is building strategic partnerships with carriers and OEMs around the world and argues that Google is probably misguided in introducing Android. Boerries is quoted in the article as saying, "The race is going to be who builds the biggest arsenal of partners and numbers of page views." (This suggests an emphasis on display ads rather than paid search in mobile.) He also argues that Google risks being distracted by technology instead of focusing on ad revenue, the "lifeblood" of both companies.

Click to continue reading...

The Google Earth Blog reports that Google Earth has restructured the layers and added a new weather layer to the mapping tool.

Weather.com and Naval Research Labs' Marine Meteorology Division power the weather layer. The weather layer contains sub-layers with clouds, radar, and weather conditions and forecasts. If you want the clouds and radars to animate, you can click on the "information" link, under the weather layer, and see the information about time animations.

Click to continue reading...

Small businesses are often left in the dark when it comes to which SEO strategies really work and which don't. Online there is an onslaught of information freely available online, much of it contradictory. Small business owners who attempt to perform SEO for themselves are often left wondering "What strategies are more important than others? Which are worthless? How do you tell the difference?"

Click to continue reading...

Gary Price spotted that Microsoft has added a new "more" tab to the Live Search home page, exposing some Live Search specialized search engines that haven't been promoted from the home page since last month's relaunch of Live Search.

Click to continue reading...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in Japan to promote Windows Live services and was asked about competition from Google and Android. According to this article in the International Herald Tribune, he acknowledged that Google was "ahead" of Microsoft in search. (It's not clear whether that includes online advertising as well.)

Ballmer went on to dismiss Android as "just words on paper" so far. He also said that he expected to continue to lose money on Microsoft's online business for some time. The company is "in an investment mode," Ballmer was quoted as saying. But given Microsoft's recent $13.7 billion quarter, the company can afford to subsidize its online efforts for a long time to come.

Postscript From Danny: Be sure to see Microsoft court filing touts Google's 'rapid success' from News.com yesterday, where Microsoft in court documents praises Google as being a strong competitor in the "software industry" in efforts to ensure Microsoft anti-trust provisions aren't extended.

The Inside AdWords Blog announced they are renaming the "site targeting" feature to "placement targeting" because now you can specify the sections of a site that you want your ad to be displayed on. Google also announced that advertisers can now specify if they want to pay on a CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression) basis with their placement targeted ads.

Click to continue reading...