Multilingual search is one of the growth areas of our industry and Google has added its own help in the space by launching its Latin American AdWords Blog. Written in Spanish, the launch today introduces itself and gives an overview of its intentions and direction.

I used a machine translator to get the English version of the opening post - but its seems to be pretty good (guess the translators are improving).

All the Team of AdWords of Google for Latin America welcomes you to our Blog: Inside AdWords for Latin America.

We are very happy to announce the launch of this new channel of communication that will permit us to share with you all our news. In it you will find counsels to improve your campaigns, information on the network of contents, launches of products and tools, dates for special training, strategies for attract clients in important dates, events of our region in which we been present and a lot more. Besides, the entrances will be in charge of the own Googlers and of some special collaborators of the industry of the marketing and the publicity.

But also we invite you to that participate, responding the surveys and sending us your comments, whether in the same blog or by mail to blog-adwords-latam@google.com

Set the date aside, July 8th, if you want to get the inside scoop on Google"s website tools. As announced today over at the Official Google Blog, they will be holding a webinar about Google Analytics, Website Optimizer and Webmaster Tools.

These Google products have become an invaluable set of tools for most serious web owners and marketers and it will be a great opportunity to see if there are any methods one is not using at the moment.

It will be interesting to see what numbers sign up for this and if Google can handle the potentially huge crowd signing up for this event.

Apparently Chicago-based firm LimitNone is suing Google for misappropriating the trade secrets of its "gMove" application that Google allegedly used to develop its Email Uploader.

The two-count lawsuit also claims Google violated Illinois" consumer fraud laws.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Kelley Drye & Warren LLP - "the same commercial litigation group which challenged Google over the company"s online advertising system," SlashDot noted.

Details of the suit can be found in the press release sent out by the law firm.

“Its shocking that Google would engage in this type of conduct; particularly when the other party is a small software company that built its business specifically to help Google sell its existing and future products,” said Susan Greenspon of the Chicago office of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. “People need to realize that Google is just another large publicly traded corporation that will do whatever it takes to increase its revenue, even if that means risking its reputation among developers.”

The lawsuit alleges that in February, 2007 Google launched a suite of business software applications called Google Apps. The software was designed to challenge Microsoft’s Office suite of products (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) which has 500 million users. According to the lawsuit, unlike Microsoft’s products, Google Apps does not require a customer to download software onto his or her computer. Instead, Google Apps is a collection of web-based applications that reside on Google’s servers. The lawsuit alleges at the time of its launch, however, Google did not have a workable way to enable Microsoft Outlook users to easily migrate their email (called gMail), calendar and contacts to Google’s platform.

In early 2007, LimitNone developed just such a product to solve this problem and in March confidentially demonstrated the migration tool to senior members of the Google Apps team. According to the complaint, the Google Apps executives invited LimitNone to be part of the Google Enterprise Professional Program, to further develop and market the tool, and assured the company that it had no intention of developing a similar product.

The lawsuit alleges the tool, which was originally named “MY GRATE” was later renamed, at Google’s insistence, “gMove”. Though the product retailed for $29, Google asked that LimitNone sell it to Google’s customers for $19.

The lawsuit claims that throughout the remainder of 2007, Google promoted LimitNone and gMove and repeatedly told company executives that it would not develop a competing product. Google highlighted gMove on its website and introduced the company to its largest customers (including Proctor & Gamble, Intel, Orbitz, Morgan Stanley and Toys “R” Us). In addition, Google asked LimitNone to present the product to its technical sales personnel, to meet with the Google Open Source team and to continuously share updated versions of gMove.

In December, 2007, as detailed in the complaint Google told LimitNone that it would, in fact, be releasing a competing product and giving it away for free to its “Premier” customers. The lawsuit alleges that Google’s product, called “Google Email Uploader” steals gMove’s look, feel and functionality.

According to the complaint, Scott McMullan, a senior executive in the Google Apps partner program, told LimitNone that the potential for 50 million users – was “just too big to come from someone else” and that “this is how Google operates.”

Confirming recent rumors of another coming reorganization, Yahoo today announced its plans to centralize many of its product and engineering teams into one regional group in the U.S., rather than maintaining separate divisions for each set of products.

Yahoo is creating three new teams that will report to President Sue Decker:

1. An Audience Products Division will assume responsibility for companywide product strategy and product management. It will be led by Ash Patel who previously managed the company"s Platforms & Infrastructure group.
2. A U.S. region with accountability for all go-to-market activity in the U.S. will be led by Hilary Schneider, who previously headed the company"s Global Partner Solutions group.
3. An Insights Strategy team will assume responsibility for centralizing and executing a common strategy for the use of data and analysis across Yahoo. The company plans to name this group"s leader within the next few weeks.

According to Decker, these moves have been in the works for several months, and complement last year"s changes to centralize more of Yahoo"s business.

"The changes we"re making today will help deliver superior global products for users and enable faster and better decision-making," Decker said in a statement. "This is a logical next step in light of our success last year in moving to a more centralized approach to developing world-class marketing products. We have planned these changes deliberately over the past several months to clarify responsibilities and to capitalize on the scale advantages while allowing for fine tuning to meet local market needs."

Yahoo has restructured its search group, which recently lost SVP and General Manager of Search Vishal Makhijani to Russian search engine Yandex. Prabhakar Raghavan has been tapped to direct search strategy, and Tuoc Luong is the interim leader of the search product team. Both Prabhakar and Tuoc will also continue in their roles as the leaders of Yahoo! Research and Search Engineering respectively. In addition, David Ku will lead the Advertising Technology Group within Search.

Yahoo is also making changes to its technology organization, devoting resources to developing a cloud computing and storage infrastructure; moving more of Yahoo onto common platforms; and creating a stronger partnership between product and engineering teams.

The new Cloud Computing & Data Infrastructure Group will be charged with developing a computing infrastructure that balances scalability with cost effectiveness. It will also move all consumer-facing platform teams to the Audience Technology Group, led by Venkat Panchapakesan.

Google Maps features a very funny Google Easter Egg: If you ask for directions from an address in Australia to an address in the USA the ever helpful "Get directions" tool gives some great tips on how to cross the Pacific Ocean.

Easter eggs are hidden surprises created by programmers.

Tip of the hat to Michael Smith of Technocrat.net for uncovering the Google Maps egg.

Now at least I know how Aussiewebmaster made his way to the USA.

The people who give us WebProNews have launched a search engine for Twitter members - Twellow. Smart move given the popularity of Twitter and one Twitter itself could have launched if it was not already trying to lift a whale with a bunch of small birds.

The site has categories and will be interesting to see the breakdown of users by these categories. Something tells me the search space will be one of the leading categories.

Google has announced their replacement of outgoing CFO George Reyes. Former Bell Canada CFO Patrick Pichette has been offered the position along with an employment package as good as many first round draft picks in sports.

As the San Jose Mercury News details, Pichette will get a $500,000 signing bonus and the rest of the package makes his first year"s pay in the millions.

Welcome to the team Patrick.

Visual search engine Searchme has announced the addition of two new features. The first is Media Search, which allows users to search for videos and images from YouTube and Flickr. The second is "Stacks," a visual bookmarking and sharing features that enables users to share what they find on blogs, social media profiles, email and web sites.

"These visual search applications enhance our core search engine by allowing people to use Searchme in fresh, innovative ways across various media and all over the Web," said Randy Adams, Searchme CEO. "It"s another step in our long-term plan to add features and functionality, improve our beta engine"s relevance and coverage, and create a world-class search experience."

"Until now, most web users have had to check multiple bookmarks every day, click on dozens of links pasted into an email, and hunt multiple times for sites they saw once but didn"t have time to check out," said Adams. "With Stacks, they can now bypass these methods, saving time and creating an organized web experience."

The State of Missouri has launched a collaborative search portal, enabling citizens of the Show-Me state to explore millions of historical documents. The search, dubbed Missouri Digital Heritage, is powered by Deep Web Technologies" Explorit Research Accelerator. Included in the searchable material are nearly 20 "Collections" such as Transportation, Sports, Women, and Agriculture.

"This is a unique project because of the queries this site is designed to handle," said Abe Lederman, CTO of Deep Web Technologies. "A family historian may have only a fragment of a name or a street address that they want to explore. By delivering every hit -- even the most remote -- we significantly increase their opportunity to put another piece of their family tree in place. Missouri Digital Heritage is truly designed to support every local researcher"s needs."

Related Reading:
Google Helping State Government Sites Get Indexed

The hottest Google search of the blockbuster movie summer is "Wesley Gibson."

The film "Wanted" features a Matrix-like opening with star James McAvoy playing a working stiff unaware of his super powers (as an assasssin) just as Keanu Reeves was clueless as Neo at the start of The Matrix.

According to Wikipedia, Wesley Gibson, was a pathetic, cubicle-dwelling hypochondriac. His boss frequently chewed him out and his girlfriend regularly cheated on him with his best friend. His depressing life plodded on interminably and it seemed to him that he would never amount to anything. One day Wes is contacted by The Fox (Angelina Jolie in the film), who reveals to him that his father, who had been absent through out Wesley"s life, was actually a super-criminal called The Killer who had been recently assassinated, and that Wesley had inherited his perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon in addition to the name, twenty-five million dollars and his father"s place in the fraternity.

The vanity search by McAvoy when he Googles himself comes up with no results. (shown above)

The irony? A search for the keywords "wesley gibson" now shows results for the character in the comic books and film rather than any real-life Wesley Gibson.

Apartment Guide has launched a mobile search application allowing users to find apartments via GPS. They"ve partnered with Mobile Accord to provide the location-based listings, available through participating carriers.

“Apartment Guide makes finding apartments easier through mobile GPS,” said Arlene Mayfield, president of Apartment Guide. “Powered by Qualcomm’s BREW® Platform, the application also enables mobile phone subscribers to search for apartments anywhere in the United States, access prices, photos and property features and contact the leasing office directly.”

“According to ABI Research, North American subscriptions to ‘personal locator services’ using GPS-enabled mobile phones will grow to more than 20 million by 2011,” said James Eberhard, chairman, Mobile Accord. “By enabling consumers to find apartments through GPS on their cell phones, Apartment Guide addresses a growing technological demand and meets the needs of renters ‘on the go.’”

Related Reading:
Google Opens Location-Aware Application to 3rd Party Developers

By 2012, 1.8 billion people will be using the internet, according to JupiterResearch. That will be a 44% increase from 2007. China, India, Russia and Brazil will see the highest growth rates. China will overtake the U.S. in internet use by 2011.

"Even though the emerging economies will have lower online penetration rates compared to the developed countries, JupiterResearch believes that they will ramp up the learning curve in adopting sophisticated online activities compared to the developing countries," explained Vikram Sehgal, Research Director and lead author of the report for JupiterResearch.

Recent moves in the search industry seem to echo those projections. Yahoo"s reorganization is mostly focused on a global strategy, likely building on their success in Asia. Last November, Yahoo added 9 countries to its mobile search, and recently expanded partnerships in the Asia/Pacific region. Yahoo has also invested heavily in India. They have a research lab in Bangalore and recently began testing "Glue Pages," a different way to view search results.

Meanwhile, Yandex, the leading Russian language search engine, has hired a Yahoo exec away to lead their San Fran-based operations.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft and Google have their eye on the big enchilada by staffing up in China, a market that is currently dominated by Baidu.

Was the more seasoned Hillary Clinton presidential campaign out-Googled by the more search savvy Barack Obama 2008 campaign? According to Kate Kay, senior editor of ClickZ, our sister site, Clinton Spent Far Less Online Than Obama.

And there are lessons here that every search engine marketer is going to want learn regardless of his or her political stripes.

BNN (Business Network News) recently interviewed Kate Kay, who explained that the Barack Obama 2008 campaign also used pay-per-click advertising on Google for different purposes than the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. You can watch the video interview with Kate below.

Obama Ads Online: Search Advertising Analysis by Kate Kaye

So, are you using geographic targeting? Are you using a soft offer in your PPC advertising and then using an email marketing campaign to follow with direct response marketing?

If you are trying to out-Google your seasoned PPC competitors, consider borrowing a couple of SEM techniques from the search savvy people working for the “skinny kid with a funny name.” Yes, yes, I know they’re from Chicago, not New York. But, there’s nothing “Second City” about their approach to search engine marketing.

In April, Li Evans reported that Barack Obama was Rocking the Youth Vote. In May, Kevin Heisler reported that the Obama campaign was advertising on the Search Engine Watch Jobs Board. In June, Nathania Johnson reported that Google’s Peter Greenberger had tied the Obama and McCain victors to their AdWords spend.

And, now the Barack Obama 2008 campaign is getting ready to make history in American presidential politics. To borrow a line from Abraham Lincon, find out what Chicago-style deep-dish pizza they eat and give it to your other generals.

The beauty of certain industries -- and the challenge -- is they"re international, national, and local all at the same time. Such is the case with auto dealers. In today"s Link Building column, "Link Building Ideas for Local Auto Dealers," Justilien Gaspard shares two link building ideas for a local auto dealer that can be applied to various types of local businesses.

» Full story

A look at Google Trends comparative data can help guide companies in making strategic decisions. In today"s Building Brand Equity column, "Can Google Predict the Next President?," Erik Qualman shows how the same can be done in the political world, as McCain and Obama are trying to build up their respective "brands" in the eyes of voters.

» Full story

Tech savvy UK teens are using Google Earth’s aerial shots to create the latest summertime craze – pool crashing. The Register Hardware site confirmed several pool trespassing cases with local UK police.

Google Earth is used to locate suitable pools and then Facebook is used to organize the pool crash parties.

Teens begin by surfing Google Earth’s satellite images to find houses with swimming pools. Once a target has been identified, teens then use Facebook to arrange an organized, but uninvited, pool-crash.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police has already told the Daily Mail that owners of swimming pools should be on their guard. The spokesman reminded any readers planning to google for swimming pools on Google Earth that “using someone else’s pool is trespassing and therefore illegal”.

Owners of several upscale poolside properties have already returned home to find teenagers "taking a dip in their man-made lakes or their spoor: beer cans, dog-ends and vomit floating atop their once crystal-clear pools," according to RegHardware.com.

Mobile phones, of course, seem to be an invaluable tool for a good pool-crash. Apparently, mobile numbers were doled out on Facebook for the organizers of one such event held earlier this week between midnight and 3am – the late hour because, well, it was a school night.

Microsoft continues on in their pursuit of Google, this time enhancing their digital media advertising offering. The Redmond-based software giant has announced the acquisition of Navic Networks, a provider of television advertising solutions.

"Television media represents the largest percentage of advertisers and agencies" media budget today," said Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group at Microsoft. "Together, Navic and Microsoft will deliver addressable television advertising solutions to help our partners better manage media spend by increasing advertiser reach and ROI, and maximizing publisher yield on television advertising."

Navic Networks will join Microsoft"s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) Group. The group developed Microsoft"s comprehensive advertising platform that includes television and video advertising.

Related Reading:
Microsoft to Acquire AQuantive

Kate Knight, 28, from Wirral, was convicted of attempting to murder Lee Knight by lacing his food with ethylene glycol, had her appeal rejected by the Court of Appeal.

The jury heard Knight used internet search engine Google to find a method of killing, settling on anti-freeze.

Knight served the anti-freeze in red wine and Indian takeout on their wedding anniversary.

In a separate murder trial:

A detective testified in a US court that a laptop computer taken from the home of a British man accused of killing his wife and nine-month-old daughter was used to search online on "how to kill with a knife", four days before the slayings.

Medford police Detective Lawrence James, a computer expert, said the Google search was done on January 16, 2006.

Neil Entwistle has pleaded not guilty to murder charges stemming from the killing of his 27-year-old wife, Rachel, and their daughter, Lillian Rose, in their rented home in Hopkinton, Massachusetts on January 20, 2006.

Paid search will take a lead role in online overtaking TV in the UK ad spending this year, according to Enders Analysis. Search ads are expected to surpass £2 billion, making up 60% of the online ad spend this year. The projections are in line with an e-Consultancy survey where 63% of companies said they planned to increase their paid search budget.

Google will see 80% of the search spend, possibly more with the recent announcement of an ad deal with Yahoo. 85% of search ads went to Google in the first quarter of 2008.

The total online ad spend is expected to reach £3.56 billion, while TV ad spend is expected to be £3.39 billion. Online ads will make up 19% of total advertising in the UK.

Local search engine Local.com has announced the addition of ratings and reviews to their offering. Users can create a free account and give their opinion on businesses listed on the site. Ratings will use a 5 star system and users will be allowed to make comments to accompany their ratings.

“According to Jupiter Research, 77 percent of online shoppers use ratings and reviews when making a purchase,” said Kim LaFleur, Local.com vice president, product management. “We are pleased to launch our own ratings and reviews engine to allow consumers visiting Local.com to both add and access important information on local businesses throughout the U.S., enabling them to make more informed purchasing decisions. In addition, this allows our business customers to more proactively manage their own reputations and understand their customers’ opinions (both good and bad) of their own products and services.”

The news comes at a time when data is showing that searchers are looking for answers. Additionally, search engines are beginning to move toward more comprehensive search results.

Weather delayed my arrival in Toronto for the start of Search Engine Strategies, but I was able to catch up quickly by reading what other journalists and bloggers were saying about the SEM conference. Here"s a roundup of the top stories and blog posts that I found this evening:

SES Toronto Day 1: State of Search Marketing in Canada
Andrew Goodman of Traffick provides a brief update from conference-land.

Hello from Search Engine Strategies 2008 Toronto!
Joey deVilla, aka The Accordion Guy, covered Fredrick Marckini’s Opening Keynote and the best thing in the goodie bag given to attendees.

Notes From SES Toronto 2008: Day One
Toronto Mike’s Blog threw down a quick entry with some thoughts about search engine marketing.

Going to Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto 08
nicolask7 of Montreal Social Media covered some of the panels as well as the other Montrealers at SES Toronto.

SES Toronto 2008: Opening Keynote
Louis-Dominic of Adviso covered the opening keynote.

SES Toronto 2008: Universal and blended search
Simon Lamarche of Innovation Web is covering the SEM conference in French: "Nous sommes actuellement à Toronto pour le SES Toronto 2008."

Updates - Exciting News on the Foush!!
Rahaf Harfoush is live-blogging the Toronto Search Engine Strategies Conference.

David Snyder
As a result of both Twitter and SES Toronto 2008, Mike of Drop the Mike Blog had the pleasure to meet up with and spend some time with a very good up and coming Internet Marketer, David Snyder.

Getting Authoritative Online Mentions (SES Toronto)
Stephan Spencer came in late to the "Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions" session, but he did have notes from Jim Hedger"s presentation for Scatterings.

SES Toronto - Day 1
Evan Carmichael of the YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog outlines the sessions that he"s selected to follow at SES Toronto.

Registration opened today for Google Code Jam 2008. Programmers will use their coding skills, creativity, and ingenuity to solve a series of challenges. The top 500 contestants will win an all-expenses paid trip to the semifinals at regional Google offices, with the top 100 advancing to the finals at Google"s Mountain View headquarters.

"Google Code Jam is an incredible opportunity for the most talented computer scientists in the world to come together and compete on an international stage," said Vic Gundotra, Vice President, Engineering in a statement. "Google is proud to support these coders as they take on some of the world"s most challenging programming problems, and we"re pleased to have the chance to introduce them to our research and offices around the world."

This year marks the first year with regional semifinal playoffs in over ten countries. "It"s an incredible opportunity to introduce the best of the programming world to our offices across the globe and demonstrate the incredible diversity of experiences that Google offers engineers worldwide," said Nelson Mattos, Vice President, Engineering, EMEA, in a company statement.

This year"s Google Code Jam will be powered by tools created by a 20%-time team that includes previous Code Jam winners, and will allow contestants to program in any language.

In addition to the trip to local engineering offices and Mountain View, finalists will also divide over $80,000 in prize money, ranging from $10,000 for the grand prize to $250 for the 76th to 100th place winners.

Participants can register throughout the qualification round, which ends July 17.

In 2006, more than 21,000 competitors from over 100 countries took part in the Google Code Jam, and Petr Mitrichev of Russia won the grand prize.

To compete in social media or with open source search applications, widget development is key. But it can be costly if you don"t know what you"re doing. iWidgets is demystifying the widget development process by launching their platform into public beta. The service is free to use and brings widget creation to a wider audience.

“Private beta users were so enthusiastic about iWidgets, we knew the market was ready,” said Peter Yared, CEO of iWidgets. “Our robust tools provide an unmatched ability to display personalized content from a source website without requiring experienced programmers. The result is incredibly viral - a fun, interactive application people want to use and share.”

Widgets created through iWidgets can be used on iGoogle, Facebook, MySpace and others.

If you"ve been holding back on widgets, are you inclined to check out iWidgets? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading:
Testing Applies to Widgets and Accessories, Not Just Landing Pages

The SEMPO Institute is teaming with SIM Partners and i.c. stars to create search marketing career opportunities for young adults in Chicago. The president of SIM Partners, Jon Schepke, sits on the board of the SEMPO Institute. His company has been working with i.c. stars for over four years.

“As co-chair of the SEMPO Institute, it made perfect sense to connect these two organizations when the SEMPO Institute launched in 2007,” says Schepke.

i.c. stars is a nonprofit organization designed to develop community leaders in Chicago. The organization uses project-based learning to groom adults (who have at least a high school diploma or GED) for careers in business and technology.

“The i.c.stars partnership with SEMPO and SIM Partners has enabled a new and growth-oriented career option for graduates in the area of Internet Marketing,” states Eric Lannert, vice president of i.c. stars. He continues, “the volunteer efforts of SIM Partners have enabled us to modify our internal curriculum so students can manage their own Google Adwords campaigns for startup websites and gain experience. At a time of economic uncertainty, we see this partnership as a strategic initiative to continue providing meaningful and challenging job opportunities for our students.”

Earlier in the year, SEMPO Chairperson Dana Todd included expanding the Institute"s baseline for education in her mission for the industry organization.

Related Reading:
Top 10 Toughest Jobs to Fill? The Top 3 Are In Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing Career Development
Search Marketing: A Rewarding Career Path

Last week, rumors were rampant that Yahoo"s Network Division Executive Vice President, Jeff Weiner, would be leaving the Sunnyvale search engine. The news is now official, with an announcement of Weiner"s new role as an Executive in Residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, two venture capitalist firms.

Weiner will split his time evenly between the two firms, advising leadership on their existing tech portfolios as well as consulting on new investment opportunities.

“Jeff’s operational experience in scaling products, teams and revenue will help Greylock enhance our capabilities and add value to our investments,” said David Sze, General Partner at Greylock.

“We are thrilled to have access to Jeff’s perspective on web product strategy and operations,” said Theresia Ranzetta, General Partner at Accel. “Additionally, we look forward to leveraging Jeff’s expertise regarding the convergence of media and technology for existing and future Accel portfolio properties.”

Ever since the Yahoo! acquisition deal fell through, many have wondered what Microsoft will do to make headway in the search market. Shortly after, they launched Cashback, which seemed to indicate a dedication to build search internally. Then Bill Gates said that one of his post-retirement projects would be seach. Today, Microsoft is showing its commitment to developing Live Search with an announcement to build a Search Technology Center in Europe.

"Today Microsoft has 68 percent reach to Internet users throughout Europe through our online assets and strengths in display advertising; however, we"re not yet where we"d like to be in search in this critical geography," said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft. "Success in search in Europe is paramount, and we see the investment in this new Search Technology Center as an important step in doubling down on our long-term investments."

Though no city was named, Microsoft said the European center will be modeled after their Search Technology Center in Beijing. Additionally, engineers may work from multiple locations to contribute to the search technology efforts conducted at the European hub.

"Searchers have different expectations and experiences in every geography in the world, so we believe it is critical to make deep investments in physical locations in multiple markets to ensure that we"re applying the best local expertise to our research and development efforts," said Satya Nadella, senior vice president of the Search, Portal and Advertising Group at Microsoft. "We"re already doing some great work in Europe in the enterprise search space through our January 2008 acquisition of Fast Search & Transfer SA, and we"re looking forward to opening the European Search Technology Center to further our investments."

What do you think about Microsoft"s announcement? Do you think they have what it takes to develop a more robust search product? Leave a comment and let us know.

Playing on their popularity in the region, Yahoo! Mobile has announced the expansion of its search and advertising partnerships with Asia/Pacific companies. Yahoo! has scored 5 new partnerships with mobile operators agreeing to include oneSearch in their mobile search offering. Over 60 oneSearch partnerships have been developed over the past 18 months.

Yahoo! Mobile is also rolling out new mobile widgets for the region including Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! India Movies, MTV Asia, and Yahoo! Cricket.

In Singapore and India, oneSearch with voice for English now recognizes accents spoken in those countries, and there are new localized versions of Yahoo! Go 3.0 for Australia, India, and Southeast Asia.

In Malaysia, Yahoo struck mobile advertising partnerships with two mobile operators. The deal includes graphic ads and are similar to deals struck with AT&T, T-Mobile International and Vodafone UK.

Firefox 3 will be released today which makes today Firefox Download Day 2008.

To build its user base, Mountain View-based Mozilla will attempt a Guinness World"s Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours.

You can download Firefox 3 here.

Firefox 3 promises exciting new features, including one-click bookmarking, the smart location bar and lightning fast performance. Other features include built-in spell checking, session restore and full zoom.

Firefox 3 will also offer more than 5,000 add-ons, including Shareaholic which allows you to share, bookmark, and e-mail web pages quickly via a wide array of web 2.0 social Web sites. Shareaholic currently supports: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, foxiewire, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader, healthranker, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, simpy, stumbleupon, streakr, truemors, tumblr, twitter, ycombinator, bzzster and others.

Firefox 3 release time is 10 a.m. PDT today. You can pledge to join the World"s Record attempt on the site and receive a reminder when Firefox 3 is officially released.

Or you can follow "mozillafirefox" on Twitter for status updates.

If you are in or near New York Wednesday you may want to stop by Stich to see SEMPO"s first "Great Debate" - and I am on one of the sides (has not been determined since I have both backgrounds).

RSVP here if interested.

There will be a solid turn out of search people, so could be a fun event. I am sure there will be people there blogging it for those who can"t make it.

Stich is at 247 W 37th St and the event starts at 6:30 - come early and grab a drink.

The most talked-about book in the search engine industry was just bought by Atlantic Books" editor-in-chief Ravi Mirchandani. He bought the investigation into internet superpower Google by New York Times columnist Randall Stross.

Planet Google: How One Company is Transforming Our Lives looks at the company’s story so far and its impact on business and culture.

Rights in the UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, were acquired from Free Press / Simon & Schuster. Atlantic will publish in October.

News comes courtesy of Tom Holman over at Bookseller.com, which just awarded the annual "oddest title" to "Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs" was crowned the winner of the Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, after a record-breaking 8,500 votes online.

The runner-up is "I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen" (20%) and in 3rd place is "Cheese Problems Solved" (19%).

A few hours ago, Google announced to the world that the company has been crawling forms on "high-quality" Web sites to index "Invisible Web" content in the Google.com search engine.

Google"s intention (as always) aims to improve the quality of search results for users of Google"s search engine.

Crawling Web site forms, though, constitutes a sea change in terms of data privacy; specifically, the privacy of corporate data.

"In the past few months we have been exploring some HTML forms to try to discover new web pages and URLs that we otherwise couldn"t find and index for users who search on Google," according to Jayant Madhavan (pictured) and Alon Halevy, from the Crawling and Indexing Team in the Official Google blog.

Here"s how Googlebot does it, according to Google engineers:

"We might choose to do a small number of queries using the form. For text boxes, our computers automatically choose words from the site that has the form; for select menus, check boxes, and radio buttons on the form, we choose from among the values of the HTML. Having chosen the values for each input, we generate and then try to crawl URLs that correspond to a possible query a user may have made. If we ascertain that the web page resulting from our query is valid, interesting, and includes content not in our index, we may include it in our index much as we would include any other web page."

Last year, as the search marketing analyst for JupiterResearch, I said that the biggest issue in 2007 would be the threat to the privacy of corporate data.

I was wrong, 2008 is the year corporate IT departments worldwide will be forced to spend time, money and resources to ensure that search engine spiders do not inadvertently index data a company would prefer to be private.

The same holds true for non-profit organizations and other institutions.

From a personal standpoint, I have confidence in Google"s data security systems, despite the recent departure of Google CIO, Doug Merrill.

I have full confidence that Google practices "good Internet citizenship."

I"m confident Google has paved the road to relevance with good intentions.

This is not simply a "pioneering move" by Google.

That the robotic filling-in of forms has already been practiced by AOL"s Quigo, according to SearchEngineLand, does not reassure me.

I"m sorry, Sergey, Larry, Eric. I can"t in good conscience defend Google"s decision to our readers. The costs to CEOs, CIOs and CTOs at corporations far outweigh the benefits to consumers.

Please, reconsider.

Do not make the robotic querying of Web site forms the default spidering practice for Google. As a search engine, Google has become the gateway to the Internet and with great power comes great responsibility.

End this experiment now.

Stop this experiment before the backlash against Google develops. It"s not a question you want to answer when Wall St. analysts quiz you on the company"s performance on April 17th during the First Quarter earnings conference call.

The standards debate may be in full swing in our industry - but the decisions may be soon taken out of our hands if the FTC continues to define allowable advertising practices.

MediPost has a good overview of the developments of behavioral targeting and how they can be used. "Ad industry players are urging the FTC not to impose any new regulations — and also argue that the proposed voluntary guidelines are too restrictive," they reported.

Where this gets close to our industry comes from the people seeking greater regulations. "Privacy advocates, on the other hand, want to see rules that will require companies to honor Web users’ preferences about whether they wish to be tracked online and to receive targeted ads," MediaPost notes.

If this occurs then search is on the horizon of these groups. And we better be aware of them if consumer advocacy groups are claiming they "want to see new rules, rather than rely on voluntary compliance with trade groups".

MediaPost quotes both Google and Microsoft at the end of the article and they have opposing views.

"Google, meanwhile, is especially concerned that the standards could affect search ads. In comments to the FTC, Google said it’s testing personalized search results, and argued that search ads shouldn’t be considered “behavioral” even when the ads displayed to users are based on their search history.

“We are currently experimenting in our Search service with providing ads based on both the current query and the immediately previous search,” Google wrote. “For example, a user who types ‘Italy vacation’ into the Google search box might see ads about Tuscany or affordable flights to Rome. If the user were to subsequently search for ‘weather,’ we might assume that there is a link between ‘Italy vacation’ and ‘weather’ and deliver ads regarding local weather conditions in Italy.”

Google rival Microsoft, on the other hand, said it supports the FTC’s goals and that the proposed guidelines should be extended “to include the full array of online advertising activities.”

Funny about the Microsoft position given I have been in a pitch for increasing our budget where they used competitors advertising information to suggest other terms and ads..... anonymous of course but not hard to reverse engineer.

Guess Yahoo does not want to partner with anyone these days... well apart from their biggest competitor Google. The Wall Street Journal blog, All Things D, just posted an entry by Kara Swisher, that details the grumblings of some top Yahoo managers overheard at a luncheon CEO Jerry Yang was having with his SVPs and others.

Swisher overheard them "talking about the unhappiness they felt over the possible deal Yang was concocting with AOL, as an alternate to the unsolicited bid made by Microsoft."

Am sure Jerry will not be pleased by this story, considering he had the AOL idea. Will more senior staff be leaving Yahoo if this partnership goes forward? We wsill have to wait and see.

I had heard about a week ago that Google"s search results were throwing off some odd listings, but Navneet Kaushal over at SearchNewz gives more details of what has been happening.

Seems it is not just the titles and descriptions of results that are going awry but even link checks are throwing off wrong answers. Good find guys.

Update: Seems Barry Schwartz had this first.... and articles are very similar.

A new update to AdWords tracking has been reported by the guys over at AccuraCast. Seems they have improved the conversion tracking allowing users to separate different things to track to conversion.

This ability to track email, sales, and other conversion elements individually will be a great help for online marketers. Plus they can be seen in summary form of overall conversion total and the unique conversions to the elements a user sets up.

Good job Google, now if you could only ban my competitors....

Lately, there have been a swarm of announcements regarding Wifi coming to some previously unconnected spots. Jet Blue is testing limited wifi on one of its planes. California has installed Wifi in several of its state parks. And major metropolitan areas are adding Wifi to their transit systems. So what does this mean for Search Engine Marketers? A focus on local and mobile search.

Imagine this. A family has gone camping at a California State Park, but they didn’t pack enough food or they need additional supplies. Will your business come up in the search results?
Recently, Google released information that the average search query had increased from three to four words. It’s quite possible that the fourth word turns a general search into a local one by adding a city, state or other location.

With so much attention given to universal search, personalization and social media these days, it might be easy to overlook local and mobile. But the expansion of Wifi is just further proof that SEO and paid search campaigns need the care of a constant gardener.

Related reading:
Mobile Local Search: A Perfect Storm
Marchex Shows How to Cash In on Local Search
The 411 on Local Search Data for Business
Mobile Search Fortune Seekers

Microsoft has announced an update to their Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D. There are 11 major updates including:

1. Export your Collection to Your Navigation/GPS device.
2. Improved 3D cities.
3. 3D modeling with 3DVIA
4. Labels for Birds Eye imagery
5. 1-Click Directions (Party Maps)
6. MapCruncher Integration (MapCruncher is a raster map mashup tool.)
7. Enhanced Explore of Map Content from across the web contributed by other People
8. Neighborhood Subscribe via GeoRSS
9. Tour Enhancements including Hi-Def Movies.
10. Directions and Traffic Enhancements
11. Improved display of KML files including Google MyMaps links

According to the Virtual Earth Team blog, the update involved a bigger release than originally planned. They are also upgrading Map Control, an SDK for developers, to version 6.1.

Related Reading:
Local Search: Competing All Over the Map

Directory Publisher R.H. Donnelley announced today that it will partner with Yahoo! to give its advertisers more substantial presence on Yahoo! Local. This is part of its "triple play" effort to gain local listings distribution in print (Dex Directories), IYP (DexKnows) and through online partners.

Analagous to the long term triple play efforts of cable providers and telecos (bundling voice, data, and video products), this works towards gaining better distribution of existing content. In this case, the content is the listings that RHD"s sales force brings in through traditional yellow pages ad sales.

According to the press release, this will come in three flavors:

Featured Listings — Sponsored listings with guaranteed placement on the first or second search results pages for broader exposure in a specific geography or category

Yahoo! Maps Business Listings — Sponsored listings within the context of a map-based view

The new addition gives the sales channel another tool in its toolbelt -- one that advertisers are increasingly asking for -- for a better cross-platform product. Direct distribution on Yahoo! Local also augments the general effort at RHD towards better online distribution, similarly accelerated a year ago when it acquired LocalLaunch.

This also joins other similar deals that have been formed in the past such as that between Superpages and Google; and you can expect directories/IYPs to increasingly develop online distribution and better ad bundling efforts.

As examined in the Kelsey Group"s Local Search and IYP forecast released in March, IYPs will see a greater CAGR than the aggregate local search market, because of their physical sales channel, and the ability to execute more effectively on cross platform sales strategies.

For RHD, This deal applies to the 14 state region (Western and Midwestern states), where it distributes print directories, and where its sales force roams.

Image search is playing an increasingly important role in search engine optimization, and SEOs should develop strategies for optimizing a web site to receive this type of traffic. In today"s SearchDay, "Image Search in the SEO Picture," Eric Enge looks at some of the trends and tips on image search optimization that he picked up at SES San Jose last week.

Last week at SES, Yahoo! added support for dynamic URL rewriting. Basically, this is a new feature in Yahoo! Site Explorer, that allows you to specify parameters on your URLs that you would like the Yahoo! crawler to ignore. After years of helping people get rid of Session IDs on their URLs, this is a really great thing to see. You can read the details on Dynamic URL Rewriting by Yahoo! here.

Yahoo! has continued to push on these types of features, and so has Google. I would like to urge the search engines to collaborate on these features. Ultimately, it"s the availability in all the search engines that makes them powerful. As it stands now, if I had a client with a dynamic URL parameter problem, I would have them setup the new feature in Yahoo! as a stop gap, and still be working with them to get them removed because this feature is not supported by Google.

Props to Yahoo! for adding the feature, but now I need it from Google too. There are plenty of areas in which to compete, most notably that of search quality, or in new frontier areas of search. In the area of making the webmasters job easier, I believe that all the engines will derive the most benefit by collaboration.

What people reveal…depends on the venue. When you attend a family gathering, your discussion is surely different than among business colleagues. The updates you share at college reunions would be different than your chats with daily running buddies. Likewise, your communications on social sites seem to vary too.

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In today"s au Natural column, "Tools of the Trade," Mark Jackson recommends several useful tools for running an effective search engine optimization campaign.

In today"s Big Biz column, "Scaling Your Big Business Internationally," Aaron Shear tells you what to expect when expanding your business internationally.

Want a snapshot of the day"s search marketing news? Here we"ve collected today"s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

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Notify the SEC.

Analyst blogger Robert Scoble predicts the demise of Google within four years. He boldly outlines a Future Search engine combination of Facebook-Techmeme-Mahalo technology that will spell doom for Google. The Naked Conversationalist has become the Naked Shorter.

In a video worthy of the best linkbait, Scoble predicts SEOs -- those reviled search engine marketers and search engine optimizers he hates with a passion -- will be walled out of the digital fortress.

"No SEO goddammit," he cries out. "No noise!"

Scoble"s theory is powered by the search algorithm underlying Facebook: social graphed-based search, In simple terms, social search is based on the concept of six degrees of separation. We’re all separated from anyone in the world by six people or less. We belong to social groups of varying sizes and different functions. In a social graph, those online connections can help people do things: make new friends, rediscover old ones, network for business purposes or share their preferences in music, film, TV, sports, shopping and other quasi-terrestrial activities.

As with any apocalyptic prediction, Scoble knows he"s going to be wrong. In 2011, the Googleplex won"t be the Pan Am building of Silicon Valley. As New Influencer valleygirls and gamers say, he"s just wrong on so many levels.

Scoble gets one thing right, though. Facebook is a search engine.

Advertisers and marketers refer to Facebook and MySpace as “social media.” To some, they"re social networks. Sure it"s more web 2.0, but Facebook is a vertical search engine. As Scoble notes, the vertical is people search. What makes the search functionality different? It"s driven by people, content can be proprietary, search engines can"t see inside video streams.

Check out the video anyway. Scoble rises to the defense of Matt Cutts whom he feels was savaged by SEOs at Search Engine Strategies last week in San Jose.

Viewers may not be mesmerized by algorithms that weave the digital fabric of social search. However, Scoble’s whiteboard explanation is a valiant attempt at explaining a complex subject to a general audience. It’s fun to watch because he’s so passionate about his argument.

The three part video begins with a seemingly nervous Scoble, not really sounding quite sure of himself, proclaiming the death of Google. A pro vlogger, perhaps he"s having second thoughts about the accuracy of his prediction. His confidence, however, increases as he builds his anti-Google argument.

What"s getting his goat?

In short, he"s having a Twelve Monkeys moment. Scoble worries Google will suffer the same fate as Microsoft, unable to transform its infrastructure to compete with more nimble platforms. Scoble left Redmond after Micosoft failed to heed his warnings. Now he walks in the Valley of the shadow of Google and fears no evil.

“Finally I have something that does something better than Google,” he writes in a blog comment. Deus ex machina. Plus, if he"s right, the FTC will rubber stamp the Google-Doubleclick-Performics merger.

The catch? It"s not just Google"s technology that created the most popular brand in the world.

Part I of a Tripartite post
Next up: Jason Calcanis: Scoble"s Czar Nicholas? Or ... Scoble: Calcanis"s Rasputin?

Alex Patriquin has posted the winner"s of the Best-In-Show 2007 SES Awards on the Compete Blog. Selected by Compete, it honors "our fellow exhibitors who impressed us with their awesome marketing genius."

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At Search Engine Strategies in San Jose last week, ClickZ editor Matthew Nelson saw lots of evidence of the interaction between search with other media, including offline media. He shares his experiences at ClickZ News in "Search and Offline Marketing Converge at SES San Jose."

In today"s Search Ads column, "Tips for Being a Great PPC Client," Tony Wright tells you what it takes to be a great PPC client, getting the most out of the client-agency relationship.

Want a snapshot of the day"s search marketing news? Here we"ve collected today"s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

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The Microsoft adCenter announced it will be changing its trademark policy in September.

While "[t]he heart of the trademark policy is unchanged". adCenter reported, but they will not keep lists of approved affiliates etc.

They seem to be moving towards the Google model.

In today"s Vertical Challenge column, "A Tale of Two City Guides," local search expert Michael Boland reviews recent plans announced by Yahoo Local and CitySearch to enhance features and content, making local search a more competitive landscape.

In today"s In-House column, "Playing Dirty With PPC," Rob Kerry gives in-house SEMs a few black hat PPC tricks, to help them keep up with competitors that choose to play dirty.

Want a snapshot of the day"s search marketing news? Here we"ve collected today"s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

Click to read the rest of this post...

• SES San Jose - media coverage report, Search Engine Strategies Blog
• Search Engine Roundtable
• Bruce Clay Blog
• TopRank Online Marketing Blog
• Search Engine Journal
• SiteProNews
• WebProNews
• aimClear
• UnofficialSEO
• SES San Jose: Top Takeaways Part 1, Web Analytics World
• SES San Jose: Top Takeaways Part 2, Web Analytics World
• SES - The ABT’s of Search, Pepperjam Blog
• Are Paid Links Evil? I’m Sick Of The Question, Fathom SEO

Tagged Posts & Pictures

• Technorati
• Google Blog Search
• Flickr
• Google Video Search

SES San Jose has come to a close. It was another memorable event. One of the more interesting impressions I have of the whole event are the various flavors of the paid links debate.

For example, Michael Gray, aka Grawyolf, assured his fame by starting his presentation in one of the link related panels with a slide that said "Google is not the government". At this point, Michael was just warming up.

In another links session, one person got the microphone, and kept control of it for 20 minutes. They just would not let go of one aspect of the paid links issue. Specifically, there were insistent that one problem with Google"s stance on paid links is that Mom and Pop sites might buy links without knowing that this was not something that the search engines want them to do. The person then persited in stating that they might get banned and that this might not be fair.

Let"s get real folks. The person with the mic did not care about Mom and Pop sites. That person was angry. People (generally) do not get angry about what happens to other people"s web sites that they never heard of.

Danny Sullivan was moderating this session, and offered up a more reasonable concern, which was that Google should find a better algorithm so that whether or not someone bought links was not at issue. It"s a fine idea, and I am sure that Google will implement it as soon as they can think of a way to do so. Let me assure you, there is no one at Google who is in love with the problems related to paid links.

Fundamentally, the problem is that using uncompensated links to a given site as votes for that site represents one of the best ways to evaluate which site is the best site. No simple alternative exists for this basic algorithm. Don"t get me wrong - there is tons of money being spent by all the engines to investigate alternative algorithms. The big push on personalization is a just one example of this.

At the end of the day, my crude outsider"s understanding of the Google policy on paid links is this:

1. Buying links is NOT evil.
2. It is against their Webmaster Guidelines to buy links for purposes of influencing Page Rank and your search engine placements.
3. As a result, buy links for traffic and branding, not for search engine ranking purposes.
4. They reserve the right to assign no Page Rank value to any paid links they uncover.
5. If you engage in egregious or deceptive practices, they may ban you.

Note that Yahoo! and Ask echoed similar sentiments in the session.

Mobile search is set to explode with the entry of the iPhone and its competitors to the market. Instead of worrying about building a WAP-enabled site, Michael Boland suggests that webmasters should get their sites ready for mobile search via mobile browsers by engaging in tried and true SEO tactics, and providing as much relevant business information as possible to internet yellow pages and local search providers. Learn more in today"s SearchDay, "Mobile Search and SMEs: Stay Right Where You Are."

In today"s Link Love column, "Training Link Developers to Become Marketing Gurus," Justilien Gaspard continues his link training theme with a focus on training link developers to use marketing tactics.

Want a snapshot of the day"s search marketing news? Here we"ve collected today"s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

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Often the question is asked "Do PPC listings affect your organic rankings?" or "Will Google apply bonus points to your organic rankings if you spend money on their paid listings?" The simple answer is no. Despite this, one of the best ways to increase your organic traffic is to start an aggressive PPC campaign.

In today"s SearchDay, "Can PPC Listings Affect Organic Rankings?" Craig Paddock outlines some of the benefits a PPC campaign can bring to your organic SEO, including:

• Generating Keyphrase Data
• Increasing Link Popularity
• Branding to Increase Organic Click-thru Rate

Exactly 187,529 different organizations have made at least one anonymous Wikipedia edit. That seems like a very large number of editors who wanted to hide their changes -- but were they all vandals?

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SES San Jose is now into it"s third day. As always, it"s a great show. There is lots of stuff happening with search and web marketing, which is the juice that drives thsee events. One of the most notable things is the fact that the show has evidently set an attendance record.

At least that"s the rumor on the show floor, but it also looks that way based on the number of people walking around the convention center. This place is packed. In one of the sessions I sat in on, one of the speakers asked how many people were at their first SES. By my estimate about half the room raised their hands. It"s an incredible testament to how the industry is growing.

One of the most interesting factoids I heard what that 15% to 16% of all searches are for images. If you haven"t been looking seriously at image search, you really should think about this again. Particularly with the advent of universal search, as image results will have an increasing role in the web search results.

Speaking of universal search, one of the areas that is already pretty making great progress is the way they can key in on your location (by IP address for example) and show you relevant local results. This is another area that represents a huge opportunity for search marketers.

So many opportunities ... and so little time, but that, after all, is what makes it fun and interesting.

In today"s Searching for Meaning column, "Public Relations Train Wrecks," Kevin Ryan reports in from SES on the press and search optimization controversy.

In today"s By the Numbers column, "Review of "Web Analytics, An Hour a Day" by Avinash Kaushik," Eric Enge reviews Avinash Kaushik"s basic philosophy of Web analytics as defined in his new book, which helps you learn how to view analytics the right way.

Want a snapshot of the day"s search marketing news? Here we"ve collected today"s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

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There’s plenty of exuberance about widgets. “Widget is officially one of the buzzwords of the year. Congratulations widget!” exclaims Joseph Heller, in his MediaPost commentary defining what widgets actually do.

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We at Search Engine Watch are delighted to now be working with Kevin Heisler, who joins us this week as the site"s executive editor. Kevin will be overseeing all editorial aspects of the site -- and we couldn"t have hoped for someone with better qualifications or expertise in the field.

He"s at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose this week. If you see him, say hello - and congratulations.

Most recently, Kevin was search analyst at Jupiter Research. He"s also got hands-on expertise in the industry as an executive at Did-It and earlier, at K². and has published widely. Kevin"s articles have been published in Knight-Ridder"s The Charlotte Observer, Business North Carolina magazine, The International Business Chronicle, and Dow Jones’ local business newspapers, The Business Journal.

The downside? Well, he"s going to be Kevin #3 around here. We"ve already got Kevin Newcomb as SEW"s news editor, and of course, Kevin Ryan overseeing SES. Nickname suggestions greatly appreciated -- before all these Kevins start getting one another"s e-mails and calls!

SEW"s sister site, ClickZ, got a new executive editor this week, too!

Google announced today that they have simplified the method for integrating Google Maps on to your web site. The new method allows Google Maps to be integrated using simple HTML. As a result, integrating Google Maps no longer requires a knowledge of Java Script, and you no longer need an API key to do it.

This should enable smaller site owners without programming expertise to leverage Google Maps. For example, a business could integrate dricing directions onto their site. The process now consists of 3 steps:

1. Pull up the Google Map you want
2. Click on the "Link to this page" link
3. Copy and paste the resulting HTML into their site

I don"t think that this is an announcement that will impact users of Google Maps that have already mastered the Java Script and Google API Key challenges, but it should enable a lot of new sites with less programming expertise to take advantage of Google Maps.

In today"s au Natural column, "Which Hat Should I Wear?," Mark Jackson looks at various considerations for determining which type of SEO may be best suited for your needs.

In today"s Little Biz column, "Won"t You Be My Neighbor?," Carrie Hill tells you how to build a well-focused Web site to maximize traffic and succeed in a competitive online marketplace.

Want a snapshot of the day"s search marketing news? Here we"ve collected today"s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

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Market research provider comScore today updated its qSearch 2.0 measurement service to dramatically expand the number and kinds of properties being measured.

Besides the usual measurement of traffic to major search engines, this expansion now brings in additional measurement of the top 50 most-trafficked sites where search activity is observed. This includes many social media sites, portals, and e-commerce sites where search plays an integral role in their site or the site itself plays a role in the search landscape.

New sites being measured include eBay, Amazon, Expedia, and MySpace. qSearch will also begin counting partner search behavior, such as queries done on affiliate partners that lead to a search engine"s results pages. It also will include local search sites like maps, directions, and local directory listings.

"This allows us to take a more comprehensive view of search, and report on some sites that people wouldn"t consider as classic search engines," said James Lamberti, SVP of search and media at comScore. "Basically, we can track any open query data anywhere on the Web. That can include things like map searches, Internet Yellow Pages, or job searches."

The expansion to include the top 50 Web properties has another effect, according to Lamberti: it takes the onus away from comScore to determine what should be categorized as "search," he said.

The new data will be reported separately, so clients that want to consider it can include it in their reports, and those that do not want to include it can ignore it. The move opens up the market for comScore to begin providing data to new clients among the top 50 sites. It also sets comScore up to be ready to report on vertical markets for existing clients, Lamberti said.

In addition, qSearch now also includes new geographic areas, with an expansion from a U.S.-centric measurement model to a truly global one, Lamberti said. qSearch now offers individual country reporting for the U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., France, Germany, Japan, China, and Korea. Additional countries will follow.

While many search marketers understand that there is a connection between online and offline marketing, some may not understand its full extent. According to a new study by Jupiter Research and iProspect, a surprising two-thirds of searchers are led to search on a given keyword as a result of offline marketing.

Specifically, 37 percent of respondents said that in the last six months, a television ad prompted them to conduct a search on a particular company, service or slogan, while 20 percent said a magazine or newspaper ad led them online. Twenty percent said a company"s store drove them online, and 17 percent were influenced to search by a radio ad. A smaller number were influenced by outdoor ads.

Only 33 percent of respondents said they had not been influenced to search by any offline media in the past six months. For daily searchers, the influence of offline media was even more apparent, with only 28 percent of searchers saying they had not been prompted to search by any offline media in the past six months.

Besides driving traffic, offline media tends to drive quality traffic. The study asked those users influenced by offline media if they had ultimately made a purchase at that site as a result, and found that 39 percent had done so.

Compete today announced the upcoming launch of a new pay-as-you-go search analytics service designed to give smaller companies access to competitive research data for a per-usage fee.

Compete Search Analytics, set to launch on September 12, will offer data on a site"s keyword referrals, site referrals, and site comparisons, which will be charged for by the number of reports and results needed. Users will pay online by credit card, purchasing $2 credits, which are good for the first 50 results of a report, for example.

"If you have a Web site, you have to know how to utilize search, or else you"re going to be behind in the game," Jeremy Crane, Compete"s Search Expert, told SEW. "A lot of people have not had access to this kind of data. There are some keyword tools that offer query-level data, but that"s not the same thing. Since about 40 percent of searches go unanswered, and don"t create referrals, we take those out of the picture for marketers."

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In today"s Search Ads column, "The Long Tail Is Dead -- Long Live the Long Tail," Tony Wright has some tips for playing the long tail in today"s SEM market, given that search is not the well-kept secret it once was, and targeting the long tail is becoming harder to do.

According to a new survey of survey of over 1,100 journalists, search engines remain the top ranked means for researching companies and trends. While Fusion PR won"t publish the survey results and analysis on its Fusion Forum blog until September 10, 2007, the firm did issue a press release about the results. Among the other findings in the survey, 78% of technology journalists read blogs, 67% cite blogs in their articles, and 35% maintain their own blog.

Is Microsoft Live Search having problems? Seems people are seeing referred traffic from some weird keyword searchs at Live search. The traffic information shows pharmacy terms being the keywords used to find various sites that would not be terms they would list for organically nor purchase through PPC.

In a Webmaster World thread this topic was started this weekend and has people wondering what is broken over at Microsoft.

I have seen two conversations about random uncoded AdSense ads appearing on people"s sites. Webmaster World is discussing new ads that appear to be adding a "more ads link" and some random text link ads to people"s AdSense ads.

A thread here at SEW has found ads being randomly added to a travel blog.

I hope to find out from Google what is happening.... will ask tonight or tomorrow when I am at SES San Jose.

Want a snapshot of the day"s search marketing news? Here we"ve collected today"s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

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Accoona has been a round for some time - a small search engine - and is now looking to launch an IPO, according to Adotas.

The company launched Exchange Place last year to try and grab traction from the Cost Per Acquisition model, when others were having click fraud problems with straight PPC.

Seems American Airlines has not read about previous law suits over trademark terms as keywords. According to a report by TechDirt, they have decided to go to court and see how their lawyers fare against the well trained and precedent backed Google team.

A search engine to help find golf courses is a great concept. I understand the problem finding a course, especially if Tiger Woods ever played there. His popularity pushes him to the top of organics and can leave the local course out of bounds.

Cybergolfsearch.com is a good vertical search engine covering the golf industry. I see a time when many such engines exist, along side a portal or community dedicated to the particular niche.

Google posted to its Public Policy Blog last night to share its ambitions around the upcoming "white space" auction the FCC will hold to sell off unused TV spectrum. Google hopes to make it possible for those unused bits of radio spectrum between licensed TV channels to be freed up for development as wireless Internet access as a sort of broadband WiFi once the move to digital TV signals takes place in February 2009.

Google and others, including Dell, EarthLink, HP, Intel, Microsoft, and Philips, have formed the "White Spaces Coalition," to lobby the FCC and show that it would be technically feasible to provide Internet access through this segment of spectrum without interfering with either digital television signals or wireless microphones.

Seems Google has changed the wording on the link building page of Webmaster Help Center, according to thread over at Webmaster World.

It is interesting that Google is now stating that excessive reciprocal links are bad, not all recip links! The information at Google can be read here.

If this is a change in attitude I will be finding out next week. Or has this always been the case, which I tend to believe - as I have seen recip links being counted.

Google has launched a new Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center to educate AdWords advertisers about the dangers of click fraud and Google"s efforts to prevent it. It provides information on click fraud and invalid clicks, links to technical articles and Google policies, and links to contact Google reps.

Yahoo launched its Traffic Quality Center last week, with similar resources, but a much more finished look.

Much of the content for both sites existed before in different parts of the companies" sites, but these resource centers bring the information together in a single point. Creating the center was a condition of the click fraud lawsuit settlement made by Yahoo last year, but not for Google.

I read with particular interest Rand"s post about The Art of Buying Links Under the Radar.

One of the key points Rand makes is that when you are (really) smart about buying links, that it"s just like buying a directory listing from Yahoo!. Let"s look at this further by looking at what the best link buyers do:

1. They buy only from highly relevant sites
2. They make sure that the ad is not no-followed
3. They make sure that there are no obvious clues that it"s an ad (such as the word "Sponsors" nearby)
4. They control the anchor text for maximum impact

So far, so good. You have gotten a really great link, and you can argue, perhaps in completely good conscience, that you have purchased the link for branding and traffic.

Here is where I feel the logic starts to fall apar