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Mar. 2, 2007 at 12:24pm Eastern by Searcharazzi
Searcharazzi: Global Edition; GSI Acquired
Searcharazzi asks: Sprechen Zie Deutsch?
Webmaster Radio reports that a slew of German SEOs has flooded its chat room in recent weeks, leaving many an English-speaking SEO to curse his lack of foreign language skills. Up to 160 German-speakers are now showing up on Tuesday afternoons when Marcus “Mediadonis” Tandler’s podcast commences in the evening across the pond.
Insiders tell Searcharazzi that a very drunk Tandler had some very loose lips during a recent show. “He definitely gave away some hard core black hat scoop.” While the rest of us are scrambling for transcripts to make sense of it all, Matt Cutts was apparently waived the requisite Berlitz course before his interview on SEO FM.
In other continental news, our Dutch spies tell us that The Search Work’s BidBuddy tool is leaking competitive data, such as CPC, through its cookies. With the help of Firefox, a handy little plugin, and these simple steps, the advertiser, keyword and bid price are conveniently displayed for anyone who wants to dabble in competitive reconnaissance. For example:
• Clearsense bids € 1,46 on keyword SEO
• Mijndomein.nl bids € 0,87 on "domeinnaam registeren"
• Kijkshop bids € 0,20 on "online"
Rounding out the European headlines, the news that former Google exec Kate Burns had joined SearchRev as a Board Advisor has Searcharazzi scratching its head. Then again, Patrick Keane’s departure from Google to serve as Executive Vice President and CMO of CBS Interactive suggests that perhaps Google stock – gasp! – can’t buy you happiness.
$70 million dollars in financing, however, is likely to earn Vantage Media a little joy, as well as some spin. Insiders tell us that while the press release claimed the firm’s search leadership, at least 80% of its revenue is actually from lead generation. So why the search positioning?
Hmm…can you say roll up?
After all, it is no secret that just about every SEM is on the block. Worried Searcharazzi is writing about you (yes, you?) Well, you’re not alone. Most recently, an SEO shop with 35 people, 100 clients, is now on the street.
And if you didn’t catch it, Neo@Ogilvy has finally closed the long-discussed acquisition of GSI.
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The "search marketing firm" positioning re: Vantage had me wondering too... for VCs to put $70MM into this firm must mean they expect a future valuation at $700MM or more... gotta wonder, is the edu lead-gen market ceiling that high? Well I guess they could translate their efficient lead-gen skillz into other verticals like legal, auto sales, pc sales. But still!
p.s. I love this new column. In light of the celebri-tization of everything, I think you need to need to add some "blind items" - particularly after the parties at the SES shows! :-)