Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: IAC Ready To Drop Ask.com Search Technology & Partner With Google?IAC: Ready To Bail On Ask? from Silicon Valley Insider reports an insider tip that IAC may sell off or abandon their search technology and outsource it to Google. Here is the tip: There is indeed a big shakeup coming. A new Ask. Some think a reduction in workforce is... Are You An Agency SEM Pro? Take SEMPO's Salary SurveySEMPO is undertaking a salary survey of agency search engine marke [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

IAC: Ready To Bail On Ask? from Silicon Valley Insider reports an insider tip that IAC may sell off or abandon their search technology and outsource it to Google. Here is the tip: There is indeed a big shakeup coming. A new Ask. Some think a reduction in workforce is likely. There are no sacred cows, Teoma may be sold or simply abandoned which is hundreds of engineers who work on the core search engine, in place of just using Google's search with our special brand of user interface. I can honestly say, if true, it does not surprise me. Diller, IAC's CEO, is not happy with the return he ha [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues | Channel: Industry

SEMPO is undertaking a salary survey of agency search engine marketing professionals, similar to its in-house SEM salary survey that we reported on in January. If you're an agency SEM pro, SEMPO would like to hear from you, whether you're a SEMPO member or not. To qualify for the survey, you must: Work at an agency devoted solely to SEM, or Work at an agency with an SEM branch or division, or Work at an agency that offers SEM in its mix of services Ready to go? Take the SEMPO agency search engine marketer salary survey today. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Organizations

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. Let's start off with the SMX Search Bowl. I personally thought it rocked! Welcome to Google Avenue (seems fake to me): How about these designer Google jeans? The classic Google cups. I took two, don't tell anyone: This is old, but it popped up on Flickr recently. Bart Simpson on the blackboard: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

Steve Chen: YouTube to Add Live Video from NewTeeVee reports that YouTube's founder said they will be adding live video support this year. Videoblogger Sarah Meyers asked Chen about video blogging, in which he said: 2008. We'll do it this year. Live video is just something that we've always wanted to do, we've never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually do it this year. Here is the video of his response: There are many sites that offer live video, and we all know Yahoo recently launched Yahoo Live, which does live streaming video as well. How m [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: YouTube & Video

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SMX West Day Three CoverageSMX day three, the final day, is now complete. I am sitting in the airport for the next few hours, so I thought I push out this last recap. Here is all the coverage I found on day three:... Google Webmaster Tools: Now On Your iGoogle HomepageGoogle's Webmaster Central is giving you a new way to access the diagnostics and stats for your sites. Rather than log into your Webmaster Tools account, you can add the Webmaster Tools g [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

SMX day three, the final day, is now complete. I am sitting in the airport for the next few hours, so I thought I'd push out this last recap. Here is all the coverage I found on day three: Analyzing The Competition, Search Engine Roundtable Enterprise SEO Search Engine Optimization - SMX West 2008, Online Marketing Blog Generation Google: A Talk With Today's Teens, Search Engine Roundtable Google Gets its Groove On at SMX West, Online Marketing Blog Growing Your Small SEM Firm, Search Engine Roundtable In House Issues, BruceClay.com Industrial Strength SEO, BruceClay.com Industrial Streng [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

Google's Webmaster Central is giving you a new way to access the diagnostics and stats for your sites. Rather than log into your Webmaster Tools account, you can add the Webmaster Tools gadget to your iGoogle page and access information from there. You can choose what components to display on your iGoogle page. Below are details about what components are available and when each was initially launched as part of webmaster tools. Available Webmaster Tools Components for iGoogle Crawl errors: the number of each type of crawl error Google found on the site (with links to the individual URLs [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: iGoogle | Google: Webmaster Central

Last month, I wrote about Why Local Businesses Should Be Like the Jerk, which examined the basics associated with businesses being listed in local listings and results. Now I want to take a look at the logical next consideration: How can businesses respond when they receive less-than-favorable reviews? Being listed is one thing, but once your business gets noticed, some customers may post negative reviews about it. What’s a local business owner to do about this unwanted publicity? Based on our first-hand experience and observations of other local web publishers, local businesses tend to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Local Search

Google launched Google Sites, basically a relaunch of Jotspot but with many more features. In short, this new software allows teams to share much like you could with Microsoft's SharePoint. Google sites offers users five templates, as TechCrunch explains: Standard WikiDashboard where Google Gadgets can be embeddedBlog-like template for announcementsA file cabinet for file uploadsA page for lists of items Google Sites is free for all users, with a limited space of 10GB and limited support. Upgrading to Google Apps Premium gives you more support, storage, and administrative features. Goog [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Docs & Spreadsheets

Google Health has been an open secret for more than a year. Last week the company announced a pilot program with the Cleveland Clinic as a prelude to a formal announcement of the service. That formal announcement came this morning at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference in Florida, in a keynote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Google's Marissa May wrote the Google Blog post this morning on the service. There's also coverage in the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft and Revolution Health, among a few less well-known others, offer personal health profiles online, and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Health

The secret's out: men and women are different—in person and online. Gender differences matter in web design, content, and marketing. It takes more than a girlish color scheme and soft focus photos of smiling children to draw women to your site and earn their loyalty. Color and design matter, but so do content, safety, and service. And oh, by the way: men want compelling visuals and for you to just get to the point. Surprised? You shouldn't be, as these research findings demonstrate. "Thinking pink" is not thinking at all Many Web designers and marketers have a simple s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Small Is Beautiful

Video is easier to digest than ever before. High speed wired and wi-fi services, iPhones, and other video-enabled mobile devices are helping hungry users scarf down a smorgasbord of video treats. And publishers are going back to the kitchen to serve up more and more. How do publishers scale their operations to meet this seemingly insatiable appetite? And, how do they bake search engine friendliness into every serving? A common approach for large publishers is to purchase or license an enterprise-level video publishing and distribution platform. Publishers can choose from well-regard [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Video Search

Pretend you don't know anything about what your company offers and you stumbled onto it somehow. Can you tell immediately what it's all about? Can the search engines? Do this exercise with each inner page of the site as well. Is what each page has to offer truly crystal clear? Or does your website presume that people already know who you are and what you're about? If it's the latter, you may have an online brochure on your hands, which isn't a good thing. One of the differences between a website and a printed brochure is that a brochure is often requested by people who already know about [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO

The major search engines have announced an update to the sitemaps.org protocol which enables site owners to store their XML Sitemap files in any location -- even on a different domain than the one referenced in the Sitemap. This will be a welcome change for those who manage multiple domains and would like to keep all Sitemap files in one place, as well as for those who would like to store their Sitemap in a location other than the root. The only caveat? You have to be able to edit the robots.txt file of the domain the Sitemap file references. The search engines made the announcement today on [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: Submitting & Sitemaps

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SMX West Day Two CoverageDay two is pretty much over now, we still have the Google Grove later but the sessions are now complete. Here is coverage of the conference picking up from where we left off last night.... Google Takes Top Prize At SMX Search Bowl Last night was the first every SMX Search Bowl. Basically, the Search Engine Land team created fifty questions that were asked to the various teams. The teams consisted of two players from Google, Yah [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Day two is pretty much over now. We still have the Google Grove later, but the sessions are now complete. Here is coverage of the conference, picking up from where we left off last night. Session: Search Marketing and Persona Models, Online Marketing Blog Search Marketing and Branding - SMX West 2008, Online Marketing Blog SMX Search Bowl Pictures & Video, Search Engine Roundtable SEO & Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Roundtable Video and Images in Search Results: SMX West, SEOmoz Blended Search - the next BIG thing in SEO - live blogging from SMX West, Mega Blue Wave Click F [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

Last night was the first ever SMX Search Bowl. Basically, the Search Engine Land team created fifty questions that were asked to the various teams. The teams consisted of two players from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Live Search, and the SEM All Star team. Danny displayed the questions on the screen and the first team to buzz in had a chance to answer the questions. If they answered correctly they scored points; if they answered incorrectly, they lost points. Google won the contest by a landslide, but the All Star SEM Team did come back from a negative score, which would have been embarrassin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

At the IAB conference in Phoenix on Monday, Yahoo President Sue Decker made some tantalizing allusions to a new ad platform called "Apex." According to the NY Times, this stands for "advertiser publisher exchange." Perhaps analogous to AOL's Platform A effort, it attempts to knit all of Yahoo's recent acquisitions and ad network properties together (e.g., RightMedia, Blue Lithium). The Times quotes Decker on the potential capabilities and intention behind the platform: We are building a cutting edge ad platform that runs across all formats, whether it is search, display, video. It is capabl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Yahoo: Display Ads | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Search Ads | Yahoo: SmartAds

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium, Microsoft's Chief Strategy Officer Craig Mundie made the perhaps technically correct but strange remark that Google's business was essentially derivative of Microsoft's success. "If we didn't succeed at the PC, they wouldn't have a business," Mundie is quoted as saying. Yet Microsoft didn't invent the PC, nor does the company offer its only operating system. During the talk, Mundie made a range of claims and assertions about Microsoft's flexibility, adaptability, and resources. He said that its "software plus services" model, re [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: General