And then there were two. Make no mistake, Yahoo's out of the search game. I know the spin. Better user interface, new ways to innovate, a winning play. Let's not kid ourselves. They're done. Not today, not necessarily in a year, but down the line at some point. Done. And it's sad, because they were one of the originals. There was a time when the mighty Yahoo roared above all other search engines. When people were so worried about being listed in Yahoo that they pondered lawsuits over the issue, because not being in Yahoo was like not being on the internet at all. Sound familiar? Yeah, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Top News

Danny and I had an opportunity to talk with Microsoft SVP Yusuf Mehdi and Yahoo EVP Hilary Schneider earlier this morning. Both were instrumental in the deal and will be deeply involved going forward. They characterized the parties' search integration as a long-term partnership, which implies ongoing cooperation and a high degree of collaboration. We had a limited time to get a range of questions out but we were able to get a bit more clarity than we had from just the conference call and press release this morning. Yahoo is going to be doing "premium search" sales. What is "premium searc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Microsoft: APIs | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: Search Ads

We're about to do a call with Microsoft and Yahoo for more details about their proposed search deal. As part of that, I wanted to outline what we know so far and how that compares to the deal Microsoft made last year. At first glance, Microsoft is getting a huge bargain courtesy of the US Department Of Justice. Without Google being able to compete for Yahoo's business, the billions that were floating around in 2008 become millions in 2009. Note that we'll be updating this chart throughout the day. For more background on the deal, also see our other articles today: It’s Finally [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Top News

I recently encountered this tweet from Aidan Beanland, a Regional SEO Manager at Yahoo!: When the SEO manager is the last to know about a new site section that's already live --> big fat FAIL. This is, unfortunately, such a common occurrence for SEO managers that it should have a name:  the Big Surprise (conveniently abbreviated as "BS").  The new site section nobody thought to tell you about.  URLs nobody thought to redirect when file naming conventions were changed.  The "top secret" regional domain that materialized out of nowhere, providing Google with a neat duplicate of your sit [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | In House Search Marketing

Collecta has announced improvements to its handling of images and video in real-time search results. The company says it's now including video feeds from 12seconds, Qik, and uStream -- three popular video sharing services. On the image side, Collecta says it has "enhanced" how it handles photos posted to TwitPic and yFrog, two of the more popular photo sharing services for Twitter. As part of today's announcement, CEO Gerry Campbell also shared some early traffic patterns since the site launched in mid-June: "We're finding that a large number of users are keeping Collecta open between 30 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Real Time Search

Ask.com's parent company reported second quarter earnings, which showed an overall decline in revenue of 4% for the overall company, but dipped 10% in the media and advertising category, the category Ask.com fits into. IAC said revenue per query declined because of an "improved experience on Ask.com following its relaunch in October." The relaunch has lead to "fewer clicks by consumers to find what they are looking for, as well as a decrease in cost per click." Here are the key numbers from the earnings release: Overall Revenues at $340 million down 4% from a year ago, at $354.2M [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues | Channel: Industry

B2B Marketers, stop guessing and start monitoring! Social Media, that is. By monitoring social communities, you can better understand where conversations are taking place, by whom, and the topics being discussed. Learn more about your customers’ needs, wants, issues and frustrations – then integrate these findings into your search marketing program. This can help strengthen your brand and improve overall online performance. Here are 4 tips on how to start integrating social media monitoring into your search strategy: 1. Utilize social media monitoring tools Social monitoring tools [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search

Google has been recently promoting AdSense over the radio, in fact, @AdSense tweeted about the radio commercial, asking if "you heard it, and where." A Google spokesperson confirmed the AdSense radio ads in a statement to Search Engine Land: Google is currently running radio ads to promote AdSense. AdSense is an innovative program that helps website owners earn money by displaying text and image ads on their websites. On a related note, two nights ago, I saw a commercial for Microsoft's Bing Travel (remember Farecast). Ars Technica posted the commercial, which I personally think is a great c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Google: AdSense | Google: Marketing | Microsoft: Marketing

Microsoft and Yahoo are making it official: a deal about search. And to share the news, they're gathering thousands of their closest friends to a press conference at 5:30am Pacific time today. Having been awake now for nearly 30 minutes, I'm just itching to get in and live blog this puppy. So come along for the ride. The fun begins shortly. By the way, you can watch at home! A webcast is being offered by Yahoo here and Microsoft here. Live blogging coverage starts shortly. Not soon enough, because the onhold music is killing me. It's like the worst elevator music ever. No words. Blah [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues

As expected, Microsoft and Yahoo have finally struck a deal, one that with regulatory approval, they hope will be in place by early 2010. Microsoft has issued a press release and created a minisite about the deal. A press conference is happening later today (which we'll live blog), and we'll have continuing coverage. The details so far: The term of the agreement is 10 years Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!'s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms [Note f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Partnerships | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: Search Ads

Despite the economic quagmire we're in, consumers' brand expectations are up - especially when it comes to corporate responsibility. Given that, marketers should capitalize on these expectations by leveraging their corporate responsibility initiatives as a means to boost brand reputation in the search results. Why you should care In slower economic periods such as we're experiencing now, corporations have a responsibility to consumers to set the standards of conscientious decision-making and giving. And while some stakeholders may question the benefits of the time and money spent on corp [...]

Related Topics: Brand Aid | Channel: Strategy

As promised last week, Twitter has launched its new home page with a new focus squarely on search and discovery. The new design invites you to "see what people are saying about..." by using the search box. Below that are three rows of popular topics: by the minute, day, and week. In a post on the Twitter blog, co-founder Biz Stone says the new home page is designed to be a stronger introduction to Twitter for new users. "Helping people access Twitter in more relevant and useful ways upon first introduction lowers the barrier to accessing the value Twitter has to offer and present [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Twitter

Assessing the performance of PPC and SEO - and how they impact each other - enables marketers to make informed budget allocations and develop smarter marketing strategies. This webinar looks at the best methods for reporting and analyzing the impact they have on integrated search strategy, as well as ways this information can be harnessed to improve overall search efficiencies and ROI. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

There are reports coming out of the Wall Street Journal and AllThingsD that a search/ads deal between Microsoft and Yahoo will be announced within the next 24 hours. According to the Journal's coverage: The likely deal, which has yet to be approved by either company and could still be delayed further, involves Yahoo agreeing to use Microsoft's search engine on its own sites. But in a shift from earlier discussions, Yahoo would handle selling the text ads that appear next to the search results for its sites and some Microsoft sites, say these people, boosting Yahoo's share of the search advert [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Partnerships | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: Search Ads

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Gets Its Affiliates On, Summit-StyleWatching Shawn Collins of the Affiliate Summit conference tweeting about a big party at the Googleplex last night, I wondered what was up. Turns out folks were being entertained as part of Google’s own Google Affiliate Network Client Summit. Whoa. Is that new? Nope. Google tells me this is the 5th annual summit they’ve held. This [...] Betting On The Link Building Boondoggle BonanzaI recently r [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Watching Shawn Collins of the Affiliate Summit conference tweeting about a big party at the Googleplex last night, I wondered what was up. Turns out folks were being entertained as part of Google's own Google Affiliate Network Client Summit. Whoa. Is that new? Nope. Google tells me this is the 5th annual summit they've held. This year, about 300 top publishers and advertisers from their network were invited. However, this is the first year it has been held at Google's main campus. Previously, it was in Chicago. It wasn't all a big party. The agenda featured talks on analytics, econom [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Google: AdSense | Google: Marketing

I recently read Is Most Of SEO Just A Boondoggle? and the subsequent comments and attacks on the author Jill Whalen, and it's become my own tipping point. Enough is enough. Every word of that column was right on the money. It's just rare (and welcomed) for a well known expert to state in a high profile venue like SEL what many of us privately know to be true. Those of us who have been doing what we do the longest are faced with a choice every time we write about our own industry. Do we ignore the elephant(s) in the room, or bring attention to not only the elephants, but the huge dumps they [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Week

Search Engine Land’s own Danny Sullivan is among the headliners speaking next Tuesday, August 4, at Search Marketing Expo - SMX Sao Paulo. Now in its second year, SMX Sao Paulo features a blend of Brazilian search engine marketing experts and prominent international speakers. See the complete agenda here. SEMPO President Sara Holloubek and Isobar Global Search Director Erica Schmidt will be joining Danny on the program along with SMX Spain & Latam Director of Content Tomy Lorsch. Local speakers include: Paulo Zingman, Search & SMM Director at Media Contacts Marcelo San [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SEM Industry: Conferences | SMX & DMD Alerts

Google's TV Ads platform is getting some help from a company called Visible World, which offers demographic and geotargeted advertising across different media types. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning: Google Inc. is teaming up with Visible World Inc., a well-known New York technology company that uses software to create multiple versions of a given ad, in its push to offer TV advertisers more targeting options. Google will combine the technology with its Google TV Ads, an automated auction-based system for buying TV ads by choosing which shows best fit the adv [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: AdSense | Google: AdWords | Google: Partnerships | Google: TV

MIT's Technology Review reported on a new game designed by Microsoft, designed to help make Bing a better search engine. The game is named Page Hunt and it asks users to submit search queries that they think the site presented to them, should show up for, in Bing. The results are then scored and players can earn different points for different answers. This game is conceptually similar to Google Image Labeler but for web pages. I did a quick demo of me using Page Hunt for you to watch here: For a more detailed explanation of the game, read the scientific paper (PDF) on this game. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Microsoft: Bing | Top News