A dating website for older women looking for younger men is no longer able to advertise in the Google Content Network. The website CougarLife.com has told The New York Times that its advertisements have been removed from the Content Network because Google deemed them "non-family safe". Claudia Opdenkelder, founder of CougarLife.com, said the campaign, which cost $100,000 USD a month, generated referrals that accounted for almost two thirds of its traffic. On an interesting side note, Opdenkelder knows her target market well. She is 39 and lives with her 25-year-old boyfriend. In an e-mai [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Legal | Search Headlines

In a continuing effort to battle click fraud, Microsoft puts legal motions into place to stop "click laundering". Microsoft said the most recent scheme could have defrauded advertisers of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Plaintiff, Microsoft, "… seeks injunctive relief and damages to remedy Defendants’ fraudulent conduct in perpetrating a sophisticated click-laundering fraud scheme on the online advertising network operated by Microsoft and to protect the integrity of Microsoft’s advertising network against the fraudulent actions of Defendants." The Defendant is RedOrbit and s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Legal: Clickfraud | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Headlines

On the Twitter blog today, Chief Scientist Abdur released a summary chart of the most popular trending topics on the social platform during 2009: Microsoft's Windows 7 did make the Top 10 Technology searches, but no such luck for Bing. In addition to the major news events of the year like the Iran Election (a popular topic for real time searches), Michael Jackson's death and Swine Flu/H1N1, the weekly favorite, #MusicMonday made the list, but no mention of #FollowFriday. Similarly, YouTube also released the most popular videos of 2009, with few surprises: Most Watched YouTube vi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Headlines | Stats: Popularity

AOL has weighed in with a heavy hitting list of 2009's top searches in the categories below. AOL’s top searched celebrities for 2009 michael jackson robert pattinson rihanna farrah fawcett kim kardashian megan fox jon and kate miley cyrus patrick swayze natasha richardson Oh, Edward. Patrick Swayze should roadhouse you from heaven. It surprising that AOL is the only search engine where Rihanna made the Top 10, given her year of very public struggles, although Ask does get an honorable mention for a popular Rihanna rumor being questioned. [...]

Related Topics: AOL | Channel: Strategy | Search Headlines | Stats: Search Behavior

In true Ask fashion, we've got the answers (well...not complete answers) to what the most popular questions were on Ask.com during the year.  According to Ask.com, visitors are three times more likely to type search queries in the form of a question. Holding steady at 50 million visits per month (October 2009, ComScore), question based searches continue to grow year over year on Ask. Falling in line with the most popular searches on other engines, questions surrounding the economic crisis and financial stability were among the popular categories, but it was the celebrity rumors that create [...]

Related Topics: Ask | Channel: Search Marketing | Search Headlines | Stats: Search Behavior

It's official, the annual release of the Yahoo! Year in Review for 2009 has arrived! Perhaps bigger and better than ever, this year's Yahoo! roundup includes in-depth pictorials and a slew of popular topics to sort through, as well as some bonus features  - such as the decade in sports, Yahoo Answers highlights, and a Twitter contest where you can share your top moments of 2009 for a chance to win one of the most popular products of the year, the iPod Touch. Don't have the time to scan them all? Here are the highlights of the most popular searches on Yahoo! in 2009: Top 10 Overall Searc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Headlines | Stats: Search Behavior | Yahoo | Yahoo: Buzz

In addition to her skills as the well known VP of search and user experience at Google,  a wardrobe including Oscar de la Renta and Armani helped land this girl from a (very) small town in Wisconsin on Glamour Magazine's 2009 Women of the Year list. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="179" caption="Marissa Mayer, Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year"][/caption] Marissa Mayer is profiled as a "visionary" in the magazine's annual spread of influential women and newsmakers from 2009. CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted in the article as saying: "It’s pretty hard to overstate her impact...She bu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search Headlines

Somewhat quietly, last week Kayak posted a new feature that opens up access to their search data using Kayak Trends. A key feature of Kayak Trend data is the KAYAK Travel Index™, an a statistical model that provides a measure of travel demand from analysis of searches on KAYAK sites, and aligns that with average combined prices people select for hotel and flights. In Kayak Trends, you can get a snapshot of most popular destinations and search demand for them by day, week, month or year, as well as see a shift in seasonal trends by looking at the biggest upward and downward trends at a gla [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines | Search Headlines

Coming out of (private) and into public Beta today is a new hybrid travel and local search engine, Goby.com (GO-be), a new entrant into the foray of "deep web" search technology, led by a founding team with web and search experience from Endeca (CEO Mark Watkins), Lycos (Jim Fell) and Reprise Media (CTO Vince Russo), MIT (professor Michael Stonebraker, co-founder) as well as travel distribution experience with John Walsh (World Travel Holdings.) The start-up received its funding from Flybridge Capital and Kepha Partners. Using a 3-box format for search queries, Goby's intention is to help g [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines | Search Headlines

According to a post on the Bing Community blog, Bing should be your first stop for Emmy updates, starting now, leading up to the broadcast on Sunday, September 20th on CBS. A query on Bing for "Emmy Awards" and searches related to the Emmys will produce an Instant Answer result like this: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="451" caption="Bing Instant Answer"][/caption] For now, you'll see the quick details including links to information about host Neil Patrick Harris (provided by MSN Movies) and the nominees (provided by MSN TV), along with photos and videos, and recaps from the 20 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Microsoft: Bing | Search Headlines

Hitwise is reporting that Bing Shopping moved up to 4th place (from 8th) in the comparision shopping tools category last week, rising to 11% weekly market share. Combining the recent Double Cashback offer from retailers listed on Bing Shopping and the fortunate timing of the annual Back-to-School shopping rush has moved their weekly market share up from just 4% of visits prior to last week. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="506" caption="chart courtesy of Hitwise"][/caption] Overall, Hitwise reports that visits to Bing Shopping have increased 169% since the week ending June 6th ( [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Shopping & Cashback | Search Engines: Shopping Search Engines | Search Headlines | Stats: Popularity

The editorial staff at Search Engine Land has just learned that over the weekend, on July 18th, Alan Rimm-Kaufman passed away following a 16 month long battle with leukemia. He bravely faced countless rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in hopes of a cure. Alan Rimm-Kaufman was just 41 years young, and is survived by his wife, Sara, and two young children, Sam and Davida. A moving tribute to his life can be found on Legacy.com. Alan was a valued contributor to Search Engine Land - his articles on paid search marketing and other search issues can be found here. Co-found [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Search Headlines | SEM Industry | SEM Industry: Community

We've done some preliminary analysis of the top-performing entries in our Biggest Search Geek Contest and have compiled some fascinating (though not entirely scientific) results by looking at LinkedIn profiles of the top 10 scorers. By the way, it's not too late to participate in the contest—it only takes a few minutes and the prize is a free Free Ticket To SMX West in February. Do you recognize yourself in these results? Demographics: 80% Male / 20% Female Average Age – 30 (range almost entirely from 25-35) Skewed Coastal Urban locations – NYC, Boston, SF, LA, Chica [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Search Headlines | SEM Industry: Community

Below is a recap of stories from Search Engine Land and from around the web as presented in our SearchCap newsletter during the entire month of December. Want these type of headlines on a regular basis? Then sign-up for SearchCap and get them each day during the week! Want a more descriptive monthly summary? Get our Search Month newsletter. The first issue will be out later today. === Dec. 29, 2006 === Of Disappearing Sex Blogs & Google Updates, Search Engine Land Google Pushes Forward With Newspaper Ads, Search Engine Land Google Jet Spotted At Christchurch Airport, New Zealand, Se [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search Headlines