Search Engine News

Microsoft Gets Into Classified Ads

Microsoft is releasing its classified ads project once called "Fremont" but now called Windows Live Expo to U.S. users today. Microsoft expects to launch an open beta to users nationwide at expo.live.com this afternoon. They hope that their approach of...

Find News Anytime, Anywhere With Google News Mobile

Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal reports today the addition of news to Google's mobile offerings, bringing the informational goodness of Google News to cell phones, train stations, and waiting rooms all over the country. You can access top headlines,...

Marketers May Be Missing the Boat in Paid Search

40% of marketers are "missing the boat" by relying on only Google and Yahoo! for their paid search campaigns according to a recent study by JupiterResearch entitled: "Engine Selection Strategies: Campaign Expansion Demands Management Tools". Even though Ask and MSN...

The US Government Calls Google's Bluff

Earlier this month, Google rejected the United States Department of Justice's request for search data. The DOJ had made similar requests to Yahoo, MSN and AOL, all of which complied but Google strongly rejected arguing that the disclosure of the...

The Next Best Thing to Actually Attending SES NY?

Most everyone I know is attending the Search Engine Strategies in New York this week, a very popular conference on search and search marketing. The last I heard, there will be over 5500 people attending making it one of the...

First Jeeves (The Butler) Retires; Now Teoma

Last week the newly re-branded Ask sent its longtime mascot, Jeeves on retirement. That all played out with daily shots of Jeeves dreaming and planning his retirement and then finally riding off into the sunset on horseback. In a quieter...

Search Engine Strategies Keynote With Barry Diller

Barry Diller, Chairman and CEO, IAC/InterActiveCorp, is participating in the keynote this year at Search Engine Strategies in New York. As you may be aware, IAC/InterActiveCorp bought Ask Jeeves last year for $1.85 billion and has since worked to re-brand...

Jennifer Laycock

AOL and My Brother-in-Law Agree: Curling Rocks

Despite my husband's suggestion that both curling and ladies figure skating would be more entertaining if you had them occur simultaneously on the same ice, AOL users seem to agree that curling is this Olympic's most searchable sport. That's right,...

Jennifer Laycock

Search as the Behavior of Choice

MediaPost Publications had an interesting article yesterday titled "Verklin: Search Crucial To Marketing" that talks about the shift toward search as a totally integrated component of marketing campaigns. David Verklin, CEO Carat Americas and chairman of Asia Pacific delivered a...

Jennifer Laycock

The Internet As Beijing Sees It

Google.com was already available to Internet users in China, but the search engine launched Google.cn with the purpose of staying competitive in the market, as China already has some big search engines of their own, Baidu specifically. But there is...

Jennifer Laycock

Yahoo Answers Expands

Two months after launching the beta version of Yahoo Answers, Yahoo has announced the addition of quite a few new features to the service. In a post on the Yahoo blog yesterday, the team outlined some of those new Yahoo...

Jennifer Laycock

Google Names Head of Philanthropic Arm

According to a newly issued Google press release, Dr. Larry Brilliant is the man that will be in charge of Google.org, the group that will oversee Google's new philanthropic efforts. Dr. Brilliant is a founder and director of The Seva...

Jennifer Laycock

More Critique for Google

Google's golden days seem to be slowly slipping away as of late. Yet another critical article has popped up in the Houston Chronicle that takes issue with Google's policy of refusing to work with the U.S. Government while effectively bending...

Jennifer Laycock

Are the Big Three Search Engines Vulnerable?

Ran across an overview of some research earlier today that aims to examine the prime weaknesses of the big three search engines and to consider how a newcomer might be able to take advantage of them. Outsell, Inc.'s latest hot...

Jennifer Laycock

Blogger Protests Yahoo! Actions in China

In an interesting political move, one blogger has taken his fight against Yahoo! to his web site, sending any visitors that have been referred to his site by Yahoo! straight to a page protesting their actions in China. Originally, several...

Jennifer Laycock

The Danger of a Little Bit of Info

While surfing through my Google Alerts this morning, I was pleased to see USA Today giving some coverage to search engine optimization and search engine marketing in their small business "Ask an Expert" column. Unfortunately, the more I read, the...

Jennifer Laycock

Google Takes the Road More Traveled

A little more than a year after their attempt to shake up the IPO world by selling shares through a Dutch auction designed to give the "little guy" just as much chance at buying in as the big investors have,...

Jennifer Laycock

Bloggers Continue to Befuddle Corporations

Search Engine Guide reader Vinod Chandnani sent me a link to an excellent article that ran in the Economist last week that talks about the trouble some companies have dealing with the way that bloggers are talking about their businesses....

Jennifer Laycock

HBO Uses Google Maps to Promote the Sopranos

While I've written plenty of blog posts over the past year about the various mashups that people have put together using Google Maps, this week was the first time I saw it being used as part of a promotional tie-in...

Jennifer Laycock

Google Continues to Take Heat Over China Stance

The Times Online features an article today about Microsoft, Yahoo!, Cisco Systems and Google taking the stand before the House of Representatives human rights subcommittee to talk about corporate responsibility and the need to do business abroad. Google and Yahoo!...

Jennifer Laycock

Wait, Wasn't that Yahoo!'s Idea?

Apparently Microsoft didn't take much heed to the criticism heaped on Yahoo! for their consideration of offering up prizes or payment for searchers that tried out their service, because MSN Search announced this morning that they would be giving way...

Google In Court Again Over Trademark Disputes

In the latest of suits involving trademark issues with AdWords, Check 'n Go has sued Google in federal court in Ohio, stating that the search engine permits other payday lenders to purchase ads that appear when the trademarked phrase "check...

Jennifer Laycock

GBuy Set to Compete with PayPal

In yet another move designed to tie more of the money flowing across the Internet to its own servers, word is that Google now plans to go head to head with PayPal with a new offering dubbed GBuy. GBuy will...

Jennifer Laycock

Bad BMW...Bad!

Search engine marketing is back in the mainstream news this week as word spreads that German auto maker BMW has been penalized by Google for using tactics that violate Google's Webmaster guidelines. BMW.de had been using doorway pages that were...

Jennifer Laycock

Can Your Search History Be Used Against You

With the recent hype over the news that the government is seeking data on searches conducted at the popular engines, talk has started to shift about the future legal implications that would come with the courts finding in favor of...

What's In Your (Link) Wallet?

You have no doubt seen the commercials from credit card company Capital One where they use the phrase, "What's in your wallet?" A recent post of almost the same title by Debra Mastaler has her talking about paid links, link...

Jennifer Laycock

Searchers are Rooting for Pittsburgh...

If AOL's search stats are indicitive of anything, there will be a lot more black and gold this coming Sunday than there will be blue and grey. The Steelers are pulling a clear lead when it comes to searches on...

Jennifer Laycock

Google Testing VoIP Ads

Google confirmed on Tuesday that they are working with Florida based VoIP Inc. to introduce a new system of click-to-call advertising to Adwords, their popular paid search advertisement system. Google has been testing the service since last fall with select...

Jennifer Laycock

Google Under Fire From Newspapers Again

Last year, I wrote a few articles about the court battles Google was facing from French company Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press. I also featured two guest articles from Bob Hoffman, an AFP partner site that was facing some...

Jennifer Laycock

Search Marketing Continues to Rise

Media Post Publications reports on some new data today that shows most marketers believe Google AdWords gives a better return on investment than pay-per-click ads that run on Yahoo! or MSN. The study also showed that search marketing spending is...