MSN Search Ads Beta Release

MSN to start beta testing their own ppc ad network Wednesday, March 16 2005.

Andy Beal thinks it will be better than AdWords and Gary Price states that the official word will come out tomorrow, but that the system may not be fully integrated for 6 to 12 months.

I would just like to say that the MSN ad sales person I spoke to yesterday who told me Overture sometime in 2006 may have not been giving me the best info he could have ;)

New Google Toolbar, IE 7 Beta to Launch this Summer

Google Toolbar:
Version 3.0 launched.

Version 3 of the software also lets people automatically check their spelling in Web forms; translate words in English into several languages; and add Web links to certain plain text. For example, an address could be enhanced with a hypertext link to its location on a map, with the click of a button on the toolbar.

Still no FireFox toolbar though...

AdSense:
picks up VNU as a partner.

IE 7:
to launch. Beta version available this summer. Look for search integration.

Dublin:
Yahoo! Creates Dublin HQ.

Day Trading 101:
Actually, I know nothing about day trading. For no reason at all Mamma.com went up 36% yesterday and looks like it is down 30% today. [added: there might have been a reason for part of the drop. oops]

MSN Officially Launches, Comment Spammer Chat

The Search Wars:
MSN makes the official switch announcement and is to spend big.

To appreciate the financial power of MicroSoft you need only look at the various 4th quarter "US Personal Income Soars" news stories which were primarily caused by MicroSoft's $32,000,000,000 dividens.

And while that is a lot of Zeros it certainly is not a Google's worth of them, but Yahoo! apparently is also digging into Google's market share.

The Registrar Wars:
Google is now a registrar

The Blog Comment Wars:

SEO Contest Wars:
Loquine Glupe
I am thinking about running a buy viagra online contest soon. more on that later...

The PPC Wars:

The Oil Wars:
free Exxon Mobile gas

The Echoing Wars:

MSN Search out of Beta?, AOL Search Revival, SEO Automation

MSN Search Out of Beta:
Some people are seeing it flip back and forth, but I have been seeing the Beta results at the main site.

AOL to Join the Fray:
John Battelle writes about how AOL is building bolt on search products. Were the walls up too long? Is it too little to late?

How Much Can You Automate:
Jason Duke starts off what will probably amount to a fairly interesting automation thread at ThreadWatch.

MSN Search to Launch, Picasa Upgrade, Google Nofollow Tag

MSN Search Chatter:
Andrew Goodman notes that the bulk of the MSN Search switch is to occur tomorrow. W00T for SEO's arount the globe!!!

Google Launched Picasa 2.0
John Battelle posts about their build it and charge later marketing strategy.

Google Nofollow Tag:
Wow, I guess they are going to create one, but I doubt it will stop blog spamming anytime soon.

MSN Search Launch Rumors, Blog Comment Spam, Google Duplicate Content Penalties, Random Google News

MSN Search to Launch:
Feb 1 according to rumors AusieWebmaster. He has been right on with some of his past rumors.

Blog Comment Spam:
It's a mean & nasty world out there!

I swapped over to the newer version of MovableType and had no MT Blacklist for about a day...and really it only took 1 day for me to get pissed enough to install it.

For the record, Soma Online is a complete POS. So is pacific poker.

I wonder if anyone ever uses these bots for socially constructive ideas.

Google Duplicate Content Penalty:
A dup penalty timespan is based on your offense.
1st Offense: 30 days
2nd Offense: 60 days
3rd Offense: 90 days
found on SEW Forums

update: Danny Sullivan asked Matt Cutts and he stated that those times were given as "for example" time periods.

Google:

Jon Kleinberg, Title Attribute Test, Making Friends

Home Page of the Day:
Jon Kleinberg - he worked on lots of the underlying theory that created the hubs and authority ranking system which eventually led to Teoma.

He has all kinds of cool PDFs on his site such as Maximizing the Spread of Influence through a Social Network - cool stuff. If I were better at math and network theory stuff his home page would be a virtual candy store.

Interesting & Awaiting Results:
fathom is conducting a link title attribute test

Undersold ad space
Anna Kournikova on advertising...er, advertising on Anna Kournikova

Illigitimate ad space:
Bush Administration Invents 'News' and Pays Journalist

Hosed Ad Space:
Kraft WHITE American Cheese - AdWords ad targeting problems :(

Really, I am not a Slimeball Ads:
Ken Lay starts advertising on AdWords. Interesting what the other AdWords ads say about him too.

Meta "ingnore this part of the page" tag:
I can't really see it coming anytime soon, but some want to push the idea.

MSN Beta to ramp up testing:
MSN Beta to ramp up testing

Developing a Directory?
The Don'ts of Directory Development offers tips to help you get your directory off the ground.

ESearch Online E Search Online ApexSearch Apex Search (look out):
another SEO firm out of Vegas that is allegedly cold calling people.

I did not find any legitimate backlinks into the apexesearch site. The only one I found in Google was from a forum solicitation by a guy by the name of Sincity

Sincity would like to offer you...

In that forum post it states:

real results refferences provided in business since 1996 no cusomer complaints EVER!!!!

and yet its registration details state

Registered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: APEXESEARCH.COM
Created on: 20-Apr-04

Domain Name: E-SEARCHONLINE.COM
Created on: 22-Dec-04

I did not see any meaningful company information on their company information page either http://www.apexesearch.com/info.htm. Some people are wondering if this firm has anything to do with Traffic Power. If any SEO calls you up out of the blue trying to tell you that you MUST buy something TODAY then odds are they are NOT worth buying from. Cold calls = crap. Traffic

How Not to Make Friends:
Promote your services in others forums while trashing their business model in your own forum.

How can a person wanting to set up an automated link network say that people should not be able to buy links by PageRank?

How Not to Make Friends...Part 2:
For a while the name of the SEO firm that wanted RustyBrick to link to them was posted in this rant thread.

One time some guy with a big mouth emailed me about how great his firm was and felt that for that reason he felt he deserved a link from my site. I also had a hunch that when another well known firm told me to add them to my SEO forums page that they were spamming me. Not too long ago I got an email from an express link building firm which used "stuff" as the the email title. I wonder how many people use these same shoddy techniques to "promote" (or otherwise destroy the brand of) their clients sites?

Google Beats Geico in Court, Google Spam Filters, MSN Desktop, Google Library

Google vs Geico:
Huge news for many marketers, Google won.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that there was not enough evidence of trademark violation to bar Google from displaying rival insurers when computer users search the word "GEICO."

Search Engine Filiters:
Three was a good thread on SEW forums about search engine filters. A couple people defaced the original thread with useless garbage, but ThreadWatch's coverage is a great read.

Search Engine Strategies:
I was going to attend, but decided not to at the last minute...anyhow, if you want coverage RustyBrick is posting about many of the sessions here...he may not be blogging the event though ;)

Funny:
GoogleGuy reviews a non-profit site: (really funny)

I'd recommend that he remove all links to these aggressive sites, and then send an email to us requesting reinclusion.

(found on ThreadWatch)

Google Suggest:
DaveN has opened up his scraper for public use.

MSN Desktop Search:
launched, & integrated into the MSN toolbar.

Search Stats:
ClickZ writes about a recent ComScore search survey

Of those consumers who converted on a trademark keyword, 91 percent did so after starting with a different term type. A full 80 percent started with a generic search term. Trademark searches, meanwhile, accounted for 20 percent of all online searches.

As for conversions, an estimated 92 percent of all computing and consumer electronics purchases occur offline. Meanwhile, 7 percent of conversions occur in the form of latent conversions. Only 1 percent of conversions occur in the same session online.

Google Library:
Google to digitize lots and lots of books...

Late to the Party:
Ask Jeeves desktop search

Brits Behind the Curve on Spam?
Nearly a quarter of all online UK consumers (23%) have purchased some form of goods or services from a spam email, according to new research. I wonder if thats why many of the UK SEOs are so good at what they do ;)

New Free SEO Tool, Spam Wars, New Google Media Search Patent

New Free SEO Tool:
Jim at WeBuildPages created a tool which shows the unique linking inboud domains. Currently I think the tool thinks a.com and a.com/ are two different sites, but I am sure Jim will have that fixed real quick-like...

The new link tool goes by the vapid name of WeBuildPages Tool #9. Hopefully Jim can get a bit more creative when he names any future tools he makes ;) ... I think #9 is a cool tool which will help at least a few webmasters save a good bit of time.

The Spam Wars
Chongq and the Spam Vampires (found on ThreadWatch)

What do Users Want in a Directory?:
this thread asks...

Sleezy Site Title of the Day:
"Make Your Millions with Vioxx"... that site offended many lawyers who were appearing in AdSense ads on it...they complained and, Google pulled the ads.

MSN Messenger:
It appears Chris Pirillo is none too impressed.

Google Patent for Searching Media:
Google could find a way to profit from Google news (and other media)... (found from MarketingVox)

Wikipedia:
Why Tim Bray thinks it competes well with encyclopedias.

Something Big is Coming?
Andy Beal says there is a big announcement tomorrow. MSN is sponsoring the Chicago SES which starts tomorrow. MSN also says they have a teleconference tomorrow (which starts at 10 a.m. PST)...wonder if thats all related or what the deal is...will know soon.

Tricks of the Trade:
Tips on how pros do their jobs just a little better. (found from Stephen Spencer's Scatterings)

Overture & MSN Extend Partnership, Google Scholar Search, SEO Secrets

The Ruling Class:
NFFC is the David Beckham of SEO?

Auctions Expert...
knows how to make bank from click fraud, says Google.

While We are Selling...
google founders selling stock

Give it away, give it away, give it away now
Perfect 10 is in a sea of distress,
unimpressed by Googles information access.
porn is free
porn for me
say hell yes :)

Google Scholar:
New Google Scholar Search. Andrew Goodman has an interesting post about Google Scholar.

Toolbar
for your site. free and customizable.

Deskbar:
Google Deskbar API

The Best SEO Secrets:
are kept secret...says Nick W

MSN + Overture:
Partner up for another year.

Link Building Info:
Andy Hagans has a new site offering link building tips.

Scoop:
A while ago a sketchy self proclaimed "white hat page generator" (www.metawebs.com) hit the market. I do not know a ton of programming, but Dan Thies, one of my well respected SEO friends sent me an email stating:

It took me about 15 minutes to write a Google API app with PHP to fish these out of the SERPs, using a very small list of seed terms (<20 words). I stopped it after a while, but it's like shooting fish in a barrel to find these "unfootprintable" pages. It will get even easier as these sites get indexed, because it increases the odds of a "hit" when searching for them.

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