New AdSense Feature, Yahoo! Video Search, Peter Norvig Talks Semantics & Spam

Jan 25th

New AdSense Beta Feature:
change to ads about feature allows you to switch the ads to a different topic. example here: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/health/hearing/

Video Killed the Search Star:
in your mind and in your car. search for Yahoo! videos wherever you are...

wonder what effect that will have on the porn industry?

here is a cool video of Jobs introducing the Mac (looted from ThreadWatch)

Paid By Google:
Ben Goodger, Lead Engineer Mozilla Firefox

Spam: an Issue of Semantics:
Peter Norvig discusses semantic web ontologies

Google AdSense Problems, Making Cheap Sites, Killing Comment Spam, Google Fiber Optics

Jan 17th

Google AdSense:
Some are questioning if & for how long it will make sense. Others are noticing some problems too.

For those Making MANY Sites:
Designing a Low Maintenance Website

Comment Spam:
Google to try to kill comment spam? ... of course even if they do people will still comment spam on the off chance that people do not impliment this.

Google Fiber Optic Network?
Google wants 'dark fiber'

Yahoo! Partners up with Verizon:
Yahoo, Verizon ink Web tie-in

Name a Book:
John Battelle is looking for a subtitle for his book.

DMOZ Submission Tips, Yahoo! Video Search Launched

Dec 20th
posted in

DMOZ Submission Tips:
3 tips on submitting low quality commercial sites - amazing logo too (found from Werty via Stuntdubl)

Cheap AdWords: (for about a week)
Geico, I love it :)

Launched:
Yahoo! Video Search...while searching through the videos you can find some cool stuff...like the Lego Thriller! (Legos were actually found on Jeremy Z's linkblog)

Search Killed the Video Star: (cheesy subtitle, eh!)
Blinx launches TV and radio search engine

Inflation:
$2 bill is rendered useless...

Google Suggest, Yahoo! Desktop Search, Spamming Tips, Google Georgia Datacenter

Google Suggest:
new search tool suggests how to finish your search query. It uses various information to predict what query would be most likely to fit what you are searching for. I suppose its kinda like a mini keyword suggestion tool. (found on Threadwatch)

Grassroots Journalism:
Dan Gillmore is to create a citizen-journalism project.

Yahoo! Desktop Search:
Yahoo! Partners with X1 for Desktop Search

AdWords Competitive Analysis:
I while ago I mentioned AdGooroo...recently they created a business model where you can get competitive analysis by the word for $2 a month per word. If you have a few exceptionally competitive AdWords words perhaps this can help you gain a broader view of the competitive landscape at a cheap price. I do not believe this system is endorsed or approved by Google in any way, but it may help provide you some useful data at a good price.

Top Tips for Spammers at ihelpyou:
ihelpyou forums proudly displays the latest SPAM techniques...

New Directory:
Bruce Stone (of Wow Directory) decided to create another directory that focuses on professional business websites. Currently Wow Yellow Pages is offering free submissions, so submit your site today.

Google Georgia:
A new secret datacenter...

DVD Rentals:
Amazon UK joins the fray (from Greg)

Yahoo! Local Listings, MSN Messenger Marketplace, MSN Spell Checker, Animated Google AdSense

Yahoo! Local:
offers new listing services. premium listings cost $10 a month.

MSN Messenger Marketplace (coming early 06):

You heard it here folks, MSN Ebay is here! Buy and Sell within social network, also list wants and share recommendations. List items you want to sell, things you are looking for, and your recommendations. Your buddies notice new items you’ve listed when they login. They can either buy, sell or refer you to one of their buddies. It is like eBay except with people that you already know and trust directly (or a few degrees out). source (via Greg Gilden)

Favorite SEO Quote of the Day:
"Some people have tried to say that Google gives less weight to unreleated content, but this is a load of shit." - Snowblind

Speel Chekrs:
The MSN Search blog talks about their spell checker, as well as linking off to this spelling research white paper.

Why Search Engines Like Blogs:
Amanda Watlington explains it a bit in her article Even Blogs Need Keyword Research

My New Favorite Blog:
Mind Hacks. I am a big fan of learning about how the mind works...recently O'reilly published a book about mind tricks. Here is an example article and their cool Mind Hacks blog.

Position 5:
Has good bang for the buck on Overture according to Andrew Goodman. His latest article looks at how chaning bid price and position can affect your ROI.

The 6:
Myths of Creativity... Few people are creative ...not true. Placing arbitrary awards or other distractions in people's minds makes them more creative...obviously not true. (found on ThreadWatch)

Christmas Site Tips:
The Twelve Tips of Christmas, by Christine Churchill, who recently stated she will be stepping down from SEMPO's board.

New Search Engine:
Accoona

Holy Monkeys:
Google is beta testing GIF AdSense ads.

Google AdSense & AdWords Changes, How to Buy SEO Services, Selling Off Topic Text Links

AdSense Changes:
URL Channels
New Languages
No AdSense ads on sites promoting or selling tobacco or prescription drugs

Affiliate Marketer Doom:
Google to allow only 1 affiliate / advertiser per landing page.

The Wrong Metrics:
Some webmasters are buying SEO services based on top ten rankings or number of pages indexed. While they may be interesting figures what really matters is targeted traffic and more importantly: sales. (found on ThreadWatch)

Picture Perfect:
or maybe not... Google's Picasas hacked. if you have PHPBB installed make sure you upgrade to a new version and have the server admin check for shady stuff. If you have been hacked you will want to change your MySQL passwords and whatnot.

Advertising is Evil:
Jakob Nielson looks at some of the worst ways to advertise on the web.

More Yahoo!:
Tim Converse (part 2)

That Little Blue Pill:
I wrote an article which attempts to answer the question Should I sell Off Topic Links?
While you are debating the topic find Viagra on sale here.

Search Marketing UK Trade Organization...other stuff

Oct 22nd

SEMPO UK
no way Jose... Sick of the SEMPO antics, the brass of the UK SEO scene have made their own search marketing organization.
With the likes of Barry Lloyd, Ammon Johns, & Mike Grehan I am sure they will do well.

Spammer?
A White KnightTM is crowned

Yahoo!
buys Stata Labs who is the maker of Bloomba

GOOG
their stock is up a bit more on the day. Their market cap sits at 47.37B and Yahoo! is at 47.56B.

Alexa Web Information, Yahoo! Personalized Search

Oct 6th
posted in

AWIS
for the developer type...The Alexa Web Information Service (Beta). AWIS is currently free, though they eventually intend to charge for the services.
(thanks to Cre8asite)

Kanoodle Contextual Ad Program
Ads by topic instead of keyword, 50% payout, payment via Paypal, yada yada, learn more about Bright Ads

Next 1: Blogger Gone
Evan Williams leaves Blogger.
(thanks to Chris)

Next 2: Yahoo! Next
Yahoo! Next is a new Yahoo! prototype playground. My Yahoo! Search Beta offers many similar personalization services to what Ask Jeeves recently rolled out.

How to Build / Kill a Forum
my first ThreadWatch post. Sorry for announcing Threadwatch too early Nick. We can make up for it if a bunch of people go over and read it & post at ThreadWatch about cool threads.

New Yahoo! Search Functions & The Power of Brand on ROI in Search

Branded Search ROI
Google exec David Scacco spoke at the ChannelAdvisor summit. Among Andy Beal's notes of his speech were the following #s

28% of Google searches are for a "product name", 9% are for a "brand name" and 5% are searches for a "company name". "Brand" keywords also have a 8x higher ROI than generic keywords

New Yahoo! Search Functions
Greg R. Notess updated his Yahoo! Search review to include the new Yahoo! search features... stem:, domain:, feature:homepage, feature:index, feature:meta, and the region: limits.
(thanks to Dodger)

Yahoo! to Acquire MusicMatch

Sep 14th
posted in

$160M cash...press release
(thanks to Gary P)

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