SearchDay #1758 - Highlights from the SEW Blog: January 28-February 1, 2008

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Highlights from the SEW Blog: January 28-February 1, 2008 By Kevin Newcomb February 4, 2008 We've collected all the search marketing news from selected posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web. From the SEW blog: Organic Search Super Bowl Advertisers Mostly Unprepared, Search-wise Advertisers pony up big bucks to create and air an ad during the Super Bowl, then fail to prepare for the inevitable searches for their company and ads. SEW Experts: Rewriting URLs: SEO for CMS, E-Commerce, and Dynamic Sites There's as much confusion and controversy surrounding URL rewriting as Darwin's theory of evolution. SEO for Reputation Management One way to combat the threat of negative branding is through a reputation management strategy, which can begin with search engine optimization (SEO). SEW Experts: SEO Millionaire: Who Wants to Be One? - Part 2 Last week, we challenged SEOs to identify which of the big three travel sites has a canonical issue. Now we give you the answer. Search Advertising Microsoft adCenter Partnering With WSJDN Microsoft has announced it will provide the advertising for the Wall Street Journal Digital Network (WSJDN), which includes Barrons and marketWatch as well as WSJ.com. Google Bar Codes and Three Martini Lunches Search marketing firms have a tremendous competitive advantage over traditional ad agencies. Managing campaigns based on ROI is second nature. SEW Experts: The Future of Search: All the Media That's Fit to Be Googled The battle between search engines and human beings has moved to a new stage where online advertising and search ads are overtaking the search engine. SEW Experts: Inside AdWords and Contextual Advertising: The Tipping Point Once the ugly stepchild of online ads, contextual advertising has shed its "remnant inventory" reputation. Linking Issues & Social Media SEW Experts: Why All Links Are Paid Links in the Travel Trade The paid links debate isn't so black and white. The question of what truly constitutes a paid link, and what qualifies as advertising, will continue to be a huge point of contention. SEW Experts: Recession-Proof Your Business by Building Links Can you feel the nervousness in the business community? Even search -- the golden child of marketing -- has been getting pushed around by the market. Who Are The Real Online Influencers? The prominent players in our space may not have the impact they think they have. Hospitality Social Media Marketing: Influence Critical Customer Reviews More and more search marketers lay awake at night, in pools of sweat, freaking out about losing brand control in light of user-generated content. Facebook Ads & Applications: Critical SEM Learning Curve If your business or agency's search marketing department has dismissed Facebook applications & paid ads, as outside of your product's demographic, think again. Facebook Drops Another Hurdle Still looking for some attention from the social networks? Facebook delivered a new client library on Friday afternoon, which makes your widgets easier to launch in their ecosystem. Analytics & ROI CrazyEgg: New Free SEM/SEO Analytics Tool Blows My Mind CrazyEgg analyzes site visitor behavior in ways I didn't think possible -- and presents the results in a strikingly powerful, engaging manner. SEW Experts: Online Retail SEO: Holiday Shopping Seasonality The Q4 holiday season makes or breaks the success of online retail. Yet many companies don't realize how important the holidays are for SEO. Local & Mobile Search Marchex to Distribute Ads from Superpages Advertisers Advertisers who buy placements on Idearc's Superpages.com local search site will now be able to get the added distribution over Marchex's network of more than 200,000 vertically-focused local sites, as well as more than 50 partner ad networks and vertical sites. Vertical & Specialty Search Where's The Online TV Search? TV networks have started delivering deep inventories of video clips and longer-form videos online. That sounds great until you want to actually find something. Measuring PR in cold, hard cash Counting press clips has been a bogus PR metric for more than 20 years. So, what are the right PR metrics in the age of search engines? Search not understood and used in PR campaigns PR experts recognize that social media has changed the practice of PR. Search, however, is not part of the PR lexicon yet. Property of Google? No! The Google of Property Just when you thought the days of aspiring Googles had ended, vertical search took on a life of its own. Small Business/Big Brand SEM SEW Experts: Optimizing the Planet: SEO on a Global Scale When building an SEO team to provide global services, it's necessary to recruit skilled, multilingual SEO experts -- no easy task. In-House & Outsourcing Search Marketers Share Their 2008 Wish Lists We asked several search marketers what they would most like to see from search engines in 2008. SEW Experts: How To Educate Search Staff from Scratch Educating employees in SEO and PPC marketing can seem impossible when they have no search background. SEW Experts: The Day the Agency Model Died Endless possibilities might not be the best way to label the latest round of partnership redefining. It will end, just maybe not how the agencies would like. SEM Industry Issues Microsoft Wants to Buy Yahoo: Convergence, Continued There have been rumors of late about some sort of Microsoft/Yahoo hookup -- and here it is. Microsoft just tendered a $31/share bid for Yahoo. All of Yahoo. Paid Search Advertising Drives Microsoft Bid for Yahoo More relevant search results and social media innovations won't solve the problem of Google's dominance in paid search advertising. MSN and Yahoo Merged: How Would It All Mash Up? Aside from the potential effect on Yahoo/MS investors and the American Economy (which will be reported on ad nauseum), the implications for the search marketing industry could be massive and exciting. Yahoo Board, Sans Semel, to Consider Microsoft Bid Former CEO and chairman Terry Semel stepped down as chairman last night. The Other Side of the MS/Yahoo Deal What would this merger mean in term of a search experience, organic results and news content? Google in Wall St. Matrix: Faces Red or Blue Pill Dilemma The message from Wall St. to Google rang as clear as the opening bell today. Unfortunately for Google, it was finally "For Whom The Bell Tolls." Yahoo Strategy from the Yahoo Magic 8 Ball? Here are the 5 most important questions Wall St. analysts asked and Yahoo executives answered about Search. Search Engine Market Share: comScore's December Scorecard Google increased its slice of the growing global search pie in just-released search engine market share stats from comScore. 1,000 Yahoo Layoffs and 4 Key Yahoo Trends for CEOs Improving the quality of traffic with domain controls and ad quality filtering promise to improve lead quality and advertiser ROI over time. The cleanup, though, limited Yahoo's revenue growth in Q4. SEMPO Nominees for Board of Directors The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization has announced the nominees for its 2008 board of directors. Google Enigma: Code Cracked by Carr Nick Carr asks the question every forward-thinking executive has top of mind: Should innovation-minded managers view Google as an exemplar – or a freak? Searching/Search Technologies Search Comes Full Circle? Reading the search headlines these days, it may seem like we've gone a long way to get right back where we started: human-generated search. Google's Marissa Mayer Looks Beyond Universal Search to Social Search In an interview with VentureBeat, Google VP Marissa Mayer says that social search is one avenue Google is pursuing to improve relevance in future iterations of its search engine. SEW Experts: The New Age of Search Marketing One of the more misunderstood parts about the Web environment today is just how much the user is in control. More from the SEW Blog Is EU Softening On Online Activites, Acquisitions Seems the European Union is becoming more sensitive to the workings of the internet. Recent rulings have changed their once strong position about its impact on Europe and its people. Balogh Named New Yahoo CTO Aristotle "Ari" Balogh, 43, was named CTO for Yahoo today. Search Engine Strategies (SES) - Global Search Engine Marketing event, conference, training and expo series covering search engine optimization (SEO), paid search advertising, social media marketing & related interactive advertising tactics. Join us in New York, San Jose, Chicago, London, Paris, Milan, Hamburg, Toronto, Tokyo ... Visit www.SearchEngineStrategies.com Search Headlines We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You'll find more news from around the Web below. Advertisers Welcome Possible Yahoo Sale, But Fear CPM Hikes, ClickZ News Yahoo Bid May Bring Microsoft New Antitrust Battles, ClickZ News Balancing Aesthetics, SEO in Web Site Development, ClickZ Experts What a Microsoft Acquisition of Yahoo Means to Webmasters & Web Publishing Business Models, SEO Book Google - Average Number of Words Per Query have Increased! beu blog Interview with Google's Adam Lasnik, Stone Temple Consulting Use Lifetime Visitor Values To Raise Bids While Increasing Profits, Search Engine Land Getting Good Reviews for your B&B, Inn or Hotel - Chat With An Innkeeper, SEO Igloo Learn SEO: Competitor Analysis, Learning SEO Basics Agencies Managing Affiliate & Search campaign's together, BlogStorm What is the Second SEO Question?, Webmama Why SEO collective wisdom lacks credibility, SEO Theory AOL Buys Goowy Widget Creator, Marketing Pilgrim Search Engine Optimization For Your Flash Site, Bruce Clay Blog Nofollow Killed Google Social Graph API 3 Years Ago, Andy Beard Some Suggestions from Google About the Content Network, eWhisper Microsoft and Yahoo: TKG's Take, The Kelsey Group