IndustryHighlights from the SEW Blog: July 31, 2006

Highlights from the SEW Blog: July 31, 2006

Featured posts from the Search Engine Watch blog, as well as our customary headlines from around the web.

Featured posts from the Search Engine Watch blog, as well as our customary headlines from around the web. If you’re not familiar with our blog, click on any of the links below, or visit the blog’s home page at http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/.

From The SEW Blog…

  • TrustWatch Extension Puts Phishing Warnings Into Google, Yahoo & MSN Results Using Firefox or Flock? Now you can get an extension from TrustWatch that will may help you spot phishing scams in your search results at Google, Yahoo and MSN….
  • Google Guess, Google Real Estate – New Google Coming Services Found? Via Google Blogoscoped, What’s in Google’s Sandbox? from Tony Ruscoe has him stumbling upon new services that Google may plan to release such as Google Events, Google Real Estate Search and “Google Guess.”…
  • Google Click Fraud Settlement Approved Download fileJust got word from Google that the settlement in the class action lawsuit over click fraud has been approved. I’m dashing out, so this is just a short post to give you a heads-up. So far, I haven’t seen any news stories on it. Settlement is here (PDF file), the $30 million in attorney fees is approved, apparently around 500 companies choosing to opt-out. I’ll postscript more tomorrow or do a fresh post when stories appear. Google statement: We’re pleased Judge Griffin has affirmed the settlement as appropriate and fair to advertisers. We look forward to continuing to manage…
  • Google Click Fraud Settlement Approved Download fileJust got word from Google that the settlement in the class action lawsuit over click fraud has been approved. I’m dashing out, so this is just a short post to give you a heads-up. So far, I haven’t seen any news stories on it. Settlement is here (PDF file), the $30 million in attorney fees is approved, apparently around 500 companies choosing to opt-out. I’ll postscript more tomorrow or do a fresh post when stories appear. Google statement: We’re pleased Judge Griffin has affirmed the settlement as appropriate and fair to advertisers. We look forward to continuing to manage…
  • Baidu To Be Default Engine On All HP Computers Ship To China Philipp Lenssen reports that Baidu, the popular Chinese search engine, will be the default search engine on all new HP’s shipped to China after October 2006. As Philipp notes, this is bad for Google who has been pushing hard into the Chinese market. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that Baidu’s second-quarter earnings were very high, “but didn’t meet some investors’ higher expectations.”…
  • Microsoft Hires Over Ten Thousand Employees In Past Year The Seattle Pi reports that Microsoft has broke their own hiring records, by hiring 10,081 new employees worldwide over the past fiscal year. The article takes the angle that the hires were in order to compete with Google. Now Microsoft has 71,553 people worldwide as of June 30, 2006. Wow!…
  • Yahoo Launches Visual Link Map Tool Named Webzari The Yahoo Search Blog announced a new tool developed by the Yahoo Korea team named Webzari. Webzari is a tool that visually maps the data from Yahoo Site Explorer. It takes a site’s inlinks, and maps them in planets on a map. Check out Search Engine Watch’s map which is kinda hard to read, but you can also check out Search Engine Roundtable which has easier to read planets. Notice, when you mouse over the planets, it shows you the location of the server linking to you, and if you click on it shows you more. Very cool interface. Check…
  • New US Child Protection Law Might Make Webmasters Second Guess What They Write Via Threadwatch, Congress spanks naughty sex sites from News.com covers how the US is likely to gain a new law making it illegal to send people to porn by using misleading text….
  • Google Toolbar Look-Alike Installing Malicious Programs Search Engine Journal reports on a SurfControl release that fake Google Toolbars are being downloaded unknowingly and causing those computers to be contaminated with malicious programs. The programs then use the computers to send out mass-email spam and/or for “internet attacks.” So be careful where you download your toolbars….
  • Online Ad Spend 9% Of All Ad Spend By 2011 ClickZ reports on a JupiterResearch report that online advertising spend is projected to snag up nine percent of the total advertising pie by 2011. They estimate that $25.9 billion in revenues will be spent on online ads by 2011, “rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 percent over the next five years.” For search marketers, 43 percent of the online ad spend will be search-based ads, accounting for $11.1 billion by 2011….
  • Google AdWords Now Reporting Invalid Click Rates Google is now offering AdWords advertisers the ability to see how many invalid clicks that Google catches before they are billed. “Estimating invalid clicks” from the Official Google Blog has more about this good move, which should help to better educate advertisers….
  • Google And Yahoo: Consistency Or Wow?
    An article over at the New York Times ‘In the race with Google, it’s consistency vs ‘wow” discusses the differing approaches of Google and Yahoo to the introduction of new technology and resources. The fact that Google hasn’t added some of the basics to its mapping service in comparison to the Yahoo and AOL offerings is the starting point for an indepth discussion on how both engines (MSN, AOL and Ask get very short shrift) are trying to increase their user base….
  • Only 11 Percent Of Searchers Use One Word Queries
    OneStat.com published a report detailing that only 11.4 percent of searchers use one-word queries, two-word queries 28.9% leads the bunch, followed by three-word queries at 27.85%, four-word queries with 17.1%, five-word with 8.25% and six-word queries with 3.7%. The report also breaks down number of queries used by country; Canadians are more likely to search with four-word queries, Germans use two-word queries 40% of the time and then 28% use one-word queries. OneStat’s research was “based on a sample of 2 million visitors divided into 20,000 visitors of 100 countries each day.” More details at OneStat.com….
  • SEOMoz Spills The Beans On Pricing An SEO Campaign
    Rand posted a blog entry named How to Price an SEO Campaign. He actually broke down his pricing methodology for everyone to see. I have personally never seen this done to this extent before in this industry. SEOs and SEMs can learn a lot about how to price their campaigns and proposals by Rand’s post. Rand breaks down a consulting contract versus an implementation contact. His post is very detailed and can give many SEMs an idea on how to improve their contracts. Check out Rand’s post here….
  • Tracking Packages
    The MSN Search weblog has now announced that it is possible to use the system for tracking packages, or more specifically, packages from FedEx, DHL, UPS and USPS. Searchers can simply enter a tracking ID and some other tracking keywords and the Package Tracking Instant Answer will correctly construct the link. An example given is ‘Where is UPS tracking number?’ Additionally you could use the RSS feed for the search to really keep up to date on where your package has gone. Google has had this feature for a while now, although it doesn’t have an option for DHL….
  • Independent Report: Google Click Fraud Detection Practices Are “Reasonable”
    The Google Blog just posted the independent study on their click fraud detection practices that shows Google makes reasonable efforts to detect click fraud. The report was part of an agreement of the Lane’s Gifts v. Google settlement and was performed by Dr. Alexander Tuzhilin, Professor of Information Systems at NYU. Obviously Google is pretty happy about this report and I didn’t have time to go through the full 47 page report, but if you have time, I bet you as Search Engine Marketer can learn a ton about the AdWords system. Possibly, Danny will dig into this deeper next…
  • More 3D Maps, an iTunes Video Podcast Directory, .CA Goes Mobile & Wildfires Database: Specialty Search Wrap Up
    This weeks specialty search wrap up from Resource Shelf includes more 3D mapping tools, a iTunes video podcast directory, the Canadian government mobile edition, a resource for locating primary sources with international news and a wildfires and forest fire real time database….
  • Google Adds RSS To Google Base Results
    I wrote about Google adding drop down menus to some search results at the Search Engine Roundtable last night and then discovered something new. At least I think it is new. If you go to a Google Base landing page, like this one for Clinical trials results, you may notice a new button at the top right of the page. The button is an RSS feed icon, that links to RSS results for that query refinement in Google Base.

Resources

The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index
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The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

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Data Analytics in Marketing
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The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook
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Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study
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Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

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