Trouble Brewing over Google News Transparency (Wednesday, March 23, 12:33 AM EST)
Google News, fresh from being sued by the French press and subsequently backing down and pulling the AFP's stories, is right back in at the deep end. This time, the question of transparency comes up i...[read full story]

Following the Money in Mobile (Tuesday, March 22, 11:07 PM EST)
What's the majority of your spam email about, and what keywords dominate the blog spam you have to delete everyday? Whatever pays the most of course, and those lucrative categories such as poker and p...[read full story]

Search Engines using Smoke and Mirrors to Hide Flaws (Tuesday, March 22, 08:19 PM EST)
Over at the ABestWeb affiliate forums X10, who deal in consumer electronics, are announcing a new feature to their affiliate program: A free website, all ready to go. Some of the members are concerned...[read full story]

Google Getting Heavy with Google X Cloners (Tuesday, March 22, 07:19 PM EST)
Barry Schwartz posts a translated french email allegedly sent from Google to one of the sites cloning the short lived Google X, Google's homage to OS X reported last week. The post is at SearchEngineJ...[read full story]

B.L. Ochman Responds to SES Conference Notes Row (Tuesday, March 22, 07:07 PM EST)
As i gave B.L. such a hard time in reporting legal concerns of SES speakers yesterday it seems only fair that we not leave her response simply as a comment in the original conversation. Here's what sh...[read full story]

NowPublic is Now Public - Open Source News Site Launches (Tuesday, March 22, 06:57 PM EST)
NowPublic.com, a new open source news project from Vancouver based BlueHereNow launched today. Hot on the heels of Internet Archive's OurMedia.org, NowPublic focuses on news and photography by creatin...[read full story]

4INFO Mobile Search lands $8M in Funding (Tuesday, March 22, 06:18 PM EST)
Mobile Search firm 4INFO have secured $8M in funding from VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson 4INFO will use the investment to accelerate the company's growth, enhance product development and expand sales...[read full story]

The BBC's Plans for Downloadable Content (Tuesday, March 22, 03:13 PM EST)
Coming on the heels of UK Channel 5's announcement, more details of the BBC's plans to make it's programs downloadable emerge in this report by B&C The report states that later in the year th...[read full story]

WikiWax - Ugly, Unintuitive, but Useful (Tuesday, March 22, 01:36 PM EST)
Think of WikiWax as an ugly version of Google Suggest for Wikipedia articles, and note Surfwax, who provide the functionality, were using this suggested terms technology some months before Google. Gar...[read full story]

Can Jeeves Become a Major Player in Search? (Tuesday, March 22, 11:12 AM EST)
Jupiters Gary Stein asks the obvious question in light of the recent aquisition by IAC: Can Ask Jeeves become a Top Tier Engine? There has been much talk lately, high profile talk, of the problems ass...[read full story]

Busythumbs does Tags [updated] (Tuesday, March 22, 03:00 PM EST)
Good friends of mine at photo sharing and moblogging site Busythumbs have announced the addition of tags to their service. Busythumbs follows in recently aquired Flickr's footsteps as well as social b...[read full story]

Google Bomb For Sale & eBay (Tuesday, March 22, 08:00 PM EST)
Interesting auction taking place over at eBay. The item name is Google Bomb For Sale. Too funny. Thought I share it with you folks. Jim from We Build Pages, they build pages and other things, tipped me off on this....

The Dedicated IP Myth (Tuesday, March 22, 02:27 PM EST)
Shared hosting is huge, many, if not, most, Web sites share an IP address with an other site. The search engines are aware of this. So why do many experts believe that having a unique IP address will make a...

SEO Chat / DevShed Conference? (Tuesday, March 22, 01:57 PM EST)
There has been discussion in the moderator forum for over a year now on holding a conference tailored to the SEO Chat members. No one knows for sure if it will happen, but right now there is a thread named...

Google Talks to Google X Clones (Tuesday, March 22, 01:46 PM EST)
Last Thursday we reported on one of the first Google X Clones. I asked the "cloner" in the thread to let us know who contacts him first, Google or Apple. It looks like Google was the first to send an...

Google & World Water Day 05 (Tuesday, March 22, 01:35 PM EST)
Interesting logo Google put up to commemorate World Water Day. In fact, there is a post on this topic at Search Engine Watch Forums....

RustyBrick Kidnapped by Cre8asiteForums (Tuesday, March 22, 02:14 AM EST)
I swear this didn't happen because of the nice things he wrote about Stock (Grumpus). Pinky Swear. I hijack this normally seriously news oriented, professional blog to announce that it's owner, Barry Schwartz (aka RustyBrick) has been named "Moderator" and...

Selling SES Conference Notes (Monday, March 21, 06:44 PM EST)
A thread at Search Engine Watch Forums touches on an interesting topic, for me at least, on the ethics and legalities of selling ones notes of a conference. Most of the readers here know that this site has been a...

Become.com's AIR Out-Ranks Hilltop (Monday, March 21, 05:55 PM EST)
Become.com, a relatively new player to the shopping search engine game has been getting a lot of press over the past few months. One such topic is on their vertical search technology named AIR. Today, Jason Dowdell interviewed Become's CTO...

Cre8asite Forums's Tech Admin; Grumpus (Stock) Steps Down (Monday, March 21, 03:03 PM EST)
Of all the SEM forums, in my opinion, Cre8asite Forums is one of the best, I consider it a treasure. The reason Cre8asite is so great is because of the volunteers Kim and her crew are able to bring together....

Flickr Added to the Yahoo! Portfolio (Monday, March 21, 02:12 PM EST)
I am not a picture guy, I rarely take them, I don't store them, I don't email them or print them. But I bet many of you do. There are two forums, I know of, discussing the news that Yahoo...

Expires META Tag Won't Affect Rankings (Monday, March 21, 02:00 PM EST)
A thread at Search Engine Watch forums named Expired HTML Pages beating me out discusses one member, being upset that documents that are represented as being expired as ranking above his site. There is an expires meta tag that looks...

Buying Forum Sig Links, Become.com (Tuesday, March 22, 05:11 AM EST)
Links to a couple SEM related Google Groups. New site sells forum sig links. Links to a couple search algorithm resources. Links to the new Become.com.

Hub Finder Link Analysis Tool (Monday, March 21, 06:09 AM EST)
Free link analysis tool helps webmasters quickly find co-occuring backlinks.

InterActiveCorp to Acquire Ask Jeeves? (Monday, March 21, 03:54 AM EST)
IAC may soon buy Ask Jeeves.

Blog Transparency, Ethics, & Advertising (Monday, March 21, 02:54 AM EST)
Why I think the whole blog advertising ethics concept is bogus.

Various Resources (Sunday, March 20, 09:38 PM EST)
Review of Urchin. IT conversation about AutoLink. Books and tips about design & MBA resources. List of FireFox extensions. Yahoo! buys Flickr. Greg Boser in Wired. New My Density website showing second degree relationships between websites. A9 OpenSearch & Amazon Ads.

Google News Getting Sued, MSN Shopping Beta, Google AdSense Conference (Saturday, March 19, 08:18 AM EST)
Google News sued in France for displaying member only images. MSN launches the beta version of their shopping search engine. Google held a conference for AdSense publishers.

Alex Steffen & Bruce Sterling Keynote Conversation: SXSW 2005 (Saturday, March 19, 12:22 AM EST)
Review of Bruce Sterling and Alex Steffen 2005 SXSW keynote speech.

How to Leverage Decentralized Social Networks : SXSW 2005 (Friday, March 18, 11:08 PM EST)
Review of SXSW panel on social networks and networking.

Google Code, Pricing a Website & 302 Hijack Removal (Thursday, March 17, 11:05 PM EST)
Google offers open source code. 2005 State of the Media report. Tips on pricing a website. How to remove a 302 hijackers website from the Google index. Brad Talmir reviews ABC of SEO book.

For Frequent Flyers, French Courts Hate Google (Thursday, March 17, 07:04 AM EST)
I got stuck in Kentucky due to flying rain delays. French court finds Google guilty on trademark ads appeal case.

Yahoo! to Blog, MSN to Sell Ads, World to Get More Exciting (Wednesday, March 16, 09:39 AM EST)
ThreadWatch notes that Yahoo! may be creating a blogging product near the end of the month. MSN to make announcement of France and Singapore beta tests of their new adCenter product.

Search, the Next Generation (Wednesday, March 23, 01:51 AM EST)
(Direct Link) BusinessWeek - Increasing numbers of Web surfers are going to alternative search engines, which specialize in finding certain kinds of information or offering additional capabilities to well-known search sites....

Is Cloaking Deceptive Advertising? Not Necessarily (Wednesday, March 23, 01:46 AM EST)
(Direct Link) Search Engine Watch - First, I don't know that getting organic listings in a search engine would be considered "advertising" under US laws, much less those of other countries. In addition, if what was promised in the search listing is...

Ask Jeeves To Be Bought By Interactivecorp (Wednesday, March 23, 01:22 AM EST)
(Direct Link) High Rankings Forum - "It certainly makes me wonder if we're going to see a Big Four instead of a Big Three in search."...

SEO and XHTML/CSS (Wednesday, March 23, 12:41 AM EST)
(Direct Link) Virtual Promote - "I've created a site that I am very pleased with full XHTML/CSS vailidates on every page looks good... The client has now commissioned a SEO company and they have basically turned round and said that all of...

AdSense Publishers and Our Confused Primary Focus (Tuesday, March 22, 02:08 AM EST)
(Direct Link) Webmaster World - "An intersting thread that is a throw back to the FlyCast, Burst, DoubleClick (etal) days of banners. WebWork suggests that; 'If AdSense is not about making money for the advertisers then it will fail.'. I read nearly...

Search Marketing Techniques, Deceptive Advertising Laws & Other Laws (Tuesday, March 22, 01:47 AM EST)
(Direct Link) Search Engine Guide - Techniques that may have required little thought or drawn little attention in the past, when the search marketing industry was smaller and less formalised, are not appropriate for a larger, more formal industry....

Link Building - The Waiting Game (Tuesday, March 22, 01:45 AM EST)
(Direct Link) Search Engine Guide - Link building is a waiting game. Many clients have asked me why they do not see changes in traffic or ranking before a month goes by. It takes time for the search engine robots to find...

Yahoo buys photo-sharing site Flickr (Tuesday, March 22, 01:41 AM EST)
(Direct Link) News.com - Yahoo has purchased online photo-sharing service Flickr, less than a week after the Internet giant launched a beta test of a new blogging tool....

AOL Launches Pinpoint Travel (Tuesday, March 22, 01:37 AM EST)
(Direct Link) SearchDay - AOL's new Pinpoint Travel is an ambitious effort to provide truly comprehensive travel search that consumers can trust to provide the best options, not just inventory a travel provider or agency is anxious to sell....

Local Search: Convert and Win (Tuesday, March 22, 01:36 AM EST)
(Direct Link) ClickZ - If you operate a classic Yellow Pages-oriented business, build a Web site, even if it's just a single page, and experiment with local search advertising. It's still very affordable, and you may find more prospects than you expect...

InterActiveCorp buys Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion (Tuesday, March 22, 01:33 AM EST)
(Direct Link) News.com - InterActiveCorp has agreed to a $1.85 billion buyout of Ask Jeeves, a search engine that has long been overshadowed by Google and Yahoo....

Apple iTunes Fixes Digital Rights Management Hack (Tuesday, March 22, 10:10 PM EST)
Apple iTunes Fixes Digital Rights Management Hack A group of programmers released a hack last week, dubbed PyMusique, which let the users buy songs from the iTunes Music Store without any Digital Rights Management (songs stripped of antipiracy protections). One of the famed developers involved with PyMusique application is the original ...

Google News Removing Agence France Presse From Index (Tuesday, March 22, 09:42 PM EST)
Google News Removing Agence France Presse From Index Over the weekend the French news agency, Agence France Presse, sued Google News for including AFP’s photos, stories and news headlines on Google News without permission from Agence France Presse. AFP is seeking damages of around $17.5 million and an order barring Google ...

Google Messenger For Windows Virus (Tuesday, March 22, 04:08 PM EST)
Google Messenger For Windows Virus To clarify, yes, this virus is not from Google. It's someone posing as Google. So if you have a GMail account, look out for this email containing a virus - Loren Baker, Editor This morning, I was notified that I had new gmail. The message contained the ...

Google Talks to Google X Clones (Tuesday, March 22, 04:05 PM EST)
Google Talks to Google X Clones Last Thursday we reported on one of the first Google X Clones. I asked the "cloner" in the thread to let us know who contacts him first, Google or Apple. It looks like Google was the first to send an email to the cloner. Last ...

Future of Yahoo and Flickr (Monday, March 21, 10:20 PM EST)
Future of Yahoo and Flickr Flickr announced yesterday that it has been acquired by Yahoo after months of rumors and speculation. Flickr is not just a photo sharing, photoblogging service, but a community of closely knit members - some fearing an end to the community as it may become aligned with ...

Ask Jeeves, IAC - More Deals on the Way? (Monday, March 21, 09:26 PM EST)
Ask Jeeves, IAC - More Deals on the Way? John Battelle has some interesting speculation about the role of Ask Jeeves in IAC post acquisition. In particular, he speculates about a potential merger of search and TV. I agree there are going to be some interesting things happening with TV ...

Pinpoint Travel: If It Works, They Win (Monday, March 21, 09:23 PM EST)
Pinpoint Travel: If It Works, They Win Going to write more about this in TKG’s Local Media Journal. AOL beta launched a new metasearch travel site, Pinpoint Travel. It doesn’t replace AOL’s own travel channel. In fact, it doesn’t carry the AOL brand (part of the strategy of reaching out to ...

InterActiveCorp Buys Ask Jeeves for $1.9 Billion (Monday, March 21, 02:05 PM EST)
InterActiveCorp Buying Ask Jeeves for $1.9 Billion The New York Times is reporting that Ask Jeeves is to be acquired by IAC for the equivalent of US$1.9 billion in stock. The deal, if completed, makes a certain amount of sense for both companies. Ask Jeeves has good technology but has been ...

Flickr Photo Sharing Service Acquired by Yahoo (Monday, March 21, 01:53 PM EST)
Flickr Photo Sharing Service Acquired by Yahoo Will it be Google, will it be Yahoo? Who will acquire Flickr? Well, this weekend not only was Ask Jeeves acquired by IAC in a groundshaking surprise move, but Yahoo also acquired Flickr, the photo sharing and flogging (foto blogging) community service. Duncan Riley ...

Google - Internet Democracy? (Sunday, March 20, 05:23 PM EST)
Google - Internet Democracy? Is Google, as its creators (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) claim, 'uniquely democratic'? Well, it is certainly unique, or at least it was when it was founded. However, its claim to be democratic is extremely questionable. If it is indeed a democracy, it is one comparable to ...

Congress May Strip FEC of Blog Regulation Abilities (Tuesday, March 22, 02:00 PM EST)
Reacting to comments from Republican members of the Federal Elections Commission that seemed designed to inveigh the threat of regulation among generally liberal bloggers, some in Congress are...

[summary]

Internet Thwarting Price Discrimination, Gray Markets Explode (Tuesday, March 22, 01:37 PM EST)
The price liquidity long promised by the free flow of information on the internet may indeed be coming to fruition, as shown by an e-commerce analysis conducted by News.com. Manufacturers are finding...

[summary]

Gmail Slowly Opening Up to the Uninvited (Tuesday, March 22, 01:24 PM EST)
AdWeek reports, citing a Merrill Lynch report, that Google is now offering Gmail generally to the public, putting up invitations to join to about five percent of homepage visitors. Gmail's free...

[summary]

Google Expunges AFP (Tuesday, March 22, 01:17 PM EST)
PaidContent points to a PCWorld story on how Google is granting Agence France Presse's apparent wish to be removed from all Google News listings. A quick search this morning showed only 13,100...

[summary]

A Podcast Wins Sponsorship (Tuesday, March 22, 01:17 PM EST)
Podcasting, the newest online media fad, gained a bit of legitimacy with the first known major sponsorship of one of the online blog voice broadcasts. Warner Brothers will pay good money to sponsor...

[summary]

AOL Accounting Scandal Earns Another $300 Million Fine, Not Over (Tuesday, March 22, 12:37 PM EST)
The Securities and Exchange Commission whacked AOL and its parent Time Warner with a $300 million civil penalty for materially overstating online advertising revenues, according to ZDNet. In a...

[summary]

More and More Marketer Emails Blocked by ISPs (Tuesday, March 22, 12:17 PM EST)
Return Path revealed numbers showing a higher proportion of marketer emails were blocked in 2004 by ISPs looking to block out spam than were blocked in 2003. Two of every eleven marketer emails never...

[summary]

Blogspot Site Traffic to Exceed NYT's (Tuesday, March 22, 10:18 AM EST)
Business Blog Consulting points to Alexa figures showing that Blogspot - the homepage for Google's Blogger application - now has more traffic than even that of The New York Times, one of the web's...

[summary]

IAC Rumors True: Buying Ask Jeeves (Tuesday, March 22, 09:52 AM EST)
The rumors proved true: InterActiveCorp will buy Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion in stock. The deal values Ask Jeeves shares at $28.24, only a 17 percent premium from their last trading price on Friday....

[summary]

DMA Lobbying for FTC Spam Enforcement Funds (Tuesday, March 22, 09:37 AM EST)
ClickZ reports that the Direct Marketing Association is lobbying Congress to give more enforcement funding to the Federal Trade Commission to help uphold the Can-Spam Act. Enforcement has been less...

[summary]

Senate Version of Spyware Bill Resurrected (Tuesday, March 22, 07:37 AM EST)
Two senators have revived their SPY BLOCK bill designed to make illegal many practices associated with spyware, according to ClickZ. The SPY BLOCK bill was an early favorite among online publishers...

[summary]

IAC to Buy Ask Jeeves for $1.85B (Tuesday, March 22, 07:39 AM EST)
IAC/InterActiveCorp agreed to acquire Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion in stock in a blockbuster search engine deal that solidifies the e-commerce player's footing in the online advertising and search market. via internetnews

Yahoo buys photo-sharing site Flickr (Monday, March 21, 07:29 AM EST)
Yahoo has purchased online photo-sharing service Flickr, less than a week after the Internet giant launched a beta test of a new blogging tool. via News.com

Search marketing growth to slow by 2007 (Saturday, March 19, 08:07 AM EST)
Search engine marketing in Europe is set to increase by 65% this year, with EU1.4bn being spent on sponsored links and site optimisation, according to new research. However, the growth may cool by 2007 as rich media ads begin to dominate the Internet marketing landscape. via netimperative

Google Opens Developer Network (Friday, March 18, 07:41 AM EST)
Google launched a developers' site, offering up code to the open source community. Following the familiar developers' network model, the opener for Google Code includes software source code developers are invited to use, as well a directory of Google APIs (define) and an online forum for discussion and peer support. via ...

Google more popular in UK than US (Thursday, March 17, 08:47 AM EST)
Google is the most popular search engine in the UK, enjoying a larger share of the market than its US division, according to new data. The report, from Web monitoring firm Hitwise, found google.co.uk topping the list in the UK in terms of both market share of visits (48%) and volume ...

Web users reject cookies (Wednesday, March 16, 11:05 AM EST)
An increasing number of people are blocking cookies or deleting them to protect their privacy or security, according to a new Jupiter Research study. Nearly 58 per cent of online users deleted the small files, which are deposited on computers to track website habits, the research firm's 2004 survey found. As ...

Yahoo Launches Local Search BETA (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)

Lycos Sells to Korean Internet Portal (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)

Google Launches Bidding Site (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)

Search Engine Marketing Organization Cops Criticism (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)

MSN Previews New Search Engine (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)

Google removes AFP from Google News (Tuesday, March 22, 09:53 PM EST)
According to DMeurope, Google has started removing AFP content from Google News, after the French news agency filed a $17.5m law suit for copyright infringement. Smart, decisive move by Google. They have plenty of other news sources and if AFP doesn't

Google Working to Fix Blogger Performance Issues (Monday, March 21, 09:33 AM EST)
InfoWorld reports that Google is adding more resources in an effort to improve the performance of Blogger. Good! 'Cos it has been sucking recently and if I have to put up with it for much longer, I'll be switching! - that should scare them ;-)

French News Agency Sues Google (Monday, March 21, 09:29 AM EST)
I'm still not sure why France has an axe to grind with Google, but it appears a week cannot go buy without at least one law suit coming out of France. BoostMarketing reports: Google is being sued by French news agency, Agence France Presse, under cl

Yahoo Acquires Flickr (Monday, March 21, 09:23 AM EST)
After much rumor, Yahoo has indeed acquired photo management and sharing application, Flickr. You can get more details at the Flickr blog.

InterActiveCorp to Buy Ask Jeeves for $1.9 Billion (Monday, March 21, 09:14 AM EST)
I can't leave the country for 2 minutes! ZDNet is reporting that IAC will today announce the acquisition of Ask Jeeves in a deal worth $1.9 billion. IAC/InterActive owns a variety of internet businesses. Its principle holdings are Expedia, Ticketmaster,

Heading to England (Friday, March 18, 01:55 AM EST)
Blogging will be erratic, once again, the next few days. I'm flying to London tomorrow for a mixture of business and pleasure. This is the first time I've had a reason to go to England on business and I'm glad I'll get to spend a couple of days with my f

BlowSearch Launches PPC Service, Takes Unique Approach to Click Fraud (Thursday, March 17, 06:52 PM EST)
We've got advance news that BlowSearch is launching its very own PPC product, next week (not next year, like Microsoft). They'll introduce some interesting options including: * Competitor Blocking tool — competitors can be deterred from maliciously click

Google Has Larger Market Share in UK than US (Thursday, March 17, 06:41 PM EST)
New Hitwise data suggests that Google has a more impressive market share in the UK than in the US. The report...found google.co.uk topping the list in the UK in terms of both market share of visits (48%) and volume of searches (63.7%). The figures put

European Search Engine Marketing To Grow 65% In 2005 (Thursday, March 17, 06:36 PM EST)
According to CRM Today, new Forrester research suggests search marketing will grow by leaps and bounds in Europe. Forrester Research, Inc. estimates that search engine marketing will generate €1.4 billion of spending in Europe in 2005, a 65% increase com

New Market Share Data for Paid Search (Thursday, March 17, 06:26 PM EST)
According to AlwaysOn, Microsoft is already in a good position to challenge Yahoo and Google in the paid search arena. MSN, with a 16 percent share of the paid-search market, is in third place behind industry leader Google , at 35 percent, and Yahoo , at

Google Code (Thursday, March 17, 05:23 PM EST)
Google Code, a home for open source projects from Google. Google writes that they've released: CoreDumper: The CoreDumper library can be compiled in to applications to create core dumps of the running program, without termination. It supports both single-and multi-threaded core dumps, even if the kernel doesn't natively support multi-threaded core files. Sparse Hashtable: This project contains several hash-map implementations in use at Google, including implementations that optimize for space or speed. Goopy/Functional: Goopy Functional is Python library that brings functional programming aspects to Python. Perftools: These tools can be used to create robust applications such as XX, and XX. Especially of use to those developing multi-threaded applications in C++ with templates. Includes TCMalloc, heap-checker, heap-profiler and cpu-profiler....

Google X (Wednesday, March 16, 04:28 PM EST)
Google X Google blog post Macworld blog post Update: Google X has obviously been pulled, despite Google sending out a promotional announcement to reporters for this morning. Reached for comment, Google's PR team said "Unfortunately, we're not providing comment." 2nd Update: mirror mirror with crud...

Google Complies with AFP's Demand (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
If Agence France Presse (AFP) doesn't want to be exposed in the greatest driver of traffic in the world, then cut 'em out. Google has agreed to eliminate all links and references to AFP content in Google News. In protecting the sanctity of its subscription content, AFP has shuttered a major exposure platform. Well everyone has to choose a business model.

Lack of Juice Slowing Down Blogger.com (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
A post on Blogger Buzz indicates that some performance problems at Blogger.com are the result of electricity--specifically, not enough of it to power newly installed servers. Blogger users can check technical reports of the service on the Blogger Status blog. (Thanks to Andy Beal.)

Google Parody: Don't Click at Work (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Also, don't click during half-time ceremonies of football games. This Google home page parody has been around since 2002 (the tabs haven't been updated), but I didn't know about it until today. (Thanks to Google Blogoscoped for the soft-XXX tip.)

Life in the Google Laundry Room (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
The best story to drift out of Colin Powell's visit to Google is this one from an interface designer who was washing her underwear in the Googleplex laundry room when Powell, Page, Brin, Schmidt, and others stopped by during the tour. (Thanks to Google Blog - Live.)

New AdSense Features (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Google has added new ad unit designs and payment mtethods to AdSense. the new design is called Ad Links, and is a small list of four or five topical links. Each link leads to a page with more explicit AdWords ads. I have not seen Ad Links in action, so I don't know what that faux-landing page looks like. with Ad Links, a clickthrough is not a (paid) clickthrough. Here is how Google explains it in the Ad Links addition to the AdSense FAQ: "AdSense publishers are paid for clicks on the

The Sad Decline of Google Catalogs (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
In the process of testing every nook and cranny of Google for this book, I've noticed that Google Catalogs is much less robust than it was when I wrote Google For Dummies. An under-recognized, and probably little-used Google beta service, Catalogs presents scanned versions of hundreds of mail-order catalogs in a special online reader. Users don't order merchandise from the Cataglos pages; they must link to the merchant to buy anything. But the database is (was) a treasure trove in its

Ask Jeeves to Be Purchased by IAC/Interactive (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Uncomfirmed by both companies, but reported by the Wall Street Journal (reg. req.) and the NY Times, IAC/Interactive is on the verge of acquiring the world's fourth-largest search engine company, Ask Jeeves. IAC/Interactive is a holding company of several high-traffic online destinations including Citysearch, Expedia, Match.com, Hotwire, and GetSmart. for its part, Jeeves brings to the table its flagship brand plus iWon.com and Excite. The deal is valued at nearly two-billion dollars.

New CNET Google Blog (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
There's a new Google blog in the sphere--brand new. One post so far. It's operated by CNET and written by Stefanie Olsen, an experienced journalist. Welcome to the fray!

Google's Troubles in France Continue (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Bad week for Google in France, a nation which seems to have a built-in and growing antagonism toward Google. In addition to losing a trademark suit there, Google has been handed another lawsuit, this one served by news organization Agence France Presse, complaining that Google News infringes copyright when it links to stories and photos. In most cases this sort of action would seem short-sighted; in this case, the French press agency sells subscriptions to its content, and does not want it

Wired: Search Engine Manipulation (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Adam Penenberg explores the techniques used by optimization companies to engineer top listings on Google result pages for their clients. Mainly, backlinking at any and all sites that will accept a link. Amusingly, the piece documents the source of some backlinks for two SEO companies that rank high in Google. One benefits from links from weather pages and an XML guide. The other enjoys Google visibility created by over 5,000 incoming links from such places as a Hungarian travel site and a

Google Loses Trademark suit in France (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Once again Google is burned by wrongheaded (in my opinion) trademark rulings in Europe. A French court has upheld a previous ruling in favor of two companies suing Google for allowing AdWords ads containing their trademarks to appear on results page upon which they are listed. Google must pay a fine of about $100,000. (I have commented before on the oddly low fines in French cases.) I have the solution for Google in these cases, and I don't know why it didn't occur to me before. If

IAC/InterActiveCorp buys Ask Jeeves (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Ask Jeeves gets a new owner.

Yahoo! buys Flickr (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Yahoo! buys photo sharing site.

Answer search engine Brainboost relaunched (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
The answer search engine Brainboost has been around for a couple of years, but was recently revamped and relaunched. Here is why you should take a look.

Google sued over news search issue (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Google has been sued by the French press agency Agence France Presse (AFP). The issue is that Google includes AFP's photos, news headlines and stories on its news site without permission.

The mysterious disappearance of GoogleX (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Google's user interface experiment GoogleX shone brightly but only for a short while.

Google Desktop search is out of beta (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Google Desktop Search lets you search for files an emails on your own computer.

German search services collaborate to exclude right wing extremism (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Recently it was announced that the largest German search services have joined forces keep an eye on what kind of material they make available to their users.

Gmail gets even better (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Google's free photo organizer Picasa is now integrated with Gmail and a feature called Basic HTML view lets you access your Gmail account using almost any web browser.

Search Google for weather forecasts (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
You can now type "weather," followed by your location in the search form to see weather conditions and a four-day forecast for your area.

Lycos to use Ask Jeeves' search technology (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Lycos leaves Yahoo! behind.

The new Yahoo! Search Developers Network (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Overture to become Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions

Questions for Seth Godin (Tuesday, March 22, 08:59 PM EST)
Another interview, this time with ClickZ. Link: Questions for Seth Godin. More good stuff at Seth Godin - Liar's Blog....

Astonishing (Tuesday, March 22, 07:46 PM EST)
If I hadn't seen this link from Jason Richardson with my own eyes, I would have thought it was a prank: Link: http://www.ibackups.net NOTICE TO ALL IBACKUPS CUSTOMERS: As most of you are aware, iBackups is down due to issues...

Godin's Leveraged Effort Curve (Tuesday, March 22, 04:38 PM EST)
Among highly-compensated workers, the amount of work you get paid for actually goes down as you get paid more. A talented doctor spends no more than ten or fifteen minutes a day actually doing the thing that she's actually gifted...

End of discussion (Monday, March 21, 07:14 PM EST)
A lot of us have been talking about this day for a very long time, but it appears to be here. The end of FCC controlled contentThe real beginning of the pro-am content revolutionThe final straw for ad-supported mediaandThe nail...

Think about parsley (Monday, March 21, 06:19 PM EST)
I had breakfast with my friend Jerry today. We ate at Naples 45 in New York. I ordered the $12 omelette. This is what I got: (I know I asked for no potatoes, and it's true that the muffin didn't...

Randall on a trillion commercials (Monday, March 21, 06:13 PM EST)
The very very perceptive Randall Rothenberg writes in Ad Age today about computer-assisted ad creation and serving software that lets marketers show a different commercial (eventually) at every house if they choose. It's behind the annoying adage.com registration page, but...

Good news about marketers and RSS (Monday, March 21, 06:12 PM EST)
New Jupiter study shows that big time marketers aren't excited about it. DMNews.com | News | Article. Which gives the rest of us more time to get it right. Hurry, before the spammers show up!...

An interview with Hugh (Monday, March 21, 12:49 PM EST)
Link: gapingvoid: e-mail exchange with seth godin....

Boy am I in trouble. (Saturday, March 19, 06:54 PM EST)
My wifi post has certainly annoyed people far smarter than I. Like Marc Orchant: Link: Seth, I love you man but stick to marketing,OK? - The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog - microsoft.weblogsinc.com. This riposte made me smile, though. Link: newswireless.net .:....

Skeptico: Five apples (Saturday, March 19, 03:18 PM EST)
This is brilliant. The whole site is worth a read. Skeptico: Five apples. Five apples This is what my life is like. I have four apples. At least I’m pretty sure there are only four, I only bought four, I...

New Google Blog (Tuesday, March 22, 02:27 PM EST)
CNET News.com has started up a new blog to keep track of the web’s search king - Google. This Google blog is so new that there is only one post in it so far. Nonetheless, it might be a good place to watch for Google developments in the future.

InterActiveCorp buys Ask Jeeves (Monday, March 21, 06:48 PM EST)
ZDNet reports that InterActiveCorp bought Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion. This follows yesterday's rumors of the Ask Jeeves sale. InterActiveCorp hopes to expand Ask Jeeves to include travel & ticketing services and possibly a portal-type site to market all its products.

"We believe that in the future (Ask Jeeves) has the potential to become one of the great brands on the Internet and beyond," Diller said in a teleconference Monday morning. "And by 'beyond,' we mean in wireless (and) in the search for anything on any device."

Read more in the ZDNet Web Technology article.

Tags: Ask Jeeves, IAC, InterActiveCorp

Feedster to exclude blogspot blogs (Monday, March 21, 01:09 PM EST)
Word is that Feedster is looking at excluding blogspot (blogger) blogs from it's search. Users will need to check an option to include them. Unfortunately, there are so many spam-filled blogspot blogs, it hampers Feedster's search to include them. Via Greg Linden and Inside Google That sucks just a little for us, as this is a blogspot hosted blog. Although, we're already in the process of moving to www.toprankblog.com. Tags: Feedster, Blogger, Blogspot

Google News Sued By French Press (Monday, March 21, 09:17 AM EST)
Google is under attack for using images and content without permission on Google News from a French news agency. AFP wants $17 million, an amount that would hardly phase Google.

Via Search Engine Watch Blog and many others (rss).

Tags: Google News, Google Sued, AFP, Agence France-Presse

Ask Jeeves offered $2 Billion from Barry Diller Corp (Monday, March 21, 04:19 AM EST)
IAC and Ask Jeeves are not officially commenting yet, but plenty of media and blogs are in regard to a $2 billion stock deal for IAC to acquire Ask Jeeves. New York Times: "IAC/Interactive Corp., the Internet company headed by Barry Diller, is close to an agreement to acquire Ask Jeeves Inc., the nation's fourth-largest search engine company." Wall Street Journal:"Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp last night was near a deal to purchase the fifth-largest Web-search service, Ask Jeeves Inc., for around $2 billion in stock, according to people familiar with the matter, marking an aggressive move by the electronic-commerce company into the Internet's most competitive arena." There's already a ton of coverage on this today. SEW does a fine job summing up with links to more details. Great news for Ask Jeeves, but will this really help them become more than the 4th largest search engine company behind MSN, Yahoo and Google? Tags: Ask Jeeves, IAC, InterActiveCorp

Yahoo Flickr acquisition confirmed (Sunday, March 20, 10:47 PM EST)
The rumor regarding a Yahoo Flickr deal has been confirmed. Caterina Fake announced it on the Flickr blog today: Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr. So, what will happen to Flickr? According to Caterina: "Flickr will be continuing on the path it's on -- to Flickr 1.0 and beyond. We'll be working with a bunch of people that Totally Get Flickr and want to preserve the community and the flavor of what is here. We're going to grow and change, but we're in it for the long haul, with the same management and same team." Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo comments: "To the Flickr Team Congrats and welcome to the Yahoo family. It's a big one but you're going to be a very big part of it. You have a lot of fans here--probably even more after today. :-) The next few months are probably going to be crazy. But if any of you have questions about Yahoo or just want to grab lunch at URL's, give me a call/email/IM. I'll do anything I can to help. You guys rock."Seems like some great synergy. I'm looking forward to seeing how Flickr's offering and Yahoo 360 blogging service will pan out. Tags: Yahoo, Flickr, Yahoo Flickr

Yahoo dilutes Firefox commitment (Friday, March 18, 02:38 PM EST)
"Yahoo said on Friday afternoon that a statement from the company’s Australian office on Tuesday, which claimed that all future products would be compatible with both the Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE) browsers, was inaccurate." A rep from Yahoo in the US clarified earlier comments made that there are so many different services offered by Yahoo, they really cannot guarantee that all will be compatible with Firefox. Full article at ZDNet UK News Tags: Yahoo, Firefox

Google X Clones (Friday, March 18, 02:15 PM EST)
The odd situation with Google posting a link to Google X and then disabling the destination site has become even more interesting. Several clones of Google X have appeared. ablaze clone, Tech info blog clone and this one. Oh, and one more from SEJ. It will be interesting to see how long they last. The feature is cool and it's too bad Google had to take it down. Google or Apple PR folks should really get off the pot and respond. It reflects poorly on both to do the "no comment" thing. Via SEroundtable and Google Weblog (unofficial). Tags: GoogleX, Google X Clone, Google, Apple

SEO Friendly Site Navigation (Thursday, March 17, 11:24 PM EST)
One of the most common issues with making documents more search engine friendly is the introduction of text in place of, or in addition to, other forms of navigation. JavaScript is a favorite for mouseovers and more often drop down and foldout menus. Links inside JavaScript are not indexed by most search engines. If a search engine cannot follow links it cannot find the rest of your web site. Many times an alternative navigation method based on text links can provide a solution. Another option to JavaScript or DHTML foldout menus is a CSS based menu that performs much the same way. Via SEOConsultants.com, Tanfa offers code for vertical (read first) and horizontal menus. These are search engine friendly foldout menus - cool. Tags: SEO, Search Engine Optimization

Ask Jeeves Offers Firefox Toolbar (Thursday, March 17, 10:31 PM EST)
Ask Jeeves has posted a toolbar for Firefox. Features include saved locations, local news, the ability to save images, web pages and searches plus a search box for maps and business listings. Tags: Ask Jeeves, Toolbar, Firefox

Privacy Concerns with MSN Paid Listings (Thursday, March 17, 06:08 PM EST)
SERoundtable posts details and links regarding MSN's paid listing program and concerns regarding privacy. The new program will allow advertisers the ability to filter ads using demographic information from users that have signed up fo various MSN services such as Hotmail. There's more detailed description of the MSN PPC program at SearchEngineWatch and a very good article by Gord Hotchkiss on SearchInsider

Google Yahoo! MSN old and new sites (Tuesday, March 22, 03:44 PM EST)
A lot of people maintain that Google likes old sites. I've seen it with my directory The domain has been around for a year or so (and had PR) but all the subpages are two weeks old at the most....

Kabooli directory (Monday, March 21, 02:49 AM EST)
The Kabooli Internet Directory is not the typical directory web site. Each listing contains a paragraph about the web site and ratings of several different aspects including content, navigation, and organization among others. Each site also gets an overall Kabooli...

My new directory (Sunday, March 20, 05:14 PM EST)
I got an email today asking to purchase homepage links on my new directory. Actually I won't be offering homepage links as I want as much link popularity as possible to filter down. However, in a few months the inside...

More annoying webmasters and SEOs (Sunday, March 20, 10:39 AM EST)
First I get an email from vicky@seo... that went something like "Hi I'm Arnie and I'd like to invite you to link to my site because we sell high quality stuff" (no reciprocal link was offered). Then I get a...

Get links and traffic from Ebay (Saturday, March 19, 04:59 PM EST)
I sometimes auction advertising space on Ebay. When I do, I always link to a few of my sites - Ebay is busy, and this is a good way to get exposure. For the next 7 days this one will...

New web site and web page directory (Wednesday, March 16, 04:08 PM EST)
A special introductory offer for readers of my blog. Add a site to my new web directory. If I approve the site I'll add it to the directory. Then I'll invoice you via PayPal. When you pay I'll let you...

Weatherbug uses Blogs to Gather Customer Feedback (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
I came across an interesting link today from the excellent weblog of Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba - Church of the Customer. They relate how the blog of WeatherBug invited its users to let them know how they used the application. For those of you who don't know about WeatherBug...

Yahoo! Set to Launch 360° - their New Blogging Tool (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
It looks like Yahoo! is set to launch a new blogging tool within the next month. Yahoo! 360° will initialy be made available to a restricted number of users from March 29th, having extensively tested the product in-house since last year. The new service will bring together Yahoo!'s existing...

'State of the Blogosphere' from Technorati (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Technorati boss David Sifry is writing an interesting series of reports called ‘The State of the Blogosphere’, on his Sifry’s Alerts blog - he posted on this subject in October at the Web 2.0 conference and, due to the dynamic nature of the industry, felt it was time for...

Making Money with Google's Adsense (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
USA Today posted an interesting article this week about the Google Adsense programme. Google's AdSense a bonanza for some Web sites lists a number of cases of people who have successfully used Adsense to generate a decent income, like Eric Giguère who is now writing a book about his experiences...

Comment Spammers Getting Smarter (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
One of the great things about blogging is that it allows you to share your knowledge and easily develop a network of contacts, often relating to the subject you most blog about. Tools such as comments, which let people know what you think about what they've written; trackback, that let...

Is Yahoo! Testing Rival to Google Adwords? (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
In the blogosphere this is actually quite old news (it appeared a couple of days back) but I just didn't have time to write about it. It looks like Yahoo! is testing a product to rival Google's Adsense. Silicon Valley Watcher reckons that this information came from an "informed source...

How People Read Google Search Results (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
There's an interesting story on Search Engine Watch about how people view the search results on Google. The actual research itself was carried out by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it and eye tracking firm Eyetools. The result shoudl certainly make marketers sit up and take notice. It would...

On March 11th Arrange a Meeting (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
March 11, 2004. Ten bombs exploded on four trains during the rush hour in Madrid. More than 190 people died, almost two thousand were injured. It was one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in Europe in recent history. As in the United States of America on September 11...

Harvard Business Review Cites Blogs as a 2005 Breakthrough Idea (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Here's another recent article which focuses on how blogs are gaining power and influencing people. The Harvard Business review identifies 20 breakthrough Ideas for 2005 and in at number 10 comes Blog-Trolling in Bitstream. The article is written by Mohanbir Sawhney, from the Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and...

Effective use of RSS Feeds by Morgans Hotel Group (Wednesday, March 23, 01:55 AM EST)
Whilst searching for hotels in New York, I was pleasantly surprised to see one hotel group, Morgans Hotels, making good use of RSS feeds to keep guests up-to-date on latest offers. Their 'Special Offers' page invites visitors to sign up to their RSS  Feed. Not sure what a RSS Feed...

Yahoo Buys Flickr (Monday, March 21, 03:30 AM EST)
Not much news here such as cost or integration with Yahoo services.
This is a good buy for Yahoo as Flickr has a great userbase and API. Much more interesting than Google's Picassa.

Yahoo! Backpedals on Firefox Promise (Monday, March 21, 03:57 AM EST)

In what was apparently poor communication between Yahoo!’s U.S. and Australian offices, the company promised more than it is willing to deliver when it assured users that all future Yahoo! products would be tested against Firefox as well as IE. In a partial rescinding of that pledge, Yahoo! still avows interest in Firefox, but cannot promise compatibility in all departments. This is understandable. Firefox is tearing up the world now, but is still a new phenomenon. Imagine if Yahoo! had promised future compatibility with the Opera browser back in the late 1990s when it was making waves. Long-term promises of this sort are risky; Yahoo! should stick to individual product announcements.

Yahoo! Acquires Flickr, Finally (Monday, March 21, 03:47 AM EST)

Rumors swirled, and came true. Yahoo! is definitely acquiring photo-sharing site Flickr. A sense of doom pervades the Flickr user community, while the owners celebrate and issue reassuring predictions of a cautious, win-win merging of two cultures. It’s fascinating to observe the emotions surrounding this deal; Yahoo!, at 10 years of age, Yahoo! is perceived as an old-media company that could ruin the delicate Flickr synergies. Nobody wants Flickr to turn into Yahoo! Photos. I think it’s more likely that Flickr will play a part in Yahoo! 360, and certainly, Yahoo! Photos might benefit as well. Financial details have not been disclosed.

Ask Jeeves to Be Purchased by IAC/Interactive (Monday, March 21, 03:35 AM EST)

Uncomfirmed by both companies, but reported by the Wall Street Journal (reg. req.) and the NY Times, IAC/Interactive is on the verge of acquiring the world’s fourth-largest search engine company, Ask Jeeves. IAC/Interactive is a holding company of several high-traffic online destinations including Citysearch, Expedia, Match.com, Hotwire, and GetSmart. for its part, Jeeves brings to the table its flagship brand plus iWon.com and Excite. The deal is valued at nearly two-billion dollars.

"Getting" Yahoo! 360 (Sunday, March 20, 03:26 AM EST)

Jeremy Zawodny sniffs that only some people “get it” about Yahoo! 360, the soon-to-be blogging/networking/sharing service. To demonstrate, he points to Marcel van Leeuwen’s rhapsodic yet opaque love note, which reads in part: “Yahoo 360’s value is deeply rooted in our nature to not only interact with other people but see ourselves do that.” And then, “I don’t see Google really catching up here.” van Leeuwen does not claim to have seen Yahoo! 360, which goes into beta on March 29. Is he of the belief that quality of implementation does not matter, and that the sheer fact of Yahoo! evidently combining some of its services is enough to guarantee its success? And what is Zawodny’s point? That glib and premature rhetoric qualifies as “getting it”? If so, I’m glad not to get it yet. Maybe I’ll get it when I can see it.

I have high hopes for Yahoo! 360. But I had great hopes for Yahoo! Groups, too, when they also combined various Yahoo! services to make self-expression and sharing easier. Yet Groups turned into an ad-glutted pain in the ass. Implementation makes a huge difference—all the difference. Good ideas are easy. Right now, Yahoo! has disclosed a good idea. We know it has the resources and membership mass to make something great. But let’s dispense with the “gets it” vibe until we can actually see the damn thing.

Yahoo! 360 Launch Date (Friday, March 18, 04:35 PM EST)

I hadn’t seen this divulged before: The launch date of Yahoo! 360, a social software and blogging platform that is getting intense speculative attention, is March 29. Insiders only at first, then the service will grow by invitation, as with Gmail.

Yahoo! Develops Love for Firefox (Friday, March 18, 03:19 PM EST)

Yahoo! has seen the light and pledged to test against Firefox compatibility when developing new services. No more IE-only restrictions, as now spottily exist throughout the Y! empire. No word, though, on repairing restrictions that now afflict Firefox/Yahoo! users. Would that the entire universe of content providers would see this light. I’ve been complaining in the Digital Music blog of online music services that don’t even allow their catalogs to be viewed, much less accessed, in a non-IE borwser. Yahoo!’s errors in this regard are not nearly so flagrant.

Yahoo! 360 (Wednesday, March 16, 02:28 PM EST)

Expect an imminent launch of Yahoo! 360 beta, a social software platform that seems to be a mashup of Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Photos, My Yahoo! and Yahoo! Messenger, with (this is the real news) some sort of blogging tools bundled in. It’s unclear how all this will fit together, but the advance PR focuses on ease of use. If Y! 360 is essentially an evolution of the prickly and ad-glutted Yahoo! Groups, that alone will be worth the price of admissions. (Actually, it’ll be free. See this information page, and this beta sign-up.)

It’s fascinating to reflect on the many point-and-click, drag-and-drop platforms hasve sprung up over the years to give non-technical consumers a Web presence. From the early GeoCities days of billboard-creation to the contemporary emphasis on sharing personal media, the evolution rages on.

Yahoo! Buzz Game (Wednesday, March 16, 12:53 PM EST)

Yahoo! has jumped on the virtual stock market bandwagon—well, maybe I wouldn’t call it a bandwagon, but other examples of this sort of thing have been popular. The Yahoo! Buzz Game invites players to wager play-money on the currency and buzzworthiness of searchable tech topics. So, for example, if you think TiVo is a product whose meme factor is on the rise, you buy some virtual stock with your virtual money kept in your virtual account, and possibly make a virtual fortune. Results are based on Yahoo! search statistics—more searches for your topic causes your stock to rise—and the standings are updated hourly.

It’s fun, but the problem with the game is that its Yahoo! overseers must stay ahead of cultural relevancy when creating the list of technologies for betting. If the game is to mimic a real stock market, “companies” must be available for purchase before they are well known or very successful—seeing the tree when it’s a seed is one way that investors make fortunes. My first thought when entering the Buzz Game was to buy some stock in MythTV, whose buzz is still soft, but growing. Too soft, apparently, because it’s not available.

(Thanks to reader Jamie Wilson.)

Microsoft's Search Ad Engine Launches Tomorrow (Wed) (Tuesday, March 15, 11:20 PM EST)
Bloomberg

, the L.A. Times, and others are reporting that Microsoft will launch its search advertising business this week (Wednesday, March 16), but don’t expect a splashy entree. Microsft plans to roll out the service gradually, in targeted regions. Because of this, Yahoo!’s Overture division, which currently supplies sponsored ads to Microsoft in a contract lasting until 2006, will probably not lose one of its most important clients all at once.

I’m eager to see what this extra competition does to clickthrough prices in all three environments. Advertisers can find bargains in the FindWhat and Kanoodle networks. Will Microsoft’s exposre warrant higher bid prices for keywords? Most likely its traffic will answer Yes to that question. But how thin are major advertisers willing to be stretched? A major third channel ads 50 percent to the budget if advertisers feel they must be everywhere. with campaigns that convert successfully and profitably, scaling outward isn’t a problem; the budget always pays out. But for those with relatively unrefined campaigns, I could see each provider—Google, Overture, and MSN Search—cutting bargain deals with major clients to keep them on the network. Or, perhaps the market will self-correct, and keyword rates will naturally settle downward. That eventuality, though, is based on the idea that markets self-correct intelligently, which we know from the 1990s isn’t true. If search advertising is bubbling upward, all three channels will benefit from continually rising prices.

In the land of the googly (Tuesday, March 22, 04:16 AM EST)

Slice of life (Friday, March 18, 04:45 PM EST)

Code.Google.com: new open source (Thursday, March 17, 05:57 PM EST)

Lessons learned launching a web service (Wednesday, March 16, 10:12 PM EST)

Google goes X (Wednesday, March 16, 01:14 AM EST)

Drilling down shows up (Wednesday, March 16, 01:25 AM EST)