Facebook introduced a limited beta test of social bookmarking today, hopefully without the outcry some previous new additions received not too long ago. Facebook members from California universities Cal-Berkeley and Stanford are testing the feature and as Techcrunch pointed out, the ability to socially bookmark doesn’t have the same security issues faced by other recent features, so the outcry should be minimum.

Much like tags in Flickr or Technorati, Facebook’s social bookmarks (Facebook simply calls it “sharing”) will work in pretty much the same manner. Once you come across something you like or find interesting, you can “socially bookmark” it in two ways - either share it friends or by posting it on your Facebook page.

If you share it with your friends, the information is private. However, as the image of Facebook’s social bookmarking details page explains, if you post it on your page, the information becomes public. Facebook also reminds users the only way people can share your content is if they had access to it in the first place.

Techcrunch provides an explanation of the sharing process:

Users can submit items to share with others through their Facebook pages or with a browser bookmarklet. URLs from off site and pictures, notes or user profiles from inside Facebook can be tagged. Tagged items include the URL, a text excerpt and any notes a user cares to add. They can be either sent to your public profile or sent privately to particular friends.

As indicated, Facebook’s new sharing feature is only available to students at Stanford and UC-Berkeley. Once it is determined the social bookmarking works as its supposed to, Facebook plans on making it an all member feature.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog

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Let it never be said that Google isn’t active on the political front. Whether or not you agree with their stance on how they conduct business isn’t the point. The fact that they encourage citizens to vote is quite commendable.

Now, thanks the new U.S. Election Guide overlay on Google Earth, users can find out political information about the district they live including voter registration information, news and other assorted information about candidates in the area selected. These regions are identified on by what the Google Blog calls “patriotic stars”. Once clicked, these stars reveal the aforementioned data.

Not only does Google Earth boast the election guide, but they also introduced an overlay focusing on the upcoming House and Senate races. In order to utilize these features, all users have to do is select the appropriate Google Earth layer. Apparently, the necessary update is done automatically because there isn’t anything to download on the Google Earth site except for the Google Earth software.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog

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As many of you already know, Google launched a new service last night called the Google Custom Search Engine. Google’s CSE program, which is built from the Google Co-op platform, allows users to create their own Google search engine, including selecting the sites you want searched. Since this has been covered literally everywhere, I’ll keep my write-up to a minimum, briefly highlighting some of the features.

- Users can financially leverage their CSE with AdSense
- Control the look and feel
- Refine search results
- Include your personal search engine on your site

These are just an example of the control Google is providing users who are interested in developing a “personalized” Google search engine. To find out more, please read their FAQ. As with the other Google programs, in order to participate, you must have a Google account.

As I mentioned, there are an absolute ton of write-ups about Google CSE. WebProNews’ own David Utter got up early this morning and had his ready to ago around 5am EST. Take a look at what David has to say. Over at Google Blogoscoped, Philipp posted a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial, complete with images, for those of you would like to see custom search development in action.

If you’d like to experiment with an active CSE (complete with AdSense listings), drop by SearchEngineRoundtable and check theirs out (Google Blogoscoped has an active one as well). And last but not least, famed Google engineer Matt Cutts has also posted a review of his company’s new service.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog

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If you are a site/company that markets iPods or iPod accessories, then the Yahoo Search Buzz blog has some information that should serve you well. In celebration of the iPod’s birthday (5 years ago today [10-23-06]), Yahoo’s buzz blog (quickly becoming one of my favorites) decided to list the 20 most popular iPod-related searches, an excellent tool for those of you wondering how to adjust a iPod-targeting keyphrase or PPC campaign.

This list is as follows:

Hopefully, those of you who do market toward the iPod crowd can find some way to capitalize on the data provided by Yahoo Search. Effective use of the data gathered from web analytics reports can go a long way toward improving the success rate of a marketing campaign.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | The WebProNews Blog

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Are you worried about your videos getting lost in YouTube’s vast index? Are you looking for a site that caters to a specific niche, perhaps even focusing on the subject matter you shoot? Introducing Travelistic.com, a site that’s answered the call for those of you who shoot videos on vacation. The site’s tagline, Video for Travelers, eliminates any confusion between this and a travel agency site.

Not only does Travelistic have their sights set on being YouTube for vacation videos, they also want to be The Rocketboom of Travel, according to an ad appearing in their sidebar. The promotion indicates Travelistic is holding auditions for “a weekly video podcast series about travel.” Since they invoke Rocketboom, I imagine their series will be done in a similar manner to Andrew Baron’s creation, with their weekly segments perhaps focusing on videos from certain geographic areas.

If you are interested in becoming the Joanne Colan of Travelistic.com (the urge to call them Travelocity is maddening), please submit your audition video here. Although, if Travelistic is worried about securing an audience for their upcoming weekly production, perhaps they should consider the Get Out girls (who they already heavily promote)… that way, at least their male demographic would stay tuned.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | The WebProNews Blog

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Long time Jupitermedia CFO Chris Baudouin announced his resignation this morning. This follows VP Chris Elwell’s announced departure only a couple of weeks ago! Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler joked in his blog this morning that there is “One Chris Too Many”. The President of Jupitermedia, Chris Cardell, will serve as interim CFO until a successor is named.

Alan Meckler says not to worry …

There is nothing more to the change. However in these days of Enron and other scandals, I am sure Wall Street will quickly read intrigue into Chris’ decision to leave Jupitermedia. There is no story or intrigue to report other than the fact that Chris decided to make a change in his life after 8 years of terrific service and dedication.

The stock market reaction indicates some concern however … the price is down nearly 5% in early trading.

Both Chris Baudouin and Chris Elwell have been with Meckler since before the internet.com IPO. They were both in their early 30’s when they started with him.

I really doubt there are any corporate surprises behind their departures.

———–
Rich Ord
CEO, iEntry, Inc.
Publisher of WebProNews

It is definitely the time of year where seasonal searches start to appear prominently in the various zeitgeists and other search popularity reports. There are 3 major holidays people need to prepare for, including Christmas, and that’s why these searches increase so much during this time of year.

The first event on the calendar is Halloween and although the All Hallow’s Eve celebration isn’t a gift-giving holiday, it is still quite popular with kids and adults. Apparently, the idea of dressing up as your favorite character and trick-or-treating for candy still excites. However, the primary mood of the Halloween celebration is the element of fear. Because October 31st is associated with ghosts, ghouls, zombies, witches, and other things that go bump in the night, the searches associated with Halloween tend to focus on scary subjects. But which monster-related queries are the most popular? That’s where Yahoo’s Buzz Index blog comes in.

According to their Things That Go Bump In The Night entry, the following list makes up the top ten searches for frightening characters conducted at Yahoo Search:

1. Ghost
2. Pirate
3. Zombie
4. Witch
5. Darth Vader
6. Aliens
7. Devil
8. Mummy
9. Frankenstein
10. Chucky

Lists like these can be of major assistance when it comes time to selecting keywords and phrases to target on seasonal marketing campaigns. If your site carries items related to these queries, now is a good time to increase your focus. This includes local search marketing, especially if you own a brick-and-mortar costume shop that advertises on the web.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

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Google News users can now include blogs in their news queries thanks to a link promotion done sometime this past weekend. WebProNews’ David Utter has thorough write-up of this event, something many have expressed approval towards. The general consensus is the blog news search promotion will improve and hopefully increase people’s exposure to the blogosphere.

However, the Techcrunch blog wonders why Google stopped there. They believe Google should promote their blog search to at least the second tier (the “more” drop down box above Google’s search box) search level. The theory is a move like this would increase blogosphere exposure even further than the Google News promotion does.

With that in mind, what other search options should Google promote? There certainly are quite a few to pick from.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

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It was reported by Google Blogoscoped, reacting to an article appearing in the German online news source Golem.de, that the site Leipzig Trade Fair was banned from Google’s search index for using doorway pages. When Golem’s report hit, the Leipziq site owner had some choice comments about Google’s actions. However, these feelings did not stop the developers from removing the offending redirects and issuing a request for reinclusion.

Now it seems all has been forgiven because the site is back in Google’s index, including Germany’s version. From a webmaster’s perspective, it must be nice to see Google respond so quickly once the necessary corrections are made. Golem’s article hit the web on Saturday (10-21), which indicates the guys at Leipziq Trade Fair were informed of Google’s decision sometime before that. This, in turn, points to the changes being done, the resubmission request being made and acted upon by Google before this past weekend was over.

While being removed from Google’s index is never a positive, it is nice to see them reindex a site so quickly when the penalty items are corrected or removed.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

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I just received an email/press release announcing Danny Sullivan would be staying on with Incisive Media for the Search Engine Strategies Conference series. In the release, Sullivan says; “I very much look forward to working with Incisive Media on the SES events next year. The search industry loves gathering together at them, and I am very glad to continue on as a part of that.”

It’s not really surprising that Danny ended up sticking with the show he started. Leaving really didn’t make the greatest business sense for Incisive or Danny as far as I’m concerned. Looks like a lot of Danny’s earlier talk about “I really don’t expect that to happen” might’ve been as much negotiation strategy as anything else.

At any rate, I’m glad to see him back on the SES conferences. It was going to feel awfully weird not seeing him there. Read more at WebProNews.

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