Last week, I posted an entry about the launch of Google’s CPA program… about 4 months too late. After the post went live, my tardiness was pointed out by Digital Inspiration. This was confirmed by a number of resources, including Jennifer Slegg (at SearchEngineWatch) and WebProNews’ David Utter.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

Steve Rubel in his Micropersuasion blog points out that Google News is now linking to Google Blog Search at the top of the home page. Steve asks if this is the beginning of an integration of news and blog search.

I think it is simply part of their cross-promotion strategy. Google has already included hundreds of hand-picked blogs in Google News. I don’t think they will take the Topix.net approach and actually mass-include blog posts with news results.

Google needs to promote their various sites and can’t do it all from their main search page. Using their own popular portal sites like Google News to promote related products like Blog Search is an easy cross-promotion solution.

If they linked to everything from Google.com they would become … Yahoo!
———–
Rich Ord
CEO, iEntry, Inc.
Publisher of WebProNews

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Trying out new software and reporting what you find is a lot of bloggers engage in, especially when it comes to something popular controversial like Internet Explorer. Currently, yours truly is putting Firefox 2.0 RC3 through its paces (I like it), which is what a lot of people are doing with the latest release of Microsoft’s much-maligned browser.

One well-known search blogger, Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped, is trying out IE7 and he came across an interesting discovery - MSN’s Live Search is not the default search engine for the browser’s search function (I can’t duplicate this test at work because I’m running Windows 2000). As odd as it sounds, Google was Phil’s default search, although that occurrence probably has to do with his previous settings.

Because he wanted to test Live Search from IE7, Phil tried to switch over and discovered something else - when he tried to remove Google, nothing happened. It sounds like MSN is deferring the browser search function to other companies… Undeterred, Phil tried to switch search providers going through the list provided by Microsoft and this is what he discovered:

Fiddling around a bit more, I realized that instead of taking this buggy route, I can click on “find more providers” in the search box expander… which, however, is a page which does not include MSN search anywhere (there’s “Live Search” with a tiny Windows icon, but that’s it… will everyone instantly recognize this as Microsoft search?). Did the Redmond guys adopt Google’s “don’t be evil” policy just when Google themselves are loosening up a little?

Considering how many people conduct search from their browser, I would’ve figured MSN would use this opportunity to show of their engine. It appears this is not the case, at least right now. Perhaps when Vista finally comes out, Live Search will be IE7’s default engine.

Postscript: WebProNews’ Mike McDonald made his WPN Video Blog debut yesterday with an awesome search optimization tip that can help improve rankings in Google and beyond. The funny thing about it is it’s a fairly simple tip, but one that many forget to implement. Check it out.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog

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Have you ever wondered what all those acronyms and different phrases associated with search marketing stood for? Abbreviations like SEO and SEM and phrases like bait-and-switch, canonical URL, and keyword funnel? Thanks to Aaron Wall at SEOBook, who just released The Search Engine Marketing Glossary, you no longer have to worry about what forum posters and search marketing pundits are talking about.

The glossary is quite comprehensive, featuring just about every word and phrase associated with SEM, including number phrases like 301 and 404. A tool like this can only benefit those who are just starting out in the search marketing world as well as veterans who need to recommend a resource for potential clients.

Not only does Aaron offer the glossary, he also developed it under the Creative Commons license. This means users can “modify it, distribute it, sell it, and keep the rights to whatever you make.” If you are a new search marketer who is getting tired of being confused or a user who just wants to expand their search knowledge base, the SEM Glossary has just what you need.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog

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One of the biggest issues facing the Google acquisition of YouTube is the amount of copyright infringement that takes place. Many of the videos available on YouTube are not of the vlog variety. Instead, they are clips and scenes from television shows, movies, concerts, and other protected works. When the GooTube purchase was announced, one of the first critical reactions had to do with the idea of content providers lining up to get a piece of Google’s treasure, now that there is someone with money to file lawsuits against.

Last night, Google’s new property was faced with their first big test since the purchase was announced. According to Reuters, YouTube removed 29,549 videos from their inventory after a Japanese group of media companies demanded they do so because of copyright implications. The group, called the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, indicated the videos in question were posted without the proper permissions being granted.

The group also called for Google/YouTube to set up screening procedures that would block the unauthorized posting of copywritten material. They also called on YouTube users and members to stop posting copyright-protected video clips, a request that will likely fall on deaf ears.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog

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Google released their 3rd quarter financial report today. Needless to say, the results were quite impressive. Google reported $2.69 billion worth of earnings for Q3, a 70% increase from last year’s 3rd quarter results (1.58 billion). This was also a 10% increase over the second quarter revenues of 2006, which totaled $2.46 billion.

CEO Eric Schmidt offered his thoughts:

“Our third quarter results are a testament to the strength of our network of advertisers and partners, as well as our continuing focus on users. We were particularly pleased with the contributions of our international business in a seasonally weaker quarter. In addition, we continued to forge significant partnerships with companies such as eBay, Fox Interactive Media, and Intuit that will be of great value to all involved.“

Highlights from Google’s 2006 3rd quarter report (PDF) include:

Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $1.63 billion, or 60% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2006. This represents an 84% increase over third quarter 2005 revenues of $885 million and a 14% increase over second quarter 2006 revenues of $1.43 billion.

Google Network Revenues - Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.04 billion, or 39% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2006. This is a 54% increase over network revenues of $675 million generated in the third quarter of 2005 and a 4% increase over second quarter 2006 revenues of $997 million.

International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States contributed 44% of total revenues in the third quarter of 2006, compared to 42% in the second quarter of 2006 and 39% in the third quarter of 2005. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the second quarter through the third quarter of 2006, our revenues in the third quarter of 2006 would have been $19 million lower. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the third quarter of 2005 through the third quarter of 2006, our revenues in the third quarter of 2006 would have been $35 million lower.

Read the entire report.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog

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Adobe, long associated with images and text, has decided they aren’t going to miss out on the online video/video blogging age. They “announced” their intentions with the acquisition of Serious Magic Inc., makers of video publishing software including a vlogging package. Adobe’s intentions to enter this particular ring were also apparent in their press release statement:

“The huge momentum behind Flash Video, which is powering everything from online TV shows to YouTube and MySpace, is turbo-charging Adobe’s video business,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. “The purchase of Serious Magic accelerates our vision to make, not just video but all dynamic media, an even more ubiquitous communications vehicle, whether you’re delivering content for the broadcast market, over the web or on mobile devices.”

Adobe will continue to sell Serious Magic’s products. I’m curious if we can expect an Adobe video blog anytime soon.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

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One of the issues facing the search engine industry is privacy. People aren’t necessarily keen on the fact search engines store each and every query executed as well as the applicable IP information. Remember the AOL debacle? In light of those events, you’d have to think active search engine users would welcome a command that ensures their privacy.

Thanks to the guys at poundprivacy.org (written as #privacy), we may soon have one.

The #privacy approach is pretty simple. What they suggest is if you wish to make a query private (the search engines won’t store it), you end the keyphrase being searched with #privacy. For example, a private search for online marketing would look like this - online marketing #privacy. As you can see, this is a relatively simple exercise. The only missing element is acceptance from the search engines.

Their site explains further in an open letter to the Big 4:

The #privacy standard as offered by www.poundprivacy.org makes it incredibly easy for all search engines - major search engines (and potentially site searches) - to empower their users to protect their own query privacy. The standard is simple: if a user includes #privacy in a search query, the search engine should not associate that IP (or other tracking mechanism such as cookies) with the query, nor should that query be made available via public or private keyword tools such as Google Suggest or Overture Keyword Selection tool.

The reason the group chose the “#” character is because none of the Big 4 use the symbol as a special operator. This means the #privacy command would not interfere with existing commands. As far as I can tell, most of the search pundits believe this is a very good idea and one that should be adopted. Now the question becomes will the search engines accept #privacy’s standard? The ball is now in their court.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

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It’s always interesting to watch aspects of a field you’ve followed for the better part of two years get accepted into the mainstream. Such is the case with United Press International (UPI), a leading news broker, who recently began selling text link advertisements that will be displayed throughout their various channels. While text link ads are nothing new, the method in which UPI is offering these text links are, at least to the mainstream media.

Not only is UPI offering text links, they also listed a number of benefits customers would receive for doing so and all of them were search engine related:

UPI is offering, for a limited time, advertising text links in each section of UPI.com. By purchasing a text link, your website could benefit by:

* Increasing Page Rank
* Attracting more traffic to your site
* Improving search engine results
* Converting traffic into sales

While it’s quite common for sites of this size to offer advertising to potential clients, you very rarely see the sales pitch focus on search engine benefits. Of course, this type of link buying goes against the conventional wisdom according to Matt Cutts:

Google (and pretty much every other major search engine) uses hyperlinks to help determine reputation. Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and link-based analysis has greatly improved the quality of web search. Selling links muddies the quality of link-based reputation and makes it harder for many search engines (not just Google) to return relevant results.

Hat-tip to Threadwatch

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

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If you are searching for another outlet to display your ads in, MSN has answered your call. An announcement on the MSN adCenter blog revealed the company is allowing current adCenter members to register for the adCenter Content Ads pilot program, a service that displays ads in the “high-quality MSN inventory.”

MSN’s content advertising works in a similar method to Yahoo’s Content Match service, allowing users to expand their campaign beyond search engine results. Once you sign-up at MSN, the company will send an invitation giving users the ability to participate in their new advertising program. The MSN adCenter blog entry has more information:

Participating in the pilot will not only offer you access to our high-quality MSN inventory, but it will also allow you to see a technology preview of a few new UI features. Content Ads offers the same flexibility as Search, as you can set separate keyword bids for Content, and still use advanced targeting settings.

In case you are wondering what these content ads look like, the adCenter blog has an image of a banner ad appearing in one of MSN’s various channels. The ad looks like a normal PPC text ad and it includes three different companies you can click on. If you’d like to know more about this program, the post offers links to the FAQ and the Content Ads Overview. If you are interested in receiving an invitation, sign up here.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews

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