Despite their significant holdings of networking capability, Google won’t try to pump up the Clearwire mobile WiMax project beyond search and advertising.

Google as super-cheap, efficient, dynamic wireless Internet service network provider? Fuggedaboutit wise guy.

Unstrung said Clearwire won’t be able to touch Google’s “dark fiber,” networking capacity the company has yet to light up and use:

“At this time Google’s involvement in Clearwire is limited to the terms of its investment and does not include providing network infrastructure,” says company spokesman Andrew Pederson in an email.

Google will act as the default search engine for devices on the Clearwire network and develop mobile applications around the service as well as investing $500 million in the venture.

Of course, if Google gets its way with the white space hardware it wants the FCC to approve for wireless 700MHz access in the unused parts of that spectrum, they will have another outlet besides Clearwire to reach people toting Android-powered phones in the future.

LeeAnn Prescott at Efficient Frontier said the best performance in terms of traffic quality at the three biggest search engines belongs to Microsoft and its MSN/Live search properties.

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While shares of Yahoo clung to some gains after Microsoft withdrew its 13-week old effort to acquire the company, a minimal agreement for search ad outsourcing may pry up those clinging fingertips.

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Publishers fortunate enough to be in Yahoo Buzz, and receiving the attention a front page spot on Yahoo can drive, enjoyed some big traffic numbers.

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The economic struggles due to a weak dollar and the complete failure of the White House, Congress, and the Federal Reserve to restore its value means, for advertisers, a need to find other outlets for their messages.

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Your minimum keyword bid on Yahoo Search Marketing could go down, it could go up, it depends on how Yahoo’s new minimum bid policy affects you.

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Google announced during the ad:tech conference their Website Optimizer tool would emerge from beta, and become available to any Google Account, with or without being an AdWords client.

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Richard Brodsky wants regulations to protect consumers from online companies’ usage of people’s personal information without consent. Ad industry groups and several big names on the Internet lashed out at him in a letter.

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Spending on search marketing rises as it pulls money away from other ad initiatives, raising the question of how long SEM will be able to keep growing when considering that dependency.

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Buying DoubleClick for $3.24 billion is going to look like a beads-for-Manhattan deal in a few years.

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