This week the Federal Trade Commission has opened up a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s purchase of the online advertising company DoubleClick. While the general public may look aghast at sensationalized newspaper headlines that may read something to the effect of “FTC Investigates Google Monopoly,” we search engine marketers know better.
At its best, this investigation [...]

It seems that Google’s quest to bring knowledge to the world, every man, woman and child does have reasonable limits. Google already has the policy of not allowing alcohol or guns to be advertised through the Adwords network, and now has added a ban on another commodity, namely essay-writing services for students. Apparently [...]

With a deal signed just back in April, Yahoo became the sole provider of contextual ads on over 40 of Viacom’s websites, including MTV.com, VH1.com, and Comedycentral.com. It’s possible that the deal could grow to include the entire Viacom network, which totals over 140 sites. More specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Also, in [...]

Microsoft has always been known as a follower. Rarely do they innovate; their efforts are at best an evolutionary step on someone else’s work. And they never follow quickly.
Until now.
Slightly more than a month after Google purchases DoubleClick for about three billion dollars, MSN copies the action by purchasing Aquantive. That’s pretty quick to put [...]

Not to say that Yahoo is broken (scoff, chuckle, sigh, harsh realization), but it does seem as if they have come to the conclusion that they might never reclaim the position as industry leader; which is why they are now focusing their efforts in leading the mobile search market.
According to AdAge and M:Metrics Yahoo [...]

In the latest US search engine rankings Ask.com barely trails Google by 43% of the market share. However Ask is looking to shake up search engine standings by creating and promoting new search algorithms. All of which will be done without the help of recently martyred mascot Jeeves.
If you are like the majority of [...]

Are you an experienced search marketer and manager? Apogee Search is looking for a hyper achiever to join our team as the Director of Search Marketing Services and play a critical role in the growth of our firm.
We also have a number of other job openings.
To apply, please submit your resume to hiring@apogee-search.com, with the [...]

NoFollow is an attribute of the HTML anchor tag created by Google to indicate that a link is not trusted, and shouldn’t be considered for SEO ranking purposes. It is known by many as a link condom, and its usage is controversial, to say the least.
There are now discussions at SEO Black Hat and The [...]

The rumor that won’t die is back again; Yahoo and MSN Search are in the midst of merger discussions. While by my count this if the seventy-third time they’ve discussed the idea, something about this feels a bit different. Perhaps it’s the fact that at this point, even the most delusional Yahoo or Microsoft employee [...]

MediaPost:
David Berkowitz (Is the Son of Sam really examining the death of search?) evaluates the concept of “discovery”, where web pages include links to related content. To an extent, we see this at work on Amazon’s product pages, which often include links to related products.
Now imagine you’re reading an article on Peurto Rican Yauco Selecto [...]