At the beginning of the year, this post on the Apogee Search Marketing Blog made some predictions about search marketing in 2008. Before we try to make any predictions about 2009, let’s take a minute to review 2008’s search predictions compared to what actually occurred over the last 12 months.
Apogee’s 2008 search predictions were as [...]

In a courageous show of unity against the oppression of Base 10 numbering systems, here is our list of a dozen predictions for the search engine marketing industry this year.
1. Management tools become the cost of having a seat at the paid search table, rather than a competitive advantage.
In past years, advertisers in competitive spaces [...]

Only a few writers have mastered the art of keeping it short and sweet. It took Dickens only 52 characters to sum up the French Revolution. Luckily for novices, Google and Yahoo! offer a total of 95 characters to create an ad for online products and services. However writing for character limits instead of content [...]

TechCrunch:
The initial click-to-call release from Google was very easy to game with prank calls. They’ve re-released the service in a less useful, but harder to prank, version.

Media Post
The Kelsey Group sees Pay Per Call reaching $3.7 billion by 2010.
The article also quotes LCG/Apogee Search CEO Bill Leake.

Web Pro News
Slowly, Google’s pay per call service rolls out…

Chicago Business
Google buys ad space in Chicago Sun-Times, with a toll-free number instead of a link. Looks like another early try-out of the upcoming pay-per-call system.

ClickZ
Google is clearly working hard to get an Intellectual Property land-grab going to avoid a repeat of its early days in pay per click, when it wantonly tread all over the early GoTo/Overture/Yahoo patent on the fundamental Pay Per Click model, and had to settle the case (without, of course, admitting wrongdoing) for quite the [...]

ClickZ
Proving the legitimacy of pay per call as an advertising method, Google enters the game.

MarketingVOX
Pay Per Call is one of the best online vehicles for localized advertising.