Two years ago, my brother was getting married, and he had asked me to help design his invitations and the maps showing how to get from the church to the restaurant where we were holding the rehearsal dinner. I used to be a professional cartographer, so making a map was not a problem, particularly […]

Are you responsible for driving traffic to your Web site? Or building awareness with the difficult-to-reach demographic groups like teens and “20 somethings”?
Then don’t miss Search Marketing Expo - SMX Social Media Marketing in Long Beach, CA, April 22-23. Register today to reserve your place.
SMX Social Media Marketing is a must-attend event for […]

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:

Spy On Competitors, But Don’t Copy Their Mistakes Maybe it’s just me, because I’ve spent years ingesting the Purple Cow Kool-Aid. But I can never get over the number of cookie-cutter, copycat businesses that spring […]

Maybe it’s just me, because I’ve spent years ingesting the Purple Cow Kool-Aid. But I can never get over the number of cookie-cutter, copycat businesses that spring up online. Choosing the exact same business model as someone else almost appears to be a favorite pastime in North America these days. Kind of a macho, or […]

Google, Yahoo Keep User Data Too Long, EU Group Says from Bloomberg reports that 27 EU nations privacy officials unanimously are supporting a new proposal that may require search companies to delete search data before six months.
The proposal, Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, requires “valid justification” to store any search data, and […]

On Saturday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent a public ultimatum of sorts to Yahoo’s board: accept our offer or we’ll force it on you. Today Yahoo responded publicly to Ballmer’s letter. In essence it says: we’re “not opposed to a transaction” but pay us more.
Click to continue reading…

[…]

In articles on the NY Times and Wall Street Journal sites this morning, more details are surfacing about the intended Q3 rollout of Yahoo’s new ambitious, integrated ad platform — what President Sue Decker previously called “APEX” (advertiser-publisher exchange) and is now apparently being called “AMP.”
Click to continue reading…

[…]

Since the advent of “blended” or “universal search” last year across the major engines there’s been ongoing discussion and speculation about its impact on user behavior and search marketing. Gord Hotchkiss last year wrote extensively about how blended search (on Google) has in fact shifted the user focus from the so-called “golden triangle” at the […]

Later this week — on Thursday, April 10 — I’ll be interviewing Google’s
Marissa Mayer, vice president, search products & user experience, as part of her
keynote at our SMX Sydney
show. I’m looking for your help. What burning questions do those in the search
and the search marketing space have for Marissa? I’ve got my own list, but […]

Search Month is a
monthly newsletter that recaps stories covered on
Search Engine Land over the past
month. It’s also available by feed
here. Below, news
about Search Engine Land itself, then our 10 most popular stories from March
2008, then a major story for various search topics along with other stories
related to those topics since our last monthly newsletter […]