Online Marketing Blog

Amid lots of speculation this week, Google has launched a Jabber/XMPP based Instant Messaging/VOIP application called Google Talk. FAQ here.

For Windows only in this release, Google Talk works with several other IM clients so if you have a Mac or are on Linux, you can still connect. All you need is a headset, speaker and Gmail account. Conveniently, six Gmail invites are included when you download the software.

So far there are mostly accolades with one comment from Daily Rundown about the lack of file transfer, which is a feature that Skype offers. Also, you cannot make calls to land line or mobile phones.

I had the opportunity to talk with David Hayden of Jeteye yesterday about the new search engine company he’s launched today. A founder of one of the first search engines, Magellan as well as email company, Critical Path, Hayden is a proven Internet pioneer.

Jeteye is a learning search engine platform that allows users to search the web and save the results in Jetpaks. Relevant Jetpaks are displayed above normal search results. What’s particularly interesting about this is that rather than indexing raw web content, Jeteye relies on human filtering to drive search results.

It appears that Google, Yahoo and Ebay might be competing for a piece or all of Trade Classified Media which owns 575 print titles and 56 websites in 20 countries and is worth about $1.5 billion.

“Local search and listings are becoming increasingly profitable areas for internet companies, and are at the heart of new “pay-per-call” revenue models, which some see as potentially more profitable than pay-per-click advertising.”

The competition never ends. Via Revolution

Google is releasing an update to it’s desktop search program today that includes a tool called Sidebar, “a panel on your desktop which provides convenient, one-glance access to all sorts of personalized information.” Here are some screenshots.

Sidebar includes plugins for: Email, News, Weather, Photos, Stocks, Web Clips (RSS Feeds), Scratch Pad (note pad) and QuickView which shows frequently used items or recent items.

I guess this is sort of a MyYahoo but for the desktop rather than a web page.

Hat tip SE Blog

Anyone involved with organic search engine optimization knows the value of linking or connectivity and how it contributes to higher search engine placement.

This blog does well on some competitive phrases in part, due to links. For example, a quick check on Marketleap’s Link Popularity tool shows 90,927 links to Blog Herald making the complaint that something fishy is going on. Matt Cutts posts a very interesting reply on his blog. The complaint was that Google was mingling with people who openly spam Google. As if a spammer would gain some benefit from that? Google is smarter than that and you can read Matt’s post about it just to be sure:

Barry of Search Engine Roundtable gives the full lowdown on WebmasterWorld’s 10th PubCon, which will be held in Las Vegas Nov 15-17. Pubcon now has it’s own web site and blog, which is an excellent move Mr. Tabke.

If you haven’t seen it (where have you been?) Barry provides the best coverage anywhere of WebmasterWorld conferences.

If you work in SEO, SEM or any aspect of Internet marketing, this is a highly regarded conference that I can honestly recommend as one of the best for tactical knowledge of search marketing.

Tags: WebmasterWorld, Pubcon, search engine conference, SEO

Using a combination of cash and stock, Mamma.com announced yesterday they’ve signed a letter of intent to acquire Copernic, maker of desktop search and related tools. There was a little Mamma drama regarding the attempt to acquire Copernic earlier this year involving some SEC investigation of Mamma.com.

However, according to Martin Bouchard, executive chairman of Copernic:

“Based on further due diligence, we are now confident that Mamma.com is a strong and very well managed company,” he said. “We are positive about closing this transaction which will create a new organization capable of competing with the best of breed in the search engine sector of the Internet.”

Yahoo Local offers search by neighborhood and RSS - PC World

Amazon to offer SEM services through Efficient Frontier - Hosting News

Battelle releases second book excerpt - Search - How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

Google AdSense Blog goes live - Search Engine Roundtable.
RustyBrick also points a link to Jensense who will be on WebmasterRadio later today talking about YPN and Google AdSense.

Yahoo and Google nearly tied on customer satisfaction - SEW

Wordtracker has just announced a new keyword research guide, “A practical guide to using Wordtracker to conduct keyword research for an online business”.

The guide provides an overview of Wordtracker features and offers a case study of how a company might use keyword research in various stages of building an online campaign.

Contributors include: Bryan Eisenberg, B.L. Ochman, Kevin Lee, Stephen Mahaney, Ken McGaffin, John Alexander, Neil Davidson, Robin Good and Nick Usborne.

The guide provides a great overview of how important keywords are in developing an online marketing strategy, understanding your marketplace, target customers and paid search placement.

The blog search engine, Feedster published their list of the top 500 blogs for August and I’m happy to say that Online Marketing Blog weighs in at 182. That’s higher than Google Blog (213) and Yahoo Search Blog (197)! Amazing.

Rankings for other blogs I read include:
IT Conversations #26
Om Malik’s Broadband Blog #52
Micro Persuasion #56
Seth’s Blog #70
Scobleizer #74
Jeremy Zawodny #103
gapingvoid #106
Dave Sifry #136
John Battelle #139
Blog Herald #157
WebmasterWorld #164
Robin Good #167
Yahoo Search Blog #197
Chris Pirillo #202
Darren Rowse Problogger #203
Google Blog #213
Jakob Nielsen’s Useit #237
Adrants #254
MarketingVOX #347
Ensight Jeremy Wright #348
InsideGoogle #436
Search Engine Roundtable #500 (this one really should be much, much higher)

The LA Times reports that News Corp is in talks to buy the Blinkx search engine.

Rumblings started last week when Murdoch said he was looking for a search engine to buy.

Search Engine Journal speculated this morning that potential targets might be Looksmart, Mamma, Technorati or Gigablast. Blinkx was not on that list.

I will update this post in a bit, but want to get the initial announcement out now.

Tags: Rupert Murdoch, News Corp, Blinkx