U Rank - Microsoft’s Social Search Experimental Site. Out now from Microsoft Research is U Rank, an experiment that allows people to move results around, as well as share them with friends and add comments to listings. Want to play? Sigh. You have to register using a Windows Live ID. Why not just make it open for anyone to use on [...]

Google Ends “Link Week” With Inbound Links Advice. Google has been posting advice on links all this week. The two previous posts were on link architecture and external linking. Yesterday’s post was on the topic of inbound links. Google explains that inbound links not only bring you visitors but can positively influence your Google rankings. But when can these links give [...]

Yahoo Investor Seeks New Microsoft Takeover Bid. Mithras Capital, a small Yahoo institutional shareholder, is suggesting that Microsoft take another look at Yahoo and buy the company for $22 per share. That’s $9 less than Microsoft’s original bid for Yahoo during the takeover saga earlier this year. Yahoo shares are now trading near their 52 week low. As of the stock market’s [...]

A Practical Guide To Leveraging The Long Tail For SEM. Today: Tools from Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing that may not be news to everyone, but are definitely worth a second look. An in-depth guide to understanding the principles of The Long Tail and the practical application of it in SEM, followed up by the free read of the week. Google AdWords: daily budget tool I [...]

Search In Pictures: Google Indoor Slide, Yahoo Girl Coders & Umbrellas. In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Google San Francisco has an indoor slide: Yahoo Girl Coders! Lots of Yahoo Umbrellas:

ChunkIt, A New Information Extraction Add-On, Now Available. ChunkIt is a toolbar that digs deep into the links found on web pages, extracting “chunks” of information from those pages, allowing you to quickly find relevant content without having to click through on the links yourself. Think of the process you already use when scanning search results, or long web pages that are rich [...]

Google Adds Audio To Knols, YouTube Comments; What’s Next?. Google has added audio playback to some of its Google Knol articles; this page on Echocardiography is an example. Clicking on the “Listen” link in the upper right displays an audio player with surprisingly clear sound. Google Operating System recently pointed to more information on an Audio Knol help page: We are experimenting with Audio Playback [...]

Anonymizing Google’s Server Log Data — How’s It Going?. Back in March 2007, Google promised to begin anonymizing log data to better protect user privacy. That kicked off a wave of privacy pledges from competing search engines. In addition, by agreeing to limit itself, it inadvertently got the European Union to demand even faster data destruction. Below, a look at [...]

SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 10, 2008. Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Anonymizing Google’s Server Log Data — How’s It Going?Back in March 2007, Google promised to begin anonymizing log data to better protect user privacy. That kicked off a wave of [...]

Find Cheap Gas Prices With New Yahoo Shortcut. Looking for cheap gas? Sure, the price has been falling, but drivers are still looking to save. Enter Yahoo, which has rolled out a new shortcut that maps gas stations and gas prices directly within in the search results page. Just use the words “gas prices” or “cheap gas” followed by a ZIP [...]