Google released a tool this week called Disavow Links that allows marketers to ask Google to remove specific spam-type links coming into their Web sites. Matt Cutts, Google's spam expert, points to unnatural links as one reason for the tool.

Imagine getting a job offer paying a $50,000 per month salary -- $600,000 annually -- less taxes and withholdings. That's Henrique de Castro's base salary for leaving Google and joining Yahoo as the COO under the watch of CEO Marissa Mayer. On top of that, add perks like an executive incentive plan, cash bonus, and stock options.

Most search marketers are familiar with using intent data from search queries to target paid-search ads on engines or display ads on publisher sites, but a startup called Perfect Audience has built a similar do-it-yourself platform for Facebook to retarget ads through the Facebook Exchange.

Search engine results pages are becoming a bit crowded. Some of the features just seem to obscure the important information, such as a company's location, phone number, and links to specific Web pages. Bing officially rolled out Sitelink Extensions this week to take searchers from the engine to specific pages on a company's Web site. Marketers can enter up to 10 for each campaign and apply the links to all ad groups. Step-by-step instructions on Bing Ads explain how to create, associate, edit and delete the links.

The cost per click for paid-search ads in Q3 2012 widely fluctuated per engine. For the second consecutive quarter, advertisers witnessed 6% inflation in keyword prices, according to the report. On Google in the quarter, CPCs averaged $1.41, up 8% year-on-year and 7% sequentially. The Bing-Yahoo network averaged $1.08, falling 10% YoY and 4% sequentially. Baidu came in at $0.19, rising 10% YoY and falling 4% sequentially. Finally, Yandex's CPC averaged $0.55, rising 13% YoY and falling 11% sequentially.

Google held a 77% share of organic search visits among Rimm-Kaufman Group search engine optimization (SEO) clients. Bing and Yahoo each held 10% market share. Nearly 21% of organic search visits occurred on mobile devices in Q3, up from 18% sequentially.

Google updated its search appliance Tuesday, giving enterprise customers more love and attention. Using technology in google.com, the Google Search Appliance (GSA) reinforces a business's internal infrastructure, crawling, analyzing and indexing corporate data. It has been 10 years since the company introduced the "Google in a box" for enterprises. Now the service offers new capabilities.

Where were you in 1994? BlueKai SVP Cory Treffiletti tells us that's when the business of online advertising got its start, managed by a group of about 100 to 150 people. At that time, targeting meant marketers knew the time of day or day of the week the ads would serve on the site.

BloomReach this week launched an algorithmic de-duplication technology that detects and reduces duplicate pages on Web sites. It does so without manual intervention, reducing about 95% of pages with duplicate content, increasing the signal-to-noise ratio and ensuring that the most relevant pages get found.

Nearly 90% of mobile restaurant seekers make a reservation or call within the day they plan to visit or make a purchase from a restaurant. Smartphone users had the most urgent needs with 64% converting immediately or within an hour of their mobile search activity, according to a recent study.