Mahalo emerged over the summer with fanfare, and had some in the blogosphere calling it "The Google Killer." While it seems like there's a new startup set to "kill" Google every week, Mahalo's human-guided, algorithm-free search interface was backed by Jason Calcanis -- an entrepreneur known for his game-changing investments and products. But according to this StraightUpSearch post, Mahalo hasn't quite changed the search game just yet. While the engine offers a unique search experience, and guides users through an information-exploring process, Mahalo didn't get right to the point during poster Adam's search for the new Radiohead album, …

Travelers searching for bargain-priced hotels in Europe have a new resource from the EuroCheap Web site called CheapoSearch, an in-site engine that searches through more than 25,000 properties in 32 countries. The engine lets users search by date, rate, location and user ratings, compare listings from multiple reservation sites, and even book their stay. Hotel owners and travel agents cannot pay to get included in the engine, and the EuroCheapo team backs up the algorithm by combing through and updating the listings daily.

Google has upgraded its Analytics suite, bringing the total number of supported languages to 25, and shining some light on the forgotten Urchin (a desktop-based tool that doesn't have to be connected to the Web). First up is Event Tracking -- launching in a limited beta phase -- which lets site owners measure user engagement with interactive site features like widgets and Flash movies. Next is site search reporting, which gives Webmasters a read on how users are navigating through their site using search. The service offers reports on keywords and other site search trends, and is compatible …

Taptu is a new mobile search engine that aims to combine human feedback with algorithmic results to deliver searchers the results they want "in 10 taps or less." By using this signature "social-assisted search" platform, Taptu gets mobile users connected to their content much faster than the "two-and-a-half minutes" it takes on average with the current mobile search options, CEO Stephen Ives said. At launch time, Taptu is primarily focused on music (the search includes playable audio and video content) and fact-finding, and is optimized for some 20 handsets from device manufacturers like Sony Ericsson, Nokia, and, of …

Editor Jennifer Laycock piggybacks on a post by Mike Churchil from SEO ClubHouse -- shedding some light on why AdWords campaign managers may have noticed some strange queries showing up in their reports over the past few months. The problem: Google's AdWords Broad Match system. According to some marketers, the system that combines the queries from two consecutive searches (and serves up a PPC ad that is "sort of" tied to both) can end up costing advertisers money. For example, if a user searches for "picture frames" and then for "HDTV" afterward, a slew of "digital picture frame" …

Web analytics firms are working to develop reports that can more clearly define the correlation between offline campaigns and search or other online behavior -- but sometimes dollars spent on one medium can't be tied to campaign performance in another. And sometimes media spend on TV or radio actually shouldn't be linked to PPC ad performance, because it could skew the results -- or worse, screw up a campaign that was running well. Pat Stroh has devised a quiz to help search pros figure out whether their paid search campaigns are gelling well with a client's other off- …

When can a few clicks cost a group of PPC advertisers $1,000? When the keywords they bid on are some of the most costly AdWords terms -- and a reporter researching his paid search story clicks on them inadvertently. Adam Liptak wound up working on a piece about Google and its auction-based pricing model, linking the popularity (and pricing) of specific keywords to current events, industry competition and other cultural factors. Liptak found out that terms like "Asbestos attorney" and "mesothelioma attorney Texas" were some of the most high-priced, and sought to figure out why they were priced …

So much of the search industry is fueled by dialogue at trade shows and conferences, in-house discussions, and of course -- the ever-changing blogosphere. From breaking news and tech developments, to new tactics, tips and tricks, search runs on a knowledge-based economy that's ultimately benefited by the constant free-flow of information. But what if pros like Danny Sullivan and John Battelle decided to stop moderating and developing conferences? What if bloggers like the team from SEOmoz, Oneupweb and TopRank Marketing, or even individuals stopped sharing their thoughts openly? SEO Scoop's DazzlinDonna (also known as Donna …

Domain name registration and Web hosting services firm Network Solutions recently rolled out a business-only local search offering called ThinkLocal.com -- and Chris "Silver" Smith gives it a quick write-up in this post. Smith notes that while Network Solutions has some advantages (indexing the wealth of domains it hosts, for example) the ThinkLocal service still has kinks to work out and more robust sources of business listings to crawl.

As more marketers use online video to promote their products and services (on their own site or across the Web) knowing which video-sharing sites to upload to and optimize for becomes an issue. While YouTube may have the highest unique visitor numbers in the U.S., how much of that traffic comes from the marketer's target demo? And how easy is it to upload and tag video at Blinkx? In this post, SEO consultant Shimon Sandler aggregates some of the most recent video traffic and usability data from sources like comScore, Hitwise and Forrester Research. It's a quick and dirty …