San Francisco-based Eurekster lets blog and site owners use "Swickis," or small widgets, to offer their users thematic search of their content. The Swickis are popular in the blogosphere, but Chris Silver Smith notes that local community info sites can use these Swickis to essentially create a local search engine for their area. Eurekster's Swickis include a standard search box that's surrounded by a tag cloud of specific keyword links, and users can either search naturally or click on one of the links for specific results. In addition to increasing the wealth of content that a local information …

Charles Knight provides links to this month's list of the top 100 alternative search engines, and the grants the title of "Search Engine of the Month" to Onkosh, the Arabic search portal. Onkosh boasts an extensive set of features, from image, blog and file search, to a recently launched mobile application, as well as the ability to search for Arabic text using English characters. Knight also reveals a bit of a dilemma that AltSearchEngines is facing in developing an effective way to choose which specific engines to promote (out of the thousands and possibly tens of …

Does your Web site deserve to succeed? According to Sarah at OneUpWeb, it doesn't if you're not constantly testing to make sure that it is easy to navigate, delivers the right kinds of information and snags conversions (be they subscriptions, lead generations or actual sales). Hours of SEO work and carefully researched PPC campaigns are practically worthless if the landing page doesn't convert users -- or they get lost in the process somewhere else on the Web site. Sarah suggests testing factors like your site's checkout process (if there is one), conversion click paths, as well …

Though recent Click Forensics data showed that both Google and Yahoo's content networks had much higher click fraud rates than their sponsored search ads, advertisers can still make use of AdSense and YPN for supplemental clicks. Search pro John Ellis was loath to use AdSense after seeing some of the poor conversion numbers, but has since seen his content network ads "performing just as well, if not better than" his search ads. Ellis lists four tips for getting the most out of content network campaigns, including steering clear of the big, branded (and often more expensive) …

Rebecca Kelley's post on analyzing search trends offers this practical, concise nugget of wisdom: "Don't take your cue from when the drugstore starts selling bags of Halloween candy - do some research and find out what last year's trends were so you're prepared this year." She offers examples for using tools like Trellian's KeywordDiscovery and Google Trends data to uncover when users start searching for specific holiday products and services. Armed with the research, site owners can be better equipped to get their relevant holiday content linked-to and picked up by the search engines in time for the …

The recent acquisitions of site-testing and optimization firms Offermatica and Optimost shine a spotlight on landing pages and their growing importance when it comes to search and online marketing overall. According to Jonathan Mendez, founder and CSO of Offermatica's OTTO Digital, "You need to strategize around every page as if it were a landing page, because it is." Sara Holoubek notes that the acquisitions represent a shift in how marketers define the goals and objectives of a Web site - from traffic, to information gathering, to conversions - which in turn affects how search gets included in the …

According to Dave Rigotti, search marketers who elect not to bid on branded keywords are missing out on an opportunity to snag highly targeted traffic - often at minimal CPCs. Rigotti also notes that branded terms are good buys for search marketers just starting out, as bidding on them (with proper price controls in place, of course) can keep costs low while they adjust to the Webmaster interface and analytics tools. He advocates making use of the various content networks for branded buys as well, since those ads stand a great chance of appearing around message boards or …

The vertical search engine space continues to grow, with AVIATION WEEK launching an engine for its users to find a wealth of aviation, space and defense industry info in one place. As part of an overall site revamp, the new engine runs on Memphis-based Inventory Locator Service (ILS) technology, and will aggregate aviation parts, products and service listings, as well as industry news, company info and content from AVIATION WEEK's print and online publications.

Natural language search engine Hakia has added a social networking feature called "Meet Others." After users initiate a search, the option to "Meet Others who asked the same query" appears above the results. If interested, users enter a room (or post a question to the room) with others searching for the same information. There's no need to create an in-depth profile or register to use "Meet Others," users just need to verify their email address. Hakia offers the option to have questions answered via a (masked) email address or IM. Richard MacManus notes that the feature "kind of …