Wil Reynolds jumps into the in-house vs. outsourced search debate with a list of questions for anyone faced with making that decision. First, ask yourself if you have access to the top SEO talent -- not just a guy or gal waving their "Google AdWords Certified" certificate in the air, but a consultant or team with in-field experience, past clients who are willing to vouch for them and a real passion for search. It may be easier to hire someone with the necessary skillset if you're in a niche market with relatively few competitors. Next, Reynolds …

Hackers and spammers have had a ball with the search engines over the past few weeks, and the malicious fun continues with the latest attack -- this time on Google's AdSense. Anti-virus vendor BitDefender is reporting that a new Trojan virus is hijacking certain AdSense text ads and replacing them with links to a third-party ad server. Once users click on these rogue ads, they're likely brought to a site that infects their computer with malicious code, or served the malware directly from the ad itself. The Trojan.Quost.WU threat was discovered on Dec. 17. While BitDefender was …

Rohit Bhargava lists the metrics that brands should focus on when it comes to Internet marketing next year -- deeming his list "The Top 10 Most Underappreciated Metrics to Track in 2008." For search, Bhargava says that marketers should focus on doing a qualitative assessment of the inbound links a site gets. Take the time to figure out how authoritative the sites that drive traffic to your site are. Go beyond PageRank and judge the quality of their content directly, as well as the quality of the audience they bring to you. Measuring how many users …

Ever heard of "Battleship Text Link Buys" or "Spammer Mouse Trap?" Probably not -- but that's because Brian Brown has taken some of the most well-known Hasbro board games and added a search twist, coming up with a list of 10 games to play that only a search marketer could love. For example, "Battleship Text Link Buys," is a game in which Webmasters seek to uncover their opponent's text link buys and report them to Google. The winner is the one who gets their opponent's PageRank to sink first. With "Connect Four Reciprocal Links," the goal …

Google has rolled out a preliminary attempt at standardizing video search by inviting Webmasters to submit sitemaps of all the video content on their site. These video sitemaps include title and location data, in addition to meta-data that can provide insight into what the video is actually about. Once the sitemaps are uploaded, video thumbnails and URLs will appear in Google Video search results, and likely make them more apt to appear in Universal, Maps and Local search as well.

Yahoo Maps has added new "drag and drop" functionality for routes, giving users the option of customizing their driving directions for things like shortcuts and traffic avoidance. Yahoo has also upgraded the search interface, putting photos and reviews right inside the window that pops up for business listings. The upgrades are the latest in the long standing "feature war" between mapping providers, and Mike Boland notes that Yahoo has been a contender in the space since the early days, much like Mapquest. Google Maps raised the stakes when the service was launched in 2005, and since then …

Computer security company McAfee recently published results from a study into typo-squatting, finding that consumers who misspell a popular Web site URL have a 1 in 14 chance (7.2%) of landing on a typo-squatter site. Given that these sites often try to steal personal data and are major sources of spam, McAfee has built tools into its anti-virus suite to protect users from these sites by flagging them as dangerous. But John Andrews takes offense to the "bad, sloppy research" that McAfee used to hone those tools, and argues that the anti-virus software provider will actually be shaping …

Greg Sterling uses his wife and her search for a pair of Emu boots for their daughter to illustrate how local search is actually better at driving offline conversions than e-commerce. They'd tried to find the boots while out shopping, and called multiple stores to no avail, so Sterling's wife took to the Web when she got home. She did a Google search for "Emu girls boots" and found a retailer that had a local chain in the sponsored results. Mrs. Sterling clicked through to the retailer's page and made a beeline for the store locator, …

Microsoft has upgraded the navigation and reporting features available in adCenter, giving Webmasters an at-a-glance view of up to 20 reports (via the Reports tab), and making it easier to toggle between different views. Webmasters can see graphs and details on keyword and ad performance in terms of CTRs and positioning, as well as conversion tracking if enabled. AdCenter also offers the reports in zipped, CSV format -- so users can examine the reports offline, in whatever spreadsheet or database programs they choose.

Yahoo's new Tune-Up feature for Panama give advertisers an automated way to optimize their bids on a per keyword basis with regards to clicks, conversions, impressions and revenue. Within 48 hours of running the tool, Panama will send you a set of proposed Max CPC changes and the resulting effect on whichever metric you chose to optimize. Tune-Up provides data on the current Max CPCs and the changes side-by-side, and gives you the option of refusing the proposal. The tool works best if you have a deeper campaign history with Panama, as it can use …