Before launching into reviews of TasteKid and Evri, two alternative search engines, Alex offers the following disclaimer: "I am not saying that the following search engines are going to by any means make a ploy to take over Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, GooHoo, or any combination." Emmy the TasteKid is a recommendation engine that helps you "explore your taste" in books, movies and music. Enter a keyword or query and Emmy suggests related bands, books or flicks from its rather impressive index. "You probably won't get any real answers out of Emmy, or even the titles of CDs or …

Have you received an email from a company guaranteeing you the #1 spot in the search results across thousands of engines? You're not alone. Matt Cutts, Aaron Wall, Rand Fishkin and other SEOs recount tales of the dubious offers they've received from search scammers in this article. Adam Audette shares the tale of a search scammer who snagged a client by cold-calling and giving a "guaranteed rankings" sales pitch. When the person didn't give in, the marketer created a quick PPC campaign using the prospective client's full name, then called back and told the client to Google themselves, …

Grant Crowell says that the discussions about online reputation management haven't focused on video (and video SEO) enough. After all, video clips can carry more weight than news stories, blog posts, and even company Web sites, depending on how well they're optimized. Crowell lists two examples of how he used video clips to outrank celebrities and politicians for their own names and related topics on the SERPs. In the celebrity case, Crowell snagged a video of "Sex and the City" star Kristin Davis during a press junket. He edited and optimized the clip, and it became one of …

Chris Boggs rounds up comments from a number of discussion boards regarding ICANN's announcement last week that the organization would soon open up the top-level domain system (i.e. what makes a site a .com or .edu) to allow for an "unlimited number" of domains. Some search marketers have suggested buying up .seo or .sem domain extensions before spammers or otherwise unscrupulous Webmasters buy them--both to keep the prices down, and protect the reputation of the search community from being tarnished by bad Web sites in the future. Other forum discussions revolved around whether a domain extension …

Most Web site owners know that doing a complete site overhaul requires time and planning, as drastic changes can cause sharp dips in SERP positioning. But even making changes to copy or tweaking the URL structure to make it more search-friendly can cause rankings fluctuations, so it's important to have a solid transition plan. Jennifer Osborne lists some of the questions a Webmaster should take into account when making site changes. For example, you should avoid making changes to URLs--but sometimes site improvements like reorganizing sub-folder structures, or making the URL naming system more intuitive, require those changes. …

Ask has made Microsoft's Virtual Earth platform its map provider. Map-based searches, including business search (Ask City) and Smart Answers queries, will now return Virtual Earth visuals and data. Searchers will also be able to drill down with the ultra-detailed Bird's Eye View. Ask joins a number of other search providers that have chosen to go with Virtual Earth in lieu of building their own mapping platform, including Superpages.com, YellowPages.com and WhitePages.com. "Allowing us to do the heavy lifting in building out a robust mapping platform allows customers to focus on developing applications that benefit end …

"Advertisers that aren't buying non-English keywords, writing search ad creative in other languages and optimizing landing pages for non-English speakers are missing out on huge revenue opportunities." So says Alicia Morga, CEO of Consorte Media, an interactive ad firm that targets the Hispanic market. Morga serves up a primer for running a Spanish-language search campaign, starting with the keyword selection process. "First, identify your top keywords in English, and then, find the equivalent in Spanish," she says. And make sure you run your choices by a native speaker who will be able to tell you if your literal …

If you want your site to rank well, don't use Flash! That's been the mantra of many an SEO, but Adobe has been working diligently to eradicate that stigma. And the Web design and tech firm has moved closer to having search-friendly Flash, announcing that the Googlebot can now "read" Flash files and extract text and links. So while the images and animation within Flash files are still non-crawlable, text files like the words-on buttons and URLs will be. Adobe is providing both Google and Yahoo with a special Flash player that will enable them to "introspect and …