The Live Search team has packed a host of new features into the engine to help Olympics junkies stay on top of their favorite countries, categories and athletes while online. For example, searches for "Olympic medals" will turn up up-to-the-minute tallies by country in a box nestled between the sponsored and organic results. Searchers will also find tallies for specific countries or sports (i.e. "medals for gymnastics," sans quotes), as well as succinct info boxes on particular athletes. Live Search is also providing Olympics-related news, complete with videos and blogs at a glance. The only caveat is …

Gordon Choi outlines the roster of players that any in-house search marketing team should have in order to be both competitive and effective. There are seven roles, ranging from overall account management to technology specialists, each bringing a particular advantage to the team. First up is the head of PPC or account strategist. "This role oversees the entire PPC operations and is responsible for the overall strategies," Choi says. Morevoer, the head of the PPC takes the reins in terms of ensuring that paid search is integrated into the company's overall marketing mix. Meanwhile, the …

Looks like the search industry has got a mini-Microhoo brewing, as Miva, a vertically focused PPC engine, has rejected a $41 million acquisition offer from Blinkx. The video search engine announced its intention to buy Miva on Aug. 8 for $1.20 per share--a 54% premium on Miva's then share price of 78 cents. According to Blinkx, the deal would have been a win-win--as the video search engine would have acquired a more broad distribution network for its AdHoc video ad platform, while Miva stood to gain "immediate platform improvements," higher CPMs and new functionality for its toolbar …

Danny Sullivan offers a number of examples of the search world and the "real world" colliding in unexpected ways in this post. For example, a British man presumed to be dead was found to be alive and well when pictures of him and his wife showed up in a Google image search. Meanwhile, a Canadian town has completely wired itself to Google Maps (including posting info like real-time fire alerts) in the aim of generating more tourism. And with the proliferation of the mobile Web, people can always be connected to an increasing amount of search data. So …

The Hanapin Search Marketing team continues its dissection of the AdWords Quality Score (and the factors that influence it) with this post detailing how to make account changes without negatively impacting an account's standing. "There are two important elements of your account that are actually quite fragile when it comes to your Quality Score: keywords and ad texts," says Joe Kerschbaum. When it comes to keywords, shifting them into better performing, or more relevant ad groups can raise both their CTRs and Quality Scores. Moving said keyword into an ad group with a better performing landing page can …

Navneet Kaushal sheds some light on SheerSEO, an online rank checking tool that his company has been testing since May. Kaushal says SheerSEO's interface is easy to use and yet still packs a number of data-rich features. The free tool analyzes a given Web site, and then suggests the keywords and pages that should be monitored. "Unlike other online tracking tools that are marred by their ability to track limited keywords, SheerSEO can track almost unlimited keywords," Kaushal says. Then it keeps tabs on the ranking of said pages, sending emails when placements shift, and analyzes stats …

Apparently there are no summer doldrums for the search engines--as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have released a slew of new product launches and upgrades over the past few weeks. The latest is an upgrade to Google Search Appliance, an enterprise-side search tool. Google has pumped Search Appliance with new customization features, including the ability to weight results, based on meta data like a document author's name or document type, and the ability to show different results to different departments. But according to Anthony Ha, the most newsworthy enhancement is the boost to the amount of …

Avoiding keyword and bid cannibalization can become a frustrating problem for marketers running multiple paid search campaigns for varying products or company divisions. "You don't want to compete against yourself for key terms or benefit one campaign at the expense of another," says the MarketingSherpa team. Using insight from Travel Michigan, a state travel agency that manages search campaigns for thousands of its partners in the private sector, MarketingSherpa offers five tips for avoiding campaign cannibalization. The tips range from creating mutually beneficial PPC campaigns--where complementary companies paid for a single campaign--to developing SEO initiative around keywords that were …

The perfect search campaign is developed through the usage and monitoring of six benchmarks, according to Howard Sewell. The benchmarks are as follows: Tt needs to generate a cost per acquisition (CPA) that's competitive with other ad channels; generate predictable CPA results at projected spend levels; and be expansive enough to cover every keyword, phrase and variation. Sewell also says that the campaign needs to deliver relevant ad copy and a strong landing page for every keyword; make optimal use of budgeting and ad copy testing, as well as geotargeting and day-parting; and lastly, be tracked through a …