Ninemsn is Microsoft's joint venture with PBL Media (parent company of the Nine Network) in Australia. And the company seems to be following in lock step with Microsoft's quirky tactics for gaining search market share in the U.S. Arnold Zafra has uncovered a promotion in which ninemsn is giving away prizes for using its search engine--including iPod Nanos! Each time a user searches, three cards (from a set of five) will flip over to reveal various prizes. If all three cards match, the user wins said prize. The promotion is in the vein of the Club Live campaign …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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, …

We're already in the latter half of 2008--and it seems like yesterday that the pundits were making predictions as to what the search landscape would be like by now. But Jody Nimetz offers a recap of what actually happened in search over the past six months, starting with the retooling of Ask. "Ask began the year by replacing their CEO, and hiring marketing man Jim Safka," Nimetz says. By spring, there were reports that the engine was shopping its Teoma search technology to a bigger player (namely Google), and though they never came to fruition, Ask did eventually …

Joshua Stylman takes Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) Chairman Steve Harty to task in this post, for Harty's recent comments pooh-poohing an agency's use of search marketing to promote itself. "We're not convinced that the people we are marketing to are using that as a channel..." Harty said. "We have a more targeted strategy than, 'We're open for business.' Search is kind of indiscriminate in a way." Stylman uses BBH's presence (or lack thereof) in the SERPs to illustrate why agencies actually do need to establish a strong paid and organic search practice for themselves. …