Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer generates about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea or coffee, according to research from Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, whose studies on the environmental impact of computing is scheduled for release soon. The article ran in (the London) Times Online, which prompted Google execs to respond on the company's official blog. Wissner-Gross's research suggests viewing one Web page generates "about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a website …

How do you ensure search engine crawlers pick up pages on Web sites that provide a long list of countries in which they conduct business? If you are a global business, these pages are essential -- helping consumers find information on products and services specific to regions -- but they are not SEO-friendly. They have no keyword-rich copy or links that would make it easier for search engine bots to find and index the pages, according to Stephan Spencer. Spencer visits Lenovo's site "masquerading as Googlebot," using lwp-request, one of his "power-user command-line tools," identifies the problem …

Tomasz Imielinski said Ask.com has introduced several semantic search-related technologies like Direct Answers from Databases (DADS), Direct Answers from Search, and AnswerFarm. The increasing availability of structured data in databases and XML feeds has fueled advances in Ask.com's proprietary DADS technology, he writes. DADS doesn't require Ask.com to rely on text-matching simple keywords, but rather parsing user queries and database queries, which lets the search engine return answers from structured data in real time, Imielinski explains. The post provides insight into tests being done with DADS, DAFS and AnswerFarm on NASCAR-related search to determine the accuracy of delivering …

It took blogger Perry about four months to double Web site traffic on KidPub.com using SEO, Nodewords and Pathauto. The site, built in Drupal, caters to kids who like to write, giving them a place to post stories, poetry, reviews, and other creative writing. In August 2008, site traffic averaged between 3,000 and 4,000 unique visitors per month. Perry wanted more. With some hard work and SEO know-how, Perry boosted traffic by December to more than 5,000 unique visitors per month to about 9,000. KidPub.com is now the No. 1 search result on Google for five of …

Dan Kuthy argues that conversion rates may provide a misleading metric, and makes the case for average revenue per visit as a more meaningful key performance indicator (KPI). "Conversion rate" is not a sufficient metric to determine revenue yield of media in an ecommerce environment, he writes. Kuthy's example compares two hypothetical product categories on both conversion rate and average revenue per visitor, and concludes that the second metric is critical to evaluate numbers not reliant on search media/auction models.

If you haven't begun to start thinking about optimizing your online video content for search engines, Nate Elliott suggests that now's a good time. "Less than 20% of marketers tell us they insert keywords into the filenames of the videos on their site, and even fewer use more advanced tactics like writing keyword-rich captions and annotations, or creating online video libraries," he writes. More search engines have begun to use blended search results, a mixture of video, text, graphs and more returned in search query results. Elliott provides a list of dos to ensure your videos are picked …

Andre Scholten explains how to use Google Analytics filter he developed to track Google keyword rankings. Detailed descriptions, accompanied with graphics, step you through the process of building the custom filters. "What you see are not the actual rankings, but the number of the first result of the page the keyword was on," Scholten writes. "So when you see 20, it means the keyword was on the third page and a 50 means the sixth page."

Esther Kane explains how Google Insights helps you "find out what your audience is looking for" by showing what keywords users search on. She steps you through the process of looking up keyword phrases by search term, location or time range. Kane explains the Google tool provides insight into where the keyword phrase is used most, as well as the top phrases, and how much they have increased or decreased during a specific time frame. Knowing how much interest there is in keyword phrase helps you select the type of words to bid on and how much to …

Stephan Spencer, Netconcepts founder, isn't a huge fan of using Google-owned Blogger as a blogging platform, because it's hard to optimize well. He asserts in a video interview posted by Chris Crum that once you get on Blogger it's hard to get off, because it doesnt support 301 redirects. Nor does Blogger support sticky posts and tag conjunction pages, though they are useful SEO features, Spencer explains in the interview. The blog's video post also highlights why it's time for closer collaboration between marketing and IT departments. Spencer suggests ways to ease communication with IT folks, like …

Nathania Johnson tells us Bruce Clay's SEO group has introduced two free SEO tools: Search Engine Optimization/KSP and SEMToolBar. The SEMToolBar installs in a browser, but only works with Internet Explorer. Both tools provide select competitive intelligence data from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Search Engine Optimization/KSP offers keyword statistics. SEMToolBar supports about 20 languages, offers customized search interfaces, domain highlighting, proxy searches, search result annotation, keyword demographic data and page stats.