• Why It Appears Google's YouTube Cloaks
    Aaron Wall says that if you're YouTube "you can put whatever you want behind a subscribe wall, still have that registration-required/paywall content fully indexed in Google, and then force users to sign in to view the content." He rants about the process, analyzes the situation to determine if VEVO has anything to do with the program, offers a solution, and later adds a note from a call with Google's Matt Cutts to explain why it happens.
  • Searching For WolframAlpha
    The WolframAlpha team highlights feature and function additions to the search engine, which launched live via Webcast earlier this year. The engine supports an "impressive collection" of mathematical functions, including gamma, ellptic and zeta. The team also describes the site's physical exercise calculator, which allows people to compute energy expenditure, fat loss, and oxygen consumption for dozens of different activities, from running to rowing.
  • How Personalization Does and Doesn't Change Search
    Rand Fishkin wants to put the minds of SEO professionals to rest. The practice of search engine optimization isn't becoming extinct because search engines are moving into the practice of personalized search. Although Danny Sullivan and David Harry mapped out the nuances of change, the industry still appears concerned. So, Fishkin attempts to calm some nerves. He details the impact personalized search will have on SEO, and what those supporting the practice should do differently.
  • WordStream Releases Two Free Tools
    The Free Keyword Niche Finder and the Free Keyword Grouper aim to help search marketers find profitable keywords. Lee describes how to use both and tells us why they're important. Lee writes the Free Keyword Niche Finder allows marketers to enter one term and discover relevant keywords and groups. If you have already done the keyword research, the Free Keyword Grouper can organize keyword lists into profitable segments.
  • Google Looks Back At 2009
    Google's has been providing a running summary of weekly search changes. This week, rather than run through the launches, Jack Menzel takes a journey through 2009 to highlight a variety of Google innovations, such as improving the speed of the Web, or at the very least, altering the perception of latency. For example, to increase browser speeds, Google released Page Speed to help webmasters optimize their sites. Then there was Google Public DNS, launched to help people obtain faster, safer, and more valid DNS results.
  • How PPC Search Influences TV Advertising
    Greg Meyers analyzes the differences and similarities between advertising on TV and PPC search advertising. Similarities include day parting strategies and call to actions. Differences include viewer intent. Meyers also points to what PPC marketers can learn from TV advertising. Aside from his own rant, he mentions three other blogs, such as SEOmoz.org, Search Engine Watch, and ANA Marketing Maestros, which have posts on the same topic.
  • Target.com Floods Google With Spam
    Greg Niland points to a flaw in Target.com's SEO strategy that continues to flood Google search results with millions of near-identical page errors. He explains that Target.com currently ranks No. 1 for Exercise Bike Clearance, and this practice "tricks" people into thinking Target is the most trusted site for this product. Niland writes that instead of Google removing these pages that are obviously error pages, it rewards Target's spam attempt with high rankings and online holiday traffic. He tells you why to think twice before doing this to your Web site.
  • Search Deals Make Twitter Profitable
    Citing "people familiar with the matter," Spencer Ante reports that Twitter will make about $25 million from its search deals with Google and Microsoft announced in October. Twitter's deal with Google will generate about $15 million, with the remainder coming from the deal with Microsoft. Of course the search engines declined to confirm. Ante does go into detail about past comments from Google's Marissa Mayer. He writes that the deals were made possible by Twitter's chief operating officer Dick Costolo, who joined Twitter from FeedBurner in September .
  • Microsoft Navigates To Best Match
    Noting that queries are generally classified as discovery queries and navigational queries, Bill Slawski tells us about a recent Microsoft patent filing. He compares the Microsoft filing to a recent Yahoo patent filing that details what the Sunnyvale, Calif., company might look for when deciding whether a query was navigational or not. Slawski bases some of his analysis on Microsoft's "best match" feature.
  • Why Google Fell Flat On Real-Time News
    The news of actress Brittany Murphy's death put Google's real-time search feature to the test. Danny Sullivan explains that when Michael Jackson died earlier this year it took several minutes for the news to make it into Google search results despite the number of search queries. When Sullivan searched 30 minutes after reports came out about Murphy's death, Google had streamed plenty of traditional news. But Sullivan wants to know if real-time search actually adds to the quality of Google's listings. Had Google recycled news from other sources? And why did Google come up short on real-time news?
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