The Search Agents points to a study from NewMediaMetrics that asked "3,019 participants between the ages of 13 and 54 to grade their brand and media attachments on a scale from 0 to 10." Although the list includes traditional television and print publishers, Google, iTunes and Facebook are among those ranked highest. AOL email, YouTube, Facebook and Amazon.com follow close behind.

More search results from one domain began showing up recently after Google announced that it would be doing so in August. Good news for clients, according to Rhea Drysdale, who explains why.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt continually asserts that mobile search activity and revenue will eventually become bigger than desktop search. He's said more than once that mobile search peaks at night and desktop search peaks during the day. A chart from iCrossing demonstrates the point, and according to new research from Citi Analyst Mark Mahaney, Google's mobile ad revenue run rate will come in at around $450 million by the end of 2010.

In an expected move to support online marketing, Twitter will launch a self-service ad platform next year. The company's COO, Dick Costolo, made the announcement Tuesday, speaking at the IAB Mixx conference. Costolo explained marketers' need for additional ad outlets and the increase in adoption rates for services already offered by Twitter.

Is SEO or paid search the correct online strategy for your business? Since neither tactic is perfect for all types of businesses, Mark Jackson tries to eliminate the hype with examples from case studies to help marketers find the best approach. Sometimes it takes both SEO and paid search, while other times one strategy works better than the other.

AdCenter now lets advertisers segment search traffic, which means advertisers can focus on Bing's and Yahoo's core search traffic. By default, marketers will see that adCenter opts them into "All Bing and Yahoo search network and syndicated search partners," but search professionals can change the setting in the adCenter user interface.

Got some extra time on your hands and want to win part or all of nearly $8,000 in prizes? The folks at Dojo (and friends), WordStream, Link Assistant and SEM Rush cobbled together for your entertainment a scavenger hunt. The idea is simple; each day this week, players get a clue from the Link Assistant blog.

The transition of Yahoo Search to Microsoft Bing removed important functions such as the ability to perform advanced searches using link and linkdomain parameters, according to Justin Briggs. He misses the ability to perform searches against page content, along with page title, URL, and anchor text. So, Briggs tells us how to solve the problem. He steps through setting up a Google Custom Search Engine using data from Open Site Explorer and briefly runs through the pros and cons of each data source.

The Deep Link Engine WordPress plugin released in March is part of Auto Content Cash. In theory it's a simplified version of Zemanta, but has an option to check if a reciprocal pingback link was published, Andy Beard explains. He reviews the tool, shares some pros and cons, and explains the ping-back and link approach.

New to paid search campaigns? Duncan Parry offers up nine tips for those starting out. He runs through an "avalanche of jargon," and explains algorithms to help marketers understand the process. Among the top tips: learning to track, test and targeting, and advice on mastering Excel (though most marketers would agree it's really time to move on from spreadsheets into analytics).