Updates in Microsoft adCenter make daily account management easier, according to Shirin Miller. She runs through tweaks in features, such as location extension, browser updates, gender-age targeting, adCenter desktop updates, negative keywords, and global targeting. For example, she expects that by mid-March, negative keywords set at ad group and campaign group levels will combine, making the functions more similar to Google's AdWords.

Baidu's move earlier this year to support social content on its search engine will help to move more of China's population and advertisers online. Aside from the growing population, research firm eMarketer points to governmental restrictions on broadcast advertising too. A piece published Tuesday tells us that in January, China’s government made it more difficult for advertisers to buy time blocks from broadcasters like CCTV. A chart highlights social network use compared with the population, and lists some of the social sites most visited in the country, such as Tencent Weibo and Tencent QZone.

Search engines will make a determination on where to rank new Web sites in organic listings based on the number and quality of sites linking to Web page, the number of links and content shared on social networks, and many other factors. Sujan Patel tells us how new sites gain authority through the "eyes" of search engine spiders that crawl content. Patel explains how to begin -- by developing a backlink campaign, for example -- and takes us through the steps of determining keywords to achieve quick results and focusing on high-quality links.

Alistair Dent points to Google's ability to target specific Internet users across its display ad network, rather than the ability to reach 80% of people online, as the company's advantage when it comes to its advertising business. There are eight block sizes from which advertisers can choose -- and several targeting techniques, such as interest categories, topics, remarketing, and audience combinations, he explains. In addition to defining the techniques, Dent guides us through the process of combining different targeting methods, quality scores, bidding and optimization, and best practices for calls to action on ads.

A partnership with Cox Communciations signed in January has allowed Google to explain its ad inventory and viewers to more than 42 million households, according to Kalle Tompros, who explains how the setup looks similar to an auto-placement campaign in AdWords. The Google TV campaign is broken into networks -- which online marketers call ad groups -- and programs, or placements. The 30- or 60-second creative looks like a YouTube video ad. Tompros takes us through the offering, explaining a client's recent campaign.

Online search, information evaluation, and creation skills that shape students’ academic activity are developed in their personal and social lives. That's according to a recent study from the Berkman Center for Youth and Digital Media. One of the study's researchers suggests that rather than creating laws or rules mandating Internet use, policymakers should start by helping schools develop curricula to incorporate digital technology and ensure they have the correct resources.

Video search engine blinkx announced Monday a partnership with sports media group Perform, giving the company access to original and high-quality college sports content and allowing fans to keep up with interviews, plays and players from colleges across the country. Perform highlighted more than 3.5 billion video streams with about 90 million monthly unique users in Q4 2011 -- covering more than 200 sports, according to the company.

Microsoft Advertising adCenter released a new feature called Location Extensions that allows advertisers to display the business address and phone number in their text ad. Before searchers click they can see additional details about businesses in the ad results. Shamit Patel tells us about a recent Microsoft Advertising study of 850 advertisers in the United States that found click-through rates rose between 8% and 16% using the feature.

Marketers can group elements of landing pages into blocks that aid in the process of creating a perfect page. The six blocks used as a template contain a main headline, hero shot, data collection, call to action, benefits, and safety net. The template takes us through the process of creating the page, what should appear in each building block and how the elements fit together. It's a reminder of the days when desktop publishing first emerged in the 1980s. 

Marketers planning paid-search campaigns might waver on whether to outsource projects or keep them running in-house. Kevin Lee gives us a list of excuses that marketers might use to keep project in-house, but in reality many already outsource most of the tasks. Do these sound familiar? Search marketing is our company's core competency. Or a horrid experience with our last agency will prevent us from outsourcing again. He looks at some myths about outsourcing that in reality can become big benefits.