Marketers don't often talk about failing to achieve the return on investment for online search marketing campaigns, as the technology supporting the medium continues to become more complicated. The fact is that the technology and technologists building the platforms are less than perfect. Not just the technology supporting search marketing -- but display, retargeting, behavioral, location-based mobile and more. And we can't forget the most basic tool -- email. Here's a personal experience I've been holding close to the vest, as I decide whether or not to share it.

Yahoo this week had some explaining to do when news broke that Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba Group -- which the Sunnyvale, Calif. company owns a 43% share of -- restructured without the knowledge or approval of the Alibaba Group board of directors or shareholders. Reports suggest the move hurts Yahoo because of its stake in the company, but the tech company takes a different view.

Pretzel Crisps has capitalized on social media and keyword search terms by monitoring buzz on Twitter, and then stepped up to deliver samples to the offices or homes of those who are talking about salty or sweet snack foods. The brand has developed a targeted method to reach new consumers, drive product trials and raise brand awareness through Twitter -- a brilliant strategy that harkens back to the days when all brands took customer service seriously.

Repetitive tasks consume up to 40% of an SEO professional's day. Tapping into automation tools can help SEOs achieve up to 133% productivity gains on revenue-producing activities such as content creation and link-building. That's according to a study released Wednesday by Conductor. It's about time someone conducted research on automating SEO processes.

Last month at Google's ThinkMovie event in Hollywood, I nearly got booted out of the last two sessions because the YouTube guys wanted to preview features that were not ready for the few members of the press attending the event to view. After I convinced them I should remain, YouTube's execs removed the "sensitive" news from their presentation and allowed the media to stay.

Taking a mass of unstructured data across the Web and making it actionable will have consequences for search marketers. How will it influence the way search engine marketers serve up ads and content for brands? Today, search engines fail miserably when it comes to finding clear intent, according to Stefan Weitz, director of search at Microsoft Bing. Weitz, along with Mark Watkins, CEO and co-founder of Goby, kicked off the final day of the May 2011 Search Insider Summit on Saturday.

Now that marketers have reinvented marketing, what does the agency of the future look like? Technology and data will play a major role, according to Dave Tan, who heads search engine marketing (SEM) development at Google. There's a ton of data we need to leverage. Marketers continue to move from unified and standard media consumption to fragmented -- all leaving trails. It's technology's job to make sense of the data. Think of it as a digital platform, not a channel.

Gasoline prices in California have hit an all-time high. At the local Chevron station, I pay about $4.50 per gallon. Friends have told me they plan store outings more carefully, watching every penny spent at the pump. When the gas gauge reads "empty," it now costs me near $65 to fill up the tank. I admit -- I've been purchasing more merchandise online. Not so much because of the rise in gas prices, but the convenience. For many consumers, however, the price per gallon remains an issue.

For those who didn't get a chance to listen in on comScore's mobile search webcast last week, Mike Solomon, VP of marketing strategy at The Search Agency, presented basic techniques and tactics for running mobile search campaigns. Here are a few tips for setting up a campaign.

Paid-search marketers often talk about loving the ability to tweak campaigns on the fly. They learn from testing. And if the marketer ends up picking the wrong word for a headline or adjective in a description, she can quickly adjust the message. Here's a loyalty coupon program supported by location-based services and augmented reality, yet built on the same mentality as search marketing.