This Week in Search: Inauguration Day Edition

By Betsy Carpenter, Coordinator, Marketing & Strategic Partnerships

Hello and Happy Inauguration day to all! Hopefully everyone survived the cold last week that seemed to sweep the entire nation (temperatures as low as negative 30-40 below) and was able to enjoy their holiday weekend. However, the President and the weather aren't the only things that have changed recently; get ready to hear the latest industry news that may not be all over CNN.

Here we go!

• Going off the theme, "inauguration" searches are up 75% over last week, as well as 75% over the last inauguration in 2005, and one guy is cashing in. Andrew Pearson has generated approximately $10,000 through his website, InaugurationRent.com, that was created shortly after the election on Google's Adwords.
• Google announced that it will end its offering of newspaper print ads as of February 28, 2009. Google stated that by ending products that are not providing the results they wish to see, they can increase their focus on efforts that will provide a greater service.
• GetListed.org, a new site for local business owners to check where their listings are displayed, launched this week. GetListed allows for users to check their listing on Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Live Search Maps and Best of the Web Local, as well as provides links to add, enhance or claim their listings.
• Google launched Google Preferred Sites this week. Google Preferred Sites allows for searchers to list sites they wish to appear more often in their personal search listings. Google Preferred Sites feature also suggests frequently visited sites to Google users.
• According to a recent study released by Efficient Frontier, search marketing spend is down 8% in Q4 2008 from Q4 2007. Google will report its Q4 results on Thursday.
• Google recently dropped its iPhone optimized iGoogle page. Instead iPhone users have been redirected to the standard mobile version for iGoogle. Although Google has reassured users that every mobile user is seeing the same version, iPhone users are not happy.
• Microsoft Live Search has added a new feature allowing for news alerts to be delivered directly to a Live ID email address. Live Search's news alerts are completely customizable and can be unsubscribed to at any time.

That's it for now - until next time, happy searching!