This Week in Search

By Betsy Carpenter, Coordinator, Marketing & Strategic Partnerships

Once again, the time has come, and once again it's been too long. With recent advancements, role changes, and hints at what's to come, however, it seemed impossible to ignore this post. Ok so - ready, set go:

• Microsoft’s Live Search GM Mike Nichols has hinted at some potential changes coming our way in recent interviews stating, “In our particular case, we, of course, care about revenue as well, but we’re not in the market position they [Google] are in. We are in a position where we can be a bit riskier.”Steve Ballmer sung a similar tune on Bloomberg saying, “new business models and ways to present Web search results” are in the works.
• This past week YouTube experimented with offering a “cross talk” ad to Lionsgate for their new movie The Haunting in Connecticut. In this new ad arrangement, Lionsgate not only occupied the masthead space across the top but the standard box unit on the right. With the amount of real estate being offered and the continuous rise in YouTubers, this could generate a nice chunk of change on both ends – just how much? No one is for sure.
  
• Yahoo! has made another new addition - former NetApp Marketing exec, Elisa Steele was named Yahoo’s new CMO today. It just makes me want to Yodel, YAHOOOOooooooOOO!
  
• A UK newspaper reported this past weekend that Google Earth in one of it's many random snapshots captured a naked toddler. Google has stated since that the image could not be seen clearly even after being magnified, but since they take matters regarding inappropriate content very seriously, the search giant had removed the picture within an hour after being notified.
  
• Media giants continued to complain today about Google's ranking algorithm which allows for in their words "parasites" to steal rankings from legitimate content. Google has prided itself in developing an algorithm which allows for the best content to appear for whatever query, allowing all advertisers and beyond the same opportunity to rank.
• A new free computer software, Boxee, allows for users to engage with all their favorite web content (hulu, iTunes, etc...) right from their own computer, further bridging the gap between TV & PC. Not everyone is excited, however, and many are trying to prevent this development; you guessed it, networks & cable companies are watching closely.
  
• Microsft unveiled a new version of Internet Explorer, IE8, bragging that this new version, allows one to, "view sites with ease, get things done faster, and stay more secure"...I appreciate the effort :)

At last - the finish line. However, it of course doesn't stop there - much more has happened and continues to happen. Tomorrow this will be old news, but for now I hope you learned something. Until next time - happy searching!