The official Google blog has a post announcing the changes made by Google to the preferred domain feature of the webmaster tools. When Google initially launched the preferred domain feature , it added the non-preferred version to the users account, so that he could see any information associated with the non-preferred version. This was confusing, so now certain changes have been introduced. Now, on setting the preferred domain, the non-preferred version will no longer be added to the your account. If the non-preferred version has alreday been added to your account, then it would be removed over next few days. And, in case you would like to see any information about the non-preferred version then you can always add it to your account. The FAQ has been updated with tons of new questions and replies about the preferred domain feature.
After the Yahoo! and eBay strategic partnership Yahoo Search Marketing ads for eBay.com now show a Paypal Shopping Cart icon in the ad copy. The addition is much similar to the way Google shows their Google Checkout item next to the ads of participating retailers, showcasing advertisers and merchants who accept Paypal payments. Andrew at Traffick has got some Yahoo! ads showing how Yahoo Search Marketing is following the same route as Google. Yahoo! must work to guarantee their users that using Paypal to purchase online is safe, if it is deciding to bank all its future payment system on a partnership with Paypal.
Google has added a new module for its personalized homepage users. With the new module, Google attempts to find other things that will be of interest to you
along with your own searches. The module offers three tabbed options- Searches, Pages and Gadgets.
MSN Search would be replaced by Windows Live Search by Thursday. Also, Microsoft is taking off the "beta" label from Live, Live Search and Live Local.
Live Search comes with some brilliant innovations in image search like slider bar, scratchpad and scrolling. The users can browse through a range of vertical tabs- Web, Images, News, Local and QnA.
Northern Light announced the opening of Business Research Engine which allows free access to searching business content. The users can browse the Market Intelligence Centers, the key feature of the Business Research Engine, to run searches. Searchable business research content includes journals, business web,
news and white papers.
A whitelist of URLs has been released at sb.google.com lists the safe URLs to be used for Google Toolbar. In the forums of
Google Blogoscoped, one finds that this whitelist will prevent the "Web Forgery" warning in the Google Toolbar from popping up on the listed sites.
Website traffic has become highly controversial. This was proved recently when Hitwise
issued a press release "reporting that for the first time, www.myspace.com has surpassed Yahoo! Mail as the most visited domain on the Internet for US Internet users." Yahoo! replied by issuing a release seeking to clarify the numbers and reaffirm that it was number one US destination online.
The Inside AdWords blog recently announced new feature, that allows advertisers to see how their ads appear. You can now "preview ads and search results as they would appear on a regular Google search results page, without accruing extra impressions for your ad." By adding geographic parameters to the search result page URL, you can also view how ads would appear in other geographic locations.
It has been reported that MSN recently sent out a MSN Newsletter stating that MSN Search is no more as it is about to be retired. The letter says , "The beta, or pre-release, testing of Windows Live Search is nearly over so if you've used it or sent us feedback we salute you – don't worry no group hugs or anything, just a genuine thanks from the team. The new Windows Live Search allows for far more customisation, control and accuracy than ever before and is now a lean mean searching machine with many new features such as the ability to determine how much information you want displayed on your query results and the new in-site search."
According to a recent report by Brian Morrissey at Adweek, ESPN is all set to drop Yahoo! Contextual Ads from Espn.com. Instead, ESPN will embark on using Quigo AdSonar. Quigo AdSonar is an auction-based, content-targeted advertising network which helps premium-branded websites as well as their advertisers make connection with customers to deliver superior results. AdSonar incorporates in generating an efficient marketplace by bringing good contents from publishers and advertisers.
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