For every new dollar spent on search marketing, Google grabs $1.10. Probably the last time you heard a number like that, it was from a basketball coach at half-time encouraging you to give the mythical one hundred and ten percent. How does that happen in real numbers? Looks like Google takes a little from Yahoo and Microsoft.
 

Now that Google is a publicly traded company, traditions and advertiser friendly philosophies seem destined to clash with fiduciary responsibility. Imagine this scenario: Everybody uses Google, so every advertiser needs a presence there, and the law of supply and demand makes Google one expensive place to be.

So, while perusing Google’s Hot Trends today I noticed a particular brand of digital camera was one of the top gainers in search queries: the Polaroid T730 Compact 7mp digital camera. Curious as to what’s so special about it, I googled it, only to embark on one frustrating journey.

Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama must be pretty confident he’ll get his party’s nomination; his campaign recently posted an Internet advertising job opening. Job duration: Indefinite.

Google has had a longstanding policy against advertising liquor, along with guns and gambling. Frank Watson at SearchEngineWatch found it surprising, then, when a search for [vodka] brought back Google Shopping results.

The search brought back results from various vendors, along with prices. "Now that does seem like they are contradicting their own rules," writes Watson.

Pick a number between 6 and 950 and you’ll likely find evidence, or at least the antecedent number, for a Google ranking penalty. Webmasters and SEOers are in general agreement Google penalizes, and have dubbed them according to their numeric reprimand: -6, -30, -60, -950, and so on. Google inadvertently in cases has acknowledged such penalties exist, but has yet to present any hard and fast rules.

Search marketing firms going through the training provided by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization will be able to pick up a seal of approval after taking courses through the SEMPO Institute.

As a small business or site publisher, the route to Moneyville displays signs pointing to Google’s advertising products. In Google’s estimation, of course, but they may be correct.

Here’s the understatement of the week: "This wasn’t the best-argued case of the day." New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann was referring to the resurrection of computer repair company Rescuecomm’s lawsuit against Google, which was dismissed in 2006, but is now up for review by a federal appeals court.

I remember sitting in on a session at one of the Search Engine Strategies conferences as a befuddled metrics firm rep told a crowd of equally befuddled marketers that a significant percentage of the search population actually typed the URL of the desired website into the search bar.

Please welcome Google to the damned-if-I-do-damned-if-don’t club. The superiority of search results is what led to Google’s dominance, and investors have pressured the company to get back to its core competency while raising revenue. As soon as they do, though, retailers pitch a fit because things become too fair.

There’s a ton of information pouring out of the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York City, but we’ve done our best to bring you the best of it so far, via text and via video. Below is a representation of all of that knowledge, boiled down until each little bit fits into its own little nutshell. Or, since it’s Holy Week for some, just call them SES Easter Eggs, with lots of gooey SES goodness inside, once you click the link.

John Battelle, who literally wrote the book on Search, believes Google’s apparent media-company aspirations will one day come in conflict with its purist algorithmic history.

Mike McDonald and the WebProNews Video crew are in New York for the Search Engine Strategies Conference. Stay tuned all week for the latest developments in online marketing.

On day two of the Search Engine Strategies conference the expo hall has opened and I found my way past two floors of exhibitors to find the SEMPO booth staffed by the famous “free agent” and SEMPO board member, Sara Holoubek.

Yesterday proved to be an interesting kickoff to this year’s Search Engine Strategies conference here in New York. The Organic Listings panel was entertaining and informative as always and the Build Investment Interest in your SEO/SEM firm was an early indulgence for myself that offered great tips for those looking at the future liquidity and monetization for their agency.