WebProNews

SMX East: Search And Branding

In the session "Search and Branding", Noah Elkin, VP of Corporate Strategy, Steak spoke about why brands matter in search.Coverage of the SMX East conference will continue at WebProNews Videos.  Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

Matt Cutts, Hitwise Check In On Google Chrome

Like its metallic namesake, Google's browser named Chrome attracted a lot of attention at first, then seemed to lose its shine and fall out of favor.  Still, Hitwise found a surprising side effect of Chrome's introduction, and Matt Cutts believes that it's solid in most fundamental senses.

Google Devaluing DMOZ and Yahoo! Links?

Google is no longer suggesting that you should be listed in relevant directories. In fact, they've even removed the suggestion from their webmaster guidelines, as Brian Ussery noticed. The page used to have bullet points for:

Moller Puts Flying Car Up On eBay

If you’re a pup like I am—31’s still a pup, right?—you might remember reading about Moller’s flying car of the future in the Weekly Reader back in 1989-ish. By the year 2000, so the story went (I remember it vividly—the excitement was overwhelming), millionaires would be buzzing around in these Jetson-esque flying cars, and by 2010 or so an average schmuck like me could grab one for probably around $40,000.

SMX East: The iPhone's Effect On Search

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL are all at very different stages of corporate life, and often don't focus on the same things.  All of the companies have expressed an interest in the mobile market, however, and so as marketers consider matching this, a session at SMX East was called "Search and the iPhone."

eBay Cuts Staff, Buys Bill Me Later

eBay said today it is purchasing U.S. based online payments business Bill Me Later for approximately $820 million in cash and $125 million in outstanding options.The company is also buying Denmark based online classified site dba.dk and vehicles site bilbasen.dk for $390 million in cash.

Ask Unveils Rebuilt Site

Ask's share of the search market is lacking, to say the least; deficiencies in both the tech and PR departments have long kept it fundamentally distinct from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.  But an overhaul and ad campaign seek to fix all that.

Google, Yahoo Put Ad Deal On Hold

Google and Yahoo have agreed to put their search advertising deal on hold while Justice Department regulators continue their antitrust review of the controversial partnership."The companies have agreed to a brief delay in implementing this agreement to continue our ongoing discussions with the (U.S.) Department of Justice," Yahoo said in a statement. "We have had discussions with regulators and look forward to responding to their questions about this agreement."Google also issued a statement on the delay.

Interview with the $15 Million Blogger

Friday, we reported on  Bankaholic, a blog written by Johns Wu, being sold for $15 million to BankRate.

Big Company Exploiting Twitter?

Twitter can be gamed too? Who would have thought? If there is a way to get promotion from a popular social site, you know that it will be taken advantage of. It just becomes a matter of competition at some point, perhaps even with people being paid to help with that promotion (right Diggers?).