Copernic Officially Launches Desktop Search Tool We gave you a sneak peak of Copernic's new desktop search tool, a few weeks ago. The great little application has been sitting in my taskbar for a number of weeks and has often helped me find that elusive file on my hard drive.
Microsoft Confirms No Desktop Search for Longhorn
According to DMNews, Microsoft has confirmed that its long-awaited update to its Windows operating system in 2006, will be launched without advanced file search capability. Andy Beal
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The Background on Blinkx
Interesting story on the person behind Blinkx, that new search engineveryone is talking about (did that just sound like one of those annoying spam emails that pumps a penny stock?) Andy Beal
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Blabble doesn’t crawl the web in response to a search, instead drawing from its own searchable database that aggregates content from what are currently more than 2 million blog authors. To fill and grow its database, it secures lists of blogs and also draws from companies that provide consumers with software and platforms for creating blogs. Blabble gets a direct feed from such companies so every change or addition to a posted blog is captured, which keeps its database current. Andy Beal
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Search Engine Marketers Grow Up
According to Gord Hotchkiss, us SEM's are learning new vocabulary to help us reach more traditional marketers.
We're beginning to talk about customer profiling, identifying attitudes, the nature of the buying cycles, and the role of brand awareness. It's a new way of speaking aimed at marketers, not Webmasters.
Buy Google Stuff
In case you don't have enough free Google "stuff" head over to their redesigned store. This update brought to you by the Google Blog. How they manage to keep up their fast pace blogging, is beyond me! ;-) Andy Beal
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What Next for Google?
Matt Krantz manages to answer and not-answer a USA Today reader's question about the future of Google.
Sexy Tech
Larry and Sergey's interview in Playboy revealed Google's "thin" management ranks. Less managers equals less time spent managing and the employees decide what to work on for themselves. Engineers can put themselves on different projects if they choose, apparently.
I've got to pick up that issue...
In other news NYTimes writer Randall Stross questions "sexy tech" in light of Google's recent IPO. Genworth Financial, a financial and insurance services company, raised 2.8 billion in May - a cool billion and change more than Google.
Would Genworth Financial become sexier by renaming themselves the Genworth Financial Engine? Why is tech so sexy?
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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The Google Channel
I've been having what-will-Google-do-with-all-that-money conversations since the IPO rumors got loud, and definitely foresee more Google desktop apps (browser? operating system?).
While I agree that they should stay in the advertising business, I think an over reliance on ppc could be unhealthy for the long term.
As Google insinuates its text ads across websites, blogs, and even newsletters, I'm wondering how long it will be before we see Google-served print ads, or a Google TV search engine that allows you to search for and watch shows and receive ads targetted specifically to those ads. Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive
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August 26, 2004
Blog Related Search Engines On The Rise
As the popularity of blogs continues to skyrocket, so will the number of sites aggregating their feeds. Here's a good list of blog search engines currently in existence. I'm not sure I have any others to add to the list.
Recap of SES "Future of Search" Session by Andrew Goodman
Andrew did a good job of breaking down what the experts had to say about the future of search during the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose earlier this month.
Here's a snippet...
"Few in the search industry today disagree that personalization is going to be a key driver of change. Assumptions about how to display search results pages to users are undergoing a steady transformation. Gerry Campbell of AOL search came at the issue from several different angles. First, the online experience in general should be structured to allow more recall of information that users need for basic workday and lifestyle management, from favorite stocks and birthdays to Internet connection speed. Search itself could be self-learning so that it would calculate the probability that a given user typing "eagles" meant a football team, and should offer much more by way of regional listings. Ordering a pizza from a local establishment should, Campbell argued, start with something as ambiguous a typed search query for 'pizza.'"
Search Engine Personalization Simplified
Not being able to see the forrest for the trees is a sympton many developers and analysts fall into. Search engine personalization is one such area. I think everyone would like to personalize their results (to some extent): that's a no-brainer. But at the same time, everyone knows there will always be a way to manipulate every search ranking algorithm the SEO Gods come up with. So what's the common thread of search personalization?
Finding relevant content, which translated into it's simplest definition means, getting rid of the garbage that fills much of our search results.
Being the well-rounded educated marketers and business types you are, you've probably seen your Google results fill up with sites that do nothing but scrape the results for the exact query you're executing, and create a static page with the search term in the url. Then, Bam! Nothing but crap!~
What if Google puts a checkbox next to each url that excludes that site or url from all your future searches? Then the data is stored in your Google preferences, and you won't be bothered by domains or urls that are full of meaningless content.
Why worry about social networks and determining what the user likes and doesn't like based on traffic patterns? That's all convoluted and too easily manipulated based on bots. This preference would be user specific. It's just like the ability to make your default search results 20 instead of the standard 10. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest and this is just a thought and not gospel by any means.
Taking a Break
In this day and age, celebrating 5-years of marriage is a significant achievement. Mrs. Beal has put up with me being out of town a lot this year, so I'm taking her off to celebrate in the Canadian Rockies!
As such, I'm not taking a computer and won't be updating the blog until Tuesday. But don't fear, Garrett, Ben and Jason will be filling-in and keeping you updated with the latest news (they even have permission to be a little controversial).
The Search Engine Belt Buckle
Next time you're "shakin your thang" do it in style by wearing Engadget's Search Engine Belt Buckle. This do-it-yourself fashion accessory will show streaming search engine queries on your belt. We kid you not! Andy Beal
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Google's Stock Likely to be Very Volatile
According to Standard and Poor's, Google's stock will be "very volatile" and with an expected 12-month target price of $118. Andy Beal
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Michael Wong Wants a Word with Atlas OnePoint
Atlas OnePoint doesn't need any additional bashing right now, but Michael Wong claims he is simply not getting paid. Any other affiliates able to back-up his claims? Andy Beal
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UK Newspapers Favor Overture's Content Match
According to Silicon.com, The Financial Times, Guardian Newspapers and Independent News and Media have signed deals with Overture to use its Content Match product. Andy Beal
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Interchange Improves Local Search Platform
ClickZ looks at the improvements a local search provider is making to their offering. Andy Beal
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Can Quigo Change Contextual Ads?
John Battelle chatted with Michael Yavonditte, the CEO of Quigo and asked him about their new contextual ad technology.
Yavonditte's secret sauce is vertical categorization. He's come up with a handful of major categories - Travel, Health, etc. - that advertisers self select into. Then he applies his contextual algorithm within that category, yielding what he claims are major improvements in CTR and PPC.
Yavonditte doesn't see Google as potential threat, but he should. Google shareholders are going to be looking to squeeze maximum returns out of the search engine. If Quigo has found something new, they'll be all over it. Then again, maybe they'd be happy to be bought-out by Google. Andy Beal
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Google's Challengers Must Have Strong Branding
Naseem Javed suggests that the next challengers to Google could come from some existing well-known brands.
AltaVista, Excite, Hotbot, DogPile, Inktomi and MetaCrawler. These name identities appear almost prehistoric, but if we follow the rules and laws of business naming, once again these icons might end up challenging Google on Wall Street. Andy Beal
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Yahoo!'s Overture Services, Inc. Designates WebSourced as its First Performance Marketing Certified Ambassador WebSourced, the global leader in search engine marketing - today announced it has been designated a Performance Marketing Certified Ambassador by Overture Services, Inc.
WebSourced is the first company to receive the Performance Marketing Certified Ambassador designation. To achieve the certification, WebSourced exceeded the criteria outlined by Overture in the use of its Performance Marketing Console, which is a marketing tool that measures the effectiveness of an online marketing campaign including pay-per-click search, email, banner, paid inclusion and affiliate programs.
"We are delighted to have achieved certification from Overture. This recognition reinforces WebSourced's commitment to maintaining its position as the world's most successful search engine marketing company," said Andy Beal, vice president of search marketing at WebSourced. "Our goal is to work closely with the search engines to ensure we maintain the highest level of service for our clients."
WebSourced's Vice President of Interactive Advertising, Tom Dwyer, added, "We have seen fantastic demand for our pay-per-click management (PPCM) services and are already managing more than $500,000 per month in client spending."
WebSourced's KeywordRanking.com division helps clients increase their visibility on leading search engines through search engine optimization and paid placement services. Its more than 1,300 clients include market leaders such as Motorola, NBC and Lowe's Home Improvement.
"Our search engine marketing services continue to see strong demand and this certification will allow us to maintain our momentum as we head toward the end of the third quarter," stated Pat Martin, CEO and president. Andy Beal
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The Playboy Article That Wouldn't Go Away
So Playboy is back again. This time with previously unpublished parts of their interview with Google's Page and Brin.
Google refuses to say anything or take action to prevent Playboy from releasing the new snippets. Kinda reminds me of his original stance on this. Andy Beal
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RSS Search Engine Technorati Gets VC Funding
Reported by Om Malik, link via Greg. Andy Beal
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New Search Engine Promises $5m Giveaway
When you send out a press release to announce your new search engine, it always helps to throw in an incentive. Tygo.com, takes that to the extreme with the promise to giveaway $5,000,000 in free clicks. Andy Beal
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Ask Jeeves is Turning Japanese (I really think so)
Ask Jeeves waited for the Google IPO frenzy to hit the road before announcing their plans to launch a Ask Jeeves Japan. The site is being launched with Tokyo-based software company Transcosmos.
"We feel good coming in later than Google and Yahoo, because there's a lack of consumer choice. Right off the bat, we'll have a strong market position, coupled with distribution with our Transcosmos partnership and others," said Jim Lanzone, senior vice president of search products at Ask Jeeves.
Paid Search Accounts for 40% of UK's Online Ad Spend AlwaysOn links to a report that claims paid search accounts for 40% of online ad spending in the UK. Andy Beal
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In Google for the Long Haul? Read this.
Allan Sloan of The Washington Post eats some humble pie and admits that he got it wrong with his Google IPO predictions. However, he's able to give clarity as to why the IPO was a success.
Instead of a true Dutch auction, which would probably have produced an IPO price of $95 to $100, Google sold at $85 and gave successful bidders only about 74 percent of the shares they sought. This created pent-up demand -- clearly what started the price running.
Sloan still stands by his remarks that Google is way over-priced.
At Monday's closing price, the stock market is valuing Google at almost $30 billion, or almost 87 times the $1.26 per-share profit it reported for the 12 months ended June 30. Google earned $7 million on $86 million in revenue in 2001, its first profitable year, and $191 million on revenue of $2.26 billion in the 12 months ended June 30. But the company's not a small start-up anymore. To keep up this growth rate, Google will have to earn $5 billion on revenue of $60 billion in 2006. That's clearly not going to happen. Andy Beal
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August 23, 2004
Yahoo's Blog Update
I'm sure that Yahoo's new blog will ultimately be a great source of Yahoo Search news. However, the second post is a little lacking...
"To be honest...we never really blow a big horn about a lot of the things we have", is the line that precedes a whole lot of "horn blowing".
You'll also find some interesting shortcuts. Andy Beal
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The Next Big Search Engine?
CNN/Money outlines some of the challengers to Google's crown. Andy Beal
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Google's at the Bottom of the Corporate Governance Class
According to the Financial Times, Google has the worst corporate governance ranking of any S&P 500 company. The report cites a number of problems with Google's governance.
These flaws, it said, include a dual-class capital structure that gives effective control to insiders, too few outside directors, a lack of stock ownership guidelines for executives and independent directors, a compensation plan that lets the company reprice stock options if the stock price falls, and loans to company insiders.
The proxy adviser assigned Google, the world’s leading Web search engine, a corporate governance quotient of 0.2 out of a possible 100, the newspaper said.
I'm hearing unofficial reports that Google plans to use some "black hat" optimization techniques to try and improve their corporate governance ranking. ;-) Andy Beal
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Investment Bankers Cash-in on Google
What a nice option to have; watch how the IPO does then exercise an option to buy 2.94 million Google shares for the IPO price of $85. Sell the shares on the open market for $112+ and make a quick profit. According to the San Fran Chronicle, that's exactly what Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse did.
This so-called over-allotment option increases the size of Google's IPO, largely completed earlier this week, by $250 million, to $1.92 billion. Andy Beal
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The Google IPO Winners and Losers
If you have a WSJ subscription, be sure to check out this story. It outlines a story of two former Google contractors who were offered stock options in lieu of cash. One took the options, one took the cash.
Five years ago, Ms. Cikovsky took cash instead of Google stock. She and an associate moonlighted for Google, preparing PowerPoint slides and speaking notes that co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page used to announce their first venture-capital funding. They were willing to pay her in stock options, she says. Instead, she sent them a bill for about $4,000.
Her associate, Abbe Patterson, did take Google stock options for this and related public-relations tasks. Forgoing a $5,000 fee, she took options for 4,000 shares. After two stock splits, she has 16,000 shares. They're now worth $1.7 million.
Ms. Cikovsky can't remember what she spent her $4,000 on. When the Google founders were willing to let her take options, "I should have followed up on that more," she now muses.
I could almost cry for Ms. Cikovsky, I pray that she doesn't let that decision haunt her. Andy Beal
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Watching the Google IPO Lock-ups
Reuters predicts that as much as 250 million new Google shares could hit the market as employees exit lock-ups over the next 6 months. Andy Beal
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Analysts Start Rating Google
According to CBS MarketWatch, analysts have started providing recommendations on GOOG. Looks like most believe either "hold" or "buy" with a target price of no more than $120. Andy Beal
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US Buys into Online Shopping
More consumers are buying products online, according to data at eMarketer.
Interestingly, about 60% of respondents said that their opinions of brands have changed as a result of online research.
Doesn't say if their opinion changed positively or not, but it still shows the power of the internet. And what source do most consumers use for their research? Oh yes, a little thing called "search".
Yahoo Search to Power Australia's OptusNet
According to The Age, Australia's second largest telco, Optus, says Yahoo Search would from now on power search requests from OptusNet users.
Optus said that under an agreement signed with Yahoo! Australia and New Zealand, Yahoo! Search Technology would power web search results on the OptusNet dialup and broadband portals. Andy Beal
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Google's Annual Summer Picnic
We're making an effort to not report the same old Google IPO news that you can find EVERYWHERE. So today you'll only find Google news that you may have missed, like this little snippet...
The first purchase [using IPO money] will be hotdogs and hamburgers for the company's annual summer picnic today. It promises to be a happy event, especially since around 1,000 of the company's 2,300 employees are now millionaires.
24/7 Real Media Buys Search Tech Firm
More consolidation in the search engine marketing industry as 24/7 Real Media acquires Decide Interactive. Andy Beal
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Fraud Stalks Google and Overture Advertising
Brian Livingston explains exactly how PPC fraud could harm the paid search industry.
Somewhere around 10 percent of the billings charged to pay-per-click advertisers by Google.com and Overture (a subsidiary of Yahoo.com) are based on fraudulent activity, according to some advertising experts
Would love to know the source of this statistic, anyone? Andy Beal
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August 19, 2004
Google Opening NASDAQ Today
Thanks to Gary for helping me find a photo of Page et al opening the market this morning.
What about those crazy sales before trading started? Anyone know if they'll stand or be voided? UPDATE: According to the Washington Post, the trades were cancelled. Andy Beal
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Google, Yahoo and Jupitermedia Targets of Gambling Ads Lawsuit
Danny Sullivan reports on a recent Californian lawsuit which name Google, Yahoo, Jupiter and other sites, saying they carry online gambling ads in violation of California law. Andy Beal
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Google Up to $135?
CNBC is reporting wild fluctuations in the Google price with the system showing bids as high as $135. No one can confirm if the stock has been taken of "hold" or not. Weird!!
UPDATE: NASDAQ confirms that 2 trades should not have gone thru and that trading has not started yet.
UPDATE 2: After a false start, we are now trading GOOG. Up to about $100 in about 2 mins and 2 million shares traded. Andy Beal
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New HTTP Proxy Search Engine AnomicHTTPProxy
What I love about working with 115 people is the opportunity to work with someone smarter than me, including Jason Dowdell. The very fact that Jason understands what is going on at AnomicHTTPProxy makes me glad he works for us and not our competitors! Andy Beal
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Google Employees Will Be Rich, Just Not Yet. If you own Google shares, mark your calendars for 30 and 90 days from today's date. Why? That's when many of Google's employee shareholders will be able to sell their stock. Depending on how many sell and who, you could see a dip in Google's stock price. So be warned.
CNet looks at what these nouveau riche will do with their money and a financial manager gives some words of advice.
"One fundamental thing is that wealth creates a false illusion of, 'If I have this money, I'll be content and I'll be happy,'" said George Hester, chief executive of Navitas financial managers.
"We have a saying in the South that pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered," he added. "You have to come to the point where you're looking at wealth and make a decision of how much is right for you and how much is right for your children. You don't have to try to hit the home runs."
UPDATE: Analyst Jack Ciesielski, speaking on CNBC, states that many Google employees were given stock options in Q2 priced at $100. It looks like Google was trying to keep the IPO price above that. Andy Beal
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Yahoo Launches Search Blog
Yahoo has launched their own search engine blog. They have us listed as an industry source, so they're "ok" by us! Andy Beal
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Google's Management Under the Microscope Ben Elgin of BusinessWeek looks at the management style of Google and asks "who exactly is in charge?"
Make no mistake: It's a founder-driven company, with Brin and Page wielding veto power over every key decision at the company. Seasoned execs like CEO Schmidt and board members John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins and Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital play a supporting role to the two youngsters. And, while the end result seemingly worked well for years, it has not aced its transformation to a public company. Andy Beal
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Watch GOOG til Your Heart's Content!
We could give you a regular update of Google's stock price today, but it's easier just to let you check it yourself.
BTW, Page and Brin rang the opening bell of the NASDAQ this morning but their stock will not trade right away. "GOOG" will not be traded until sometime between 10am and noon. Andy Beal
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More Photos from SES Conference 2004
LookSmart shares photo's from its conference party. Andy Beal
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August 18, 2004
Google Sets IPO Price at $85
I'm hearing word that Google's initial stock price is now set at $85, a move the signals they're looking to ensure a bump on the first day of trading.
Google Shareholders Will Sell Less Shares Due to New Lower Price
CBS Marketwatch has more info on the reduced Google IPO share price. Looks like existing shareholders are not as willing to sell at the new lower range of $85-$95 per share.
In a statement on its Web site overnight, Google said it expects to sell 14.14 million shares in the offering as originally filed, but that the selling shareholders are reducing the shares they expect to dispose of to approximately 5.5 million shares "in view of this new price range."
The change represents a decrease of 6.1 million shares. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will now sell nearly 500,000 shares each, down from about 1 million each.
CEO Eric Schmidt will sell 369,000 shares, down from 738,000.
Venture firms Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital trimmed their share of the IPO to zero, from about 2 million shares each.
I guess it's a sign of faith that two of the VC companies are now not selling any of their Google holdings. They must think the stock is underpriced at the new range. Does that mean they will buy more? Andy Beal
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JupiterMedia Not Happy with SES Spam
It seems like Jeremy Zawodny has caused quite a stir with his recent complaint of being spammed by an SES exhibitor. Looks like JupiterMedia is taking it seriously, sending out this email:
Dear Exhibitor,
Please note that the information contained in the e-mail and the attachment that I sent you last week are the property of Jupitermedia. The attachment contains information intended to demonstrate the quality of the SES audience. Use of the information for any other purpose, including sending postal or electronic mail, is not permitted.
Google Lowers IPO Price and Number of Shares
It looks like the negative Google publicity and a softer tech market have had an impact on Google's IPO after all.
According to USA Today, they have announced a new price range of $85-$95 and halfed the number of shares being sold by existing holders (down to 5.5m from 11.6m).
The lower pricing affects the size of the offering. Instead of raising up to $3.6 billion, it will generate $1.86 billion if the IPO price is set at the new high-end of $95. And Google's market capitalization at $95 a share will be less than $26 billion, down from $36 billion.
I've always maintained that an investor should not bid more than $100, seems like the masses agree. Andy Beal
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August 17, 2004
MSN's Search Going Back to the Drawing Board
MSN Search has finished their first beta test and taken down the site. They've posted this message:
Thank you for sending your comments on MSN's new algorithm. The complete shame and embarrassment has finally gotten to us, so we've decided to go back to the drawing board. We promise we won't come back until we are at least 1/10th as good as Google or Yahoo.
Google Refuses to Run Ad from Christian Group
Google is refusing to run an ad that speaks out on homosexuality, claiming that it violates their policy against "hate" ads, according to Jennifer Laycock.
The group running the ads has fired back that Google is not playing on a level field.
Stand to Reason representatives claim that it is actually Google that is being intolerant by allowing ads to run that favor issues like same-sex marriage, but by banning ads that oppose the issue. "If you deem the issue itself off limits, then consistency would require you to suspend all searches of the issue," stated Melinda Penner, director of operations for Stand to Reason. Andy Beal
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SEC Latches on to Google's Boob
It's getting so tough coming up with new titles for all of these Google stories, so the one above is a small act of rebellion.
Anyway, the SEC wants to look more closely at Google's failure to register some of its stock options, according to USA Today.
Google disclosed that the SEC has opened an informal inquiry into its failure to properly register the shares issued to employees and contractors. Andy Beal
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Feedster Preps Paid RSS Links as Ads Expand
Feedster's selling out and including Kanoodle ads in their RSS feeds. Can't blame them, you gotta make money somewhere. Andy Beal
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Off topic
Wired News is taking a stance on the capitalization of certain web related words.
Wired News' copy-editing chief in a proclamation on the site's new style policy. "Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the 'I' in internet," Tony Long writes. "At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net. Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was."
Bravo! I've never understood why internet should have a capital "I". Andy Beal
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Google IPO Trading Imminent
CNet is pretty convinced that the Google IPO will open Thursday.
"All indications are: The auction will close late tomorrow afternoon or early evening," said one source familiar with the auction. "Things are on track."
Pricing of the shares, however, is not likely to occur until sometime after the market closes on Wednesday, with the shares trading on the following day, the source said. Andy Beal
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Does Google IPO Have Enough Wind in its Sails?
Bambi Francisco of CBS MarketWatch reports that Google's IPO may barely make it across the finish line.
It's not even that investors aren't bidding the proposed price of between $108 and $135, but that Google isn't getting enough bids at all, according to the banker, who asked not to be identified.
However, Bambi notes that the tech market is starting to show signs of life again and that Google's timing may be right, after all. Andy Beal
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Google's Playboy Boob; Great PR or Just Plain Lucky?
The Washington Post asks if the recent Google Playboy story was just bad judgement on Google's part or a calculated risk.
Whether the timing was coincidental or intentional, the company is not saying. The founders sat down for the interview in April, a week before Google filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission that outlined plans to go public.
The story ended up pushing the legal limits of securities laws far enough to heighten interest in the fate of the deal without derailing it. The SEC forced the company to correct inaccuracies in the article, but it did not call a halt to the IPO process. The agency’s involvement drew even more media attention to the article, especially after it required Google to post a copy in its public filings. Andy Beal
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August 16, 2004
Search Provides Lowest Cost Per Lead
Blatently stolen from John Battelle, but I'm sure he won't mind.
Girafa Providing Thumbnail Images to America Online Girafa announced today that the CompuServe, Netscape, AIM and ICQ properties of America Online, Inc have signed an agreement to use its thumbnail search images.
According to their press release:
Using Girafa's thumbnail search service, search users can view thumbnail sized images of web pages alongside the standard textual search results. The visual representation of textual URLs offered by the thumbnails, increases users' success rate and efficiency, as they utilize visual recollection to identify relevant links, familiar Web sites, as well as eliminate redundant entries to unwanted Web sites. Under the agreement, Girafa's thumbnail service will be available to tens of millions of Netscape, CompuServe, AIM and ICQ users and will be used to enhance the search experience offered on those properties. Andy Beal
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Google IPO Likely Wednesday
Google has asked the SEC to approve it's registration statement so that it can start its IPO as early as Wednesday. Andy Beal
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Share Your Opinions on the Future of Search.
Sid Yadev wants your thoughts! Specifically he wants you to take his search engine survey, running from now until November 13th. The survey takes less than 5 minutes and should yield some interesting results come November. Andy Beal
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Low Interest for "Google IPO"
CurrentOfferings.com shares their AdWords data on the bid "Google IPO". Doesn't look too good, does it? Andy Beal
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LookSmart Adds Budget and CPC Performance Reporting to LookListings LookSmart is adding new features for LookListings advertisers, according to their email.
Dear LookListings Advertiser:
We're pleased to introduce a new report to help you monitor and manage your LookListings campaigns: the Budget and CPC Performance Report.
This new report will give you an at-a-glance view of how the Budgets and CPCs you've set for your keyword-targeted listings impact their performance, and what specific steps you can take to make them work even better.
The Budget and CPC Performance Report will be emailed to you automatically once a month in the middle of your billing period. If you maintain multiple LookListings accounts, you will receive a separate report for each account.
What's in the Budget and CPC Performance Report?
1. Position scorecard: Find out what position your listings are appearing in. Learn whether you need to raise or lower your CPCs to get the positions you want for your keywords. If you've set the CPC for a keyword below the minimum bid (resulting in little or no traffic), this feature will show you that as well.
2. Budget forecast: Will your campaign run out of budget too early in the month, causing your listings to be pulled down prematurely and costing you valuable traffic? Or will a portion of your budget go unspent this month? This feature will help you determine the right level of funding for your campaign to meet your traffic goals.
Keep an eye out. You will begin receiving the Budget and CPC Performance Report at the next mid-point of your account's billing period. If you'd prefer not to receive this report, you have the option to turn off all account-related emails. To do so, log in to view your email preferences and deselect the "Account" checkbox.
Local Search Not Living-Up to Claims
Jupiter analyst Nate Elliott takes a look at local search results and explains why this area of search has a lot of growing-up to do.
Neither Google Local nor Yahoo Local can find more than one bike shop within a mile of my house. I know for a fact there are at least four.
If local search doesn't work that well, why's it getting so much attention from search engines? Because they know search advertising is starting to mature, and the huge growth we've seen for several years is starting to slow down. Andy Beal
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Search Engine Users Happy With Search
Netimperative reports that 87% of search engine users say they find the information they want most of the time when they use search engines. Andy Beal
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Will Google lose right to Gmail name?
Silicon.com reports that Google has many trademarks, including Gmail, that are not yet registered.
Google has mentioned the possibility of losing trademarked names for various products in its IPO prospectus under "risk factors".
"We have also been notified by third parties that they believe features of certain of our products, including Google WebSearch, Google News and Google Image Search, violate their copyrights," according to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. "Our unregistered trademarks include: AdSense, AdWords, Blogger, Froogle, Gmail, I'm Feeling Lucky and PageRank."
I'll bet between $108 and $135 that they'll be given the rights to all of these. Unless Dirty Harry tries to claim trademark infringement for "I'm Feeling Lucky". ;-) Andy Beal
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The BBC Talks Blinkx and Copernic Search
The BBC wants us all to understand that getting 1 million results for our search request, does not make a good search engine. They point out that Google relies on keywords when determining the SERP to show you. Blinkx and Copernic have other ideas.
As well as Blinkx, firms such as Copernic, X1, Enfish and others produce software that lurks in the background while you work on your PC and dynamically suggests links to web pages, locally-held documents and online news by working out what you are really interested in. Andy Beal
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We gave you a 
If you own Google shares, mark your calendars for 30 and 90 days from today's date. Why? That's when many of Google's employee shareholders will be able to sell their stock. Depending on how many sell and who, you could see a dip in Google's stock price. So be warned.
Ben Elgin of 
LookSmart is adding new features for 
