Marketing Pilgrim

MySpace is looking for a search engine partner.

Google Video adds an easy option for posting videos to MySpace.

Coincidence or strategy? You decide.

Thanks to Mike Mora for the tip.

Google’s beefing-up its relationship with the auto industry by hiring one of their own.

Google has appointed Bonita Stewart as director of the automotive vertical at Google. Stewart is responsible for leading a national team that develops and manages Google’s relationships with automotive marketers.

Stewart joins Google from DaimlerChrysler where she was director of Chrysler Group Interactive Communications.

“I’m excited to bring my interactive experience with a major auto brand to Google,” said Bonita Stewart in a statement.

Can’t wait to see Matt Cutts at next week’s SES show? Matt provides a fix in the form of three videos of himself answering various SEO questions.

* Session 1: Including qualities of a good site.
* Session 2: Including some SEO Myths.
* Session 3: Should you Optimize for Search Engines or for Users?

Google Blogoscoped has screenshots of potential new Google services discovered by UK developer Tony Ruscoe.

Google Events, Google Guess and Google Real Estate Search are among the many new services that make the list.

Every once in a while a new client will come to Fortune Interactive with a banned or penalized website in Yahoo. Here are the steps that need to be taken to get your site re-indexed. Just to give you a heads up, this process may appear short on paper, but actually takes a lot of work and it may take months for your site to start ranking again in Yahoo.

Click here to continue reading...

Techblog reports Google has added three new features to Google Talk, its instant messenger product.

A new file transfer option is now available, as is voicemail.

The third addition - is more whimsical, hence the 2 1/2 new features - it lets you show which music you are currently listening to.

MarketWatch brings word that an Arkansas state judge had give the final approval for the $90 million click fraud settlement.

By approving the settlement Thursday, Miller County Judge Joe Griffin effectively ends Google’s participation in the class-action lawsuit, which was filed by two Arkansas businesses and Internet advertisers Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles and Caulfield Investigations in February 2005.

But it won’t necessarily end the case, which has ballooned in scope into a class action and represents tens of thousands of Google advertisers. The settlement’s being contested in another lawsuit filed in California that’s still pending.

Click here to continue reading...

Google’s figured out a way to calm down the hype surrounding click fraud - let Adwords advertisers see for themselves which clicks Google has detected as invalid.

According to CNET, starting today Google will start revealing to advertisers the number of invalid clicks for their ads.

…advertisers will be able to see the number of invalid clicks Google found, as well as what percentage that represents of total clicks registered, said Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust and safety at Google.

Click here to continue reading...

Reuters reports Yahoo has hired a top database expert to head-up a team studying social search.

Yahoo hired Raghu Ramakrishnan, 45, as vice president and Yahoo research fellow in charge of defining the strategy behind Yahoo’s “social search” system, based on his expertise in databases, data-mining and privacy-preserving technologies.

Gizmodo has details of Google’s launch of Traffic Maps for Mobile.

This service provides detailed directions, integrated search results, easily movable maps, satellite imagery and real-time traffic for 30 major cities on your cellphone.

To access this service, simply point your cellphone browser to www.google.com/gmm

Two noteworthy acquisitions today…

Avenue A/Razorfish has purchased Amnesia, an Australian digital agency.

Avenue A/Razorfish acquired the 8-year-old, full-service Amnesia based in Sydney for $3.7 million in cash, reports AdWeek. The small interactive shop’s clients include Xbox, Ikea and Disney. It has about 26 employees and expects $2-$2.5 million in revenue for the rest of the year.

Verizon acquires SEM firm Inceptor, and hopes to combine it with its SuperPages product.

The deal, explained Inceptor Spokesperson Marcia Castracane, “now gives us the financial backing to grow the business and also be a bidding tool for Verizon.” The Massachusetts-based company’s core product is a PPC bid management platform called BidCenter.

The Washington Post reports 51 plaintiffs in the recent Google click-fraud settlement have raised objections to the suggested $90 million deal.

Plaintiffs say Google has not done enough to stop click fraud, which drives up advertisers’ bills by falsely indicating the number of Web users who have “clicked” on an Internet ad to seek more information about a product.