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Twitter Plans to Squash Google’s Spider?

posted on May 7, 2009

Twitter is always making news. Now they are putting together a robust search service that may help them get that news out faster and more spider-killerefficiently than Google itself. Rafe Needleman over at cnet put together a report shortly after speaking directly to Twitter’s new VP of Operations, Santosh Jayaram, who was VP of Search Quality for Google until recently (remember the talk about Googlers leaving the mothership?). The ‘leak’ of Twitter’s new search plans leaves plenty of room for speculation so let’s go!

Needleman writes

Speaking (with LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue) on a panel I was moderating, and later in a one-on-one discussion, Jayaram confirmed that Twitter Search, which currently searches only the text of Twitter posts, will soon begin to crawl the links included in tweets and begin to index the content of those pages.

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Should Google Move HQ to DC?

posted on May 7, 2009

It seems that the most news about Google these days comes from their relationship with politicians and political-bossprocess in Washington, DC rather than making money selling advertising through its search engine. Recently, its been discussed here that the FTC is interested in Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s, position on the board of Google and Apple as well as his appointment to President’s Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Now ClickZ reports of the stepped up Q1 ’09 lobbying efforts of the most recognized brand in the world.

When you are as big as Google there will always be detractors and those who want to cry foul every time Google hiccups. The ClickZ article says

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Craigslist Given Ultimatium by South Carolina

posted on May 6, 2009

Remove prostitution or face criminal charges. That’s what South Carolina’s Attorney General, Henry McMaster, threatened in a letter to Craigslist’s CEO, Jim Buckmaster. McMaster believes that Craigslist is “being used to facilitate harmful activities in South Carolina,” pointing out prostitution and people’s safety as his primary concerns.

McMaster even went further to accuse Craigslist of knowingly allowing their site to be used for illegal and unlawful activity, even after warnings from law enforcement officials. Craigslist danced around the issue on their blog, and they plan on speaking to the SC AG directly about it.

Craigslist has until 5pm EST on Friday, May 15 to remove portion of the site which “contain categories for and functions allowing for the solicitation of prostitution and the dissemination and posting of graphic pornographic material.”

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Are You Breaking the Law with Social Media Marketing?

posted on May 6, 2009

624824_restrainedDoes anyone else hear Judas Priest after reading that headline? No?

Um, anyway, the FTC has been cracking down on the newer methods of marketing, and social media marketing is not immune as SEOmoz’s general counsel, Sarah Bird, pointed out recently in an interview with Eric Enge. The new guidelines, available from the FTC, appear to threaten the future of SMM. The bottom line?

If you’re being compensated to talk about someone’s product, then you need to disclose it.

Rand Fishkin (you know, Sarah’s bossman) summarizes a few important points for us:

  • Most SMM is okay: “Want to create accounts for your client or project at social sites, interact with the community under those accounts or build up popularity/followers? You’re in the clear, and can do so without saying who’s paying you or why you’re engaging in those activities.”

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Microsoft Lays Off 3,000 More

posted on May 6, 2009

In January Microsoft announced that about 5,000 workers would be laid off over the next 18 months. The first wave was 1,400 and most ofmicrosoft those were in the US operations of the company. cnet reports that notices went out yesterday to another 3,000 Microsoft employees that their jobs would be going away.

While the numbers certainly are in line with the announcement of the 5,000 total layoffs over time it is the speed that the total number was nearly reached that has some concerned. Generally, if a company says something of this nature will occur over 18 months it is presenting a scenario of a ‘slow roll’ of layoffs. Apparently, Microsoft was playing an odd game of ‘under promis and over deliver’ with these job cuts.
cnet got access to a memo from Steve Ballmer that included the statement:

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Search Giants Encounter Challenges in Mobile Ad Market

posted on May 6, 2009

While Google dominates the search market for the desktop / notebook set and rakes in a ton of money with its ads it is finding that the mobile-devicessuccess is not an automatic win in the mobile ad market. Yahoo is feeling the same pinch but that is just one of many issues facing that company these days, isn’t it?

Over at Investor’s Business Daily’s Investors.com an article serves as a case study of sorts regarding the challenges that face ‘traditional’ Internet ad selling giants and the rapidly emerging and changing mobile ad market. The evidence may be pointing to the fact that it’s not going to be a slam dunk for Google to seamlessly take over this world as well. This kind of says it all

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Yahoo/Microsoft Talks Grow “Meaningful”

posted on May 5, 2009

Stacy (YHOO) gazed at the single white rose. The diamond tennis bracelet. The silver Porsche 911 997 GT2 topped by a red bow and an oversized tag reading “I’M SORRY.” She turned to Brad (MSFT). “Oh, Brad,” she gushed, a tear in her eye. “It’s all so . . . meaningful.”

“Yes, Stacy.” Brad smiled and pulled out his PDA. “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.”

Yes, folks, we had to revive the award-winning* daytime drama*, the Young and the Profitless, for one last hurrah when sources tell BoomTown that talks between Yahoo and Microsoft have grown “meaningful.”

Last reported as “hot and heavy,” the merger talks between the two companies have continued to pick up. Another source says, like Brad, that it’s really not a question of if: “We’re finally talking about the how rather than the if.”