This week a for many sites relatively unknown search engine referrer put itself in the spotlight with the announcement that starting in May they will expand email storage for all of their users from 1GB to … unlimited.

Bam!

That got a lot of people’s attention: “Storage in the cloud!”, “The fight for user content!”, “Gmail left in the dust!”, “Others will soon follow!”

Which is great news for Yahoo! and almost an ode to the stealth with which they operate. Really, this is no news.

Yahoo! has been outdoing, bypassing and surpassing Google since a long, long time.

The (SEP) Guy had to get a new car this week. Unexpected expense. Ouch.

Ergo, The (SEP) Guy had to get insurance for the new car. Context: I’m the perfect customer. Sign me up and I’m lazy. I barely open my mail, and check online to see that things have come out of my account as they should. Same goes for my insurance. Rate set, I’m good to go.

So, a call to my existing insurance company. Info, info, info. Wait. Wait. Wait. Mr. Guy, we’re pleased to be able to inform you your insurance will only being going up by 50%. (P.S. Dear insurance company: Dulcet tones, do not in fact make it any less impactful.) Aaaackkk.

Whether for ratings or reviews or for persona building, a concept first advanced by Alan Cooper, user experience is fast becoming the definitive Web 2.0 standard.

For ratings and reviews, user generated content is the definitive standard, but a review or rating must be based on user experience to be user generated.

Earlier this week, the Business 2.0 article Entrepreneur finds ’suite’ dreams in hotels profiled some of the success behind Chip Conley CEO of hotel chain Joie de Vivre Hospitality.

My boss that a humorous top ten list would be fun today. I’m a little beyond thinking so here’s a quick one. Just because…

Google PageRank - 10 - Does that seem biased to you?

Yahoo PageRank - 9 - Not bad considering Google apparently has almost 50% more links — according to Yahoo.

MSN PageRank - 9 - Okay, frankly a little surprised by that, but then again it is MSN.

Netscape PageRank - 9 - Again, a little surprised.

Ask PageRank - 9 - Cool. We like Ask. It’s a little forward thinking.

In his post Google & Behavioral Targeting on searchnewz.com, Anil Batra makes a compelling article about just how much information Google has, and from where.

It’s a fascinating read that makes perfect sense.

As Batr points out, while MSN and Yahoo are exploring behavioral targeting based on user generated data from their own sites, Google has it’s footprint in so many other places, and is cutting a much, much wider swath.

Tainted pet food may seem like an odd subject for a search engine blog but it’s an opportunity to talk about seasonaliy, habituation and patterns in search. It is also, oddly enough, an opportunity to talk about Google’s new cost per action in action.

When it comes to patterns in search, I know of no one more informed on the subject than Bill Tancer, General Manager, Global Research at Hitwise.

Yippee! It’s shameless plug day.

Someone (No names mentioned, well, except in the press release — you’ll have to watch the news below to find out.) in the Search Engine People office was searching his own name today — and it wasn’t The (SEP) Guy. To his surprise, he found out he was on a webpronews.com video blog, and in a good way!

And here it is…

Have a good one.

~ The (SEP) Guy

Today’s post is about Google. Sure, I could have been a little more descriptive and site its about the Google rollout of its pay-per-action beta test. Pay-per-action. That’s just another pretty word for affiliate marketing.

So, Google monetize’s organic search with paid search. And then it monetizes paid search and let’s face it, GoogleBase and Froogle with Google Checkout and then it monetizes Google Checkout with pay-per-action. And along the way, it’s got user behaviour with Google Analytics and marketer behavior with Google Analytics.

So, what’s searched, how it’s searched, how it’s priced and it’s market value.

Partnership marketing can be summed up in one word. Synergy.

Connecting the right corporations with the right products and putting them in front of the right audience at the right time.

It sounds at first a little bit like product placement and to a certain degree it is. Looking for that coat Carrie wore in Season One of Sex And The City, do a search on eVisure.com.

While the devil may wear Prada, your average executive assistant can’t afford to. And that is where people like Ron Kunitzky of Geyser Marketing come into play, by creating partnerships that have a context that makes sense.

There are days when I don’t know whether to curse or to thank those who don’t open new browser windows when they link out in their articles or posts.

A blogger could get lost. Maybe it’s ADD but I prefer to think of it as an insatiable curiousity. I sat down to start this post literally over two and a half hours ago. Who has that kind of time? Fortunately, I do but only because I’m off the clock so technically, it’s my time.

My boss is less than enthused when I blog in the first person but in being that this was my Internet adventure today, I’m hoping I’ll be forgiven.