Will it finally happen this time? Will Yahoo and Microsoft merge? Combined they would be able to own at least a third of all Internet searches. They would have 600 million users. They would own one of the largest content networks. They would be the world’s largest webmail provider. They would own the world’s most used online bookmarking tools. And of course they would have a set of toolbars which already does most of the things Ruud one day expects in Google’s.

On the heels of the Google Doubleclick story, and the Google Clear Channel story and the Yahoo print story and the ebay TV story and the Spotrunner tv story and the…

Well, you get my point.

Onilne advertising is only beginning to heat up. And while traditional advertisers have their eyeballs askance and their eyebrows furrowed at the antics of the upstarts, the upstart as looking at traditional advertising models with disruptive technologies in mind and rate cards in sight.

Red Herring announce today in its YouTube Lining Up Summer Ads article that pre-roll and post roll ads will become a part of the YouTube experience this summer.

“Yahoo must use its multiple websites and services to gain a stronger position in social networking.”
– Jeff Weiner, executive VP, Yahoo’s Networking divison

Can you gain a position in social networking simply by having, making, buying and promoting social web sites?

On the same day (April 24) that Yahoo announced Yahoo Music will include a searchable lyrics database, a Chinese court ruled that Yahoo China violates music copyrights.

The hallmark of Web 2.0 is supposed to be user generated content, wherein users contribute their own text, pictures and video content.

But according to Bill Tancer of Hitwise and the Red Herring article, Web 2.0: More Voyeurs than Creators.

According to Tancer, only .16% of visits to Google’s YouTube are by users with the goal of uploading material. .16%. One has to wonder, as well, how much of that is truly original material.

Tancer further details that the numbers for Flickr are similar, with .2% of visitors destined to the site are there with the intention of uploading photos.

Well, day four of the New York Search Engine Strategies conference has passed, and it was another full schedule. Three panels yesterday (Linking Strategies, Link Baiting and Viral Search Success, and CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 & Search Engines) then the 8 hour drive back to Toronto (someone forgot to renew his passport).

One of the interesting tidbits I was reminded of today (in the Bookmarking session) and had meant to blog about earlier was the fact that Google had “quiet launched” Google Bookmarks late last year. Such a launch would not normally be cause for excitement, but I think the implications merit some discussion, as they are certainly likely to impact Google’s search results. Accordingly, this blog posting is not to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Google BookMarks versus Del.icio.us, but rather how Google is likely to use this bookmark information.

In October 2005, when Martha Stewart had her own “The Apprentice”, contestant David Karandish didn’t win. He did however, mention that Martha’s site was nowhere to be found in the search engines for the specific term “recipes” and stated if he took over the Internet division, he would fix it.

Alas, David Karandish didn’t get the job.

And it shows. A search for “recipes” on Google and there it is… no MarthaStewart.com. It does show up on Yahoo but not on MSN. A search for “home decor” on Google and MarthaStewart.com results? Nada. Yahoo results? Zip. MSN results? Bupkis.

(of course substitute .com.au in Australia, co.uk in England, etc.)

Ahhh … a question we get often, and one without a standard answer. Rather, the answer is based on your particular situation. So, take a minute to consider the questions below, and voila, you’ll have an answer.

1)      Is your site on a well established domain?

While often overlooked by the masses, Google, MSN, and Yahoo all give Canadians different search options than Americans when searching the web. Each gives some sort of preference or boost to sites deemed to be Canadian within their Canadian search results, although offer no benefits obviously for ranking in the generic .com results. This means that Canadian companies need to be diligent about ensuring that they appear in the search results of the most used engines in their home country, especially since the advantages realized do not yet appear to be offset by poorer rankings in the generic .com engines.

A couple of weeks ago now, okay, a month ago now… The (SEP) Guy has been busy… Piper Jaffray released its Internet Media & Marketing Report.

One the more interesting findings was the opportunity that abounds and remains untapped in search. More specifically, in Local Search or to put it another way, Niche Search or to put it another way, Vertical Search. Greg Jarboe had an interesting perspective at SearchEngine Watch with Piper Jaffray Maps Out Where the Search Industry is Headed.

Yahoo! continues to launch interesting new services. In what I see as a poke at certain products which remain in beta for years the new tool is called Alpha and it is in Beta. That’s funny.

Yahoo! describes Alpha (Beta) like this:

Alpha is a new beta product from Yahoo! that introduces the concept of Federated Search. With Alpha, you can search across many different search indices all on one page. Also, if you have a Yahoo! ID, you can log in to personalise your experience by moving the search sources around to suit you, or adding completely new ones of your own.
This offers a comprehensive search result that’s tailored and controlled by you, the searcher!