Domain name registrar Network Solutions has entered into the business of search engine optimisation, according to pages from its site.
Network Solutions now offer search engine optimisation packages from between $1,800 (£898) and $5,800 (£2,893) inclusive of between ten and 50 keywords.
The page cites an iPropsect study from 2006 that found that 62 per cent of searchers select results from the top ten returned searches. Network Solutions claim that they will offer money back to customers from their top three packages who do not receive top ten status.
The company also announced that they had received authorised Google AdWords reseller status earlier this month.
Jeff Zimmerman, vice president of online marketing for Network Solutions, said this would make the company one of only a small number of AdWords resellers in the US.
"Being named an authorised Google AdWords reseller places us into a select group who receive training which increases our proficiency as pay-per-click search analysts," he said.
He added that this would make the company more "capable of successfully selecting and managing keyword campaigns".
The Yahoo! search marketing (YSM) tool Panama has been given an upgrade, according to the official YSM blog.
Although the changes are small, the addition of the new tools are said to be ideal for someone running multiple marketing features and should help to create campaigns more efficiently.
Panama now has a move and copy feature which allows advertisers to transfer keywords from one ad group to another.
It has also incorporated a feature which aims to streamline the keyword selection process, allowing customers to add keywords more easily while creating new campaigns.
Yahoo! has also included a help facility to Panama that will assist users online as they browse and create advertising projects.
Google recently applied some more aesthetic changes to its own advertising feature AdSense, by allowing customers to choose square, rounded or very rounded units to frame their ads.
David Karnstedt has given his reasons for on Yahoo!’s recent decision to merge its search and display marketing departments.
The former senior vice president of search sales business and now head of US sales, has suggested the reason he expects success from the new structure relates to the company’s need for a more unified approach to marketing.
He told dmnews.com: "Rather than have one team focused on selling search and another one focused on selling display, Yahoo’s integrated team will provide customers with holistic recommendations."
"We anticipate that this change will accelerate our competitive advantage in the market and the business for longer-term success," he added.
Mediapost.com reported yesterday that media buyers have expressed confidence in Karnstedt and the new marketing structure.
Mr Karnstedt replaced Wenda Harris-Millard who spent six years at Yahoo!
This week it was announced that Ms Harris-Millard is to join Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia as president of media from July 16th.
Google yesterday launched a version of its desktop facility for Linux users.
As a downloadable application allows users to search through the contents of their machines and presents the search results in an easy to edit window.
Google desktop has been available to PC users since its launch in October 2004 and only became available to Mac OS X users in April of this year.
The Linux version was developed in Google’s Beijing office and runs on Debian 4.0, Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu 6.10, SUSE 10.1 and Red Flag 5.
Although very similar to the existing Windows and Mac OS versions at this stage the Linux model does not include the sidebar and gadget features.
On its initial launch Google’s director of consumer web products Marissa Mayer called the feature one of the most exciting announcements of the year.
She told serarchenginewatch.com: "Our users have been asking for this. They say, ‘Google is great, but why can’t I search my computer the same way?’"
Google has altered its AdSense feature by rounding off the corners.
The new AdSense feature will allow customers to choose square, rounded or very rounded units to frame their ads.
The units were thought to be too square and not consistent with a number of marketing strategies of some of Google’s clients, according to Google’s Inside AdSense blog.
The blog states: "This new option is part of our ongoing effort to improve the look and feel of our ads. We’re also working to give [customers] even more choices to customise [their] ad formats while maximising revenue and user satisfaction."
So far the feedback on the new feature has been largely positive. Some bloggers are praising the look and styling of the new options, whereas some are calling them "irrelevant" or "crowded".
AdSense recently updated its systems to include help and support in Turkish, French Italian and Russian and has launched a help forum that advises customers how they can better optimise their AdSense performance, according to the blog.
Yahoo! has announced that it will now incorporate Flickr photo-sharing.
The photo-sharing community site has been already been integrated into Google, Microsoft and Ask.com’s own image search facility, enabling users to browse over 300 million images.
Yahoo users will now be able to search through Flickr photos and will be able to access the user that posted the photo through a hyperlink.
The search engine wrote in its blog: "This integration brings another layer of relevance, freshness and, dare we say, beauty to our image search. And it’s only the beginning."
Ludicorp Research and Development, Flickr’s parent company, was acquired in March 2005 by Yahoo!
French firm Dassault Systemes launched their own new site yesterday designed for sharing three-dimensional (3D) models. The site will offer users the ability to create, upload and share 3D images.
Dassault Systemes’ chairman and chief executive Bernard Charles told Reuters yesterday: "We want to do the 3D Flickr."
Google remains the top search engine in the US, according to a recent survey.
Latest figures from comScore show that Google provided more than half of all online searches in May, a one per cent increase on the previous month.
Of the 7.6 billion searches recorded, 50.7 per cent were made by Google, with its closest competitor Yahoo retaining 26.4 per cent.
Although Yahoo’s share dropped by 0.4 per cent it was AOL that saw the biggest drop of five per cent, with only MSN remaining constant with an overall 10.3 per cent share of the US market.
Year-on-year the use of search engines has increased 11 per cent compared with May 2006.
Recent figures from M:Metrics have stated that Google, Orange and the BBC are the most visited websites on mobile phones in the UK.
The report suggested that each of the three sites reached over 20 per cent of mobile browsers in April, with Google leading the group with 30 per cent of users.
New media solutions company Coalmarch has been praised by Triangle Business Journal.
Coalmarch, whose products include the CoalEngine search optimisation software, provides search engine and web marketing solutions and was yesterday ranked by the publication as North Carolina’s top internet marketing company.
Chief technical officer, Tom Ingham said: "The hundreds of hours that we’ve committed to develop the CoalEngine software system has led to our growth by providing a solution that is affordable, adaptable, and customisable.
"We’re very excited to be recognised in this way," he added.
Although the company has only been established since 2003 it already serves a number of clients both within the US and worldwide.
Last week the company revealed its new vice president Sandy Andrews, who will be responsible for marketing, public relations and brand development.
Sandy Andrews has previously worked as account supervisor and business development director at French/West/Vaughan, media director at AdMedia, and marketing director at Triangle Rent a Car.
Yahoo is set to merge its search and display marketing departments, as its chief domestic sales officer Wenda Millard resigns.
The company hopes that the new structure will allow for a more streamlined process of marketing advertising space to its customers.
It has also been announced that David Karnstedt will be promoted to head of North American sales, following the appointment of co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO.
In a statement issued by Yahoo, Mr Karnstedt says that the new approach would also make the company able to provide a more tailored service to its customers.
"By taking a more holistic approach to advertising sales, Yahoo will become a more consultative seller, which should make buying complete solutions easier for our customers across Yahoo and our partner network," he said.
Just last week Bloomberg reported on the resignation of former CEO Terry Semel who during his time at Yahoo, saw shares rise from $4.06 (£2.03) in 2001 to $28.12 (£14.08) today.
Bloomberg also states that these shares experienced their first decline under Semel in 2006, following company’s delaying of a new ad program.
Following a recent respite eBay has announced that it will continue to advertise with Google.
The auction website pulled its advertising from the search engine for a ten day period last week which it claims to have done for marketing reasons.
However, auctionbytes.com reports that the reason for this temporary departure from Google could relate to an ongoing feud over the eBay’s reluctance to integrate Google’s new online payment facility Google Checkout on their site.
Speaking to Reuters, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said: "From our point of view, it was a very successful test, we learned a lot, including that we are not as dependent on Google Adwords as some may have thought."
Mr Durzy confirmed that eBay had returned to Google but added: "I will tell you it will be in a much more limited way than it was before."
Last week the New York Post warned that the move could spread further, with other companies challenging Google’s dominance of the market.
