Bank Holiday Search Round Up
Well, the bank holiday is almost upon us, but before we at eyefall leave the office to tend to gardens and the like, we thought we’d give you or view on the big stories in search right now.
- Yahoo! to be bought by Microsoft? We first saw this story early today and didn’t think it was worth commenting on. But it seems like the rumours won’t go away. It seems unlikely, but then so did the idea of Rupert Murdoch buying a social networking site. And like Danny Sullivan says, has anyone asked Google whether they might want to get involved?
- Sky News is to launch in Second Life in the first permanent move of it’s type by a TV channel (following in the footsteps of non-TV news companies such as Reuters. Here at eyefall we love Second Life and would always encourage businesses to consider a presence there so long as it matches their business & audience. If Sky is looking to get in with a young, internet savvy audience (which I think it is), then this is just that sort of match.
- There was a big rumpus on social news site digg this week as the ‘community’ tried to force the site owners to allow them to post material which the owners had been warned not to allow (and succeeded). It’s a bit of a storm in a tea-cup, but there’s a great overview by Michael Gray.
- What is it with car manufacturers? After the BMW fuss (the German arm of the company - not the UK arm that we have worked with), it seems like Volkswagen has also been using unscrupulous coding practices to improve its rankings. The difference this time is that Google appears to have been promoting them.
- The 2008 US Elections are slowly getting up to speed, like a super tanker powering up after leaving dock. And it seems like this might be the event that really pushes social media over the tipping point. There’s an interesting story about how social media are giving a voice to candidates that the mainstream don’t want to touch, whilst Barack Obama has been having trouble with his MySpace page.
- Finally, for anyone looking to get into the exciting world of SEO, can I suggest that you check out the excellent competition over at Bruce Clay.? Essentially they want people to help a not-for-profit organisation of their own choice improve their SEO, and the winner gets free entry to the excellent SMX Conference. It doesn’t mention airline fares, so it’s probably only open to those in the US - but if you do win, I’ll see you in Seattle!
Have a great Bank Holiday, and we’ll leave you with another look at the wonderful Starburst Berries & Cream ad - it’s the dance that we’ll be doing this weekend…
