As expected, marketers' eternal riddle on SEO vs PPC did not fail to generate interest at SES San Francisco last week, as Imelda Khoo reported. Earlier this year, Kevin Gibbons had already shared with us his in-depth analysis of the SEO or PPC option . This is why, this time, we decided to meet with SpyFu 's CEO, Mike Roberts, as the search analytics company has created RECON, a tool that gives marketers a better understanding of SEO. How?

After months of speculations, Facebook has finally unveiled its geotagging feature. Facebook Places goes live today in the U.S., in partnership with several location-based services. You heard it, it does sound a lot like Twitter's earlier-launched Twitter Places : the name, the partners )at least for Foursquare, Gowalla and Localeze( and the same principle of layering and meshing data from those partners. So what's the difference? Where's the edge?

Covario , the provider of interactive marketing analytics , unwrapped for us here at SES San Francisco the latest upgrade to its SEO deployment tool, the Covario Organic Search Optimizer . Click to read the rest of this post.

Google AdWords has launched Enhanced CPC , an automated bidding feature that allows marketers to maximize conversions by adjusting their CPC automatically based on their track records of conversion. Click to read the rest of this post.

Twitter is also boosting its mobile interaction but mostly the news mobilizing attention on the chirpy company is the launch of its own Twitter button and the impact of it on Tweetmeme. Click to read the rest of this post.

Google is beefing up its mobile features with two launches. Click to read the rest of this post.

Affective Interfaces )AI( is a startup with a powerful emotional recognition technology that can support marketers and brands in their go-to-market strategies. It provides insight and analytics into the emotional response of prospective users/ consumers to future products, campaigns,... that they want to test. CEO Jai Haissmann walked us through the technology. Click to read the rest of this post.

It's hard to find an original headline when the company name actually is " Wowd ." The search startup has launched what it calls a "Social Discovery Client For Facebook," quite a stern name for a practical and pretty 'cool' social app that lets you cut through the noise to find, manage and organize your social connections on Facebook. Click to read the rest of this post.

Yahoo published on its Search Blog a discussion with Dr. Ben Shahshahani, head of Search Sciences at Yahoo Labs. Here are the main outlines of the conversation. Click to read the rest of this post.

Facebook is set to launch its own version of Foursquare-like check-ins in the coming weeks, CNET reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Click to read the rest of this post.

Google said it is transitioning out of its 'old' keyword tools - Keyword Tool and Search-based Keyword Tool - at the end of August to offer only the Updated Keyword Tool version that combines the features of both. Click to read the rest of this post.

Yahoo is focusing on content indeed but it also remains committed to search, Senior VP of Search Shashi Seth told us during a conversation at the company's premises in Sunnyvale. Click to read the rest of this post.

In the light of the ongoing debate about web neutrality, Google and Verizon have put together seven points in a proposal to legislators. They have shared the proposal in a blog post . Click to read the rest of this post.

Facebook , which seems yet undecided as for an IPO, has registered a hike in its July traffic in the U.S., after a slow month of June , Inside Facebook said. Click to read the rest of this post.

Yahoo is currently testing its " Infinite Browse " feature with a limited number of users. Infinite Browse literally comes in a box below Yahoo News and suggests images, videos, news articles, slideshows, as well as related searches. The user thus stays on the same page )hello dwell time ( and no longer has to go to a separate page to further his/her search.

China's main search engine Baidu is ready to expand beyond its domestic market, CEO Robin Li said. Click to read the rest of this post.

Demand Media has filed for an initial public offering )IPO( that will help it raise $125 million through the sale of company shares. Click to read the rest of this post.

Apple is in advanced talks to purchase Chinese ISP and game developer Handseeing , Reuters reported. According to Global Times , the transaction is worth around 1 billion yuan, or just over $147.5 million. "We should have a decision in about one or two months," Reuters cited Tian Bo, vice-president for operations, as saying. "They're still talking about it and it's not quite settled yet right now," he added. The purchase would be Apple's first such operation in China.

Footbalistic.com is a site for all your football )read: soccer(- related searches . Think of it: with over 3.5 billion fans worldwide )according to FIFA(, this truly is a market with great potential. Meet the Silicon Valley startup that is tapping into it. Click to read the rest of this post.

An overview of some of today's search, ad, tech news Click to read the rest of this post.