Microsoft must have been putting on a good poker face a week ago when it said they weren't looking at any internet-based acquisitions in the wake of failed talks with Yahoo. Venture Beat is now reporting that Microsoft is poised to acquire semantic search company Powerset in the neighborhood of $100 million. Meanwhile, Carl Icahn is still living his proxy dreams. He's calling on Microsoft to not make an alternative deal with Yahoo unless a $33 per share guarantee is in place,

The value of any SEO effort lies in the keywords you choose. It's really that simple - you can't overestimate the importance of strong keyword research. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, " SEO Basics: Effective Iterative Keyword Research in 2008 ," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson share some methods for performing keyword research.

Should a company focus on building their messaging around their brand image, or on driving direct response via their Web site and online media? In today's Vertical Search column, " Creative Messaging in a Direct Response World ," local search expert Gregg Stewart shows that branding and direct response messaging can co-exist online, and local business profile pages are a good place to meld writing techniques for both.

This year, local advertisers are expected to shift $13.1 billion of their budgeted funds to the Internet, according to Borrell Associates. The number is up 50% over last year. In 2009, local online ad spending is projected to grow another 40% to $18.2 billion in 2009. By 2012, the growth in spending will eventually slow down and plateau at about $23 billion, but still average 15% growth over the next four years.

Two weeks after launching faster pages for mobile search , Google Mobile is announcing updates to search results pages for BlackBerry devices. Included in the update: Improved Comprehensive Results : Incorporates results from Product Search, Blog Search, News archives search, and more. Blended results : Web, image, local and news results are now combined. But, Google says they've made it easier for you to focus your search on any one of these categories,

Geoff Ramsey, the co-founder and CEO of eMarketer , recently shared 0.001% of the information that his team of researchers and analysts knows about Internet market trends during his morning keynote at Electronic Retailer's LiveEdit Lab . Why can I be so precise? He presented 60 slides out of the 54,000 charts available to eMarketer's subscribers. You do the math. Now, I'm not going to try recapping all 60 of his slides here. Instead,

Multilingual search is one of the growth areas of our industry and Google has added its own help in the space by launching its Latin American AdWords Blog . Written in Spanish, the launch today introduces itself and gives an overview of its intentions and direction. I used a machine translator to get the English version of the opening post - but its seems to be pretty good )guess the translators are improving(.

Apparently Chicago-based firm LimitNone is suing Google for misappropriating the trade secrets of its "gMove" application that Google allegedly used to develop its Email Uploader. The two-count lawsuit also claims Google violated Illinois' consumer fraud laws. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Kelley Drye & Warren LLP - "the same commercial litigation group which challenged Google over the company's online advertising system," SlashDot noted.

Set the date aside, July 8th, if you want to get the inside scoop on Google's website tools. As announced today over at the Official Google Blog , they will be holding a webinar about Google Analytics, Website Optimizer and Webmaster Tools. These Google products have become an invaluable set of tools for most serious web owners and marketers and it will be a great opportunity to see if there are any methods one is not using at the moment.

Google Maps features a very funny Google Easter Egg: If you ask for directions from an address in Australia to an address in the USA the ever helpful "Get directions" tool gives some great tips on how to cross the Pacific Ocean. Easter eggs are hidden surprises created by programmers. Tip of the hat to Michael Smith of Technocrat.net for uncovering the Google Maps egg. Now at least I know how Aussiewebmaster made his way to the USA .

Confirming recent rumors of another coming reorganization, Yahoo today announced its plans to centralize many of its product and engineering teams into one regional group in the U.S., rather than maintaining separate divisions for each set of products. Yahoo is creating three new teams that will report to President Sue Decker: An Audience Products Division will assume responsibility for companywide product strategy and product management.

The people who give us WebProNews have launched a search engine for Twitter members - Twellow . Smart move given the popularity of Twitter and one Twitter itself could have launched if it was not already trying to lift a whale with a bunch of small birds. The site has categories and will be interesting to see the breakdown of users by these categories. Something tells me the search space will be one of the leading categories.

Google has announced their replacement of outgoing CFO George Reyes. Former Bell Canada CFO Patrick Pichette has been offered the position along with an employment package as good as many first round draft picks in sports. As the San Jose Mercury News details , Pichette will get a $500,000 signing bonus and the rest of the package makes his first year's pay in the millions. Welcome to the team Patrick.

Visual search engine Searchme has announced the addition of two new features. The first is Media Search, which allows users to search for videos and images from YouTube and Flickr . The second is "Stacks," a visual bookmarking and sharing features that enables users to share what they find on blogs, social media profiles, email and web sites. "These visual search applications enhance our core search engine by allowing people to use Searchme in fresh,

The State of Missouri has launched a collaborative search portal, enabling citizens of the Show-Me state to explore millions of historical documents. The search, dubbed Missouri Digital Heritage , is powered by Deep Web Technologies' Explorit Research Accelerator. Included in the searchable material are nearly 20 "Collections" such as Transportation, Sports, Women, and Agriculture. "This is a unique project because of the queries this site is designed to handle,

The hottest Google search of the blockbuster movie summer is "Wesley Gibson." The film "Wanted" features a Matrix-like opening with star James McAvoy playing a working stiff unaware of his super powers )as an assasssin( just as Keanu Reeves was clueless as Neo at the start of The Matrix. According to Wikipedia, Wesley Gibson, was a pathetic, cubicle-dwelling hypochondriac. His boss frequently chewed him out and his girlfriend regularly cheated on him with his best friend.

By 2012, 1.8 billion people will be using the internet, according to JupiterResearch. That will be a 44% increase from 2007. China, India, Russia and Brazil will see the highest growth rates. China will overtake the U.S. in internet use by 2011. "Even though the emerging economies will have lower online penetration rates compared to the developed countries,

Apartment Guide has launched a mobile search application allowing users to find apartments via GPS . They've partnered with Mobile Accord to provide the location-based listings, available through participating carriers. "Apartment Guide makes finding apartments easier through mobile GPS," said Arlene Mayfield, president of Apartment Guide. "Powered by Qualcomm's BREW® Platform,

Was the more seasoned Hillary Clinton presidential campaign out-Googled by the more search savvy Barack Obama 2008 campaign? According to Kate Kay, senior editor of ClickZ, our sister site , Clinton Spent Far Less Online Than Obama . And there are lessons here that every search engine marketer is going to want learn regardless of his or her political stripes. BNN )Business Network News( recently interviewed Kate Kay,

Guess the wagon circling has begun over at Yahoo in preparation of the stockholders' meeting August 1. They sent out a letter to stockholders outlining the various events of the past few months and promoted voted for the existing board of directors. The letter attacks Carl Icahn. "It is time for Yahoo! to turn its undivided attention to implementing its key strategies, and we therefore urge you to reject Mr. Icahn's slate and his ill-defined agenda,