When I read that AOL.com launched a new homepage , I naturally hopped on over there to see what the new look, um, looked like. It looked the same, except with dark blue trim and web 2.0 stripes in the background for good measure. Otherwise, it still holds the same basic design as....Yahoo. I then came across a story by Reuters which says Yahoo and AOL are conducting "due diligence" on a possible )probable?( merger by the two web companies . I was not at all surprised.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has announced new initiatives aimed at improving workflows and best practices. Here they are: E- Business Interactive Standards , a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business order information between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009. Interactive Advertising Workflow Best Practices ,

Humor is a great form of content that will give people a reason to link to your content, and help it spread virally. The challenge for most sites is coming up with something funny. In today's linkbuilding column, " Use Humor for Link Marketing ," Justilien Gaspard offers some ideas that can be used by everyone, regardless of the size of your marketing budget.

Social media is revolutionary. It allows CNN anchor Rick Sanchez to have a relationship with 30,000 people, and make a connection with them that can translate to other media. In today's building brand equity column, " Trick or Tweet for CNN ," Erik Qualman explains that companies need to relinquish the total control they've had and allow users, consumers, viewers, etc. to take their rightful ownership.

comScore released a study today that found 14.5 million people in the U.K. visited at least one blog in August, representing 41% of the total U.K. Internet audience. "Blogs have become part of the essential fabric of the Internet today," Herve Le Jouan, Managing Director of comScore Europe said in a press release . "They live and breathe in real-time, helping quench media consumers' thirst for the most up-to-date breaking news, information, and analysis. It should not,

We know that searchers want answers , and there are plenty of answer sites out there to fuel their curiosity. Now, Microsoft's Live Search team is including some answers in their search results. Encyclopedia, Traffic and Horoscope information will now display answers within results. For example, you can type in the question "How tall is Mount Everest?" and get the answer in the results. I think search marketers will be happy about this. If you're trying to sell a product,

If you're not familiar, CafePress is a site where you can purchase custom-designed apparel and gifts. There are many merchants selling their designs as well. Today, CafePress unveiled its new design , and it looks great. But searching for a design you like can be a chore. That's why I think CafePress should adopt an online ratings system to help the best designs be showcased first in their search results. Yes, this can be abused, but it can also create a community,

MapQuest has a few noteworthy updates to its widget and local content . First up, the widget has the following updates : The Maps and Driving Directions experience MapQuest Search functionality has been added Added Traffic information Performance and functionality improvements In the local content update, MapQuest has added an "AddThis" button . You may have seen the AddThis button around the interwebs.

I've just returned from the PRSA International Conference in Detroit, Michigan. The Public Relations Society of America is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals. But there were a number of sessions on the agenda about search engine optimization. On Saturday, Oct. 25, Lee Odden taught a half-day workshop on "Optimizing Content for Optimum Search Results: Search Engine Optimization of News." Lee, as most of us in the search industry know,

If you've used the Google Checkout Buy Now button, you know that it's a bit limiting - only allowing customers to purchase one item at a time. Google Checkout's new shopping cart allows your customers to purchase multiple items at once. To get started, go to the Tools tab in the Google Checkout Merchant Center. Enter your product info, price and image location. An HTML script will be generated for you. Copy and paste the code onto your product pages.

It turns out that the concern over the Google/Yahoo search advertising partnership is bipartisan. Earlier this month, Senator Herb Kohl )D-Wisc( urged caution in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett. Now, Rep. Joe Barton )R-TX( has written a letter to Barnett expressing his concern. Barton's beef is with what he feels is Yahoo's inadequate response to questions regarding the deal.

Online advertising networks are struggling to make ends meet during a tough economy and a slowdown in industry growth. JellyCloud and Adzilla have shut down while AdBrite had to lay off 40% of its staff. It's a crowded field with over 300 ad networks, many of them designed to target niche markets. Bigger ad networks, such as AOL's Platform-A, are experiencing struggles in niches such as auto, financial, and telecommunications. What do you think of this slowdown?

If you want to learn how to use PR for effective SEO, the free WebmasterRadio webinar today should be a must view. Registration can be done here . Top Rank CEO Lee Odden and Jay Byrne, President of v-Fluence Interactive Public Relations, will do the presentation that starts at 2 pm EST today. I know I will be listening in, and recommend you join me.

Blip.tv CEO "Mike Hudack revealed that his company has found a way to dynamically insert ads from DoubleClick into video downloads on iTunes and elsewhere," the Washington Post reported . Given the huge use of the tube sites such as YouTube and the increasing popularity of downloading ITune videos this new technology should prove a good revenue source for Google - owner of DoubleClick. "For the past six months or so, blip.tv has been experimenting with placing pre-roll,

While many seem happy to see that Yahoo has started geo-targeting, the comments to their blog post about launch problems seem to show early adoption problems. Given Yahoo has already divided out their PPC by country, it would seem the rest should be easier. If you are using the new tools and have opinions please post them here .

Bloomberg News reports the monthly search numbers for September have Yahoo gaining while Google and Microsoft have dropped. "Yahoo! Inc. handled a larger chunk of U.S. Internet searches last month while Microsoft Corp. lost market share, according to researcher ComScore Inc. Yahoo had about 20.2 percent of queries in September, up from 19.6 percent in August, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said today in an e-mail. Microsoft's share fell to 8.5 percent from 8.9 percent.

Despite cutting 10,000 jobs, Motorola is betting big on Google's telephone technology Android, dropping all but three of their phone operating systems, the Wall Street Journal reported . Though Android has had security problems, Motorola's chief of the handset division Dr. Sanjay Jha is a big proponent of the operating system and is using it "for mid-tier )very high volume( phones,

Microsoft adCenter has released a slew of updates for the fall to aid you in your paid search campaigns. The updates include: Campaign Management : ability to pause and resume ads and keywords, geo-targeting enhancements, and improved performance reporting on the Ads page Editorial Improvements : faster reviews, dynamic feedback about why ads and keywords were disapproved,

Google has reached an agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers )AAP(, which represented a broad class of authors and publishers to expand online access to in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. The publications will come from the library collections participating in Google Book Search. The agreement was reached after two years of negotiations.

Baidu is getting in the consumer-to-consumer )C2C( game )think eBay or indie sellers on Amazon.com( with a new site, Youa.com . In the beginning, 10,000 sellers were chosen from over 100,000 applicants. 50,000 customers were chosen from Baidu's online communities. "Baidu Youa continues Baidu's tradition of providing the best possible online experience for our users," said Mr. Jun Yu, Baidu's vice president of products.