VeriSign has announced that their SSL certificates will now support International Domain Names )IDN(. These domain names display website addresses in local language characters such as Kanji symbols in Japan. This will come as welcome news to those who are looking to globalization marketing efforts or developing a multi-lingual site . "Internationalized domain names are gaining traction with the introduction of IDN-enabled browsers like Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox,

"Yayyy!! I will be covering the big Search Engine Strategy Conference 2008 in San Jose! Check back for the best of the best events and while you are in San Jose follow me on Twitter for the latest SES events info ! Webmoxy email:webmoxy@gmail.com are now "Our Events"! Quick Overview : Monday, August 18 : 1:30 â€" 2:30 pm Orion Keynote Panel and SES Awards 4:30 â€" 5:30 pm Orion Keynote Panel and SES Awards 8:00 - Midnight IMCharity Event!

If you are coming to SES San Jose next week, there are several special events in the evenings - after the conference wraps up each day - that you won't want to miss. The first is The Internet Marketer's Charity Party , which is raising money for the Children's Hospital of Aurora, CO, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The party starts at 8:00 p.m. Monday evening and is being held at the Agenda Lounge, which is located at 399 1st Street. Donations are $40.

Jamie Welsh, the founder and CEO of 10% Solution , will be speaking at the session on "Non-Profits & Socially-Responsible Companies With Global Interests in a 2.0 World" during next week's SES San Jose . 10% Solution is a social responsibility certification and consulting company. In a previous life Jamie was a highly accomplished executive with a diverse background in, ISO certifications, process consulting, marketing, organizational management and software development.

Google is now offering AdSense for Feeds, after announcing that Feedburner would not be accepting any more applications to the Feedburner Ad Network . No official announcement has been made, but many publishers are able to access the feature in their AdSense accounts. I was able to do so with mine.

Google was the recipient of 70.77% of U.S. searches in July 2008, up from 69.17% in June , according to Hitwise. Yahoo and Microsoft continued to drop, at 18.65% and 5.36% respectively. Ask.com dropped month-over-month but gained year-over-year, coming in at 3.53%.

While not yet complete, AOL has confirmed that they will acquire SocialThing . The FriendFeed competitor is still in private beta. No word on the price for the acquisition, but expect it to be small. Still, AOL seems to be going after the social media world, having recently acquired social network Bebo for $850 million . Bebo has 40 million users, doubling AOL's media reach via the acquisition.

Two days ago, we brought you news that Ex-Googler Ben Ling was leaving Facebook . Now, we know where he's headed - back to Google. Ling will be taking on the difficult task of monetizing YouTube , Google's popular online video sharing site ) acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion (.

In accordance with the terms of the settlement with Carl Icahn , Yahoo has added two more board members to complete the expansion to 11. Frank Biondi and John Chapple, who previously were members of Icahn's proxy board , have been appointed just two weeks after Icahn's appointment was made official. 8 of Yahoo's previous board stayed on for the deal. Here's the lowdown on the new dudes: Frank Biondi has served as senior managing director of WaterView Advisors LLC,

We've seen a natural progression from back rooms to boardrooms - from the basement to the mainstream. SEO has not simply shed its dubious roots; it has become a legitimate, reputable component of a proper client marketing mix. In today's SEM agency issues column, " The Evolution of SEO ," William Flaiz outlines the continuing growth of search marketing.

If you need some lift, start dropping pages into Google Knol and Google pages. They show up in the organic results faster than you can get them through Webmaster Central. In today's SEM Crossfire column, " Google SERP Bias? Google Knols Best ," Frank Watson and Chris Boggs discuss the limitations of Google's algorithms, and its hypocritical stances on some web spam topics.

In a battle for universal search engine foosball domination, Google and Yahoo are meeting in a clash of the titans at SES San Jose . Microsoft has also been invited, and is trying to put together a team. This could determine the future of the search industry )well foosball-wise at least(. So come to the Networking Cocktail Reception on Tuesday. Play will start as close to 5:15 PM as possible, so we can get the games done prior to the end of the reception. Bring your cameras,

As people returned to work on Monday after the first weekend of the Beijing Olympic games, many went online to keep track of events as they unfold, according to Nielsen Online. Traffic to NBC's Olympics video site jumped a whopping 85% on the first day of the work week, while other sites enjoyed a nice boost as well. Yahoo's unique audience nearly doubled to its Olympics site on Monday, helping it top the list of most trafficked Olympics sites for August 11.

Zillow, a vertical search engine aimed at the real estate market, has announced the launch of Showcase Ads, geo-targeted ads for realtors and other real estate advertisers. Within a given zip code, advertisers can buy 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent of the ads, giving them the ability to target just the local areas they are interested in selling to. Showcase Ads will have a different pricing structure than Zillow's other local ad offering - EZ Ads.

Google AdSense has expanded the availability of its Video Units to include support for 3 more languages and 4 more countries. The languages are: French German Spanish The countries are: Brazil Germany India Mexico Previously , video units were available in English and Japanese to users in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States.

If you've been keeping up with the conflict in South Ossetia, perhaps you were curious about where the contentious events were occurring. I hope you ended up at Microsoft's Live Search Maps, because it is the only map of the top 5 search engines that could find both Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's self-declared capital, as well as Abkhazia, another separatist region where Russia has opened a second front.

Google has added a "Places" Layer to Google Earth. Content from Wikipedia, Panaramio, YouTube and the Google Earth community have been wrapped up into a "single, multifaceted layer." The Places layer is found in the Geographic Web layers section on Google Earth. Meanwhile, Google is also addressing the difficulty of mapping in tumultuous regions of the earth, such as the countries along the southern Russian border that were previously states in the former Soviet Union.

If you're looking for drama, go watch the Olympics or an episode of the Hills. Ex-Googler Ben Ling is leaving Facebook, but it's not for any rumored internal squabbles. Instead, he's got a new opportunity on deck that is apparently great enough to leave the hottest social network in the world right now. I don't know what opportunity is out there for a guy with Google and Facebook experience, but it had better be a doozy.

For a long time, I have been befuddled as to why I must log-in to Google Analytics when I'm already logged into Gmail in the same browser. Now, Google is claiming they have streamlined the process. If you're signed into your Google account, all you have to do when you arrive at the Analytics page is click on a bright blue button that says "Access Analytics." This is not truly an improved,

Just 3 months after acquiring the assets of the Safari search plug-in, Inquisitor , Yahoo is announcing updates to the add-on. Using the recently launched BOSS technology , Inquisitor is now faster in providing Yahoo results. Eight additional languages can use Inquisitor now, as well. They are Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German. The Inquisitor client got a fresh redesign and so did the home page for the plug-in.