Yahoo has redesigned the SearchMonkey template. The new design features deep links horizontally underneath the title. The reason for the change is that testing showed the new format was more easily scanned by users and increased the click-through rate for app developers. Here's a before and after shot: What do you think of the change? Give your impression in the comments.

Back on July 20, 2008, I asked: " Is YouTube about to pass Yahoo in expanded searches? " Well, I've just had a chance to digest the latest data from comScore for August 2008 and its appears that YouTube has passed Yahoo - if you look at "expanded" search queries instead of "core" search queries. First, what's the difference between an expanded and a core search query? According to comScore,

Local SEO is a must for businesses that sell products locally to a specified geographical area. In today's vertical search column, " Getting to Know Local SEO ," local search expert Gregg Stewart shows how the channels consumers are using to search are changing. Is your marketing strategy adapting?

At the OMMA Conference in New York this week, Axciom is unveiling their new online advertising targeting tool. Dubbed Relevance-Xâ„¢ LifeStage, the tool was designed to help interactive marketers identify audiences based on life stage. Once the identification has taken place, advertisers can make a single media buy to reach publishers with a message coordinated with offline efforts.

Social sites FriendFeed and Twitter have )separately( updated the designs of their interfaces. You won't notice much by going to the homepage not logged in. But once you're passed the wall, you'll notice a few changes. Twitter's are largely cosmetic in nature , with the biggest change being moving the tabs for Replies, Direct Messages, etc. to the sidebar. They've also slapped some Ajax on there to just refresh Home or @Replies when you click on them. Thank goodness.

comScore has released their search market data for August 2008. Google saw 63% of the 11.7 billion core searches conducted in the U.S. during the late summer month. The number of core searches barely changed from July to August, so Google's 1.1% rise over July 2008 certainly stole a little share from someone else. Or rather, two someone elses. Both Microsoft and Yahoo took the hit, while Ask and AOL also added a bit of market share.

Microsoft's adCenter is introducing Dynamic Text Insertion into its offering. Similar to using {keyword} insertion, Dynamic Text Insertion works by using these placeholders: placeholders {param1}, {param2} and {param3}.

Ad widget company WidgetBucks today announced the availability of two new advertising verticals: local and travel. WidgetBucks already has a shopping vertical which serves a billion impressions per month worldwide. "We fundamentally believe that advertising should be more customizable, personal, engaging, and more measurable for publishers and advertisers," said Matt Hulett, chairman and CEO of Mpire and WidgetBucks. "Clearly,

Google has added Street View and walking directions to its mobile maps. This will be especially useful for those of you lucky enough to live in a walkable city. To explain the usefulness of this update, Google made a video on just one of the many ways Street View and walking directions could come in handy. Take a look: Related Reading: Google Maps for Mobile Adds Public Transportation Directions Google Makes "My Location" Circle Smaller, Larger Depending on, Er,

Google has made it optional for AdWords users to place the "Google Site Stats" logo on their conversion pages. Originally, the logo was designed to let customers opt out of conversion tracking. But advertisers told Google that the logo was often a redundancy of their site's own privacy policy. If you want to remove the logo, it will require action on your part. Click here to learn the steps to take. What do you think about the change? Are you planning to remove the logo?

Microsoft acquired semantic search company Powerset earlier this year , and now the Live Search team is revealing the first integrations of Powerset with Live Search . Freebase Answers Live Search wanted to include more of Live Search Answers, so they made use of Freebase, an open, shared database and something Powerset incorporates in its search. Improved Wikipedia captions Live Search also used Powerset to improve its Wikipedia captions within the search results. Previously,

BuzzLogic is unveiling a new premium ad network specifically designed with bloggers in mind, and they're launching it at this week's BlogWorld & New Media Expo event in Las Vegas. The network was launched into beta in June. Bloggers can apply to the network or are invited to join. They're compensated with brand advertising based on their influence in conversations in the blogosphere.

Online advertising firm Turn, Inc. is introducing dynamic pricing models into its behavioral targeting offering. The model will take factors such as recency and relevancy of message and combine it with a retargeting method that allows advertisers to monitor real-time behavior and adjust their campaign within seconds. So, does this dynamic pricing work?

Google could be acquiring Valve which also owns Steam - one of the best content distributions, according to the Inquirer . Valve is also a game developer with titles like Half Life and has a game search engine, Source. Who knows maybe Google could use its business strategies to build a new game - World Dominance or perhaps Big Brother.

The oft rumored G phone is becoming a reality and given the popularity of the Google brand I wonder if the Apple crew are starting to worry. T-Mobile will soon be offer the Android-driven cell phone, according to reports . The phone is being manufactured by a small Taiwanese-based company, "that makes its own )relatively obscure( brand of handsets, plus house brands for carriers including Vodafone and Telecom New Zealand," the National Business Review reported.

Google settled with a UK-based anti-abortion group who had sued them for not allowing them access to advertising for abortion keywords, the Times Online reported . And will now allow anti-abortionist to advertise along with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion advertisers. I checked the UK results and none have yet to start advertising as of yet. Is this the way to make Google change their edicts?

Michael Arrington over TechCrunch has screen shots of the new Yahoo redesign, including their third party mail access which offers AOL and Google but notably leaves hotmail and MSN out of the options. The new design has taken some of the Yahoo personalised elements at this stage, but has yet to be solidified and will be rolling out further changes in the days ahead, according to TechCrunch.

Google is none-too-thrilled about a SearchIgnite study suggesting that search advertising prices would increase by 22%. Now they're fighting back by saying the study was misleading. Here are their main points: Ad prices are not set by Yahoo! or Google, but by advertisers themselves Yahoo! won't be able to see the current auction prices for Google ads, just as Google won't be able to see Yahoo's prices The report mistakenly assumes that Yahoo!

Socialmedia.com is a social advertising network. Buddy Media is a social media consulting and analytics company )i.e. they have clients!(. Today, they have announced a partnership that allows people to buy advertising and access analytics to make the most of their social media campaigns. They're calling it social 'app-vertising' and brands like FedEx and New Balance have already been privy to the service.

How much power should Google have? How much is too much? Why should you care? In today's Searching for Meaning column, " Launch Google Freedom Now ," Kevin Ryan asks if we would really be better off in a Google-free world.