After almost a decade of being in a search partnership, Google and AOL have announced this morning that they have come to a five-year contract renewal and expansion agreement. With this partnership, Google will continue to power AOL's searches in addition to providing mobile search. Also, YouTube has agreed to to bring AOL videos to its site as part of the expansion. This renewal can definitely be seen as a win in Google's column,

Remember back in 2001, during the good old days )of the internet( when you could actually use Google Adwords as a means to drive quality traffic to your website, at an extremely low investment to the advertiser? Back when niche keywords cost .05 - .20 per click and if you really wanted to open up your pockets and bid on broader terms, you would pay .25 - .75 per click. Now days you would be so lucky to find a niche where you can pay under $1.00/click.

A couple of weeks ago I took a look at some examples of how brands collect and leverage Tweeted feedback - which has a positive effect: This creates favorable social media context around the brand )and thus makes it "friendlier"(; This engages users to promote the company social media profiles )by adding them to friends, sharing, etc( This makes the brand more trust-worthy )as Twitter testimonials are easier confirmed and verified(.

Search Marketing isn't all that different than traditional marketing. And, just like the physical market, you have a plethora of vehicles from which to choose. Optimizing your efforts can get a little confusing, so look to the traditional Marketing Mix to help a bit. P Number 1: Product The end-result. In the Internet world, we'll call this the user's interaction with the website being promoted. I want to look at it this way for sake of including all types of websites,

Google is in the beta testing stages of what they are calling "sponsored map icons" which will appear on Google Maps. These icons will show specific brand icons on the maps instead of just the generic ones and as of right now this new feature is starting with HSBC, Target, Bank of America, and Public Storage. After beginning to test this feature back in March on the Australian version of Google Maps ) as reported by Search Engine Land (,

Back in April Digg CEO Jay Adelson announced he was stepping down and leaving the company. Today, Tech Crunch confirmed that they have hired Matt Williams, long time Amazon executive, has his replacement. Williams has worn many hats at his over a decade working for Amazon, including: GM of the Web-store, Director of Tech Alliances, Director of Auctions and Marketplace, and Director of Community & Cross-Merchandising.

I love to cook and I love to eat. Whether it's on the grill or in the kitchen, I love to make and eat good food. One thing I know about cooking is that every ingredient used properly together makes the dish a masterpiece. The world of online marketing and, by extension, search marketing is like a giant recipe. You'll hear lots of people making claims that you don't need paid search if you are investing in SEO or vice versa. Just like ingredients of any good recipe,

When I was a youngin' we didn't have them new fangled thangs like Remarketing or Auto-bidding. No, if we wanted something, we had to work for it! There was no such thing as day parting to change bidding. You had to wake up at 5am to turn on your B2B accounts to catch the morning traffic ' walking up the hill both ways with a pack of wolves following you. And then you had to find a power plug at Starbucks! Okay, so not really.

How's that for an advice coming from a guy who eats, sleeps and breathes Search Engine Optimization? If the truth be told, I should be aiming to convince people that SEO is the holy grail of internet success rather than repelling them. Just to make it clear, I am in full senses and not in a mood to shoot myself in the foot. So when I say, don't get infatuated with search engine optimization and rankings,

Searching through the entire online world is already something we do, everyday. How about searching through your own personal online world? Y Combinator has just just come out with something very cool that will allow you to do just that. Meet Greplin.

This morning I posted about Google deciding that it was going to be keeping Google Wave available at least through the end of this year and that it was going to be looking for ways to use the technology it had developed for that tool in other Google products. Well they have done just that. Now, in Google Docs )the feature that allows you to create new documents and spreadsheets, upload existing ones from many popular platforms,

Hey there my friends' welcome to this week's edition;' 7 Days of Search and Social ' . Well, the summer is definately drawing to a close here. August if almost over, bloggers are springing back to life and the conference/seminar world is springing to life. There was some interesting news bits as well and I was torn between Google's Realtime search and the Blekko beta. There really is a TON of good reading in every section of the offering this week. WOOT!

As of this morning, Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers can now begin transitioning their accounts to Microsoft Advertising adCenter. Last week the transition of their organic search results' back-end technology to Bing was completed and now this is the first step in the paid search transition. A detailed transition checklist is available on the Yahoo Ad blog , along with a guide that helps users become familiar with adCenter's features.

Earlier this month Google announced that their real-time communication feature, Wave was no longer going to be developed by them. The communications and collaborations application was first launched last year at Google I/O and was met with a lot of enthusiasm by developers and Google insiders a like. The buzz surrounding it in the weeks before and after the launch was huge and Google users were desperate for an invitation to see what Wave was all about.

Starting yesterday, Google has begun rolling out its newest feature in Gmail - Priority Inbox . With this handy new tool, users now get a little help when it comes to sorting their inboxes. Using algorithms and additional information that it will learn from your mailbox habits, it will help sort your emails for you into three default )but there is an option for a fourth as pointed out by Tech Crunch ( sections: Import and unread, starred, and everything else.

Although it may sound weird or repulsive to some purists, brands have been buying fans on a cost per fan basis for months )some for many moons(. Cost Per Fan Is No Big Surprise When you step back, it makes sense: Many companies operate on a cost per action basis to get emails' fan bases are the social media analogue of email lists. Companies have been acquiring emails, downloads, real estate leads and more via pay per click and SEO for years.

In the SEM world, "link bait" is a common tactic designed to capture a large audience in the hopes that a given piece of content will become "viral" and in turn, acquire a significant amount of links. Link bait has been around for years and although tactics and forms have changed, the fundamental concept has remained the same.

If you do business online and participate in social media networks, the number of contacts you have is overwhelming. Networking is the most important step to succeeding online. Contacts are gold. Therefore finding the way to value each contact you build is so essential. Yet, it is hard. You come across dozens of new people daily. It is impossible to keep everyone in mind. Rapportive is a nice Gmail assistant that helps you better manage your email contacts.

Microsoft is taking a step in the right mobile-searching direction with the release of their new Bing for Mobile Android application. Today Bing announced on their blog that the app was, as on right now, only available for Verizon customers and could be downloaded for free from the Verizon Android Marketplace. Even though the Verizon partnership with Google is the bigger fish when it comes to mobile search, Microsoft is not one to be left out.

Apparently food carts are a very big deal in Portland, Oregon. So big in fact that Microsoft has developed a new mapping layer that allows searchers to locate these carts in the Bing Maps service. This new layer is joining the ranks of other food cart finders including a maps layer from FoodCartsPortland.com on Google Maps , and Yelp's "food stands" business tag . The carts are mapped out in the same way as all locations on the maps )like viewing cart hours, photos,