In what could be another blow in Yahoo's fate, Yahoo EVP Jeff Weiner unexpectedly bolted out from the Yahoo camp due to personal reasons as explained by Yahoo President Sue Decker in email )via Techcrunch ( to Weiner's team. I wouldn't question why  instead of CEO Jerry Yang, it was Ms. Decker who was addressing the matters to Weiner's team. I agree with Arrington,

A SEJ reader sent in the following question: Is it a must to create a sitemap for your site and submit it to Google? Can it harm? This is an often asked question, surprisingly. Webmaster forums keep discussing horror stories how their site traffic dropped after they created a sitemap and submitted it to Google Webmaster Tools . So here I am giving a list of frequently asked sitemap-related questions to cover all this FUD. Is a sitemap a must for a newly launched site ? No,

" In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users ." This sentence was probably the most overlooked part of the Yahoo & Google press announcement which was sent out last week as the two Internet giants formed a partnership based upon monetizing Yahoo with Google AdWords and AdSense.

The verticalization of search has made its way into the analytics market, as Indeed.com , the search engine for jobs, has announced the launching of Indeed Job Analytics. Indeed Job Analytics reports are customized for each company and will answers many questions commonly asked by employers,

I have recently covered a number of topics on backlink analysis , so make sure you haven't missed anything: Tools to explore backlinks anchor text ; Advanced link: operator to explore your competitor's backlinks )in Yahoo(; Analyzing your competitor's backlinking strategies . Today I am going to add a few useful FireFox plugins that can also be very helpful for exploring backlinks. 1.

A few days after the Yahoo-Google deal was finalized, Bilionnaire Carl Icahn commented a rather unexpected remark especially coming from somebody who was opposing Yahoo's decision not to except the Microsoft bid. What's even worst, that someone has even waged a proxy battle to overthrow the current Yahoo board.

Do you love Search Engine Journal? One of our lovely and loyal readers, a staff member of Dr. Michael Dorausch )who we sent to SMX Advanced ( and Planet Chiropractic , sent us this appreciative photo this morning, via Twitter and Flickr : Wowza! After picking my jaw up off the floor I was thinking that I <3 SearchEngineJournal.com too!

BlackHat SEO has a reputation, and it's usually not a good one. Those who practice so-called "blackhat" SEO techniques are often branded as social outcasts, treated by holier-than-thou "whitehat" SEOs and Google much like Hester Prynne in the "The Scarlet Letter". Case in point: the recent SMX Advanced conference in Seattle apparently had a lot of blackhat emphasis this year, much to the shock and horror of some. A few high profile blog posts later,

One of Google's biggest goals this year was to make YouTube profitable.  Well the year is nearly half over, and they've still yet to figure this puzzle out.  Traffic and users is not the issue, but rather, how to convert them into cash in their pockets.

Remember the Microsoft's Live Search Cashback rewards program that we told you about not so long ago? It is now working on a direct-to-merchant system with eBay's "Buy It Now" program. That means, you'll start seeing more cashback ads when searching for jewelries to electronics. Whereas previously,

You know that related search suggestions that Google's search offers up whenever you used Google search? Those suggestions offer up a quick and useful link to related search terms which might point you to more relevant search results than what you used. If you're not familiar with it, those are the links that appear right below the search box after you enter a search term. Got it now? Well,

As Loren hinted a few hours ago, Google and Yahoo have finally dropped the bomb )which we were all expecting to happen anyway( - a search partnership which in Google and Yahoo's term is NON-EXLUSIVE . But what does "non-exclusive" mean really? In Google's words: Today, we announced a non-exclusive advertising agreement that will provide Yahoo! with access to our AdSense for search and AdSense for content advertising programs on their U.S. and Canadian web properties.

Yahoo and Google are planning a massive announcement this afternoon on the same day that Yahoo has announced that they are no longer entertaining offers from Microsoft. Microsoft and Yahoo had been in discussions about partnering on certain offerings, more or less paid and organic search,

Travel search engine Kayak.com has launched a display advertising platform optimized for the travel industry. The new ad platform is based upon technology developed by Sidestep.com, which Kayak.com purchased in December 2007. Like Google AdWords style text ads, the new display ad system helps travel marketers target their ads based on search criteria including destination, origination, trip dates, length of stay, specific airline/hotel/car brands and car type. Kayak.

Yahoo and Coupons, Inc. are now working together to deliver mobile coupons to Yahoo Mobile users, expanding their current partnership. Mobile coupons are considered a promising source of revenue for mobile publishers; they are one of the marketing tactics consumers say they would welcome as part of their mobile experience says Coupons, Inc.

If you use Google Blogger to produce your blog or host your Blogger blog on Blogspot, this could happen to you : This week I attended a Blogger MeetUp which I set up in the Tampa Bay area to meet and get to know other bloggers. I found the MeetUp to be a success and hope to work with others to grow the networking of bloggers in this area. One major question by an attendee was about where to host a blog and the difference between Blogspot,

Google Sitelinks will always intrigue and excite webmasters until they know exactly how to get them. Google's official explanation is rather vague and never explains the actual algorithm; still it )and not only it( allows for a number of theories behind sitelinks: They ) sitelinks ( serve as shortcuts to help users quickly navigate to the important pages on your site.

Among the current crop of social networks, LinkedIn is perhaps the only one which is catering to business professionals but more specifically to the tech-savvy internet professionals. If you're not so much into Internet/Web stuff, chances are you might not be into LinkedIn . Technically there has been no social network that caters to the small to medium business practitioners until now. New social networking site Sta.rtUp.

Semantic search engine Hakia has intensified its health and medical search coverage by adding more than 10 million abstracts from PubMed, a medical database maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. The new service is available at Pubmed Search . Compared to searching for documents on PubMed itself, hakia's advanced technology saves time to reach relevant information.

According to various reports, Google co-founder Sergey Brin has invested in a space tourism company.  Furthermore, Brin has expressed interest in going into orbit himself within three years. Brin has plunked down a $5 million down payment for the option to book a seat on a future orbital flight with Space Adventures, a U.S.-based space tourism company.  His investmentwill help the company to launch its first private mission to the International Space Station,