Microsoft Senior Vice President Satya Nadella announced at the company's financial analyst meeting that their partnership with Facebook has been extended to include search. The existing partnership has Microsoft serving up banner and sponsored ads on the popular social network. Last year, Microsoft paid $240 million to own a 1.6% stake in Facebook, a private company. Microsoft expects Facebook members to see the integrated Live Search, including search ads,

Leading mobile advertising provider AdMob has announced brand spanking new advertising solutions designed specifically for the iPhone. Advertising options will be made available for both branding and performance and function in both browser and native applications . Have an app you want to promote? AdMob is giving away a total of $1 million in advertising to iPhone developers wanting to market their applications.

In May, Google announced a new initiative called Friend Connect that enables site owners to add social media to their websites, and allows internet users to connect their social accounts more seamlessly. But while Facebook was initally part of the effort, later they banned Google's Friend Connect from their site, citing issues with privacy and the redistribution of user data. Instead of waiting for Google to comply,

Knol is knowledge without the W)ikipedia( and an edge. Knol is the newest product launched by Google. The Wikipedia competitor is in beta. Get ready for Knollywood. Knol is basically Blogspot on steroids, organized by topic. Google states the key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an identified author )or group of authors(. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. Google expects multiple knols on the same subject. With Knol,

Jason Lynn, Director of Solutions Engineering for Yahoo/Right Media is exiting the Sunnyvale search engine to become Executive Vice President of Product Management at online advertising network interCLICK. Prior to his Yahoo/Right Media stint, Lynn was Director of Product Management at behavioral targeting firm TACODA, which was acquired by AOL in July 2007 . That's the same month Yahoo finalized its acquisition of Right Media . Lynn joins an exodus of Yahoo execs as of late.

Google , Microsoft and Yahoo may have disappointed Wall Street, but Baidu is proving to be a Dark Knight in this tough economy. Boosted by advertising sales in advance of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese search engine posted an 87% jump in profits in the second quarter of 2008. Net profit came in at $38.6 million, beating expectations of $35.5 million. Baidu owned 63% of the search market in China, accoring to iResearch. Google had 26% and Yahoo came in third at 8%.

Microsoft has announced the reorganization of its Platforms and Services Division )PSD(. The department will split into two new divisions: Windows/Windows Live and Online Services. Kevin Johnson, PSD President, is leaving Microsoft to head up Juniper Networks. Senior vice presidents Steven Sinofsky, Jon DeVaan and Bill Veghte will report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer to lead Windows/Windows Live.

When engaging in social media, companies are often encouraged to engage consumers on Facebook. In today's Brand Equity column, " The Top 4 Best Facebook Practices ," Erik Qualman explains why playing in this space is not like traditional marketing methods.

Yahoo researcher Peter Mika has written up an extensive article on semantic search. First he talks about the limitations to syntax-based search: It is almost impossible to return search results that relate to the secondary sense of a termâ€"especially if a dominant sense existsâ€"for example, try searching for George Bush the beer brewer as compared to the President The capabilities of computational advertising, which is largely also an IR problem )for example,

PRWeek reports that a new study conducted by Burson-Marsteller has found that 15% of Fortune 500 companies communicate with consumers via blogs. The survey, conducted in February and March this year, found that 74 Fortune 500 companies actively maintain blogs, many of them technology-related corporations. The top four industries with blogs were: Computers and Office Equipment )IBM, Dell, etc.(; Network and Other Communications Equipment )Motorola, Lucent Technologies, etc.

Tel Aviv-based search engine marketing platform provider, Kenshoo, has announced plans to open an office in the United States. The office will be located in San Francisco. Kenshoo has a European subsidiary in London as well. Kenshoo provides a third generation SEM platform called KENSHOO SEARCH. "We see North America as a key market and are very happy to hit the ground running. Following our plan, we have decided to take the needed step and establish a local company.

A few months ago we explained why Digg would be worth $200 million to Google . Now it appears the rumor mill is reporting that Google will buy Digg for $200 million or so. Rumor has it the two companies have signed a letter of intent and are close to a deal that will bring Digg under the Google News property. Microsoft has an advertising deal with Digg so the deal would be a competitive blow to the Redmond giant. This is the third time the buyout rumor has surfaced.

Are your landing page tests telling the whole story? In today's By the Numbers column, " How Valid Are Your Landing Page Test Conclusions? ," Tim Ash talks about the care and feeding of landing page tests - and their results.

"Drive to search" campaigns are hot in Japan. In today's Searching for Meaning column, " The Japanese Search, Why Don't We? ," Kevin Ryan explains the trend and how you can implement similar techniques in your search marketing campaigns.

We're not sure what the long-term implications of the Yahoo-Yang-Icahn settlement will be. In the short term, though, the agreement that ended the impending proxy fight appears to have inspired Jerry Yang to use capital letters in his memos to employees. Here's the full text of Jerry Yang's take on the Icahn affair. Today, Yahoo! moves past a distracting proxy contest. This morning we announced a settlement with Carl Icahn which will enable Yahoo!

Yahoo Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results • Revenues were $1,798 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 6 percent increase compared to $1,698 million for the same period of 2007. • Marketing services revenues were $1,587 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 7 percent increase compared to $1,486 million for the same period of 2007. "Yahoo!

Travel search site Expedia has announced the selection of Baynote to add Social Search to complement its search results. Baynote uses what other searchers find most helpful or most interesting to refine search results. "Baynote's Social Search technology is a great fit for Expedia because the collective input from our millions of monthly visitors constantly improves the relevance of the search results," said Tom Taylor, director of strategy for Expedia.

Measurement and analytics are crucial to a successful online marketing campaign, but the relationship between online marketing and offline purchases has been a tricky one to figure out. But as more attention is given to the matter, we're learning more about the connection. Media measurement company, Nielsen Online, conducted a survey to examine the relationship between online research and offline purchases.

I went to my first Search Engine Strategies back in the spring of 2002. And one of the SEO experts speaking at that search engine conference was Jill Whalen, the CEO of High Rankings . Six-and-a-half-years ago, Jill spoke at a session entitled, "Writing for Search Engines." And six-and-a-half-years later, I'm still quoting her SEO copywriting advice in the "Introduction to Search Engine Marketing" sessions at SES conferences because it was "built to last.

comScore has released the top 50 ad networks and top 50 web properties for June 2008. In ad networks, AOL's Platform-A takes the top spot, reaching 90% of American internet users. Yahoo comes in second, reaching 83% and Google comes in third with 81%. Here's the full list: In web properties, Google leads the pack 140.2 million unique visitors, but Yahoo comes in a very close second at 140.1 million. This past April, Google's sites beat Yahoo's properties for the first time .