Google seems to be moving toward an algorithm based more on "site quality" and user behavior. Links are still key, but there are many other factors to consider. In today's enterprise search marketing column, " Google's Algorithm is Shifting ," Aaron Shear asks if your site is ready to rank using the new factors?

Ok, this is isn't search related, but it's too much fun not to cover. Gmail has released another Labs feature. This one is called Mail Goggles and it's intended to help you avoid sending those late night or weekend emails that you'll regret later. When the feature is enabled, you have to answer simple math problems before an email will send during those most vulnerable emails-I-will-later-regret times. Of course,

Q3 earnings season is on its way and along with it are announcements about earnings calls and webcasts. Google will hold its call next Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time. You can access the live webcast here . Of course, with the economy in the state it is, investors and marketers alike will be watching earnings calls very closely for any indication of where things might be headed.

E-tailers rate SEO , site search , and email marketing as the most important e-commerce technologies when it comes to promoting their businesses, according to new survey data released by SLI Systems. 91% of the retail companies surveyed cited site search as critical, very important or important to their online businesses. Of the retailers that have measured the impact site search has had on their businesses, 87% reported positive results.

The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago have just been posted to the website for the SEM conference. And check out the heavy hitters: • Lawrence Lessig , the Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, is giving the opening keynote on Monday, Dec. 8; • Bill Tancer , the General Manager of Global Research at Hitwise, is giving the morning keynote on Tuesday, Dec. 9; and • Josh James , the President and Chief Executive Officer of Omniture,

iPerceptions has released data showing which online advertising methods are most popular with consumers. 25% are likely to click on simple text ads 20% are likely to click on display ads follow 20% are likely to click on right banners 12% are likely to click on top banners Video ads remain unpopular, with only 11% of consumers likely to click on them. But if you do use video ads, the audience segment most likely to click on them is the under 25 set,

Click Forensics has announced a new feature for its solution for advertisers. The feature enables brands to identify and track campaigns that are unlawfully using their trademarked terms. Click Forensics says the trend of trademark infringement in pay-per-click advertising and growing, and marketers need the ability to address the problem more quickly. "The impact of trademark infringement in search advertising goes beyond consumer annoyance," said Paul Pellman,

Should you delete or pause under-performing keywords - or simply adjust their bid prices? In today's search advertising column, " Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions, Part 2 ," David Szetela notes that the answer will vary by advertiser, but one thing is constant: decisions about keyword and ad performance should mainly depend on conversion performance.

It must be redesign your search engine day . hakia has a new look and it's reminiscent of Yahoo's recent glue pages test with a hint of the old Ask.com. Of course, hakia already distinguishes itself from the "big" search engines by saying that sites with a bunch of inbound links are not always credible. hakia attempts, through partnerships with experts, to produce more credible results. Now, it's adding images and user-generated content to those results.

After a year of slow but steady growth , Ask.com has redesigned, incorporating Google, Yahoo and Microsoft design elements along with it. Changing things up has helped Ask in the past , so we'll have to keep an eye on whether this gives Ask.com a nice little boost. The first noticeable change is the front page. It's minimalist in nature, but you can change the skin to create a different background. In the results, the dualing sidebars are gone,

Two health sites have merged in what many are saying will be a challenge to health search giant WebMD. The Revolution Health Network and Waterfront Media are joining forces to dominate the health space. Waterfront Media runs the Everyday Health Network. AOL co-founder Steve Case, now CEO of Revolution Health said, "When we entered the health care market we knew one of the areas we wanted to focus on was using the Internet to empower consumers and give them more choice,

Google Blog Search has redesigned and added meme trackers like Techmeme and Megite on the front pages of several categories and the homepage itself. I've shared a screenshot and you can see how the blog posts are separated by story along with how popular they are. This allows for easy scanning, which is useful if you're looking for blogs talking about a hot topic. What do you think of the update? Let us know in the comments.

Senator Herb Kohl )D-Wis.( is okay with the Google-Yahoo deal, but he wants the DOJ to keep a close eye on the implementation. In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett , Kohl, Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust urges: Recognizing the nascent and fast-changing nature of this marketplace, we encourage the Department to continue to monitor the state of competition in this industry, whatever the outcome of its current investigation. If, over time,

Have a Facebook app? Well, now you can deploy it on Friendster. They're now supporting the Facebook Developer Community. It comes almost two months after deploying the OpenSocial API . This could be a good opportunity if you're looking to go global. Friendster has 80 million members worldwide, many of which are in Asia. "Friendster's support of both the Facebook and OpenSocial platforms is a big win for business and individual developers, as well as for Friendster users,

Search Engine Watch Editor Brian E. Ussery noticed Google's Webmaster Guidelines suggestions for improving your sites has removed.getting links from directories. This is not to say Google is not using directories in the algorithm, just they are not pitching for them. Great catch Brian - good article !

In August, Americans went online at work to get sports info 26% more year-over-year, thanks largely in part to the Olympics and Fantasy Football. Yahoo! Sports enjoyed a whopping 112% growth, putting them in the top spot for the month, according to Nielsen Online Also of note, visits from women jumped 37% while traffic growth from men increased by 21%.

Real estate search engine Zillow.com has launched a free professional directory. This will allow real estate professionals to market their services to the millions of Zillow visitors for free. Pros can create a profile with photos, videos, and the like. "This is a free opportunity for local professionals to market their services to Zillow's millions of visitors - 90 percent of whom own a home, and two-thirds who are buying or selling now or in the near future.

Social networking site hi5 has updated with 10 new community-translated languages and dialects. hi5 enjoys 56 million unique visitors a month and is the third largest social network worldwide. It's #1 in over 30 countries. The ten languages are: Catalan Danish British English Finnish Hindi Macedonian Slovakian Spanish - Mexico Spanish - Colombia Swedish "The power of this program to deliver localized versions of our product has exceeded our own high expectations,

Yahoo has introduced "Search for a Cause," which was designed to support effort during October's Breast Cancer Awareness month. Search for a Cause is a SearchMonkey app that directs affiliate commissions for popular shopping sites to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. For every searcher who uses the app, Yahoo will donate $1, up to $25,000. via Yahoo!

Recently, Google and T-mobile teamed up to unveil the new G1 , the first Android -powered phone to be made commercially available. There was a lot of hype about the device and how it compared to the iPhone, but how does Google's baby, search, fit into the mix? Marc Vanlerberghe, Google's Product Marketing Director, took to the Official Google Mobile blog to address that very issue. It turns out search pops up in a bunch of places on Android, as you might expect.