Last week, Google launched its own URL shortening service , Facebook began testing its own and bit.ly began offering private label URL shortening services to large publishers . Now, Google-owned YouTube is getting in the URL shortening game . When you see links to YouTu.be - you'll know they're YouTube videos - and only YouTube videos. You can access YouTube's new URL shortening service via AutoShare or you can do it manually. Here's how: Take your URL, for example http://www.

Image via Wikipedia What is social media? When Chris Shipley announced BlogOn 2004 , social media meant blogging and social networking. Today, the term has expanded to also include micro-blogging, Wikis, social bookmarking, social news, photo sharing, video sharing, and more. At SES Chicago 2009, Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed Brian Boland, Manager, Performance Solutions, Facebook , about the advent of social media.

I am not asking about high pitched or loud voices, but about the sound of a demo video voiceover. People often use professional talent to record the script for a demo video. These voiceovers can add credibility and using the right voice can even increase attention and engagement with the demo. However, video optimization firm EyeView Digital asked and answered another question for their client Ginger Software. Does the accent of the voiceover matter?

eBay has tapped Click Forensics to help them fight fraudulent clicks and low quality traffic on their site. "It is crucial that we deliver the highest quality traffic to our advertising partners, and working with Click Forensics will help ensure that we are doing just that," said Alexis Van De Wyer, director of advertising at eBay Inc. The relationship will affect the eBay Partner Network and the eBay AdCommerce Unit.

Experts were predicting that last Monday, December 14 would be "Green Monday" or the biggest online shopping day of the year. But things got a tad disappointing when sales actually dipped 1%. Turns out most people must have had a case of the Mondays. Or a case of the "I'm waiting for my next paycheck." Tuesday, December 15, 2009 was the first day in history that online sales reached $900 million in a single day. The total came in at $913 million , according to comScore,

Recent data released by Performics may shed light on some of the trends we're seeing in online shopping this holiday season. Their study was conducted in mid-November and asked questions about the previous 30 and upcoming 60 days. When asked where they've been finding the best deals recently, 45% of participants chose online. Where are they having luck finding good deals online? Search came in second at 40%, just after retail websites at 43%. Of course,

Articles from the December issue of SES Magazine are up on ClickZ. This practical advice from search and online marketing practitioners can be found in articles from the most recent issue of SES Magazine; these articles and more have been published at ClickZ . Click to read the rest of this post.

Shravan Goli will be heading up Dictionary.com after spending time at a couple of Ask.com competitors. Goli held several management-level roles at Yahoo! and Microsoft. He most recently General Manager of Media Business at Slide, Inc., a social entertainment company. "Shravan's hands-on operational expertise and innovative product development talents make him the ideal executive to take Dictionary.com to the next level of success," said Scott Garell, President, Ask Networks.

Trying to type a non-Roman language such as Hindi or Russian on a Roman keyboard is not easy. That's because such languages use characters not found on a traditional keyboard. However, those languages can be spelled phonetically and then transliterated into the formal characters. Google has been attempting to do this through machine transliteration through a tool available in Labs .

The tool was is called Browser Size and was developed in the famous 20% time, where employees are free to work on their own projects. When you type the URL of a website into the tool , an overlay displays the percentage of average web users that can view a section of the site without scrolling. These percentages are based on sample visitors to the Google web page. You might be surprised how many web users are using very old-school browsers or old computers/operating systems.

Google Blogoscoped has found a curious listing in the Google Products page . On the right hand side, under "Communicate, show, and share" is a listing for "Google Guru." Click on it and you'll end up on an error page.

Creative Commons Photo Credit Flickr/KayVee.INC The session title "SEO vs. PPC: The Ultimate Search Battle " insinuates some kind of inevitable victory of one opponent over the other; despite well-placed jabs delivered from both corners of the panel, the underlying session theme defeated all comers. The skirmish between SEO and PPC is depends on your current situation and your future goals; there are instances where SEO is the obvious winner over PPC, and vice versa.

One of the thing we started doing earlier this year was to hand over the microphone to SES attendees to get their feedback on the conference. And the attendees of Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 weren't shy about sharing their opinions. Below are eight, short videos that provide a range of comments about the event and some insights into what attendees think about the only major Search Marketing Conference and Expo in the Midwest.

Kenshoo is known for their enterprise search marketing technology, but the company is hoping to make its mark in an emerging niche: local search. Earlier this year, Kenshoo raised money from venture capital firms to develop their new local search marketing management technology. Kenshoo Local was unveiled at the Interactive Local Media Conference last week in Los Angeles. "The new 'local' solution is a natural addition to our growing enterprise search business,

The Interactive Advertising Bureau )IAB( and the Association of American Advertising Agencies )AAAA( first released standards for Terms and Conditions in the interactive advertising industry in 2002. Obviously, a lot has changed since then, so the two groups are releasing an update to the standards. Over 100 legal, sales and buying contributed to the updated standards. The new version, 3.0, includes performance-based advertising and user-generated content platforms.

In September, Google launched its visual based news platform, Fast Flip , into Labs. This week, they've added 55 new sources from two dozen publishers. Included newbies: Tribune Co. newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune McClatchy Company newspapers such as the Miami Herald and the Kansas City Star The Huffington Post Popular Science Reuters Public Radio International POLITICO U.S.

Hitwise is sharing some pretty interesting data about online searches for offline actions . Querying "printable coupons" and "store locator" have soared in recent weeks. Last year a similar soar occurred, and while the searches dipped after the holidays - a lift remained and stabilized. This new spike is exceeding last year's spike in a big way. It will be interesting to see if another lift remains after the inevitable post-holiday drop-off.

Image via Wikipedia At SES Chicago 2009 last week, a number of speakers were asked what advice they'd give Tiger Woods. I'm not sure if he'd sent agents to the show or if attendees were hoping to learn some lessons from this online reputation management case study before their boss or client faced a similar situation. During SES Chicago 2009, Brent Payne, SEO Director, Tribune , said the recent news about Tiger Woods drove over 1.5 million visits to its site in a single day.

Nielsen Online has released their search rankings for November 2009 . Things remain awesome for Google and Ask.com saw a hop. But Bing gained the most, increasing by an entire percentage point from October. Meanwhile, Yahoo! was down 0.1% and AOL was down 0.2% month-over-month.

If you've been to brick and mortar stores lately, you may have noticed something we haven't seen in awhile - empty shelves. Because of the economy, stores stocked up on lower inventories, anticipating the worst. As a result, completing your Christmas shopping might be a bit difficult this year. The closer it gets to the big day, the easier it is to just buy gift cards and call it a day. If that's you, you're not alone.