adCenter is enabling the ability to bid specifically for two Microsoft entities : the MSN Tech & Gadgets portal and the popular web-based email, Hotmail. Here's how to do it: Create a new ad group, setting the bid type for Networks and websites Create your ad In the Select Placements window, choose the Websites tab Enter tech.msn.com and/or *mail.live.com Click View available placements Select the sites that you wish to bid on, then click Add. Click Continue.

When Internet users conduct searches at Ask.com, they pose their keywords as questions three times more than any other search engine. So, it makes sense that Ask.com is focused on improving the Q&A experience on their site and on the web. Last summer, Ask launched a specific Q&A section with 300 million Q&A pairs in their database. They've recently reached the milestone of reaching 400 million Q&A pairs . Adding 100 million Q&A pairs in 5 months is impressive indeed.

Google has cleaned up Translate with a new look, and threw in a few new features for good measure: Translate as you type - The only problem with this is that any translator will tell you that langauges don't translate word for word. But this has always been a problem with computed translation, so it's not like the problem is worse with this or anything. Taking away the need to click a button feels like part of a greater strategy Google is testing,

Last spring, Time Warner announced that it would spin off AOL as an independent company. The announcement was made shortly after hiring Tim Armstrong away from Google as President . This fall, they've named members to the future Board of Directors and hired key financial executives needed to run the publicly traded company. Now, we know that AOL's independence day is December 9, 2009 . All Time Warner stockholders as of 5pm on November 27,

I was at PubCon last week in Las Vegas. It was a tremendous show with an excellent turnout. I had quite a few conversations about Search Engine Watch , ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies for 2010 and had a lot of great feedback from PubCon attendees. But it seemed that quite a few people hadn't noticed one of the new events in the SES calendar for February of next year. With our partners at Online Marketing Summit we'll be bringing a full day,

The Google Book Settlement has finally been revised . There are two main changes that have been made: how the settlement pertains to other countries and unclaimed works. Here's Google's official statements on those two issues: International Scope: As revised, the settlement will only include books that were either registered with the U.S. Copyright Office or published in the U.K., Australia, or Canada. After hearing feedback from foreign rightsholders,

Video solution provider Fliqz has announced the launch of a new online video search engine optimization )SEO( tool. The tool is dubbed SearchSuccess and Fliqz says that companies who tested the product are experiencing early success. A whopping two-thirds of the videos submitted by these early customers have reached first page Google rankings. 25% have seen the number one position. "SearchSuccess addresses many of the common flaws in existing Video SEO strategies,

Back in September, Google launched Sidewiki . When you're using the Google Toolbar, you can access Sidewiki for any web page )that's been annotated with the tool(. You'll see comments and notes about the site, as chosen and ranked by Google. Now, Google is updating the API for Sidewiki . With the update, you can now view new entries created for a Sidewiki page via RSS. If you're interested in developing with the Google Sidewiki API , check out the documentation here .

Wordstream has released an update to their keyword research tool that integrates Google Analytics. The reason for the integration is to pull information about what keywords are actually driving traffic to your website to give you a comprehensive view of your keyword landscape. Keyword tools are good at providing information on which keywords are searched the most, but you can't always be sure that a given keyword will actually perform well with your site.

During the past nine weeks, I've shared nine significant reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those of you who want to join in the chorus, they are: " nine trainers training , eight days a-learning , seven tracks amazing , six booths astounding , five brand new things , four keynote themes , three key trends , two early birds , and a ranking in the top three ." This week,

If you use AdSense for Feeds or Google Feedburner to manage RSS feeds on your site - and you use Google Analytics - then you'll be glad to know Google is connecting the two. You'll be able to iew click data for your feeds services in Google Analytics . Analytics will tag the Source as "Feedburner" and the Medium as either "feed" or "email" depending on how the feed item was sent out. Content will show the endpoint )i.e. Google Reader, Yahoo! Mail(.

A new version of Google's AdWords Editor has been released . Version 7.6.1's new features include: Ad scheduling and advanced location targeting Add/Update Multiple Campaigns Account tree editing Promoted Video ads Export spreadsheet with images )ZIP( Updated features include: Keyword expansion Campaign and ad group pickers Import CSV error export There's also new bidding terminology: Max. CPC Search - )previously Max. CPC( Max. CPC Automatic Placements )previously Max.

Google has acquired Gizmo5 , a Voice over the Internet Protocol network and software provider. The acquisition is designed to enhance Google Voice, but it's a game changer. Google has been answering to the FCC lately about concerns over potential regulatory violations surrounding it's Voice service. AT&T publicly complained that Google had been restricting high-priced calls that telecommunications were forced by regulation.

YouTube has announced that they will begin supporting 1080p HD video . The support will begin sometime next week. Previously, the max HD resolution was 720p. Resolution for a given video will depend on the resolution on the source of the video. In other words, a video will need to be uploaded in 1080p to appear as 1080p on YouTube. Videos that were already uploaded in 1080p are being re-encoded by YouTube.

Bing is officially lifting the beta label from their search offering in the UK . Searchers will experience features that US searchers get including homepage hotspots, visual search, and Twitter integration. The Bing UK shopping search will be integrated with Ciao UK. Meanwhile, Bing Maps is launching in the UK . Previously, UK internet users were redirected to Multimap.com.

A member over at the SEW forums suggested the need for a no listing in search results for specific keywords tag and the concept is a good one. We have negative keyword options for paid search, why not an option for blocking what terms a site appears in the search results? If web site owners help the engines with the addition of the canonical tag to their sites, it would only be fair if the engines returned the favor.

Leapfish has launched an entry portal for web users to what they are calling "the Living Web" as they show in their impressive YouTube commercial below. Basically Leapfish offers a start page for web users where they can watch their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as set up feeds for news, entertainment, sports and other services. The site offers some very interesting possibilities.

Google AdWords has unleashed a heap of updates, so let's dive right in and see what's going on. Product Listing Ads This is a new type of ad that will be included in shopping-related results on Google.com. The ads are Cost-per-Action )CPA(. Advertisers will only pay when users click through and make a purchase. It works in conjunction with an advertiser's Google Merchant Center account. Because of the Google Merchant Center connection,

Google has updated the Keywords user interface in Webmaster Tools . The update includes: Daily data updates Details on how often specific keywords were found Displaying up to 10 URLs that contain a keyword Significance column comparing each keyword's frequency to the most popular keyword's frequency This tool really helps you know how Google sees your site. You can quickly recognize problem areas or address hacked content. Have you checked out the new user interface?

Earlier today, Greg Jarboe informed us about Hitwise's search share data and how it showed Bing continued to have momentum. But Nielsen has released their search share data for October 2009 and it's painting a different picture. The data shows Google gaining 2 points in the past two months. This came at the expense of Yahoo! and Bing, which both lost a point since Nielsen's last search report in August.