The new book, "Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer," is hot off the press. Written by Bryan Eisenberg and John Quarto-vonTivadar, with contribution from Lisa T. Davis, the book will help you understand how to set up website optimization tests and improve your conversion rates. And, if you are going to SES San Jose next week, head over to the "Pay Per Conversation" session on Monday, Aug. 18 at 11:15 a.m. and get Bryan to sign a copy of the book,

With the onslaught of the iPhone and the increasing popularity of mobile search and social networking, platforms that aid the development of location-based applications are highly useful to the process. Yahoo is throwing its hat into the ring with the release of a new open source program, FireEagle. Yahoo sees FireEagle as making geo-location apps easier for developers by eliminating the need to build the location-aware infrastructure.

On Friday, Aug. 22, SES San Jose is offering half a dozen Search Engine Marketing )SEM( Training Workshops . Two of them are being offered by the SEMPO Institute: "Successful SEO: The Essential Elements - Part 1 and Part 2." )I should disclose that SEMPO is a client, but I'm also teaching a half-day SEO training class that is being held at the same time as Part 1 of the SEMPO Institute's full-day workshop.

comScore has released data showing explosive growth rates for social networking sites Facebook and Hi5 globally, with 153% and 100% respectively. With worldwide social networking growth rates at 25%, that certainly is a big piece of the pie. Facebook's biggest percentage growth came in Latin America, at a whopping 1055%. Meanwhile, Facebook added the most members in Europe, at 27 million newbies. This should come as welcome news to Microsoft,

Broadband subscriptions dropped 51% since last year, according to data released by Leichtman Research Group. Only 887,000 subscribers were added to a group of companies comprising 94% of the market. Cable companies accounted for 670,000 of those additional subscriptions. The numbers also seem to support research from the University of Minnesota suggesting that internet traffic growth claims by the cable companies and other internet service providers are largely overblown.

Google has released its cryptography toolkit, KeyCzar, into open source. They hope the move aids developers in conducting the difficult task of providing solid security on their web sites. "Cryptography is notoriously hard to get right and if improperly used, can create serious security holes. Common mistakes include using the wrong cipher modes or obsolete algorithms, composing primitives in an unsafe manner, hard-coding keys in source code,

MIVA, who yesterday rejected an acquisition bid from online video search engine blinkx , has posted a $6.5 million loss for the second quarter of 2008. MIVA CEO and President Peter Corrao tried to keep things in perspective for shareholders and Wall Street: "The most recent quarter has been a transitional one for our business. We are encouraged by the results of the growth initiatives that we've been working towards,

Yahoo has announced that it will be offering an opt-out function for customized advertising to searchers by the end of the month. The announcement comes as Yahoo has responded to a Congressional letter seeking information about data collecting and online advertising practices. You can read Yahoo's full response here . Google has also responded to the letter with features expected to be rolled out in the future. One feature is ad capping,

Online publishers are increasingly turning to ad networks to sell unused inventory, according to a study released by the International Advertising Bureau )IAB( and Bain & Company. In 2007, ad network accounted for 30% of total ad impressions, up fro 5% in 2006. Two reasons were given for the growth: Interviews with online publishers, conducted as part of the study,

Analytics firm Covario says Yahoo gained paid search advertising at the expense of Google in the second quarter of 2008. Covario also said that paid search has gone through a "compression" period, where growth has declined from 52% to 43%. "Our client roster inspired us to launch this analysis series due to our customers' unique positions in the advertising ecosystem â€" they are US-based, but also global in the scope regarding their paid search advertising programs,

Ask.com parent company IAC announced last November that they would spin off four of their properties and become 5 separate companies . The other four companies will be HSN, Inc., Interval Leisure Group, Inc., Ticketmaster and Tree.com, Inc. Now, Reuters is reporting the split will occur on August 21. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ has advised IAC that 'when-issued' trading will begin for the five companies tomorrow at the opening bell.

Last week, online video search engine blinkx, apparently feeling inspired by Microsoft, made an unsolicited bid to acquire online advertising company, MIVA . MIVA has responded by saying Thanks but No Thanks. Here's the official word: "After careful evaluation, the MIVA Board believes that blinkx's proposal significantly undervalues MIVA's assets, including our technology, brand recognition and network," said Larry Weber, MIVA's Chairman of the Board.

SES San Jose 2008 gets underway in a week. One of the sessions on Day 1 that may draw a crowd is the one on Video Search Engine Optimization )VSEO(. To give you a sneak preview of the session, Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed Matthew Scheybeler, the CTO of blinkx, who will be one of the speakers. Byron asked Matt about how to classify a video in its many parts to enable more viewers to find the video of their choice.

On Saturday night, while watching the Olympics, I learned that there is a British swimmer named Hannah Miley. As a mom of a 10 year old, I found this amusing as my daughter has been thoroughly obsessed with the Disney show Hannah Montana where the lead character is played by Miley Cyrus. I was curious as to how the search engines would handle a search for Hannah Miley. Would the results be completely dominated by the increasingly scandalous teen queen?

According to an exclusive story in the National Journal Online, John McCain has outspent Barack Obama for two consecutive months in search engine advertising. Written by Lucas Grindley, the story, entitled, " McCain buys his way to top of Google ," cites Nielsen Online data that shows McCain bought 7 million "sponsored search link impressions" in June and 5.4 million in May, compared with 1.15 million for Obama in June and 1.8 million during the previous month.

Do the Beijing Olympics have you thinking global? If so, you may be considering whether or not to offer your site content in another language. Google understands and they have offered up three points worthy of consideration when making the decision to go multilingual. Site Structure First,

Yahoo recently launched BOSS , aka Build your Own Search Service. Third party developers wasted no time making use of the API to build their version of what search should look like. Yahoo featured four BOSS applications on their Yahoo Search blog . The first one was 4 Hour Search. Named for how long it took developer Sam Pullara to build the BOSS API/YUI design mashup. It looks a lot like newly launched search engine Cuil . And just like Cuil,

At SES San Jose later this month, a panel of experts will discuss vertical search in a Googlized world, where we've created more advanced users by simplifying search. In today's vertical search marketing column, " Getting Vertical Search Right: A Sneak Preview ," vertical search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski notes that, in the search for the next big thing, it's about providing a search service that is just above that highly set bar.

When it comes to bringing an outside SEO consultant in, content owners need to pay attention to the role corporate politics and the review process play in planning SEO projects. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, " Oil and Water? SEOs vs. Content Owners ," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson remind us that while most SEO consultants expect to have some sort of clashes with internal designers and developers,

Google has filed a quarterly report with the SEC that includes information about its 5% stake in AOL . The news is not good for the Time Warner owned internet company, which has already posted a loss of $230 million in the second quarter of 2008. Google said that their stake in AOL may be "impaired," an accounting term that explains a significant loss stemming from an investment. Google invested in AOL to stave off a Microsoft advertising partnership,