“Google’s not a real company. It’s a house of cards.”- Court transcript, November 2004
“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”- USA Today, April 2007
“We will make our products work out of the box.”- Source and date unknown, but does it really matter?
“There will be no media […]

First Microsoft gives Yahoo a deadline of this weekend to begin negotiations or face a hostile tackover, then reveals that maybe they don’t want Yahoo anyways.
This is beginning to look like one of my high school dating relationships.
Suffice it to say that Yahoo beating its projected numbers this week throws a new wrinkle in things. […]

Like a soap opera, things are heating up between Microsoft and Yahoo, complete with threats, machinations, and denials. As things stand right now, I see five possible outcomes.
1) Nothing happens.Very unlikely. Yahoo’s numbers aren’t there right now, and an attempt to stay the course would create considerable unrest amongst Yahoo shareholders.
2) Microsoft purchases Yahoo in […]

Much has been made about yesterday’s forecast of the SEM Industry. Long story short: things are pretty good, or in the words of Larry David: “Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.” According to Radar Research and SEMPO the SEM industry was projected to grow to an $11.6 billion industry in 2007, […]

Continuing the series of keynotes about the future of search, today we’ll be hearing “Generating Next: Search in the Coming Decade”. Unlike the previous panels, this is a panel moderated by Chris Sherman and Gord Hotchkiss. Panel members are Brad Goldberg (Microsoft), Larry Heck (Yahoo), and Peter Norvig (Google).
Question: Will search as we know it […]

My 11th Search Marketing Prediction for 2008 has developed in an interesting way. A couple of weeks ago rumors swirled that Yahoo and Microsoft were yet again in talks, but nothing happened. As a result, I was glowing with pride at my soothsaying prowess.
Late yesterday, Microsoft changed the game with a public offer of $44.6 […]

October was a tough month for PayPerPost (PPP) bloggers. Many PPP opportunities required a blog to have a certain PageRank to be eligible to take them. Unfortunately, right before the holidays, a very large number of PPP sites saw their PageRank drop to zero. Suddenly, they were unqualified for the better paying blogging opportunities.
Posts from […]

The search engines provide a number of methods to control the advertising spend rate of your paid search campaigns. The most commonly used tool search engines offer is the bid limit. Assuming you have accurate data on the conversion rates of your keywords and know how much a lead or sale is worth, this is […]

In a courageous show of unity against the oppression of Base 10 numbering systems, here is our list of a dozen predictions for the search engine marketing industry this year.
1. Management tools become the cost of having a seat at the paid search table, rather than a competitive advantage.
In past years, advertisers in competitive spaces […]

An associate asked what I thought about Mahalo. In addition to pointing him to our previous post, Mahalo is a Ho’opa’ani, I gave him the following response which I’ve decided to share with you all.
In the real world the human touch is coveted; held in the highest regards for quality craftsmanship and skill. In the […]