Search Headlines 02/05/2007

Telcos Conspire Against Google

I chuckled when I read this but the Telegraph reports (via SEL) that a number of telecom groups are secretly conspiring to create a mobile phone search engine that will fight Google and Yahoo for advertising revenue.

The Telegraph names Cingular, Vodafone, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and others as being slated to come together for "high level talks" at next week’s Barcelona trade show. The meeting will take place at dusk and only a single, unarmed company representative may be present from each group. To be admitted, representatives will be asked to perform the secret telcom handshake and recite a four line poem. Okay, I’ll stop.

It may sound like a long shot, but with a combined user base of 600 million mobile users there could be strength in numbers. This whole thing may get very juicy considering several of these companies have already entered in revenue sharing partnerships with Yahoo and Google, and if things go really bad, all the telcoms would theoretically have to do is lock Google and Yahoo out of their systems. All’s fair in love and money, I suppose.

Splogosphere Spam Study

WebMetricsGuru points to an eBiquity Splogosphere study that shares some interesting statistics regarding the current state of spam in the blogosphere. According to the study, 64 percent of all pings from English blogs are spam. That’s down from 75 percent last year, but only because of the rapid growth of MySpace blogs which leveled things out, not because we’ve gotten better at detecting and putting an end to splogs. [Given the choice between splogs and MySpace, I’ll take the splogs. –Susan] That’s because you’re…you. MySpace is the biggest contributor to the blogosphere and has remained relatively splog free. You’re far too young to be this cranky.

PPC revenue, likely in the form of MFA sites, was cited as the primary motivation for spamming, with the most popular spam-related keywords being "new", "free", "online", and "insurance". Also fun, it seems if Google is serious about stopping blog spam, they should look no further than their own backyard. According to the study, Mountain View has the highest concentration of spam blogs in the world. Ooo, someone’s in trouble!

Keep Your Eyes on Graywolf

No, this has nothing to do with his hobby of stalking people on the Internet. Michael Gray revealed that he will be running an extensive Local Search Tips, Tricks and Secrets series on his blog this week, and is slated to have 20 scheduled interviews with search experts.

Today Michael posted interviews with Aaron Wall, Dean Bloomfield, Bill Slawski and Scott Smith. On hand for the rest of the week will be Lee Odden, Matt McGree, Rae Hoffman, Justilien Gaspard, Rich Skrenta, Greg Hartnett and others. With the hard push local has gotten in Google lately, this is very timely on Michael’s part and definitely worth your time.

Fun Finds

Andy commemorates the switch over to Panama and is just a bit dramatic about it.

This just made me laugh. Seth Godin shares his idea for a product that will prevent people from losing their cell phones. It may have been the "whistling like banshees" line that really got me.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.