Microsoft adCenter in their official press revealed the results of an online survey which was conducted in order to examine the search marketing behaviors of 400 small-business owners in the United States. The survey found that a majority of the small businesses (considered in survey) invest in developing Web sites, but are unable to take even the simplest steps to enhance their online business presence. According to the survey, almost fifty nine percent of small businesses with Web sites are not currently practising paid search marketing, and of those, 90 percent have not even attempted it!

Let’s have look at the extracts from the Microsoft adCenter press release:

As per the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog, from now users will not have to specify the Sitemap file type to submit a Sitemap to Google. Google will automatically determine what type of data is being submitted by the users. In other words, Sitemap submission has now become quite easier!

Following is the list of sitemap file formats supported by Google:

Part of what makes the web so interesting is that there are different kinds of content out there. Do you use videos on your website? If so, send us a Video Sitemap file so that we can send you visitors to those videos! Do you host source-code samples? Submit a Code Search Sitemap! Here are the various kinds of Sitemap files that Google supports at the moment:

Google’s Matt Cutts in conversation with Virginia Nussey of BruceClay.com spoke about every possible query related to everything that has been expected from the search engine in the coming years. Matt talked about the role of Search Engine Optimization, about spam as well as various other aspects. According to the website, he also spoke about the issue of increase in hacked sites.

“The spam that’s out there is also more malicious than its predecessors. Hackers and crackers are breaking into sites through vulnerabilities that most users are not aware of, and Google employees are now stepping up to the plate to cut down the breaches and boost education efforts. He says that if a Googler notices that someone is using a hackable version of WordPress, he may drop that webmaster a line to let them know how to patch it. Spammers beware!”

It’s been quite a long time that Google’s webmaster tools link reports are not updated. This is the reason why no recent blog was posted on this issue for so long. However, still, Google has not confirmed anything regarding this through its Webmaster Help thread.
Also, there is no clue to support any such report that link reports are now being updated with the latest linkage data. However, a lot of speculations are still coming in from here and there

Recently, the news came that Google is in the process to fix the issue concerning blogroll links in Google Blog Search. The Google Blog Search will also index and use RSS feed, as well as it will try to exclude blogrolls and navigational elements of the blog!

The issue revolving blogroll links was that if you conducted a link command in blog search, Google Blog Search started to show blog posts that do not have any connection to your posts. This was because of the fact that several blogs out there have this particular blog on their blogroll and according to Google, that post should have a link within their post.

Google is upset by a recent post in the Google Webmaster Help forums, that is directed to a lot of activities that the search engine was getting into. According to many webmasters, Google should not indulged in all such activities at all!

Following are a few of the allegations:

“Can Ebay and others actively attempt to control and influence what shows up in search results whether they agree or disagree with it? Unfortunately, yes.”

As winter holidays are here, websites are all busy with preparing for the holiday rush! In order to help them, especially during this time of year, Google has come up with a list of quick and simple tips for all webmasters. The upcoming time will be a very crucial period for all the offline and online retailers, and these tips would help boost their sales and increase foot traffic!

According to the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog, these tips can make a big difference in every aspect of sales and profit.

As the whole world is trapped in the web of iPhone and G1 mania, advertisers are taking the advantage of to attract target audience. Now, search advertisers are all set to take the help of this medium in their latest strategy to target the rapidly growing number of searchers.

Google’s mobile team announced a new advertising campaign that allows AdWords advertisers to target iPhone and G1 mobile phone users.

Today, as the number of mobile devices offering full web browsers is growing making it much easier for businesses to tap into the mobile market, which Google might want to dominate.

Earlier, the advertisers had to set up mobile ads and mobile landing pages for best results, but this new option enables advertisers to use existing text ads and destination pages on these new mobile devices.

“The ads will have many of the same benefits as our standard mobile ads, such as the delivery of mobile-specific calls-to-action and reaching mobile users that are searching with their phones more than ever — especially during the holiday season.”

Chinese search giant Baidu has long been criticized by China Central Television and its rival Google for its so-called “Baidu Bidding Ranking program.” Reports also say that some competitors of Baidu have even filed a lawsuit in the local court to get a justified answer.

To this issue, Baidu had to say that it has closed all the bidding rank campaign due to some quarrel generating keywords. It has also strengthened its governing policies regarding Bidding Ranking program. Now, more remedial measures are expected to be carried out in order to regain Baidu’s high public recognition.

Recently, a team in Germany has launched front-end Keyboardr exclusively for the search engines on Google, Wikipedia and YouTube. Keyboardr will display and execute the searches that users type. This is a better interface as compared to traditional type-wait-retype techniques used by most of the search engines.

Moreover, this technique will also navigate the search results with the keyboard which will provide a speedy search option to users.