Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News - 6/18 - 6/22
A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including
Yahoo! CEO, Terry Semel, steps down, Jerry Yang takes his place, YouTube now
available in nine specific country formats including Brazil, France, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K., Yahoo! takes Yahoo! Go
out of beta and makes big global push, 20 mistakes to avoid in your SEO
strategy, and finally, Business.com is on the auction block and could fetch as
much as $400 million.
Monday
- Yahoo! CEO, Terry Semel, Packs His Bags - Search
Engine Land reports that Terry Semel has stepped down as Yahoo!'s CEO.
Taking his place for now is Yahoo's co-founder, Jerry Yang. With this change,
Susan Decker, former executive vice president and head of Advertiser and
Publisher Group, is now president. Semel told the Wall Street Journal, "As we
discussed my future goals and plans, I was clear in telling the Board of my
desire to take a step back sooner rather than later." He joins a growing list
of executives that have left Yahoo! this year.
- YouTube Diversifies, Launching in Nine Specific Countries -
TechCrunch reports that nine country specific versions of YouTube will be
launched today. Besides the version we are already used to, local versions will
be available for Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland,
Spain, and the U.K. The new sites include fully translated site content
and will eventually deliver country specific popular content. Broadcast
partners in the new countries include the BBC, France 24, the Spanish Antena 3
and Cuatro TV, the Portuguese RTP, the Dutch VPRO and NPO, along with a number
of Football (Soccer Clubs) and not-for-profit organizations.
- Yahoo! Go Out of Beta - Greg Sterling reports that Yahoo! Go 2.0 and related mobile oneSearch offerings are coming out of beta this Friday. Simultaneously, nation-specific versions of Go will be released in 13 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition to this news, Yahoo! has announced new partnership agreements with six Asian mobile carriers. The official press release reads, "The new version of Yahoo! Go 2.0 launches on Friday and will be available for more than 200 different mobile phones in the US by the end of July, expanding to more than 400 by end of year. It will also be pre-loaded on new devices from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and HTC that begin rolling out later this year."
- 20 SEO Mistakes To Avoid in Order To Succeed - Matt McGee has
put together a list of
20 mistakes one must avoid in order to have success with their SEO
strategy. They include things like "don't reply to the SEO spam you get via
e-mail," "don't hire an SEO company and then divorce yourself from the
process.," and "don't fret over keyword density." Check out the
entire list at
Search Engine Land.
- Business.com Up For Sale? - The Wall Street Journal reports that Business.com may be up for sale and could fetch as much as $300 - $400 million. They are expected to attract a host of interest from the likes of media companies such as Dow Jones & Co. and New York Times. Those familiar with the matter say that the final price for Business.com is hard to predict. However, at $400 million, a deal would value the company at some 26 times cash flow. Business.com began after the purchase of the domain name "business.com" for a record breaking $7.5 million in 1999. It has since become the largest B2B directory of its kind

