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.

Tuesday

• 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.

Wednesday

• 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.”

Thursday

• 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.

Friday

• 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