The recent Local University marketing workshop held here in the Twin Cities had a line up of local search marketing speakers that was by far and away the most proficient local SEM panel ever assembled. Ever. Being a search engine marketer myself, whom works on many local and small business campaigns, I thought I would share some of the little local gems and actionable items that I took away from the event.

Disclaimer: The following is not intended to supplement or replace the information that can be gathered by attending a Local U workshop in person. It is only a small sampling of what can be gained from this event. If you are an SEO/SEM and not currently enrolled in an upcoming Local U seminar, you are here by advised to do so at the earliest opportunity.

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Ask.com went down this morning for at least an hour with what appears to be a server DNS Failure.

Maybe Ask decided to observe Earth Day by shutting down their website for an hour to save energy. I wonder how many searches were lost saved as a result?

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Kudos to Paul Kragthorpe for spotting what is either a Good Friday (long weekend) test or a limited/controlled release of a new format for Google’s search engine result pages (SERP’s).

 

Always a clever one to notice similarities, Paul remarks seem to be on point:

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In case you have not yet heard, Bing’s Search Share Grew in February and their Market Share was up for the Third Straight Month in a row. The 4% to 6% month over month growth in search traffic is pulling Bing an estimated search share of somewhere between 9% and 12% of all total monthly US searches.

There are many debatable reasons why Bing is growing, but to me the reason is clear:
The Wetlands near Anchorage, Alaska

Yea, that’s right. I said the Wetlands.

In Alaska.

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The 2010 Winter Olympics are over. I know, I’m kind of bummed too.

I really didn’t think these Olympic games would draw me in… but they did. And Wow, what a finale!

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After 2+ weeks of continuous search, social and web media coverage, the 2010 Winter Olympics have finally come to a close. It now time to put our individual Olympic dreams on ice for another 4 years and get back to business as usual.

 
That’s exactly what Bing is doing. Well, sort of…

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Well this has to be a first! It now appears that Google is showing their special Holiday and Event logos in their search engine result pages in a very similar manner to how Bing has been for almost a year.

Here are a few screen captures that show the new SERP’s.

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After several false starts, today Microsoft and Yahoo announced a 10 year deal which will see Microsoft power Yahoo search while Yahoo will “become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers,” according to a joint statement released by both companies. This new agreement is expected to go into effect sometime in 2010.

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In an effort to get a leg up on Google when it comes to real time search, Bing has started integrating real time Twitter messages into their search results. According to their official blog, Bing will now provide results from a handful of the more “prominent and prolific Twitterers” coming from a wide range of spheres.

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