I am taking a two-week vacation starting next Friday. That is a good thing too because the past four days have almost turned me off this amazing industry. A break from the silliness of the search engines and the pettiness of practitioner politics will do me a world of good. I’m also sure that the absense of my frantic presence for few weeks will provide a much needed break for the rest of the StepForth crew as well. Read more…

Search marketers were surprised this morning by the announcement that three of the most influential publications in the search marketing sector had quietly been sold to new owners. Jupitermedia, publisher of Search Engine Watch and ClickZ Magazine, announced plans to sell its research, publishing and trade show divisions to UK-based publisher Incisive Media PLC for approximately $43million in cash. The timing of the announcement is interesting as it falls on the eve of the largest annual Search Engine Strategies conference, SES San Jose which opens next Monday (August 8th).

In 2004, Jupitermedia reported nearly $40million in revenues which translated into $23.6million in gross profits from its online media and search event divisions. It also reported revenues of $21.5million in the first half of this year.

Jupitermedia chair and CEO, Alan Meckler, who is interested in expanding the digital images and photography divisions of Jupiter, said the sale would help strengthen Jupitermedia’s finances, making additional acquisitions possible. Currently, the digital image and photography market is dominated by Bill Gates’ Corbis Images and Getty Images.

The sale is said to demonstrate the continued strength of the B2B publishing sector, at least as it relates to search marketing. Incisive Media says it will finance the purchase by releasing new shares to institutional investors and through increased debt facilities. It also says it wants to expand the number of SES tradeshows while expanding its reach in the North American search marketplace.

“The acquisition will allow Incisive Media to strengthen its footprint in the US and to roll-out the SES model across the territories in which the company currently operates,” Incisive said in a media release.

Search Engine Watch is the home of search journalism pioneer, Danny Sullivan and his team of bloggers, journalists and SES organizers which includes Gary Price, Chris Sherman, and Elisabeth Osmeloski. In a post to the SEW forum, Danny expressed optimism over the sale stating that he and his team, “… are carrying on with our regular work as part of the deal. While the owners are changing, the quality content we aim to deliver to you is not. Overall, it’s a good thing. Jupitermedia is concentrating on its images businesses, and the deal puts us with a new owner looking to expand the work we do.”

Expansion of SEW’s work seems to be in the works for Incisive as well. Incisive has announced it plans to organize a larger number of SES conferences in the future with a focus on the European and Asian markets as well as the North American market.

Microsoft was successful in obtaining a temporary injunction preventing Dr. Kai-Fu Lee from taking over as the head of Google’s new research center in China. The ruling, issued by Kings County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez forbids Lee from working on Google projects or research relating to search technologies, natural language processing or speech technologies, and business strategies that would be “competitive” with fields he studied while at Microsoft. Part of Gonzalez’s ruling also prohibits Dr. Lee from disclosing trade secrets or proprietary information learned while he was employed at Microsoft. It also forbade Google from “attempting to induce” Microsoft employees to work for Google. Read more…

Yahoo Search made two important announcements this week, both of which involve exclusive rights to provide search results in interesting venues.

On Tuesday, Yahoo announced it was teaming up with cell phone maker Motorola to provide Yahoo’s online products and search results over Motorola Linux-based mobile devices, including Motorola’s upcoming iRadio product. IRadio will allow users to listen to online radio over their portable devices, or access their own digital music collections. Read more…

For the past few years I have been writing about the immense changes happening in search marketing. These changes are driven by a number of factors but the two that make the biggest difference are technological advances and user adoption. It has been a full decade since Netscape issued the IPO that sparked the tech-boom of the late 90′s and the popularization / commercialization of the web. A decade does not seem like a long time in the evolution of culture but as many have already said, we live in accelerating times. Acceleration is based on efficiency and efficiency is enhanced by access to what one needs whenever one needs it. Read more…

Everybody loves lists and statistics. From the annual Top100 movies of all time lists to the Top10 cities in which to live, even the simplest comparative studies can captivate people and inform pop-culture opinions. Folks use lists to prove points, gauge their own successes and get a reckoning on what’s going on around them. Read more…

We’re in shock. About six hours ago an attack on the London Public Transit system left over 30 people dead and hundreds injured. The mood in our office is shifting from stunned shock and sorrow to anger and outrage.

London’s mayor Ken Livingstone, was quoted to say, “This is not an attack against the rich and powerful. It is not an attack on the politicians, but on the common working people of London – black and white, Muslim and Christian, young and old.”

On behalf of the staff and management of StepForth Placement:
Our deepest sympathies go to the families who lost loved ones and to the people of London who’ve lost a sense of collective security.

A moderator at WebMasterWorld, Ian Turner, has been missing since the end of the WebMasterWorld Conference held last week in New Orleans. He was reported missing over 48-hours after failing to meet a flight to the UK in Atalanta.

Anyone with information on Ian Turner or who spoke with him on Saturday or Sunday are asked to contact WebMasterWorld founder Brett Tabke (contact info below)

Brett Tabkebtabke(at)webmasterworld.com
512-231-8107 (9a-3p cst mon-fri gmt-6)Fax 512-231-1653

Many search industry observers see click fraud as the number one threat to the growth of the Internet economy. An even greater threat has emerged one that not only places the entire infrastructure of the Internet at risk, it also threatens non-Net users. Read more…

Jack Kilby, the man whose invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 led to the power of today’s microchip, died Monday at age 81. Shortly after being hired at Texas Instruments, Kilby designed a wafer thin crystal platform (the chip), which served to connect components such as transistors, capacitors, and resistors that were previously connected by wire into a single processing unit. This allowed for greater processing speeds and, most importantly, mass production of microchips. Read more…