That jump in mobile search usage is nearly double the increase in users who said they accessed mobile websites generally. “Mobile search represents a utility for information anytime and anywhere,” says senior analyst Jeff Orr. “With a few keywords, one can quickly identify movie times, the discography of a musical artist, recommendations for a local eatery and so much more.”

Some types of content accessed via mobile phones rose in popularity from 2007 to 2008. These included news, game downloads, music downloads, and especially video downloads. A significantly lower percentage in 2008 reported downloading a ringtone than the prior year, while the interest in location information, social networking and sports remained about the same.

“Use of the mobile phone goes well beyond voice calls,” says Orr. “A significant percentage of respondents say they use their handset for mobile email and web access, reflecting the broader access to inexpensive or all-you-can-eat mobile data services in the US.”

The surveys, each of which sampled more than 1000 mobile phone users in the United States aged 14-59 and across a wide range of demographic profiles, were conducted in November 2007 and December 2008. They queried users’ preferences with regard to a variety of mobile email and web usage questions.

“US Mobile Email and Mobile Web Access Trends” (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/research_brief/Consumer_Mobility_Research_Brief/129) compares results of the two surveys, and includes survey methodology, responses laid out in charts with additional summaries and analysis, and respondent classification/demographics.

It is one of a series of Research Briefs comparing the results of ABI Research’s 2007 and 2008 consumer mobile content surveys. Other titles in the series cover blogging and social networking, embedded cameras and navigation functionality, mobile music, mobile phone purchasing, mobile TV and video viewing, and smartphone feature and usage trends.

They are all included in the firm’s “The Mobile Consumer” Research Service (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/The_Mobile_Consumer_Research_Service).

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of emerging trends in global connectivity. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advise thousands of decision makers through research and advisory services in seven key practice areas. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

The UK Internet has been almost immune to budget cuts by advertisers and marketers. In 2008, it outpaced all other media channels in its rate of spending growth, and that pattern will continue. But 2009 will be a tough year, and even online advertising will take a hit.

The UK Online Ad Spending report looks at the factors that will impact, both positively and negatively, the future of Internet media in the UK as marketers tighten their belts.

Earlier this year, eMarketer estimated that spending on UK online advertising would reach £3.36 billion ($6.41 billion) in 2008 — a rise of 27.1%.

Then the economic crisis hit.

Several factors—including sky-high levels of consumer debt and a housing market in near-collapse after years of wildly inflated values—tipped the UK into its worst recession in decades.

The problems have spread to the Internet. eMarketer now projects that online advertising spending growth will drop to just 7.2% in 2009, less than one-half the May 2008 estimate.

Key questions the “UK Online Ad Spending” report answers:

* What do recent estimates say about UK online advertising spending in 2007 and 2008?
* How does the economic downturn affect prospects for UK online ad spending in 2009?
* Which online advertising formats are most vulnerable to budget cutbacks?
* Will spending on Internet campaigns keep rising, when other media show flat or negative growth?
* And many others

The UK Online Ad Spending report aggregates the latest data from international marketing and communications researchers with eMarketer analysis to provide the information you need to make smart, timely business decisions.

Key Topics Covered:

* Executive Summary
* UK Online Advertising Spending, 2007-2013 (billions of £ and % change)
* Key Questions
* The eMarketer View
* Key eMarketer Numbers -UK Online Advertising Spending
* Change in Advertising Media Usage this Year by Advertisers in Western Europe*, 2008 (% of respondents)
* Online Advertising Spending
* UK Online Advertising Spending, First half 2003-First half 2008 (% of total ad spending)
* UK Online Advertising Spending, 2007-2013 (billions and % change)
* Comparative Estimates: UK Online Advertising Spending, 2007-2009 (billions of £)
* Comparative Estimates: UK Online Advertising Spending Growth, 2007-2009 (% change)
* UK Online Advertising Revenue Growth, 2007-2013 (% change)
* UK Online Marketing Spending Growth, Q1 & Q2 2008 (% change*)
* Change in Online Advertising Spending this Year According to Advertisers in Western Europe*, 2008 (% of respondents)
* Online Advertising Spending Growth Among Advertisers in Western Europe*, 2008-2010 (% change)
* Impact of Online Advertising on Their Business According to Advertisers in Western Europe*, 2008 (% of respondents)
* Change in Marketing Spending in the Next 12 Months According to UK Companies, September-October 2008 (% of respondents)
* Marketing Segments on Which UK Companies Will Increase Spending in the Next 12 Months, September-October 2008 (% of respondents)
* Online Spending by Format
* UK Online Advertising Spending, by Format, First half 2008 (millions and % share)
* UK Online Advertising Growth, by Format, 2007 & 2008 (% change)
* Amount Search Engine Marketers* Worldwide** Spend on Paid Search Annually, February-March 2008 (% of respondents)
* Change* in Online Marketing Spending by Marketers** Worldwide***, by Tactic, February-March 2008 (% of respondents)
* Search Engines that Companies Pay to Advertise on According to Search Engine Marketing Agencies Worldwide*, 2007 & 2008 (% of respondents)
* UK Search Engine Advertising Spending, by Search Engine, Q2 2008 (% of total)
* Display
* Classified Advertising
* E-Mail Marketing
* Video Advertising
* Advertising on Social Networks
* The Internet and Other Media
* Conclusion
* Endnotes
* Related Information and Links

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9fba9b/uk_online_ad_spend

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released an analysis of changes in Americans’ searching behavior resulting from the economic downturn, based on December 2008 data from comScore Marketer, a search intelligence tool.

Searches for several terms related to the economic downturn showed dramatic gains during the past year.  Among the most notable increases were searches relating to the deteriorating job market, including searches using the term “unemployment” (up 206 percent to 8.2 million searches) and “unemployment benefits” (up 247 percent to 748,000 searches). Meanwhile, terms relating to personal asset situations, including “mortgage” (up 72 percent to 7.8 million searches), “bankruptcy” (up 156 percent to 2.6 million searches), and “foreclosure” (up 67 percent to 1.4 million searches) also grew strongly. And Americans, resilient as they are, are seeking ways to save money, as evidenced by the increase in the number of searches for “coupons” (up 161 percent to 19.9 million) and “discount” (up 26 percent to 7.9 million).

“Online behavior has come to reflect the interests or concerns of Americans, and we are certainly seeing this manifest itself with respect to the economic downturn,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Search volume using terms relating to the economy has ballooned over the past year as Americans have become increasingly concerned over their economic wellbeing.”

Unemployment Searchers Skew Younger, Lower Income

To illustrate how different segments of the population might be affected by these economic conditions, comScore examined the demographic profile of those who clicked on a link following a search using the term “unemployment”. The profile of these Internet users generally skewed towards those households with a head  younger than 35 years of age and households earning less than $50,000 a year. They were also significantly more likely to use Yahoo!, MSN-Windows Live, or Ask.com Search than Google or AOL search.

______________________________________________________________________________
Profile of Search Clickers Using the Term “Unemployment”

December 2008

Total U.S., Age 18+ – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore Marketer

Term:  “Unemployment”

Age of Head of Household      Share of Clicks      Index* Following Search

18-24                                4.2%               118

25-34                               23.5%               126

35-44                               24.4%                86

45-54                               26.5%                96

55-64                               14.4%               101

65+                                  7.1%                90

Household Income

<$25k                               12.2%               130

$25-49k                             23.5%               123

$50-74k                             26.2%                97

$75-99k                             14.4%                81

$100k+                              23.7%                89

Search Engine

Google Search                       60.8%                87

Yahoo! Search                       23.3%               121

MSN-Windows Live Search             10.0%               172

AOL Search                           2.3%                76

Ask.com Search                       3.6%               156
______________________________________________________________________________

*Index = share of clicks on “unemployment”/share of clicks for all searches x 100; Index of 100 represents parity

The advertising portion of the Villeroy & Boch Bath and Wellness Division was awarded to Rieches Baird www.riechesbaird.com. Rieches Baird is based in Irvine, CA, and is well recognized as one of the premium Business to Business Advertising agencies. The agency has a long history of building brands in the homebuilding products arena.

- Premiere Online Wholesaler DollarDays Chooses Didit as Search Marketing Agency of Record
Didit, the Inc 500 / Deloitte Fast 500 leader in search engine marketing, is pleased to announce that DollarDays International (www.DollarDays.com)—the premiere online wholesaler and closeout company—has become the newest member of Didit’s client roster.

DollarDays cites Didit’s expertise in driving efficiencies at even the most granular levels as a critical factor in its transition to Didit. Didit’s emphasis on efficiency, explains Marc Joseph, President and CEO of DollarDays, fits with DollarDays’ own approach to business.

NEW YORK – AOL’s MediaGlow publishing division announced its sites saw record growth1 in January, with page views climbing 47% year-over-year to reach 7 billion and total minutes increasing 39% to 4.9 million.

In addition, the recently reinvented AOL.com, which opened the site to third-party content, e-mail, social networks and more in 2008, grew 5% in page views, 12% in unique visitors, 33% in total minutes — achieving an all-time high2 — and 6% in total visits year-over-year.

AOL announced the formation of MediaGlow in January, centralizing AOL’s publishing efforts with the goal of expanding AOL’s efforts to reach targeted audiences and expanding AOL’s global reach. MediaGlow announced plans to launch 30 targeted sites in 2009.

“MediaGlow has started 2009 by reaching its largest audience to date and building core brands that are at scale. By leaning into the fragmentation of the Web, we are creating valuable brands that are driving engagement and attracting a larger audience,” said Bill Wilson, President, MediaGlow. “Our growth signals that consumers are actively engaging with our original content that focuses on people’s passion points and that we are providing advertisers with unique and valuable solutions and opportunities to reach a highly engaged audience.”

In January, MediaGlow launched its first targeted site of the year, FanHouse, http://www.fanhouse.com, which replaces AOL Sports as the main sports destination for AOL, targeting males 18-34. AOL Sports saw page views grow 33% and total minutes increase 4% year over year, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data.

BlackVoices.com, http://www.blackvoices.com, and AOL News, http://www.news.aol.com, also saw significant growth in January, in part because of expansive coverage of the presidential inauguration. BlackVoices saw page views climb 181%, unique visitors grow 53% and total minutes increase 83% year over year, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data. AOL News saw page views climb 82%, unique visitors grow 16% and total minutes increase 22% year over year.

The AOL Living network, http://www.living.aol.com, which comprises a core group of women’s interest sites, started the year with strong growth. AOL Health, http://www.aolhealth.com, kicked off its 2009 America Takes It Off Campaign and saw page views grow 132% and total minutes increase 53% year over year. StyleList.com, http://www.stylelist.com, grew page views 1,913%, unique visitors 718% and total minutes 1,787% year over year. AOL Home, http://home.aol.com, grew page views 271%, unique visitors 84% and total minutes 139% year over year.

Engadget, the Official Blog of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in January, also saw record numbers for the month with 75% growth in page views, 105% growth in unique visitors and 156% growth in total minutes, year over year.3

January also marked one full year since the launch of Asylum, http://www.asylum.com, which quickly became the leading men’s site, a custom-built category, and has seen 172% year over year growth in page views, 94% growth in unique visitors and 106% growth in total minutes.

In addition to growth within MediaGlow, AOL experienced growth in its product offerings. For example, AOL’s leading video search engine, Truveo, saw year-over-year increases of 209% in unique visitors and 239% in pages views, according to the January 2009 comScore Media Metrix report, due in part to the January release of an updated version of its free downloadable application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.

Many AOL sites continue to appear in the top five in their categories for unique visitors, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data:

* #1 Music: Music, http://music.aol.com
* #1 Television: Television, http://television.aol.com
* #2 Maps: MapQuest, http://mapquest.com
* #2 IM: AIM, http://www.aim.com
* #2 Business- News/Research: Money & Finance, http://money.aol.com
* #2 Home: AOL Home, http://home.aol.com
* #2 Entertainment-News: TMZ, http://tmz.com
* #2 Email: AOL Email, http://webmail.aol.com
* #3 Technology: AOL Tech, http://switched.com and http://engadget.com
* #3 Movies: Moviefone.com, http://moviefone.com
* #3 Real Estate: Real Estate, http://realestate.aol.com
* #3 Health: Health, http://aolhealth.com
* #3 Lifestyles: AOL Living, http://living.aol.com
* #4 News: News, http://news.aol.com
* #4 Radio: Radio, http://aolradio.com
* #5 Autos: AOL Autos, http://autos.aol.com
* #5 Sports: AOL Sports, http://sports.aol.com
* #5 Search: Search Network, http://search.aol.com
* #5 Food: Food, http://food.aol.com
* #5 Greetings: Greetings, http://greetings.aol.com
* #5 Local: AOL Local, http://cityguide.aol.com
* #5 Weather: AOL Weather, http://weather.aol.com

The following MediaGlow sites also rank in the top five in their AOL custom-built categories for unique visitors, according to January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data:

* #1 African American: BlackVoices, http://blackvoices.com
* #1 Country Music Site: TheBoot, http://theboot.com
* #1 Hip-Hop Music: The BoomBox, http://theboombox.com
* #1 Men: Asylum, http://asylum.com
* #1 Style: StyleList, http://stylelist.com
* #1 Women’s Blogs: Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com
* #1 Rock Music Site: Spinner, http://www.spinner.com
* #2 Horoscopes: Horoscopes, http://horoscopes.aol.com
* #3 Latino: Latino, http://latino.aol.com
* #3 Web Culture: Urlesque, http://www.urlesque.com
* #4 Homepages: AOL Homepages, http://www.aol.com

In addition, MediaGlow brands are increasingly seen as leading authorities on the Web, with 25 MediaGlow sites listed as Technorati’s Top 100 sites ranked by authority for the last six months:

* #2 Engadget, http://www.engadget.com
* #9 BloggingStocks, http://www.bloggingstocks.com
* #11 Gadling, http://www.gadling.com
* #12 ParentDish, http://www.parentdish.com
* #13 WalletPop, http://www.walletpop.com
* #16 Cinematical, http://www.cinematical.com
* #16 TMZ, http://tmz.com
* #17 JoyStiq, http://www.joystiq.com
* #20 TV Squad, http://www.tvsquad.com
* #21 TUAW, http://www.tuaw.com
* #23 Download Squad, http://www.downloadsquad.com
* #24 WOW Insider, http://www.wowinsider.com
* #26 SlashFood, http://www.slashfood.com
* #29 AutoBlog, http://www.autoblog.com
* #30 Stylelist, http://www.stylelist.com/blog
* #30 Switched, http://www.switched.com
* #32 Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com
* #33 Massively, http://www.massively.com
* #36 Luxist, http://www.luxist.com
* #42 Asylum, http://asylum.com
* #57 BlackVoices, http://blackvoices.com/blogs
* #61 Engadget Mobile, http://www.engadgetmobile.com
* #61 Spinner, http://www.spinner.com
* #72 Engadget HD, http://www.engadgethd.com
* #74 AutoBlog Green, http://www.autobloggreen.com

About MediaGlow

MediaGlow, AOL’s publishing business unit formed in early 2009, centralizes AOL’s programming efforts, including AOL.com, AOL’s content verticals and commerce and marketplace channels, dozens of niche sites, and state-of-the-art studios in Los Angeles and New York City. In all, MediaGlow operates more than 70 sites and now attracts more than 70 million unique visitors each month4, according to comScore Media Metrix. It plans to launch more than 30 new sites in 2009. MediaGlow, along with AOL’s advertising business, Platform-A, and its social media business, People Networks, represent the three core businesses for AOL.

1 Record growth is based on comScore Media Metrix data from January 2007 to January 2009.

2 All-time high in minutes for AOL.com is based on comScore Media Metrix data from January 2007 to January 2009.

3 Record numbers for Engadget.com are based on comScore Media Metrix data from January 2007 to January 2009.

4 Since October 2007

- Vontoo Voice Marketing Secures $2 Million in Funding Led by EDF Ventures
Vontoo, Inc., a world-class voice marketing provider, announced it received $2 million in funding; a half million dollars more than subscribed. Venture capital firm EDF Ventures led the round of funding, more than doubling their original investment.
The company’s impressive growth comes at what might seem like an unlikely time, during an economic downturn. But Vontoo is proving that when voice marketing is done properly, it can take 80-90% off a company’s traditional marketing expenditure and improve marketing results.

NEW YORK – TradeComet.com LLC filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a complaint asserting Google violates antitrust laws by eliminating competition and choice. TradeComet was forced to file the lawsuit when Google refused to stop engaging in predatory conduct to block search traffic by imposing massive, unjustified price increases. Google’s anticompetitive conduct eliminated TradeComet as a competitor. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, LLP, one of the world’s leading international law firms, will represent TradeComet.com.

SourceTool.com, a subsidiary of TradeComet.com, operated a thriving global business-to-business (B2B) search engine enabling buyers of industrial products to easily connect with suppliers. SourceTool.com focused on a specialized type of industrial search, which it positioned as a competitor to Google’s general purpose search engine. Due to SourceTool’s utility for buyers, sellers and advertisers, the site took off—within months reaching 650,000 visits per day. SourceTool.com also was named a ‘2006 Rising Star of Specialized Search’ by InfoCommerce and the ‘Second Fastest Growing Internet Site in the World’ by Comscore.

Google initially embraced its relationship with SourceTool.com, naming them Google’s ‘Site of the Week’; SourceTool.com was reinvesting approximately 80 percent of its revenue by purchasing $500,000 per month or more in Google keywords.

In its complaint, TradeComet.com provides details of how Google subsequently identified SourceTool.com as a competitive threat and then engaged in illegal conduct to diminish and ultimately extinguish SourceTool.com’s platform.

“SourceTool.com offered a valuable service and TradeComet.com had a thriving business before Google decided to eliminate them as a competitor,” said Rick Rule, Chair of Antitrust for Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, LLP, and former head of the United States Justice Department Antitrust Division. “We believe this complaint has strong merit and represents a serious antitrust violation.”

“With no notice, Google changed from cheerleader to tyrant when it realized we were a competitive threat,” said Dan Savage, founder and CEO of SourceTool.com and TradeComet.com. “For example, Google raised my prices by 10,000 percent, which strangled our business, virtually overnight. Citing an ambiguous quality score determined by a secretive algorithm to justify the price increase, Google refused to consider reductions even after SourceTool.com invested the company’s savings to make the changes that Google said would rectify the supposed problems. As a result of Google flexing its monopolistic muscle, SourceTool.com currently averages about one percent of the traffic it previously had and is no longer a competitively viable business.”

TradeComet.com aims to recover damages caused when Google’s anticompetitive conduct eliminated SourceTool.com’s primary source of search traffic.

About TradeComet.com

TradeComet.com LLC is based in New York, NY and is the parent company of SourceTool.com, (www.SourceTool.com). Formed in September, 2005, TradeComet.com seeks to be the leader in the global sourcing marketplace employing Internet-based technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the supplier discover process.

About SourceTool.com

SourceTool (www.sourcetool.com) links professional buyers with qualified business suppliers around the world. Developed exclusively for the business-to-business market, SourceTool indexes and organizes nearly 500,000 business suppliers around the world according to UNSPSC®, a product classification system developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and managed by GS1 US. The UNSPSC® (United Nations Standard Products and Services Code) classification system uses a hierarchical structure that organizes commodity product types according to business segments, families, and classes.

January 2009 U.S. Core Search Rankings
Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in December with 63.0 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (21.0 percent), Microsoft Sites (8.5 percent), AOL LLC (3.9 percent) and Ask Network (3.7 percent).

_________________________________________________________________________
comScore Core Search Report*
January 2009 vs. December 2008
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0

Core Search Entity            Share of Searches (%)
Dec-08     Jan-09    Point Change
Jan-09 vs. Dec-08
Total Core Search        100.0      100.0       N/A
Google Sites              63.5       63.0      -0.5
Yahoo! Sites              20.5       21.0       0.5
Microsoft Sites            8.3        8.5       0.2
AOL LLC                    3.8        3.9       0.1
Ask Network                3.9        3.7      -0.2
_________________________________________________________________________

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

Americans conducted 13.5 billion searches at the core search engines, up 7 percent from December. Google Sites handled 8.5 billion core searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.8 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion.
_________________________________________________________________________
comScore Core Search Report*
January 2009 vs. December 2008
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0

Core Search Entity             Search Queries (MM)
Dec-08      Jan-09     Percent Change
Jan-09 vs. Dec-08
Total Core Search        12,650      13,496           7%
Google Sites              8,036       8,497           6%
Yahoo! Sites              2,593       2,836           9%
Microsoft Sites           1,055       1,136           8%
AOL LLC                     478         520           9%
Ask Network                 488         497           2%
_________________________________________________________________________
* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

January 2009 U.S. Expanded Search Rankings
In the comScore January 2009 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 11.7 billion searches, up 5 percent versus December. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with nearly 3 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (1.2 billion) and AOL LLC (781 million).
_________________________________________________________________________
comScore Expanded Search Query Report
January 2009 vs. December 2008
Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch 2.0

Expanded Search Entity                Search Queries (MM)
Dec-08      Jan-09    Percent Change
Jan-09 vs. Dec-08
Total Expanded Search           18,688      19,979         7%
Google Sites                    11,152      11,714         5%
Google                      8,247       8,731         6%
YouTube/All Other           2,905       2,983         3%
Yahoo! Sites                     2,714       2,979        10%
Yahoo!                      2,686       2,952        10%
All Other                      28          27        -4%
Microsoft Sites                  1,092       1,188         9%
MSN-Windows Live              997       1,084         9%
Microsoft/All Other            95         104         9%
AOL LLC                            740         781         6%
AOL Search Network            424         452         7%
MapQuest/All Other            316         329         4%
Ask Network                        620         645         4%
Ask.com                       308         317         3%
MyWebSearch.com/ All Other    312         328         5%
Fox Interactive Media              526         558         6%
MySpace                       516         550         7%
All Other                      10           8       -20%
eBay                               500         541         8%
Craigslist.org                     387         497        28%
Amazon Sites                       204         196        -4%
Facebook.com                       161         195        21%
_________________________________________________________________________

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo

PLEASANTON, Calif.  – LeapFish.com, the only online search portal to deliver the best of the web in a click-free search, announced that traffic on its fast-growing search aggregator has tripled since the site’s November 2008 launch. The company reports that the LeapFish.com engine has received a tremendously positive response from users and they are forecasting a substantial traffic trajectory into the future.

“We are pleased with the early progress of LeapFish and its adoption by many early users,” said Behnam Behrouzi, president and CEO of LeapFish. “LeapFish’s strong and consistent early traffic growth is a clear indicator of the engine’s potential.”

Behrouzi says growth has not only come in the form of new users, but also in the number of advertisers. The company has seen a marked influx of sponsors who have quickly purchased thousands of keywords to secure high ranking results positioning. Some are already seeing a return on their investment.

“After purchasing keywords, in the first couple of weeks I received several phone calls, shook hands with 11 people, and had many serious buyers turn into tons of conversions,” said Michael Murray, of ManForArt Co. in Maui, Hawaii.

LeapFish’s unique advertising model has been well received by advertisers, given the intense competition currently found in traditional online marketing models. LeapFish allows advertisers to purchase permanent ad positioning for any available keyword, with no pay-per-click fees—ever. Advertisers are free to keep the keyword forever, or sell for a profit as it goes up in value based on its popularity.

“LeapFish offers advertisers an unprecedented opportunity to capture keyword positions in a revolutionary new search offering, as well as benefit from both the traffic and equity side as LeapFish grows over time,” said Behrouzi.

LeapFish offers one of the world’s fastest search services through its Just Type It auto-populated search box that delivers instantaneous results as users type each character into the search box. The site, which launched in November 2008 by parent company DotNext Inc., employs proprietary hyper-threading technology to aggregate results from all major online portals and quickly deliver more relevant content to users in a single search query.

Make the leap to LeapFish at www.leapfish.com.

About LeapFish

LeapFish is a multi-dimensional search engine that captures the variety of the web in a single click-free search interface. The search engine delivers instantaneous results from major Internet destinations while you type. LeapFish, Inc. is a privately held corporation headquartered out of CARR America Corporate Center in Pleasanton, California. For more information, visit www.leapfish.com.

Business Wire is the official news wire for Search Engine Strategies London 2009. Breaking news releases, advisories, photos, and multimedia are available at Tradeshownews.com, Business Wire’s trade show, conference, and event news resource.

Listed below are Search Engine Strategies London 2009 exhibitor profiles.
Company:           ACQUISIO
Stand:         305
Media Contact:         MARC POIRIER
Phone:         450.465.2631 x210
E-mail:         mpoirier@acquisio.com
Web:         www.acquisio.com

Montreal-based Acquisio is a SaaS (software as a service) company that offers a pay-per-click (Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN AdCenter) management software designed specifically for advertising agencies. The tool, Acquisio SEARCH, allows campaign managers to launch, manage, and optimize all of their client’s campaigns from a single interface, without the need to log into Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or MSN AdCenter. Additionally, it provides integrated reporting for designing and building beautiful client-ready PDF reports to help you save even more time.

Company:         Efficient Frontier
Stand:         Track Sponsor
Media Contact:         Merinda Peppard
Phone:         2071665220
E-mail:         sales-europe@efrontier.com
Web:         www.efrontier.com/uk

Efficient Frontier is the market and technology leader in providing paid search marketing solutions. The company provides the most powerful, most effective search engine marketing technology and comprehensive strategic and tactical services, to ensure that clients with large-scale, complex search marketing campaigns can achieve the highest possible return on investment. The largest advertisers in the most competitive markets use Efficient Frontier to achieve unprecedented levels of search marketing efficiencies, scalability, risk reduction and campaign growth. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, USA with offices in New York, the United Kingdom, France and India and licensing partnerships in Japan and Australia. Please visit www.efrontier.com/uk and blog.efrontier.com.

Company:         The Search Monitor
Media Contact:         Laura Nolte
Phone:         321-206-9705
E-mail:         laura@greentheoryinteractive.com
Web:         www.thesearchmonitor.com

The Search Monitor provides real-time competitor monitoring software. TSM crawls and monitors Google, Yahoo, MSN, social media, and shopping engines daily and can be geo-targeted. Interactive agencies, search marketers, and affiliate marketers use The Search Monitor for several reasons (1) to acquire competitive intelligence on paid and organic search including market share, keyword research, ad copy research, discovery of competitive promotions/offers, rank, and budgeting strategies; (2) to police brand use in ad copy, display urls, and branded keyword sponsors; (3) to identify and measure brand buzz; and (4) to police affiliate marketers for compliance with affiliate programs.

Company:         WebTrends
Stand:         309
Media Contact:         Thomas Flischer
E-mail:         Thomas@octopuscomms.net

About WebTrends Inc.

WebTrends provides web analytics and online marketing solutions to optimise marketing campaigns and customer engagement. WebTrends Marketing Lab delivers the industry’s most recognised analytics, SEM, and visitor intelligence solutions to enable companies to understand their customers, drive customer engagement, and enhance marketing and brand awareness. Thousands of leading global organisations, including HSBC, Microsoft, Reuters, General Mills, and Ticketmaster have chosen WebTrends business solutions and client services expertise to optimise their customers’ online experiences.

For more information, visit: www.webtrends.com

About Business Wire

Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is utilized by tens of thousands of member companies and organizations worldwide to functionally enhance and communicate investor relations and public relations content to target audiences. As a recognized disclosure service in the United States, Canada and a dozen European countries, Business Wire facilitates the simultaneous flow of market-moving press releases from corporations to financial markets and their audiences, including regulatory authorities, media, investors, financial information systems and consumer news services. Business Wire also handles XBRL tagging, document formatting and regulatory filing into EDGAR, SEDAR, FSA and other systems.

Communications professionals turn to Business Wire to optimize and issue press releases, photos and multimedia to news organizations, journalists, trade publications, search engines, and individuals, with full-text posting to web sites, online services and databases. A range of distribution options enables members to target by geography, industry, news theme and audience demographics.

Founded in 1961, Business Wire has dual headquarters in San Francisco and New York, with 30 bureaus in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Brussels, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney and reciprocal offices throughout the world. Business Wire’s patented NX data platform supports XML, XHTML and XBRL code that enhances news release interactivity, social media sharing and search engine optimization. More information about Business Wire and its services is located on its website at www.BusinessWire.com.

DALLAS – On February 19, 2009, Christine Churchill and Shelley Ellis will be speaking to the members of the search marketing community of North Texas at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson, Texas starting at 6:30 p.m.

Titled “Keyword Research – For Beginners to Experts” this 90 minute presentation will review the tools, tips and strategies for keyword usage within search marketing, online advertising and traditional media.

“Keyword research is not only an integral part of search marketing, it also has ramifications in other forms of marketing – both online and offline,” said Tony Wright, president of the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association. “Christine and Rhonda have put together an in-depth review of keyword research that will appeal to novices and experts alike.”

Christine Churchill is the President of KeyRelevance, a recognized expert in the field of Search Engine Marketing. She is a strong advocate for ethical search engine marketing, and was a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). A frequent speaker at industry events and a prolific writer on search marketing, Christine currently serves as the Chairman of the Dallas-Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM).

Shelley Ellis is the owner of Shelley Ellis Consulting and is at the forefront of exploring the vast potential of using Google’s content network for tapping into online conversations to increase sales and boost profits for companies of any size. With over nine years of paid search experience across a variety of industries, Shelley is a pioneer and a recognized expert in advanced content targeting strategies. Shelley also serves on the board of the Dallas-Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM).

“As demand increases in 2009 for search marketing, keyword research will be at the forefront of every company’s marketing campaign,” says Tony Wright. “These two speakers are recognized experts in this field and bring a perspective on how to apply keyword research not only to search marketing, but to all forms of advertising and marketing,” adds Mr. Wright.

Cost for the meeting is $30 for non-DFWSEM members and $10 for DFWSEM members. Registration for both members and non-members can be made at http://dfwsem.memberlodge.org/. Corporate and individual memberships are also available there.

About the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM)

The Dallas-Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization (DFWSEM) is dedicated to education and promotion of the Dallas-Fort Worth search engine marketing industry, conversing various topics related to search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click search (PPC), as well as other emerging media. The group meets monthly at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson, Texas, and is open to anyone interested in search engine marketing, including in-house marketers, independent consultants, and agencies.

Initially founded in 2003, DFWSEM is the oldest and longest running local search engine marketing group/meetup in the country. Member agencies include DexterityMedia, Vizion Interactive, iCrossing, Range Online Media, Key Relevance, MarketNet, AffGoo, Creative Support, Did-it, SearchDex, WrightIMC, and Bridgepose. For more information, visit http://www.dfwsem.org.

DFWSEM is sponsored by Lead Maverick (http://www.leadmaverick.com).

Sponsoring DFWSEM

DFWSEM Association members cumulatively represent over $100,000,000 in annual search engine ad spend, and sponsorship is a great way to get your message in front of this group of decision makers and key influencers. To find out how to sponsor a monthly meeting or other opportunity, contact Tony Wright at tony.wright@wrightimc.com.

DFWSEM Speakers Bureau

Many members of DFWSEM are actively speaking at various interactive marketing conferences, including SMX, Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech, and WebmasterWorld, among many others. If you are looking for someone to speak about search engine marketing related topics, or would like to interview a member, feel free to contact the group for more information at 214.210.6793.

The DFWSEM Association welcomes requests to speak to the group at info@dfwsem.org.

The interviews, available online now, cover a wide range of topics from discussion of key LegalTech sessions and use of social media by lawyers and law firms, to electronic data discovery and the impact of the current economic downturn on technology spending. Interviewees will also include winners of the 2009 Law Technology News Awards.

LegalTech attendees and exhibitors can also experience Incisive Media’s extensive network of legal blogs at the company’s onsite blogging station, located at the entrance to the show. Visitors can use computers at the station to navigate throughout the Incisive blog network, based on interest area or hot topics, read posts and add comments of their own, live from the booth.

In addition, current issues of Incisive Media publications, including Law Technology News, The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel and The National Law Journal will be available at multiple locations throughout the event space.

Last year, LegalTech New York attracted 13,000 attendees and featured almost 300 exhibiting companies. The 2009 conference will offer more than 40 educational sessions for attendees, on topics ranging from electronic discovery and knowledge management, to emerging technologies. For a conference agenda, exhibitor list and other details, visit www.legaltechshow.com. Show information is also available through LinkedIn and Twitter.

LegalTech is presented by Incisive Media Conferences and Trade Shows, a leading producer of educational and networking events for business leaders and professionals.

About Incisive Media

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.

The American Lawyer, Law Technology News, Corporate Counsel, LegalTech, The National Law Journal, Post, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and Real Estate Forum are registered trademarks of ALM Properties, Inc. or affiliated entities.

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – Lyris, Inc., the online marketing expert, announced that executives Blaine Mathieu, CMO, and Erick Mott, communications director, will present at the 2009 Email Evolution Conference. Mathieu will join industry leaders from Kaiser Permanente and Convince & Convert to deliver a presentation titled “Search & Email: The Yin & Yang of Online Marketing,” and discuss how leading companies are optimizing the intersection of search and email.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. MT

WHERE: Westin Kierland, Scottsdale, AZ

Erick Mott will moderate a discussion on the case study, “Lessons Learned from a Cool, Cause-Marketing Initiative,” led in partnership with the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which Lyris supports, and a volunteer-team of Email Experience Council members from many different organizations. He will also present how social media and online communities can help cause-marketing initiatives.

WHEN: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 10:15 a.m. MT

WHERE: Westin Kierland, Scottsdale, AZ

Lyris will be exhibiting in the Experience Hall at Booth #204. Conference attendees and those unable to join can connect with Lyris presenters and discuss related topics on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Jointly organized by the DMA and The Email Experience Council, the 2009 Email Evolution Conference is organized by and for email marketers. For more information, visit: http://www.the-dma.org/conferences/emailevolution/index.shtml.

About Lyris, Inc.

Lyris, Inc. (OTCBB:LYRI) is the online marketing expert delivering the right mix of software technology and industry knowledge to help its customers simplify their marketing efforts and optimize campaign ROI. Through the delivery of the industry’s first on-demand integrated marketing suite, Lyris HQ, and knowledge-sharing community, www.lyrishq.com, to secure and reliable on-premise solutions, including Lyris ListManager, Lyris provides customers the right tools to optimize the management, collaboration and execution of their online and mobile marketing initiatives. These sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tools provide marketers a suite of best-of-breed applications for managing email marketing campaigns, publishing and managing Web site content, creating landing pages, optimizing Web sites and search engine marketing. Clients include ACCESS Systems Americas, Adobe, American Apparel, Body Glove, Johns Hopkins University, JupiterMedia and Nokia. For more information, please visit www.lyris.com. The company is based in Emeryville, Calif.

NEW YORK – Super Bowl XLIII is officially sports history, with the Pittsburgh Steelers taking home the coveted Lombardi trophy in one of the most exciting games yet. For advertisers, however, the excitement isn’t over, as some of the world’s biggest brands vie to turn their Super Bowl buzz into business results online. This year E-Trade, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, and Cash4Gold.com were the integrated marketing standouts in Reprise Media’s newly released 5th annual Search Marketing Scorecard (SMS).

Reprise Media’s Search Marketing Scorecard ranks Super Bowl advertisers based on the level of integration between their television commercials and presence in search and social media –measuring how prepared each brand was to capture the demand created by their Super Bowl advertising investment. The Search Marketing Scorecard is the longest-standing study of its kind.

With 30-second spots selling for an estimated $3 million, advertisers were pressed to make every dollar spent on television work harder by successfully linking their TV ads to their online presence. “The recession forces marketers to put much more scrutiny on every advertising dollar they spend,” said Peter Hershberg, Managing Partner of Reprise Media. “While some brands clearly got this message, we still see far too many throwing away millions of dollars by failing to connect their TV campaign with an integrated search and social media presence.”

Our three top brands cleverly tied their television campaigns to their online efforts in search and social media:

· E-Trade used “outtakes” of their Super Bowl ads in the weeks leading up to the game to drive interest which paid off on game night with social media, paid search, and their TV ad all using the same unified message. Their TV call to action was particularly well integrated with paid search, and they included keywords phrases like “talking babies” to maximize response.

· Cash4Gold used celebrity spokespeople in a humorous way and were smart enough to use searches on their names – Ed McMahon and MC Hammer – to drive traffic from paid search to a corporate Blogspot blog with YouTube videos embedded – upping the ante on social media.

· Like E-Trade, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes did a superb job of building pre-game interest, in this case tying their ads online and offline to a charitable initiative called Plant a Seed, dedicated to rebuilding playing fields across the country for kids. Their TV ad had a strong call to action which led people to a landing page with social media prominently featured, including links to YouTube and the ability to nominate a site for their program.

We can’t all be winners though – each of these brands fumbled its opportunity to connect with viewers offline:

· Denny’s had a terrible night, with a free breakfast promo that failed to include a URL in their TV ad or an online call to action. Perhaps they were hoping to avoid overloading their website – which crashed right after the ad aired and was down for the rest of the game.

· Budweiser, one of the traditional Super Bowl sponsors, could have taken advantage of Google’s new openness to liquor ads this year but completely ignored any search or social media tie-in with their TV spots.

· Like almost all of the films advertised, Pixar’s Up dropped the ball when it came to online integration, despite including a call to action and a URL with previews, which none of the other films did. In spite of this, the actual site was not integrated at all with the Super Bowl ad and there were no paid search ads to help direct confused searchers to the “right” page.

“In the five years we’ve been doing this study, we’ve seen how advertisers who effectively integrate their offline and online promotions dramatically improve campaign ROI,” said Joshua Stylman, Managing Partner of Reprise Media. “Search and social media marketing can help these brands capture consumer interest stimulated by TV, measure the effectiveness of their overall campaign and gain insight into what drives customer behaviors, all having a significant impact on the bottom line.”

To download a copy of Reprise Media’s 5th Annual Search Marketing Scorecard on the Super Bowl, and register to receive the company’s forthcoming whitepaper on the study, visit http://www.reprisemedia.com/scorecard.aspx

About Reprise Media

Reprise Media is an award-winning search engine and social media marketing agency. The company helps leading brands – including Microsoft, ABC, Castrol and Martha Stewart – manage their online reputations, drive traffic to their websites, acquire new customers and generate revenue through the power of search. SearchViews (www.searchviews.com), the company’s blog, provides daily news and commentary on the search engine marketing industry and is considered a must-read by industry insiders.

A division of Mediabrands and subsidiary of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), Reprise Media is headquartered in New York and has offices in San Francisco and Boston.

Reprise Media is a registered trademark of Reprise Media Inc. All other product and brand names are the property of their respective owners.

DAVOS, Switzerland – WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), the world leader in communications services and Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR), the leading provider of online business optimization, announced a strategic partnership that will provide clients with more-effective insights globally across both digital and traditional media channels. As part of this partnership, WPP is making a long-term $25 million investment in Omniture common stock.

The two companies will collaborate on technology development, on sharing data and information and in consulting services. The collaboration will focus on providing chief marketing officers and other marketing executives at clients, with greater consumer insights, supported by new technology. This will allow marketers to increase their revenue and profit returns from online marketing and to manage and optimize their overall marketing expenditures.

WPP companies involved in this partnership include G2, OgilvyOne, RMG, Wunderman, Enfatico, specialist agencies Schematic, VML and ZAAZ, Group M, 24/7 Real Media, Kantar and Bridge Worldwide.

Key elements of the strategic partnership include:

* Joint approaches to mutual clients to develop enhanced analytical solutions
* Joint development of technologies and solutions, including the integration of Omniture and WPP technologies, data and products
* Sharing of marketing insights and consulting best practices
* Deployment of Omniture consultants inside WPP companies
* Training of more than 500 WPP employees on Omniture products and solutions, within the first year of the relationship

Specifically, WPP and Omniture have agreed over the next 12-18 months to integrate many of WPP’s marketing technologies, data, insights and information products into the Omniture Genesis platform. These integrations will include:

* Open AdStream (24/7 Real Media’s advertising management system)
* Decide DNA (24/7 Real Media and GroupM’s search engine marketing systems)
* 24/7 Real Media and GroupM’s custom media audience network
* TNS Compete™ (competitive web benchmarking data)
* TNS Stradegy™ (multimedia channel advertising occurrence and expenditure data)

“In the current economic environment and as clients continue to experiment with and develop their online budgets, the need for better analysis, measurability and focus on return on investment is more important than ever,” said Sir Martin Sorrell, Group Chief Executive, WPP. “This partnership will help our many mutual clients meet these objectives by equipping WPP agencies – across all geographies and disciplines – with the capabilities and tools needed to customize and deploy Omniture solutions in the most efficient and effective ways.”

“The partnership is a reflection of WPP and Omniture’s shared commitment to providing actionable, media-channel agnostic recommendations – informed by data and supported by technology – to the world’s largest brand owners,” said Mark Read, Director of Strategy, WPP, and CEO, WPP Digital. “It continues WPP’s and Omniture’s strategy of partnering with and integrating proprietary information and technologies with third-party platforms, for the maximum benefit of our clients.”

“We have consistently said that the limiting factor for marketing executives to fully realize the benefits of digital marketing and the corresponding measurability and accountability it brings, is the lack of available online marketing consulting and best practices,” said Josh James, CEO and co-founder, Omniture. “WPP’s aggressive investment in this critical area is a testament to their thought leadership.”

James continued, “The industry, and particularly WPP’s customers, will benefit tremendously from having 500 people from the world’s largest, most connected digital agencies thoroughly trained on the Omniture suite of products. This partnership will provide clients with the best of both worlds – technology and expertise – to optimize their marketing and drive ROI.”

About WPP

WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY) is the world leader in communications services, providing national, multinational and global clients with advertising; media investment management; information, insight & consultancy; public relations & public affairs; branding & identity; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion & relationship marketing. WPP’s worldwide companies include JWT, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Y&R, Grey Group, United Group, GroupM, Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom, Millward Brown, Research International, Kantar (now including TNS), OgilvyOne Worldwide, Wunderman, OgilvyAction, Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, CommonHealth, Sudler & Hennessey, Ogilvy Healthworld, Grey Healthcare Group, Landor, Fitch, The Brand Union and G2 among others. WPP companies provide communications services to clients worldwide including more than 340 of the Fortune Global 500; over one-half of the NASDAQ 100 and over 30 of the Fortune e-50. Our companies work with over 400 clients in three or more disciplines; more than 280 clients in four disciplines and nearly 230 clients in six or more countries. Collectively, WPP employs 131,000 people (including associates) in over 2,000 offices in 106 countries. For more information, visit www.wpp.com.

About Omniture

Omniture, Inc. is a leading provider of online business optimization software, enabling customers to manage and enhance online, offline and multi-channel business initiatives. Omniture’s software, which it hosts and delivers to its customers as an on-demand subscription service and on-premise solution, enables customers to capture, store and analyze information generated by their Web sites and other sources and to gain critical business insights into the performance and efficiency of marketing and sales initiatives and other business processes. In addition, Omniture offers a range of professional services that complement its online services, including implementation, best practices, consulting, customer support and user training through Omniture University™. Omniture’s approximately 5,000 customers include eBay, AOL, Wal-Mart, Gannett, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Oracle, General Motors, Sony and HP. www.omniture.com

Copyright (c) 2008 Omniture, Inc. All rights reserved. Omniture and SiteCatalyst are registered trademarks of Omniture, Inc. in the United States, Japan, Canada, and the European Community. Omniture, Inc. owns other registered and unregistered trademarks throughout the world. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SAN FRANCISCO – Lyris, Inc., the online marketing expert, announced social media enhancements to the Lyris HQ integrated online marketing suite. With Lyris HQ, marketers are now able to leverage their email marketing campaigns and messaging to empower recipients to share and discuss news and relevant topics with colleagues, fans and friends on popular social networking sites including Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Marketers can also analyze how well social media is performing in terms of reach, interaction and ROI on social networking and originating sites, with no extra integration or technical know-how needed. An added component of this new functionality is the ability for marketers to better understand, segment and report inbound engagement from many social networking sites.

Marketers that want to tap into Web 2.0 with Lyris HQ can now:

* Leverage email marketing campaigns and messaging on 10 social sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, Furl, StumbleUpon, Newsvine, del.icio.us, Google Bookmarks and Reddit; the Web 2.0-version of forward to a friend.
* Use new Web analytics to easily track where interest and results are coming from and see real-time measurement from social networking and viral marketing efforts.
* Maximize integrated marketing strategies and scale messaging across networks by using tools to measure metrics, track click-throughs and gauge the success of Web 2.0 initiatives.

“We are always looking for ways to enhance our email communications and broaden the reach and value of our online marketing efforts,” said Sylvia Sierra, senior vice president of corporate audience development, Access Intelligence. “We’re seeing more of our professional audience engage in social networks and are excited to see Lyris adding this new functionality.”

Consumers are more actively engaged on social networks than ever before and the demand for these services continues to grow. According to IDC’s “U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey Results Part III,” more than three-quarters of social networking users visit social networking sites at least once a week, and no less than 57 percent visit daily.1 However, marketers still face challenges. A recent JupiterResearch study found that 30 percent of social marketers said figuring out which tactics suit their campaign goals continues to be their top challenge when engaging with social networks.2

Marketers believe social media has an impact on marketing results, but many struggle with capturing key metrics and justifying spend on Web 2.0 initiatives to senior executives. Lyris HQ’s integrative nature allows marketers to understand how successful a company’s social media campaigns are, whether or not they are linked to an email campaign. They can see, on a granular basis, when and from where an end user arrives to their site and what message or conversation generated the response.

“End users are spending more time on social networking sites and expect better content and more meaningful conversations as a result. Marketers see the need and opportunity to engage with users on social networking sites, but many don’t have the resources or ability to manage new campaigns, track their effectiveness and justify the spend,” said Blaine Mathieu, chief marketing officer, Lyris, Inc. “Lyris HQ’s social media enhancements allow marketers to broaden the reach and ROI of their online campaigns to the ever-growing number of users spending time and consuming content on social networking sites.”

Availability

Lyris HQ’s social media enhancements are available immediately to new and existing customers. For more information please visit: http://www.lyris.com.

About Lyris, Inc.

Lyris, Inc. (OTCBB:LYRI) is the online marketing expert delivering the right mix of software technology and industry knowledge to help its customers simplify their marketing efforts and optimize campaign ROI. Through the delivery of the industry’s first on-demand integrated marketing suite, Lyris HQ, and knowledge-sharing community, www.lyrishq.com, to secure and reliable on-premise solutions, including Lyris ListManager, Lyris provides customers the right tools to optimize the management, collaboration and execution of their online and mobile marketing initiatives. These sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tools provide marketers a suite of best-of-breed applications for managing email marketing campaigns, publishing and managing Web site content, creating landing pages, optimizing Web sites and search engine marketing. Clients include ACCESS Systems Americas, Adobe, American Apparel, Body Glove, Johns Hopkins University, JupiterMedia and Nokia. For more information, please visit www.lyris.com or connect on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lyris. The company is based in Emeryville, Calif.

1 IDC, U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey Results Part III, By Karsten Weide and Caroline Dangson, http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS21540708

2 JupiterResearch, Social Marketing Scorecard, 2008, By Emily Riley and David Card, http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:concept/1231/id=100429

Incisive Legal Intelligence (formerly ALM Research and Altman Weil Publications) will form the core of this new unit. ILI offers the legal industry’s most extensive online database of legal market intelligence, as well as syndicated survey reports, including the annual Law Firm Business Development Survey and Survey of Law Firm Billing Rates and Practices.

Over the coming year, the Division is expected to expand its research and database-driven offerings to include new business directories, benchmarking tools and competitive intelligence reports.

Iredell joined Incisive Media in 2006 as director of marketing for its national publications. Prior to joining Incisive Media, he spent almost 5 years at LexisNexis/Martindale-Hubbell in a variety of marketing and product development positions. Iredell received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Villanova University. He can continue to be reached at kevin.iredell@incisivemedia.com.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.

The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, Incisive Legal Intelligence, Legal Week, Post, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and Real Estate Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of Incisive Media, LLC or affiliated entities.

Trinity Mirror, whose portfolio includes five national newspapers, over 150 regional newspapers and 400 plus websites, is using Pluck social media tools to build accessible online communities that are engaging and easy to use.

- iWebTrack™ Launches Blackberry™ and Windows Mobile Applications
iWebTrack Holdings, Inc. has recently launched improved mobile applications of their web analytics tool iWebTrack™, www.iwebtrack.com, for both Blackberry™ and Windows Mobile™ platforms. iWebTrack™ once again leads the way in innovation as the first web analytics provider to offer mobile tracking applications.

iWebTrack™ customers can now access their iWebTrack™ account both in the office and on the road thanks to these mobile tracking applications. iWebTrack™ customers can download the free web tracking application for their Blackberry™ or Windows Mobile™ device directly from http://iwebtrack.com/downloads.asp, enabling them to access their web statistics from anywhere in the world. Customers are no longer restricted by geography, and can now gauge site visitors, search engine traffic, ad campaigns, as well as conversions directly from their PDA. iWebTrack™ also offers a level of customization customers can’t find with competitors such as ClickTracks™, IndexTools™, WebTrends™, or even Google Analytics™.

AUSTIN, Texas – Click Forensics™, Inc. released industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for the fourth quarter 2008 from the search advertising industry’s leading independent click fraud reporting service – the Click Fraud Index® (www.ClickFraudIndex.com).

Now in its fourth year, the Click Fraud Index monitors and reports on data gathered from the Click Fraud Network™, which provides statistically significant industry PPC data collected from online advertising campaigns for both large and small companies across all the leading search engines. Key findings from data reported for Q4 2008 include:

* The overall industry average click fraud rate grew to 17.1 percent for Q4 2008. That’s up from 16.0 percent in Q3 2008 and from the 16.6 percent rate reported for Q4 2007.
* The average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was 28.2 percent. That’s up from the 27.1 percent rate reported for Q3 2008 and down slightly from the 28.3 percent rate reported for Q4 2007.
* Traffic from botnets was responsible for 31.4 percent of all click fraud traffic in Q4 2008. That’s up from the 27.6 percent rate reported for Q3 2008 and the 22.0 percent rate reported for Q4 2007.
* In Q4 2008, the greatest percentage of click fraud originating from countries outside the U.S. came from Canada (7.4 percent), Germany (3.0 percent) and China (2.3 percent).

“Based on the data we tracked in Q4 2008, it seems that the online advertising industry is not immune to the growing tide of cybercrime during this recessionary period,” said Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics. “Both the overall click fraud rate and the rate of click fraud originating from botnets were the highest ever in Q4 2008. In addition, we’ve started to see old schemes like click farms reemerge. Advertisers should pay close attention to these types of threats in their online campaigns throughout the year.”

The Click Fraud Index publishes data collected from the Click Fraud Network, the industry’s first independent third-party click fraud detection service dedicated to helping companies more accurately monitor their online advertising campaigns for pay-per-click fraud. Click fraud data is tracked and published on a quarterly basis for specific search providers, industries and trends. The service is unique in that it monitors online campaigns for click fraud by correlating data collected from search provider campaigns and the advertisers’ own web sites – providing the industry’s most accurate view of click fraud to date.

About Click Forensics, Inc.

Click Forensics is the industry leader in scoring, auditing and improving traffic quality for the online advertising community. Click Forensics provides traffic quality management solutions for online advertisers, publishers, and ad networks. The company also publishes the Click Fraud Index®, the top independent source of industry click fraud data. Click Forensics is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and is privately held with funding from Sierra Ventures, Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures. More information on Click Forensics and its offerings is available at www.ClickForensics.com.

Click Fraud Index is a registered trademark of Click Forensics, Inc. Click Forensics and Click Fraud Network are trademarks of Click Forensics, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

TAMPA, Fla. – In today’s turbulent economy, companies require more accountability for marketing dollars than ever before – prompting a significant advertising shift from traditional media to an ever-evolving array of interactive strategies that offer immediate, quantifiable results. According to a recent study by marketing services firm Epsilon, 6 out of 10 Chief Marketing Officers plan to increase their spending on interactive marketing this year.1 Industry analysts support that move, with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers noting the online ad sector is “poised to weather the [economic] storm perhaps better than other advertising sectors due to its cost-effectiveness and measurability.”2

These dramatic changes in the media landscape have created a huge demand for professionals and organizations with digital marketing expertise and search engine marketing training. Major job sites list thousands of openings – from interactive data analyst to director of Internet marketing – for candidates with these specialized skill sets. To fill this urgent need, the University of San Francisco created the industry’s first and only Internet marketing certificate program offered 100% online. In just a matter of weeks, students will master the strategies and techniques they need to survive – and thrive – in this complex, dynamic marketing environment.

USF’s Master Certificate in Internet Marketing provides a “big picture” view of essential Internet marketing tools and techniques, including creative development, blogs, Web 2.0, search engine optimization (SEO), web analytics, A/B testing, affiliate marketing, viral video, social media and more. Developed by practicing interactive marketing experts, this unique, end-to-end program consists of three online certificate courses: Integrated Online Strategies, Search Engine Marketing and Usability, and Advanced Interactive Marketing and Measurement.

“Until now, professionals who wanted interactive marketing training had to choose between a few expensive, time-consuming degree programs and more limited, subject-specific workshops,” said Jay Berkowitz, CEO of Ten Golden Rules and one of the instructors in USF’s online faculty. “Our new Master Certificate in Internet Marketing is unique in that it covers all facets of digital marketing in a condensed and convenient online format. Students will gain the knowledge and credentials they need to land a position or promotion in interactive marketing, while entrepreneurs and marketers alike will come away with the skills to develop a successful Internet strategy and maximize e-commerce revenues.”

In addition to teaching students how to develop, implement and evolve integrated online marketing strategies, the master certificate program also prepares them for certification from two leading industry organizations. Participants will master the Google AdWords concepts along with the tracking and measurement techniques featured on the Google Advertising Professionals and Web Analytics Association certification exams.

Registration is now open for the Master Certificate in Internet Marketing program. Classes begin February 1 for the Integrated Online Strategies course, continuing with Search Engine Marketing and Usability on April 1 and Advanced Interactive Marketing and Measurement on June 1. For more information, call 800-436-1713 or visit www.USanFranOnline.com.

About the University of San Francisco

Acclaimed as one of America’s best universities by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review, the University of San Francisco has earned a reputation for academic excellence that dates back to its founding in 1855. It is committed to becoming internationally recognized as a premier Jesuit Catholic, urban university with a global perspective. USF’s online programs are offered through its School of Business and Management, which includes the Masagung Graduate School of Management and the McLaren Undergraduate College of Business.

About University Alliance Online

The University Alliance (UA) facilitates the promotion and online delivery of associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as professional certificate programs from the nation’s leading traditional universities and institutions. Powered by UA’s technology and support services, our university partners have surpassed 300,000 online enrollments — making UA the largest facilitator of e-learning in the country. University Alliance partners include Villanova University, the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, Thunderbird School of Global Management, the University of San Francisco, the University of South Florida, Florida Institute of Technology, The University of Scranton, Dominican University and Jacksonville University.

1 “Marketing Spending Priorities Shift”; published on eMarketer.com, October 7, 2008.

2 “Internet Advertising Revenues in Q3 ’08 at Nearly $5.9 Billion”; published on IAB.net, November 20, 2008.

CHICAGO – On the heels of earnings announcements from Google (Goog) and Microsoft (MSFT), AdGooroo (www.adgooroo.com), a leading provider of online marketing competitive intelligence and keyword tools, reaffirmed the importance of ad coverage as a critical success metric for leading search engines and serious search engine marketers alike.

“With such a wide range of predictions about the Q4 performance of leading search engines, many were taken by surprise to see a record Q4 for Google,” said AdGooroo’s Founder and Chief Gooroo Rich Stokes.

Click stream data, often cited in analyst reports, relies on panel data collected from small groups of individuals and later extrapolated to the general population. Ad coverage and other pre-click or impression-based search engine data, on the other hand, is collected on a much larger scale with technology and automation, essentially pulling the data directly from the marketplace by mining actual search engine results pages from a wide range of geographic locations.

“Thousands of marketers and 35 of the nation’s top 50 search agencies use AdGooroo’s impression-based data,” said Gary Allen, CEO of AdGooroo. “And while ad coverage is a valuable metric that these marketers turn to for guidance on managing their search campaigns, our track record has demonstrated for four consecutive quarters that it’s also an accurate indicator of leading engines’ revenue performance as well.”

AdGooroo’s report, “Search Engine Advertising Update – Q408,” was the fourth of its kind released to date and rounded out a year-long series of these reports, which provided accurate ad coverage data that assisted in the analysis of search engine performance for a wide range of leading business and industry media and analysts.

“Click stream data has inherent limitations that simply do not affect impression-based metrics like ad coverage,” explains Stokes. “We’re changing the way that marketers and Wall Street think about search engines, optimizing search engine marketing programs and measuring success on the fly, and for four consecutive quarters, we’ve had some great results to cite.”

Further commentary and related resources are available on the AdGooroo blog at: http://www.adgooroo.com/bearish_google_predictions_rev.php

About AdGooroo

AdGooroo provides online marketers and agencies actionable, on demand competitive intelligence tools that proactively monitor an industry’s advertising landscape to help them build a long-term competitive advantage. Based in Chicago, AdGooroo provides competitive intelligence to search engine marketers through its tool suite, including AdGooroo Express, SEM Insight and Trademark Insight. AdGooroo tools leverage access and automation to provide advertisers with lists of competitors’ top keywords, ad copy, campaign statistics and more. Top agencies and brand advertisers leverage AdGooroo competitive intelligence tools. For more information, visit AdGooroo.com.

NEW YORK – Ai Media Group, the innovative search marketing firm based in New York, announces the addition of its new CEO, Andy Fenster. Mr. Fenster’s experience in the marketing and advertising industry includes his previous employment as Vice President and Controller of Big Flower Holdings, a $2.5 billion dollar advertising and marketing services company based in New York.

Mr. Fenster also spent 12 years at The New York Times Company serving in executive financial positions, including Corporate Executive Director and Assistant Corporate Controller. He also formerly served as a Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche. He received an MBA from Rutgers and a BA from Hamilton College.

“We are thrilled that Andy has joined us to help meet the increased demand for the proven solutions that Ai Media Group provides to agencies and clients,” says Sergio Alvarez, Chief Operating Officer of Ai Media Group. “Andy will bring his in-depth knowledge and experience in finance and accounting to our organization and greatly assist in building strategic relationships as we continue to move forward.”

“I am looking forward to working with the team at Ai and adding my skills in the financial arena to our formidable team. As we enter 2009, Ai is well positioned to generate continued growth and offer better advertising solutions, despite a challenging economic environment,” said Mr. Fenster.

This recent growth can be traced in part to Ai Media Group’s cutting-edge search engine marketing services, which have been advanced by its strong working relationship with Google. Google offers a specialized team to support Ai Media Group accounts and enhances Ai Media Group’s unique proprietary platform.

About Ai Media Group:

The exemplary skills of Ai Media Group professionals have been at the forefront of search marketing, from digital advertising to Yahoo Yellow Pages, to bridging the gap into algorithmic search. Ai Media Group professionals have a proven record of providing measurable results to thousands of advertisers. The company’s mission is to educate the marketplace on the newest offerings and to act as consultants in order to enhance business decisions with strategic business intelligence. Ai Media Group’s entire staff is well-versed on all aspects of search and is comprised of the industry’s most knowledgeable and experienced specialists. For more information, visit http://aimediagroup.com/.

SAN DIEGO – Though most signs point to a downward economy, interactive advertising, including local search, display ads and e-mail marketing, is expected to grow from 7.4 percent of the global advertising market at the end of 2007 to 21 percent by 2012 (source: The Kelsey Group). Encouraging further growth, ClickZ presents the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) San Diego, the only purely educational event of its kind – built around content that drives action and delivers insight that online marketers can build into their marketing plans immediately. The ClickZ Network is the world’s largest online resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference.

Set at the Westin Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, California, from February 4-7, 2009, the Online Marketing Summit attracts marketers from leading companies who will gather to share best practices and learn from expert online practitioners. Leading educators in online marketing will facilitate a world-class forum of best practices in interactive marketing. Hands-on workshops, thought leadership panels, one-on-one usability and search engine optimization (SEO) classes and peer work groups are conducted by best-of-breed speakers and organizations.

The only objective of the OMS Summit is to educate attendees on how to execute the best known practices in online marketing. By incorporating feedback from past events, new “Acumen Tracks” will address various levels of expertise. Designed to meet the unique needs of beginner, intermediate, and expert-level practitioners, the content of the summit will allow attendees to educate themselves at a foundational level on a topic unfamiliar to them or dive deeper into a topic they want to learn more about.

The 2009 OMS Summit includes sessions on:

* Social Media Business Strategies
* Search Engine Marketing in-depth education
* Website Usability Primers
* Customer Experience Best Practices
* Web Analytics & ROI Tracking
* Planning & Budgeting for Online Success
* Email Marketing & Landing Page Tactics
* Website Strategy Thought Leadership
* Behavioral Targeting & Testing

“OMS is exclusively for marketing professionals interested in learning and networking,” said Aaron Kahlow, founder of Online Marketing Summit. “We’re sort of an ‘anti-conference’, and it’s working out for us. There is no expo hall, no conflagration of sponsor logos, and no sales-folk to interfere with the world-class education and networking opportunities on which we’ve built our reputation. It’s 100% peer to peer knowledge sharing. Can’t get any more direct than that.”

“No marketer knows it all. And if they do, they’re probably speaking at OMS,” noted Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, including Search Engine Strategies, SearchEngineWatch.com and the ClickZ Network. “If there’s a question you have, there’s likely a session that will answer it. Attendees will not only receive invaluable education and direction from each session, but they’ll also have the opportunity to network, collaborate and share ideas with interactive marketers from leading companies around the world.”

Discounted passes are still available and include access to the 2009 Resource Center to download the slide decks, professionally video recorded session and media from all the presentations. To register, visit https://www.onlinemarketingsummit.com/registration/default.php. For more details on the Online Marketing Summit event and other ClickZ events including free online marketing webinars visit www.ClickZEvents.com.

About the Online Marketing Summit (OMS)

The Online Marketing Summit (OMS) is truly unique from any other conference. There are no vendors, no salesmen, no exhibitors/booths and no pitching allowed. The application process ensures only attendees who are serious about trying to gain a competitive advantage through education. The environment facilitates networking and collaboration amongst like-minded marketing peers. This summer tour will be attended by at least 2000 professionals who are passionate about marketing. OMS is a not-for-profit organization with the simple mission to educate marketers on the emerging best practice of online marketing

About Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC — A Division of Incisive Media PLC

Incisive Media’s The ClickZ Network is the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference in the world, online or off-. From search to e-mail, technology to trends, our coverage is expert, exclusive, and in-depth. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the Search Engine Strategies global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.

SES is the leading global search marketing event series for education in digital marketing and advertising with specific emphasis on Search Engine Marketing (SEM), PPC and SEO. SES Amsterdam will teach delegates everything they need to know to maximize their advertising reach online whilst providing a forum for delegates to network with their peers, expert practitioners and representatives from the search engines themselves.

The Chair of this event will be Henk van Es and the Programming Director for it will be Joost de Valk.

SES Amsterdam will feature a number of workshops designed to educate the beginning SEO/SEM in addition to advanced maximizer sessions for those with years of experience. Topics such as Web 2.0 trends, social media and blogging will also be covered.

Paul Petermeijer, CEO BBP, said, “SES Amsterdam is the leading event in Holland for Search, with a mix of national and international cases and speakers we have created an event where starters and pro’s can find their way. With the combination of Incisive media and BBP we have a lot of marketing power in and outside the Netherlands.”

SES Amsterdam is actively supported by Taskforce Search the Dutch branch of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). “Search Engine Strategies is globally recognized as the leading search marketing conference and expo series. We encourage our members, advertisers as well as agencies, to attend SES Amsterdam and learn all about the latest tactics and best practices from Dutch and international top experts in the industry” said Wolter Tjeenk Willink, chairman of the Dutch Taskforce Search, IAB.

Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher of the global SEM conference series in addition to its sister sites ClickZ and Search Engine Watch said:

“Incisive Media is proud and excited to extend our global SEM conference and expo series to Holland in partnership with BBP. Search continues to show resilience as a must have channel to market and SES is the most trusted event series that CEOs, CMOs, business owners, marketers, web developers attend year after year to learn the trade.”

Register early before the 13th of February and save up to 150 Euros. For more information about the 2009 Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo series please visit http://www.SearchEngineStrategies.nl

About SES

Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the ClickZ network for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit http://www.incisivemedia.com

About BBP

BBP is a leading and innovative Dutch publisher, in print, in person and online. The company’s Principal markets include, Document Management, Customer service, Call Centers, E-commerce, Online marketing. BBP’s market-leading brands include Telecommerce, Twinkle, Document Manager, TCD, IDMK, Global E-commerce Summit, E-mail marketing Conference. For more information, visit http://www.bbp.nl

LOS ANGELES – Infuse Creative CEO Gregory Markel spoke at the annual MLRC/Southwestern Law School Media and Entertainment Law Conference on Thursday, January 15.

The panel, titled “What Happens When Protected Speech Meets Embedded Promotions? Product Integration, Sponsorship and Ad Linking,” dealt with the current and potential legal issues surrounding television, film, videos games, online gaming, and online video product placement, search engine marketing or PPC, copyright and trademark issues.

Other panel members included: Pratheepan Gulasekaram, an Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University School of Law; Daniel O’Connell Offner from Nixon Peabody, LLP; and Jennifer Dominitz, Vice President of Legal Affairs at NBC Universal Television.

Markel’s experience in the field of search engine marketing, social media, and digital communication strategies and advisement was a powerful and dynamic addition to the legal experts, providing a digital and social media marketing vanguard view on the effects of advertising law, FTC concerns, and trademark and copyright law on SEM/paid search, SEO, social media marketing, and online video.

Recalling the evolution of Pay Per Click advertising lawsuits and FTC rulings that resulted in Google and Yahoo having to display their PPC ads along side the word SPONSORED, Markel asked, “How will it affect the industry if you have to place a disclaimer such as, ‘this blog comment is paid advertising’ as a preface to every blog or bookmark/tagging post? How will these copyright laws affect the sort of community, influence and stealth marketing approach that is currently so popular? These are all important questions to ask,” said Markel.

Gregory Markel has been involved in search engine and online marketing for over 13 years and is an expert on SEM, SEO, video, 2.0 social media marketing and more.

About Infuse Creative: www.infusecreative.com

Infuse Creative, founded by Gregory Markel, has provided search engine optimization and marketing services and technology to a diverse range of clients, including; Mazda, Gibson Musical Instruments, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., Pacificare, The BBC, Ed Hardy, Led Zeppelin, CBS, FOX, The National Geographic Channel, Reality Executives International, Sony, Universal Vivendi and many more.

ABCSearch added six new employees in the areas of programming, systems administration, client service and affiliate management. The company now employs a total of 30 staff in its Sherman Oaks, Calif., headquarters.

The company recently moved and tripled its office space to accommodate the staff expansion. The new address is 15303 Ventura Blvd, Suite 220, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.

In 2008, ABCSearch reached more than 6 billion searches per month throughout its entire PPC network of targeted search engines and niche-specific directories. The company also made major enhancements to ClickShield™, its proprietary and independently-certified fraud-monitoring technology which identifies and removes suspicious PPC traffic. With ClickShield, advertisers have the power to add and remove traffic sources on-the-fly based on real-time information. In this way they can make decisions based on a level of transparency not available elsewhere in the interactive advertising industry. ClickShield has been certified by ClickDefense™, a leading tracking, optimization and click fraud detection company.

“With our expanded staff and space, we believe we’re very well-positioned for an eventful 2009,” said Dan Yomtobian, CEO and president of ABCSearch. “As always, ABCSearch will stay focused on our advertisers’ best interests, protecting them from click fraud to the best of our ability, and providing them with the highest quality traffic possible.”

ABOUT ABCSEARCH

ABCSearch, a subsidiary of Internext Media Corp., is a world leader in online cost-per-click (CPC) advertising. With now over 6 billion searches a month through its network of targeted search engines and niche-specific directories, the company provides its advertisers with lower costs, improved results, quality traffic, and total control of targeted advertising. ABCSearch was recently certified by ClickDefense.com. To learn more about ABCSearch and its targeting capabilities, please visit http://www.abcsearch.com.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Efficient Frontier, the worldwide leader in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) technology and services, released the U.S. Search Engine Performance Report: Q4 2008. The report, the largest independent research in the search marketing industry, was based on an analysis of 92 billion impressions and 600 million clicks across a portion of Efficient Frontier customers, which includes some of the world’s largest brands. The results of the research indicate that Google has maintained its hold on the search advertising market with 76 percent market share, and Yahoo continued to increase its presence, gaining 3 percent market share year-over-year. Despite the economic downturn and reports of the erosion of other marketing channels in 2008, the index of Efficient Frontier customers included in the Q4 report saw a minimal 8 percent decrease year-over-year, while the retail sector saw a 9 percent uptick in spending year-over-year, an indication of the strength of the search marketing channel.

According to industry research firm, eMarketer, “search ad spending may not be recession-proof, but it is proving to be recession-resistant.” eMarketer estimates that although the rate of growth is projected to fall over the next three years, search ad spending growth will continue to be positive, in double digits every year until 2012 when it will rise again to nearly 14 percent.*

“Search engine marketing remains the most accountable sales and client acquisition channel on or offline,” said James Beriker, President and CEO of Efficient Frontier. “To continue to achieve stellar results, the current recession has made it even more critical for search marketers to know their metrics and manage campaigns based on actionable market, sales funnel and conversion data. The reason we work with more than 150 of the most sophisticated search marketers in 20 markets worldwide, and manage more spend than any other firm, is that we use math to automate the process of accurately modeling data and making the right overall strategy and keyword bidding decisions to deliver optimal performance, no matter the market dynamics.”

The Efficient Frontier report shows that Google’s market share leadership was backed by significant gains from Google Content, which experienced 63 percent growth in 2008, clearly reflecting Google’s ongoing focus on improving its targeting and monetization capabilities across the AdSense network. Yahoo, which increased its market share by 1.9 percent in Q3, added another 0.5 percent in Q4 to close out the year with a 3 percent annual gain and total 20 percent market share. Microsoft Live Search now represents 4.2 percent of total search advertising spend for advertisers in the Efficient Frontier index.

ROI Trends

Interestingly, a closer look at spending between the months of September and December 2008 revealed that ROI dropped in most verticals between September and October due to the economic downturn. This led advertisers to reduce budgets and focus on maintaining a positive return. This shift suggests that SEM advertisers have moved from a volume strategy to an ROI and efficiency strategy where budgets are adjusted dynamically to maintain a targeted ROI despite a reduction in search volume. Leveraging Efficient Frontier’s technology and services, its customer-base improved ROI in Q4 by 1 percent year-over-year and 3 percent quarter-over-quarter.

“When shifts in the online marketplace make it more difficult to deliver the desired results, advertisers must depend on the right technology to do the heavy lifting,” added Beriker. “This is where our customers have a distinct advantage. The move at the end of Q4 from a volume model to an ROI and efficiency model needed to happen instantaneously for advertisers to benefit. Our proprietary technology combined with the sophistication of our customers made that shift possible.”

Additional Search Engine Marketing Trends

* Large vs. Small Advertisers: Small advertisers in the U.S. accounted for a greater decrease in search advertising spend than larger, more established brands. Advertisers spending less than $50,000 per month cut spending by 23 percent year-over-year, with many of the cuts coming between Q3 and Q4 of 2008. Companies that spent more than $200,000 per month only reduced spending by 9 percent over the same time period. These margins are typical during a recession when larger, more sophisticated brands aggressively utilize the search channel to drive revenue and sales while strengthening their position.
* Overall Impression Trends: Overall impressions for search engines are down 6 percent year-over-year. From Q4 2007 to Q4 2008, Google experienced a 3 percent decrease, while Yahoo lost 13 percent impression volume. Microsoft Live garnered 21 percent more impressions in Q4 than in Q3 2008 and gained 18 percent more impressions year-over-year.
* Click-Through Rate Trends: Overall click-through-rates (CTRs) in search were relatively flat year-over-year, gaining only 2 percent. While Microsoft Live Search had higher CTRs than all other search engines from Q1 to Q3 of 2008, it dipped below Google Search in Q4 2008. Google Search CTRs decreased by 2 percent year-over-year, while Yahoo CTRs improved 3 percent year-over-year. Google Content CTRs increased 150 percent year-over-year.
* Cost-Per-Click Highlights: Overall search cost-per-click (CPC) is down 5 percent year-over-year. In the last quarter of 2008, Google Search’s CPC declined by 8 percent, while Microsoft Live Search declined by 3 percent and Yahoo Search declined by 1 percent. Microsoft Live Search has consistently maintained a higher CPC than all other search engines, indicating that advertisers are willing to pay a premium for a high quality, albeit smaller audience.

Trends by Vertical Market

* Automotive: 15 percent decline in spending over 2007, due primarily to lower impression volume, reflecting weakness in consumer demand.
* Finance: 25 percent decline in spend over 2007, with impressions up by 5 percent reflecting high customer demand for financial services, with but fewer qualified conversions.
* Retail: 9 percent increase in spend over 2007, reflecting the strength of the channel in price comparison and shopping efficiency, particularly for more established online brands that increased spend to reach revenue goals.
* Travel and Entertainment: 24 percent decrease in spend year-over year, primarily due to reduced traffic volume, which is down in by 18 percent in the sector year-over-year.

The complete U.S. Search Engine Performance Report: Q4, 2008 is available for download from the Efficient Frontier website.

Research Methodology

Analysis for the Efficient Frontier report was based on data from a fixed sample of the overall Efficient Frontier U.S. customer base from Q4 2007 through Q4 2008, and covers nearly 92 billion impressions and 600 million clicks on search and content ads on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search. The report includes data from advertisers in the financial services, travel and entertainment, retail, automotive and business-to-business verticals.

About Efficient Frontier

Efficient Frontier is the worldwide market and technology leader in providing search engine marketing (SEM) solutions for large advertisers and agencies. Founded in 2002, Efficient Frontier pioneered the application of modern portfolio theory to SEM and today combines its core predictive modeling algorithms and bidding technology with comprehensive strategic and tactical value-added services to manage more than $750 million in annual search spend globally. The largest and most sophisticated advertisers and agencies partner with Efficient Frontier to achieve and sustain optimal campaign performance and growth in highly complex and competitive search marketplaces. The company has over 200 employees and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA with offices in New York, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Hong Kong, and India, and technology licensing partnerships in Japan and Australia. Efficient Frontier is a privately held company with funding from Redpoint Ventures and Cambrian Ventures. For more information, please visit www.efrontier.com and subscribe to the Efficient Frontier blog at blog.efrontier.com/.

*eMarketer: Search Ad Spending: Reactions to a Recession, January 2009

LONDON – SES London, the leading global search marketing conference series announced today that a unique roundtable session will open proceedings on day two of the conference.

Brett Tabke, founder of WebmasterWorld, Rand Fishkin, founder of SEOmoz.com, Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land, Jill Whalen, founder of HighRankings.com and Kevin Ryan, Chairman of the Search Engine Strategies Board of Advisors will, for the first time, join together for the Keynote Orion Panel, SEO, Where to Next?!, a special strategy session moderated by SES host, Mike Grehan, Global KDM Office at Acronym Media.

The all star line-up has collectively been responsible for generating £billions of business for some of the world’s most recognised brands through expert consultancy and creative digital marketing solutions. The Orion Panel on 18th February will enable members of the audience to share issues and problems faced by their own businesses with practical advice provided by the best and most respected minds in search on how SEO will develop this year. It’s a not to be missed session for any businesses looking to build an effective marketing plan to maintain stability and growth through a tough year ahead.

Each member of the panel has been monitoring the flow of conversation in the SEO world for up to ten years and has heard opinions on everything from Black hat/White hat SEO, dynamic delivery, Flash, Google index updates and universal search.

Matt McGowan, Publisher of the conference series in addition to its sister sites ClickZ and Search Engine Watch said:

“This panel has been brought together for the first time to give delegates the unique opportunity to seek business advice from the world’s most experienced experts in digital marketing. The key questions on everyone’s lips this year will undoubtedly be “where is SEO going? How will the market develop? And how can developments in SEO help my business?” The expert panel will discuss these issues, then throw the session over to the audience to help individual cases with valuable and practical advice for their business.”

SES London is Europe’s leading event for education in online marketing and advertising, including Search (SEM/SEO). Marketers, consultants and industry leaders from the world’s leading businesses gather to review the very latest search engine marketing and optimization techniques.

With more than 50 sessions and 60 expert speakers covering hundreds of topics on how Search Engine Marketing can grow your business, SES London is the definitive opportunity for delegates to learn most everything they need to know to help them maximize their business’s return on search engine marketing and optimization. SES attracts the recognised leaders in search marketing providing the largest forum for delegates to communicate and network with expert practitioners.

SES London will feature a number of sessions designed to help marketers maximize success in a Web 2.0. Intermediate workshops and panel debates consider applications such as video, podcasts and blogs while more advanced marketers can attend sessions on search advertising tools and advanced paid search tactics.

With all sessions uniquely ranked according to content and degree of understanding, SES London is a crucial event for beginners as well as experienced search marketers who return year after year to keep up to-date with new innovations.

The conference will be hosted by SEM expert Mike Grehan.

SES London will be held on 17-19 February 2009 at the Business Design Centre in Islington. See www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/london.

For more information about Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo Conference & Expo, the premier event for search engine marketing and optimization 2009 visit http://www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/london.

About SES

Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the ClickZ network for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit http://www.incisivemedia.com.

Novell, based in Waltham, MA, USA known for its infrastructure software including SUSE® Linux Enterprise, an operating system in use by businesses worldwide, has specific requirements for its search marketing campaign, including multilingual SEO and PPC management and localisation of online advertising that Search Laboratory will now provide.

Search Laboratory Ltd. won the contract against strong competition. Initially, nine different suppliers were selected and narrowed down to four before Search Laboratory was appointed.

The company’s multilingual experience was vitally important in its selection. Its UK base was also influential because normal UK working hours overlap with both the China/Asia continent and also the West Coast of America.

“Despite Search Laboratory’s credentials, it was a difficult decision to choose a non-US company to deliver such an important service,” says Kim Eaves, Director, Electronic Marketing at Novell.

“It was a big decision for us to choose a European supplier,” says Eaves. “US companies were determined to get our business and their proximity to our office was a point in their favour. Our main objective was to increase relevancy and visibility for Novell and our products, and increase sales. Search Laboratory’s demonstrable multilingual experience linked to a high level of IT expertise was a key factor in achieving that.”

The mulitilingual PPC and SEO campaigns developed by Search Laboratory will focus on Novell solutions, which enable large enterprises to lower cost, manage complexity and mitigate risk.

Search Laboratory is working with Novell to supply SEO and PPC campaigns on nine core languages initially, followed by a possible five languages in the future. Search Laboratory will conduct considerable research into the way that people search electronically for Novell services in each country, and how their initial search can be converted into an enquiry.

Ian Harris, Managing Director of Search Laboratory Ltd., says: “Winning this contract with Novell against such strong opposition is a great achievement for a relatively young company based in Yorkshire. We were able to bring to the table very specific expertise that will help further promote Novell products and services worldwide.”

For more information, visit www.searchlaboratory.com

CHICAGO – A new report released from AdGooroo (www.adgooroo.com), a leading provider of online marketing competitive intelligence and keyword tools, documents extensive growth in number of active, first-page advertisers for Google and Microsoft, with only slight growth from Yahoo!, likely due to seasonality.

“Google led in Q4 with first-page advertiser growth of 58.0 percent, followed by Live Search with 42.3 percent. Yahoo! trailed with a mere 8.8 percent, surprisingly low given the brisk pace of online holiday sales,” said AdGooroo Founder and Chief Gooroo Rich Stokes in the new report.

The five-page report, “Search Engine Advertising Update – Q408,” offers an easy to digest overview of the successes and relative failures of the three largest U.S. search engines in the fourth quarter. The complete report consists of two pages of analysis, two pages of charts and lists of each search engine’s top 25 advertisers.

“Ad coverage on the search engines continues to provide a reliable indicator of advertising activity and is the focus of increased industry chatter,” added Stokes. “The Q4 report shows that we measured large increases in ad coverage on Google. Microsoft ad coverage fell, on the other hand, likely indicative of their continuing focus on ad quality control and holistic search. Yahoo! showed little change in ad coverage from other 2008 reports.”

Other significant findings contained in the report include:

* A combined Microsoft/Yahoo! entity would increase large advertiser counts on the Live Search network by 157 percent, making a strong case for Microsoft acquiring Yahoo!
* Microsoft continued to close the gap in advertiser share with Yahoo: In Q3, Yahoo! led by 17.6 percent, but this lead has narrowed to 3.0 percent at the end of Q4

Those interested in learning more can view and download a complimentary copy of the report, “Search Engine Advertising Update – Q408” in the AdGooroo Research Library: http://www.adgooroo.com/adgooroo_research_library.php.

About AdGooroo

AdGooroo provides online marketers and agencies actionable, on demand competitive intelligence tools that proactively monitor an industry’s advertising landscape to help them build a long-term competitive advantage. Based in Chicago, AdGooroo provides competitive intelligence to search engine marketers through its tool suite, including AdGooroo Express, SEM Insight and Trademark Insight. AdGooroo tools leverage access and automation to provide advertisers with lists of competitors’ top keywords, ad copy, campaign statistics and more. Top agencies and brand advertisers leverage AdGooroo competitive intelligence tools. For more information, visit AdGooroo.com.

December 2008 U.S. Core Search Rankings

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in December with 63.5 percent of the searches conducted, unchanged from November, followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.5 percent), Microsoft Sites (8.3 percent), Ask Network (3.9 percent), and AOL LLC (3.8 percent).

comScore Core Search Report* December 2008 vs. November 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Core Search Entity	Share of Searches (%)
	Nov-08	Dec-08	Point Change Dec-08 vs. Nov-08
Total Core Search	100.0	100.0	N/A
Google Sites	63.5	63.5	0.0
Yahoo! Sites	20.4	20.5	0.1
Microsoft Sites	8.3	8.3	0.0
Ask Network	4.0	3.9	-0.1
AOL LLC	3.8	3.8	0.0

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

Americans conducted 12.7 billion searches at the core search engines, up 3 percent from November. Google Sites handled 8 billion core searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.6 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion.

* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

December U.S. Expanded Search Rankings

In the comScore December 2008 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 11.2 billion searches, up 4 percent versus November. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.7 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion and AOL LLC with 740 million.

comScore Expanded Search Query Report December 2008 vs. November 2008 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0
Expanded Search Entity	Search Queries (MM)
	Nov-08	Dec-08	Percent Change Dec-08 vs. Nov-08
Total Expanded Search	18,058	18,688	3%
Google Sites	10,767	11,152	4%
Google	7,976	8,247	3%
YouTube/All Other	2,791	2,905	4%
Yahoo! Sites	2,620	2,714	4%
Yahoo!	2,594	2,686	4%
All Other	26	28	8%
Microsoft Sites	1,053	1,092	4%
MSN-Windows Live	959	997	4%
Microsoft/All Other	94	95	1%
AOL LLC	725	740	2%
AOL Search Network	412	424	3%
MapQuest/All Other	313	316	1%
Ask Network	631	620	-2%
Ask.com	326	308	-6%
MyWebSearch.com/ All Other	305	312	2%
Fox Interactive Media	543	526	-3%
MySpace	535	516	-4%
All Other	8	10	25%
eBay	469	500	7%
Craigslist.org	369	387	5%
Amazon Sites	157	204	30%
Facebook.com	162	161	-1%

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo

NEW YORK – If bringing more relevant traffic and qualified visitors to your company’s web site is on your plate for 2009, listen up: Popular search marketing conference Search Engine Strategies New York is the place you want to be. The event is set for March 23-27, 2009, at the Hilton New York. Those who register by Friday, January 9, 2009 for SES New York will save $700.

Marketers, corporate decision makers, web developers, search engine marketing (SEM) specialists and rookies, and search engine optimization (SEO) consultants gather for the industry’s definitive event to delve into the latest developments in search. SES New York is unmatched as far as the number of sessions devoted to understanding how search engine marketing relates to digital and online marketing.

Programmed by the team of search experts at Search Engine Watch, SES New York is the industry’s must-attend major search marketing conference. SES New York is host to over 70 sessions, multiple keynotes and Orion Strategy sessions, exhibitors, networking events and parties. Last year’s show brought together approximately 7,000 search and digital enthusiasts.

“SES is the best networking opportunity, period. The sought-after experts along with thousands of like-minded peers are here,” noted Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, including Search Engine Strategies, SearchEngineWatch.com and the ClickZ Network. “The money spent to attend SES and then implementing what you’ve learned definitely pays off with more qualified, relevant traffic.”

“In terms of value, the global Search Engine Strategies Conference and Exposition series is one of the best as it delivers an excellent ‘bang for your buck’ compared to the other events we have attended,” said Alon Sheafer, V.P. Products and Marketing, Kenshoo. “Their seminars and panels consistently deliver literally hundreds of tips, tactics and strategies around improving your paid search and display campaign performance while offering up tons of info on optimizing your websites. In addition, the networking is second to none resulting in us taking home numerous qualified leads.”

For more information on SES New York ’09 and other shows in the series, see www.SearchEngineStrategies.com.

About Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC — A Division of Incisive Media PLC

Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the ClickZ network for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.

-  Derek Edmond Becomes Partner in Massachusetts-Based Search Engine Marketing Firm, KoMarketing Associates, LLC
KoMarketing Associates, LLC is pleased to announce that Derek Edmond, currently the Director of Search Engine Optimization & Search Marketing Strategies at the firm, has now become an equity Partner and Manager at the company.
“I am very excited about Derek becoming a Partner. It has been a long time coming and will strengthen the company as we continue to grow,” said Andy Komack, President of KoMarketing Associates. Komack adds, “Derek has already established himself as an expert in the fields of search engine optimization and social media marketing. By taking an ownership stake in the company, Derek is putting his expert reputation behind the growth of the company for the long term.”

NEW YORK & TOKYO – 24/7 Real Media, Inc. (“24/7”), the leading digital marketing company, and cyber communications, inc. (“cci”) (4788.T), Japan’s leading media representative company, announced the merger of their subsidiaries DENTSU e-LINK, INC. and K.K. 24-7 Search to form Dentsu Search & Link. Japan’s largest advertising agency Dentsu Inc. (“Dentsu”), currently a shareholder in both subsidiaries, shall remain a shareholder of the newly merged company. Dentsu Search & Link will deliver a full spectrum of search engine marketing (“SEM”) services to the Japanese market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

cci and Dentsu will contribute their extensive Japanese marketing industry knowledge and connections to the venture, and consign to the venture SEM services provided to their clients. 24/7 will license its industry-leading Decide DNA® technology and provide its search engine marketing expertise to Dentsu Search & Link. Takeshi Matsuoka, currently Director and President of KK 24-7 Search, will serve as President and CEO of Dentsu Search & Link.

The merger of DENTSU e-LINK INC. and K.K. 24-7 Search is designed to create a best of breed search engine marketing services’ company in Japan. Dentsu Search & Link will leverage cci’s considerable industry relationships and broad media representative experience in combination with 24/7 Real Media’s industry-leading proprietary search management technology, Decide DNA.

“cci has acquired experience in the SEM field through our subsidiary DENTSU E-LINK. The newly merged company shall play a key role in the SEM field in the Dentsu Group. Dentsu Search & Link shall become a robust and optimum company combined with Dentsu Group’s sales force and experience in the Japanese market and 24/7 Real Media’s most advanced technology,” said Hideyuki Nagasawa, President and CEO of cci. “I am confident that Dentsu Search & Link shall lead the continuously growing new market with high competitiveness.”

“24/7 Real Media looks forward to building a strong relationship with Japan’s leading media representative company cci. cci has embraced digital marketing through its subsidiary DENTSU e-LINK and will continue to lead the Japanese SEM marketplace through its new partnership with 24/7 Real Media. Dentsu Group clients have benefited from cci’s and Dentsu’s progressive view of utilizing technology to provide clients with a competitive advantage,” said David J. Moore, Chairman and Founder of 24/7. “We are confident that the enhanced partnership between cci, Dentsu and 24/7 Real Media will provide even more benefits to cci’s and Dentsu’s clients and help expand 24/7’s technology presence in Japan.”

According to eMarketer*, the Japanese paid search market is on pace to reach approximately 226.5 Billion Yen by 2011. Japan has the second highest number of Internet users after China, and the highest number of broadband Internet users in the Pacific Rim, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Media Outlook 2007.

As the majority owner of Dentsu Search & Link, cci will report consolidated financial results including Dentsu Search & Link. Additional details will be provided during cci’s fourth quarter earnings call in 2009.

*Source: eMarketer; Dentsu, as cited in press release, April 16, 2007

About cyber communications, inc.

cci was established in 1996 in the early period of online advertising market in Japan and has led the market growth as a subsidiary of Dentsu Inc. cci has established the business model whereby, as a media representative, it makes connections between thousands of online media and advertising agencies in Japan. cci describes itself as a total interactive, one-stop marketing service company that provides various services regarding internet advertising such as media planning, ad serving technology, ad creative service and market analysis. For more information, please visit http://www.cci.co.jp/english/.

About 24/7 Real Media, Inc.

24/7 Real Media, Inc. a WPP company, the leading global digital marketing company, empowers advertisers and publishers to engage their target audiences with greater precision, transparency and ROI. Using its award winning ad serving, targeting, tracking and analytics platform, together with its powerful search marketing technology and global network of specialized Web sites, the company has turned the art of reaching audiences across virtually any digital medium into a measurable science. The company is headquartered in New York, with 18 offices in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, please visit www.247realmedia.com.

24/7 Real Media: The Science of Digital Marketing.

24/7 Real Media is a member of the NAI and adheres to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. These principles are designed to help ensure Internet user privacy. For more information about online data collection associated with ad serving, including online preference marketing and an opportunity to opt-out of 24/7 Real Media cookies, go to: www.networkadvertising.org.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. – January 6, 2008 – blinkx, the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine, today announced that CEO and Founder Suranga Chandratillake has been selected as one of Digital Media Wire’s “25 Executives to Watch in Digital Entertainment.” The annual list recognizes 25 of the most innovative, creative and forward-thinking executives in the digital media and entertainment industry.

Honorees are selected by the editorial and executive team at Digital Media Wire and represent companies that are shaping the industry. A highly regarded expert on the future of television, interactive TV and online advertising, Mr. Chandratillake is well-qualified to receive the honor.

Recipients will be honored at a reception at the 2nd Annual Digital Media Insider at CES 2009. In addition, all honorees will be featured in the January 9th issue of Daily Variety and the January 12th issue of Variety’s Video Business magazine. This year’s list of recipients also includes executives from MySpace, MTV Networks, Facebook, Paypal, and Pandora.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized as one of Digital Media Wire’s ‘25 Executives to Watch’,” said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. “blinkx has released a number of innovative products this year, including blinkx Beat and blinkx BBTV, our Broadband television offering. We are delighted to be recognized for our thought-leadership in the industry, and to be included among the other visionaries in this group.”

As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to search new forms of online content such as video. With more than 420 partners and 32 million hours of indexed video and audio content, including favorite TV moments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogs and more, blinkx uses advanced speech-recognition technology to deliver results that are more accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keyword searches.
About blinkx

blinkx plc (LSE AIM: BLNX) is the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 32 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx’s founders set out to solve a significant challenge – as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx’s patented search technologies listen to – and even see – the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world’s most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. – blinkx, the world’s largest video search engine, introduced the Un-roll Unit, an entirely new and immersive branding experience that gives advertisers the unique opportunity to tell a compelling story through their brand and online television, and enables users to engage with a brand continuously throughout a video. In addition, MediaCom and Shell Oil are among the first agencies and brands, respectively, to deploy the new ad format.

A media first, the Un-roll was developed in-house by blinkx in response to the industry’s need for an alternative format to traditional pre- and post-roll advertisements. Available through blinkx AdHoc, the only contextual advertising platform for online video, the Un-roll integrates a brand with relevant, professionally-produced programming on the Web and serves up multiple touch-points, including contextual overlay ads and logos, throughout the viewing experience. This ability to weave a brand into online television is extremely powerful, not only in terms of enhancing viewer experience, but also in generating higher rates of engagement.

The Un-Roll in Action

- The unit begins with a branded curtain that draws back to reveal the video and a branded blinkx video player when the video has fully buffered.
- As the video plays, touch-points such as overlay ads and logos appear at contextually relevant moments within the video, generated by blinkx’s patented, award-winning technology.
- The video ends with a clear call-to-action and the viewer has the option to continue the experience on the brand’s Web site.

“We’re proud to offer our advertisers a unique and effective alternative to traditional pre- and post-roll video advertising,” said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. “Although click-through rates for pre-roll advertisements tend to be positive, some viewers are reluctant to watch 30 seconds of advertising for videos that sometimes last only one minute. Now, using the Un-roll, brands and agencies, like Shell and MediaCom, can tell their story through highly targeted advertisements within online television because blinkx technology understands video better than any other service available today.”
Shell Oil – in search of stronger online engagement around alternative energy

Shell’s goal was to establish an effective mechanism for communicating their alternative energy initiatives to international audiences.

“The exponential growth of online video – both long- and short-form – presents tremendous opportunities for advertisers and publishers alike. The blinkx Un-roll unit is a new format to the market that provides high impact branding in and around online video content, complete with a return path to garner response,” said Stefan Bardega, director of Digital, MediaCom, Shell’s digital media agency. “These types of formats are the future of online video advertising and will become more ubiquitous than the traditional online ‘pre-roll’ ad, which affords no interactivity. Both MediaCom and Shell have a rich history of innovation and we are pleased to be driving this digital innovation online with blinkx.”

blinkx engineers tested approximately 40 different formats before settling on the Un-roll format, which had the lowest “annoyance factor” and strongest brand identity stickiness. In tests, the Un-roll format maintained between two and 12 percent click-through rates, and less than 20 percent of users clicked away from the video before it was finished. Only 15 percent clicked away because of an ad. blinkx estimates that the format will maintain a three to five percent click-through rate over time.

Additional blinkx partners will be deploying similar campaigns in the coming weeks and months. The new ad unit is timely as the blinkx network continues to expand significantly. As reported during its most recent half-year results, unique visitors were up 106 percent year-on-year to 64 million, and pageviews were up 267 percent year-on-year to 668 million in September 2008 (comScore). blinkx returned more than 7 million searches a day in September 2008.

As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to search new forms of online content such as video. With more than 420 partners and 32 million hours of indexed video and audio content, including favorite TV moments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogs and more, blinkx uses advanced speech-recognition technology to deliver results that are more accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keyword searches.

To see the Un-roll in action, visit http://www.blinkx.com/category/shell_unroll_demo.

About blinkx

blinkx plc (LSE AIM: BLNX) is the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 32 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx’s founders set out to solve a significant challenge – as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx’s patented search technologies listen to – and even see – the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world’s most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com.

NEW YORK- AOL’s programming sites continued to see strong growth in November, extending year-over-year growth in unique visitors to 22 consecutive months, according to the November 2008 comScore Media Metrix report. The announcement culminates a year of aggressive expansion and investment in AOL’s programming group, which included the launch in 2008 of more than 20 new sites in key areas such as finance, entertainment, women’s lifestyle and men’s interests.

Unique visitors to AOL’s programming content sites grew 3% year-over-year to 54 million in November. In addition, page views climbed 66% year-over-year to 3.8 billion and engagement (total minutes) grew 33% year-over-year in November, showing AOL consumers are actively engaging with the sites. Advertising revenues on AOL’s programming sites have had double-digit growth year-over-year in Q3 2008.

In addition, the recently completely redesigned AOL.com, which opened the site to third-party content, e-mail, social networks and more, grew 14% in page views, 13% in unique visitors and 29% in total minutes, year-over-year.

“2008 has been a truly successful and historic year for AOL Programming,” said Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. “Our programming strategy is working, as evidenced by both our strong and consistent comScore results and the double-digit revenue growth we’ve experienced on our content sites. We’re providing unique value to our users and advertising partners, and we’re in one of the top positions in nearly every important programming category. In addition, we reinvented the portal with the successful launch of the new aol.com. We are well positioned for the coming year and look forward to continuing our momentum with additional sites aimed at consumers’ passions, major enhancements to AOL.com and creating premium and relevant solutions for advertisers.”

To lean into the audience fragmentation on the Web and focus on consumer passion points, AOL has over the past two years launched a total of more than 30 sites targeted at specific interests, and several of these sites already rank number one in their categories, according to the November 2008 comScore Media Metrix report* including:

* #1 Country Music Site: TheBoot, http://theboot.com, 5.9 million UVs in November
* #1 Hip-Hop Music: The BoomBox, http://theboombox.com , 2.3 million UVs in November
* #1 Men: Asylum, http://asylum.com, 3.3 million UVs in November
* #1 Style: StyleList, http://stylelist.com, 4.5 million UVs in November
* #1 Women’s Blogs: Lemondrop, http://www.lemondrop.com, 3.3 million UVs in November

In addition to the strong traffic to new sites, many of AOL’s channels continue to appear in the top five of their categories for unique visitors, according to the November 2008 comScore Media Metrix report:

* #1 African American: BlackVoices, http://blackvoices.com,
* #1 Maps: MapQuest, http://mapquest.com
* #1 Music: Music, http://music.aol.com
* #1 Retail- Tickets: Moviefone.com, http://moviefone.com
* #1 Television: Television, http://television.aol.com
* #1 IM: AIM, http://www.aim.com
* #2 Horoscopes: Horoscopes, http://horoscopes.aol.com
* #2 Latino: Latino, http://latino.aol.com
* #2 Business- News/Research: Money & Finance, http://money.aol.com
* #2 Entertainment-News: TMZ, http://tmz.com
* #2 Email: AOL Email, http://webmail.aol.com
* #3 Real Estate: Real Estate, http://realestate.aol.com
* #3 Health: Health, http://aolhealth.com
* #4 News: News, http://news.aol.com
* #4 Technology: AOL Tech, http://switched.com
* #4 Yellow Pages: AOL Yellow Pages, http://yellowpages.aol.com
* #4 Women’s: AOL Living, http://living.aol.com
* #5 Search: Search Network, http://search.aol.com
* #5 Local: AOL Local, http://cityguide.aol.com
* #5 Weather: AOL Weather, http://weather.aol.com
* #5 Email: AIM Mail, http://webmail.aim.com
* #5 Home: AOL Home, http://home.aol.com

AOL’s also experienced growth in its product offerings. For example, AOL’s leading video search engine, Truveo, saw year-over-year increases of 264% in unique visitors and 289% in pages views according to the November 2008 comScore Media Metrix report.

AOL also recently featured several new integrated advertising campaigns on the content sites as well as on AOL.com:

* Chili’s on AOL Music’s Sessions: http://music.aol.com/sessions/latest
* Walmart on AOL Living’s Holidays: http://living.aol.com/holidays/
* Procter & Gamble on AOL Living’s Morning Rush: http://living.aol.com/morning-rush
* Campbell’s Soup on AOL Food: http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight
* Target on the Holidash blog: http://www.holidash.com/
* GMC on AOL Living’s Trade Secrets http://living.aol.com/gmc-trade-secrets

As part of its transformation to an ad-supported Web business, AOL has redesigned its entire lineup of content vertical sites over the past two years, including those focused on finance, sports, news and lifestyle.

* Categories for Asylum, BlackVoices, Horoscopes, Latino, Lemondrop, TheBoomBox, TheBoot and StyleList have been custom built by AOL.

About AOL

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

“The economic climate is pushing more bargain shoppers to market this season. Advertisers responded by refocusing scarce resources, making tough decisions about margins, and executing deep online and offline discounts around Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” said Nick Beil, CEO for Performics. “Meanwhile, consumers consolidated some of their shopping behavior to capitalize on the deal-intensive period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.”

In addition to outperforming Cyber Monday 2008, Black Friday 2008 retail sales from search engine marketing surpassed the highest single-day sales mark of 2007. Cyber Monday 2008 also generated impressive year over year growth, with retail sales from search engine marketing increasing 43 percent from Cyber Monday 2007.

“What remains to be seen is whether the initial year-over-year growth can be sustained throughout the rest of the season or if consumers consider their shopping to be finished already,” said Beil. “Savvy advertisers will focus on ’follow up‘ or ’don’t forget‘ shopping behavior—appealing to consumers to finish the shopping they have already started.”

Performics used sales per advertiser data to determine these growth metrics. Performics figures Sales per Advertiser by taking total sales and dividing by the total number of active retail search engine marketing programs.

Historically, Performics’ search programs have experienced their busiest day of online holiday shopping on the second or third Monday after Thanksgiving. Due to the necessary heavy discounting around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this dynamic may play out differently in 2008. Performics will continue to monitor search data to analyze the impact that the deep discounts and earlier, Black Friday heavy shopping have on sales throughout the remainder of the season.

About Performics

At Performics, we create opportunities and drive success for more than 200 of the world’s top brands. Our innovative approach to paid and natural search as well as user experience, emerging media and digital strategy fully integrates all aspects of performance marketing program management from analytics and conversion optimization to tracking, reporting and technology.

Our commitment is to deliver more qualified consumers and a better return on investment. Performics works diligently and efficiently on behalf of our clients to boost the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts.

Headquartered in Chicago with offices around the world, Performics is the performance marketing expert inside Publicis Groupe’s Vivaki Nerve Center. Visit us: www.performics.com

AUSTIN, Texas – ArteWorks SEO at http://www.arteworks.biz has been recognized as the #1 Video Search Engine Optimization firm in the world. The SEO company rankings published by TopSEOs is the trusted guide used by those seeking the best in the internet marketing and search engine optimization industry.

ArteWorks SEO is included in this list for its consistent performance and the superior services rendered to its clients. TopSEOs performs an in depth evaluation of the leading search engine optimization firms in the industry to determine their rankings.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from TopSEOs for video search engine optimization. All indicators are showing the increasing importance of video search engine optimization. We are delivering powerful results for our clients with our proprietary vFlood™ video SEO technology,” said Matt Foster, CEO of ArteWorks SEO.

ArteWorks vFlood™ video SEO technology is a complete video search engine optimization solution, from start to finish. It is not an out of the box product, rather each video search engine optimization campaign is customized with a strategy specific to the client and target industry. vFlood™ includes (but is not limited to):

* scripting, casting and talent
* procurement of location
* filming, production, lighting, professional editing
* special effects and audio effects
* video compression and export into web friendly formats
* embedding of video meta information
* video syndication and provision of “embed video” code for use on third party websites
* clickable links inside of videos are available, including purchase product links
* video interactivity (multiple endings based on user selections, quizzes, etcetera)
* video social media optimization and promotion

For the complete list of the Top 5 Video Search Engine Optimization Companies for December 2008 go to: http://www.topseos.com/rankings-of-best-video-seo-companies.

About ArteWorks SEO

ArteWorks SEO, www.arteworks.biz, is an internationally recognized search engine optimization and Internet marketing firm headquartered in Austin, Texas with a satellite office in Seattle, Washington. ArteWorks SEO is ranked in the top 5 search engine optimization firms in the world by several different Internet marketing organizations. For more information, please visit http://www.arteworks.biz.

About TopSEOs

Since its introduction in 2002, TopSEOs has been identified as an independent authority on vendors who supply internet marketing products and services ranging from the best search engine optimization companies to the best pay per click management tools.

LONDON – Greenlight’s brand defense platform, SearchSentry™, has been highly commended at the inaugural E-consultancy Innovation Awards 2008. The product was entered into the Innovation in Paid Search and PPC category.

Specialist search marketing agency Greenlight developed SearchSentry™ in May 2008 in response to Google’s decision to allow UK and Ireland advertisers to bid on trademarked keywords. The platform works to protect brands online by monitoring competitor and affiliate activity by providing brand managers with detailed information on who is bidding on their brands. It then mines the data collected so that a plan of action can be drawn up to help brand managers defend and control their brand.

This most recent success is the latest in a string of awards for the agency. Last month, Greenlight was ranked 14th in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, which lists the fastest growing technology companies in the UK. In addition, Greenlight came 21st in The Sunday Times Technology Track 100 2008 and came 88th in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA.

Greenlight works with over 50 of the UK’s leading brands, providing specialist SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (Pay Per Click) services, for the likes of Asda Walmart, Lastminute.com and Alliance & Leicester. Recent wins include NatMags and ghd.

Warren Cowan, CEO and founder of Greenlight said: “SearchSentry™ has been an incredibly successful tool. All of Greenlight’s technologies are developed in-house and we are really proud to add this one to our growing portfolio. It is great to be recognized in this way, especially when it is by a well regarded digital resource like E-consultancy.”

About Greenlight

Greenlight is an award winning, specialist search engine marketing agency providing targeted and accountable organic and paid search solutions. The agency has helped numerous companies to succeed in search marketing over the years by improving its clients’ positioning and website visibility in the top search engines, and driving traffic to their websites.

Greenlight provides a full range of search marketing services from offices in London and New York, including search engine optimisation, pay per click management, link building, consultancy and SEM training.

Clients include FTSE, NASDAQ and NYSE listed companies as well as charitable organisations and government bodies. Greenlight works with SMEs, global brands and top interactive agencies across vertical markets as diverse as publishing, financial services, retail, travel, hospitality, property and entertainment.

Epic Advertising continues to hold a strong presence in the Bay Area, with no staff reductions or changes to the current employee base associated with this announcement.

About Epic Advertising: Epic Advertising (www.EpicAdvertising.com) is a global online performance marketing company that provides advertisers with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending technologies, and the over 38,000 publishers in AzoogleAds, its highly-acclaimed performance ad network, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, search engine marketing, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and a targeted, worldwide online reaction.

A pioneer in both the online performance marketing industry and in Internet advertising integrity assurance and compliance, Epic Advertising brings an intense focus on achieving the highest ROI yield for its advertising partners via transparent Display and Search consumer web traffic. Epic scales its solutions through enormous internet reach, proprietary and patent-pending technology and unparalleled industry expertise.

The company has achieved several industry accolades, including being named an AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Company as one of the top private companies in the world, a comScore top-50 ranking in internet reach (Ad Focus) and a 2008 Inc. 5000 company.

Epic Advertising is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco, Toronto and London. The company is privately held and backed by private equity firms TA Associates and Stripes Group.

- BDMetrics’ New Online Marketing Platform Lets Tradeshow Exhibitors Target Attendees Online
Exhibitors at top tradeshows such as the International CES, Pack Expo, NAB Show, NACS Show and more can now target attendees online before, during and after the show
BDMetrics, Inc. today announced its new suite of event-centric online marketing solutions, which include online lead generation, search engine marketing, online display advertising, online video and mobile marketing. The company’s solutions are powered by its interactive tradeshow portals, which feature an online show guide, search engine and event-planning interface. BDMetrics powers such portals for leading tradeshows including the International CES, Pack Expo, NAB Show, NACS Show, NBAA and more.

- Amazon.com Acquires AbeBooks
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced the completion of its acquisition of AbeBooks. AbeBooks is an online marketplace for books, with over 110 million primarily used, rare and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world. Amazon.com previously announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks on Aug. 1, 2008.

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. – Social search engine Scour.com today announced that CEO Daniel Yomtobian will participate in a panel at the Search Engine Strategies Chicago conference. The panel will explore the topic “Is There Life Beyond Google?” The conference takes place December 8-11, 2008, at the Chicago Hilton.

Yomtobian will discuss the promise of human-powered, or social, search as a complement to Google’s primarily algorithmic search. The session is scheduled for Monday, December 8th, at 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.

The panel will explore a variety of alternative and specialty search engines that provide innovative features and attributes not readily available on Google. The Web is overflowing with so much information that no single search engine can possibly find it all. While Google’s market share is dominant today, there is still tremendous opportunity for its competitors to grow.

Launched in July, Scour is a meta search engine, gathering results from Google, Yahoo! and MSN. People are rewarded with VISA gift cards for searching, voting and commenting on results. One point is awarded for each search, vote or comment. Accruing 6500 points translates into a $25 reward. Scour has paid out many users already.

Check out Scour on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fLQ6a-DAuw&feature=related

ABOUT SCOUR.COM

Scour.com is a social search engine that bridges the gap between algorithmic and human powered search. Scour rewards people for searching, voting, commenting and referring friends. Launched in 2008, Scour was previously Aftervote.com, which was acquired by ABCSearch, an Internext Media Corp.company, in 2008. To learn more about Scour, visit www.scour.com.

CHICAGO – Despite the economic woes facing the country and numerous predictions for the implosion of advertising online and offline, a new report released from AdGooroo (www.adgooroo.com), a leading provider of online marketing competitive intelligence and keyword tools, provides evidence to the contrary.

“Google’s active advertiser count is a whopping 54.9 percent higher than it was in the fourth quarter of 2007, and this runs counter to what we hear in the marketplace today,” said AdGooroo Founder and Chief Gooroo Rich Stokes. “Some of this growth can be attributed to general year-over-year growth in consumer search usage, but Google has clearly adjusted their algorithm to serve more ads to consumers in each search in order to generate this impressive growth in first-page advertisers.”

The four-page report, “Mid-Quarter Search Engine Update – Q408,” offers an easy to digest overview of the successes and relative failures of the three largest U.S. search engines in the fourth quarter thus far. The complete report consists of one page of analysis, two pages of charts and lists of each search engine’s top 25 advertisers.

“We’ve proven in previous reports that ad coverage on the search engines provides a leading indicator of advertising activity,” added Stokes. “The Q4 data we analyzed show Google has increased its ad coverage back to their January 2008 levels. In fact, we saw first page Google ads increase from a low of 2.4 ads/search in September up to 4.4 ads/search in December.”

Other significant findings contained in the report include:

* Microsoft increased its share of advertisers by an estimated 11.5 percent from Q3 2008
* Although Yahoo! increased its active advertiser count, its U.S. and international share of advertisers dropped from 30.4 percent in September to 20.4 percent in November
* Q4 2008 may be the strongest quarter on record for both Google and Microsoft

Those interested in learning more can view and download a complimentary copy of the report, “Mid-Quarter Search Engine Update – Q408” in the AdGooroo Research Library: http://www.adgooroo.com/adgooroo_research_library.php.

About AdGooroo

AdGooroo provides online marketers and agencies actionable, on demand competitive intelligence tools that proactively monitor an industry’s advertising landscape to help them build a long-term competitive advantage. Based in Chicago, AdGooroo provides competitive intelligence to search engine marketers through its tool suite, including AdGooroo Express, SEM Insight and Trademark Insight. AdGooroo tools leverage access and automation to provide advertisers with lists of competitors’ top keywords, ad copy, campaign statistics and more. Top agencies and brand advertisers leverage AdGooroo competitive intelligence tools. For more information, visit AdGooroo.com.

Aimed at consultants, site designers, website owners, in-house marketing professionals, among others, this in-depth training occurs in a small class setting so that instructors are readily accessible for informal one-on-one or small group discussions.

“Regardless of skill level in SEO and SEM, people will come away from this intensive training with techniques that they can immediately implement,” said Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, including Search Engine Strategies, SearchEngineWatch.com and the ClickZ Network. “Expert search engine marketers Jennifer Laycock, Matt Bailey, Debra Mastaler, Greg Jarboe, Amanda Watlington Brad Geddes and Shari Thurow who are leading the sessions live and breathe SEO and SEM. They’ll ensure that participants leave with the latest knowledge and action plans for real-world applications.”

Training sessions include:

* Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness — Analytics are a gold mine of information, just waiting to be uncovered. The results of campaigns, effectiveness of the website, and the efficiency of your rankings can all be measured with a good analytics program. Unfortunately, many site managers do not make changes to the website without prior measurement, nor do they measure after the changes. As a result, there are many changes to sites that are not based on facts, merely assumptions. Similarly, if changes are not analyzed, then there can be no clear understanding of whether or not improvements made a difference on the site or to the bottom line.
* Viral Marketing & Link Baiting — Attendees will gain a better understanding of the concepts, ideas and implementations that are required to launch a viral marketing or link baiting campaign. They will learn why the Internet has created a unique environment that allows for rapid, inexpensive word of mouth marketing and how they can harness that environment to promote their own products and services. The workshop will give real life examples of both good and bad viral marketing campaigns and will share insight on how your business can capitalize on your competitor’s viral disasters. This workshop will also focus on how you can make use of consumer generated media environments like social media outlets, blog marketing, discussion forums and more to both monitor and expand your company’s online persona. Consumer generated media (the very core of viral marketing) is the fastest growing form of media online today. It’s only a matter of time until someone online talks about your business. This course will not only help prepare you in the ways to respond to the conversation, it will help you learn how to shape that conversation to your advantage.
* Link Building Tactics, Tools & Techniques — Need links? In order to rank well and successfully promote your online business, you need an effective link building program as part of your overall SEO strategy. This link building workshop will help you to better understand and manage your link building campaigns by providing you with the knowledge to create proven, practical and creative link marketing campaigns. You’ll walk away understanding why you need certain links, how to find them, and how to effectively use links to promote your brand and your search engines rankings.
* Advanced AdWords — This session is broken down into two sections. The first section examines how to effectively use keywords, ad copy, landing pages, and the search and content networks to effectively reach your target audience based upon where consumers are in the buying cycle. The second section will examine different bidding strategies you can employ to maximize your campaign’s goals.
* Search Engine Optimization Workshop — A search-engine friendly Web site is a user-friendly, search-friendly, and persuasive site that converts visitors into buyers. In order for a site to be search-engine friendly, it must meet the terms and conditions set forth by the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, Ask, etc). Additionally, the site must satisfy the needs of site visitors. Ultimately, the site must be profitable for the Web site owner. Can a single site satisfy all of these groups? This workshop will demonstrate that these skills are essential for building a user-friendly, search-friendly, and persuasive site that converts visitors into buyers.
* Optimizing for Universal Search — Universal search changes everything! The advent of Google’s Universal Search has been called “the most radical change to its search results ever.” So, how do you take advantage of Google’s new approach that blends listings from news, maps, video, and image search among those it gathers from web search? This training session will help you get found in all the right places.

SES SEM Training can be taken in addition to the SES Chicago conference or independently, as workshops are on the Friday following the event. The full-day training session is $1,345 and half-day is $745. Register for SES SEM Training at http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/training.html.

To register for the SES Chicago conference or for more information, see http://searchenginestrategies.com/chicago. SES Chicago Expo-only passes are free in advance.

About SES

Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the ClickZ network for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

About Incisive Media

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.

- Acumium Acquires Search-Friendly GravityMarket Ecommerce Platform
Dan Costello, founder of Acumium, Madison-based internet technology firm, announced the acquisition of the GravityMarket ecommerce platform from Netconcepts, natural search marketing agency.
“We are happy to add GravityMarket to our suite of ecommerce and content management solutions,” said Costello. “GravityMarket complements our own expertise in online retail best practice and search marketing.”
First developed by Netconcepts in 2001, then re-architected and again released in 2007, the GravityMarket platform includes search engine friendly features like text-based, optimized URLs, unique title tags and keyword-rich content. According to Netconcepts, most clients moved to GravityMarket because their previous websites were virtually invisible to the search engines, making it an expensive proposition to drive online traffic.

SAN FRANCISCO – LookSmart, Ltd. (NASDAQ:LOOK), a premier search advertising network and management company, today launched a new geo-conversion reporting tool that enables online advertisers to improve return on investment by focusing their budget on the geographic locations best responding to a campaign.

Unveiled today at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago, these geo-conversion tracking reports can be as granular as needed, measuring results at the account, campaign, ad and keyword level, and returning conversion rates by country, designated market area (DMA), state, city and ZIP code. In addition, cost-per-action (CPA) can also be measured.

“We have worked with LookSmart for years. They are a cost-effective lead source for some of our customers, and have also provided cost-effective extended reach and distribution from local search engine marketing,” said Jeff Werner, communications director, WebVisible. “With LookSmart’s enhanced targeting capabilities it just keeps getting better every day and we look forward to continue working with them in the future.”

LookSmart continually enhances the AdCenter, its award-winning search advertising platform. During the past year, the search network veteran has made it easier for advertisers to target niche audiences, manage bid prices and control traffic quality via new features and services. At the same time, LookSmart has expanded its network of high-quality distribution partners and strengthened traffic quality by providing reporting tools and services that give greater insight into the network, enhancing its value to advertisers.

“Advertisers can trust that LookSmart works hard to meet all our customers’ needs; the addition of geo-conversion reporting is just the latest of many enhancements we’ve made this year,” said Ted West, chief executive officer and president, LookSmart. “Our continued quality improvements help advertisers target their campaigns toward the most effective audiences. Used well, the LookSmart platform can provide advertisers with a leg up on the competition.”

“While advertisers of all sizes are challenged by the economy, search advertising networks like LookSmart offer a clear benefit for smaller businesses, which often market to a specific city or region,” said Anita Campbell, editor-in-chief of Small Business Trends (www.smallbiztrends.com), an award-winning, comprehensive online publication for small business owners and entrepreneurs. “Small and local businesses can especially profit from search ad networks that not only help them target their desired audience but also enable them to fine-tune their campaigns to be the most effective.”

LookSmart will be exhibiting at SES Chicago in Booth 410 at the Hilton Chicago on Dec. 9 and 10. For more information about LookSmart at SES Chicago or to schedule a press briefing during the conference, please contact Raymond Deplazes at 415-694-6715 or email LookSmart@racepointgroup.com.

About LookSmart

LookSmart (NASDAQ:LOOK) is a premier search advertising network and management solutions company. A trusted provider of quality search advertising products and services to text advertisers, LookSmart offers targeted pay-per-click search and contextual advertising via its proven Search Advertising Network. For publishers seeking to create their own branded vertical advertising networks, LookSmart also licenses and manages search ad networks using its award-winning AdCenter platform. Dedicated to the quality of text advertising, LookSmart is one of the five founding members of the IAB Click Measurement Panel. For more information, visit www.LookSmart.com or call 415-348-7500.

CHICAGO – SEO Samba, a full-fledged SEO automation platform, unveils the first and only multi-tenants SEO platform for SEM firms and website marketers at 2008 Search Engine Strategies (SES) Chicago. SEO Samba is an exhibitor and sponsor in Chicago, where it will demonstrate its SEO platform in exhibitor booth #424.

“While businesses are hard hit by rising pay per click costs, and the search marketing industry relies on hit or miss consulting, SEO Samba has built a system that helps website marketers succeed instantly with search engines instead of following ad hoc trial and error SEO process,” said SEO Samba CEO and Founder Michel Leconte. “In most cases, systematical optimization processes via SEO Samba results in page-one positions in Google search results for targeted search terms. SEO Samba achieves this by providing consistent and documented best practice execution to your SEO efforts,” added Leconte.

The SEO Samba platform is ideal for managing service and information websites, affiliate websites, large numbers of local or franchise websites, news sites and B2B sites.

Three beta software customers for SEO Samba describe their experience implementing the platform:

“What I love best about SEO Samba is the ability to set search engine optimization rules, and perform automated cross-linking throughout sites. The system is well designed, and handles lots of the headaches, such as 301′s redirect pages, that come with managing multiple websites,” says Scott Gordon, marketing guru at ActivSupport, Inc, a nationwide IT support company.

“Our busy staff of scientists did not have the time to learn a complex content management system when we decided to redesign and optimize our website,” said Olga Potapova, scientific director at Cureline. “Samba’s integrated CMS and SEO platform proved easy to use and deploy and logically organized which is critical when dealing with scientists. In addition the platform allows us to easily keep track of ongoing optimization of content,” added Potapova.

“Our customers have reacted very positively to our newly-deployed white label version of SEO Samba, allowing us to propose sophisticated multi-site SEO strategies at a cost-effective price point,” says Arnaud Tessier, CEO of the SEM and hosted application development firm Altervisions.

The SEO Samba platform enables search marketing professionals to:

* Integrate both on-site and off-site SEO automation routines and features up-to-date best practices
* Optimize using standard HTML and leave zero footprint when optimized sites are republished
* Enable effective multi-sites management functions and includes a proven web-based Content Management System with unlimited user access
* Easily build news sections on sites to feed Google News and other leading news search engines
* Integrate with leading CRM applications such as Constant Contact and Salesforce.com
* As a Web-hosted application, does not require download, maintenance, upgrade, or otherwise involvement of an IT department

Simply put, SEO Samba is shifting the paradigm to automate the implementation of the SEO process at a fraction of the cost, which empowers in-house marketing managers while adding new revenue streams for SEM firms.

Powered by SEO Samba, SEO firms can differentiate in this challenging economic environment, execute strategies across any number of customers and scale their practice significantly faster. SEO Samba offers a fully branded interface, a generous discount structure, and many additional recurring revenue opportunities with no required up-front commitment to SEM firms.

To encourage trial use, SEO Samba is offering several options including: an unlimited time test drive; importing an existing website using a powerful SEO Kick-Off wizard, or get it done by a professional import services expert for a low fee. SEO Samba is priced at $99 a month.

SEO Samba’s platform has been in development for almost two years with input from search marketing professionals across Europe. SEO Samba was incorporated in March 2008, and is headquartered in Dover, Delaware with a distributed workforce across the world.

SEO Samba is led by Michel Leconte, a seasoned Silicon Valley executive, founder of multiple technology start-ups including Amoeba Networks, LiveConsultants.com, and ActivSupport. He has consulted with small business and Fortune 500 enterprises such as J2Fax and Tyco to develop their search engine marketing strategies, and more recently CEO of Avicend, a collective index and search engine for business data. Michel Leconte shares his time between Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, and Provence, France. David Culot is SEO Samba’s CTO, a database driven web applications specialist. He has developed the car engine start-up AutoBaron.com, and played a pivotal role at the inception of travel search engine Mobissimo.com. He’s based in Ukraine and San Francisco, CA.

CHICAGO – Over 2,000 marketers scouting out sure-fire ways to boost their companies’ online presence are gathering to kick off this year’s Search Engine Strategies (SES) Chicago 2008 Conference & Expo . In its tenth year, SES Chicago (http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago) gives attendees an unmatched combination of high-profile speakers, four-star rated sessions, and specialized educational tracks. The digital marketing conference takes place at the Chicago Hilton and runs December 8-11, 2008.

This year’s conference hones in on current issues facing marketers—from social media to search privacy to click fraud. Marketers will learn from noted search industry experts and gain practical knowledge for issues such as mobile search, web analytics, and global search.

SES Chicago highlights include:

* Keynote addresses by Professor Lawrence Lessig, an expert on law and technology, Omniture president and CEO Josh James, and Hitwise general manager of Global Research Bill Tancer.
* Introductory courses on Search Marketing, SEO Tools, Link Building Basics, and Search Advertising
* Intermediate sessions—including Universal and Blended Search, Igniting Viral Campaigns, Site Clinic, and Social Media Optimization
* Advanced sessions focused on issues ranging from Advanced B2B to Duplicate Content and Multiple Site Issues to Black Hat, White Hat & the Best Kept Secrets to Search

Organized and hosted by search authority Kevin Ryan, SES Chicago arms attendees with the latest knowledge in the search industry. The world’s most comprehensive gathering of search engine marketing and optimization-related providers, partners and affiliates, SES Chicago offers more than 60 sessions for everyone from newbies to the savviest marketers.

“Each year, marketers return and rave about how they’ve applied knowledge at our sessions to drive site traffic and vastly enhance conversion rates,” said Ryan, Chair of the SES Advisory Board. “We’re exceptionally proud of our 98 percent satisfaction rate year after year, based on the immense wealth of knowledge sharing at this unique event.”

For more information on SES Chicago and other shows in the series, see http://www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/chicago.

About Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC — A Division of Incisive Media PLC

Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the ClickZ network for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.

Jennifer Black, Local.com vice president, marketing, will be a featured presenter on the “Think Local: Online Marketing Tactics for Small and Medium Sized Businesses” panel on Thursday, December 11, at 9:00 a.m. The panel will examine local marketing tactics and the most effective advertiser strategies for reaching local consumers.

Now in its 10th year, Search Engine Strategies is the premier global event series for search engine marketing and optimization. SES is produced by Incisive Media. For more information on SES Chicago, visit: http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/.

About Local.com

Local.com (NASDAQ:LOCM) is the largest local search network in the United States. The company uses patented technologies to provide over 19 million consumers each month with the most relevant search results for local businesses, products and services on Local.com and over 700 regional media sites. Businesses can target ready-to-purchase consumers using a variety of advertising products. To advertise, visit http://corporate.local.com/advertisewithus or call 1-888-857-6722. For more information visit: www.local.com or http://corporate.local.com/.

About SES

Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include the ClickZ network for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company’s principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media’s market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, LegalTech, Post, Real Estate Forum, Risk, Search Engine Strategies and The American Lawyer. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com.