Source: googleblog.blogspot.com

While Yahoo improves its mobile search results, Google on the other hand unveils Plus Box. From the official Google blog:

We’re very excited to unveil Plus Box, a new search feature that lets you see more information about individual search results. Whenever you see the plus box icon - - click on it to see the additional rich data expand below the original search result. With Plus Box, you’ll get a visual snapshot of related information, so it is faster and easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Currently, the Plus Box only contains finance data about companies which are listed in NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. This data includes stock price and other company information. Additionally, if a user wants to find out more about the company listed in the search result, they can click on the “more information” link, which would bring them to the Google Finance portal.

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By: Jason Lee Miller | Source: webpronews.com

What’s been called an assault on click-fraud, or affiliate networks, or both, could also carry with it a little controversy. Google’s recent beta launch of pay-per-action AdSense, available only to US advertisers, was released overtop another new product: the text link format ad unit.

See, according to the conspiratorially minded, while everybody buzzed about PPA, they’d be less apt to notice the Snap-like or Intellitext-like advertising platform that allows publishers to embed ads in hyperlinks appearing within content.

Before, AdSense ads were confined to certain spaces, transparently. But there in Google’s PPA FAQ is this:

Text links are hyperlinked brief text descriptions that take on the characteristics of a publisher’s page. Publishers can place them in line with other text to better blend the ad and promote your product.

For example, you might see the following text link embedded in a publisher’s recommendatory text: “Widgets are fun! I encourage all my friends to Buy a high-quality widget today.” (Mousing over the link will display “Ads by Google” to identify these as pay-per-action ads).

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By: Jill Whalen | Source: isedb.com

I recently had an inquiry from someone who was looking for some possible SEO consulting with me.  He was in the process of a redesign and wanted to be sure not to make any mistakes along the way, which is super-smart!  The time to be looking at SEO is definitely in the beginning stage of any design or redesign project.

The interesting part of the email was this person’s misconceptions about what he thought were important factors for the search engines.  I’d like to share those points with you, with my comments following each one:

Little or no Flash.

This is a huge misconception to many who are trying to design search-engine-friendly websites.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with using Flash and no reason to avoid it altogether.  What you do need to avoid is an *all-Flash* site, as well as Flash navigation.  But that’s it.   And even if you have those things, there are workarounds.

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