Microsoft launched a limited time promotion today called Back-to-School Deal Days for Live Search cashback . The promotion lets customers save big (and in some cases double the rewards) from hundreds of participating online retailers. The back-to-school season is the second largest retail season of the year. That bodes well for Microsoft's share of searches as they continue to compete with Yahoo for (a distant) second place.

Google Translate is going live. The world's most comprehensive set of translation technologies will now be aided by human beings translating documents upon request . Google employees won't be in the business of translating documents. Rather, Google will offer volunteer and professional translators the opportunity to use Google tools and technologies to translate. In previous columns, we've discussed the need for localization in translation.

Are you frustrated by ads and keywords getting disapproved by editorial ? Do you want to make sure your campaign is firing on all cylinders as soon as it goes live? Would you like to convert more site visitors into sales? When there's a clear connection.

Google's camera-equipped cars are driving around different parts of the globe. Now, the third country - after the US, and the Tour de France route - has been Street View enabled in Google Maps: Australia. To view these panorama photos of places like Karratha, Adelaide and Sydney, move over Australia on Google Maps and click the Street View button , and then select any of the camera icons. [Thanks Hebbet , who spotted it at the Sydney Morning Herald .

by Jackie Baker One thing you'll hear me say over and over again in this column is that good usability and design comes before optimization. It can be all too easy to market online through optimization, link building, blogging, and social media ( to name a few) and see that immediate upsurge in traffic, but not see any change in conversions. Today we're taking a look at AlaskaStock.com , a stock photography selling the rights to gorgeous photos of this northern state.

In 2007, 3.8 billion searches were conducted on yellow pages sites as well as the local listings they provide to search engines such as Google, Yahoo and others. So what are the most popular things being searched for? I'm not going to beat around the bush. Here they are: 1. Restaurants 2. Physicians & Surgeons 3. Hotels 4. Auto Repairing & Service 5. Florists-Retail 6. Auto Dealers-New & Used 7. Dentists 8. Auto Parts & Supplies - New & Used 9. Beauty Salons (tie) 10.

The Yahoo shareholder meeting has come and gone without much fanfare, thanks to the settlement between the Yahoo board and Carl Icahn to keep the current board but expand it by 3 seats post-meeting. But there are a few interesting tidbits you'll want to know. Firstly, TimeWarner has stepped in to prevent Jonathan Miller from joining the expanded Yahoo board. Yahoo had requested that Miller be placed on a list created by Carl Icahn for 2 of the expanded seats,

I'm Jim Hunt, senior director of PayPal merchant services. My team and I talk with our merchants every day, and I'm always fascinated by how innovative they are about their businesses, products and brands.? So, we thought others would benefit from their expertise as well.? This month, we'll bring together .

It's scorching these days, at least down here in Texas. Let's chill out with these five cool links before we launch into any more sizzling-hot Copyblogger content. Wow' that was cheesy, huh? Queso! This may be the most important article you read this month??" The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn from Scientific American . I know I'll be riffing off of it for the rest of the year.

Sure, blogs seems like old news. "Everyone is blogging," you say. "How can my catalog company see search engine benefit by creating random bits of blogging fodder." Good question. The answer is this: Blogs can help overcome some common catalog marketer challenges without having to change your site . And that's a good thing. The challenge with online catalogs is the templates are typically text unfriendly.