Posted by great scott! What's the right search strategy for your niche? That's the question we're looking at in this week's Whiteboard Friday. Determining which tactics are going to be most effective for your particular situation is critical for search marketers. PPC, SEO, Social, Viral? Sure they all have their advantages, but depending on the marketplace you're in, some strategies may be much more viable - in both cost and effectiveness - than others. Not surprisingly,

Microsoft and Yahoo are close to reaching a deal on search and online advertising after more than a year and a half of negotiations. A number of reports have surfaced indicating a Microsoft partnership with Yahoo on search is " imminent ." Steve Ballmer In May Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said there were still possibilities to work with Yahoo to "create a better search product.

The days of YouTube representing a financial black hole may soon come to an end. Several of Google's execs have indicated that the video-sharing site is on track to start making more money than its operations consume. Google's CFO, Patrick Pichette, issued the most precise forward-looking statement during the company's earnings call late yesterday. "We're really pleased both in terms of its revenue growth, which is really material to YouTube and, in the not-long,

What ClickZ editors are reading: Yahoo, Microsoft Once Again Close to a Deal "Unless there is some major glitch" the two may announce a search and ads partnership within one week, Kara Swisher says.

If you query a search you will often find there are one or two results, usually near the top of the SERP, that have a set of links below the description. This is particularly true at Google. Those additional links are for internal pages to that website. How does one become one of those sites that has these additional links and is that a beneficial thing to have? To answer the second question first, yes, it is beneficial.

When Google introduced SearchWiki functionality more than half a year ago there was a big uproar . Afterwards SearchWiki has been seemingly forgotten like many of Google's experimental features that never get really popular and then one day disappear again. The ability to vote or move search results up and down as well as comment them has not been embraced by many. You can even add results. I was one of the few who really were eager to use SearchWiki .

What were the reasons you started your SEO-related business? Perhaps you're thinking of starting one up. A survey published in New Business UK found the following: 41% went into business because they were passionate about their idea 39% wanted the freedom that came with being their own boss Only 7% cited money as being the reason It's interesting to note that the biggest obstacle people faced with starting their own business was a lack of money.

Recently a hacker obtained confidential documents containing information about Twitter's business plans as well as user accounts and passwords. The hacker sent the documents to two blogs: Silicon Valley's TechCrunch and Korben, a tech news site in France. TechCrunch has spent the better part of a week publishing a few of the documents one blog post at a time. (Can we just call them TwitterCrunch at this point?

Google Reader unleashed new sharing options this week , continuing the slow but steady trend of turning the newsreader into a social media platform. Let's say I'm reading the Search Engine Watch expert column feed. I now have the option to "Like" the post. Google Reader tracks the number of people doing so and places the tally under the subject line. If you click on the number of people liking a post, you'll get a list of those people.

E-commerce sites are prone to be developed by systems that employ dynamic URLs. You know, those long URLs with numbers and gobbledy gook. Now, Zobrist Consulting is offering a SEO friendly service for customers of IBM Websphere Commerce. One of their customers is The North Face. An example of how Zobrist's service works can be found on the Jackets & Vests page in the Women's section, on the U.S. site. Check out this short but sweet URL: http://www.thenorthface.