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comScore today released its first report on the U.K. search market from its enhanced comScore qSearch 2.0 online search measurement tool. The service, which was first launched in the U.K. in September 2007, has been updated to include several local market properties where search activity occurs, such as Rightmove Sites and Bebo.com.

I discussed how this expanded definition of “search” changes the landscape in the U.S. back in March in an article entitled, “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing at SES New York 2008.”

In the U.K., Google Sites continued its reign as the leading search property in April with 74.2 percent of all searches. eBay ranked second with 6 percent, followed by Yahoo! Sites (4.3 percent) and Microsoft Sites (3.4 percent).

Two U.K. properties, Rightmove Sites (0.8 percent share) and Bebo.com (0.7 percent share), ranked amongst the top 10. Popular social networking property, Facebook.com, claimed a 1.8-percent market share in April.

Yes, people conduct searches at social networking sites. It’s not your father’s SEO.

Visual search engine Viewzi has been in private beta for quite some time now, but they’ve just announced they expect to launch to the public this month.

Since it’s visual, a wordy blog post just isn’t going to do this news justice. So I’ve created a screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to leave your reaction in the comments!

Viewzi main search page

Viewzi’s search menu offers several options for viewing results

Video search displays results from popular video sites. Some of the videos are played in fast forward right in the results page. In Viewzi, mouseover an individual result to see the title of the video.

Web screenshot results show search results in a cover-flow style. I like this because you can easily see which pages are educational, shopping or parked domains.

Photo view is similar to video view, displaying image search results in several rows.

Simple text view combines results from Yahoo and Google and looks similar to traditional text-based search results.

Four source view displays website screenshot results from Google, Yahoo, Ask, and MSN. To remove one of the sets of results, just click on the search engine name that you do NOT want to see displayed. Mouseover a result for a larger view.

Celebrity Photo View is not just an image search for photos of celebrities. Instead, it’s the name for the way the results are displayed, which looks like a photo album or scrap book and features a slick drag and drop feature.

mp3 View shows results of mp3 files related to your search. You can even listen to the files in your browser instead of opening additional applications which can use up valuable memory on your computer.

We know how fascinated people are by every move that Google makes. Google experiments on a daily basis. We’re glad. It gives us something to do.

Sometimes, though, we think people get carried away with reporting Google news. It’s like the song “Every Breath You Take” by The Police.

So here’s our contribution: the most irrelevant Google news story of the day.

Google has apparently changed its “favorite icon” or favicon from an upper-case G to a lower-case G, as shown here blown up by 300 percent.

Granted, it may be a slow news day but does this story deserve play in Search Engine Roundtable, SearchEngineLand and SearchEngineWatch? If we’re wrong and this is a life-changing event for you, let us know.

The Google Website Optimizer blog is serving up a helpful tip on testing widgets and other site accessories.

They gave an example of a popcorn company that tested their current trust seal against an upgraded one they were being pitched. The test also included a factor where there was no seal shown to visitors.

Having no seal at all performed poorly. But there was little difference between the old trust seal and the upgraded one. The popcorn company was able to put their money to better use than having a new seal on their site.

Do you test your widgets? Have any tips? Leave your advice in the comments!

Related Reading:
SEO Conversion Testing: Advanced Search Engine Optimization
Testing Landing Pages Includes Testing Best Practices

Jipingmi.com, a real estate search engine in China, officially launched an English version of the site yesterday. English.Jipingmi.com collects real estate property listings from a variety of English property listing sources and organizes the results into a single search platform.

The sophistication of the search engine falls somewhere between Craigslist and Craigslist, with a 2-D Google Maps thrown in. Tremendous opportunity remains in the Chinese real estate market online.

Since the launch of Jipingmi.com (Mandarin for “How many square meters?” or “A few square meters”) in late 2007, Jipingmi.com has become the stripped-down Zillow or Trulia of the Chinese real estate search engine market. Jipingmi.com now hopes to open the platform to international users.

Jipingmi Co-founder and VP Strategic Development, Alex Farfurnik said English.Jipingmi.com will organize the foreign real estate market in China:

Jipingmi Co-founder and Co-CEO, Guy Sivan said English Jipingmi.com is designed specially to suit the unique needs of the foreign real estate market in China.

English.Jipingmi.com is plans to provide special features for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, such as short-term rentals. An estimated 500,000 foreigners will stay in Beijing during the Olympics.

Search Engine Strategies San Jose is fast approaching, and as Kevin Ryan outlined earlier this month, the SES San Jose speaker deadlines are coming up:

Deadline for new session pitches: May 31, 2008.
Deadline for speaker pitches: June 15, 2008.

To submit your idea for a session, or your services as a speaker, use this online form. For more details, check out Kevin’s post to the Search Engine Strategies Blog.

Remember, even past speakers will need to submit a pitch, so if you’re sitting around waiting for your invitation, you’ll be left out in the cold.

Last year, Bill Gates announced that his focus for his remaining full-time work at Microsoft would be search. But the job is not yet done and now he’s announced that search will be a projects he will be involved with post-retirement (besides his Chairmanship). Buried in the stories about Windows 7 and its multitouch abilities is a statement from the software giant’s founder about his vision for the future of Microsoft’s search.

“I’m very involved in search, the internal development,” he told the audience at the D6 conference. “We will build the world’s best search.”

Do you think Gates can pull it off? Discuss in the comments.

via BBC News

Related Reading:
Microsoft Launches Live Search Cashback and Live Search Farecast
Microsoft to Bring Advertising to Live Search Mobile

You have control over the internal links on your site, so be sure you’re taking advantage of that when creating them. In today’s Organic Search Engine Optimization column, “It Pays to Link Consistently,” Mark Jackson takes a look at ways to improve your Web site’s consistency in internal linking and the use of your domain name, which can make a big difference in your site’s organic search engine rankings.

This morning investment bank Collins Stewart hosted a confrerence call for clients who wanted to learn more about Microsoft Live Search Cashback.

The buzz and excitement surrounding the Cashback launch has been palpable.

CNET has coverage of the Microsoft Live Search Cashback call this morning.

What’s truly brilliant about Microsoft’s move: share of searches is the most watched index of search engine success. What matters most, though, is the quality of those searches.

The most valuable searches are commercial searches. Helping satisfy the collective curiosity of a nation is, at times, a noble mission. Most searches, though, tend to be news and gossip-related.

While it’s great for the online tabloid industry, there’s not much value in being the go-to search engine for the Gossip Girl and lad mag crowd. Does a search engine really care if it delivers the best results for “elke the stallion,” gyrotonics, and “la rag mag?”

Microsoft wants all Americans who receive a $600 rebate check to think of Live.com search first. If you’re going to spend money online, what’s the most relevant result?

The SERP that delivers value, savings and bargains.

Microsoft has announced that they are closing their Live Search Books and Live Search Academic Projects. While they will still index books and scholarly publications in their primary search index, Microsoft’s digitization initiatives will come to an end.

Libraries and publishers are encouraged to build digital archives utilizing the platform Microsoft built with Kirtas, the Internet Archive, CCS, and others.

Commenting on the future of the search business, Satya Nadella Senior vice president search, portal and advertising, wrote on the Live Search blog, “Given the evolution of the Web and our strategy, we believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer, and content partner.”

What do you think about Microsoft’s move to end their Live Search Books and Academic Projects? Let us know in the comments.