As an in-house SEO, you need to interact with senior engineers, project managers and analysts who know your infrastructure, and its limitations, inside and out. Adding an understanding of your network infrastructure to your SEO knowledge base gives you the right lingo and frame of reference for conversations with techies to help you gain coveted respect from the IT department. Knowledge of your network can open doors to complex decision making conversations that SEOs need to be part of.

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Hakia, a natural language search engine, has just added a new spin to search: social networking. Their new Meet Others feature lets you connect with others who are searching for the same things you are.

Since Hakia processes queries differently than old school search engines such as Google, you aren't just matched up with people who typed in the exact query you did -- but you're matched with a larger set of searchers that Hakia thinks are looking for the same things you are based on natural language processing. For instance, if you're searching for "what drug treats a headache", Hakia processes the semantic relationships between words and may deduce that someone searching for "what medicine relieves migraines" is a match. And that type of processing is the crux of how Hakia wants to differentiate itself.

I recently sat down with President and COO Melek Pulatkonak and CEO Dr. Riza Berkan to talk about what they're doing in the search space and where they see things heading. More on how they're tackling natural language processing below. First, a run down of what was launched today.

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Yahoo Search Updates Algorithm, Index & Crawl
  The Yahoo Search Blog has posted that they are currently undergoing an index, crawl and algorithm update. Priyank Garg of Yahoo said: Over the last few days, we've been rolling out some changes to our crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms. While we expect the update will be completed soon, as...
• GOOG Cracks The $700 Threshold, Partly On Mobile Speculation
  Propelled by strong quarterly earnings and rampant speculation (and coverage) about its mobile plans, Google stock earlier today crossed the $700 price target many Wall Street analysts had set for the company. It's down slightly right now. Once Google provides more visibility about its mobile plans, investors could become more...
• Ask Introduces New Maps & Directions For UK
  The mapping upgrades and improvements are coming so fast now from Google, Microsoft, MapQuest and Yahoo that it's difficult to keep track of all the changes. But luckily the Ask Blog walks us through all the features of the new and improved Ask Maps UK, which includes multi-point routing, walking...
• Ask.com Helps IAC Earn 40% Increase In Q3 2007 Media Revenue
  IAC Reports Q3 Results from CNNMoney reports that IAC saw a 4.2% decline in net income year over year. Here is IAC's press release for the third-quarter numbers this year. But if you pull out Ask.com, IAC's search engine, which is part of IAC's Media & Advertising group, you will...
• Google AdWords Lets Advertise Choose Date & Number Preferences
  Kevin Gibbons spotted a couple new features in Google AdWords for advertisers, including a convenient way for advertisers who are not based in the United States ito now change the format of numbers, times, and dates within their accounts....
• Want To Opt Out Of Behavioral Ads? AOL Says It Is Your Choice
  AOL Will Let Consumers Opt Out of Targeted Ads from the Wall Street Journal reports that AOL will announce today a new tool that will enable AOL users to opt out of targeted or personalized ads. (NOTE: The AOL announcement is now live). AOL has behavioral ad technology that stores...
• Lead Management: When Conversion Is Not Enough
  Let's listen in on a call between a sales rep and a new lead generated by a paid search campaign: Hello Sarah, my name is Brian, and I’m your sales rep from Widgets Inc. I noticed you recently clicked one of our ads and registered to download our paper...
• Google, Yahoo, Ask.com Do Halloween Logos & Themes
  Google doesn't always do special logos for every holiday, but in the case of Halloween, it's pretty consistent. Up today on the Google home page is the ninth consecutive Halloween logo it has run since 1999. Below, a look back at the past years, as well as this year's...
• Truveo Launches Big International Expansion
  After relaunching this August as a video search engine and consumer destination, AOL's Truveo is aggressively expanding on a global basis. By the end of the year, Truveo intends to be in 15 countries including Russia and Turkey. Starting today it will be available outside the U.S. in France, Germany,...
• OpenSocial: Led By Google, Social Networks Band To Take On Facebook
  As expected, the much-discussed Google social play turns out to be an alliance with other companies to "open up" social networks and their data to developers. TechCrunch and the New York Times both have early news of an expected announcement tomorrow on how Google, along with partners like Ning,...
• Let Google Know The Geographic Location of Your Site
  For years, webmasters have wished for a way to tell search engines the country that should be associated with their sites. Starting today, Google Webmaster Central is offering a solution for those geographic woes....

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Five new API features, Official Google Checkout Blog
• iGoogle Themes Directory Coming Soon?, Google Blogoscoped
• On Optimizing Gmail's JavaScript, Google Blogoscoped
• Third party themes for iGoogle coming soon?, Googling Google
• AOL launches local language India portal, Reuters
• Google to Connect to Other IM Networks Using Jabber Transports, Google Operating System
• Google Warnings For Adult Blogs Hosted on Blogger, Digital Inspiration
• The Google Gadget Directory Changes, SEOish

Business Issues

• Online Marketers Joining Internet Privacy Efforts, New York Times
• Privacy Groups Propose Do-Not-Track List, Ad Age

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Transit Now Available in Canada, Googlified

Link Building

• DoFollow - IFollow Plugin for Wordpress, Greg Boser
• Factors of a Quality Web Directory, Shimon Sandler

Paid Search & Contextual

• Important Steps In 2008 Paid Search Planning, Search Engine Guide
• PubMatic - Automate Ad Optimization - First Impressions Review, ProBlogger
• Sandbox Maintenance, AdWords API Blog
• California Wild Fires Burn Google AdSense Publishers' Income, Search Engine Roundtable
• Why You Should Bid on Brand Keywords in Google, Search Engine Journal

Searching

• Tired of waiting to see all answers? Wait no more!, Askville Blog
• Excite is back, and this time it makes sense, Times Online
• Search Quality Depends on Intention, Search Engine Watch

SEM Industry

• Bruce Clay, Inc's 2007-2008 Conference Calendar, BruceClay.com
• Did Ionut Alex Chitu leak Matt Cutts' email address?, Andrew R H Girdwood
• Halloween 2007: LOLCat, Matt Cutts
• Microsoft Creates Education Alliance with SEMPO Institute, Marketing Pilgrim

SEO & SEM

• PageRank Paid Links Drop, Yahoo Fixes Site Explorer, Google AdSense Topics , Search Pulse
• What Do Consumers Want? Search Stats Provide a Clue, Ad Age
• Reservation Road: Getting Search-Worthy in Three Days or Less, Search Engine Watch
• The Oracle of Mountain View, Search Engine Journal
• Google Update Not Just Visible, Some Reporting Major Ranking Reductions, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo Search October 2007 Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• [Video] Google Lies: Oh My _______ Google PageRank Penalty, SEO Book
• Achieving Brand and Affiliate Harmony in Search, Search Engine Watch
• Bounce Rate as a Ranking Signal, Stone Temple
• How downtime can kill all your SEO efforts, Royal Pingdom
• Is Your SEM Strategy What You Want or What You Need?, Search Marketing Standard
• Life after SERP: A/B Split and Multivariate Testing, Search Engine Watch
• Should Google Take Advantage of the Web 2.0 Dynamic and Follow Links?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Ten Ways to Avoid a Google Reputation Nightmare, Marketing Pilgrim

Social Media

• Forrester Webinar: Using Social Media in the Workplace, BruceClay.com
• Please Stop Spamming Me for Votes, SEOmoz
• Facebook: Building a nice profile page, Performancing.com
• How do you perform Social Media on a Digg Veteran, ViperChill
• Social Rock Star Rules For Little People, AIM Clear Blog
• Twitterquake: Sitting with TechMeme during earthquake, Scobleizer
• Google Gadget Syndication Directory - What it is and Why You Should Care, SEOish
• The StumbleUpon Toolbox: 40 SU-related Scripts, Tools, and Tutorials, Virtual Hosting Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Youtube unblocked!, shanghaiist.com

Other Items

• Another Week of New and Updated Domains from Microsoft, A Contest and Blog Could Be in the Works, ResourceShelf
• Need Customer Service From Google? Find The Door, InsideGoogle

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• PageRank Dropped And You Don’t Sell Links? Try Requesting Reconsideration from Google
• The Importance of Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Learn and Master it
• Link FUD and Logical Fallacies
• Factors of a Quality Web Directory
• Baiting The SEO Blogosphere
• Link Baiting: Which Hook Attracts the Right Fish?
• Running a stumble viral marketing campaign
• Social Rock Star Rules For Little People
• The Oracle of Mountain View
• The day the routers died [unsphinnable for non-geeks]
• Google Gets New Choose Your Country Feature
• How Are You Going To Get A Link If They Don't Know You Exist?
• Why Stephen Colbert May Be the Prince of Social Media
• SMX Launches an Affiliate Program: $100 per Conference Signup
• My Imaginary Conversation With Vanessa Fox (About Zillow)
• Blog Like a Person, Not Like a Cyborg
• Leave Rebecca Alone! (SEOmoz)
• The Holy Grail of the SEO Friendly CMS
• 8 Unfortunate Logos
• The Importance Of Keeping It Up

The Yahoo Search Blog has posted that they are currently undergoing an index, crawl, and algorithm update. Priyank Garg of Yahoo said:

Over the last few days, we've been rolling out some changes to our crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms. While we expect the update will be completed soon, as you know, throughout this process you may see some ranking changes and page shuffling in the index.

I posted signs of this update this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable, and linked to several forums discussion, which highlight what appears to be a pretty significant update.

Propelled by strong quarterly earnings and rampant speculation (and coverage) about its mobile plans, Google stock earlier today crossed the $700 price target many Wall Street analysts had set for the company. It's down slightly right now. Once Google provides more visibility about its mobile plans, investors could become more bullish or potentially be disappointed. However, it's unlikely that any practical market impact would be felt immediately because there would likely be a lag between any mobile announcement and the actual product rollout.

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