Legal Search Marketing Blog

Keyword Discovery 3.0 Updates

Keyword Discovery has updated its keyword research tool to include a number of new features and databases. This is the top keyword research tool in my opinion and the one I use most often.

The latest KeywordDiscovery version includes new features and introduces a number of new keyword databases.

1. eBay Search Term suggestion.
   This new database gives you the ability to research keywords based on eBay searches. Use this feature to optimize your eBay listings.
2. Market Analysis.
   A new feature to help you identify market share held by each major engine for each search phrase.
3. Eliminated Skew.
   KeywordDiscovery's new premium database eliminates all skew caused by automated rank checkers and other bots.
4. News Keywords.
   This new database enables keyword research based purely on searches performed at major news sites and news portals.

Google Has Too Much Money

The Washington Post highlights an unusual problem for Google - it has too much money!

Companies whose securities make up more than 40 percent of their assets can fall under restrictions that govern the mutual fund industry. So Google, which has increased its cash and securities to almost $10 billion since its 2004 initial public offering, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission late last month for an exemption.

Google hopes to get an exemption, similar to the one Microsoft acheived in 1988.

Google, Yahoo, & MSN Update Search Results

It appears that all the major search engines have been reported to be updating their indexes in some way. Yahoo has been reported to have updated its algorithm or index, although there is no official word from Yahoo on this as of yet. And MSN Search has confirmed that an update has occurred to their index recently. While Google's update may not be represented in the index, Yahoo and MSN's updates have reports that the search results have indeed changed. For the better or worse - that is in the eyes of the beholder.

SOURCE: Search Engine Watch

Can Subdomains Violate a Trademark?

Article from ClickZ about a lawsuit involving how far trademark infringement can go when applied to a subdomain.

A lawsuit that had the potential to define how far trademark infringement can go when applied to subdomains has been settled out of court. The lawsuit was filed by California non-profit religious organization Jews for Jesus against Google in response to a blogger who set up a blog critical of the group at jewsforjesus.blogspot.com.

According to attorney and Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, the case could have set some precedent about third-level subdomains (like the "blog" part of http://blog.clickz.com). While trademark law has been shown to apply to a regular domain name, it has not yet been applied to third-level ones, and it's not clear that it would apply, he said. It would also help define Google's responsibility in what subdomains it allows to be registered.

The case was settled by Jews for Jesus and the blogger, who transferred the site over to them. Since the issues were never decided by a judge, the world will have to wait for the next lawsuit to find the answers to those questions.

Google Launching New Blogger Features

Google has announced they are rolling out new features for Blogger. Some of the cool new tools include:

* Permissions: Decide who gets to read your blog.
* Labels: Categories for Blogger, yay!
* Extra feeds: let readers subscribe to comments etc