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The new Yahoo! front page went into testing a couple months ago. The redesign effort also coincides with the new user interface, YUI 3.

Here’s a peek:

Nicholas Zakas of the Yahoo! User Interface team expanded on the UI efforts by explaining the goals for the framework of YUI 3:

1. Eliminate global dependencies. We wanted each part of the page to operate separately from all of the others. Each part should have no knowledge of what else is on the page and therefore can’t depend on objects to be globally available. The 2.x library is based on the global YAHOO object, which we would have had to abstract away; the 3.x concept of YUI instances that could be individually manipulated worked perfectly to achieve this goal.
2. Make it small, make it fast. The Front Page can’t afford to be slow, so we needed to have as little code as possible to get everything up and running. YUI 3 impressed us with its organization into small, atomic units that allowed us to specifically include parts of the library that we wanted while eliminating parts that were unnecessary. Further, one of the goals of YUI 3 was to optimize for runtime execution and make it faster than the 2.x version. Once again, YUI 3’s approach was directly in line with the Front Page’s goals.
3. Create version independence. From the start, we didn’t want to have dependencies on specific versions of YUI components as this can lead to maintenance issues. What we really wanted was for each part of the page to be able to use whatever version of the components that they wanted. The sandboxing feature of YUI 3 opened up the possibility of having two (or more) YUI instances each loading different versions of various components while not interfering with each other.
4. Allow code portability. Having worked at Yahoo! for a combined five years, Steve and I knew that anything we put on a Yahoo! property could be a candidate for porting to someplace else. We knew that this possibility meant the code had to stand on its own and not make assumptions about the environment in which it was placed. We thought about the most difficult environment possible: a locked-down browser environment where the JavaScript code has no direct access to the DOM. Since YUI 3 can abstract away the DOM through its Node interface, we had the entrypoint necessary to make this requirement a reality.
5. Be forward compatible. The project to create a new Front Page is an incredibly long one and we wanted to be as forward-looking as possible. We knew that if we created the framework on YUI 2.x that we’d be hard pressed to get time to upgrade later on. By building on YUI 3 from the start, we eliminated the need for developing an upgrade path later on.

To achieve SERP nirvana, your search engine optimization and paid search efforts must have the same goal. In today’s Search Marketing Crossfire column, “Is Your SEM Truly Looking at Search Holistically?,” Chris Boggs and Frank Watson offer five important questions to make sure your potential search vendors view search holistically when updating ongoing strategy and planning considerations.

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The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago have just been posted to the website for the SEM conference. And check out the heavy hitters:
• Lawrence Lessig, the Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, is giving the opening keynote on Monday, Dec. 8;
• Bill Tancer, the General Manager of Global Research at Hitwise, is giving the morning keynote on Tuesday, Dec. 9; and
• Josh James, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Omniture, is giving the morning keynote on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

That’s quite a line up. Or, as my good friend Anne Kennedy, the Managing Partner of Beyond Ink and a member of the SES Advisory Board, says, whether you’re a “seasoned search maven or hopeful newbie, you’ll find speakers who share expertise, new research, horizon’s edge views and knuckles-in-the code tactics” at SES Chicago.

Take Professor Lessig, for example. For much of his career, he has focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. He is the author of Code v2 (2007), Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He was also a columnist for Wired, Red Herring, and the Industry Standard.

According to a recent article by Kim Heart in The Washington Post, Professor Lessig is among the signers of a letter that went to the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns. The letter was also signed by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

The letter asked the candidates to insist on using a new method to choose debate questions. While that job is usually left to the media host, the members of the “Open Debate Coalition” say they aren’t “hard-hitting enough.”

Instead, they want to let people submit questions, then vote on their favorites, over the Internet. The top 25 questions would have the potential of getting asked during the debates.

“This cycle’s YouTube debates were a milestone for Internet participation in presidential debates,” the letter said. “But they put too much discretion in the hands of gatekeepers. Many of the questions chosen by TV producers were considered gimmicky… and never would have bubbled up on their own.”

So, do you think what Professor Lessig says at SES Chicago will be on the mid-term? All I know is that I can’t wait for the Q&A following his keynote.

The following day, Bill Tancer takes the stage. He’s the author of “Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters.”

Bill, who I’ve known for years, is the author of a weekly online column for TIME, “The Science of Search.” He is a frequent guest on CNBC, and has been quoted extensively in the press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and Business Week.

Bill recently had a “naked lunch” with Andy Greenberg of Forbes.com. Hey, I didn’t make this up. Click on “We Are What We Google” and read the article for yourself.

In the article, Bill is quoted as saying, “What I find really fascinating is how much we tell search engines – more than we tell surveys, more than our family members, more even than our priests or rabbis.”

Are you skeptical of this claim? Bill backs it up with his analysis of searches beginning with “fear of.” It reveals search engine users are afraid of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy and death, in that order.

Looking at searches beginning with “how to,” he observes that the phrase “how to tie a tie” edges out “how to have sex” and “how to kiss” for the top spot.

And Bill’s analysis of searches beginning with “why” shows that most queries are related to school projects. But these fall sharply during the summer and Christmas holidays. During those periods, more existential questions like “Why did she leave me?” and “Why did God do this to me?” pop to the surface.

But wait! There’s more! The following day, Josh James is the keynoter.

James co-founded Omniture in 1996 and, under his leadership, it has evolved into one of the fastest-growing publicly traded software companies with more than 4,700 customers across 75 countries and over 1,100 employees. His market vision, leadership and entrepreneurial philosophy have enabled Omniture to achieve greater than 75% growth for more than five consecutive years, as well as to maintain customer retention rates of greater than 95%.

James is also the founder of Silicon Slopes – a private sector initiative whose mission is to promote the interests of high-tech in Utah. A recent article by Tom Harvey in The Salt Lake Tribune said that the Omniture CEO was motivated to found Silicon Slopes in 2007 to change the misperception that Utah is “A quirky state at the edge of the desert dominated by a single religion and defined by its far-right politics and weird liquor laws.”

For example, Siliconslopes.com is sending out thousands of promotional posters this year that depict the Silicon Slopes running along the Wasatch Mountains from Logan to Provo, listing an array of high-tech companies with operations here, as well as ski resorts and signs pointing to Moab and other attractions.

While I haven’t met Josh James yet, I did interview Huw Roberts of Omniture earlier this year at SES London. Roberts talked about the importance of web analytics to effective search engine marketing for businesses of any size.

Huw Roberts, Omniture, at SES London 2008

There you have it: The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

And I’ve got to agree with Anne. Whether you’re a “seasoned search maven or hopeful newbie, you’ll find speakers who share expertise, new research, horizon’s edge views and knuckles-in-the code tactics” at SES Chicago.

Juniper Research is projecting social networking is expected to overtake dating in 2009 to become the largest revenue generating segment.

Social networks are projected to generate $7.3 billion in advertising revenues by 2013. That will amount to a steady rise in revenues over 2008’s projected $1.1 billion.

According to report author Dr. Windsor Holden, “It’s clear that we have seen an industry wide shift regarding the implementation of business models in this area. Whereas initially there was a perception that users would pay a small mobility premium to access social networks on their handsets, it rapidly became clear that to achieve truly mass adoption, it would be necessary to offer free membership and then to augment that with advertising and the sale of premium content.”

Meanwhile, Hitwise general manager of global research, Bill Tancer, is saying that searches for pornography are down about 50% due to increase in searches for social networking.

“My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites,” Tancer told Reuters.

Tancer analyzes search behavior and its reflection on society in his new book, Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters.

What do you think of the rise in social networking? Is it changing societal behavior? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading:
Social Networking and Employees: Where Do You Draw the Line?
AOL’s Platform-A to Offer Guaranteed CPM to Facebook, Bebo Developers

Online publishers are increasingly turning to ad networks to sell unused inventory, according to a study released by the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Bain & Company.

In 2007, ad network accounted for 30% of total ad impressions, up fro 5% in 2006.

Two reasons were given for the growth:

• Interviews with online publishers, conducted as part of the study, indicate that the lack of adequate pricing tools and inventory management discipline contributed to the growth in available ad space. This is causing publishers to seek out ways to sell large inventories of unsold ads. Publishers often lack basic information on realized prices and inventory sold by client and channel, limiting management’s ability to make effective decisions.
• Large marketers continue to shift significant portions of their advertising budgets online and view ad networks as an effective way to achieve greater buying scale and drive down CPMs.

“What this benchmark study tells the industry is that there is a need for more sophisticated yield management on the part of premium publishers, for stronger partnerships between publishers and ad networks, for development of best practices, and more focus on the value of interactive advertising,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “Our industry is at an important juncture and now is the time for publishers to adopt strategic approaches to the use of ad networks who themselves have become critical players in the digital ecosystem.”

Here are additional nuggets of information from the study:

• Overall, online publisher revenues grew by a healthy 32% in 2007 versus 2006, yet ad network revenues grew more rapidly (in excess of 50%), as marketers boosted online spending
• High demand for premium video inventory resulted in CPMs 2-3 times greater than display ads on average.
• Most publishers in the study lack information to closely measure the impact of cross-platform sales, though most indicate focus on using cross-platform to drive volume, not price.

Related Reading:
Two Large Ad Networks Embrace Behavioral Targeting
Local Advertisers Shifting Dollars to Internet

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How [...]

While Google is busy rolling out a PageRank update, Microsoft is researching what they hope will be the next big thing in search: BrowseRank. The technology takes user browsing habits into account when determining relevant search results.

We propose computing page importance by using a ’user browsing graph’ created from user behavior data. In this graph, vertices represent pages and directed edges represent transitions between pages in the users’ web browsing history. Furthermore, the lengths of staying time spent on the pages by users are also included. The user browsing graph is more reliable than the link graph for inferring page importance.

You can read the full paper by Microsoft Asia researchers here (pdf).

Earlier, we reported that Steve Ballmer says that search needs innovation. Will BrowseRank achieve that goal? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

via CNET

We often take the mainstream press to task for not understanding the value of search engine marketing and search engine optimization. So it’s a welcome change when a national columnist gets it right.

Today Steven Strauss in TheStreet.com wrote a column titled, “Get on Google’s Good Side with SEO.” With Matt Cutts’ recent endorsement of “white hat” SEO, it’s great to see small business embrace search engine optimization.

Strauss writes, “One of the questions I hear most often these days goes something like, ‘How the heck am I supposed to keep my small business going in this economy? I don’t have a lot of money for advertising.’”

He states - or perhaps overstates:

The good news is that there is in fact a great way to market your business that is not expensive and is very effective. However, it is quite time-consuming.

It’s called search engine optimization. SEO gets you noticed, is practically free marketing and increases sales. SEO is the magic bullet.

Anyone who’s done SEO knows it’s not a magic bullet. Calling SEO a magic bullet beats “snake oil” any day of the week.

Since he’s writing for beginners, Strauss compares fear of SEO to an Alec Baldwin-Anthony Hopkins movie written by David Mamet, “The Edge.”

I am reminded of the 1997 movie The Edge with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. In it, the two men are stranded in the Alaska Outback after their small plane crashes.

Soon they are being stalked by a bear. Eventually Hopkins’ character convinces himself and Baldwin’s character, Bob, that they can slay the bear.

“I’m going to kill the bear,” Hopkins’ character says, “Say it! Say I’m going to kill the bear!”

Bob says it, halfheartedly.

Charles (Hopkins) then yells at Bob: “Say it! Say I’m going to kill the bear!” Bob says it.

“Say it again,” says Charles. Bob, starting to feel it, says it more loudly. “I’m going to kill the bear.” “Again!” Charles bellows. Finally, Bob yells, convincingly, ” I Am Going To Kill The Bear!”

Finally, they kill the bear.

You must believe in SEO and your ability to achieve online marketing goals to succeed.

Steven D. Strauss is a lawyer, author and USA TODAY columnist. His latest book is the Small Business Bible. He’s spoken around the world about entrepreneurship, including at the UN, and has been seen on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, The O’Reilly Factor, and many other television and radio shows. He maintains a Web site at www.MrAllBiz.com.

In the wake of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on online advertising and privacy, Mintel has released survey data revealing Americans are more concerned than they were 5 years ago about online security.

• 65% are more concerned than they were 5 years ago
• 28% are significantly more concerned than they were five years ago

But the actual risk is declining. The number of American identity thefts declined 12% from 2003 to 2006 (10.1 million to 8.9 million), according to US Justice Department data. Of the 8.9 million cases in 2006, only 8.3% of them were related to online activity, such as computer viruses, hackers or phishing. Mintel reports that less than 1% of emails they tracked were phishing scams.

“The actual risk of having your identity stolen online is not as high as many people think,” states Menke. “Financial services companies are trying to reassure consumers of this fact, but our research suggests their marketing messages aren’t sticking. Companies need to find innovative new ways to convince Americans that their identities are secure online and when using email.”

Financial service companies already have a solid base to work from to achieve that goal. 71% of American adults report managing at least one financial services account online. The average American manages 3 financial services via email and the web.