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After news came that Jerry Yang would be stepping down as Yahoo!’s CEO, the immediate reaction by analysts, Wall Street, and your neighbor’s cat was: MICROSOFT ACQUISITION TIME!

But Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is saying: Not so fast.

Ballmer has said time and again that Microsoft has moved on from the possibility of returning to the good ol’ days of negotiating a Yahoo! acquisition.

And while it’s tempting to think that he’s just waiting for that stock to drop to around $2-3 a share (hey, only $6-7 more to go!), consider this: Yahoo’s VP of Search Technology, Sean Suchter is leaving the Sunnyvale search engine. And I hope he likes rain and coffee, because rumor has it that he’s headed to Microsoft.

That rumor was reported by none other than Kara Swisher, who is pretty much never wrong. The only thing I’m wondering is: Where’s the noncompete agreement?

Amidst the rumors and denials, one thing is for sure. No matter how much Ballmer would like the speculation to end, it won’t.

I spoke at PubCon last week — about How SMBs Can Use PR Campaigns To Grow Traffic and Alternative Discovery and SEO - Feeds, PDFs, and Blog SEO.

But, enough about me. Let’s talk about the top trends spotted at last week’s search engine and Internet marketing conference and expo in Vegas, baby!

For the record, I not only spoke at PubCon, I also looked at the 88 articles about it in Google News, the 77 articles in Yahoo! News, the 406 posts in Google Blog Search from the past month, and the 799 posts that IceRocket has found from the past month.

Then, I used a new tool called Twist, which lets you see trends in Twitter, to chart the hundreds of Tweets about PubCon over the past 30 days.

But, I could have just as easily looked at the session agenda grid for PubCon. Why? Because Brett Tabke, PubCon’s organizer, had set most of the agenda for 2009 when he selected the keynote speakers and creating the conference tracks. That’s why.

So, it was dead easy to spot the top trends at the six-track educational conference hosted by SearchEngineWorld and WebmasterWorld. Heck, even the most sleep-deprived attendee would know they were video, blogs and Twitter.

Video is hot — and YouTube video is red hot. This was reflected in the choice of George Wright, the VP Marketing & Sales at Blendtec, as one of the keynote speakers.

Described as the “The best viral marketing campaign ever,” George’s viral marketing campaign, “Will it Blend?,” has changed the face and the future of online marketing. Seen by more than 100 million people on the Internet and reported on by traditional media outlets like the Today Show, the Tonight Show, and the History Channel, Will it Blend? continues to deliver unprecedented corporate awareness through social media channels. This new form of marketing has delivered a 700% increase in sales for Blendtec, a small Utah based blender manufacturer, with an initial investment of $50.

Oh, and in case you didn’t notice that video is hot, Brett added a Video and Multimedia track with five sessions to drive the point home.

Blogs were big, too. This was reflected in three tracks at PubCon: one on Social Media Marketing, another on Social, Brand, and Reputation Management, and a third on Linking as Social Media Networking.

Now, blogs certainly aren’t considered the “newbies” of the social media scene – “granddaddies” is probably a more appropriate name. But that gives them an advantage from a marketing perspective – the medium has matured and moved from early adopter phase to the mainstream. That means more consumers are not only reading blogs; they are being influenced by blog content when it comes to what they decide to buy and who they decide to buy it from.

If you want a second opinion, sign up for tomorrow’s free webinar: “Consumers and the Influence of Blogs: What it Means for Your Marketing Mix.” It starts at 2:00 P.M. EST/11:00 A.M. PST and will be moderated by Kevin Ryan, SES Advisory Board Chair and CEO of Motivity Marketing. It will feature Barry Parr, Analyst, JupiterResearch, and Rob Crumpler, President and CEO, BuzzLogic. They will be discussion a new BuzzLogic-sponsored research study conducted by JupiterResearch, entitled, “Harnessing the Power of Blogs.”

But, you could also see the power of blogs at virtually ever session at PubCon.

In fact, there were tables in the sessions so the dozens of bloggers who were live blogging the event could blog more comfortably. (I think this is a first: I’m not sure that I’ve ever put bloggers, blogging and blog in the same sentence before.)

And what about Twitter? No, none of the keynote speakers was from free social networking and micro-blogging service. And, no, there were no Twitter tracks. And I can’t even find Twitter mentioned in the title of any of the 85 sessions.

But, trust me, you couldn’t miss the Twitter trend if you’d hit every one of the special events — from the exhibitor cocktail reception sponsored by Bruce Clay and Apogee Search, to the SEOmoz WereWolf Event, to the WebmasterRadio Search Bash, sponsored by Microsoft Live Search.

For example, I was sitting in the session entitled, Five Bloggers and a Microphone - What’s The Worst That Can Happen? It was moderated by Ken Jurina, and the speakers included:
• Andy Beal, Internet Marketing Consultant, Marketing Pilgrim LLC,
• Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing,
• Michael McDonald, Managing Editor, iEntry Inc.,
• Barry Schwartz, President, RustyBrick, Inc.,
• Jane Copland, Search Marketing Consultant, SEOMoz.

When it came time for Q&A, one of the first questions came from a woman in the audience, who said, “I asked my circle of friends on Twitter what I should ask you, and I got eight questions. If I eliminate the seven that are inappropriate, here’s one that the panel can answer….”

That brought down the house.

Oh, PubCon also had lots of tracks and sessions on SEO, SEM and interactive site reviews. But they’ve had those for years. The new news is video, blogs and Twitter. These are the top trends that I spotted at this year’s PubCon.

New market research has found that blog readers are strongly influenced by blog content when it comes to purchase decisions across a number of categories, and that blogs play a key role in ushering readers to the point of an actual purchase. BuzzLogic, a social media analysis company and ad network, sponsored the market research and JupiterResearch, a Forrester research company, conducted the survey of more than 2,000 online consumers in the US.

Their Harnessing the Power of Blogs survey also found that blog readership has grown 300% over the past four years. The results also suggest that consumers who read blogs more than once per month — or frequent blog readers — use blogs as the top online navigation tool to discover other blog content, ranking higher than general Web search or blog search.

The new market research will be the focus of a free webinar, “Consumers and the Influence of Blogs: What it Means for Your Marketing Mix,” which will be held on Thursday, November 20, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT. The free webinar will be moderated by Matt McGowan, vice president and publisher for Incisive Media’s digital marketing businesses, and will feature Barry Parr, Analyst at JupiterResearch, and Rob Crumpler, President and CEO of BuzzLogic.

Looking more closely at how blogs factor into consumer purchase decisions and the nature of blog influence on buying behavior, the survey found:
• Blogs influence purchases: 50% of blog readers say they find blogs useful for purchase information.
• Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites. Enid Burns of The ClickZ Network focused on this finding in her recent story about the survey, “Study: Blogs Influence Purchases More Than Social Sites.”
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3631303
• Niche focus ups influence factor: For those who have found blog content useful for product decisions, 56% said blogs with a niche focus and topical expertise were key sources.
• Blogs go beyond tech: Outside of technology-related purchases, for which 31% of readers say blogs are useful, other key categories include: media and entertainment (15%); games/toys and/or sporting goods (14%); travel (12%); automotive (11%); and health (10%).

According to the study, blogs factor in to critical stages of the purchase process, weighing most heavily at the actual moment of a purchase decision. When it comes to respondents who said they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions in the past, over half (52 percent) say blogs played a role in the critical moment they decided to move forward with a purchase.

Blog readers were also surveyed about the influence of blogs as it relates to the following steps of the purchase process:
• 21% decide on a product or service,
• 19% refine choices,
• 19% get support and answers,
• 17% discover products and services,
• 14% assure,
• 13% inspire a purchase
• 7% execute a purchase.

For frequent blog readers, ads on blogs are on par with sponsored search results. However, trust of blog advertising exceeds that of social networking site advertising. A quarter of these readers say they trust ads on a blog they read; paid search links also accounted for 25% of the responses, while 19% say they trust ads on social networking sites.

The study also suggests that ads on blogs spur a number of activities: 40% of blog readers have taken action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog; 50% of frequent blog readers say this is the case. The top activities include:
• 17% read product reviews online,
• 16% sought out more info on a product or service,
• 16% visited a manufacturer or retailer website.

JupiterResearch designed and fielded the survey in August 2008 to online consumers selected randomly from the NPD Group US online consumer panel. A total of 2,210 individuals responded. For more information on the survey’s methodology, go to JupiterResearch.

Now, blogs certainly aren’t considered the “newbies” of the social media scene – “granddaddies” is probably a more appropriate term. But that gives them an advantage from a marketing perspective – the medium has matured and moved from early adopter phase to the mainstream.

This may come as a surprise to some search engine marketers, but blog readers do not appear to rely as heavily on search as a means to find new blogs as consumers of traditional online media do. According to the new survey, one in five consumers who have read a blog in the past 12 months — or general blog readers — use blog links to discover new blogs. Further, the study suggests blogs are not consumed in isolation — 49% of blog readers and 71% of frequent readers read more than one blog per session. Other key findings include:
• Links more powerful than search: For frequent readers, links beat search as a navigation tool: 38 percent said blog links were the top tool for discovering new blog content as compared to 34 percent who voted for Web search.
• Links signal trust: For frequent readers, blog links appear to have similar impact as a trusted recommendation from a person (a response from 39 percent of survey participants).
• Blog search not yet mainstream: Blog search engines received the lowest ranking from respondents: 6 percent of general readers and 11 percent of frequent readers say they use these tools to discover new blogs.

If you are interested in getting more details about Harnessing the Power of Blogs, register for the free Webinar. Again, it will be held on Thursday, November 20, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT.

JP Morgan Internet analyst Imran Khan is lowering projections for search ad spend for 2008 and 2009. The forecast for 2008 growth is now 23.4% year-over-year, down from earlier projections at 27.4%. The forecast for 2008 is a dismal 17.3%, down from 25.5%.

Khan sees specific sectors as being hit harder than others, particulary travel, telecom, autos, and retail. Still, Khan expects search advertising to hold up better than display advertising.

What do you think of Khan’s revised projections?

Related Reading:
Online Advertising Networks Struggle As Industry Growth Slows
60% of Marketing Budgets Remain Unchanged by Economy

The number of small businesses using deeply integrated social networking services will double in the next year, according to projections by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. Currently, there are about 300,000 small businesses engaged in social networking, which is 5% of the total number of small businesses in the U.S. AMI expects that number to reach 600,000 in the next 12 months.

“As social networking evolves, we can see the emergence of targeted offerings for business users,” says Nikki Lamba, New York-based analyst at AMI Partners. “In order to attract a greater share of SBs, social networking services must provide customized services that SBs can leverage in order to realize their business goals.”

Social media might be an increasingly attractive option for small businesses in their advertising and marketing efforts. The current economy has businesses scrambling for affordable marketing methods and social media is a possible option, depending on how its leveraged.

Google beat Wall Street with its third quarter earnings, announced today. Their revenue is up 31% year-over-year and up 3% over Q2.

Analysts have been worried that a weak economy would mean worse results for the search giant, due to tightening advertising budgets and decreased consumer confidence.

But, of course, almost the opposite is true. Advertising on Google is much more affordable than traditional marketing methods such as print and television. Search advertising is also more easily measured and has the opportunity to provide a wealth of behavioral data.

Soleil Securities has downgraded Google stock (GOOG) from “buy” to “hold.” Their reasoning is that ad-driven companies will see a slowdown to the weak economy and that Google is already experiencing a slowdown in growth of their ad revenues. Soleil analyst Laura Martin downgraded the price target for GOOG from $580 to $350. GOOG was at $334 at the time of this post.

Google will hold its 2008 third quarter earnings call and webcast next week.

Meanwhile, Local.com has announced a stock repurchase program. The program will last 18 months and the company may buy up to $2 million of outstanding common stock.

“The board of directors has confidence in our company,” said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and chief executive officer. “Local.com is a leader in the rapidly growing local search market with both patented and patent-pending technologies. We are gaining significant market share, increasing our organic traffic, growing our direct advertiser base and, as a result, projecting continued high growth.”

LOCM was at 1.89 at the time of this post. Its high is 2.36 and its low is 1.78.

Both GOOG and LOCM trade on the Nasdaq which was up 4.40 points at the time of this post.

Related Reading:
Local.com Partners with Hearst’s White Directory Publishers
Local.com Launches Ratings and Reviews Engine
Google Earnings Top $5.37 Billion in Revenue Q2 2008

I guess Yahoo possibly talking with AOL again and launching a brand new advertising platform were not enough to ease opinions on the current state of Yahoo. Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Agrawal does not have a lot of faith in Yahoo right now. He maintains his hold status on the stock, and places the value at $21. That’s quite a bit less than the $31 Microsoft was offering to acquire Yahoo earlier this year.

Agrawal writes, “We believe that the fundamentals at YHOO are deteriorating. On the one hand, economic headwinds and turmoil in the financial markets are causing weaker display ad revenues. On the other hand changes with the minimum bid with search and a possible GOOG/YHOO deal are causing an outcry among many advertisers. To further complicate the situation is an ongoing loss of talent which might accelerate with renewed restructuring efforts. We don’t see any near-term upside in the shares of YHOO on a fundamental basis.”

Sounds like deal or no deal, Yahoo is screwed at the moment. What do you think?

via Barron’s h/t AllThingsD

Related Reading:
Google Launches Facts Site About Yahoo Search Ad Partnership

Google is none-too-thrilled about a SearchIgnite study suggesting that search advertising prices would increase by 22%. Now they’re fighting back by saying the study was misleading. Here are their main points:

• Ad prices are not set by Yahoo! or Google, but by advertisers themselves
• Yahoo! won’t be able to see the current auction prices for Google ads, just as Google won’t be able to see Yahoo’s prices
• The report mistakenly assumes that Yahoo! will serve Google ads for as many of its search queries as possible. This contradicts Yahoo’s own statements that their plan is to serve Google ads on search results pages where they have few relevant ads to serve.
• The report includes a misplaced focus on cost per click (CPCs) rather than the more important measure for advertisers — return on investment of their advertising dollar.
• the study fails to take into account that fact that Yahoo! shows significantly more ads per page than Google

I’m sure the analysts will be split on whether they agree with Google or not.

But one thing Google is getting wrong is the timing. This week’s fast collapse of companies in the financial market and the mortgage problems that have plagued the U.S. for a year now are only reminders of the great risks associated with companies becoming TOO BIG.

Of course, forging an ad deal with Yahoo is not the same as taking on irresponsible loans, but consumers, Wall Street, and the feds are undoubtedly wary of big promises made by big corporations. And Google has become just that in a short 10 year time frame.

Even without the current mess, antitrust concerns abound. And while Google may have permeated our culture, for some the side effects of such power have been extremely costly.

In a week after a devastating hurricane and financials falling left and right, Google is not exactly demonstrating sensitivity to the current consumer and regulatory climate by supporting their desire to expand their overwhelming majority market share even further.

Since launching a mobile text search service in January, ChaCha has answered 27 million queries, already gaining 7% of the U.S. mobile search market. They tied Yahoo in mobile search market share by the end of June 2008.

ChaCha experienced an 800% growth rate in the second quarter of 2008.

“Mobile search is growing at an incredible pace,” says Chris Quick, mobile media analyst with Nielsen Mobile. “Within the mobile SMS search category, ChaCha is the fastest growing service, increasingly competitive with other mobile search providers. We’re therefore keeping very close tabs on how ChaCha will affect the mobile market.”

Looks like refocusing their business model on mobile text search is working out pretty nicely. I’ve used ChaCha myself, and I find it quite useful. I can text a question, keep going about my day and then get the precise answer I need a few minutes later. It saves me time, because I can get stuff done instead of sifting through a bunch of different search results, which may or may not be relevant.

What do you think of ChaCha’s mobile text search service and growth? Direct your thoughts to the comments section.