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Social sites FriendFeed and Twitter have (separately) updated the designs of their interfaces. You won’t notice much by going to the homepage not logged in.

But once you’re passed the wall, you’ll notice a few changes.
Twitter’s are largely cosmetic in nature, with the biggest change being moving the tabs for Replies, Direct Messages, etc. to the sidebar. They’ve also slapped some Ajax on there to just refresh Home or @Replies when you click on them. Thank goodness.

FriendFeed’s new design incorporates a much needed feature: friend lists. Kind of like buddy lists on AOL’s Instant Messenger, you can sort the people you’ve subscribed to Friends, Professional, etc. You can also create your own lists. Another new feature is adding photos directly to FriendFeed.

But the biggest awesomeness of the day is DUPLICATE DETECTION! This makes Friday end on a happy note after such a crappy week on Wall Street. Ok, it doesn’t bring your money back or prevent all those financial companies from failing, but it does make FriendFeed that much nicer!

What do you think of the updates? Let it fly in the comments.

Online video search engine blinkx has sent a letter to digital advertising company MIVA, seeking to acquire it for $1.20 per share. Yesterday’s closing price for MIVA stock, which trades on the NASDAQ, was $0.78.

MIVA has certainly had its share of trouble of recent years. The company has gone through reorganizations and a management shakeup in the hopes of stabilizing the business, which includes a pay-per-click offering.

Here’s the full text of the letter for your consumption.

August 8, 2008

MIVA, Inc.
5220 Summerlin Commons Boulevard
Suite 500
Fort Myers, FL 33907
Attention: Peter Corrao, CEO
Larry Weber, Chairman
Members of the Board of Directors

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Re: blinkx and MIVA Combination

I am writing on behalf of the board of directors of blinkx Plc to make a proposal for the business combination of blinkx and MIVA. Under our proposal, blinkx would acquire all of the outstanding shares of MIVA common stock for $1.20 in cash per share. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition. The transaction would be funded from existing cash resources of the two companies.

Proposal. Our proposal represents a 54.0% premium above the closing price of MIVA common stock of $0.78 on August 7, 2008, and a 36% premium over the average closing price for the one month prior to August 7, 2008.

By whatever financial measure one might use, we believe this proposal represents a compelling value realization opportunity for your shareholders and the quickest and most secure way to see such value, particularly given the several challenges MIVA faces in the near term, including: risk and cost associated with the new technology platform, a deteriorating cash position, continued deterioration of the Media EU business and continued decline in revenue and profitability.

We believe that MIVA’s shareholders would not be well-served by any delay in negotiating or completing the merger process, and that time and/or another round of restructuring plans will not significantly increase MIVA’s valuation.

Background. Having worked together for a number of years you will be aware that blinkx is the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine. Founded in 2004 by Suranga Chandratillake, the company completed a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange (AIM) in May 2007 and currently has a market capitalization of approximately $160 million, with headquarters in San Francisco, CA and the UK. With an index of over 26 million hours of searchable video and more than 350 media partnerships, including national broadcasters, commercial media giants, and private video libraries, blinkx has cemented its position as the premier destination for online TV. blinkx pioneered video search on the Internet, enhanced by $150 million in R&D over 12 years, and is now protected by 111 patents.

Rationale. blinkx believes that a combination of the two companies would be mutually beneficial to both companies’ shareholders, employees, and customers. blinkx and MIVA have complementary businesses that could benefit greatly from blinkx’s technology and MIVA’s distribution network.

blinkx has worked with MIVA as a customer and partner for a number of years and has a great deal of respect for MIVA’s success in building a global keyword advertising network and growing the MIVA Direct consumer offering. We believe, however, that with the Internet’s continued progression towards rich media and newer forms of advertising, more advanced technology will play a fundamental role in achieving success.

blinkx already has in place a proven and growing video-driven revenue engine, and enjoys an unrivalled technology portfolio which is applicable across many aspects of the online market. A combination of the two companies - fusing MIVA’s advertising network with blinkx’s ability to leverage its technology portfolio into the online market - presents an exciting and compelling opportunity.

Specifically, blinkx’s advanced and scalable matching technology will enable immediate platform improvements for MIVA. As a result large portions of relevant search traffic from MIVA’s search ad network will be monetizeable at higher rates through blinkx’s technology. Furthermore blinkx’s technology holds the potential to build on MIVA’s existing toolbar network, adding the latest functionality and an entirely new revenue stream. Finally, MIVA’s consumer sites and portals, that already attract large audiences, will immediately benefit from blinkx’s advanced video technology and AdHoc advertising platform.

Process and Employees. We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company. We believe that the management and employees of MIVA are critical to realizing a successful transition and foresee an important and central role for MIVA employees in the combined company.

Any acquisition of MIVA would be subject to the opportunity to conduct a limited confirmatory due diligence investigation, the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement containing customary terms and conditions, including customary conditions to closing; no material adverse change to MIVA’s business; appropriate shareholder approvals; and any regulatory requirements. Given our participation in the industry and MIVA’s public status, we envisage an efficient due diligence process appropriate to a public company. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.

Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the MIVA Board to engage in a full review of our proposal and discussion of its contents with MIVA’s shareholders. We are prepared to meet at a time and location of your convenience to complete due diligence and commence definite agreement negotiations.

We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity for MIVA’s shareholders to realize value, and the combined company will be well positioned for future growth. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favourable reply.

Yours sincerely,

Suranga Chandratillake

CEO and Founder

There was a new service launched at the beginning of the month that follows all uses of your brand, domain, special keywords and more - Search Monitor. And before you jump at me for the plug I am not associated with it at all.

I was sent the press release and information about the product and from what I have seen so far this could be a great tool for reputation management, keeping an eye on competitors using your name etc. or even to track affiliates.

The press release states:

The Search Monitor (“TSM”), an online monitoring service that tracks competitive advertiser activity on paid search, blogs, news, and web sites, announces the product release of three new automated monitoring utilities: Competitor Monitor, Trademark Monitor, and Affiliate Monitor.

With this launch, interactive agencies, marketers, affiliate managers, and compliance teams gain critical insight into search marketing strategies, affiliate activities, trademark abuse, and brand buzz. The Search Monitor offers important information that can only be gained by careful 24×7 automated monitoring, and surfaces the information in 3 easy to use reporting sections:

1. Competitor Monitor gives insights into competitive bidding strategies, competitor market share and visibility, ranking on sponsored search, ad copy strategies, and promotions like free shipping, trials, or sales.

2. Trademark Monitor eases the tasks associated with reputation management by auto-detecting advertisers sponsoring branded keywords, use of trademarks and slogans in ad copy and display urls, and brand buzz on blogs, news, and web sites.

3. Affiliate Monitor simplifies oversight of affiliate programs by auto-identification of affiliates using sponsored search to detect violations of rank requirements, keyword restrictions, ad copy
requirements or restrictions, and landing page copy requirements or restrictions.

Search engine marketing has become a critical component for advertisers. According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), North American advertisers spent $12.2 billion on SEM in 2007 and that figure is estimated to more than double to reach $25.2 billion by 2011. The Search Monitor was developed to provide the tools necessary to optimize the sizable investments being made in this medium and to protect brands from competitive threats.

“There is a big problem in the industry known as ‘Piggybacking’ which is when smaller advertisers use the trademarks or slogans of bigger advertisers in ad copy or display urls to lure consumers into clicking on their ads”, says Shaun Martinec, a TSM founder. “For our larger brand clients, we have discovered as many as 1 in 10 competitors engaging in this practice. We were quite alarmed to learn that some violators are parked domains, phishing, and spyware sites. With The Search Monitor, our clients are able to catch these activities and react quickly.”

Another advantage of having a monitoring tool such as The Search Monitor is that marketers and agencies can glean insights into competitive online advertising campaigns including ad copy, promotional offers and ad placement strategies.

There are some products out there that cover some of the elements, but the interface is easy to navigate and provides some valuable monitors that many of us can use.

The U.S. government charged a mother who allegedly used MySpace in a deadly hoax that drove her daughter’s 13-year-old classmate (pictured here) to suicide with conspiracy.

Missouri resident Lori Drew, after her daughter’s schoolgirl fights with neighbor Megan Meier, 13, created a fake MySpace account to pose as a boy and flirt with Meier. When Drew began using her online identity to taunt Meier, the girl hanged herself.

The boy Megan had been corresponding with on MySpace unexpectedly began calling her a fat slut. He wrote “the world would be a better place without you.” It turns out he was a hoax created by the mother of a former friend.

Drew was indicted today for conspiracy and accessing protected computers without authorization to inflict emotional distress. She faces 20 years in prison, the maximum penalty.

“Any adult who uses the internet or a social gathering website to bully or harass another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realize that their actions can have serious consequences,” Los Angeles federal prosecutor Thomas O’Brien, who brought the charges, said in a statement.

The case was filed in California, where MySpace is headquartered.

The suit goes a long way toward establishing and enforcing the boundaries of acceptable and illegal behavior on the Internet in general and social media sites in specific.

“OK so now what?” is the headline of Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang’s blog post this morning at Yodel Anecdotal, the official Yahoo! blog. Yahoo must face the future with Microsoft at its doorstep and Google as the dominant search engine.

Yang outlines the furious pace of Q1 when the search engine bought another company, launched new products, added partners, and opened new R&D labs:

* Acquired Maven Networks.
* Launched Yahoo! Buzz, OneSearch 2.0, mobile voice search, Flickr video, Shine.
* Previewed AMP and SearchMonkey.
* Addied Newspaper Consortium members.
* Opened new R&D labs in India and Israel.

All very impressive (along with a solid first quarter) but the blog post doesn’t address the number one question on everyone’s mind - and the most important one: What will Yahoo! do with search?

Yahoo has some innovative plans for improving search results but no plans for increasing market share.

OK, so now what for Google? Now that Microsoft is on the sidelines, does Google have any incentive to do an outsourcing deal with Yahoo?

The reality? No. Google share of searches continues to grow. Yahoo and Microsoft have been weakened further by the merger distractions.

Everything’s not OK in Sunnyvale today.

Without a Google deal in hand, Jerry Yang faces a very black Monday.

If the popularity of Facebook fansites was an indicator of how Londoners will vote on May 1st then Boris would be a clear winner with 7466 supporters whilst Ken and Brian trail behind with 2152 and 2130 respectively. Thankfully it seems that Londoners will vote with their feet rather than faces but latest results from a social media study reveal that online PR strategies could count for something in the electoral race.

Nielsen Online revealed today that London Mayoral candidates Ken and Boris are top of the blogs, dominating 80% of the social media conversation. Liberal Democratic candidate Brian Paddick is third with 9% of comments, followed by the Green Party’s Sian Berry with just under 4% and the BNP’s Richard Barnbrook with 2%.

According to Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst from Nielsen Online, Londoners penchant for social networking continues to thrive and users are taking their opinions mainly to non-political forums, blogs & message boards including those of national newspapers and sites like Twitter and Facebook.

“Ken and Boris are the two leading candidates, neck and neck in the polls and the levels of conversation in the social media space utterly reflect this. If conversation levels were a guide, Ken would narrowly pip Boris to win. However, it’s when we look at the sentiment of these conversations that a far more interesting and revealing picture emerges.”

Controversy, positivity, negativity: sentiment towards the five leading candidates in social media

• Controversy: Boris is the ‘marmite’ candidate – being the most likely of the top five to generate some form of opinion either way. Only 30% of posts relating to him were of ‘no opinion’

The Green Party’s Sian Berry generates the least controversy / most apathy – having the highest percentage (54%) of ‘no opinion’ posts

• Positivity: Whilst Boris is most likely to generate positive sentiment, 29% of posts being ‘positive’ – Sian Berry had the highest overall ‘net’ positive score of 15% (positive sentiment % minus negative sentiment %). Brian Paddick is the only other candidate to come out with a ‘net’ positive score (11%)

• Negativity: Richard Barnbrook is most likely to generate negative sentiment, 38% of posts being ‘negative’. He also had the lowest overall ‘net’ positive score of -19%

Indeed Nielsen’s results seem to suggest that, shock horror, actually participating in blogs, forums and social media is effective in helping other people to form opinions on issues that affect them. The most active candidates online garnered a net positive score in total comments posted on social media sites. Brian Paddick employed a web ace, signed up to twitter, where he hosted a policy debate and also broadcasted himself via uStream.tv.

“Of the three leading candidates in the polls it’s not surprising that Brian Paddick is the only one to have an overall positive sentiment score in social media. His campaign, involving a US web strategist firm, has focused the most heavily on social media including a pioneering British political use of sites like Twitter, Facebook and UStream.TV – and it certainly seems to have paid dividends.

However, judging from the sheer levels of social media conversation on the election, it may not be enough to grab victory over Boris or Ken. If social media were a crystal ball it might tell us Boris is likely to get more votes than Ken. However, positive comments on Boris more often centre on personality rather than policies and only time will tell if this is a strong enough factor for voters when faced with putting the cross in his box to change the status quo.”

So, positivity is not the cure for apathy and clearly Londoners like myself, vis-a-vis this post, whether online or on the underground, don’t know what we really really want but we sure do love a good rant!

Clickable is the latest Software-as-a-Service offering for Search Engine Marketers. SmallBusinessComputing.com’s Gerry Blackwell had the chance to get insight from one of the private beta testers selected to test the product.

Pam Emery, marketing specialist at outdoor gear supplier Backcountry Edge, found that Clickable streamlined her SEM efforts, which are just a part of the four-year-old companies’ overall marketing strategies. Emery engaged in a learn-as-you-go method when it came to paid search advertising. But now she’s finding that Clickable helps her manage PPC campaigns with ease.

Clickable is able to explain tricky paid search analytics in plain English. It can make suggestions such as “Bidding more for this word will improve your return.”

Emery says that instead of dealing with different interfaces for different search engines, she can now rely on just one – at least for Yahoo and Google. Clickable has a plugin for both of the top two search engines with one for MSN on the way.

Clickable’s interface is web-based and uses the company’s servers, relieving customers of additional IT burdens. Emery told SmallBusinessComputing.com that it’s too soon to tell if Clickable improves sales over her previous efforts, but it has given her confidence in her newly gained paid search strategies.

Related Reading:

SalesForce, Google “Deep Integration” May Improve Google Analytics
Widemile Goes Into Beta, Picks Up 13 Partners

Douglas Merrill, Google CIO and VP of engineering, has accepted a new gig: president of digital at struggling EMI Music, home of the Beatles and former home of Radiohead.

So who’s Douglas Merrill?

As Caroline McCarthy of The Social noted in this very funny exhange: “Doug Merrill is leaving Google.” “Doug who?” “The Google exec who looks liike Ethan from Lost.” “Ohhhh.”

As only the second senior executive to leave Google, Merrill and his departure won’t cause a panic in the Googleplex Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was the first senior exec to leave Google. As the former VP global sales and operations, Sandberg, who left last month, is tackling a major problem that Google’s largest social search competitor hasn’t solved: monetization.

Not that EMI doesn’t have problems of its own. Widespread piracy has taken its toll on sales and the company’s future appears to hinge on offering free music downloads supported by ad revenue with all-you-can-eat iTunes.

Will EMI be able to retain its top talent? That may be a tougher challenge than Google faces.

When Ms. Sandberg left, we noted that Google has a deep bench:

While Ms. Sandberg will be missed at Google, the company boasts a strong executive bench.

Today in The New York Times, Miguel Helft reports Google told him:

“We have a deep bench and work hard to grow leaders within the company,” Google said in a statement to The New York Times. “We are attracting immensely talented people around the world, every day.”

Google has long been hiring at a fast and furious pace with its pick of rising stars in a range of industries.

The supposition that Google faces attacks on the mothership by former employees is considered by many in the industry as absurd at best. If anything, the strong relationships and ex-Googler ties with current Google executives make alliances more likely than the forging of an axis of “Do No Evil” enemies.

Sure there are lots of global news stories in Bloomberg News today. For example, “Verizon Faces Fight With FCC’s Martin Over Rules for Open Wireless Network.” Bloomberg.com says Verizon Wireless faces a new challenge after beating Google Inc. in the biggest U.S. mobile- phone airwaves auction: scrutiny from regulators who expect the carrier to build a truly open network.

While we get just as excited about “scrutiny from regulators” as the next guy, that’s not the best story of the day.

Nor was it “Houston Topless Clubs May Turn to Pasties After Losing 10-Year Legal Fight” detailing Eric Langan’s plans to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court with pasties.

And while we’re impressed by Ivy League students with hearts of gold turning Spring Break into a “Guilt Trip” for all the other Spring Breakers in Cabo (”Students on Spring Break Skip Mai Tais on Cabo to Serve at Bowery Mission”) we’re wondering why Ivy League students need to fly to Cabo to volunteer in a soup kitchen.

The story says “It’s lunchtime at the Bowery Mission, and seven Cornell University students are serving rice, chicken and gravy to homeless men staying there to learn job skills and conquer addictions.”

They must be serving the homeless with a “Silver Spoon.”

Here’s the one story we loved:

Global SEO expert Nick Wilsdon and his wife, Anna, starred in the headline news story, Russia’s `City of Brides’ Triggers Baby Boom After Love Quests by Bloomberg reporter, Yuriy Humber.

It’s a great story. Don’t miss it. The Bloomberg News photo shows:

English-Russian couple Anna and Nick Wilsdon in their home in Ivanovo, Russia, on Feb. 7, 2008. This year in the town of Ivanovo, babies are being born faster then ever, and deaths are slowing down. With any luck, the town known as Russia’s “City of Brides” will start to increase in population for the first time since the Soviet era.”

Courtesy of the exceptional photographer, Dmitry Beliakov of Bloomberg News.

Google Webmaster Central and the Google Search Quality team have a new ally in the global fight against Web spam, cloaking, paid links, link farms and other non-sanctioned schemes: the Security Group at the University of Cambridge.

Web sites created by Chicago-based Privila were banned by Google earlier this month after Steven Murdoch of University of Cambridge Computer Labs exposed an alleged cloaking scheme by the content network. Steven Murdoch blogged about his findings on March 6th. Two days later Google removed the sites from its index.

It seems that people and spiders were seeing different pages when they visited sites such as soccerlove.com, ammancarpets.com, and canadianbattery.com. People were seeing display ads created by unpaid interns. Google spiders were seeing keyword-rich articles also churned out by unpaid interns. Windows Live and Yahoo! were seeing neither ads nor articles.

Privila already has added the articles back to the sites but the sites are not yet re-indexed.

Murdoch discovered the cloaking after the computer lab where he works received a link exchange spam email from Privila.