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A month ago, LinkedIn unveiled its new search platform. Now they’re rolling it out to their 31 million users.

Here’s what you can look forward to in the new search platform:

Suggestive Search - When you type into the search box, a list of suggested names from your contacts pops up. You can select one of the names without having to type in the whole thing. I think this might come in handy when you’re having a hard time remembering a name. Maybe you remember the first letter or the first name, but the rest of it just isn’t coming to you - this can help.

Streamlined Search Results - LinkedIn changed the design to make it easier to scan the results. They also added photos. Results can be sorted by relevance, which includes the social graph, or by relationship, relationship + recommendations, and keyword.

Customizable Views Users can determine what info they want returned in their search results. Just click the “Views” drop down menu (next to the “Sort” drop down menu at the top of the results). You can decide whether you want to view headlines, photos, locations and more of the people returned in a search.

Take Action Straight from the Search Results When you mouse over a result, you’ll notice links that let you take action. You can send InMail, get introduced (through a common contact), or add that person to your network.

Modify Your Search On the right hand side of the results, you’ll notice a form where you can type in additional information to narrow your search down and pinpoint it to more exact specifications. You can search by name, job title, company location, and school.

Save Your Search If you want to return to the results, you can save your search. This is a good idea if you’ve modified your search or customized your view.

Check out this video to get a good visual for all of the above:

Of course, you’ll need to be signed in to LinkedIn to take advantage of all the features in the new platform. Not LinkedIn yet? Our own Carrie Hill explained why you need to be in her article, Small Business Owners Need Twitter and LinkedIn.

Head over to LinkedIn and give the new search a test drive. Then come back and let us know what you think in the comments.

Google AdWords has released a new keyword tool. This one lets users plug in their website and a few keywords. The tool, dubbed Search-based keyword tool, takes a look at the site and makes suggestions for keywords that may be relevant to your paid search campaign.

The idea is that you might be missing out on terms that are being searched for. I have to admit, when I’ve used keyword tools, I’ve often been wishing I knew what people were searching for instead of guessing.

But the SEO copywriter in me also knows that so many sites are already optimized for keyword terms based on traditional keyword research, which often starts with a guess.

Plus, the existing keyword tool takes keywords and phrases plugged in by the user already returns a bunch of suggestions.

The tool’s strength lies in avoiding human error. In other words, the existing AdWords keyword tool relies on human entry. This tool looks at the site and can help marketers avoid overlooking terms they may have missed.

Still, remember the tool is in beta. And Google makes it clear that it’s not responsible if you use their suggested keywords in a way that violates the law. Say, by creating an ad that includes a trademarked term.

Related Reading:
AdWords Keyword Tool Now Shows Numerical Data

Google Analytics is now offering Flash tracking. The tracking code is translated into ActionScript 3 programming language. While Google Analytics has been able to provide workarounds in the past, this new feature simplifies the way to track Flash, Flex, and AS3 Content.

Sprout, a company that helps businesses create rich media content, used the code to track videos across MySpace and iGoogle. The Google Analytics team talked to them about their experience:

What do you think of the announcement? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Related Reading:
Google Site Search Integrated with Adobe Community Help
Adobe Provides Flash Technology to Google and Yahoo for Better Indexing

In the same way JFK benefitted from the emerging medium of television, Barack Obama was helped into the White House by the increasing popularity of social media. In today’s building brand equity column, “President 2.0,” Erik Qualman explains that his appeal to younger audiences, and need to get exposure in a primary race against an established opponent led Obama to develop his online strategy. Businesses can learn from his campaign.

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There were lowered expectations for the 2008 Holiday shopping season before the bottom dropped out of the economy, but now it’s even worse. But you and your clients still have to make the best of things, so we’re here to help.

Search Engine Watch is offering a one-hour webcast, “How to Survive the Economic Meltdown & Succeed this Holiday Season,” taking place on Wednesday, November 19 at 1 p.m. EDT.

You’ll get some Holiday PPC campaign tips from Keith Hong, senior director of Clickable’s Assist and Customer Experience group (and former head of Ask.com customer management group). He’ll explain what you should already have done to prepare for success, and what you must do throughout the holiday season to adapt to volatile market and demand spikes. He’ll also offer some advice on how to stay calm and ensure success amidst this economic meltdown.

When times are tough, it’s even more important that you spend your marketing dollars efficiently. This SEW Webcast can help you learn how to do that.

Please sign up today.

It’s easy to pick on Microsoft. It’s practically a national pastime at this point. So when they announced their Cashback program to help grow Live Search, the snears came fast and furious.

“You have to pay people to search?” they said.

Turn your laughter into claps, people. It turns out that Cashback is working. Microsoft is seeing positive results on three goals it said it would report. They are:

• Number of offers in the system
• Advertiser return on investment (ROI)
• Percentage of commercial search queries as measured by comScore

There’s been a 30% increase in the number of products offered via Cashback. 4.5 million unique users per month are generating 68 million commercial queries. eBay has seen an increase of 50% on their ROI.

“We believe this early traction speaks to the differentiated and unique value proposition of Microsoft Live Search cashback for both consumers and advertisers, especially in these tough economic times,” said Brad Goldberg, general manager of Microsoft Live Search.

Is it really any surprise that incentives work? No. Have you ever been listening to the radio and they’re having a $1,000 giveaway? You have to be listening at the right times to call in.

Incentives are nothing new. Microsoft was smart to implement them into Live Search. People don’t necessarily use Google because it’s any better but because it’s familiar. Live Search needs a way to get people searching, and Cashback is working to help accomplish those goals.

That may be why Microsoft is expanding Cashback by partnering with shopping cart providers Miva Merchant, Early Impact Inc. (ProductCart) and 3DCart. Through the agreement, merchants who use the shopping carts are eligible for Cashback.

Yahoo! Shopping has launched a deal finding portal called Yahoo! Deals. You can access the portal at deals.yahoo.com.

It culls sales on various products across the web from sites such as Woot!, Amazon, and Deal News. It also finds coupons and storewide savings from a plethora of online retailers.

Yesterday, we talked about how women are looking to cut back on their holiday shopping. This is a great tool to help them maximize their shopping dollars.

Here’s a screenshot. Check out the site and come back and tell us about your first impressions in the comments.

What’s a good click-through rate for a search ad? What’s a good conversion rate? That’s not an easy question to generalize on, but in today’s Profitable PPC column, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Click-Through and Conversion Rates,” David Szetela shares some guidelines that can help you decide if yours is acceptable.

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Auto search engine Cars.com is offering a free webinar intended to help dealerships learn how online advertising can drive offline traffic.

The webinar will be held this Friday, November 14 at noon EST. Click here for more details and to register for the event.

Here are the specifics of what will be presented:

• Traffic-now vs. branding as the key advertising objective.
• Websites and online features that car buyers use before visiting a store.
• Ingredients of internet ads that drive store traffic.
• A full accounting of internet-generated store traffic.

“A significant percentage of in-market car buyers prefer to take the next step toward a purchase on the most direct path, an in-store visit,” said Dennis Galbraith, Cars.com vice president of advertising products. “These shoppers may not call or email first, so the information they find online determines the dealers they select. Dealers who fully merchandise their complete inventory with multiple pictures, descriptive sell copy and competitive pricing position themselves to win more than their fair share of the business.”

Related Reading:
Yahoo Adds Cars.com, Forbes.com and Ziff-Davis to Publishers’ Network
Cars.com Listings Hit Mobile Devices
Cars.com Drives Ad Campaign to Web