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Yahoo! has been testing a new home page design. Last week, we saw images and learned more about the user interface.

This week, Yahoo! has announced the addition of an eBay application to the home page test. The app is included on the left hand sidebar along with tabs for stocks, movies, local events, etc.

Check it out:

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is in favor of freeing up the “white spaces” in the tv spectrum between television stations. While concerns over interference have been made by some groups, testing has not shown that to be a problem. As Techdirt points out, the complications found in testing were from failed devices, not interference.

Martin is seeking a vote from the full commission on the matter as early as November 4th, which just so happens to be another important election day.

Related Reading:
Google to Internet, FCC, Verizon and Viacom: Keep it Open
Google Joins the “Internet for Everyone” Initiative

E-tailers rate SEO, site search, and email marketing as the most important e-commerce technologies when it comes to promoting their businesses, according to new survey data released by SLI Systems.

• 91% of the retail companies surveyed cited site search as critical, very important or important to their online businesses.
• Of the retailers that have measured the impact site search has had on their businesses, 87% reported positive results.
• 54% saw an increase in sales as a direct result of adding new site search capabilities, while 44% experienced greater conversion rates and 40% cited better customer satisfaction.
• Of the retailers polled, close to 60% said they would be likely to consider a hosted (SaaS) site search solution over a traditional installed application to reduce costs, lessen the strain on IT resources and make for more rapid deployment.

SLI Systems’ CEO Shaun Ryan shares why this data is important to understand in view of the upcoming holiday retail season: “Adopting proven technologies that can guide shoppers to a merchant’s site in the bustling world of e-commerce will enable retailers to deliver a better customer experience and ensure the holidays are fruitful.”

Related Reading:
SLI Rolls Out Learning Search Update with New Auto Complete Feature
SLI Systems Joins Bazaarvoice Radius to Help Marketers Execute Integrated Social Commerce Strategies

Tomorrow, Google co-founder Larry Page will keynote the “Broadband for the Future Event” in Washington, DC. The event is designed to advocate for white spaces, something Google has been adamant about for a long time.

If you’re unaware, white spaces are a unused airwaves between TV stations. Google wants them to be used for free nationwide wireless. Opponents say that it will interfere with the television signals.

Here’s the details on the event if you wish to attend.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
11:30 am - 1:00 pm ET
Room SD-G50, Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Related Reading:
Google to Internet, FCC, Verizon and Viacom: Keep it Open
Google Joins the “Internet for Everyone” Initiative
Google Opens Up About Spectrum Auction

Google has announced an investment in 03b Networks, whose goal it is to get internet connectivity to developing nations. Of course, the idea is that the internet will be high-speed and low-cost.

Google Product Manager Larry Alder explains why this is so difficult, but how it can be accomplished:

Most of today’s developed countries are linked by thousands of kilometers of submarine fiber optic cables to carry core Internet traffic. This is a very cost-effective solution, once the fiber is in place; but in many developing and remote areas, fiber isn’t available due to economic and sometimes political roadblocks. Though existing geo-synchronous satellites are able to reach theses areas, they provide slow Internet connectivity because of their distance from the Earth - and they’re expensive and often fully subscribed. O3b plans to deliver fiber-like Internet backhaul service using a constellation of medium-orbit satellites. This means data can be quickly transmitted to and from even the most remote locations such as inland Africa or small Pacific islands.

What do you think of this initiative? Will it work? Let us know your impressions in the comments.

Related Reading:
Google Joins the “Internet for Everyone” Initiative
Google Earth Outreach Non-Profit Initiative Launches
I’m Google, And I’ve Just Found…The Internet

Idearc CEO Scott Klein has announced the nine members of the new Executive Council. In addition to the new Council, Idearc is reorganizing their sales operations.

The nine Council members are:

• Samuel D. (Dee) Jones, executive vice president, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Jones, who also served as senior vice president - Investor Relations, has been Acting CFO since November 2007.
• Cody Wilbanks, executive vice president - General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Wilbanks has been Acting General Counsel since March.
• Sandy Henjum, executive vice president - Transformation and Marketing. Henjum’s centralized organization will guide a wide range of business transformation initiatives that address sales productivity, new products, pricing programs and market and customer segmentation.
• Briggs Ferguson continues as president - Internet. Ferguson, a former Citysearch executive who joined Idearc in April, will focus on executing Idearc’s complete digital strategy as rapidly as possible.
• Georgia Scaife, executive vice president - Human Resources and Employee Administration. Scaife’s organization has been restructured to further centralize the department and improve its efficiency and focus.
• Frank Gatto continues in his role as executive vice president – Operations. Gatto’s organization is responsible for receivables management and billing, sales support and customer care, publishing and printing services, distribution, Information Technology (IT) and other operational functions.

In sales, three Vice Presidents will oversee new divisions, divided into East, West, and Central.

Mike Pawlowski will oversee East and Scott Laver will oversee Central. Newcomber Dave Bethea joins Idearc from PrimeSource Building Products, an independent distributor of building products, where he served as regional Vice President for Operations.

“I’m very pleased and excited about our new organization,” Klein said. “I’m thrilled to be able to make this announcement almost one month ahead of schedule in order to allow us to even more aggressively move ahead with our transformational plans.”

Related Reading:
Superpages.com Parent Idearc Media Partners with HelloMetro’s Network of 1500+ .mobi Sites
Idearc Buys Switchboard, Other Assets from InfoSpace
Idearc to Add-on SEM Services

Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire Greenfield Online, the owner of Ciao, a European price comparison and shopping site. This seems to be in line with Microsoft’s strategy of focusing on building up focused areas of search.

Ciao also includes consumer reviews and ratings with its search results. They boast a multimillion-user-strong online community and see more than 26.5 million unique visitors per month across seven countries. So far, more than 5 million product reviews have been generated.

Ciao joins Farecast, FAST, and Powerset in Microsoft’s portfolio of search-related acquisitions for 2008.

“Ciao’s success has been led by a team of talented people who took a unique combination of intuitive technology and the insight that comes out of their passionate consumer community to become one of Europe’s leading shopping comparison sites,” said John Mangelaars, vice president, Consumer and Online, Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa. “This makes the company a fantastic asset to the future of our search offer. Integrating Ciao’s capabilities into Live Search will provide a strong launchpad for our commercial search offer in Europe and enhance our e-commerce offering on MSN.”

Jason Lynn, Director of Solutions Engineering for Yahoo/Right Media is exiting the Sunnyvale search engine to become Executive Vice President of Product Management at online advertising network interCLICK. Prior to his Yahoo/Right Media stint, Lynn was Director of Product Management at behavioral targeting firm TACODA, which was acquired by AOL in July 2007.

That’s the same month Yahoo finalized its acquisition of Right Media.

Lynn joins an exodus of Yahoo execs as of late. Network Division Executive Vice President Jeff Weiner left and became Executive in Residence at two venture capital firms. Vish Makhijani, Senior Vice President of Search, is now heading up the Bay Area operations of Yandex, a Russian language search engine. Brad Garlinghouse, Sr. VP and author of the Peanut Butter Manifesto, and Qi Lu, Executive Vice President of Search and Advertising Technology have left as well.

Founders of other Yahoo-acquired companies aren’t sticking around either. Flickr co-founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake and del.icio.us founder Joshua Schachter have said their goodbyes.

Mike Moran is leaving IBM after 30 years to take a position in the newly created role of Chief Strategist at social media marketing agency, Converseon. Moran will be involved in the development of Conversation Miner as well as provide consulting to Converseon clients.

“We’re thrilled to have Mike join us,” said Rob Key, Converseon CEO. “He brings to the table the perfect combination of industry-leading expertise with hands-on knowledge of how to internally adopt and promote these practices within complex, enterprise environments. As we often say, social media can be technically relatively simple, but culturally quite difficult. His experience will be invaluable as we help leading brands develop and execute innovative social media campaigns. He will also play a key role in consolidating Converseon’s position as a leading social media marketing and consulting agency offering end-to-end services, from listening to engaging to measuring.”

While at IBM, Moran led several search technology projects including IBM’s OmniFind search and text analytics products, the first commercial linguistic search engine, and automatic categorization technology for business search at ibm.com. He has been granted multiple patents and is the author of Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules.

“With their focus on pushing the edges of innovation in reputation management, search marketing and social media, Converseon is the ideal fit for me,” said Mike Moran. “I look forward to working with their standout team and clients.”

Like a politician making campaign promises, Google has announced its involvement in the launch of the “Internet for Everyone” campaign. Unlike politicians, we actually know what the campaign is all about from the title and there’s a higher chance of Google carrying out this platform than politicians keeping their promises.

The “Internet for Everyone” campaign is based on four principles: Access, Choice, Openness, and Innovation. Yup, that sounds like Google. Here’s a brief history.

• In August of 2006, Google makes Wifi available for free in the city of Mountain View, California, where their headquarters are located.
• One year later, Google announces its plans to lobby for “white spaces” on unused TV spectrum, in the hopes of expanding wireless internet. Google has been very vocal about this push in 2008 as well.
• October 2007 - Google announces OpenSocial, a set of common APIs designed to work with social networks participating in the initiative.
• November 2007 - After months of speculation about Google releasing its own mobile phone, the rumors are laid to rest with the announcement of a mobile platform, Android. Google’s plans for open spectrum come into clear view.
• In March 2008, the FCC holds a spectrum auction. Though Google does not win, they bid high enough to force Verizon, the winner of the C block spectrum, to open the spectrum open to third-party applications and handsets. And just to let everyone know they’re paying attention, one month later Google releases a reminder to Verizon and the FCC to keep the spectrum open.
• Later that month, Google teams with MySpace and Yahoo to form the OpenSocial Foundation, to promote the development of cross-platform applications, driven by an open community.
• May 2008 - Google joins a coalition of investors supporting Sprint and Clearwire’s combining of their WiMax businesses.
• Last month, Google launches “Friend Connect,” which enables developers to create social media applications that can span several networking sites as well as be expanded to non-social sites.