SEO Expert, Anthony Yap

Google publishes U.S. patent application 20060004627

The application covers a method of serving up ads based on the limitations of a mobile device, ad relevance, user preference, CPM and CPC price, and other performance factors. The scoring system determines which ads to serve. Depending on the score, it may even connect the user by calling an advertiser directly when web page results are clicked.

While Google has not rolled out this service to mobile phones and is only testing it on their site, the mobile search market is certainly heating up. Both Google and Yahoo announced a few days ago initiatives that pushes their content more into the mobile market. Although they have yet to include ads which is their main income generator, they have not ruled out the possibility. In an attempt to gain wider application acceptance and distribution, Yahoo teamed up with AT&T & Cingular in the US, and Nokia & Motorola internationally while Google already has mobile search, local search and mapping offerings together with a deal with Motorola to further increase adoption and awareness. AOL entered mobile search when they adopted technology that enables mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs to search the web, comparison shop, and display Yellow Pages listings. AOL already has pay-per-call in place.

The pay-per-call market has been growing steadily, with providers like eStara and Ingenio . In June, Kelsey Group estimated the size of the market between $1.4 billion to $4 billion.

While there are those who dismiss the value of ranking on MSN, I believe that ranking for your key terms on the top three search engines is important. It’s still traffic at the end of the day so it shouldn’t be ignored even if results can be manipulated easily. For insight into MSN search technology that could affect rankings, check out the list of 7 patents.

A new study at UMBC eBiquity Research Group proves that almost three of every four pings to blog servers are from spam blogs, or splogs. Those interested to see their findings on the pingosphere over time can check it out http://memeta.umbc.edu