Yahoo OneSearch has been tapped as the default search engine for Virgin Media's mobile portal in the UK. The partnership will roll out on December 8.

As budgets and keyword lists grow — with multiple optimiza­tion goals — the complexities of managing paid search across multiple engines grow as well. Paid search can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be.

There's nothing like downturn to spur innovation. A rash of new product and feature updates have recently been flung upon the search marketing industry, some better than others

AT&T Inc., the owner of Yellowpages.com, has realigned its advertising sales and product responsibilities under two new business units in a move to help streamline its advertising opportunities across its various channels. Under the new alignment, AT&T's Advertising & Publishing business unit has been renamed AT&T Advertising Solutions and is responsible for all AT&T advertising sales.

Can links that point to your Web site harm your ranking in search engines? The short answer is yes. Links are a major factor by which search engines like Google list your site on results pages, for good or ill.

Nielsen Online has released its October US search market share rankings. Google remains on top with 61.2% of the total number of queries, which is around 7.8 billion. Yahoo unsurprisingly remains in second with 16.9%.

A recent SearchIgnite report reveals that retail search spend has grown in anticipation of fourth quarter holiday sales. Year over year, multi-channel retailers have increased their US search spend by 33% so far in Q4 2008, compared with spending at this time last year.

Analysis and user profiling is not a new concept within consumer advertising, but the major search engine companies have upped the ante so that this practice now presents a very different and far more serious threat toward consumer privacy than ever before.

Trademark bidding is a debated search strategy in which one company bids on its competitors' name or trademarked terms in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Google search "Ford F-150," and ads for Toyota Tundra appear in addition to Ford.

Online local guide Citysearch has released its new version of Citysearch.com with improved local, social and mobile aspects. The company, an operating business of IAC, is expanding its coverage from 140 local city guides to over 75,000 cities and neighborhoods nationwide.