In addition to today’s Internet Marketing Monitor coverage, we felt these stories were worth pulling out of the multitude of news items for August 14, 2007:

Ask.com Adds Health Smart Answers [Search Engine Journal]

Google might have made bigger headlines with leaked images of it’s new Health application, but Ask.com had a much less threatening health announcement today: new Smart Answers. According to Search Engine Journal, Ask.com has partnered with Healthline Networks and Revolution Health power it’s health-related Smart Answers. Why did I say Ask’s announcement was less threatening? Because I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than pour all of my medical information into Google’s database. Perhaps Mountain View should check out Ask.com’s Smart Answer on Zyprexa (it’s an anti-psychotic).

Google launches YouTube-style embeddable maps [APC]

Not everything coming out of the Googleplex today was scary. APC Magazine announced that Google will soon give users the option of embedding maps in websites just like YouTube videos. I don’t know how many times I’ve wished that I could do that. I’ve been drifting away from Google Maps a bit lately… but this certainly has the potential to pull me right back.

Content 101 [Yahoo! Publisher Network]

I’m used to seeing posts like this on blogs. But I think it’s especially cool to see Yahoo! publishing a content-specific guide on one of it’s blogs. Search engine blogs usually deal with… well… search engines - and the related tips and tools that go along with them. And while it’s common to hear private search engine experts talk about the importance of content, it’s much more rare to see a search engine put this much emphasis on helping folks with content. It’s not a “focus on your content and the traffic will come” post, either. It’s an 8 tip guide to writing better content by John Murphy, a Senior Manager of Partner and Product Policy at Yahoo. I’m really glad to see this, Yahoo! Thanks!
Better Ask Commercials [Screenwerk]

Just when you thought it was safe to assume Ask.com’s marketing department had gone completely insane (hey… maybe they need some Zyprexa, too), a chickless, swordless, danceless, songless, stageless, algorithmless, codeless, monkey-wearing-pantsless commercial comes out. So without all of those gimmicky things thrown in, what could the commercial possibly be about? Imagine this - it’s about the SERPs. Yeah, you heard me. It’s a silent, first-person perspective of an Ask.com search for “San Francisco”. And it does a much better job of showing off what makes Ask.com great than Kato Kaelin could ever do.

Malware reviews via Webmaster Tools [Google Webmaster Central Blog]

Let’s say you got one of those emails from Google saying that your site was filled with malware (let’s also assume it wasn’t fake). You made some changes, stripped out the malware, and go back to your normal life. But wait. How does Google know you’ve made those changes? How will they know to stop blocking access to your site from their SERPs? With this new request form, that’s how. Google is now including a simple way to request a review of your site after receiving a malware flag in Google’s database. Submit the request and Big G will review your site. If the malware is truly gone, the flag will come off (usually within about 24 hours). If problems persist, they will send you a list of affected URLs. It doesn’t really get much easier than that.

Have a great night, folks!