Ask.com Renews AdCenter License with LookSmart (MSN Money)

The renewal is good through 2009.  I've not used Ask.com's sponsored listing service so I have no first-hand experience with AdCenter.  But according to the article, it handles more than 5 billion searches a month, 30,000 advertisers, and 10 million keywords.  Way to go, Ask.com!  Those numbers aren't too shabby.

Google Allows AdSense Publishers to Click Play Button on Video Ads (Search Engine Roundtable)

Google says publishers can click the Play buttons on the the Video Ads that might appear on their sites.  However, publishers shouldn't click on links or the video itself (because that costs the advertiser money).  It's a good think they set these Video Ads up that way… because you know folks can't resist the urge to click that Play button.

  Enhance your site with Google search results (Inside AdSense)

The news bars aren't exactly new.  But Google is apparently trying to hype them up with a fresh post about them.  I haven't seen any of these in the wild so I guess they need to do something if they want to get some widespread adoption.

  Unexpected Minimum Bid Increases (Inside AdWords)

Google's official response to the hike in minimum bid amounts experienced by a lot of AdWords advertisers.  Google says the error wasn't related to the upcoming Quality Score updates.  There's no way to get back lost traffic but at least Google is planning to issue credits to advertisers who overpaid during the technical glitch.  When can you expect that credit?  As soon as Google is done analyzing the impact of the glitch.  So whenever that is.

  Google Velocity:  Froogle and Local are dying while Video and Blog are surging (Compete Blog)

Ya know… I can't say that I'm surprised here.  Froogle and Local are dying because Google doesn't do much to publicize them on their own.  I think the future of Froogle and Local information has to do with those services becoming less independent destinations and more about becoming suppliers of supplemental information for the main Google results page.

  Tips on using feeds and information on subscriber counts in Reader  (Official Google Webmaster Central Blog)

Now that Google Reader is reporting statistics (and appears to be a top dog in online news readers), the Google team wants everyone to know how to find that information.  The Google Reader team has also compiled a few addition tips on publishing feeds.