As always, there is a lot going on in search and SEO around the world.  Here are some of the highlights from the past week:

• Baidu continues to beat forecasts. Chinese search engine Baidu keeps on growing, this time posting a first-quarter income growth of 25%.  David Temple at Multilingual Search has some more numbers: total revenue this quarter was US$118.76 million, up 48% from the same period in 2008.  Expected revenues for the second quarter are between $157 and $161 million.

• Baidu censorship documents leaked. According to China Digital Times, Baidu “has a long history of being the most proactive and restrictive online censor in the search arena.” Last week, internal documents were leaked, revealing a list of censored websites, information about staff, and censorship guidelines, including lists of banned keywords and how to search for banned information.  The documents give insight into the methods of censorship in China, where the Internet is heavily patrolled and unfiltered information can be hard to come by.

• Find hidden money in web globalization.  James Douglas at iMedia Connection has an interesting piece titled “5 Ways to Find Hidden Money in Web Globalization” to help you manage and add greater efficiency to your global web presence.  There some good lessons to consider for any company that will be expanding its international web presence. 2009 is not a year of flexible budgets, so any increase in efficiency can make a real difference.  James’ five tips:

1. Measure and evaluate current effectiveness.
2. Get a handle on your content.
3. Optimize translation process.
4. Tune up your CMS.
5. Empower your global governance committee to increase value.

• Europeans call for an independent ICANN. ICANN, which works with the US Department of Commerce, is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.  Their job is to “coordinate the Internet’s addressing system.”  Now Viviane Reding, Euroepan Commissioner for Information Society and Media, is calling for an independent ICANN, that conforms to the norms of enterprise and financial transparency, when it’s contract with the US government expires on September 30.  This ‘ICANN 2.0′ could be complemented by a committee representing a G12 body of states, a kind of “G12 of Internet Governance.”  And interesting position, as web addressing becomes increasingly complex and fraught with international judicial challenges.  Stephane van Gelder has more at Le Journal du Net (article in French).

Whew! What a week for news!  Have a great weekend.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 9:18 am and is filed under International Internet Marketing, International SEO, international search engines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.