One of the most talked about deals in the global search marketplace is the recent 10-year search advertising agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo!. The much anticipated deal made headlines on July 29. 2009.

UK-based digital marketing magazine, Revolution explained the deal with help from Paul Doleman, chief technical officer of iCrossing.

Essentially, the deal allows Yahoo to adopt Microsoft’s Bing search engine and run all search marketing through Microsoft’s AdCenter platform. However, there are further implications as noted by Doleman.

This partnership is expected to simplify search marketing by reducing the number of different engines to bid across. The market share that results would be more meaningful to marketers as campaign management overheads will be cut and focus will be strengthened on maximising campaign ROI.

Dolemon further notes that this deal highlights Bing’s need for external support to enhance its market share. Though this increase in market share comes at a cost for Microsoft in terms of search marketing revenue, it is the only way to post a threat to giant rival Google.

Another aspect questions whether Yahoo’s decision to partner with Microsoft is a result of Yahoo’s belief in Bing challenging Google’s search offering or was Yahoo not left with a better choice from it’s downward spiral since the Microsoft merger fell apart last year.

Furthermore, in spite of this deal, Bing will only have 28% market share compared to Google’s 65% (June 2009 Comscore US) and this leaves a big gap to cross. Also, as a result of this deal, there is a risk of losing Yahoo’s free tools that have become invaluable to marketers, for example, the Yahoo Site Explorer.

Overall, this deal has potential positives and potential negatives for search marketers. Only time will show the real implications of this deal and the route Microsoft and Yahoo take next to challenge Google and vice-versa. However, what is clear is the significant change in the search market scene for consumers and marketers alike.

Read more here.

Mad Men Yourself
http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/madmenyourself/
They’re arrogant, chauvinistic and believe they’re never wrong, but we love them all the same. Perhaps so much that we want to be one? Well here’s the chance to Mad Men Yourself and become one of the Madison Avenue elite.

CIA Athletica
http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2009/07/cia_pulldowns.php
This quirky banner demonstrates how you can build not only your muscles, but your self-esteem with CIA Athletica.

Lech Beer
http://lech.pl/nowakaledonia/
The Polish Beer company Lech have put together this stunningly rich site, full of animation, interaction and engagement. You may not understand it if you don’t speak Polish but you’ll enjoy the eye-candy effect for sure.

Swedish Armed Forces recruit
http://rekryt.mil.se/recruitment2009/
Do you have what it takes? Find out if you have the mental ability and psychological strength, in this new recruitment campaign from the Swedish Armed Forces.

Following on from last week’s Government announcement, by Eamon Ryan, on the future of Ireland’s technological state, the Sunday Business Post featured an article ‘Smart Move for Digital Marketing’. In the article Catherine O’Mahony addresses the impact of the proposal and talks to Cybercom’s MD, Jonathan Forrest, about how Digital Marketing will be effected. The article is available here.

For those who missed it, Jonathan Forrest was also interviewed by Pat Kenny on Radio 1 about ‘Advertising in a Recession’.

The brand-new golf course at the Legends Golf & Safari Resort in South Africa is an amazing stretch of 18 holes, designed by 18 different top-flight golfers; including Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, K.J. Choi, Retief Goosen, Justin Rose, Trevor Immelman and Vijay Singh. And I’m sure each one of those 18 holes is a perfect mini-masterpiece of challenge and reward. Along with, apparently, a lion or two along the way, if we’re to believe the brochures.

Social Media is an online phenomenon that may have been inevitable. People have always wanted a voice. People have always wanted a forum to speak their mind. Consider the Punk Rock movement of the 70′s and how it empowered a generation to be different, to be individual, to be part of something larger then themselves. Social Media is no different. From the advent of the first forum and first free blog platform, Social Media has given everyone the power to tell the world what they think, and what they want.

The question is will you listen, and will you respond?

Kelly Castro – Love is Patient
http://moebio.com/loveispatient/
This algorithmic collage of photographes from the amazing portrait series Exteriors, by photographer Kelly Castro, is a simple but beautiful example of the artistic potential on the net. This is the work of Santiago Ortiz, who´s website includes a host of interactive works.

We Choose the Moon
http://www.wechoosethemoon.org
A real time recreation of the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon. 3D animation and audio transmissions take you through this incredible journey step by step.

TEDGlobal 2009: The Substance of Things Not Seen
http://conferences.ted.com/TEDGlobal2009/
While you should all be aware of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and all the fantastic speakers that they bring together, you may not be aware that this week is TEDGlobal. From the beginning of the week, TED has brought 50 amazing speakers and 700 attendees to Oxford UK. This is essential viewing and should not be missed!

Living Sasquatch
http://www.livingsasquatch.com/
Web Cams at the ready; ‘Living Sasquatch’ takes user-generated content to the next level by allowing users to control and direct a virtual Sasquatch movie and share it with their friends.

Check out the perfect rainbow outside out offices yesterday evening!

Check it out full size over on Pix.ie

Dustin Curtis has done a brilliant piece of research on the impact of how you ask/tell people to ‘Follow’ you on Twitter. Over the course of the last few months Dustin has made slight changes and amends to his ‘Follow Me’ link that he adds to the bottom of blog posts, moving from a simple request to a strong command. The results are extremely interesting.

Dustin initially used “I’m on Twitter.”, with 4.70% of readers clicking through.

He then changed this to a straight forward command, “Follow me on Twitter.”, which received an increase to 7.31% clickthrough by readers.

The next amend was to give it slightly more strength; “You should follow me on Twitter.”, resulting in a 10.09% clickthrough from readers.

Finally Dustin added a positioning indicator, “You should follow me on Twitter here.”, which resulted in a further increase to 12.81%.

Overall this is an increase of 173% on his original number of readers clicking through from blog posts. No matter what way you look at it, that’s huge. So that leaves just two questions; what sort of copy are you currently using, and are you already thinking of changing it?

Dustin’s study on ‘exploring the power language has on clickthrough rates’ was conducted on groups of 5,000 visitor and control copy was also used to account for copy length.

Cheers to Damien for the heads up on this.

Every now and then you’re lucky enough to find something that completely captivates you. The new video for Japanese band Sour’s song ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) is just brilliant. Using a community/UGC approach, the video isn’t the first of its kind, but, it’s definitely one of the best examples we’ve seen. Sit back and enjoy!

UFC 100
http://100.ufc.com/
With two titles at risk, this site sets the stage for the biggest UFC event yet. Boasting live news from UFC.com, exclusive fighter analysis, and an outcome predictor this site is the perfect platform to get you in the mood for a night of suspense and entertainment.

Mercedez Benz – Canada – B Class
http://www.mercedes-benz.ca/b/
The B-Class; your world, your stuff, your Mercedez Benz. Wherever you need to go Mercedes-Benz will take you there, with informative videos, imagery and features along the way.

Starbucks Coffe
http://www.starbuckscoffeeathome.com/
Do you like coffee? If your answer is yes you should have a look at the starbucks at home site. Clean design and presentation of the products, and easy to visit, explore and find the perfect coffee for you.

Venour Studio
http://www.venour.com/
Funky style, fresh wave of execution and many more – all this can be found on Venour Studio Portfolio site. Well don’t sit around waiting – click through for the fun!