• Feb. 2007 - Google Pushes Towards Personalization of Search Results - SEOs begin to fear as the focus shifts from a universal search results page to the reality of a unique search engine results pages for each and every user.
• Apr. 2007 - Google's purchase of ad firm DoubleClick in it's largest to-date acquisition for an estimated 3.1 billion dollars. With the move Google may account for close to 80 percent of the ads served up on the Internet.
• May 2007 - Google Releases Universal Search - During Google's recent Searchology event at the Googleplex, it was announced that Google released Universal Search. The first pass of universal search focuses on video, news, local and books.
• Jun. 2007 - Google confirming Acquisition of Feedburner – FeedBurner, a Chicago-based company, provides media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds. Its Web-based tools, including an extensive feed and blog advertising network, help publishers promote, deliver, and monetize their content on the Web.

• Feb. 2007 - Yahoo Releases Yahoo Pipes. Yahoo Pipes is an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator where users can use this application by drag and dropping feeds, user input or other pipes as input.
• Jun. 2007 - Yahoo CEO Terry Semel steps down; Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang steps in as new CEO of Yahoo – you knew something was up last week at Yahoo’s Annual Shareholder’s Meeting when Terry Semel was questioned (in essence) as to if he still wanted his job. He obviously was unable to sell them on that fact that he wanted to remain in his position as he stepped down on Monday as the CEO of Yahoo.

• May 2007 - Microsoft to Acquire aQuantive - Microsoft has paid a rumored $6 billion for digital marketing company aQuantive, Inc. Microsoft has finally found its online advertising partner, with news that it will acquire aQuantive. After missing out on DoubleClick to Google, watching Yahoo pick up Right Media and WPP buying 24/7 Real Media, Microsoft couldn't sit back any longer and decided to acquire aQuantive with a $6 billion cash deal.
• Rumors of Microsoft Building a New Search Engine – Rumors have it that Microsoft has gathered a team of twenty or more “rock star” developers who’ve been tasked at building their next generation search engine. With the failure of Windows Live, Microsoft should be doing something, anything to improve their search offering.

• Apr. 2007 - ASK.com releases a new social search ranking algorithm code named Edison.
• May 2007 - Citysearch is relaunched with updated look and new features. The updated version of Citysearch now offers recommendations or personalized suggestions based on past search behavior.
• Jun. 2007 - Rumors of Microsoft Building a New Search Engine – Rumors have it that Microsoft has gathered a team of twenty or more “rock star” developers who’ve been tasked at building their next generation search engine. With the failure of Windows Live, Microsoft should be doing something, anything to improve their search offering.

There were a number of other events that took place in the first half of 2007 such as the inaugural Search Marketing Expo is held in Seattle, WA. – this is Danny Sullivan and his team’s new search marketing conference as he steps away from Incisive’s Search Engine Strategies shows that have dominated the industry over the past few years. Of course there were other shows including SES New York, SES Toronto, and SES London.

Here's a look at some of the top happenings in the search industry over the past six months.

SEO-Space Top Happenings in Search - January 2007
SEO-Space Top Happenings in Search - February 2007
SEO-Space Top Happenings in Search - March 2007
SEO-Space Top Happenings in Search - April 2007
SEO-Space Top Happenings in Search - May 2007
SEO-Space Top Happenings in Search - June 2007

Labels: ASK, google, search engine industry, yahoo