The search landscape is changing so fast that half of what we knew a year ago about search engine optimization and marketing is now obsolete, reports Greg Jarboe in his SEO-PR Newsblog. Jarboe is a regular presenter at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference and web search versus vertical search (in search areas like news) was one of the new search trends featured at the San Jose SES.

The growth of the news search has only come about in the last few years. According to Nielsen/Net ratings, in June 2004 CNN.com was still the #1 online news source with Yahoo not too far behind. By January 2005 Yahoo rose to #1 with 23 million readers a month and by June 2005 they were pulling out in front with 29 million readers a month, dominating the online news ratings.

News search is playing a bigger and bigger role in online marketing. Google has a news search section, as does AOL, MSN and Alta Vista. Sites like Topix are drawing viewers looking for great local news. Recent studies show that 77 percent of Internet users get their news online and it