SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 9, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
May. 9, 2008 at 2:38pm ET
By Barry Schwartz
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See Related Stories In: SearchCap
Coming Search Marketing Webcasts From SMN
Our sister site, Search Marketing Now, is offering a nice mix of free webcasts later this month, ranging from dealing with big PPC campaigns, big brand SEO and bridging the offline-online gap in analytics. SMN webcasts run about 40-50 minutes and start at 1 PM Eastern Time. Here's more about each one:
May. 9, 2008 at 11:21am ET
By Danny Sullivan
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See Related Stories In: SMX & SMN Alerts
Search In Pictures: Cinco De Mayo At Yahoo, Google Lego Monster & Yahoo's Soccer Team
In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
May. 9, 2008 at 11:18am ET
By Barry Schwartz
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Yahoo Buys My Favorite Search Browser Plugin, Inquisitor For Apple Safari
Yahoo has acquired my favorite search browser plugin for Apple Safari, Inquisitor. Inquisitor is an extremely useful search refinement and search aid tool for the Apple browser market. Inquisitor offers autocomplete, refinements, suggestions, and also allows you to add any search engine you like, plus create your own personalized and advanced query operators, much like OpenSearch.
I spoke with Ariel Seidman, the director of product management for this product and he answered a number of questions I had about the acquisition.
May. 9, 2008 at 11:00am ET
By Barry Schwartz
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See Related Stories In: Search Features: Query Refinement, Search Features: Search History & Personalization, Toolbars & Add-Ons, Yahoo: Business Issues, Yahoo: Search
Google Executives Defend Potential Yahoo Search Deal, Microsoft Releases "Proxy Directors" And Looks Beyond Search And "The Last Click"
Yesterday before Google's annual meeting of shareholders, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page fielded questions from reporters on a range of subjects, including a potential paid search deal with Yahoo and its anti-trust implications. Their argument was that a future paid search deal could be set up in a way to allay such concerns, currently being explored by the US Justice Department. And because of the auction structure of the model, there are no price-fixing implications Brin said. Schmidt simultaneously reiterated his desire that Google and Yahoo work together but said there was no deal to announce at the moment.
May. 9, 2008 at 8:27am ET
By Greg Sterling
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See Related Stories In: Google: AdSense, Google: AdWords, Legal: General, Microsoft & Yahoo Merger
Search Engine News, An In-Depth Look At Google's Tools & The Google SERP Tester
In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today's in-depth look, "Google's Tools Section, Part 1 - Intro" and this week's free tips and tools.
May. 9, 2008 at 8:12am ET
By Josh Dreller
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SMX Advanced Selling Out -- Book Soon!
Today's the last day to get the "early bird" rate on a ticket to our SMX Advanced show this June 3 & 4. Perhaps more important for those thinking of going, 85 percent of our available tickets have now gone. We've got less than 100 left. You typically see a last minute spike in sales when the early bird rate expires. In other words -- we could sell out in the next week or so. If you're thinking of going, you need to book now to ensure you can get in. When the tickets are gone, they're gone -- this is a limited capacity event.
May. 9, 2008 at 7:05am ET
By Danny Sullivan
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See Related Stories In: SEM Industry: Conferences, SMX & SMN Alerts
Google Maps Adds Pictures & Explore Feature
Some users like Mathew Ingram noticed that Google has now added images from Picasa and Panoramio into the bar beside their maps.
May. 8, 2008 at 7:27pm ET
By Chris Silver Smith
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See Related Stories In: Google: Maps & Local
Google AdWords Adds Landing Page Load Time Metric To Reports & Launching Mid-June
As expected, Google has announced that landing page load time will become a quality score factor in Google AdWords starting mid-June.
In preparation for that launch, Google has started showing advertisers their metrics for the landing page load time for each keyword's landing page. Here is a picture of what an okay landing page load time score would look like:
May. 8, 2008 at 6:02pm ET
By Barry Schwartz
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See Related Stories In: Google: AdWords
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 8, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
May. 8, 2008 at 3:45pm ET
By Barry Schwartz
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See Related Stories In: SearchCap
Search Engine Land Partners With Federated Media & The Future Of Search Series
I'm happy to formally announce that Search Engine Land has joined John Battelle's Federated Media advertising network. Yes, we're still selling our own advertising directly (and our team is more than happy to help!). Yes, we're still doing our own thing editorially and owned by our parent, Third Door Media. Partnering with FM allows us to try some other ad formats and be part of a great collection of other independent authors.
One of the things FM has pioneered is conversational marketing, where brands want to spark discussion among pundits, analysts and others. It's a new thing, and potentially risky if authors don't let their audiences know what's going on. Since I'm about to participate in my first such conversational marketing campaign, here's what's up.
May. 8, 2008 at 1:45pm ET
By Danny Sullivan
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See Related Stories In: About Search Engine Land
Microsoft's Facebook Ad Deal Doesn't Include Search
Wondering why Microsoft's search isn't being promoted on Facebook? Greg Sterling has noted this odd absence a couple of times, such as in his article today on a possible Microsoft purchase of Facebook. Others have as well. The answer is simple. Last year's big Microsoft-Facebook ad deal didn't include search. I asked Facebook about the absence of a Microsoft search box today and got back:
It is not part of our deal--our deal is directly for MS running industry standard banners in US and internationally.
The big picture? If Facebook does potentially offer a goldmine of search traffic, it's still up for grabs. The exodus of Googlers from there to Facebook could suggest that Facebookers wouldn't want to fall under the shadow of Google in anyway, not to maintain its "next big thing" position with some. Then again, those Googlers might still want to work with the Big G. Or Yahoo. Or Microsoft, which already has an investment. We'll see.
May. 8, 2008 at 11:41am ET
By Danny Sullivan
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See Related Stories In: Microsoft: Partnerships, Search Engines: Facebook
Microsoft & Facebook Do Mating Dance As Microsoft Seeks Alternatives To Yahoo; Google Now Uncertain On Yahoo?
At one point or another, most of the big online media companies have talked about buying Facebook. Yahoo is rumored to have made an early offer of almost $1 billion for the company, which was (obviously) turned down. But as the MicroHoo discussions appeared to be deteriorating, Microsoft apparently made some formal inquiries about Facebook's willingness to be acquired, according to the Wall Street Journal Also from the story, an unnamed source suggest Google execs are uncertain about going ahead with a deal to put their ads on Yahoo.
May. 8, 2008 at 8:22am ET
By Greg Sterling
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See Related Stories In: Google: Partnerships, Microsoft & Yahoo Merger, Microsoft: Business Issues, Search Engines: Facebook
The Most Powerful SEO Tactic: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
The most important thing you can do when talking to an SEO client (be it your boss in your company, or a different company you consult for) is to learn how to explain SEO in the simplest terms possible.
When you are dealing with a non-SEO type, use the 30 second rule: explain it clearly in 30 seconds or less. If it takes you longer than that, your chances of getting them to understand what you are saying have gone down dramatically.
The key then, is to figure out how to net things out into higher level business concepts. This starts with understanding the perspective of your audience. The explanation you might offer the CEO are probably different than the one that you would offer the CFO. The CEO may want to understand strategic impact, and the CFO will likely want to understand financial impact.
May. 8, 2008 at 8:06am ET
By Eric Enge
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See Related Stories In: Search Marketing: General
A Small Business Marketing Success Story: Avante Gardens
There's a battle going on in the floral industry, and many small, independent florists are losing. Like other small businesses, they don't have the time or knowledge to keep up with the latest marketing trends and tactics. But there are other challenges, too: Way back in 1998, the FTC warned consumers about phony marketers pretending to be local florists: Petal Pushers: Is Your 'Local' Florist Really Long-Distance? That consumer alert refers to offline deception via phone directories; ten years later, the situation is just as bad online.
This month's small business online marketing success story is about a business owner who's using search marketing smarts to win this battle, along with some blogging and social media thrown in.
May. 8, 2008 at 7:24am ET
By Matt McGee
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See Related Stories In: SEO: Local, Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing, Small Is Beautiful
Convertibles & Croatia: Google Thinks They Go Together
Check this out, a search on jennifer convertibles in Google shows for Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to the USA sporting a Jennifer Convertibles stock quote feature. Yes, Google thinks that Convertibles & Croatia are the same thing, in a sense.
Both the main Jennifer Convertibles result has a stock quote feature, and so does the Croatia site:
May. 8, 2008 at 7:12am ET
By Barry Schwartz
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See Related Stories In: Google: Web Search
Internet Archive Wins Fight Against Secret FBI Request For Records
When in comes to search privacy, one of the biggest worries in my book has been the US government's ability under the Patriot Act to make secret requests for information that no one can know about. Last year this was ruled unconstitutional by one judge. Today, news is out about the Internet Archive winning against such a request.
May. 8, 2008 at 7:03am ET
By Danny Sullivan
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See Related Stories In: Legal: Privacy
Yahoo Glue Pages Launches In India
Yahoo has launched Glue Pages Beta in Yahoo India. Glue Pages are specialized pages that contain an enhanced visual search result page, for select search queries. The search results that trigger the special "Glue Pages" run across searches in health, sports, entertainment, travel, technology, and finance categories.
The Glue Pages combine classic search results on the left hand column with more visual information related to your query in the middle and right section of the page. The results contain images, videos, articles and more. For example a search on diabetes returns standard search results on the left, in the middle we have WebMD results, followed by HowStuffWorks.com results, then results from Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Answers, Yahoo News, and even Google Blog Search.
May. 8, 2008 at 2:30am ET
By Barry Schwartz
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See Related Stories In: Search 3.0, Yahoo: Search
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 7, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
May. 7, 2008 at 3:40pm ET
By Barry Schwartz
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See Related Stories In: SearchCap
The Big List Of Major B2B Search Engines
Most search marketers focus on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. But B2B search marketers also have a growing number of vertical search options. Clicks and leads from these vertical search sites may not yield the same traffic as general search engines, but the percentage of qualified traffic and conversions can increase dramatically with leads from these specialized and vertical business-oriented engines. Here's a roundup of the most important search sites and resources B2B search marketers should be targeting.
May. 7, 2008 at 1:07pm ET
By Galen DeYoung
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See Related Stories In: Search Engines: B2B Engines, Strictly Business
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