Search Engine Land » Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com Search Engine Land: News On Search Engines, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Fri, 25 May 2012 13:19:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 iAcquire Banned From Google After Link Buying Allegations http://searchengineland.com/iacquire-banned-from-google-after-link-buying-allegations-122414 http://searchengineland.com/iacquire-banned-from-google-after-link-buying-allegations-122414#comments Fri, 25 May 2012 01:03:00 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122414 The search marketing agency, iAcquire, that was allegedly responsible for buying links for clients was just banned from Google’s search results.

iAcquire was cited as the agency behind Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation’s link buy request emails. For more on that see our story named What Can We Learn From The Latest Brand To Be Called Out For Paid Links?

A site command search for [site:www.iacquire.com] returns no results. Here is a screen shot:

iAcquire’s robots.txt file and source code has no signs of them manually requesting to be deindexed from Google. So this seems to either be a weird bug or an intentional penalty delivered to the agency by Google.

It also appears that the parties discovered in this investigation are all delisted from Google.

We reached out to Google for a comment but at the time of publishing this story, we have not heard back. If and when Google does reply, we will update the story.

Mike King, the Director of Inbound Marketing at iAcquire, responded to a tweet I sent him asking if Google delisted iAcquire. He said, iAcquire “sure was” delisted by Google. He then went on to explain that there was “no network” for Google to ban so they had a “hissy fit” and decided to ban the agency.

Here is his tweet:

I am not aware of another agency that was banned by Google for this practice. There were link networks and link brokers that have been banned but I don’t believe there was ever an agency that was banned for this practice.

We will update the story when we learn more.

]]> http://searchengineland.com/iacquire-banned-from-google-after-link-buying-allegations-122414/feed 46 SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 24, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-24-2012-122395 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-24-2012-122395#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 20:59:41 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122395 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Google Asked To Take Down Over 1.2 Million URLs Last Month From Search Results

    Google announced they have enhanced the Google Transparency Report to include the removal requests to take down individual search results from showing up in Google. In fact, Google has told us in the past month they have received 1,246,713 removal requests from 24,129 different target domains of 1,296 copyright owners by 1,087 reporting organizations. So [...]

  • Why Google’s Venice Update Fundamentally Changes Global SEO

    Google’s Venice update has caused surprisingly few ripples in the search engine marketing industry given the scale of its impact on search: it’s easily as important as Big Daddy from 2006, itself the most significant update made by Google up to that point.

  • Goodbye Google+ People & Pages, Hello Knowledge Graph Box

    Google’s Knowledge Graph has claimed its first “victim,” if you will: The content box that showed “People and Pages On Google+” is gone. In its place? A variety of Knowledge Graph-related content that will show up differently depending on the search query. In making the changes to this prime real estate on a search results [...]

  • How To ‘Protect’ Brand Keywords For Less

    Imagine you own a restaurant and one day, a couple of big guys in nice suits come through your front door. One of the men introduces himself: “Good evening. My name is Gino, and this my colleague, Salvatore. We’re helping local businesses with their marketing and wanted to see if we could help you.” “Nice [...]

  • 10 Blue Links Be Gone: Yahoo Axis Offers Browser & Visual Search Experience

    Search launches seem to come in threes. A couple of weeks ago we had Bing Social, then came Google with Knowledge Graph and now Yahoo introduces Axis. When I met with Yahoo earlier this week to hear about it I received the now familiar speech that Yahoo is still very much in search and continuing to “innovate” around [...]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Web Analytics

]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-24-2012-122395/feed 0 Google Asked To Take Down Over 1.2 Million URLs Last Month From Search Results http://searchengineland.com/google-asked-to-take-down-over-1-2-million-urls-last-month-from-search-results-122391 http://searchengineland.com/google-asked-to-take-down-over-1-2-million-urls-last-month-from-search-results-122391#comments Thu, 24 May 2012 19:49:53 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122391 Google announced they have enhanced the Google Transparency Report to include the removal requests to take down individual search results from showing up in Google.

In fact, Google has told us in the past month they have received 1,246,713 removal requests from 24,129 different target domains of 1,296 copyright owners by 1,087 reporting organizations. So only just over a thousand copyright owners submitted removal requests and top five include Microsoft with over a half a million URL removal requests last month followed by British Recorded Music Industry, NBC Universal, Elegant Angel and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Here is a chart showing the increase in removal requests by week:

Google said they respond to these requests incredibly quickly, often in less than 11 hours.

Google lists all these details on this transparency report site, showing that the top five targeted domains include filestube.com, torrentz.eu, 4shared.com, zippyshare.com and kat.ph. In fact, Google lists each take down request for anyone to see and updates the numbers and reports daily.

Overall the data goes back to July 2011.

Google has not informed us the number of false claims being issued but said they do offer a way to counter notice on these take down requests. Google did say they do comply with 97% of the take down requests.

For more details, check out the copyright removal request section of the Google Transparency Report.

]]> http://searchengineland.com/google-asked-to-take-down-over-1-2-million-urls-last-month-from-search-results-122391/feed 4 SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 23, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-23-2012-122274 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-23-2012-122274#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 21:02:23 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122274 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Microsoft Turns Off Streetside Imagery In Germany Over Photo Blurring Concerns

    Here’s a shocker*: Microsoft’s Streetside service has hit a bumpy road in Germany. The company says it’s shut down Streetside imagery in Germany after complaints about the way the company was handling blurring requests. Microsoft spokesperson Thomas Baumgartner tells PCWorld that he’s not sure if or when Streetside will be reinstated in Germany. A Microsoft [...]

  • New Design & Features Come To iPhone Google Search: Version 2.0

    Google has announced a new version of the Google Search iPhone app. The new version is version 2.0 and was completely redesigned focusing on speed, usability, new features and making it beautiful. Here are the main new changes you will find in version 2.0: Complete App Redesign Full Screen Mode Option Faster Search Autocompletion Faster [...]

  • Who Has Search Engine Marketers’ Backs? No One – We Need Lobbyists

    Did you know that Google spent $5 million to influence politicians just last quarter? And that was doubled from the quarter before and may double again this quarter. Facebook spent a boatload too, but not as much Google. Microsoft spent even more. Issues like the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA which received so much [...]

  • 10 Essential Tools For B2B Conference Coverage Domination

    Congratulations! You’ve finally convinced the boss-man that attending and covering an industry conference on behalf of your B2B company is fantastically worthwhile for a multitude of reasons. As an attendee, you’ll absorb rich information from true thought-leader s– info you can bring back to the office so the whole team stays on the cutting-edge of [...]

  • New Exact & Phrase Matching Behavior: Early Findings

    In a world where lots of search marketers are still reluctant to use broad match type due to its lack of relevance and control, Google has released two features to have more advertisers show their ads on all those very long tail queries: The broad modifier feature was rolled out in July 2010 in the [...]

  • Google’s Latest Interactive Logo: The Moog Synthesizer

    People absolutely love Google Doodles and today Google has went way over the top to pay respect to Bob Moog, the man who is credited for revolutionizing modern day music. He invented the first electrical music device, he named the Moog Synthesizer. The Moog Synthesizer was first introduced at the Audio Engineering Society convention in [...]

  • What Can We Learn From The Latest Brand To Be Called Out For Paid Links?

    Move over JC Penney. Another brand is getting attention over buying links, this time Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation. Today’s news is less news and more a reminder of lessons that SEO companies, clients and publishers all need to keep in mind, to avoid trouble. Josh Davis drew attention to the DBCC situation in his [...]

  • Bing’s Visual Search Is Gone (Has Been For A While, Actually)

    The fact that almost no one noticed might be one reason why Bing has dropped its Visual Search feature … something that apparently happened months ago. To be clear, this isn’t traditional image search that we’re talking about; that’s still available at bing.com/images. We’re talking about the “Visual Search” tool/interface that Bing launched in 2009 [...]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

Link Building

SEO & SEM

Video, Music & Image Search

]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-23-2012-122274/feed 0 New Design & Features Come To iPhone Google Search: Version 2.0 http://searchengineland.com/new-design-features-come-to-iphone-google-search-version-2-0-122253 http://searchengineland.com/new-design-features-come-to-iphone-google-search-version-2-0-122253#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 17:25:25 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122253 Google has announced a new version of the Google Search iPhone app.

The new version is version 2.0 and was completely redesigned focusing on speed, usability, new features and making it beautiful.

Here are the main new changes you will find in version 2.0:

  • Complete App Redesign
  • Full Screen Mode Option
  • Faster Search Autocompletion
  • Faster Page & Swipe Load Times
  • Image Search Redesigned Adding Full Screen, High Resolution Images & Save Image Feature
  • Swipe Away Web Pages To Return To Results
  • Search Within Web Pages
  • Faster Switching Between Images, Places, News, Web & Other Verticals
  • Quicker Access To Google Apps

I am a bit surprised Google is making it that easy to save images from Google Image search to your camera roll, with the issues of copyright and Google Images – but they are.

Here is a screen shot of the new image search results page:

For more details, see the Google Blog.

Related Stories:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/new-design-features-come-to-iphone-google-search-version-2-0-122253/feed 0 Google’s Latest Interactive Logo: The Moog Synthesizer http://searchengineland.com/googles-latest-interactive-logo-the-moog-synthesizer-122240 http://searchengineland.com/googles-latest-interactive-logo-the-moog-synthesizer-122240#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 13:53:20 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122240

People absolutely love Google Doodles and today Google has went way over the top to pay respect to Bob Moog, the man who is credited for revolutionizing modern day music. He invented the first electrical music device, he named the Moog Synthesizer.

The Moog Synthesizer was first introduced at the Audio Engineering Society convention in 1964. Google and others credit Moog for the music of legends such as The Beatles, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk and others.

To celebrate Moog’s life, he passed away 7 years ago in 2005 at the age of 71, Google has an interactive web based Moog Synthesizer that you can play, record and share with friends.

To give it a try, go to Google.com and let the page load. Then you can click on the device and to record your music, click the record button. After the recording is done, you can share it on Google+ or via a special short URL.

Google posted instructions on how to use the Moog Synthesizer on their Google Blog.

Google also explained it works best in Google Chrome. Google said the “sound is generated natively using the Web Audio API—a doodle first (for other browsers the Flash plugin is used). This doodle also takes advantage of JavaScript, Closure libraries, CSS3 and tools like Google Web Fonts, the Google+ API, the Google URL Shortener and App Engine.”

Other Interactive Google Logos:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/googles-latest-interactive-logo-the-moog-synthesizer-122240/feed 2 SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 22, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-22-2012-122153 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-22-2012-122153#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 21:00:36 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122153 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Google Provides Competitive Information In New Auction Insights Report

    AdWords marketers’ days of regularly refreshing on all their keywords may be over — or at least that activity may not be quite so necessary. Google is releasing a new report — Auction Insights — that helps marketers understand how their ads stand, compared to others in the same auctions. “For a given keyword, the [...]

  • Just Because Someone Works At Google Doesn’t Make Them An SEO Expert

    I had an interesting email hit my inbox, someone showing me how a Google employee was “100%” sure there had been no Penguin Update. There was, of course, and it’s a reminder that just because someone is a Googler, that doesn’t mean they know how Google Search works. Google has nearly 25,000 employees (according to [...]

  • How To Tweet What You Want, Because Content Matters

    With the trends that we are seeing in the search engines as they become more and more social, I think it is fair to assume that social sharing will be a major part (or at the very least, be a piece) of consideration in any future updates. This is exactly why it’s more important than ever [...]

  • Former Yahoo Executive Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud Charge Related To Microsoft Deal

    The Search Alliance between Yahoo and Microsoft had some unintended beneficiaries (now casualties). Yahoo’s former senior director of business management, Robert Kwok, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, after being accused that he told a mutual fund manager in July 2009 that the deal between Yahoo and Microsoft was imminent. Among its [...]

  • Link Building Tool Review: Link Prospector

    Our link building tool review series continues today with Link Prospector by Citation Labs. A joint venture between Garrett French and Darren Shaw, Link Prospector is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina and has been online since February 2012. Garrett and Darren continue to add features to the tool, foreign-language support and an API are scheduled to [...]

  • 5 Tips To Manage Your Multinational Social Media

    One of the biggest challenges to delivering an effective social media campaign for big, multinational brands is executing the strategy on a practical level: you’ll have multiple networks, profiles, languages, and social media managers to control across different countries. Implementing your social channels effectively is critical for search optimisation these days, so getting on top [...]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-22-2012-122153/feed 0 SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 21, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-21-2012-122029 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-21-2012-122029#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 20:59:56 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=122029 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • “Ads Related To…” Text Officially Rolls Out On AdWords’ Top Ad Block

    We’ve seen “Ads related to…” followed by the search query before, but now it’s at the top of the top ad block and it’s rolled out officially for most — if not all — search terms on Google AdWords. The new text appears at the top of the yellow AdWords box on search engine results [...]

  • Does Your Enterprise Have A Social Silo Just Wasting Money?

    The need for integration between social media and SEO is steadily increasing. We have all read the articles about the way that content is +1′ed by people you follow is shown in Google results (or how content Liked by a Facebook friend is elevated in Bing results). You have also most likely seen articles about [...]

  • WAP Search is Dead! Long Live WAP Search

    If you are a technophile, an online marketing specialist or a mobile marketer it can be easy to forget that a large part of your target market might not own a smartphone. This can be especially true if your demographic is broad reaching, and includes the upper and lower ends of the age spectrum (those [...]

  • 8 Features Advertisers Really Need From Google AdWords

    Google AdWords has seen a flurry of releases recently. Some have been good (Display Campaign Optimizer) and others bad (rotate changes) for advertisers. Many of these features are items Google wants to see as they help increase their bottom line or make it very easy to advertise. However, these new features are not necessarily what [...]

  • EU Offers To Settle With Google Over Anti-Trust Claims

    European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia issued a statement this morning offering “preliminary conclusions” of the EU’s investigation of numerous antitrust complaints against Google. It lays out “concerns” about Google’s market power in four areas. Almunia acknowledges Google’s prior statements about a willingness to settle and suggests that if a settlement can be reached Europe and [...]

  • Bing Offers Advice On Google’s Penguin Update: Diversify

    Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Bing, wrote a blog post on the Bing Search blog named Penguins & Pandas Poetry. The post is about Google’s latest Penguin update and how SEOs and webmasters need to be better prepared for such updates. The basic advice is simple, SEOs and webmasters need to do one [...]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Paid Search & Contextual

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-21-2012-122029/feed 0 Bing Offers Advice On Google’s Penguin Update: Diversify http://searchengineland.com/bing-offers-advise-on-googles-penguin-update-diversify-121940 http://searchengineland.com/bing-offers-advise-on-googles-penguin-update-diversify-121940#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 13:40:46 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=121940 Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Bing, wrote a blog post on the Bing Search blog named Penguins & Pandas Poetry.

The post is about Google’s latest Penguin update and how SEOs and webmasters need to be better prepared for such updates.

The basic advice is simple, SEOs and webmasters need to do one thing – diversify.

Duane is not just saying, focus on Bing and make sure your site does well there too. Yes, if you lose all your Google traffic, ranking well in Bing is nice but since Bing only has about 30% marketshare, you are still missing out on a lot of traffic.

Duane is also telling you to diversify outside of search. He explains, “Algorithms change. Rankings change. Competition happens.” It does – so look at social media, look at Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest as traffic sources. Look towards email marketing and other forms of offline marketing.

Of course Duane recommends you build the best site in your niche, make yourself an authority and your site should be “future proof.” But in terms of what is important for Google and Bing in the future, Duane says “search is influenced by social today.” What is next? Also, what is the next SEO spam tactic and are you doing it?

So when Bing talks about Google’s latest update, they are not just saying leave Google for Bing – they are saying – be a smarter marketer and think about the future, making the best resource and most importantly – diversify.

More at the Bing Search blog.

]]> http://searchengineland.com/bing-offers-advise-on-googles-penguin-update-diversify-121940/feed 11 SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 18, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-18-2012-121913 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-18-2012-121913#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 20:35:19 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=121913 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Search In Pics: LinkedIn Bike, Chrome Watch & Facebook @ Google

    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. LinkedIn Bike Parked At Google: Source: Google+ Google Chrome Watch: Source: Google+ Facebook Engineers At Google: [...]

  • Dylan Hoffman’s Pirate Times Doodle 4 Google Wins Pirate Booty

    Google announced the winner of the Doodle 4 Google competition and today that winner’s logo is on Google home pages around the world. The Winner is Dylan Hoffman of Caledonia, Wisconsin for his Doodle named “Pirate Times.” The Doodle won him a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook computer and a $50,000 technology grant for his [...]

  • adCenter Updates Microsoft Advertiser Intelligence With Templates & Mobile Data

    Microsoft adCenter recently launched an improved version of Microsoft Advertising Intelligence (MAI). MAI is a keyword research tool that helps Advertisers find related keywords and their historical and projected traffic and performance data from the available adCenter traffic. As an Excel add-in, it offers powerful API-based access to data, right in the familiar Excel environment. [...]

  • Google Improves AdSense Reporting And Bolsters Smart Pricing With New Research

    Google has introduced several new reporting improvements for AdSense publishers, and it has released new research that shows publishers make more money with “smart pricing” — even though their revenue-per-click is discounted as compared with search ads — than they would without it. One reporting improvement is that AdSense publishers can now view “all time” [...]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

Searching

SEM Industry

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-may-18-2012-121913/feed 0