Search Engine Land » Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com Search Engine Land: News On Search Engines, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:45:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 9, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-9-2012-110970 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-9-2012-110970#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:05:50 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110970 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • The Paid Search Uncertainty Principle

    In 1927, Werner von Heisenberg documented what he referred to as an “Uncertainty Principle” governing quantum mechanics. The Uncertainty Principle holds that an observation cannot precisely reveal both the position of a particle at a point in time and its momentum. The more the observation reveals about one, the less the observer can know about [...]

  • Google’s First Hired Employee, Craig Silverstein, Quits

    Kara Swisher reports Google’s first employee, Craig Silverstein, has decided to leave Google after about 14 years at the company. He is leaving Google to join the Khan Academy. Craig helped Google’s co-founders, Larry and Sergey, build the original Google search engine. He did this while in the Stanford University dorm rooms. Now he has [...]

  • Foursquare Brings More Search Refinements To Mobile Apps

    Calling it “personalized search for the real world,” Foursquare brought its mobile Explore functionality into its recently redesigned PC website roughly three weeks ago, and added some new search capabilities in the process. Those capabilities included the ability to filter places results by four categories: 1) “I haven’t been to yet” 2) “I have been [...]

  • The Golden Age Of SEO

    I’m a fan of SEO. Search engine optimization. Ah, yes. Just writing it makes me happy. It’s what I do. It’s my calling. I can’t think of anything in the past decade that has kept me more enthralled and engaged… besides my wife of course. In the past few years, my interest in SEO has [...]

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]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-9-2012-110970/feed 0 Google’s First Hired Employee, Craig Silverstein, Quits http://searchengineland.com/googles-first-hired-employee-craig-silverstein-quits-110956 http://searchengineland.com/googles-first-hired-employee-craig-silverstein-quits-110956#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:15:52 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110956 Kara Swisher reports Google’s first employee, Craig Silverstein, has decided to leave Google after about 14 years at the company.

He is leaving Google to join the Khan Academy.

Craig helped Google’s co-founders, Larry and Sergey, build the original Google search engine. He did this while in the Stanford University dorm rooms. Now he has been acting as a mentor to other Googlers. His title at Google most recently was director of technology.

The picture on this story is from a picture at Google featuring some of the prominent Googlers on cereal boxes. Craig is “Special Kraig” third box down on the right.

Here is a video Silverstein gave at the University of North Carolina in 2008 about Google’s origins:

Related Stories:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/googles-first-hired-employee-craig-silverstein-quits-110956/feed 0 SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 8, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-8-2012-110890 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-8-2012-110890#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:23:48 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110890 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Bing Testing New Search Results Design

    Bing is testing a new design for the search results layout. The new design seems a lot cleaner, fresher and more organized compared to the older design. Jason Hart tipped us off listing out the key differences: Vertical tabs removed Top and bottom search boxes widened Search button icon changed Several links removed from header [...]

  • How To Make Unstructured Data Actionable In Display

    I wrote recently about the new era of display marketing, and how real time bidding and other advances are bringing the precision and performance of search advertising to display. Well…a new era of unstructured data is also upon us. A widely cited 2011 IDC study found that the amount of data in the world is [...]

  • Survey: People Largely Negative About Google’s Personalized Search Results

    Earlier this month market research tool provider Ask Your Target Market surveyed 400 US adults about their attitudes toward personalized search on Google. The results were reported today in eMarketer’s email newsletter. We went back to the source to check out the survey and discovered that the majority of respondents expressed ambivalence or outright dissatisfaction about [...]

  • Why Does Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine Hate Rick Santorum?

    US presidential candidate Rick Santorum pulled off a surprise last night, winning caucuses and primaries in three states. So what’s with Bing listing an anti-Santorum web site first in its results in a search for his last name? Does Microsoft have some type of liberal agenda! Wait, you didn’t realize Rick Santorum has a “Bing [...]

  • The Neuroscience Of Search & Conversion

    The one thing all of your search traffic brings with it is a human brain. It’s easy to think that our search visitors aren’t coming with any brain at all. How can they possibly decide against what we have to offer? If they weren’t going to take action, click on the ad? It turns out [...]

  • Apple’s Siri Drives 25 Percent Of Wolfram|Alpha Queries

    Yesterday knowledge engine Wolfram|Alpha announced an intriguing new paid service Wolfram|Alpha Pro. Gary Price wrote an overview of the new service, which will likely appeal to academics, data geeks and a range of other specialized users. Wolfram|Alpha is by no means a mainstream search engine, yet it has managed to establish something of a beachhead [...]

  • 3 Steps To Optimize Your B2B Informational Assets

    Does this situation sound familiar? Due to the success of your SEO program, organic traffic to your website is increasing. However, visitors aren’t engaging with specific aspects of the site and aren’t taking the desired actions. Why? Many B2B marketers fail to include informational assets in their overall SEO strategy. Information presented on your website [...]

  • adCenter Releases Features Aimed At Improving Advertiser Time-Efficiency

    The adCenter team recently released some features aimed at improving Advertiser Time-Efficiency. These features are live right now, though they may not be officially announced at the time this post is published. During a recent trip to adCenter headquarters, Eric Enge was able to get some insight into these new features, and what we can [...]

  • Interesting Quotes From Google’s Search Lead, Amit Singhal

    Amit Singhal is the man who is responsible for Google web search. All the searches done on Google are technically under his watch. So when an interview was posted named The human search engine, where Mark Prigg from the London Evening Standard interviewed Amit Singhal, I got excited. The interview shares some insights into Amit’s [...]

  • Google Screenwise: New Program Pays You To Give Up Privacy & Surf The Web With Chrome

    Google is quietly taking requests from web users who want to get paid to surf the web using the Chrome browser while sharing data with Google. The program is called Screenwise and, though we’re not aware of any official announcement, Google has a signup page at www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel. The page explains that Google wants to create [...]

  • Wolfram|Alpha Goes Pro With Powerful Data Analysis & Presentation Tools

    Wolfram|Alpha (W|A) is launching a new fee-based service named Wolfram|Alpha Pro. In today’s highly competitive environment, you may wonder why W|A would ask people to pay for what many think should be free. Read on: you may decide to willingly open your wallet when you see what’s available. Since Wolfram|Alpha launched in 2009, I’ve often [...]

  • Google Clarifies: No, Ads Shouldn’t Help Rankings & No, SEO Isn’t Bad

    “SEO isn’t good for users” and “It’s a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads, and Google is trying to fix the bug” are two quotes from a Google employee that go directly against things Google’s said before. The real truth emerging? More like a new Google employee who doesn’t seem to [...]

  • New: Google Sitelinks With Small Arrows

    Google has confirmed that they are rolling out a new look for their one line sitelinks. The new look has a small arrow on the left side of where the sitelinks begin. Here is a picture: A Google spokesperson confirmed that these are indeed new and are “currently rolling out everywhere this week.” Google has [...]

  • SEMPO Announces 2012 Board Of Directors Nominees

    SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Profession Organization, has posted their 2012 nominees for the Board of Directors. There are currently 38 nominees for the 2012- 2014 Board, with a total of 13 seats to fill. SEMPO members can vote electronically between February 14 through February 22, 2012. Votes must be submitted by Wednesday, February 22 [...]

  • Google: 41 Percent Of Super Bowl Ad Searches Were Mobile

    A wide range of social and mobile data are being reported by various sources in the wake of last Sunday’s Super Bowl game. For example, ad network inMobi said 39 percent of survey respondents “used their mobile device in response to a TV commercial during the game” (discussing commercials, getting more information or watching TV [...]

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

Web Analytics

]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-8-2012-110890/feed 0 Bing Testing New Search Results Design http://searchengineland.com/bing-testing-new-search-results-design-110879 http://searchengineland.com/bing-testing-new-search-results-design-110879#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:43:03 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110879 Bing is testing a new design for the search results layout. The new design seems a lot cleaner, fresher and more organized compared to the older design.

Jason Hart tipped us off listing out the key differences:

  • Vertical tabs removed
  • Top and bottom search boxes widened
  • Search button icon changed
  • Several links removed from header
  • Location information no longer displayed
  • Icons used instead of text for rewards and preferences
  • My smiling face added to the page instead of just my name
  • Related searches moved from left rail to under the search box

Here is a picture of the new design:

Here is a picture of the old design:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/bing-testing-new-search-results-design-110879/feed 1 Interesting Quotes From Google’s Search Lead, Amit Singhal http://searchengineland.com/interesting-quotes-from-googles-search-lead-amit-singhal-110721 http://searchengineland.com/interesting-quotes-from-googles-search-lead-amit-singhal-110721#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:30:28 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110721 Amit Singhal is the man who is responsible for Google web search. All the searches done on Google are technically under his watch. So when an interview was posted named The human search engine, where Mark Prigg from the London Evening Standard interviewed Amit Singhal, I got excited.

The interview shares some insights into Amit’s role at Google, how Google tests new algorithms, and what the future for Google search is. I though it would be fun to categorize the quotes into those three groups and simply quote the story:

Amit At Google:

I came in and said ‘I’m a search academic, why don’t you let me practise that?’ I didn’t really read the Google code, and wrote a parallel version, telling them, ‘This is how I would do it.
My original algorithm has become a foundation on which we have an even more beautiful building.

Google Tests Algorithms:

We have the entire web in a sandbox that only our engineers can see, and our engineers can take their new algorithm and see it change millions of queries. If it works, we send it to testers, whom we pay, but we don’t tell them what they are testing.
Then we take a tiny slice, one per cent of our users, and expose them to this change. We measure things such as where on the page they click, when they click higher – that’s good for us.
Concurrently we have approximately 100 ideas floating around that people are testing – we test thousands in a year. Last year we ran around 20,000 experiments. Clearly they don’t all make it out there but we run the process very scientifically.
We look at that with a group of senior people who come together every week, and we decide if it’s good for users, the web ecosystem and for our systems.

Future Of Google Search:

That team is doing such amazing science, and bringing me closer to my childhood dream – how does it get any better?
But still the ultimate aim for Singhal is to build the Star Trek communicator of his childhood. “The key to this is when you can have a Star Trek Googlephone, where you can say, ‘Google, tell me how Alfred Nobel made his money’.
You can seek any knowledge on demand. How much more productive would humanity be if we can achieve this? “Today I feel more excited about my dream, it is almost within grasp,” says Singhal.

Related Stories:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/interesting-quotes-from-googles-search-lead-amit-singhal-110721/feed 1 New: Google Sitelinks With Small Arrows http://searchengineland.com/new-google-sitelinks-with-small-arrows-110672 http://searchengineland.com/new-google-sitelinks-with-small-arrows-110672#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:34:46 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110672 Google has confirmed that they are rolling out a new look for their one line sitelinks. The new look has a small arrow on the left side of where the sitelinks begin.

Here is a picture:

A Google spokesperson confirmed that these are indeed new and are “currently rolling out everywhere this week.”

Google has changed the look, layout, and number of sitelinks under a search result drastically over the years. This change is pretty minor, only showing a small little arrow on the left side of the sitelinks.

More Sitelinks Articles:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/new-google-sitelinks-with-small-arrows-110672/feed 0 SEMPO Announces 2012 Board Of Directors Nominees http://searchengineland.com/sempo-announces-2012-board-of-directors-nominees-110640 http://searchengineland.com/sempo-announces-2012-board-of-directors-nominees-110640#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:49:46 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110640 SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Profession Organization, has posted their 2012 nominees for the Board of Directors.

There are currently 38 nominees for the 2012- 2014 Board, with a total of 13 seats to fill.

SEMPO members can vote electronically between February 14 through February 22, 2012. Votes must be submitted by Wednesday, February 22 at 5pm EDT.

The current board includes Chris Boggs, Massimo Burgio, Bruce Clay, Dave Fall, Rob Garner, Mike Grehan, Motoko Hunt, Kevin Lee, Kristjan Mar Hauksson, Dmitriy Minenko, Jeffrey Pruitt, Margaret Willette, Michael Y. Xu. It seems over half of the existing board is not up for nomination this year.

For more details on the election process, download this PDF.

Related Stories:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/sempo-announces-2012-board-of-directors-nominees-110640/feed 0 SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 7, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-7-2012-110614 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-7-2012-110614#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:22:37 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110614 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Did Super Bowl Advertisers Take Advantage of Search Interest?

    Over the past couple of days, numerous stats and figures have been published about how Super Bowl advertisers took advantage (or not) of social media this year. But commercials also drive people to search engines, which in turn (when things go right) can lead potential customers to advertiser web sites where rather than talk about [...]

  • Volunia, A Social Search Engine, Says The Web Has Come Alive

    Google might be synonymous with the word search in most of the world, but that hasn’t dissuaded others from bringing new search engines to the market, usually aiming to innovate in an area where Google has somehow let up its guard. Volunia, launched this week, promises to help searchers with three distinguishing features: High level site [...]

  • Guide To Finding Linkbuilding Targets With Social Media

    There’s been a lot of debate in the SEO community lately regarding social media versus traditional linkbuilding methods. While some SEOs argue that social media links are the wave of the SEO future, traditionalists staunchly maintain traditional, authoritative links from quality sources are still the best way to go. Whatever your stance, I think it’s [...]

  • Do I Change My Site In The UK To Comply With New Cookie Laws?

    People are generally vaguely aware that debates have been taking place in Europe over new legislation which principally affects the use of “Cookies”. European legislation is inevitably more complex than elsewhere because of the way it is drafted by the European Commission and then individually interpreted, translated and re-drafted by each country. Today, I’m focusing [...]

  • 9 Free Tools For Link Discovery & Content Creation

    Every day it seems that there’s a new tool out there to monitor, measure, track, and suggest what we should be doing. Many of these are free or offer free trials, which I love, but finding the time to test out a new tool in order to see if it suits you isn’t always easy. [...]

  • Google Still #1 Traffic Source For Most Of Top 30 Websites — Report

    This may surprise no one: Google is the leading source of traffic for 23 of the top 30 websites. That’s according to Citi analyst Mark Mahaney in a document released yesterday to clients. Based on underlying comScore data, the report analyzes visits to the top five websites in several verticals: Media, Retail, Travel, Auto, Finance [...]

  • The Characters In Google’s Charles Dickens Logo

    Google is honoring the life of of Charles Dickens with a special Google Logo, aka Doodle, for his 200th birthday. The logo contains several characters from some of his more well known works. The characters include: Nell and her grandfather in the The Old Curiosity Shop Several characters from Little Dorrit Oliver and his friends [...]

  • Under Threat Of Being Blocked Google, Facebook Comply With India’s New Internet Censorship Rules

    After China and the US, India is the third largest internet market in the world. But India has philosophically aligned itself more with China in pursuing a policy of censorship toward publication of content deemed “offensive” or “objectionable” by individuals, groups or the government. A recently enacted law seeks to remove all such content from [...]

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Search News From Around The Web:

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]]> http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-7-2012-110614/feed 0 The Characters In Google’s Charles Dickens Logo http://searchengineland.com/the-characters-in-googles-charles-dickens-logo-110412 http://searchengineland.com/the-characters-in-googles-charles-dickens-logo-110412#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:30:56 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110412

Google is honoring the life of of Charles Dickens with a special Google Logo, aka Doodle, for his 200th birthday. The logo contains several characters from some of his more well known works. The characters include:

  • Nell and her grandfather in the The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Several characters from Little Dorrit
  • Oliver and his friends from Oliver Twist
  • Estella and Pip from Great Expectations
  • A French aristocrat as a reference to his eventual death by guillotine.
  • Ebenezer Scrooge
  • And a vivid depiction of London in the background.

The Googler Doodler who made this Google logo for Dickens is Mike Dutton who also created the logos for Richard Scarry, the Royal Wedding, the World Cup, Mary Blair, and others.

Google said:

Mike said that while he normally works on his tablet, he had to go back to a physical drawing board for the Dickens doodle, creating each character separately so that he could place them within different parts of the Google logo. Like an engineer, he likes to iterate on what he designs until he gets it right.

You can learn more about the creation of this Google logo at the Google blog.

Charles Dickens died at the age of 58 on June 9, 1870 at Gad’s Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England. He was married and had ten children.

Other Google Logos:

]]> http://searchengineland.com/the-characters-in-googles-charles-dickens-logo-110412/feed 0 SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 6, 2012 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-6-2012-110389 http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-the-day-in-search-february-6-2012-110389#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:01:22 +0000 Barry Schwartz http://searchengineland.com/?p=110389 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Managing PPC Through The Fog Of Long Tail Keywords

    PPC managers over the years have always struggled with the right number of keywords to have in their accounts. Should you build out a big inventory of long tail keywords, or keep your campaigns neat and tidy, with fewer terms that account for most of the volume? Honestly, I’d say that most accounts I’ve seen, and indeed, many [...]

  • Yahoo Launches Mobile-App Search (For PCs) In The UK

    Over the weekend there was coverage of a seemingly new feature on Yahoo search: mobile-app search. However that actually launched in the US in the middle of last year. The recent coverage was triggered by the launch of the app-search capability in the UK, which is new. The UI has been improved somewhat since I [...]

  • Using The Mobile Ratio To Measure Mobile SEO Success

    Anyone involved in online marketing has an innate sense that mobile is a big deal. We’re never more than an arm’s length from our phones, and we have a curious tendency to do everything on them. I once sat in front of a dark, Netflix-enabled flat-screen, watching Netflix on my iPhone. It was just easier, and I [...]

  • 3 Ways Enterprises Cripple Their Online Marketing Efforts

    An increasing number of enterprises are engaging in PR, SEO, social media, and content marketing. Having these four areas covered is great, but many companies are not getting anywhere near the full ROI from their investment in them. In today’s column, I am going to explore the reasons why that is the case, and outline [...]

  • Report: National Marketers Love Local, Fail At Basic Tactics

    GMS Local, an initiative from GroupM focused on local search and local digital strategies, recently conducted a survey of national marketing executives (mostly in the retail sector) about their localization strategies and tactics. The survey was fielded in September and November 2011. What the agency found was considerable enthusiasm for local-digital marketing. Yet there was [...]

  • Latest Google Search Revamp Brings Opportunities For Local Businesses

    Recently, Google announced (and Search Engine Land intensely covered) what is being described as the most significant revamp to date of their basic search tool. To sum it up from the start, the changes will likely provide local businesses with the ability to merge aspects of their search optimization and social media strategies into a unified [...]

  • Google Instant: Only On When Your Computer Can Handle It

    As part of the January search update provided by Google – Google Instant has a new default preference. The new preference is to only enable it if your computer can handle it – otherwise, Google will disable Google Instant results. If you go to the search preferences it should say Google Instant is only enabled [...]

  • Bing Webmaster Tools Adds Markup Validator

    The Bing Webmaster Blog announced they have added a new feature to the crawl section named Markup Validator. To access this new feature, login to Bing Webmaster Tools and click on the “Crawl” tab. Then on the right side or bottom left side there is an option to click on “Markup Validator.” Duane from Bing [...]

  • When Is the Super Bowl Start Time? The NFL Finally Gets It Right

    Super Bowl 46 kicks off on February 5, 2012 at 6:30pm EST on NBC. Amazingly enough, I found this information by searching on Google and clicking on the second result: nfl.com. Amazing because every year, football fans flock to search engines searching for the start time, and until now, organizations like the NFL, the playing [...]

  • Google’s January Search Update: Panda In The Pipelines, Fresher Results, Date Detection & More

    It’s the first Friday of the month, and that seems to be when Google has decided to push out its monthly update of search tweaks from the prior month. The January update is out and it contains a few interesting nuggets. Panda In The Pipelines There’s a mention of the Panda algorithm update that we [...]

  • Want To Speak @ SMX Toronto? Here’s How

    The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at SMX Toronto 2012, on April 25-26. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your pitch is on target to the show’s audience and the session. Please also be very [...]

  • Don’t Miss Networking with Your Marketing Peers at SMX West – Feb. 28-Mar. 1 in San Jose

    We’ve already highlighted the exceptional content and highly qualified presenters at SMX West. But there’s another aspect of the conference that is just as important and valuable – networking. And with well over 1000 companies sending delegates (so far), there are lots of people to network with! Keep reading to learn more about the networking [...]

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

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Video, Music & Image Search

Web Analytics

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