A week ago, we thought that Lower Case Titles In Yahoo Coming From Anchor Text, and asked Yahoo about it. Tim Mayer of Yahoo has commented on original post at the Search Engine Roundtable saying that this has now been fixed. And, based on the examples in our post from last week, a search on searchbliss now brings up the title tag from that page and does not use internal anchor text (as we theorized) in the Yahoo search results. I have before and after screen captures over here. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: Titles & Descriptions | Yahoo: SEO

Philipp Lenssen reports that Google Images has undergone a design change. The most noticeable changes include: Removal of row by row light blue background color Addition of mouse over light blue background color on an image by image basis Removal of image URL source Removal of image file size Removal of image height and width Mouse over shows the image URL source, file size and height/width details I have coverage of how SEOs and SEMs feel about this change at the Search Engine Roundtable, as you can imagine, some are not too happy the image source URL does not show until you mouse over [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google Groups launched their beta design to the public last night. The new design change switched from an orange/yellow/white color scheme to a light blue and white color scheme. The new design also comes with some feature additions including: Pages. Create and contribute to shared web pages with simple drag, drops, cuts, pastes, and clicks (i.e., no coding). Customized look and feel. Select pictures, colors, and styles to express your group's style. Member profiles. See who else is in the group and read their profiles. Personalize your own profile with a photo and other details. File shari [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Groups

Yahoo has posted their year-end financial results, showing a drop in profits by but increase in overall revenues. Based on that news alone, Yahoo's stock fell in after hours trading, but when Terry Semel, Yahoo's CEO, announced the release of the new ranking model, the stock went up in after hours trading. Ahead of the Bell: Yahoo at Forbes.com names the early release of project Panama the reason behind Yahoo's stock increase overnight. CNNMoney.com has a good look at the pros and cons of the earnings call. You can read the full earning call, the transcript, at SeekingAlpha. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues

Huge news last night was that Yahoo announced that they will be launching their new ranking algorithm for their sponsored search ads on February 5th. The new ranking model is a huge change from the old model, which was based on a pure auction bidding environment. Now advertisers are going to have to worry about price plus factors such as their ads click through rate. Advertisers have been slowly migrating over to the new ad system starting mid-October 2006. This was done so that advertiser can become accustomed to the new interface and also track their quality score. The quality score pi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Yahoo: Search Ads

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: SEMPO Institute: Online School For SEMs AnnouncedSEMPO has launched the SEMPO Institute, an online school for search marketers. The fundamentals course is live now and will provide tracks on:... Yahoo's Panama Migration: Mixed ReviewsThe Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has a surprisingly long article, in anticipation of Yahoo's earnings call today, on experiences with Panama platform migration. The reviews and opinions presented are general [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

SEMPO has launched the SEMPO Institute, an online school for search marketers. The fundamentals course is live now and will provide tracks on: History of Search Engines How Search Engines Work Linking & Directories Keywords SEO Web Design Copywriting SEO Roadblocks Submissions Tracking & Reporting Pay Per Click I Pay Per Click II Current Innovations Intellectual Property SEO & PPC Resources and more... The advanced courses will be live some time in the spring. You can enroll at http://www.sempo.org/learning_center/institute and learn more at the FAQs. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Organizations

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has a surprisingly long article, in anticipation of Yahoo's earnings call today, on experiences with Panama platform migration. The reviews and opinions presented are generally positive but the article also points out that some smaller businesses have had problems and frustrations. Among the positive comments: Chris Wallace, vice president of media for search-marketing firm iCrossing Inc., whose clients include Coca-Cola Co., says, "Our experience has been positive, in part because we do a significant amount of due diligence prior to migration [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Yahoo: Search Ads

Google to Fund Indian Startups by Red Herring, reports that Google is to hand over undisclosed amount to Seedfund, to indirectly invest in technology in India. Both Google and Seedfund have not confirmed this but Samir Sood, Corporate Development, Google, who heads the Venture Investments and M&A team of Google in India, said, "I am not in a position to comment at this point." Typically, Google buys small firms, with this investment, Google seems to be taking a different approach. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Google: Outside US

The Google AdSense blog announced that Google is to test new video ads on the AdSense network from content providers such as Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. AdWeek reports that the ads are to be tested for four-weeks, and have already begun. InformationWeek informs us that the ads will be "billed on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) model." As a note of reference, this is not the first time Google ran this type of test, they did it with Viacom/MTV in the past (more details on that past deal at JenSense and Search Engine Roundtable). [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Google: AdSense

Vnunet reports that Google has admitted to the leak of passwords via the Google Blacklist. But Google has also issued a statement saying that they "procedures have been put in place to strip login information from future submissions." As I noted yesterday, this is not the first time confidential information has been found in Google's phishing blacklist, but hopefully, this will be the last time. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Firefox | Google: Security | Google: Toolbar | Search Features: Safety | Toolbars & Add-Ons

The Google AdWords blog announced that they have removed the cap on the number of sites you can exclude in the Site Exclusion Tool. Many advertisers that opt in to Google's Content network (AdSense) often may run out of sites they want their ads to specifically not show up on. Google has listened and removed the cap, allowing an unlimited number of sites and URLs (sub sections of sites) to be added to your Site Exclusion list. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords

Spotted this morning via TechCrunch, speech and directory assistance automation provider TellMe is about to launch a beta product called TellMe by Mobile. It's free, direct-to-consumer, voice-enabled directory assistance (DA) or "mobile local search" if you want to "sexify" the product. It works by using voice search and permits business name or category lookups. There are also interactive maps and driving directions. TellMe currently powers traditional DA for AT&T and Verizon's landline 411 service. The company also has an enhanced DA product with AT&T wireless (formerly Cingular). An [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

I am not really sure what to think of the most recent Live Search blog post that says, Use Live Search and We'll Donate to Team Seattle and Ninemillion.org. If you search at http://teamseattle.live.com/, Microsoft will donate $1 to Team Seattle's Seattle's Children's Hospital fund. Each time you search at http://teamseattle.live.com/, Microsoft will donate $1, but it has to be at http://teamseattle.live.com/. In addition, if you search at http://click4thecause.live.com/, Microsoft will "contribute to ninemillion.org, a UN agency-led campaign providing education and sports programs for the n [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Marketing

Google Personalized Home Page Adds Expand & Collapse Per Post at the Search Engine Roundtable is where I discussed how Google has added RSS snippets to the Google personalized home page. Google has added these plus signs, next to each RSS title, if clicked, it will open up and show you a snippet of the summary from the post. This is a neat feature to help improve the usability of the RSS feature on the personalized home page. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: iGoogle

Rand at SEOMoz has a Best Practices for Title Tags that goes over many of the simply fundamentals of a good title tag for both your users and search engines. Rand suggests that adding your brand name to the title tag is not a bad thing, but make sure it is just a piece of the title tag, users and search engines like to see relevant title information, based on the content of the page the link is pointing towards. Rand also suggests ensuring your title is 65 characters or less, make sure you have keywords in the title, be more specific when it makes sense, use dividers in the title, and more t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: Titles & Descriptions

Many search marketers know their search engine alphabet, A for Ask.com; G for Google; M for Microsoft Live.com and Y for Yahoo. But how many know the important letters of the social media alphabet, D for Digg; N for Netscape; R for Reddit and S for StumbleUpon? Comfortable with AGMY but DNRS seems like another language? Relax. Here are the ABCs of DNRS: Digg Digg is a social news site that covers all topics but is mainly populated with tech, world and business stories. Digg is a community based website where users submit stories, "digg" or vote for the stories they l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Search & Social | Search Engines: Digg | Search Engines: Social Search Engines | Social Media Marketing | StumbleUpon

Our third Search Engine Land column has now been launched, Let's Get Social. This comes out Tuesday and covers issues relating to social media sites, such as Digg, Netscape, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Those names not familiar to you? Then check out today's first column, Forget ABCs, The Social Media Alphabet Is DNSR, which provides an introduction. Neil Patel has written the column. Readers here may also recognize his name from the great The New Digg Features Plus, A Submitter's Perspective article he did for Search Engine Land last month. Neil is co-founder and CTO of ACS, and I regularly rea [...]

Related Topics: About Search Engine Land | Channel: Social | Columns | Search & Social

Reader Michiel Ouwerkerk just dropped an email to say that Google Germany has disappeared. Sure enough, when I go there, I get a holding page from what looks to be hosting company Goneo: The message reads (umlauts and other German punctuation omitted, sorry!) Fur diese domain burden keine inhalte hinterlegt bitte schaen Sie zu einem spateren Zeitpunk nochmal vorbie Roughly, it says there's nothing on the domain and to try again in a bit, I believe. I'm in the UK and getting this. Someone I pinged over in London is not. Someone in the US I pinged also is not. So it might be localized and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Google: Outside US

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: 10 Google Feeds You Should Subscribe ToOver the past years, Google has added feed support to a number of services. I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my favorites and others that allow you to get Google material delivered straight to your newsreader. Below, a rundown of feeds offered ranging from Google Blog... Google's OneBox Patent ApplicationOne of my favorite search related articles is one that Danny wrote a few years back titled Search [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap