January 2007: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories
Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from January 2007:
Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from January 2007:
Last week when visiting Google, I had a long background discussion with Shuman Ghosemajumder about click fraud issues. Shuman is Google’s business product manager for trust and safety. I’ll follow up on some of our discussion as I’m able to get some material cleared. But one of the most fascinating things was his explanation on […]
Reed Elsevier is one of the largest, most influential publishers in the world, a powerhouse in the science and medical, legal, education and business markets. But the company also has a major online presence, with more than 1,000 web sites in just its business group. Last year, Reed Business decided to leverage this significant online […]
Google begins its earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2006 in about 10 minutes, but the earnings are out now. You’ll find them here from the US Security & Exchange Commission and here from Google itself. Further below, live blogging from the conference call, a formal transcript, a round-up of news articles and more.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
Aaron Wall has an excellent write up named Optimal Word Count & Web Page Copy Length. In short, Aaron explains that there is “no universal correct or incorrect answer to how much content is right.” Aaron then goes through tips on how to write good content, that is easy to read and “optimized for user […]
Google loses European GMail trademark battle by The Register reports that Google is not allowed to use the trademarked term “GMail” in Europe. The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) held that Daniel Giersch’s trademark of the term was valid and that Google could not use it.
Yahoo Planning to Add 100 Web Sites for Entertainment at the New York Times reports that Yahoo is undertaking a new microsite effort named “Brand Universe.” Brand Universe will create about 100 web sites built around entertainment brands and pull together content from various Yahoo properties. One such site for the Nintendo Wii can be […]
The Inquirer reports that a user received an unusual error from Google when trying to access his Gmail through a Greasemonkey script. The error was a “lockdown in sector four” message, basically describing that the user account has been found to have “unusual usage” and the “account has been disabled for up to 24 hours.” […]
There have been recent reports that the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool has been sporadically offline. In response to those reports, Yahoo issued a statement telling us that the Overture tool has been getting hit hard by users but will “continue to exist until we replace it with an improved product.” The new tool is expected […]
News.com reports that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have asked the US government for help when it comes to international censorship policies and law. The article has some more insight into the challenges the search companies face with countries like China. Right now, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have to make “moral judgments” about international authorities’ requests […]
Does the Internet really need another local restaurant review site? Yes say the founders of Boorah, a new vertical search destination and aggregator of local restaurant reviews. Boorah collects reviews from existing local search and content sites, summarizes and enhances the data and builds additional features on top.
Last week, Neil Patel wrote an article about the social media alphabet. It gave a brief overview of Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. While Neil did a great job of covering the social news sites, I wanted to chime in and cover some of the other letters of the alphabet that should be considered when […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
Marchex and its TrafficLeader subsidiary have published the 2007 Search Marketing Insights for Retailers, a 19 page whitepaper that offers strategies for online merchants to improve search visibility in the major shopping search engines. There’s also some interesting data about traffic to each of these services, and a useful table that compares the data feed […]
The Yahoo Search Blog just announced that Yahoo Site Explorer has new features. Yes, one of those features is the Yahoo Site Explorer Badge, which we reported this morning. But there are more features. You can now delete URLs from the index with a click of a button. If you authenticated your site with Yahoo […]
Click Forensics has updated its Click Fraud Index with data from the fourth quarter of 2006, reporting an overall industry average click fraud rate of 14.2 percent versus 13.8 percent for Q3, 14.1 percent for Q2 and 13.7 percent for Q1. The Click Fraud Network collects data from more than 3,000 online advertisers and their […]
The Google Docs & Spreadsheets blog officially announced that when you receive an email in your Gmail account, and it contains a Google Docs or Spreadsheet file, the file should have a link to “Open as a Google Document.” I am not sure if it opens all files or just Google files. I tested emailing […]
Kevin Gibbons spotted the “badge” link on Site Explorer that takes you to this page enabling anyone to place code on their site to show of the number of links they have to a specific page or to their site. As I commented earlier, badges that show off the number of links to a site […]
The Google Blog announced that when you conduct searches at Google.com for local specific information, you may get local reviews and business comparisons. For example a search on pizza 10010 returns three results, all with five stars, from pizza restaurants in NYC. Here is a screen capture:
The Google Blog announced that Google will be launching a new feature for Orkut users that use Claro as their mobile provider in Brazil. The feature will enable users of Orkut to SMS message their Orkut friends from their mobile phones. The details on exactly how this is done, is not exactly clear. But if […]
News.com reports that Google is expected to release a new upgraded version of their Google Enterprise Search Appliances today. The new Google Mini will “enable companies to perform searches on intranets as well as internal business applications.” The search boxes are expected to be available for purchase as soon as they are announced. I will […]
If you have been wondering where Danny Sullivan has been over the past week or so, I have spotted a post at SEOMoz that has recent pictures of Danny. Danny, Rand and friends were invited over to Google’s Kirkland office, the place where most of the Google Webmaster Central team is based, Saturday night. There […]
CrossEngine is the new (and in my opinion better) name for the Mr Sapo meta search engine. It is similar in functionality to TurboScout and Trovando in that it has a search box at the top of the screen with a list of search engines that you can use below that. Simply type in your […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
Wikio is a relatively new startup that blends articles from major news web sites and blogs with commentary and tags from Wikio users. It also offers powerful search and customization options that go beyond what you find at most other “media harvesting” sites on the web. Google News offers personalization, but doesn’t let you choose […]
Last summer, I was asked for my personal definition of the term "linkbait." In a column titled Link Bait Kool-Aid, I wrote that linkbait was "more or less anything you create anywhere on the web that inspires other people to link to it." The link to your bait can come from another web page, from a […]
Over the weekend two YouTube videos were released, the first named How to Sign Up for GoogleTV Beta and then a follow up named UPDATE: GoogleTV Beta. Both are attempts by the video author to prove that Google TV is a real thing. But so far, everyone reporting this knocks it down as elaborate hoax. […]
China censorship damaged us, Google founders admit at The Guardian has a quote from one of Google’s founders, Sergey Brin, when asked about Google censoring content in China, “On a business level, that decision to censor… was a net negative.”
How to Get Good SEO Clients by Aaron Wall clearly explains that earning respect and trust in the SEO community is a vital ingredient in getting good SEO clients. Ranking well for “SEO” or “SEM,” Aaron says, is not enough, in “fields which have a bad reputation.” So how do you build trust in the […]
Over the past week, there were many rumors that Google is pondering building out a Second Life like application. Michael Eisenberg’s Google Earth as a Virtual World kicked it off, stating, that heard a rumor “through the PhD grapevine” that Google is working on such an application. Techcrunch quickly picked up on this rumor, summarizing […]
Back in March, 2006 newspaper publishers The Tribune Co., Gannett and KnightRidder (now McClatchy) acquired 75% of news aggregation and community site Topix.net. But with the exception of a minor placement of a “contextually relevant news” box on content pages of some of those sites, the newspaper owners haven’t done very much with Topix.
The BBC is reporting that they are in talks with Google to begin revenue sharing advertising revenue when their videos are shown on YouTube. Few details are known yet, but rollout of the new revenue providing model could begin as quickly as within the next couple of months. And this move could give original video […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
I gave Google Checkout some hassle earlier about promotion they were doing of the service. Earlier this week, I met with them during a visit to Google. The team explained that some of the promotion they’ve been doing is designed to react to consumer demand, to serve Google users that are asking to make it […]
Marissa Mayer has been the driving force behind Google’s Spartan look and feel from the very earliest days. In this wide-ranging interview, I talked with Marissa about everything from interface design to user behavior to the biggest challenge still to be solved with search as we currently know it. I had asked for the interview […]
Intel inside again for new Google servers at News.com reports that Google has began purchasing Intel processors for their servers. Intel designed custom motherboards for Google, so that Google would use the hardware. Back when I was at Search Engine Watch, I reported on March 3, 2006 that Google switched to AMD from Intel, Google […]
The Google Book Search Blog announced a new feature they worked on together with Google Maps that shows you “places mentioned in this book” on the Google Book Search page. For example a Google Book Search result for Illustrated New York (1888) brings back a Google Map on the bottom left of the Google Book […]
YouTube and Wikipedia storm to top brand ranking by Reuters reports that Google has secures the top spot in the online branding magazine brandchannel.com survey that asks, “Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?”. Followed by Google, Apple is second on the brand list. The surprise is that Google’s YouTube is […]
Ex-Yahoo Exec now Pageflakes CEO by Om Malik reports that Dan Cohen, who was the Head of My Yahoo business unit, left Yahoo to become the CEO of Pageflakes. Gary Price recently reviewed Pageflakes, describing it as an easy and free way to “build a dynamic personalized home/start page.” It is a lot like Google […]