March 2007: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories

Mar 31, 2007 at 11:59pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Below are Search Engine Land's 10 most popular stories from March 2007: 1) Google Now Reporting Anchor Text Phrases - Hurray! Finally, you can get a report from Google of the top anchor text phrases used when people link to your site. Google Webmaster Central has just announced the new feature. But didn't Google already report anchor text data? Yes, but only keywords, not phrases. Keywords are mostly useless junk food data. Phrases are datalicious, tasty and helpful. Below, a detailed and illustrated look at what a difference a phrase makes and how to claim your own. =================== [...]

Filed in: Most Popular Stories

The Matt Cutts Blog Gets Hacked

Mar 31, 2007 at 10:55pm ET by Danny Sullivan

The Dark SEO Team has had a bit of a beef with Google's Matt Cutts from back in 2005 over URL hijacking. Looks like they've pulled a prank on him today. Matt's blog is down, hacked -- and archives wiped out as well. Matt has posted previously to this about the site being slow (post gone, but you can see his Twitter comment here) and heading offline through Monday, so you might be seeing the screen above for awhile. FYI, be sure to check out CuttsCon, that I posted about earlier. [...]

Filed in: Google: Employees, Google: Parodies, Search & Society: April Fool's

Matt Cutts & CuttsCon

Mar 31, 2007 at 10:14pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Goodness knows Google's Matt Cutts is popular at conferences. I've seen him swamped by people at them. In fact, so many people surround Matt wherever he goes that I nicknamed them "Cuttlets" last year and wondered if they'd ever form a formal fan club. Well, turns out they've done more than that. Fans of Matt are assembling for the first ever CuttsCon later this year -- and Matt will be there, as well. Appropriately, it will be in his native state of Kentucky. I've never been to Kentucky, but I guess I've got an excuse now! [...]

Filed in: Google: Employees

SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 30, 2007

Mar 30, 2007 at 3:21pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: This Week In Search From Flickr Images: BETAThis week I had an idea for a new column, possibly weekly, where I tracked the search industry through images uploaded to Flickr. Although we don't have an official name for this column, I thought I'd tag this as a BETA release and see how it goes. So sit back... A "Swiss Army" Meta Search EngineI'm generally not a big fan of meta search technologies—I prefer to go directly to the search service I feel [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

Search In Pictures: Google Offices, Yahoo Parties, Ask.com Anniversary

Mar 30, 2007 at 2:20pm ET by Barry Schwartz

This week I had an idea for a new column, possibly weekly, where I tracked the search industry through images uploaded to Flickr. Although we don't have an official name for this column, I thought I'd tag this as a BETA release and see how it goes. So sit back and let me run you through this week in search, brought to you via Flickr! Google appears to have had an open house in their Moscow office. Would you think they would try to act busy, when people are watching? Nope, I caught some Googlers playing the Wii: I decided to cross the globe in search of some Googlers at work. And gue [...]

Filed in: Search In Pictures

eTools.ch: A “Swiss Army” Meta Search Engine

Mar 30, 2007 at 1:11pm ET by Chris Sherman

I'm generally not a big fan of meta search technologies—I prefer to go directly to the search service I feel will likely give me the best response for any given query, rather than sifting through the aggregated results from several engines. But recently, developer Stephan Schmid invited me to kick the tires on his Switzerland-based meta search engine eTools.ch, and after playing around with it a bit I came away impressed. Enter a query and eTools.ch searches the four major search engines (Ask, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo), several European engines (Seekport, Entireweb and Bluewin) and [...]

Filed in: Search Engines: Meta Search Engines, Search Engines: Outside USA

Searcharazzi: DoubleClick on the Block…Performics too?

Mar 30, 2007 at 12:04pm ET by Searcharazzi

With the Google Phone rumors quashed this week, Searcharazzi was pleased to get a taste of this schematic of a semantic visual search engine purportedly by Nokia. More on that from SEL’s dedicated local and mobile gurus. In the interim, we would be remiss to omit the big rumor of the week: DoubleClick is reportedly in talks to be acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion. Now that’s some nice coin for private equity firm Heller & Friedman. It’s also some nice firepower for Microsoft in its uphill battle against Google. While doubters suggest that the price tag is a bit stiff, Searchar [...]

Filed in: Searcharazzi

Thanks For The Link, Mainstream Media — Now Let’s Have More!

Mar 30, 2007 at 11:22am ET by Danny Sullivan

I've been publishing online about search for nearly 11 years now. My work, or my comments, have been quoted in mainstream publications on the topic of search for virtually the same time. Much more often than not, those references never include a live link back to my web site, not from the websites of those same mainstream publications where links are totally possible. Over the years, I've watched others in similar situations get upset about this. For me, it wasn't a big of a deal. I was glad to be mentioned, and not getting links from mainstream publications just seemed part of the territory. [...]

Filed in: Link Building: General

The “Is Google Too Powerful” Question Raised Once Again

Mar 30, 2007 at 10:30am ET by Barry Schwartz

Is Google Too Powerful? from BusinessWeek is a fresh look at an old topic on Google's continued growth and power. A key part of the BusinessWeek's article: Googlezon, GoogleWorld, just plain Google—whatever you call it, it's scaring the wits out of everyone from the power lunchers of Hollywood to Madison Avenue ad moguls to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Now, after years of hand-wringing and thumb-twiddling, some of them are pulling out the heavy artillery and firing one round after another on the Googleplex, the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Articles about whether Goog [...]

Filed in: Google: Critics

Top 12 Ways To Win Friends & Write Magnetic Headlines

Mar 30, 2007 at 10:20am ET by Michael Gray

As a consultant who specializes in social media, I've learned one of the most powerful tools in gaining readers is the title or headline of your stories. Crafting a title that grabs someone's eye, gets them to stop scanning and pay attention to your story rather than reading another one is a critical first step. Were you scanning your feed reader when you came across this article and saw something called a "Top 12" list? Did it make you pause, make you wonder if somebody made a typo? Isn't it supposed to be a "Top 10" list? People have been doing top 10 lists for tho [...]

Filed in: SEO: Titles & Descriptions, Social Media Marketing

YellowPages.com Launches YP411 Text Messaging Service

Mar 30, 2007 at 10:05am ET by Greg Sterling

This morning AT&T's YellowPages.com announced the launch of text messaging through YP411 (97411). Business name or general yellow pages (category) lookups plus city or zip return up to three listings. This service helps round out YellowPages.com's mobile offerings, which now include WAP, SMS and enhanced directory assistance through 1-800-YellowPages (still in limited markets). [...]

Filed in: Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines, Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

Google Under Fire For Showing Pre-Katrina New Orleans Images; Others Doing The Same?

Mar 30, 2007 at 10:02am ET by Danny Sullivan

Google goes back to pre-Katrina maps from USA Today reports that Google Maps has changed their satellite imagery of New Orleans to show pre-Katrina images, getting some local residents angry and wondering if there's some type of cover-up in the works. However, it's unclear if these are pre-Katrina images or not -- and the situation's just as confusing with mapping services from other search engines. USA Today writes: Google's popular map portal has replaced post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery with pictures taken before the storm, leaving locals feeling like they're in a time loop and e [...]

Filed in: Ask: Maps, Google: Maps & Local, Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local, Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines, Yahoo: Maps & Local

Cash Bonus Incentives For Yahoo & Google Executives

Mar 30, 2007 at 9:26am ET by Barry Schwartz

A Yahoo SEC filing shows some of Yahoo's executives are eligible for a cash bonus incentive of up to $1 million each year throughout 2009. News.com points to a Google SEC filing that shows that some of Google's executives are eligible for a cash bonus incentive of up to $4.5 million in 2007. Yahoo executive Susan Decker received a $850,000 bonus, Yahoo's Farzad Nazem received a $700,000 bonus , and Yahoo's Michael Callahan received a $200,000 bonus plus a salary increase for 2007 to $360,000. [...]

Filed in: Google: Business Issues, Google: Employees, Yahoo: Business Issues, Yahoo: Employees

The Critical First Second & The Area of Greatest Promise

Mar 30, 2007 at 7:25am ET by Gord Hotchkiss

Last week on Just Behave, I talked about the importance of consideration sets in search; how we tend to slice off three or four top listings in our consideration set at the beginning of our interaction with the search results page. Today I want to talk about another concept, no less important, that looks at the very first second of interaction with the search results page. I've referred to it in the past as the Area of Greatest Promise. Start High and To the Left, Work down from There As I mentioned last week, there is an almost universal behavior amongst North Americans when they intera [...]

Filed in: Google: User Interface, Just Behave, Stats: Search Behavior, Yahoo: User Interface

SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 29, 2007

Mar 29, 2007 at 2:41pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: Feed & Information Overload? Read SearchCap!I was talking to someone recently who felt overwhelmed by all the search news that happens when they're out of-touch while traveling. They'd fire up Google Reader after getting back, only to have hundreds of posts to read through. I suggested they read our SearchCap newsletter. A few weeks later,... AdSense Publisher View Of Google Pay Per ActionLast week Google launched Pay Per Action in beta version for som [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

Feed & Information Overload? Read SearchCap!

Mar 29, 2007 at 1:12pm ET by Danny Sullivan

I was talking to someone recently who felt overwhelmed by all the search news that happens when they're out of-touch while traveling. They'd fire up Google Reader after getting back, only to have hundreds of posts to read through. I suggested they read our SearchCap newsletter. A few weeks later, they said it made a huge difference in keeping up. So, I thought it was worth a quick reminder. We put so much time and energy into SearchCap, and it can help anyone feeling the pressure of information overload. Here's more about it and why it's useful. SearchCap goes out toward the end of each day. [...]

Filed in: About Search Engine Land

AdSense Publisher View Of Google Pay Per Action

Mar 29, 2007 at 10:08am ET by Barry Schwartz

Last week Google launched Pay Per Action in beta version for some AdSense publishers and AdWords advertisers. I logged into my Google AdSense account this morning, and noticed that my referrals section was redone to allow me to start placing Google Pay Per Action referrals on my site. Below I will take you through a screen by screen view of Pay Per Action from the Google AdSense publisher side of things. Choose Referral Locale: When I clicked on the referrals link within the AdSense Setup screen I saw a new option to "Choose Referral Locale." As you can see from the screen capture below [...]

Filed in: Google: AdSense

Yahoo Adds API Web Services For Yahoo Mail

Mar 29, 2007 at 9:27am ET by Barry Schwartz

Yahoo has announced the availability of the Yahoo Mail Web Service. This new offering will allow developers to use API protocols, via SOAP or JSON-RPC, to connect to the Yahoo mail platform. This enables 3rd party authorized access to list email messages, compose new message, send email, read email and so on, all from outside of the Yahoo Mail interface. I believe this is only available to Yahoo Mail Premium users, and Yahoo is offering $10.00 commission for each person you sign up with the premium mail service. This comes after Yahoo announced unlimited email storage yesterday. There is [...]

Filed in: Yahoo: Mail

Google Claims To Investigate All Authenticated Spam Reports

Mar 29, 2007 at 9:18am ET by Barry Schwartz

A Google Webmaster Central Blog post on spam reporting claims that all authenticated spam reports are reviewed by a Google representative. An authenticated spam report is a spam report filed within the Google Webmaster Central tools section. Spam reports filed via the unauthenticated spam form are not all reviewed, but Google says "a large fraction of those are reviewed." [...]

Filed in: Google: SEO, Google: Webmaster Central, SEO: Spamming

Social Media Marketing for Small Business

Mar 29, 2007 at 9:00am ET by Matt McGee

While some in the search marketing industry debate the linkability of even the most unsexy Web sites—and by "unsexy", they often mean "small business"—there's an important element missing from the discussion: return on investment. The Investment: No one debates that an investment is required; viral marketing through social media demands a big chunk of your time, your money, or both. But we've already established, in What's So Different About Being Small?, that time and money are two things many small businesses have in short supply. The Return: No one debates that there are leg [...]

Filed in: Search Marketing: General, Small Is Beautiful, Social Media Marketing

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