Ecommerce

The Matt Cutts Blog Gets Hacked

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 […]

Google

Matt Cutts & CuttsCon

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 […]

SEO

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

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 […]

SEO

Searcharazzi: DoubleClick on the Block…Performics too?

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 […]

Google

The “Is Google Too Powerful” Question Raised Once Again

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 […]

Apple

Top 12 Ways To Win Friends & Write Magnetic Headlines

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. […]

SEO

YellowPages.com Launches YP411 Text Messaging Service

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).

Google

Cash Bonus Incentives For Yahoo & Google Executives

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 […]

Google

The Critical First Second & The Area of Greatest Promise

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 […]

SEO

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, they said it made a […]

Google Ads

AdSense Publisher View Of Google Pay Per Action

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 […]

SEO

Yahoo Adds API Web Services For Yahoo Mail

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 […]

Google

Google Claims To Investigate All Authenticated Spam Reports

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 […]

Apple

Social Media Marketing for Small Business

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 […]

Content

NY Times Tracks Google’s Traditional Media Efforts

Miguel Helft at the New York Times has a relatively long and interesting article, with some interesting details, that rounds up the status and mixed results (so far) of Google’s moves into radio, TV and print newspapers. From my understanding, the print newspaper ads have been the most successful to date.

Bing SEO

Live Search To Offer Webmaster Tools Section Soon?

Eytan Seidman of Live Search responded to the recent questions on why the Live.com link command went offline. He said it was primarily due to “mass automated usage for data mining.” So they have decided to block all queries with backlink operators for the time being. Eytan adds that they hope to bring this functionality […]

SEO

Register For Search Marketing Expo Seattle & Save $200

Heads-up! The early bird registration deadline our Search Marketing Expo Advanced show in Seattle is coming up fast. Register before April 2, and you’ll save $200 on the ticket cost! SMX Advanced happens on June 4 & 5 and is especially designed for experienced search marketers. A full agenda covering the debates, summits, tips & […]

SEO

Yahoo Slurp Moves To crawl.yahoo.net

The Yahoo Search Blog announced that Yahoo Slurp, Yahoo’s web crawler, is moving from inktomisearch.com to crawl.yahoo.net. In short, the user agent for Yahoo’s crawler will remain “Yahoo! Slurp.” However, reverse DNS lookups on the IP address by the true Yahoo crawler will now resolve to crawl.yahoo.net. The transition should take “a few weeks.”

Ecommerce

Google Base & Data Feed Optimization

The vertical search results on the main shopping engines should not be ignored. We’re all very familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but you can also get to the top of Google through Google Base. I estimate that over 30,000 merchants are taking advantage of Google Base, but only a very small percentage have actually […]

SEO

UpSnap & MuseGlobal Offer Mobile Metasearch

UpSnap, a provider of mobile search and content, has partnered with federated search technology firm MuseGlobal to provide one of the first metasearch engines for mobile devices. From the press release: “Mobile metasearch technology from MuseGlobal searches multiple mobile sites simultaneously. For example, if you are looking for a particular ringtone, rather than going to […]

PPC

E-Consultancy Offers Paid Search Briefing

Want the inside scoop on the state of paid search, in particular in the United Kingdom? Research firm E-consultancy recently hosted a roundtable discussion with representatives from Argos, BAA, DoubleClick, eConversions, I-Spy, John Lewis, Net-A-Porter, Signet and Steak Media, and has captured the key elements of the discussion in a free 12-page white paper. Discussion […]

SEO

StreetAdvisor: Local At The Micro-Level

Maybe you’ve heard of “hyper-local?” Now let’s invent a new term, “micro-local.” That’s what StreetAdvisor (spotted via Mashable) seems to be going for. A nice looking site in the now familiar “Web 2.0” style, StreetAdvisor seeks to make information even more local, down to the street level — literally. It’s a user-generated content site targeting […]

Google

Vutool: Virtual Map Of Streets Being Developed?

TechCrunch has a provocative post about a “stealth startup” called Vutool. According to the post, the company was/is seeking to create a 3-D street-level view of the entire country by having people take multiple images from cars. The post suggests that the company failed to get series A funding and was acquired by Google.

SEO

InfoNow Partners With Virtual Earth For Store Locator Maps

InfoNow and Microsoft Virtual Earth have announced a partnership to provide Virtual Earth enhanced mapping on third party websites that use InfoNow’s Location Insight product. Location Insight provides banks, retailers and others with the ability to deliver store location information on their sites, on mobile devices and over the telephone. You can see how it […]

SEO

Yahoo Quick Links: The Official Word

Yahoo Quick Links are little links found beneath some of the search results at Yahoo Search. As an example, a search on barry schwartz at Yahoo Search brings up a Wikipedia entry for the other Barry Schwartz with Quick Links; it looks like this: I have been covering Yahoo Quick Links for a while and […]

Apple

Google Partners With LG & Mobile Handset Maker Deal Chart

Google has gained another mobile phone handset partnership, this time with LG. As of the second quarter of this year, selected LG handsets shipped throughout the world will be preloaded with mobile versions of Google software, including Google Maps, Gmail and Blogger. Yahoo signed a similar deal with LG in February. It’ll be interesting to […]

Content

Studies: B-to-B Search Is Poised For Continued Growth

A close look at recent market studies sheds some light on what’s happening in the world of business-to-business marketing, and provides several interesting insights regarding search marketing. It appears that business marketers’ perceptions are changing and as a result—budgets are starting to shift. Slower Adoption Rates As part of Forrester’s Marketing Effectiveness Survey, conducted in […]

PPC

Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement Approved

Search Engine Watch has news that a settlement in the Checkmate click fraud action against Yahoo has received final approval by the judge overseeing the case. Those with claims were required to file by November 20 of last year, following instructions at the Checkmate Settlement site. Here’s the Yahoo statement they’re giving to the press […]

SEO

Mobile News From CTIA And Beyond: InfoSpace, V-Enable, ZenZui

Beyond the news of Yahoo’s new mobile content and ad networks and Google’s new mobile search upgrades, there’s a good deal of mobile search-related news coming out of CTIA today. Among the announcements, InfoSpace has launched a direct-to-consumer version of its mobile local-search application Find It! for Blackberry devices. Previously the company was working exclusively […]

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