This is a special message for our SearchCap newsletter readers and anyone who visits Search Engine Land, regarding Search Engine Land's first conference: Search Marketing Expo Advanced. It happens in Seattle this June 4th and 5th. In 9 Reasons To Attend SMX Advanced that I posted last week, I explained that we see networking as such an important part of the event that we've helped organize three separate activities for "after hours" socializing. I wanted to explain a bit more about those events in this post. SMX Bash -- sponsored by Microsoft -- happens on June 3, the night before [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

What's the deal with that big giant button? I wrote recently in The Blogs & Search Blogs With The Most Readers about a new list of search blogs ranked by the number of RSS readers they have. We're at just under the 10,000 mark, which is great for a blog that's less than five months old. Still, I want more readers. In particular, a lofty goal. By the end of May, I want to break the 20,000 subscriber mark. Help us reach this goal! Take the feed! Tell a friend to take our feed. Tell whatever feed reader provider you use that we ought to be a default feed choice! Need more help understandi [...]

Related Topics: About Search Engine Land | Channel: Other

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: Search In Pictures: A Yahoo Journey; Google Job Offer & Paper AdSense In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.... Microsoft's Online Ad Unit Revenue Increases 11%Microsoft announced their first quarter earnings for 2007. The Online Services Business unit, which is comprised of ad [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more. The story begins with this car: They drove this car as far as they could but then they were confronted by this sign and had to go by foot. As they followed the trail they met obstacle after obstacle. There were signs of their fierce competitor, Google! Where did these Google clips come from? Why were they found in the middle of a mountain? Who would of put them her [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

Microsoft announced their first quarter earnings for 2007. The Online Services Business unit, which is comprised of adCenter and other MSN properties, noticed an increase in revenue of 11%, earning $623 million. However, they due to significant investments, the Online Services Business unit lost $200 million this past quarter, which is $176 million more than Q1 2006. The transcript of the earnings call from Seeking Alpha says: In our Online Services business we saw continued improvement in our advertising platform monetization, which resulted in advertising revenue growth of 23%. Revenue [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Business Issues

Yesterday's Economics of Social Media (EconSM) conference in LA, the first event from the team at PaidContent, was an impressive debut, both in terms of attendance and the range and "quality" of speakers on the stage. I'm not going to attempt to summarize all the individual sessions; rather, I have some general observations and interesting tidbits from the show. PaidContent's staff offer "blow by blow" posts of each of the panels here and elsewhere on the PaidContent site. Even though this was explicitly not a search conference, still missing was any discussion of "social search." Also somew [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Search Engines: Social Search Engines

Google reportedly to build data center in Belgium from MarketWatch reports that Google is going to spend 250 million EUROs (about $341 million US) on a data center in Belgium. The news is a bit interesting because we know Google hasn't seemed that welcome in Belgium, at least by some of the newspapers. there. See Google lost against Belgium newspapers for more on that. I guess this is just one more country for Danny to add to his Oklahoma, Where The Google Comes Sweepin' Down The Plain article. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Offices

Let’s just get it out there: it appears that Zunch Communications, a Dallas-based SEM, has filed for bankruptcy. While some might call this an isolated incident, some speculative minds suggest that a correction is on the horizon for SEM agencies. Indeed, Searcharazzi is dumbfounded by the hundreds of firms that have grown and multiplied during the early years of search, which traditionally means that the environment is ripe for consolidation. Take a quick tour of any Search Engine Strategies exhibitor hall and you will get the drift. Let’s start with a tour of SEM and related acq [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Searcharazzi | SEM Industry: Acquisitions | SEM Industry: General

Google Aims to Make Gains in China By Giving Units Greater Autonomy from the Wall Street Journal reports Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, saying that Google plans to give Google China more autonomy. Mr. Schmidt said, "Google China is run very autonomously. We want to increase that ... China is growing very quickly ... so it's important that we invest in China." Schmidt also said that Lee Kai-Fu, Google China's current president, will not share that position with anyone else in the near future. This question came up because Google China's co-president, Johnny Chou resigned December 31st, 2006 be [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Employees | Google: Outside US

Last week I had the chance to talk to Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products & User Experience, and Sep Kamvar, engineering lead for personalization at Google, about the inclusion of Web History into personalized search. On the face of it, this is another beta announcement from Google that will impact a relatively small number of users and will have no immediate implications for advertisers, but on a strategic level, this is a puzzle piece of substantial proportion that provides some real clues as how Google might start tying the parts of their expanding kingdom together. So I’m tempora [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web: From Search Engine Land: What Is PageRank? A Guide For Searchers & Webmasters Several times in the past few months, I've written about new Google features where PageRank was involved. Unfortunately, Google itself has very poor information about PageRank that I could use for those wanting to learn more about it. To solve that, here's a guide to PageRank, designed for searchers and... Google Revisits Historical Data Ranking Factors One of the biggest stirs of 2005 in the search [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Gary Price reports that Portfolio.com released a database of top executives profiles, and part of that list includes many of the top executives from our beloved search engines. Here are quick links to some of those profiles of interest: Google (profile): Sergey Brin Larry Page Eric Schmidt Shirley M. Tilghman Arthur D. Levinson Michael Moritz L. John Doerr Paul S. Otellini Shona L. Brown George Reyes John L. Hennessy K. Ram Shriram Ann Mather David C. Drummond Yahoo (profile): Terry Semel Jerry Yang David Filo Patricia Cuthbert Edward R. Kozel Robert A. Kotick Vyomesh Joshi Michael [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Employees | Channel: Industry | Google: Employees | Microsoft: Employees | Yahoo: Employees

Greg Jarboe reports Yahoo has added images and videos to the top of some of the Yahoo News search results. For example a search on apple options returns both image news results and video news results at the top of the news search page. Keep in mind, these are not images from Yahoo Images or Yahoo Video search. They are only images or videos from Yahoo News itself. Yahoo has been allowing you to filter by news images for a while. Just select the drop down menu on the right of the search box for those options. When you click on the "2 News Videos" in the example above, you'll see videos r [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Yahoo: News

Philipp Lenssen reports that dozens if not hundreds of Google Personalized Home Page users have lost their personalized settings. As of now, I currently see my customized and tailored Google home page but literally hundreds of people are commenting at Google Blogoscoped, Digg.com and Google Groups about this exact issue. Postscript: This appears to now be resolved. Users began reporting their personalized settings showing up again at about 4:30am (EST) this morning. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: iGoogle

One of the biggest stirs of 2005 in the search marketing field was caused by the release of a patent application from Google titled Information retrieval based on historical data. It introduced time as a dimension of ranking pages, with changes in content and linking and advertising and topics as factors to be considered, as well as rates of change. It discussed signals that might send warnings to search engines that some sites might be engaged in spamming the search engine. It covered seasonality and burstiness of topics, and domain name ownership and a myriad of other subjects, introducin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Patents | Google: SEO

From California, Google has spread out across the great land of the United States. New York! Washington! Arizona! And now which of the fifty nifty United States is Google heading to next? Oklahoma! Below, some news of Google's plans for the Sooner State and well as a recap of what other states it has conquered over time, as it builds the United States Of Google. Google is eyeing Pryor Creek, Oklahoma. Since the industrial park has its own power plant, the smart money is that Google will be placing another of its energy-guzzling data centers there (shouldn't they all go out in the desert now [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Offices

We're getting to the time of year when many small businesses are thinking about hiring summer help. Kids and young adults will be finishing school and looking for work, and there'll be plenty of openings behind cash registers and at empty desks with a telephone. Most of these are temporary hires that make everyone happy: The kids get some extra spending money and maybe a little experience, and the small business owner fills a short-term need for help. But what about your next long-term hire? Maybe you have plans in place and need some real help executing them by year's end. Maybe, hopefully [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Small Is Beautiful

SuperPages, like Yahoo! before it, has decided to factor in click-through rates in determining the order of sponsored ads. Bid price now becomes one of several considerations in arraying search results (geography and category obviously remain critical). VP Robyn Rose told me that the majority of the consumer traffic coming through the site uses the search box (as opposed to browsing) to find businesses and other content. Consequently the changes should have a material impact on advertisers and monetization over the longer term. SuperPages was the first of the Internet yellow pages sites to a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: General | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing

Several times in the past few months, I've written about new Google features where PageRank was involved. Unfortunately, Google itself has very poor information about PageRank that I could use for those wanting to learn more about it. To solve that, here's a guide to PageRank, designed for searchers and site owners alike. This is fairly long article. To help, you can jump to particular sections of key interest, if you like: Google's Definition: PageRank As Votes Recent Google Edits Emphasize PageRank Just One Of Many Factors PageRank For Searchers: Google Toolbar PR Stands F [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: General | Google: SEO | Link Building: General | SEO: General

Search marketing firm iCrossing just released the results of a mobile Web usage survey with 1,001 US residents over the age of 16. The study found that about 30 percent of mobile users access the Internet, but among that population 75 percent used search. Assuming the survey methodology is sound and statistically valid, the findings are striking and have powerful implications. Here are some of the top-level findings from the report: 30 percent of mobile users access the Internet on their mobile devices, with 50 percent doing so several times a week and 75 percent of those who access the mo [...]

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