September 2007: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories

Sep 30, 2007 at 11:59pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Below are Search Engine Land's 10 most popular stories from September 2007: 1) Google Birthday Logo: Nine Years Old - The Google home page is sporting the special logo celebrating the company's ninth birthday. But wait? Didn't Google just turn 10? Google's domain name turned 10 years old on September 15, but the company itself celebrates its incorporation date in September 1998. But when is that incorporation date: Sept. 7 or Sept. 27? =================== 2) Larryos, Raisin Brin, Porn Flakes & Other Google Cereals - I was at Google last month and did a double-take at the wall art up ne [...]

Filed in: Most Popular Stories

Google StreetView Goes To London

Sep 29, 2007 at 9:21am ET by Greg Sterling

Google Maps is global, so why not Google StreetView as well? A London expansion is suggested by this image of one of the vehicles that takes the 360 degree street images. (Google has done some of the photography itself, but also uses partner Immersive Media in the U.S.). StreetView image collection is apparently underway in Canada, although there are some legal issues surrounding privacy and consent to be photographed that make it somewhat more complicated than in the U.S. If or when StreetView expands globally, or at least to Western Europe, it becomes a travel tool for U.S. residents (or f [...]

Filed in: Google: Maps & Local

SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 28, 2007

Sep 28, 2007 at 8:09pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Deconstrucing Google's Billboard Experiment Last week's coverage of Google's Goog-411 billboard in Olean brought forth a number of other sightings of the billboards in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, Ca. & Tonawanda , Buffalo and Limestone (even smaller than Olean) NY. While there may be others yet to appear and more billboards coming... Sphinn: Our Internet Marketing News Site & Discussion Forums Leave Beta It's official. Sphinn (we pronounc [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

SPONSOR MESSAGE: Increase Targeted Traffic & Link Popularity w / TLA

Sep 28, 2007 at 4:15pm ET by Search Engine Land

Text Link Ads marketplace allows you to purchase static html ads that can drive targeted traffic while building link popularity, which is a top factor in search engine rankings. TLA is offering new Advertisers $100 in free Text Link Ads. Stop by Text-Link-Ads.com for more information. [...]

Filed in: Sponsor Messages

Deconstructing Google’s Billboard Experiment

Sep 28, 2007 at 2:01pm ET by Mike Blumenthal

Last week's coverage of Google's Goog-411 billboard in Olean brought forth a number of other sightings of the billboards in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, Ca. & Tonawanda , Buffalo and Limestone (even smaller than Olean) NY. While there may be others yet to appear and more billboards coming from Google, the very specific geographic clustering of the billboards in Western New York and the greater San Francisco area speak against Valleywag's speculation that the boards were surplus from a Google experiment in brokering billboards. While Google may very well be interested in the bil [...]

Filed in: Google: Marketing, Google: Mobile, Google: Voice Search

Sphinn: Our Internet Marketing News Site & Discussion Forums Leave Beta

Sep 28, 2007 at 11:27am ET by Danny Sullivan

It's official. Sphinn (we pronounce it like "spin"), our social news and discussion site for internet marketing, is now out of beta. OK -- so the logo still says beta at the moment, but that will change in a matter of hours. Since we launched back in July, we've been working out bugs and improving features. Not every bug is gone, but things are stable enough that we decided to stop calling it a beta. Nor are we done with development. We have a wishlist of features that we'll be implementing over the coming months. We've also already released a number of new features since Sphinn laun [...]

Filed in: About Search Engine Land, SEM Industry: Blogs & Forums, SEM Industry: Community

Searcharazzi: Bubble About To Burst?

Sep 28, 2007 at 11:10am ET by Searcharazzi

As fall settles in, another chill is in the air. Rumor has it that a top tier search and interactive services shop is about to have a management shake-up. M&A in the space appears to have slowed down as shops that should have taken their first offer decided to keep on trucking. So what exactly is going on, folks? Bubble bursting? Or are we still very early in the game? Valleywag suggests that lots of cheese varieties mean that the bubble is still growing. An attendee at the EmTech conference reception Wednesday afternoon -- okay, okay, my boss -- noted that he hadn't "seen that many ki [...]

Filed in: Searcharazzi

Google Buys Mobile-Social Site Zingku

Sep 28, 2007 at 9:02am ET by Greg Sterling

Google Operating System reports (and confirms) that Google has acquired a mobile service called Zingku, which had been in private beta. Around since 2005, the service uses text messaging and picture messaging to provide a platform for (what appears to be) entertainment and events-related communication but also has commercial potential. Zingku also integrates the desktop with mobile. Below are some excerpts from copy on the company's website: Our service is designed from the mobile phone, outward, allowing you to create and exchange things of interest ranging from invitations to "mobile flyer [...]

Filed in: Google: Acquisitions, Google: Mobile

MarketingSherpa Report: Challenges To Bringing Search In-House

Sep 28, 2007 at 9:00am ET by Grant Crowell

MarketingSherpa has just released the fourth annual edition of its Search Marketing Benchmark Guide. The Guide is a comprehensive benchmark for all things related to search marketing, including things such as expected search spending for 2008, how search ROI stacks up against other tactics, difficulty in SEM staffing, new ways to evaluate clicks and click fraud, and many other topics. One interesting aspect of the research this year focused on the challenges to bringing search in-house. If you're thinking about bringing your search engine marketing in-house, how hard is it? The report featur [...]

Filed in: SEM Industry: In House, Stats: General

Senate Hearing On Google-DoubleClick & Post Office Metaphors

Sep 28, 2007 at 8:08am ET by Danny Sullivan

After all the buildup to yesterday's hearing in the US Senate on the Google-DoubleClick deal, the actual hearing itself sounded to be a bit anti-climatic. Below, a look at what was said and how it doesn't seem like it will influence the ultimate decision by the US Federal Trade Commission one way or the other. Google plan to buy DoubleClick scrutinized in US Senate from the AFP has sound bites such as Microsoft warning that if Google and DoubleClick are allowed to combine, Google will become too dominant in online advertising: "If Google and DoubleClick are allowed to merge, Google wi [...]

Filed in: Google: Business Issues, Legal: Privacy

Coupons Coming To AskCity

Sep 27, 2007 at 4:51pm ET by Greg Sterling

Ask has partnered with IAC sister company EPI, publisher of "The Entertainment Book," which offers coupons and discounts to local businesses. Entertainment, which has had several false starts with online distribution, is planning to pump 75 percent of its coupons into AskCity. They may also eventually make their way to Ask.com's SmartAnswers and finally into mobile. Here's more information including some examples from the Ask Blog. Here's an example: According to the press release, there will eventually be 150,000 coupons (representing deals at 60,000 local businesses) that will be search [...]

Filed in: Ask: City

SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 27, 2007

Sep 27, 2007 at 4:48pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Microsoft Introduces New Live Search Index, Adds Features In Effort To Close 'Relevancy Gap' And Improve User Experience Compete and Nielsen show Microsoft gaining search share over the summer, while comScore and Hitwise show the company losing share. Regardless of these numbers, however, Microsoft is confident that the search engine it's reintroducing tonight in conjunction with its Searchification event will be a substantial improvement of the current v [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

Should A Small Business Blog?

Sep 27, 2007 at 1:57pm ET by Bill Slawski

More and more small businesses are starting blogs on the Web, and it's a positive development, if done correctly. One of the benefits is the chance for business owners to hold a conversation with potential clients, and with people who may be interested the services, or goods that the company offers as well as with people who may share similar interests. Another benefit is the opportunity to attract search engine traffic and links to your site. A third is the chance to build a positive reputation on the web. Those reasons may sound good in theory, but do they work in practice? One of th [...]

Filed in: Small Is Beautiful

Marchex Relaunches OpenList As Broad Local Search Destination

Sep 27, 2007 at 1:34pm ET by Greg Sterling

Marchex has been making lots of moves in local lately. It recently acquired VoiceStar to add PPCall and call tracking functionality to its advertising capabilities. It launched 100,000 local content sites featuring search and browse functionality, making an otherwise static domain portfolio into a much more compelling local and vertical network of sites. And the technology and user experience at the core of that massive launch is now on display at a newly relaunched consumer destination: OpenList.com. The site offers a nice interface, context-sensitive navigation/filters, dynamic mapping (Ya [...]

Filed in: Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

Listen To The Google-DoubleClick Hearings Live

Sep 27, 2007 at 1:06pm ET by Greg Sterling

If you have curiosity, a vested interest or just have a lot of time on your hands, you can listen live to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings today considering the implications of the intended acquisition of DoubleClick by Google (courtesy of Gary Price, who has instructions on a couple of ways to listen in). Meanwhile on the Google Public Policy Blog, the company discusses the hearings and competition in the online ad space, which it obviously believes will not be harmed if the acquisition goes through. PaidContent excerpts and points to a report from AEI-Brookings Joint Center for [...]

Filed in: Google: Acquisitions, Legal: General

Google To Keynote At SMX Local & Mobile

Sep 27, 2007 at 12:12pm ET by Chris Sherman

I'm delighted to announce that Michael T. Jones, Chief Technologist of Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Local Search, will be delivering the keynote address on Monday at our inaugural SMX Local & Mobile Conference in Denver. Michael will be offering an inside look at Google's various local and mapping services, and will also talk about the trends, future directions, and opportunities for search marketers in the local space. Google is participating on several other panels at the conference, including Introducing the Local Search Engines, Mobile Search: Beyond 10 Blue Links, and The Fut [...]

Filed in: SEM Industry: Conferences

Google Maps Causes US Navy To Change Its Swastika Building

Sep 27, 2007 at 11:32am ET by Danny Sullivan

You have to feel a bit sorry for the US Navy. They have a building in California that looks like a swastika from the air. But who looks at buildings from the air? Until Google Maps popularized easy access to aerial views, only the occasional bored air traveler. But thanks to Google Maps, the swastika building got known, discussed, and now is being camouflaged. Google Maps forces Navy to redesign swastika building from Chris Silver Smith covers how he contributed to what happened by posting a picture he spotted of the building. Now it's made a CNN report, because as he explains, the US Navy [...]

Filed in: Google: Maps & Local, Search & Society: General

Yahoo Podcasts To Close; The Sorry State Of Podcast Search

Sep 27, 2007 at 11:22am ET by Danny Sullivan

Sigh. As someone who produces a podcast -- and who has enjoyed searching for podcasts when going on roadtrips -- I don't get why podcast search isn't more supported by the major search engines. Yahoo Podcasts, rolled out with promise back in October 2005, now sports a message at the top of the page saying "Yahoo! apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on Oct. 31, 2007." Nice job, Yahoo. What, you can't even post a link to a reason why you're closing? No advice for what the podcast owners that actually promoted your service, about what they're supposed to do [...]

Filed in: Search Engines: Podcast Search Engines, Yahoo: Other

Avoiding Clueless-Is As Clueless-Does SEO

Sep 27, 2007 at 7:19am ET by Jill Whalen

Sometimes I think SEOs have lost the plot. Not all SEOs, mind you, but many, especially the newbies. It’s like they don’t understand the reason for doing the SEO things that they know they need to do. I think many walk around with a checklist of SEO-type duties and set off to do them, yet they have no clue as to why. “Title tags: check!” “Meta tags: check!” “Links: check!” “All done! Yay, that was easy!” But without knowing the ultimate reason for doing the things they do, they don’t get it done correctly. You don’t create titles for titles’ sake. You don’t g [...]

Filed in: 100% Organic

Google Birthday Logo: Nine Years Old

Sep 27, 2007 at 6:30am ET by Danny Sullivan

The Google home page is sporting the special logo above, celebrating the company's ninth birthday, with one of the Gs turned into a nine. But wait? Didn't Google just turn 10? Google Is 10 Years Old? Finding The Real Google Birthday that I posted earlier this month covers how yes, Google's domain name turned 10 years old on September 15, but the company itself celebrates its incorporation date in September 1998. But when is that incorporation date: Sept. 7 or Sept. 27? Google has celebrated both dates in the past, using Sept. 27 more lately, such as today. Wikipedia says Sept. 7 is the i [...]

Filed in: Google: General, Stats: History

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