November 2007: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories

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

Below are Search Engine Land's 10 most popular stories from November 2007: 1) Google Maps Adds Terrain View, Replaces Hybrid View - If you load up Google Maps, you may notice that they have removed the "Hybrid" button and replaced it with "Terrain" and a simulated view of cities or terrain. Here is a live frame of the Google Terrain view of New York City 10010. =================== 2) It’s The (Other) Algorithm, Stupid! Understanding DiggRank - Have you ever wondered what it really takes for a story submitted to Digg to get to the home page? Or why a certain story—eve [...]

Filed in: Most Popular Stories

SPONSOR MESSAGE: Attract more customers to your web site.

Nov 30, 2007 at 4:15pm ET by Search Engine Land

Yahoo! Sponsored Search advertising puts your business where your customers are searching. SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up now and receive a $50 credit toward your first month, or save $50 on assisted setup, our expert starter service. [...]

Filed in: Sponsor Messages

SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 30, 2007

Nov 30, 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: Search in Pictures: Matchbox20 At Yahoo, Ask Tattoo & Yahoo Paintball 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.... Google Reader Adds Recommendations And Drag & DropThe Google Reader Blog announced that they have added two new features, unique to Google Reader, but not unique to [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

Search in Pictures: Matchbox20 At Yahoo, Ask Tattoo, & Yahoo Paintball

Nov 30, 2007 at 10:50am ET by Barry Schwartz

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. Yahoo hosted a Matchbox20 concert and people like Paris Hilton were in attendance: Check out this Ask tattoo: Colorful Google Recycling bins: Google Champagne and Chocolate: Artistic Flickr Picture: Yahoo Paintball Match! [...]

Filed in: Search In Pictures

Google Reader Adds Recommendations And Drag & Drop

Nov 30, 2007 at 9:40am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Google Reader Blog announced that they have added two new features unique to Google Reader but not unique to many other RSS readers. The new features are "recommendations" and drag and drop capabilities. Google recommendations can be found on the top right side of the Google Reader home page or via the directory page. It basically offers you suggested blogs based on what you have already subscribed to. Like I said above, many other RSS readers offer this capability. Here are screen captures of my Google Reader Recommendations: One problem: I have subscribed to several of my reco [...]

Filed in: Google: Reader

Danny Sullivan & Rand Fishkin Talk About Search Ads Vs. Facebook Ads

Nov 30, 2007 at 9:29am ET by Barry Schwartz

Forget Facebook. Search Ads Are the Revolution from Danny Sullivan's monthly AdAge column talks about how search ads compare to Facebook's ads. That column is the topic in this week's SEOmoz's Whiteboard Friday. Danny sat down with Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz's office in Seattle to create the following video. Enjoy! [...]

Filed in: Facebook, Search Ads: Behavioral Targeting, Search Ads: General, Search Engines: Social Search Engines

Facebook Modifies “Beacon” To Mollify Privacy Critics

Nov 30, 2007 at 9:25am ET by Greg Sterling

As we wrote yesterday, Facebook faced a furor from critics who argued its Beacon program went too far in tracking its users' actions on non-Facebook sites and broadcasting those back through Facebook newsfeeds. As of last night the company had decided to make changes in the advertising program to appease critics who have brought much unwelcome negative publicity to the social network. Here's the New York Times' coverage. The biggest change appears to be that the program will now require an "opt-in" rather than an "opt-out" by users. The actions will still be tracked and captured, but they will [...]

Filed in: Facebook, Legal: Privacy, Search Ads: Behavioral Targeting

Google Adds Report Malicious Software Form

Nov 30, 2007 at 9:20am ET by Barry Schwartz

In the aftermath of the major malware attack that hit search results, the Google Online Security Blog announced the launch of a new form to report malware software showing up in Google results. Google Cleans Up Returns; Yahoo Not So Much from eWeek has a look at how Google has quickly cleaned up the malware from their search results, while Yahoo has taken a slower approach. [...]

Filed in: Google: SEO, Legal: Security, SEO: Spamming, Search Features: Safety

SES Chicago & PubCon Vegas Next Week: Can’t Make It?

Nov 30, 2007 at 9:04am ET by Barry Schwartz

Next week, two major search marketing conferences, [...]

Filed in: SEM Industry: Conferences

WSJ: Google Will Bid For 700MHZ Wireless Spectrum

Nov 30, 2007 at 8:27am ET by Greg Sterling

Google finally makes it official. After saying it would "probably" bid on the 700 megahertz wireless spectrum, then pulling back on that statement, it is diving in after all into the auction. The Wall Street Journal published an article that confirmed, according to its sources, that Google will indeed bid for the available spectrum that is being auctioned next month by the US FCC. The article says that Google will formally file on Monday for the right to bid. Google said previously that it would potentially bid $4.6 billion on the airwaves. But to win, it might cost more. There are a varie [...]

Filed in: Google: Mobile

The Search Shopping Mall: Moving Up The Long Tail

Nov 30, 2007 at 7:08am ET by Gord Hotchkiss

Some time ago, I did a blog post called the “Other Long Tail of Search”. When Chris Anderson’s book came out, several smart search marketers realized that the long tail phenomenon applied to our industry as well. If you look at the keywords that drive traffic to your site and plot them according to traffic volume, you get a classic power law distribution curve. A few keywords drive a lot of traffic, but when you add up all the tiny bits of traffic that come from less popular keywords, it adds up to a significant chunk. Suddenly, everyone was talking about the Long Tail of search, and sa [...]

Filed in: Just Behave

SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 29, 2007

Nov 29, 2007 at 4:36pm 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: Yahoo Testing "Neighbors" Organizing Tool For LocalYahoo has always been an innovator in local, and today the company is rolling out (only in two California markets) a new and innovative feature that allows community members to identify, discuss, and potentially organize around local issues of concern. Called "Neighbors," it combines functionality found on Yahoo's suggestion boards... ACAP Launches, Robots.txt 2.0 For Blocking Search Engines?After a ye [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

Yahoo Testing “Neighbors” Organizing Tool For Local

Nov 29, 2007 at 12:09pm ET by Greg Sterling

Yahoo has always been an innovator in local, and today the company is rolling out (only in two California markets) a new feature that allows community members to identify, discuss, and potentially organize around local issues of concern. Called "Neighbors," it combines functionality found on Yahoo's suggestion boards and in Yahoo Answers. It came out of Yahoo Hack Day, and the company has decided to introduce it on a limited basis to test community reaction. It's a completely non-commercial offering and is intended to allow people to make suggestions for how to improve local communities, vot [...]

Filed in: Yahoo: Maps & Local

ACAP Launches, Robots.txt 2.0 For Blocking Search Engines?

Nov 29, 2007 at 12:02pm ET by Danny Sullivan

After a year of discussions, ACAP -- Automated Content Access Protocol -- was released today as a sort of robots.txt 2.0 system for telling search engines what they can or can't include in their listings. However, none of the major search engines support ACAP, and its future remains firmly one of "watch and see." Below, more about the how and why of ACAP. Let's start with some history. ACAP got going in September 2006, backed by major European newspaper and publishing groups that in particular felt Google was using content without proper permissions and wanting a more flexible me [...]

Filed in: SEO: Blocking Spiders

Yahoo Search Marketing Adds Campaign Bid Tune-Up & More

Nov 29, 2007 at 12:00pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Yahoo Search Marketing has announced two new features to help advertisers run their accounts. The two features include: Campaign Bid Tune-Up: This tool helps advertisers optimize their campaigns by giving them suggested keyword bids and daily spending limits. Saved Preferences: Finally, when you change your column views, those changes will be saved for the next time you login. Saved preferences works in the following areas: Campaign Summary, Campaign Detail, and Ad Group Detail sections of the account. To tune your campaign, click on the "Tune Up Campaign" link, as shown in the screen cap [...]

Filed in: Yahoo: Search Ads

Yahoo Seeks To Boost Europe Operation With New Hire

Nov 29, 2007 at 11:59am ET by Greg Sterling

According to the Guardian, Yahoo has named former BlackBerry and Orange executive Kristof Fahy to be vice president of marketing for Europe. Fahy is a seasoned executive facing a challenging time for Yahoo, which has properties across Europe that are performing in an uneven fashion. The article goes on to say, "poorly performing parts of the European business have until the end of the first quarter next year to improve or faced being closed down or sold." [...]

Filed in: Yahoo: Employees, Yahoo: Outside US

Yahoo Contextual Ads To Power “Ads For Adobe PDF”

Nov 29, 2007 at 10:04am ET by Barry Schwartz

Yahoo, Adobe team on PDF ads from News.com reports Yahoo and Adobe are working together to put contextual ads in PDF documents. Over at the Adobe Labs, you can find a new product named Ads for Adobe PDF. Yahoo will be powering the ads within PDF documents that are contextually relevant to the content within the PDF. If you produce PDF documents and want to monetize them with relevant ads, this seems to be the product for you. To get ads on your PDF documents, you will first need to be approved for the beta. To sign up for the beta, complete this form. Then you apparently upload your PD [...]

Filed in: Search Ads: Contextual, Yahoo: Publisher Network

Facebook To Potentially Change Beacon After Privacy Furor

Nov 29, 2007 at 9:51am ET by Greg Sterling

Facebook has faced a steady stream of complaints, negative PR, and other criticism after rolling out the "Beacon" component of its new suite of advertiser tools and programs. For those who aren't up on it, Beacon captures actions and transactions Facebook users conduct on third-party sites and essentially broadcasts those through newsfeeds to their networks. It offers an opt-out feature and doesn't work when people aren't signed into Facebook. But people haven't been happy that users have to opt-out. Most recently, MoveOn.org upped the ante by launching a very public petition drive against Bea [...]

Filed in: Facebook

Google Like/Don’t Like: Move Results Up, Hide Them Or Suggest Your Own

Nov 29, 2007 at 9:25am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has rolled out a new experimental feature that allows anyone to alter search results in the way they like. You can move good results higher, hide ones you think are bad and suggest your own. Google was spotted testing this feature with selected users back in August and September, and then Googlified spotted it going live this week for anyone to use. As you can see from the screen capture below, this new feature enables users to vote up a search result or completely remove a search result from the index. Clicking the up arrow will promote the search result to the top spot for that ke [...]

Filed in: Google: Labs, Google: Personalized Search, Google: User Interface, Google: Web History & Search History, Google: Web Search, Search Engines: Social Search Engines, Search Features: Search History & Personalization

The “Design” Part Of Search Engine Friendly Design

Nov 29, 2007 at 8:56am ET by Shari Thurow

For the past few years, I have been silently listening to and observing other search engine optimization (SEO) professionals speak and write about the topic of search-engine friendly web site design. I'm the one in the back with the black wig, sunglasses, mustache, and trench coat. All joking aside, I am genuinely interested in how other web designers/developers approach this topic. Is their approach different from my approach? Are there design elements that I, perhaps, might have overlooked? What concerns me is how the term "search engine friendly design" has been twisted to have differen [...]

Filed in: 100% Organic, SEO: General

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