This has been a remarkable year. After years of no real dramatic evolution in search, the third generation finally arrived. Google calls it Universal Search, and I've been tending to say "blended search" as a generic name for the change that's now hit all the major search engines. But in doing the agenda for our upcoming SMX West conference, a better term for what's going on finally clicked: Search 3.0. In this article, I'll cover the why and what of Search 3.0, taking in Search 1.0 and 2.0 along the way and touch on how Search 4.0 -- personal and social refinement -- is on the way. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Web Search | Channel: SEO | Google: OneBox, Plus Box & Direct Answers | Google: Universal Search | Microsoft: Bing | Search 3.0 | Search Features: Shortcuts | Yahoo: Shortcuts

Yahoo to offer structured Web search from Macworld reports Yahoo is going to launch a new structured search component to their web search engine. Web search is typically considered "unstructured," where there isn't a real method of comparing sets of results side by side, in a data comparison grid structure. Yahoo hopes to offer structured search for certain types of queries to help aid the searcher in their information retrieval process. Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Yahoo’s vice president of research for Europe and Latin America, said they will likely start offering structure search for e-commer [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Yahoo: Search

Philipp Lenssen reports via Ben Ari's blog that an Israeli court has compelled Google to hand over the IP address of a Blogger account. The conditions of this require that the blogger, who allegedly committed slander, not reply to an anonymous email to reply to the motion. Since this blogger did not reply to the motion, Google will have to hand over the IP address information to a court in Israel. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Legal: Privacy

Google Plans Service to Store Users' Data from the Wall Street Journal reports Google may be offering an online storage service within a few months. We have heard rumors of such offerings in the past, going under code names such as "Platypus," GDrive, Google Drive and Google "My Stuff." Are these renewed rumors legit, or is it just Google offering more storage to applications like Gmail and Picasa, like they have in the past? The Wall Street Journal claims that this storage service will be "essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives." The online st [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Google: Apps For Your Domain

Consumer behavior changes based on the day and time an individual is searching. It's common to see conversion rates increase for dating sites in the early to late evening, while service-based industries often see a decline in conversion rates during those times. Adjusting your bids by time of day or day of the week can be quite useful for optimizing your campaigns for a lower cost per action. Both Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter have the functionality to change bids by time of day or day of the week. On AdWords, this feature is called Ad Scheduling and for adCenter, it is part [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Paid Search | Search Ads: General

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: YouTube Video Overlay Ads Becoming More Visible Beet.TV and Silicon Alley Insider discuss the new Adobe campaign (and others) featuring graphical ads and video overlay ads on YouTube. Below is a screenshot I captured, after watching numerous streams because the ads don't always appear. But the appearance of these ads indicates that YouTube is ramping up its... Google Loses Local Ad Guy, Preuss, To MeetUpMeetUp Nabs Google Vet Dominic Preuss from Silico [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Beet.TV and Silicon Alley Insider discuss the new Adobe campaign (and others) featuring graphical ads and video overlay ads on YouTube. Below is a screenshot I captured after watching numerous streams because the ads don't always appear. But the appearance of these ads indicates that YouTube is ramping up its monetization and experimenting with presenting different types of ads to users for their reactions. The overlay ads were originally introduced on YouTube in the summer. We wrote about the ads when they launched. Here's a screenshot of a house ad for a YouTube program, but it illustrate [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: YouTube & Video

MeetUp Nabs Google Vet Dominic Preuss from Silicon Alley Insider reports Google's product manager for local advertising has left to join a start up. Dominic Preuss worked at Google's NYC for three and a half years running Google's local business team. Preuss was hired as the vice president of marketplace at MeetUp. He will be responsible for generating a revenue source for the start up. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Employees

Building links in a competitive niche is one of the most difficult marketing tasks I'm asked to do. Not only do I have to work in link-saturated industries, but more times than not I have to find a way to out-rank a "complaint site" and/or Wikipedia. If you've ever tried to do this you know how difficult it can be and how it's necessary to think outside the box in order to net the links you need. Successful link building in competitive markets takes both traditional as well as Web 2.0 linking tactics to make an impact. How do you avoid being buried in the search results or move above the co [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week

The New York Times ran a kind of overview article this weekend about the mobile Web and the fact that it may still be far off as a practical matter. The article talks about different efforts, from the iPhone to Yahoo Go and recent Microsoft spin-off Zumobi, that are trying to make "surfing the mobile Internet" a better experience. The article has a somewhat bearish tone and point of view and argues that the mobile Internet is still years away as a mainstream phenomenon. Do you agree? To see, I've created a quick survey on mobile Internet habits. Depending on the level of response, we'll write [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

The New York Times on Sunday covered mapping site EveryScape and its effort to create 3-D maps of urban environments, but also store and business interiors. (Here's our post from when the site formally launched in October.) The Times' piece focuses on the interior mapping dimension of what EveryScape is doing, which helps differentiate it from larger competitors such as Google and Microsoft, although Microsoft has stated the same ambition. EveryScape has settled on a business model where it charges retailers and local businesses an annual fee to include interior images on its site. The range [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

JotSpot to replace Google Pages soon? from Googling Google reports recent activity spotted with some of Google's URLs. Tony Ruscoe wrote at a Google Blogoscoped Forum thread that http://pages-beta.google.com/a/google.com now contains the "service=jotspot" parameter in the URL. Google bought Jotspot in October 2006. Since then there have been rumors that Google would release a Wiki type of application. Garett Rogers at Googling Google feels that Google may be replacing Google Pages, a product they announced in February 2006, with this Jotspot alternative. Right now, all we know is that t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Docs & Spreadsheets

Here at the end of 2007, it's painfully obvious that the local search advertising market remains highly fragmented. Numerous local search experts attending the recent SMX Local & Mobile Conference reiterated the observation that businesses seeking to target local audiences have a plethora of options, and identifying and selecting the right locally-focused sites can be an overwhelming task for small business people who have limited time to devote to the task. So, where should you choose to devote your time and budget? What's the minimum number of sites you should appear in and which are the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Local Search | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | Stats: Popularity

Fires are burning again in Southern California, and the map makers are hard at work helping people know what's happening where. Below, maps relating to the Corral Fire in Malibu: NOTE: For the latest fires, see this fire maps section of Search Engine Land, where any updates are listed. Los Angeles Times: Shows evacuation zones, fire location, and more. Los Angeles Daily News: Highlights the entire evacuation area, locates fire, pinpoints destroyed homes, and more. Fox News: Road closures, reports of homes burned. ABC News: Evacuation areas. Blog.sudosu.net: Road closure [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Disasters | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

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. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

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: Yahoo Ping Pong, Google Ski Mask & Thanksgiving 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.... YouTube Tips: How To Market Via YouTubeThe Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos via TechCrunch has an obsoletely awesome list of tips and techniques to make yo [...]

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. These Yahoo guys celebrated Thanksgiving at Yahoo a bit early: Which way to Google Security? I wonder if this guy in the Google ski mask can find it? Vint Cerf was at Google Zurich: Why does Yahoo have a Microphone Flag? Congrats to the Yahoo Taiwan Ping Pong Champions! [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

The Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos via TechCrunch has an awesome list of tips and techniques to make your YouTube videos a success. Here is a quick run down of some of those tips: Making the Video: - 15 - 30 second videos - Ensure the video can be remixed over and over again - The video can't be a blatant advertisement - Add the shock factor - Make your headline fake - Sex works Reaching Most Viewed Page: - Tell Blogs - Tell Forums - MySpace pages - Facebook friends and share features - Use email lists - Tell your friends After you reach the most viewed page, then you can ch [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: YouTube & Video | SEO: Video Search

The Google Webmaster Central Blog has provided us with a listing of all those Googlers who help answer questions in the Google Webmaster Central Group. They are proud to announce they can support people in 12 different languages. Here is the rundown. (1) English Google Webmaster Central Group (2) French Google Webmaster Central Group (3) Italian Google Webmaster Central Group (4) German Google Webmaster Central Group (5) Spanish Google Webmaster Central Group (6) Dutch Google Webmaster Central Group (7) Swedish Google Webmaster Central Group (8) Finnish Google Webmaster Central Group (9) P [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: AdSense | Google: Employees | Google: Marketing | Google: SEO

Google Blogoscoped reports Google has updated one of their help pages to include the words "selling links" when discussing link schemes. On the Why should I report paid links to Google? page, Google changed the document to add the words "selling links" through the page. One line now reads: Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results. What does Google recommend you do if you sell ads on your site? (1) Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the anchor tag or (2) Redirecting the lin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Link Building: Paid Links