Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: December 2007: Search Engine Land's Most Popular StoriesBelow are Search Engine Land's 10 most popular stories from December 2007:... Search Month: December 2007 Search News, In ReviewSearch Month is a monthly newsletter that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past month. It's also available by feed here. Below, news about Search Engine Land itself, then our 10 most popular stories from December 2007, then a major story for various s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Below are Search Engine Land's 10 most popular stories from December 2007: Below are Search Engine Land's 10 most popular stories from December 2007: 1) Instructions On Tracking Santa With NORAD & Google: The 2007 Edition - I'm a serious Santa Claus tracker. When I was a kid, I used to get Santa updates from NORAD (the US missile tracking people) via the radio. As an adult, I've long used the NORAD Tracks Santa web site to keep up with St. Nick, Father Christmas, or whatever your local name is for the jolly red suited man. This year, Google officially partnered with NORAD, bringing the N [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Most Popular Stories

Search Month is a monthly newsletter that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past month. It's also available by feed here. Below, news about Search Engine Land itself, then our 10 most popular stories from December 2007, then a major story for various search topics along with other stories related to those topics since our last monthly newsletter through today. By the way, for those wondering -- yes, there is a Search Year 2007 you can read, to see all stories over the past year organized by topic and on one page. ============================= Search Engine Land News === [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search Month

Last month I began running a campaign on Facebook's new ad network. After hearing the hype, I couldn't resist playing around with it as soon as I had a reason to. At first I was somewhat frustrated because I wasn't getting any page views or clicks. It took some time experimenting with my bid before I found the magic number. So far I am happy with the results I've seen over the past month, but there are many areas where the program could improve. Below are 10 ways Facebook could improve their social ads platform, as well as some pretty cool features the system already has. Advertising Guid [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook

The paid links debate is back, this time about whether Google wants all links in a paid post to have a nofollow attribute. Below, a look at the latest round, plus a recap of this year's "War On Paid Links" by Google and where the other search engines stand on the subject. The current round was sparked by an IZEA (previously Pay Per Post) post inviting the major search engines to clarify their stances on links in paid posts. Ted Murphy blogged that he talked to Matt Cutts at Pubcon, who told him that all links in a paid post should have the nofollow attribute, not just links to the [...]

Related Topics: Ask: SEO | Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Link Building: Paid Links | Microsoft: Bing SEO | Yahoo: SEO

Baidu.com says CFO killed in China accident from the AFP reports Shawn Wang, Baidu's CFO, died on December 27. Wang was in a fatal accident during a holiday vacation in China. He joined Baidu in 2004 and helped Baidu with their extremely successful IPO and NASDAQ listing. Robin Li, chairman and chief executive of Baidu, issued a statement: We are all completely shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic news. Shawn's leadership and vision helped transform Baidu into a leading US public company, and his presence will be greatly missed. Shawn was not only a tremendous leader within our com [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Baidu

Gary Price reports Google has applied to trademark several terms this year, including Knol, Android, OpenSocial, Open Handset Alliance, Panoramio, Dalvik, and more. These trademark applications are common for companies wanting to protect their new product releases. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues

Steve Souders, Yahoo's Chief Performance expert and writer of the Firefox add-on YSlow, announced on his site he is joining Google on January 7, 2008. It is not clear exactly what Souders will be doing at Google. It appears that he will be working with Dion Almaer, who is working on Google Code, Google Gears, and related Google projects. Almaer is very excited to see Souders joining Google. [...]

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

A PEW/Internet and American Life study out today finds that the place Americans turn to most for answers is the internet. The study, which surveyed 2,796 Americans, found that 76% have internet access and that 58% turn to the internet when they have questions about things like health, school, careers, and government issues. The project focused on how people use the internet, libraries, and government resources when they need to solve problems and found that those without high-speed internet access (no access or dial-up only) were less satisfied with their ability to get the answers they were s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Health | Search & Society: General | Search Engines: Government Search Engines | Search Engines: Health & Medical Search Engines | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior

Google's plan to socialize its various applications continues. Google Operating System has spotted code in Gmail that may lead to a Facebook-style news feed of status updates from your Gmail contacts. More about this and Google's continued "stealth social network" moves below. Back in September, Google launched a friends update feature on Orkut. Activity Streams & Other Social Nuggets From Leaked Google Video covers this plus how Google is working to create "activity streams" for all of its products as a way to make them more social and akin to Facebook. In October, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Gmail | Google: OpenSocial

Previous chapters have covered how the growth of Google and fears of how it was reshaping the communication landscape led to the application of existing anti-trust laws along with new ones to force a Google breakup in 2010. This chapter looks at the immediate aftermath: the "Baby Googles" or "Googlets" that were formed in the name of greater competition and consumer choice. Google (Search Products) The Google brand name remained with the company's first product, search. Virtually all search-related products were kept part of Google, including enterprise search. Google continued [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: General

I've now compiled the latest search popularity stats from Nielsen, comScore, Hitwise, and Compete. That means it's time to put them all together, to see what a "panel" of ratings services agree on -- and don't agree on -- in terms of search engine popularity. Ordinarily, I'd love to cover an entire year's worth of data from each service. Unfortunately, I've previously written how changes in rating methodology mean I can only go back six months for comScore and two months for Nielsen, at the moment. I can go back a full year for Compete and Hitwise, but when doing comparisons, I l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: Compete | Stats: comScore | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Popularity

Nearly done with today's search popularity stats review. Previously, I've covered the latest stats from Nielsen, comScore, and Hitwise. Now it's time for Compete. Like the others, it puts Google tops. Unlike the others, it's far more positive about Microsoft's share and negative about Yahoo. The Compete stats are here, showing the share of all searches handled in November 2007 by the top four major search engines: Google: 68.9% Yahoo: 17.4% Microsoft: 9.2% Ask: 3.9% Here are the numbers in pie chart format: Here's a look at Compete search share stats for the past year: Google comes in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: Compete | Stats: Popularity

With the latest stats from Nielsen and comScore posted earlier today, I continue on with my compilation of the latest search popularity stats, now moving to Hitwise. As with the others, Google is way in the lead for November 2007. But unlike the others, Hitwise has a full year of trending data that can be reviewed. That perspective shows that Google has remained relatively unchanged in terms of share for months, while Microsoft has hit an all-time low. The Hitwise stats are here, showing the share of all searches handled in November 2007 by the top four major search engines: Google: 65.1% Y [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: Popularity

Continuing on from my earlier post about Nielsen Online's latest search popularity stats, I'm now moving to those from comScore. For November 2007 -- as with Nielsen -- it's the same-old, same-old. Google's on top, followed by Yahoo and Microsoft. But in terms of raw searches, while Google still shows gains, at least Yahoo can point to six months' worth of holding steady. The comScore stats are here, showing the share of all searches handled by the five "core" search engines, as comScore calls them: Google: 58.6% Yahoo: 22.4% Microsoft: 9.8% Ask: 4.6% AOL: 4.5% Here are the numb [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: comScore | Stats: Popularity

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 Retail Store, Ask.com Rockin', Flickr Lens Cleaner 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 2007 Search Blog Awards: May We (& Others) Have Your Vote?Like the work we do here on Search Engine Land? Then we'd love your vote in the 2007 Search Blog [...]

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. I never thought Yahoo could look so yummy! Here is the Chinese version of the Yahoo Holiday Gift: Tamar Weinberg got a Google bean bag: Check out these Ask.com people rockin it! A Flickr camera lens cleaner: Yahoo goes retail? And here is Google's data center in Dallas: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

Like the work we do here on Search Engine Land? Then we'd love your vote in the 2007 Search Blog Awards that Search Engine Journal is having. We're nominated in several categories, as are some of our people here at SEL. Here's a rundown on the awards overall: Best SEO Blog of 2007 (our news editor, Barry Schwartz, also runs Search Engine Roundtable, which is nominated in this category)   Best Search Industry News Blog of 2007 (Search Engine Land is nominated here, and your vote is appreciated!)   Best Overall Search Marketing Blog of 2007 (Search Engine Land is also nominated her [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Awards | SEM Industry: Blogs & Forums

It's search popularity stats time, now that the figures are in from all the major ratings services. I'm starting off with those from Nielsen Online, the former Nielsen NetRatings. For November 2007, they show the usual picture -- Google leading the pack, followed by Yahoo and Microsoft. You'll find the press release here (PDF format), showing the top ten most popular services. Here are the top five: Google: 57.7% Yahoo: 17.9% Microsoft: 12.0% AOL: 4.5% Ask: 2.7% The figures above are the percentage of all US searches handled by the leading search engines. Here are the numbers in pie chart [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Popularity

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Keeping It Private On Google Reader Almost two weeks ago, I wrote my Google Reader Gets Social With Friends Shared Items post detailing how disturbing it was that Google Reader was now sharing items with people it considered my friends, on an opt-out basis. Privacy concerns over this finally exploded this week, with Google Reader... Get Your Sphinn Google GadgetPatrick Sexton at SEOish created a Sphinn Google Gadget that you can add to your Google Pers [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap