Ah, sweet irony. Yesterday I spent some time raising concerns about knowledge aggregation sites like Wikipedia and the forthcoming Google Knol potentially ranking tops for every search conducted. Today, what’s in the top results for Knol? Yep — a new Wikipedia page on the topic! The page was created yesterday and took less than 24 […]
With so many tactical options available to today’s search marketer, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which approaches are best for achieving specific goals. Should press releases be optimized for increased brand awareness? Or, will a PPC campaign achieve better results? This week’s infographic matches common marketing goals with a range of search-related tactics […]
The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization tells us that its SEMPO Institute has trained more than 350 search marketers in its first year of operation. Congrats! Below, a little love for one of the few places offering real search marketing coursework, some alternative training options, and thoughts on what we’re planning for our SMX West […]
Marge Simpson Googling Herself "All this time I thought ‘googling’ yourself meant the other thing." A PEW/Internet Survey out this week found that 47% of internet users have done ego searches, up from 22% five years ago. That nearly half of internet users are searching for themselves seems excessive, but only 3% say they check […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Loren Baker and Search Engine Journal are once again holding nominations for the annual Search Blog Awards. The categories are below, and we’ll happily accept your nomination for any you find relevant. In particular, if you’d especially liked a particular blog post on Search Engine Land, we’d encourage you to put that in the running […]
Google’s made a significant move toward trying to have a Facebook-like news feed and beef up its social networking aspirations by integrating Google Talk / Gmail contacts with Google Reader. I’d seen the discussion earlier, but after now experiencing it first-hand, it’s kind of scary that it isn’t more opt-in rather than opt-out.
Eric Schmidt does a short interview of sorts in the New York Times, in which he discusses how Google and its culture are responding to the age of “instant information” and relentless technological change. It’s a short and interesting piece.
In this corner, with a $214 billion market cap, is Google and “The Cloud” (and partners like IBM). In the other, weighing in at $327 billion, is Microsoft and the PC desktop. This is the theme of a Sunday New York Times piece about the high-stakes future of computing. The article explains that “cloud computing” […]
Last week, our Google Knol – Google’s Play To Aggregate Knowledge Pages article covered the Wikipedia-like Google Knol product that Google is testing and may release in a few months. In that article, I noted how Knol was aimed squarely at services like Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Mahalo, and Squidoo. Since them, some of those players […]
Google Operating System discusses the integration of Google Profiles into most Google services and products and the unification of disparate profiles into a single master profile. Whether and how this might ultimately be integrated with Google’s newly reinvigorated social network, Orkut, is unclear. Although they are much less extensive, Profiles may turn out to be […]
In August, Google CFO George Reyes announced that he was retiring. Reyes joined Google in 2002 and was the executive who helped the company through its IPO and subsequent growth. Forbes now estimates his stock is worth more than $200 million. The same article in Forbes also speculates that Google may have some trouble replacing […]
Many local companies depend upon their information’s presence in various directories in order to advertise themselves, and the basic instrument of these marketing efforts is the Business Profile. The majority of businesses out there pay little attention to these beyond wanting their name, address, and phone numbers to be correct. However, there are far more […]
Whenever I begin a link building and content publicity project, I start with research. One of the areas I research is trusted sources. The type of trusted sources I am referring to are those people that have already shown an interest in the topic of the site I’m building links for and have created a […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Landing pages are an important tool in any online marketing campaign. They are one of the best ways to convert web clicks into clients, and can help to maximize your online performance. Here are some tips for getting started and building an effective landing page that meets the needs of your clients.
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.
AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher reports on two high level executive departures from Yahoo and about purges in the VP-heavy ranks at the company: “Next to go are VP of Media Engineering Bharath Kadaba and the higher profile Rachel Glaser, a senior vice president of operations finance.” The piece speculates that more high-level layoffs can be expected […]
First it was Froogle. Then it was Google Product Search. Then Google recently promoted product search to its home page. And now, Google’s using “Shopping” in an apparent bid to drum up traffic. We covered earlier how Google Product Search was added to the navigation of Google. But now it’s been noted that the link […]
The Google AdSense blog announced they will be rolling out the “Ad Review Center” to publishers over the course of the next few months. The Ad Review Center will give publishers the ability to review placement targeted ads before they are displayed on publisher sites. Plus, it will give publishers the ability to review current […]
In something of a whimsical post (“Confessions of a search box“), the Google LatLong Blog says that photos, YouTube videos, and book search results have been added and are now discoverable in Google Maps. The photos are from various sources, including Google-owned Panoramio and Flickr.
Chinese Company Takes Google to Court from the AP reports the case between Guge and Google has begun this week. Beijing’s Guge Sci-Tech Co. took Google China to court for infringement over their name. Guge Sci-Tech Co. registered the name on April 19, 2006 with Beijing Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bureau. Google China didn’t register […]
The big search engines released end-of-the-year lists that intrigue and entertain. They can also remind us of the fundamentals of search user behavior. Each year when we look back at top searches, we get to see what searchers are up to and measure the strides in human development over the last twelve months. Our curiosity. […]
Move over Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Mahalo, and Squidoo. Maybe. That’s because Google’s testing its own service to let people build a repository of knowledge. In fact, knowledge forms the core of the service’s name: Google Knol. Screenshot of Google Knol page (feel free to use this and those below, just link to this story, please) […]
Today, Google’s Webmaster Tools have been updated with new diagnostic features that alert site owners to problems Google may have extracting content from pages. In addition, they’ve added Video Sitemaps. They’ve also added Hungarian and Czech to the 20 languages already supported. Below more about these features and how best to use them.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Flickr just announced the launch of Flickr Stats for Flickr Pro accounts. Who doesn’t love stats? Now having them on my Flickr account makes me incredibly happy. Here is a detailed look at what Flickr Stats has to offer on the day it launched.
You’ve got to hand it to Google for creativity. It created the local business referral representative program to enlist stay-at-home moms, college students, and others to get better data about local businesses and build AdWords awareness. (I was told by Google that the response to the program had been strong.) Now Google has developed the […]
The Yahoo Search Blog announced a new WordPress plugin that automatically creates Yahoo Shortcuts for the words you write in a blog post. If you mention a stock ticker, that word on your blog will typically contain a mouse-over effect that will display a Yahoo Finance chart. Or if you have an address, they might […]
Ask 3D was the name Ask gave to the “three pane” user interface rolled out earlier this year. Now Google seems to be copying Ask, at least to the second degree, with the right-most column being used to show vertical results similar to how Ask does it. Google Blogoscoped and Valleywag both have pictures of […]
The industry has been buzzing for awhile about private equity buyers that just might be interested in picking up some search firms. Here are the details on the acquisition of Fathom SEO by PromiseONE, a private equity buyer. Exclusive advisor Agile Equity gives these details * Fathom SEO sold to PromiseONE, a private equity buyer. […]
The relevant issues swirling around the pending acquisition of DoubleClick by Google are little understood by the public, pundits, and even, it would seem, by Congress and the regulators charged with approving or disapproving the deal. Danny has written at length about the competitive implications of the deal. But privacy concerns have gotten mixed up […]
When Yahoo Local redesigned in August of this year, it largely eliminated the left column of detailed filters and refinement capabilities that were one of its best features, in my view. The statement from then Yahoo Local GM Jennifer Dulski (now CEO of Fatdoor) was that people weren’t really using them. What Yahoo did was […]
Like every year for the past three years, Google has dressed up the divider bar between the sponsored listings and the free listings with something special for specific holiday searches. For example, a search on christmas displays Christmas trees as the divider, as illustrated below:
According to the Windows Live Blog, Live Search Maps have launched in China. It’s probably more accurate to say “in Chinese,” because you can search the entire world rather than just China. (Screenshots below.) LiveSide has more.
The Inside AdWords Blog announced the release of AdWords Editor 5.0, an upgrade from the 4.0 version. The new version has support for local business ads, a more advanced export filter, a save your searches feature, share your draft accounts with a draft account feature, a new splats section to show you errors and warnings, […]
SEO strategy should be designed to provide optimal return within a given risk tolerance. If you can also plan for future changes while still having a good ROI in the current market, then it makes sense to do so. But you can’t always predict how search will change. When the Google Florida update occurred at […]
Voice services provider CallGenie announced the acquisition of mobile content provider and ad exchange PhoneSpots. The mostly stock transaction was valued at $5.75 million and provides a range of new client relationships and capabilities to Canada-based CallGenie.
The time of year when we make resolutions is fast approaching. I’m not much of a resolution-maker myself, but I’m going to suggest that small business owners make one. Namely, it’s a suggestion that you resolve to fix up your web site and pay attention to things you might’ve ignored for too long. I know […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.