As the Google LatLong Blog explains, Google has added a nice feature to Maps (it would seem something rolls out weekly these days). That feature allows users to get directions or locations of businesses without inputting a destination address. Below are some examples. From Google's headquarters, how to get to . . . Yahoo Microsoft "Best Indian food": "Dry cleaners": Of course, these results are only as good as the underlying data, but the functionality is very useful. Google apparently sees it primarily as a short cut to directions to a specific destination. However, it's also a conven [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local

Google has a special logo up on the Google home page today. The Google logo is made up of legos, to celebrate Lego's 50 year birthday. Google's culture has always had a special place for Lego. Google's first servers were "modded" up with Legos. The Google founders have admitted to having a special "fondness" towards Legos, and we all know that computer geeks can't get enough of their legos. Google has Lego art in their offices. Lego fans have built Google logos in Lego, and so have Googlers themselves. If you visit Google.com, you will see the logo. You won't see it after you do a searc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: General | Google: Logos | Stats: History

"The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!" Steve Martin’s character in the movie The Jerk is ecstatic. He rifles through the pages and finds his name. "I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday!" He knows the importance of being listed. "This is the kind of spontaneous publicity—your name in print—that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now." Businesses feel the same way. They are excited to see their name first appear in the phone book. And the emotion would certainly be stronger if their business wa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Local Search

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Happy First Birthday, Google Bomb Fix!Short by sweet -- one year ago today, a momentous event that must be recalled. Google bombing was defused. George W. Bush was no longer a miserable failure and other mass link bombing attempts stopped working. For the most part, the Google bombing fix that Google put into place seems... Search in Pictures: Google Cake, Banana Room, Kate Nash @ Yahoo In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images cull [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Short but sweet -- one year ago today, a momentous event that must be recalled. Google bombing was defused. George W. Bush was no longer a miserable failure, and other mass link bombing attempts stopped working. For the most part, the Google bombing fix that Google put into place seems to have continued working. For those who don't recall the story, the links below provide background: Google Kills Bush's Miserable Failure Search & Other Google Bombs (the fix goes up, plus the Google bombing story)   George W. Bush: A Failure Once Again, According To Google (The White House uses the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Link Building: Link Bombs

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. This computer with the Google home page is actually a cake. More info over here. It goes well with this Google Apple: With all the PageRank chatter over the past few months, I found this image to be funny: Marissa Mayer of Google was both at the Crunchies and the DLD Conference recently. Did you know Google Switzerland had a banana room? And Kate Nash perf [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

Forbes offers an interesting profile, "The Golden Touch," of two of Google's initial VC investors, John Doerr and Michael Moritz. Both of these men got fabulously rich off their Google shares: "Their personal gains, according to Forbes' estimates, are likely north of $800 million apiece." Moritz has kept his stock but given up his board seat, while Doerr has cashed out some of his Google holdings but stayed on the board. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues

Microsoft issued fiscal Q2 earnings yesterday and simply crushed estimates. The company had quarterly revenues of more than $16 billion, which exceeded the highest previous quarterly earnings mark by a whopping $2 billion (the earnings release is here.) Profits were $4.71 billion. The entertainment division (which has Xbox and gaming) became profitable for the first time but the real stars were Vista and Office, which sold units worth $4.3 and $4.8 billion respectively. However, in the "online services" division, which houses search and adCenter, there was a loss of $245 million on increased [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Business Issues

The Google LatLong blog announced a neat new feature that lets you sit back and watch the edits made to Google Maps in a live viewer. To view recent edits made to Google Maps, just go here and watch. I made a quick video of the page, and as you can see, it showed three edits over the course of 15 seconds. Here is the video: Want to make your own edits? You can do so over here. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local

Will Google get hurt by a recession, as some are wondering? According to statements made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland yesterday, the answer to that question appears to be "no." The Financial Times reports the view of several tier-two Google execs who expressed confidence in the continuing growth of the company's revenues and the success of its model. Many people have openly wondered whether Google will be able continue to sustain its spectacular growth as the US and potentially global economy softens or slides into recession. We'll soon see as Google reports its Q4 earning [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues

The Google Public Policy blog announced new policies for how you can use AdWords in the political debate space. Google AdWords requires politicians to comply with the editorial guidelines that (1) you can campaign for any political view, (2) you can ask for donations if you are a non-tax-deductible organization, and (3) you cannot mislead the searcher. In addition to these guidelines, Google has an additional guideline that restricts ads that attack an individual's personal life. Political campaigns can get pretty nasty and personal. Google makes it clear that they want no part of that. G [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords

The 2nd Annual Marketing & Media Survey from Datran Media was released, and it showed that the second best-performing online ad medium is search, right behind email marketing. In December, Datran asked 2,000 industry leaders "which advertising media buys perform strongly for your company"? 80% said email marketing, with search right behind at 70.6%. Here is the chart: When the industry leaders were asked which media complimented email marketing the best, the answer was again search: For the complete survey, go here. Hat tip to Marketing Charts and Docuticker for spotting this study [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Search Marketing: General | Stats: General

Google to kill Domain Tasting from Domain Tolls reports receiving a tip from a Google informant that Google will be preventing "domain tasting" from participating in the AdSense for Domains (aka Domain Park) program. Domain tasting is the practice of trying out a domain name for a 5 day-period. Registration companies will refund a domainer the cost of the domain, if the domainer no longer wants to hold on to that domain - if the decision is made within 5 days. NOTE: SEE UPDATE IN POSTSCRIPT BELOW. Domain Tools says "Google had was generating as much as $3 million dollars a month from the pr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords

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 Improves YouTube Mobile VersionA New And Improved YouTube For Mobile from the YouTube Blog announces that they have improved their mobile version at m.youtube.com. The new features include: Many more videos added, specifically tens of millions of videos. Community features now available on the mobile version. Mobile phone uploads available within moments. YouTube... The 2008 SEMMYS Awards Are OpenThe SEMMYS Finalists Are Ready, finally! Matt Mc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

A New And Improved YouTube For Mobile from the YouTube Blog announces that they have improved their mobile version at m.youtube.com. The new features include: Tens of millions of added videos Community features now available on the mobile version Mobile phone uploads available within moments YouTube for Mobile is available and localized for the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Germany, and Russia Is your mobile phone supported? Depends on if you support RTSP streaming and need a data package on your device. [...]

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

The SEMMYS Finalists Are Ready, finally! Matt McGee has announced that we can now go over to The SEMMYS and vote for our favorite posts of the year. The voting starts at 12:00 pm ET (9:00 am PT) today. The finalists are listed over here for all 15 categories. Those that vote are expected to review each finalist and then click on the "VOTE NOW IN THIS CATEGORY" link under each of the 15 categories. A new window will open up, where you can place your vote for your favorite article/post of the year. You can vote until the end-of-day (PT) on January 30th. Eight Search Engine Land articles h [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Awards

Reuters and InfoWorld describe a new partnership between Japan’s largest wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo, and Google. NTT DoCoMo is a member of the Google-sponsored Open Handset Alliance, as is Japan's number two carrier, KDDI, which is a Google partner as well. The Google-NTT DoCoMo relationship will mean that Google is the default start page on mobile Internet browsers on DoCoMo phones. The companies will also work to optimize a range of Google applications and services for DoCoMo phones, including Maps, Gmail, and YouTube, and for its popular I-mode Internet service. DoCoMo anticipates br [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile

Microsoft has launched another would-be viral online campaign for Live Search that conceptually mimics the earlier Ms. Dewey campaign but is politically themed for the election year. The site is called Left vs. Right and (probably) takes its inspiration from the old Saturday Night Live skit point/counterpoint, featuring Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtain, which was itself a parody of a long-running "60 Minutes" debate segment. A left-leaning male and a right-leaning female commentator snipe at each other and make quips while they wait for users to input terms into the search box. While Ms. Dewe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Marketing

Let's do the stock thing again. As with yesterday, the chart above shows Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), and Microsoft (MSFT) against the NASDAQ, over the past month. The key difference is that while the latter three stabilized, Google kept dropping. That leads some to wonder if search is going to be in trouble. A closer look on that, below. This time, I used Yahoo to chart the figures -- and with Yahoo, I can link to the chart so that anyone can play more. So, Google kept going. How bad was the damage? Let's look over the past year: Ouch. But not so bad from another perspective: I bou [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Business Issues | SEM Industry: General | Stats: Spend Projections

Two days ago, Digg went down for a short while while changes were being implemented in the system. While nothing was immediately apparent, Brent Csutoras noticed some slight changes, and after several hours, a bigger trend emerged: the algorithm had changed and you needed a lot more votes to hit the front page of Digg. Brent says: At 5:12 pm PST, about 7 1/2 hours after Babblin5 submitted the post Two Diggs One Cup made it to the front page of digg. It took 156 diggs with 33 comments for the article to make it, something it would have taken less than 100 to do a week ago. In response, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Search Engines: Digg