Google has been plotting election results from the US presidential primaries on maps. Those maps have included candidate and news videos. But now for "Super Tuesday" (February 5), Google is doing something somewhat more ambitious over at YouTube -- call it "Super Tubesday." The site will offer geotagged political videos from candidates, users, and various news outlets. The Google LatLong Blog explains: Anyone -- from candidates and voters to members of media -- can upload videos to YouTube and geotag them so they can be tracked and viewed on a Google Map that resides in the Super Tuesday ch [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: Maps & Local | Google: YouTube & Video | Search Engines: Government Search Engines | Search Engines: Video Search Engines

Traffic from socially driven news sites has been called many things. There are people that love it and call it a godsend (SEO 2.0), and there are others that hate it and think that it's useless. Regardless of what you think, there is no doubting the fact that online marketing and content creation has been heavily influenced by social media. Creating content that is specifically designed to be popular on social news sites has become an art, which, if done right, can be incredibly viral and can have a significant short-term impact (from direct traffic from social sites), but also a substantial l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Social Media Marketing

Search Engine Journal alerted us to an apparently renewed test of click-to-call at Google. Google had been testing click to call in 2005 and 2006 with an eye toward implementing pay-per-phone call. Rather than show local or 800 tracking numbers, Google was using a field that remembered users' telephone numbers (once entered) and connected calls. It also had been using the functionality on Google Maps. However, in roughly June or July of last year Google stopped accepting click-to-call advertisers and the ads stopped showing up. Simultaneously, click-to-call or call completion was terminated [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Search Ads: Pay Per Call

For years, a conference idea banging around has been a trivia quiz involving the search engines. For our SMX West search marketing conference this Feb. 26-28 in California, we've got it happening! SMX Search Bowl will have teams from Ask, Google, and Microsoft competing against each other to test their knowledge of search and search marketing. I'm pretty sure Yahoo will be stepping up to take part, as well. The fifth team is being assembled right now. We're taking nominations for search marketers to be on that team to take on the search engines, so please help out! Rand and his team at SEOmo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SEM Industry: Awards | SEM Industry: Community | SMX & DMD Alerts

EveryBlock is a new local "news" site that seeks to answer the question, "What's happening in my neighborhood?" It aggregates data and content from a variety of sources and currently covers three US cities: Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. EveryBlock competes with Outside.in, YourStreet, and Topix to some degree. We noticed the site based on a post at TechCrunch. The site features three types of "news," according to the EveryBlock blog: Civic information -- building permits, crimes, restaurant inspections, and more. In many cases, this information is already on the Web but is buried in [...]

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

Today Google announced that you can demographically target ads showing up on its contextual network as part of a new beta test. But back in 2006, Google rolled out what seems to be exactly the same feature. In 2006, Andrew Goodman noted that targeting was added. It allowed for these types of things: Gender Female Male Age 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ Annual Household Income (USD) 0-14,999 15,000-24,999 25,000-39,999 40,000-59,999 60,000-74,999 75,000-99,999 100,000+ They also offer advanced options for demographics, which includes: Ethnicity Any White/Caucasian Black/Afric [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords

Have you been trying to "fly under the radar," engaging in activities outside of Google's guidelines but subtly so as not to get caught? More and more SEOs are moving into this dangerous territory as the guidelines continue to broaden (prime examples of which being the expanded definition of doorway pages and the addition of link buying to the list of no-nos). Buying links in "stealth" mode still works, as many SEOs will attest. But what if Google is archiving your efforts for future review, to uncover what it can't right now due to current limitations? Do you really want to be profiled retr [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | SEO: Spamming

A friend recently presented me with a tiny kitten she and her daughter rescued from a busy intersection. This kitten was not particularly adept at walking and would occasionally fall over, but she kept trying, using her tail to keep her balance and become more skilled at walking. I can hear you ask: What in the world does my new kitten have to do with paid search for small businesses? As I observed the kitten's progress, I found myself comparing her transformation to that of a small business venturing into paid search marketing for the first time. Small businesses, like the kitten, need [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Ads: General | Small Is Beautiful

Don't like the backgrounds available on Ask.com? No problem. Now you can upload any image you want. For instance, maybe you'd like this one! The new background feature is part of the skinning ability launched as part of Ask3D last year. The other engines offer some customization features as well. You can upload your own image and create themes with iGoogle. While iGoogle's feature is more versatile (as the documentation says, "This makes it easy to create a story that unfolds throughout the day, landscapes that change as the sun rises and sets, and abstract images that become more comple [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Web Search | Channel: Consumer | Google: iGoogle

Philipp Lenssen and Tony Ruscoe at Google Blogoscoped have noted that the login page for Google Health is now live, although the service itself is not (and www.google.com/health currently redirects to the Google Coop page about health). Gabriel Stricker, Google spokesperson, told us: "We're very interested in working on products in the area of health, and we've been blogging and speaking publicly about this for some time. While we have no additional information to share right now, we hope to in the future." At the Web 2.0 conference in October, Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Prod [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Health

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Anything Else? Vivisimo's Remix Clustering Surfaces Subtler ResultsYou know that aggravating feeling you get when you've done a search and your results are OK, but you're sure there's something better if only the "obvious" results weren't totally dominant? Or if you could somehow come up with a cleverer way of expressing your query without wasting a bunch... Search Stocks & The Stock Crash: GOOG, YHOO & MSFT Hitting John Battelle's blog today, he noted [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

You know that aggravating feeling you get when you've done a search and your results are OK, but you're sure there's something better if only the "obvious" results weren't totally dominant? Or if you could somehow come up with a cleverer way of expressing your query without wasting a bunch of time diddling with variants of your search terms? Vivisimo's new remix clustering feature helps solve both problems. Vivisimo was a pioneer in introducing on-the-fly clustering, grouping results into topic folders. Do a search on Vivisimo's Clusty meta search engine and you'll see these cluster folders [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Clusty | Search Features: Query Refinement

Today John Battelle noted what a plunge Google took on the stock market yesterday and in general through the current year. I thought it would be fun to look at Microsoft and Yahoo as well. The chart above covers the past month and shows Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), and Microsoft (MSFT) against the NASDAQ over the past month. Of the three, Google's had the greatest decline, down 19.5 percent. Yahoo's just behind at 18.5 percent, with Microsoft at about 12.5 percent. The NASDAQ overall is at 15.5 percent. No doubt, it's a drop -- but rather than being Google-specific, it seems more tied to t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Microsoft: Business Issues | Yahoo: Business Issues

The head of an EU group looking into search privacy issues said yesterday that Internet Protocol addresses assigned to computers should be treated as personal information. Below, more about that plus a look at some comments about how the search engines have been reported to the European Parliament to be dealing with privacy.EU Official: IP Is Personal from the Associated Press covers the testimony by the head of the EU privacy group, Peter Scharr: He said at a European Parliament hearing on online data protection that when someone is identified by an IP, or Internet protocol, addres [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Legal: Privacy

Photo adapted from one by Hans Engel Some felt Ask.com won the privacy oneupmanship that went on last year when it rolled out Ask Eraser, a tool promising to stop recording any information about someone doing a search. But questions quickly came up, including whether the tool helped at all, considering that query data was still being sent to Ask's paid listings partner, Google. A privacy group complained to Ask last month, and now Wired reports that it and others have filed a formal complaint with the US government. Ask.com's Privacy Tool Tracks Users, Groups Tell Feds covers how the El [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Channel: Search | Legal: Privacy

Fortune Magazine rated Google the best place to work in 2008. Google secured the top spot for a second year in a row because, as Fortune explains, "Google continued to mint millionaires as the stock cracked $700. The company gives stock options to 99% of employees." Microsoft made the list at number 86, and Yahoo made the list at number 87. [...]

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

One of the most recent Google theories floating through the forums is the "position six penalty." The signs of being hit by a "position six penalty" is when you see your number one or two rankings shift downwards to position number six in Google. Many people first started noticing this happening in mid-to-late December. Aaron Wall posted tips on how he was able to capture his number one positions back. But around the same time Aaron posted those tips, others have began noticing a reversal of that "position six penalty." When the theory was first discussed, Google's Matt Cutts shrugged it [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search

So, you've decided that a career in search marketing IS for you. Sure, your friends, parents, and significant other have no idea what you're talking about when you describe the profession, but there’s money to be made, and you want your share! But, where to begin? Wanting the job is one thing. Being qualified for it, and even finding the right job, are quite different matters. Though it may seem atypical, a career in search marketing requires knowledge and skill. Unproven, you are not bringing much to the game, and since search work is usually tied to measurable performance, being abl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | In House Search Marketing

For ages -- through OneBox results and its successor of Universal Search -- Google Local results have sometimes shown on regular Google search pages, with three local listings and a prompt for more results. Except now that seems to be changing, with 10 results showing. Last week Paul Jahn at Search Engine Guide discovered that as many as 10 local listings were showing up on Google search results beside a map. Mike Blumenthal has also been following this development closely for the past several days. Google now appears to be serious about showing as many as 10 local listings beside the map and [...]

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

Google Under Fire for Flawed Korea Maps from the Digital Chosunilbo reports Google has labeled some of the regions in South Korea as being part of North Korea. Specifically, the city of Incheon and some islands in Ongjin County such as Baegryeong-do, Daecheong-do, and Socheong-do are labeled to be in North Korea but are actually in South Korea. I just did a search on Incheon in Google Maps, and it is currently labeling the city as being in South Korea, which is correct. Here is an embeddable Google Map: View Larger Map However, Baegryeong-do is labeled as being part of North Korea, wh [...]

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