Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google "Knows" About 1 Trillion Web Items How big is Google's web index? Google hasn't said for years and still isn't saying -- but it is blogging today about how it "knows" of 1 trillion web-based items. Joy, we haven't had a search engine talk about pages it knows about to confuse things since the Lycos... Italian Prosecutors To Sue Google Execs Over YouTube VideoItaly Is to File Charges Against Google Executives from the Wall Street Journa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

How big is Google's web index? Google hasn't said for years and still isn't saying -- but it is blogging today about how it "knows" of 1 trillion web-based items. Joy, we haven't had a search engine talk about pages it knows about to confuse things since the Lycos days. Glad to have Google making the first shot to take us back into the search engine size wars of old. As a short refresher, Google used to list the number of pages it had indexed on its home page. It dropped that count back in September 2005, after Yahoo (for a short period) had claimed to have indexed more. Both sear [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Marketing | Google: Web Search | Stats: Size

Italy Is to File Charges Against Google Executives from the Wall Street Journal reports that Italian prosecutors have completed their two-year investigation and are ready to file charges against four Google executives. The suit is over YouTube hosting a video of a disabled teen being taunted by others. The prosecutors are suing for defamation and violation of privacy, including criminal charges. The case is reportedly going to go into trial in September for not being able to control the videos that were being uploaded to the site. Stefano Hesse, head of corporate communications for Googl [...]

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

While SEO can be done completely in-house, not every company truly has the expertise to fly totally solo and make it to the destination without a bit of turbulence and unnecessary crashes along the way. The problem I’ve been seeing lately lies with companies who genuinely believe they know SEO, but the reality is, they don't know what they don't know. As a leading in-house SEO advocate, I completely agree that much of SEO can be done in-house. It's just that when it comes to major site changes, some of the more intermediate and advanced SEO requirements get missed. The difficulty this cr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | In House Search Marketing | SEO: General

In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today's in-depth look, The Ultimate Guide to Search Marketing Optimization Part 2 - Reference Guide, SpyFu competitive research tool, and this week's free tips and tools. News from the search engines Google AdWords: Use keywords and placements together on the content network The news was posted on the Google Inside AdWords last week and I think this is a GREAT change. I may not merge all [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search Marketing Toolbox | SEO: General

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. Homemade Soup at Google: Yahoo's Summer Picnic Olympics: Yahoo Mobile, Stop Following Me! How cool is this? Matt Harding at Yahoo (from wherethehellismatt.com): [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

Microsoft tries to one-up Google PageRank from News.com reports on a research paper from Microsoft named "BrowseRank: Letting Web Users Vote for Page Importance (PDF). The paper describes the downside of Google's PageRank algorithm and describes how Microsoft's "BrowseRank" algorithm fills in the holes. BrowseRank uses browsing behavior, such as analyzing a user's web browsing history for relational data, to add into the mix. In addition, the paper describes that they look at how long a user stayed on a particular page. They believe BrowseRank is much more reliable in "inferring page impor [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing

Maps and directions are (so far) the "killer app" for mobile, and yesterday comScore reported that mobile mapping usage is on the increase: "8 percent of American mobile subscribers and 3 percent of European subscribers accessing maps from the mobile phone in the three-month period ending May 2008. This represents a growth rate of 82 percent and 49 percent in the number of users, respectively." Most subscribers in the US and Europe are using mobile mapping for driving directions. And most are apparently doing so via WAP browsers rather than the rich mapping clients from all the major searc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile

Google is currently updating the PageRank values found in the Google toolbar. A post from Google's Matt Cutts announced and confirmed the update is taking place. In addition, Matt said they will be "expiring" some of the penalties with this update. I assume the penalties refer to the toolbar PageRank massacre that began about ten months ago for selling paid links. If you are new to Google PageRank, I suggest you read Danny's What Is Google PageRank? A Guide For Searchers & Webmasters. Once you catch up with that, and you want to discuss the specifics of this particular toolbar PageRank u [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Toolbar

I’m currently in Europe on a family vacation. We’ve been here 3 days now and in that time I’ve driven almost 1000 kilometers (about 600 miles) on the highways and byways of France. We’re in the Rhone Alpes section of France, living in a 200 year old converted barn literally in the shadow of Mont Blanc. So far, it’s been a wonderful experience, with us exchanging homes with a French family and living more like the locals do. In the month we’re spending in France and Italy, only a week of that will be spent in traditional hotels. Stranger in a strange land While this type of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Video As A Search Marketing Tool For SMBs Video is becoming an important part of local search marketing campaigns, and this week's SMX Local Mobile conference features speaking talking about how small and medium businesses can use video to be more effective with their online marketing. Video solutions providers to these panels are Jared Simon, VP of Business... C'mon Microsoft -- Say You're In Search Because You Love It, Not Want To Earn From It Sigh. Rea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Video is becoming an important part of local search marketing campaigns, and this week's SMX Local Mobile conference features talking about how small and medium businesses can use video to be more effective with their online marketing. Video solutions providers to these panels are Jared Simon, VP of Business Development of TurnHere, and Anupam Gupta, President and CEO of Mixpo. I caught up with Gupta earlier this week and asked for a preview of what he'll be presenting at the conference. To summarize, Mixpo is a turnkey video marketing solution geared specifically for SMBs (small-to-mediu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search Ads: Video | SEO: Video Search

Sigh. Reading Stephen Ballmer's latest "rally the troops" memo over yet another Microsoft reorganization, I just want to scream at the man and the company in general that they'll never win at search if they don't get it through their heads that it's not about selling ads, but serving searchers. Actually, I did kind of scream at Microsoft back in June, when I was asked to do a talk there. Primarily for those involved in the webmaster tools area, I called it "Tough Love For Microsoft Search" and might eventually turn it into a post. One of my key slides had these bullet po [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Business Issues

For search engine marketers and clients to communicate effectively, they must utilize a shared, common vocabulary. Some search engine marketing terms and concepts are easy to explain, such as query terms, commonly referred to as keywords or keyword phrases. And some concepts require a little more clarification. For example, it might take me weeks or months to undo the preconceived notion that PageRank (PR) is a number between 1 and 10, because so many amateur search engine marketers base their link-building services on the Google Toolbar feature. Unfortunately, one of the reasons we search pr [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO

We've been assured that just because content sits on Google's Knol site, it won't gain any ranking authority from being part of the Knol domain. OK, so a day after Knol has launched, how's that holding up? I found 1/3 of the pages listed on the Knol home page that I tested ranked in the top results. I came away feeling that being on Knol does indeed give pages an advantage they might not get if they'd been hosted on some other brand new web site. I was surprised to see a post covering Knol's how to ackpack was already hitting the number three spot on Google. Really? I mean, how many links [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Knol

When Microsoft made its investment in Facebook I always had thought that Live Search would come to the site, together with search monetization. Later it appeared that search wasn't part of the deal. Facebook's competitors all have web search, including Google's much publicized deal with MySpace. Well today Microsoft announced that Live Search will be coming to Facebook, together with paid search ads. Here's the note from Microsoft PR: Microsoft’s yearly financial analyst meeting, Microsoft SVP, Satya Nadella announced the extension of Microsoft’s U.S. relationship with Facebook to enc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Microsoft: Bing

I live blogged the Yahoo keynote, so forgive the disjointed notes. Frazier Miller: Rise of the Local Web, A Perfect Storm. Miller gave an engaging keynote that covered both online and mobile, user demand and advertising. Miller defined local in terms of four Yahoo properties: Search, Yahoo Local, Yahoo Yellow Pages, and Upcoming. Interestingly, Miller didn't include Yahoo's verticals (real estate, autos, maps, etc.). Miller said that over 100 million uniques visit Yahoo with some sort of local intent (search and browse). When discussing "browse" behavior, he did reference the vertical prope [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

Blogspot.com cited as the No. 1 host for malware from News.com reports Google's Blogger accounts "for nearly 2 percent of all malware hosts." Sophos, an antivirus vendor, published a report showing the state of malware injections and attacks throughout the web. Specifically, hackers can set up "malicious blogs" on the Blogger service, plus they can inject dangerous web links and content into Blogger blogs. The Google web search team takes malware attacks seriously. They have reviews in webmaster tools and they label malicious web sites in web search results. So isn't it ironic that Googl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Google: Blogger | Google: Security | Legal: Security

Kevin Johnson, who was arguably the primary architect of the now apparently failed Yahoo acquisition, is leaving Microsoft to run Juniper Networks. Simultaneously, the company is reorganizing the division that Johnson ran ("Platform Services") into two: Windows and Windows Live + Online Services. Here's the official Microsoft announcement from yesterday. The company announced no immediate replacement for Johnson. Instead, the existing group heads under Johnson will now report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer. Online Services Business (the group that includes search) breaks down into consumer f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Employees

I reported earlier that Yahoo wasn't allowing new advertisers to join the Yahoo Ambassador program, but it seems much worse then that. I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable and we have reports at PPC Hero that Yahoo is closing down the whole program as of September 30th. Yahoo sent their ambassadors emails that read: The Yahoo! Ambassador program was specifically developed to help marketers drive sales leads to their clients. For the last four years, Yahoo! has made an effort to enhance the program to provide the greatest added value to our users. After a thorough evaluation of the prog [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Yahoo: Search Ads