SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 29, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Search Marketing & The US Presidential Race, Case Study: Sarah Palin
After reading yesterday about how savvy both US presidential campaigns seem to think they are about search marketing, I decided I’m going to take a closer look at watching them. In particular, I noticed yesterday that both seemed pretty lame when it came to tapping into rising queries that you can spot on Google Trends. […]
Google Tests Displaying Ads Under Search Results
Tamar reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google has confirmed that they are testing displaying search ads under the search results. You and I are accustomed to seeing AdWords ads at the top and right hand side of the Google search results page, but we never see them under the search results. Stephan Kopp […]
Search In Pictures: Mandi Perkins at Yahoo, Google Dance & Yahoo Safari
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.
Microsoft Acquires Market Research Firm Greenfield Online To Get EU Shopping Engine Ciao
Microsoft successfully bid to acquire Greenfield Online for approximately $486 million. But Microsoft isn’t really interested in Greenfield, it was after the company’s subsidiary Ciao GmbH. Founded in 1999 and acquired by Greenfield in 2005, Ciao is an Munich-based EU comparison shopping site with user reviews.
Ask Kids Relaunches With Cute Kids Features
A few days ago, Ask.com relaunched Ask Kids, their search flavored for children. The Ask.com blog just wrote about the launch last night. Ask.com said the Ask Kids site was “built from the ground-up, with our own search technology.” It seems like Ask.com added a “very strict” list of which sites are allowed in the […]
Human Hardware: Foraging for Information
When looking to predict how MBA students and analysts would find information in a digital environment, Peter Pirolli found his answer in an unlikely place: animal’s foraging patterns. Pirolli, working at the Palo Alto Research Center, was trying to predict with some mathematical accuracy the behavior of humans when searching for information but was having […]
Obama Vs. McCain: Display Vs. Direct Response
The Wall Street Journal analyzes and compares the online marketing strategies, successes and weaknesses of the two US presidential candidates. McCain turns out to be the more savvy search marketer, while Obama does a better job at SEO and is investing more in online display advertising.
Bill Tancer On 20/20 This Friday, Talking Search Behavior
Many search marketers know of "data geek" Bill Tancer, who has long entertained folks at search marketing conferences with tales and observations of what you can tell about people through search trends. Bill’s got a great new book coming out, Click, which shares those insights with a broader audience. I’m planning a review of it […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 28, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Are You Giving Your SEO Enough Information to Succeed?
Three years ago Todd Malicoat published a blog post titled Balancing the Link Equation, which offered conditional tips about how to improve the link profile of a website. I think of that post nearly every time someone asks for SEO advice because the field has grown so complex that both yes and no are often […]
Google & Mozilla Extend Default Firefox Search Provider Deal
TechCrunch reports Google has extended a deal to be the default search engine in Firefox for an additional three years, to 2011. The news comes the day after Microsoft released a beta of IE8. The deal is somewhat ironic in that Google has lobbied to to prevent Microsoft from making itself the default search engine […]
Veoh Decision Good News For Google, Potentially Bad News For Viacom In YouTube Litigation
Online video destination Voeh Networks was sued in 2006 for copyright infringement by IO Group (an adult video producer). The facts in the case and claims are generally similar to those of Viacom vs. YouTube. Yesterday a federal District Court judge in California issued a ruling that, barring an appeal by IO, vindicates Veoh and […]
Google Testing Two Videos On One Web Search Result
Ever since the launch of Google Universal Search, Google has been showing videos in the web search results. But sometimes, there are more than one video shown in the web search results and, in many cases, those multiple videos will take up the space of 2 or more of the ten results shown. Philipp Lenssen […]
Google Gives Google Apps Users Credit & Adds Communication Policies
Earlier this month, Google’s popular email service had a major outage. News.com is now reporting that Google has responded to Google Apps Premier users with a credit and a promise to provide better communication tools in case this happens again.
Search & Internet Explorer 8
After finally getting the new Internet Explorer 8 beta installed (demands to upgrade Windows, verify Windows, sigh), I spent some time playing with the new search functionality and checking to see if Microsoft was going to try to stack the deck in its favor with the new browser. So far, it remains pretty even handed. […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 27, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
FindLaw Hit By Long Arm Of The Google Law Over Paid Links
Toolbar PageRank penalties are nothing new to the SEO world, we see them all the time. But when Todd Friesen broke the news that FindLaw.com is marketing a new advertising service to sell links that will “help you increase your company’s visibility, rank and penetration within natural search results on major search engines such as […]
Google Offers New Content Hub For US Presidential Elections Home Stretch
Many millions of people saw Hillary Clinton speak last night at the Democratic National Convention. If you didn’t (and are interested), you can see the speech on YouTube. Indeed, Google has been doing various things in various places — on Maps, YouTube, iGoogle and elsewhere — to offer news, content, video and visualization tools throughout […]
Google Checkout Steps Up Promotion Through AdWords
Steve LaLonde spotted Google sporting new checkout badges for some Google Checkout merchants within the AdWords listings. I was able to reproduce it for a search on petco, a Google Checkout merchant. Here is a side by side look at the checkout badges on AdWords. The $5 off version is the new version being tested, […]
AdAge: Microsoft Likely To Sell Avenue A To WPP
AdAge reported that Microsoft and mega-agency WPP have restarted talks that may result in the sale of Interactive agency Avenue A to the latter. Avenue A was part of the $6 billion deal for aQuantive that also included Atlas and the DrivePM ad network.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 26, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google Now Searching For Synonyms
Blink, and you might have missed it. Google’s now doing synonym searching. It’s something they quietly noted in a past Google blog post and one that comes up again today in a post that covers how Google uses experiments to improve the search interface.
Sir, Would You Like Fries With Those Links?
Recently in several SEO forums I noticed a number of threads discussing ways to find and build “economical” links. The forum participants wanted to know how they could initiate “safe” reciprocal linking as well as “fast” submissions to free article directories. They reasoned these tactics were worth doing because both linking methods were “economical” and […]
Social Media Marketing ROI – Metrics And Analysis
When I attended South by Southwest 2008, I had the pleasure of attending a panel where four somewhat lost panelists were (with difficulty) trying to come up with metrics to measure success from a social media marketing campaign. I was a little annoyed when they concluded that there were no metrics available right now, and […]
MapQuest Introduces New (Beta) Look, Features
AOL’s MapQuest remains the top brand in online mapping and is still the most visited mapping site, despite recent gains by Google Maps. However, as the “incumbent” MapQuest has been somewhat resistant to experimentation and slower to adopt new features. But this morning the site is launching what promises to be the first of many […]
Search Illustrated: Organic Vs. Paid Overall Performance
A lot of times paid and organic search campaign results can look very different. Especially at launch, organic conversion cost will seem much higher as rankings and, consequently, ROI take time to appear. This week’s infographic demonstrates how organic search campaigns can show more cost-effective long-term performance:
Google.com Finally Gets Google Suggest Feature
After being in testing for literally years, Google Suggest is finally coming to Google.com. This is the feature where as you start to type in the search box, related searches automatically appear below where you are typing.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 25, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Forming Good Title Tags for Local Businesses
If you’re looking for a quick improvement in your local business site’s rankings and don’t have a lot of time, you can’t go wrong with making some simple improvements to your homepage title tag. The text within the title tags is one of the top signals used by Google, Yahoo! and other search engines to […]
More Google StreetView Privacy Controversy
CNET rekindles the Google StreetView trespassing controversy that we’ve written about a couple of times in the past (here and here). Google has said publicly and in email comments to us that its policy is to photograph public roads and stay off private property. The CNET article effectively argues that Google is willfully violating and […]
Now Accepting Pitches For SMX London 2008
We’re now accepting speaking proposals for SMX London, taking place at the New Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden on November 4 and 5, 2008. We’ve got an all-new agenda for the show. Please note that the agenda is final for the show, and we will only consider pitches for specific panels. There are a limited […]
Whither DART Search?
SES San Jose 2008 is now in the books and another Google Dance — that annual bash that provides us all with so much safe, clean YouTube fodder — has come and gone. Among the various features and benefits — upscale backyard barbecue fare, free beer, modified karaoke, dancing, and light shows — is the […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 22, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Is Google Analytics Integrating AdSense Metrics Into Reporting Tool?
Amit Agarwal reports that Google Analytics will soon be adding Google AdSense data to the web analytics package. Amit managed to secure some screen shots of the AdSense related reports. The AdSense specific content seems to be found under the “Content” tab and includes: (1) AdSense ad clicks per page (2) AdSense Revenue generated per […]
Web Analytics for (SEM) Dummies Part 1: Basic Terminology and a Free Geocoding Tool
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, Web Analytics for (SEM) Dummies Part 1: Basic Terminology, a Free Geocoding Tool and this week’s free […]
Report: Verizon May Opt For Google To Provide Mobile Search Front
Verizon, Google Close To Mobile Search Deal from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google and Verizon are close to a deal. The deal would make Google the default search provided for Verizon mobile devices. In the past, Verizon and other mobile carriers were reluctant to let Google or other search companies invade this space, […]
Google AdWords Now With Real Time Quality Score, First Page Bid & More
The Google AdWords blog announced three major changes happening to the AdWords marketplace. First, Google will now calculate the quality score of your keywords at the time of the search query. Second, Google has removed the “minimum bid” metric and replaced it with “first page bid.” Finally, Google will no longer mark search ads as […]
Day Four: SES San Jose ’08 Recap
Day four of the Search Engine Strategies San Jose show is now over, which concludes the show. If you missed our earlier recap, you can see them at days three, two, and one. Below is a recap of all the blog posts that I have found, covering the day’s sessions, news and activities:
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 21, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.