The rumor becomes reality. Microsoft has named Dr. Qi Lu, formerly of Yahoo, to run its Online Services Group. And Brian McAndrews, as AllThingsD highlights, is leaving Microsoft. More details in the release below:
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
It’s been about two months since Google Blog Search was relaunched with a new front page that summarizes stories. I talked with Google more about some of the inner workings at the end of October and finally am getting around to posting this, spurred by one of the planned changes becoming official. Google Blog Search […]
2008 has had a number of notable milestones in the arena of video search. Here are six landmark events that that have particularly stood out, demonstrating that video search has finally “arrived” as a crucial area for search marketers:
Will Yahoo have a new CEO by the end of the month? That’s the word from sources talking to AllThingsD today. The report says Yahoo has put together an informal search committee to help executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles find a new CEO. There’s reportedly a list of six criteria the new Yahoo CEO […]
Many years ago, when Danny Sullivan was still part of Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine strategies conferences, a few of us approached him on having a session on usability. Surprisingly, he dismissed the suggestion saying that while usability was a great topic, it wasn’t really a search marketing issue. Thankfully, Danny did eventually […]
Yahoo has changed the way they handle a query for a competing search engine. Now, if you search at Yahoo for google, live or ask.com, Yahoo will tell you, “You could go to [Search Engine Name Goes Here]. Or you could stay here and get straight to your answers.”
Recently, Microsoft Live Search added malware warnings to their search results. If a searcher clicks a result that Microsoft has detected contains malware, a popup warns then not to proceed to the site. As Matt noted yesterday, Google and Yahoo! also provide malware warnings to searchers. How can you find out if Microsoft has flagged […]
“‘Tis better to give than to receive.” It’s a favorite refrain this time of year. Cynics might call it a clever advertising ploy cooked up by retailers to encourage consumer spending, but in general it holds true that making someone else happy makes us feel good. When it comes to the World Wide Web, generosity […]
A week ago, YouTube changed the format of their videos to wide screen and HD format. My main issue back then was that the embed options did not give people a way to embed the wide screen format, easily. That has changed. YouTube now allows you to embed a wide screen format and they also […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
What is your company’s brand awareness? Measuring brand awareness is important for understanding the impact of offline and online marketing strategies. Because brand awareness is affected by so many different marketing strategies, quantifying brand awareness is not always straightforward. One way to gauge interest in your company’s brand is to analyze keyword search patterns. Your […]
The buzz today comes from the Wall Street Journal article, which you’ve probably already seen, called “Google Gears Down for Tougher Times.” In a related post, Silicon Alley Insider summarizes the piece with more than a hint of schadenfreude. The thrust of the WSJ story is that Google is trying to cut costs and reduce […]
As 2008 comes to a close, the annual tradition of gathering up the most popular search trends continues. Breaking down billions of search queries into concise Top 10 lists isn’t an easy task but among the major search engines. Still, obvious trends emerge nearly every year, and typically revolve around international news stories, major events, […]
Yahoo has rolled out the Search Assist feature to Image Search. For example, a search for images on barack obama will return images within the actual Search Assist bar. Here is a screen capture:
FaberNovel created a slide show titled, “Everything you always wanted to know about Google…But were afraid to ask.” The questions include:
Following up a report that online-only retailers experienced an 11% increase in visits for Black Friday 2008 (over 2007), Hitwise released additional numbers for Cyber Monday 2008, traditionally expected to be a better day in terms of online traffic and sales for e-tailers. Cyber Monday 2008 snapshot Among the top 500 Retail Web sites, the […]
"Maverick" earns bragging rights as the word of the year; Disney's Tweeny-boppers take over the Top 10 list of celebrity-based searches; shopping for the best deals on travel and entertainment were top of mind in a tightening economy, and queries in the form of a question still reign supreme at Ask.com.
Google’s official list of the most popular search activity for 2008, aka Zeitgeist, has yet to make its debut, but the search giant has been leaking out tasty tidbits of data to get us salivating for even more search data. The fastest-rising search terms of 2008 Obama Facebook Att iPhone YouTube Fox news Palin Beijing […]
In addition to summarizing the most popular search trends overall, this year, Yahoo! dug deeper into the metrics of its vertical channels to get more granular information on what users searched for in 2008. With the launch of Buzz-up for publishers in 2008, Yahoo! also ranked the most buzzed stories and most clicked-on stories. In […]
The presidential election reigned supreme in the land of America (Online), as politically charged queries ranged across more than 40 categories in AOL's annual lists of top Web, mobile and video searches. Celebrity news, captivating headlines and pop culture continued to captivate the online audience; emerging mobile devices bumped activity for social apps like MySpace and Facebook, as well as sharing videos downloaded via apps for the iPhone.
MSN’s Live Search has announced the addition of malware warnings to their search results pages. In doing so, Live Search joins Google and Yahoo in taking a proactive stance against potentially dangerous sites; Google began adding malware warnings in early 2007. Yahoo added SearchScan alerts in May of this year. The Live Search implementation is […]
Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from November 2008:
Contextual content and advertising provider Proximic released an iPhone app, as the first step into a much broader foray into consumer-facing mobile search. The company’s underlying technology is called “pattern proximity matching,” which seeks to better understand pages and context through numerous points of relevance. Company CEO Philipp Pieper says that it can be used […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The Yahoo-Microsoft-AOL soap opera continues. (You expected otherwise?) At AllThingsD, Kara Swisher was pretty adamant Monday that Yahoo and Microsoft are not in secret talks right now about a new search partnership, and she called the weekend report from The Times (UK) “inaccurate.” Part of that UK story had Ross Levinson and Jon Miller taking […]
Global link building sounds very glamourous, like something you’d do wearing Chanel and drinking seriously good wine that I wouldn’t know anything about, not being the glamourous sort. However, it’s something that makes you roll up your French-cuffed sleeves and do some major dirty work. While the basics remain the same (get quality links, write […]
Former AOL Chief Seeks Funds for Yahoo Deal from the Wall Street Journal reports Jonathan Miller, ex-AOL CEO, is trying to put together enough money to buy Yahoo. Miller is reportedly looking to raise raising about $28 billion to $30 billion, equivalent to $20 to $22 per share, to buy all of Yahoo. The Wall […]
My favorite Christmas activity is tracking Santa’s route around the world. Once again, NORAD and Google are making it easy. The NORAD Tracks Santa 2008 site is now up, and a countdown for your iGoogle home page can now be downloaded. Google just blogged the news today. Below, what to expect. NOTE: If you’re looking […]
Live Search announced you can now use images to find similar images in Live Image Search. To use this feature, you go to Live Image Search, search for an image, hover over an image, and click on “show similar images.”
As expected, SEMPO, has rung the bell at the NASDAQ yesterday morning. You can see the full release and several pictures at the NASDAQ release. Dana Todd, Chairperson of the Board of Directors for SEMPO, presided over the Opening Bell at NASDAQ yesterday morning. Congrats to SEMPO and congrats to the search marketing industry!
“Death of Detroit would wallop ad world” …”… nightmares of a blue Christmas” Shocking! Tell us something we don’t already know! Turning a few more pages I see, “As site traffic slows, online marketers tighten their holiday budgets.” And that’s when I calmly fold-up my recent copy of Advertising Age and call my dentist to […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
There’s lots of news today and from over the US holiday weekend. Much of it concerns Yahoo and Google, as it often does in this column. The big buzz generated over the weekend was from the UK’s Times Online report that there was a tentative deal reached between Yahoo and Microsoft to buy the former’s […]
Microsoft just announced Live Search instant cashback rewards. This instant reward currently only applies to items purchased at eBay. If you make a purchase at eBay, using Live Search Cashback, you should see the rewards instantly in your PayPal account. Yes, you won’t have to wait 60 days to see the money. Clearly, having instant […]
Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback program was reportedly down much of the day on Black Friday. This caused major concerns for customers who were excited to get large discounts on the day. In addition, TechFlash reports many customers purchased items from HP, expecting to receive 40% cash back rewards from Microsoft, only to see 3% show […]
Although paid search is far more trackable than many media – even online display advertising – many paid search campaign managers have difficulty tying detailed paid search data to actual sales. This is particularly true with long-sales-cycle campaigns, high touch lead generation campaigns, and campaigns that are designed to drive phone sales. Often, such campaigns […]
How many times have you heard the question from a key decision-maker: “So, after we do this optimization, what will our rankings be?” The answer is complex, and requires much more than simply “better than it was before” for your reply to be meaningful to the CMO tasked with moving the needle on a billion […]
When Google started officially placing ads on Google Image search, they used banner or image ads. I am now seeing reports that Google is going towards a text ad format. Michael Gray noticed, as did the folks at AccuraCast.com that Google is now placing three text ads in Google Image Search. In the past, Google […]