The Pew Internet & American Life Project has come out with a fairly comprehensive look at generations and internet activity, called "Generations Online." The report segments users by age categories (i.e., X, Y, Boomers) and looks their online activities. The data were drawn from responses by thousands of users to surveys conducted by Pew researchers between 2006 and 2008. Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project While activities such as IM, online video or social networking appeal to younger users and e-commerce or online banking are disproportionately used by Gen X and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search & Society: General | Stats: General | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

All web sites, whether large or small, have many of the same search engine optimization challenges. Since the beginning of interactive time, it has been a struggle for many business websites to find their voice and to provide meaningful content to the Internet audience. At Agency.com we see this struggle every day, particularly in an environment where our clients are the ones in charge of creating and managing the text and digital asset contents of large corporate web sites. The development of content seems like a straightforward thing, but for a large company there are so many stakeholde [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Industrial Strength

Tomorrow, Thursday January 29 at 1 PM EST, our sister site Search Marketing Now hosts a webcast designed to help online advertisers determine best practices for measuring and valuing an ad. "Attribution Management Forum 2.0" will include a series of polling questions that get to the heart of just how to give credit to an individual ad or team of ads – over time, in relationship to other products, and when it’s part of a campaign that involves other ads, both online and offline. Adam Goldberg of ClearSaleing will be the main speaker, and he’ll share the results of the polling questions th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SMX & DMD Alerts

Search Week is an exclusive monthly newsletter for Search Engine Land premium members that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past week. Below are top stories organized by topic that happened over the past week. Each topic (or Search Engine Land column) is also a link, where you can click through and drill into the Search Engine Land members library to find other stories in that area. Because some stories are listed in more than one category, you may see them repeated. Top News Google Testing "Preferred Sites" Option In Search Preferences Should Google Let Advert [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search Week

Despite the fact that we are already a month into the new year, and that you probably made a valiant effort in putting together your 2009 marketing budget, you just might want to revisit it. Why? Because given the current economic conditions, it's more important than ever to get the most out of your marketing dollars, and you could very well be headed for trouble if in your process you either assumed a similar media allocation as previous years, or created your search budget and strategy without factoring in other channels. Why last year's allocation won't work While it may have wor [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

Click fraud is worse today than ever according to an announcement from tracking company Click Forensics. Click Forensics estimates the overall average click fraud rate for Q4 2008 at 17.1%, the highest level since they began tracking it in 2006. That rate is up from 16.0% in Q3 2008 and from the 16.6% rate reported in Q4 2007. Click fraud estimates on the search engine content networks are said to be at 28.2%, up from 27.1% in Q3. They also estimate that botnets were responsible for 31.4% of click fraud in the last quarter of 2008, up from 27.6% in Q3, and also the highest level yet. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Legal: Clickfraud

Change is a popular word lately, and living in DC area the theme is practically unavoidable. You can even buy (a shiny version of) change at the mall. I walked through a Macy's department store last week and passed a large rack of sparkly "Change" pins for sale. Change is everywhere. When I started doing in-house search in 2000, not many companies realized the importance of search marketing. Today, it seems that almost all companies do. But getting a search marketing campaign off the ground is daunting for many companies, especially smaller businesses. Using search agencies Man [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | In House Search Marketing

Three weeks after the latest uproar over its decision to auto-optimize sponsored search accounts, Yahoo has published an explanation under the brassy headline, "The Truth about Account Optimizations." As a refresher, earlier this month Yahoo emailed advertisers about its new Terms and Conditions, which says that Yahoo may create ads, edit keywords, and/or optimize the accounts of U.S. advertisers not bound by an Insertion Order. Search marketers were exasperated. In tonight's post, Yahoo says the purpose is to help small- and mid-sized advertisers suffering from "performance issues." The [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Top News | Yahoo: Search Ads

Do you know your SEM publishers & history inside-and-out? Can you negative match your "Tom" from your "Cruise" in your sleep? Then take the SMX Biggest Search Geek Challenge sponsored by Marin Software at www.biggestsearchgeek.com. The Geek with the highest score wins a trip for two to SMX West and receives their award on-stage from Danny Sullivan! [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo Q4: Mild Operating Loss; Display Weak, Performance & Search BetterYahoo was widely expected to report lower earnings. But the lower earnings reported beat some financial analysts' very low expectations. Here are the top-level highlights from the earnings release ... How Search-Like Are Social Media Sites?Like search? Who doesn't -- great traffic, huge brand value and an audience ready to convert. Like social media? What's not to like -- [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Yahoo was widely expected to report lower earnings. But the lower earnings reported beat some financial analysts' very low expectations. Here are the top-level highlights from the earnings release: Q4 Financial Results Revenues were $1,806 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, a 1 percent decrease compared to $1,832 million for the same period of 2007. Operating loss for the fourth quarter of 2008 was $278 million compared to operating income of $191 million for the same period of 2007. United States segment revenues for the fourth quarter of 2 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues

Like search? Who doesn't -- great traffic, huge brand value and an audience ready to convert. Like social media? What's not to like -- huge growth, tons of buzz and an entire new marketing frontier that is opening up. For the search marketer looking at social media, how does it measure up? Which social media sites are most "search like?" This article looks at the issue and tries to chart it all out for easy comparison. To answer, let's start with some definitions. The terms "social media" and "social media site" are often used to describe web sites and online services that can be radically [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: Analysis | How To: SEM | Social Media Marketing | StumbleUpon | Top News

CNET reports on a conviction based in part on search query logs from Google that was upheld on appeal: A physical search of Justin's computer revealed that a few months before the murder, he had searched for terms including "trauma, cases, gunshot, right chest" and "Florida & divorce." Prosecutors had also discovered that the defendant downloaded a suggestive Guns N' Roses song called "Used to Love Her" and then deleted it a few weeks later, after his wife's death. The lyrics: "I used to love her, but I had to kill her / I had to put her / Six feet under / And I can still hear her comp [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal

In today's competitive search landscape you need to go beyond a basic resume and find a way to stand out in the crowd of applicants. It's not just about outlining your experience anymore. Employers are raising the bar with specific metrics, certifications and requirements. Here are a few key components to hone in on when vamping up your resume to help separate yourself from the pack while demonstrating your search skills & expertise. Use numbers, numbers and more numbers. Unlike other industries, search marketing really does thrive on stats. A search marketer needs to highlight a variety of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features: General | SEM Industry: General

Just like the US economy, things at Yahoo may get worse before they get better; the company reports earnings today at 5 p.m. Eastern. The general expectation is they'll be down. Yahoo may have been hit hard by the weakness in online display advertising. And new CEO Carol Bartz will be on the hot seat as financial analysts probe about a potential deal with Microsoft and whether the company will layoff more employees. Bartz is trying to impose some discipline and get tough on press leakers, which have feed Kara Swisher at AllThingsD so faithfully and regularly. Swisher reports on Bartz's a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Search Biz

Don't miss Search Engine Land's next conference, Search Marketing Expo – SMX West, taking place in Santa Clara, CA, February 10-12. We've got ticket options that fit every budget. Here's a summary: An All Access Pass is an outstanding value. Attend more than 50 cutting-edge sessions and keynotes covering SEO and paid search advertising for search marketers of all skill levels. See the agenda here, including descriptions of SMX Boot Camp for beginners, Developer Day and In-House Day programming. All Access pass holders also get access to all of the networking activities described below [...]

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

In my last Link Week post, I talked about how monitoring Twitter could help build links. Search Engine Land Managing Editor Elisabeth Osmeloski had this comment: "not really underscored in this example is the potential for the link to gain traction over time. Sure, Jane’s blog may not be that popular, but it only takes one person in her network (or even outside of it) to stumble upon it and also see a need for the same product Jane ordered, and by virtue of Jane’s positive review on ABCwidgets, this second person orders, hopefully has a good experience, and spreads the word further - ma [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Week

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 (Finally) Addresses FeedBurner ProblemsAfter weeks of reports that FeedBurner wasn't working, Google finally talked about the situation today on the AdSense for Feeds blog. The problem surrounds the transfer of FeedBurner accounts to a new platform (and a new URL). Many FeedBurner users saw their feeds go dead when switching to the new platform; some received 502 or 503 server error codes. Google doesn't seem to specifically explain the probl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

After weeks of reports that FeedBurner wasn't working, Google finally talked about the situation today on the AdSense for Feeds blog. The problem surrounds the transfer of FeedBurner accounts to a new platform (and a new URL). Many FeedBurner users saw their feeds go dead when switching to the new platform; some received 502 or 503 server error codes. Google doesn't seem to specifically explain the problems, but says the problems are associated with the migration of so many publishers to the new platform. "Although we came across many of these issues during our testing phase, in reality [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Google: FeedBurner | Google: Feeds

Over at Search Engine Roundtable, Barry posted this weekend about Google showing favicons in search results, and updated the post with confirmation from Google that it's a test, not a bug. I can't get this to show on my computer right now, but here's the screenshot Barry posted (via Brian Ussery): The favicon only appears when you do a site: command search, and of course, only if Google has chosen you to see the test in action. Google confirmed the test in a Google Groups Help discussion, where they're also inviting users to share other ideas for changes to Google's search result [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search