With 2008 behind us, I wanted to look back and plot how search engine market share changed over the year in the United States. No surprises here. Pick your numbers, Google grew and grew. Yahoo and Microsoft dropped by lately have leveled off. Before we do the pretty pictures, I'll repeat my standing philosophy about search market share figures: Avoid drawing conclusions based on month-to-month comparisons. Lots of things can cause one month’s figures to be incomparable to another month. It’s better to see the trend across multiple months in a row. Avoid drawing conclusions b [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Stats: Compete | Stats: comScore | Stats: Hitwise | Stats: NetRatings | Stats: Popularity | Top News

Last week's inauguration was a great time to reflect. Witnessing such an inspirational, historic event combined with the ground-swell of optimism gave me a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. Professionally, it made me think about how I can get even more resourceful in my marketing approach and solving the problems of my valuable clients. While the campaign slogan was "Yes we can," for our purposes here, I’d like to suggest a new slogan, "Yes we should." This could be the year that mobile really takes off and here are a few things to consider regarding the mobile opportunity - whe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Local Search

Last week, the Rimm-Kaufman Group disclosed what is apparently an inadvertent bug in Google's Broad Match algorithm. Last summer's switch from minimum bid to first-page minimum bid wasn't supposed to impact broad match logic at all, but it did in a big way. The result? Agencies and advertisers who pay attention to the numbers saw a dramatic and essentially unmanageable decline in the performance of broad matched keywords, forcing down bids to remain efficient, dropping traffic and sales, with damage to Google's revenue as well. We hope that Google will fix this bug for the benefit of all [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Google: AdWords | Top News

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Online Retail and SEM: Webcast Next TuesdayNext Tuesday, January 27 at 1 PM EST, our sister site, Search Marketing Now, hosts a webcast about SEM strategies for online retailers. Speakers will include Jeffrey Hackett from comScore, who will present new data for online retail 2008, and Mike Deckman from Vintage Tub & Bath, who will talk about SEM strategies helped the company break its December sales records in 2008 despite the tough economic env [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Next Tuesday, January 27 at 1 PM EST, our sister site, Search Marketing Now, hosts a webcast about SEM strategies for online retailers. Speakers will include Jeffrey Hackett from comScore, who will present new data for online retail 2008, and Mike Deckman from Vintage Tub & Bath, who will talk about SEM strategies helped the company break its December sales records in 2008 despite the tough economic environment. Marin Software, sponsor for the webcast, will demonstrate how Marin Search Marketer can help online retailers manage seasonal and economic fluctuations in PPC campaigns. Registr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SMX & DMD Alerts

Not that we needed any confirmation of Google's popularity, but comScore has put it into numbers with today's release of data about worldwide Internet usage. comScore says Google is the most popular Internet property in the world, with its sites reaching 77% of the online population that's 15-years-old and up in December, 2008. Microsoft and Yahoo are second and third, respectively, while Facebook is the top social networking site in the world and the seventh most popular property overall. It's also worth mentioning that comScore says the global Internet audience surpassed one billio [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: General | Microsoft: General | Stats: comScore | Yahoo: General

At Google Watch today, Clint Boulton found an interesting comment from Google CEO Eric Schmidt during Thursday's earnings call. During the call, Schmidt spoke about focusing on the "untapped potential of search and ads" and Google's emphasis on search quality: "Wouldn't it be nice if Google understood the meaning of your phrase rather than just the words that are in that phrase? We have a lot of discoveries in that area that are going to roll out in the next little while." As Boulton points out, this is another step in semantic search -- something Google has been working on somewhat u [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Web Search

When Google went from being just another new search engine to the search engine, I couldn’t stop comparing the company to the cartoon series, Pinky and the Brain. In my mind, the conversation between Larry and Sergey was identical to the two lab mice: Larry: "Gee Sergey, what do you want to do tonight?" Sergey: "The same thing we do every night, Larry—try to take over the world." For the cartoon, no matter what scheme Brain devised, the world was not his to take. Perhaps it was Bill Gates’ plan to put a computer in every home that stood the best chance of world domination. Ste [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

I told you so. Or I told anyone who cared. I even tried to reach the Obama administration in four or five different ways. Do a search on Yahoo right now for miserable failure, and you'll find President Barack Obama's page ranking either in the top spot or the second spot. Given a redirect that Obama's web team has put into place, he should solidify into that number one spot over time. Eventually, Microsoft's Live Search should reflect that, as well. And over at Google, Obama will likely gain a top page listing for a search on failure. I know. There are bigger issues Obama has to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Link Building: Link Bombs | Search & Society: General | SEO: Redirects & Moving Sites | Top News

We at Palore are always on the lookout for new profiles of SMBs who are likely to purchase online advertising services. Our success to date has been primarily with two profiles of advertisers: "traditional" SMBs who advertise on IYPs and other traditional media, and the more "savvy" SMBs who advertise on search engines and vertical sites. But recently we ran into a new and more interesting group within our sources and the blogosphere - this post will discuss this group. We found that many SMBs are interested in online marketing but have yet to take the first step towards advertising. A [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Small Is Beautiful

The need for keyword research is pretty much a given. But applying that research on a massive scale is where things usually break down. If you're dealing with 100,000 web pages, you don’t have time to touch every page. How can one do this scalably? The answer: programmatic optimization. In a previous article "Scalable On-Page SEO Strategies," I discussed various approaches to optimizing large-scale web sites. In the article I alluded to creating "recipes" or formulas for optimized title tags, and allowing that automation to be overridden by manual optimization. Let's look at this proc [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | How To: SEO

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Don’t Miss The Networking At SMX West - Online & In PersonWe've been writing frequently about the SMX West content and keynotes lately. There's another aspect of the show that is just as important and valuable - networking. And with more than 500 companies sending delegates (so far), there are lots of people to network with! Click here to learn more about the networking opportunities and then register for your All Access pass to SMX West. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

We've been writing frequently about the SMX West content and keynotes lately. There's another aspect of the show that is just as important and valuable - networking. And with more than 500 companies sending delegates (so far), there are lots of people to network with! Click here to learn more about the networking opportunities and then register for your All Access pass to SMX West. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Conferences

Google reported better-than-expected earnings this afternoon. Here are the top-level highlights: Google reported revenues of $5.70 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, an increase of 18% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007 and an increase of 3% compared to the third quarter of 2008. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2008 was $382 million as compared to $1.29 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Non-GAAP net income in the fourth quarter of 2008 was $1.62 billion, compared to $1.56 billion in the third quarter of 2008. [...]

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

Desperate times call for job search engines. That's how comScore explains today's news that job search was the fastest growing search category in the U.S. in 2008. Visits to job search engines grew by more than 51% in 2008 to 18.8 million visitors, comScore says. And as the economy grew worse during the course of the year, job search engines saw more traffic: "The final months of the year, which typically experience seasonal softness in job searching behavior due to the holidays, were instead some of the most heavily trafficked months of 2008." CareerBuilder.com was the leader in the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Engines: Job Search Engines | Stats: comScore

The Google AdWords team has launched a new mini-site, www.google.com/domorewithless, to help advertisers reach their goals in light of the current economy. The mini-site is really just a set of links to a variety of Google tools and services (Insights for Search, Google Maps, Google Analytics, etc.) available to online marketers or business owners. At the same time, on the Google AdWords blog, they've started a three-part series of articles that will explain how some of these tools work. The first tool to be profiled is Google Website Optimizer. Experienced marketers probably won't find [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords

Blogging and micro-blogging represent a stream of real-time web activity; from important real-life events to random personal thoughts, more Internet users are putting what they see, hear, think, and feel into this stream. Twitter, in particular, is a river of information. Breaking news is often reported there first, ahead of any other media -- online or not. Just last week, Danny Sullivan wondered why the major search engines don't offer a search service that taps specifically into this stream of information. Two other services are aiming to do just that, but Twitter itself could prevent re [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Search Engines: Blog Search Engines | Search Engines: Word Of Mouth & Buzz Search Engines

In this period of doom and gloom, its rare to see a small company being bold enough to make an acquisition. But that’s just what TubeMogul, which operates the web's most popular online video syndication and tracking service, has done. The Berkeley, California based company has just acquired flash player analytics firm Illumenex. The combination allows TubeMogul to offer a broad range of data tracking to the online video industry. TubeMogul offers a free service which video producers can use to upload their videos to over 20 video sharing sites. Once the video is live on those sites, TubeM [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Video Search

Microsoft announced its fiscal second quarter results today, as well as 5,000 layoffs over the course of the next 18 months with 1,400 immediately. The rumors were true, though the numbers are less than anticipated. From the press release: As part of this plan, Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today. These initiatives will reduce the company’s annual operating expense run rate by approximately $1.5 billion and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million. Other hi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Employees | Microsoft: General | Top News

Search Week is an exclusive weekly 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 Calculating The Carbon Footprint Of A Google Search Think Like A Blackhat By Matt Cut [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search Week