SPONSOR MESSAGE: 200 million passionate people. Reach exactly the ones you want.

Jun 30, 2009 at 11:37pm ET by Search Engine Land

With Facebook Ads, you can target your ideal audience as precisely as you want- from age and gender to other demographics and interests. Each ad is 100% branded by the advertiser and will be easily viewed in the left-hand Ad Space by users connecting with their friends. Pay per click or impression. Get your message to the people who care. [...]

Filed in: Sponsor Messages

SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 30, 2009

Jun 30, 2009 at 5:00pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: OPA Study Reaffirms Display Ads Drive SearchSearch and display. One often hears how they work together, but there’s still plenty of skepticism out there, especially in the SEM community, about the value of display advertising. Indeed, during the recession search has prospered (relatively speaking) while display has suffered. But a new study from the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and comScore argues [...] Stephen Colbert Does Send-Up Of T [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

OPA Study Reaffirms Display Ads Drive Search

Jun 30, 2009 at 3:48pm ET by Greg Sterling

Search and display. One often hears how they work together, but there's still plenty of skepticism out there, especially in the SEM community, about the value of display advertising. Indeed, during the recession search has prospered (relatively speaking) while display has suffered. But a new study from the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and comScore argues that display ads can have a major impact on search and consumer engagement. The study, called “The Silent Click: Building Brands Online” (pdf), compares the behaviors of consumers exposed to online display advertising vs. those in a [...]

Filed in: Features: Analysis, Search Ads: General, Stats: General, Stats: Search Behavior, Top News

Stephen Colbert Does Send-Up Of Twitter & Jeff Goldblum Death Rumor

Jun 30, 2009 at 1:11pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Last week, we covered how a rumor that Jeff Goldblum was dead spread on Twitter and even Google . This week, Stephen Colbert did a great send-up of the rumor, including a visit by Goldblum himself. The clip starts out with Colbert saying: "I was on the Twitter this weekend, and I saw a tweetening of the most tragic thing I ever had twattered. According to multiple tweets, friend of the show and of dinosaurs actor Jeff Goldblum passed away on Thursday in New Zealand. Now sure, you didn't hear about itin the mainstream media. But I don't see how Delicioushair could get this wrong." Gold [...]

Filed in: Search & Society: General, Twitter

Are You Link Building Or Just Keeping Up With The Joneses?

Jun 30, 2009 at 11:15am ET by Eric Ward

If there's one link development tactic that has been used to death, it has to be "see who's linking to your competition and get them to link to you". There are tools galore to help you do this, software you buy and install on your desktop, or web based apps. It's a fairly simple technique and it has merit, but I hardly ever hear anyone talking about the dangers of relying on this tactic, and the fundamental weakness in the link profile you end up creating when you follow this approach. Me too or me three? One of the dangers of the competitor backlink approach is that if your target sites [...]

Filed in: Link Week

Google Releases AdWords API v2009 (Beta)

Jun 30, 2009 at 9:55am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Google AdWords API Blog announced the new AdWords API v2009. The new API promises "more speed, scale, and flexibility to developers, at a lower cost." The AdWords API v2009 will ultimately replace version 13, and there are "significant" differences between the two. The biggest additions include: Partial failure acceptance - We plan to support partial failures, which means that large posts won't be completely rolled back due to a few small errors. This allows you to keep moving forward with development without halting to re-do posts. Asynchronous calls - We’ll offer asynchronous ca [...]

Filed in: Google: APIs, Google: AdWords

YouTube To Launch “Call-To-Action Overlay” Ads

Jun 30, 2009 at 9:08am ET by Barry Schwartz

TechCrunch reports that YouTube is adding a new ad type to its ad mix named "Call-To-Action Overlay" ads. These ads are very simple, they basically allow you to add a link to a third-party site, off of YouTube. The ad is a transparent background with an ad description and link to any site you want. I can see the ad live on this video and here is a picture: This new ad type is reportedly launching today at https://ads.youtube.com/. It is interesting to note that the small vertical line in the YouTube play bar is where the ad starts to display. YouTube officially launched sponsored [...]

Filed in: Google: AdWords, Google: YouTube & Video

The Toolbar Factor: Engagement’s Role in Social Voting

Jun 30, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Jordan Kasteler

Since their infancy, social news sites have been trying to stay one step ahead of social media users trying to artificially promote content to their front page. Digg.com has been the center focus for spamming and gaming in social media because a front-page promoted story equates to thousands of visitors and hundreds, or even thousands of links. In order to combat the gamers and filter out spam, Digg has created an algorithm that is very complex in nature. Never do they cease to fine tune it, in an effort to try to stay ahead of people trying to artificially promote content to their front page. [...]

Filed in: Let's Get Social, Toolbars & Add-Ons

Yahoo News Was Top Destination For Michael Jackson News

Jun 30, 2009 at 3:55am ET by Matt McGee

Yahoo News was the web's number one choice last week for information about the death of entertainer Michael Jackson. In a post on the Hitwise blog, Heather Dougherty shows a chart detailing how the major online News & Media sites fared: Late last week I wrote about how each of the major search engines handled the extraordinary search activity that followed the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett on the same day. Yahoo is in a unique situation as an actual content provider with writers and editors, and some of those staffers were called in from home to help Yahoo cover the break [...]

Filed in: Google: News, Microsoft: Bing News Search, Search Engines: News Search Engines, Stats: Hitwise, Yahoo: News

SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 29, 2009

Jun 29, 2009 at 5:08pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Long Tail of Paid Search Account EffortIf you spend enough time sitting at your desk in summer, you can go slightly insane. That aside, daydreaming sometimes leads to back-door observations, studies show. Glancing out the window, it’s evident that it takes a lot of resources and coordination to run a neighborhood. Schools, crossing guards, street sweepers, garbage collection, public pool maintenance, snow [...] Google Tests Dropping Off C [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

Search Week: June 29, 2009

Jun 29, 2009 at 4:51pm ET by Danny Sullivan

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 iPhone's Spotlight Search Google's Matt Cutts On "Over Optimization" Google AdSense [...]

Filed in: Search Week

Two Special Training Workshops Added To SMX East

Jun 29, 2009 at 3:04pm ET by Search Engine Land

Join us for workshops that take a deep dive on search engine optimization (SEO) or issues confronting in-house SEM professionals at Search Marketing Expo - SMX East. The seminars will be held October 8, immediately following SMX East on October 5-7. Keep reading for descriptions of In-house SEM Exchange and Bruce Clay SEO training workshops. Managing Your Company’s Search Marketing? In-house SEM Exchange Is A Must... In-house SEM Exchange is a focused, interactive and intimate workshop designed by in-house SEOs for in-house SEOs. In-house SEM Exchange is: 100% in-house [...]

Filed in: SEM Industry: Community, SMX & SMN Alerts

The Long Tail of Paid Search Account Effort

Jun 29, 2009 at 1:08pm ET by Andrew Goodman

If you spend enough time sitting at your desk in summer, you can go slightly insane. That aside, daydreaming sometimes leads to back-door observations, studies show. Glancing out the window, it's evident that it takes a lot of resources and coordination to run a neighborhood. Schools, crossing guards, street sweepers, garbage collection, public pool maintenance, snow removal, sewage, plumbing, hydro, zoning bylaws, parking permits, and the list goes on. Except, as a homeowner or resident, you don't have to worry about any of these things. Just (directly or indirectly) pay your property tax [...]

Filed in: Paid Search

Google Tests Dropping Off Country Specific Search?

Jun 29, 2009 at 12:59pm ET by Barry Schwartz

The SEO Home blog has noticed that Google UK is now testing removing the radio button to only show "pages from the UK." If you visit google.co.uk you may notice the radio button, but some are noticing that the radio button for that country specific option is now missing. Google UK With the Country Specific Filter: Google UK without the Country Specific Filter: Gabs from SEO Home only sees Google UK lacking the radio button when using Google Chrome. When he searches on Google Chrome, he still can get to the filter, but only after he searches and only after he scrolls to the b [...]

Filed in: Google: Outside US, Google: User Interface, Google: Web Search, Top News

Google: We’re Not Really That Big But If We Are, We Aren’t Bad

Jun 29, 2009 at 11:53am ET by Greg Sterling

The NY Times offers a broad article about Google's efforts to define, explain and clarify its place in the market in the face of increasing anti-trust scrutiny (Google Makes a Case That It Isn’t So Big). There are currently three Justice Department investigations pending that involve Google, concerning its Book Search settlement, overlapping directors with Apple (there are two) and hiring practices at a variety of technology companies including Google. Arguably the most successful internet company today, with roughly 30 percent of all online ad revenue according to estimates the company i [...]

Filed in: Features: Analysis, Google: Critics, Google: Legal

Google Slides On Ranking Issues

Jun 29, 2009 at 9:31am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Google Webmaster Central blog posted slides on traffic drops and site architecture issues. The slides are from an SMX London 2009 presentation. For more information, see the Google blog post. [...]

Filed in: Google: SEO

Funny: “Googling With Bing”

Jun 29, 2009 at 9:22am ET by Barry Schwartz

Monday's can be rough for many people, so I thought I share with you a funny video named "Googling with Bing." It basically is a Bing commercial, but they replace the word "search" with "Google." See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. Hat tip to TechCrunch for spotting this. [...]

Filed in: Google: Parodies, Microsoft: Marketing

Next Great Thing: Bing Draws On IYP Connection

Jun 29, 2009 at 7:03am ET by Stephanie Hobbs

Everyone seems to be chiming in with their reviews of Microsoft's new search engine — oops, I mean "decision engine". Can it compete with Yahoo? Will it become a verb like Google? Why'd they name it after the Chandler character on "Friends?" I don't know if Bing will grow legs or if it'll get lost amid the competition. Given the $100 million ad campaign Microsoft is throwing behind it, I'd say it has as good a shot as anything to break through, even if it doesn't fully cure "search overload". Early results are encouraging, but traffic from its initial weeks might be simply from people [...]

Filed in: Locals Only

Riding The Rail: Plenty Of Time To Ponder Search

Jun 29, 2009 at 7:02am ET by David Roth

I'm going just a bit off topic this month. It may seem a stretch, but bear with me, there is a modicum of relevance to this column. You see, most of my ideas for Industrial Strength columns, as well as the bulk of my SEL column writing, take place on either the Capitol 523 or the 542. These are the trains that I take to get to and from work. While I work in Sunnyvale, CA, I live in El Cerrito, just over 50 miles away. Why I live so far from work is yet another long story, so let's stay on topic here. All aboard for Silicon Valley The Capitol Corridor is the name of the rail service I ta [...]

Filed in: Industrial Strength

Google Thinks Michael Jackson Died At Age 65 In 2007

Jun 27, 2009 at 2:39pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Oops. Bad, Google. Occasionally the service inserts direct answers to searches at the top of its results. It makes guesses at this, and in the case of michael jackson died, it's making the wrong guess. Henry Elliss tipped us that Google's showing that Michael Jackson died in 2007, at age 65. The problem? Google's drawing on Wikipedia and picking the wrong Michael Jackson, the writer rather than the King Of Pop. That's wrong in terms of what people currently spiking searches for "michael jackson died" are expecting. Those interested in the writer did spike queries back when the writer di [...]

Filed in: Google: News, Google: Web Search

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