This complimentary guide and webinar cover: The most important factors in selecting an analytics solution The importance of flexible reporting with analytics How DaveRamsey.com saw a 567% uplift in ROI when they switched to Omniture Download Now [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

Google has made a series of announcements today about its Custom Search Engine service, including a new integration with Wikipedia that substantially changes the search experience on that site for users who opt-in. Other Custom Search announcements today include new custom themes and layouts, as well as better support for "rich snippets." More on those in a moment. With the new Custom Search Wikipedia Skin, users can now get Wikipedia search results from Google inline on the Wikipedia page you're viewing. The skin provides tabs to show custom search results from all Wikipedia pages, only Wi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Google: Custom Search Engine | 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: Google Social Search Launches, Gives Results From Your Trusted “Social Circle”Google Social Search is rolling out, a new service from Google that allows you to easily find material written by people you know and trust. It’s a pretty cool idea, especially in that it’s pretty painless to get started using it. The service will be available through Google Labs Experimental [...] Will A Free Google Navigation App-System Sink [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Google Social Search is rolling out, a new service from Google that allows you to easily find material written by people you know and trust. It's a pretty cool idea, especially in that it's pretty painless to get started using it. The service will be available through Google Labs Experimental later today. Below, a look at the service. NOTE (January 2010): This service is no longer experimental and now offered to all Google users. Google Social Search Goes Live, Adds New Features explains what's new in addition to what's described below. It's Not Twitter Search; It's Not Real Time Se [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Social Search | Top News

Lots of companies make a good living from hardware and software GPS navigation systems. In the US carriers such as Verizon and Sprint and personal navigation device (PND) makers such as TomTom, Garmin, Magellan, among others, earn device and subscription revenues from turn-by-turn routing and directions and points of interest directories. There are a number of data providers and suppliers that support this mobile industry segment as well. That vendor group includes Networks in Motion and Nokia's NAVTEQ, among others. MapQuest itself also offers a subscription-based navigation product. Co [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Top News

Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin, made a surprise visit at the Web 2.0 Summit last week. The video of his 18 minute interview with John Battelle is now available on YouTube. Here it is: In summary, he talked about his thoughts on Twitter's deal, Google's Social Search, also a little bit about Bing and even Yahoo giving up on search. He actually touches on about a couple dozen topics within this short interview. Here are some quotes from Brin's talk that I thought I pull out: Battelle asked Brin, what do you make of Bing? Brin said, "Ummm…" Then Battelle asked, are you a Bin [...]

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

The Google AdWords blog announced Google will begin testing a new My Client Center (MCC) this week. The new MCC will look a lot like the new AdWords interface and promises to help you manage your "clients more efficiently." The two new features include: In-line editing of account descriptions: In-line editing cuts the time it takes for you to make changes to your account names. Instead of waiting for a new page to load, just click an account description to edit it right on the Dashboard. Remove/unlink accounts: Previously, you needed to drill down into a client account to unlink it f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords

There's a significant opportunity for marketers who take time to understand markets beyond their home territory and deploy search programs that allow them to connect directly with consumers in their native language. "In their native language" is the make or break part of succeeding in a new market, yet too many companies fail to even consider many optimization fundamentals when they are localizing their sites for specific markets. A global market research report from Common Sense Advisory & Lionbridge reported that 72.4% of consumers say they would be more likely to buy a product with [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Multinational Search

It pains me to say it, but local search is a solved consumer problem. I’m in pain admitting this, because I’ve been trying to create better local search mousetraps since 2003. Put simply, major search engines do a good enough job of surfacing local listings and phone numbers to consumers who need a specific product or service at a moment in time. The rest of the local search "opportunity," beyond the one or two review aggregator sites lucky enough to also pop up—is all a matter of either SEO (indefensible) or arbitrage (sinking margins). In other words, consumers have accepted the sol [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Local Search

When "activist investor" Carl Icahn forced his way onto Yahoo's board in the middle of last year the company was resisting a takeover attempt from Microsoft. Icahn wanted to see a deal and was trying with all his might to broker one between the two companies. He initiated a very public bid to oust Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO and bring a slate of Microsoft-friendly candidates to the Yahoo board. He went so far as to file a shareholder lawsuit against Yahoo. The settlement gave Icahn a seat on the Yahoo board and control of three of 11 total board positions. After Jerry Yang resigne [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: General

Data driven anticipatory bidding can turn an ordinary holiday bump into something extraordinary. Here are some tips for how to take apart and act on the data.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Paid Search

Every search marketer shares one important goal: get more of the traffic you want and less of the traffic you don’t. One of the best ways to get manage your traffic quality is by focusing on keyword selection. By selecting the right keywords you can reduce the number of untargeted clicks you get, reducing your costs. But it doesn’t stop there. Eliminating unwanted clicks increases the click-through rates for your ad groups, leading to higher quality scores, lower CPCs, and increased conversions. Better keyword management isn’t just a nice to have; it’s increasingly becoming critic [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Industrial Strength

There are two key factors crucial to assuring the success of any large SEM optimization process: First, tuning the campaign so that it is efficient and second, scaling the account while maintaining the efficiency you’ve gained. Your key goal should be to identify incremental opportunity without losing profitability.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To: PPC

Too much time is often spent about the new features the various major search engines roll out or the latest deals they cut. Here at Search Engine Land, we can be as guilty of that as anyone. To correct it, I'll be spending more and more time highlighting poor quality search results that I encounter, in hopes of nudging the industry to improve things. Canaries In The Search Mine I've spoken and written for years that when it comes to search engines, I think there are two "canaries in the coal mine" that catch a whiff of something bad emanating from the search engines. The first a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Stats: Relevancy | 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: Gems In The Google SEM ToolboxAlready its own specialty of digital marketing and now almost 50% of all online advertising budgets, paid search has fully grown into its own channel. A quick bit of research can quickly uncover a multitude of blogs, books, tools, companies, etc. all focused on the topic and within this channel, there’s even more fragmentation [...] Search In Pictures: Yahoo Hack Day, Google Soccer & Bing PartyIn this week&# [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Already its own specialty of digital marketing and now almost 50% of all online advertising budgets, paid search has fully grown into its own channel. A quick bit of research can quickly uncover a multitude of blogs, books, tools, companies, etc. all focused on the topic and within this channel, there's even more fragmentation and specialization. From account creation to conversion optimization, paid search has a suite of sub-disciplines to master. Not all search marketers have equal strengths in every area of the medium. Some SEM pros are great at keyword expansion, managing bids and ru [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Search Marketing Toolbox

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. Yahoo's Inappropriate Hack Day Activities: Bing's Party at ZendCon: Yahoo Fussball: Google Playing Soccer: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

Microsoft announced quarterly revenues of $12.9 billion, a decline of just over 14 percent from the same period a year ago. Adjusted revenue, which accounts for $1.5 billion in deferred Windows 7 receipts put the quarter at $14.4 billion, just 4 percent down vs. a year ago. Profits were also down. Online services (where Bing is housed) had revenues of $490 million and a $480 million loss vs revenues of $520 million and losses of $321 million a year go. The conference call is going to start in a few minutes but the company's slides highlight strong Windows (7) and Xbox demand. PC growth was [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: General

Try as they might Yahoo is having a tough time convincing people that it's still "in search." On Yahoo's earnings call earlier this week CFO Tim Morse, who led the call because CEO Carol Bartz was ill, used her analogy to describe Yahoo's new way of positioning itself around search: The next revolution isn’t with the algorithms that provide results, it’s in creating a better, more personally relevant search experience. This is where we’ll differentiate ourselves and compete vigorously without the billions required to keep up in the arms race that generating search results has become. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: User Interface

The Google Custom Search Blog announced the release of a mobile friendly Google Custom Search engine interface support for devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Palm Pre. Google will now automatically detect the device you are using to access the Google Custom Search Engine and serve up a mobile friendly version, when necessary. If you host it yourself, you can redirect the users yourself and serve up the proper mobile version to your searchers. For more details about this feature, see the Google CSE blog and Google Mobile Blog. Here is a picture of how it might look [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Custom Search Engine | Google: Mobile