Google hosted something of a formal "status update" on Chrome the operating system in Mountain View on Thursday. There we discovered the company is open-sourcing the code. We also found out it's intended as a netbook OS (for now) and that Google is working with several hardware partners to create a better netbook experience (full-sized keyboard, slightly larger screen). We also learned it's intended to be a secondary or supplemental machine, not a primary computer. That positioning is very important. Google Product VP Sundar Pichai wouldn't discuss the hardware partners involved with Chr [...]

Filed in: Google: Chrome, Google: Mobile, Top News

Avinash Kaushik is Google’s well-known and widely respected analytics guru. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about his passion for metrics, why they’re critical for success, and how search marketers can use analytics to take their campaigns to the next level.

Filed in: Google: Analytics, Google: Employees, How To: Analytics, 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: Search In Pictures: Google México Party, One Republic @ Google & Pineapple 5KIn 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. [...] Google Appears To Be Testing New Local AdWords PresentationMike Blumenthal received a screenshot that seems to show a test of a new presentati [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

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. Google México Campus Party: One Republic at Google: Y! Logo Flowers: Our Vanessa Fox Running the Pineapple 5K (hope she doesn't kill me for this): [...]

Filed in: Search In Pictures

Mike Blumenthal received a screenshot that seems to show a test of a new presentation of Google local/geotargeted AdWords. Mike suggests this may be an expression of AdWords local extensions: This is AdWords and not Local Listing Ads, but the presentation (with the blue pushpin) is similar, signifying a local business or a physical location. Here is an example of Local Listing Ads: Postscript: Here's another image from a Chicago result sent to me by Jason Normoyle: [...]

Filed in: Google: AdWords, Google: Maps & Local

We have covered many of the search ad keyword lawsuits aimed between competitors or directly at the search engines in the past. Nowadays, it seems like a new suit around this topic is filed weekly. Typically these suits go after trademark violations and the like, but a new suit is focusing on a privacy legality. Suit over search-engine keywords tries new angle from the Associated Press reports Habush Habush & Rottier is suing Cannon & Dunphy for buying their name on Google and Bing. Habush Habush & Rottier is taking the privacy angle, where in Wisconsin there is the "right-to-privacy st [...]

Filed in: Legal: Copyright, Legal: General, Legal: Trademarks

Cyber Monday is one of the most important (if not the most important) day to paid search professionals in America, and I've got some great tips and tricks to share on how to make the most of it. But first, I thought I'd share some history of the term I found at Wikipedia: The term "Cyber Monday" is a neologism invented by Shop.org, part of the U.S. trade association National Retail Federation. It was first used within the e-commerce community during the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the head of Shop.org, the term was coined based on research showing that 77% of online [...]

Filed in: In The Trenches

Hey news publishers. Stop acting as if your content only appears printed on dead trees and tap into the dynamics that the web offers. That's a blunt summary of advice from Josh Cohen of Google News, from a wide-ranging interview with him on Google's experiments with new ways of delivering news. Cohen, business product manager of Google News, says Google has no ultimate solution for the future of news online. It does have a vision of a super personalized news product that tracks someone's "read state" and keeps them constantly informed with updates. But to turn that vision into reality [...]

Filed in: Features: Analysis, Google: News, Top News

Powerful the force is in you! You’re overcoming resistance to your SEO efforts. But preparing for growth requires looking within. Learn how Keyword Reach and Page Yield metrics can help you set good baselines and direct your SEO campaigns for maximum effect.

Filed in: Analyze This

Website owners and search professionals alike often overlook finding behaviors after a searcher clicks on a link to a website from a search engine results page (SERP). One of those finding behaviors is called orientation or orienting. Orientation is a search behavior that no SEO professional, search engine advertiser, or website owner should dismiss. Quick-and-easy orientation contributes to a positive brand experience, increases conversions and sales, and makes content easier to find.

Filed in: Just Behave

While the National Association of REALTORS® is planning to launch its own national property database sometime next year, Google seems to have just stolen the NAR's thunder. How? By rolling out individual "place pages" for every property that's listed in Google Maps. Like this one for a home in Seattle: The real estate listing place pages include property information, photos, map placement, Street View imagery and functionality, nearby public transit details, and even AdWords ads. Google has added links for "Directions" and "Search nearby," as well as a "Send" link that opens an outgoin [...]

Filed in: Google: Maps & Local, Search Engines: Real Estate, Top News

One of the many challenges of search marketing is getting answers from the search engines. On December 1, we thought we'd help out. At Search Marketing Now, we're going to give SEL readers the opportunity to ask questions, live, of representatives from Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. This SMN webcast, "Ask the Search Engines: War Stories from the World Tour" starts at 1 PM Eastern and will run about an hour. It's free, and registration is open. The webcast is patterned after live events that were hosted by iProspect this past fall. iProspect and representatives from the search engines tra [...]

Filed in: SEM Industry: Conferences

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 News For iPhone Gets RedesignThe Google Mobile Blog announced Google News on the iPhone, Android and other smart phone devices has a new design. The new design looks more like the desktop version of Google News with minor changes to make it fit better on the smart phone screens. The new design has more stories and images, [...] Yahoo Brings ‘Real Time’ Updates To News ShortcutYahoo has enhanced its News shortcut with real-time [...]

Filed in: SearchCap

The Google Mobile Blog announced that Google News on the iPhone, Android and other smart phone devices has a new design. The new design looks more like the desktop version of Google News with minor changes to make it fit better on the smartphone screens. The new design has more stories and images, has personalization features, search and a neat "jump" to section feature. Here are screen captures: [...]

Filed in: Google: Mobile, Google: News

Yahoo has enhanced its News shortcut with real-time feeds and updates. The idea is to make the News Shortcut more current and more social with Twitter content in the form of videos, photos and tweets. The new shortcut has a horizontal tabbed interface that offers access to each category of information (see screens below). According to Yahoo this is the first such integration with Twitter, although both Google and Bing are starting to integrate Twitter feeds. The Yahoo Search Blog explains: Starting today, you can see relevant photos, videos, and tweets about a breaking news story on the Y [...]

Filed in: Yahoo: News

Sometime later today, a small number of Google users will see a new look to Google's Search Options feature. If all goes well, the cleaner display may be launched across Google after the New Year. And it's all because Google's vice president of search product and user experience Marissa Mayer doesn't like jazz. Simmer down, jazz lovers! Jazz is just not her thing; she's not making a personal campaign against it. Instead, Mayer was using jazz to explain a pet metaphor she has about search results pages. They have their own "rhythm," and Google's results have been sounding a bit free fo [...]

Filed in: Features: General, Google: General, Google: User Interface, Google: Web Search, Top News

Saying the host site was serving malware to users, Google has removed a controversial photo of First Lady Michelle Obama from Google Image Search. The site itself, however, remains listed in Google web search results without any visible malware warning. Welcome to the murky world of free speech, politics, and Google. It began last week, when Search Engine Roundtable pointed out a racist image showing as the number one result in Google Image Search for the term [Michelle Obama]. The image was apparently removed yesterday. In a Google Web Search Help Forum thread discussing the image, [...]

Filed in: Google: Critics, Google: Images, Legal: Censorship, Top News

Something's up with Google's Chrome operating system. Don't know what, but we'll all know soon as a press conference begins at 10AM Pacific. I'm coming at your live from the Googleplex. Buckle up, and we'll see what's happening. You can also watch from home. Webcast info is here. There will also be related coverage developing at Techmeme, including news the Chrome OS source code is now apparently live. as Google's Matt Cutts has tweeted. And we start. Sundar Pichai says not launching today. A year away from that but have made constant progress and will show demo of what they've got s [...]

Filed in: Google: Docs & Spreadsheets, Top News

The Google Webmaster Central blog has two excellent write ups on mobile SEO concerns and techniques. One is named Help Google index your mobile site and the other is named Running desktop and mobile versions of your site. The reason for the two different articles is that often webmasters consider smart phone enabled sites as strictly mobile sites, but there are many mobile phones that have web browsers that don't provide the rich experience that an iPhone or Android device do. If a webmaster wants to optimize their site for those devices and submit this type of content to Google, they can [...]

Filed in: Google: Mobile, Google: SEO

Have you ever tried to create an interesting blog on a topic that people rarely interact with? Can you really build a thriving readership of loyal fans interested in a dry topic like root canals or debt consolidation? Most likely not. It is far easier to go where the conversation is than it is to create demand from scratch. This is why so many forms of affiliate marketing (reviews, coupons, comparisons, etc.) thrive on arbitraging established brands. If part of your marketing strategy revolves around community, discussion, and citations (links) then it helps to build your business model aro [...]

Filed in: 100% Organic