Although the phrase "Google yourself" has become part of our culture, a new survey suggests that less than half of Americans have actually done it. The numbers come from a December survey commissioned by Microsoft on the subject of online reputations. The survey polled about 2,500 consumers and recruiting personnel in the US, UK, Germany and France, and was just released to coincide with today's International Data Privacy Day. According to the survey, only 42% of US consumers have used a search engine to find information posted about them. That's slightly higher than the 36% of UK co [...]

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

Before we really start diving into the specifics of managing a paid search account, it is important to cover some standard industry jargon. You may want to bookmark this post as a resource for any terms you may need to go back and reference. Account Terms Query: The actual input by a user into a search engine. Also called the query string (for example, when someone says "I searched for Hawaiian vacation," Hawaiian vacation is the query). The query is the most important element determining how a search engine returns a results page’s organic and paid listings. Keyword: A term o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | PPC Academy

Google has announced that it's now personalizing search suggestions that appear on Google Maps. It's an odd announcement to me, because I'm almost sure my maps search suggestions have been personalized for some time now. One thing that I haven't seen before, though, is the explicit notice beneath the suggestions that things have been personalized. You have to be signed in to your Google account and have Web History enabled for this to work. Mike Blumenthal raises the good point that having actual personalization in Google Maps would be a bigger improvement. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Search Features: Query Refinement | Search Features: Search History & Personalization

As a web marketer who is requesting high-quality links from the gatekeepers of academic sites, understanding the lingo and professional culture of the academic world can greatly improve your success rate. Academic environments can be a bit more formal and regulated than web or business world. When you get through to a blogger or .com webmaster and ask for a link, there's usually a minimum of red tape: they'll decide to link to you or they won't. But when you get through to an academic webmaster or university professor, you'll oftentimes encounter someone who isn't outright opposed to grant [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To: Links | Link Building: General

From Search Engine Land: Finally! Yahoo Search Weather Report : January 2010The Yahoo Search Blog dusts itself off to announce a search update happening right now. The last “weather report” Yahoo announced was in September 2009 – typically, Yahoo would announce these updates monthly. We actually expected this to be announced. I was tracking a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were noticing ranking changes at Yahoo [...] Google Social Search Goes Live, Adds New FeaturesGoogle has begun the rollout of its Social Search product, a way of seeing customized search results [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

The Yahoo Search Blog dusts itself off to announce a search update happening right now. The last "weather report" Yahoo announced was in September 2009 - typically, Yahoo would announce these updates monthly. We actually expected this to be announced. I was tracking a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were noticing ranking changes at Yahoo Search. So now we have confirmation. Yahoo said: The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: SEO

Google has begun the rollout of its Social Search product, a way of seeing customized search results based upon the people in your social network. Social Search has been an opt-in Google Labs experiment since its debut in October, but will be available as a beta product in the "next few days" to all users on Google.com. Our article on the initial debut, Google Social Search Launches, Gives Results From Your Trusted "Social Circle," provides an in-depth guide to how Google Social Search, including: how to access Social Search (reminder: it's under the "Show Options" link on the searc [...]

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

One small search victory for Yahoo: a new default search deal with Ubuntu, the free Linux-based operating system. According to Ars Technica: Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, revealed today that it has established a revenue sharing agreement with Yahoo. As part of the deal, the Firefox Web browser that is shipped in Ubuntu will be configured to use Yahoo as the default search engine . . . The change will encompass both the search provider in Firefox's toolbar and the default start page. Users will still be able to quickly change the default search servi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search | Yahoo: Search Ads

Forbes covers AT&T's forthcoming local recommendations site Buzz.com. It aims to be a place where people can get and share recommendations about local businesses. Despite my headline and that of the Forbes article it's not going to be a reviews and social networking site like Yelp. Rather it may be more analogous to AlikeList or Q&A efforts such as Aardvark (or Yahoo Answers), in some ways. Here's how the Forbes article says it would work potentially: A user looking for a reliable moving company in Manhattan could simply poll his or her friends on the site. But since a more foc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

B2B marketers often preach about how B2B marketing is unique, and that advertising to businesses is very different from consumer focused advertising. And while there is truth in that argument, B2B marketers should be wary that leaning on their "uniqueness" too heavily can adversely impact their PPC campaigns. Granted, there are a number of ways in which B2B marketing differs from B2C – that’s a given. However, the "uniqueness issue" becomes a problem when it limits a campaign. In short, it can cause a PPC initiative to lack creativity, have diluted messaging, and hinder reach. Ultimatel [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search

While it may feel like 2010 is already whizzing by, now is a good time to take a step back and think about the big to-do list items for in-house search marketers this year. We’ve all got a list of million little search optimizations that need doing, but here are some larger tactics to think about for 2010. Address Bing If you aren’t running an active paid search account with Microsoft’s Advertising adCenter, 2010 is the time to start. The latest comScore figures (December 2009) report Bing has now reached over 10% in share, closing in on Yahoo’s 17%. If the two year trend of Bing [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | In House Search Marketing

Thomas Edison said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. As we begin a new decade in search, we face a parallel truism: great search marketing is 1% about getting the click and 99% about what you do next. Starting here in 2010, conversion optimization is the new SEO. To be sure, SEO is still important and still evolving. There are still plenty of companies that need to adopt its best practices. SEO isn't dead. But among the giants of SEO, there is a growing restlessness for the next mountain to conquer. That mountain rises beyond the SERP and beyond the click. SEOMoz' [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

From Search Engine Land: Yahoo’s Q4 2009 Revenues Down Only 4%, Search Ads Down 15% YoYYahoo announced their fourth quarter 2009 earnings just minutes ago. They reported better than expected earnings, with a decline in revenue of only 4%, year over year. Most of that decline came from a 15% drop in search ad revenue from Q4 2008 compared to Q4 2009. But Yahoo’s search ad dollars [...] Google Acting Like A Carrier, Being Treated Like One By The FCCGoogle, which to some eyes increasingly looks and acts like a VoIP/mobile carrier, is now effectively being treated like one b [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Yahoo announced their fourth quarter 2009 earnings just minutes ago. They reported better than expected earnings, with a decline in revenue of only 4%, year over year. Most of that decline came from a 15% drop in search ad revenue from Q4 2008 compared to Q4 2009. But Yahoo's search ad dollars increased from Q3 2009 to Q4 2009 by 4%. "The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to 2009, which was a transformative year for Yahoo!," said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. "We beat the high end of our revenue guidance, saw demand for premium display advertising improve significantly, [...]

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

Google, which to some eyes increasingly looks and acts like a VoIP/mobile carrier, is now effectively being treated like one by the US FCC. Today the regulatory body sent out requests for information to wireless carriers about the adequacy of their consumer disclosures associated with early termination penalties, which can be several hundred dollars in some cases. Here's the FCC letter in full: Today, Federal Communications Commission Consumer Bureau Chief Joel Gurin and Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman sent letters to AT&T, Google, Sprint Nextel, TMobile, and Verizon Wireless to gat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile

Last January, I wrote about finding The Value of a Facebook Fan, which effectively took the number of fans a brand has on Facebook, multiplied that by the average number of friends a Facebook user has to determine the number of impressions each brand would receive from each users network, and then applied an average CPM for display media to determine the value. I found it interesting this week to read What Celebrities Make For Twittvertising, which discussed the heavy payouts celebrities receive for tweeting about various products and brands. After reading this, I couldn’t help but think [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: Analysis | Twitter

Before I actually go into the different types of metrics you can set up to prove social medias value, I want to state the obvious. You should not only have analytics on every page of your site, but also make sure you add it to all your viral marketing campaigns in order to track the progress and overall success of the piece to evaluate how it relates to the rest of your website, your business and ultimately your bottom line. I love social media because it can positively affect almost all aspects of your business both directly and indirectly. Directly, it generates increased brand awareness, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Search & Social

Collecta has announced the availability of a new widget that allows any webmaster/blogger to show real-time search results on a web page. The widget builder is available now at widget.collecta.com, and includes several customization options including widget title, header background image, and even use of an external CSS file. It appears that the size of the widget can be adjusted by editing the code created by the widget builder. The builder creates a short piece of iframe-based code for embedding; WordPress bloggers can also use a plugin to add the widget to their blogs. You can see th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Real Time Search

Ben Edelman uncovered evidence that even if you disable the Google Toolbar, Google may still be tracking your web browsing behavior. Edelman documents how he disabled the Google Toolbar within the preference, then visited a web page and captured how Google was sending browsing data from the toolbar to Google's servers. Edelman first clicked the "X" icon at the top left of the Google Toolbar. Then he selected "Disable Google Toolbar only for this window," and clicked "okay." While in the same window, requested the Whitehouse.gov site. He noticed that his network monitor showing that th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Security | Google: Toolbar | Legal: Privacy | Legal: Security

Last week on Google's Q4 earnings call Google CEO Eric Schmidt seemed to "walk back" some of Google's prior strong statements about leaving China if it cannot operate in an unfiltered way there. In response to a financial analyst question he said the following: We have made a strong statement we wish to remain in China. We like the Chinese people. We like our Chinese employees. We like the business opportunities there and we would like to do that on somewhat different terms than we have. But we remain quite committed to being there. Several of Google's Android/Open Handset Alliance partners, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search