Mar 31, 2010 at 5:58pm 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 Google Stops Censoring In China, Hopes Using New Domain Meets Legal Requirements Google [...]

SearchWeek: March 22, 2010

Mar 31, 2010 at 5:55pm 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 Google, Yahoo & Portals Are Top Online News Sources: Study Cutts: Redirects Don't Pass [...]

SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 31, 2010

Mar 31, 2010 at 5:01pm ET by Matt McGee

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Maps Launches Foursquare Everywhere, World Tour & Oodle Rental AppsBing Maps is keeping busy at the Where 2.0 conference today, making several announcements and product rollouts. Here’s a rundown of those announcements, and links to the Bing Maps blog posts will be at the end. First up is the Bing Maps World Tour, which shows all of the imagery updates that Bing Maps has pushed [...] Google Launches Lab For New Advertising ProductsGoogl [...]

Bing Maps Launches Foursquare Everywhere, World Tour & Oodle Rental Apps

Mar 31, 2010 at 2:53pm ET by Matt McGee

Bing Maps is keeping busy at the Where 2.0 conference today, making several announcements and product rollouts. Here's a rundown of those announcements, and links to the Bing Maps blog posts will be at the end. First up is the Bing Maps World Tour, which shows all of the imagery updates that Bing Maps has pushed out going back to August 2009. At the same time, Bing Maps says it's just added two new imagery updates totaling more than 6.2 million square kilometers. (Or, as Wolfram Alpha would tell you, about 2.4 million square miles.) Second is news that Bing Maps has added a application c [...]

Related Topics: Foursquare | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Top News

Google Launches Lab For New Advertising Products

Mar 31, 2010 at 2:25pm ET by Matt McGee

Google has announced a new lab-type area called Google Ad Innovations, which is where it'll "show you some of our latest ideas around advertising technologies and get your feedback." Think of it as Google Labs for Ads. There are currently 10 "innovations" listed, and each one has its own landing page with additional information, a demo video, and an invite to give Google feedback. Google says it'll regularly add new tools to the site. [...]

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | Google: Labs

Twitter: How Our New ‘Top Tweets’ Works

Mar 31, 2010 at 2:07pm ET by Matt McGee

As Twitter continues to roll out its new home page, more users -- new and old -- are being exposed to the new "Top Tweets" feature. As we said yesterday, Top Tweets shows a collection of recent messages that scroll every couple seconds. That's what it does, but the bigger question is, How does it work? For the answer to that question, we went to Twitter's Chief Scientist, Abdur Chowdhury, who explained that there's no wizard behind the scenes choosing which tweets to show on the new home page. It's all algorithmic. "Top Tweets is a new algorithm we developed that finds tweets that are [...]

Yahoo Shutters Its Yahoo Publisher Network

Mar 31, 2010 at 1:13pm ET by Matt McGee

In a sign of continued trimming at Yahoo, the company has announced that it's closing the Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) -- Yahoo's counterpart to Google's Adsense -- as of April 30. YPN was launched about five years ago, but never formally advanced beyond the "beta" label. A Yahoo spokesperson gave us this statement confirming YPN's closure: Yahoo! continuously evaluates and prioritizes our products and services, in alignment with business goals and our continued commitment to deliver the best consumer and advertiser experiences. After conducting an extensive review of the Yahoo! Publisher [...]

Feeding The Content Marketing Dragon

Mar 31, 2010 at 8:16am ET by Galen DeYoung

A dragon is a good thing to have. Everyone knows dragons have magical powers. They are wise, although sometimes also vain. Dragons can be fierce protectors, too. The magic of the content marketing dragon is lead generation, lead nurturing, and SEO (especially if your dragon has a long tail.) But if you’re going to own a dragon, you have to feed it. Otherwise, no more fire. No more magic. Here are a few tips on the proper care and feeding of your dragon: Appoint a dragon keeper This is the chief content officer. This person keeps the dragon in line. The keeper needs to be strong, ins [...]

“Not Done Yet” – A Tale Of 2 Years, 3 Landing Pages & 6X Conversion Improvement

Mar 31, 2010 at 7:00am ET by Sandra Niehaus

Quick question: how much conversion improvement is enough? Would hitting your industry’s average conversion rate convince you to rest on your laurels? If you doubled your old performance, would you stop there? Hopefully not. This case study is an example of why you should never consider your conversion work done, even after impressive gains. Case Study Summary Client: Ifbyphone, Inc., a provider of automated telephone applications. Overall project goal: Increase the quantity and quality of their phone-call and click-to-call leads. Challenges: Complex offering Poor prior e [...]

A Novel Idea: Branding Your Search Ads With Your Brand Name

Mar 31, 2010 at 6:00am ET by Lori Weiman

When a consumer does a search for your brand, shouldn’t you be branding? It may sound like an obvious question, but you might be surprised how many brand owners are squandering an incredibly valuable opportunity to connect with their customers. Wikipedia defines “brand” as a name, sign, symbol, slogan or anything that is used to identify and distinguish a specific product, service, or business. But a brand is much more than that. A brand is more aptly defined by its intangible qualities: a brand is a promise, a feeling, the total perception in your mind. And so it follows that b [...]

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Mar 30, 2010 at 8:20pm ET by Search Engine Land

Instantly see how well your website's pages are optimized. The free Yield SEO Analyzer is a great place to start. It thoroughly evaluates your pages and provides easy-to-understand advice about what you can do to rank higher in search results pages. It's a great first step toward a better optimized website. Get started today! [...]

Google Enables Mobile AdWords Access On Smartphones

Mar 30, 2010 at 7:53pm ET by Greg Sterling

Google has now enabled access to the AdWords dashboard and other features for smartphone users. It's configurable and provides on-the-go access to account data and stats. The new mobile interface is currently available for iPhone, Android and Palm/WebOS users. You can access AdWords for Mobile by visiting http://adwords.google.com/dashboard/Dashboard on your mobile browser. There's more discussion, including advice on how to configure alerts and other features for mobile on Inside AdWords. [...]

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | Google: Mobile

SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 30, 2010

Mar 30, 2010 at 5:06pm ET by Matt McGee

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 Execs Still At $1/Year, But Company Cuts Other PerksGoogle’s trio of top leaders — co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, plus CEO Eric Schmidt — continued to receive $1 salaries in 2009, but it was a series of other cutbacks that helped the company earn $6.5 billion in profit last year. The AP reports that some of those cutbacks directly impacted Schmidt’s overall compensation: [...] Twitter’s New Home Page Focuse [...]

Google Execs Still At $1/Year, But Company Cuts Other Perks

Mar 30, 2010 at 4:34pm ET by Matt McGee

Google's trio of top leaders -- co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, plus CEO Eric Schmidt -- continued to receive $1 salaries in 2009, but it was a series of other cutbacks that helped the company earn $6.5 billion in profit last year. The AP reports that some of those cutbacks directly impacted Schmidt's overall compensation: Schmidt's 2009 package totaled $245,322, down from $508,764 in 2008, according to documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The sharp decrease reflected lower bills for protecting Schmidt and flying his personal guests on jets chart [...]

Related Topics: Google: Business Issues | Google: Employees

Twitter’s New Home Page Focuses On Content, Users

Mar 30, 2010 at 4:15pm ET by Matt McGee

Twitter is testing a new home page design that introduces new users to a wider view of the site's functionality by focusing on specific content and users rather than the more nebulous idea of trending keywords and hashtags. I can't get the new home page to load, so here's a look at the screenshot Twitter shared on its blog post: Twitter's previous home page overhaul happened last summer when it emphasized search and hot topics, both of which rely to some degree on users knowing more about Twitter than many newcomers do. The new home page introduces 20 Twitter members under a "See who's [...]

SMX Advanced Agenda Up – Join Us in Seattle June 8-9

Mar 30, 2010 at 2:24pm ET by Search Engine Land

The Search Marketing Expo - SMX Advanced Seattle agenda is now posted! Check out the agenda-at-a-glance. Fluent in search marketing? SMX Advanced Seattle is for you, with 6 tracks of hard core SEM sessions for experienced search marketers only. This year’s agenda packed with expert-level tips to drive traffic and increase conversions using SEO, paid search, social media marketing and vertical search tactics. Session topics include: SEO for Google Vs. Bing: How Different Are They? How’s Your QSO? Quality Score Optimization For Pros Twitter, Real Time Search & Real Time SEO Pu [...]

Related Topics: SEM Industry: Conferences | SMX & SMN Alerts | Top News

Google, Microsoft, ACLU & Others Push For “Digital Due Process” – No Personal Data Without A Warrant

Mar 30, 2010 at 12:46pm ET by Greg Sterling

A broad coalition of interest groups, non-profits and private companies, including Microsoft, Google, AOL, the ACLU, EFF and others, have come together to set forth four principles that would update Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). That statute was enacted in 1986 and, in the words of Jim Dempsey, Vice President for Public Policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, hasn't kept pace with technology and the way that people use the internet today. The point was made repeatedly that the "internet didn't even really exist" in 1986. The principles aim to upgrade and enhance p [...]

Related Topics: Legal: General | Legal: Privacy | Legal: Security | Top News

What You Can Learn About Social Media from Woot.com

Mar 30, 2010 at 12:32pm ET by Greg Finn

Woot.com redefined deals on the web and created a huge social presence along the way. The Woot blueprint is a great example of how to not only move merchandise but also how to breed raving fans across a variety of mediums. In case you have been living under a rock and haven’t heard of Woot, they brought the “deal a day” model to its current height of popularity. Not only does Woot sell one item at a low price each day, but they also engage their customers with creative copywriting, blogging, contests and social network updates as well as any other site today. Here is a breakdown of so [...]

Seven Deadly Link Sins

Mar 30, 2010 at 11:28am ET by Debra Mastaler

If you find yourself in link hell it might be because... 1. You accepted information from the herd. The SEO/SEM industry is becoming cluttered with people trying to make a name for themselves by regurgitating information. Don't take anything as fact. Test, test and test some more before drawing conclusions or changing how you build links. If a tactic sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Keep an eye on the official search engine webmaster blogs and video channels. Of the four major engines, Bing and Google do the best job blogging information SEO's can use in their marketi [...]

Sency Wants To Keep Real-Time Search Simple

Mar 30, 2010 at 8:19am ET by Matt McGee

Evan Britton attended the '140' Twitter conference in Los Angeles last fall, went home and hired a programmer via Craigslist, and days later had launched a real-time search engine called Sency. That's only possible when you keep things simple, and simplicity is what Britton hopes will distinguish Sency in the growing field of real-time search engines. "We're not trying to build a site for the most tech-savvy individuals," Britton says. "We're going after the mom-and-pop searchers." To be sure, Sency is simple enough for moms, pops, and pretty much anyone to understand. Do a search and th [...]

Related Topics: Search Engines: Real Time Search

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