Apple

With Lala Closing, Google Music Search May Use Alternatives

With Apple-owned Lala closing in a month, what happens to Google Music Search, which has used Lala clips as part of its service? We’ll see, says Google — noting there are variety of alternatives out there? When you do a music-related search on Google, you often get special Music OneBox that appears at the top […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 30, 2010

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 Tests Phone Numbers In AdWords Ads A reader sent us a screen capture of a phone number being listed in the Google AdWords ad text. The phone number is not […]

Google Ads

Google Tests Phone Numbers In AdWords Ads

A reader sent us a screen capture of a phone number being listed in the Google AdWords ad text. The phone number is not related to one of Google’s click-to-call features and didn’t seem to be related to a browser extension. Google confirmed that this is indeed something they are testing. A Google spokesperson told […]

SEO

Yahoo’s Bartz Takes In $47 Million, Yang Gets One Dollar

paidContent reports on Yahoo’s executives salaries for 2009. Yahoo’s CEO, Carol Bartz earned $47 million in 2009, with a salary of $969,872 and $13 million in stock, almost $30 million in options, and some other earnings. Yahoo clarified that $42 million was not actually realized in the year and the amount Bartz will actually realize […]

Analytics & conversion

Conversion Optimization: Do This First, Part 2

In my last post, Conversion Optimization: Do This First we used our analytics package to identify the pages that were important in the conversion optimization process. This month we’re going to look at some tools and techniques which will help us identify which elements of these pages and processes are in need of improvement. By […]

Content

Usability Testing Tool Review: Usabilla

We’re seeing a boom period in the development of new tools for usability testing, which is a great trend that foretells better web experiences in the coming years. Today I’m going to look at Usabilla, which my friend Keri Morgret and I used on her site Strike Models, which sells products for building remote controlled […]

Google

Google’s Brand Gets Thumbs Up; Google Buzz Not So Much

Two conflicting looks at Google earlier today that we’ll pass along, starting with the good news for all inside the Googleplex. Google ranked number one on the Most Valuable Global Brand on the BrandZ Top 100 list, with a “brand value” of $114 billion. That’s a 14% increase over 2009 for Google. (Microsoft was fourth […]

Content

YouTube Surpasses 13 Billion Videos Viewed In March, comScore Says

There seems to be no end to our collective appetite for watching video online. According to the latest comScore numbers, more than 180 million U.S. internet users watched video online during March. That number is a 3.5% jump from the February video viewing audience. As you’d expect, the vast majority of all this happened on […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 29, 2010

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Last Call For Speakers For SMX Advanced We’ve got the agenda for SMX Advanced mostly finalized, still have a few openings. Interested in speaking? Here are the sessions where we’re still […]

Google Ads

Google’s Preferred AdWords API Pricing Model Equals Big Changes

Google announced Monday about upcoming changes to its AdWords API fees. This change has been a long-time waiting for many agencies that have often had a constant battle gaining respect from Google. The Google API platform is structured to allow developers to interact with AdWords. This permits agencies to create their own bidding and reporting […]

Ecommerce

Google: Now Recommending Brands For Searches

First Google rolled out recommendations for “pages similar to” earlier this week, now they also appear to be testing brand recommendations in response to certain queries. As I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable, some users are seeing “brands for” recommendations for searches such as [digital cameras], [cheap laptops], [label printers], [fishing rod] and others. […]

PPC

SEMPO Announces New Leadership

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization has announced the new slate of officers for the search marketing advocacy and education association. The officers for the coming year are: Chairman: Jeffrey Pruitt, CEO of Tallwave (re-elected chairman) President: Chris Boggs, Director, Search Engine Optimization, ROSETTA Vice president: Dave Fall, SVP Product and Operations, Clickable, Inc. Treasurer: […]

SEO

How To Use E-mail To Benefit SEO

Most of you reading this headline will probably think I’m crazy. We all know that search engines do not crawl or index e-mail. What we forget is that you do have the option to view a copy of the e-mail you receive in a browser. Usually this is reserved for e-mails that are sent from […]

SEO

Yahoo Search Update: 4/29/2010 Weather Report

Yahoo announced a new search index and algorithm update today. The update involves crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms changes over the next few days. Yahoo said, “you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days.” The last Yahoo update was on March […]

Platforms

Keyword List Building 101

After doing all of your research, you now have a pretty good crop of data to sift through. Remember, during the Research Phase, we collected every keyword we found during our various investigations. Check out this article for a comprehensive recap of Research Phase posts from this column regarding PPC research. Some of sources used […]

Google

Google Upgrades Mobile Image Search

Another day, another new and/or improved search tool from Google. Yesterday it was an improved mobile version of Place Pages, and today’s announcement is an upgrade to Google’s mobile image search for iPhones and Android devices. The changes include showing square thumbnails to maximize the number that appear after a search, swipe-based navigation (like iPhone […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 28, 2010

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 To Phase Out Old Keyword Tool In Exchange For New Version If you try to access Google’s external keyword tool, you may notice that you are sent to the new […]

Apple

Report: Apple Buys Mobile Search App Siri

Siri describes itself not as a “mobile search tool,” as I have in the headline, but rather as a “virtual personal assistant.” The company went public with its technology and iPhone app just a few months ago and now Apple has reportedly acquired it for an undisclosed sum that is likely more than $50 million […]

Facebook

Facebook Top Search Query At Google, Bing & Yahoo

Guess what search term was the top search term at Google, Bing and Yahoo for the month of March? It was Facebook! Hitwise released data for the four weeks ending March 27th saying that across the three major search engines, the top query is the term [facebook]. Of the search terms they tracked on Google, […]

Link building

Eric Ward Moves To AdGooroo

Few people have been building links professionally as long as Eric Ward. Long an independent, Eric is now joining AdGooroo as a “link evangelist.” From today’s press release: In his role as link evangelist, Ward will continue to improve Link Insight’s feature set and also interact with agencies and Link Insight subscribers. As he has […]

Content

Will New Changes To Google Places Help B2B Marketers?

Recently, Google enhanced several features of its Local Business Center and rebranded it Google Places. Among the new features is an ability to specify the regions a business serves. But will the new changes help B2B marketers serving a larger region get found? Most B2B company locations serve a large region, and it can be […]

SEO

Yahoo: Search Local Menus For “BLT” Or “Hamachi”

Yahoo is introducing a useful new capability in search and Yahoo Local: the ability to search for specific meals or menu items and find them at local bars and restaurants. Yahoo says it’s extracting unstructured data from restaurant menus online and making them searchable: By using Yahoo!’s search science to extract structured content – in […]

Google

Known Issue With Google Sitemaps Index Count

The Google Webmaster Central team posted a known issue report with a bug in the reporting engine within Google Webmaster Tools. The indexed URLs report is currently showing 0 pages indexed for most sites who have submitted sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools. The notice reads: The indexed URL counts for Sitemaps that you have submitted […]

Content

Microsoft Moves To Gain Licensing Royalties From Android

The clever folks in Redmond (aided by their attorneys) appear to have found a way to gain “licensing revenue” from Android phones. That’s right. Android the OS is “free,” and that was seen, early on, as a competitive advantage vs. Windows Mobile, which had exacted a price of up to $15 dollars per unit from […]

SEO

Be Careful When Your Affiliates Practice Link Cloaking

If you run an affiliate program you may have noticed that some of your affiliates use a practice known as “link cloaking.” Link cloaking is a method used to make a long affiliate URL link into a shorter and prettier one—often to the detriment of a brand. One of the most common forms of link […]

Google

Google’s Place Pages Go Mobile

Google has announced that its Place Pages now come in a mobile version. Users of Android-powered mobile devices and iPhone/iPod Touch users should be able to see the new mobile place pages now. They’re quite similar to what you’re used to seeing in Google Maps, with business/place information, a collection of reviews, images, and so […]

Link building

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 27, 2010

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How Do Americans Access Government Data? Search Engines. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has issued a new report about how Americans access government information. They found that 82% of […]

SEO

How Do Americans Access Government Data? Search Engines.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has issued a new report about how Americans access government information. They found that 82% of online adults in the United States have been to a government website within the last 12 months, and that 44% started at a major search engine. While social media has become increasingly […]

Content

Brazil: Google Is Making Us Look Bad

See this screenshot above? The Brazilian government doesn’t like it. Actually, they don’t like where it came from: Google’s Government Requests tool, which was just launched last week. The AP reports that Brazil’s government has contacted Google’s representatives in that country for clarification about the numbers shown above — numbers that Brazil says give the […]

Google SEO

Google Expands Rich Snippet Support Internationally

Nearly a year ago, Google announced that they had begun extracting metadata from microformat and RDFa markup on pages to display “rich snippets” in search results. They recently expanded this support to include HTML5 microdata. They now use this markup to enhance results for people profiles, reviews, videos, events, and recipes. Rich snippets provide additional information […]

Paid social

Facebook’s Future In Social News

As you probably know, Facebook has launched the newest version of their Facebook Platform last week at their third F8 conference. This new platform “puts people at the center of the web” and boosts personalization while making websites more social. On the Facebook blog, you can even see an example of how they are leveraging […]

Link building

Another Big Roundup of Link Tools

One of my previous columns here on Link Week showcased a number of tools commonly used in link building. Since that post, a large number of new tools and services have come online, so I thought an update would be helpful. Not all of the sites listed will be traditional linking tools, I’ve also included a number of […]

LinkedIn

How Europeans Engage With Social Media

You seemingly can’t live without social media these days, or at least, that is what many in our industry believe. Why? Because “everybody” is using it. Everybody is communicating, “everybody is a publisher.” But does that mean that every European is publishing through social media? Well, not exactly. Yes, Europeans are online en masse and […]

Google

Google Earth Added To Google Maps, No Download Needed

Google has started to combine its Earth and Maps products with the announcement that Earth view is available to all Google Maps users. To see 3D imagery in Google Maps, you’ll need the Google Earth plugin which anyone can now use; it’s been available to developers since 2008. There’s also a new “Earth” tab on […]

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