There's nothing that jaded and weary conference goers love more than to see some "red meat" conflict between panelists during a session. And that's what TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld repeatedly tried to elicit in an on-stage interview of Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and Google's John Hanke during the Social Currency CrunchUp event yesterday in Palo Alto California. Schonfeld baited Stoppelman and Hanke a number of times with questions about the aborted Google acquisition of Yelp, Apple CEO Steve Jobs' remark that "Search is not where it’s at [in mobile]," as well as Google's crawling and us [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Location / Checkin Services | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Top News | Yelp

Twitter is launching a new tool called "Suggestions for You" in the hopes of making it easier for users to find the right accounts to follow. The tool is rolling out today; I don't have it on my main @mattmcgee account, but it does appear on the home page of my @atu2 account. (atu2.com is my long-running hobby site about U2.) When logged in, a mini-version of "Suggestions for You" shows in the upper right of the Twitter home page. Clicking the "view all" link leads to a new tab/page in the Find People area, which (for unknown reasons) recommends different users than on Twitter.com. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Top News | Twitter

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Study Calls Google ‘King Of Malware’Google has twice as much malware in its search results as Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter combined. That’s one of the findings in the Barracuda Labs 2010 Midyear Security Report, which will be presented tomorrow at the DEFCON 18 hacking conference tomorrow in Las Vegas. Barracuda Labs says it studied the four search engines for about two [...] MSFT Will Challenge Google-Yahoo Japan DealIn a move that sh [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Google has twice as much malware in its search results as Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter combined. That's one of the findings in the Barracuda Labs 2010 Midyear Security Report, which will be presented tomorrow at the DEFCON 18 hacking conference tomorrow in Las Vegas. Barracuda Labs says it studied the four search engines for about two months and reviewed more than 25,000 trending topics and almost 5.5 million search results. The results aren't good for Google: Overall, Google takes the crown for malware distribution – turning up more than twice the amount of malware as Bing, Twitter and Ya [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Security | Google: Trends | Google: Web Search | SEO: Spamming

In a move that should surprise no one, Microsoft says it will try to block the recently announced Google-Yahoo Japan partnership. In our story from Tuesday, a Microsoft senior VP spoke out strongly against the partnership. Now, Silican Alley Insider received confirmation last night that the company will take steps to challenge it formally. "We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google's deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal," says a Microsoft rep. Also reported in o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Outside US | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Outside US | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search

Search Marketing Now hosts a free webcast on Tuesday that will include results from a new comScore research study on how consumers shop online. The study focused on consumer behavior in search and buying, with a specific look at what happens when searchers have landed within a retail site. How do they shop within the online retail environment, and what influences the decision to buy? Is premium positioning important? By better understanding how consumers act within an online store, marketers can learn how to better engage and convert them into buying customers. "How to Market Online Where R [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SMX & DMD Alerts

As we know with the new Google Image redesign that Google would be pushing image ad formats for image search. Yesterday, I was doing a search for [weeds] and I spotted an image ad from Google encouraging advertisers to try out Google Image AdWords. I don't believe I ever saw an image ad from Google, promoting image ads, so I figured I document what the ad looked like. Here is a picture: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Images

Google previously announced (at its I/O developer conference) the creation of a Places API as part of the Google Maps API. That Places API is now open for business and being made available to third party developers. Booyah's MyTown "check-in" app is one that has already been using it. In short all the information and data that Google has about a place, say Gramercy Tavern in New York, will become available to developers through the API. This is exciting to many and offers the promise of a kind of open or "free" database of places (an LBS meme of late), though some might prefer a "neutral" d [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: AdSense | Google: APIs | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile

Have you ever heard the phrase search engine optimization (SEO) architecture? At first glance, it might seem like a good idea…but maybe not. Learn about 2 critical usability tests that help SEO professionals not make critical architecture errors.

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Search & Usability

The world's most popular online trust mark, the VeriSign seal has helped web sites increase transactions an average of 24%. To maximize incoming traffic, the Trust Seal is displayed next to your search result in leading search engines and prevents your site from being blacklisted. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

That's one of the big questions people are asking after yesterday's launch of Facebook Questions. While many have assumed the answer would be "yes," a Facebook spokesperson tells us that assumption is wrong. Currently, search engines cannot access questions and answers through our Questions product. That may be something we consider for the future but have no current plans to allow it. Facebook is blocking search engines by only showing Questions to logged-in users. Sure enough, a site:facebook.com/questions/ search on Google shows only a handful of results, none of which are actuall [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Facebook | Search Engines: Answer Search Engines | Search Engines: Help Engines | SEO: Blocking Spiders | Top News | Yahoo: Answers

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Street Slide: Microsoft’s Next Killer Maps App?At the SIGGRAPH 2010 event this week in Los Angeles, Microsoft researchers showed off a next-generation tool for browsing street-level imagery. It’s called Street Slide, and it combines the up close realism of, say, Google Street View or Bing’s similarly named Streetside product, with “strip” panoramas that offer a wider perspective of a city block [...] A Market Without Goo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

At the SIGGRAPH 2010 event this week in Los Angeles, Microsoft researchers showed off a next-generation tool for browsing street-level imagery. It's called Street Slide, and it combines the up close realism of, say, Google Street View or Bing's similarly named Streetside product, with "strip" panoramas that offer a wider perspective of a city block or a long street. Street Slide provides a seamless transition between the two types of imagery and appears to offer some noticeable improvements over the current state of street imagery applications: the ability to "flip" through a series of [...]

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

Returns for online investments are still so much greater than the offline world that it is easy to think that the money is somehow less real, or that there is greater risk to it. That perhaps we should diversify out of the web to help make our businesses less risky. Sure, the shift of a few rankings can kill some businesses. But most websites are not so reliant on any individual keyword that their business lives or dies by it. And when algorithm updates happen sometimes one type of page on your site will drop while another type of page goes up - with the net effect being a wash. For stron [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO

At one time, IAC's CEO Barry Diller thought his Ask.com search engine could take on Google. But Diller effectively threw in the towel yesterday on an investors call. Diller downplayed Ask.com's role in the over IAC company but said he ultimately failed at thinking Ask.com can compete with Google. Diller said: But one thing I want to make clear to investors is that Ask itself is not a large segment of the company. I had hoped it would become one, but I was wrong about that. I was wrong about the competitive landscape with Google. And a lot of our new features that Ask has been sporting [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues | Channel: Industry

At Google I/O Google VP Vic Gundotra and his co-presenters showcased a dizzying array of announcements and products to come. Included among them was Google's iTunes competitor, soon to come to market, and well as a range of new richer mobile ad formats. Those new mobile ad formats have been gradually rolling out. This morning Google is bringing out another one, called expandable map ads. I spoke yesterday with Surojit Chatterjee, Senior Product Manager, Mobile Ads about the new format. The unit will show the consumer a nearby location for the advertiser's business. It will also allow use [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: AdSense | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile

Let's be cautious about running too far with these numbers, but Royal Pingdom (using data from StatCounter) has reported/estimated Google's global mobile search market share to be almost 100% Google is clearly dominant in mobile search across smartphones (and feature phones). However these numbers may not be completely accurate. For example, the chart above shows PC and mobile search market share according to StatCounter. But while the general PC search share numbers may reflect selected markets (e.g., UK) they're not accurate for the US and a number of other places around the world. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search | Top News

Their objectives may be different but both Google and the "investment arm of the CIA" are funding the same startup: Recorded Future. According to a piece in Wired both In-Q-Tel (the CIA investment firm) and Google will have a seat on the company's board. This is reportedly the first time the government and Google have invested in the same company, though as Wired points out both have done business with the same companies in the past (e.g., Keyhole, which became Google Earth). Recorded Future mines public data online and other available data sources and tries to identify patterns that are [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Partnerships | Google: Web Search

Before the revamped Google Image Search design went live 9 days ago, there was a clear and quick way to report offensive images to Google. In fact, Google released the report offensive image feature just about a year ago, due to complaints. Now, that feature is no longer found in the new design. Here is a picture of the old way to report offensive images in Google Image Search: As you can see now, that "report offensive image" link is gone: I asked Google about this and they made it sound like they simply forgot to put it in the new design. They didn't say that, instead the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Since the beginning of the year, many of us have predicted that mobile will be the top driving force behind local search growth in 2010. A rapidly-increasing number of smartphone users — combined with faster mobile technology, better search offerings, and higher advertiser engagement  — suggests that consumers will be more likely than ever to begin using their phones as local search tools. New research released today provides some support to that argument, showing that the number of mobile subscribers turning to their devices to find local businesses is growing by double digit percenta [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Features: General | Local Search