Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Is SEO Integrated Into Your Localization Process?For many, the question posed in the title of this post seems silly, often resulting in either a confused expression, or a "how dare you ask that question" look from localization managers. Yet over the past few weeks I have spoken to a number of localization and SEO managers at Fortune 500 companies who [...] A Letter To Facebook From The Rest Of The WorldDear Facebook, A couple of weeks ago you launc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

For many, the question posed in the title of this post seems silly, often resulting in either a confused expression, or a "how dare you ask that question" look from localization managers. Yet over the past few weeks I have spoken to a number of localization and SEO managers at Fortune 500 companies who still could not answer that question. I recently had the localization manger tell me, "Well of course I understand SEO and we go to great lengths to ensure all the keywords are translated and put into the meta keywords tag!" He was shocked when I told him the engines have ignored that tag fo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Multinational Search

Dear Facebook, A couple of weeks ago you launched your new location service, Places. We all think it's great and are really excited that you're opening up the world of location to a whole new audience. We can't wait to start finding new and exciting ways of using Places to connect consumers and brands. But we can't. The thing is that you've dangled this shiny new toy in front of us, but only our American friends get to play with it. And you've done this before, with lots of your other new launches, as have your friends Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Twitter, Apple and even MySpace. And we'd [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Search & Social

The bounce rate of a site is the percentage of users who leave without going to another page on your site before the analytics session times out, with the length of a session being dependent upon your specific analytics package (I've heard that 30 minutes is the average.) Usually listed as Bounce Rate in your analytics package, you can find the bounce rates for specific pages and for the overall site. A lower bounce rate is usually a good sign, as it indicates that the user likes the site enough in order to continue looking around. Bounce rate can be a great way to determine how sticky your [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building | Link Building: General | Link Week

Yahoo announced their Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers can now begin the transition process from Yahoo Search Marketing to Microsoft adCenter. This is the first step of the paid search transition from Yahoo Search ads to Microsoft Bing search ads. Last week, Yahoo's organic transition to Microsoft Bing was complete. This week, Yahoo and Microsoft are starting the paid search transition. That means it is very likely that paid search at Yahoo in the US and Canada will be fully powered by Microsoft adCenter by the end of October. The transition process is three steps: 1) Prepare you [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Partnerships | Top News | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search Ads

Google this evening has launched what it calls "priority inbox" for Gmail. It uses a variety of algorithmic and machine learning techniques to automatically capture and organize "important" emails and de-emphasize other email. It's like a spam filter in reverse: Gmail's servers look at several types of information to identify the email that's important to you, including who you email and chat with most, how often you email with these people, and which keywords appear frequently in the emails you read. If Priority Inbox makes a mistake, you can use the buttons to correctly mark a convers [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Gmail | Top News

If you're running a large site that sells a lot of products, you've probably had to come up with a plan to deal with pagination: showing products over several pages of otherwise similar content. That was the topic of an interesting discussion in the Google Webmaster Help forums recently, and it also reached the Sphinn home page. Keeping your Wordpress installation secure also went hot last week on Sphinn, as did an article about the prevalence of search spam and the battle between search engines and spammers. This is the latest in a weekly look at the stories that were "hot" on Sphinn in t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sphinn

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 Mobile App Comes To Verizon Android HandsetsMicrosoft previously said there was going to be an Android version of Bing soon, following its successful iPhone app. Today there is — for Verizon Android handsets only however. It was announced on the Bing Community Blog. I’m sure a more general Bing-Android app will be out in the not to distant future. Although it’s overshadowed by [...] Google & AP Extend Long-Term Content D [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Microsoft previously said there was going to be an Android version of Bing soon, following its successful iPhone app. Today there is -- for Verizon Android handsets only however. It was announced on the Bing Community Blog. I'm sure a more general Bing-Android app will be out in the not to distant future. Although it's overshadowed by the Verizon-Google relationship, Verizon has a major "default search" deal with the carrier (Android was exempted). However that relationship has apparently not yielded much search-volume fruit if recent StatCounter data is to be believed. Those data put Go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Mobile

After months of being without a long-term content deal, Google and the Associated Press have finally renewed their vows. Google will continue to host AP stories on Google News and have access to AP's news feeds without fear that the AP will make legal claims against the company. From the announcement: We've extended our existing licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News. We look forward to future collaborations, including on ways Google and AP can work together to create a better user experience and new revenue o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Google: News | Top News

Last week Google acquired Angstro. The site has been described as a way to discover and organize information about individuals across various professional networks. Here's how Angstro describes itself: Ångströ represents the ability to hone in on highly focused, relevant news across professional networks. Where search engines such as Google and other news aggregator services have immense infrastructures that return a huge array of random results, Ångströ analyses a wide breadth of information from multiple data sources to deliver very few, yet very intelligent results. The pundit consens [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Google: General | Google: Gmail | Google: Groups | Google: iGoogle | Google: Mobile | Google: Music | Google: OpenSocial | Google: Orkut | Google: Other | Google: Product Search | Google: Social Search

Google plans pay-per-view films from the Financial Times reports Google is in talks with several major Hollywood film companies to offer a pay-per-view service of their films. Reports say that the streaming movie service from YouTube will bring these movies to online consumers at about $5 per movie. The movies would not download to the user's computer, but rather stream as they watch it. They will also become available typically around the same time the movie comes out on DVD and other competing services such as Apple's iTunes store and Amazon.com. The Financial Times says Google hope [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: YouTube & Video

Google has a special logo on many of the Google properties, not Google U.S., for Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley is well known for novel, Frankenstein. The Google Doodle is a gothic theme, which conveys Mary Shelley's work as a writer. She started writing Frankenstein at the age of 18, completed it a year later on May 1817 and it was published on January 1, 1818. Here is the dark and scary Google Doodle for Mary Shelley's 213th birthday: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos

Will this year be the year when online holiday sales return to double digit growth? Or will the holidays once again deliver lackluster growth in the low single digits for online advertisers? While predicting how much consumers will buy may be difficult, predicting how they will likely behave is not. We recently conducted a study of paid search behavior patterns for holiday shoppers in the 2009 season. The results of this study provided some interesting insights that can be applied to the 2010 season. We looked at month-over-month changes in key metrics for paid search campaigns from Nov [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Industrial Strength

In my last Paid Search column I wrote about six common business fallacies that lead paid search managers to spend time unproductively. Unproductive work is costly in that someone internally or externally is paid to do work that adds no value, and that same person is prevented from doing work that is valuable. Prioritizing tasks is difficult in the abstract: tasks that can generate the most impact for one account will be less important for another. Triage experience dictates that almost any weakness taken to an extreme can be devastating. Lousy, un-targeted, un-compelling ad copy can hur [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Paid Search

Early bird rates for Search Marketing Expo – SMX East end soon. Save up to $300 on your All Access ticket by registering now! Why should you join us October 4-6 in New York City? More than 100 of the world’s most knowledgeable speakers will present at SMX East. They’re selected based on ability AND willingness to share the tactics and strategies that made them successful. See who's speaking. With 60+ sessions, you’ll find exceptional content on SEO, PPC, social media marketing and more. You’ll be a more effective, innovative and inspired internet marketer by attending SMX East. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | SMX & DMD Alerts | Top News

If you a) believe in the power of search—as a technology, as a consumer experience and as a business model, and b) believe in the economic promise of the "local" opportunity, then you need to commit to a simple axiom: the ultimate destiny of a local search is a phone call. Two relatively new macro trends have converged on the phone. First, as everyone’s data will attest, web searches are increasingly local in nature, focusing on discovery of products and services offered in the physical world. The second is the migration of a very large small and medium business marketing spend from ant [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Local Search

We're delighted to announce that Yelp Chief Operating Officer Geoff Donaker will be in the spotlight for SMX East's second day keynote on Tuesday, October 5th. Combining local search with customer reviews, special offers and a healthy dose of social interaction, Yelp is an indispensable resource for local businesses and those who enjoy "getting out and about" alike. In this keynote conversation with Search Engine Land executive editor Chris Sherman, Donaker will discuss the incredible exposure Yelp can offer to local businesses via its 30 million monthly visitors, handling online reputation ma [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX

Google has added a new filter to its blog search option that makes it easier to find blogs themselves, not just individual blog posts. The filter is part of Google.com search, not Google's specific Blog Search service at blogsearch.google.com. The filter appears in the left-side menu. When you choose the Blogs option after your search, it defaults to showing individual posts. But below that is the filter to see posts or home pages. While Google's full Blog Search site doesn't have this filter, it does list blog home pages at the top of the search results. And, as you can see, the blo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Blog Search | Google: Search Customization | Google: Web Search | Top News

Google has launched a new videoblog series that will highlight "some of the hottest searches" on Google's U.S. search engine. It's called The Google Beat, and the first weekly video was published this morning. Here's how Google explains it: Using data from Google Trends, Google Insights for Search and some additional tools, the Google Beat will give you a snapshot of some of the topics that prompted people to turn to the web over the past week. A weekly video is small potatoes to what Yahoo's been doing for a long time now. Its Yahoo Buzz Blog posts several articles per day looking at da [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Trends | Google: Web Search