Today is the 71st birthday of the first showing of the movie, The Wizard of Oz. To celebrate the day, Google has a special doodle, aka logo, up for the significant date. The Doodle barely makes out the name Google, but it is clearly a representation of the movie. Here is a picture of the […]
Google Steps Up Acquisitions as Some Internal Projects Falter from Bloomberg reports Google has doubled their anticipated acquisition levels in 2010 and plans on keeping that pace going. In early January 2009 Google halted acquisitions, but in September 2009 said they would begin shopping for businesses to acquire again. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt said he […]
According to web metrics company comScore, 183 million U.S. internet users watched online video during the month of May, watching nearly 34 billion videos. Marketers hoping their video assets fall into that 34 billion can improve their odds by revisiting and updating their strategies to improve search visibility. Many marketers post their branded videos to […]
So, you’ve actually launched a PPC account! Woo-hoo! I think back to that great IBM commercial from a few years ago where an anxious boardroom launches the company website and the first sale appears on the monitor. They all cheer. Then another sale. And another. The boardroom is going wild. And then, the sales counter […]
Twitter usage is growing rapidly around the world, with most regions experiencing triple-digit growth between June 2009 and June 2010. That’s according to a new comScore report out today. Nearly 93 million Internet users worldwide visited Twitter.com in June, comScore says — that’s up 109% over the previous June. The growth was even more dramatic […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Twitter Preparing Official Tweet Buttons: Report Twitter is planning to launch an official “Tweet” button this week, according to Mashable. The button will come in three forms, according to internal Twitter […]
Twitter is planning to launch an official “Tweet” button this week, according to Mashable. The button will come in three forms, according to internal Twitter documents that Mashable has published. When asked to confirm Mashable’s report and the authenticity of the internal documents, a Twitter spokesperson would only tell us, “Stay tuned.” The button will […]
As part of the continuing series on expanding in-house search marketing efforts beyond traditional search, this week the focus is on mobile search marketing campaigns. Read on for a guide to getting started and mobile search marketing best practices. Mobile search share Some marketers argue that mobile queries still represent too small an overall volume […]
What do flashing blue lights, yellow tape, and the streets of New York have in common with your PPC campaign? Much like Jack McCoy in a suspenseful episode of Law & Order, B2B marketers need to thoroughly examine the evidence before accusing their keywords. Understanding the value Before determining the fate of a keyword – […]
Google’s recent announcement that search spend growth rates are slowing represents that search marketing as we all know (and love) it is changing. Advertisers still use search engines to market much the same way they did five years ago. But as consumer behavior expands to include searching through apps or communities or via non-PC devices, […]
Content marketing, in the words of Chris Brogan, can really “shake the tree.” Thriving at the intersection of SEO and social media, content marketing has become central to digital marketing strategy. Its objective is simple: create genuinely useful or entertaining content for many specific niches of your target audience—not to overtly promote your business, but […]
“Where’s the revolution,” I asked when Google launched its Nexus One phone earlier this year. There had been plenty of rumblings that Google would shake up how cell phones were sold in the US. Google’s Eric Schmidt once predicted we’d all be using free phones paid for by ads. But the Nexus One simply offered […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Hot On Sphinn: Using Excel For SEO, Paid Links, Link Building Strategies & More Every day, your peers in the search industry are reading and voting on articles that are shared […]
In the face of resistance from several European countries and agencies, Google says it will launch Street View in Germany before the end of the year. The road-based photo-mapping tool will be available in 20 of Germany’s biggest cities by November, the AP reports. One thing unique to this launch is that Google will let […]
Google’s internal debates over privacy and how to monetize the mountains of data it has about its users — including whether to monetize it at all — are detailed today by the Wall Street Journal. The lengthy article examines a confidential, seven-page “vision statement” that made the rounds at Google as far back as 2008. […]
In less than two months, Search Engine Land’s SMX East search engine marketing conference comes to New York City from Oct. 4-6. Involved with generating business for your company? You should be there, to ensure you’re keeping up with the burgeoning medium of search. SMX East isn’t just for search marketers, though there’s plenty for […]
When we think of social media, the image that comes to mind is remote workers scattered in coffee shops across the world, working for virtual corporations — the last place that comes to mind is probably a dairy farm in Ohio. Earlier this year, social platforms became the tool in a public relations war between […]
Most readers here are familiar with the concept of search engine “signals”, i.e., things the bots look for and count, and algorithm’s use and score, in order produce the search results page. While all of us agree such signals exist, this doesn’t mean we all agree what those signals are and to what degree any […]
I’ve spent the last decade in the search optimization business as a principal, entrepreneur, expert and executive—building the Netconcepts search business, selling the company to Covario, and the past 7 months leading the integration of these businesses into a powerful new entity. I came into this business knowing very little about SEO. I have learned […]
The Google AdWords Blog announced they are taking the new keyword tool out of beta. The “new” keyword tool has been in beta since September 2009 and we ultimately knew Google would phase out the old keyword tool in exchange for this new one. Now we know when. Google said the old keyword tool, which […]
I’m a pretty idealistic person. I’ve been known to put unicorns and rainbows in my presentations. And I like to sit back and fantasize about various pie-in-the-sky scenarios. In one such (recurring) “blue sky” daydream, I head to the office on my bike under dawn’s pink glow. As I enter the office, the sun is […]
South Korea Police Raid Google Office from the New York Times reports South Korea has started a formal investigation against Google over the Street View privacy topic that has been haunting Google for the past few months. Google’s South Korea offices were raided today by the South Korean police. Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) issued […]
Where I live and what language I speak are not necessarily the same thing. And because today, I'm connecting in Vienna doesn't mean that I want German content. And please dear website owner, remember that borders are artificial - my world centers around me not around a political line on a map. Center on me!
A grad student and his professor have developed software that eliminates (some) people from Google Street View images. And that could be a boon to Google’s ongoing battles over Street View and privacy. Arturo Flores, a computer science grad student at UC San Diego, and Serge Belongie, his professor, have published their findings (1.7mb PDF) […]
As Twitter continues to take steps to execute on its business plan, the company has announced two important hires today: Dan Coughlin as Director of Sales for the Eastern Region, and Amanda Levy as Director of Sales for the Western Region. Coughlin comes to Twitter from Facebook, where he worked for four years and was […]
Usablenet is one of the most popular mobile web platforms available, because they provide a turnkey solution for businesses that are looking to take advantage of mobile web traffic. According to their web site, they have built mobile solutions for over 300 companies, many of which are Fortune 100 companies like Dell, Delta Air, Walgreens […]
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 AdSense Updates Ad Layouts The Google AdSense blog announced they have updated the layout of some AdSense units. The main changes were to make the ads “more space-efficient and visually […]
The Google AdSense blog announced they have updated the layout of some AdSense units. The main changes were to make the ads “more space-efficient and visually pleasing,” said Google. Specifically: Leaderboard (728×90): the title, description, and URL are now arranged in rows instead of columns (except in the case when only one ad is showing) […]
Google and Verizon have announced that they’ll be hosting a conference call today at 10:30 AM Pacific Time. Topic? Not said, but probably related to the rumor last week that the two companies have cut a deal to ensure Google’s content has preferential treatment in Verizon’s network, something that made many wonder if Google’s abandoned […]
Google has added a new report to the Google Webmaster Tools Labs section. The new report is named “Video Sitemaps” and it should include errors specific to Video Sitemaps files. Google’s Matt Cutts has said at SMX Advanced not once and but twice that video sitemaps is one, of many, areas Google’s search quality team […]
Yahoo has shared a sneak preview of a new content module that some users will see below individual stories on Yahoo News. The module shows related Yahoo content — news articles, photos, and videos — and also includes a handful of related search query links. The module is currently only being shown to a “fraction” […]
Here’s a look at some fundamental local search features/tools that seem obvious, and that should be fully functional—but don’t exist, or don’t work. At least I think they don’t exist yet. Feel free to prove me wrong in comments, tweets, Molotov cocktails, etc.
In my last article on mobile PPC called Getting Started with Mobile Paid Search Advertising, I covered some basic tips related to mobile paid search marketing. In this article, I’ll build on these and cover some strategies related to mobile PPC advertising. With mobile PPC advertising, opportunities are slightly more limited so it’s even more […]
Demand Media has filed for an IPO. The company, known as a content farm to some, produces much of its content on sites like eHow and others in direct response to what it determines people are searching for on the web. Its filing shed new light on how much it depends on SEO and Google, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Where Is Search Going? Surf Canyon’s Mark Cramer Some time ago, a gentleman by the name of Mark Cramer emailed me wanting to talk about the future of search. It was […]
Some time ago, a gentleman by the name of Mark Cramer emailed me wanting to talk about the future of search. It was probably precipitated by the Search:2010 whitepaper we produced in 2007, where I talked to several search and UX notables, including Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Marissa Mayer, Jakob Nielsen and others. Alas, Mark […]
Much like search marketers may salivate over some new piece of inside SEO info that Matt Cutts (or someone else at Google) shares, some book lovers seem to be fairly excited over an Inside Google Books blog post yesterday that answers the question, How many books are there in the world? The answer: 129,864,880 books. […]
Hunch has announced what it calls a “streamlined and simplified” home page, but the changes really reflect a slight change in focus, too. When the site launched last year, we referred to Hunch as a “personal decision maker;” Hunch itself used the term “decision engine.” The new home page, though, presents a change of emphasis; […]
Google lost a procedural ruling to prevent an age discrimination lawsuit from going to trial yesterday when the California Supreme Court upheld an appellate court ruling that the facts of Reid vs. Google justified a trial on the merits. The outcome was reported in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. As part of the case, […]
Google Operating System posted that the Google Dictionary has switched content providers. Google used Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary in the past but today they are now using Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. What is the difference? Well, here are two words with different explanations: Collins: “If you call someone a swot, you […]