Google Analytics

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 31, 2011

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 Executive Believed Missing After Egypt Protests There are several reports that a Google executive based in the Middle East is missing after taking part in the protests in Egypt last […]

Google

Google Executive Believed Missing After Egypt Protests

There are several reports that a Google executive based in the Middle East is missing after taking part in the protests in Egypt last week. Wael Ghonim, whose LinkedIn profile says he’s Google’s Head of Marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, tweeted on January 24th that he planned to take part in the […]

Google

Review Sites’ Rancor Rises With Prominence of Google Place Pages

Friends or enemies? Partners or competitors? Google’s relationship with review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp is as complicated as ever, and the disputes are likely to increase as the search giant pursues mobile and local ambitions that center around its controversial Place pages. The rancor stems from the way Google aggregates content from various review […]

Local

Advanced Development Should Be The Future For Yellow Pages

There’s a lot of discouraging news for the yellow pages industry these days. A combo of unhappy financial numbers mixed with reorganization and layoffs has demoralized many in the industry. Is it “game over” for yellow pages companies? Not necessarily. Not if leadership works on future strategy. A few years ago, I warned the industry […]

PPC

6 Tactics That May Put You At Risk Of Being Banned From AdWords

Every few months, there is an outcry from advertisers because they received the dreaded notification email from Google – their accounts were banned. Some accounts eventually get reinstated, some companies are never allowed to advertise on Google again. There are several reasons AdWords accounts may get banned; however, most accounts are banned for one of […]

Analytics & conversion

Topsy Social Analytics: Twitter Analytics For The Masses (& Free, Too)

There are plenty of social analytics tools, but the most full-featured ones are often too expensive (i.e., geared towards enterprise-level users) and the inexpensive ones usually offer limited functionality. And then there’s Topsy Social Analytics, which was just launched this morning and immediately becomes one of the best free Twitter analytics tools I’ve seen. There […]

Content

The Rise And Fall Of Content Farms

With Demand Media having gone public last week, it is worth taking some time to discuss the future of content farms. Clearly, lots of people are seeing value in the business model, as shown by the street’s willingness to accept the IPO, and the acquistion of Associated Content by Yahoo! last May. But what is […]

Google

DOJ Exploring “Search Fairness” With Google As Rivals Protest Potential ITA Licensing Deal

On Friday Reuters reported that Google and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) are exploring licensing guarantees as part of a potential “settlement” that would avoid litigation to block Google’s intended purchase of online travel software provider ITA. In addition the report says that the DOJ is also looking closely at issues of “search fairness” […]

DuckDuckGo

Blekko Launches Mobile Apps For iPhone, Android

I’ll expose my bias up front: I’m a fan of Blekko and its audacious project to make search better. Now the site that bought you the “spam clock,” has launched mobile apps for the iPhone and Android. It’s a logical and even necessary step for Blekko, given the strategic importance of mobile. Registered users can […]

Google

Google Adds Snow Conditions & Interaction Mobile Weather Results

Google announced two winter features for the Google search results. The first one is a live snapshot of the snow conditions in a particular area. The second is a special new mobile version of weather, which is interaction. Live Snow Conditions: Google now shows you live snow results on the search results for your favorite […]

Google

Google’s “Instant Previews” Now On iOS (iPhone/iPad) Browser

9to5Mac reports Google’s instant previews is now on Google’s search results on iOS devices. Instant Previews, which was introduced on Google’s desktop results back in November 2010, enables you to see a preview of the web page before you click through to that page. Many iOS users on both iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices […]

Google

A Year Later Even Google Surprised By Success Of Click-To-Call

A year since its introduction even Google is surprised by how successful “Click to Call” has become. “We’re seeing millions of calls every month; it has become a core part of a large number mobile search ad campaigns,” said Google’s Surojit Chatterjee who is in charge of the product. That same phrase — millions of […]

SEO

Google Event on Feb 2nd To Showcase Honeycomb, Tablets

We just got invited to Google’s upcoming Honeycomb (Android 3.0) event and tablet coming out party on February 2 at Google HQ: There will be demos, presumably of several tablets, at the event. We’ve seen the screens and videos. Now we’ll get to see the actual goods. Motorola’s Xoom was the most well-received of the […]

Google

Google, Connecticut-led Coalition Agree To Negotiate WiFi Data Collection Issues

Google and the Connecticut-led coalition of 40 US states will avoid court and begin negotiations that are aimed at settling issues related to Google’s collection of personal data over unsecured WiFi networks. In a press release issued today (PDF), newly-elected Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen says the coalition will not pursue a demand issued last […]

Apple

Google’s Legal Woes Not Impacting Brand: Survey

Google has had its share of negative press coverage over the past year. And one of the questions that reporters always ask is: how will this scandal or that investigation impact the perception or usage of Google in the market? In other words, does something like the WiFi privacy scandal in Europe or the antitrust […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 28, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords Homepage Gets More Modular, Customizable Google has redesigned the homepage for its AdWords advertiser interface in an effort to bring more relevant, customized information up front for marketers. The main […]

Google Ads

AdWords Homepage Gets More Modular, Customizable

Google has redesigned the homepage for its AdWords advertiser interface in an effort to bring more relevant, customized information up front for marketers. The main change for the “home” tab is that advertisers can create their own modules based on saved filters created on the campaign interface. Filters let advertisers identify problems with their campaigns, […]

Bing

Bing Travel Now Offers Destination Comparison Tool

Some day, the McGee family is going to pack our bags and hightail it to Hawaii. We’ve never been there and would love to spend a week or two on the beaches, in the mountains, and enjoying the weather. But we have no idea which island to visit. Sound familiar? Maybe you want to to […]

SEO

Google launches algorithm to fight low-quality scraper content

Earlier this week, Google’s Matt Cutts announced the company would be releasing a new on-page spam detection technique to reduce the amount of content spam we see in Google. Cutts just confirmed the rumors that this algorithm is indeed live. Matt said the change to their algorithm to prevent low-quality scraper content in Google’s index […]

Analytics & conversion

Applying Customer Life time Value To Paid Search

Online marketers have realized that traditional metrics such as sales, brand wareness, attitudes etc., are not enough to show return on investment. In fact, some academic studies have shown that marketing actions that improve short term sales may actually harm long term profitability of a brand. Further, with improvements in data mining and warehousing, marketers […]

Advertising

Microsoft Q2 Revs Almost $20 Billion, “Bing Division” Still Losing Money Despite Search Revenue Increase

Microsoft announced second quarter earnings yesterday, which beat Wall Street’s expectations. The company reported a lot of good news about its revenues, profits and products, including Windows (PC) 7, Kinect/Xbox and Office. However Online Services, which houses all Microsoft’s online operations including MSN and Bing, posted a $543 million loss. That’s up from $463 a […]

Link building

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 27, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The New York Times, Demand Media Edition Demand Media — widely described as a “content farm” — went public yesterday and quickly racked up a valuation higher than the New York […]

Content

The New York Times, Demand Media Edition

Demand Media — widely described as a “content farm” — went public yesterday and quickly racked up a valuation higher than the New York Times. I figured the news might cause some at the New York Times to wonder if they needed to be more Demand Media-like. Would every story be turned into a question? […]

SEO

6 Content Tips: How To Write When You Have Nothing To Write About

When I tell a client/friend/colleague they need to add X pages of interesting content to their site, I typically hear one of three answers: 3% of the time: “No problem, I’m on it.” 75% of the time: “But I don’t have anything to write about.” 22% of the time: “No one wants to hear about […]

Display

Google Testing Display Ads In Gmail

Google appears to be testing display ads in Gmail. I discovered the following image ad in my own Gmail account this morning, and Google has since confirmed a test. Image ads have made their way into paid search on Google.com and various other properties on Google. But this was really jarring for me to encounter. […]

Microsoft

Bing’s Chief Scientist, Alek Kołcz, Joins Twitter

ReadWrite/Web reports Microsoft’s Principal Scientist of Bing has left to join the Twitter team. Alek Kołcz, formerly a Scientist at Microsoft Live Labs, a co-chair at CIKM and a System Architect at AOL is now at Twitter. The Twitter employee page has Alek’s Twitter avatar and @zorbageek linked to at the bottom. There has not […]

Apple

Larry Page And The Reinvention Of “The Google”

We’re watching something really fascinating happening at Google: a very public effort to prevent the company from falling prey to the kind of bureaucratic molasses that has enveloped so many companies before it. Many have complained that Google is already there. Perhaps. But it’s nothing like at Nokia, for example, which continues to struggle with […]

Ecommerce

6 Steps To Higher Converting Traffic From Shopping Search Engines

Traffic acquisition has always had a prominent spot on yearly goals and product roadmaps. But how about conversion optimization? Not quite there yet, despite all the talk about ROI positive initiatives. Traffic is undoubtedly the first step, but conversions are where the money and long term value reside. Conversion optimization has been predicted as one […]

Content

Google Removes Piracy-Related Terms From Instant Search

As it promised in early December, Google has begun to remove terms associated with piracy from producing search results in Google Instant Search, and from appearing in Google Suggest. That includes searches involving the word “torrent” as well as “BitTorrent,” which is both the name of a company in San Francisco that produces torrent software, […]

DuckDuckGo

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 26, 2011

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Upstart DuckDuckGo Challenges Google With Strong Privacy, Cool Tools & Quackpot Name Here at Search Engine Land we regularly hear from people who have created “radical,” innovative,” “next generation” search technology, […]

DuckDuckGo

Upstart DuckDuckGo Challenges Google With Strong Privacy, Cool Tools & Quackpot Name

Here at Search Engine Land we regularly hear from people who have created “radical,” innovative,” “next generation” search technology, promising to “fix” the “broken” search we all allegedly pitifully struggle with today. In virtually every instance that I can remember, these promises over-hype and under-deliver, rarely offering something that becomes part of my regular search […]

SEO

Search Marketing Tips For Yandex, Russia’s Top Search Engine

Globally, Russia is the eighth largest market of Internet users, and as we know, Google is playing second fiddle to Yandex, which is currently the main search engine in Russia with well over half of the market share. Yandex makes hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and provides a broad range of online services […]

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Finally Officially Unveils Self-Service PPC Ads

After more than two years of beta testing, LinkedIn’s self-service PPC ad offering, now called LinkedIn Ads, officially launched today. The service, launched in beta in July 2008 under the name LinkedIn DirectAds, originally offered targeting by geography, job function, industry, company size, seniority, age and gender. Now, with the official wide release, advertisers will also […]

Local

Google Will Drop Real Estate Search & Listings From Maps

Google has just made a surprising announcement: Google Maps will drop its real estate listings search option on February 10th. Real estate was one of the options available inside Google Maps since July 2009, when it added a similar search form like the ones available on many real estate-specific websites. Google’s real estate search wasn’t […]

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