It’s only been 48 hours since Google expanded the Panda/Farmer update to all English language searches outside the US, and we’re already seeing reports about who the early winners and losers are. In some cases, the names are familiar if you followed the original reports when the algorithm change first hit in the US in […]
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 Number 1 Among Free iPad Apps I was updating some apps on my iPad today and saw that Bing is currently ranked #1 among free apps: Read our overview of […]
I was updating some apps on my iPad today and saw that Bing is currently ranked #1 among free apps: Read our overview of the Bing iPad app, when it launched last week.
In last month’s column, I made the case for going in-house and shared my experience of switching from a successful consulting and lead gen career to joining the ranks of Silicon Valley’s startup scene. That article talks about some of the things to consider before accepting a job and what to expect as an in-house […]
The IAB released its full year 2010 online advertising report this morning. Paid search constituted the largest category share of the $26 billion online ad spend, at 46 percent: Search was down a point vs. 2009 in terms of overall share. However it grew 12 percent vs. last year in terms of dollar value. By […]
Nobody likes being in the dark, especially when it comes to making decisions. The more information we have, the better we can manage the outcome. This is exactly the case with paid search and why tracking and analytics at the keyword level is critical for B2B marketers. Why Being In The Dark Is Dangerous Having […]
The comScore data for March are being released by the various financial analysts. Here’s the quick read on search market-share figures: Google: 65.7 percent in March vs. 65.4 percent in February Yahoo: 15.7 percent vs. 16.1 percent in February Bing: 13.9 percent, up from 13.6 percent in February BingHoo: 29.7 percent, which is essentially flat […]
Monday I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google’s Webmaster Central team has begun stepping up webmaster communication, once again, this time by responding to reconsideration requests more actively then in the past. Google is now telling webmasters that submit reconsideration requests if their penalty is not a manual Google penalty, then there is […]
After a four-month slide in both unique viewers and video viewing sessions, YouTube rebounded in March to post gains in both of those categories. That’s according to the latest stats from comScore, just released this afternoon. YouTube remains far and away the dominant video site online, with big leads in both viewers and sessions over […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: With +1, Advertising Is Getting Social Anyone willing to bet on Google’s attempts to get social would have to have deep pockets and a short memory. For years, Google crowed about […]
Anyone willing to bet on Google’s attempts to get social would have to have deep pockets and a short memory. For years, Google crowed about the fact that Orkut outweighed Facebook in two of the most important developing markets (Brazil & India), but that is likely to change soon (Facebook is gaining in both), whilst […]
Functionalism is a concept that first intrigued me when I studied Anthropology in college, as I really responded to the idea that people do certain things for certain individual reasons that matter only to them, reasons that may seem crazy to outsiders, but that truly do make up a necessary part of someone’s culture. It’s […]
Amazon.com outspent all other search marketers in the fourth quarter of last year in the U.S., dropping $51 million and dwarfing the rest of the field, according to research covering paid search on Google from Kantar Media’s new syndicated service. The WPP Group company says AT&T was the next-biggest spender, laying out $27 million. Interestingly, […]
Today on Google you will find a logo of a spaceflight and astronaut remembering the 50th anniversary of when Yuri Gagarin was the first human to take a spaceflight. He completed an orbit of the Earth on a Soviet Union backed Vostok spacecraft on April 12, 1961. He instantly became a hero in his country […]
A strong month of March has propelled Bing-powered search past the 30% market share level for the first time since Bing began providing Yahoo with organic search results last August. According to the latest Experian Hitwise data, Bing and Yahoo both grew more than 5% in March and now combine for 30.01% market share. 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: IAC Revises And Re-Ups Its Deal With Google IAC, the parent of Ask.com, the Daily Beast and Citysearch, today announced it has amended and extended its distribution agreement with Google through […]
IAC, the parent of Ask.com, the Daily Beast and Citysearch, today announced it has amended and extended its distribution agreement with Google through March 31, 2016. The deal, which involves the distribution of AdWords ads and other search-related services to IAC sites, was originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2012. Though IAC didn’t […]
Late February, Google launched a substantial algorithm change (known as “Farmer” or “Panda”) aimed at identifying low-quality pages and sites. These are pages (often seen on so-called “content farms”) with text that is relevant for a query, but may not provide the best user experience. (Google calls it a “high quality sites algorithm”.) Today, Google has […]
This morning Microsoft is launching the “Bing Business Portal” (BBP). It replaces the the Bing Local Listing Center, and all listings already there have already been migrated over. The BBP allows local business owners or their agents or designated representatives to claim and enhance listings with additional content including deals. Business owners can also add […]
At SMX West last month, I spoke at length about what it means to manage PPC programs at large companies. One of the topics I covered at some depth was using the various search engines’ targeting options to break keywords down into smaller bits of data to optimize them individually. This type of tactic can […]
Whether you are a mom and pop outfit, Main Street USA type of SMB, or you’re more on the medium end of the small to medium-sized business scale (100-1000 employees), or even if you’re a multi-national Fortune 500, there is local business information about you on the Web. As the use of mobile and social […]
Google Images is now showing fresher images for search results that are trending and/or news related. For example, if you search for [schwartzel masters] in Google Images, you will find tons of images from the golf tournament yesterday. They are all fresh images, mostly pulled from news sources, mostly time stamped with phrases such as […]
“I know why you’re here Neo… It will find you if you want it to.” -Trinity Last time I made the case that you’re not mobile-friendly unless you’re friendly to searchers too. I argued that since the marginal cost of achieving basic SEO is lowered by addressing alongside development of mobile friendly content, consumer brands […]
Marchex announced this morning that it was buying Jingle Networks, operator of free directory assistance service 800-Free-411, for $62 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2004, Jingle Networks also has a pay-per-call mobile ad network. Jingle’s 800-Free-411 competed with GOOG-411, which was closed down last year, and Microsoft’s Bing-411, which is still operating. However […]
At SMX West last month, I participated in a panel discussion on Google’s new ad formats. Today, I want to share some findings, tips and tricks for getting the most out of Product Listing Ads. What Are Product Listing Ads? Google learned that folding images, videos, maps etc into organic search results — a.k.a. Universal […]
U.S. search spending was up 17% in the first quarter of 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010, according to analysis of client activity by search marketing agency Efficient Frontier. The agency attributes the growth primarily to a strong quarter in the retail and finance sectors. Click volume and impressions were up year-over-year, […]
For more than a year, Google has been testing a program called Hotel Price Ads that shows ads for hotel searches inside of Google Maps. It looks like those ads are headed to Google’s main search results soon. A Search Engine Land reader has tipped us to three new types of hotel price ads, all […]
In most locations, Google sends its Street View cars out on a repeated basis “to make sure the information is accurate and kept up to date,” as the Street View website explains. But that’s not happening in Germany. Despite the recent German court ruling that declared photography from streets legal in Germany, Google has stopped […]
One area that the Justice Department’s Google-ITA settlement didn’t cover was so-called “search neutrality.” In a nutshell, this is the misguided notion that Google shouldn’t be permitted to send traffic to its own properties. In the extreme it argues that the government should regulate Google’s algorithm as well. While the term “search neutrality” carries a […]
You won’t hear us (or Google) talking about Google Hotpot anymore. The company has announced that the Hotpot name is a thing of the past, and the ratings and review experience is being formally added into Google Places. While you can still access Hotpot right now at www.google.com/hotpot, that URL will eventually redirect to Google […]
As we and others reported yesterday, Google CEO Larry Page is shuffling the deck with his executive team, with a reassertion of engineering across the board it appears. Here’s the Google roster of top executives as it still reads on the site: Larry Page, CEO Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman Sergey Brin, Co-Founder Nikesh Arora, Senior […]
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’s Streetside Already Facing Objections In Germany Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after announcing plans to operate its Streetside map/photo service in Germany, Microsoft is already dealing with its […]
Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after announcing plans to operate its Streetside map/photo service in Germany, Microsoft is already dealing with its first governmental objection. Thomas Kranig, head of the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection, has issued a statement (in German; here’s a Google translation to English) giving objections to Bing’s plans […]
There are two prevailing mentalities when it comes to the investments we make in business. First, there are the investments we make in our future: things we build on, knowing our initial investment is just the beginning. We see our children this way, to draw a personal example. The second mentality sees investments as expenses: […]
The Justice Department (DOJ) has signed off on the Google acquisition of travel software company ITA, but says Google must meet certain conditions. The Justice Department said that as originally proposed the acquisition would have “substantially lessened competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in the United States.” The DOJ is requiring Google to […]
After months of lobbying and speculation the US appears ready to approve Google’s $700 million acquisition of travel software company ITA, with some interesting “safeguards” or provisions. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Justice Department approval of the deal would come with ongoing monitoring of the deal by regulators: Google Inc. and the Justice […]
One of the funniest moments at SMX West last month was the exchange between Avi Wilenksi (owner of Promediacorp, an SEO company) and Othar Hansson (Google Engineer). Avi had just discussed a case study of how he was able to alter Google Suggest results by “crowdsourcing” people to manually input queries—i.e. by somehow convincing them […]
It’s spring, and garden centers everywhere are getting ready to service the needs of home gardeners and small landscaping services. Garden center search traffic is similar to Christmas retail search traffic in that the majority of the searches occur during three or four months of the year, peaking in June and falling off dramatically for […]
2011 bonuses for Google employees are reportedly being tied to how well the company fares in its efforts to integrate social elements across Google products. That’s according to two reports from Silicon Alley Insider — reports that say the news first spread in a company-wide memo last Friday from co-founder (and now new CEO) Larry […]
AdWords recently introduced a new feature to their Ad Rotation Settings called “Optimize for Conversions” (February, 2011). AdWords Advanced Settings Ad Rotation – Optimize for Conversions To find this go to: Campaign Tab | Settings | Advanced Settings | Ad Rotation (expand by clicking the “edit” link) Many advertisers may find this to be a […]