More from Search Engine Land: Page 2

Apple

A Year Later: AdMob A Critical Mobile Asset For Google

There was really never a question that AdMob was going to be a huge asset and accelerator of Google’s mobile ad efforts. However the acquisition has more than cemented Google’s leadership position in mobile advertising. According to some estimates (IDC, December 2010) Google controls 60 percent of US mobile advertising (search + display).  Of the […]

Ecommerce

Yandex Has Blockbuster $1.3 Billion IPO

Yandex NV, the parent of the Russian search engine Yandex, had a very successful debut on the Nasdaq market yesterday. The company raised more than $1.3 billion in its IPO. It follows last week’s similarly splashy but much smaller IPO from LinkedIn. As with the LinkedIn IPO last week many investors turned right around and […]

Google

Google Testing URL Above Search Results Snippet

I am seeing reports from searchers that Google is testing a new layout for the organic and paid search results. In this test, Google is placing the destination or display URL above the search snippet or description and below the title of the search result. Typically the URL is placed under the snippet or description, […]

Apple

Google To Unveil Mobile Payments Trial: Report

Bloomberg is reporting that Google will formally announce a mobile payments service later this week. The service will reportedly be offered initially through US carrier Sprint. The service will be initially available in five US cities: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. according to Bloomberg. Interestingly Sprint has its own recently launched stored-credit card payments […]

Google Analytics

SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 24, 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: How To Fix Common Analytics Mistakes In Multinational eCommerce SEO One of the major headaches in multinational campaigns is solving the many web analytics issues thrown up as a result of […]

Analytics & conversion

How To Fix Common Analytics Mistakes In Multinational eCommerce SEO

One of the major headaches in multinational campaigns is solving the many web analytics issues thrown up as a result of operating across multiple subdomains, in multiple languages. Part of the problem is technical, but probably the most difficult issue you’ll encounter is actually maintaining consistency in numbers across the various departments and agencies involved […]

Link building

A Campaign Prep Checklist For Link Builders

This is the fourth and final installment of our Link Building Blueprint series, as a refresher here are the first three posts: Part 1 – A Link Building Blueprint: The Foundation Part 2 – Utility Linking Part 3 – Proven Ways to Use Content to Attract Links Our blueprint has, up to this point, outlined […]

Advertising

Researcher: Conduit Toolbar Deal Boosting Bing’s Paid Clicks By 10%

Bing’s traffic acquisition deal with Conduit, the toolbar company that claims to work with 260,000 publishers and 200 million users, appears to be paying off, according to analysis from Rimm Kaufman Group (RKG). Senior research analyst Mark Ballard looked at traffic from Conduit to Rimm Kaufman Group clients from before the toolbar company switched to […]

Bing

Microsoft Releases “Mango” Windows Phone Update, Will Consumers Bite?

This morning Microsoft officially unveiled “Mango,” its anticipated Windows Phone update with a dizzying array of upgrades and new features and developer tools. Microsoft emphasized the speed of its mobile browser, a range of new local search capabilities, Bing Vision (visual search like Google Goggles), “a smarter approach to apps” and new group messaging and […]

Apple

YouTube “First Watch” Creates Massive Reach For Video Ads

A very long time ago Google was trying to find alternatives to pre-roll to monetize YouTube videos. Google-sponsored consumer research in 2007 found that users don’t like pre-roll. But that’s ancient history. Today Google is trying to find more ways to generate and capture display and video ad revenue, which it views as a massive […]

Google

Google Tests New Travel Search OneBox

SEOGadget noticed Google testing a new travel search OneBox interface. I suspect this is an early sign of the Google ITA integration, where Google purchased ITA, a travel software company. A typical Google travel search OneBox looks like this: The new travel OneBox offers a more detailed box of information with departing cities, airlines and […]

Google algorithm updates

SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 23, 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 Buys Sparkbuy: Comparison Shopping Site Now Closes, Team Remains Google has acquired Sparkbuy, a comparison shopping site that has focused on laptops. The site closed today as part of the […]

Content

90 Days Later, J.C. Penney Regains Its Google Rankings

J.C. Penney appears to be back in Google’s good graces after a 90-day penalty that removed the retailer from appearing prominently in Google’s search results for both short- and long-tail phrases. The company has regained first- and second-page rankings on a number of terms that were mentioned in a New York Times exposé of Penney’s […]

SEO

Do@: The Search Engine Optimized for Mobile

Tel Aviv-based do@ (pronounced “do at”) probably won’t get you to stop using Google on your smartphone (iPhone exclusively right now) but it’s an intriguing new mobile “search engine” that takes a very different approach to delivering content on the go. The company, which also announced $7 million in new funding, doesn’t index pages. Instead […]

Ecommerce

TheFind Catalogue: The Return of Google Catalogs

Way back in 2002 Google launched catalog search. It was ultimately shut down in April, 2009. The product allowed users to browse popular mail-order catalogs or search across catalogs for specific products. In many ways it was crude yet cool and useful. I liked it but it wasn’t enough of a traffic driver to justify […]

Local

10 Unorthodox Ideas For Local Citations & Links

Obtaining citations and links for a local business are important components of local search engine optimization. Yet, many businesses struggle with how to get links and mentions of their place. Here are 10 unorthodox ideas that could help you nab a few more valuable links. As you may know, citations can be instances where people mention your […]

SEO

The Coming Tide Of SEO Tattletales

Be ready, because there’s a new wave coming: competitive sabotage through SEO due diligence and outing. Competitive analysis will always be fundamental to search engine optimization. SEO, by nature, is a competitive pursuit: a site climbs the ranks on the backs of other sites, and there’s only room for one URL at the top. Because […]

Display

3 Ways Topic Targeting Can Improve Your Display Advertising

Google AdWords has a feature known as topic targeting. This feature allows you to target topics and not necessarily placements or keywords across the Google Display Network. If you just use topic targeting, you will usually receive a lot of impressions; but not necessarily a lot of conversions. It is fantastic for reaching a large […]

Apple

By The Numbers: How Facebook Says Likes & Social Plugins Help Websites

Earlier this month, I wrote about how the promise of Facebook traffic has enticed millions of sites to use Facebook Like buttons and other Facebook social plugins. But does following Facebook’s socialist agenda really pay off? How about some numbers, courtesy of Facebook? Facebook provided me with the figures below from when I was working […]

Google Analytics

SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 20, 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 Maps Vs. Bing Maps: Summer Vacation Planning Showdown Wouldn’t it be great if there was one mapping service that offers everything you need to plan a trip to somewhere you’ve […]

Bing

Google Maps Vs. Bing Maps: Summer Vacation Planning Showdown

Wouldn’t it be great if there was one mapping service that offers everything you need to plan a trip to somewhere you’ve never been? Sure, map sites are generally pretty similar. You can see maps, find business listings, get driving directions, see images and stuff like that. But it’s actually more complicated than that. At […]

Google

Argentine Court Orders Google To Censor Results, Halt Suggestions

An Argentine court has ordered Google to stop “suggesting” searches that lead to sites deemed anti-Semitic and remove the sites from the search engine’s index. The company has reportedly said it won’t take action until getting the official order from the Buenos Aires court. The injunction, which represents censorship of search results, stems from a […]

Content

Why Results Quality Is So Important to Search Engines

Every single search engine has, at the heart of it, a dynamic tension that must be respected. It needs to balance user experience with revenue opportunities. Getting this balance right is incredibly difficult, as Ask, Yahoo and other engines that have seen their market shares precipitously fall can attest to. There was a time when […]

Content

Android On Fire — Others Not So Much

The Q1 smartphone sales figures that were released yesterday by Gartner show that Android has surged and now leading all other smartphone operating systems. These numbers are Q1 sales figures and not reflective of overall market share but the show the direction the overall market is going. Gartner said “Windows Phone saw only modest sales […]

Google Ads

Google Goes Big For Financial Comparison Shopping, Launches “Google Advisor”

Google has rolled up its tools for consumers seeking side-by-side comparisons of financial products, launching “Google Advisor,” a one-stop-shop for consumers looking for mortgages, credit cards, checking and savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. For marketers, it’s an opportunity to gather leads, and Advisor seems to be aimed at stepping up the volume of those […]

Apple

It’s Not About Cookies: Privacy Debate Happening At Wrong Level

Some form of digital privacy regulation in the US is about 90 percent certain in the coming year. In Europe, where privacy rules are much more stringent, the details of new consumer protections are currently being worked out on a practical level. For example on Wednesday the EU data protection authority decided that location data […]

Apple

Google Book Search Adds Contextual Search, Define & Translate

Now within Google eBooks you can search, define and translate words within the book using the click of your mouse. Using the Google eBooks Web Reader, which works in all modern browsers, you can highlight words with your mouse and select from a contextual menu to Define, Translate, Search Book, Search Google and Search Wikipedia. […]

Content

Google Shuts Down Ambitious Newspaper Scanning Project

Google’s ambitious effort to digitize the world’s newspaper archives and make them available online has come to an end. The project launched in 2008, and it currently has digitized material from what looks like about 2,000 newspapers — including the Milwaukee Sentinel, whose July 21, 1969 front page is shown at right. But rumors have […]

Google News

SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 19, 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: Matteo Lopez Wins The 2011 Doodle 4 Google Competition Google has announced the winner of the 2011 Google 4 Doodle, “What I’d like to do someday.” The winner is Matteo Lopez […]

Ecommerce

Matteo Lopez Wins The 2011 Doodle 4 Google Competition

Google has announced the winner of the 2011 Google 4 Doodle, “What I’d like to do someday.” The winner is Matteo Lopez of South San Francisco, California for his logo named “Space Life.” Matteo Lopez’s answer to the question “what I’d like to do someday?” was “become an astronaut and explore space life.” Here is […]

SEO

Search Engines Don’t Like You? Don’t Jump To Conclusions

One of the most frustrating things about technical problems with a site is that the ways they show up in search engines are usually unexpected or subtle. What looks like a penalty can actually be a problem introduced with a new version or new feature of a website. Because the true causes of problems like […]

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