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+ Has Been Blocked In ChinaJust one day after Google offered invites to Google+, China has blocked access the new social networking site. This is not surprising at all as China typically blocks all social sites including Twitter and Facebook. The Chinese censorship system has been dubbed the “Great Firewall” and is currently blocking Google.com. Other notable blocked sites include: YouTube Foursquare IMDB [...] Measuring & [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Just one day after Google offered  invites to Google+, China has blocked access the new social networking site.  This is not surprising at all as China typically blocks all social sites including Twitter and Facebook.  The Chinese censorship system has been dubbed the "Great Firewall" and is currently blocking Google.com. Other notable blocked sites include: YouTube Foursquare IMDB Blogspot Blogs You can follow along at home with what China is blocking by using the site GreatFireWallofChina.org. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Google+

Trying to select a PPC Campaign Management Solution? This new Market Intelligence Report from Search Marketing Now will help you navigate through the many choices. Download a copy now - it's free! [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

No matter where you are in your mobile marketing efforts – whether you are an advertiser still developing a mobile strategy or a growing mobile ad network selling to national advertisers – you should know how to effectively measure mobile and your measurement efforts should include call tracking and attribution metrics. Mobile attribution is key to helping validate the channel and monetizing the high quality leads it delivers. Mobile Searchers Need It Today Consider the mobile searcher profile. Leads that come from a mobile search program are not only more likely to buy, but will ofte [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Credit Is Due | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Marketing: Mobile

Google is currently considering its options after a federal judge gave the go-ahead for a group of consolidated lawsuits to proceed against the company over a potential violation of the Federal Wiretap Act. Wednesday's decision by US District Judge James Ware, first reported by Wired, actually dismissed two of the three claims against Google, but left open the group's ability to sue Google for potentially violating the Wiretap Act: … the Court finds that Plaintiffs plead facts sufficient to state a claim for violation of the Wiretap Act. In particular, Plaintiffs plead that Defendant [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Legal | Google: Street View | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Business Insider broke the news today that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Twitter apparently due acquisition tactics of applications. Twitter had begun offering "official" versions of apps by way of acquisition back in 2010 with some notable apps including Tweetie and TweetDeck. Entrepreneur Bill Gross had also started buying Twitter apps under a company named TweetUp.  Gross was looking to acquire TweetDeck and had received funding from Accel in order to do so. Twitter then began shutting down a handful of Gross's apps and ended up purchasing TweetDeck for itself. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

SEO tasks vary wildly in complexity: some of them are best done by a seasoned expert, some of them require creative flair, and many are fairly rote—directory submissions, some kinds of copywriting, and some varieties of link-building. For those simple, repetitive tasks, it's tempting to turn to outsourcing. In fact, some SEO consulting firms act as a high value-added "interface" between clients and a largely outsourced workforce. The agency knows what firms are worthwhile and what to look for, the outsourcer gets steady work, and the client gets their campaign done at a low cost. But w [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO

Google and Virgin America have teamed up in a clever Chromebook promotion that will benefit both brands. The airline sent out an email this morning that offers a free Chromebook test drive, "From July 1 to September 30 . . . on select flights from San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, and Chicago, exclusively on Virgin America." This helps give users hands-on access to Google's PC alternative (an iPad with a keyboard) and it helps Virgin further brand itself as the coolest of domestic carriers (with WiFi on every flight). I suspect this will prompt a few flyers to switch from a dreary [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Chrome | Google: Chrome OS | Google: Mobile

Last night I had my first experience with Google+ Hangout, the video chat feature that allows up to 10 people to talk simultaneously. Bradley Horowitz (pictured below in the big window) announced a public Hangout and very quickly the room filled up. People were waiting in line to get in. Sergey Hung Out Though it's not captured in the screenshot below Google co-founder Sergey Brin was briefly part of it (from his kitchen) as well as a guy from Facebook, who awkwardly exited after a few minutes. Danny was present for about 10 minutes too, complaining that Google+ had kept him from taki [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Google+

The Financial Times has identified a "privacy flaw" within Google+: re-sharing. A privately shared post or picture can be subsequently re-published or shared by the recipient to any of his or her Circles or the entire world. This would potentially thwart the privacy "settings" or objectives of the original creator of the post. Google is aware of the problem and says that it will address it. (See below for "fix.") For example, if I have a private Circle of co-workers and somebody makes a defamatory statement about "the boss" and then it's made "public" by re-sharing it could cause [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Google+ | Google: Legal | Legal: Privacy

As expected Google has launched the +1 metrics within Google Webmaster Tools in addition to social tracking in Google Analytics. Google breaks down the +1 reporting within Webmaster Tools into three reports: (1) Search Impact Report shows you an idea of how +1‘s affect your organic search traffic. You can find out if your clickthrough rate changes when personalized recommendations help your content stand out. Do this by comparing clicks and impressions on search results with and without +1 annotations. Google will only show statistics on clickthrough rate changes when you have enough i [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Features: General | Google: +1 | Google: Analytics | Google: Webmaster Central | Top News

Already in Google+ and want to let others in? Google's now allowing this. Just look to the bottom of the right-hand side of your stream. You should see an invite icon, like this: Select that, and you can invite anyone you like! About 30 minutes ago, this post covered an alternative way to doing invites before this official way became available. That's below, for the curious: Officially, Google+ users still have no way to invite other people. Unofficially, it appears they can. Big credit here to Jennifer 8. Lee, who I noticed tweeting today about how she'd sent out hundreds of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Google+

Yahoo has relaunched Yahoo Clues, its search trends product that doubles as an underrated keyword research tool. Among the new features, the most important from a search marketing perspective are these: Expanded data: Yahoo Clues now includes a full year of data, up from just a month Wider coverage: It includes all English-language searches made globally The new Yahoo Clues also offers a "Top Trends" tab (as part of its new look-and-feel) that lets users explore and analyze the most popular search terms on Yahoo. But the expanded data is also part of the regular Trend Analysis to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | SEM Tools: Keyword Research | Yahoo: Search

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Official: Google Analytics Gets Social Engagement ReportingGoogle Analytics has just announced a new set of reports (and functionality) that will enable websites to track social interaction with their content. This comes as a welcomed addition to the new Google+1 button, as it now enables one to measure the impact of social interactions in and outside websites (either through a Facebook like, [...] 5 Ways To Jump Ahead In Your IndustryWe frequently [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Google Analytics has just announced a new set of reports (and functionality) that will enable websites to track social interaction with their content. This comes as a welcomed addition to the new Google+1 button, as it now enables one to measure the impact of social interactions in and outside websites (either through a Facebook like, +1 or LinkedIn share inside the website or +1 on search results). The new reports can be found in the Visitor section (make sure you are using the new Google Analytics) and are seeing the following: The Social Engagement report shows site behavior changes [...]

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

We frequently hear about the consumer brands that dominate their markets. Amazon controls 25% of all Internet commerce. Zappos grew to a billion dollar company in ten years with its Web-friendly business model and rule-breaking culture. But who holds the dominant Internet-driven position in your slice of the economy? Is it you? It could be. Right now, plans are being laid in almost every industry segment to leverage the Web and rule the roost. Over the next few years, one company in each marketplace is going to use the Internet to dominate their competitors, steal market share and enjoy [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Google+ has been live for a full day now, and there's plenty going on within the service, even with the limited number of people in there. Curious to see? Here's a guide on peeping into Google Plus. Anything that happens with Google+ can be made public with the world, if someone chooses to do so. So when Robert Scoble declared he'd friended over 1,000 people, he made that a public post: Many posts within Google+ are public this way. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if soon, someone starts trying to gather them up using one of Google's search API. They're barred from external crawling, bu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: General | Google: Google+ | Top News

When I first logged into Google+ I was a bit underwhelmed, but the more I used and explored the site, the more I liked it.  While it has already been deemed Google's Facebook competitor, it is quite  different.   I want to share my opinion on the pros and cons of the site to help shine a little light on what exactly Google+ is, and what it does (and doesn't) do well. The Good Better Privacy Google+ uses a diaspora -like way of sharing content with users by utilizing circles.  I think this format is very appealing to many users who are working to balance their professional and persona [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: Analysis | Google: Google+ | Top News

One of the most common goals for a B2B website is lead generation. Yet B2B marketers consistently identify lead quality as their #1 challenge. Here are four proven techniques to improve the quality of your search-generated leads. Understand Inquiries vs Leads First, track and evaluate raw inquiries and accepted leads. Raw inquiries include every contact record generated by your marketing program Accepted leads are a subset of these inquires and are typically those that contain legitimate and desirable contact information. For example, before loading all inquiries into a lead track [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search

Today, Google has launched the first of many design changes that will impact all of their products, including search. Their blog post says the updates will roll over over the next few months, but that they have a philosophy of "constant revision and improvement", and notes three primary principles driving the change: Focus They say they're "bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way", which in part means "hiding navigation buttons until they’re actually needed". I get what they are saying, but this type of user interface behavior tend [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Web Search