We all know that local search is a hot topic in today’s search space. For further proof, look no further than the latest “State of Local Search” study, prepared by comScore for the Local Search Association, which found that local searches now account for 13% of all core search activity on major search engines like […]
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 Tests Ads Within Organic Search Results? The RKGBlog blog posted a screen shot of Bing testing search ads directly in the organic results. Honestly, I almost cannot believe it – […]
The RKGBlog blog posted a screen shot of Bing testing search ads directly in the organic results. Honestly, I almost cannot believe it – but more on that later. Here is a cropped picture of the screen shot. Why is this so shocking? Placing search ads inline with organic free listings is somewhat taboo for […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
Google is featuring a special logo for Alexander Calder, an American artist known for inventing mobile sculptures, 113th birthday. Alexander Calder was born on July 22, 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania and died on November 11, 1976 at the age of 78 in Manhattan. The logo is Google’s first doodle made entirely using HTML5 canvas. Google […]
Every web analytics provider requires nearly the same setup process: pixels. A couple lines of JavaScript pasted onto the pages of a website provide data critical to any optimization process, attribution model, or consumer behavior analysis. As part of my role includes integration engineering for an analytics vendor, I spend a substantial amount of time […]
Whenever I’m asked what usability is, I get tongue tied. “It’s about humans and computers,” I may say, but they’ll picture robots and talking cars. “I help make web sites that work,” is closer, but vague because technically, if it’s on the Internet, it’s working. Then I’ll hear myself try to make it clearer by […]
About two weeks ago, I started a new chapter in my professional life as the VP and “Conductor” of Marketing at BlueTrain Mobile, an award-winning technology start up company in Cambridge, MA. This is an exciting career move for me in so many ways, and will push me to ramp up on my “mobile SEO” […]
Local searchers and local businesses will see a fairly substantially different Place Page the next time they’re poking around Google Maps/Places. The company announced a new look Thursday and promises more changes to come. The new layout of Place Pages puts a heavy emphasis on reviews. More specifically, it emphasizes reviews from Google users and […]
Below is today’s top news relating to Google+, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. Businesses Removed From Google+ Google Removes Mashable, Sesame Street & Other Prominent Accounts From Google+ is a post by Matt McGee which highlights some of the recently terminated Google+ accounts. Mashable, Ford and even […]
I suspect someone is going to successfully build Google’s “contextual discovery engine” before Google does. The newest company to make a run at what Marissa Mayer was talking about is Clever Sense with its new app “Alfred” (formerly called Seymour). Intended to be a demonstration of Clever Sense’s underlying data extraction and machine learning technologies, […]
Microsoft announced fiscal Q4 and full year revenue this afternoon. Growing 8 percent from a year ago Microsoft reported $17.37 billion in topline revenue and $6.17 billion in operating income. Revenues for Online Services, which houses Bing and online advertising, grew 17 percent for the quarter and 15 percent for the full year. However the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: StumbleUpon Testing New ‘Explore Box’ Search Tool Some StumbleUpon users have been opted in to a new feature that seems to be aimed at helping them search and find interesting web […]
Some StumbleUpon users have been opted in to a new feature that seems to be aimed at helping them search and find interesting web pages more easily. StumbleUpon calls it their “Explore Box” and, if you’re part of the test, it can be accessed at www.stumbleupon.com/explore. The page, shown above, is currently very Googley with […]
Rafael Rivera spotted a new Bing interface where Bing was overlaying “live titles” on top of the home page’s awesome backgrounds. This is the new Bing HTML5 interface, that Bing has been for several months. Winrumors reports that along with these “live titles,” Bing will be introducing a form of Google Instant search. The Instant […]
In 2009, Google launched the parameter handling feature of Google webmaster tools, which enabled site owners to specify the parameters on their site that were optional vs. required. A year later, they improved this feature by providing an option for a default value. Google says that they’ve seen a positive impact from the usage of those […]
Some of the biggest company/brand accounts on Google+ have now — finally, some might say — been removed. The Google Plus pages for Mashable, Ford and Sesame Street are all gone. Our own Search Engine Land page has also been removed. Mashable was, according to SocialStatistics.com, the No. 4 most popular account on Google+ with […]
Numbers from Experian Hitwise show that Google+ showed big gains again last week. For the week ending on July 16th Google+ saw over 1.8 million total visits. This is a 283% increase from the previous week and an increase of 821% from the week of July2nd. The following chart shows the total US visits to Google+: Other pertinent […]
There’s been a boatload of survey data released in the past six months documenting the adoption of social media by US small businesses (SMBs). The numbers range from about 40 to 70 percent of SMBs reporting they’re using social media to some degree. Yet survey data aren’t always accurate because it’s challenging to get a […]
How fast a webpage downloads and displays in a user’s browser has always been important for online stores, primarily because faster loading pages convert better than slow pages. One of the easiest ways to increase sales is to radically slim down category and product pages to make shopping faster and easier. But in recent times, […]
Google has announced the end of supporting the Google Toolbar for Firefox. Google said the Google Toolbar works in versions of Firefox 4 or younger, but not the new version 5 of Firefox. Google explained, “many features that were once offered by Google Toolbar for Firefox are now already built right into the browser.” So […]
The concept of search retargeting isn’t especially new, but it certainly remains in the early adopter stage from a practical perspective. For a while now, companies like Simpli.fi, Magnetic and Chango have been offering marketers the ability to identify Internet users who have performed a search on a given search term on one of the […]
Understanding keyword difficulty will help you to choose which queries to compete for, both now and in the future. It comes down to three things. Competition. The number of pages indexed by a search engine for a query. Authority. The ranking strength of a webpage as determined by incoming links to the page and the […]
As we await for Google+ to figure out however it wants to handle verified accounts, it’s worth reflecting how Google already has a verification system in place that’s been lost and how Twitter’s supposedly “closed” program continues on in stealth mode. Why can’t either of these companies get it right? And why can’t Facebook even […]
Google may currently “own” search, but local search is a different story. Mapping sites, specialized local sites, general search engines and deals, as well as mobile browsers and apps constitute the distributed landscape of local, according to a new report, “The State of Local Search,” released yesterday by the Local Search Association (LSA), with data […]
When “Harry Potter” series author J.K. Rowling announced she would finally allow e-book versions of her titles to be sold, though exclusively on the soon-to-be-launched Pottermore.com, it was noted that the move bypassed retailers like Amazon.com. Google has managed to get in on the action, however — at least from a PR perspective — as […]
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 Labs To Be Closed As Larry Page’s Product Streamlining Continues Is there any doubt that things at Google have changed under new CEO Larry Page? Today the company has announced […]
Is there any doubt that things at Google have changed under new CEO Larry Page? Today the company has announced the impending closure of Google Labs, its experimental playground where many popular Google products were born. In its announcement, Google says the decision to shut down Google Labs is part of its new focus on […]
Google’s latest effort to increase small business adoption of its products and services is a program called Texas Get Your Business Online that offers a free website, free hosting, domain name, a business listing on Google Places and additional marketing help. The effort is being accompanied by an aggressive promotion campaign, like the heavy and […]
Many marketers start their conversion optimization efforts by looking at the behavior of a visitor once they arrive on a website. Which buttons are effective in attracting clicks? What type of product images encourage cart additions? What messaging seems to work on a particular landing page? But a journey down the conversion funnel always starts […]
She was supposed to help turn around the company, but Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz may soon be the one in turnaround because of another mixed or mediocre quarter. The search alliance and revenue share with Microsoft was partly blamed for Q2 revenues being down compared the same period last year: Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs […]
Last month, we discussed how display media has evolved to be more quantitative in Why Search Marketers Are The Future Media Planners, and ironically, how the skillset held by search marketers has become more relevant to display media than the skill set held by current media planners. Using the real-time environment of the media exchanges, ‘search […]
Today on Google you will find a special logo for the 189th birthday of Gregor Mendel. Gregor Mendel discovered the science of genetics while studying the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Because of this discovery, Google wanted people to remember who he is, what he did for science and medicine today and simply […]
In 2008, Google removed directory links from Webmaster Tools and in December 2010, Google dropped the search box from the Google directory. Today, Google has completely removed the Google Directory as a Google service. Going to directory.google.com will show you a notice that reads the “Google Directory is no longer available.” Yesterday the directory was […]
After years of minimal change to the format of AdWords ads (some ad extensions are the only radical change), all paid search ads now have the +1 button right after the headline on their right side. How will this new social aspect impact paid search marketing? And what can in-house search marketers do now to […]
Do a search on Google, and you might get an unexpected surprise. A big notice at the top of your results warning that your computer has been infected with malware. Here’s an example of how it looks: What malware? Produced by whom? Google’s not giving any details there yet, simply blogging: This particular malware causes […]
A Google attorney told a federal judge today that the two sides involved in the long-running Google Book Search lawsuit settlement are negotiating an “opt-in settlement” in an attempt to finally put the case to rest. As The Laboratorium reports, Google’s attorney Michael Boni told Judge Dennis Chin that both sides “have been aiming for […]
When it comes to custom landing tabs, all the big brands have them, all little businesses want them, but just how effective are they in engaging your Facebook Page’s following? Since landing tabs primarily target those who don’t already “Like” your Page, what’s in it for your fans, and are your fans even aware of […]
Do Internet users in the southern US do more local searches than the rest of the country? Are searchers in smaller cities more likely to conduct local searches than those in New York City, Chicago and the San Francisco area? The answer to those questions is “yes,” at least according to recent data compiled by […]
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 Testing URLs Above Descriptions In AdWords Google is testing a variation on AdWords display that has the URLs shown above the two lines of description, but under the headline. Representatives […]