Compete.com has weighed in with its US search engine market share statistics, and the results mirror what others have been reporting in recent months: small, slow losses in Google's market share, and correspondingly slow gains for Bing. According to Compete's research, Google-powered search (which includes both Google and AOL) had 68.3% of the US market in August, down from 69% in July. Bing-powered search -- Bing and Yahoo combined -- held 31.7% of the market in August, up from 31% in July. Compete's chart also shows continued rises in search activity, with overall query volume up 1 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: Compete | Stats: Popularity

Submitting press releases in hopes of gaining search traffic has long been an SEO tactic. But now Business Wire -- one of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway companies -- has been granted a patent over it. That's pretty nuts. SEOing Press Releases, Patented! Yousaf Sekander over at ElevateLocal spotted the news and has his own write-up here. The Business Wire release is here, saying: Business Wire announced on Wednesday that it has been awarded a U.S. Patent for the technological process of optimizing and distributing press releases to maximize their ability to be found and tracked in leadi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features: General | SEM Industry: General | Top News

In their regular analysis of revenues generated by the online advertising industry, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers say search unsurprisingly accounted for the most spending of any category (49%) in the first half of the year. Display was next with 37 percent of interactive spend in 1H 2011. Total spending on Search came in a $7.3 billion during the period. "Strong online advertising growth has continued into the first half of 2011," said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a statement. "Fueling this growth is the ability of adver [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats: General | Stats: Spend Projections

With the introduction of the schema.org vocabulary, much attention has been focused on the benefits of employing structured data for improved visibility in the search engines. The mostly widely cited and easily verifiable of these benefits is the generation of rich snippets:  a specially formatted search result block that includes information specific to the type of resource being referenced. Might there be other SEO benefits to using structured data? On one hand, Google has insisted that the advantage of employing structured data (in the form of structured markup) is limited to the [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org

Blekko is the either the fourth US search engine or the third if you no longer consider Yahoo a search engine. And the company has been able to maintain visibility and stir the pot with its persistent criticism of Google search results being spam-filled. Now Blekko has secured $30 million in new funding from a range of earlier investors and new investors. Most notable among the second group is Russian search engine Yandex. The Russian search engine is making a strategic investment in Blekko and Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh will join the blekko board. Yandex operates in its native Russia, Ukr [...]

Related Topics: Blekko | Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Outside USA

One challenge for online marketers is data overload. There's often so much data that sometimes it's hard to know which key performance indicators matter. Revenue, leads, clicks, calls, conversions, or revenue . . . what should you pay attention to? If you're considering adding call tracking data to the mix, here are three sets of questions to ask yourself: A. Should I consider call tracking software in the first place? Does your website have a phone number? Does your sales team field inbound phone calls? At what point in the sales process do you speak with your prospects? [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Credit Is Due

People don't just want to be educated about what you offer. They want to be seduced. Yes, seduced. Being seduced is an exhilarating experience. (If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it.) Yes, we want to be educated and make rational decisions that optimize our goals. But we also yearn to be romanced, enchanted, in love. We seek brains and beauty. Is that an unrealistic paradox? It doesn't have to be. First, recognize that seduction is not synonymous with deception. Being seduced is fun. Being deceived is not. It's unfortunate that shady advertisers have conflated the two [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

The online B2B landscape is a challenging environment for lead generation. The champs are those who can prove themselves to be the right solution at all the stages when a customer is in the market. Oh, and these days, champions must do it all with minimal resources. To be ‘The Greatest’ B2B lead generator, you have to ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’, and think like Muhammad Ali when aiming to increase and improve leads. Like Ali’s triple threat of a lightning left jab, a crushing right cross, and super human foot speed, successful performance driven B2B marketers mus [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search

In a bid to unify its advertising interfaces and improve reporting for YouTube video ads, Google is launching a limited public beta of "AdWords for Video" -- which includes four "TrueView" video ad formats, for which advertisers pay when the video is viewed or started by a user. The release integrates video advertising, previously housed at YouTube.com, into the AdWords interface. "Buying video has traditionally been a difficult process, especially within AdWords," says Lane Shackleton, product manager at YouTube, noting that the new product is meant to ease that pain for advertisers. Th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: AdWords | Google: YouTube & Video

Politics are messy and often riddled with ethical potholes and challenges. One illustration of this is Senator Al Franken's apparent "conflict of interest" where Google is concerned. Discovered by Mike Blumenthal Franken did a "commercial" on behalf of Google's "Get Your Business Online" initiative in Minnesota. Blumethal characterizes Franken as "shilling for Google." It's not clear to me whether Franken's promotion of the Google campaign gives rise to a true conflict of interest. However, the concern here is the appearance created by the fact that Franken is a member of the Senate Judicia [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features: Analysis | Google: Legal | Legal: General | Legal: Regulation | Top News

The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at SMX Social Media Marketing 2011, Scottsdale, AZ, on December 5-6, 2011. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your pitch is on target to the show’s audience and the session. Please also be very specific about what you intend to cover. Also, if you do not see a particular session listed, this is because there are no openings for that session. Use this form to submit your request. As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX confe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX

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 You Can Build Links Easily With Product ReviewsThe art of building links to increase search rankings has been a big topic in the SEO community for a long time. This always seems to be the topic of discussion at the Search Engine Optimization meetings I attend each month. Everyone seems to be looking for the latest and greatest ways to increase in-house [...] Amazon “Fire” Android Tablet Undermines GoogleAmazon’s new “Fire& [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Search Week is an exclusive weekly newsletter for Search Engine Land premium members that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past week. Below are top stories organized by topic that happened over the past week. Each topic (or Search Engine Land column) is also a link, where you can click through and drill into the Search Engine Land members library to find other stories in that area. Because some stories are listed in more than one category, you may see them repeated. Top News Google Wallet Now Live, But In Very Limited Availability Google+ Opens To Everyon [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search Week

The art of building links to increase search rankings has been a big topic in the SEO community for a long time. This always seems to be the topic of discussion at the Search Engine Optimization meetings I attend each month. Everyone seems to be looking for the latest and greatest ways to increase in-house links. All of the examples below are great ideas that any link builder can use at an agency or in-house. In my experience, my business (empirecovers.com) has shown to benefit from each of these tactics and we’ll touch on each in the following. Empire Covers has consistently targeted [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | In House Search Marketing | SEO: General

Amazon's new "Fire" Android tablet is an incredible act of audacity that thumbs its nose at Google, while using Google's mobile OS in the background. Nowhere does the Google or Android brand appear on the device. Amazon has even created its own browser ("Silk") for mobile web access. Fire is an Android tablet without the Android Market or Google branding, though Google-branded apps are going to be available on the device. Many headlines this morning tout the Fire as an "iPad killer." The 7-inch device, built by the same folks that built the unsuccessful RIM Playbook, may impact iPad sale [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Google: Android | Google: Mobile | Top News

With the holiday season fast approaching, let's run through a quick event-driven link marketing strategy primer, with a few examples. [caption id="attachment_94480" align="alignright" width="234" caption="Woody costume courtesy of http://www.justkidcostumes.com"][/caption] For this column, I'll focus on the most basic of event-driven link marketing techniques. With this technique, you get out your calendar, look a few months ahead to see what's coming, then look for ways to tweak your content in order to capitalize on the natural spike in interest, searches, and editorial coverage the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Week

The SMX Social Media Marketing agenda is now posted! Check out the full agenda and register before Super Early Bird rates expire next week, October 8th. Attend SMX Social Media Marketing December 5-6 in Scottsdale, AZ and get expert insights and real-world-proven tactics that yield results instantly…and continue delivering for months and years to come. Register now and pay only $995 for 2 days of exceptional content and invaluable networking. The SMX Social Media Marketing agenda features laser focused sessions on Facebook, Google, Twitter, viral marketing and location services. And [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | SEM Industry: Conferences | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | SMX & DMD Alerts | Social Media Marketing

There have been many stories in the past of criminals (of one sort or another) using Google, Foursquare and Facebook to target people who many not be home or, in the case of Google Earth and Street View, which homes to target. A recent survey of 50 convicted burglars by UK security firm Friedland Response and reported by the UK's Sky News argues that Google and social media tools are being used extensively to target people. Nearly 80 percent of the 50 ex-burglars surveyed strongly believed that Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare were being used by current criminals, and nearly 75 percent s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Foursquare | Google: Earth | Google: Street View | Top News | Twitter

Google boosts London's Silicon Roundabout from BBC News reports Google has signed a ten year deal to lease the entire top floor of the seven floor building in what is known as the Silicon Roundabout. The Silicon Roundabout currently has about 300 firms in the area and it is located in the Old Street area in the UK on Bonhill Street. Google is leasing the space to provide "assistance to new technology companies" according to BBC News. A Google spokesperson said they will host "a range of activities, such as speaker series, hackathons, training workshops and product demonstrations" as well as [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Offices

Back in May, the social bookmarking site Delicious was purchased from Yahoo! by AVOS (a company led by the founders of YouTube) and innovative features were promised for the community. Yesterday, the newest version of Delicious launched, with quite a new look: The new look Delicious features many enhancements, including stacked bookmarks (called "stacks") and a much more visually rich appearance for users. Introduction Of "Stacks" The biggest change released is the stacks functionality that allows users to group links into easy to consume "stacks." Previously, tagging was the only for [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Yahoo: Delicious