In early June, at its "next dimension" mapping event, Google promised more complete 3D coverage in Google Earth. Yesterday it rolled out new versions of Earth for iOS devices. The list of fully rendered 3D cities includes: "Boulder, Boston, Charlotte, Lawrence (Kan.), Long Beach (Ca.), Los Angeles, Portland (Ore.), San Diego, Santa Cruz, Tampa, Tucson, and the San Francisco Bay Area (including the Peninsula and East Bay) as well as Rome, Italy." The images appear pretty crisp and render quickly. However Apple Insider does a side by side comparison of Google and Apple maps and argues [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Earth | Google: Maps & Local

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. Penguins in Google's Ball Pit: Source: Flickr Google LEGO Trophies: Source: Google+ Google Panda Doodle: Source: Google+ Yahoo LEGO Signage: Source: Flickr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Search In Pictures

The London 2012 Olympics kick off in a few hours and the opening ceremony is just around the corner. To celebrate the special day, Google and other search engines have special logos for the event. Today on Google, you will find the special Google logo for the opening ceremony. You should expect the Google logo to change daily or even more often, based on the which events are happening during the olympics. Here is the Google Opening Ceremony logo: Google already is showing the archery logo on some Google properties: Bing also has a theme on their live background image tha [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos

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 Now Allows You To Write Your Search QueriesIt started with typing your query, then voice queries, then image based queries and now Google announced you can hand-write your queries. Google announced today you can hand write your query on your smartphone or tablet when on Google.com. All you have to do is place your finger on the Google home page and use [...] Take our Search Engine Land survey: 2 questions, 4 winnersWe invite you to take th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

This white paper discusses how to: Make social content available to more than just fans Use mobile tools like GPS to increase your marketing ROI Optimize images for searches without keywords Download now » [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

It started with typing your query, then voice queries, then image based queries and now Google announced you can hand-write your queries. Google announced today you can hand write your query on your smartphone or tablet when on Google.com. All you have to do is place your finger on the Google home page and use your finger to write. Google will use its handwriting technology to convert the handwriting to text. To enable it, go to Google.com on your mobile or tablet device and click on "Settings" at the bottom of the screen (or for tablets at the top right) and enable "Handwrite." Then go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search | Top News

We invite you to take this 2-question Search Engine Land survey. It will take about a minute. Those who complete the survey will be eligible to win some great prizes. The Grand prize is a 16GB iPad2. Lucky runners up will win an Apple iTouch and one of two iPod Nanos. Click the link to take the survey: https://www.eiseverywhere.com/esurvey/index.php?surveyid=13860 Good luck and thank you! The Search Engine Land team Notes: Only one entry per person. Odds of winning depend on number of contest entrants. Employees of Third Door Media or its affiliates are ineligible. Void where pr [...]

Related Topics: About Search Engine Land | Channel: Other

It seems like I am always investigating new SEO leads. I'm constantly digging through sites, looking for SEO-related issues and opportunities. Sometimes I find glaring issues. Some SEO issues are really tough to find. It's like in that Weird Al movie UHF when the kid has to find a marble in a pool full of oatmeal. If you want to find that marble, you've really got to dive in! Lately, I'm noticing the content-related opportunities are glaring. It's like they are practically jumping off the page and slapping me in the face. The technical SEO opportunities, however, are often subtle. Then I [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO

Among the scores of data points search marketers have at their disposal, perhaps no other metric is as shrouded by mythology and misconception as ad position. Despite careful studies showing, including one by RKG in 2006, and confirmation by Google in 2009 that conversion performance doesn't vary much by position, you will still hear pronouncements, even among enterprise level practitioners, that some specific position on the page generates exceptional performance. This piece is not meant to rehash that argument, per se. Instead, we'll examine how attributes of the current ad auction in [...]

Related Topics: Advanced | Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Google: AdWords | How To | How To: PPC | Search Marketing

SMX East Super Early Bird rates – the lowest offered – expire Saturday, July 28th. Register now for an All Access pass. Here’s what you get: Exceptional content: 50+ tactic-packed sessions, inspiring keynotes and clinics. Invaluable connections: Meet other’s like you and the expert speakers pre-show and in-person at our many networking events. Essential conveniences: stay productive and comfortable with hot lunches, all-day snacks, and Wi-Fi in session rooms. Programmed by the editors of Search Engine Land, you’ll get only the most relevant content and qualified s [...]

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

Google's results are getting even more deeply intertwined with Google+. New links are now showing under results that show "Actively Discussed On Google+." The link is expandable and brings in Google+ comments or posts when clicked. The "Actively Discussed on Google+" displays much like a sitelink with a blue "Show" button that will expand the discussion without taking users off the results page: When the show button is clicked we've spotted either comments or posts from Google+ displaying.  Comments look quite similar to the Google+ execution and are nested as responses.  To no- [...]

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

Google's calculator results has just got a major upgrade to the answers provided and the user interface. Now when you search Google for a math answer, Google will not only show you the answer but also give you a new interface for the answer, including a full size 34-button scientific calculator. Here is a screen shot: So not only do you get the answer quickly, you can now make additional calculations on the virtual scientific calculator. In addition, when you search for conversion related queries, such as [100 feet to inches] Google will give you a new user interface for that as w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: OneBox, Plus Box & Direct Answers | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search

B2B SEM often feels like the ugly step-sister of B2C SEM, mainly because the budgets for most B2B campaigns are so much smaller than consumer campaigns. The ‘sexy’ side of B2B SEM, however, is in the potential ROI that a company can get out of a great paid search campaign. Imagine a company that has an average order value (AOV) of $1,000,000 – if that company spends $20,000/month and gets only two sales a year as a result of their SEM spend, that’s an incredible  return on ad spend (ROAS) of 833%. Try getting that sort of return in B2C marketing! [caption id="attachment_125646" [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: 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: Google Antitrust “Settlement” Take Two: Not Quite YetOn the basis of statements and representations made in a Financial Times report, I wrote a post yesterday entitled “Google Strikes Antitrust Deal With EU, Avoids Legal Battle.” But it’s clear 24 hours later that it was premature to make such sweeping statements and declare the case “settled” in Europe. A Reuters article today makes [...] Facebook: No Se [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

On the basis of statements and representations made in a Financial Times report, I wrote a post yesterday entitled "Google Strikes Antitrust Deal With EU, Avoids Legal Battle." But it's clear 24 hours later that it was premature to make such sweeping statements and declare the case "settled" in Europe. A Reuters article today makes clear that a settlement has not been formally agreed. In the article, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia speaks in the future tense about gaining a settlement agreement with Google. What appears to be true is that Google has made general concessions t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation

Facebook is working on improving its search engine, but a company executive says it doesn't make sense "to even begin to think about doing web search" right now. Lars Rasmussen, Director of Engineering at Facebook, made the comments in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. He told the paper that he's "working on something very specific which is super exciting," and admitted that Facebook search "could be a lot better." But, he says, the speculation about Facebook getting into web search is premature. "There are occasional articles out there about how people either speculate ab [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook

Yesterday, Google webmaster tools launched Index Status (available under Health) that charts the number of indexed pages for your site over the last year. Total Indexed Count Google says that this count is accurate (unlike the site: search operator) and is post-canonicalization. In other words, if your site includes a lot of duplicate URLs (due to things like tracking parameters) and the pages include the canonical attribute or Google has otherwise identified and clustered those duplicate URLs, this count only includes that canonical version and not the duplicates. You can also get this [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Webmaster Central | Top News

Looking to do research based on data gathered from across the web? That's one of the purposes of Common Crawl, and the group has just released new data, as well as a contest to encourage use of that data The 2012 data, which contains 3.8 billion web documents, shows stats such as 63% of top level domains being .com or there being 61 million domains overall. Common Crawl is also currently running its first-ever Common Crawl Code Contest challenging developers to do something innovative using the data relating to job trends or social impact analysis. Three winners will each get $1,00 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Common Crawl | Top News

Joel Harvey is, among other things, the Video Scientist at Conversion Sciences. Over the past four years, he has developed video strategies for a large number of online retailers. We've found that video is great for drawing and converting qualified search traffic, so I asked Joel to tell us his tricks for getting video ranked on Google. He doesn't disappoint. Search marketers are always looking for strategies to give them an edge. Ever since Google first announced Universal Blended Search results in 2008, search marketers have been looking for ways to consistently use the blended results t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Invariably, when people get a taste of a good thing, they want more of it. This is definitely the case with online advertisers and their use of first party data in site retargeting. Site retargeting has been one of the hottest sectors in the online advertising space over the last couple of years, as advertisers with Web properties have experienced high return on their advertising spend (ROAS) by targeting ads to users who have already visited their site.  Because of the excellent performance of site retargeting, networks, advertisers, and their agencies often ask us how they can extend [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Search & Display