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 Loses Australian Defamation Case, Awaiting Decision On DamagesGoogle is awaiting a judge’s decision on damages before it decides what to do after losing a defamation case over its search results in Australia. A jury in the supreme court of the Australian state Victoria, ruled Tuesday that Google is liable for defamation because its search results connected the plaintiff, 62-year-old Milorad Trkulja, to [...] Paid Search Study: Yahoo/Bi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Google is awaiting a judge's decision on damages before it decides what to do after losing a defamation case over its search results in Australia. A jury in the supreme court of the Australian state Victoria, ruled Tuesday that Google is liable for defamation because its search results connected the plaintiff, 62-year-old Milorad Trkulja, to phrases such as "Melbourne crime" and showed his photo near images of suspected members of Melbourne's organized crime scene. It's a complicated and strange case that the BBC details well. In short, my summary would go like this: the plaintiff wa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Images | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Legal: Censorship | Legal: Privacy | Top News

In the third quarter of 2012, click share on the Yahoo Bing Network rose to 21.3%, the fourth quarter in a row the network has posted gains. Google dropped to 78.7% in share, though based on click traffic, Google still outpaced YBN. These are stats from the Search Agency's State of Paid Search report for the third quarter. Here's a look at click share over time: [caption id="attachment_138339" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Data and Image via The Search Agency[/caption] As you can see, YBN's share has consistently grown, while Google's has dropped. But the chart doesn't reflect th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Stats | Top News | Yahoo: Search Ads

Google has released a new desktop version of Google Earth (version 7) that includes features previously released in its mobile version. The new desktop features include what Google calls a "tour guide" for more than 11,000 locations in over 110 countries and regions, and more 3D imagery for several cities around the world. The tour guide feature is cool, consisting of pre-created tours of points of interest near areas you may be viewing. Available tours appear as thumbnail images at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on a thumbnail starts a "flyover" of nearby historical and cultural point [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Earth

Google has started showing active AMBER Alerts for missing U.S. children above its search results on both regular Google Search and on Google Maps. And that includes both desktop and mobile searches. Here's what one that's currently showing up on a search for "amber alerts boston" looks like. Here's Google's explanation of what might prompt the AMBER Alert to appear: If you're using Google Search or Maps on desktop and mobile you'll see an AMBER Alert if you search for related information in a particular location where a child has recently been abducted and an alert was issued. Yo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Alerts | Google: Web Search

At SMX East in October 2012, I presented on mobile landing pages at the popular iConvert session. Given the surge of interest in mobile marketing, and in particular, mobile landing pages, I thought it would be a good time to cover some of the key points from that presentation here. Slideshare: The Quest for Awesome Mobile Landing Pages from ion interactive Generally speaking, there are two ways to implement mobile landing pages: Use responsive design to have your pages adapt to the appropriate device. Implement native mobile pages that are explicitly designed for that purpose. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion

Targeting in online marketing has gotten really good – scary good, in fact. Think for a moment about the level of granularity that AdWords now provides SEMs. If I wanted to, I could create a targeted campaign that only shows ads to people: In San Mateo, CA Using their iPhone Using WiFi On AT&T Online between 7:00 and 7:15PM Who have previously visited a specific page of my website Who typed in the query “Dracula costume” With all that data, I could create ad text and landing pages that might make someone wonder if I’ve hacked into their device and stolen some [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Search & Display

Not happy with just running an interactive Halloween logo today, Google also has an "easter egg" surprise. Searches for some horror movies bring up sleeping bats that fly away with a click. For example, here's what appears in a search for "Nightmare On Elm Street," over the knowledge graph box about the movie: Click on the bats, and they fly away: These also appear for other films like "The Shining," "Halloween 1978" and Aliens, as you can see below:  Here's a video of the bats in flight: [youtube width="560" height="315"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y04UtNav13I[/yout [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos

It's Halloween, and Google's got a special logo to celebrate the day. Click away to reveal ghosts of the not-so-scary kind to spell out Google! At first the logo looks kind of sad, just a deserted street scene:  But as you click on the various doors, ghosts are revealed that begin to spell the Google logo: Eventually, you can spell out the entire name "Google" in ghosts, by clicking on doors: If the noise bothers you, click on the mute button by the tree in the lower right corner. When you've opened all the doors, a black cat appears from the trash cans on the left slide. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos

Got the new Google Search app on your iPhone or iPad? Here's a trick. Ask it, "What's the best smartphone?" The app will politely decline to say. The app will reply in one of two ways that I've found: "No one phone is right for everyone." "You'll have to decide for yourself." Don't have the app? Here's a video I made with both answers: [youtube width="560" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYH18JUFy04[/youtube] I'm guessing that Google decided to avoid an embarrassment Apple had earlier this year, when Siri was found to be suggesting phones other than the iPhone as the [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Siri | Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Google: Google Search App | Google: Mobile | Top News

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yelp Adds Restaurant Menus (And Images)Following on the heels of Foursquare, YP and a few others in the local segment Yelp is adding restaurant menu information and pricing. With the unfortunate headline “Yelp Menus: Connecting People with Great Local Food Porn,” the Yelp blog explains that menus will be paired with users’ uploaded food images: Now you can not only [...] Google May Go Public With Its Human Search Quality Rater Gui [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | SearchCap

Following on the heels of Foursquare, YP and a few others in the local segment Yelp is adding restaurant menu information and pricing. With the unfortunate headline "Yelp Menus: Connecting People with Great Local Food Porn," the Yelp blog explains that menus will be paired with users' uploaded food images: Now you can not only read about that decadent chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake swimming in a pool of hot fudge, you can see real users’ photos of said gut-busting dessert from every angle right alongside the menu item... Specifics on menu items, like description and price, will [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yelp

Google is considering offering its search quality rating guidelines to the public. The news comes near the end of the latest webmaster video just posted today on YouTube. In it, Google's Matt Cutts answers a question about how Google uses the data it collects from its human search evaluators -- in short, "those folks don't influence our algorithm in any direct sense," Cutts says. But near the end of the video, Cutts talks about the possibility of sharing its search quality guidelines with the world. It comes at about the 2:20 mark: "We might be able to make those human quality rater guidel [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Search Quality Raters | Google: SEO | Top News

This Gartner report provides: Nine measurement areas your CMO needs to understand Metrics your web analyst can use to inform the CMO Ways to align measurement technology with business needs Download now » [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Sponsor Messages

Announced in August, Google's new Google Search app for iOS has been apparently stuck in Apple's app approval process for over two months. No longer. Google's just announced that the new app is out. The news came on Google's official blog today. The company has also posted a video of how it works: [youtube width="560" height="315"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ZUSPecPRk[/youtube] The new app provides direct answers and uses a "card" format familiar to Android 4.1 (and now some Android 4.2) users who have the Google Now service: It was never clear exactly why it took the app so lon [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile | Google: Google Search App | Google: Mobile | Top News

Many SEOs cheered that Google's new disavow links tool would make it easier to recover from a bad backlink profile. No more worrying about directories charging to remove links or trying to get out of bad link networks. But Google says it does want to see a good faith effort to go along with any disavow links request, or those disavow requests might not get honored. Google: Try To Remove Links Google had previously suggested that the disavow link tool wasn't a replacement for making link removal requests. From the company's blog post, the day the tool launched: We recommend that you rem [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Disavow Links Tool | Google: SEO | Top News

One of the things I really like about the field of SEO is how so many professionals are willing to help others in their free time. They volunteer to help non-profits, write blog posts for free (ahem!), and attend public SEO meet-ups. In the Puget Sound area of Washington State, the Seattle SEO Network holds a pair of monthly meetings: one for Pro SEOs to exchange ideas and help each other learn, and another to bring together SEOs and local business people starting in the world of online marketing who might not know a <title> tag from a local search citation. Having volunteered my t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Keywords & Content

Earlier this month, Christmas came early for many in the SEO industry. Google launched its wildly anticipated disavow links tool bringing with it a way for you to remove some of those shady things you your former SEO company have done. The biggest problem with disavowing your links is that at first glance, it looks like the easy way out. Instead of taking the effort to remove your unnatural inbound links by hand, there will be people who assume this tool will do it for them. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Matt Cutts warned about using the disavow links tool with caution, and if [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Disavow Links Tool | Link Building | Link Building: General | Link Week

Last week, I was taking delegates on an international SEO course through their paces on using the data Google so generously provides in their webmaster tools. I'm a little puzzled that more people don't dip into the data, analyse it and then take actions on their campaigns. So, high time for me to share some non-client specific webmaster data which also throws light on some universal facts related to international search. I'm talking about click through rates. I'm a great believer in the importance of looking at how a client's sites are displayed in the search engine results pages and to ta [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Multinational Search

Custom variables are one of the most (if not the most) powerful tools Google Analytics has to offer to better understand your audiences from search and social. Unfortunately, they’re also one of the most underrated and underused. So, if they’re so useful, why do so few sites utilize them? For the same reason that custom variables (CVs) are so powerful: they’re infinitely customizable. In other words: there is no one-size-fits-all variable. It doesn’t come equipped straight out of the gate; additional assembly is required. You’ll need to set it up yourself to match your site’s a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To | How To: Analytics | Intermediate | Search & Social