Stat Rant: Does Facebook Trump Google For News & Can’t We Measure Twitter Correctly?
Mar 19, 2010 at 6:29pm ET by Danny Sullivan
Earlier this week, Hitwise put out stats suggesting that Facebook is beating Google and Twitter when it comes to driving traffic to news sites. I dug a little deeper, and I beg to differ. Along the way, some pokes at the need to more digging into stats in general.
The Hitwise blog post reported that Twitter accounted for only 0.14% of "upstream" visits to the "News & Media" sites category last week, far beyond similar stats for Facebook and Google. Here are all of them compared, based on that blog post:
Facebook: 3.64%, the 3rd biggest source of visits to News & Media sites
Go [...]
Filed in: Facebook, Features: Analysis, Google: News, Stats: Popularity, Top News, Twitter
Statistical Significance: Not Just For Geeks Anymore
Mar 16, 2010 at 3:53pm ET by Bradd Libby
The concept of "statistical significance" is probably one of the most misunderstood phrases in search marketing. People sometimes ask me to assess whether the difference between two clickthrough rates is "statistically significant" or not with the same look on their face as if they are asking if a particular rash looks infected.
"The clickthrough rate (CTR) was 2% on Friday, but 3% on Saturday. That's a 50% increase. 50% is a lot, right?," they ask. Well, it certainly is for income tax rates, but not necessarily for differences in clickthroughs. What if Friday saw 2 clicks from 100 impressi [...]
Filed in: Features: Analysis
Live Blogging SXSW: Social Search, A Little Help From My Friends
Mar 15, 2010 at 12:13pm ET by Danny Sullivan
It's live blogging time again from SXSW. Today, the Social Search: A Little Help From My Friends panel gets underway.On our panel today
Marc Vermut, Fine Point Solutions
Brynn Evans, Bolt|Peters
Max Ventilla, Aardvark
Ash Rust, OneRiot
Scott Prindle, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Brynn starts off with a presentation (see her slides here). She's been researching social interactions during search tasks. Think about search as no longer a question in a box but what about how your friends might be able to help you. Say, "How do you interpret a 110 on the GRE?" That might be a bet [...]
Filed in: Features: General, Search Engines: Social Search Engines
Meet The 25-Year-Old Who Saved “SEO” From Being Trademarked
Mar 15, 2010 at 10:43am ET by Barry Schwartz
Back in April 2008, Jason Gambert began his attempt to trademark SEO. But last week, Gambert's claim was formally blocked. That wasn't due to a big company or industry group fighting it. It came down to a few individuals in the SEO industry, with ultimately one woman -- Rhea Drysdale -- who fought to the end using her own money and time to beat it.
The challenge began when SEOmoz filed the first opposition to the trademark in 2008. However, the company never pursued this further due to their legal spat with Ripoff Report. Jonathan Hochman of Hochman Consultants's complaint with the USPTO [...]
Filed in: Features: General, Legal: Trademarks, SEM Industry: Community, SEM Industry: General, Top News
Math Engines: For Multiplying Mixed Fractions, It’s Wolfram Alpha Over Google & Bing
Mar 9, 2010 at 1:04pm ET by Danny Sullivan
Ah, math. It's why I became an English major. But now math is spinning back around and haunting me in the form of my fifth grader. Last night, I found myself dealing with how to multiply fractions as part of helping with his homework assignment. Um, yeah, I think I remember how. But to be certain, could search engines help as a double-check? Enter the awesomeness of Wolfram Alpha.
Doing math through a search engine isn't new. One of Google's earliest parlor tricks was allowing people to enter math problems into its search box and get answers. Indeed, I use it for this more than my pocket ca [...]
Filed in: Features: General, Google: Web Search, Microsoft: Bing, Search Engines: Wolfram Alpha, Search Features: Commands, Search Features: Shortcuts, Top News
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