May 24, 2013 at 10:57am ET by Ginny Marvin

Google released a couple of new UI features with the latest Chrome update for Android yesterday and announced that voice search will be coming to Chrome for iOS "soon". Android Updates With the Android update, the long search URL box is gone and search queries in Chrome display in the omnibox. And now, while browsing, webpages show in full screen; the top toolbar disappears when you scroll down to give more real estate to the webpage itself. Scroll back up to the top of the page, and the toolbar will reappear. Voice Search Coming To Chrome iOS Voice search made a big splash at Googl [...]

Will [Not Provided] Ever Reach 100% In Web Analytics?

Jan 18, 2013 at 2:07pm ET by Vanessa Fox

With the news today that Chrome is moving to secure search, marketers may be wondering about the larger picture of using search data in Web analytics. The searches people do that lead them to a site is valuable data to an organization. What other data source do we have that gives us direct access to our customers' wants and needs? Sure, we can ask them, but customers can lie. Or choose not to answer. By looking at exactly what visitors have searched for, we can learn a lot about who our customers are, what they really want, and if we're providing it to them. Search marketers have valued [...]

Google’s Gags Go Worldwide For April Fool’s Day 2012

Apr 1, 2012 at 3:37am ET by Matt McGee

It was right about this time last year when we gave Google the winner's trophy for a series of gags that put all others to shame. We could do the same again right now, because Google has tried to top itself with another round of April Fool's Day jokes that pretty well span the globe of Google's international properties. Below is a recap of Google's (and a few others) pranks, and we'll do our best to update this as the day goes along. Google Racing: Self-Driving Cars Hit NASCAR The main joke at the moment is Google's "announcement" of a partnership with NASCAR called Google Racing, which b [...]

Firefox To Use Google Secure Search By Default; Expect More “Not Provided” Keywords To Follow

Mar 21, 2012 at 11:47pm ET by Danny Sullivan

The popular Firefox browser is on track to use a secure method of searching Google by default, a change that will help prevent potential "eavesdropping" of what people are searching for. It will also further reduce the ability for publishers to know how people find their sites in Google -- except for Google advertisers. A loophole in Google Secure Search continues to provide them with this data. "We are currently testing the change to use SSL for built-in Google searches in our Firefox nightly channel. If no issues are uncovered, it will move through our Aurora and Beta release channels befor [...]

Google Chrome’s Paid Link Penalty Now Lifted

Mar 16, 2012 at 9:37am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has lifted the 60-day paid link penalty Google Chrome was given the first week of January. Now if you search for [chrome], [browser] or similar searches, the Google Chrome landing page will once again show up on the first page of the search results. Here is a picture showing the page ranking in position number for on Google: As you may remember, right after the New Years, Google was caught running a sponsored post campaign for Chrome. After a day or so, Google's Matt Cutts applied a link penalty to the Google Chrome landing page for 60 days. Now, about days later, Googl [...]

Google Screenwise: New Program Pays You To Give Up Privacy & Surf The Web With Chrome

Feb 8, 2012 at 1:30am ET by Matt McGee

Google is quietly taking requests from web users who want to get paid to surf the web using the Chrome browser while sharing data with Google. The program is called Screenwise and, though we're not aware of any official announcement, Google has a signup page at www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel. The page explains that Google wants to create a panel of people to help it "learn more about how everyday people use the Internet." It explains that panel members have to be at least 13 years old, have (or sign up for) a Google account and use the Chrome web browser. They also have to be willin [...]

Chrome’s Market Share Drops In January; Was It Due To Google’s Penalty?

Feb 3, 2012 at 3:05pm ET by Matt McGee

After 17 straight months of gains in market share, Google's Chrome web browser dropped 0.17 percent in January, and the company that tracks browser market share suggests that it's because Google penalized Chrome after a botched sponsored blog post campaign. The figures come from Net Applications, which says it tracks about 160 million unique visits per month to a worldwide network of more than 40,000 sites. According to Net Applications, Firefox and Safari also saw market share losses in January. While they were declining, Microsoft's Internet Explorer gained 1.09%, its biggest monthly g [...]

Google’s Chrome Page No Longer Ranks For “Browser” After Sponsored Post Penalty

Jan 3, 2012 at 4:32pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Searches for "browser" no longer bring up the Google Chrome home page after Google applied a penalty against the page because of Google's own sponsored post campaign. Google said even though it felt there were no "remaining violations" of its guidelines, the search engine's spam fighting team was going to reduce the PageRank value of the Google Chrome home page, which in turn lead to today's ranking decrease. From the statement Google sent us: We've investigated and are taking manual action to demote www.google.com/chrome and lower the site’s PageRank for a period of at least 60 day [...]

Google: Yes, Sponsored Post Campaign Was Ours But Not What We Signed-Up For

Jan 3, 2012 at 1:02pm ET by Danny Sullivan

It's been about a day since we covered Google's sponsored post campaign to promote its Chrome browser, a campaign that produced posts that violate Google's guidelines against "thin" content and potentially those against buying links. Yes, it was a Google campaign, but not what the company says it signed-up for. One agency is falling on its sword; another is saying no paid links were purchased. Let's piece through what we've got. Google: We Only Meant To Buy Online Ads Google has sent me this statement: Google never agreed to anything more than online ads. We have consistently avoided paid [...]

Google’s Jaw-Dropping Sponsored Post Campaign For Chrome

Jan 2, 2012 at 6:38pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Google, the company that has been fighting against paid links and "thin" content, seems to be behind a campaign that's generating both on behalf of its Chrome browser. File this under "what were they thinking." "This Post Sponsored By Google" Aaron Wall wrote about the campaign today at SEO Book, spotting how a search for "This post is sponsored by Google" brings back over 400 pages written apparently as part of a Google marketing campaign: We're checking with Google for confirmation that the company is behind the campaign, but expect a response to be delayed, as Google's PR department [...]

Cats & Dogs Living Together: Bing Promotes Firefox

Oct 26, 2011 at 2:41pm ET by Danny Sullivan

If you ever wanted proof that Microsoft has learned that for Bing to succeed, it needs to spread its wings beyond Microsoft, look no further than today's news that Bing is offering "Firefox With Bing." That's right, Microsoft is pushing a rival browser to its own Internet Explorer. Firefox With Bing In a blog post today, Bing invites people to download a version of "Firefox With Bing" where Bing is used as the default search engine for the Firefox search box and for searches conducted from the "AwesomeBar" address window: In most countries, Firefox uses Google as its default search engine [...]

A Look Inside Google’s London Store

Oct 4, 2011 at 12:43pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Dan Barker posted 14 images of the first Google Store that launched in London last week. Here are some pictures shared by Dan of Google's first retail store, named Chromezone, which he's given us permission to reprint: [...]

Bing Users Are From Internet Explorer; Google Users From Firefox, Chrome & Safari

Jul 29, 2011 at 10:30am ET by Danny Sullivan

While almost 75% of Bing visitors in North America use Internet Explorer, only about 40% of Google's search visitors use the web's most popular browser. Instead, Google deals with Firefox, Apple's Safari and Google's own Chrome browser cause those to combine and outdistance IE usage. Internet Explorer Is Big On Bing The figures come from a new report by Chitika, which analyzed a week's worth of traffic across its ad network sites from July 20 to 26, 2011, for North America. Chitika says almost 75% of all Bing search traffic comes from IE users: Our internal stats here at Search Engin [...]

Google And Virgin Air Offer Clever Chromebook Promo

Jun 30, 2011 at 12:40pm ET by Greg Sterling

Google and Virgin America have teamed up in a clever Chromebook promotion that will benefit both brands. The airline sent out an email this morning that offers a free Chromebook test drive, "From July 1 to September 30 . . . on select flights from San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, and Chicago, exclusively on Virgin America." This helps give users hands-on access to Google's PC alternative (an iPad with a keyboard) and it helps Virgin further brand itself as the coolest of domestic carriers (with WiFi on every flight). I suspect this will prompt a few flyers to switch from a dreary [...]

Is Chromebook Google’s True iPad Competitor?

Jun 20, 2011 at 9:01am ET by Greg Sterling

Having used the Samsung 10.1 Android tablet (running Honeycomb) for a number of weeks I can tell you conclusively that it doesn't compete with the iPad. While the hardware is light and generally well designed, the overall software experience falls well short of the standard the iPad has established. An Unintentional iPad Competitor? Enter Google's Chromebook: is this Google's true competitor to the iPad? Chromebook is certainly not positioned as a tablet competitor or alternative. But it may turn out that way for some people in the market for a second (or third) computer. There are a fair [...]

Google Search Globe: See Searches Happening Visually Around The World

May 5, 2011 at 12:53pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced a neat new visual display of Google's search volume by search query language. The tool is named the Google Search Globe. Search Globe plots different colored bars protruding from the globe. Each color represents a different language, and you'd see a nice diverse set of colors (i.e. languages) over places like Europe and parts of Asia. Here is a video of how it works: [youtube width="600" height="480"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpOlpZBZU-A[/youtube] The Google Data Arts Team put this together to help Internet accessibility throughout the world by geographic ar [...]

New: Block Sites From Google Results Using Chrome’s “Personal Blocklist”

Feb 14, 2011 at 3:26pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has announced that a new way to block certain sites from appearing in Google's search results, though a special Google-made Chrome browser extension named Personal Blocklist. Using Personal Blocklist How do you use Personal Blocklist? (1) Download and install the extension over here. You will need Chrome. (2) When you are viewing search results on Google, you can then click "block URL" under the search result: (3) When a set of search results is impacted by this choice, Google will tell you at the bottom of the search results. The warning Google gives you reads "some result [...]

Browsers To Offer Official Behavioral Targeting Blocking

Jan 25, 2011 at 9:02am ET by Barry Schwartz

Yesterday, Google and Firefox announced new tools to block behavioral targeting across the web. Behavioral targeting are a form of ads that use your online behavior to target specific ads to you, as you browse the web. Google calls these interest based advertising but most of the web calls them behavioral targeting. Google released a new Chrome extension named Keep My Opt-Outs. The extension helps block some of the personalized advertising and related data tracking performed by companies. I should note, Google has an older Chrome extension named IAB Opt Out that blocked Google's inter [...]

Google Gaining Ground In Smartphone, Browser Markets

Jan 3, 2011 at 4:55pm ET by Pamela Parker

Google's Android smartphone operating system is poised to overtake Apple's iPhone for market share, and its Chrome browser has reached a major milestone, capturing 10% of the market. The smartphone figures come from Nielsen in November, while the browser numbers were measured in December by Net Applications, an Aliso Viejo, Calif. company that tracks market share on various technologies. The figures show that Google, despite being a latecomer to both fields, is giving competitors a serious run for their money. In the smartphone arena, Android OS has achieved 25.8% market share, which i [...]

Could Google’s ChromeBooks Succeed In The Enterprise?

Dec 8, 2010 at 8:30am ET by Greg Sterling

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Google may have missed its "window" for Chrome OS netbooks (pun intended). That was based on my prior understanding of ChomeBooks as an affordable "second computer" aimed chiefly at consumers. This is generally how Google had positioned the devices a year ago. My thesis going in was that tablets have now taken that "second computer" market away -- so unless they were really affordable consumers might not be interested in Chrome computers anymore. But yesterday's quasi-launch event for the Chrome "notebook" -- the term "netbook" didn't make an appearance -- [...]

Get Our News, Everywhere!

Follow @sengineland

Got a tip? Tell us here!

Most Likes
Most Tweets
Comments

Our Stories Being Liked on Facebook

Search Engine Land Sponsors

Advertise With Us

Free Daily Search News Recap!

SearchCap is a once-per-day newsletter update - sign up below and get the news delivered to you!

Click to watch SMX conference video

Join us at an upcoming SMX event:

North America

SMX East - Oct. 1-3, 2013
SMX Social Media Marketing - Nov. 20-21, 2013
SMX West - March 11-13, 2014
SMX Advanced - June 2014

EMEA

SMX Stockholm - Oct. 14-15, 2013
SMX Milan - Nov. 7-8, 2013
SMX Israel - Jan. 2014
SMX Munich - March 25-26, 2014
SMX London - May 2014
SMX Paris - June 2014

APAC

SMX Sydney - April 2014

Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.