Apr 30, 2013 at 10:56am ET by Greg Sterling

Expect Labs, which is a small startup in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a very impressive list of investors. Today the company announced a new funding round, though the figures weren't disclosed. Investors are the venture or investment arms of Intel, Samsung and Telefonica. Telefonica is the world's fourth largest telco and owns mobile operator O2 in the UK. Previous investors included Google, Greylock, Bessemer, IDG Ventures, KPG Ventures, Quest Venture Partners. The company has one product called MindMeld. It's sort of a (video) chat app but really more of a technology demonstration. [...]

Top 5 Mobile SEO Tips For M-commerce & Retail

Apr 29, 2013 at 10:20am ET by Bryson Meunier

Clearly I've broken my own resolution when it comes to not talking about responsive Web design, as I've done so for the past two months. This month, I'm taking a break so I can focus on resolution #1: giving more tactical advice on how to do mobile SEO well. Today's column will focus on mobile SEO tips for m-commerce and retail -- the topic of a webinar I’m doing this month for Mobile Commerce Daily. Tip #1: Make Pages Accessible To Mobile Searchers This tip may seem like a no-brainer in a world where at least 25% of all search traffic comes from mobile devices and 90% of consumers use [...]

Searching For Mobile Apps May Be In The Cards

Apr 15, 2013 at 9:45am ET by Michael Martin

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Twitter Cards Image from Marketing Land[/caption] Mobile Application Search in both Apple's App Store and Google Play is frustratingly similar to general online search in the early 2000s -- and the tactics used to make them visible in search resuls also closely mirror the SEO best practices from that era. Searching for and discovering the right apps is a concern for both developers and mobile users, which may recently have been dealt a helping hand from Twitter with its App Cards. How Do Twitter App Cards Work? Currently, you need special [...]

Study: U.K. Mobile Search Survey Reveals U.K. Consumers In Less Of A Hurry To Make Purchases Than U.S. Mobile Users

Apr 11, 2013 at 2:27pm ET by Amy Gesenhues

Mobile-location based advertising network xAd joined forces with mobile call measurement provider Telmetrics to release their first U.K. Mobile Path-to-Purchase study, focusing on U.K. mobile search behavior. Conducted by Nielsen, the online study, surveyed 1,500 U.K. smartphone and tablet users to measure consumer search activity on mobile devices. While price comparisons and reviews were the leading mobile research activities in the U.K., users performing restaurant and automotive searches on smartphones were most often looking for location or local contact information. According t [...]

Search Takes On Even Greater Role In Foursquare 6.0

Apr 10, 2013 at 11:30am ET by Greg Sterling

This morning, Foursquare is rolling out version 6.0 of its app. It puts a new search box "front and center" at the top of the screen to emphasize the local search capabilities of the app. It also adds or enhances other features to make it easier to find places and things to do. The company is using all its social and check-in data to generate greater utility, as well as create a discovery or recommendations edge over Yelp and Facebook's relatively new Nearby/Local Search. Below is the previous version of the app, which featured tabs at the bottom. Search was available under Explore and v [...]

How Common Are SEO Problems With Responsive Web Design?

Apr 1, 2013 at 2:14pm ET by Bryson Meunier

It seems people have strong feelings for or against responsive Web design. My thanks to those with open minds who responded to last month’s column on SEO problems with responsive Web design with either praise or reasonable criticism. While I answered the most common criticisms already, one recent comment from Google’s John Mueller stood out to me. When he posted Luke Wroblewski’s results of sites that have seen success with responsive Web design to Google+ with the caption #rwd #ftw, I wanted to remind Google and other responsive Web design advocates that responsive Web design, whil [...]

CheapAir.com Mobile Voice Search Not Very “Natural”

Mar 26, 2013 at 4:23pm ET by Greg Sterling

Several sites are touting a new voice search feature on the CheapAir.com app. The company says that it uses the iPhone's own speech recognition capability on the front end, but then does some semantic parsing on its side to deliver flight search results. I tried the app and found that its voice search fell quite short of my expectations. You can't speak "naturally" and get good results. For example, you can't say something like, "I need to go to Chicago on April 7 from San Francisco." If you form a query loosely or conversationally -- if you speak to it as you would an "assistant" [...]

4 Mobile Search Trends Tackled At SMX West 2013

Mar 18, 2013 at 1:15pm ET by Michael Martin

The 2013 SMX West conference could have easily be confused as the first SMX Authorship show with extensive interest in and questions surrounding Google's use of authorship and the prominence of those articles associated with verified authors. However, it was mobile that led the way with one of the first sessions of the conference being Trends in Mobile Search. The Trends in Mobile Search session was moderated by Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling and included Raj Kapoor of Microsoft, Jason Lehmbeck of DataPop, Bryson Meunier of Resolution Media, and myself. Raj and Jason [...]

Flush With New Cash, Structured Data Engine FindTheBest Ready To Make Its Move

Mar 5, 2013 at 12:44pm ET by Greg Sterling

It was unclear what to call FindTheBest when it first launched roughly two years ago: "anti-search engine," “decision engine” or “comparison engine." Today, it may not matter. The company just raised $11 million and has 22 million monthly users. (The site has raised $17 million to date.) CEO (and former DoubleClick founder) Kevin O’Connor sees the site as a way to help people make better decisions with reliable, structured data. Those data come from a range of public and private sources. Indeed, O'Connor says what he and his team have created is a "data platform" that can manage [...]

When Responsive Web Design Is Bad For SEO

Mar 4, 2013 at 10:46am ET by Bryson Meunier

In my January column I resolved not to discuss the responsive Web design issue anymore, as the One URL versus multiple URL issue is moot now that Google has announced a way to consolidate link equity for equivalent mobile URLs. Unfortunately, the rest of the SEO community isn’t following suit, as responsive Web design still seems to have the undeserved reputation for being the best option for SEO. In reality, mobile URLs could be the best option for SEO, depending on your circumstances. The Madness Of Crowds For example, though I praised her in my last column for sharing her mobile SEO [...]

YP: Our Mobile Ad Network Second Only To Google

Feb 25, 2013 at 9:34am ET by Greg Sterling

When the dust settles US mobile ad revenue will probably come in somewhere between $3 and $3.5 billion for 2012. Google is the clear market leader. But which company is number two? Facebook? Millennial Media? Twitter? Not according to a statement released this morning by YP (the former AT&T Interactive). YP said that it had "over $350 million in advertising revenue [in 2012] attributable to mobile, making it the number two company in the US mobile advertising industry." Analyst firm IDC is cited as support for the assertion. Facebook probably would dispute the claim, with over $ [...]

Mobile App API As A Future Ranking Factor In Mobile Search Results

Feb 18, 2013 at 2:48pm ET by Michael Martin

[caption id="attachment_136436" align="alignright" width="230"] Google's mobile search crystal ball with Chrome[/caption] Toward the end of 2012, I read an interesting article theorizing that Google will be crawling APIs instead of mobile websites in the future. API means Application Programming Interface which allows software, including websites and mobile apps, to provide direct integration based on functions permitted by the API. Websites and mobile apps use APIs predominantly to share content including photos and videos from one site to another, for example, posting a Flickr ph [...]

Foursquare Improves Android App, Makes Search More Prominent

Feb 12, 2013 at 6:35pm ET by Greg Sterling

Foursquare has introduced a new version of its Android app. As the company says in its blog post there are three primary changes: More prominent "Explore" search box at the top of the screen A map at the top of the screen displays your network's most recent check-ins (which opens a larger map). A left panel ("left-hand drawer") provides access to your profile/history, to-do list and other lists ("all lists") In addition, the check-in button has been moved to the lower left of the screen. In its blog post, Foursquare promises more changes and improvements to come: "[W]e we have [...]

With $14 Million More Q&A Site ChaCha Soldiers On

Jan 28, 2013 at 3:07pm ET by Greg Sterling

Q&A is a great idea that really hasn't worked. Although Yahoo Answers and a few others are still around -- and Ask returned to Q&A as a way to differentiate from Google and general search -- the segment is littered with dead bodies, including Facebook's Q&A offering. The outlook for Quora in its current form isn't particularly good, either. While human-powered Q&A should deliver better information in many instances than search, Q&A has largely failed to live up to that promise. Panda-related updates have also killed much of the traffic coming to these sites through SEO. [...]

Google Patents The Mobile Search Blend

Jan 21, 2013 at 12:49pm ET by Michael Martin

The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently approved a patent application from Google which forecasts a greater focus on mobile pages/versions in mobile search results going into 2013. Apparently the U.S. Patent office works on Christmas Day, or simply wanted to offer Google a Christmas gift before the FTC Antitrust case ruling, as it approved Google's Blending Mobile Search Results patent under USPTO number 8341147 on December 25th 2012. Let's take an initial look at the patent to see what it might tell us from a mobile search marketing perspective. What Are The Key Poin [...]

Yext “Reinvents The Local Business Listing” With New Rich Content Options

Jan 15, 2013 at 11:24am ET by Greg Sterling

Location data platform and provider Yext has introduced a range of new data types and rich content into its PowerListing local data syndication product. The new offering is called PowerListings+ (Like Google+). Enhanced local data categories enable the inclusion of employee/staff bios, event calendars, product inventory and services (including prices). Yext said that the new content types would be available at the same fee structure (no additional charge) under its PowerListings product. Yext syndicates data to 45 local search sites, including Yelp, Yahoo Local, Foursquare, WhitePages [...]

Blekko Launches New Tablet Search Engine “Izik”

Jan 4, 2013 at 11:19am ET by Greg Sterling

Rich Skrenta and team at blekko are launching "izik," a new tablet search engine (and browser) designed to deliver a "from the ground up," tablet friendly search experience. You can also use it on the PC; however the experience is best on a tablet. It's available as an app for the iPad or Android tablets. There's a mobile web version as well. In my briefing about Izik with blekko's Skrenta and Mike Markson in December they repeatedly made the point that PC search/Google is not well adapted to the limitations and opportunities of the new device. Google has incrementally sought to make [...]

eBay Offers A Mobile Search Shortcut For Online Stores

Dec 31, 2012 at 11:52am ET by Sherwood Stranieri

Last month, I touched on several ways that businesses could use apps as an alternate channel to reach mobile searchers. Online retailers have a couple opportunities to use apps in this way, by tapping into the eBay and Amazon marketplaces. Let's take a closer look at eBay, and some strategies for using it to extend the reach of your existing catalog. Starting At The Desktop Before mobile was part of the equation, there was a well-established practice for leveraging eBay for online retail. Of course, it goes without saying that many retailers use eBay as their sole storefront, taking advantag [...]

YP: 30 Percent Of Search Queries Now Coming From Mobile

Dec 16, 2012 at 11:26am ET by Greg Sterling

Local search provider and online ad network YP has released its end of the year review report (.pdf). The data are drawn from a huge volume of queries on its PC destination site, its mobile site and apps, as well as its broader advertising network. YP says that 30 percent of its overall query volume and lookups now come from mobile devices. However 100 percent of queries on the YP network are going to be local in nature given the property and the brand. While the data are not necessarily entirely representative of market-wide local search activity on the PC and in mobile they're a pretty go [...]

Grokr & Expect Labs: More Mobile Search Insurgents Appear

Dec 12, 2012 at 1:07pm ET by Greg Sterling

Just when you thought competition in search was effectively over, it starts to get interesting again. Over the past two weeks I've spoken to no less than four companies that say they are trying to reinvent "mobile search" for smartphones or tablets. I would almost guarantee there are more out there as well. These companies either believe Google is vulnerable in mobile or say they're trying to bring a fresh approach to content discovery that goes beyond what they believe has been done to date on mobile devices. A More Visual Approach Last week I wrote about KickVox, a new mobile search a [...]

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 Advanced - June 11-12, 2013
SMX East - Oct. 1-3, 2013
SMX Social Media Marketing - Nov. 20-21, 2013
SMX West - March 11-13, 2014

EMEA

SMX Paris - June 6-7, 2013
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

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.