It's Back-To-School Time; Check Out the Training Videos at IMTcourses.com Search Engine Land released its first search marketing training videos today. They are now available on Internet Marketing Training Courses (http://imtcourses.com), a new online store for internet marketing training materials launched by our parent company Third Door Media. The series, Fundamentals of Search Engine Marketing, has four videos featuring expert instructors: Keyword Research & Copywriting with Christine Churchill, president of KeyRelevance Link Building Fundamentals with Debra Mastaler, president [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Resources | SMX & DMD Alerts

Google UK recently shared a list of 52 Things to Do on a variety of Google properties (found via Phil Bradley). It's a collection of tools and tips about using Google products and services for some everyday functions. If you're a search power user, you probably know most of them already. But Google's message seems to be, "Did you know you could do all this stuff on Google?" It got us thinking about non-Google search tools that might have slipped notice altogether, or just fallen off your radar. With that in mind, here's a list of seven search tools you may not know about ... but should. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Search Engines: Meta Search Engines | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Engines: Photo & Image Search | Search Resources | SEM Tools

Last year, Common Craft produced a great, short video explaining RSS "in plain English." The company is back now with another wonderful one, Web Search Strategies in Plain English. It's less than three minutes long and does a great job explaining how to use some of the most simple "power" commands at searchers' disposal -- the minus sign and quotation marks. Be sure to check it out! The video is also below: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Features: Commands | Search Features: Query Refinement | Search Resources

After Yahoo-Microsoft madness, there's been a bit of a lull so I'm cleaning out my inbox and wanted to mention a few items that might be of interest. Below, a way to quickly search blogs & social media sites all at once, a new video search tool, a study into automatic search queries, an awesome Twitter search tool, a way to track search rankings over time, and a compilation of Google help info for site owners, from Google, in PDF form. Plus, a way to see headlines from blogs and news sites in a variety of subjects, including search marketing. Addict-o-matic From Dave Pell of Rollyo, it l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Engines: Social Search Engines | Search Engines: Video Search Engines | Search Engines: Word Of Mouth & Buzz Search Engines | Search Resources | SEM Tools | Stats: Search Behavior

A variety of interesting research papers on search have come out of WWW2008, the 17th International World Wide Web Conference. Some I've blogged already. Below is a rundown on those and some other papers that may be of interest. For the attention-challenged, I've also included my now patented "Twitter" summary for some of the interesting or more accessible papers, to tell you the highlights. PageRank for Image Search Google Abstract: In this paper, we cast the image-ranking problem into the task of identifying "authority" nodes on an inferred visual similarity gr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Resources | Stats: Search Behavior

On Friday ChunkIt launched in a private beta. ChunkIt is a search download that sits on top of existing results and enables users to preview them before clicking. Relevant "chunks" of content are called out in a separate pane that splits the screen between the engine and the ChunkIt page. At this stage it sounds a lot like other search plug-ins, toolbars, or search "side bars" that have come before. However, CEO Carlton Baab objects to the concept that this is simply another plug-in or search toolbar. He characterizes it instead as a "search engine for the browser." In the past, there have [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Resources

Until very recently, you might have seen a label next to a search result in Google that indicated it was a "supplemental" result. A couple of patents from Google, one of which was granted this week and one from earlier this year, discuss how a search query might return results from an extended database that sound a lot like a supplemental results. The Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that they would stop labeling their supplemental results in a post from July 31st, titled Supplemental goes mainstream. The authors, Prashanth Koppula and Matt Cutts, tell us that the system fo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Legal: Patents | Search Resources

Lifehacker points to a two-page Google Cheat Sheet PDF document that contains information on the company, their services, the IP addresses for Googlebot, Google domains, famous operators and much more. But aren't there more Google cheat sheets? Sure -- here are some others: Google's Cheat Sheet: From Google, with mainly searching tips Google Guide Cheat Cheat: From GoogleGuide, also tips on searching About.com's Google Cheat Sheet: From About.com, again at-a-glance searching tips Google Search URL parameters cheat sheet: From Joost De Valk, a quick look at URL parameters and more The chea [...]

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

Earlier this month, we started the Google Free Friday series, designed to open readers' eyes to search engines beyond Google. AOL happened on schedule, then I had to move Ask.com to this past Monday, as I got behind in writing as we launched our Sphinn social news and sharing site. Microsoft's day was supposed to be tomorrow, but because I'm on semi-vacation this week, I haven't been able to finish the prep guide to Microsoft's search services. So, Microsoft's day will now be Monday, July 23. Since that will be two Google Free "Fridays" happening on a Monday, I figure let's get it o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Resources

MIT's Technology Review published an interview with Google Director of Research Peter Norvig that explores his (and presumably Google's) thinking about problems in search and "next-generation" search functionality that Google is working on. There's nothing strikingly new in the interview but it's an interesting overview and window into some of the current projects. Among them, Norvig emphasizes speech recognition and processing, both in mobile (i.e., Goog411) and hypothetically on the desktop. He also discusses getting users to provide more information ("natural language") or interact more w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Labs | Google: Mobile | Google: User Interface | Google: Voice Search | Google: Web Search | Search Resources | Stats: Search Behavior

Back in 2002, I called Google the "Marcia Brady" of search. Fans of the Brady Bunch know that Marcia was one of six children, and middle daughter Jan felt Marcia got all the attention. "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia," she'd often complain, just as today, it often seems to be "Google, Google, Google" that's all you hear about in search. There's more to search than Google, of course. To encourage people to understand this, I'm resurrecting an idea from 2003: Google-Free Friday. In July, each Friday, we're encouraging everyone to try a search engine other than Google. Under [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Features: General | Search Resources

My colleague Chris Sherman briefly looked at the PC World ‘Search Engine Shoot-out’ article the other day, and I also mentioned it in my own weblog. I read through the article briefly, but something about it kept nagging me, so I wanted to go back and look at it in rather more detail. The more I look at it, the more concerns I have over the piece. The first concern of course is the idea that there’s a ‘best search engine’. There’s very little difference between saying that and saying that there is a ‘best reference book’ or ‘best President’ or ‘best television programmeâ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Engines: Photo & Image Search | Search Resources | Stats: Relevancy

Tara Calishain's wonderful ResearchBuzz, tagged as "news about search engines, databases, and other information collections," marked a major milestone yesterday, with 400 "issues" having appeared in nearly nine years of publication. If you're not familiar with ResearchBuzz, you should be. Many search marketers aren't familiar with the "other side" of the search universe, populated by people who actually spend their time sleuthing for information rather than trying to gain high rankings or improved conversion rates. Understanding the needs of searchers can help improve your own search marketin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Search Resources | SEM Industry: Blogs & Forums

Furl, a personal web-page clipping and sharing service that I reviewed several years ago, has a streamlined new look, and is also faster. Looksmart has also made it easier to create and find topics to help you organized your cache of saved web pages, and has improved the browser buttons and toolbar used to save pages. More on the updates here. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Resources