Dec 1, 2011 at 2:47pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

AOL announced its most popular global searches (United States, United Kingdom and Canada) in 2011 at http://hot.aol.com. While other search engines have ranked Justin Bieber and Kim K at the top for the year, Charlie Sheen proved he won the hearts of AOL users by climbing to the top of their most searched for celebrity list. Most notable about the AOL hot searches feature this year is the ability to view the UK and Canadian top searches independently, by clicking each country flag to view the differences in search behavior among all three countries. As AOL has over 60 million montly [...]

Related Topics: AOL | AOL: General | Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General

Searching For Answers On Ask.com In 2011

Nov 30, 2011 at 12:01am ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

It's been about a year since Ask went back to its roots as a full Q&A site and at the end of last year, we offered up its most popular questions of 2010. In that story from 2010, note that Ask.com claimed 90 million users at that time, and in this year's followup release of the most popular questions, Ask.com cited their 60 million users helped predict what's to come in 2012 (see below). According to Comscore's September 2011 web property rankings however, Ask remained around 90 million unique users, and reported in October that Ask's search share remained steady. Whether it's 60 or [...]

Bieber Tops Bing’s List Of Most Popular Searches In 2011

Nov 28, 2011 at 1:00pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

First out of the gate this year in the annual rush to declare search winners is Bing, who earlier today unveiled the top searches of 2011 at BingTrends.com. Bing.com also created an original video to recap the year in search, ending the clip with the Twitter hashtag #My2011. Video: Bing Originals: Decisions That Shaped 2011 Top Celebrity Searches Justin Bieber proved he's a ladies' man by edging out 9 female celebrities for the most searched person of the year: Justin Bieber Kim Kardashian Jennifer Aniston Lindsay Lohan Jennifer Lopez Britney Spears Katy Perry Megan [...]

Dexter Dings SEO: Why Do Hollywood Writers Keep Giving Search Engine Optimization A Bad Name?

Nov 22, 2011 at 12:00pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

Yesterday, I saw a few tweets go by noting that the popular show Dexter on Showtime mentioned SEO and said that "Google was so 5 minutes ago" while typing in the URL: eliotsearchengine.com* - which supposedly "uses an algorithm to aggregate content without getting tripped up by SEO bull$h!t." Because Dexter shows are behind a paywall on Showtime's website, our own Rob Snell posted a short video clip of the segment (your sound may need to be turned up) from the episode that aired Sunday, November 20th: [youtube width="560" height="315"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUHmR3u4emM[/youtube [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General

Last-Minute Halloween Costume Hunting? Search Activity Reveals Hot Costumes This Year

Oct 28, 2011 at 5:23pm ET by Matt McGee

Lady Gaga and Snooki … err, Nicole … from MTV's Jersey Shore were among last year's hottest Halloween costume searches. Are they back this year, or have other pop culture icons replaced them? Let's take a look at the hottest 2011 search halloween costume searches, courtesy of a few different sources from Google to one shopping search engine. If you're still on the hunt for a last-minute Halloween costume idea, you're bound to find something that works below. Google's Halloween Costume Search Trends Google has been digging into Halloween costume searches [...]

Even Google Thinks “Romney Can’t Win”

Oct 28, 2011 at 4:56pm ET by Danny Sullivan

US presidential candidate Republican Mitt Romney can't seem to catch a break even from Google. Not only does it suggest that he can't win, if you start typing in Romney's name, but if you disagree, Google tries to correct you. Suggestion: Romney Can't Win Start typing in Romney, and Google as its top suggestion "romney can't win," as you can see below: Did You Really Mean He Can Win? Romney believers who ignore the suggestion and go on to search for "romney can win" get this response: "Did you mean: romney can't win" -- that's Google's spell checking system kicking in. Don't Bla [...]

Stephen Colbert Gets His Siri On

Oct 19, 2011 at 2:59pm ET by Danny Sullivan

It was pretty funny - Stephen Colbert started The Colbert Report last night talking to Siri on his iPhone 4S and not feeling particularly happy about the responses, all of which were real. Colbert began by asking Siri to "write the show" since, as he later explained, he'd been playing with it all day and hadn't gotten anything done. In response, Siri offered to search the web. Colbert's iPhone screen wasn't shown, but the response from Siri was read back. Doing the same thing myself, the response was real: After that, Colbert snaps back at Siri, "I don't want to search for anythin [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Siri | Channel: Mobile | Search & Society: General

Google: No Longer Guessing About Celebrity Sexual Orientation

Sep 29, 2011 at 8:49pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Wondering if some celebrity is Gay, Lesbian, Straight or Bisexual? Plenty of people do and turn to Google to find out. But the search engine just stopped offering direct answers about these questions, after they became more noticeable. Google's "Best Guess" About Sexual Orientations Here's an example of one of the answers that were being shown, in response to a search for is anna paquin gay: You can see that Google provided a direct answer: "Best guess for Anna Paquin Sexual orientation is Bisexual." This worked for Paquin and other some other celebrities up until a few hours ago, when [...]

Should Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem” Be Fixed?

Sep 21, 2011 at 8:00am ET by Danny Sullivan

Is Google (and Bing, by the way) not being "responsible" by failing to remove an anti-Rick Santorum web site? The Republican presidential candidate believes so, speaking out this week against an unfavorable listing for his name. But "fixing" Santorum's "Google problem" isn't as easy as it sounds. Defining Santorum For those who aren't familiar with Santorum's situation, back in 2003, the former US Senator angered gay columnist Dan Savage, not to mention some in the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community, with several anti-homosexual comments during an interview with the Associated [...]

Google & The Death Of Osama Bin Laden

May 2, 2011 at 1:39am ET by Danny Sullivan

I remember distinctly how Google reacted during the 9/11 attacks. Miserably, having to resort to using its ad space and special links on its home page to keep people informed, because its results were so out of date. How things have changed, in so many ways. Google On 9/11 Recall Google back on September 11. The screenshot below is four hours after the attack: You can see how Google was literally telling people not to try searching, putting links to news sites on its home page (unprecedented, for Google). That's because the results people got, if they did do a search, were chilling, sad a [...]

Your Guide To The Royal Wedding 2011, Social Media Style

Apr 28, 2011 at 8:18pm ET by Danny Sullivan

The last time Britain had a big Royal Wedding, one didn't tweet about it, Facebook about it, Flickr about it and certainly didn't air it on YouTube. One couldn't. These things didn't exist. But the 21st century British Monarchy is hip to the social media channels of today. Here's how to tune in to the Royal Wedding, via social media. YouTube: Streaming The Royal Wedding Live Want to watch the Royal Wedding when it starts tomorrow (Friday, April 29, 2011) at 11am British Time (3am Pacific; 6am Eastern). Fire up your web browser and tune to YouTube: The Royal Channel is the official cha [...]

What Time Is The Royal Wedding? Google Tells You With Special Box

Apr 28, 2011 at 6:58pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Royal Wedding madness had descended upon Google. Do a search for royal wedding, and you'll be treated to a special box telling you the time it happens in your location. The image above shows the box, with the time of 3am Pacific Time tomorrow, because that's the time zone I'm in. The box is actually pretty helpful for those around the world who plan to tune in but aren't certain what time the wedding happens (it happens tomorrow, April 29 at 11am British Time). What Time? What Time! Checking Google Insights For Search, I can see that indeed, many people must be wondering about when the [...]

The Royal Wedding & What’s Hot In Searches On Google

Apr 19, 2011 at 1:59pm ET by Danny Sullivan

The Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton is about two weeks away, and interest continues to rise -- including on Google. Below, a look at some wedding-related search activity. Wedding Terms Spiking On Google Google gave CNN Money a list of some top-rising terms that it deemed related to the wedding. Here's a sample: fascinator (a style of hat that Kate -- may I call one Kate? -- likes) fruitcake (you have them at a British wedding. I know this first-hand. Searches up 25% in the last month) wedding tiara (up 70% since last year) carriages (up 70% from apparently last [...]

How Google Instant’s Autocomplete Suggestions Work

Apr 6, 2011 at 6:27pm ET by Danny Sullivan

It's a well known feature of Google. Start typing in a search, and Google offers suggestions before you've even finished typing. But how does Google come up with those suggestions? When does Google remove some suggestions? When does Google decide not to interfere? Come along for some answers. Google & Search Suggestions Google was not the first search engine to offer search suggestions, nor it is the only one. But being the most popular search engine has caused many to look at Google's suggestions more closely. Google has been offering "Google Suggest" or "Autocomplete" on the Google [...]

YouTube, MSNBC Benefit From Quake-related Search Spikes, Hitwise Says

Mar 14, 2011 at 6:03pm ET by Matt McGee

Search activity spiked late last week in response to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the two sites benefitting the most in terms of web traffic were MSNBC and YouTube. That's according to a series of tweets from Experian Hitwise this afternoon. As the image above shows, Hitwise says that the phrase "japan earthquake" had more search activity than always-popular one-word brand terms like "google" and "mapquest." In a separate tweet, Hitwise shared a chart showing that five of the top 20 search terms on March 11 were related to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Where'd a [...]

The State of the News Media 2011: Americans Shifting to Online News, Still Only Paying for Print

Mar 14, 2011 at 3:16pm ET by Vanessa Fox

Everyone knows that print newspaper circulation is declining and consumers are increasing accessing news online. Some may wonder why newspapers are slow to move way from print, but the truth is that print still provides the bulk of newspaper revenue and at this point, print heavily subsidizes online efforts. Print, then, enables newspapers to experiment with the online medium. However, the day will come when it will cost more to print newspapers than the revenue they bring in. And at that point, the presses will stop running. The question then, is this. If consumers are increasingly getting [...]

Oscars Golden Touch: Searches On Yahoo Spiking

Feb 22, 2011 at 5:49pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

With Hollywood's golden night fast approaching, buzz is building in Yahoo! search for the 83rd annual Academy Awards set to air this Sunday, February 27, 2011. We'll know soon enough if Yahoo! users are any better at predicting winners than Bing or Google Trends. [caption id="attachment_65748" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Yahoo! Oscars 2011 Hot Searches"][/caption] According to Yahoo!: Searches for "when are the Oscars" are spiking on Yahoo! Searches on Yahoo! for "Oscars 2011" are up 1403% Oscar ballots are spiking on Yahoo! up 38% Searches for the award show are s [...]

Google Congratulates Watson On Twitter; IBM Says Thanks

Feb 17, 2011 at 4:09pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Among those watching IBM's Watson win Jeopardy last night were folks at Google, which just tweeted congrats over to IBM. In response, IBM has said thanks. Ah, sweet. The Google tweet: The IBM response: For more about the Jeopardy match involving Watson, see our post from yesterday: Could Google Play Jeopardy Like IBM’s Watson? [...]

Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum Stymied By Search Problem

Feb 17, 2011 at 10:21am ET by Pamela Parker

As former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum sets his sights on the White House, he has a lot of awareness-raising to do, and he desperately needs some help with search, a Roll Call piece this week shows. Currently, when you search for Santorum, the first result is a blog apparently started by gay syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, who masterminded a successful campaign to associate the Senator's name with anal sex -- on Google and Bing, at least. Savage, and other like-minded folks, launched and supported the site against Santorum back in 2003, after the Senator made comments against hom [...]

Could Google Play Jeopardy Like IBM’s Watson?

Feb 16, 2011 at 6:19pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Like many people, I was amazed to watch IBM's Watson supercomputer playing Jeopardy this week against past human champions. But could Google have done the same thing? Let's go behind the scenes of these two search masters to understand what they can -- and can't -- do. Which Clue Should I Take? Watson has been programmed to play Jeopardy. That doesn't mean just being stuffed with millions of possible answers. It means that Watson has been taught the game's strategy. Watson has been taught to go for where Daily Doubles are likely to be. It knows to go for the lowest value clues in a topic [...]

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.