Google, Yahoo, Bing & Others Do 4th Of July Logos

Jul 4, 2009 at 1:13pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

It’s the 4th Of July! Happy 4th to those celebrating today, and here’s a look at how search engines are recognizing the holiday in logos: Google went with a cookout theme for its logo:

Yahoo had a small eagle next to its logo, which produced fireworks-stars if you hovered over it:

Bing went with fireworks exploding behind the [...]

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US Justice Dept. Formally Confirms Google Books Inquiry

Jul 3, 2009 at 8:34am ET by Greg Sterling   

It’s not really a surprise or even news that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed yesterday it was formally investigating the terms of the Google Book Search settlement. This was known as far back as April and essentially confirmed last month by various publications reporting that formal requests (called “civil investigative demands”) had been [...]

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What Ads Types Are Most “Helpful”? Search Ads Follow Newspapers, TV

Jul 2, 2009 at 11:59am ET by Greg Sterling   

Trade magazine AdWeek and pollster Harris Interactive conducted a survey in early June among 2,521 US adults. People were asked what types of ads they found most “helpful” and what types of ads they ignored. Below are the top-line results as well as the age and geographically segmented data. Most helpful in making purchase decisions:

37 percent [...]

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Google Expands Universal Search To More Phones In More Countries

Jul 2, 2009 at 9:33am ET by Greg Sterling   

Of the big three search engines, one could argue that Google is directing the most focused, ongoing effort toward mobile. Clearly Yahoo and Microsoft see mobile as a critical part of their business but Google is more or less continually doing things that seek to improve the mobile user experience. First, of course, there’s Android itself. [...]

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Bing Adds Twitter Smart Answers

Jul 1, 2009 at 6:21pm ET by Barry Schwartz   

Bing has announced they are now displaying Twitter results for a few thousand “prominent and prolific” Twitterers in their search results. The Twitter results show the person’s latest Tweets and a link to “see more tweets” from that user. For example, if you search for [Danny Sullivan Twitter] or [Danny Sullivan Tweets or [@dannysullivan] in Bing, [...]

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OPA Study Reaffirms Display Ads Drive Search

Jun 30, 2009 at 3:48pm ET by Greg Sterling   

Search and display. One often hears how they work together, but there’s still plenty of skepticism out there, especially in the SEM community, about the value of display advertising. Indeed, during the recession search has prospered (relatively speaking) while display has suffered. But a new study from the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and comScore argues [...]

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Google Tests Dropping Off Country Specific Search?

Jun 29, 2009 at 12:59pm ET by Barry Schwartz   

The SEO Home blog has noticed that Google UK is now testing removing the radio button to only show “pages from the UK.” If you visit google.co.uk you may notice the radio button, but some are noticing that the radio button for that country specific option is now missing. Google UK With the Country Specific [...]

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Michael Jackson’s Death: An Inside Look At How Google, Yahoo, & Bing Handled An Extraordinary Day In Search

Jun 27, 2009 at 12:31am ET by Matt McGee   

An extraordinary day of breaking news on Thursday led to record-breaking traffic spikes as people searched online for information about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and, especially, Michael Jackson. And just like their counterparts in traditional media, the news divisions of Google, Yahoo, and Bing responded with sometimes extraordinary measures to ensure they were giving [...]

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Focus Group Study Offers Good & Bad News For Bing

Jun 26, 2009 at 10:17am ET by Greg Sterling   

TechCrunch yesterday reported on the results of a focus group conducted by NY design firm Catalyst Group comparing usability on Bing and Google. The study showed that in many instances Bing was preferred but that users already familiar and comfortable with Google would likely stay with Google. What’s partly interesting about this is that the [...]

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Jeff Goldblum Is NOT Dead (Despite What Google Says)

Jun 25, 2009 at 8:02pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

I can’t believe I’m writing this post. But on a day when both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson have died, people are clearly ready to believe anything. And a rumor that Jeff Goldblum has passed away is making the rounds, unable to be squashed because all the sites talking about it keep crashing under the [...]

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26 People Who Mislead You On Twitter

Jun 25, 2009 at 3:22pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Earlier this month, I covered various ways people are spamming Twitter in my Twitter’s Real Time Spam Problem article. Since then, I’ve been diligently reporting some of the more annoying spam I see. Despite this, none of the reported accounts have been closed. So, it’s time for a public spam report [...]

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Kayak Says Bing Isn’t Playing Air Fair, Hakia Sees Near Mirror Image

Jun 25, 2009 at 1:52pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski   

Kayak travel search launched a formal attack on Microsoft’s Bing Travel yesterday in an article that appeared on Wired, Kayak to Bing: Stop Copying Us!. Apparently, Kayak’s executives are more than a little steamed by the eerily similar look and feel, and even went so far as to put Microsoft on legal notice (presumably a [...]

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Google Takes On Tourism With City Tours Experiment

Jun 25, 2009 at 2:39am ET by Matt McGee   

City Tours is a new addition to Google Labs that puts Google squarely in the tourism business: Give it a city name, and Google not only suggests sites to see, but it also maps out a multi-day itinerary and proposes a minute-by-minute travel schedule for you to follow. And what’s really impressive is that City Tours [...]

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How Twitter Might Send Far More Traffic Than You Think

Jun 24, 2009 at 4:43pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Over the past year, I’ve seen many people report that Twitter can send tons of traffic to a web site. Certainly I’ve seen first-hand how Twitter has become one of the top non-search referrer sources for Search Engine Land and for some other sites I oversee. But as much as you think [...]

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Google AdSense for Mobile Applications Goes Into Public Beta

Jun 24, 2009 at 1:54pm ET by Greg Sterling   

Google had been testing AdSense on mobile apps for the iPhone and Android in a kind of private beta with roughly 10 partners, including Pandora, Shazam and Urbanspoon. Now the program is opening up to apps developers and publishers who meet some criteria (among them, a 3 month commitment, 100K+ page views). Google said that [...]

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Google’s Matt Cutts On “Over Optimization”

Jun 24, 2009 at 9:51am ET by Barry Schwartz   

Matt Cutts of Google has been producing daily videos answering questions from the SEO community. Many of these videos have useful information for all levels of SEO. I wanted to share Matt’s most recent video and then point you to his other videos. The latest video is on “over optimization” where Matt answers the [...]

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iPhone’s Spotlight Search

Jun 22, 2009 at 10:12am ET by Barry Schwartz   

This Friday, I was one of the million people to get a new iPhone 3GS. After getting through my activation issues I had some time to test out the new search feature on the iPhone, named Spotlight (from Apple OS). With the new iPhone, you can have an unlimited number of applications, so [...]

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Why You Can’t See The Great Pacific Garbage Patch On Google Earth

Jun 20, 2009 at 5:35pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

After hearing about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” earlier this year — an area the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean filled with trash — I went looking for it on Google Earth. And never found it. It’s not that the patch doesn’t exist. It’s just that despite being large, it’s [...]

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Google Street View Bike Does Santa Monica, Universities & More

Jun 19, 2009 at 7:48pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Remember that Google Street View bike that was unveiled in May for use to map footpaths in Britain? Turns out, Google has a number of them, and they’re also operating in Japan, Italy and the US. In fact, imagery from them from three spots in California has recently gone online and more will be coming [...]

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Google Flipper: A Visual Version Of News?

Jun 18, 2009 at 6:23pm ET by Greg Sterling   

TechCrunch is reporting that “Flipper” is a visual version of Google News, enabling people to see images of publications — and presumably “flip” through the pages accordingly. Immediately I was struck by two thoughts, this is somewhat like Google’s News Timeline, which offers a more visual presentation than the current News, and that it bears a [...]

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