Desktop Search Activity Hits All-Time High In March: 20+ Billion Searches [comScore]

Apr 12, 2013 at 6:24pm ET by Matt McGee   

Google dropped a few percentage points while Bing and Yahoo each gained a couple … but the bigger statistic from comScore’s monthly U.S. search rankings for March is that desktop search activity reached an all-time high. The company’s latest report estimates that there were just under 20.4 billion searches during March — that’s desktop-only, and [...]

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Yandex Takes Exception To Search Malware Study

Apr 12, 2013 at 1:59pm ET by Matt McGee   

Yandex has taken exception to a recent study that reported it has more malware in its search results than other major search engines like Google and Bing. The company shared its concerns with Search Engine Land via email, saying that it also sent the same response to AV-TEST, the German IT security firm that published [...]

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Google Beats Bing, Yandex & Blekko At Keeping Malware Out Of Search Results [Study]

Apr 11, 2013 at 4:29pm ET by Matt McGee   

About three years ago, Google was labeled in one study as the “King of Malware.” Things have apparently changed a lot since then. A new study reports that Google is beating its primary search competitors pretty significantly when it comes to keeping malware out of search results. The 18-month study (PDF), done by a German [...]

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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 [...]

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Bing Ads Updates: New Sitelink And Ad Position Reporting

Apr 11, 2013 at 2:21pm ET by Ginny Marvin   

Bing Ads rolled out some new reporting features in their March release. Here’s a look at the two of the biggest changes. Ad Extensions Details Adding to its suite of ad extensions reports, Bing Ads included a new “Ad Extensions Details” report. This reporting view shows sitelink performance data by campaign (and ad group if [...]

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Bing Ads Says Product Ads Are Coming This Summer (U.S. Only)

Apr 10, 2013 at 4:31pm ET by Ginny Marvin   

Today Bing Ads announced on its Developer blog that they plan to roll out Product Ads in the U.S. sometime early this summer. The ad unit follows AdWords Product Listing Ads format with thumbnail image, merchant information, price and optional promotional text included in the ad. Bing says they are testing the Product Ads format [...]

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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 [...]

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Report: Tablets Yield 15% Lower RPC Than PCs; (Another) Rebuttal To AdWords Tablet/PC Combo

Apr 10, 2013 at 10:09am ET by Ginny Marvin   

The proliferation of tablet devices has begun to lower the value of the tablet segment overall for paid search marketers, even as competition heats up. That’s according to the Q1 Digital Marketing Report by RKG, which finds that tablets generated 15% lower revenue per click than traditional computers. Revenue Per Click by Device Type vs [...]

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EU Leans Toward “Labeling” To Resolve Antitrust Claims Against Google

Apr 9, 2013 at 11:50am ET by Greg Sterling   

Those hoping for aggressive regulation or changes in the way Google conducts its search business in Europe will likely be disappointed. A new interview with EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia hints at settlement proposals and remedies now being considered in the Google antitrust case. And, they will probably look a lot like what came out of [...]

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How Google’s Disavow Links Tool Can Remove Penalties

Apr 9, 2013 at 9:00am ET by Danny Sullivan   

Can using Google’s link disavow tool help remove penalties? Yes, the company says. But when it comes to manual penalties, disavowing links alone isn’t enough. With algorithmic penalties, there may be a time delay involved. Below, more about how both methods work. Over the past few days, I’ve encountered a couple of cases where people [...]

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Google Explains Why Your New Page’s Number One Ranking May Drop

Apr 8, 2013 at 2:13pm ET by Barry Schwartz   

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts posted a video explaining why it is not uncommon to see a new page rank very well in Google early on, and then, that ranking declines over time. Matt explains that sometimes, Google has a hard time figuring out the original source of a new piece of content. [...]

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Google Notifying Searchers In EU That They Use Cookies

Apr 8, 2013 at 12:15pm ET by Barry Schwartz   

If you search for anything at Google UK or on any of the 27 localized versions of Google in the European Union, Google will now prompt you with a notification that they are using cookies to provide search results to you. In fact, Google says that by using Google search you are agreeing to allow [...]

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Google Shuts Down Payday Loan Advertiser’s Campaigns Over The Weekend

Apr 8, 2013 at 10:46am ET by Ginny Marvin   

According to TheDrum.com, Google pulled all paid search ads run by Moneysupermarket.com as part of a crackdown on payday loan vendors that disregard AdWords’ policies. The Drum reports: Google pulled all Moneysupermarket’s domain level ads including all campaigns across car and home insurance on Saturday (6 April) evening. The ads were down for over 24 [...]

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“Advertisers Deserve Control” Bing Ads Responds To AdWords Enhanced Campaigns

Apr 5, 2013 at 10:02am ET by Ginny Marvin   

Reiterating statements he made at SMX West last month, David Pann, general manager of the Search Network at Microsoft, is making it clear that Bing Ads will not go the way of AdWords Enhanced Campaigns in reducing device targeting options. He spoke to advertisers at a San Francisco Forum yesterday about the concern and addressed [...]

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While “Facebook Home” Keeps Google, Search Is Harder To Reach

Apr 4, 2013 at 4:25pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Pick your survey, and one of the top activities on a smartphone is to use Facebook. That’s what the new Facebook Home is all about, making it easier for Facebook users to get Facebook. But it also makes another top activity — search — harder to do. On Android devices, search is almost always just [...]

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Google Alerts Is Working Again

Apr 4, 2013 at 9:00am ET by Danny Sullivan   

Good news! As best I can tell, the poor performance of Google Alerts that has plagued Google’s monitoring service for months finally seems over. I asked, but Google won’t confirm that it’s made any changes. Still, it’s pretty clear to me that something has happened for the better. I noticed an improvement that began on [...]

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Facebook Nearby Is Now Facebook “Local Search”

Apr 3, 2013 at 6:53pm ET by Greg Sterling   

Goodbye Facebook Nearby, hello Facebook Local Search. InsideFacebook points out that the company has renamed its mobile app feature “Nearby” as Facebook “local search.”  Until late last year, Nearby was a friend-finder tool. Then it became a way to find local business recommendations. But, many users are undoubtedly still unaware of the change in functionality. The name change will [...]

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Link Seller Linking To You? Google Says You Won’t Benefit From It.

Apr 3, 2013 at 10:32am ET by Barry Schwartz   

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, posted a 90-second video on what happens if a site that is selling links also links to your site. In short, Matt Cutts explains that when sites that sell links (with Google knowing about it) link to you, Google won’t pass value from that link seller website. So, [...]

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Google Upgrades Its Google Places Dashboard With Google+ Local Integration

Apr 2, 2013 at 8:11pm ET by Matt McGee   

Google has begun a staged upgrade of its Google Places Dashboard — the backend tool that allows local businesses to manage their business information that appears in Google’s search results. A new dashboard that looks much more like the current Google (and Google+) aesthetic, and also offers some new functionality, will be available “over the [...]

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Yes, Google Says It’s Having Problems Listing iTunes Preview Pages

Apr 2, 2013 at 6:28pm ET by Danny Sullivan   

Yes, it is harder to find pages to iTunes apps in Google. But no, the company says, it’s not part of some nefarious plot. Rather, Google’s having technical problems gathering iTunes Preview pages, an issue it’s working to solve. Google has confirmed the issue, saying: We’ve been having some issues fetching pages from the iTunes [...]

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