Our newest Search Engine Land column, In The Trenches, launches today. In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. In today’s debut article, Josh Dreller comments on news from the search engines, offers an […]
It’s well known that Wikipedia is maintained by a legion of volunteers throughout the world. Structured as a non-profit, the site features no advertising, despite being the #7 most visited destination on the web, and a property that most advertisers would kill to get exposure on. Which begs the question: how does a non-profit with […]
A privacy law taking shape in the New York legislature will make it a crime for internet companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent. And because of the generally boundary-free nature of the internet, it would effectively set a national precedent for companies collecting data about internet use. The New […]
Markets are riding rollercoasters, central banks are bailing out major financial institutions, inflation is rearing its ugly head, and consumers are apparently pulling back into their shells, but none of this gloom-and-doom is even remotely threatening the growth in online marketing and advertising spend, according to eMarketer. The market research firm is predicting that, despite […]
Slowdown? What slowdown? The future looks bright for search, according to SEMPO’s annual State of Search Engine Marketing report. The survey of search marketers and advertisers says that search engine marketing spending exceeded expectations in 2007 and is projected to show continued robust growth over the coming years. “For us the story was the continued […]
SEMPO is undertaking a salary survey of agency search engine marketing professionals, similar to its in-house SEM salary survey that we reported on in January. If you’re an agency SEM pro, SEMPO would like to hear from you, whether you’re a SEMPO member or not. To qualify for the survey, you must: Work at an […]
Today, at the inaugural Search Marketing Expo West conference, Yahoo plans to unveil a project code-named “Search Monkey,” a set of open-source tools that allow users and publishers to annotate and enhance search results associated with specific web sites. The new enhancements differ from Yahoo’s “Shortcuts” that sometimes appear at the top of search result […]
Many cases can be made for different types of effective advertising. But what makes search engine marketing stand out from the rest? Today’s inforgraphic demonstrates the mindset of the buyer and their ability to easily convert while in the medium:
Yahoo’s board has officially rejected Microsoft’s bid for the company, but that’s likely just a gambit to either pressure Microsoft to sweeten its bid or stall for time while Yahoo explores other alternatives. What’s the likelihood of Microsoft actually succeeding in its takeover attempt? There are many possible scenarios. Will Microsoft have to increase its […]
“Think global, act local” has long been a mantra for anyone marketing on an international scale, and it’s good advice for search marketers. While the worldwide reach of search engines offers incredible opportunities for marketers, there are plenty of issues to consider when you’re running a multi-national search campaign. What are the leading search engines […]
As Vanessa noted, Ask.com has revamped its news aggregation service, adding lots of bells and whistles and a few useful features. Most notably, Ask has embraced the social media tenet that you need others to tell you how important a news story is, with its new “BigFactor” ratings. Like Google News, Yahoo News, and other […]
As a publicly traded company, Google is required to disclose certain types of information related to its employment and compensation practices to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which then makes the documents public. Google today submitted screenshots of a compensation tool available to Google staffing employees and certain employment candidates. The tool models the […]
Our newest Search Engine Land column, Video Search, launches today. Video Search looks at how search engines index videos, and explores the unique search engine optimization techniques that can make videos visible in search results. Our video search columnists are: Grant Crowell, CEO and Creative Director, Granttastic Designs Bob Heyman, Chief Search Officer, Mediasmith Eric […]
Click Forensics, the company that maintains the Click Fraud Index, a network that monitors and reports on data gathered from more than 4,000 online advertisers and their agencies, has released its most recent quarterly report on click fraud. The company found that the overall industry average click fraud rate rose to 16.6 percent for Q4 […]
Heads-up to all of you faithful Link Week and Paid Search column readers: Today we’re swapping days for the columns. Paid Search will now appear on Mondays and Link Week on Tuesdays. No worries if you’ve subscribed to the feed for either column—you’ll still get the content you’ve asked for.
Denver area residents were treated to some fun over the weekend with reports of the purchase of a 432-acre former campus of Storage Technology by a “mystery buyer,” for as much as $60 million. The buyer insisted on absolute secrecy from everyone involved in the deal, including Sun Microsystems, which owned the campus. “It’s like […]
You know that aggravating feeling you get when you’ve done a search and your results are OK, but you’re sure there’s something better if only the “obvious” results weren’t totally dominant? Or if you could somehow come up with a cleverer way of expressing your query without wasting a bunch of time diddling with variants […]
Americans are increasingly turning to the web for video, averaging 3.25 hours of video per person during the month of November, according to new data released by comScore today. Americans viewed nearly 9.5 billion online videos during the month and Google was the leading destination, with 3 billion videos viewed (31.3 percent share of all […]
On Thursday, January 17, Christine Churchill, president of KeyRelevance, will discuss “How to Select a Paid Search Management Application.” As paid search continues to be the largest segment of online advertising, it’s also become more complex and competitive—and difficult to manage. If you’re still trying to manage paid search using spreadsheets, you might want to […]
In-house search marketers are doing quite well financially, according to salary survey results released by SEMPO today. Respondents reported a wide range of salaries, from virtually minimum wage to those exceeding several hundred thousand dollars per year, with the average falling in the $60-70,000 range. And not surprisingly, experience was a factor in how much […]
Our sister site, Search Marketing Now, is hosting its first webcast for 2008: “Paid Search for Big Sites, Big Brands,” tomorrow, Thursday, January 10 at 1 PM Eastern Standard Time, sponsored by iProspect. In this webcast, I’ll take a look at how large organizations with complex websites and important brands can effectively implement paid search […]
We’ve just finalized the third keynote panel for SMX West, and it’s going to be a fascinating session. Gord Hotchkiss and I will be talking about the future of search with Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone, Brad Goldberg, Microsoft’s General Manager, Search Business Group, and Google’s Director of Research, Peter Norvig. This ‘Generation Next’ keynote discussion […]
Search Wikia, the open source search engine from Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales’ Wikia, Inc. organization, launched today in an alpha version. Widely hyped, typically portrayed as a heroic David vs. Goliath struggle, it’s really just yet another crappy search service that may, potentially, if all goes well, eventually turn into something useful. For now, though, […]
SEO, SEM, PPC, keywords, AdWords, analytics — what does it all mean for you as a marketer when you’re just starting out with search? You know you need to incorporate search into your marketing mix, but where do you begin? We’ll help you get started with this introductory webcast about search engine marketing. Industry veteran […]
Want to speak at our upcoming SMX West conference? We’re now taking submissions through the Speaker Pitch Form that was updated today, with all open sessions listed on the form and in more detail here. Please use this form even if we know you and you have spoken before. We’re moving to a centralized conference […]
Last week’s inaugural SMX Sweden was a great success—excellent speakers and great buzz made for a worthwhile couple of days (don’t just take my word for it—check out a Cracking start for SMX Stockholm, SMX Stockholm, having a blast!, and this great collection of photos from the event). If you missed the show, never fear—our […]
Each year, Google hosts a private conference for its “partners” called Zeitgeist. Very little from these events is ever made public, but this year, James Fallows’ closing interview with the Google co-founders made its way onto YouTube. Jim, best known as a columnist for the Atlantic Monthly magazine, asks a lot of pointed questions about […]
How does your search marketing campaign measure up? Is your SEO strategy aligned with your paid search strategy? Are you taking advantage of shopping feeds? Are you expanding into global and mobile search? Are you coordinating and optimizing your efforts across these different areas to generate the greatest return? Please join me on Thursday, October […]
SEMPO is conducting a salary survey of in-house search marketing professionals. The survey is open to all in-house SEM professionals, whether or not they are currently SEMPO members. Organic and/or paid-search, in-house professionals are all invited to take the survey. SEMPO plans to compile and publish the results of the survey in November. The data […]
I’m delighted to announce that Michael T. Jones, Chief Technologist of Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Local Search, will be delivering the keynote address on Monday at our inaugural SMX Local & Mobile Conference in Denver. Michael will be offering an inside look at Google’s various local and mapping services, and will also talk […]
I’m now accepting speaking proposals for these two shows: SMX Stockholm 31 October-1 November, 2007 Sheraton Stockholm Hotel SMX London 15-16 November, 2007 Hilton London Metropole Please note that the agendas are final for both shows, and I will only consider pitches for specific panels (Stockholm agenda; London agenda). There are a limited number of […]
Next week we kick off our inaugural SMX Local & Mobile conference in Denver, and it promises to be a killer show. I’ve programmed dozens of search conferences over the years, and yet this one, which I co-organized with the able and expert help of Greg Sterling, is special. To be sure, I’ve got a […]
Local.com has announced a contest to promote its Local Mobile search service. As part of the promotion, the company will be giving away one Apple iPhone each day for 30 days to Local Mobile users. This article is part of Local Search Week here at Search Engine Land, a special look at local search marketing […]
Hot on the heels of last’s week’s Local Search Week, this week we’re going to focus on mobile search. More than any other enabling technology, mobile devices hold out tantalizing possibilities for search marketers, allowing us to reach searchers anywhere. It seems like this promise has been dangled forever, but has never been quite fully […]
This week, we’re focusing on local search here at Search Engine Land. Why? Local search, along with its close cousin mobile search, promises to be the next “big opportunity” for interactive marketers. The consensus prediction is for $8 billion in ad spending by 2010 targeted toward local searchers. It’s also clear that as searchers get […]
Hot on the heels of last week’s acquisition of the Grub open source crawler technology, Wikia announced today that Intellisophic has agreed to make its categorization software available via open source in conjunction with the Search Wikia project. From the press release:
Wikia, Inc., the for-profit company developing the open source search engine Search Wikia, has acquired Grub, a distributed crawler platform, from LookSmart. Distributed crawler? Crawlers are software programs used by search engines to roam the web to discover pages that are then downloaded and indexed for searching. The crawlers operated by the major search engines […]
Our newest Search Engine Land column, Search On Search, launches today. Search On Search is a column written by employees of search engines. Columnists are free to discuss technical details of how their search engine works or write opinion pieces that may or may not reflect the official position of their employer. The Search On […]
Google has announced a beefed-up version of Google Custom Search, a site search product aimed at small and medium sized businesses. The new service is hosted by Google and offers all of the same functionality of the free Google Custom Search product, with a few key differences:
Our next Search Marketing Expo conference focuses on local and mobile search engine marketing, in Denver on Oct. 1 and 2—a beautiful time of year here in Colorado. As with our filled-to-capacity SMX Advanced show, we are limiting attendance, and once the show is sold out it’s sold out. You can win a free, full-conference […]