Do Some Search Marketers Really Believe They Make The World Worse?
Survey finds high rate of those in SEM believe they're harmful to the world. Or does it? Digging deeper raises questions.
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Survey finds high rate of those in SEM believe they're harmful to the world. Or does it? Digging deeper raises questions.
Danny Sullivan | Jul 22, 2015 at 9:00 am ETIf signed by President Vladimir Putin, law goes into effect in 2016, allows for broader removals than with the EU's similar law.
Danny Sullivan | Jul 3, 2015 at 2:43 pm ETGoogle loses deal it held since 2002, but AOL matters far less than it once did.
Danny Sullivan | Jun 29, 2015 at 6:06 pm ETCan't find that video that Google listed in your results? It's not you. It's Google.
Danny Sullivan | Jun 22, 2015 at 4:48 pm ETGoogle has announced that in the coming weeks, it will launch a system allowing people to request nude and explicit images of themselves posted without consent from appearing in Google’s search results. This move will help with the “revenge porn” issue, where upset partners post images to degrade someone they were with. It’s an issue that’s especially […]
Danny Sullivan | Jun 19, 2015 at 1:37 pm ETWant scores in the FIFA Women's World Cup? On Android, Google makes it easy. For desktop & iOS, it's doing nothing special -- unlike for the men's tournament in 2014.
Danny Sullivan | Jun 15, 2015 at 4:32 pm ETFor the men's tournament, Google was quick with special boxes to highlight results. For the women's tournament, the boxes are often missing.
Danny Sullivan | Jun 12, 2015 at 5:10 pm ETRuling comes in same week that France demands that Google institute worldwide censorship.
Danny Sullivan | Jun 12, 2015 at 1:32 pm ETNow you can ask Google to give you information about landmarks, buildings and businesses around you without ever having to actually use their names.
Danny Sullivan | Jun 10, 2015 at 4:12 am ETThree new elements join the table: Vertical Search, Direct Answers & HTTPS. Mobile & Structured Data among factors that get weight increases.
Danny Sullivan | Jun 1, 2015 at 10:24 am ETGoogle's outreach to publishers and SEOs will continue to be split among a variety of people rather than being tied to the web spam fighting chief.
Danny Sullivan | May 22, 2015 at 9:00 am ETCrowdsourcing the entire web goes bad with Google Maps, causing many locations to be relevant for slurs and derogatory words. Google promises a fix is on the way.
Danny Sullivan | May 21, 2015 at 7:04 pm ETTweets now appear for trending topics in a new carousel format. Twitter doesn't earn directly off display but will gain new traffic.
Danny Sullivan | May 19, 2015 at 2:17 pm ETIf Hollywood's paid content can be shown without fear of upsetting searchers, why not news? But with more visibility, all access subscription may be needed.
Danny Sullivan | May 15, 2015 at 5:51 am ETGoogle's predictive search agent gets new apps that will remind you to exercise or allow you to pay your restaurant bill, plus more.
Danny Sullivan | Apr 28, 2015 at 2:06 pm ETWas Reddit the biggest loser? Early results say yes, while TV Tropes and Entertainment Tonight are seen as winners.
Danny Sullivan | Apr 25, 2015 at 8:52 am ETSearch was $24.6 billion of digital ad spend last year. Desktop outpaced mobile search spend nearly 4-to-1.
Danny Sullivan | Apr 22, 2015 at 3:22 pm ETThe search engine scores exceptionally well fighting piracy on generic searches for the popular TV series. But for the piracy-prone searches it's supposed to be targeting, there are failures.
Danny Sullivan | Apr 18, 2015 at 9:00 am ETThe EU has raised four concerns about how Google has dominated shopping search. A close look at each charge and possible fixes that might emerge.
Danny Sullivan | Apr 15, 2015 at 8:11 pm ETBryan Seely campaigned against Google Maps loopholes last year by making fake listings for the FBI & The Secret Service. He's back again warning against them with his latest demonstration.
Danny Sullivan | Apr 15, 2015 at 12:23 am ETGoogle had given statements that its Panda and Penguin anti-spam fighting filters were running constantly. Now it says there's still delays between data pushes.
Danny Sullivan | Apr 13, 2015 at 2:53 pm ETGoogle says the change is meant to help local searchers, but does the Right To Be Forgotten play a role?
Danny Sullivan | Mar 4, 2015 at 4:00 am ETYahoo couldn't maintain gains from previous months and small "switchback" losses to Google likely to erode share more in the coming months.
Danny Sullivan | Mar 2, 2015 at 5:45 am ETIt's official, Twitter confirms that it has a deal again to supply Google with access to its full stream of tweets.
Danny Sullivan | Feb 5, 2015 at 5:41 pm ETYahoo won the deal to be the default search engine in Firefox in November; now after losing some search share, Google's fighting back.
Danny Sullivan | Jan 22, 2015 at 2:41 am ETPresident Barack Obama will deliver his 2015 State of the Union at 6pm PT tonight. If you didn’t know the time, you might turn to Google or Bing for an answer. And there, the White House hopes to inform you through a special post it made to rank for that query. Right now, the State […]
Danny Sullivan | Jan 20, 2015 at 4:20 pm ETCompany is sticking with figure it gave in 2012 but stresses it's "over" that amount. How much over, Google's not saying.
Danny Sullivan | Jan 16, 2015 at 9:00 am ETUS House of Representatives majority whip says Google not being "available" in 2002 prevented vetting his speaking to group of white supremacists. But Google and other popular search engines did exist.
Danny Sullivan | Dec 30, 2014 at 2:44 pm ETThe core service that launched Yahoo as an internet company -- the Yahoo Directory -- finally closes 20 years after it began.
Danny Sullivan | Dec 27, 2014 at 10:33 pm ETSanta Claus is on his way -- and there are two excellent services to track his progress. Our guide to getting the most of out NORAD Tracks Santa and Google Santa Tracker.
Danny Sullivan | Dec 24, 2014 at 3:29 pm ETDid Google News really close in Spain? If you consider Google News to be the ability to browse stories by topic, especially from a dedicated home page, yes. But if it’s the ability to search for and find news stories, then arguably, Google News still lives. Anyone trying to reach the Google News Spain home page […]
Danny Sullivan | Dec 17, 2014 at 10:07 am ETHow much does it cost to be Mozilla’s Firefox search provider in Europe? Perhaps nothing — because Google will continue to be the provider there despite not having any formal deal with Mozilla, come this December. Yesterday, it was big news that Mozilla announced new deals making Yahoo the default search provider for Firefox in the US, Yandex […]
Danny Sullivan | Nov 20, 2014 at 3:10 pm ETGoogle already penalizes sites that provide a bad experience to mobile searchers. Now the company has confirmed that it’s testing with what seems like a boost for those providing a great experience. Google said today that it is experimenting with giving sites that have earned its new mobile-friendly label some type of special treatment within its ranking algorithm. From […]
Danny Sullivan | Nov 18, 2014 at 6:19 am ETThink social media has killed search as a traffic driver? Think again, given that social media giant Twitter shared today that SEO has helped it generate a 10-times increase in logged-out visitors to its web site. The news came during the Twitter Analyst Day event today. Twitter’s director of product management Trevor O’Brien said the company made […]
Danny Sullivan | Nov 12, 2014 at 3:28 pm ETThe head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, says that his leave from the company has gone so well that he’ll be continuing it through 2015. Cutts shared the news today in a note added to his original blog post from July about going on leave, saying: When I went on leave, I wanted […]
Danny Sullivan | Oct 31, 2014 at 8:37 pm ETDuane Forrester, the senior product manager in charge of webmaster outreach for Bing, has lost his job as part of the recently announced layoffs at Microsoft. The move leaves Bing without one of its longest-serving and recognizable faces to the SEO and publisher community. Forrester posted the news on his blog today, saying he’s not […]
Danny Sullivan | Oct 30, 2014 at 2:17 pm ETWant to search for something using popular emoji characters? Microsoft’s Bing search engine now supports this. Bing announced the news in a post today, sharing some examples of why you might want to do this. For one, perhaps you want to know what exactly a particular emoji means. Enter that into the search box, and […]
Danny Sullivan | Oct 27, 2014 at 1:00 pm ETIn August 2012, to stem accusations that it doesn’t do enough to fight piracy, Google released what’s known as the Pirate Update, a system that penalized sites deemed to be violating copyright laws. Next week, Google is finally going to refresh that system to catch new offenders and release others that may have cleaned up […]
Danny Sullivan | Oct 17, 2014 at 4:02 pm ETGoogle came under fire last night from Stephen Colbert, over a direct answer that got the comedian’s height wrong. But Apple’s Siri makes the same mistake — something Colbert didn’t raise during his video appearance at the Apple’s iPad event today. Stephen Colbert Demands Google Apology For Getting His Height Wrong on our Marketing Land […]
Danny Sullivan | Oct 16, 2014 at 5:35 pm ETBing has a new way of showing you what’s playing in your local theater, a “carousel” format that lets you browse what’s playing. If you think you’ve seen this before, you have. It’s how Google already does it. The Movie Carousel A search for something like “movie times” will display movies playing near your location […]
Danny Sullivan | Oct 7, 2014 at 3:13 pm ET