What are the top stories being shared on Facebook and Twitter? There’s a new way to get a sense of that. Bing News got a makeover today, including new “Trending” boxes that show news content that’s popular on both of those social networks. Bing News Now Features Trending Topics From Facebook & Twitter on Marketing Land […]
Despite the fact that search history can be so revealing about people’s desires and interests, a new survey of US internet users finds that concern over search privacy — while significant — still ranks far behind other online privacy issues. The survey by the Pew Research Center covered 1,000 adults in the US, was conducted […]
More cards have come to Google’s predictive search service, Google Now, including information to alert you to your car rentals, concert tickets and a way to set reminders related to TV shows, book releases and more, when you are searching. Car Rentals Google posted the news to its Android page on Google+, since these are […]
Trying to get your head around Google authorship? The Google Webmaster Central blog has posted a new FAQ designed to provide some answers. What Qualifies For Authorship? What pages can have authorship applied to them? Criteria include the page actually being mostly authored by the designated author, that it carries a byline and that it’s […]
On Twitter, there are many different “conversations” happening simultaneously. There are also particular moments — TV finales, sporting events, breaking news and more — where many people have all “tuned in” at once. Both types of conversations are opportunities for marketers, when approached the right way. I’ll be talking more about tapping into these conversations […]
Today marks the 10th birthday of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization — SEMPO — formed to be a trade advocacy body for the search marketing industry. What’s a decade of the group produced? An annual industry survey. Beyond that, little that really seems to stand out, especially compared to other industry groups like the DMA. My column today […]
It wasn’t you. It was Google. Specifically, Google.com went down around 3:50pm PT for about five minutes, a very rare occurrence. Other Google services also appear to have had issues. We’ll update if we hear more, but it appears back now. It certainly sparked brief panic on Twitter. Twitter search service Topsy tweeted a chart […]
Google doesn’t care about Windows Phone, given the latest spat over its YouTube app? Think again. Google cares very much, at least when it comes to search. That apparent double-standards is something users of its Windows Phone search app have taken to its review page to express upset over. Windows Phone Doesn’t Matter To Google? […]
In June, the US Federal Trade Commission warned seven “general purpose” search engines — including Google, Bing and Yahoo — about the need to ensure they were properly disclosing paid ads. But 17 other “specialty” search engines were also warned. Which ones? The FTC wouldn’t say. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, Search […]
Search Engine Land keeps growing our staff! Today, we’re happy to announce that Lauren Litwinka is coming on as our new Community Editor while Monica Wright moves up into a new Director Of Audience Engagement position. Lauren will be directly interacting with our audience on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and many other places where Search […]
The United Kingdom (to use its short name) is a complicated country, actually made up of four countries across two islands. If you were looking to understand it better, forget Google Maps. That’s because the service has lost the constituent countries of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland — as well as the island of […]
UK prime minister David Cameron unveiled a wide-range of efforts today to protect children against pornography on the Internet. A significant part of his speech attacked the search engines of Google, Bing and Yahoo for not doing enough and demanding changes by October. Below is Cameron’s speech, which I’ve annotated with observations on how difficult […]
Just like anyone, I get crappy SEO pitches. My advice to anyone who gets these out of the blue is to ignore them. A good firm isn’t clogging your inbox with supposedly awesome sounding offers. But as a guide to crap you can especially ignore, here’s the latest from my inbox. The Pitch Gloria C. […]
Are Google’s search results getting too ad-heavy and leading back to Google’s own content too much? A new blog post suggesting that Google’s non-paid listings make up only a tiny fraction of the entire search results page has sparked some discussion, though the exact percentage actually varies on how you count what’s on the page […]
We mourned the closing of AltaVista when it was announced at the end of last month. But today’s the day it actually closed. No more AltaVista. Gone. Perhaps no one will suffer as much as the inhabitants of Pawnee, Indiana. The fictional town from the TV show Parks & Recreation has mentioned AltaVista in various episodes over […]
When we updated our Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors last month, we came very close to adding a mobile element to it. Now we’ve actually done so, in the wake of Google giving explicit advice that sites with issues for mobile devices might not rank as well, in the future. We were close, so […]
Goodbye AltaVista. You deserved better than this. Better than the one-sentence send-off Yahoo gave you today, when announcing your July 8 closure date. But then again, you always were the bright child neglected by your parents. The Amazing AltaVista You appeared on the search engine scene in December 1995. You made us go “woah” when you […]
My twitter stream is alive with people celebrating two important victories for gay rights today. They’re also noticing that searches for things like “gay” on Google are bringing up a rainbow-colored search box. That’s not Google celebrating the news, however. It’s Google’s traditional celebration of Pride Month for those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or […]
In 2002, the US Federal Trade Commission issued landmark guidelines to search engines, to ensure they were make a clear distinction between their paid and unpaid listings. Now, the FTC has updated those guidelines, saying it has seen a “decline in compliance” since they were first issued. The FTC posted the news today on its […]
Look out, Google! Duck Duck Go is on the rise, posting a 50% traffic increase in just eight days. Is this proof people want a “private” search engine, in the wake of allegations the PRISM program allows the US government to read search data with unfettered access? Nope. Google has little to worry about. People don’t […]
Two years ago, we released “The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors.” Now we’re back with an update. We’ve introduced some new elements, adjusted a few rankings and given the table a more encompassing name, The Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors. Clicking on the image above will take you to the permanent home of the […]
We’ve updated our Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors that was created in 2011 to add several new elements, drop a few, broaden it to include “success factors” rather than just “ranking factors” and adjusted weightings of several elements on the table. For those curious about the details, here’s the rundown. First, if you’re not […]
I got a surprise recently on my trip through Orange County’s John Wayne Airport. When I tapped into the free wifi there, I was offered a “premium connection speed upgrade” if I took Bing’s Bing It On challenge. It turns out Bing has been doing this in several airports since March. Bing told me: Bing began […]
Since September, people using Safari in iOS 6 and searching on Google have appeared to publishers as if they’ve come directly to their sites, as opposed to having been driving by search. At last, the reason behind the Dark Google cut-off of data has been found: mobile Safari doesn’t support the “meta referrer” tag. I […]
I went on a BuzzFeed diet about a month ago, where I stopped following the site and reading the content there. I should have stuck to it, because I wouldn’t be wasting my time now dissecting one of its stupid, pageview-baiting stories. In this one, Pinterest is positioned as a better search engine than Google. […]
Officially, Google distinguished engineer Matt Cutts heads Google’s web spam fighting team. Unofficially, he’s Google’s chief debunker. If someone seems to be talking crazy about Google, Matt may turn up with a polite clarification. When does Matt react? This is Search Engine Land’s guide, based on years of observations (you can click to enlarge it). […]
The “conversational search” that Google demonstrated at last week’s Google I/O conference is now available to users of its Chrome browser, and it’s a significant leap in how we use search engines. I’m 17 years now into writing about search, and I’ve seen all types of things that have promised to revolutionize the space, especially […]
Coming out of Google I/O at Moscone Center in San Francisco yesterday, I did a double-take. Was that Microsoft pitching its “Bing It On” challenge against Google directly across the street. Yep. “Put the science back in computer science: test your Google bias inside,” read a big banner, over the entrance to the Metreon Mall, […]
Want to have your company logo appear in Google search results, similar to the way authors get to have their pictures displayed? Keep waiting. New “organization markup” support that Google has announced won’t do that, but it might be useful for putting your logo in Google Knowledge Graph boxes. Author Images Many are familiar with […]
Google has allowed you to speak your search to it on the desktop and mobile devices for some time, but now it’s going to get smarter — talking back to you and continuing the conversation you started. Google shared details at its Google I/O 2013 developer event today and also in a blog post that’s […]
In March, Google’s chief web spam fighter Matt Cutts promised that the Penguin Update designed to fight spam would get a big refresh later this year. Today, Cutts gave an update — keep waiting. It’s still a few weeks off. Along the way, there’s some confusion about whether the next Penguin Update will be Penguin […]
The new Timelapse site, created by Time Inc. and Google, is a pretty amazing way to see how any part of the world has changed since 1984 through 2012. The site offers amazing animations such as the growth of Las Vegas and the shrinking of the Columbia Glacier, and you can point it at any […]
Despite effectively renewing its search deal with Microsoft recently, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo wants a way to break that deal. Why didn’t Yahoo take the opportunity it just had? I suspect that technically and financially, it couldn’t. Yahoo’s “Get Out Of Microsoft Free” Card The WSJ story says that Yahoo has […]
Yahoo is giving Microsoft a further chance to prove that its search ads really can make Yahoo as much money as promised — at a price. Microsoft has agreed to extend “search revenue guarantees” that it has continually paid since the two companies signed a deal in 2009. Yahoo Declares An Extension Reuters spotted the […]
When Google first released its updated Google Search app last October, it never made the iTunes top ten and, last week, wasn’t even in the top 100. But the addition of Google Now helped the app make the top ten in less than a week. Google relaunched its app last October with Siri-like voice recognition […]
Well look at that! Search traffic to news sites has dropped over the past eight months, according to how BuzzFeed tracks referrals to sites within its network. A change of user behavior? Or perhaps more the result of “Dark Google” and “Not Provided?” Come on, I’ll explain how Google may be making itself look like […]
For the 20th anniversary of CERN making Web technology available to anyone royalty-free, the European science lab has restored the very first website to its original location. Could today’s search engines of Google and Bing, which didn’t exist when the site was first posted, find it now? Time for a test. The answer turns out […]
Google doesn’t always use the HTML title tag of a web page, choosing instead to make its own title for a page, if it thinks it can do a better job. Here’s an example of it getting this completely wrong. I was searching for Dana Point Jet Ski, which is a real business in Dana […]
With Google Now coming to iOS, a whole new audience using iPhones and iPads are about to meet Google’s predictive search service. It’s a feature that’s gone from interesting novelty to being downright amazing, in less than a year. Here’s a look at how the “predictive search” service has evolved and where it may head […]
What to do if Google sends you a penalty notice, and you can’t figure out exactly what it’s for? Turn to Google’s webmaster help forum, says the head of Google’s Web spam team, Matt Cutts. If you’re still confused after that, you can file a reconsideration request where you might be given more details. The […]