Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Google has launched Shopping, aka Product Search, in four new countries today — The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Australia. The company has also launched Merchant Center in Australia. Users of Google search in these countries will now see Shopping results on their main search results page, and can refine by clicking a Shopping tab on […]
In yet another sign that search marketing on Yahoo has moved elsewhere, the company is shutting down its Search Marketing Blog at the end of the month. Traffic will be redirected to the company’s Advertising Blog. The move is another small step away from search for Yahoo, begun in earnest when the company announced its […]
After getting many advertisers hooked on reports on phone calls originating from their AdWords ads, Google will begin charging $1.00 for calls completed using the unique number it provisions, but solely when the call originates from someone using a computer who dials the number themselves from a phone. When the call is from a mobile […]
Last week’s Yahoo earnings report showed another decline in search revenues for the once-strong search player, and it’s blaming the latest figures on the Microsoft relationship. Is this right? What could they do better to attract marketers, and more of their dollars, to the search alliance? I reached out to a few folks who live […]
Google is now showing Instant Previews — small thumbnails that show when a user mouses over an ad — for all search ads, presumably helping to qualify consumers before they actually click-through on an ad. The feature has been in testing for at least a week or so. The company is touting the new functionality […]
How badly does Yahoo want to skip ahead to the forefront of media and social check-ins? Badly enough to spend a reported $20 to $30 million to buy TV check-in service IntoNow, which launched its iPhone-based service just 12 weeks ago. IntoNow’s main “secret sauce” is the proprietary “Soundprint” technology that recognizes television shows by […]
Google has released the latest version of Analytics to all users, introducing a completely redesigned interface, multiple customizable dashboards, event goals, more powerful custom reports, and a search term cloud visualization. When users log into Google Analytics, they can access version 5 by clicking on “New Version” at the top right of the page. (Toggling […]
Groupon’s purchase of Pelago, the parent company of Whrrl, offers an interesting glimpse into what the local daily deals powerhouse might be up to next. With the acquisition, which was for an undisclosed amount, Groupon gets a team that’s been focused on consumer check-ins at local businesses and offering relevant suggestions — similar to the […]
Poor landing page quality scores have been a bit of a mystery for marketers using Google AdWords. A 1/10 score could mean the landing page was poor, by Google’s standards, or it could mean that it, or the site as a whole, somehow violated the company’s policies. Today, the company has introduced changes to help […]
Amazon.com outspent all other search marketers in the fourth quarter of last year in the U.S., dropping $51 million and dwarfing the rest of the field, according to research covering paid search on Google from Kantar Media’s new syndicated service. The WPP Group company says AT&T was the next-biggest spender, laying out $27 million. Interestingly, […]
IAC, the parent of Ask.com, the Daily Beast and Citysearch, today announced it has amended and extended its distribution agreement with Google through March 31, 2016. The deal, which involves the distribution of AdWords ads and other search-related services to IAC sites, was originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2012. Though IAC didn’t […]
U.S. search spending was up 17% in the first quarter of 2011 as compared to the same period in 2010, according to analysis of client activity by search marketing agency Efficient Frontier. The agency attributes the growth primarily to a strong quarter in the retail and finance sectors. Click volume and impressions were up year-over-year, […]
Google has announced it will be retiring AdWords position preference, which automatically sets bids to achieve a certain position on the page, in early May. The company is seeking to dissuade advertisers from putting an emphasis on the position of their ads. Yesterday, the company posted an analysis from chief economist Hal Varian that concluded […]
Smaller search marketers tired of navigating AdWords’ online FAQs are getting a key new tool today: Google’s phone number. The company says it’s responding to advertiser demand by supplementing online and e-mail support with phone support for U.S. and Canadian advertisers at 1-866-2Google. While larger advertisers and agencies have long had the ability to contact […]
It’s difficult to gauge the potential impact of Google’s new +1 initiative on marketers because of one somewhat mysterious factor: consumer behavior. When compared to Facebook, with its “Like” button, Google likely has relatively few users who’ve bothered to set up profiles. And, if a consumer doesn’t have a profile, using +1 isn’t an option […]
The signals used for Gmail’s priority inbox will soon be employed to tailor advertising in the app to more match users’ interests. The company says it will also be testing offers and coupons from local businesses in Gmail. The system will use Gmail user’s habits — whether they read messages quickly or mark them as […]
Google has announced additional targeting capabilities for ads appearing on its Display Network, allowing advertisers to choose categories, rather than keywords, to trigger their ad’s appearance. Given AdWords’ genesis as a search-oriented advertising system, keywords have always been the main mechanism for targeting ads, though additional refinements and options have long been available. Now, Google […]
Google has introduced a new version of AdSense aimed at making ads more relevant on search-oriented sites like a travel search engine, a job search site, or a product search site. AdSense Custom Search Ads are targeted based upon the keyword terms searched upon by the site’s users — the same keywords that the site […]
Facebook is testing new ad targeting options that display creative beside content that is contextually relevant, similarly to Google’s AdSense but with one important difference — ads would be targeted in real time as conversations are happening on the social network. Irina Slutsky reported the test in AdAge earlier this week. Facebook confirmed to me […]
Google has announced a new version of AdWords called Media Ads, aimed initially at marketers of major motion pictures with new releases. It will allow them to embed the trailer into their ad, and have it automatically come up first when someone searches for the title, or some variation of it. When someone clicks, Google […]
The European Advocate General is recommending that the Court of Justice of the European Union rule against retailer Marks & Spencer for bidding on the trademarked terms of Interflora, the flower delivery network company. If the Court of Justice acts on the findings, it could effectively spell the end of bidding on competitors’ trademarks in […]
Google is now providing new reporting for its AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), which allow advertisers to test keyword, bids, placements and other variables. The new report allows advertisers to see ACE metrics side-by-side with their regular campaigns. Previously, one had to download reports and do analysis in a spreadsheet. The results also show whether differences […]
Google has modified the way its location targeting controls function on AdWords to give advertisers more control over who sees their ads. Most importantly, advertisers can now distinguish between people that signal a location as part of their search query, and others that search from an IP address or GPS location in the area. For […]
DoubleClick today is unveiling DoubleClick for Search version 3, only the third major update in the campaign management tool’s five year history. According to the product’s manager, the move signals the Google division’s renewed commitment to the tool, which ties search in with the core display DoubleClick for Advertisers product. “We talk to customers a […]
Those “Ads by Google” and “i” labels on AdSense ads will soon be replaced by an “AdChoices” triangle icon and label, as Google moves to comply with an industry initiative from the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. It will be the single largest roll-out of the “AdChoices” label to date, giving significant momentum to […]
Google has implemented changes to Google Partner Search — the index where advertisers can find certified agencies to manage their AdWords campaigns — to make it easier for the two parties to get in contact. The company has now added the ability for advertisers to fill out a form on the agencies’ profile page on […]
A website builder and SEO firm has been held liable in federal court in a case in which it was accused of enabling the sale of counterfeit goods. Bright Builders faces a $770,000 fine for damages in the judgment, handed down in U.S. District Court in South Carolina last week, while its client was only […]
Google is making good on promises it made to speed its AdSense code, rolling out an overhaul aimed at relieving the drag on publishers’ Web pages. The company estimates that its helping pages load faster by a half a second or more, when, previously, Google acknowledged that its code could delay page loads by 12 […]
Of the 24 percent of Americans who get most of their political news from the Internet, 20 percent cite Yahoo.com as their main source of news, and Google comes in next at 13 percent. Only CNN.com, at 22 percent, came in higher than the two search-centric destinations in the latest study from the Pew Research […]
Counterfeiters seem to love Google AdWords — the company shut down 50,000 AdWords accounts selling counterfeit goods in the last six months of 2010 alone. But some counterfeiters are still on the loose, raising the ire of Google’s advertisers who are selling legitimate versions of the same products. In response to the problem, Google has […]
In a bid to improve the consumer experience with Google Product Search listings, the search giant will soon be requiring three new types of data for feeds targeting the U.S., and one new type for those targeting the U.K. A fourth type of data, which is recommended, but not required, will allow merchants to specify […]
Search Engine Land has long been chronicling Google Doodles, the special logos the company produces to celebrate a wide variety of occasions. So, of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear the stories behind the Doodles, when Doodle team creative lead Ryan Germick, along with user experience designer Marcin Wichary, took the stage […]
Austin’s beloved Amy’s Ice Cream got a shout-out from Google’s Marissa Mayer at the SXSW Interactive conference today, as the new head of local shared her vision for a future enabled by the search company’s technologies. In the scenario Mayer described, she was at Amy’s — which she’d visited for the first time last night […]
Local business owners who have claimed a Facebook Places Page can now get reporting on how many people are checking-in to their business, and how many are redeeming deals they’ve offered through Facebook. The new reports, announced today, can help business owners refine the deals they’re offering and track foot traffic from Facebook users over […]
AdWords advertisers have long had the ability to use negative keywords to limit the situations when their ads will display, and now product listing ads — rolled out in November — will have this feature, too. Google announced the new targeting capability, saying it’s the first of more extensive targeting features that it is working […]
How can you find a new restaurant, a well-curated boutique, or a artisanal cheese shop, if you never even knew it was there? Local search works well when people know what they’re looking for, but companies like Pelago, with its Whrrl application, are looking for alternative ways to enable those serendipitous discoveries. The start-up company […]
Microsoft has announced it will be rolling out a Quality Score feature within adCenter aimed at giving advertisers feedback on how their keywords are performing — very similarly to Google’s Quality Score. Interestingly, Microsoft says scores won’t directly — stressing the word directly — influence how ads are ranked, but it’s more of a reflection […]
Hubspot, a software company that makes tools for online marketing, has garnered a $32 million series D funding round from Google Ventures, along with Sequoia Capital and Salesforce.com. The firm’s original investors also participated in the round. Hubspot, founded in 2006 by two MIT alums, offers businesses a suite of software to help them attract […]
Google’s Instant Preview feature, which lets users view thumbnails of the Web pages in results, is now officially being rolled out to mobile for Android and iOS devices. The feature, which is accessed via a magnifying glass icon to the right of the search result, had been spotted as early as the end of January […]
Are digital porkers continually outwitting your Angry Birds? Try Bing for the answer to vanquishing the porcine menace. In a first for Rovio, the developers of the hit mobile app, the company has struck a deal whereby Microsoft’s Bing search will be integrated into the Angry Birds game. Angry Birds, which boasts versions for the […]