On Friday ChunkIt launched in a private beta. ChunkIt is a search download that sits on top of existing results and enables users to preview them before clicking. Relevant “chunks” of content are called out in a separate pane that splits the screen between the engine and the ChunkIt page. At this stage it sounds […]
Looks like Google’s gained a new direct answer service, whois information for domains. Enter a query like whois searchengineland.com, and you’ll be told when the domain was registered and expires, along with a link to more information from the Domain Tools site. Here’s a screenshot:
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
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. Today: News from the search engines, today’s in-depth look, “Two Tweak Tools That Work,” and this week’s free tips and tools.
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
The Midwest of the US was rocked by an unusual 5.2 earthquake. Looking at Google Trends, which shows popular recent queries, I can see people immediately hit the search engines with queries like illinois earthquake, chicago earthquake, and midwest earthquake. So how did the search engines do? Especially when search engines are supposed to be […]
In its Q1 earnings report yesterday, Google announced that UK revenues were $803 million (£407 million), which was part of overall revenues from outside the US of $2.65 billion or 51% of Q1 total revenues for Google. These figures prompted an item on a BBC blog to project that Google would overtake the UK’s “biggest […]
Google Video has undergone yet another redesign. Both Google Blogoscoped and Google Operating System have detailed coverage with screen shots of the new design and how it compared to the old design. Tools For Your Video Career by Duncan at TechCrunch has an outstanding rundown on tools you can use to make your video producing, […]
In the last column, I introduced British evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar’s theory that we have cognitive limits to the number of social relationships we can maintain, and the importance of social grooming in all primates, including humans. Just as a quick recap, based on the relative size of our neocortex, Dunbar calculated that the upper […]
Travel search site Farecast was rumored to be a takeover target recently and the CEO has confirmed that the site has indeed been acquired by Microsoft. TechCrunch, citing John Cook at the Seattle PI, says the deal was worth something in the $100-$115 million range.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google has done it again — they announced impressive earnings, beating forecasts and showing a 30% increase in profit from the previous first quarter results. Google’s reported revenues of $5.19 billion for the quarter ending March 31, 2008 and a net income of $1.31 billion. Previous quarter revenues were $4.83 billion in Q4 and $3.66 […]
Earlier we reported about the new Microsoft Live Search News being launched. The Official Live Search blog has posted about the revamp. Below are are more details about the service and how it works.
One of the first jobs I have to do as a consultant going into an SEO engagement is to debunk the myth that SEO is “free.” SEO has never been, nor will it ever be, free traffic. It takes work, and that comes at a cost. You need to hire staff or allocate internal resources […]
One of my favorite plug-ins is the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar. Don’t be fooled by the name. While it’s specifically designed for web developers, the toolbar has many options and features that are also useful to search marketers, usability consultants, and SEO analysts. The toolbar has far too many features to describe in a single […]
Video Search engine Blinkx has announced five ad deals in recent weeks, along with other new initiatives. Blinkx reminds me of the old New Riders of The Purple Sage song, “Keep on Keepin’ on.” Despite mounting competition from both bigger rivals like Yahoo, Google, AOL, and new start-ups, Blinkx just “keeps keepin’ on”.
Late last week Microsoft Live Maps introduced “ClearFlow,” based on four years of work and data collection. ClearFlow is intended to provide traffic predictions and better secondary routing. Now, as reported in Google Operating System, Google Maps has introduced its own version of traffic predictions, based on historical traffic information.
There are two new interviews available, one from Google’s VP of search quality, Udi Manber, and one from Googler Matt Cutts. Popular Mechanics interviewed Udi Manber and posted the interview transcript online. Matt Cutts did an audio/podcast interview with Duct Tape Marketing. Here is a summary of my notes from each interview:
A provocative headline and somewhat less provocative article in Popular Mechanics argues that social networking will kill search “as we know it.”
The Google News Blog announced that they will now display quotes within articles when they think your query and the content warrants it. For example, a search on Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, returns a quote at the top of the Google News search page. Here is a screen capture:
Google’s Webmaster Central blog wrote some best practices for moving your site to a new domain. I am happy with Google’s write up and it is a great first step, but I am a strong advocate of a Google Certified Domain Change process within Webmaster Tools. In any event, here is a summary of what […]
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the “initial test” of running Google ads on Yahoo search results had “positive results” and is thus moving forward. A range of blog posts offers speculation and cynicism about the story and what it may or may not represent for the potential MicroHoo deal. The original test was […]
Internet retailer sues Yahoo for $1 million from ComputerWorld reports Bigreds.com has sued Yahoo for over $1 million for click fraud. The online retailer of collectibles claims Yahoo has charged them over $936,000 between 2002 and 2006 for clicks received via Yahoo/Overture affiliates. Bigred is seeking over $1 million in damages and penalties.
Should marketers avoid paying for prospects who are early in the buying process and not ready to submit personal information or be contacted by a sales person? Should these “tire kickers” be avoided so that marketers can focus their attention on generating more valuable, sales-ready leads? While this approach may seem logical at first, I […]
With many in-house SEM teams ramping up, and in-house efforts in general growing, I thought it might be useful to scope out the basics for an SEO-centric interview. It’s tough enough to find good talent these days, and those with experience are commanding higher and higher salaries, so many companies may be looking to those […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
It appears that Google is having major issues with their email server. In the past 15 minutes, I received a few phones, tons of twits, and found a fast growing Google Groups thread about Google removing IMAP from their email settings options. This seems to be a major issue, where hundreds of Gmail users can […]
Google has announced that AdWords is no longer a requirement for Website Optimizer. In fact, you can now go to google.com/websiteoptimizer and register for free to use Website Optimizer, even if you do not have an AdWords account. Now, you can use Website Optimizer to not just A/B test your AdWords landing pages, but also […]
Facebook hasn’t yet added web search but it is allowing users to import content from third-party sites. Users are now permitted to import stories and content (into their mini-feeds) from a handful of sites: Flickr, Yelp, Picasa, and del.icio.us to start with, Digg and others to come. The intention is to enable people to do […]
Microsoft hits back at Google with Live Search News from News.com reports Microsoft has launched Live Search News. Live Search News takes a more linear view of news compared to the
Continuing from previous search stats from Hitwise and Compete, comScore is now out with search engine share in the United States for March 2008. Similar to Hitwise, Google hits a new high while Microsoft and Yahoo hit new lows. But in terms of raw searches, Yahoo and Microsoft showed gains.
Cuill, the stealth search startup backed by former Google, AltaVista, and IBM search experts, has completed a second round of funding to the tune of $25 million. The round was led by Madrone Capital Partners and follows on a first round of $8 million from Tugboat Ventures and Greylock Partners. From the release:
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Having covered Hitwise stats yesterday, today I move on to the latest stats from Compete on search engine share in the United States for March 2008. Unlike Hitwise, they show Google taking a very slight dip last month, with Microsoft getting a slight rise. But while Google’s percentage share dropped, on a number of searches […]
The finding that Republican presidential candidate and presumptive nominee John McCain is outspending (by 2x) Democrats Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton on issues as well as buying his opponents’ “brand terms” is one of the findings of a fascinating new iCrossing report, “How America Searches: Election ‘08 Update.”
If you’ve been involved with social media at all lately, you’ve realized that getting your linkbait on Digg has become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, especially if you’re trying from a commercial domain. This has left many social media marketers scrambling for ways to please their clients or find new ways to attract links virally […]
Sphere, software that connects contextually relevant content to your content, has been purchased by AOL. The Sphere Blog confirms the acquisition, and TechCrunch suggests the purchase price was at about $25 million. Sphere initially launched as a blog search engine but then adapted into a “related content engine,” with clients from the Wall Street Journal, […]
One of the challenges link builders face is pursuing links that will differentiate one site from competing sites in a way that still produces a natural ILP (inbound link profile). Backlink forensics is a method I use to see who already links to who, and part of that process, perhaps the most important part, is […]
If Hakia were using an automotive analogy, the site might be saying to Google, “We’re BMW, you’re Chevrolet.” The Hakia blog explains how the engine is taking a “quality” approach, trying to assess the credibility of sites in ranking them, together with the help of professional librarians. Hakia specifically discusses this in the context of […]