According to the Google Earth Blog, Google Earth version 4.3 (free) is coming later today. Among the upgrades and improvements are faster load times for 3D buildings, day/night lighting, new navigational options, and StreetView images. (Google has also just started to let StreetView on to third party sites.)
Don’t Be Evil or Don’t Lose Value? from The Sydney Morning Herald interviews Google’s vice president, Marissa Mayer, on Google’s famous company motto, “Don’t Be Evil.” In that interview, she explains that the motto “wasn’t like an elected, ordained motto.” She added, “It [the motto] is good PR but really it’s empty because it’s questionable […]
Google Seeks a Leading Role in China from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google China’s president, Kai-Fu Lee, wants Google to be a market leader in China in five years. Kai-Fu Lee said, “Certainly, we would like to aspire to be a market leader in five years.” His plans to achieving that goal is […]
There are many aspects of the blogosphere that make it attractive to search marketers: the sharing and distribution of content, the potential for viral marketing and link bait, and the associated linking opportunities. But, so much more goes into the relationship we have with blog communities. This week’s infographic describes both the tangible and intangible […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Yahoo has announced the launch of their new crawler, Yahoo! Slurp 3.0. 3.0 is slowly being pushed out over the course of the “next several weeks,” including “some infrastructure updates,” Yahoo said. I suspect the recent changes we reported with the Yahoo Search Tax Day update is related to the “infrastructure updates.” The new spider […]
Last week, Hitwise released the latest statistics for search engine share in the United States for March 2008, showing Google at an all-time high while Microsoft and Yahoo hit all-time lows.
Having just wrapped up one of our most successful Yellow Pages Association annual conferences, one thing is clear: Our industry has been able to navigate all types of business climates and has evolved to meet current and future market needs. Recent data from the 2008 Yellow Pages Association Industry Usage Study, conducted by Knowledge Networks/Statistical […]
The final quote in Miguel Helft’s NY Times article on the deepening alliance between Google and CRM software provider Salesforce.com says it all, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so that makes Google my best friend.” It’s attributed to Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com. Basically, in a deal announced this morning, Salesforce is […]
At the Search Engine Roundtable, I reported about a Yahoo Search update that started this weekend. It appears that there are major shifts taking place in the way Yahoo Search ranks and indexes some sites. A WebmasterWorld thread has several SEOs and webmasters tracking the changes in details. We have yet to see an official […]
Google execs out of sight from The Australian reports that Google Australia’s Director, Mark Tucker, has six official birthdays. According the report, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has six different recorded birthdays for Mr. Tucker. The birthdays include January 21, 1953; January 13, 1953; January 25, 1953; January 12, 1953;, January 12, 1963; and […]
height=”100″ hspace=”5″ vspace=”3″ width=”100″> If you buy search ads to drive sales, you are a direct response advertiser. Welcome, today’s short column is for you. If you buy search to increase awareness of your brand, you’re a brand advertiser. Sorry, but this column is for the direct response gang, us red-headed step-kids of the advertising […]
Last week we kicked off our inaugural SMX Munich event, and by all accounts it was a big success. Attendee turnout exceeded expectations, and exhibitors reported robust (and well-qualified) traffic throughout both days in the exhibit hall (and, of course, the food was a highlight, with an absolutely mouthwatering spread of local Bavarian dishes and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
One of the biggest search challenges has long been that the major search engines like Google cannot crawl material that can only be retrieved through the use of forms. Now Google is filling out those form to obtain the information previously hidden, the company has announced.
Yahoo has largely opted out of the mapping arms race between Microsoft and Google that has seen both invest millions in their mapping platforms. While it was the early pioneer of dynamic mapping and use of maps as a local search tool, the company decided to focus on more “practical” tools and functionality rather than […]
As expected, Yahoo told me that you can expect some of your minimum bids to change as soon as early next week. If you are running ad campaigns on Yahoo Search Marketing and your quality is not up to Yahoo’s level, then your minimum bid may spike up. Yahoo informed us of this change back […]
Microsoft has added its input to that of a host of other stakeholders in the growing debate over consumer privacy, online ad targeting, and potential US (and local) government regulation. (Here’s a related WSJ story on search engine efforts to block a proposed anti-tracking law in the New York state legislature.) In a filing today […]
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.
Danny has written extensively about the past and potential future of search. And this past year we saw the introduction of “blended” or “universal” search. Among other developments, search results became much more “multi-media” and visual. In particular, video became part of organic and, most recently, paid search results. Accordingly, I believe that the future […]
For a long time there has been a tug of war between developers and designers who love to use Flash and SEOs who know how bad Flash can be from a search engine crawler perspective. The designer wants the beauty of an all Flash site. The SEO wants to bring the site traffic. It’s a […]
A new version of Microsoft’s Live Search Maps has rolled out (after yesterday’s major traffic and routing upgrade). There’s an enormous range of feature and functionality upgrades, which are explained in some detail on the Virtual Earth blog. There’s also a discussion at CNET. At a crude level, what it means is that Live Maps […]
Just in case you hadn’t gotten enough news and speculation about the various potential deals surrounding MicroHoo, AOL, and News Corp. there are a flurry of articles (as one might expect) today about all this. The most interesting is probably the one in the Wall Street Journal that interviews ad executives about their thoughts regarding […]
Although YouTube hit pop-culture status just a couple years ago, online video has been a staple of corporate and content websites for quite a bit longer. In that time, web designers have tried many approaches to viewing experience, trying to combine compelling content with a user-friendly interface. After many experiments with plug-ins and third-party players, […]
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 Tools That You May Not Have Added To The Toolbox Yet: Google Demographic Bidding and MSN […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
In an effort to differentiate themselves from competitors, many SEO/SEM firms come up with interesting unique selling propositions (USPs). Some SEO/SEM firms emphasize search engine advertising and create quite useful tools to help manage PPC campaigns. Some SEO firms specialize in training, again creating tools that help newbie and experienced SEO professionals optimize existing web […]
Yahoo’s largest investor doubles down from News.com reports Capital World Investors has doubled their stake in Yahoo, giving them a 10.1% percent stake in the company. Capital World Investors was Yahoo’s largest investor, and obviously still is. They now own 135,542,600 shares as of March 31, up 95-percent from the end of last year.
A small business can have millions of dollars in revenue and dozens of employees … or it can be a one-man-band, turning passion into a living. This month’s small business marketing success story is about the latter. Meet John W. Tuggle, a guitarist living in Athens, Georgia. John has been playing guitar for 17 years, […]
A Penn State research study showed that about 80-percent of searches are informational in nature, whereas 10-percent are navigational and another 10-percent are transactional. The researchers reviewed over 1.5 million queries from hundreds of thousands of search engines users to prove the “80/20 rule that 80 percent of the cases can be achieved with these […]
YouTube has announced the addition of a new statistic that can be found in your video “YouTube Insights” section named “Discovery.” Discovery is basically a report showing you how people discovered and viewed your video, a form of referral reporting. In addition, as TechCrunch reports, YouTube has redesigned their video page.
Yesterday (technically still today my time), I did a keynote interview with Google vice president of search products & user experience Marissa Mayer during our SMX Sydney show. We covered a wide range of topics, including how "Previous Query" refinement will soon come to natural listings on Google, plus how Australia is to get StreetView […]
Brazil Senate orders Google to identify website pedophiles via AFP reports a Brazilian Senate has ordered Google to hand over the profiles of 3,261 suspected pedophiles yesterday. However, according to The Inquirer, Google is willing to help Brazilian authorities but not hand over users’ personal information. Sergio Suiama, Sao Paulo’s federal prosecutor, said that over […]
The Wall Street Journal reports that IAC, parent of Ask, is preparing to launch a number of startups after its spin off of some of its traditional media properties. Among the new sites is RushmoreDrive, a niche search engine targeting African Americans. What’s interesting is its demographic approach to search.
SphinnCon, the smaller, informal SEM networking events, is now coming to North Carolina with SphinnCon North Carolina. The North Carolina event is taking place on May 2, 2008 at Kress Terrace in Greensboro, NC. Max attendance for this event is 150, so register quickly! Oh and the price is only $150, which includes refreshments, lunch, […]
If MicroHoo were a movie we might be in Act III, moving quickly toward an exciting climax. It’s a good movie so far because there are equally matched antagonists, unpredictable twists, a concrete deadline, and an uncertain outcome. Indeed, that outcome seems to grow increasingly uncertain amid a surreal shifting of alliances. For example, News […]
Today in 72 US cities, Microsoft is introducing what it calls “ClearFlow” on Live Search Maps. It’s an improved traffic and routing service that relies on machine learning and predictive modeling to offer better traffic and routing information to consumers across the US. Microsoft employee and artificial intelligence expert Eric Horvitz initiated the project in […]
Yahoo, AOL Close In on Tie-Up Deal from the Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo and AOL are close on finalizing a deal that would combine parts of both companies. The deal would bridge Timer Warner’s Internet operations with Yahoo by folding the AOL unit into Yahoo. In return, Time Warner would make a cash […]
Believe it or not, it’s been nearly a year since Google launched Universal Search. Given that, how has your marketing changed over the last twelve months? If it hasn’t, it should. Let’s take a look at why. The development of universal search heralded in a new era in search engine marketing. Overnight, various types of […]
So Yahoo’s going to partner with Google for a test of search ads? Better be only a test, Microsoft seems to be saying. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith just put out a statement suggesting that any partnership would likely be opposed on regulatory grounds, as Google would get more than 90 percent of the ad search market: