Microsoft has unveiled Bing 2.0 at TechCrunch50 today, also known as Bing Visual Search, which allows people to “search by picture.” After much speculation following Microsoft’s annual meeting last week in Seattle, many had expected to see an update to Bing Maps, integrating Silverlight technology to display images of local businesses and locations within map […]
The Six Revisions blog complied an excellent list of the classic search engines, some dating back to the 1990s. His list includes screen shots of both the old and current (if available) versions of HotBot, Excite, WebCrawler, Ask Jeeves, Ask.com, Yahoo, Google, Dogpile, AltaVista, Lycos, MSN Search, Bing, AOL Search, Infoseek, Go.com, Netscape, MetaCrawler, and […]
Google provides options for anyone to easily narrow searches to find material added in the week or day. But now — if you know the right commands to enter — you can find content added to Google in the last few minutes or even seconds. The Omgili Blog discovered this hidden feature. Here’s an example […]
Google offers numerous AdWords reports that allow you to view more data than most people have time to analyze. One of the tricks to working with PPC is to determine what data you need to look at every day or week, and then determine what data is useful to analyze when improving your AdWords account. […]
With a penis joke, AllThingsD previews a major new ad offensive from Yahoo, which will have distinct but related messages for advertisers and consumers. On the advertiser side of the campaign, Yahoo will reportedly stress its reach and scale in an IAB event keynote next week, coinciding with Advertising Week in New York: The main […]
Earlier, this Spring, a number of local search marketers noticed that Google began displaying their 10-pack of local business listings based on searchers' geolocation when search queries didn't include a local search term. Matt McGee suggested that this would likely alter user behavior and reduce referral traffic to online directories. Stats show it may have happened. Read on about this "Brave New World" faced by internet yellow pages.
For a long time, links have been the largest factor in search rankings. While (in my opinion) this is still true today, other signals are gradually growing in importance. One of the most interesting of these is “web references” or “citations”. A web reference refers to a mention of a brand, product or web site, […]
The Microsoft-Yahoo search deal isn’t a forgone conclusion. In fact, news out yesterday suggests the companies may face serious regulatory hurdles. Potentially, it won’t be allowed. That leaves me wondering. What’s Yahoo’s Plan B? Does it even have a backup plan, especially when CEO Carol Bartz has suggested Yahoo can no longer run search on […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Why You Can’t Ignore The Google Content Network – AdSense Q&A Recently, on the Inside AdSense blog, Google announced that it was opening up the Content Network to even more third […]
Recently, on the Inside AdSense blog, Google announced that it was opening up the Content Network to even more third party publishers and ad networks. I was surprised to see so little blowback from the online community as the title of the post, Getting the most revenue from every impression through AdSense, seems like it […]
Bloomberg is reporting this morning that the US Department of Justice has decided to look more closely at the MicroHoo search deal. Microsoft and Yahoo are to provide more information on their “ad pricing and product plans, a person familiar with the matter said.” This is not a surprise. The companies must convince regulators that […]
SEMPO yesterday released a “POV” white paper that seeks to orient search marketers to the growing mobile market, mobile SEO and mobile paid search in particular. It cites the dramatic growth of mobile web usage and anticipated future growth in arguing that search marketers now need to take mobile seriously. Developed by SEMPO’s Emerging Technologies […]
As everyone knows, today is the 8th year anniversary of the terrible 9/11 attacks. Many people, companies and organizations are doing things to remember the day. A lot of people are asking why there is no logo from Google for today. The quick answer is that Google does not do Google Doodles (aka logos) for […]
The iCrossing blog noticed Google is trying displaying anchor based links directly in the Google search engine snippets (site descriptions). For example, a search for [pension contributions] returns a Wikipedia result with a link directly in the snippet. Here is a picture: Google recently added anchor based Sitelinks, so this seems to be some sort […]
The Yahoo Search Marketing blog announced the new pricing changes are now in affect within the auction pricing model used by Yahoo Search Marketing. Overall, Yahoo said most advertisers should notice a decrease in their click spend. Yahoo also announced a new report that shows which Yahoo partners are clicks are coming from and how […]
If you could have had a crystal ball in 2004, would you have known that the power of online marketing is hiding within conversations? Did you consider that the content you put on your homepage holds little salt with readers unless it can be backed up with outside information? People still want the same thing […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google: Bigger Is Better When It Comes To Search Boxes Fresh off of patenting its home page design, Google is throwing caution to the wind and messing with success: It’s making […]
Search Marketing Now will host two free webcasts next week. On Tuesday, September 15 at 1 PM EDT, tune in for “How to Succeed Online this Holiday Shopping Season:5 Things You Can Do Today.” Shopping industry analyst Brian Smith will look at 5 actionable tactics that online merchants can do to maximize sales and improve […]
It appears Google has pulled together a bunch of statistics throughout the web and created a small landing page named Google Internet Stats on the Google UK front. The page explains that this service “brings together the latest industry facts and insights together in one place.” Google collected this data from many third party vendors, […]
The Google Base Blog announced they have added a new attribute for Google Product Search merchants to submit product videos for specific products. Google Product Search can now show videos from YouTube. Here is a picture of the Nikon D90 with YouTube videos: How do merchants get their videos to show up for Google Product […]
Ambivalent is word that best describes newspaper publishers’ relationship with Google and Google News in particular. Some publishers see Google as a partner or potential partner and some consider Google to be the devil incarnate, responsible for virtually all their woes. For its part Google sees itself as a supporter of newspapers, helping them by […]
Properly categorizing your business at Google Maps is one of the most important Local Search Ranking Factors, as I mentioned in last month’s column. There’s been a lot of chatter about business categories since then, most notably at the Local Search Summit in San Jose, during August’s Search Marketing Now webinar on Local Search, and […]
SEO is confusing to many. It’s shrouded in mystery, often has a bad reputation and is not generally understood by traditional marketers. Heck, it’s not even understood by website developers nor some who sell SEO as a service. Yet SEO is nothing more or less than an additional marketing channel for your business. Let me […]
Imagine if you could click on a video and instantly watch it play without clicking through the annoying pop-ups that require you to download the latest plug-in, such as Adobe Flash. Even better, what if you could watch this instantaneous video in the palm of your hand without any unforeseen complications? This sounds like a […]
Fresh off of patenting its home page design, Google is throwing caution to the wind and messing with success: It’s making its search boxes bigger. (Gasp!) The bigger search box will show both on the home page and on the top of Google’s search results pages. Google’s Marissa Mayer says the bigger search box is […]
Despite their frosty relationship, Google is proposing a micropayment system that could give the newspaper industry a way to charge for its online content. According to the Nieman Journalism Lab, the micropayment system will be based on Google Checkout and be available within a year “to both Google and non-Google properties.” The NJL has posted […]
The legal briefs were flying fast and furiously as all the interest groups, supporters and competitors rushed to meet a deadline for third parties to weigh in on the Google Book Search settlement. The NY Times quotes legal scholars who argue that the “quality” and volume of the filings in the case will make it […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Says Domain Registrations Don’t Affect SEO, Or Do They? Over at Search Engine Roundtable today, Barry Schwartz writes about the latest comments from Google about domain registration and its impact […]
Over at Search Engine Roundtable today, Barry Schwartz writes about the latest comments from Google about domain registration and its impact on SEO/search rankings. In this case, it’s Google employee John Mueller suggesting in a Google Webmaster Help forum thread that Google doesn’t look at the length of a domain registration: A bunch of TLDs […]
Eric Goldman updated us on a case where Yahoo was sued for showing spam and porn pages for a search on a person’s name. Beverly Stayart was upset that when you searched for her name on Yahoo, Yahoo returned some results that were not to her liking. So she sued Yahoo but the court wouldn’t […]
If you visit the Google home page after 09:09:09 today, on September 9, 2009 (09/09/09), you will see a special Google logo up for the event. The logo does not link anywhere, i.e. a search result, but it is currently live for me, ever about an hour and a half after it being 9:09 for […]
The Google AdWords Blog announced they are expanding the limited opportunities tab beta to more advertisers in the US, UK and Australia. And in the next “few days,” Google will make this new tab available to all “English-language accounts.” If you see the new tab and are a bit confused about where the tools and […]
When optimizing a website for search, it is critical to target the right keywords as they play an important role in its overall success. Given that, it’s not surprising that when a page on a website has a subpar performance in search, many marketers jump to change its keywords. But doing so could be a […]
In a large organization there is always pressure to automate certain functions. Can people spend less time on mundane tasks or remove them from human hands all together? Often, organizations take for granted that automation is always better in terms of accuracy and efficiency. There’s plenty of room for automation in search engine marketing, but […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Obama Praises Twitter, Google & Facebook — But Not Microsoft’s Xbox Does today’s speech from President Barack Obama to school children across the United States need any more controversy? Having listened […]
Does today’s speech from President Barack Obama to school children across the United States need any more controversy? Having listened to it, I personally can’t see many parents objecting. But I could see one tech company not happy: Microsoft. Competitors like Google got called out as “good” things to aspire to while a Microsoft’s Xbox […]
If you’re thinking about hiring a PPC agency or SEO firm, or looking to outsource all your search engine marketing, there are many factors to consider. This Thursday at 1 PM EDT, I’ll go over the pros and cons of hiring an outside firm in a webcast “When to Outsource Your Search Engine Marketing: Making […]
118 billion words are translated every year by translators and many end up on web sites. Not surprisingly, SEO is becoming of much greater interest to translation professionals—and rightly so.
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about search without keywords. Recently, the topic came up again at SES San Jose in a keynote presentation from Nick Fox, Google’s business product management director for AdWords. In the presentation, Nick outlined where paid search could be in the next 5 to 10 years and covered two […]
This morning, TechCrunch reported that Flickr’s iPhone app has finally made it to the iTunes Store. It is free and can be downloaded by clicking here. I gave the app a quick go, and I really think it was done exceptionally well. Here is a walk through, screen by screen. The app icon is plain […]